POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE 
 UNITED STATES 
 
POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT 
 IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 BY 
 ALFRED B. CRUIKSHANK 
 
 1920 
 
 MOFFAT, YARD & COMPANY 
 NEW YORK 
 

 COPYRIGHT, IQ20, BY 
 MOFFAT, YARD & COMPANY 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 PAST FAILURE AND FUTURE DANGERS OF UNLIMITED SUFFRAGE I . v 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 THE OLDEST AND THE BEST AMERICAN TRADITIONS FAVOR A RESTRICTED 
 
 SUFFRAGE 28 ' 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 THE SUFFRAGE IS NOT A NATURAL RIGHT BUT A FUNCTION OF GOVERNMENT 
 AND MAY THEREFORE PROPERLY BE RESTRICTED TO THOSE COMPETENT TO 
 EXERCISE IT 40 " 
 
 v CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE STATE AS THE DEPUTY OF SOCIETY POSSESSES THE JUST POWER OF 
 
 ORDAINING FRANCHISE QUALIFICATIONS SO 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 THE CAPACITY TO CREATE AND PRESERVE PRIVATE PROPERTY IS THE PROPER 
 TEST AND PROOF OF QUALIFICATION FOR ACTIVE CITIZENSHIP IN AN 
 ADVANCED DEMOCRACY 59 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 ORIGIN AND FIRST APPEARANCE OF MANHOOD SUFFRAGE AS PART OF THE 
 
 FRENCH TERRORIST MACHINERY 78 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 IMPORTANT INFLUENCE OF FRENCH RED RADICALISM IN PROPAGATING THE 
 
 MANHOOD SUFFRAGE DOCTRINE IN THE UNITED STATES 83 
 
 CHAPTER VHI 
 
 THE SAFEGUARD OF A PROPERTY QUALIFICATION FOR VOTERS WAS DISCARDED 
 BY A GENERATION OF AMERICANS WHO DID NOT REALIZE ITS VALUE OR 
 THE DANGERS ATTENDANT UPON UNIVERSAL SUFFRAGE 88 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 FIRST EFFECTS AND SUBSEQUENT RESULTS OF MANHOOD SUFFRAGE; SPOILS 
 SYSTEM; TRAFFIC IN VOTES; ORGANIZED CORRUPTION; THE BOSS; THE 
 
 MACHINE; RULE OF POLITICAL OLIGARCHY 109 
 
 v 
 
 428:170 
 
vi CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 SHORT SKETCHES OF MANHOOD SUFFRAGE PROGENY/ THE POLITICIAN AND 
 THE BOSS; THEIR CREATIONS, THE RING AND THE MACHINE; AND 
 THEIR BY-PRODUCT, THE LOBBY 135 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 V THE EFFECT OF MANHOOD SUFFRAGE IS TO FASTEN ON THE COUNTRY AND 
 
 MAKE PERMANENT THE RULE OF THE POLITICIANS 158-- 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 V INJURIOUS EFFECT OF MANHOOD SUFFRAGE UPON AMERICAN LEGISLATIVE 
 
 BODIES 1 74 
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 MANHOOD SUFFRAGE AS APPLIED TO THE GOVERNMENT OF AMERICAN CITIES 
 
 HAS NOT ONLY BEEN A FAILURE BUT A DISASTER AND A SCANDAL IQO 
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 BRIEF REFERENCE TO MANY NOTED DISCLOSURES OF GOVERNMENTAL COR- 
 RUPTION MOSTLY IN STATE AND FEDERAL AFFAIRS SINCE THE INSTITU- 
 TION OF MANHOOD SUFFRAGE IN THE UNITED STATES 2l8 
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 3, THE FOUR YEARS CIVIL WAR TN THE UNITED STATES IS DIRECTLY CHARGEABLE 
 
 TO MANHOOD SUFFRAGE 244 
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 FAILURE AND CONDEMNATION OF MANHOOD SUFFRAGE AFTER A TEN YEARS* 
 
 EXPERIMENT IN THE SOUTHERN STATES 253 
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 - THE EFFECT OF MANHOOD SUFFRAGE IS TO ENSURE INEFFICIENCY IN DO- 
 MESTIC LEGISLATION AND ADMINISTRATION 267 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 VV WEAKNESS AND INEFFICIENCY OF OUR MANHOOD SUFFRAGE GOVERNMENT 
 
 IN ITS FOREIGN RELATIONS 293 
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 
 ROTATION IN OFFICE/ A MISCHIEVOUS BY-PRODUCT OF THE MANHOOD SUF- 
 FRAGE DOCTRINE AND ANOTHER FACTOR IN POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT 
 AND HEREIN OF CIRCUMLOCUTION OFFICE REFORM 305 
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 
 THE EFFECT OT THE OPERATION OF MANHOOD SUFFRAGE HAS BEEN TO GIVE 
 A LOWER TONE TO AMERICAN PUBLIC LIFE 
 
CONTENTS VU 
 
 PAGE 
 
 CHAPTER XXI 
 
 GENERAL PRIVATE AND PUBLIC CONDEMNATION BY THE INTELLIGENT CLASSES 
 
 OF MANHOOD SUFFRAGE POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED 
 STATES; AND HEREIN OF WATCH DOGS AND YELLOW DOGS 320 
 
 CHAPTER XXII 
 
 THE ELECTORATE FUNCTIONS NOT BY ITS INDIVIDUALS BUT BY GROUPS 
 WHEREBY THE ENFRANCHISEMENT OF THE SHIFTLESS AND IGNORANT 
 GROUP NECESSARILY TENDS TO CREATE A VICIOUS POWER IN POLITICS . . 334 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII 
 
 ANSWER TO THE PLEA THAT THE BALLOT SHOULD BE GRANTED TO THE UN- 
 PROPERTIED CLASSES AS A PROTECTIVE WEAPON 341 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV 
 
 ANSWER TO THE PLEA THAT THE PRIVILEGE OF SUFFRAGE BE GRANTED TO 
 ALL AS A MEANS OF POLITICAL EDUCATION/ AND HEREIN OF SILK 
 PURSES MADE FROM SOW'S EARS AND OF AMATEUR HARPING 347 
 
 CHAPTER XXV 
 
 ANSWER TO SUGGESTION THAT UNLIMITED SUFFRAGE IS A PART OF AMERICAN 
 
 LIBERTY 354 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI 
 
 AN UNQUALIFIED NUMERICAL MAJORITY RULE IS NOT IN ACCORD WITH 
 
 GOOD STATESMANSHIP 367 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII 
 
 OF EDUCATIONAL AND AGE SUFFRAGE QUALIFICATIONS FOR VOTERS 373 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII 
 
 WOMAN SUFFRAGE IN THEORY 378 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX 
 
 WOMAN SUFFRAGE IN PRACTICE '. 408 
 
 CHAPTER XXX 
 
 A PROPERLY QUALIFIED ELECTORATE WILL REMOVE THE CAUSES OF THE 
 PREVENT POPULAR DISSATISFACTION AND SERVE AS A DEFENSE AGAINST 
 THE PRESENT MENACE OF BOLSHEVISM 421 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI 
 
 THE CASE is URGENT; THERE SHOULD BE NO DELAY WHATEVER IN ESTAB- 
 LISHING THIS GOVERNMENT UPON A PROPERTY BASIS 434 
 
 CHAPTER XXXII 
 
 CONCLUSION 439 
 
 BRIEF SKETCH OF WRITERS REFERRED TQ. ,,....,..,,.,,,,,,,,.., , ,449 
 
POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN 
 THE UNITED STATES 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 PAST FAILURE AND FUTURE DANGERS OF 
 UNLIMITED SUFFRAGE 
 
 Let us raise a standard to which the wise and the honest can 
 repair; the event is in the hand of God. WASHINGTON 
 
 GREAT numbers of discerning Americans must by this time 
 have been brought to realize that something practical must 
 shortly be done in this country by the believers in 
 private property and private property rights to safeguard the 
 nation from its threatened invasion by Bolshevism, Socialism 
 and other various forms of anti-individualism, or else we are 
 in for a hard and possibly a bloody struggle to maintain the 
 very fundamentals of our social and political systems. From 
 time to time in this country as in every other there occur 
 periods of extraordinary danger to the political structure. In 
 the past we have had several such episodes, the most noted be- 
 ing that of the secession movement culminating in 1860 and 
 1 86 1. The seriousness of the present menace of communism in 
 its various forms is due not so much to the strength of the com- 
 munist faction, considerable though it be, as to the weakness 
 of our civic structure consequent upon the long continued and 
 increasing general distrust and suspicion of our actual political 
 agencies and the confirmed popular dissatisfaction with their 
 operations. Meantime, nothing adequately effective either in 
 the way of strengthening our institutions or of disarm- 
 ing opposition thereto is being done or has even been proposed. 
 A lot of vigorous denunciation has been directed against native 
 
, MI^OpVERNllENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 and foreign Bolshevism, all thoroughly deserved and 'not with- 
 out effect on the public mind, but falling far short of positive 
 acts of defense or protection. Bolshevism is in the field not 
 merely as an abstract doctrine, to be answered with words, but 
 as an active and aggressive force which must be met by meas- 
 ures of active resistance. Such measures to be effective must 
 take the shape of the creation of practical means and methods 
 of offense and defense. The case is not one which admits of 
 trifling; the attack is fundamental, the danger is vital, and 
 cannot be effectually met by superficial expedients. 
 
 Now there is happily one available measure of protection 
 and defense against Bolshevism and all its assaults, one which 
 is manifestly appropriate and will be absolutely efficacious. It 
 is one which has long been highly desirable for other reasons 
 hereinafter set forth, but which in view of the menace of 
 radicalism is now imperatively demanded. It consists in such 
 a reform of the electorate itself as will make it impassible 
 and impervious to every influence subversive of our basic in- 
 stitutions. An electorate of male private property owners 
 of twenty-five years of age and upwards would constitute an 
 absolute barrier against all attacks on private property from 
 any quarter; its establishment would summarily and forever 
 terminate all hopes of Bolshevistic revolution in this country 
 and ensure the American people freedom to enjoy the noble 
 future which Providence has made possible to them. 
 
 The cause of private property rights is in the truest sense 
 the American cause and that to which all other national causes 
 political and social are subordinate. Those rights involve al- 
 most everything which is dear to the American heart. Even 
 our governmental institutions are of secondary importance, 
 they are the instruments merely; the means whereby we seek 
 to obtain among other aids and aims the protection of private 
 property, the absolute assurance to each American of the use 
 and enjoyment of the fruits of his toil, of his self denial and 
 of his foresight. This view is not novel in our politics. It was 
 thoroughly familiar to our Eighteenth Century statesmen, it 
 
FAILURE AND DANGERS OF UNLIMITED SUFFRAGE 3 
 
 was part of the political faith of some of the most prominent 
 among them, including a majority of the political leaders of 
 the Revolutionary epoch. They endeavored to secure these 
 ends and to ensure the future of the new nation by requiring 
 wherever possible a property qualification for voters. Had 
 this practise and its underlying principle been adhered to and 
 (with proper modifications for changed conditions as they 
 might occur) had the government been continued on the basis 
 on which the wise and prudent men of that time endeavored to 
 establish it, it would at this moment represent a satisfactory 
 approximation of a true and scientific democracy able to hold 
 in safe derision its critics and enemies. But the principle of 
 a properly qualified electorate, so vitally essential to an effi- 
 cient democracy has been repudiated and abandoned; the 
 practise of unlimited white suffrage has been general amongst 
 us for about ninety years, and today there can be no doubt 
 that there is a prospect of danger to our country, not because 
 of lack of courage and loyalty in her sons, but because of the 
 unhealthy organism of our body politic, whose modern basic 
 principle, unlimited suffrage, ignores property rights, and 
 looks to control by the representatives of the inefficient and 
 the proletariat whenever they can secure a numerical majority 
 at the polls, thus incidentally accomplishing what Bolshevism 
 directly aims at. 
 
 And now that private property rights heretofore considered 
 as unquestionable are openly attacked, we must prepare for 
 their defense, for the defense of the family, of the American 
 social system and the free individual life, all three of which 
 depend on private property for their existence. The time 
 has come when the institution of private property must be 
 formally recognized and defended as fundamental to our 
 existence as a nation, and such recognition requires and in- 
 volves the allotment to that institution of a place and influence 
 in our electoral system. Private property cannot safely rely 
 for its defense upon officials who are dependent upon the votes 
 of the non-property holding populace. There is no way of 
 
4 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 final avoidance of the issue, or even of long postponing it. 
 This nation must either declare itself definitely as adhering 
 to the principle of private property rights or it must expect 
 disaster. And first, the cause of private property rights needs 
 organization and self consciousness. Property holders can- 
 not properly defend a cause which has never declared 
 itself and which has neither standard nor leaders, while 
 its enemies have both, and are not only proclaiming 
 their convictions with courage, but have enacted them 
 into living statutes wherever they have power. If the institu- 
 tion of private property is to endure in this country it must be 
 formally recognized as representing a sacred cause, to be care- 
 fully committed into the hands of its friends; the electorate 
 must be made over into a property qualified body, and all 
 temptation to Bolshevism must be removed from the American 
 politician. Let this be done, let the constitution of every 
 State be amended so that our voting mass shall be virile and 
 substantial, and freed from the element of effeminacy and in- 
 efficiency now so controlling; give the conservative good sense 
 of the nation a rallying point, an official standard, an authorita- 
 tive creed, and it will speedily make short work of the enemies 
 of social order and of sound political institutions. 
 
 But there is a great deal more to be said in favor of a 
 property qualification for voters than that it will be a wall 
 against Bolshevism. It will act on our political internal sys- 
 tem as a tonic and a purifier. It sometimes occurs in politics 
 and statesmanship that two mischiefs are so bound together 
 that they can be destroyed at one blow. Such was the case in 
 1861-1865, when the causes of the perpetuation of the Federal 
 Union and the emancipation of the black race became by the 
 logic of events so involved as to be practically united, and 
 when by the triumph of the northern armies the mischiefs of 
 chattel slavery and disunion politics were made to perish to- 
 gether. And in like manner we now find not only that unquali- 
 fied or manhood suffrage is the chief source of our weakness in 
 dealing with Bolshevism, but that it has been in the past and 
 
FAILURE AND DANGERS OF UNLIMITED SUFFRAGE 5 
 
 still is the principal cause of our political corruption and gov- 
 ernmental inefficiency. And therefore it has come about that 
 the cause of private property and property rights is so bound 
 up with the cause of administrative purity and efficiency in 
 our government that by the one measure of the establishment 
 of a property qualification for voters the perils of the menace 
 of Bolshevism and the mischiefs of political corruption and in- 
 efficiency may be dispatched together. 
 
