THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES \ POLITICS AND PROPERTY OR PHRONOCRACY A COMPROMISE BETWEEN DEMOCRACY AND PLUTOCRACY BY SLACK WORTHINGTON G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS NEW YORK LONDON 27 WEST TWENTY-THIRD ST. 27 KING WII.I-IAM ST., STRAND S^c ^nklurbotlitr Press 1891 Copyright, 1891 BY SLACK WORTHINGTON XEbe ftniclierboclter ipress, mew l^orft Electrotyped, Printed, and Bound by G. P. Putnam's Sons I ) PREFACE. Discontent and strife, to a greater or less extent, have always existed in the world and doubtless always will exist. It is believed by many that the higher the degree of intellectual development in mankind as a class, the greater this discontent, for the reason that objectionable conditions can be more keenly appreciated. Notwith- standing this ever-existing unrest, whether aggravated or assuaged by intellectual development, the causes which produce it are as essentially a part of the great whole, — of the earth and its operations, — as are man's members a part of his physical being ; and these causes can never be entirely annulled, hence their effects must, in a measure, always exist. It is claimed in the following pages that poverty can never be eradicated from society any more effectually than disease can be absolutely prevented in the human body ; but since the latter can be relieved by the proper application of scientific remedies, so likewise can the former be ameliorated by the timely enactment of intel- ligent laws. The object of this work is to urge strenuous opposition to both plutocracy on the one hand, and socialistic tendencies of all kinds on the other, and advocate a reasonable middle or conservative position between the two, which for convenience is termed " Phronocracy," which signifies the rule of reason, prudence, and understanding. iii 852604 IV PREFACE. Heretofore writers opposing the alarming concentra- tion of wealth into the hands of the few have urged against these accumulations conditions that are too vio- lent, and for poverty systems of relief that are utterly impracticable. This work seeks to avoid both these extremes by acknowledging that the property rights of men shall, to a reasonable extent, be fully recognized and sedu- lously protected, but that the masses have grievances that must not be ignored. Nothing is proposed that is to the slightest extent visionary, impracticable, or revo- lutionary, but, on the contrary, only measures are recom- mended that can be adopted by law within the bounds of prudence, reason, and justice. It also advocates the curtailment of the elective franchise by the only proper and feasible manner possible, viz. : by property and educational qualification. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. PAGB iMan : his original state ; his advance toward civilization ; his acquisitiveness — Individual property : man's right to same — Government : its origin and progress — Popular strife and energy — Diversification of civilized wants — Trade and ex- change : compromise between wealth and poverty — Phro- nocracy : its meaning and purpose ..... I CHAPTER II. Existing social conditions objectionable — excessive accumulations dangerous — Unearned increment : man's right to same in moderation — Free trade and protection : America's progress not attributable to either — Timidity of tariff-reform free- traders — The Wall policy and World policy — The American farmers' illogical position — Baneful paternalism . . .23 CHAPTER III. Necessity for relief from monopoly — Government control of monopolistic enterprises: objections thereto — Inefficiency of most governmental management — Governmental control of all business — Greater objection tliereto and the impracti- cability thereof — Differences in human excellence must be recognized — Support government from excessive individual accumulations — Evil effects of certain restrictive legislation — Socialistic schools ........ 39 CHAPTER IV. Single or land tax considered : sincerity of its advocates — " The world belongs in usufruct to the people," correct in the abstract — Original possession : how acquired — Right of original possession — Land, the product of labor — Impracti- VI CONTENTS. PAGB cability of " uninterrupted access to natural opportunity" — Tax to full rental value tantamount to confiscation, and less fails of the object sought— Not justified by simplicity ; generally impracticable and void of good effect — Relief only secured by laws oppressing the favored and favoring the oppressed ......... en CHAPTER V. Phronocracy : what is it ?— Other efforts at reform impracticable — Cumulative taxation should be adopted — Monopolistic enterprises must be popularly owned— Taxation on individ- ual excesses just and proper — Rate always one cent per each thousand dollars cumulative — Uselessness of excessive wealth and folly of universal suffrage ; amendment curtailing both — Rate to apply to individuals only, not to corporations — Desirableness of more popular ownership of enterprises and less popular participation in government . . , .go CHAPTER VI. Practical application of the cumulative tax — Supports government in proportion to man's ability — And no property or no knowledge, no vote— Takes burden off of the weak and puts it on the strong — Equity and efficiency of assessment — Limits all individual estates to about four million — Tax collectors in congressional districts : their method of assess- ment — Necessity of not limiting corporations — "Watering" stock not specially objectionable, but division of ownership vital ....... "7 CHAPTER Vn. Probable result of the practical application of the cumulative tax — Distributes corporate and other ownership to a maxi- mum limit of about four million to one individual — More practical and simple than income tax — Requirements of the federal government fully met — More equitable distribution assured — Average levy on all property only fifty cents per hundred — Evasion impossible — Least burdensome and most certain and just of all taxation — Greater distribution useless and hurtful — The only true " protective system " . . 142 CONTENTS. VU CHAPTER VIII. PAGE How it may be accomplished — One-hundred millionaires fatal to small investors — But great corporations, if owned by many, cause no harm — Great concentration of wealth necessary to promote enterprise — Power of Congress to impose the cumu- lative tax — No great difference between existing parties affecting fundamental principles involved — Northwestern Granger States and the solid South should join hands — Will settle the negro question in the South — Cumulative tax will lighten the burden on the South and West, and qualified suffrage will increase their proportionate vote and power — Will decrease country vote less than city vote — Granger States begin to see the folly of protection and value of cumulative taxation and qualified suffrage — Over four million farm owners in 1890, three fourths of whom may support the proposition — This added to conservative city vote is sufficient for success — States that first may support it — Others that may follow 164 CHAPTER IX. Suffrage : its functions and uses — Original governmental systems absolute, despotic, and void of suffrage — Suffrage the result of opposition to divine right to rule — A certain degree of excellence necessary — Curtailment the only effectual ballot reform — Knock out both the one-hundred millionaire and the ward "worker" — Female suffrage: never should be granted, and reasons why not — Woman's sphere and duty : never materially altered ; marriage — Opinions regarding same — Proposition that it should be abolished and women made pensioners on society . . . . . .186 CHAPTER X. Effects of true ballot reform — Suppresses the Southern negro and the Northern loafer — Election of collectors and postmasters would relieve the President and diminish patronage — Col- lectors' voting lists : could not be forged — How voting would be done — Record absolutely correct, and votes would be checked by postmasters' lists— No need of large property qualification ; purity guaranteed without ; would increase • •• Vlll CONTENTS. , , PAGK the government s stability — Impossible to buy votes — Qualified suffrage better than know-nothingism ; will cause diversified representation ....... 206 CHAPTER XL Trade, money, vi'ork, and vv'ages — Convict labor no great harm to honest labor — Corporal punishment should be resumed for small crimes — Child labor — Eight-hour agitation — Scientific invention no obstacle to labor— Causes of increased urban population — Circulating medium : money ; gold coin the best — Qualities the circulating medium should possess — Silver money, iron money — Government "fiat" money as good as the government's sovereignty — Must be redeemable in something representing the value of labor — Increased quantity not beneficial — Purchases forced on the govern- ment Vi'rong, and should be stopped— Gold, and gold only, to be adopted ; no double standard — Banks and banking — National banks continued . . , , . 223 CHAPTER XII. Immigration and foreign proprietorship — Sentiment against im- migration — Workingmen favor free trade, but oppose immi- gration — Error of the belief — Self-sustaining men a benefit — Care of poor families in infancy — No danger from over- population — If so, destroy the beasts first — Man-labor and brute-labor — Increased population adds to labor demand — Foreign purchaser a benefit to all— Opposing legislation reduces property values — Ireland an illustration . . . 252 CHAPTER XIII. Desirableness and result of territorial annexation — Value to the countries themselves greater than to the States — Some op- position to extending the boundaries — More land thought by some to be useless — Final preference of all for one flag over all — Detail of the discussion regarding annexation — Tropical lands needed by the States — Better acquire land suitable to tropical products than to produce them by taxation and bounties — North America adapted to one CONTENTS. . IX PAGE government over the whole continent — Likewise tend to make customs, language, and people alike — Local home-rule vital — Possibility of division in North America if local rule is molested ......... 268 CHAPTER XIV. Governments in general — Advance in civilization liberalizes all governments — Absolute monarchy and limited monarchy — A democracy and a republic defined — America a republic, not a democracy — Strict construction of federal power essen- tial — Republics presuppose intelligence — Excessive democ- racy is akin to socialism — No federal aid or supervision of schools — Opposition to all kinds of paternalism — Frequent elections continued save as to judges — Local government essential in all progressive states and for all enlightened people .......... 286 CHAPTER XV. Recapitulation and general observations — Some individual estates too great for computation ; illustration of the uselessness of same ; equal to an ordinary salary for 400,000 years — No plan save regulating the extremes is practicable or just — Irksome duties must be performed — Increased compensation not an offset — Differences in men must be recognized — Cumulative taxation and suffrage qualification the essential features of Phronocracy — The plan not complicated — ^The South, the ruralists of the North, and conservative city residents sufficient for success — Reasonable reward for energy and excellence — Nothing beyond — Concluding para- graphs and generalization ....... 308 PHRONOCRATIC PRECEPTS. Aphorisms and Epigrams . . . . . , . .331 500 Thousand DIAGRAM I. ILLUSTRATING THE AVERAGE BURDEN OF TAXATION IN PROPORTION TO PROPERTY UNDER THE PRESENT SYSTEM. Estates. 200 Million 150 " 100 " 75 " 50 " 25 " 20 " 15 " 10 5 " 4 " 3 " c pq 100 " 75 " / H \ 50 " / 1 \ 25 " \ 20 " \ 15 '■ 10 5 " 1 ■ \ I / \ By the closest obtainable data it is found that very large estates do not, on the average, pay tax on more than one third their value, and that small estates are usually assessed in full, or pay three times as much in proportion as large estates. XI DIAGRAM II. ILLL'STRATI.vr, THE EXACT RATIO OF TAX liURDEN TO PROPERTY UNDER THE PHROXOCRATIC CUMULATIVE SYSTEM. Estates. , 5 Million Y . / 4 3 2 I goo 8oo fhousand / 700 600 \ cs / \ H / 500 ,inn \ / 300 \ / 200 V V 100 A 80 60 40 20 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 I X is supposed to be one-fiftieth of YZ. The bujcden on a five-million estate is shown to be just fifty times as great per M. as on a one-hundred-thousand estate, and on smaller estates the burden is so light as to be inappreciable on the above scale. DIAGRAM 111. H.l rSTKATING lllK BL'RUKN OK I'KOTKCTI VF. TARIFK. Rich A Protected /TaxX / Burden \ Classes / \ Poor / \ Non- / ^^^ \ Protected / Burden \ Laboring / \ Masses / \ diac;ram IV. ILLUSTRATING THE RELATIVE BURDEN OF U. S. REVENUE UNDER PHRONOCRATIC CUMULATIVE TAXATION. Rich \ / \ Tax Burden / Classes Middle \^ Tax y^ \ Burden /'^ Classes Poor -a u u 3 1) « > Laboring X t-i ^ o ^ Masses »■ XllI POLITICS AND PROPERTY; PHRONOCRACY. CHAPTER I. Man : his original state ; his advance toward civilization ; his acquis- itiveness — Individual property ; man's right to same — Govern- ment : its origin and progress — Popular strife and energy — Diversification of civilized wants — Trade and exchange : com- promise between wealth and poverty — Phronocracy : its meaning and purpose. It is evident to mankind in general, that the earth on which we reside — an infinitesimal portion of the material universe — exists. Whence it cometh or whither it goeth is beyond the ken even of the most profound and erudite of men. It is likewise apparent to the same general class that the animal called the human being exists on the sur- face of the earth ; but whence he cometh or whither he goeth is likewise veiled in mystery and shrouded in dark- ness. It is most reasonable to conclude that man began his existence within the tropics, whether on the Eastern or Western hemisphere, or whether at the date of his be- ginning the landed portion of the earth was co-extensive and conterminous is unknown and inconsequential. It is likewise evident that the primordial man existed in a state or condition which, as compared with the en- vironments of what is properly denominated modern civilization, was absolutely barbaric. As time passed I 2 POLITICS AND PROPERTY he progressed ; or, in other words, he began to exert his inherent power upon the existing inaniinate matter that surrounded him ; and to use his force to such an extent as gratified his inclinations in the destruction and utili- zation of co-existing animate objects within the scope of his ordinary powers for purposes best suited to his wishes and wants. He ran the lion into his lair, he pursued the antelope into the jungles of the forest, he caught the fishes of the brooks and estuaries, he multiplied his own species, and as the population became more numerous, individuals thereof began to travel the surface of the earth, and in rudely constructed boats to navigate the landed confines of the unknown seas. Later, when entering into lands and climes in which the rigors of the weather demanded other and altered appliances from those required for ordinary comfort in the sun-lit regions of his primitive abodes, he began to clothe himself in the skins of the inferior animals that he subjugated and de- stroyed, and to burrow holes in the ground for the pur- pose of constructing rude habitations, and to fell trees with which to construct primitive huts for shelter from the uncongenial and discomforting winds of his unac- customed country. Finally, advancing into a state or condition from the standpoint of the present, properly demonstrated progress, he began to comprehend that he possessed, and proceeded to exercise, supreme dominion over things animate and inanimate around him. Com- measurably with his progress, or rather with his approach to that state or condition that most fittingly represents our present civilized life, there began to be displayed natural acquisitiveness prompted by a realizing sense of the absolute necessity for provision against want. He was able to fully comprehend that a hole in the ground was a more comfortable abode than the open landscape, PHRONOCRACY 3 and, later, that a rudely constructed log-hut was more suitable to his wants than a hole in the ground ; also, that the skin of a bear, a weasel, or a mink, could be so constructed as to be of much value in insuring that com- fort which he desired and that contentment which he sought ; hence, he naturally began to possess himself of all of these that he could secure, and to use them at once, or to secrete them for the future. Naturally, there- fore, the possession of individual property followed closely behind the approach of man to his present condi- tion, and as civilization advanced the varieties and diver- sification of individual possessions multiplied. The furs of the animals he captured, the fish he caught, and the the trees he felled were naturally and rightfully the prop- erty of the man who secured them, and he cherished a natural unwillingness to divide with another. They were the fruit of his toil ; and, since they possessed originally no value, he acquired title by the effort expended in re- prisal, and he had an unquestioned right to exert that effort ; and, having so done, would not now willingly be- come dispossessed without adequate compensation. Having, therefore, progressed until individual property became an important element in human existence, it be- came necessary to institute some means of protection against attacks for the possession of that property upon the part of those of his fellow-men who possessed more dishonesty and less industry than himself. It soon became apparent that all men were not equal either in size or intui- tions ; neither had they the same identical desires. They differed from each other as radically, though originally perhaps not more so, than the trees of the forest, and less so, doubtless, than the fishes of the sea. Why some grew to be stronger than others, or why some could com- bat successfully with the most ferocious beast and pos- 4 POLITICS AND PROPERTY sess himself of its skin, if he desired it for clothing, or of its meat, if he wished it for food ; and why others could not, or at least were less forcible in this quality than the most favored, was and still is unknown : it is the natural condition, that is all. Continuing to advance nearer to the condition to which civilization has attained, that faculty of the human being called intelligence began to assume a wider scope and more comprehensive range. Hitherto, scarcely mindful of the energies and forces of nature, he now began to realize that the wind would blow, that the lightning would flash, that the thunder would roar, that the sea would toss, that the seasons would change, and that Nature would wear continuously an altered aspect, and be subjected to changed con- ditions that he could not fathom or in any sense control ; hence he began to conclude that there must be some power that did control all these, that could exer- cise dominion over same, and so he ascribed to the sea its god, to the north wind its god, to the forces of Nature, or, in other words, to the agencies around him, and to personal attributes inherent in his kind and in things in general, their god or controller — hence, doubtless, the idea of a Supreme Being. Since the powers ascribed to the gods were insufficient to regulate and control indi- vidual passions, to insure peaceable possession of in- dividual property, to protect the weak against the strong, or to regulate the ordinary affairs of life, there began to be established schemes and systems of government. At first the most forcible of a certain tribe or community would assert, and, by his physical and mental power, maintain, a supremacy over the balance of his fellow-men ; which, by reason of the inherent predisposition of men, caused by their observation of natural forces, to look to PHRONOCkACY 5 a power higher than themselves, crystallized into what was considered a right to rttle. The chief seemed greater than the masses ; hence he must be nearer to the power that caused the winds to blow, the sea to toss, and the elements to be in action. The desire for gain and for the manifestations of individual prowess would cause strife and contention between the chiefs of various tribes, until the strongest would subjugate the weakest, resulting in greater extensions of the rule of the success- ful individual ; and thus, as time rolled on, states and nations were builded up by the subjugation and absorp- tion of smaller tribes and communities ; and, as their chieftains and rulers attained glory and renown, they were thought to be endowed with supernatural attain- ments consequent upon the belief that otherwise they could not so successfully, if at all, have achieved their greatness and power ; hence, perhaps, the idea of the "Divine appointment of the King." The ruler, once established in his kingly state, whether by force or otherwise, succession had to be provided for, and was, in earlier days in most cases, determined by force ; but more recently and in some parts of the world is in this day actually regulated by inheritance, as if any man could inherit, possess, or transmit the right to rule over his fellow-men. When, in 1776, the American colonists of King George III. conceived the idea that "all just power came from the consent of the governed," a great stride was made in the progress of the world. It was a radical departure from the idea of " Divine right," and hence more in keeping with progressive thought. The attainment by man to that state of civilized life which suggested the advisability of or necessity for any system of government, was coeval with the development of man's acquisitiveness and the possession of individual 6 POLITICS AND PROPERTY property. In other words, the idea of government was suggested, and the institution in its most primitive form was established chiefly for the purpose of protection to property and life ; and the proper functions of govern- ment are to this day fully exercised, when protection to life and property have been secured and peaceful and uninterrupted possession thereof established and main- tained. The numerous and varied manifestations and the unwarranted and non-essential exercise of govern- mental power can and should be limited to these simple agencies. Admitting, therefore, what appears to be self-evident, that the human being is so constituted that, apace with that progress which he has manifestly attained, he must have wants, and that his wants must prompt acquisitiveness, and that this attribute of his nature prompts accumulation, it is obvious that individ- ual property is as much a natural condition as individual life ; hence that property, to the extent that its aggregate is reasonable and can be available to its possessor, should be held or possessed by him in uninterrupted enjoyment. To a certain extent, man in the abstract has a natural right to possess the earth and its belongings ; and, since all men are constituted, in the main, of the same kind of matter, and possess, to a greater or less extent, the same ability to enjoy pleasure, comfort, and ease, and have the same general disinclination to endure pain, discom- fort, and toil, he should possess it ; yet it is no more possible to institute that condition in society which will render the equal possession of property possible, than it is possible to make all trees absorb from the earth and air the same amount of moisture, or cause all plants and animals to grow to the same uniform size — such is not the natural condition, that is all. The tree appears to have a natural right to that part of the soil from which PHR()NOCRACY 7 its roots take nourishment, and to that share of space over which its branches ramify ; and so, in the enjoy- ment of that natural right, does it accreate and grow, bear its frui^ its seed, and carry out its apparent purpose and mission on earth, unless by the interference of some stronger power, as a cyclone or a storm — both as natural a consequence as the existence of the tree itself, — it is uprooted or destroyed, or unless, by the hand of man or by the teeth of a beaver or otherwise, it is hewn down and converted into something suitable for use. The stronger, whenever suitable to its wishes or purposes, will destroy the weaker ; the fittest, all things considered, will survive. Society, from the time of early civilization, has, to a certain extent, acknowledged man's right to live, to maintenances from the resources of the earth ; and, in conformity with the acknowledgment of that right, has established and supported houses for the maimed, the decrepit, and, furthermore, for the poor. It has maintained hospitals for the sick, it has supported public parks and public roads — • furthermore, it has supported public schools — in fact, it has in many cases recognized fully the agrarian and socialistic principle. To have extended this indulgence further — that is, to have opened all such recognized institutions to all who wished to become inmates — would be to place a premium on idleness, and thus paralyze the world's affairs. The natural inclinations of men to possess and retain property has never been denied. The assertions of a few misanthropic agitators that, though natural, it should never be allowed ; that all the world's effects should be considered common property has never gained much support, because such views are not only irrational but unnatural Mep always have had and always will have 8 J'OI.ITICS AND PROPERTY wants, they always did and always will strive to supply those wants, and he who is sufficiently energetic or suffi- ciently fortunate to acquire the means of gratifying those wants never did and never will consent to an equal division with his fellows, who have been either less energetic or less fortunate ; hence all ideas looking to the abolition of government which has been estab- lished for the protection of this personal property and life should be absolutely abandoned, and the thoughts of men directed towards the institution of some social or governmental system, by virtue of which the personal accumulations of men cannot become so colossal as to be useless and unwieldy to their possessors and a detri- ment to the well-being of communities ; and, at the same time, towards providing for every individual in- creased opportunity for acquiring a reasonable com- petency and an increased security of its peaceful enjoyment after having been acquired. For years a constant and unrelenting strife has existed between employer and employe, which, with disagreeable and finally with alarming frequency, has interrupted the trade and business of the world ; has caused distrust and insecurity to become rife in all moneyed centres, which has pervaded the body politic, permeated every enterprise, and stifled the progress of the world's affairs. So great and so irremediable appears to be the discontent of the masses that, in 1S90, the Emperor of Germany, whose predecessors and compeers had never hitherto vaguely dreamed of recognizing or countenancing the cogent force of popular unrest and intrigue, called a conference of laboring men for the purpose of con- sidering the cause of the prevailing universal complaint, and, if possible, to provide a remedy. In keeping with the influences and conditions that i'iii;()\()CKA(;v 9 usually prevail where no definite plan is proposed — no definite end at which all could aim, suggested, — this and many other conferences of similar character and import resulted in nothing save to aggravate rather than to assuage the manifest grievances under which the masses groaned. In America, Russia, and France, incipient manifestations of anarchism have been from time to time displayed, but such is the force of prudence and good sense that no great upheaval of the people with an unconquerable spirit to burn, pillage, and rob, has yet occurred. Civilization has reached such a condition that, though the whole of Europe is armed for the purpose of main- taining national autonomy, thwarting foreign aggression, and suppressing domestic insurrection, yet most conten- tions and differences, whether national, social, commercial, or individual, are settled by the arbitraments of peace, not by the sword and cannon in the ghastly throes of bloody war. Discussions, even in the iron-ruled and tyrannically oppressed empires of Europe, are prevalent, both on the hustings and in the prints. No direct effort has been of late years made at the de- thronement of governments ; but murmurs of discontent are uttered by the people of those countries where the popular voice, though capable of being uttered, cannot be made effectual, by reason of the oppression of the military and the divine right of the king. In America the difficulty has existed not in the ability to change or modify existing conditions, but to devise some plan that would receive the support of a sufficient number to make its purposes effective. Some orators and writers have maintained that the people are suffering from no grievance that legislation can mitigate, much lO POLITICS AND PROPERTY less relieve ; that the gulf between Dives and Lazarus always existed, and always would exist ; that civilization requires that there should be a master and a slave, or rather an employer and an employe ; that we must have scrapers for our streets and stokers for our ships ; that we can never more effectually eradicate poverty than we can extirpate disease ; and, in fact, that the world would be no better if all were in affluence, or even possessed of a reasonable degree of comfort, than if a few were opulent and the many in rags. Others, however, maintain that the earth belongs in usufruct to the people, which in a measure is true, and that all men are entitled to its benefits and rewards ; that the fact that the wealth of the world is being so rapidly concentrated into the hands of the few, and to an extent that does not benefit but actually burthens its possessors, is an unnatural condition, and should be changed. A few individuals now become possessed of a property that is monopolistic in its nature ; and, by reason of the rapid increase of population and consequent increased demand, there arises an increase in value — "an unearned increment," — for which the owners are in no sense re- sponsible, and of which they should never be possessed, beyond cerhzin reaso7iable limitations. Labor organizations combine so as to curtail the supply ; demand shorter hours for work, so as to give occupation to more individuals or to lessen the burthen upon those who are engaged. Capital will concentrate into trusts and associations, so that it becomes a matter of serious doubt whether or not all capital will not eventually drift into one grand monopoly and labor into one discontented mass. Among the extremists of both sides who are capable rilRONOCRACY II of considering, and who possess inherently the candor to confess, there seems to obtain a concurrence of opinion that possibly the present conditions are not as good as they might be made, nor yet as bad as they have been pictured. Anarchy having been absolutely abandoned by thinking men, there remains only those who recognize man's right to property, hence the necessity for some kind of government. The first class maintain that the existence of wealth and poverty are natural conditions, essential to the progress of civilization, and cannot be altered ; the second claiming that there must be a more equitable distribution of wealth, and consequent allevia- tion of the pangs of poverty. The first class insist upon the curtailment of the ballot and tlie vigorous enforcement of property rights and class distinctions. Many of the second class, after hav- ing attempted by various schemes to equalize man's con- dition and estate, finally concentrated upon the principle that government should own all and operate all the enter- prises of life to which man's energies could be devoted ; because by this means alone could the fruits of industry be equitably distributed ; or, in other words, that if every individual labored for the state, the result of that labor would be the accumulation of wealth in the aggregate to about the same extent as now, when the accumulation is placed into the hands of fortunate individuals, and that the state having received these accumulations could in turn distribute the same fairly and equitably among the people, who in either case contributed them, but who under existing' conditions failed to receive any distribu- tive share, save a paltry sufficiency for life's actual needs, frequently not even that, and never any of its luxuries. Others of the second class propose various schemes of taxation, prominent among whom are the single- or land- 12 POLITICS AM) PROPERTY tax advocators ; others, the control by government of the enterprises of greatest magnitude chat are claimed to be in their nature monopolistic, such as railways, high- ways, canals and waterways — in a word, all enterprises relating to transportation and communication ; others in America oppose foreign immigration. Others argue that the policy of national protection against the products of human labor in all countries would surely operate as a panacea for all ills in any country ; others, that close competition of the products of all by unconditional free trade will effect the desired result — that is, alleviate the condition of the masses. Thus to an endless multiplicity are plans and schemes proposed until there likewise exists a chaos of objection of difficulty and doubt. In America, where every human is a king, or where at least every individual participates in the creation of the king and in the policies that shall control his reign, the discussion is of course more univer- sal and widespread, and it is commonly admitted that if any decided alteration in existing social condition is to be inaugurated, it will most likely begin in the United States. There the idea of individual liberty from the thraldom of the king first had its birth and there the experiment was first inaugurated, the success of which, though scouted at and scorned by the sages of the civilized earth, has become, after a century of experiment, universally acknowledged ; so that the States now stand united, and, with an ever increasing effulgence, blazing forth the brightest stars in the galaxy of nations — the pride of their people and the envy of the world. In America naturally should be conceived, and if pos- sible executed, the idea of individual liberty from the thraldom of concentrated wealth, and there, after many I'HRON'OCKACV 13 discouraging vicissitudes and trials, may be achieved, ere long, the most glorious civil triumph that has ever been recorded in the history of nations. That triumph will be the result of a compromise be- tween the most liberal and progressive of the advocates of the old system of unlimited individual property accu- mulations and rigid and imperious class caste and aristo- cratic distinction, and the most conservative of the advo- cates of socialism of all varieties ; the two absorbing, as it were, the very essence of manhood itself, that is, the progressive middle classes — the central portion of the arch in which is always found the keystone of the structure. It is observed by statisticians that in America the increase of wealth is proportionate to the increase of population, but that the possession of that wealth is con- centrating with alarming rapidity. In other words, the average wealth per capita has usually been somewhere in the neighborhood of one thousand dollars — the American standard coin. In 1880, when the population was forty- five million, the aggregate wealth of the country was about forty-four billion and in 1890, when the popula- tion was sixty-four millions, the wealth of the country was sixty-one billion. It was estimated in 1880, that the world was growing richer to the extent of about ten million dollars per day, of which the United States of America contributed about one fourth. Now, therefore, it becomes apparent that if the possessors of property diminished in anything like the same ratio that property itself increases, there must come a time when the world and all that is in it might practically be owned by one single man. What good could such possessions be to any individual ? Or what use could the wealth of the world be to a million individuals ? Great fortunes accrete with an accelerated 14 POLITICS AND PROPERTY velocity, whilst the requirements of life remain practi- cally the same. One man can eat only so much food, though he possess the means to buy food for ten thousand. One man can wear only a certain amount of clothing, though he be able to supply raiment for the civilized world ; he can only sleep in one bed and under one roof at one time, though he be able to supply both for a million of his fellows. What use, therefore, to any indi- vidual is the possession of property ten thousand times greater than he actually requires or can possibly use ? Why should a man gather into his storehouse ten million blankets when he can only use one, and permit them to be there till they are moth-eaten and useless, when a million of his followers are shivering with cold ? Why should any man by any system that is recognized by the civilization of the world be permitted to gather into his garner food for one million souls and permit it to lie there till it rots, when thousands of his fellows are starving ? The abandonment of anarchism, which is offensive to all good citizens (for all such recognize the fact that until the human being has reached absolute perfection, laws must be instituted for his protection and restraint), aids much the cause of the approaching reformation. Threats of violence cause more rigid discipline, whilst appeals to reason prompt mutual discussion. When the possessors of several million dollars (of which class there are several in the world) are confronted with the ques- tion, as they now are with much frequency and force, even by the most conservative of daily prints, " What good to yourself and family is so much wealth ? " they are at a loss to reply. If you cannot possibly use it, then your only desire is glory, or the personal satisfaction of excelling someone else. You have reached a point PHRONOCRACV I 5 where accumulation is in excess of the desire for pro- vision against possible want, and you have acquired a fortune beyond the point which is thought reasonable to stimulate exertion. Each thousand dollars will earn about fifty dollars per year, which is more than the aver- age human being can earn in excess of his support. In a word, the millions who toil are in but very few instances richer at the end of a year even to the extent of fifty dollars than they were at the beginning ; whilst every man who owns one thousand dollars can safely rely on an income of fifty dollars or more. Disassociated from technical definitions, all wealth is the result of labor. The world grows richer year by year because its inhabitants are adding to Nature's pos- sessions, their labor. What is not consumed in sustenance, and consequently destroyed, represents accumulation. Money is simply an agency for facilitating exchanges, and represents but a very small portion of the property of the world. Primarily and, it would appear, very justly man is entitled to the products of his own la- bor ; in other words, to the wealth that he himself creates. The wants of the civilized man are many and various. Without attem.pting to name or classify, it is safe to assume that he who ean supply, surrounds himself with at least one thousand different articles — all produced by labor from the earth and its belongings ; hence, each man being entitled to the products of his own labor, would, in order to live in a civilized state, be obliged to produce these one thousand different articles or remain unprovided unless some other scheme of procurement could be suggested or devised. As it is not within the limit of one man's capacity to produce what he wants of l6 I'*)LITI(:S AND PROPKkTV each of the said one thousand articles, and as different men are adapted to different avocations, and have pref- erences and capabilities differing from each other, some will naturally drift into one thing and some into another. The man who produces shoes naturally wants clothes, and he who produces hats naturally wants spoons, and so forth, and so on throughout the entire list of indi- vidual requirements. The bootmaker will voluntarily exchange boots for clothes ; in other words, both will- ingly exchange their respective products ; hence there arises the system of barter and exchange. In this ex- change, some must get more value than others, and so in the work of production some will produce more than others, some are more frugal and fortunate than others, and some are sick less frequently than others ; hence from causes entirely natural and unavoidable, some will become richer than others. Increased riches enable the possessor to provide in- creased facility, and increased facilities either increase excellence or cheapen production ; hence some more fortunate bootmaker, from causes entirely natural, can produce a better boot, which he can exchange for the product of another man's labor, than the less fortunate can produce, or he can produce the same quality under conditions and circumstances that enable him to ex- change it for less value, resulting inevitably and yet naturally in driving the less favored out of business, who must engage in some other occupation or sell his labor to the other man at an agreed compensation ; hence, employer and employe, and it must, will, and should be so to the crack of doom. The employer will not of course pay the employe the full amount of his value, but must reserve for himself a profit on his labor, and if this profit is ten per cent., he PHRONOCRACV \J has but to employ ten men to gain the labor of one indi- vidual complete, and so on till a vast fortune has been amassed, and each step in the procedure has been rea- sonable and natural and consented to voluntarily by the less fortunate man. Ten thousand different civilizations might be begun on the earth and whilst men are men — whilst we are what we are — the result as above briefly outlined will in the end be substantially the same, because men are not all equal ; if equal, they are not all favored with the same fortunate conditions ; hence some must advance, some must accumulate — it is unavoidable so long as human beings are a part and parcel of, or an incident to, the earth and its operations. To repeat : conditions are not the same, and men are not the same ; if conditions were the same and men, as all admit — must admit — differ, as they do, in energy, frugality, shrewdness, and perspica- city, then no law or social restriction that applies to all men alike will ever prevent one man from being lord and another his slave or practically that. The only solution, it must be finally agreed, is to institute a system of laws that do not apply to all men alike and under circum- stances reasonably just and equitable. To devise some scheme by which individuals may be permitted to reap the benefits of their energy, their shrewdness, their brain force, or their good fortune to such an extent as will provide adequate remuneration, — such as will enable them to acquire not only a compe- tency for provision against v/ant, but a sufficiency for indulgence in any moderate, or even, if desired, extrava- gant luxury, and at the same time secure a barrier against excess, is a problem difficult of solution. Still greater is the difficu'ty in instituting a practical barrier against excessive accumulation, and at the same time 1 8 POLITICS AND PROPERTY avoiding any interference with the legitimate progress of commercial enterprise. It having been admitted gener- ally that men are not equal, it is obvious that gradations must exist in society, and it is not improper that they always should exist. In order that life itself shall con- tinue, it is and will be absolutely necessary that certain menial and degrading occupations be engaged in. Some men are willing to pursue these trades, and are by nature and inclinations suited to the same, while others are not ; hence, each individual being unable to perform all the services for himself that civilized life requires, in the natural turning over and sifting out of affairs, those best adapted to and most contented with certain avocations usually drift there by natural causes, such as would result in the course of time were all civilization to be begun anew, unless the conditions, characters, attributes, appe- tites, propensities, and adaptabilities of mankind should be altered — a result not in keeping with Nature, nor likely to occur. The Republican and Democratic parties in America have practically ignored the questions of excessive accumulation, of universal suffrage, of foreign immigra- tion, of territorial annexation — of the great and growing evils of concentrated capital and the widespread discon- tent of the masses of the community. They have been devoting all thought to protective duties, legislation relative to the coinage of silver, the race question in the South, and to pension monstrosities. Between the re- spective organizations there has ceased to be any great difference on questions of principle. The Republicans claim to be, in fact are, protectionists ; yet, they recog- nize the necessity for a reduction of import duties. The Democrats are really in favor of tariffs for revenue only, but are afraid boldlv to assert and vindicate their belief, I'MKONOCRACV 19 and continue to temporize and dally with trivial and un- important details of a tariff reduction measure until it is simply a question between Republicans and Democrats whether or not the duty should be taken off this and placed on that or taken off that and placed on this — whether sheep's wool "shall be free or taxed or whether sugar should be free or taxed, and after the labor of the mountain the mouse is produced bearing a placard on its back proclaiming to the world that certain grades of sugar shall be free, but for a period of years bounties shall be paid to producers, and that wool shall be taxed so that the voice of the sheep can be heard in the land and the shepherd's crook preserved in all its primitive beauty, even though in cheaper lands and in more favored climes wool can be produced and sold to the consumer at a largely reduced figure. The Republican party, in which properly belongs the plutocratic senti- ment of America, has failed to deal successfully or at all with the alarming concentrations of accumulated wealth ; and the Democratic party cannot countenance the cur- tailment of suffrage in any form, so that between the two neither question is treated, and in fact no questions at all are discussed of any great importance on which there are any decided differences of opinion. This condition of things will continue, and the people remain in a state of disquietude and unrest till the " Phronocratic " or " Conservative " party promulgates its platform, which, in brief, is as follows : I St. No taxation shall be imposed except for revenue. 2d. That revenue shall be derived from a source that is least burthensome to the people and most certain to the government, which source is '''^ from property accumu- lation,'' not from imposts, nor from the existing system of internal taxation. 20 I'Ol.ITICS AM) PROPEkTV 3d. Taxation shall be so applied as to produce the necessary revenue and at the same time check the alarm- ing concentration of individual wealth. 4th. A man to be a voter shall be able to read and write English and pay tax on a certain amount of property. • 5th Foreign immigration of all Caucasian races of self-sustaining capabilities shall be encouraged. 6th. The jurisdiction of the United States shall as soon as possible and consistent with civilized methods be extended over the whole of North America. 7th. " Nothing shall be done by the General Govern- ment that the local authorities are competent to do, and nothing by any governmental power that individuals can do for themselves." These are the seven cardinal principles, of which number four should become the shibboleth of a new and progressive organization to be called the " Phronocratic Party" viz. : I St. Cumulative Taxation. 2d. Electoral Qualifications. 3d. North-American Annexation. 4th. Anti-Centralization. The party's insignia should be a four-leaf clover, with one of the above principles written on each leaf, and the white clover-blossom in the centre of all. Its principles on being promulgated will at first be shouted at as hostile to both property rights and agrarian preferences, but conservative men of all parties, and especially those cherishing views hitherto more radical, will come to the conclusion that some sort of a compro- mise between the extreme conditions in life are neces- sary and proper. Property has rights that must be preserved ; and man- PHRONOCRACY 21 kind has complaints that must not be ignored. All men should be permitted to possess property to the greatest amount consistent with a proper and just compensation for their abil- ity, their energy, and their opportunity, and should contribute to the support of the governmental system that protects that property in the ratio of their ability to contribute. All men should be permitted to participate in govern- ment who have attained that standard of excellence and acquired that amount of property necessary to a proper appreciation of the purposes of government ; but not otherwise. The name " Phronocratic " is derived from the Greek words cppovioo, I think, I consider, I reflect, or (ppoviiy understanding, prudence, knowledge, and Hpareiv, to be strong, or nparo?, strength ; and is in- tended to express an idea midway between excessive Plutocracy — from TrAofro?, wealth, and nparoi, strength, into which state or condition it appears as though the machinery of government is rapidly drifting — and excessive Democracy — from drijj.o? and nparo?, the former signifying " the people in the mass," and the latter " strength," or rather " socialism," towards which, in natural hostility to the control of the rich, many con- servative minds and many good citizens are drifting It appears that by the concentration of wealth the govern- ment will become irretrievably plutocratic, or that by reactionary violence or lawlessness it might become ex- cessively democratic or socialistic. As both extremes appear useless, the compromise is suggested which shall be neither all plutocratic nor all socialistic ; that the former shall be checked by the institution of a barrier against unreasonable and useless individual wealth, and the latter by a prohibition against the exercise of useless and ridiculous individual 22 POLITICS AND PROPERTY suffrage ; hence, no name can with greater propriety be applied to the advocates of the proposed compromise, and of the reforms and features incident thereto, than "Phronocrats," signifying that party which holds to the belief that trnderstariding, prudence, and knowledge d^xe. the proper foundations on which the government should rest, and that neither Plutocracy nor Socialism are for the best interests of the people as a whole. The plutocratic portion of the Republican party can not accept the wealth-curtailing feature of the phrono- cratic creed, nor can the Democratic party countenance the qualified ballot. Both these extremes are ruining the country. Unrestricted wealth is quite as reasonable as unrestricted suffrage — both being wrong and altogeth- er unreasonable. There seem to be natural and vital obstacles in the way of regulating both through either of the two great parties, hence it appears impossible for Phronocrats to ally themselves with either and accom- plish anything whatever. Democrats must always favor universal suffrage and Plutocrats must always cling to v/ealth. Phronocracy is more democratic than De- mocracy in its antagonism to excessive wealth, but less so in its equally reasonable opposition to excessive suf- frage. The practicability of these views and the elabo- ration and explanation of same in connection with other propositions for the betterment of social conditions will be discussed in the following pages. CHAPTER II. Existing social conditions objectionable — excessive accumulations dangerous — Unearned increment : Man's right to same in mod- eration — Free Trade and Protection : America's progress not attributable to either — Timidity of Tariff-Reform Free-Traders — The Wall policy and World policy — The American farmers' illogical position — Baneful paternalism. No reasonable argument having ever been adduced against the rightful possession of individual property and the maintenance of a governmental system which would guarantee its possession in peaceful and uninter- rupted enjoyment and control, some people are disposed sneeringly to ask, "What do the masses want? What would they have ? Is there any cause for complaint ? Have they any grievance whatever?" "Is it," in fact, many ask, " a detriment to society that a few individuals should own the properly of the world ? Do not the masses receive their per-diem for their toil, and with that compensation can they not secure the actual needs and requirements of life ?" All men possess a natural right to breathe the air, to drink the water, and, if need be for argument, to occupy the land. However, civilization and the occupation by man of lands and climes not suited to his primitive con- ditions create needs and wants of great diversification, and, in man's labor to supply these w-ants, by reason of the inequality that exists in the physical and mental organization of man as an individual and of the varied 22 24 POLITICS AND PROPERTY and unequal conditions to which he is unavoidably sub- jected, the possession of the products that supply these wants becomes unequal, and, as has been shown, by causes entirely natural and in conformity with the con- sent of the less favored individual. The weight of public opinion must, however, finally settle down to a recognition of the fact that the masses have a grievance — that the greatest good to the greatest number is not subserved when the wherewithal to secure the desirable things of life is possessed by the least possible number, as is the inevitable result of things as they are controlled by existing conditions. The most cogent agent in producing excessive accumulations is the wealth represented by the " Un- earned Increment." Where enterprises are monopolistic in their nature — that is, such as are practically exempt from the effects of competition, as is the case with most railways and highways, canals and waterways, the un- earned increments grow to colossal proportions in any prosperous state ; but in such enterprises as represent the ordinary trade and traffic of the world — that is, the butcher, the baker, and the candlestick-maker, where competition is spirited and universal, the unearned in- crement is of no considerable importance. This element of increase resulting from the stimulated patronage or demand of the people, is caused by increasing population, and is especially noticeable and striking in the United States of America, where towns and cities grow up as rapidly as the flowers of the tropics ; where the iron rail is close in the wake of the buffalo's trail, and where the hoot of the owl and the screech of the wildcat scarce cease to echo in the jungles of the forest till the whole is ablaze with electric illumination. To deny man's right to become possessed of the value resulting from PHRONOCRACY 25 unearned increment is tantamount to a denial of man's right to property in the abstract ; for, if entitled to possession at all, he has as just a right to the good, or such as will and does profit by unearned increment, as to the bad, which might and does become still worse by abandonment and decay. Before any party for the furtherance of any of the proposed systems of reform can assume any magnitude, the question of Free Trade and Protection, in America, must be thoroughly threshed out. For years, party lines have divided on this all- important issue. America has progressed beyond the wildest dream of its most enthusiastic citizens. It has grown in population, in wealth, and in power faster than the fires of its prairies can sweep the autumnal grass from its limitless plains ; there seems to be no bounds to its possibilities, no limit to the ambition of its citizens, and no measure to their vanity — no shrine at which they will consent to worship and no king before whom they will bow. They appear to be ready to wrestle with the angels and to command the lightning of the sky, and should one of Glory's brightest suns that ever shone in the meridians of heaven descend from his lofty eminence arrayed in all his ' celestial attire, they would be anxious to contest and contend with him for the superiority of their plans and the excellence of their systems. Though owning, in 1890, that part of North America, from the Mexican Gulf to the northern lakes, and from the restless waters of the Atlantic to the golden shores of the Pacific, yet the grand old American Eagle, the emblem of liberty and power, is fancifully pictured at no far future day to stand with his feet perched upon the ferruginous mountains of Missouri — soon to be the centre of population and power — with his pinions outspread, lash- 26 POLITICS AND PROPERTY ing the billows of both oceans, his beak plunged into the frozen waters of the Arctic Zone, his tail winnowing the waves of the Carribbean Sea, with a hundred million people marshalled in the holy cause of liberty, pursuing countless diversified occupations in fraternity and peace. All this is by some attributed to that policy of protec- tion to home industry that has been instituted from the necessary imposition of an almost prohibitory tariff as a means of securing a revenue for the suppression of the Rebellion of iS6r, and the liquidation of the debts in- curred by reason thereof — a most stupid eri-or. The country has progressed, not by reason, but in spite of, protection, as has been maintained, pending the exhaust- less controversies and debates on the subject, and as will be proven when, after a material reduction, and finally the complete extirpation of the fallacy, things still move on as they will move. The delay in the destruction of the system is prolonged by the foolish persistence of the laboring classes, in spite not only of theoretical but practical demonstrations, in the belief that therein is a remedy for their grievances ; in other words, that a sys- tem that causes food and raiment to be dearer, and which tends to increase and centralize the wealth of the country, can and will alleviate their pangs. That such monstrous and appalling stupidity could obtain in the minds of the masses is beyond the ken of the few who fully appreciated the enormity of the error. That designing politicians should prey upon the igno- rance of the people, or that corrupt and inordinately vicious propagandists should become the mercenary tools of the few who have been profiting by the system, is not especially surprising, but is baneful and pernicious. Figures and statistics have been piled mountain high by the advocates of both sides in the controversy. The fact PHRONOCRACY 2/ that the country has progressed results to the advantage of the protectionist, and to such an extent that for many years the other party, that really favors throwing off the yoke, has been obliged, either from motives of policy or has consented from promptings of timidity, to appear before the country in a false and ridiculous attitude. One side cries protection for the sake of protection, and consistently maintains its position by so-called argu- ments directed to its support, thus perpetuating its ascendancy and the continuance of the system ; and the other party, composed of men utterly hostile to the prin- ciple of protection, and who know that its effects are injurious and necessarily discriminating — who are in favor of no tax, save for revenue, and that from the source least burthensome to the people and most certain to the gov- ernment, for want of bold and vigorous leadership mildly pose before the public with dulcet muttering, — sweet, sugar-coated pellets, to the effect that they are not free- traders — oh, no, — but " Tariff Reformers " ; that protec- tion is a good thing, but we want just a little less of it. If it is a goo*^ thing, the people naturally conclude that they wish not less but more of it, and if a bad thing, then they want none of it at all, save for such a period as would be prudent to effect the speediest conservative change. The country requires, of course, a certain amount of revenue, and even the outspoken free-trader cannot for some time advocate the total abolition of imposts, for the reason that he cannot conceive of any other source from which to derive the much-needed revenue, and from which more than half that now col- lected is obtained ; dut Phronocracy points out the source. Finally, revenue will again begin to be col- lected largely in excess of the wants of the govern- ment prudently administered. The public indebtedness 28 POLITICS AND PROPERTY will become greatly reduced — even brought in at a pre- mium — pensions will begin, after the most unreasonable and astounding increase, also to decline, and it will be found to be absolutely imperative that taxation should be reduced, or the earnings of the country will be need- lessly absorbed by the government to lie dormant in its treasury, a temptation to extravagant and vicious legisla- tion, or be by some means redistributed among the people. It appears to be idle folly to collect a fund simply that it may be again distributed. The best distribution is that which exists before there is any contribution. Finally, even the strongest protec- tionists will be obliged to yield to popular clamor for reduced taxation. They will doubtless begin by curtail- ing internal revenues, then by small reductions on such articles as it is thought cannot be produced in the country — a ridiculous condition of governmental stu- pidity. An article that cannot be made at home can be bought by the consumer in the world's cheapest markets ; but if there is a remote expectation of domestic pro- duction, the consumer must pay tribute to'' some favored manufacturer. The question of free trade and protection, unvexed by statistical information, finally resolves itself into the following : Shall governments, like individuals, pursue and en- courage such avocations as are most fittingly suited to their natural adaptabilities and conditions, or shall they not ? It has been long since determined that the price of labor is and can only be regulated by supply and de- mand ; that if labor could be consolidated into trades unions and assemblies, none of the individuals thereof consenting to supply his labor for less than a certain compensation, a certain price could be secured, or by 1M1KC;\(JCRACV 29 reason ot a demand in excess of supply an increase could be demanded and obtained, but not otherwise, and this temporarily only. The thinking portion of laboring men have begun to understand that legislation cannot supply what legitimate demand does not war- rant ; that the only way they can maintain a high rate of wages is to curtail the supply, not to increase the duty on the products of labor. If ten thousand men should be engaged in the manufacture of clothes, and the in- dustry in which they were employed was the only one in the country in which they lived, is there any laboring man so daft as to conclude that if the tariff on cloths was doubled the price of their wages would be doubled "f their employer could possibly secure operatives for less ? All such conclusions are unnatural and prepos- terous, and it will soon be obvious to all wage earners that the price of labor is controlled, like the price of everything else, by supply and demand only. It is use- less, therefore, to expect from legislation any alleviation of the condition of labor that does not control the demand and supply of that labor. It is likewise useless to expect to curtail the supply save by that questionably efficacious method — organization. Tariffs will never reach it. How ridiculous is the proposition that seeks to main- tain the price of labor by instituting a prohibition against the products of labor, and yet invites that labor itself, freely and without restraint. Is a laboring man any the less formidable and com- petitive because he works directly at the elbow of another, than he is if he labors three thousand miles away ? Is he not rather more competitive to the extent of the cost of the transportation of the article he produces ? Then why should a laboring man argue for protection against 30 POLITICS AND PROPERTY the products of labor ? It is a barren ideality, it is simply illusory and absurd. Protection, therefore, against the products of labor tends only to increase their cost to the consumer, giving the increased price as an item of profit to the protected manufacturer, not as a means of increasing the price of labor, which, be it again asserted in defiance of disproof, can be effected only by curtailing of supply or increase of demand. Why is the relative price of labor, in 1890, in the Em- pire of Germany — a highly protected country — less than the same in free-trade England, unless because the de- mand for labor in proportion to the supply is less ? These facts will be, as time progresses, fully appreciated by the laboring masses who have for years been mis- guided by the enticing and pleasant sound of the cabal- istic word ''Protection." It will finally be admitted by the advocates of the system that there never was any justification for their policy save in " national independence," that is, as the free-traders always affirmed, there is one argument and only one — national independence. Statistics and figures are produced and information obtained to show that certain benefits have resulted in certain periods during whicli the policy has prevailed, but never has man been able to prove that the same or greater results might not have been achieved had the contrary policy been adopted. Volumes have been and may yet be written, but finally it will be admitted that there never was any good argu- ment for protection save that of national indepen- dence. All others have a retro-active effect. If the same protection be granted to every individual in a country, that is, say for example, twenty per cent, on everybody's products, the result would be that in fact no one would PHRONOCRACY 3 I be protected, because he would be obliged to pay as much more for everything he used as his protection amounted to ; hence, he had as well, in common with his fellows, exist without any. Therefore, if universal protection would be tantamount, to no protection at all, how can partial protection be anything else than rank discrimi- nation ? In other words, if out of one thousand pursuits, in the prosecution of which the population of a country is engaged, one hundred are protected, it follows neces- sarily that the price of the products of these favored few will be enhanced to the extent of that protection until domestic competition reduces the said price to within a reasonable limit of gain. Then, during this interval, the consumer has paid a premium for his goods that he might otherwise have saved. What has he received in return for that outlay ? — an industry or say ten industries. Is there any absolute proof that the United States would not have secured these industries in any case, even had the protective duty not been imposed ? There is no possible argument in favor of developing an industry at home if the cost of that development is greater than the value of the industry to the country. If the United States of America were so constituted by natural position, agricultural conditions, and climatic influences as to be able to produce Indian corn, cotton, and wheat only, and that they could produce these arti- cles cheaper than any other nation, would it not be a wise and frugal policy for the population to engage in these productions and exchange their crops for the vari- ous other articles of human requirements, or rather to sell and then to buy, than to tax their people for the im- portation of these articles, so that an unnatural industry could be developed at home ? Certainly this would be economy, frugality, and general good policy, provided 32 POLITICS AND PROPER'l'V there was an absolute assurance that the various needs of human life that were produced by outside countries could always be obtained. If a man can always buy boots from a bootmaker, why should he bother about learning to produce them himself at a greater cost ? If a country cannot naturally produce grapes by reason of the rigors of its climate, why should it tax its people so that some individual should be enabled to produce them under unnatural and consequently more expensive con- ditions, making the price more than they could be bought for from lands and climes where their cultivation is in conformity with natural and consequently cheaper pro- duction ? For years protectionists have supported their policies by presenting to the people an endless array of statistical information going to show that from iS6o to 1880 the population had increased to such and such proportions, and that since only a certain part thereof has been de- rived from immigration, it necessarily follows that pro- tection also gives a marvellous stimulus to the fecundity of American wives. They have submitted data to show that factories have increased and multiplied ; that rail- ways have been extended into remote sections of the country — in a word, that the sun has cast his benign and life-giving rays upon their continent, that the clouds have wept over their three million square miles of arable land — all attributable to protection. Such high-sound- ing platitudes, however, will ere long spend their force and the populace will begin to inquire, "Would it not have been so under any other j)olicy ? " From statistics the other, or free-lraders-under-the^ bushel party, are able to show that during periods ante- rior to the great internecine struggle, when comparatively no protection existed, a greater amount of territory was riiRoxocRAc'V 33 added to tlic public domain, an equal, and in some respects a greater, proportionate augmentation of both wealth and population was secured, and an equal labor remuneration paid, than under any era of high protective duties. So that the votaries of each policy must substan- tially assume the following diametrically opposite position without any evasion, conciliation, or compromise : I St. That if protection is good then prohibition, which would be the perfection of protection, would be better. 