 It is in fact principally to the corruption and inefficiency of 
 manhood suffrage government that we owe the popular dis- 
 satisfaction out of which the hopes of American Bolshevism 
 are bred and nourished. The failure of democratic institu- 
 tions in this country must be admitted and it is almost entirely 
 due to the operation of manhood suffrage. We have aimed at 
 theoretical perfection, the natural conditions have been most 
 favorable; we have loudly called the world to witness the ex- 
 periment, and the world has condemned it as a political failure. 
 This statement will hardly be challenged, but it is well sup- 
 ported by available proof, and need not rest merely on the 
 assertion or opinion of the writer. And right here the reader 
 may as well be informed that it is the author's intention to 
 support his material assertions with such evidence as the 
 nature of the subject permits. Such readers as are tolerably 
 familiar with American political history will recognize the 
 truth of most of the statements of fact contained in these 
 pages ; but the reasonable doubts of the politically uninstructed 
 will be removed as far as conveniently possible by reference to 
 records and to the testimony of reliable witnesses. Here there- 
 fore we quote on this branch of the subject from an address 
 of Henry Jones Ford, President of The American Political 
 Science Association, delivered at the Annual Meeting at Cleve- 
 land, December 29, 1919. 
 
 "There was at one period an enthusiastic belief that in the Con- 
 stitution of the United States reflection and choice had at last super- 
 seded accident and force, and that a model of free government was 
 now provided by which all countries and peoples might benefit. 
 
6 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 The effect upon governmental arrangements was once very marked, 
 but complete examination of the documents shows that this influ- 
 ence soon spent itself, and a decided change of disposition took 
 place. If, for instance, one shall attentively consider the constitu- 
 tional documents of all the Americas, one will observe, that although 
 in their early forms the Constitution of the United States was the 
 model, this is no longer the case. The Constitution of the French 
 republic now excels it in influence. The United States has lost its 
 lead, despite the fact that never has our country bulked larger in 
 the world than now. The present situation is indeed a striking con- 
 firmation of Hamilton's opinion that error in our republic becomes 
 the general misfortune of mankind, for it is a fact well known to 
 every student of politics that a belief that our system of govern- 
 ment is a failure on the essential point of justice is now a potent 
 influence on the side of social revolution throughout the world. . . . 
 Students of political science will generally agree that the three 
 greatest works of this class, all displaying wide knowledge and deep 
 thought, are De Tocqueville's Democracy in America, first published 
 in 1885; Bryce's American Commonwealth, 1888; and Ostrogorski's 
 Democracy and the Organization of Political Parties, 1902. These 
 works form a crescendo of censure upon American government, each 
 re-examination of the subject confirming previous disapproval and 
 adding to it." 
 
 Needless to say that the writers referred to by Ford and 
 others hereinafter referred to fully sustain his statements above 
 quoted. Our government has not only been a failure on the 
 essential point of justice as President Ford points out, but 
 a still greater failure on the equally essential points of purity 
 and efficiency. The democratic system in actual operation 
 among us has been productive of corruption and mismanage- 
 ment to such an extent as to cause and justify the almost uni- 
 versal verdict that popular misgovernment rather than popu- 
 lar government has been the outcome. Hence general dissatis- 
 faction and unrest; hence the danger of revolutionary move- 
 ments, with which we are openly threatened. 
 
 It is often said that governments reflect the character of the 
 people. If that were so in this country, as our people are con- 
 
FAILURE AND DANGERS OF UNLIMITED SUFFRAGE 7 
 
 ceded to be one of the most intelligent in the world, we would 
 have one of its best working governments; instead of which 
 we have one of the most wasteful, corrupt and inefficient. Our 
 inferiority in this respect has been universally recognized both 
 in this country and abroad for the last fifty years or more; it 
 is a common-place of conversation; and has caused number- 
 less Americans to feel rage and indignation at home and to 
 suffer shame and humiliation abroad. It has been the subject 
 of innumerable books, pamphlets, sermons and lectures; it has 
 inspired denunciation, satire and invective in pulpit, and on 
 platform; the press has reeked with the disgusting details of 
 the corruption, ignorance and incompetence of our office 
 holders. Everywhere in the United States is to be found great 
 popular dissatisfaction with the operations of our government, 
 profound distrust of its methods and spirit, and conviction that 
 there has been a failure to reach the standards and to realize 
 the hopes of the Fathers of the Republic. This dissatisfac- 
 tion and distrust, this conviction of failure is not confined to 
 any class; it pervades all classes; it is widespread; it is to be 
 heard freely expressed day by day and hour by hour alike in 
 the business office and in the bar-room, in the private dwelling 
 and on the street; by the mechanic, banker, tradesman, laborer 
 and lawyer. In short it is a matter of common knowledge that 
 for about eighty years past the United States and each of them 
 has been in many important respects badly, corruptly and in- 
 efficiently governed. Read for instance this statement recently 
 published by an able American student and writer, and say 
 whether it does not indicate a state of things fruitful with 
 danger to the Republic, in two principal ways; one, that of 
 its decay by corruption, the other by furnishing material for 
 scandal and propaganda to its enemies. 
 
 "The present situation has been described over and over again. 
 Briefly, it is constant encroachments by the legislature upon the 
 executive; legislation under irresponsible 'bosses' for personal ends, 
 blackmailing of corporations by politicians, and of society by cor- 
 porations to recoup the plunder of the politician, or to accumulate 
 
8 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 ill-gotten gain, both of them very good imitations of the Spanish 
 policy in the colonies which is terminating in the ruin of an em- 
 pire; favours shown to special forms of business and industry; 
 unjust taxation; the irresponsible conduct of our legislatures whose 
 deliberations are the signal for alarm and confusion in the com- 
 mercial world; and mass-meetings every week to frighten politicians 
 into submission, libel, bribery, and lying in campaign work, gov- 
 ernment by perjurers, pugilists and pimps, and political leadership 
 by men who know no arts but those of Alcibiades and Catiline all 
 these and a hundred other facts like them create a profound and 
 justifiable suspicion of institutions that confer the supreme power 
 upon those who are equally unfit to govern themselves and others." 
 Democracy, Hyslop, p. 294. 
 
 Now, let us more carefully examine and consider the essen- 
 tial character of the political system which has produced these 
 unsatisfactory results. Its basis is unlimited or unqualified 
 suffrage, until recently appearing and manifested as "man- 
 hood suffrage," but now, since the so-called "enfranchisement" 
 of women more nearly fitting the name "universal suffrage." 
 In any case in theory at least it is government by numbers, in 
 contradistinction to government by intelligence, birth, wealth, 
 experience, talent or by any combination of these or other quali- 
 ties or achievements. This doctrine of unlimited or unqualified 
 suffrage is now and has long been recognized as an established 
 principle of government in this country by most of us; indeed 
 we may say by all Americans with the exception of the natives 
 or inhabitants of the Southern or former slave States. By 
 these latter pure manhood suffrage has been tried and con- 
 demned and has been replaced by white manhood suffrage 
 by means of certain well known and successful political de- 
 vices amounting practically to a strict race qualification; 
 though the important and suggestive fact that thereby the 
 basic principle of manhood suffrage was expressly repudiated 
 by the entire South has been carefully blinked by Americans 
 generally. 
 
 In a general way we may say then that manhood suffrage 
 
FAILURE AND DANGERS OF UNLIMITED SUFFRAGE 9 
 
 is everywhere in the United States the legally recognized 
 method of choosing all our lawmakers and many of our ad- 
 ministrative officials; that white manhood suffrage actually 
 obtains in the Southern States; and that in the other States 
 constituting about three fourths of the whole, every resident 
 male citizen, native or naturalized, and in some of them resi- 
 dents not naturalized, may vote. In sixteen of the forty- 
 eight States the suffrage has within recent years been extended 
 to women. So that at present the basis of government in the 
 United States is manhood or male suffrage in all the States with 
 the addition in some of them of female suffrage; or in other 
 words, ignoring the negro situation, we have manhood suf- 
 frage in thirty- two and universal suffrage in sixteen States. 
 In all of these States elections are frequent, in most annual, 
 in others biennial, in a few quadrennial. 
 
 The controlling political importance of these elections is 
 evident when we consider that thereby are chosen all the mem- 
 bers of both houses of the various State Legislatures, of both 
 houses of Congress, the governors of the states and the Presi- 
 dent and Vice-President of the United States, that is to say the 
 entire body of lawmakers of the country. Also in many of 
 the States are thus selected the Judges of the Courts higher 
 and lower, and numerous administrative state officials, such 
 as State Attorneys, Auditors, State Engineers, Financial Offi- 
 cers, etc. Besides these there are elections of almost equal 
 practical importance of minor or local officers, such as Sheriffs, 
 County Attorneys and Supervisors, Mayors and Aldermen of 
 Cities, and miscellaneous officials. Beyond all this, the elec- 
 torate is required from time to time, and in some States at 
 nearly every election, to pass upon constitutions, or amend- 
 ments or provisions of constitutions, state and federal, refer- 
 enda and propositions of various kinds involving sometimes 
 vast expenditures. For none of these elections is any voting 
 qualification practically required of the resident citizen, ex- 
 cept that of color, and that only in the South. 
 
 It is interesting and curious to note how under our system 
 
10 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 of popular elections, government as legally constituted is merely 
 a product of a process of aggregation of numbers. In practise, 
 this numerical system is modified by the low despotism of Boss 
 rule, but in theory it rests on an arithmetical count of heads, 
 many of them cracked, others of various degrees of emptiness, 
 without taking note of merit, capacity or fitness. And right here 
 in order to fully realize the force and sweep of the numerical 
 system of government we should remember that the effect of 
 the vote of the electorate is not confined to the directly elective 
 offices; it extends to the appointive offices as well; for the 
 appointing power, whether President, Governor, Senate or 
 Legislature being chosen by election, is under the necessity of 
 selecting his or its appointees from those of its supporters who 
 control the most votes. It is not therefore surprising that the 
 politician whom the votes of the populace have made Presi- 
 dent or Governor sometimes appoints a knave or demagogue 
 to public office. Such appointment, however offensive to some 
 of us, may have been in strict accordance with our political 
 system. Under that system the ultimate appeal is never to 
 experience, ability, capacity or character, but always to num- 
 bers; and therefore the official indebted to the power of num- 
 bers for his own high office may possibly be quite justified in 
 continuing the process, and in bestowing his appointments on 
 the representative or controller of numbers, no matter what his 
 quality or theirs. To use the language of practical politics 
 "the man with a following is entitled to recognition" be he 
 demagogue, rogue or humbug; and the President, Governor or 
 Boss who fails to give it to him is false to the modern Ameri- 
 can principle of "numbers win"; in a word he is un-American; 
 and is likely to suffer politically in consequence. In fact we 
 may say generally that government in this country is authorized 
 by numbers, rests on numbers, and is backed and sanctified 
 by numbers and naught else; while our governing class count 
 numbers, live by numbers and need respect nothing but num- 
 bers if of numbers they can obtain sufficient support. The 
 President is selected and appointed as the result of a numerical 
 
FAILURE AND DANGERS OF UNLIMITED SUFFRAGE II 
 
 reckoning; and so with all other officials and the men who 
 choose the officials; the laws are made either by men chosen 
 by the addition of figures, or more directly by a similar count 
 of voters; nearly all of whom are absolutely ignorant of the 
 merits and scope of the projected legislation and each of them 
 lacking other qualification than that he exists and can be 
 counted. The candidate with the largest total gets the office; 
 the project approved by the greatest number becomes law. 
 
 Our government is not one of talent, nor cunning, nor of 
 money, nor birth, nor military force, but of numeral computa- 
 tion; our rulers are not hereditary nor called to rule for their 
 merits nor by the grace of God; they are counted in; it is a 
 government by calculation, an arithmetical government. Our 
 ruling classes are not aristocrats, nor militarists, nor states- 
 men, nor capitalists, nor landowners; they are handshakers, 
 mixers, they have "followings," and their political weight in 
 council does not depend on their wisdom, but on the numbers 
 of the mob running at their heels. We are taught politically 
 to think in numbers, to believe in numbers; in fact, politically 
 we believe in nothing else. 
 
 Now it is clear that the effect of this regime is to disregard 
 much that statesmanship should take into account in framing 
 a nation's polity. There are many other considerations be- 
 sides mere numbers which affect men politically; other forces 
 which far more than mere numbers operate towards the de- 
 velopment of mankind, the shaping of human destiny, the estab- 
 . lishment and fall of political institutions; all of which forces 
 are by our political system completely ignored. In a free play 
 of political life we would expect for instance to reckon with 
 intellect, capacity, energy, industry, wisdom, knowledge, judg- 
 ment, prudence, physical strength, wealth, experience, train- 
 ing, efficiency, and perhaps other qualities, but in our political 
 scheme none of them is considered; everything is ascertained 
 and decided upon and all doubts resolved by an arithmetical 
 process; you take a count and the thing is done. Be the 
 question, for instance, who is the properest man to fill an ad- 
 
12 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 minis trative office of trust and importance; on the one hand is 
 A who has a good physique, is of a fine family, habits good, 
 long training and experience, excellent education, bright past 
 record for efficiency and honor; and on the other B who has 
 none of these valuable qualities, is a little shady in fact; but 
 a glib platform speaker. The number of votes is counted 
 and B has the more and is thus positively ascertained to be the 
 man for the place. Is not this wonderful? Tried by any other 
 test he would have been declared unfit for the position; but 
 the numeral system conclusively demonstrated his fitness. And 
 indeed the writer is compelled to admit that the number sys- 
 tem is deservedly popular with those able to profit by it, and 
 has given promotion to thousands of nonentities who would 
 otherwise have remained in obscurity. So of a project of law 
 involving difficult questions of justice and expediency; students 
 of civics and even great statesmen may be in doubt as to 
 whether it ought not to be amended or modified; but with our 
 system in operation there is no need for study or hesitation; 
 you just invite every one to say "Yes" or "No." Possibly the 
 majority will not understand the project at all or will mis- 
 understand it, but that makes no difference: understanding is 
 not necessary to voting; it is numbers that count, not under- 
 standing. Possibly a conscientious or indolent third of the 
 voters will decline to vote; that makes no difference either; 
 possibly every one of the few who really understand the propo- 
 sition is opposed to it, but that is of little practical consequence 
 as the knowledge or ignorance of the voters is immaterial and 
 is never made the subject of inquiry; possibly the scheme is 
 imperfect and to the knowledge of the well informed plainly 
 needs amendment; it matters not, there is no provision for 
 amendment of details in the numerical system; possibly the 
 project has never been properly presented to the electorate and 
 most of the votes pro or con are the result of ignorance, whim 
 or prejudice; but this fact will not be considered in the result, 
 for an ignorant or prejudiced vote is just as valid as a just and 
 wise one. The system is unfailing; it will solve every dim- 
 
FAILURE AND DANGERS OF UNLIMITED SUFFRAGE 13 
 
 culty; the doubts of able statesmen are answered in a mo- 
 ment by the vote of the female mill hands of Factoryville. 
 You are sure to get some decision, and any decision will serve; 
 for no matter how foolish or unreasonable it may be, no one 
 is responsible; there is no appeal and practically no redress. 
 This electoral scheme would seem to imply a general belief 
 in the capacity of the electorate. It would at first blush ap- 
 pear to be founded upon a theory of the superior wisdom and 
 almost superhuman knowledge and virtue of the masses, 
 whereby every voter is presumed to know who are best fitted 
 to fill the offices of Mayor, Alderman, Sheriff, County and 
 State Attorney, Judge of Courts small or large, State Assembly- 
 man, State Senator, Congressman, State Engineer and Sur- 
 \ veyor, Governor of the State, and President of the United 
 States; and it would seem, besides, that every voter, male or 
 female, is presumed to cast his or her vote with the good of the 
 community and nation at heart. The verdict so taken would 
 thus have something of the effect of an infallible decree; and 
 indeed we note that people and newspapers often speak of the 
 results of an election with a species of awe; and that in the 
 somewhat too common event of a doubtful character or even 
 of a noted scamp being elected to a public office the result is 
 often spoken of as his "vindication." These "vindications" 
 in fact are frequently needed and demanded by political gen- 
 tlemen under a cloud, and have been accorded by the electorate 
 in a surprisingly large number of cases. Nor does the mere 
 capacity to select the best officials measure the full quota of 
 the wisdom and accuracy apparently required by the populace 
 under our political system. They, every man jack, and in the 
 "advanced" States, every woman jenny of them all is from 
 time to time required to vote upon questions which presuppose 
 them to be perfectly familiar with the Constitution of the 
 United States and of his and her own State; to understand all 
 its provisions and to be able to determine the meaning and 
 effect of any and all amendments thereto, which are or may 
 possibly be proposed. 
 