2d. If reduced duties on imports is good, then free trade, which is the perfection of said reduction, would be better. Hence, therefore, the people may soon be obliged to choose between two ultra alternatives, the one of com- plete commercial isolation from the outside world, or the Chinese-Wall policy, as it should be called, and the other unrestricted contact with the entire outside world, or the " World " policy, as it should be called. Tersely presented to the people, there will be the " Wall " policy and the ''"World" policy. There is no argument that can be presented in favor of the " Wall" policy except that of national independence ; all others are sophisti- cal, easily refuted, and almost absurd. They react upon each other and, of course, render null any effect. We must tax our people, it is urged, to build up within our wall industries that will supply all our civilized and daily increasing wants ; for, notwith- standing the great improvement in facilities for the navigation of the sea, and the increasing sources from which people can buy, yet, there may come a time when the supply will be cut off and we will be left in a state of lingering chagrin, with a redundance of wealth but no opportunity to exchange it for our diversified wants. The " World "-policy advocates claim that such argu- 3 34 POLITICS AND PROPERTY ments are jejune and visionary ; that it has long since been demonstrated that wherever there existed a demand there would come a supply ; that when conditions are ripe, fitting, and appropriate, all industries would come without the artificial and unreliable stimulus of pro- hibitory legislation, and even if not that, there are two essential elements of profit or gain : one is to buy cheap and the other to sell high — goods well bought are half sold, — and that there is no more reason or sound sense in instituting a system under and by reason of which the people are excluded from the cheapest markets in which to buy — one of the essential elements of gain, — than there would be in the imposition of a similar prohibition against exportation, thus excluding them from a good market in which to sell — the other essential element of profit and gain. It is an undeniable principle of nature that one thing cannot be artificially builded up unless another thing is correspondingly torn down. Hence, in protecting the classes there must be oppression to the masses. If, therefore, natural competition is interfered with, and by schemes of legislation one man or one set of men are enabled to acquire for their product 20 per cent, more than the price at which it could be secured in the world's open market, it is a direct gain to him or them ; but must be a corresponding loss to some other man or set of men, or nature has gone crosswise and twice two have ceased to be four. The only undetermined link in the chain is, in what respect has the second man been recompensed for his loss ? If to the full extent of the other man's gain, then the conditions are equalized and there was never any use for the protection originally — the books balance. If he has not been adequately and fully recompensed, then an injustice has been forced upon him, and the system that forces it is wrong. PHRONOCRACY 35 It has been discovered that all the masses receive consequent upon the protection to the classes is a kind of mushroom growth of industries. Those that are sufficiently well founded could have existed without it and will exist when it is abolished. The fungus growth will soon perish, but on their ruins will soon be erected sufficient of every description to compete successfully with the producers of the world. It is found that the consuming masses pay in increased prices to the pro- tected classes fully ten times as much as the industries created are worth to the country, and in all cases until home competition forces prices down to within a reason- able limit of gain, which usually requires years, the protected classes pocket the major part of this excess. It is found that a rolling-mill or foundry that can produce 10,000 tons of merchant's iron per year can easily be erected for $200,000. The average price of its product for the twenty years intervening from 1S70 to 1S90 is found to be about forty dollars per ton, repre- senting a business of $400,000 annually, or $8,ooo,coo for the entire twenty years. By comparison, the price of the product to the domestic commoner above that which he would have paid in competitive markets of the outer world has been fully 25 per cent., representing $2,000,- 000 outlay for a plant costing only $200,000. For years the laborer has been misguided into the belief that this tremendous excess was paid out to him in increased rates of wages, but recently the scales have fallen from his eyes, and he sees that his employer obtains operators wherever he can get them cheapest ; that whilst the product of the manufacturer is protected the laborers of the world can come in free ; that the only way he can succeed in maintaining a higher rate of wages is by organized unions and consequent avoidance of competi- 36 POLITICS AND PROPERTY tion, which for years, while skilled mechanics were scarce, has worked to good advantage, but now and for the future, by the very stimulus that the protectionists claim is making the laborer rich, there is and will be allured from continental Europe, from China, from India and Japan, hoards of competitive operators that would otherwise have remained in the lands of their sires. So that the very thing that is falsely claimed as a protection to labor, by prohibiting its products, results in the virtual ruination of good wages by bringing to the country thousands of competitive operatives. Looking at the case from the standpoint of reason, it appears incredible that the laboring men have been so long gulled and betrayed by so palpable a delusion. Why could they not see that protection against foreign products could only result in keeping out these products, consequently causing the price to be high, and that in- viting, as this allurement does, the labor of the world, could only result in increasing labor competition and in making wages low ? Such protection is like holding a glittering tinsel before the eyes of a baby ; it stretches out its arms and cries for it, even though you tell it that it is hot, because a baby has not sense enough to know that a hot thing will burn. So with the laborer and protection. Equally senseless, and if possible more thoroughly inexplicable, is the posi- tion so long persistently maintained by the American farmers, who, in 1S90, numbered nearly one half of the population of the country. This class of citizens, usually prudent and frugal, are supposed to consider and sup- port measures tending to the public good, but for years, whilst being compelled to sell their wheat and their corn in competition with the producers of the world, they T'HROXOCRACY 37 have blindly supported protection in many localities, apparently preferring to pay an increased price for their implements rather than to be able to secure them in the markets in which they are forced to sell their crops ; in other words, they sell in the competitive what is neces- sarily the cheapest, and buy in the protected which is necessarily the dearest market ; hence, as an inevitable result, the mortgages on farms are in many cases thicker than the soil itself — almost as thick as the skulls of the mortgagors. However, it is not so much stupidity as prejudice that causes such anomalous associations in political affairs. A Northern farmer had been a Republican during the war when he favored the preservation of the Union ; how could he now march under any other banner, it matters not how much opposed to his interests present Republican policies may be ? Opinions and associations are oftener the result of prejudices and passion than of reflection and reason ; hence great reforms are more frequently accomplished by the thunder of guns and the glistening of swords than by the peaceful processes of reflection and thought. However, the days of bloodshed consequent upon politi- cal or religious differences have long since been past ; yet many men Avho honestly believe that the continuation of protection principles and policies are prejudicial, if not almost fatal, to the good of the greatest number of the people, act as though they would rather face the muzzle of a dynamite gun than to affiliate with the party calling itself Democratic, even though the position of that party and the propositions of its platforms should be identically harmonious with their personal opinions as to present federal policies, and it will not be until the new prganizatjori called " Phronocratic or Conservative" 38 POLITICS AND PROPERTY possesses men's affiliation and support that the hitherto Republicans of anti-protection sympathies will begin to vote at all for their individual interests. To this organi- zation also should be subsequently added the most progressive and liberal of the plutocratic class and the most responsible and conservative of the rankest Demo- cratic or socialistic class. The growth of the organization may be as slow as its methods are conservative, but its foundation will be as solid as its professions are sound. The changing opin- ions of the country as to the principle of protection will result simply in uprooting an old and worn-out prejudice, and will be a step in the direction of the greater reforms that may follow. Its most valuable effect, aside from its influence on commerce, which will be shown by_ its results, will be to pave the way for the victory that will finally establish ineradicably the principle that ail pater- nalism in government is baneful and pernicious and hostile to the perpetuity of republican institutions, ex- cept that interference and safeguard which will prevent an unreasonable and unwarranted concentration of indi- vidual wealth and vouchsafe to property moderately possessed increased security, stability, and force. — Such is I'hronocracy. I CHAPTER III. Necessity for relief from monopoly — Government control of monopo- listic enterprises ; objections thereto — Inefficiency of most gov- ernmental management — Governmental control of all business — Greater objection thereto and the impracticability thereof — Differences in human excellence must be recognized — Support government from excessive individual accumulations — Evil effects of certain restrictive legislation — Socialistic schools. The questions of free trade and protection having been briefly discussed, and the inadequacy of the preva- lence of cither theory for the proper adjustment and regulation of social affairs and wants being admitted, it is clear that other and greater remedies must be applied to bring about that improvement in social affairs that appears to be suggested in the interest of humanity and demanded as a check to monopolistic power. The proposition that the government should own and operate the enterprises of the country that are by nature monopo- listic, such as railways, highways, canals, and waterways, now comes up for consideration. The principal reason for the advocacy of this proposi- tion appears to lie in the fact that out of these enterprises has been derived the most colossal accumulations, and that the only possible remedy is to absorb those accumu- lations by government or to so cheapen the price of the service they render as to make them simply self- sustaining, as one of the parts of the governmental machine. 3<> 40 POLITICS AND I'l'^npERTY Ab initio, there need never exist any government whatever if the passions and propensities of men could be otherwise controlled. If all human beings were philosophers of the intel- lectual depth, breadth, and scope of the most erudite and profound of the existing sages of the earth, there would be no possible need of government — all would exist in peace and harmony without ; but each individual might be obliged to perform his own manual labor, his equally cultured compeers being unwilling to serve. The fact is, however, and, fortunately, always will be, that all men will not become philosophers ; that if all were at birth capable of becoming such, accidents, incidents, and occurrences of human life will absolutely prevent. Hence, there will be, as there should be, hewers of wood and drawers of water, unless the world and its be- longings are entirely changed. The most trivial circum- stance will frequently change the current of a man's whole life, so that he who by heredity might have pos- sessed the material and intuitions for a philosophic development may have been diverted by an unfortuitous combination of human events into some channel that would cause him to be a border-ruffian, a barbarian, or the cook of a ship. Government is not the most desirable institution of which one could conceive, for its very existence depends upon a certain sacrifice of the inherent rights of the in- dividual to the state for the well-being of the whole — for the better guaranty of social order. A thing or an institu- tion, therefore, that in itself involves a sacrifice is not a thing the influence and scope of which we should desire to enlarge and extend to the utmost possible limit, but such as we should v/ish to diminish and curtail to within the narrowest possible sphere. Not the greatest possible PHRONOCRACV 41 restraint consistent with human endurance, but the greatest possible liberty consistent with social order is the true principle of government ; and the greater the social order and domestic tranquillity that naturally pervades the social institutions, the less the necessity for government and the more liberal its functions may become. If, therefore, government is an incubus on society, a thing to be shunned not sought, and which is tolerable not because of its attractiveness, but of its necessity, why should the scope of government be unnecessarily enlarged ? People yield to the state certain of their individual liberties, and by so doing cramp their individual freedom and desires, yet it is thought better to yield something so as with greater certainty to retain the rest. That policy, therefore, which seeks to yield the most is much more in conflict with domestic civil liberty than that which yields the least. Governments are administered by human in- dividuals, and in times gone by those individuals were thought to be akin to the Divine. Now, however, when all just power is believed to be derived from the consent of the governed it follows as a necessary corollary that those who are governed least are governed best. Formerly a potentate or king, for mo- tives and desires wholly his own and for his personal aggrandizement and power, could levy imposts and collect taxes — even confiscate private property for indi- vidual gain. Now there exists no civilized state in which the powers of the king are not ia a manner prescribed, and ere long, as in America, the king will be simply a creation of the people — an instrument to perform certain duties in conformity with their will. Since the evident tendency of civilized life is toward the system which 42 P()LITir.S AND I'ROPERTY yields the least possible prerogative to the state or the king, how could the grievances of the body politic be in any degree assuaged by enlarging the scope of govern- mental power ? The argument in its support is that thus the govern- ment would become the distributor of accumulated wealth and would deal it out to the people either directly by the apportionment of so much to a certain locality or state, or by operating enterprises monopolistic in their nature at comparatively no charge. Here very naturally arises the question, what are monopolistic enterprises and what are not ? If the government is to own and operate railways throughout the country at large, why not the tramways in the municipal streets ? If the telegraphic, why not the telephonic, wires ; if the canals, why not all country roads ; if waterways in general, why not municipal water-work systems ? If wires for the transmission of electricity for intercommunication, why not for light, heat, and power ; if water mains, why not gas mains, and if gas and water mains, why not oil mains ; and if oper- ating all systems of communication and transportation, why not the steamships on the ocean, the boats on inland rivers and lakes ; and thus, with a precedent once es- tablished, what might the government not do with equal reason and justification? It is obvious that the matter would ultimately resolve itself into a multiplicity of opinions as to what the government should do and what it should not do, so that from this chaos of controversy order can only be reached by the universal admission that the government must do nothing that can possibly be done by individual enterprise, or it must convert itself into a gigantic workshop and do everything that individuals might do. It is either all government or i rilRONOCRACY 43 no government in effect. The determination of what should and what should not be operated by govern- ment could not be reached by the magnitude of the enterprise, because it is found that many municipal tramways are of greater size and scope than many over- land railways, and that telephonic operations for locali- ties reach in the aggregate a sum equal to, if not greater, than the overland telegraphic lines ; that many steam- boat lines are of greater proportions than corresponding railway lines ; in fact, great monopolistic trusts have been formed in various lines of ordinary mercantile trade that assume vastly greater proportions and are more avaricious and grasping, more hurtful to the interests of the masses, than are many of the transportation companies. Is the government also to absorb and operate these because they have become "by nature monopolistic " ? To extend its ramification to all pursuits that could just as reasonably be considered within the power of the government as those relating to transporta- tion would deprive individual enterprise of more than a moiety of its occupations and make government attaches of most of the people. To go this far would be worse than not to begin at all or than to absorb everything by government. It Avould create an immense and unwieldy govern- mental machine, performing much of the labor that could be more expeditiously and cheaply performed by the individual ; would create an irresistible power in patronage that would forever perpetuate the "ins" in office, which, as to the ordinary trusts involved, might not be so hurtful or disastrous, but would be sufficiently cogent in its influences to control legislation and convert that grand principle which maintains that the people shall rule — that laws are for the people, not the people 44 ]'()], ITICS AM) I'ROPKRTY for the laws — into a hollow mockery and a sham ; in a word, it would result in the perversion of the very objects of self-government and a subversion of popular rights. If half the people of a country were the em- ployes of the government how much better contented or better conditioned would the country as a whole be- come ? Furthermore, how much better or cheaper would the business be transacted ? All experience in civilized life goes to show that enterprises operated by the government are invariably more inefficiently or more expensively conducted than are the same classes of busi- ness under private management and control, which if not demonstrated by experience would be almost an inevita- ble conclusion from ordinary deduction, for in the one case they are operated by employes whose labors are perfunctory, and in the other by employers under rigid discipline for individual gain. There exists not this day, nor did there exist at the time of the greatest popu- lar interest in governmental control, a single enterprise of any description or character that private individuals could not have taken at any fair basis of valuation and performed the service at ten per cent, less and gained to their stockholders ten per cent, more than accrued to government in its loose and disjointed control. How few municipal water-works systems yield to the city a revenue above interest on their cost, aye, how many never pay the interest on cost, yet where does or did there exist a single water-works plant that private enter- prise would not gladly have taken at a disinterested valu- ation and agree to supply water to the community at ten percent, less than the price previously paid? In fact, it is said that a European syndicate has proposed to buy every single water plant both in Europe and America that is operated by the public on these identical terms. PHRONOCRACY 45 Water-works in general have been owned by municipali- ties, and in general they have lost money. Gas plants in general have been operated by individuals, and in general they have doubled their capital stock every few years. A water-supplying system is far more monopolistic in its nature than a gas-supplying system, for there is no substitute and can be no competition iu water, and there can be and is in gas. Water is a necessity and gas is a luxury ; gas must be manufactured, hence involves much detail ; water is simply pumped and involves no detail. The price of gas has been relatively as cheap to the consumers as has been the current price of water, which is proven by the fact that spirited competition has not materially reduced rates ; one goes up and the other goes down, because one is well managed, the results affecting the pockets of private individuals, and the other is con- trolled by everybody and is no benefit to .anybody. The government's business is necessarily everybody's busi- ness, and everybody's business is nobody's business, and the only sensible course to pursue is to keep out of the hands of. everybody everything that it is possible to give to anybody. But one solitary example of consequence can be produced that affords the slightest possible argu- ment for governmental enterprise on the score of econo- my, and that is no example at all — to wit, the federal post-office system of the United States, which, to 1890, never paid expenses, never was self-sustaining ; yet, when it was suggested that the business be transferred to private express companies, the aggregate operations of which at that time, in small parcels, extended to almost as many localities as the post office itself, any company doubtless could, in consideration of a long contract, do the business at a less price than the government has 46 POLITICS AND PROPERTY been charging, and would make much profit where the government has been losing. On the score of effi- ciency there is no argument, for both are performed by men, and a man is usually less, not more, efficient when he works for good old Uncle Sam than when laboring for the directors of a soulless corporation. Furthermore, a conclusive demonstration is found in the efficiency of the express and telegraphic systems — both equally and almost relatively as cheap as Uncle Sam's letter system. A more widespread opinion favoring the control of the telegraphic lines of the country by government exists than for most any other enterprise ; but then if tele- graphs, why not telephones, and so on throughout the list? However, since it is thought best to retain the trans- mission of mail matter in the hands of the government, it might be proper that the postal telegraph should also be made a part of that particular department. Whilst it cannot be doubted that both could be as effectually done by private enterprise ; yet conditions might arise when the government, in the administration of its functions, might require control of this part of the country's busi- ness. This, however, could about as reasonably be urged regarding transportation in general and many other enterprises, so that virtually it may be continued only because it has heretofore existed and had done reasonably well. Much objection, however, is urged to the necessary employment by government of the army of postal clerks and general attaches, which puts prestige and patronage into the hands of the party in power, thus tending to de- prive the individual of his natural right. In fact, it will soon become almost a fixed principle of popular belief in America that the general government should only protect PHRONOCRACY 4/ the country from foreign aggression ; preserve the peace, and regulate the commerce between, not within, the States ; provide and maintain a uniform and stable circulating medium ; then provide and maintain collectors of reve- nue necessary to carry out these purposes ; and, having done this, that the general government will have per- formed the major part of its whole duty, leaving to States the regulation of all domestic affairs and to cities the employment of police ; or, practically and in short, that the governmental functions are simply to protect life and rightful ownership in individual property, main- tain peace, and regulate commerce, obtaining its reve- nues to do this from the extraordinary accumulations of individual property ; that this and this alone is the right- ful function and prerogative of government, and why should free men yield more ? So great and irresistible may yet be the popular outcry against concentration by governments and to the patronage and power exercised through federal employes, that postmasters may soon be elected by the people of the city or locality in which their duties are performed, and all collectors in the districts and by the people whose property they assess, taking all this patronage out of the hands of the President and placing it with the people where it belongs, until this dis- tinguished functionary will be shorn or rather relieved of many of his duties in the matter of appointments to office, which would be far more satisfactory to the incum- bent as well as to the people, and being relieved of this arduous and unpleasant duty he would devote more time to affairs and matters of state. His chief remaining appointments would be simply the members of his own cabinet, foreign diplomats, and consuls, territorial gov- ernors, and judges of the federal courts. Everything should tend towards retaining in the hands 48 POLITICS AND PROPERTY of the people every possible governmental function, and when the ballot has been purified by the only effectual method — curtailment, — or by the disfranchisement of the unworthy, greater safety and security will rest with the people than ever before, and there will be less inclination to delegate their powers to officials. Governmental control of the leading enterprises of the country can be productive of no good result, being alike unnecessary and ineffectual ; so likewise is the proposition to absorb all business by the government for the same identical reasons and for others of greater mo- ment and objection, to wit, uselessness and impractica- bility. This proposition involves primarily the employment of the time, energy, and ability of all individuals for each other, or, in other words, for a kind of a govern- ment, the duty of which is to be the equal distribution of the products of human labor ; in a word, all are to produce and all are to divide — a Utopian dream, the principal merit of which lies in its utter impracticability — a scheme suitable either to the gods or to the fishes perhaps, equally applicable to both, but of no use to man. It will never be seriously considered by any whose opinions are worthy of notice. It is a virtual denial of man's right to property in his individual capacity, but admits an incidental or sort of reversionary right to a share in everything. In fact, writers on social questions have ceased to deny man's right to property individually, which is as unquestionable as his right to breathe air ; they have ceased to maintain that he is not entitled to the fruits of his labor and to enjoy those fruits however he may, in conformity with social restraint ; likewise it is admitted that there must and always will, and in fact always should be, gradations in society ; that it is utterly PHRONOCRACV 49 impossible to effectually eradicate poverty, which, to a certain extent, is a necessary result of the operating forces of nature. The earth's axis inclines 23!^ degrees to the plane of the ecliptic, hence there are variable seasons in certain zones. In the winter some men will be stricken with pneu- monia, and in the summer some will be overcome and prostrated by the heat ; both conditions are the inevita- ble result of nature and its operations, the fault of no man nor set of men ; both conditions will incapacitate some men for duty, hence some more favored men can pass them in the race. But, says an objector, there should be no race, no contention, no strife between men ; all should exist in fraternity and love, no selfishness, but a general acquiescence in the rights of each to all. No race, no strife, no contention means no exertion, or uni- versal idleness, in which case all would starve. Many would rather work than starve, hence they naturally object to a division with those who would rather starve than work. And thus in ten thousand ways and from ten thousand conditions, all natural and unavoidable, to say nothing whatever about the inherent qualifications and attributes of man as an individual, some are bound to fall below the level of the average and some rise above it ; and to seek entirely to remedy, or in any considera- ble extent to alter this result by legislation, is tanta- mount to making the wQrld anew. Man can, however be obligated to contribute to the support of society and to the maintenance of government in proportion to his ability to contribute ; he can be so taxed that when his fortune reaches an abnormal excess his payments to the state will be equal to the income from his estate, thus preventing the useless individual accumulations of the 50 POLITICS AND PROPERTY favored and increasing individual opportunity of the oppressed. This is all that can be done consistently with man's natural right to a reasonable reward for his energy, his ability, and his industry ; in fact, it is all that justice demands and all that the community should wish. Man usually accumulates property in proportion to his ability ; it is not therefore unjust that he should con- tribute to the support of that governmental institution which protects that property in proportion to his ability to contribute ; aye more, betimes man's accumulations are the result of fortuitous combinations of events, not to his skill or energy. These conditions, however, are natural, and he should be entitled to a reasonable reward therefrom, and since much accumulation is the result of these fortunate agencies, less is the discrimination against the successful individual when the state interdicts against useless excesses, and says that from this excess will I support my authority. Tax excess excessively, medioc- rity moderately, and poverty not at all, is the correct principle of government and of taxation to support it. On the other hand, all mankind have the natural right to live, by which we mean, to the possession and con- sumption of a certain portion of the earth's products, essential to the continuance of life. He has this right as against the efforts of his fellow-men to the same ex- tent that he possesses it as against the contending forces of nature, and no more and no less. He cannot exist against the contending forces o/ nature, especially if he chooses to inhabit a part of the surface of the earth sub- jected to the rigors of an uncongenial clime, without effort, and often the most strenuous effort will not avail, and he perishes, consequent upon the fault of no man or set of men, but by reason of the natural order of things. So, likewise, must he exert his efforts in the PHRONOCRACY 5 I Strife against the opposing forces of his fellow-men, and likewise as in his contest with natural obstacles, he sometimes perishes, and consequent upon the fault of no man or set of men ; and he has asked much of his successful rival when he combines with the less success- ful and says to the former : " So far shalt thou go and no fai'ther." He has demanded in this, however, no more than the successful rival can well afford to grant ; in fact, to the extent of his comfort or his happiness he is in no sense oppressed ; his cupidity and his greed alone are circumscribed. Men being entitled to a reasonable compensation for their efforts, does not carry with it the admission that they are likewise entitled to an unlimited reward for avarice and greed, for much of that gain results from the increment forced upon them by the requirements of so- ciety, and this increment should, after certain limitations, inure to the benefit of as many individuals as possible, consistent with public good. In keeping with the impracticability of accomplishing any practical good to society by the merger of all enter- prise into the hands of the government, which is but an aggregation of agents of the people to perform certain duties, is the legislation that is continuously being enacted looking to the regulation of freights, traffics, and the like, by governmental authority. The general government can regulate commerce between the States, that is, it can prevent any embargo being placed upon the products of one by another in transit over their respective boundaries ; it can prevent States from in- stituting any sort of prohibitory conditions as between each other, but it cannot regulate the traffic within the boundaries of the State itself. This duty or privilege is 52 POLITICS AND PR0PP:RTV reserved to the State legislators, and their enactments are sometimes unwise and detrimental to the public weal. It would not answer in all the States to prescribe a certain fixed rate beyond which no charge should be made, for in some localities a price equal to five cents per mile for each and every first-class passenger would be cheap, and in some others a price in excess of two cents would be high ; hence if any limitations are made they must usually be so high as to effect no practical good, and had as well not exist. The construction of railways and highways, canals and waterways, in some sections of the country is comparatively cheap, and in others very high. Many times in different sections of the same State the cost would be more than quadrupled, so that a legislative enactment to the effect that the price of all traffic within the State must not exceed a certain stipulated rate would be in excess of what one company might desire to charge, and not sufficient for the actual maintenance of another. The average cost of railway construction in Nebraska or Kansas is much below that in Colorado or Nevada, for the former are located in a broad and level country, and the latter in the precipitous rocks and crags of mountain gorges. It has usually been the custom to prescribe a maximum, but this is frequently above the actual charge for transportation. People resi- dent in any section must have facilities for transportation, otherwise their land is valueless and their unconsumed crop will rot ; hence it is that in nearly all sections the socialistic principle of maintaining public wagon roads prevails, not because the people believe in socialism in the abstract, or would be willing to have their land taxed for many other schemes in the nature of a general divide, but because it appears to be to the in- terest of the property itself to have it so — that is, by sub- PUKOXOCKACY 53 mitting to a tax to maintain a public road (which is about the same in principle as submitting to a tax to maintain a public hotel), their land appears to gain more in value than the tax really costs. The road, therefore, being supported or rather operated by government, and individuals who have no property and pay no tax being permitted to use it as freely as those who pay the most, seems to be a great concession to the socialistic senti- ment, yet it appears as though the tax-payer is more than recompensed by the increased valuation of the land con- sequent thereon. Well, say. the government absorption- ists, if it be to the interest of the tax-paying landowner to maintain the public road, why would it not be more largely to his interest to establish lines of free carriages on said road, so that the socialistic principle as to trans- portation could be carried out to its fulness ? And if to his interest to maintain highways and establish carriages thereon, to be supported by taxation on his property, and for the free use of the public, why with equal reason might it not be to the interest of the landowner to con- struct and maintain a line of raihvay, and establish free carriages thereon^ which condition rendered to its ulti- mate end would mean governmental control of all trans- portation ; and if of transportation, which in value amounts to about one fifth of the whole and employs about one tenth of all the people, why not of everything else ? In other words, why should the people not create agents to do the business of the country and distribute the profits if there be any, and, if none, then give to each man so much food and raiment and let him go on his way rejoicing ? Thus there appears to be some enter- prises in which the socialistic principle does operate to advantage, such as the maintenance of free wagon roads and streets, free parks, free schools, free poorhouses, 54 POLITICS AND PROPERTY hospitals, and the like, and the reason why it should ap- pear to work well to within their limitations — in fact, appear to be necessary to this extent — and yet iniquitous to any extent beyond, is because further governmental control thwarts individual enterprise. The fact is that society is obliged to recognize the socialistic principle to some extent, but this offers no argument for its univer- sality ; but it is clear to the minds of far-sighted men that if something is not done to check the colossal and use- less accumulations of individual property, the socialistic principle may be very largely extended, and it is best to meet the issue at once and favor the said principle out- right to the extent of annihilating all excesses, and curtail- ing it as much as possible as regards all mediocrities, with sedulous care not to stifle enterprise. To impose a limit on traffic or to create other restrictive conditions is in fact to a certain extent a barrier to enterprise, and it is really questionable whether or not to permit the matter to regu- late itself would not result in the end in greater develop- ment and consequently greater competition, hence better and cheaper accommodation, than to attempt to protect the people by controlling even the maximum of charges. In some sections of country the residents would gladly agree to pay ten cents per mile for ordinary railway pas- senger traffic rather than to have no line of road ; in fact, it is questionable if the residents of any country would dispense with same altogether if the rate should be double that sum. In America in 1890 there existed about 167, coo miles of railway — more than all the world besides combined, — yet crops could not at times be prop- erly transported. Now, by permitting capital to con- struct roads and charge for the use of same their own stipulated rate (being common carrier the same, of course, to all under similar condition), granting no privi- PHRONOCRACY 55 leges and imposing no restraints, it might be that in every belt of country in America twenty miles wide there would be a line of road running both north and south, east and west. The distance between the oceans aver- aging, say, for a short calculation, 3,000 miles, and the width north and south is 2,000 miles, there would be on the 20-mile basis, 100 lines of road 3,000 miles long, or 300,000 miles, running east and west ; and 150 lines 2,000 miles long, or 300,000 miles, running north and south ; or in all 600,000 miles of road, and none nearer to the other than twenty miles apart, which would be ten miles from the central tracts of land to the nearest road — which, with a loaded team, is a fair average dis- tance to haul a load of produce and return the same day over a fair highway in good repair. Since access to facilities for communication appears to be the great pro- moter of values, it is a question whether or not, all things considered, as much good would not result from the multiplication of those facilities, superinduced by the ability to regulate their own rates, as by a diminution of same consequent upon legal interdictions, thus permit- ting the laws of trade to regulate the price of traffic. Who can say that it would not be better for an entire country to have two lines of railroad twenty miles apart, charging ten cents per mile, than one line, charging but five cents per mile, forty miles off. Perhaps both could comfortably live at ten cents, and one would grow very rich at five, but the average haul over the highway which in the case of the two would be, say, ten miles, in case of the one is twenty miles. If wagoning over country roads cost fifty cents per mile (about a proportionate rate), it is clear that a haul of but ten miles to a ten-cent road would enable the goods to be transported some distance at even that rate before the actual outlay from farm to 5fJ POLITICS AXD PROPKRTV market would be much greater than on the five cent road, where the goods were wagoned twenty miles at fifty cents per mile. These matters should be fully discussed, as also social- istic highways, socialistic schools, parks, and the Hke, and it may be determined that it is best to let natural conditions, not in conflict with the general plan of cur- tailing excesses of individual estates, prevail at least for a while till it can be demonstrated whether or not in adopting generally and fundamentally the principle and policy of go vernmen tally regulating the extremes of for- tune, there would not be interference sufficient to enable the people to dispense with some of the other features long existing in communities and recognized as valid. Relative to all socialistic tendencies and all scliemes for the absorption by government of individual enterprises, it may be safely said that the least possible is the best. Socialism as applied to individual excesses is the most reasonable and least oppressive of any, and that alone should prevail in lieu of all that can possibly be dis- pensed with. Absorption of enterprise by government is not only impracticable, but is in fact simply the turn- ing over by the people to the people and then turning back by the people to the people, or, by the people to their agents (the people) and by the agents (the people) back to the people, the usufruct of labor, making no allowance for individual excellence, energy, opportunity, or desire, which is as much in conflict with nature as it would be to say that all trees shall grow to the same uni- form size. Let the tree expand reasonably, but if it gets so big as to be useless in itself and threaten destruction to the forest it would be wise to trim it up a little. Then comes on a great and apparently endless discus- sion as to the maintenance of public schools. It is urged that this exercise of the socialistic princi- PHRONOCRACV 57 pies is useless ; that, in fact, it is injurious ; that it creates an artificial equality that is hurtful rather than beneficial to society ; that it unfits many for occupations that must be pursued by some ; that it creates in these an increasing discontent, and enables them to more keenly appreciate and more deeply to lament the grada- tions in society which must exist until everything as- sumes a different footing, or, say, until the world begins to turn the other way and the sun to revolve around the earth ; but that whilst things are as they are gradations cannot and should not be prevented, and that to educate the masses is a step in that direction which on the whole is not proper ; that in fact and in truth. From ignorance, our comfort flows. The only wretched are the wise. It is maintained on the other hand that education makes men less passionate and vicious ; that they are in consequence more easily controlled ; that it prevents crime and outrage by enabling people to understand the enormity of it ; that on the whole it is worth more to property to have an educated populace than an unedu- cated one ; that the tendency towards disqualification and unfitness for certain occupation will be offset by in- creased compensation ; that professors of colleges will clean the streets or remove the garbage for a certain compensation ; that menial occupations would command high prices rather than degrade workmen, and so on ad infinitii-m. The other side maintains that a little educa- tion is worse than none at all ; that it makes of what would otherwise be a mild pilferer in the street a bold and defiant counterfeiter and forger — a character more difficult to control and, by reason of his greater ability, more dangerous to society ; that if you would keep the people in subjugation you must keep them in ignorapqe,; 58 POLITICS AND PROPERTY that ascendancy in all institutions will flourish most where the masses know the least. Thus by these divergent views the free-school system may be in some sections abandoned according as the majority in • localities, by which alone the institution should be governed, should decide. However, in most States and counties of the United States and later on in other countries which have intermittently encouraged and abandoned it, the institution will likely be supported to such an extent as will enable the attendants to learn to read, write, and cipher, or what may be considered the " citizenship course," and nothing beyond. It should become law that man must both possess something and know something before he could participate in govern- ment — (strange that he should ever have participated in it otherwise) ; and since the opportunity would be before him to possess the requisite amount of property which he could do in a few years by frugality and economy, espe- cially since the main contributions for the support of government are proposed to be taken from accumulated property and are by reason thereof scarcely perceptible to the poor or the intermediacy, so likewise is it thought best, all things considered, to give him an opportunity to acquire the other requisite, to wit, a certain amount of knowledge, so that he who should become a citizen might if he would. Beyond these limitations, however, there should be the most rigid scrutiny and the closest possible guard against the extension of delegated powers or socialistic operations, the former confined essentially to security to property, and the latter to the actual and self-evident needs of the social state and to the limitation of excesses caused by the in- crease of population and the utilization of those excesses for the support of the state — rather" Conservative Social- ism or Phronocracy." " Atit Phronocracy aut Nullus." CHAPTER IV. Single or land tax considered : sincerity of its advocates — " The world belongs in usufruct to the people," correct in the abstract — Origi- nal possession : how acquired — Right of original possession — Land the product of labor — Impracticability of "uninterrupted access to natural opportunity " — Tax to full rental value tanta- mount to confiscation, and less fails of the object sought — Not justified by simplicity ; generally impracticable and void of good efTect — Relief only secured by laws oppressing the favored and assisting the oppressed. Before entering into detail as to the means, methods, and circumstances under and by virtue of which the ** Phronocratic-Conservative " alliance is proposed to be formed and the discussions of the principles supported by same, there arises for consideration another and by no means unimportant propagandism that has been promulgated and supported by men of intelligence and thought — to wit : the Single or Land Tax proposition. This class of reformers aim, as do all, at the greatest good to the greatest number. They recognize to the fullest extent that man is entitled to the fruits, of his own labor ; that he possesses a natural right to own and enjoy any property that results from the labor of his hand or his brain, and that he is entitled to an effectual guar- anty to the peaceful and uninterrupted possession of that property. Hence the single-tax advocates can by no means be classed among those who in any way seek to institute a condition of anarchy in society, or to forci- 59 6o POl.I'I'ICS AM) FROPERTV bly dispossess any man of the fruits of his toil ; and, con- sequently, as a party that aims by the enactments of law and by methods peaceful and persuasive to institute cer- tain changes in human affairs that would, in their opinion, ameliorate the condition of the masses of human beings, they are entitled to and should receive the utmost con- sideration and respect. Their views are discussed and their pronunciaments elaborated ; in a word, such has become the condition of society that no sect or class that tends toward revolution and force will be in any sense tolerated. The intellectual development of the world is such that all who seek to dispose have first to propose, and any proposition affects no disposition unless it is supported and upheld by the most forcible and reasona- ble arguments — or, in other words, brain rule, not brawn ; there is no force except that of convincing and irrefutable arguments. The single-tax advocates, with great reason, claim that the " world belongs in usufruct to the people " ; that all men are entitled to " equal access to natural opportu- nity " ; that natural opportunity is the earth and its belongings. When jocosely asked, " What do you want ? " they appropriately reply, " We want the earth — our natural inheritance." Land is considered the gift of God to the people, as is water and also air. Since the natural right of access to water and air have not as yet been denied, why should access to land, an equally important element of human existence, be withheld ? Man cannot live without earth, air, and water ; in fact, some individuals of the material- istic faith espouse the belief that man is nothing else than a combination of material forms — a highly-devel- oped protoplasm, a mollusk, a fish, a bird, a mammal, a PHRONOCRACY 6 1 monkey, a man — animate yet wholly material, a result and not a design ; that the earth is inhabited, why ? be- cause the sun's heat, the land and water, all co-existent if not ever-existent, aided by action, motion, force (which implies energy), all of which exist as an accompaniment of the great whole (but why or how no man knoweth), produces something, and that something is the vegetable and animal life of which man is but a part. We ask, "Are the planets of our own system similarly in- habited?" Certainly not, if by inhabitants we mean things and beings identical to and in keeping with our- selves. The actinic agencies of nature there may — doubtless do — produce something, just as similar agen- cies here may have produced what we see all around us, but who knows what, how, or in what shape it has been manifested ? It is by no means the same as here, be- cause the conditions are radically different. Who knows, or is prepared to absolutely prove, that man is not a result of the actinic forces of nature and has assumed the form he has and the attributes and characteristics he possesses, because such form, such attributes, and such characteristics are the fittest, most appropriate, and most reasonable, all things considered. But why di- gress ? Our object is to delineate what is happening in the world among its people, come or originate and ultimately end howsoever they may. The single-tax advocates seek to place all tax on land values, reliev- ing every other kind and class of property from any contribution whatever to the support of government ; they seek in effect to make the amount of this tax equal to the rental or productive return of the property. They confine all assessment to land values essentially, to the lot on which the house is erected, not to the house itself or its belongings ; to the farm directly as soil and dirt 62 POLITICS AND ]'k()FERTV only, not to the houses, the fences, and the 'oarns. The reason why everything save land is to be exempt from taxation, is because improvements of all kinds are the product of labor, and that to tax labor's product is, they say, to discourage and oppress the exercise of its ener- gies, to place an incubus on development, and corre- spondingly hamper enterprise. Tliey also maintain that any man is entitled to hold land in use ; that to tax land to its full rental value would make it undesirable, yea, unprofitable, if not utterly impossible, to hold it out of use at all, and that if no one held, then all who wished could occupy and use ; hence, the means would always be at hand by Avhich man could exert his energies, or, in other words, he would then have uninterrupted access to natural op- portunity — the consummation not only devoutly to be wished, but the remedy for all wretchedness. If a man could not obtain employment in a shop at a satisfactory remuneration he could become independent of the shop- keeper by entering in upon and cultivating any patch of land which would be open to his exertions, unless actu- ally in use by some of his fellows ; if a man wished to build a house he should be permitted to enter upon and possess any vacant city lot not actually utilized, and so on to the end ; land not in use could be used by any one, just as water not drank and air not breathed could be used by any one — a happy contemplation, but a remote and impracticable realization, with nothing in it save a barren idea, nothing save a Utopian dream — a wild phantasmagoric vision, that vanishes ere it 's fully seen. To begin at the beginning : How did man become possessed of landed estate ? We will assume for illus- tration that the ancient and presumably sunken island of PHRONOCRACV 63 Atlantis, alluded to in Bacon's allegorical fiction, (rich in productiveness by reason of its long inundation) should suddenly emerge from the bottom of the sea. Supposed to have been located somewhere north of the equitorial Atlantic it would be in easy position of access, and, being fertile and productive and located 'neath friendly skies and surrounded by balmy air, it would naturally become the modern Eldorado — the promised land, the haven of untold wealth for the myriads who toil. We will suppose that John Smith and Joe Jones first discovered it, then to whom does it belong ? Well, we will suppose that, being God-risen (certainly not man- risen) from the depths of the sea, it belongs when dis- covered to certain amphibians that are found to infest it. It cannot be denied that this title to it would be as good as the title of any other of God's creatures. Do the jun- gles of Africa belong to the monkeys of God's creation, or do they not ? Does the land belong to the aborigines who first inhabit it, or does it not ? Yes, it belongs to its first occupants, which were in all probability a low order of vegetables, then later each tree owned its quota, and since it had not the faculty of locomotion but was able to draw its sustenance from the land and air immediately around and from the rains that showered on it from the clouds, it would, if it could have uttered sound and expressed what we call thought, doubtless have said : " I am content ; I have enough. All I have to request of my fellow-creatures is that they will keep at a respect- able distance so as not to tax the sustaining capacity of my little plot of land through which my roots interlace and ramify." Later on come the beavers and gnaw down the trees in a certain area of country adjacent to the water brooks, and use their trunks and branches for the construction of dams, which thev chink with mud. To 64 POLITICS AND FKOFKRTV whom does the denuded land then belong ? Certainly to the beaver ; and it then has no other or greater value than that represented by the beaver in gnawing down the trees. Later come some gigantic and powerful herbivora and begin to eat the grass and the bushes and to render the country unfit for the uses of the beaver, and, being more powerful, possess themselves of it. Later, through a multiplicity of epochs, came primordial man, and he took control of all simply because he could. Then the strongest races and tribes of men, to the extent that they desired, dispossessed the weaker and possessed themselves of the land, just because they could. Later the sword and cannon of the so-called civilian over- came the bow and arrow of the so-called savage, just because they were more powerful and could. The sword and the cannon acquired as just and as equitable a title from the bow and arrow as the bow and arrow did from the teeth and claws of the beast, and thus force was of necessity law — might was right until some social system was established by which the wants and desires of men multiplied, and for the good of the whole individuals consented to be governed. Civiliza- tion and the migration of man from the lands and climes in which he originally had his being caused diversifica- tion of wants, and diversification caused division in pro- duction, and division in production caused trade and exchange, and trade and exchange caused profits, and profits caused accumulation, and so on to the end. But to revert : If the resurrected island of Atlantis belonged, not to the man or men who discovered it, but to the amphibians that were found on it, because they are of God's creation, how long would it be before by the rightful exercise of superior force some stronger animal, possibly and for the sake of argument we will say ele- PHRONOCRACV 65 phants, would drive off or kill out the amphibians, and if they desired to do so, graze exclusively on the succulent grass of the newly acquired pastures ? How long there- after, by superior force, would it be before man would drive off the elephants if he should choose to do so ? Therefore the man who has the title by force has the rightful title when civilization, or call it what you may, was in such a state or condition as to have recognized no higher arbiter. When the higher arbitrament was instituted succession to possession might proceed under it, but original titles are none the less good for all that. The title that comes straight down from the original patent or grant of the king, if the king had the title (even though by force whilst force was custom and law), is the best title to-day, and it is a just title. To argue that man is not entitled to landed estates to- day that have become valuable by reason of the increased and increasing demands of modern civilization, because when they were worth nothing save the effort of the crow or eagle in flying over them, their remote ancestors be- came the possessors by the highest recognized right of the time and at thq highest price (be that price force) that any one was willing to or could pay, is wholly un- tenable except on the hypothesis that no land should be owned save by God himself, whatever idea that expres- sion may convey. Why should land not be owned .? It is unquestionably, though God-given as the single-tax men put it, subject to improvement by labor and to de- terioration by neglect, just the same as all other property, and more so than much other property. They admit that man is entitled to own and enjoy the products of his own labor, yet if a man should devote a lifetime of toil to the reclamation of a tract of land from a marsh near 5 66 POLITICS AND PROPERTY the sea, or remove rocks from another on the slopes of a hill, or carry water to another in the heart of the desert — all absolutely worthless without that labor, and the only value they subsequently possess is admittedly the product of that labor, — yet because that labor-product created land (which it did, because to the extent that it could have been or was available before the application of labor it was not land at all) and not bricks or but- tresses or bridges, it should not be owned, or, which is practically the same, it should be taxed to its rental value so as to make it undesirable or useless property, is a proposition that appears inconsistent, untenable, and ridiculous. Again, if instead of applying his labor to the reclamation of lands from the sea, the deserts, or the hills, he had devoted his life to any ordinary avocation, and as a result of his labor he had amassed wealth to the amount, we will assume, of $10,000, and from motives of safety or individual preference, or for any reason what- ever, he had chosen to invest that wealth or labor- product in land that some other man had reclaimed or occupied, would not the tract purchased be as much the fruit of his toil as the wealth in whatever pre-existing form he had it was the fruit of his toil ? Where the demand for land is less than the available supply, it is virtually open for occupancy and use by any one who desires. One hundred and sixty acres of land are available to any American citizen, and when population was sparse many a desirable claim was located ; but as said population became denser, the available or desirable tracts were located until those that are left are either sterile or unproductive to a degree that makes it more desirable to buy, or, in other words, to exchange the products of labor for a tract that some other man has previously located than to take the available tract for PHRONOCRACV 6/ nothing; or, if ihe man desiring land has nothing to represent labor-product to give in exchange, he prefers to remain in some thickly populated city where he can sell his labor by the day or beg an existence from the populace, than to go and take up such land as remains available, as much does to this day. All who own land (save those who inherited it from their ancestors) in the general sifting out of the thing will be found to have paid or given labor-products for it to about the measure of its value at the time ; if not so, then some other man would have given more and he would have possessed it. Even the man who inherits succeeds to a title for which value has been given by his sire or his grandsire, and if these sires had a right to their own thc)» should have the right to dispose of their own. All land is practically in some sort of use in all countries where life abounds. If a man owns ten thousand acres in the State of Dakota, around which he chooses to build a wire fence for the very pur- pose of keeping off cattle that would otherwise consume his grass, this cannot be said to be actually out of use, for the very apparent idleness to which he seems to con- sign it is perhaps the very best use to which he can put it, for the reason that the falling and decaying grass en- riches the soil, thereby creating a greater yield when he chooses to turn it over with a plow, if to use it thus is in turn any greater use in fact than the previous apparent idleness. But, says the single-tax man, he is holding land for speculative increase which if thrown open to the people would be used by being worked with a hoe in- stead of being used to grow grass to make the labor with the hoe subsequently yield more. Yes, he is holding it, though really perhaps in the best possible use ; we will say, for argument, that it is for speculative increase. We will of course conclude that, when, by reason of 68 POLITICS AND PROPERTY cheaper competitive lands being brought nearer to the market by better facilities for transportation than pre- viously existed, the value of his land is reduced one half, he should rightfully call upon the state to make good his losses. I have given, he might say, the product of my labor to the extent of $10,000 for that land, and to-day no man will give me the product of labor to the extent of $5,000, and I want the difference from the state. Equally reasonable would be this de- mand with that from the state to take away not only any possible gain but his land itself by taxation tantamount to confiscation. How untenable the proposition. It is said that if blows are aimed at an inflated blad- der they should not be too severe, or the lack of resist- ance will dislocate the shoulder. But, say the single-tax men, the condition practically will be about the same as at present, because the people will be on the land as now and be entitled to its products to the extent that they use it by their labor. Well, if practically the same, then better leave it as it now is. But how would the land be occupied ? If open to all, of course the tracts nearest to the markets and most con- veniently located as regards facilities for transportation would be entered upon first. There might be a grand scramble for Central Park, New York, and for the highly rich and verdant fields of the interior of the State of New York, and for the alluvial plains of the Ohio and Mississippi valleys, but soon they would be engaged, and the unfortunate who failed to get his allotment there would finally conclude that rather than take it where he could get it he would accept a dollar per day cleaning streets. Then again, who is to determine what consti- tutes use, or what amount one man may rightfully use ? To this was answered, just whatever he will use. Some PHRONOCRACV 69 man might claim that he was using one thousand acres by permitting it to grow up in grass, and object to ihc occupancy of any part of it by the man who wanted to grow potatoes. It would be necessary to have a general inspector appointed, or, in other words, a " use or non-use arbi- trator," whose edicts would have to be supreme, and at times he would find it necessary to employ military force to eject a non-user and inject a supposed user. But the supposed non-user would say : " Hay is more useful this year than potatoes, because there was a plethora of pota- toes grown last year, which have been largely buried, canned, and made into salads ; and a large part of the hay crop of last year rotted in the stack, was put up moist and heated in the barn, so that people need hay for their horses, and it is better to use land for that thing which the people want than for that thing of which they possess a redundance already. Furthermore, I have hay-seed, and I must have ground to sow it on. I have mowers to cut, rakes to gather, and forks to stack ; and with these implements and my labor I can handle all the crop this ground will produce. Then I have four boys, all of whom till this year have been going to school ; now two have finished — that is, they have gone to school as long as I can afford to send them — longer than I ever went myself, — and this year, and from now on, they must work and earn their salt, and we need all this land, every foot of it, and next year we will use more. And then there is Sallie, she is going to get mar- ried next Christmas, and the probability is that I will have to take care of her husband, that he will live with us, and, while I will do what is right by him, yet he has got to pitch in the same as myself and the boys, so we will want to use several acres more on that account. 70 POLITICS AND PROPERTY Then just over there lives Bill Smith ; one of his best working chaps died last summer, so that he cannot use what he worked last year ; I should have a slice off of him." Thus in practice there would unavoidably arise ques- tions and contentions as to tise, in the proper and right- ful signification of the term, and non-use ; disputes as to who should occupy the most desirable and most accessible, and who the least desirable and most remote. Again, to tax land alone and to exempt all other property would work a monstrous injustice to a number of worthy citizens and insure an unwarranted benefit to twice or thrice as many more. To derive all revenue from land by collecting everything from it that is needed for governmental support simply and solely because land is open to the scrutiny of all eyes and cannot be secreted, or, in other words, just because from land the process of collection and assessment would be sif?ipler, expecting that the landowner would be recompensed by an increased price for his products, is a proposition altogether different from that which proposes to tax land to, or near to, its rental value, for the very purpose of opening it out for use by the public. If simplicity in assessments and collections is the end to be attained, the desideratum sought, the panacea for human ills, then why not make it simple and tax every human head one hundred dollars per year, or one hundred cents, as the needs of government may require. The head cannot be secreted in the sand, like that of an ostrich, and held there long enough to escape the visuals of the assessor. Since taxation to full rental value is tantamount to confiscation, and since to dispossess a man of the prod- ucts of his labor appears ridiculously inconsistent and PHRONOCRACY 71 absurd, we will treat for a time that view of the subject which aims at taxation on land on account of simplicity in assessment and collection and the non-secretiveness of its character, refraining from urging against this view of the case the conclusive and incontrovertible argu- ment that head tax is simpler and even less subject to secrctiveness, because there can be no dispute as to values. The value of all property in the United States, as per census of 1S80, was forty-four billion dollars, of which farm land represented about ten billion, or one fourth the total valuation. To this we will add one twelfth the whole for the valuation of city lots, exclusive of the im- provements, and call the value in 1880 of that class of property which alone the single-tax men propose to list, one third the whole, or, say, fourteen billion dollars. In most sections of the country farms are taxed for State, county, school, and road purposes, on an average of one and one half pev cent. City property, houses and personalty as well as lots, is taxed on the average about two per cent., which, to produce the same revenue on the valuation of the land and lots only, would have certainly to be doubled, so that to produce revenue exclusive of that required by the federal government an assessment would be required, doubtless quite equal to three per cent, on the average. The requirements of the federal government properly administered are about three hundred million, to derive which from a valuation of fourteen billion would require a levy of a little over two per cent, making a total of at least five per cent, on the valuation of 1880. Land pays well that yields five per cent., hence such a levy would be tantamount to confiscation, or the producing power of land would have to be materially increased. How could its net producing power be increased, or, in other words, how could the 72 POLITICS AND PROPERTY profits of labor on soil be greater, unless operatives were forced to work for a lower price, or unless its produce commanded a higher price ? Why oblige the farm laborer to work for less or the consumers of farm products to pay more, just for the sake of simplicity in assessment and collection and to avoid secretiveness, when by applying a direct head tax both simplicity and non-secretiveness are more effectually secured without any such useless discrimination ? Values of lands and city lots have not since 1880 averaged very far from about one third the property of the country, and it goes without saying that, if all revenue is taken from one third the valuation, the rate must be trebled. If the rate on land is trebled, the land is in consequence no richer, and will yield no greater crop with the same labor. Hence the result is inevitable that the cost of production must be diminished or the price of products advanced. There could be no wisdom, therefore, in changing existing conditions as to taxation on the grounds of simplicity — certainly not by the adoption of a simple plan which works an injury when there is a simpler one that works none. To tax land as proposed to any less amount than that which is tantamount to confiscation, effects no result save a certain degree of simplicity, which as shown has its penalties, tending in no degree to open land for general occupancy to all who would use. The single-tax men really propose and mean to confiscate landed property, if they mean to accomplish any result whatever, for the simple shifting of taxes off other things to land for the sake of simplicity is meaningless, objectless, and useless, and, working as it docs a great discrimination, is objectionable, wrong, ridiculous, and absurd. Governments are instituted and maintained for the PHRONOCRACY 73 protection of life and property ; hence all of that thing which is protected, to wit, property, should bear its share of the burthen — not land alone or any other thing alone. Then, instead of calling themselves single- or land- tax-only advocates, the proper term to have applied is " land confiscaiiomsis,'" for that in fact and in effect is just what they desire, otherwise how could "equal access to natural opportunity " be obtained ? The sin- gle-tax men look upon the appellation of land confis- cationists as an opprobrium from which they shrink, though they are obliged to admit that this and this alone- in fact and truth they are, just as the Democrats called themselves " tariff reformers," when ^^free-traders," as soon as it can safely be reached (be it said to their credit), in fact and in truth they are. The land con- fiscationists send their orators abroad into the land to proclaim the truth to the masses. The farmers are appealed to in persuading tones to join the band and free the land. Aid us in confiscating your farms to the state (though of course with these words slightly sugar-coated), and we will exempt you from all other taxation ; you need not pay one dollar for duties on imports, nor a farthing for tax on beer ; you will therefore be enabled to buy your clothing cheaper, have your horses shod cheaper, drink your grog on a cold winter night cheaper, and so to the end of the list, but you must sacrifice or confiscate (sugar-coated) your farms. " Well," said the sage old rusticuses, " that may be very good for those who have no farm ; they can be liberal, but we have been able to raise enough potatoes to buy these things, and we can see no sense in giving up our farms in order that we may get other things a little 74 POLITICS AND PROPERTY cheaper. Even if the state would promise to give us everything for nothing, we would rather keep the farms. If you have got a scheme by which taxation can be taken off the land entirely, we are ready to help you out ; but to agree to aid you in making land sustain the whole load, we believe we would rather pass." In Australia the land-tax idea began to take root, but it was soon ob- served that, to the extent that such a system sought to accomplish anything but simplicity in assessment and collection and avoidance of secretiveness, it was illusory and absurd — a pseudo-bleptic phaiitoitmatioii. There is no greater reason why land which is prop- erty should be owned by the state and open to occupancy to all, when there is any person or being who is willing to pay the product of labor for it, than there is for sub- jecting all other property to the same identical condi- tions, which is communism, plain and simple, without the conservative balance. When governments hold unoccupied lands, as is the case in Australia, where the sentiment took root, and in America, some years ago, it is of course policy to in- vite in occupants ; but when these conditions as to land exist, the pre-emption, settlement, and pioneer occupa- tion are about the full measure of its value. When population increases, and roads and churches and school-houses and fences are built, then land has an increased value, and should become possessed or owned only at that increased value, and this was not the case originally when pioneership paid for it amply and well. The land confiscationists, when forced at times to lick the sugar off their pills, admit that practically they are v/hat they are ; yet they claim that there is no injus- tice in it. Many kinds and classes of property they say are ruthlessly destroyed in the prevailing rage for inno- PHRONOCRACY 75 vation, and by the invention or substitution of something that suits the purposes of civilization better, and if it suited civilization better to confiscate the land, why not with equal reason and equal justice adopt that policy, as well as to have adopted the railway carriage in place of the old stage-coach ; that the introduction of the car practically confiscated the coach, and no one ques- tioned the policy of the proceeding ; that whatever a majority of the people wish must be law, if it be to live on nothing but moonshine, and if enough of them could continue to live to enforce such a law, it would be enforced. It is of course undeniable that the majority should and must rule, but it will be a long time and a cold day before a majority is to be found who will pass a law to the effect that every individual should commit hari- kari or hang for a week by his toes. If a majority should say, " We will confiscate land," then so be it ; but he who waits to see it will live beyond a century. The argument that property is daily confiscated by the substitution of something better than the old, reacts upon itself, and is completely answered when we say, " Make available to man or cause to exist a substitute for land that is better than land, and the natural course of events and not confiscation schemes — the failure of the unfittest to survive — will work its abandonment." No legislator ever proclaimed that the stage-coach should become common property ; if so, he would have been unwise and revolutionary ; but it served its time in the march of life, and succumbed to a fitter machine when natural causes made it so, and likewise, and to the same extent and with equal justice, will land succumb when in the march of the world's affairs something fitter can survive. 