14 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 Now, all this is of course absurd; no such belief in the 
 wisdom of the electorate is entertained by the masses or by 
 anybody, for no one in the world is such a fool as not to be 
 aware that at every election large numbers of the voters are 
 absolutely incapable of passing upon the merits of candidates 
 far above them in education, station in life, and capacity to 
 fill offices whose high duties they could not be made to under- 
 stand by any amount of explanation. Few even of the most ig- 
 norant are unaware that only trained minds are capable of con- 
 struing and understanding constitutional provisions and fore- 
 casting their probable effects. There must therefore exist 
 within the manhood suffrage scheme, some principle or theory 
 more sane than a belief in the omniscience of the rabble of 
 ignorance, stupidity and indifference which it proudly mar- 
 shals to the polls; and though this principle or theory has 
 never been precisely or authoritatively defined, yet on examin- 
 ing the numerous written or spoken expressions in support of 
 universal suffrage found in books, speeches and newspaper 
 articles, we discover that the postulate at the bottom of the 
 manhood suffrage proposition is this: not that the mass of 
 voters are competent judges of conditions or policies, but that 
 they are the natural, necessary and proper arbiters thereof; not 
 that ignorance, stupidity and vice do not go to the polls, but 
 that in the nature of the case they are there and have a 
 right to be there; that it is intended and expected that 
 they shall be actually represented and expressed in the 
 vote; that in politics all have equal right to be heard; 
 that government and law should be an expression of the will 
 of all the people or at least of all of the men of this coun- 
 try; not merely of those having patriotism, experience, virtue, 
 judgment, and wisdom, or any one of these qualities; but of 
 the whole populace; including the ignorant, stupid, worthless 
 and depraved; and that each of these latter should have an 
 equal voice with the wise and worthy. Such is and must be the 
 underlying theory of manhood suffrage; and as women are no- 
 toriously still more ignorant of political affairs than men, the 
 
FAILURE AND DANGERS OF UNLIMITED SUFFRAGE 1$ 
 
 adoption of woman suffrage is evidently a mere extension of 
 this same theory of equality of political value to the female 
 sex; so that under a system of universal suffrage the law and 
 the government include the expression of the ignorance, stu- 
 pidity and depravity of both sexes of the community, state 
 or nation as well as of its education, wisdom and goodness. 
 And this principle is in effect generally carried out at our 
 elections; so that practically the only disfranchised classes are 
 those of the publicly supported paupers and the negroes in the 
 South, and the whole immense national mass of ignorance, in- 
 capacity and hostility to social wellbeing is included in our 
 voting lists and finds expression at the polls. 
 
 From an electorate so constituted, from a system of govern- 
 ment founded on such a perverse theory no good results are or 
 ever were to be expected. Accordingly, we are not surprised 
 to note that the first plain signs of a general political deteriora- 
 tion in American politics were about coincident with the estab- 
 lishment of manhood suffrage in the early part of the nineteenth 
 century. For the first forty years of the republic politics were 
 comparatively pure; the United States was a model among 
 nations; then we note a fatal declension, a swift lowering of 
 standards; we observe the close connection between the estab- 
 lishment of manhood suffrage and the entrance into high 
 places of low politicians; how upon the widening of the fran- 
 chise the management and control of politics in the United 
 States began gradually to pass from the hands of the principal 
 men of the country, the ablest, the most wealthy, the best 
 educated, the most influential, the members of the oldest and 
 best families, and to fall under the control of the professional 
 politicians. This latter class originating at about that period 
 developed into well organized bands who under the leadership 
 of chiefs, since known as bosses, have seized, occupied and still 
 hold and occupy the offices, the machinery of public elections, 
 appointments, and almost the entire control of public affairs. 
 Their management and control have been selfish, corrupt and 
 inefficient. Their legislation has been excessive and poor in 
 
1 6 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 quality; their administration of governmental affairs ignorant, 
 weak, capricious, oppressive, wasteful, careless and dishonest. 
 During all this time the system of manhood suffrage has re- 
 mained unassailed and unquestioned, and the people have lis- 
 tened more or less complacently to fulsome praises of their 
 government system by a venal and superficial press and by 
 ignorant and insincere political platform orators. These, in 
 their speeches and platforms have been easily able to escape 
 imputation of the mischiefs of manhood suffrage and of their 
 own class by charging them upon the opposite party, or upon 
 such of their political opponents as happened for the time 
 being to hold public office. And so elections have come and 
 gone, parties have risen and fallen, officials have been selected 
 as popular one year and thrown aside as unsatisfactory the 
 next, but through it all corruption and inefficiency remain 
 constant and acknowledged features of American political 
 life. 
 
 The time has come when a remedy for this state of things 
 can no longer be safely postponed; the situation is serious; 
 the democratic system is being attacked, and will continue to 
 be attacked here and elsewhere by great numbers of the very 
 class who have heretofore been supposed to constitute its de- 
 fenders and champions. Be they Bolsheviki, Anarchists, So- 
 cialists or what you will, these assailants of our institutions 
 are nearly all of the common people, of the very working class 
 whom it has been and ought to be the pride and mission of 
 America to shelter and satisfy. Many of them were brought to 
 this attitude of revolt by evil conditions in Europe and are con- 
 tinuing here their hostile attitude to organized society and 
 spreading the spirit of mischief among us because they are 
 justly disappointed by our political conditions; finding here 
 in a country supposed to be democratic, the rule of a corrupt 
 oligarchy of politicians thoroughly established and apparently 
 acquiesced in by the people at large. The seeds of discontent 
 which they are assiduously sowing are likely to take root in 
 the breasts of our own people, disgruntled as they are with the 
 
FAILURE AND DANGERS OF UNLIMITED SUFFRAGE 17 
 
 past and present corruption of our politics and the inefficiency 
 of our government. 
 
 This corruption, this inefficiency, long a scandal among us, 
 is the real cause of that popular "unrest," that dissatisfaction 
 the subject of so much comment, which for more than a genera- 
 tion just prior to the German war had been steadily increasing 
 in this country. It was started by the degradation of politics 
 which ensued immediately upon the establishment of manhood 
 suffrage and the inauguration of Jackson and the Spoils Policy 
 in 1829. It was already well under way in 1840; but was 
 subsequently held in check by the Anti-Slavery agitation, by 
 the Civil War and the Southern Reconstruction troubles, which 
 ended in 1876 with the inauguration of Hayes. From that 
 time this popular protest against our political unrighteousness 
 has been steadily on the increase, gaining in power and bitter- 
 ness with the added instances of official unfitness and malad- 
 ministration of public affairs. With the disappearance of the 
 older generations reared in a religious belief in our republican 
 institutions and filled with memories of the honest days before 
 Jackson, appeared the spirit of contemptuous disbelief in offi- 
 cial capacity and honesty which has taken possession of 
 their descendants. The vision of a government administered 
 by statesmen and patriots of the type of Washington and the 
 Adamses has given place in the mind of America to a picture 
 of a sordid gang of corrupt and incapable politicians in power, 
 and it is therefore to the credit of our people that there has 
 been protest, dissatisfaction and "unrest." The popular de- 
 mand that this state of things be remedied is at the bottom of 
 the so-called "unrest," and it is not an unreasonable demand. 
 Never in the world's history was there a people so religious, 
 so patriotic, so disinterested, so idealistic, so appreciative, so 
 tolerant of mere mistakes, so easy to govern justly as the 
 American people; but the best of them are determined that 
 their republican government shall be the ultimate success their 
 fathers promised to make it. They care much less about 
 "world democracy" ; they are far from being such consummate 
 
1 8 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 fools as to believe that our political system is fit for other and 
 inferior races or to want to meddle with the affairs of other 
 nations; but they want Americanism to continue here; they 
 want honest and efficient government established in this coun- 
 try; and they fear the breakdown of those republican institu- 
 tions to which they feel a passionate devotion. 
 
 There have indeed been no lack of efforts at reform. All 
 sorts of expedients have been proposed and every remedy 
 possible has been adopted and tried except the only one which 
 could possibly be efficacious, namely, the limitation and eleva- 
 tion of the electorate. This and the other new idea or so- 
 called political reform has been tried and discarded, or proved 
 of little value; hundreds of penal statutes have been enacted, 
 hundreds of boards, commissions and officials of various sorts 
 have been created; there have been innumerable grand jury 
 inquests and committees of investigations; there have been 
 created new ballot systems, new primary laws; initiatives and 
 referendums, besides thousands of tax-payers' suits, injunc- 
 tions, newspaper campaigns, new reform parties and fusions of 
 old parties, not with the slightest hope of reaching perfection, 
 but in desperate efforts on behalf of common decency. All 
 have failed. Countless political movements have been started 
 and political campaigns fought in the effort to cure the delin- 
 quency, to cleanse the corruption of our local and general 
 governments, with varying temporary success, but without 
 permanent benefit. Men have spent their lives and fortunes 
 in the effort; each new generation hopefully undertaking the 
 task of cleaning the stable only to abandon it in its turn; and 
 nothing permanent or even enduring has been accomplished. 
 Here and there, an individual or a group of political malefac- 
 tors has been punished; here and there schemes for public 
 plunder have been exposed and defeated; the particular sys- 
 tem or legislation which permitted these specific instances has 
 been changed or reformed; this or that particular abuse sup- 
 pressed, and in the aggregate a great deal of mischief has thus 
 been done away with or prevented. But no one pretends that 
 
FAILURE AND DANGERS OF UNLIMITED SUFFRAGE 1 9 
 
 the root of the evil has been removed or that the grasp of the 
 professional politician class upon the throat of the nation has 
 been loosened. The elections from which so much was ex- 
 pected, the men and movements from which so much was 
 hoped, have come and gone without substantial results. The 
 same class of politicians, the same methods, the same political 
 games, the same corruption, the same boss rule, the same 
 old rings, the same fraud, cheating, waste and general 
 inefficiency remain the most striking features of our 
 American public life. The same men, though not always 
 holding the same places, remain in office year after 
 year, and the rule of the oligarchy of professional politicians 
 established eighty years ago goes on forever. When one 
 of its members is turned out of one political job by a spurt of 
 indignation of a gullible and innocent public, he quickly 
 appears in another one just as comfortable and lucrative, and 
 sometimes with a capacity for mischief and blundering rather 
 increased than diminished by the change. 
 
 Seeing this, the reformers naturally ask each other in wonder 
 and disgust what is the matter with the people? What is the 
 cause of their failure to rid themselves of these political gangs? 
 What is the remedy and where is it to be found? To ascer- 
 tain the cause, to correctly diagnose the disease is of course the 
 first and the main problem. Afterwards the remedy. The fact 
 that it persists and has so long persisted in operation affords 
 evidence that it is not superficial but represents an organic 
 defect in our governmental system. Many political students 
 have puzzled over it, many have given the inquiry up as 
 hopeless. In an article in the Atlantic Monthly for July, 1896, 
 the writer, referring to our legislative bodies, notes 
 
 "a decline in the quality of the members in general respect, in 
 education, in social position, in morality, in public spirit, in care 
 and deliberation, and, I think, I must add in integrity also." He 
 finds them subservient to the Boss rather than to public opinion 
 and adds, "To account for this or to say how it is to be mended, is, 
 I admit, very difficult. Few subjects have done more to baffle re- 
 
2O POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 formers and investigators. It is the great puzzle of the heartiest 
 friends of Democracy." 
 
 Among people generally there is a failure to agree upon any 
 specific cause for the sad inferiority of our political condition. 
 Some attribute it to human frailty; some to American careless- 
 ness or good nature; some to the spirit of the age, some to the 
 inherent weakness of democracy. In a very able and scholarly 
 little book published as late as 1918 by Max Farrand of Yale 
 University entitled The Development of the United States, 
 the writer, after referring to persistent and ineffectual attempts 
 of reformers for the past generation to cleanse politics in this 
 country, makes this significant statement (p. 293): "It is 
 "surprising that the people still retain faith in any remedies, 
 "but hope springs eternal and every new plan was able to rally 
 "ardent supporters. To the thoughtful observer, however, it 
 "was evident that the root of the trouble had not been found 
 "and that something more radical or something entirely dif- 
 ferent was necessary." I find no hint in Farrand's book as to 
 what this "something" might be. One may suspect that the 
 worthy professor had tracked the bear to his den but did not 
 care to start him; that he preferred to avoid making his book 
 the subject of controversy by giving his opinion as to what is 
 in fact "the root of the trouble." 
 
 However, he states the problem in a nutshell. All efforts to 
 reform and cleanse our politics have failed, something new and 
 different is needed, some remedy that will reach the very source 
 of the political corruption of our time and country. But after 
 all, there need be very little difficulty in finding the "root of the 
 trouble"; it lies exposed, plain enough for all men to see and 
 to stumble over as they pass to and fro. Many no doubt have 
 identified it who prefer to be silent on the subject, though a 
 few prominent men have spoken out. President Woolsey of 
 Yale, for example, frankly says that "universal suffrage does 
 "not secure the government of the wisest nor even secures the 
 "liberties of a country placed in such a democratic situation, 
 
FAILURE AND DANGERS OF UNLIMITED SUFFRAGE 21 
 
 "much less secures its order and stability." (Pol. Science. Vol. 
 I, Sec. 101). In Reemelin's American Politics (1881) the 
 author says in his chapter on the ballot box that "thickly 
 "strewn around us lie the evidences, that governing by the bal- 
 "lot box, based on universal suffrage and universal qualifica- 
 tion for office is a failure; but why this is so, and what remedy 
 "we should apply is not so intelligible." (P. 168.) In 1871 the 
 Westminster Review, a British radical magazine, published 
 an article on The American Republic, its Strength and Weak- 
 ness in which the dangers of manhood suffrage were plainly 
 pointed out, and its institution attributed to the efforts of 
 demagogues, and to a mistaken conception of suffrage as a 
 right instead of as a privilege to be conferred upon those ca- 
 pable of exercising it. The writer sums up the topic by saying 
 that: 
 
 "The elevation of the government, laws and institutions of a 
 republic must necessarily depend upon the average intelligence and 
 virtue of its voting population. Hence it is a most dangerous experi- 
 ment for America to reduce the qualifications of its voters to the 
 level of the lowest, instead of raising the latter to a certain definite 
 standard at which the right of suffrage might with comparative 
 safety be placed in their hands." 
 
 Another writer thus expresses himself: 
 
 "It is perfectly idle to attempt to give political power to persons 
 who have no political capacity, who are not intellectual enough to 
 form opinions or who are not high minded enough to act on those 
 opinions. . . . Lastly the events of the earlier part of the last cen- 
 tury show us demonstrate we may say, to us, the necessity of 
 retaining a very great share of power in the hands of the wealthier 
 and more instructed classes, of the real rulers of public opinion." 
 (Bagehot, Parliamentary Reform, p. 316.) 
 
 And Lecky predicts that the day will come when the adop- 
 tion of the theory that the best way to improve the world and 
 secure national progress is to place the government under the 
 
22 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 , control of the least enlightened classes will be regarded as one 
 V of the strangest facts in the history of human folly. 
 
 Indeed, but little political discernment is required to enable 
 one to realize the fatal mischiefs attendant upon the plan of 
 according a place in the electorate to females generally and 
 to the ignorant, idle, unthrifty, purchasable, vicious and anti- 
 social males. It is not difficult to see that such a scheme is 
 erroneous in principle, antagonistic to civilization, and to so- 
 ciety as the agent of civilization. History informs us that man- 
 hood suffrage is contrary to our best traditions; that it has 
 been mischievous and unclean in practise; that it has filled the 
 body politic with the foulest corruption; that it is largely 
 responsible for the Civil War and other serious blunders and 
 mischiefs; that it has cost thousands of millions to the Ameri- 
 can people in money stolen and squandered. Reason plainly 
 teaches us that the suffrage is not a natural right, but a func- 
 tion in the social system belonging only to those who by the 
 process of natural selection are qualified as men of education 
 and property to take a part in government; that unlimited 
 universal or manhood suffrage is dangerous for the future and 
 if not overthrown may ultimately cause our national destruc- 
 tion. There is not therefore after all any real difficulty in 
 determining that universal suffrage is the political disease 
 under which America is suffering. Its specific cause is the 
 virus of the rabble vote; men without character and destitute 
 of achievement should be excluded from the suffrage; they are 
 by nature political nonentities, and were they content to mark 
 zero on their ballots thus indicating the real extent of their 
 political value and sagacity they would be harmless; but 
 they are too often the willing tools of scamps and demagogues, 
 and though individually zeros they attach themselves to real 
 figures to give them a fictitious and in this case a maleficent 
 influence. Nor is the remedy far to seek, though so many 
 political writers have been rather shy in hinting it. It is pos- 
 sible by very simple mean?, by a mere return to the original 
 American principle and American practice of a property quali- 
 
FAILURE AND DANGERS OF UNLIMITED SUFFRAGE 23 
 
 fication for voters to so reform our entire governmental sys- 
 tem from the foundation upwards that it will become efficient 
 and enduring and capable of defying all the political madness 
 of the times. The democratic theory would thus be retained, 
 but it would be purified and strengthened by a return to the 
 principles of the fathers of the republic. We have failed be- 
 cause we have attempted in defiance of those principles to 
 create a democracy founded on numbers and on nothing but 
 numbers. The resulting product has not been a true democ- 
 racy; it has not properly represented and does not properly 
 represent the American nation, which consists not merely of 
 population but of American intelligence and industry. The 
 manhood suffrage democracy of numbers merely is too narrow; 
 it does not afford a broad enough foundation for the national 
 superstructure; and that foundation should be widened to in- 
 clude the American character and American achievement. 
 The real difficulty in the case lies then not in ascertaining 
 the source of American political ills, nor in prescribing the 
 remedy; the difficulty lies in obtaining leadership or even advo- 
 cacy of a movement which to most men appears to promise little 
 in the way of personal advancement and much in the way of 
 hostile criticism. As to the masses in private life, most are 
 indifferent and the remainder voiceless. All the organs of pub- 
 lic opinion are muzzled, controlled or terrified into silence by 
 the politicians; and but few in public life whether newspaper 
 men, clergymen, judges, politicians, teachers or public servants 
 or officials; but few of those merely dependent upon or con- 
 nected with politics or government, whether bankers, lawyers, 
 physicians in hospitals, officers of public utilities or the like, 
 have heretofore dared more than whisper to their closest 
 friends their real hatred of the political despotism under which 
 we are living today in the United States. Now, however, the 
 present menace of the political madness known as Bolshevism 
 affords a new and compelling motive to every true American to 
 arouse himself, and there is a hope that in the presence of a 
 new peril, good citizens may be moved to realize the inherent 
 
24 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 weakness and danger of our present political system, and to 
 undertake the establishment of a suffrage based upon such 
 qualifications as will insure the creation and continuance of a 
 government in this country so strong, determined, intelligent 
 and devoted to the interests of civilization that under it our 
 whole political life may be purified and made efficient; one 
 which may be relied upon not merely to crush Bolshevism in 
 the United States but to extirpate it from this country -for ever. 
 The proposal to establish a property qualification for voters 
 throughout the United States may seem novel and even startling 
 to many Americans, but there is no other way out of the politi- 
 cal mess in which we find ourselves. As will be shown in detail 
 in subsequent pages the corrupt rule of the low professional 
 politicians of this country is made secure by the vote of the 
 thriftless and controllable class; until that vote is expurgated 
 there can be no purification of the body politic; without puri- 
 fication there can be no efficiency; and unless the administra- 
 tion of our public affairs is purified and made efficient we 
 cannot either answer the charges of the enemies of our institu- 
 tions or repel their attacks. We cannot depend upon the 
 electorate as at present made up; it has already shown its 
 capacity to breed and encourage bad government; the thrift- 
 less classes are all ready to accept Bolshevism or any other 
 economical and political absurdity; they are no more able 
 to understand the scheme of civilization and the value and 
 importance of accumulations of earnings and creation of prop- 
 erty in furtherance of that scheme than they are able to 
 understand a musical symphony or a problem in the higher 
 mathematics. And after all there is nothing sacred about the 
 doctrine of unlimited suffrage; it is only a political experiment 
 like another; and the well known record of its complete and 
 dismal failure is summarized in these pages where it is shown 
 that it has not been an instrument of progress nor a means of 
 freedom, but that its tendency has been and is towards reaction 
 and despotism; that it is antisocial and hostile to civilization. 
 The proposal to make property accumulations the basis of 
 
FAILURE AND DANGERS OF UNLIMITED SUFFRAGE 25 
 
 government, though it is sanctioned by ancient practise, is 
 not reactionary; it is progressive, as every return to old and 
 sound principles is progressive. Nor will it create or tend 
 to create a narrow or exclusive electorate; it will on the con- 
 trary have a broadening effect and will tend to furnish a truly 
 popular government, one resting directly on the consent and 
 the votes of most of the population, and utilizing qualities 
 of virtue and manhood now denied their proper effect in poli- 
 tics. It will represent directly or indirectly every element of 
 value in the nation; everything on which a democratic gov- 
 ernment depends for its best support; namely, the industry, 
 thrift, wealth, intelligence, character and honest independence 
 of its people. The change will appear in the overthrow of the 
 rule of brute force and the curbing of the present despotism 
 of numbers. Do what we will, the passions and prejudices of 
 the unthinking and uninstructed will always affect political 
 action ; but if our democracy is to survive their power must be 
 checked and modified by associating with the sway of num- 
 bers the powers of intelligence, of character, and of industry 
 which working together constitute efficiency. 
 
 Every generation has its problems which it must solve at 
 its peril. Ours is before us and must shortly be met if the 
 signs tell true. Like Edipus we must answer correctly or per- 
 ish. And the question is, how to abolish the weak and corrupt 
 rule of the politicians and re-establish a pure, firm, intelligent 
 and truly republican government in the United States. The 
 true answer must be by the reform and elevation of the elec- 
 torate. Purify the source and the stream will be pure and 
 sweet. 
 
 This object is of such consequence that every American 
 ought to be willing to devote strong efforts to its accomplish- 
 ment. And first, the intelligent and patriotic people of the 
 country need to be aroused to a sense of its importance and 
 instructed in the merits of the case. They must be made not 
 merely to know but to realize vividly the main features of the 
 argument for a property qualification, which may be summa- 
 
26 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 rized in ten points, namely: (i) That this government was not 
 originally founded on the principle of universal suffrage but 
 on that of a propertied electorate. (2) That the permanency 
 of the corrupt and inefficient rule of the political oligarchy in 
 the United States is due to the operation of universal suffrage. 
 (3) That there is no natural right to vote; but that voting is 
 a function of government to be exercised only for the benefit 
 of society and never merely for that of the individual. (4) 
 That government in our day is a highly specialized business 
 institution requiring from its members expert knowledge 
 rather than oratorical gifts. (5) That good government in a 
 democracy requires a worthy and intelligent electorate. (6) 
 That the franchise laws must deal with classes, not with in- 
 dividuals. (7) That the franchise should be confined to those 
 who are socially qualified, as proven by lives of successful 
 social endeavor, resulting in the solid acquisition of substantial 
 property. (8) That book or school education is insufficient to 
 constitute by itself a franchise qualification. (9) That the 
 body or mass of men are better fitted than that of women to 
 exercise all political functions, voting included, and that there- 
 fore women should be denied the suffrage. (10) That the 
 elevation of the franchise is absolutely necessary to purify our 
 politics, strengthen our government and protect property and 
 civilization from threatened anarchy. 
 
 It is with the hope of assisting in this work that this book 
 has been written and published. It is not within its plan and 
 scope to propose and discuss in minute detail the exact quali- 
 fications of voters and suffrage restrictions under the proposed 
 new system. The basic principles herein advocated once recog- 
 nized, the detailed regulations for their enforcement may 
 properly be left to such state legislatures or conventions as 
 may undertake to deal with the matter. They would obvi- 
 ously differ in different states and possibly in different commu- 
 nities. They should be such as would tend to insure a con- 
 tribution by the voter of such a quota of intelligence, 
 independence and good judgment in casting his vote as will 
 
FAILURE AND DANGERS OF UNLIMITED SUFFRAGE 21 
 
 greatly decrease bribery in elections; as will raise the standard 
 of candidates for office, reduce the influence of demagogues 
 and "yellow" journals, elevate the tone of public service, and 
 incidentally encourage good citizenship by making the voting 
 power a badge of honor and manhood and a privilege to be 
 sought after and valued. There is no place in this scheme 
 for an educational qualification; such a requirement would be 
 inconsistent with the theory of this book which is that the 
 school of business life is the appropriate preparation for the 
 voting booth. The class of men of good education who are 
 unable to acquire a modest competence in this country are 
 obviously so lacking in either interest in, or judgment of, practi- 
 cal affairs as to be unfit to pass upon those business questions 
 which form the main part of the problems of government. The 
 world of books on the one hand is a totally different realm 
 from the world of business and of politics on the other hand. 
 Further, an educational qualification for voters is absolutely 
 impracticable; it could not possibly be enforced. But this 
 subject will be discussed more at length in the twenty-ninth 
 chapter. Meanwhile let us briefly examine the history and 
 operations of the voting system in the United States. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 THE OLDEST AND BEST AMERICAN TRADITIONS FAVOR 
 A RESTRICTED SUFFRAGE 
 
 MANY of us have been accustomed to regard the principle 
 of manhood suffrage as a part of the original American ideal. 
 The contrary is the fact. The doctrine that voters should be 
 qualified for their duties is not novel in America. It came 
 to the country with its first settlers; the colonists believed in it 
 and retained it; it was part of the settled policy of all the 
 colonies for over one hundred and fifty progressive and flour- 
 ishing years; under that policy they built up the country; 
 raised the finest crop of statesmen and patriots it has ever 
 produced; fought the war of Independence; wrote the Constitu- 
 tion; established the Union and created the United States of 
 America. 
 
 The species of a democracy which we now have, where 
 capacity is unrecognized and unrepresented, and where the 
 votes of men without standing in the community may and do 
 offset and defeat the votes of men of property, of business 
 experience and sagacity was not the creation of the Fathers 
 of the American Republic and was not tolerated by them. In 
 no sense is manhood suffrage or a democracy of numbers an 
 integration of their spirit. They sought rather to establish a 
 system of government by capacity and intelligence, and de- 
 sired that the measures thereby enacted from time to time 
 should be the result not of an appeal to numerical superiority 
 but of wise and careful discussion and deliberation by bodies 
 containing the most ca^^jle and disinterested men in the com- 
 munity. Most of them no doubt expected a property qualifi- 
 cation for voters r aterially to contribute to this result and 
 
 28 
 
AMERICAN TRADITIONS FAVOR RESTRICTED SUFFRAGE 2Q 
 
 they saw no injustice or tyranny in demanding a qualification 
 which any man might acquire by industry and thrift. It was 
 not the men of 1776 who established the doctrine of manhood 
 suffrage in the United States ; and though in some of the more 
 sparsely settled or mountainous states, such as Vermont, Ken- 
 tucky and New Hampshire, the population was so small and 
 conditions were so primitive that suffrage qualifications seemed 
 superfluous and were never adopted, yet the country as a whole, 
 including the great states of New York, New Jersey, Massa- 
 chusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Vir- 
 ginia, stood for the principle of a properly qualified electorate 
 long after American independence. 
 