76 POLITICS AND PROPERTY To say that you shall not own land is one thing, and to produce a substitute that people would rather own is quite another ; a blind man might almost see the utter folly, irrelevancy and absurdity of their position, so plain is it. Aside from the access to land for the purposes of agriculture, there is the mineral and metallic feature to be considered. The living of all, in some shape, comes out of the ground. A man pays the product of his labor for a hundred acre tract, presumably for purposes of agriculture, and discovers thereon or thereunder a rich vein of coal. To whom does that coal belong ? It is the gift of God not to one man in particular but to all men in general. It belongs rightfully and justly to him who owns the land, and by the same identical chain of titles from the beginning, and no man or set of men has a right, either inherent, expressed, or implied, to dispos- sess him of that coal without his consent any more than (if by a cataclysm of nature he should become dis- possessed) he would have the right to force any man or set of men to repossess him against their consent. Man is entitled to the benefit of good-fortune to a reasonable extent, and should not be asked or expected to share same with the public (except after it has become abnor- mal, useless, and unweildy) any more than the public should be expected to share his misfortunes, his sickness, or disease until they become abnormal and too great for him to bear ; then all now admit that the public should share his burthen — that is, provide him a bed in a hospital and a competent nurse, and bury him if he dies. Since it was long ago admitted and in practice that the public should share with the individual his extraordinary afflictions, to the extent that would not be hurtful to the public by placing a premium on idleness. PHRONOCRACY 7/ SO likewise should it be admitted that the individual should in turn share with the public his extraordinary benefits, to an extent that will not be hurtful to himself by depriving him of reasonable reward for his energy and his strife. Whilst it is neither fair nor equitable nor just to institute that condition in society which will interfere with, hamper, or oppress any individual in the possession and enjoyment of the fruits of his labor or the rewards of his good-fortune, yet, as civilization progresses, the current opinion of the world rather settles down to the belief that monstrosities in individual accumulation are like monstrosities in nature — that is, undesirable and of no account ; that when a man, either by dint of hard labor or good-fortune, has amassed an estate equal in its productive capacity to the labor of several thousand of his fellow-men, or, in other words, when he owns the labor of several thousand of his fellow-men by securing possession of a certain amount of the wealth that their labor had produced, and which wealth he has acquired by his tact, his shrewdness, his energy, his skill, or his good luck — all recognizable and properly creditable to his account in a well-conditioned state of society, — nevertheless, when this accumulation had become mon- strous, which by reason of its own accretion, aided by an increment which the need of society contributes, as it frequently does, that it is not, in fact, an injustice to the individual, it works him no harm nor causes him any discomfort to say to him that you shall hereafter contribute to the support of government a larger propor- tionate share of your inordinate wealth than shall be required of your brother who possesses it only to a reasonable competency, but that this increased proportionate contribution shall work you no injury nor cause you any discomfort in truth and in fact. A titled /S POLITICS AND PROPERTY aristocrat in England was said at one time to own and * control about half the coal out-put of that country. His wealth was of course colossal but it represented the accu- mulation of much time and many favorable conditions, for the reason that the progress of civilization and the increase of population is slower in England than in America, where there now lives richer men whose estate represents the accretion of but one generation, because the progress of civilization in America and the increase of population — consequently the increase of demand and the gain from the strides of unearned increment — are faster. Unearned increment or the accretion of wealth in America is actually more rapid in many cases than • disintegration by inherited division. For example : in- dividuals of the third generation lived, in 1890, whose estates, though originally but a part of the grandsire's possessions, are now greater than the original in its en- tirety. This could not have been the case in England but for the prevalence of the idea of estate tail and primo- geniture, an institution completely dissipated in the minds of those who have progressed sufficiently to recognize even remotely that there are no natural rights whatsoever inherent in one man and not as well in another. It usu- ally happens that to make any great storehouse of nature available to the people industry and enterprise must both be expended and accumulated capital must be forthcom- ing or nothing can be accomplished. If all men had access to land and its belongings these great resources of latent and undeveloped wealth would in the main be operated in a crude and primeval manner, without system and method, without concentrated brain force and energy — all essential to the best results in enter- prise and business. If such property could not be owned and ten thousand men should elect on their individual PHRONOCRACY 79 motion to enter in upon and mine coal as a profitable occupation, they could not, other than by a combination of interests directed to the construction of tramways, hoists, and other necessary apparatus, possibly do other or more than to operate in the most crude and ineffect- ual manner — such as digging in the pit and then on their backs conveying the product to the entrance of the mine or to the dump, resulting unavoidably in a smaller aggre- gate of production. When this had been accomplished, such is the natural situation of mines relatively to the world's consuming centres, that transportation would have to be provided for. Since, though land be free, man could, under single tax, own countless thousands of railway carriages, and, even under the said system, combine them into trusts so as to prevent opposition, and, worse than all, avoid taxation, — colossal transporta- tion companies would notwithstanding "uninterrupted access " be organized to carry the coal to the nearest point of consumption, and since only by their inter- mediation could the product be used at all, they would exact for this service such a compensation as would leave to the operator and his "uninterrupted access to natural opportunity" an amount simply suffi- cient to maintain his bodily existence, and in no case more in effect if indeed as much as if the transportation companies had owned the mines as well as the railways and improved their appointments (as can only be done by concentrated capital) and paid the operators their per diem. Greater would be the chance of in- creased compensation by rigid and inflexible labor or- ganization than by " uninterrupted access to natural opportunity," and, be that organization inflexible and rigid, howsoever, in the end and on the average supply and demand will settle the whole question, so that the 8o POLITICS AND PROPERTY intermediation of labor combination, restrictive legisla- tion, or any device whatsoever not bottomed on the eter- nal substratum — the natural ebb and flow of things — will ultimately become absolutely ineffectual and abortive — if not " then is an adder better than an eel because his skin is painted." What signifies the i^rice of a man's labor ? — simply what it will buy, or, in other words, the amount of the things produced by the labor of other men for which it can be exchanged. If, therefore, all men should demand and all men should secure an advance in their wages, would not the price of all commodities inevi- tably advance in proportion, so that the condition rela- tively would be exactly the same ? If two bushels of wheat had heretofore been worth one pair of boots, what matters it if things are so altered as that four bushels of wheat are worth two pair of boots ? If, however, the coal miner, only, by combination secures an advance in his wages, his labor is of course producing relatively more than that of the bootmaker, — rather his product secures more of the product of his fellows than heretofore, — so he is happy ; but, whenever his condition has been bettered in any noticeable particular, here come along ten thousand men and begin to apply for jobs as miners, and ere long they acquire proficiency ; hence increased competition follows and the price goes down though maintained, it may be, for a time by labor organization, but in the end and on the average the level will be reached. It may be asked, then how do some men gain wealth in excess of others at all ? To which we answer, in ten thousand ways, but all depending upon the utilization of and con- sequent profit derived from the labor of his fellow-men, or by the natural accretion of property of which he has become possessed, by the natural demands of society — all of which is right, just, and proper ; but for the good PHKONUCKACY 8 1 of many and to the harm of none it should be deter- mined not to permit it to go too far. Cause men to con- tribute to government in proportion to their ability, and ere long their accumulations (which beyond certain limits are not often the result of their own energy or ability anyhow, but of fortune or of the natural accretions of property inherently) will cease. This it will be found, after schemes and plans without number have been proposed and concocted, after man's brain has been racked till confusion and chaos has char- acterized his being, is about all that can be done to better man's condition, and consistently with man's right to property and to a reasonable reward for his energy is, in fact, all that should be done ; in other words, /z^/ a governor on the engine and then turn on the steajn. Better this than to continuously try to regulate the speed by tampering with the throttle direct. Let the speed check itself, let the slothfulness accelerate it. Be- fore the governor will work, the engine must have motion ; so before civilization can progress it must have motion, and as the force that creates motion in the engine is steam, so the force that creates it in civilization is individual energy and action, and not theories for the eradication of poverty, nor for the extirpation of disease (both equally impossible), nor for "uninterrupted access to natural opportunity," nor the lack of it, nor by schemes for discriminating paternalism in government, nor by anything of kindred import. Another and equally un- tenable proposition of the single tax, or land confisca- tionists, is that to impose a tax on the products of labor is to discourage and thwart the exercise of that labor ; that to tax a house — the product of a man's, or of many men's, toil — would discourage the building of houses, and not only so, but to tax the products of labor is inherently 82 POLITICS AND PROPERTY and of itself unjust, and to tax anything save the " God- given inheritance " on which we live, breathe, and have our being is hostile to progress and inimical to the best interests, aims, objects, hopes, and aspirations of men. With reason equally cogent and uncontrovertible, we can say that the air and water are the " God-given inheri- tance," and if the principle of taxation, which is simply a human institution for providing means to protect human property against human viciousness and unre- straint, is applicable only to the crude material substance of nature, these too are not justifiably exempt, and should by some human device be made returnable to the assessor. If it is right to tax only the " God-given inheri- tance," it is right to tax any one as well as any other of these God-inherited things, and wrong to exempt one and overburthen the other. It could be reasonably closely estimated how many respirations man makes in a day — that is, how much air he vitiates — and, likewise, how much water he drinks and how much he uses for his bath, and on each thousand respirations of a man of or- dinary pectoral development a certain levy might be im- posed, and, aside from the price of convenient and expeditious delivery, a certain levy could be made on each thousand gallons of aqua pure consumed ; these, together with the other God-given inheritance — land, — forming a grand triumvirate of natural objects that are not man-produced or man-altered, hence the proper subjects of taxation — the three forming a tout ensemble too utterly just and equitable, too absolutely perfect and indiscriminating, too entirely alleviatory of the burthens that oppress mankind, to be considered pos- sible of human contrivance or invention. The scheme itself must therefore be " God-given," as are the arti- cles properly subject to taxation. Why, in the name PHROXOCRACY 83 of all that is just and reasonable, yes, "in the name ol all the gods at once," should not property — all property — be the proper subject of taxation, since it is in the in- terest of property, in fact, solely for the protection of in- dividual rights in and to property and life that taxation is to be or should be imposed on anything ? The impo- sition of a tax under proper regulations does not inter- fere with the exercise of individual energy any more than a hat on the head interferes with individual thought. A man who had intended to construct a house, either for occupancy or investment, is seldom deterred therefrom because of taxation. He builds with a knowledge of the fact that certain taxes must and will be imposed, and figures that rents and income from the use of his house will be correspondingly high. It is a well-known fact that in communities where taxes are high rents are usually commensurable, and profits and returns corre- spondingly so ; and in .places where reverse conditions exist reverse results obtain : in a word, the ability to pay a tax is proportionate to the productive value of the property, and it matters not if temporarily a dispropor- tion should exist, in the end it will be found that on the average the proper ratio remains. It is but a fair con- clusion, deducible from commercial experience generally, that if taxes on houses were taken off, the rents, in the regular adjustment of things, would proportionately de- cline, just as the tax on spirituous or malt liquors adds that much to their price, and in the end is paid in full by the men who shall buy, so likewise is the tax on a house paid in the end by the man who shall use, bringing about a balance, compensating the owner, and not deter- ring him from constructing. Why do sane men urge such nonsense as a remedy for social wrong ? W/iy shoot quids at giants or storm citadels with sand ? 84 POLITICS AND PR(JFERTY If houses are constructed or steamships built in excess of demand for legitimate use, rents and traffic rates will decline, taxation or no taxation ; and if demand exists in excess of supply, rents and traffic rates will advance, taxation or no taxation. Hence, to the winds with the theory that taxation retards and thwarts individual enter- prise, and that taxation on earth, air, and water alone would expedite same — it is a barren ideality. Again, it is a fair supposition that taxation in the aggregate and on the average amounts to about twenty-five per cent. of rent, or say a house yielding eight per cent, on cost will pay about two per cent, in tax. It cannot be proven that with no tax twenty-five per cent, more houses would be built should the demand remain the same. It may be urged that demand would increase, which proposition is equally uncertain, because demand usually follows in- crease of ix)pulation, not decrease of taxation, and will more likely be doubled if population is doubled than if taxation is halved. There is no more justice anyhow in taxing property that is the result of the " God-given inheritance " (which is valuable only as man's labor makes it so) than to tax anything else he may own. A man cannot eat the land nor sleep on it comfortably in most localities without blankets or some other article which is the product of his labor, and since by the same rightful title that a tree holds certain soil by its roots he becomes the owner of it, and then of products made out of it by his labor, and to protect which products (all of them) he institutes government, and to support that government he imposes taxation, it is right that all of that property should contribute. Of course by common consent all men who constitute society could in the be- ginning mutually agree that some one commodity should bear all taxation for purposes of simplicity, or that PHRON'OCRACV 8$ some article dPluxury should be chosen because it would bear more lightly on the less fortunate of the state, and this commodity would thereafter be held and possessed with reference thereto, and the thing would be just and equitable ; but after man's energies have been expended, and the products of the labor of some have been invested in houses and some in merchandise and some in land, he who maintains that that land should be confiscated opposes the first principle of common justice itself. It is highly desirable and strictly proper to select some article of luxury from which to derive most of the tax, for from that source it is least burthensome on society, and what can possibly be 7nure luxuriant than the extraordinary accumulations, and the useless a7id burthensome accretions, of individual wealth — all wholly luxurious ex- cept to the extent that luxury is marred by anxiety and care ? From this source all taxation should be taken that is consistent with a proper regard by society for the reasonable expectations and rewards of the individual, and not from land ojily, not from water only, nor from any other thing only, except these extraordinary accumulations only. To the land confiscationists, to the government absorp- tionist, to the agrarians, — in fact, to all who are opposed to acquiescing in the conditions of affairs as they are just because they are so, and who do not admit that they could be better just because they are not bettered, — which class of the world's people (excluding the anar- chists, who are nothing) are not only worthy of highest respect and consideration, but are essentially its brain, its bone, and its sinew, is proposed this affirmation and disproof anxiously awaited, to wit : Any enactjncnt or law that burthens all mankind the same, the betiefits of which are available to all mankind the 86 POLITICS AND PROPERTY same, will not materially alter the relative condition of all mankind. A restraining enactment is like a load upon the shoul- ders of society. Some will sustain it easier, and make progress under it better than others, simply and solely because they are inherently stronger, because they are favored with more encouraging or, as the case may be, less discouraging circumstances or conditions. So, on the other hand, is abolition of a restraining law or the enactments of a supposed beneficial law like unto an assistant or an impetus to society ; consequently being applicable to all mankind both as to benefit or burthen as the case may be, and mankind still retaining their individual attributes, characteristics, and instincts as before, or being the same as before — the subjects of favorable or unfavorable conditions and opportunities, which will always be an incident to the world's affairs, just as daylight and darkness are incident to and conse- quent upon its rotation on its axis, it follows inevitably that their relative conditions cannot be materially altered. Give to all mankind equal and uninterrupted access to natural opportunity and — if there is anything valuable in it — some will make better use of it than others, until in the end the same relative condition will exist as before. If we would take a horizontal view of mankind in general, as he peregrinates the surface of this mun- dane sphere, prosecuting his little, but to him, great, business, he would perhaps resemble the great Egyptian pyramid in the valley of the Nile and its surroundings, the masses likened unto the sands that lie in myriads at its base, the higher classes in horizontal planes above and above to the acme of human preferment and earthly renown at the top. It is asked what could be the rela- tive difference in their conditions if the whole thing was PHRONOCRACV 87 lifted up one thousand feet, or the whole settled down one hundred feet ? Laws under which all have the same opportunity and all sustain the same burthen certainly leave the previous relative condition unchanged. The only remedy there- fore is to enact laws that do not offer to all the same opportunity and which place on some greater burthens than on others ; and to so adjust these laws as to leave to him by whom the greatest load is borne, ample oppor- tunity for life, liberty, and action, and not to make the load so light on any as that they should have life, liberty, and action thrust upon them and be maintained without effort, is difficult, but by Phronocracy it is explained. It can be accomplished by making all men contribute to government in proportion to their ability to contribute and by not permitting men who contribute nothing to participate in government at all. It will be, of course, urged against the proposition that it is per se and ipso facto socialistic, to which it is answered : yea, verily, but it is a very mild and harmless type of that disorder ; rather it is conservative socialism, which recognizes man's right to a reasonable, yes, liberal, reward for his energy and his action, and proposes, in addition, to recompense him for the sacrifice of his extra- ordinary accumulation, by guaranteeing increased secu- rity and protection for the reasonable and abundant remnant that he may yet retain, by denying to men who have no property all right of participation in the gov- ernment that is instituted for the protection of property. It is admitted also that in addition to this conserva- tive socialism a certain additional socialistic spirit should prevail, but this may be to a certain extent curtailed. For example, it is a self-evident proposition that all 88 rul.lTUS AND PROPERTV streets in cities must be maintained at public expense for the free and untaxed use of all ; that this is in the nature of a thing necessary ; also that cities should, but to the least possible extent, maintain almshouses for the poor, since poverty cannot be absolutely abolished ; also support hospitals for the sick, since disease is the twin brother of poverty, though perhaps born first. Cities should likewise support a cordon of police, and a trained brigade for the extinguishment of fires, and appliances for lighting their streets, for cleaning same, and for the removal of garbage and filth — all admitted to be in keep- ing with the natural order of things ; also public docks and wharves might at times be necessary, and if so should be provided. So likewise should counties support public roads, and, at times, public asylums. All these things, however, are matters of exclusive local control, and are not uniform or the same throughout the land. This may be objected to on the grounds of socialism, as are also public parks and edifices ; but these objec- tions appear technical and captious, and of course avail but little. No man can deny the socialistic feature. Yet certain things appear proper just because they are necessary, certain things it appears to be the communi- ties' right to do just because they are required ; and, all consenting, or a very small minority objecting, they are done. In fact, such socialism as is practised appears to be a benefit to property ; a broad, smooth street and a level country road increases the value of property, even though everybody can use it on the socialistic principle. The government absorptionists then conclude that if it is good for a county to maintain a road, why should not government maintain all roads ; to which it is replied that if it is good to eat three meals per day, why not three hundred ? Three hundred are not thought FHRONOCRACY 89 wholesome for the body, and Uiree are a benefit ; so likewise free streets and country roads are in practice and in conformity with the natural order of things good and wholesome, and the absorption of any more of the people's business by government is not good or whole- some. It is much more hurtful to place too much with government than to leave too little with it, and since the people are the creators of the government and the gov- ernment when created is administered by people like themselves, why give to simple agents what can be as well, yea, to a better extent, performed by the princi- pals ? The enlightened world has ceased to believe that governments of right should possess many if any pre- rogatives or powers other than such as are required to preserve domestic order, to maintain the public defence, regulate commerce between sections, and provide uniform standards of currency, weights, measures, and the like. CHAPTER V. Phronocracy : what is it ? — Other efforts at reform impracticable — Cumulative taxation should be adopted — Monopolistic enterprises must be popularly owned — Taxation on individual excesses just and proper — Rate always one cent per each thousand dollars cumulative — Uselessness of excessive wealth and folly of univer- sal suffrage ; amendment curtailing both — Rate to apply to indi- viduals only, not to corporations — Desirableness of more popular ownership of enterprises and less popular participation in government. ' ' This is the state of man : to-day he puts forth The tender leaves of hope, to-morrow blossoms, And bears his blushing honors thick upon him ; The third day, comes a frost, a killing frost ; And — when he thinks, good easy man, full surely His greatness is a ripening — nips his root. And then he falls, as I do." Truly it may be said, and in candor we may confess, that in treating so great a subject all men " Have ventured, Like little wanton boys that swim on bladders This many summers in a sea of glory. But far beyond their depth." And that though striving to seek truth, banish false- hood, and to reconcile the apparent inconsistencies of society and to better regulate its operations, they have received no other or greater reward than to be left, " Weary and old with service, to the mercy Of a rude stream that must forever hide them." 90 HiRONOCRAC^ 91 However, it will never do for progressive man to con- tent himself with the reflection that whatever is is best, for if so, what now is never would have been. Neither should we refrain from the careful consideration of a proposition because it at first appears unreasonable. " Our doubts are traitors, which make us lose The good we oft might win, by failing to attempt." There is great room and great necessity for the better- ment of social conditions throughout the world, and where there are both room and necessity, efforts will be continuous, and, as society advances, better and greater will be the result. Anarchy will not do, and is offensive to order ; out-and- out agrarianism, communism, or socialism will not an- swer, for they are inimical to the natural right of man to the fruits of his own labor ; government absorption will not do, because of being in effect the same thing ; land confiscation will not do, because it is impractica- ble and non-efficacious. All other systems and plans that aim in any way at property rights should be abandoned, and those who look to legislation will soon discover that through it lies the only possible remedy ; yet legislation that is of such character and intent as to affect all men alike will leave the relative condition the same, and hence be ineffectual and abortive. Legislation, therefore, that will apply to men differ- ently is about the last resort. It is agreed that colossal accumulations do no man any good, and that in the in- terest of the popular weal great properties should be as popularly owned as possible consistent with a due re- gard for prudential considerations and efficient opera- tion, just as it is thought well in the legislative assemblages of the world to get at popular representation as nearly as 92 POLITICS AND PROPERTY possible consistent with the stability in government. As it is discovered that each $r,ooo of wealth in America will earn about as much as one stout, healthy, and even frugal laboring man can possibly save, it follows that, in effect, for every $i,ooo a man possesses, he owns one man. It is evident that no man's wants can possibly be more than one thousand times as great as those of the av- erage man, and that if by reason of his self-importance he should perchance conceive them so, the community should think it but a wholesome reprimand to remind him of his mistake. He cannot with one wife well sire more than one and twenty children, and in practice scarcely equal ten ; he cannot eat much more nor drink much more, nor possibly live in a style or condition more than a thousand times as comfortable or elegant as the aver- age, because human ingenuity cannot contrive it ; he cannot in fact properly use for either his wants, his pleas- ures, or his luxury a thousand times as much of anything as the average of his fellows ; why, therefore, should any individual possess more wealth than a thousand times as much as the average of his fellows ? It is beyond dis- pute that this maximum will provide for all possible wants, either necessary or luxurious, and leave in the balance a good compensation for greed besides. It is therefore proposed that in proportion as a man's estate is large, so in a like proportion should his tax rate be large. It is assumed, and very justly, that all estates will produce a revenue, and statistics and experience make clear the fact that about 5 per cent, income main- tains property at par in stable communities on the basis of one hundred, and that such as comes under this is, in the natural course of things, considered and counted less valuable, and on this safe and reasonable assumption all dealings with incomes ran be abandoned, and, from mo- PHRONOCRACY 93 tives of justice, simplicity, and accuracy, the rate can be imposed on the property direct. It the owner fails to collect his income it is no fault of the state, and the gen- eral average of assessments arrived at from current evi- dence of values will work no great injury. Then, as this rate is to be made cumulative in the ratio that the property is cumulative, it should so advance as that when a reasonable maximum has been acquired the rate will equal the current revenue, beyond which amount it can never go ; that is, beyond the amount on which out- go for government will equal the income from revenue, the estate cannot increase. Since it is thought fair and right and just that when any man owns one thousand times as much as the average man he should own no more (for more would be of no value), that amount was at first to be recommended as a maximum. Since the average wealth in America is about $1,000 per capita, that allot- ment would be 1,000,000. The rate, therefore, is to be made cumulative, so that when a 1,000,000 assessment to any individual is made, it would equal 5 per cent, interest, which rate would be five cents on every $r,ooo cumulative. The system is proposed to be applied by the gene?'al govcrntnent only, as a means of deriving its own income, and to the extent that it is adequate, the only means the general government shall apply, leaving to the States and the cities their unquestioned rights to adopt their own means and methods for raising local revenue. Since local excises in many places ag-gregate 2 per cent., and on the average is little less, it is found that when the government's cumulative rate would be ap- plied, outgo would equal income on a basis of 5 per cent, before the estate reached an aggregate much ex- ceeding half a million dollars. To provide, therefore, 94 POLITICS AND PROPERTY for extravagance and local excises, and in a spirit of utmost liberality, it is finally proposed that the annual rate on every individual estate shall be equal to the cumulative amount of i cent instead of 5 cents for every $1,000 in that estate ; or in other words, that every man's rate per thousand shall, for the purpose of the support of the general government, be one hundred- thousandth part of his estate, which would make outgo equal to income on a basis of 5 per cent, interest when the estate reached ^5,000,000 instead of $1,000,000, or the labor of 5,000 men instead of 1,000 men, or to the richest 5,000 times the property of the average instead of 1,000 times, as had originally been thought proper. However, since for local purpose a rate equal to about 2 per cent, will have to be provided, in effect outgo would equal income on a basis of i cent for each $1,000 cumulative, and 5 per cent, interest when the estate aggregated about $2,500,000, which would be equivalent to the labor of 2,500 men, or to the highest above the average an estate 2,500 times as great instead of 1,000 times as great, as was at first proposed. This, in the estimation of any reasonable person, is more than is required for any man's comfort, or for his luxury. Furthermore, owing to the perfection of the system of assessment and the better administration of public affairs, as will hereafter be explained, all or nearly all secreted property can be discovered, so that the local rate can be materially reduced, averaging instead of 2 only about i per cent., which, on the basis of i cent for each $1,000 cumulative and 5 per cent, interest, the estate may reach about $4,000,000 before outgo would equal income, which gives to the favored individual the labor of 4,000 men and an estate 4,000 times as great as the average before he shall be called upon to halt. This PHRONOCRACY 95 by many is regarded as excessive, and an effort may be made to place the cumulative rate at 2 cents for every $1,000, or one fifty-thousandth part of the value of the estate ; in fact, widespread and forcible might be the public opinion in favor of the million-dollar limit, not- withstanding local assessment, which, reduced as it would be by good government and proper assessments to I per cent., would leave, notwithstanding the cumula- tive rate, a fortune to the favored individual of about $800,000 — an amount by many deemed amply sufficient, representing as it would the labor of Soo men, or an amount 800 times as large as the average wealth per capita, and equal to the largest estate in America a hun- dred years ago. If from less than $1,000,000 to over $200,000,000 in one hundred years, what may it be in the next hundred years ? It is discovered, in figuring up the value of individual estates, that myriads are small and but few are large, hence the cumulative rate would aver- age but little and would scarcely yield enough to produce the revenue required by the general government, which, properly administered, should be between $250,000,000 and $300,000,000 per annum, so that in addition to the cumulative or graduated tax a percentage of increase would doubtless be required to meet the requirements of the government, and a corresponding percentage of decrease could be made in case the revenue should become too great ; but in any event and under all con- ditions, the cumulative rate would be first applied and then either added to or taken from by percentages of horizontal increase or reduction as the case may be. The rate per thousand being just one hundred-thou- sandth part of the aggregate of the estate makes it very easy of calculation, and whilst it v/ill be opposed by the rich as socialistic and unjust, it should be supported by 96 POLITICS AND PROPERTY the middle classes on the ground of absolute justice. One man can afford to pay a rate per thousand equal to the one hundred-thousandth part of his estate just as well as another man can ; in fact, the rich can better afford it than the poor, and it is, in truth, no discrimina- tion, and really not unjustly socialistic at all. The one hundred-thousandth part of a big estate is of course greater than the same part of a small estate, but the large estate can better afford it, and hence conditions are simply just and equitable. After much discussion and endless research into details and statistics for infor- mation relative to the magnitude of individual estates from which to ascertain the average, so as to form a definite idea what the cumulative rate would be, it is determined to recommend the one-cent-per-thousand basis, and to empower the government to increase or diminish by horizontal percentages as demand might require, which will answer all purposes, especially in view of the fact that, owing to the crude and incomplete system of assessment and the opportunity under it for large secretiveness of wealth (which can be almost en- tirely remedied, as will be explained later on), no definite information can be obtained, and what is secured leads to the belief that under a proper system it would be so much changed as to afford no reliable basis of calcula- tion. The advocates of all other systems of social reform, such as the out-and-out agrarians, the govern- ment absorptionists, the land confiscators, and so forth, have simjily paraded their views before the public from the hustings, through the prints, and by divers means and methods, and have incited the people to anger and rage by playing upon their prejudices and their passions, but have dealt only in generalizations. In other words, they say that the M'hole thing as it is is PHRONOCRACY 97 radically wrong, and that their particular scheme would right it, and thus generalize and elocutionize and phi- losophize, but fail to specialize — fail to say just how the thing could be accomplished ; in fact, this they cannot say, because their propositions are impracticable and consequently cannot be put into feasible and succinct shape. To put an impracticable thing into practical working shape is impossible — for example, it was asked of the socialists, shall we introduce a measure into the Federal Congress declaring that all property shall be confiscated and held in community ; shall we elect con- gressmen, senators, and State legislators, favorable to this policy, and if we succeed in so doing can we even then enforce our decrees and our mandates ? Will present holders of property not use forcible meas- ures to prevent, and combine for their own protection to preserve their rightful possessions, the homes of their wives and their children, the property for which they have expended their toil and their labor ? In a word, is it at all reasonable to conclude that the present holders of estates will all disgorge voluntarily that which for genera- tions has been owned, loved, and enjoyed ? Rather is it not more reasonable to expect that force would be resorted to to prevent, and that force would have to be resorted to to carry out any such violent and unjust decree ? In consequence of which facts, why tamper with legislation at all, but by one organized effort, as the anarchists would recommend, — and which in fact would in practice be necessary even though intermediary legis- lation was passed, — strike amid the thunder of a million guns, and with glistening bayonets and swords, together with a brand of fire, a rod and axe make wild sport of blazing homes, and in the wake of ghastly carnage and of blood cause massacre to seal right's eternal grave, 7 98 POLITICS AND PROPERTY and " thick night to pall us in the dunnest smoke of Hell ? " In fact, there is nothing more feasible than reasonable connected with the whole proposition. All property in community practically means anarchy in its operating effects, whilst milder to the ear and softer to the tongue, yet they are twin demons littered the saijie night — an- archy the elder but not more powerful. There appears to be no feasible plan of getting at the thing anyway, probably because all minds able to plan and devise are opposed to any such nonsense. It takes brains to plan out anything, and in such assem- blages brains will never commingle. It is clear that to carry any such propositions force, and force alone, would avail, and it would have to be most powerful and con- tinuous ever to prevail. To talk about accomplishing a thing of this nature by enactments of law seems ridi- culous, and just what enactments would be proper to meet the situation no advocate can say, so that there is always a chaos of complaints, at times wild and incendiary utterances from the stump, but no tangible plan proposed. The people have been made to be- lieve that monopolies are absorbing the earth and its belongings unlawfully ; that large estates are the result of the grossest subversion of existing law, the effect of purchase and sale of judges on the bench, of combinations and intrigue against the popular weal, and all such platitudinous badinage