 It was not till the period of a generation after the death of 
 George Washington, when the most prominent of those who 
 stood for pure conservative government were no more, and 
 Washington, himself the greatest single obstacle to political 
 humbug in the country, was but a memory, that the barriers 
 were finally removed so that the army of professional politi- 
 cians were enabled to get possession of every government in 
 the United States. Commencing with that time the political 
 control which the fathers had endeavored to place permanently 
 in the hands of the best, most enlightened and most efficient 
 was gradually transferred to the hands of some of the worst, 
 most ignorant and incompetent. This mischievous transfer 
 was due mostly to the operation of manhood suffrage. It is by 
 the admission to the electorate of the poorest quality of ma- 
 terial that politics has been degraded to its present low level; 
 that it has become a business to be conducted for profit; that 
 professional politicians have obtained and retained power; that 
 the intelligence and manhood of the nation have been deprived 
 of their rightful control over its destiny; and that the country 
 has been handed over to gangs of sordid rascals to be plun- 
 dered. That it has been plundered cannot be denied. The 
 plundering has been conducted so Op3nly, scandalously and 
 notoriously that there is hardly a reader of this book who is 
 not more or less familiar with some of the details, though its 
 
30 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 extent is so great that no one not a student of the subject can 
 be familiar with it all. 
 
 One may naturally ask how comes it that the American 
 people not only submit to such a vile despotism, but never 
 seem seriously to question its right to exist. The answer is 
 that the case is similar to that of the recent German militarist 
 domination; the country is in the clutches of a political oli- 
 garchy which controls a large organized body of those who live 
 by the operation of universal suffrage; the masses are taught 
 to believe in it, and the most of those who are sufficiently in- 
 structed to fully understand its stupidity and villainy are silent 
 in public because of fear, indifference or self-interest. The 
 newspapers have not cloaked the rascalities of the politicians, 
 except those of their own party, because political sensations 
 help to sustain their circulation ; but they have not undertaken 
 to attack the political system which is responsible for those 
 rascalities; they have neither opposed manhood suffrage nor 
 exposed its sinister operations; they have never published one- 
 fourth of the available details of the rogueries and stupidities 
 of our political masters, and indeed, why should they publish 
 more? The actually published scandals are quite sufficient to 
 condemn any system yet the public makes no sign of revolt. 
 Ephraim is wedded to his idols; let him alone. The news- 
 papers cannot afford to attack popular abuses. They depend 
 for their circulation on the favor of the same populace which 
 yearly goes like silly sheep to the polling place bleating its 
 pride at being driven there by its bosses, and their advertising 
 in turn depends on their circulation* No single newspaper can 
 afford to antagonize at once the uninstructed populace and the 
 powerful class of politicians, office holders and political leaders 
 who not only control a very valuable advertising patronage but 
 include among themselves nearly all the public speakers in 
 the country and thus possess the ear of the masses. 
 
 Nor can private individuals, however wise and patriotic, be 
 expected in the present state of public opinion to assail a sys- 
 tem so powerful and well established. It is in fact generally 
 
AMERICAN TRADITIONS FAVOR RESTRICTED SUFFRAGE 31 
 
 assumed that manhood suffrage is a necessary part of the 
 American policy, that its overthrow is hopeless; that to de- 
 nounce it would be to court unpopularity; and in a country 
 at once democratic and commercial, the number of those who 
 dare to be unpopular is extremely few, and find it difficult to 
 obtain even a hearing. And though in private conversation 
 people frequently criticise governmental incapacity, and say 
 that politics is rotten, and t^iat politicians and office holders 
 are corrupt, they seldom or never go as far as to question the 
 principle of manhood suffrage, but seem to think that political 
 corruption and incapacity are necessary incidents of all gov- 
 ernment, or at least of all democratic government. 
 
 Strange as it may seem, the doctrine of manhood suffrage 
 has never been established in the minds of the American peo- 
 ple by argument or discussion; originally adopted without 
 serious reflection, it has since been largely taken for granted. 
 It is curious to see how the most important measures may be 
 adopted in a democratic community without even an approach 
 to thorough consideration on the part of the majority. Take 
 the case of woman suffrage adopted by the State of New York 
 in 1917; only a small proportion of the men of the State had 
 ever seriously considered the subject, and of the several mil- 
 lions of women of the State, probably not more than ten thou- 
 sand really concerned themselves about it. National prohibi- 
 tion of the use of alcoholic beverages, which seemed impossible 
 in 1908, was enacted in 1918 without real discussion by the 
 electorate. The prohibition vote for President in 1916 was 
 about 200,000 out of 18,000,000, or a little more than one per 
 cent. But the prohibitionists were in bitter earnest; the others 
 were careless or indifferent, a moment favorable to prohibition 
 came, and the thing was done. Something like this is the story 
 of the adoption of manhood suffrage in New York and the other 
 large States; while it was being adopted the majority scarcely 
 realized what was going on; after it was done they were indif- 
 ferent to the change because it did not affect their daily lives. 
 Since its adoption its theory has been very little discussed by 
 
32 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 the American people; it has not been openly attacked or 
 questioned by newspaper or political orator for over two gen- 
 erations; its validity is usually taken as a matter of course; 
 the masses are not even aware that there is anything question- 
 able about it; and but one American writer, Prof. Hyslop 
 of New York, has had the vision to see its enormity and the 
 courage and patriotism to describe it in print. (Democracy.) 
 His powerful book was never replied to and it is significant 
 that not a well considered argument in favor of manhood 
 or universal suffrage can be found in our libraries. Most of 
 what has been printed on the subject is mere twaddle; a few 
 authors lacking practical experience in active life, such as 
 teachers or sociologists, have alluded to it in their class books 
 or political treatises, but the little they say on the subject is 
 usually confined to commonplace laudation of political liberty 
 or other weak sentimentalism or else to the routine conven- 
 tional assumption that manhood suffrage is what they call in 
 their pretentious slang part of the "advance movement" of the 
 nineteenth century. 
 
 A very short sketch of the history of manhood suffrage in 
 this country may be useful here as a preliminary to a brief 
 review of its actual operations. Though some traces of a belief 
 in the abstract right of all men to vote may be found in the 
 England of the middle ages, yet our English ancestors prior 
 to the Protestant Reformation had, generally speaking, no 
 idea of a vote not founded on property or on such a recognized 
 business standing as might give an assurance of stability of char- 
 acter or of a substantial interest in the affairs of the community 
 or nation. The first English public utterance in favor of man- 
 hood suffrage that has come to the writer's attention was made 
 in 1647 by some of the sect of Congregationalists or Indepen- 
 dents. That body was divided in opinion on the subject. Those 
 who favored it were called "Levellers," and in so doing were 
 opposed by the other Independents as well as by the Presby- 
 terians, Catholics and Episcopalians. The Levellers claimed 
 that the right to vote was conferred by natural law upon all 
 
AMERICAN TRADITIONS FAVOR RESTRICTED SUFFRAGE 33 
 
 freemen. Cromwell and Ireton of the Puritan leaders opposed 
 them, and insisted that no man had a right to vote on the 
 affairs of the country or the choice of lawmakers who had not 
 a property or a business interest; saying that those who have 
 "noe interest butt the interest of breathing" should have no 
 voice in elections. 
 
 The establishment of qualifications for voters in the Ameri- 
 can Colonies during the Colonial period was left entirely in the 
 hands of the Colonies themselves; Great Britain not interfering. 
 The first colonists were without any settled policy on the 
 subject. Massachusetts had a religious qualification and some 
 of the Puritans who wished to establish a theocracy or a church 
 government in New England on the basis of the Independent or 
 Congregational polity were in favor of making church member- 
 ship the only qualification. The first settlers being without 
 holdings in the colony, probably dispensed with a property 
 qualification at first or waived it as impracticable. But very 
 soon it was decided that only those having an interest in the 
 colony should have a voice in its affairs; and the rule of a 
 property qualification for voters was speedily established in all 
 the colonies; in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Connecti- 
 cut in 1630; in Rhode Island in 1658; in New Jersey in 1665 
 and North Carolina in 1663; in Maryland and in Virginia in 
 1670; in Pennsylvania in 1682; in South Carolina in 1692; in 
 New York about 1701; in Delaware 1734; and in Georgia in 
 1761. In five colonies, namely, Massachusetts, Connecticut, 
 Maryland, Delaware and Pennsylvania, the property held 
 might be either real or personal; in all the others it was re- 
 quired to be land. Some American theorists at the time of 
 the Revolution held a belief or a half belief in manhood suf- 
 frage but they were few in number. In certain political dec- 
 larations published not long prior to 1776 we find propositions 
 that all men are naturally entitled to vote, while in others a 
 suffrage qualification is suggested. But by the time the Revo- 
 lution arrived the doctrine of manhood suffrage had practically 
 disappeared from the colonies; and the practice of putting in 
 
34 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 office only the most prominent and best equipped was uni- 
 versal and apparently universally accepted. 
 
 The success of the Revolution in no way affected the suf- 
 frage. It had not been a democratic movement nor intended as 
 such. At first it was designed to merely curtail without 
 actually terminating British interference in American affairs; 
 later as the estrangement increased it was determined to en- 
 tirely get rid of British rule. But the Revolution was in spirit a 
 conservative movement, whereby it was not intended to inter- 
 fere with existing colonial laws relating to suffrage nor to alter 
 the political or social structure of society nor to materially 
 change aught in government beyond terminating the British 
 connection. In this respect it materially differed from the 
 French Revolution which developed into an attempt to com- 
 pletely reorganize the social and political fabrics. The Ameri- 
 can revolutionists were well satisfied with their local laws and 
 customs, and the separation from Great Britain once accom- 
 plished, the conservative policy adopted at the beginning of the 
 struggle still continued till the generation which had carried 
 through the Revolution had finally passed away. 
 
 The Declaration of Independence has nothing to say about 
 the right of suffrage. Although composed by Jefferson, who 
 was influenced by the sentimentalities of the French theorists 
 of the time it contains only two brief statements which can 
 possibly be quoted as favoring the principle of manhood suf- 
 frage. One is "that all men are created equal." This state- 
 ment could not have been intended to be understood without 
 qualification because it is notoriously false. Men are not cre- 
 ated equal either in size, health, affections, virtues, social 
 station, capacity, prospects in life, opportunities, nor in any- 
 thing else. In his own country thousands were then held in 
 bondage, some by Jefferson himself, and a considerable part 
 of the colonial population were without political rights. He 
 could not therefore have even meant that all men were en- 
 titled to be considered as politically equal unless he intended 
 merely to express a private opinion of his own. Public opinion 
 
AMERICAN TRADITIONS FAVOR RESTRICTED SUFFRAGE 35 
 
 as expressed in the laws and customs of the time was exactly 
 to the contrary. The other statement of the Declaration that 
 governments "derive their just powers from the consent of the 
 governed," is equally absurd, if applied to individuals. It may 
 be that a government is a usurper if it exists in defiance of 
 society at large, but it may properly dispense with the consent 
 of an unlimited number of the individuals whom it governs. 
 It cannot be supposed that Jefferson and his associates intended 
 to imply that none of the governmental powers on the earth in- 
 cluding those of the colonies themselves were just; yet none of 
 them derived their powers from the consent of all those under 
 their authority. Most of the colonies were founded on charters 
 granted by the British crown. The consent of the native In- 
 dians, of aliens, women, minors, negroes and the unpropertied 
 class had not been given to any government in this country, 
 nor was it proposed at that time that any such consent should 
 be asked for. More than this, neither Jefferson nor any one else 
 proposed that the consent of the minority at any election, 
 even were it forty-nine per cent of the whole, should be re- 
 quired to establish the new government. The most that Jeffer- 
 son pretended to mean by these fine phrases was to claim that 
 a majority of the qualified voters of the colonies should govern 
 the country through their representatives duly elected. But 
 in practice even this was a sham; the Revolutionists were prob- 
 ably in a minority of from one-fifth to a third of the whole 
 people; they never troubled themselves to obtain the consent 
 of the Tories or the indifferent; and what Jefferson really in- 
 tended was to get his faction together on the basis of that Dec- 
 laration as a party platform, to fight for the result and to beat 
 or intimidate the majority into subjection or acquiescence. 
 This is what was actually done; both sides resorted to force, 
 the neutrals were silenced, and the Americans of tory prin- 
 ciples were soon taught to their sorrow that Jefferson and his 
 associates intended to govern them with or without their con- 
 sent and pretty harshly at that. No vote was ever taken on 
 the question of separation from Great Britain, and the con- 
 
36 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 sent of the objectors to what was done was rendered unneces- 
 sary by the efficient process of killing them or driving them into 
 exile and confiscating their property. 
 
 The Revolution therefore was not the establishment of the 
 rule of the majority in numbers, but of the sway of those quali- 
 fied to govern, because the strongest, the most daring and the 
 most fortunate. And the property qualification principle also 
 assuring the rule of those believed to be the best qualified to 
 govern was in force in every one of the thirteen states at and 
 immediately after the Revolution by the will of the colonists 
 themselves. Voters' qualifications varied in different States, 
 but in all there was some kind of a property qualification. In 
 some the actual ownership of real property was required; in 
 others a voter was required either to pay a property tax, to lease 
 real property or to have a substantial yearly income. The 
 payment of direct taxes in some form or other was in the 
 minds of the founders of the American republic an essential 
 qualification of the voter. The revolt against Great Britain 
 had been generally and publicly defended on the theory 
 of no taxation without representation ; and the converse of this 
 principle was popularly assumed, namely, that there should 
 be no representation without taxation; in other words, that 
 no man should be permitted to aid in shaping the policy of the 
 country who did not directly contribute to the expense of its 
 government, or, in the language of the time, "who had not a 
 " stake in the country." For example, Virginia from 1670 re- 
 stricted the suffrage "to such as by their estates, real or per- 
 "sonal, have interest enough to tye them to the endeavor of the 
 "public good," and later excluded all but freeholders. In the 
 Virginia Bill of Rights of June 12, 1776, the statement is 
 "That all men, having sufficient evidence of permanent com- 
 "mon interest with, and attachment to the community have 
 "the right of suffrage." In New Haven in 1784, out of about 
 600 adult males, only 343 were qualified to be freemen and 
 vote for the mayor, who being once elected held his office during 
 the pleasure of the General Assembly which usually meant 
 
AMERICAN TRADITIONS FAVOR RESTRICTED SUFFRAGE 37 
 
 for life. (Levermore, New Haven.) The payment of taxes and 
 the right to representation were so much united in the public 
 mind at that time that in some states, for instance in Massa- 
 chusetts and New Hampshire, the number of senators was 
 apportioned among the counties according to the amount of 
 taxation paid and not according to the population. Within 
 the State of New York, representation was granted not accord- 
 ing to the number of inhabitants, but to that of actual voters; 
 in other words, of propertied citizens. When the word "peo- 
 ple" was used in public documents what was really meant was 
 the citizens or voters of the State. 
 