and bom- bast. The facts arc that there doubtless exists, not one dol- lar of property in the hands of any of the several one-hundred millionaires that is not held within the recognized pale of the law, otherwise ten thousand sharks and legal vampires would be ready to pounce upon the victim as a hungry wolf upon its inoffensive prey ; in PHRONOCRACV 99 fact, all kinds of imaginary claims are trumped up against the rich for purposes simply of blackmail and slander in the hope of propifiation for suppression, which in many cases has been obtained. All claims as to unlawful possessions are either the result of ignorance, falsification, or of a diseased imagi- nation. Anything not held by sanction of the highest court is usually brought to the test of that tribunal before the owner can secure respite from ceaseless exac- tion and legal annoyance. The fault is not in the courts nor in the administra- tion of existing law. What is needed is new law to meet the case, presented and passed in some feasible shape. Property, or the results of the people's labor on earth, is of course becoming unreasonably centralized, in fact, as was once frankly admitted by one of the hun- dred millionaires, entirely uselessly so. This gentleman possesses brains and is philosophical in his reflections, his penetration is deep, his ratiocination able. He admitted that one million dollars was enough for any ■man to own ; that his accumulations above that amount were the natural and unavoidable results of the equally unavoidable developments of his properties — develop- ments made necessary by the ever and rapid increase of the population of the locality and for the use and benefit of the people of the country. He had by the exercise of wise perspicacity and the dint of circumstance and opportunity whilst engaged in the strife of life become connected with railway enter- prises (he might, had circumstances operated differently, been in almost anv other avocation), and had become rich by development and good management. He could not force the public to sell their stock cheap or to buy his stock high. All profit that he ever made in this manner was the result of a square bargain and sale be- lOO POLITICS AND PROPERTY tween men. If he could by presenting to a man from whom he desired to buy, a certain kind of argument in consequence of which the latter became convinced and concluded to sell, he had not wronged that man, any more than the grocer who sells flour or the tailor who sells cloth had wronged the man with whom they dealt : . he could force none to sell, he could force none to buy, and if as the results of any such deal he profited, was he not entitled to the profit ? Once possessed of railway property, the development of the country made necessary great extensions, increas- ing demand caused increased earnings, and hence, as an incident to this development, which he did not and could not create, or in any sense alter or control, he be- came very rich. Had the country retrogressed instead of progressed, had population diminished instead of in- creased, for which condition he would have been as little responsible and as powerless to change as he was the former condition, he would not have become so rich — possibly have died poor. To the extent that favorable conditions made him, so might the opposite have ruined him. It is found that great fortunes are accumulated in those pursuits or enterprises that are, by reason of favorable location or conditions, or in consequence of the force of human preference and desire, in and of themselves prosperous. For example, America being a large country, the whole land for three thousand miles abounding in profusion with the means of subsistence and the necessaries of life, the government throwing aside all embargoes to traffic between the States, the people being enterprising and the land being rich, drained by vast rivers and favored with genial climes, the inevitable consequence is that not only the native population but millions from abroad seek those rich I'llRUNOCRACV lOI fields and pastures green, and from ocean to ocean, with no State restrictions, there is a natural desire and demand for communication and transportation. Hence railway property has increased beyond all conception, until even in 1890 America, scarce aged beyond infancy in the world's family of nations, contained more miles of rail- way than all the world combined, and why — simply and solely because natural conditions have favored — in fact, demanded it. The shipping interests in England have become greater than those of all the world combined, be- cause her colonies are vast and separated by countless miles of trackless sea ; trade and communication are not only desired but demanded, and as ships alone can sup- ply the condition, ships are constructed, and that, too, by the very nation that requires them most, as railways are constructed by the very people that require them most. So that with America excelling all the world with rail, and Great Britain the proud mistress of the deep and dark-blue sea, the two nations, akin by blood and similar in intuitions and desires, speaking the same tongue, having the same aspirations, characteristics, hopes, and aims, practically control the business — in a word, the property — of the world, each developing in the identical line best suited to its natural conditions ; and, as in America from the rail, so in the British Empire from the sail, are the greatest fortunes accumulated. Those interests therefore have been the developing ones, by reason of the natural order of things, in these coun- tries, and the individuals who have prosecuted this busi- ness have participated in and received the benefits of the development — in other words, have become rich, not en- tirely by reason of their own superior energy or sagacity, which if displayed in other avocations void of such opportunity might have achieved no marked success. I02 POLITICS AND PROPERTY but by reason of tlie enterprise they have followed essentially and the general progress which by reason of natural courses has attended them. It may be asked why all men, therefore, have not en- gaged in these favored industries ; to which it may be answered, why do not all men become members of Par- liament or of Congress ? There is much in circumstance, in opportunity, in the unseen, unknown, and unknowable influences and energies of the Great Whole. It is un- doubtedly true that natural conditions and circumstances do, in a large degree, control and determine the progress of the world's affairs, and regulate the status of men in the world. Human preferences, likes, dislikes, and other motives and agencies, work no inconsiderable part, but it is equally certain that if a man's energies, it matters not how powerfully exerted, are expended in the prosecution of an enterprise that is not blessed with the prompting impetus of favorable conditions and of human prefer- ence, they will be abortive and unprofitable. This has been forcibly illustrated in the case of steamboat naviga- tion on the great rivers of America, which, though admirably adapted to transportation, have succumbed to the m.ore suitable method — rail ; and the men who were most persistent and most energetic in these river enter- prises are the ones who have fared worst, because they have declined just as the rail has advanced, and both have been wholly beyond the control of their votaries, who, as individuals, are no more responsible for the ruin of the boats than for the success of the rails, but simply followed along with each like puppy-dogs' tails. Thus, as the philosophical hundred-million-dollar magnate admitted, his fortune is largely — almost entirely — the result of the necessary development of his property, PHROXOCRACV 103 consequent, not wholly upon his energy or sagacity, but upon the people's wants and accidental circumstances. It was said to this magnate that if his property beyond a million was burthensome, he might possibly find people willing to relieve him of the excess. " Well," said he, "if conditions had been such that I never could have amassed the excess I would doubtless have been just as comfortable, just as well contented, and no doubt much happier and freer from annoyance and care, especially if I had been provided with increased security in its reten- tion and control ; but since conditions are such that John Smith and Joe Jones can and have also become hundred-millionaires, I prefer to stand as high up on the ladder as they, in fact this is about the only satisfaction I can obtain, other than what a few million would insure." As with the socialists, so with the " government ab- sorptionists " (about the same thing in a different garb), there has been no tangible plan or method proposed by which their ends could be attained, other than by the un- timely and unjustifiable intervention of the vis major, an expedient alike hostile to both humanity and progress. What, it was asked of the votaries of this faith, is the first step you propose to take and what the intermediary agencies incident to the accomplishment of your ultimate end ? Do you propose that all enterprises and industries now owned by private individuals shall be turned over to the government and an adequate recompense given therefor? If so what is the individual going to do with the value received in exchange ? Shall he bury it and start anew on a common level with all and devote his time and thought to the government shop, receiving therefor such articles of human production as he can eat and wear, and be allotted a house such as is sufficient alone to protect him from the cold, or shall he be forced I04 POLITICS AND PROPERTY to yield all his treasure to the coffers of the state, — his lots, his land, his houses, or his mines, — receiving no compensation for the previous efforts of his industry and toil, and be obliged to labor in the common throng on a level with and in pursuits as arduous as he who yields nothing to the state and whose past efforts have been un- availing to himself and of no good to society ; and if either of these, what shall be tlie first step taken to start the ball in motion ? Echo answers : We will " introduce a bill " — a thing easy of accomplishment when nothing else can be done. We will set forth in that bill the pronunciamento that all must deliver up their property to the state and receive therefor no compensation whatever ; on the pro- mulgation of which proclamation we expect to receive the plaudits of the world, sounded with such multi- tudinous vociferations that the reverberating echoes resounding from hilltop to hilltop will go thundering down the peaceful stream of time, to be reflected back with accelerated force and power, weighted with com- mingling sounds of universal praise and timely tenders of worldly wealth, until the only possible manner of avoid- ing the terrible catastrophe incident to a mad and fren- zied rush will be to convince the masses that it is useless for all to come at once, or in fact for any to come at all until the bill becomes a law, which it is sure to do prior to the time of the practical inauguration of the metemp- sychosis. Well, what is to be the wording of the bill, what its provisions in fact ; is it to begin with a " whereas " and end with a " what is it," and what is to be its middle ? Is it to be rushed right through, or debated in " Committee of the whole on the state of the Union," or what is to be done with it ? Is it to contain the pronunciamento that PIIRONOCRACV 105 all men are born free, equal, and possessed of certain inalienable rights ? Is it to conflict with the existing judicial opinion as to the federal constitution and render necessary the packing of the supreme bench ? Thus to the end is nothing tangible proposed because there is nothing tangible to propose — nothing regarding which any document can be drafted. The only hope for the introduction into society of any such system is the arbi- trament of force, the right of might, and this held to- gether and controlled by a military despot in whom all power must be centred and who could carry out any decree it matters not how violent ; the thing itself being in direct conflict with the end to be sought and desirable only on the theory that good could result from evil, that order could best be promoted by confusion, system by chaos — in a word, life from death, for any such condition would be social death and confusion worse confounded, sans top, sans bottom, sans everything save the rankest and most useless form of heterogeneity and confusion. It is seen that any effort to alter social conditions must proceed regularly and be bottomed on reason, aided by feasibility, supported by men of force, method, and char- acter ; hence its progress must necessarily be slow and tedious. As a glacier will move quite a distance in a cen- tury, so will the conditions of society gradually become affected by moderate innovations. The system of the United States government was for a century considered experimental, and may in fact yet prove to be such, un- less by the curtailment of the ballot better conditions are adopted. Men of no education and no property elect to ofifice representatives of the same calibre, and hence public business becomes seriously affected by actual incompetency. As it requires some brains and education to write a resolution, so it requires some I06 POLITICS AND PROPERTY capacity to understand one when written, and as it requires prudence and sagacity to wield the affairs of state and men of property and credit to give it prestige and responsibility, so it must soon be necessary to pre- vent the alarming degeneracy that is admitted to be rapidly pervading the personnel of public assemblages ; and one of the greatest possible arguments for the cur- tailment of the ballot is the actual incompetency of many of the inmates of legislative assemblages because of the increasing prominence of the irresponsible and ignorant voter. Under such conditions it is vain to expect any conces- sion from the better classes to any modification of the social state. Millionaires can protect their property simply by the inherent force of the property itself, by buying favorable and thwarting unfavorable measures proposed by vicious legislators ; and so when the " con- servative compromise " is brought forth money may seek its downfall ; but such is the irresistible power of the reli- able middle classes that this will be impossible, and as time progresses, and as they gain in representation, they may become sufficiently the master of the situation to control the destinies of the future state. The single-tax men or land confiscationists are ahead of the others both in intelligence and in the reasonableness of their propositions. They have elected no representatives to Congress solely in the interests of their cause, and but few to any legislative assembly who had not other aims and affiliations, neither have they proposed in Congress any definite measure for which they asked the support of their associates. They do not assert their faith boldly as confiscators of land, as the Democrats will not boldly assert their free-trade predilections and preferences ; the former PHRONOCRACY IO7 carry a mask called " single tax," and the latter " tariff reform," both misleading and disingenuous. The single- tax men, however, are in a position to draft a bill or to propose legislation containing a declaration that all existing methods of taxation should be abolished and a certain levy placed in lieu of all on land values, but what is the rate to be ? Their proposition in effect is that land shall be taxed practically to " its full rental value," but this term in a bill drafted, introduced, and referred, before it reached the voting stages, and had been the victim of amendments, would look rather vague and indefinite. It really means that land should be con- fiscated, but the tax term is milder, it becomes the mouth better. It will not do to say the land should be taxed five per cent., or ten per cent., or any fixed per cent., because all land does not possess the same rental value, and whilst any certain levy would confiscate some, it would not answer the purpose, because it would not con- fiscate all. To have passed a bill containing no more definite provision than " to full rental value," or even a percentage of rental value, would have been the instru- ment and means of ceaseless bickering and dispute between assessor and occupant as to what was rental value, and would be indeed as utterly impracticable as is the whole scheme irrational. It sounds well enough to talk about man's equal right to natural opportunity and " a' that ' and " a' that " ; that the earth belongs in usufruct to the people, and " a' that " ; that man is enti- tled to what he produces — to the fruits of his own toil, and " a' that " ; that labor is paid out of its own product, and " a' that " and *' a' that," most of which are apho- risms as old as the adamantine hills, and, with slight modifications, as true as they are ancient ; but how are they to be accomplished by land confiscation ? That I08 POLITICS AND PROPERTY labor is paid out of its own products, it is useless to deny. Every one will admit — at least all should admit — that in the process that is carried out in the conversion of a piece of crude iron ore, worth comparatively nothing, through its many stages, till it assumes the form, the polish, and elasticity of a watch spring, in which state it is worth more than its weight in gold, tbe labor ex- pended is paid, though of course indirectly, out of the thing that is produced. To deny this would be to argue as irrationally as to maintain that " land confiscation " is either just, reasonable, practical, or efficacious in accomplishing any good to the world. But as with all other propagandisms, though in this not as lamentably, even the advocates themselves fail to propose any defi- nite measure. They do not say " Be it enacted thus and so," so that the people can get at just the thing they seek. Generalizations could have been prated about till the crack of doom, and had the American colonists of King George III. never got down to hard-pan and issued their pronunciamento in certain exact words and phrases meaning certain things, backed with an inflexi- ble desire and an indomitable purpose to put the meaning of that thing through though they should drink their brother's blood, the grand confederacy of sovereign stars, than which none more glorious ever shone in the galaxy of nations that now stretch from ocean to ocean, and ere long may stretch from the isthmus to the pole, com- prising the natural geographical limits of the greatest nation on earth, might never have been independent ; and so likewise will all generalizations which, though pleasing to the ear, always fail of any practical good. The land confiscationists, however, in adopting for their shibboleth " single tax," appeal forcibly to those who seek simplicity in all governmental affairs, which is PHRONOCRACY lOQ in fact the tendency of all thought relative to govern- ment ; yet it is not the shadow that weighs, it is the substance, and if the substance is too transparent to cast a shadow it amounts to nothing. If single tax could be fully applied, and result only in simplicity, the game is not worth the candle, for greater simplicity could be obtained by other less objectionable methods. The single-tax men, too, hoot at the idea that all they claim for it is simplicity, for they frankly admit that in the interest of simplicity alone it would be useless to ad- vocate such a radical upturning of the world's social affairs ; that what they desire is something to benefit the people and secure a more equitable distribution of the products of human labor, and they favor that thing which will accomplish that end, and it matters not how complicated (for people can understand anything that people can propose), and that they oppose anything that fails of this accomplishment, it matters not how simple. It takes a machine somewhat complicated to reap wheat and bind it into sheaves and to thresh out the grain after the sheaves are bound, but a machine that will do this work effectively, though complicated, is not to be com- pared with one that will not, though simple ; hence it is the end, not the means, if the end is fair, just, and hon- orable by any means that are equally so. Since nothing has been definitely brought forth by any of the reformers, the leaders of the most liberal and conservative of each should conclude to concentrate on the regulation of the extremes, thus letting the mean take care of itself. Mcti ffiay have an abundance, but not a j-edimdance. Men who have nothing and know nothing shall have no voice in the affairs of government, but all shall have an opportunity. no POLITICS AND PROPERTY They should, therefore, propose that the following amendment to the Constitution of the United States be adopted : " Congress shall have power to impose a rate of taxation on every one thousand dollars of iftdividual property equal to the one hundred-thousandth part of the total value of the property, the same to be uniform and invariable throughout the United States j and to prescribe as a condition for suf- frage both a?i educational and a property qualification, the former to be the ability to speak, read, and write the English language, and the latter to be the ownership of real property or government bonds to an amount not less than five hundred dollars j afid to pass such laws as may be necessary to carry the provisions of this amendment into effect y This is the key to the whole situation and the founda- tion for the whole structure ; it is the beginning, the middle, and the ending. All advocates of reform have but to vote for, and sup- port for the Federal Congress and for State Legislatures, men pledged to the support of this amendment. No other officials are necessary. The amendment could be adopted and become law if ratified by three fourths of the State Legislatures and by two thirds of their delega- tions in Congress — that is, in the way the Constitution itself provides, and when adopted it would be a part of the supreme law of the land, adopted in the only lawful way, and a party called the " Phronocratic or Conserva- tive " should make it the keystone to its creed. The recommendation of the said amendment is thought proper in view of the fact that many cherish the belief that Congress has not the power, without an amend- ment, to impose such a tax or to pass laws in pursuance thereof ; that a simple act of Congress passed by the usual majority might be unconstitutional and void, but PHRONOCRACV I I I that by an amendment the right would become funda- mental and unquestioned, and that, pending its consid- eration and ratification by the States, its provisions could be scrutinized with care and circumspection and subse- quent enactments necessary to carry its provisions into effect could be calmly considered and planned. It is in no case to be applied to corporations, but solely to the individual holdings in those corporations, on the basis of the value of the stock and bonds held by individuals therein. The reason for its non-application to corporations is obvious, conclusive, and clear, to wit : In placing a check on the concentration of wealth it is not in any sense in keeping with the progress of the times nor apace with the advancing tendencies of modern civilization to hamper or oppress enterprise. Great un- dertakings are not only desirable but necessary. Long lines of railways have to be projected and built ; canal and waterways, bridges and highways, tunnels and sub- ways all have to be constructed, and it requires wealth aggregating countless millions to accomplish these works. Many individual properties cost over one hundred mil- lion dollars, and cannot be created without this expen- diture, and civilization cannot go on without their creation ; the wants and needs of the people demand them, and go they must, and will. They cannot be divided into separate properties of less value ; hence means must be at hand by which they can not only be constructed, but controlled and operated as an entirety, as a whole ; and this means is the corporation, on the multiplication or concentration of the capital in which there need be no limit whatsoever. One corporation might own the railways of the world, the magnitude and extent of which in America alone in 1890 was such as to maintain a bonded indebtedness of about five billion 112 POLITICS AND PROPERTY dollars and a share capital of variable valuation of about the same amount, both of which at a par valuation would amount to ten billion of dollars, or in 1890 about one sixth of the entire assessable property of the great Repub- lic, representing in production the aggregated labor of ten million men. As strange and as anomalous as at first view it might appear, it is actually thought better and more desirable — more in keeping with popular de- mand and efficient public service — that (under the pro- posed system of taxation) all this property should be owned by a single rather than by many corporations ; but in said corporation there would be many individual owners. In concentration there is both efficiency and power, and the baneful effects of monopolistic organiza- tion is greatly mitigated and assuaged if the said organi- zation must of necessity be owned by many individuals rather than by a few or by a single individual. In other words, it is found to be absolutely necessary to the progress of society that organizations of a monopolistic nature must exist, otherwise enterprises of " great pith and moment " would, in truth " with this regard, their currents turn away and lose not only the name but the very fact of action." It is, however, recommended that these grand enterprises shall to the greatest extent possible be popiclarly owned ; that they must be owned by as many individuals as is consistent with proper and efficient direction, management, and control, and not by as few as possible to the utmost limit of the *' freeze-out process " of the avaricious managers. It is undoubted that a board of directors chosen by a hundred shareholders can be as efficient and reliable as those chosen by a single holder of the bare majority, and the officers and agents chosen by these boards would be as assiduously devoted to the interests of these trusts as PHRONOCRACY II3 those elected by and under the mandate of the one-man power ; in fact, better and more efficient could the man- agement of such corporations become because of the fact that there would be no absolute guaranty of perpet- ual succession, such as under individual control of ma- jorities is usually assured by superserviceableness and intrigue against the interest of minorities. It has been proposed to allow to no stockholder more than one vote. This would tend to lessen autocratic control, but would in no way reach the question of colossal individual ac- cumulations, nor promote the principle of popular own- ership, or that a tax rate proportionate to property is the best tax rate on earth. It is observed, too, that small holders of corporate interests are in the main more con- servative than the large holders ; in fact, the possession of any property causes prudential care and conservative operation, which position may be exclusively demon- strated in the establishment of a property qualification, though small, for the exercise of suffrage. The very fact of owning something begets a disposition to protect that something, and the man who becomes eligible to citizen- ship by the possession of five hundred dollars will be as prudent and as painstaking, as desirous of securing reliable men and of strengthening the public faith, as is the owner of his miUions. Where the treasure is there the heart is, and a poor man's five hundred dollars representing, as it in most cases would, a greater part of his worldly goods than the rich man's million does of his worldly goods, the former would be on the average more prudent and conservative and less disposed to enter into schemes of profligacy, extravagance, and waste than the latter. There is a vast difference between him who possesses something, and hopes to retain and increase it, and him 8 114 POLITICS AND PROPERTY who has nothing, and has no hope of ever gaining any- thing. The former is prudent and the latter reckless, or the one fit for citizenship and the other, not. As in the affairs of government, so in those of the great corpora- tions. There would be a wholesome check placed upon recklessness and extravagance, the vaulting ambition would less often overleap itself, earnings would be more properly applied toward the payment of dividends than to extravagant salaries to ornamental presidents, who in most cases are the proteges of the owners of the bare majority and often share their receipts therewith. Neither to so great an extent could needless branches and appendages be constructed to fatten the purse of the contractor, who is often a partner with the officers in control. Furthermore, and to greater advantage still, popular ownership would beget popular contentment and insure a management more in conformity with the popular weal. On the theory that it is more in the in- terest of localities that representatives in Congress should be chosen from among their own people, and in numbers representing about one for every thirty thou- sand votes, rather than to have one man run the entire legislation of the country, so likewise would it be found better that monopolistic enterprises should be more popularly owned and governed and operated by offi- cials chosen by the diversified interests. In keeping with this very principle one of the greatest American magnates once sold a large part of his interest in one of the greatest corporations, believing, yea, knowing, that a more popular ownership would beget popular content- ment, and popular contentment would avoid trouble resulting from blackmailing legislation and other schemes of popular revenge ; also that it would tend to increase popular pat?ronage, and consequently perhaps increase PHRONOCRACV I I 5 the value of what he retained more than the sacrifices consequent upon disposition and sale ; and thus, in fact, it is said to have resulted. But whether or not it be to the interest of the great monied magnates to thus placate the public, is not the point for discussion, but whether or not it is in the inter- est of the public that great and necessarily monopolistic corporations should be as far as practicable more popu- larly owned, is the question, if indeed there can be any question about a matter so self-evident and reasonable. Most of the riches resulting from unearned increment are gained in enterprises of such magnitude as to be practically exempt from competition by reason of inac- cessibility by any competitive establishments, and if these are once started, and bid fair to continue, such is the advantage to both of concentration and consolida- tion that they are merged into one ; the anaconda swal- lows the elephant, and then lies down to digest its meal, whilst the public continue of necessity to patronize the monster because they can do nothing else. It, however, being evident that monopolistic enter- prises are necessary — in fact, almost the unavoidable outcome of the world's affairs, — and that from enterprises of this character large unearned increment will unavoida- bly be acquired in any prosperous state or community ; now, therefore, the equally unavoidable conclusion, though held in the dark for thousands of years, must be reached, viz. : we will distribute that increment as widely as we can, or, in other words, we will cause him who has most of it to contribute to the State that sup- ports it and guarantees his interest, to an extent pro- portionate to his ability ; the necessary result of which will be that when he acquires a certain limit, outgo will equal income, and he can acquire no more, giving Il6 POLITICS AND PROPERTY increased opportunity to his friends just behind and their friends and their friends. ''''Extremes beget limitations,'' hence the force of the expression : " That I am wretched, Makes thee the happier : — Heavens deal so still ! Let the superfluous, and lust-dieted man, That slaves your ordinance, that will not see Because he doth not feel, feel your power quickly ; So distribution shoiild undo excess, A7id each man have enough" CHAPTER VI. Practical application of the cumulative tax — Support government in proportion to man's ability — And no property or no knowledge, no vote — Takes burden off of the weak and puts it on the strong — Equity and efficiency of assessment — Limits all individual estates to about four million — Tax collectors in congressional districts : their method of assessment — Necessity of not limiting corpora- tions — "Watering" stock not specially objectionable, but divi- sion of ownership vital. " Life is but a narrow veil between the cold and bar- ren peaks of two eternities." Why, therefore, should any man desire to own the earth ? If he had it all he would yet be poor. Why should he desire more than will insure comfort, luxury, and even a fair compensation for cupidity and greed be- sides, for more than that but burthens him ? Why should not the brain that is capable of wresting from the world so much of its treasure, when a suffi- ciency has been obtained, be willing to devote its opera- tions to research into the fathomless abyss of the great unknown and as yet unknowable ? Who knows or can demonstrate to the contrary that, " As the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away, so he that goeth down to the grave shall come up no more." Why, therefore, should there not exist less unremitting strife and more humanity in the world ? In brief and in fact, since an abundance is enough, why want more ? 117 Il8 POLITICS AND PROPERTY To finite minds the end is but to die, yes, " But to die, and go we know not where, To lie in cold obstruction and to rot : This sensible warm motion to become A kneaded clod ; and the delighted spirit To bathe in fiery floods, or to reside In thrilling regions of thick-ribbed ice; To be imprison'd in the viewless winds. And blown with restless violence about The pendent world." O thou impenetrable and unknown ; thou inscrutable mystery that art veiled in night ; be thy ultimate the earth, or heaven, or hell— 't is all beyond our ken ! " Come, come, you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts," open this blinded eye, make keen and capable this nar- row faculty of hurnan comprehension, and proclaim what was, what is, and what is yet to be ; make intelligible and clear the object, the purpose, and the end of life, the omniscient motive and intent of this and that and these — of the Universe, the earth, the air, and the wild tempestuous seas ! But to the issue. The very fact that individuals were required to con- tribute to government in proportion to their ability, and that those who contributed nothing could have no voice, would be of itself not only one of the greatest possible bulwarks to the continued ascendancy of republican in- stitutions in America, but the monarchies of the world would stand aghast and trembling, so that, as soon as it was fully realized that thereby security could exist with- out a king, instead of saying " The king is dead, long live the king," it would be thought quite as safe to say, " The man we, who own the property of the state, have chosen to do our will, is dead, let the man we have chosen to succeed him take his place." Then empires would begin to tumble like meteors in the night, with scarce that faint effulgence which, against even the dark PIIRONOCRACY I I9 background of centuries of ignorance and vice, would be necessary to make their presence known. The institution of this protective condition would likewise strengthen property rights, increase domestic security, and, by reason of lifting the burthen off of the shoulders of the weak and placing it upon the heads of the strong, the oppressed would be given greater oppor- tunity ; in fact, as great as could be considered consist- ent with man's right to own property at all (which is admitted), and the strong would not be unjustly op- pressed. The conditions now and heretofore existing in society are and have been just the reverse of this. The rich men, by reason of their faculty for secretiveness, and for the further reason that it is more difficult to count ten million grains than ten thousand grains, and by reason of their influence upon the assessor as to prop- erty not registered, usually pay a tax that is propoi-tion- ately as small as their estates are great, and, the greater the estate the less proportionably it contributes, whilst the small home of the widow, the trust bonds of the in- fant, and the small accumulations of the aged and decrepit, are taxed full up and ofttimes excessively. This all admit to be wrong, and even those who oppose the cumulative rate upon the flimsy pretext that even then some property would be secreted, will be obliged to admit that the said cumulative rate on what is found and assessed would, to a great degree, compensate the state for that which is secreted. In other words, if, as in the present, a man with five million dollars could secrete two and a half million dollars and pay about one dollar per hundred on the balance, he would really be paying only about the half of one per cent, on the whole, but if, under the cumulative-rate tax (notwithstanding the greatly improved system of assess- I20 POLITICS AND PROPERTY ment), he should yet secrete two and a half millions, his rate would still be two and a half per cent., or he would be contributing just five times as much to the state as under the present condition of affairs. The increased facilities for assessments would render secretiveness much more difficult, and there can be im- posed for it very severe penalties, as will hereafter be explained. The first and most important consideration is : What amount of money will the cumulative tax secure to the treasury of the country ; however, this cuts no figure as to the question of sufficiency or insufficiency, because horizontal percentage of increase and reduction can be fully arranged. There is no way of getting at the thing with absolute accuracy, because the number of large estates relatively to the small cannot be definitely ascer- tained. The question as to what will be done with the excess of the estates of very rich individuals will also appear as an objection, though not serious. At one cent on each one thousand, or a rate equalling the one hundred-thousandth part of the estate, and esti- mating five per cent, as the income that maintains estates at par, it is clear that outgo would equal income, allowing something for local assessment, when the fortune equals about four million dollars ; in fact, the net income from three millions would be about as much as from four. A man could, of course, keep all he could pay taxes on, but if he kept much more than three million dollars he would soon be running in debt, and the state would gradually absorb the excess, so that, without any mincing of words, of sugar-coated terms, like the tariff-reform free-traders or the single-tax land-confiscationists use, It is boldly ad- mitted that all excess would be confiscated and the work would be boldly carried out. rURONOCRACY 121 Of course the natural tendency of this would be to encourage the one-hundred-millionaires to disgorge, to give to their uncles, their cousins, and their aunts large amounts of property when it was evident that the cumu- lative system was in fact to be enforced, rather than permit the state to own it, on the theory that blood is thicker than water, — to give to their kin rather than to their country. Of course the government has no power to say that this should not be done, especially if done before the system took effect ; even thereafter it would not be necessary to say that a man should not be a ben- efactor to his friends, especially to his relatives, rather than be a benefactor to the state. A one-hundred-mil- lion-dollar man would have to divide among thirty or forty people before either would have an estate that would be smaU enough (how singular the term) to yield them any net profits, and a two-hundred-million-dollar man would have to divide among about one hundred before his estate would be sma// enough to be of much value to any, and since this would spread the thing out into lots of fifties and hundreds, it would effect of itself a tolerably good division and still force these fortunate relatives to contribute in the ratio of i/ieir ability — {the essence of the whole scheme and the key to equitable distribu- tion afid the only key). So why not let the poor kin have it ? Again, it would be urged that one-hundred-million- aires would temporarily transfer their property to their uncles, their cousins, their sisters, and their aunts just prior to and pending the date of assessment, with a tacit agreement that it should be re-transferred as soon as assessment-day is over ; or they would pay to different people, for example, their clerks and other flunkies, cer- tain small salaries to consent to have the property assessed in their names, but with the understanding that the in- 122 POLITICS AND PROPERTY come should be paid or given back to the original one- hundred-millionaire. This could be obviated m several ways ; but if it could not be obviated at all, what pleasure or what object would any individual have in accumulat- ing more property than he could ever possibly need if he had to use such subterfuges to retain it, and subject himself to the great probability of being detected, in which case he might lose all, even the very liberal amount that he could own and handle without any subterfuge, and also to liability to arrest and imprisonment besides. Of the most obdurate objector it could be asked : Would not these penalties and the maintenance of the necessary machinery by which to evade the law at least deter, if it did not absolutely prevent, men from acquiring such use- less property as to render evasion necessary, and to the extent that it did deter them, would it not be the end in part at least attained ? Such could be the methods of assessment thatj notwithstanding a very dubious desire to do so, it would not be possible to succeed very well, and, considering the penalties, the game would not be worth the candle, and it would not in practice be at- tempted to any great or even to an appreciable extent. The first step to be taken would be to propose the amendment to the Federal Constitution, so as to remove all doubt as to the power of the general government to impose a cumulative rate of taxation, and as it would require the sanction of three fourths of the State Legis- latures and two thirds of their delegations in Congress, its adoption would be necessarily slow, but its intro- duction would command immediate attention, and the monster magnates would begin to think. A few might con- clude that the thing was reasonably fair and just anyhow, and that, since it was coupled with a proposition prevent- ing the waifs and irresponsibles of the community from I'lIRONOCKACV 123 having any voice in governments, giving the machine over into the hands of those only who knew something and owned something, thus adding to the security and the uninterrupted enjoyment of the competency, yea, the abundance, that remained, why not let the dance go on ? Some might be satisfied in the reflection that they would be as rich as any other man, and they would have enough, and it would not be so bad after all. It is astonishing how human character is affected by the removal of the desire to excel. To excel another man any man might desire a billion, when if no man could excel him he would be content with only a million, or rather with that amount which would insure absolute protection against want and enable him to enjoy such luxury as he desired in company with his family. The difficulty would not exist in the oppo- sition of the great millionaires, if so their numerical strength would be comparatively so small that it could not delay, much less thwart, the purposes of the cumula- tive principle. The number whose estates would be materially affected, that is, the number of estates which, under the cumulative rate, would be called upon to pay more than their accustomed contributions, would be small ; hence, aside from their general recognition of the eternal fitness of the thing, the middle classes, or the reputable citizens with moderate yet comfortable estates, should be almost unanimously in its favor. The proposition would have coupled and indissolubly linked with it its proper counterpoise, its compensating advantage, to wit : " qualification for suffrage." And just here is where the shoe will pinch. So abominably promiscuous has become the suffrage system of the United States, and so corrupt and mischievous its prac- tices, that almost the entire machinery of government 124 POLITICS AND rROPERTV has been permitted to drift into the hands of professional politicians and charlatans ; in fact, except on great oc- casions, such as presidential elections and heated contests for the larger offices, the commercial population takes no interest in politics, knowing as they do that the bosses of the lower wards and the henchmen under thera — both equally corrupt and void of any principle save the most questionable and devious means of secur- ing the success of their candidates — will control the election, it matters not how unjustly, whether they vote or not. The proposition, therefore, would receive the bitter opposition of both the professional politician and his henchmen, both utterly unfitted to wield the destinies of the state, yet both hitherto essential to the success of any candidate or the establishment of any principle. It is evident where the qualification condition would disfranchise ten voters in the slums of Chicago and New York and ten negroes in every State of the South (both classes as utterly unfit for suffrage as the blackest cohorts of the prince of darkness would be to a seat in Heaven beside our Lord and Saviour), it would perhaps not dis- franchise more than one or possibly two in the prosper- ous rural districts and smaller towns of the North, East, and West, and perhaps a smaller proportion of the white population of the South, and it is this portion of the citizens, together with the conservative middle classes of all the cities in the country, that must ultimately ex- terminate the political bum, the parasite and boodler of the great metropolitan centres, and the voodooistic African barbarian of the sunlit South. The party shibboleth, as stated, should be " cumulative taxation and voting quali- fication," " North American annexation," and " anti- centralization," to secure which the adoption of the i'iiR()X(>c;uACv 125 amendment makicg sure the right of Congress to impose it would be the first consideration. To do this would be required only Congressmen and State Legislatures, and for which positions the support of all friends of reform should be pledged. The amend- ment should be called the " conservative amendment," because it looks for support to the conservative middle- men of all parties — to those who think that the conser- vative mean is better than either extreme. Of course prior to the passage of the amendment it would be useless to propose incidental legislation, but for the better understanding of the people a few of the principal proposed enactments to follow its adoption could be made known, though of course until the fact was once established, it would not be possible to pre- arrange all the minor details, any more than it would be possible to say just what the exact height of a child would be when grown to maturity, before the child was born. Incidental legislation for the purpose of improv- ing the system could be passed almost every year, just as enactments are currently passed as to the application of the tariff and decisions of the treasury called for even pending the annual meetings of Congress. Coupled with the general arguments offered in support of the amend- ment, it might be given out to the people that certain primary acts would be passed covering the principal fea- tures of the practical operation and such alone as were necessary to insure its unquestioned feasibility. Still, as to the practical carrying out of the measure there can not be the slightest doubt even in the minds of the most violent of its opponents. In the first place there would have to be created by the general government an official to be known as the " collector of revenue." There would perhaps have to be one of these for each congressional 126 POLITICS AND PROPERTY district in the country, and the apportionment of districts could be arranged on the basis of the qualified voter. This collector, like the Congressmen, should be elected by the people, but should be removable by the President if in the latter's opinion he should be negligent, dishon- est, or incompetent; but the successor should be likewise chosen by the people, so that whilst the President could destroy he could not create this official. The same also should apply to postmasters; they should be elected by the people in the towns, cities, or localities in which they exercise their functions, and should like- wise be removable by the President for cause to him deemed sufficient, in which case the people would choose his successor. This power of removal would be neces- sary in view of the fact that the business both of the collector and postmaster would be so closely connected with that of the general government that if from obsti- nacy, caused by hostility to an administration of the federal government opposed to his own politics, or from incompetency or from neglect, any such officer should mar the efficiency of the service, it would be but right that he should be removed, providing always that the people name his successor. This successor, being mind- ful of the causes that prompted the removal of his prede- cessor, would of course exert his efforts to remedy same, so that it would very rarely occur that either a collector or a postmaster would be removed, it mattered not how adverse his politics might be to that of the dominant administration, and one removal by the President would be all-sufficient to correct the evil in his elected suc- cessor. All minor officers of the civil service that cannot, in the nature of things, be elective, such as clerks in the departments at the capital and under the collector and postmaster in their respective districts and localities, PlIRONOCRACY 12/ should be thrown open to competitive examination. This system is opposed because it is said to be no test of a man's efficiency or competency to perform the duties of these offices that he should have his head crammed with miscellaneous information such as was necessarily the test that examiners would apply. It is agreed, however, that general information does no harm ; that a man who knows something is, other things being anything like equal, better in the performance of any duty than he who knows nothing. A letter carrier is none the less worthy or efficient because he might know the bounda- ries of every state or the identical confines of every nation of Europe, or the geographical location of every town or hamlet on either continent ; but it might be that he who knew not these things might be incompetent, it matters not what might be his " political 'fluence." The civil service under the Phronocratic proposition is to be as efficient as possible and wholly exempt from partisan control. The patronage of the President should be cur- tailed and all officials elected by the people within the limit of reason or possibility; and in view of the fact that the ballot may be curtailed and purified, that none save those who know something and own something can participate in elections, the better classes will assume control and in their hands can more safely be placed these increased elective opportunities. When the Presi- dent has chosen the heads of departments, or in other words his cabinet of counsellors and advisers, appointed foreign diplomats and the governors of the territories, he has done quite enough of this class of labor for the pay he is receiving, and it is thought best to relieve him of that annoyance. Aside from the collections that would have to be provided for in each district, the President would have to 128 POLITICS AND PROPERTY appoint one whose residence would be in New York City, whose duty it should be to assess all non-resident property located wheresoever — that is, the property of any foreigner located in the United States. The salary of the collector of taxes should be at all times the same as that of a Congressman, and that of all postmasters should be determined by the number of stamps cancelled at their offices, and where a reasonable percentage of this amount would not afford adequate compensation, the rate could be named by the Post- master-General. Every individual would have to be required to pay his government or cumulative tax in the district in ivhich he resided, and to the collector of same. It would be the duty of the collector of every district to report property found in his own, to the eol- lector of the district in which the owner resided ; for example, if a farm should be owned by John Smith in the sixth district of Illinois, and John himself should live in the fourth district of Ohio, or in a town in that district the collector of the sixth Illinois would be required to report to the collector of the fourth Ohio, the fact that he had dis- covered in his district 10,000 dollars worth, or whatever the amount might be, of property belonging to John Smith, resident of his, the fourth Ohio district, on receipt of which information, the collector of the fourth Ohio would proceed to add 10,000 dollars to John Smith's list of prop- erty and apply his cumulative tax thereto. So in all the districts, as to all the others, and as to foreigners, each collector would report to the one appointed by the presi- dent who resided in New York. It is useless for objec- tors to say that this could not be done because these objections are seen at a glance to be prompted by the wish, not by the thought, and even if a few thousand should be missed, what matters it when millions are I'llRONOCRACV 129 missed as it is, and must of necessity be under any system, because human affairs are not more perfect than human beings themselves, and they are not strong when too severely tempted. It is not a good argument against a thing to say : Oh, it is not absolutely perfect, what human thing is perfect ? It cannot be denied that this system of ascertaining and reporting individual property would be by far the best contrivance that has ever been invented, surpassing infinitely the cumbersome system of internal revenue, where an army of storekeepers, gaugers, marshals, deputy marshals, and others has to be maintained at an expense to the government in many cases more than the revenue derived therefrom, for the purpose of supervising and controlling the distillation of whiskey and most malt liquors. Furthermore, since States and localities have their respective local assessors and collect their revenue from the property (not from the trader and manufac- turer) of the country, the central government always cumulative, and the local usually direct, the two would be a great aid to each other and would usually reach very correct results. All corporations would be required to have some distinct central office, and this corporation (which as such would be exempt from government tax) would be required to report to the collector in the dis- trict in which its central office was situate, once each month if need be, the names of each individual and the amounts of stocks and bonds held by said individual during that month or other period to be named in that corporation. All companies should be obliged to have a register open to the inspection of the collector or his subordinates, containing a complete and accurate list, not only of the total capitalization of the com- pany, but the monthly average of shares held by each 9 I30 POLITICS AND I'ROPERTV individual, also the same as to bonds ; and each indi- vidual would be obliged to register both with the company and with the collector the exact number of bonds and shares of stock, and the amount of each that he held. Bonds payable to bearer should be none the less subject to registration, and any shares or bonds held that were not thus registered, should have no binding force against the corporation, and should be subject to confiscation by the government, simply on proof of non-registry for two consecutive offences. To registration objection would be urged on the ground of detail, labor, espionage, and the like, but it would cer- tainly be sufficiently practicable to cause great good ; and even if it should merit these objections, would not the benefit outweigh the burden ? Why should property be owned that cannot be listed ? List it and tax it and that cionulatively too ! Stock- and bondholders would be thus obliged, or incur great risk, to register their hold- ings both with the company on its books and with the collector in the district of its central office on his books, and in the event of failure upon the part of the company to keep this registry open when desired to the inspection of the collector, its charter could be at once annulled and its property offered for sale, the proceeds of which sale would be divided among the stock- and bondholders (the latter holding precedence to the par value of their bonds) on the basis of the last cotnplete registry shown by the books of the collector. The indi- vidual for failure to register with the collector after two months from the date in which he acquired his holdings, could not only be subject to entire con- fiscation, but to criminal penalty as well, the latter to be determined by trial before the United States judge in the district in which the offender resided. These PIIRONOCRACY I31 penalties could be made to fit the conditions as expe- rience would suggest. The confiscation, however, could be summarily de- clared by the collector and the possessor, could only be reinstated by appeal to the federal courts, which should, in determining his case, take into consideration only the question whether or not the failure to register was the result of ignorance, error, or neglect, or of wilful intent to secrete his property ; if the latter, there would be no remedy, and the former excuse could not be urged but once. If any individual had made temporary transfer to any other individual for the purpose of evading the cumulative rate, on conviction before the United States judge he could be made liable to imprisonment of his person, and forfeiture of his estate as occasion might require. Stock in corporations is usually transferred only on the books of the company, but it is sometimes, for specu- lative purposes, not entered thereon because of incon- venience. The plan required for the application of the government's cumulative rate would force this registry, not alone of stock but bonds, which would have a most salutary effect in curtailing wild and ruinous specula- tion, and in elevating the character and tone of all stock exchanges ; furthermore, it would act as a protection for the conservative investor against the reckless specu- lation of the ordinary stock gambler ; it would prevent large and rapid exchanges for purely speculative pur- poses, hence give steadiness and tone to the markets of the country. The system of enforced registration has been in effect in England for many years, and there works well and practically. In fact there is nothing im- practicable about it, though those opposed to the system will try to make the people believe that changes and 132 POLITICS AND PROPERTY transfers are so rapid that they could not be registered to the extent required by the provisions of these laws, to which it may be replied, " Then let them be a little slower," and we will all try to live. Forcing a man to register what he owns is no great hardship, and it is a simple duty that he owes to the state and to the mercan- tile community. The adoption of the system would aid materially the ascertainment of a man's commercial standing, hence determine to a large extent his credit in his business. In making up individual returns, they should be permitted to deduct from their total any in- debtedness they might owe, provided the party to whom it was owing added the same to his returns. Since corporations in their individual capacity would pay no tax to the government collector, but would simply be obligated to show up the exact holdings of individuals, if any individual should seek to reduce his returns by reason of a debt due to a corporation, the latter would be obliged to produce evidence of the indebtedness if required by the assessor, and show that it gave to the individual ample and sufficient value for the said obliga- tion, and the individual would be obliged to show proper and regular disposition of that value to the satisfaction of the collector before it would be deductable from his full list of property. What corporations would owe or what they would own matters not, because they w-ould not be assessed, and what they owed or what they owned would determine the value of the stock on which the individual would pay tax, and the value of their bonds would not be difficult of determination. The corporation should, when required, show to the col- lector a list of its bills payable and to whom due, and if any individual owned such note and failed to report it, it should be liable to confiscation. Notes PHRONOCRACV 133 or obligations between corporations themselves would be of no consequence whatever, because the govern- ment would have to do only with individuals, and the holdings of corporations, or the debts of corpora- tions, i. e., the floating debts, would affect the value either by increase or decrease of the stock held by individuals. This individual restriction will not hamper enterprise, but simply give more people an opportunity to avail themselves of the profits of enterprises essen- tially monopolistic in their nature, and afford the means whereby individuals could support the government in proportion to their ability. If the conservative people consider the thing right in principle, details as to listing and espionage will be easily arranged. The necessity of non-limitation of corporate concen- tration is seen in many enterprises. For example, the bridge across the East River between New York and Brooklyn, the magnificent structure completed in 1890 across the Firth of Forth in Scotland, the Saint Gothard Tunnel under the snow-crowned Alps, and many other instances are at hand, and as civilization progresses these will be extended both in number and magnitude. It may be possible some day to bridge the Atlantic Ocean, and if so why not do it ? There was a time when it was thought impossible to cable it, but that time has long since passed. It is by no means impossible that some day a single corporation may exist with a capital of ten billions of dollars ; in fact, if the railways of America had been, in 1890, owned by one company (and with cumulative taxation why not ?), they would have represented about ten billion, and would perhaps be operated more cheaply and expeditiously than now. There is no denying the fact that increased capital increases facility, and that increased facility increases 134 POLITICS AND PROPERTY cheapness as well as expedition, hence it is actually better to operate large enterprises under one head than under several heads. This is forcibly shown in the case of the American Standard Oil monopoly. This institu- tion, by dint of good management and opportune condi- tions, secured such concentration of capital as to enable it to practically command the railway rates of freight on its products, and when these became inadequate it con- structed its own pipeways, thus possessing itself with facilities for transportation and distribution in excess of all competition, which resulted in colossal fortunes to the few individuals, and that, too, in the face of an actual reduction to the consumer of the price of the com- modity ; so that in this case, as in many others if man- aged in the same way, increased facilities, consequent solely and alone on concentrated wealth, not only result in colossal fortunes to their projectors but at the same time reduce the price to the consumer. It cannot be successfully urged that this institution is a great detri- ment to society, and if that condition had existed by which its members, who were made one-hundred-million- aires, had been obliged to contribute to government in proportion to their ability they would not have been very seriously oppressed and many more individuals would have participated in the profits. It may be urged that great enterprises would never be constructed but for the enterprise of a few very rich men, that the public purse will never open to any great project, and that if the purse of great individual capitalists was closed or emptied by government there would be no great enterprises. It is a sufficient answer to this to say that if the public don't care sufficiently for an enterprise to contribute toward or to invest in a company that seeks to put it forward, then the public will not grieve much by reason of its non-ex- PHRONOCkACV 135 , istence, and to permit these things to be, just to make the rich richer when the public is indifferent, is a policy that may soon be abandoned, be it said to the good sense and humanitarianism of the conservatives of the earth. Things are not as they used to be. Once kings held in their hands the lives of their subjects, now the subjects hold in their hands the destinies if not the lives of the kings. *' A man can fish with a worm that has fed of a king and then eat of the fish that has fed of that worm." The proposition that great enterprises will not go on is by no means proven ; it is a simple dogmatic assertion, and like all assertions unsupported by evidence, affects only the character of those wlio utter them. It is found that popular investment in corporations is largely, if not wholly, withheld by reason of the very fact that some of the individuals are rich enough to obtain complete con- trol, which usually results in the destruction of the small investor. With one man who owns fifty-one per cent., the hundred men who hold together forty-nine have prac- tically no voice. They can not elect a single director nor have any voice in the management whatever, yet it would not do to urge that majorities should not control, because that would in fact check enterprise and prevent concen- tration on anything or in any direction ; in other words, discontented minorities would be forever interfering with the business of the organizations, creating discord and confusion which must inevitably so hamper the progress of the enterprise as to render its business un- profitable, it matters not how favorable its opportunities ; or, in other words, that a house divided against itself must fall. It is therefore futile to assume that majorities should not control. By-laws have been adopted by some corporations requiring a two-third vote to accomplish the election of a director or to determine any policy, but this 136 J'OLITICS ANJ^ I'kOFERTV and similar concessions to the minority invoke a great' injustice to the majority, and its plans are often frus- trated by captious interference. There must be a head, and this head when once chosen must control and direct till the end of his term. But where majorities are held by one or two men there is never any or at least little opportunity for an alteration of the policy or manage- ment of the organization in the interests of or in con- formity with the views of the remaining stockholders, whereas if majorities were held by many men the control never would become autocratic, but when the officials are once chosen and the policy fixed its administration can be quite as efficient as when wholly in the hands of the one-man owner. Why could not a certain individual of unquestioned fitness and capacity manage the affairs of a railway, a bank, or other corporation if chosen by ten or even a hundred men to constitute the majority as well as if elected by only one, and in corporations, monopolistic in their nature, the result of the combined opinions of many stockholders is usually more in keep- ing with the best interests of the corporation, and always more representative of the rights of the community (which should not be wholly ignored) than are those subject to the autocratic domination of the one-man power in the selection of managing officials. When the officers are once chosen, even though at the behest of several rather than of one, they are none the less able to handle the business of which they are the recognized head with equal decision, individuality, and firmness ; and if at the end of a term the management had been successful there would be no question as to succession for an indefinite period, and if not, then necessarily and properly a new management should prevail. Thus, therefore, under the present system, when a few very PHRONOCRACV 1 IJ rich men can combine, or one can, at his option or fanciful caprice, " freeze out " the minority, there is not only no inducement for the public to take stock, but an absolutely unquestioned and st^nsible reason why they should not. Later, when it may come to pass that no great corporation can ever be controlled by a single man, or, if involving a vast sum of money, even by a few men, the populace will spring to the front with avidity and in great numbers and participate in the construction of great and needed improvements. Nearly all great en- terprises in America, by reason of the rapidly increasing population, gain an immense amount from the increments of society. Properties costing originally one or ten mil- lion dollars soon pay interest on from four to forty millions, caused solely by the increase of public patron- age and the monopolistic character of the improvement. In other words, the conditions are such that a rival establishment can not be constructed until the neces- sity has grown so great as to make the value of the origi- nal many times its cost. This is notably the case with the elevated railways in New York City — in fact, with railway properties almost throughout the entire American Republic. The actual cash outlay required to construct the first- named improvement was perhaps not more than $10,000,- 000. In 1890 it was carrying 600,000 passengers daily, producing a gross earning capacity of about 33°>oo° per day, and paid good interest on four times its cost. Thus, therefore, there is an unearned increment of $30,000,000, and that, too, in face of the fact that prices for transportation have been reduced to the minimum — less than originally authorized by law. In a word, there appears to be no possible way of reducing the income ; a lower price would cause increased travel at little in- 138 POLITICS AND PROPERTY creased expense to the company, but to great increased inconvenience to the public, so that it is really a ques- tion whether or not, in making prices low so as to serve a great many, the company is really serving any as they should be served, and this very principle prevails in many other places. It is a question whether or not many kinds of service are not too cheap. Many people would gladly pay increased prices for increased privacy and comfort, and in the case of the particular enterprise to which allusion is made — the Manhattan Elevated of New York — it became not a question of price but one of actual ability to accommodate the public at any reasonable price. The city has grown so enormously, and its geographical position and topographical features are such, that there cannot exist for some time any successful rival — in fact, such is its patronage that the company itself would gladly build more lines, but they are thought to be an infringement upon the street space and an injury to abutting property. And the same conditions prevail in many localities and in many enterprises. The unearned increment will frequently add vast sums to original investors before competition can be engaged in, and all this attributable to the increase of population and consequent demand, and these conditions may yet continue, and in proportion as " freeze out " is reduced, popular participation will be increased. If populated in proportion to its area and resources as densely as are most of the countries of continental Europe, excluding Russia, America would contain several hundred million ; and if as dense as Asia, or of some of the most thickly populated of European states — for example, Belgium, which contains over six hundred to the square mile, — it would aggregate more than the estimated population PIIRONOCRACY 1 39 in 1890 of the entire known world. The space within its present limits, before the acquisition of British North America, Mexico, and Central America, rather before the complete establishment of "from the Isthmus to the Arc- tic " policy (which must come), contains more arable land by twenty per cent, than the whole Empire of China, which supports over half a billion people. The acquisition of the British possessions on the north, and of everything on the south to the Isthmus of Panama, would add no great per centum to the existing population, but would increase materially the territorial area, and consequently the ability to sustain more people ; and whilst the population, unaided by any such impetus, has increased about three per cent, per annum, or one third itself every decade, completely doubling itself every generation, with the fresh stimulus of more rich land, under a more stable government, and under that progressive state of society whereby a few could not own the many, and those alone who were worthy could participate in government, the population would be largely augmented in numbers, and inconceivably so in character, until it would appear as though Europe would be obliged to adopt the same institutions or lose her prestige on the face of the earth. And thus the un- earned increments would grow as to railways, highways, canals, and waterways, as to land, — in fact, as to every- thing that could not be multiplied and increased so as to remove the monopolistic features, but these incre- ments would be more equitably divided. At present and for some time past great objection has been made, and the public have been told that great wrong has been inflicted upon society, by reason of an increased capitalization of certain, in fact, of nearly all, cor- porations, a i)rocess commonly called " watering the I40 l'()LITICS AND PROPERTY stock." The wrong inflicted by this is more imaginary than real. If a corporation has a net earning capacity of five per cent, on ten million dollars, its shares in the older and more thickly settled parts of the country will sell at par on the basis of one hundred, and, if its prospects are good, at a higher rate. If subsequently, by reason of this very increase of population and demand, and at the lawful rate for traffic, its net earnings should be doubled, as is the case in many instances, then, as a matter of course, it would pay ten instead of five per cent, on its then capitalization, and if five per cent, previously maintained it at par, then ten would just as reasonably cause it to be worth two for one. What matters it whether the capitalization is ten million and worth two for one, or twenty million and worth only par. Un- earned increment has doubled its net earning capacity, and it is the merest child's play — the rankest ignorance — to say that the simple doubling of the shares works any injury. People need not buy them, but they do buy them, and at times are glad to get them — especially will this be so when that condition is instituted wherein no one man, or even a few men, can autocratically get half and control all. There is no serious objection then against " watering the stock," and there should never have been any. The wrong is not there, it is deeper down than that, but the superficial observer cannot see it, and that is the trouble. Just so blatherskites prate about unlawful holdings, and so forth, all of which is nonsense or ignorance, or both. From such shallow-pated reformers as these the millionaire fears no result, and they will never accomplish any. A certificate of stock is nothing but an evidence of ownership, and if any man owns two shares worth PHRONOCRACY I4I together two hundred dollars, he is no richer than if he owned only one share worth two hundred dollars. Like- wise is there great injustice sought to be practised against corporations by obliging the organization as such to pay tax on its property and then force the individuals also to pay tax on their shares. This is radically unjust. One or the other should pay — not both. The cumulative rate takes the individual, only leaving the corporation alone, because corporations must have no limit — if so, civilized progress must stop. The vital objection to all previous propositions for political, commercial, and social reformation is that enterprise would be stifled. Not so under Phronocracy ; but great properties would simply be more popularly owned. Likewise under other systems would effect follow cause in almost exact p?