 In those days the obscure and ignorant political adven- 
 turers who now adorn our legislative halls, had no chance of 
 getting themselves into the seats of the mighty, or their raven- 
 ous fingers into the public purse. As for judicial and admin- 
 istrative officers their selection was entirely withdrawn from 
 the electorate. Our colonial and revolutionary ancestors be- 
 lieved that the members of the State Legislature who were per- 
 sonally acquainted with the candidates for high office were bet- 
 ter able to select them than the mass of voters who only knew 
 them by sight or reputation. The electorate might only choose 
 the legislature, and that body usually elected the governor 
 and appointed and removed judges, justices of the peace, 
 sheriffs, and other administrative officers. The voters chose 
 the men who made the laws, but not the officials charged with 
 their interpretation and execution; and the actual admin- 
 istration of government was so arranged for that honest, com- 
 petent and responsible agents might be employed therein and 
 was as far removed from the people as was conveniently 
 possible. 
 
 Therefore the popular belief that the founders of our gov- 
 ernment believed in a democracy of numbers is a mistaken one. 
 They maintained that both official and voter should be quali- 
 fied men and they saw to it that they were such. And look 
 at the result; the ablest and best men were put forward. Every 
 nation has superior, mediocre, and inferior men; the latter 
 
38 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 being often the most greedy for office. One of the tests of 
 a system of government is which of these classes it brings to 
 the political front. Judged by this, the old colonial and revolu- 
 tionary system was far superior to the present one. It put in 
 power and kept there, Washington, Madison, Franklin, Hamil- 
 ton, the Adamses, Jefferson, and a number of their subordi- 
 nates of great superiority to men in corresponding places 
 in the present days of manhood and female suffrage. By their 
 fruits you may know them. It is probable that the female 
 suffragists firmly believe that their shallow platform ranters 
 are superior to anything that earth can show; but with that 
 exception no one will pretend that the present day methods 
 have produced or can produce for the public service the equal 
 of that revolutionary stock. Indeed we have more reason 
 than some of us fully realize to be thankful that the govern- 
 ing class of that time in this country were men of substance; 
 for the opposition to the proposed Federal Constitution in 1788 
 was very strong among the poorer classes; and it is consid- 
 ered certain by those who have looked carefully into the matter 
 that had that instrument been at that time submitted to a 
 vote based on manhood suffrage it would have been overwhelm- 
 ingly defeated. This is not to be wondered at, since lack of 
 experience in dealing with any but the simplest matters left 
 those people incapable of understanding the provisions of the 
 constitution or of realizing its beneficent import. One can 
 hardly imagine what that defeat would have cost to mankind; 
 the deplorable results of the indefinite postponement of the 
 American Union with all its blessings of peace and prosperity, 
 and the perpetuation here on this continent of the tariffs, 
 strifes, petty wars and tyrannies of Europe and South America. 
 When one tries to imagine the world without the United States 
 of America as a beneficent enlightening force, one is appalled 
 at the bare possibility that such a calamity might have been 
 allowed to fall upon the world; and yet it was possible had it 
 not been that Hamilton, Washington and the other leaders in 
 that business were eighteenth century statesmen, staunch, effi- 
 
AMERICAN TRADITIONS FAVOR RESTRICTED SUFFRAGE 39 
 
 cient and determined, and not a bunch of twentieth cen- 
 tury cowardly, spineless, brainless, heartless politicians, the 
 product of machine and boss rule, such as would probably 
 be in charge of any similar movement in the present year of 
 grace, 1920. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 THE SUFFRAGE IS NOT A NATURAL RIGHT BUT A FUNCTION 
 OF GOVERNMENT AND MAY THEREFORE PROPERLY BE 
 RESTRICTED TO THOSE COMPETENT TO EXERCISE IT. 
 
 THOSE citizens who think that they have or anybody has 
 or can have a natural right to vote are absolutely mistaken. 
 There is a general impression that such a right exists, created 
 partly by the twaddlers who write on politics for schools and 
 colleges; but it is a false one, and it is seriously misleading, 
 because it negatives in advance all effort to elevate the standard 
 of the electorate by excluding the notoriously unfit from its 
 membership. The citizen votes not in the exercise of a right 
 or a privilege, but in performance of a governmental function, 
 involving the execution of a trust which should be confined to 
 those competent to exercise it. 
 
 Political voting for candidates for office is part of the process 
 of the creation of a governing power, and it is itself an act, 
 part and function of government; by it the voter declares his 
 judgment as well as proposes agents or representatives to enact 
 and to execute the law. 1 Society therefore has a right to regu- 
 late its exercise, and to see that it is entrusted into proper and 
 competent handsj This theory of the right of Society or 
 'the State to control and limit the suffrage has been adopted 
 not only by European nations in dealing with inferior races 
 but also by ourselves at home. We do not for instance permit 
 the Chinese to vote; we exclude from the suffrage youths 
 under twenty-one years of age and unnaturalized aliens, not- 
 withstanding that they may pay large amounts in taxes and be 
 perfectly honorable and well meaning members of the com- 
 munity; also tramps, paupers and the insane. So the policy 
 
 40 
 
THE SUFFRAGE NOT A NATURAL RIGHT 41 
 
 of excluding the colored race from full participation in the 
 government of the country is thoroughly established in the 
 United States. Negroes are not actually allowed to vote 
 except where they are in a safe minority. In the States of 
 California, Delaware, Georgia, Louisiana, North Carolina, 
 South Carolina, Oklahoma, Washington and Wyoming there 
 is a nominal educational qualification by which at least a pre- 
 tence has been made of excluding ignorant whites from the 
 franchise, and which has been effectively used in some of these 
 States to exclude thousands of colored voters. The suffrage 
 has been denied to non-taxpaying Indians in all parts of the 
 United States, notwithstanding that many of them may be 
 decent and intelligent people. One Northern State, New 
 Hampshire, and eleven Southern States make payment of a poll 
 tax a necessary prerequisite to voting. A certain period of pre- 
 liminary residence is prescribed in all the States. In thirty- 
 eight states a previous registration is required; and this pro- 
 vision every year disfranchises thousands of travelling sales- 
 men and others. Thirty- two States exclude women from all 
 or specified elections, and though the expediency of this 
 exclusion has been seriously challenged, the right to enact it is 
 unquestioned by most people. 
 
 Thus it will be seen that in the American polity the principle 
 is practically well recognized that voting is not a natural right 
 but a function of government which may properly be restricted, 
 either to property holders as in fact it was by our ancestors 
 restricted, or to any other class as the State may ordain. There 
 is, however, reason to believe that the general public has not 
 reflected enough on the subject to assimilate or even to accept 
 this proposition. The American masses take most of their so- 
 called opinions ready made, and as far as any popular theory 
 upon the subject or conception thereof is to be found among 
 them, it is apparently a vague loose notion of a natural equality 
 among men; an understanding that it is part of the original 
 American tradition that every man has an equal natural right 
 to take part in government or at least to "express himself" by 
 
42 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 his vote. We have seen in the last chapter that the original 
 American tradition is just to the contrary, and demands a 
 substantial property qualification for all voters. In a subse- 
 quent chapter it will appear how that original American tra- 
 dition was foolishly and thoughtlessly abandoned, when man- 
 hood suffrage and the spoils system were together foisted upon 
 us in the time of Andrew Jackson. 
 
 As already stated, an examination of the libraries does 
 not disclose any strong authority or well reasoned argu- 
 ment in favor of the practice of giving a vote to every 
 adult man or woman. The doctrine of the natural 
 right to vote which was first practised by the French 
 radicals of the eighteenth century appears to have been 
 accepted as a piece of popular sentimentality; apparently it 
 has not been adopted by any great thinker or writer. Those 
 writers who favor it are generally superficialists, and are 
 content to refer to it vaguely as a step in the progress of the 
 age without any close examination of its merits. As for the 
 theories of natural equality between men, and of the right to 
 vote as a means of self expression neither of them will stand 
 a moment's serious reflection. No equality of any kind what- 
 soever exists or ever can exist between men. It is impossible 
 even to imagine a tolerable existence under the crushing 
 weight of the monotony of equality. Along with variety 
 would perish love, hope and joy; ambition, the great 
 source of initiative and the most powerful stimulus to 
 effort would be destroyed; life would lose its picturesqueness, 
 and instead of a bright running stream it would become a 
 stagnant pool. Equality means death; its domain is the ceme- 
 tery. The champions of manhood suffrage therefore will have 
 to look elsewhere for its justification than in an assertion of 
 an equality which cannot exist. 
 
 But we will be told that there is an "equality of rights." 
 Here is another absurd phrase, which as generally applied is 
 false or meaningless. By equality of rights people generally 
 refer to personal rights such as the right to life, to personal 
 
THE SUFFRAGE NOT A NATURAL RIGHT 43 
 
 liberty, etc. But there is no point of resemblance, no analogy 
 even, between the character of such a right and of the asserted 
 right to suffrage. The latter is a claim to share with others, 
 and therefore acquired and artificial. The right of a man 
 to his life, however, is not one in which others can share; and 
 all natural rights are of the same general character, absolute, 
 strictly personal and exclusive. The claim to vote rests on an 
 entirely different basis from such; it is social, and involves 
 others and the rights of others, it is a claim to govern; it 
 vitally affects every one else and therefore no man can assert 
 it without the others being consulted, since to do so would in- 
 fringe upon their social rights. No such right can possibly be 
 an original or natural right; for natural rights are of course 
 common to all men; and the absurdity of every man having 
 the natural right to impose his will upon another man is mani- 
 fest. To say that there exists a natural right common to 
 all men involving power over others, or that one man has a 
 natural right to interfere with the actions of others, or of a 
 society formed of others, or a natural right whose exercise by 
 some would deprive other men of their own similar rights is 
 nonsense; since these last would have the same power over 
 the first and the result would be chaos. Such a proposition 
 involves a complete contradiction of itself, and an impossibility. 
 
 Society and political organizations are artificially created, 
 and all rights under them are artificially acquired. The result 
 of the exercise of some power, or founded upon an agreement 
 of some kind, express or implied, they are in the nature of 
 gifts or functions conferred by society upon the individual. Of 
 this character is the voting franchise. There can be no natural 
 right to the control of society or even to take part in society 
 against its will, both of which as social and legal, not natural 
 rights, are asserted and employed by every voter. The only 
 natural right that a man can have towards society is to escape 
 from it altogether to a place not occupied by other men. 
 
 These considerations dispose of the sentimental twaddle 
 uttered sometimes by shallow magazine writers and unsophisti- 
 
44 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 cated college professors that every man has a natural right to 
 what they call "political self expression." Self expression by 
 political voting always involves in some way the exercise of 
 power over others; and no one can have a natural right to 
 such power. 
 
 The above reasoning applies of course to the exercise of the 
 voting power where it affects the property of others as well 
 as where it directly affects only the person. No man can have 
 a natural right to dispose of another's property or any part of 
 it by voting or otherwise. To talk of a natural right to vote 
 away another man's property is downright nonsense. Imagine 
 a small independent island inhabited by one hundred families 
 each with property honestly acquired. Would an immigrant 
 body of five hundred have a natural right by a vote to con- 
 fiscate this property? The proposition is monstrous, yet it is 
 all implied in the theory of a natural right to vote. 
 
 Our Courts and Judges have never held suffrage to be a 
 natural right, and it has never been treated as such in our 
 legislation. Marshall, Chief Justice of the United States, says: 
 "The granting of the franchise has always been regarded in the 
 "practice of nations as a matter of expediency and not as an in- 
 "herent right." And Judge Cooley: "Suffrage cannot be the 
 "natural right of the individual because it does not exist for the 
 "benefit of the individual but for the benefit of the State itself." 
 (Principles of Constitutional Law, p. 249.) So on our statute 
 books voting is not treated as a natural right, nor is the citizen 
 mass considered as the supreme power in the state; but the 
 constitution and functions of the electorate are created and 
 determined by the legislative body, or under its direction, and 
 its capacity is fixed by law and derived from the law just as 
 truly as that of any other body exercising political powers in 
 the government. 
 
 If suffrage were a natural right, the voter might exercise it 
 to please himself or solely for his own interest. But nobody 
 pretends that this is the case. It is conceded that the function 
 of the voter is not to gratify himself nor to practise experi- 
 
THE SUFFRAGE NOT A NATURAL RIGHT 45 
 
 ments, nor to express his own personal ideas, nor primarily 
 nor mainly to foster his own interests or those of his class, but 
 to propose the best men and measures for the country at large. 
 He is not to seek direct personal benefit or gain by his vote 
 but is expected thereby to contribute his opinion, his wisdom, 
 his experience, to the promotion of the general welfare. He 
 is not to vote for a judge because he expects him to decide a 
 lawsuit in his favor; nor for a congressman because he hopes 
 that he will help to secure him a contract or a pension or a 
 tariff rate favorable to his business; but it is his duty to vote 
 for judges and congressmen who will decide and legislate 
 justly, that is, with due regard for all. This makes it clear that 
 the franchise is not a gift of nature, but a trust or function 
 created by society for its own high purposes; that the voter 
 comes to the polls to take part in that function not as a master 
 but as a servant of the State in obedience to her mandate; and 
 must be clad with such qualifications as she prescribes. The 
 voters are not masters or rulers as is so often erroneously said, 
 they are merely called upon to designate the real rulers and 
 masters of the land. When the citizen approaches the polls 
 on election day he there finds in operation a formidable elec- 
 toral machine which he is sometimes told is a contrivance 
 whose object is to establish the rule of the people. But this is 
 a superficial understanding of the matter; the people cannot 
 possibly rule themselves; the existence of any rule whatever 
 implies rulers as well as those ruled over; to talk of the people 
 ruling is nonsense, or at best a mere figure of speech to indi- 
 cate that they have a choice of rulers. Here as elsewhere there 
 is and must be a government ruling by force; here as else- 
 where that government is a human machine wielding or in- 
 tended to wield irresistible power over its subjects, and con- 
 stantly menacing the disobedient with deprivation of prop- 
 erty, liberty and life. Our elective system is really a means for 
 sustaining this tremendous apparatus and of keeping it in 
 operation and effective. It is that all powerful governmental 
 organism and not the people which rules the country. Every 
 
46 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 American is just as much under the control of the authority 
 thus created as the subject of any ruler whatever. Freedom in 
 the sense of liberty to the individual to thwart or neglect gov- 
 ernmental authority is not within the American scheme. This 
 is why resident foreigners, deceived by the silly newspaper 
 cant about the "people" ruling are frequently surprised to 
 find themselves more restricted in some respects than they 
 were in their own native monarchical countries. 
 