-oportiofi. Give to the populace all the needs of life free and with- out labor, and there will soon be nothing to give ; give half ireQ and do not increase prices on the other, and labor competition will inevitably reduce labor's pay. Phronocracy has a tendency in the same general direc- tion, but it cannot be proportionate. One hundred men may be relieved of taxation to the extent of one dollar each ; but one man might be burdened to the extent of one hundred dollars. In no way is it possible for the latter to secure increased revenue proportionate to his in- creased tax ; but he can, nevertheless, ozun and efij'oy what is reasonable and Just. CHAPTER VII. Probable result of the practical application of the cumulative tax — Distributes corporate and other ownership to a maximum limit of about four million to one individual — More practical and simple than income tax — Requirements of the federal government fully met — More equitable distribution assured — Average levy on all property only fifty cents per hundred — Evasion impossible — • Least burdensome and most certain and just of all taxation — Greater distribution useless and hurtful — The only true ' ' protective system." Having outlined some of the principal steps that are proposed to be taken looking to the adoption of the amendment, and before entering upon an explanation as to how the thing can be accomplished, it is well to con- sider slightly more in detail the supposed result of the system. It has been partially explained how it is proposed to make the assessments and collections, and the penalties to be inflicted for violation of the laws incident thereto. There would be, in fact, but few cases of violation on record, because on the average estate the government's levy would not be large ; it would only seriously affect the many times a millionaire, and these are going to be comparatively few, but their present estates are colossal. For example, the rate being based on each one thou- sand dollars, and equalling one cent for each, or the one hundred-thousandth part of the estate, would apply itself as follows : 142 PHRONOCRACV M3 otal Value of Estates. Rate of Taxation Cumulative 1,000 dollars. .01 per mille. 10,000 " .10 ( 1 100,000 1. 00 1 ( 1,000,000 10.00 ( ( 5,000,000 '• 50.00 " 10,000,000 " 100.00 i ( 100,000,000 1,000.00 " It will be observed, therefore, that allowing nothing for local taxation, and estimating five per cent, as the rate of income that maintains investments at par, when the estate reaches five millions outgo will equal income, and that thereafter a continual loss will result to the capitalist until, when the one-hundred-million estate is subjected to its operations, the whole would be absorbed at once. The continual loss on estates above five million would, of course, soon consume the excess, so that unless distributed to the uncles, the cousins, and the aunts, it would be taken possession of by the government. All forfeitures to the government — that is, property of which it would become possessed (which would not be great nor frequent) — could be every six months put up and sold, and the proceeds turned into the treasury as a part of the government's fund. The property would, of course, usually be bought by those who were not too rich to own and pay taxes on it. For example, if the govern- ment became possessor of a block of one million of the stock of a certain railroad company, it would simply offer it for sale and put the proceeds into the treasury. The individual from whom it came would simply lose it by reason of violation of the law. The means for ascertaining individual holdings would therefore not be seriously complicated, and, as has been said, since the cumulative rate would not be severe on the majority, — on none, in fact, till they became millionaires or over, 144 POLITICS AND PROPERTY — the disposition to secrete would be by no means great nor general In the case of stocks and bonds, however, there would be some question (especially in the case of securities not listed on the stock exchanges) as to their proper assessible value. There was a proposition to assess all at one hundred cents on the dollar, which, it was urged, would prevent the old objectionable practice of 'Svatering stocks," and cause all companies to issue only that amount of securities that could be maintained at par. This looked simple and just to that uninitiated and superficial ob- server who had heretofore imagined that there was a great wrong inflicted by increasing the corporate capi- talizations. This would prevent that, it is said, and would be simple and reasonable, working no injury to the individual holder, for the corporation would always reduce its capitalization to the maximum, which would be worth par. It is a satisfactory argument against this to say : what would prevent the corporation from so re- ducing its capitalization as that, though assessed at par, it would really be worth three or four for one ? It would therefore be found better to assess all at as near its cur- rent selling value as could be ascertained. In the case of the largest corporation (which would be the most important and contain the greatest number of shareholders) the monthly average would afford a very good criterion, and in most cases there would be very little difficulty. The collectors and individuals could usually arrive at a very fair conclusion, both for the gov- ernment and the individual. In case, however, all efforts at determining the value should fail — that is, in case they could not agree, the government should have a right to demand of the company, say, one per cent, of its securi- ties, and the company would of course obtain these by I'HRONOCRACV I45 calling them in from the individual holder. These secu- rities the collectors could offer for sale on the open mar- kets after proper advertising, paying, as a matter of course, the proceeds thereof back to the corporation ; but the price they brought should be the rate at which all individuals in that corporation should be assessed during that annual payment. The government would take no note of incomes. If the holder of property re- ceived none, that would be his own misfortune and not the government's charge, and if he received forty per cent, on a property that could only properly be assessed at par, that would be the individual's and not the gov- ernment's gain. All it would want would be its revenue on the cumulative basis. If property did not pay, such as vacant city lots and the like, that would not be the government's business, and the individual could sell them and invest in something else. Taxation on incomes has been tried (not cumulatively, however), and it does not work. It is difficult to ascertain at all times and from all prop- erty just what the income is ; but it is not difficult to ascertain that a man has property, and whether it brings in an income or not alters not its liability to the cumu- lative tax. If it continuously paid no revenue, in the natural course of things the value would decline, unless it was caused to advance by increasing demand, as city lots or suburban farms or any other class of property. The cumulative feature would be the essence of the whole thing any way, and it would be imposed on property di- rect, because property should pay its tax. With greater complication and less certainty of result it might be placed upon incomes ; but it matters not how the cumula- tive rate is applied, it would work the same result under all possible conditions ; why, therefore, should the gov- 10 146 POLITICS AND PROPERTY ernment bother about incomes, which are an incident to property and dependent much upon its management and control, when it could effect the same, in fact a better, result from the property direct on the assumption (which is just) that if it does not yield income, it should. The point now is also raised that, since corporations would not be called upon to account to the government nor be in any Avay subjected to the cumulative tax, all busi- ness would drift into corporations, and there would be no tax collected. Corporations could only be organized by five or more, and in some States by not less than eleven men or more, and of course be they five, eleven, or eleven hundred, they would be obliged to account to the collector as individuals. There would be no difficulty in regulating the system ; it is not of course as simple as simply taxing the land only, but its votaries will likely be men who are not seek- ing simple things. On the ground of simplicity and perhaps of convenience a simple gown might be worn made of sufficiently thick material to protect us from the wind, but society likes a little more complication. The advocates of a more equitable distribution of the property of the earth and of stability in government, by the exclusion from participation in it of the rabble of the earth, are not seeking simply a simple method of collect- ing taxes, though all things considered the plan would prove in fact to be the very simplest ever devised. All that there would be in it different from what every county assessor in the land is doing every day would be simply to get the whole of a man's estate together and have the tax paid to one collector so that the cumulative rate could take effect. The requirements of the general government, relieved » PHROxVOCRACV I47 from extravagance, are now about $300,000,000 an- nually ; but notwithstanding the increase in popula- tion, the decrease in the public indebtedness, and the curtailment of the useless, unwarranted, and unreasona ble pension lists, and, above all, by reason of the curtail- ment of the ballot and the betterment of the management of public affairs consequent thereon, the annual expendi- ture can be very much curtailed. Almost wasteful ex- travagance and prodigal expenditure can be nevertheless indulged in as to the improvement of inland waterways (which the general government controls), the erection of coast defences and similar public improvement, also the construction of a navy, which may soon be more necess- ary than heretofore, by reason of the eventual acquisition of almost all the Greater Antilles and many islands in the Pacific Ocean ; yet even with all this, $300,000,000 per year should be ample, and may exceed the average. It is clear that $300,000,000 could be obtained on the basis of $6 1 ,000,000,000 of property (which is less than the census return of 1890) by the imposition of the exceed- ingly small levy of but five dollars on the thousand, or fifty cents on the hundred of property valuation. It may be, however, that the cumulative rate of itself would not equal that figure. It would require an estate of just half a million dollars to create a rate of five dollars per thousand, and it is evident that the average estates of the people generally would not reach that figure, notwithstanding the vast excess of a compara- tively few. The vast majority of the public who would be owners at all would hold property in amounts less than $100,000, so that whilst the rich would be obliged to pay from twenty to forty dollars per thousand, so many people would pay less than one dollar per thou- sand, that the average might not be five dollars, thereby 148 rpLITICS AND PROPERTY rendering it necessary for the government to impose in addition to the cumulative rate a special uniform levy. The cumulative rate would be figured first by simply dividing the property by 100,000, or by counting one cent for every thousand of the aggregate, then to this would be added any special rate that might be fixed. Of course the direct levy might never be needed, and it would be variable as the wants of the government would require, but the cumulative rate would be identically and essentially the same, and would have always to be counted first. For example, if an estate aggregated ^100,000, that individual's cumulative rate would be only one dollar per thousand, whereas if an estate aggre- gated $1,000,000, his cumulative rate would be ten dollars per thousand as against the other man's one dollar per thousand. When any estate reached five million dollars, then the rate cumulative would be fifty dollars per thousand, or just five per cent, interest, which would make this an unprof- itable estate, at least less so than if it had been three or four instead of five million dollars. There would be no evading the cumulative rate except to secrete the property, and this would be desired only by the rich, and they would fear the severe but just and proper penalty. It would work like unto a governor on an engine ; it would start her when she was slow by opening the throt- tle, and stop her when she was fast by closing it. There is no property whatever that should be made exempt from the cumulative tax, not even government bonds, but the government might, if it chose, relieve its bonds from any special levy that it found necessary to impose on other property; but it should be made an express con- dition that all property should be subject to this cumu- lative tax, without any power anywhere to remove it 1 IIRONOCKACV ^ 149 Other than by a total abolition of the fundamental law that created it. This would, of course, be necessary, for otherwise some large capitalists would evade the cumu- lative rate by buying up that class of property that was exempt ; hence none should be exempt. Municipalities might exempt their bonds from city tax, but there should exist nowhere any power, except by the abroga- tion of the amendment itself, to relieve any property from the cumulative tax. The very origin and essence of the system of regula- ting the extremes of society pre-supposes its application to everything, otherwise its utility would be nil. Of the many who have written on the subject of political econ- omy, all have given ideas more or less valuable, as to the best manner of securing wealth, both individual and national, but none as yet have invented a feasible system for equitable distribution. To give to one man, or to permit such conditions to exist in society as will enable one man, which is the same thing in effect, to amass a fortune ridiculous and monstrous in its magnitude, is not an equitable distribu- tion even to that man as an individual. It is not the re- sult of his own genius, it is not required as a reward for his genius if it is the result thereof, and hence is useless and unnecessary ; and, to permit it to exist whilst our eyes are confronted with an astonishing mass of human wretchedness and woe, it is not surprising that some have thought, as did Hobbes, that " hostility is the natural bent of man, both to things around him and to his own kind." And that others, as did Rousseau, " that the savage life is far preferable to the most enlightened civiliza- tion"; tliat it would be better that all should breathe the foul air in the gloom of a cave, than that a few 150 POLITICS AND PROPERTY should luxuriate in splendor in the palaces of kings and others in their very shadow die of wretchedness, squalor, and starvation. Cicero, in substance, compared the world to a theatre which is common to the public, and yet the place that any man has taken is for the time his own. Assuming, however, that what a man has is his own, it is proper that he should control and enjoy that (his own) to within a reasonable limit ; but since every- body admits that all men must, as in a civilized state all men do, sacrifice a modicum of their individual liberty for the well-being of society, why should they not like- wise sacrifice their unnecessary accumulations for the same beneficent purpose ; and since one man is not better able to sacrifice liberty than another, but is able to sacrifice property better than another, why should he not thus sacrifice ? The man or party that seeks to completely eradicate poverty will find his task abortive and impracticable, if, in fact, it is not wrong. " The poor ye have always with you," means more than it says. The poor ye ;//«.r/ have always with you is, or to the extent that any man has ever been able to prove to the contrary, as natural a con- dition as to breathe air or to drink water. Its rigors, its wretchedness, and its horrors can be and should be miti- gated, but there is no possible scheme consistent with man's right to the fruit of his labor, by which it can be absolutely removed. " Things without remedy should be without regard." " Why, therefore, should we fools of nature thus shake our disposition with thoughts be- yond the reaches of our souls ? " Yet it is perhaps as well that all vanities should have their votaries, all fads and phantomnations their followers. Discussion does no harm, for it only kills the phantomnation quicker than 't would die of inanition. PHRONOCRACV I5I " The world is still deceived with ornament ; In law, what plea so tainted and corrupt, But, being seasoned with a gracious voice, Obscures the show of evil? In religion, What damned error, but some sober brow Will bless it, and approve it with a text, Hiding itsgrossness with fair ornament? There is no vice so simple, but assumes Some mark of virtue on his outward parts. How many cowards, whose hearts are all as false As stairs of sand, wear yet upon their chins The beards of Hercules, and frowning Mars ; Who, inward search'd, have livers white as milk ? And these assume but valours excrement To render them redoubted. Look on beauty And you shall see 't is purchased by the weight ; Which therein works a miracle in nature, Making them lightest that wear most of it. Thus ornament is but a guilded shore To a most dangerous sea ; the beauteous scarf Veiling an Indian beauty : in a word. The seeming truth which cunning times put on To entrap tlie wisest." Between the point of greatest poverty and that of greatest wealth there is a wide gulf, a great chasm, but it can and may be partially removed. No individual should soar too high, and none, if he but exert himself to an extent slightly beyond that required to breathe, can sink too low, unless by a combination of extraordinarily adverse conditions he is forced there, and if so, and his case is worthy, he is now provided for in an asylum or a house for the helpless and infirm. But to further inquire into the practical results of the application of the cumulative tax. Foreign investment in America has been very great, and in many cases very remunerative. It will be urged as an objection to the 152 POLITICS AND PROPERTY system that British gold would be withdrawn, and prop- erties would be thrown upon the market, and widespread confusion and dismay would prevail in all branches of business. The Briton, as an individual, would stand the same before the law as an American as an individual. The foreign holders of property of all kinds would simply be reported to the collector in New York, who would be the only one of the whole list appointed by the Presi- dent, and the rate for their holdings would be made up in the same manner. Not only would it not in any sense deter foreign investment, but it would actually encourage the same for the reason that the administration of affairs would be more perfect, greater security and protection would be assured, and the whole thing be made more satisfactory. America can get along without such for- eign investors as this system would hinder, but it would hinder none. Even England herself would doubtless begin to devise ways and means looking to the adoption of the same system, but such are the characteristics of her people, such the reverence for their ancient and honorable insti- tutions, that even though most of her prominent men should acknowledge its justice and its benefits to the state, yet it would take possibly centuries to introduce it though it should have worked well in America. There would be no difficulty experienced in making the assess- ments, and a list of those who paid taxes would be recorded on the books of the collector, together with their address, which list would be accessible to every- body — to the commercial agency man in completing his books, to the merchant and tradesman in general in the extension of credits ; to all it would be of incalculable value, and all free to the public. It would be about the r!ik()\( icRA(:\' 153 best possible criterion as to a man's actual wealth, for the reason that errors would always be on the safe side. When the rate increases as the property increases, there is a double force applied against the tax-paying citizen, who under no circulations could afford to unduly mis- represent his holdings. Furtheri?iore, everything that he owned would be found listed in the place where he lived — a valuable aid to business men. In making up a list the collector, through his subor- dinates, would canvass the district, and using the same means as are now employed in regular assessments, first put down all country real estate, then city property, then securities which, if in corporations existing in his dis- tricts, would be reported by the companies, or if remote, then by the collector of the district in which they were located, together with any other kind or class of prop- erty in said district. The individual would present his list, and when compared with that aggregated by the collector through his various avenues of information, if all things tallied, the collector would simply divide the whole by one hundred thousand, and say to the indi- vidual : " Your cumulative rate for this half year is thus and so, plus any special levy of, blank, dollars per thou- sand, making a total of, blank, dollars per thousand, which you wdl pay over to the cashier." This would be simplicity simj)lified, and more and better justice would be done and excesses absolutely destroyed. The greatest confusion would exist in the first application of the system in the city of New York, where the question of excess would be most frequent. Here, however, there would be a number of collectors, as many as the city had representatives in Congress ; and since many corporations, though organized under the laws of other States, for convenience and profit main- 154 POLITICS AND PROPERTY tained offices in New York, they would be obliged to make returns in that city, and ere long things would work smoothly. The corporation should designate some place as its principal office, and whether its principal mercantile business was transacted there or not, there would be the place where it would make its report to its resident col- lector, who, in turn, would be obliged to make a report to the collector in other districts, stating the names, residence, and amount of any stock- or bondholder of this company, whose office was in his district. It is no argument against the system to say that, not- withstanding its completeness, some property would be secreted, more than it would be an argument against the internal revenue system on spirituous and malt liquors to say that at times some illicit distillations are dis- covered ; but, on the contrary, the increasing feature of the cumulative rate would compensate the govern- ment for any evasion that might occur, and the individual, though perhaps in a few cases successful in evading, would nevertheless be subjected to the increasing rate, which has never hitherto been made available as an offset against withholding property from assess- ment. To all those who say in effect, " Oh, they will evade the rate " ; " It can be evaded," etc., etc., it may be answered that if but poorly enforced it would be better than if not done at all, and even then would be the most just and equitable and least burthensome tax on earth ; but it would be a strange admission upon the part of an Amer- ican citizen, and a sad commentary on our institutions, to say that the whole force and power of his government on the side of law, and for its rigorous and impartial en- forcement in strict conformity with both its spirit and PIIROXOCRACV 155 letter, would not be equal to the force and power of a few rich individuals in their personal efforts to defy it. Such forbodings give no concern, as of right they should not, for if so then all law is useless, a condition Ameri- cans are not prepared to admit. As stated, it cannot be definitely ascertained just the exact number of estates, nor the amounts held by each individual, nor can an ap- proximation be made that any one could guarantee to be in any degree accurate, so that the people who are asked to support the amendment can only be assured that the cumulative rate would not likely average more than five dollars on each thousand (possibly not that), and that the government might be required to make a special levy to make good a deficiency. It is almost certain, however, that fully half of the property of the United States is now owned by people possessing estates that will average two million dollars, ranging, say, from one million to two hundred millions, and since under the cumulative system, after providing for local taxation, an estate of over three or four million would yield no revenue on a five per cent, basis, and that three million would yield about the same as four, it is a fair presumption that this maximum would be the limit of any individual's wealth. Therefore, if, as this estimate indicates, one half the whole property of the country is now owned by fifteen thousand (15,000) individuals, averaging two million each, and if, as a re- sult of the cumulative system, no individual could own more than four million dollars and retain for himself much net revenue, and if, furthermore, as appears most probable, the hundred millionaires would distribute their property to their friends in lots of certainly not more than three millions each, rather than have their excess forfeited to the State, then the said half of all the prop- erty in the country would be divided into lots certainly 156 I'OIJTICS AND I'ROPERTY not exceeding one million on the average, instead of two- million average as before. The whole assessment in 1890 being nearly sixty-five billion, the half would, in round numbers, be at least thirty billion, which amount in one- million-dollar estates would make the number owning half, only thirty thousand. It is not unreasonable to say that half the property of the country might still be owned by persons holding estates averaging one million, on which basis thirty thousand people would own half the property of the country, instead of fifteen thousand as now, and they could better afford to pay their allotment of tax than the vast popular throng, as numerous as they would be, could afford to pay theirs. A m.illion-dollar estate would yield at five percent, the net annual income of fifty thousand dollars, equal to the salary of the Presi- dent of the United States; it would pay in taxation a cumulative rate of ten dollars per thousand, to which add about one per cent, or ten dollars per thousand more for local levy (to which minimum it can be reduced by good administration and the avoidance of secretiveness), and the total would be, say, two per cent., or twenty thousand dollars per year, which would leave the owner a net revenue of thirty thousand per year, enough for any ordinary man. To him who had an estate of three million dollars, the net result would be but very little greater. The three- million man would have an income, at five per cent., of one hundred and fifty thousand per year, and his rate would, all told, be about four per cent, (three cumulative and one local), making an outgo of about one hundred and twenty thousand, leaving the net result the same, or very little different. If the estate should yield six per cent., the net income would be sixty thousand dollars per year. But to illustrate the respective burden on the PHRoXf >(:if the States is increasing by reason of the discriminating nfluences of the protective system in favor of factories md against the farms, until it has drawn from the coun- try into the cities much of the previous population. It « plain to all that the curtailment of suffrage as pro- posed would doubtless disfranchise many men in an jvercrowded city, where it would one man in the rural districts, and especially is this true in the Granger States of the North and West, where the rural population is made up principally of owners of small tracts of land sufficient for purposes of eligibility. Even in New York, a State where many of the people reside in cities of a population of 100,000 and over, the farmers (being pro- tectionists by recollection of war traditions and prejudice) could almost always secure a majority in their State Legislature, and of their delegation in Congress, and their United States Senators, but seldom the governors of their State, because in State elections the slums of the city counted as effectually as the counties in the country, and in many cases more numerously. It is plain that if in the entire State of New York there are one million votes, and that if half were urban and half rural, any law that disfranchised even five urban where it effected one rural, the ruralists would certainly control in everything. For example, if out of 500,000 city PHRONOCRACV 1 // votes four fifths were disfranchised (and there are almost this ratio of irresponsibles to honest men), there would remain but 100,000 urban votes ; and if in the rural districts there were disfranchised even half, or even as many as two to five city \ otes, instead of one to five as appears most reasonable, then there would yet remain 250,000 rural votes, or a large and substantial majority. The city of New York need have no fear in this result from increased " hay-seed " legislation, for the reason that a property-holding " hay-seed " legislator will, when legislating with a property-holding city legislator, enact laws more in conformity with the interests of both than can ever be secured by ignorance, irresponsibility, hood- lumism, and venality ; and the same will be equally true of all cities in every State. Such figures as these even in their local application, to say nothing of the disposition among the ruralists in the North to settle the negro question forever, may cause New York to tremble in the balance on the ques- tion. The entire North, being especially vexed and an- noyed at the realization of the fact that the increased vote in the South consequent upon negro suffrage (which fails to "suff") and the loafer and boodler vote of the foreigners in New York City could control presiden- tial elections, or even approach the control of same, and as both these classes are vicious, uneducated, irrespon- sible and corrupt — the easy prey of their more intelligent managers and bosses, — will begin to think it a good thing on general principles to deprive all of them of their voice. Especially will this desire be manifested in the Granger States. It would enable the Granger population of these States (in fact of all States, save a few) to control not only the affairs of their own commonwealths as 12 • 1 7^ POLITICS AND PROPERTY against the irresponsible loafers of the cities, but like- wise to insure the electoral and congressional repre- sentation safe to their unquestioned majority. Not only so, but the Granger will begin to see that the policy of protection to factories has not benefited the farms ; that the farms have paid most of the taxes and received none of the benefits ; or, in a word, they have been the contributors, not the recipients, and in conse- quence their farms are heavily mortgaged and their corn is perishing with rot. Here comes at last a proposition that will necessarily tax the rich urban millionaire, who has for about a generation continuously, and at long intervals before, been receiving all the benefits for which they (the Grangers) were taxed, and make him pay more than he had hitherto paid, if, in fact, not one full moiety of all and half, at least, of the other. It also contained a condition that would put into the hands of the ruralists increased proportionate political power by the decreased proportionate voting privileges that would be possible of retention by the cities under the operation of the law. Here is both increased representatio?i arid de- creased taxatiofi — both an inevitable result. Further- more, it would settle the negro question of the South — a canker in the flesh of all Northern men and a scar left from a previous wound in the flesh of all Southerners, but with them no longer an eating sore. The Jatter are willing to obliterate their scar and relieve the North of the festering sore, if the North will consent to purge the nation of its most baleful curse, to wit : igtiorattt suffrage and individual monopoly. The Southern States have nothing to lose, because the disfranchisement would affect but little the white population of their section, and since the foreign pauper of the thickly populated centres of the North would likewise be excluded from PIIRONOCRACY 1 79 the ballot in about the same numbers as the negroes of the South, representation in Congress and in the elec- toral college would not relatively be materially changed: The South might lose effectually the co-operation of New York, which has hitherto been retained by the for- eign ignoramus in the lower wards, unless, as in the Northwestern Granger States, the New York farmer acted on principle, supporting that which caused him gain rather than, on prejudice, supporting that which caused him loss. This is a problem which an actual test alone could determine ; but the Granger States (now becoming exempt from prejudice against the South) can iTiake common cause therewith (which both should have done before), and, had some interest or object arisen that appealed to judgment with sufficient force to over- come prejudice, would have done so before, and the result may be astounding. Even those who reasonably doubt the possibility of ever passing an amendment will begin to think that the legislation may be secured in that way. Here comes the solid South — solid for a pro- gressive idea, for something apace with the advancing thoughts of men. It cannot be urged that the object of the solidity is the payment of Confederate war claims or similar monstrosities, any more than it could be said that the great empire of Western agricultural States that form the advancing procession have become con- verted to the idea of re-enslavement and similar heresies. Long and tedious, however, will be the advance — all waiting for a considerable part of their own number to start. Candidates for Congress and for State Legisla- tures who may espouse the cause at first, can have no hope of greater success than simply the promulgation of the creed among the people. Many will, of course, be beaten and few elected, but in time the light will begin l8o POLITICS AND PROPERTY to dawn. The need for the reform that is proposed is becoming greater and greater, the gulf between Dives and Lazarus is widening, and the corruption in political practices is more infamous and glaring. Schemes and acts looking toward ballot reform are passed but to no avail, as all partake of the character of that policy which seeks to purify from the surface a thing that is rotten at the core. But after many vicissitudes and varying suc- cess, with no deviation whatever from principle, the thing will begin to spread. The sheep will begin to jump, and over will go the entire flock. It is, then, apparent to all that the difficulties in the way of the successful eventuations of the proposition are more to be apprehended by reason of the inability of all parties to thoroughly understand, than from their refusal to extend support and sympathy when all is once made clear. In other w^ords, there never should exist much doubt that at least a majority of the voters of the country would favor the proposition, for, aside from the com- parative universality of the sentiments of the Southern States and people, and the overthrow of anti-bellum prejudices in the rural or Granger States in the great Northwest, and the union of these two great producing sections for the first time since the war for the enactment of legislation directed to their own and not to the New England manufacturer's good, the actual figures bearing upon the subject indicate, if in fact they do not abso- lutely prove, that the scheme can be carried. At least none can deny that the showing is much more favorable and formidable than would have been at any time sup- posed. For instance, there were in 1888 about eleven million voters in the entire United States, and in 1890, say, in round numbers, twelve million voters. There were in 1890 over four million farm owners — not simply ten- I'1IR()\()( RACV l