 This view of the matter whereby it appears that an election 
 is the first step in the process of the creation of a government 
 requires the manhood suffrage question to be presented in a 
 different form from the usual one which is, "Has a man as 
 such a right to vote?" He has no such inherent or natural 
 right, and the real question is whether he is of the proper 
 material for use in the first process of democratic government 
 making. It follows too that the burden is on the would-be 
 voter to show that he is fit for that purpose. The mere fact 
 that he is a dweller in the land cannot possibly confer upon him 
 the right to inject poor material into the government-making 
 process, any more than one of a number interested in a cider 
 press would have the right to insist on putting decayed apples 
 into the hopper. 
 
 But even if there was a natural right to vote Society would 
 'still have the power to regulate its exercise and to establish con- 
 ditions thereof. Certainly Society would have the right to 
 prohibit that exercise and it would be its duty to do so when 
 the same would operate against the welfare of the community 
 at large; or against the welfare of every other person in it 
 except the voter himself; or even against the welfare of the 
 majority of the citizens of the community. A man can no more 
 have a natural right to injure his neighbor by his vote than 
 by any other means; and just as he is free to use his personal 
 liberty only to the extent to which his actions are harmless 
 or beneficial to the community, so as a matter of natural right 
 he should be only free to vote or legislate and take part in gov- 
 ernment affairs, great or small, to the extent to which his 
 
THE SUFFRAGE NOT A NATURAL RIGHT 47 
 
 acts in that capacity are harmless or beneficial. In any aspect 
 of the matter therefore Society has the right to limit the suf- 
 frage to such as are likely to exercise it for the benefit of 
 the commonwealth. 
 
 Thus by disposing of the vague idea of a natural right to 
 vote, the way is cleared for a consideration of the proper quali- 
 fications which Society should require from voters. That there 
 are men and classes of men naturally incapable of exercising 
 the judgment necessary to cast a ballot helpful to the com- 
 munity is known to all of us. Says Amiel in his Journal: 
 
 "The pretension that every man has the necessary qualities 
 "of a citizen simply because he was born twenty-one years ago, 
 "is as much as to say that labor, merit, virtue, character and 
 "experience are to count for nothing." 
 
 Not only has the country the right to exclude incapables from 
 the suffrage, but it is the patriotic duty of the good citizen to 
 place a voluntary limitation on himself, and to refrain alto- 
 gether from voting where through ignorance of the candidates 
 or subject matter his vote cannot be intelligently cast. For, 
 just as the voter is peremptorily called upon in casting his 
 vote to disregard entirely his own interest and pleasure, and 
 even to vote contrary to his interests and prejudices for the 
 benefit of his country, so surely he can also be required in the 
 public interest to surrender his privilege of voting, to remain 
 altogether silent, and to allow the choice of men and measures 
 to be made by his more intelligent neighbors. And it further 
 follows, that where the ignorant voter knowingly and wilfully 
 insists upon expressing his own opinion or prejudice at the 
 polls in opposition to the judgment of another better qualified 
 than he, his act is immoral and unpatriotic; and equally im- 
 moral and unpatriotic is the conduct of the legislator, writer or 
 voter who knowingly countenances or assists in the enfran- 
 chisement of a class of people who are incompetent to vote 
 on the questions to be presented to them, or to select the 
 proper candidates for public offices. 
 
 Voting at a political election being an act of government, 
 
48 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 the proper test of the voter is that of capacity to govern. As 
 Bagehot puts it: 
 
 "Fitness to govern must depend on the community to be governed 
 and on the merits of other persons who may be capable of govern- 
 ing that community. A savage chief may be capable of governing 
 a savage tribe. He may have the right of governing it, for he may 
 be the sole person capable of so doing: but he would have no right 
 to govern England. Whatever may be your capacity for rule, you 
 have no right to obtain the opportunity of exercising it by de- 
 throning a person who is more capable; you are wronging the com- 
 munity if you do, if you are der riving it of a better government 
 than that which you can give to it. ... The true principle is, 
 that every person has a right to so much political power as he can 
 exercise, without impeding any other person who would more fitly 
 exercise such power. . . . Any such measure for enfranchising the 
 lower orders as would overpower and consequently disfranchise the 
 higher should be resisted on the ground of abstract right; you are 
 proposing to take power from those who have the superior capacity, 
 and to rest it in those who have but an inferior capacity or in many 
 cases no capacity at all." (Parliamentary Reform, 1859.) 
 
 In calling to its counsels at the polls such citizens as the 
 State may deem competent for that purpose, it is practically 
 impossible to select individuals ; but it is quite possible to desig- 
 nate certain classes to whom suffrage may or may not be per- 
 mitted; and when these classes are open to receive accessions 
 indefinitely upon conditions useful to the State and attainable 
 by all, there is nothing in the whole transaction inimical to the 
 best democracy, or of which complaint can be made on the 
 ground of monopoly or injustice. The acquisition and judi- 
 cious management of a reasonable amount of property are 
 terms and conditions of just this character and experience 
 has amply shown the necessity for their imposition in the inter- 
 ests of society. 
 
 To summarize this branch of the subject. The primary 
 object of an ideal election is not to ascertain where lies the in- 
 terest or to gratify the caprices or whims of individuals, but 
 
THE SUFFRAGE NOT A NATURAL RIGHT 49 
 
 to continue and sustain, and if necessary to create the govern- 
 ment of the country. The exercise of this function is in itself 
 an act of government or in aid of government, and the privi- 
 lege of participation therein is an acquired, a conferred author- 
 ity or function, not a natural right, and should be bestowed 
 solely for merit or capacity to be exercised in trust for the 
 common benefit. It is the patriotic duty of all incapable, un- 
 prepared or unqualified citizens voluntarily to refrain from 
 taking part in this function; and it is the right and duty of the 
 State by appropriate legislation to exclude peremptorily there- 
 from all classes of men incapable of its proper exercise, and for 
 this purpose to establish racial, property, educational, or other 
 appropriate qualifications. 
 
 On the theory that the State itself may be supposed to have 
 been originally inaugurated and its operations originally sanc- 
 tioned by the suffrages of all its citizens as their creature and 
 agent, a curious question has been raised by some writers, 
 namely, on what ground the State can exclude from the con- 
 stituent franchise a part, though ever so small, of its original 
 creators or principals. Such writers have, however, overlooked 
 the existence of a power higher and mightier than that of the 
 State or of its inhabitants at any particular period; a power 
 which is the real source of the authority of the State. This 
 power is "Society," and its relation to the subject of the fran- 
 chise will be dealt with in the next chapter. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE STATE AS THE DEPUTY OF SOCIETY POSSESSES THE JUST 
 POWER OF ORDAINING FRANCHISE QUALIFICATIONS 
 
 Yes, for it was not Zeus who gave them forth, 
 Nor Justice, dwelling with the gods below, 
 Who traced these laws for all the sons of men; 
 The unwritten laws of God that know no change, 
 They are not of today nor yesterday, 
 But live forever, nor can man assign, 
 When first they sprang to being. 
 
 (SOPHOCLES: "Antigone") 
 
 AT the end of the last chapter was suggested a question which 
 troubles many superficial but honest and sympathetic thinkers. 
 How, say they, can a democratic State justly refuse the suf- 
 frage to any citizen? They see plainly the policy of such 
 refusal in many cases; they realize the mischief of permitting 
 discordant voices to mar the democracy of the cultivated choir 
 of good citizenship, the danger of allowing rotten timbers in 
 the structure of the ship of State; they wish for some superior 
 power to silence the one or remove the other; but they cannot 
 see that such a power exists. Can a man or any group of men 
 in a democracy justly assume such superiority of judgment as 
 the exercise of this power would imply? If the State be as 
 democracy asserts, the creature, the agent of the people, how 
 can it by refusing the franchise to any of its citizens rightfully 
 deprive them of a voice in its deliberations? Is not such 
 refusal in its essence a tyranny and a negation of democracy? 
 No doubt some such feeling as above expressed, though per- 
 haps more vaguely formulated, actuated many who, with more 
 or less reluctance made the blunder of acquiescing in the 
 
 So 
 
STATE POSSESSES POWER TO RESTRICT FRANCHISE 5 1 
 
 establishment of white manhood suffrage in the first quarter 
 of the nineteenth century, and also many of those who forty 
 years later made the still greater blunder of accepting negro 
 suffrage. 
 
 An answer to all these scruples familiar to all sound lawyers 
 and quite sufficient for most intelligent men, is found in the 
 law of self preservation. Before any law or rule of a state or 
 community can be enacted, the state or community must have 
 existence, and the enactment implies that the state's continu- 
 ance is to be secured. The original law of its being must first 
 be satisfied, and must ever remain superior to all other of its 
 enactments. It is sufficient reason therefore for the suppres- 
 sion of the votes of the unworthy that they are prejudicial to 
 the State, and the State in its struggle for existence may 
 rightfully suppress them. 
 
 But there is still another complete answer to the questions 
 above propounded, and one perhaps still more satisfying to 
 some minds than that of the primal right of self preservation; 
 and that is, that there does exist a higher warrant for the dis- 
 franchisement of unworthy voters, and for all suffrage regula- 
 tions, conditions and qualifications than the mere precept of the 
 State. This higher sanction is that which authorized men in 
 the beginning to found the commonwealth in which we live. 
 What was that authority? Imagine if you please the founda- 
 tion of a state. By what rightful authority did the first white 
 settlers in Virginia or Massachusetts establish a government 
 and proceed by its agency to deal with the property, lives and 
 liberty of the members of their little company and of all new 
 comers? By what rightful authority did they for instance 
 execute the first malefactor? The answer is, by the mandate 
 of Society. For even if it be true, as many insist, that the State 
 has no original power, but is a mere created agency of limited 
 authority, it yet does not follow that that authority has no basis 
 but the fiat of the electorate and no justification beyond certain 
 election certificates and its own statutes. There is a mighty 
 mundane power in constant operation amongst men, one far- 
 
52 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 superior and anterior to the State; a part indeed or manifesta- 
 tion of that almighty persistent and mysterious force which 
 maketh for righteousness in this world; a potentate with whose 
 operations we are all perfectly familiar and whom we may 
 here, for want of a better word, designate by the name "So- 
 ciety." The idea intended here to be represented by that word 
 is somewhat difficult of definition. We may approximately 
 indicate our meaning by defining "Society" as Humanity self 
 organized for the promotion of civilization; but we can best 
 identify her by noting some of her operations and attributes. 
 She finds her original source as all true authority must in the 
 Eternal Verities, and her sovereignty is mysterious in its 
 deepest origin as is everything vital in the universe. Her 
 forms and methods are fine and subtle beyond description. She 
 is not the State; she antedates the State; she was the source 
 of the authority of our first American ancestors to establish 
 governments and to execute justice, and was the founder and 
 is the mistress and director of all states and governments that 
 ever were or ever will be. Nor can she be identified with the 
 population or body of citizenship of the nation or community; 
 she is something which remains outside and independent of all 
 these; possessing a separate organism, life and growth of her 
 own. Society is the Overlord, the vital essence of which the 
 State is the manifestation; she is to the State what the spirit 
 is to the human body; and for her the State exists and was 
 created. Her membership is not confined to any class, but 
 includes all those who voluntarily submit to her decrees. 
 These she organizes in a way peculiar to herself, assigning to 
 them rights, obligations, influence and power without regard 
 to laws or statutes except those of her own original promulga- 
 tion, disregarding entirely the shallow and false modern notion 
 of equality between men. For just as no two individuals have 
 exactly the same appearance or physical power, so in the whole 
 social domain there are no two members who are in every 
 respect or indeed in any respect the social equals of each other. 
 Her membership has its own traditions, rules and standards 
 
STATE POSSESSES POWER TO RESTRICT FRANCHISE 53 
 
 which she promulgates by silent and subtle methods, often 
 finally compelling their formal adoption by the State. Her 
 mandates are more powerful than those of governments; and 
 all political decrees are subordinate to the constitutions of 
 civilized society. Her honors and powers are often more valued 
 than those of the State, and are conferred not as in our politics 
 at the command of mere numbers, as prizes for oratory or 
 rewards for intrigue, but in consideration of social aptitudes 
 and energies; so that in any given community you will find 
 the social development of each individual to correspond with 
 his or her compliance with the rules and mandates of Society. 
 Thus is constituted what may be called the Social Common- 
 wealth, imperium in imperio, composed of all those who take 
 up the cause of civilization; a number which does not neces- 
 sarily represent a majority or any definite proportion of the 
 people of the community, but does represent and include the 
 community's mental and moral force and civilizing influence. 
 Its leaders or captains are comparatively few; they are readily 
 distinguishable as active champions of social progress; spend- 
 ing time and effort for the cause; zealous in the establishment 
 of public order; in advancing public health, in creating and 
 maintaining beauty in public and private life; in forwarding 
 enterprises of religion, art, education, science and benevolence; 
 in promoting civilizing institutions, such as libraries, hospitals, 
 churches; also operas, music, dancing and all the refinements 
 of life; in creating parks and flower gardens, in beautifying 
 cities and villages; in elevating the standards of dress, man- 
 ners and private living, and in furthering all civilizing and 
 humanizing influences. Following these leaders at greater or 
 less social distance are the great body of the membership of 
 the Social Commonwealth composed of all classes of rich and 
 poor and between, the great mass of the socially loyal, 
 themselves originating and initiating nothing of social impor- 
 tance, but faithfully keeping up year by year with the steadily 
 advancing procession; directing their children in the way of 
 sweetness and light, that so they may reach the places where 
 
54 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 the social leaders stood a generation before. So that a basis 
 for the establishment of a qualified electorate and for the ex- 
 clusion therefrom of the disqualified is found in the primary 
 fact of the existence of two classes of humanity, the one in- 
 cluding the socially fit, the socially organized, the members of 
 the Social Commonwealth; and the others the non-members of 
 that organization. As already stated, not all the inhabitants 
 of our borders are the lieges of Society; there is the consider- 
 able body of the unsocial; comprising those cold and indiffer- 
 ent to the social cause, the socially worthless, the nondescript 
 and the rabble; also the anti-social; the openly hostile, the 
 criminals and malefactors of the community. The existence of 
 these two divisions of men, the social and the unsocial, justifies 
 and requires the State to distinguish between them in granting 
 the voting franchise. The primary test of voting capacity is 
 and must be allegiance to the social commonwealth. 
 
 Society was born when humanity emerged from* savagery, 
 and will endure while civilization continues in the world. The 
 Jacobins of France of 1790, like the present Bolsheviki of 
 Russia, got possession of the State machinery and turning it 
 against Society swore to destroy her forever; after a dozen 
 years of strife she emerged from the conflict stronger than be- 
 fore. She accompanied the first immigrants to Massachusetts 
 Bay, to Jamestown and to every other American settlement. 
 There she was on the very first day and ever after with her 
 customs, traditions, beliefs, classes, prejudices, dress, manners 
 and standards of conduct, ready to enforce them in America 
 with the same despotic authority exercised long before in the 
 England of the Plantagenets, Normans, Saxons and Romans. 
 And then and there in the fields and forests of the new world, 
 Society established governments as her agents to enforce her 
 mandates, imposing her will upon the States which she thus 
 created. Since then, by Society has the onward course of the 
 nation at all times been directed. Governments may change; 
 peace may follow war; the monarchy may give way to a re- 
 public or dictatorship and that to a democracy, or vice versa; 
 
STATE POSSESSES POWER TO RESTRICT FRANCHISE $5 
 
 laws may be enacted and repealed, constitutions established 
 and abolished, but the rule of the Social Commonwealth goes 
 on forever. 
 
 It is to Society, the champion of civilization, that the en- 
 lightened civilized man considers his allegiance is ultimately 
 due, and only to the State as the agent of Society. A law to 
 be valid and enforceable must conform to social mandates. 
 The late James C. Carter, a noted New York lawyer, is the 
 author of a philosophical treatise on Law in which he clearly 
 establishes this principle. He says (p. 120): "That to which 
 "we give the name of Law always has been, still is, and will for- 
 "ever continue to be Custom." But customs are merely the 
 ordinances of Society. When the State forgets its duty to 
 Society it does so at its peril; let it enact for example, a Fugi- 
 tive Slave Law and the Emersons, Thoreaus, Beechers and 
 other social leaders refuse obedience and defy the State. In 
 like manner, wars are justified when decreed by Society against 
 unsocial sovereign states in the interests of civilization, as for 
 instance, some of the modern wars of civilized powers against 
 Turkey. Consider the actual political power and operations 
 of Society. Compare the statute books of today with those 
 of fifty or a hundred years ago and note the changes she has 
 dictated in that period. History is sad and bloody with the 
 story of the efforts of the State to modify the religious prac- 
 tices of men; they have all failed; but Society does not fail 
 to change these practices year by year. Commerce, manufac- 
 tures, transportation, the arts, education, customs, manners, 
 all human institutions are in turn created and destroyed by 
 Society, and law and the State are powerless to defeat perma- 
 nently her decrees, while their own are only valid when stamped 
 with her approval. 
 
 Here then we find in the inherent powers of Society, in 
 powers which are God-given or Nature-given if you prefer, an 
 answer to the scruples of those who seek a source of authority 
 in the State to protect its life by preserving its own machinery. 
 It is this supreme potentate acting by and through the State 
 
56 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 that we invoke to settle the structure of the State on the foun- 
 dations of capacity and intelligence. 
 
 Consider now the interest of Society in the proper regula- 
 tion of the suffrage as the source and foundation of the State. 
 Not alone is she vitally interested in the maintenance of the 
 present civilizing forces which are sending us forward day by 
 day on the march to higher planes of life; but also in preserving 
 the material and intellectual inheritance of all the ages. This 
 inheritance includes all the accumulated acquisitions of the 
 civilized human race; its property, treasures, achievements 
 and traditions; all the products of its mental and physical 
 endeavor, the fruits of its art, literature, science and industry. 
 These constitute the body of civilization in which its soul and 
 mind are preserved, nourished and kept alive; they form a 
 social trust for ourselves and for posterity. "Civilization," 
 said Burke, is "a triple contract between the noble dead, the 
 "living and the unborn." And by that contract we are for- 
 bidden to live or to legislate so as to cheat those who come 
 after. 
 
 Society's process for the preservation of our intellectual 
 inheritance is called education; her method for the preserva- 
 tion of our material inheritance is the institution of private 
 property rights. Humanity, property and education combined, 
 constitute the material endowment of society, wherewith she 
 works for the advancement of the human race, or as otherwise 
 expressed for the promotion of civilization. Obviously she is 
 justified in adopting all possible precautions to guard and 
 preserve this precious deposit committed to her charge, nor 
 can it be doubted that she should carefully select its custodians 
 and overseers. Equally plain is it that since the civilization of 
 the nation is and has been produced entirely by the thrifty 
 members of the Social Commonwealth and remains in their 
 guardianship, they and they alone, as constituting the class 
 who have produced and cared for the same should be con- 
 tinued in its care as the representatives of Society and in her 
 behalf; and should be authorized to formulate the laws and 
 
STATE POSSESSES POWER TO RESTRICT FRANCHISE 57 
 
 measures which make for its protection and advancement. To 
 this end and purpose Society is constantly endeavoring. A vol- 
 ume could be written illustrating the exercise of her steady and 
 mighty influence in placing the scepter in the hands of her 
 chosen ones. Rome was the ancient conservator of civilization, 
 and to her was given sway for centuries; England of all mod- 
 ern nations has been most devoted to preserving the best of 
 the product of the generations as they pass on, and she and her 
 race were made foremost among nations and peoples. Look 
 at the community where you live and you will easily note how 
 Society bestows influence, authority, distinction and esteem 
 upon her own workers, the builders and creators of civilization 
 and upon their children, and passes contemptuously by the 
 unsocial and anti-social. You cannot fail to observe her dis- 
 dain of the mere talkers and wasters and how she brings to 
 naught the works and cheap distinctions of a manhood suf- 
 frage constituency. To the silly French Jacobin scheme of 
 ascertaining the best by counting noses, Society opposes her 
 own never failing system of continuous study, training and se- 
 lection. She does not favor, on the contrary, she discourages 
 the absurd and impossible purpose of modern liberalism of 
 giving expression to ignorant individual wills with all their 
 clashing selfishness and brutality. She does not favor the pol- 
 itician's purpose of perpetuating moral feebleness and inca- 
 pacity, nor of forwarding the foolish aims and ideas of the 
 weak and the worthless. She is far from giving office or power 
 to such or from even hearkening to their prattle and humbug. 
 She has much to overcome. The power that makes for right- 
 eousness is not permitted to operate without the opposition of 
 fools and charlatans; and it is within Society's function to 
 master this opposition, which she invariably does in the end. 
 She constantly refuses to descend as manhood suffrage does to 
 the level of the ignoble; on the contrary when they presume to 
 oppose her in her momentous business she undertakes either to 
 conquer them by reclamation or to see that they are hanged or 
 otherwise removed out of her implacable path. 
 
58 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 It is the crime of manhood suffrage that it constantly en- 
 deavors to oppose and thwart this all beneficent social ten- 
 dency; that it pushes to the front and seeks to give power in 
 civic affairs to the non-social and anti-social classes, consisting 
 of men devoid of the instinct for the creation and preservation 
 of the useful and the beautiful, and who cannot safely be 
 trusted as their guardians. In so doing it perverts the State 
 from its proper functions. The State has no rightful authority 
 over men's lives except as the deputy of Society, and its every 
 legitimate act should and must be for the promotion of benefi- 
 cial social objects. It is its clear duty as such deputy to place 
 political control in the hands of those gifted with distinguished 
 social attributes; and an essential and the first step in that 
 direction is the discarding of manhood suffrage and all similar 
 unnatural political stupidities which inevitably lead to Jaco- 
 binism, Bolshevism, anarchy, ruin and death. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 THE CAPACITY TO CREATE AND PRESERVE PRIVATE PROPERTY 
 IS THE PROPER TEST AND PROOF OF QUALIFICATION FOR 
 ACTIVE CITIZENSHIP IN AN ADVANCED DEMOCRACY. 
 
 THERE are two principal arguments in favor of a property 
 qualification for voters; one the argument of fitness, that the 
 propertied class are the most capable of passing upon affairs 
 of state; the other the argument of justice, that the business of 
 government principally concerns property, namely, the be- 
 longings and the productions of propertied people. Both these 
 arguments assume that what is wanted is an honest and effi- 
 cient government, not a corrupt and inefficient one. 
 
 The demand for a property qualification for voters is predi- 
 cated upon the theory that there is an obligation on the part 
 of the citizens of a state to contribute towards its material 
 prosperity; a duty of such importance that the state cannot 
 flourish in the face of its neglect; that the class of men who 
 are incapable of creating and preserving property is unfitted to 
 form part of the electorate; and that neither native birth nor 
 the taking of a naturalization oath is sufficient qualification for 
 the duties and function of active citizenship in a genuine 
 democracy. There may be valid excuses such as ill health, 
 ignorance, etc., for the individual's failure to perform his 
 part in the work of civilization, but such excuses do not dis- 
 prove the existence of the obligation in others, but rather em- 
 phasize it. It is not well fulfilled when the citizen only pro- 
 duces enough from day to day for his immediate support, or 
 wastes the surplus, leaving the burden upon others to provide 
 for the time of old age, sickness and incapacity. Its proper 
 performance therefore involves the exercise of the virtue 
 known as prudence, a systematic saving or accumulation of 
 
 59 
 
60 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 property for the joint benefit of the individual and the State. 
 The practice of this virtue is incumbent not merely upon good 
 citizens but upon every citizen and tends to qualify for active 
 citizenship. Like cleanliness, it is not a superfluous but an 
 essential virtue. The neglect of home cleanliness may breed 
 a pestilence; the neglect of home prudence may unfairly burden 
 the community; such neglect is an act of disloyalty to Society 
 and to the State, and is a proof of such civic incapacity and 
 indifference as to require in any well regulated political com- 
 munity, the placing of the offender in the class of passive citi- 
 zens who are not entitled to the suffrage. His country's pro- 
 tection is a sufficient reward for one of that class for merely 
 taking the trouble to be born in her domain. Let him be con- 
 tent to be what Sieyes called a passive citizen till he has 
 proved his qualification to be an active one. If there 
 be, which is doubtful, exceptional cases of men such 
 that neither they nor their forefathers were actually 
 able to earn more than enough to support them, or 
 having earned it to take care of it, and yet are capable of 
 directing affairs of state they are so few as to be negligible. 
 Such men need the spur of disfranchisement to make them go 
 ahead, and meantime the thrifty can legislate for them. Con- 
 stitutional legislation can only deal with groups, or classes, and 
 cannot properly attempt to provide for such extraordinary 
 exceptions. 
 
 Democracy is an ideal form of government for none but a 
 highly capable people; a representative government of a worth- 
 less or a politically indifferent constituency will be a worthless 
 government, the more representative the more worthless. Wit- 
 ness Hayti, San Domingo, Mexico, and certain Central Ameri- 
 can or South American democracies. These are totally inca- 
 pable because their electorates are totally incapable, and in 
 this country the democracy, though not a complete failure, is 
 a partial failure, namely, to the extent that its life is vitiated by 
 an inferior constituency. There are thousands of men, not to 
 speak of women, on our voting list who are as incompetent to 
 
FITNESS AND JUSTICE OF PROPERTY QUALIFICATION 6l 
 
 exercise the functions of voters as the inferior orders of Mexico 
 or Hayti. Many of the improvident classes have minds abso- 
 lutely childish and utterly incapable of foresight or serious 
 reflection. At an election held in Ashton in England under the 
 recently extended suffrage system, a theatrical man named de 
 Freece was elected to Parliament not because of his political 
 views, but because of the amusing performances of his wife, 
 a noted vaudeville actress. We quote from a newspaper: 
 
 "Vesta Tilley, the most popular male impersonator London 
 "has known in decades, took a prominent part in the campaign. 
 "Her Ticadilly Johnnie with the little glass eye' and other pop- 
 "ular songs, it was admitted played a far greater part in the 
 "election than her husband's political views." We may be sure 
 it was the unpropertied and non-tax-paying rabble whose vote 
 went in favor of "Picadilly Johnnie." Lord Bryce's description 
 of the indifferent or incompetent British voters applies well 
 enough to our own: 
 
 "Though they possess political power, and are better pleased to 
 have it, they do not really care about it that is to say, politics 
 occupy no appreciable space in their thoughts and interests. Some 
 of them vote at elections because they consider themselves to be- 
 long to a party, or fancy that on a given occasion they have more 
 to expect from the one party than from the other ; or because they are 
 brought up on election day by some one who can influence them. 
 . . . Others will not take the trouble to go to the polls. . . . Many 
 have not even political prepossessions, and will stare or smile when 
 asked to which party they belong. They count for little except 
 at elections, and then chiefly as instruments to be used by others. 
 So far as the formation or exercise of opinion goes, they may be 
 left out of sight." (American Commonwealth, Vol. II, pp. 319-20.) 
 
 It is impossible to weigh merits so nicely as to exclude all 
 of this class; it is impracticable to disfranchise a man for 
 frivolity even though he be so frivolous that his vote depends 
 on the song of an actress, but when that frivolity gives itself 
 concrete expression such as incapacity to acquire or retain prop- 
 erty, it may and should be excluded from our political life. 
 
62 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 In considering the proposition that the creation and preserva- 
 tion of property is a primary duty of citizenship, we must real- 
 ize the absolute essentiality of accumulated property in the 
 scheme of civilization. We all know the value of money, but 
 we are generally loath to formally acknowledge its importance. 
 There is a prevalent affectation of indifference towards it, 
 assumed by vain fools as a mark of superiority, and by spend- 
 thrift fools to excuse their stupid poverty. This affectation is 
 encouraged by the writers of the popular magazines and news- 
 papers and other cheap literature which is published for the 
 masses, who are supposed to be poor and to like to be flat- 
 tered by being told that their poverty, instead of being a mark 
 of inferiority as it really is, is a sign of superior goodness. 
 This sort of writing misleads many thoughtless people to their 
 detriment. Civilization can only be expressed in terms of 
 property; and property is its token, its manifestation, its note, 
 its unfailing indication, its hall mark. There is not a quality, 
 a circumstance, a feature of civilization which is not repre- 
 sented in some way by property, either by being due to prop- 
 erty, derived from property, originating in property, or sus- 
 tained by property. The desire for property is an attribute 
 of man; denied to the lower animals and dormant in savages, 
 such as the North American Indians who when discovered, 
 had no permanent property, not even a year's provisions to live 
 on in times of scarcity, and had created nothing for posterity. 
 A pauperized people is on the direct road to barbarism. On 
 the other hand, the higher the grade of civilization the greater 
 the wealth of the country; so that to attain the very highest 
 grade we must pass far beyond the period of aggregation of 
 merely useful things and reach a point of great luxury, where 
 men can spend lives and millions in the service of the high arts 
 and refinements of life, and where in an atmosphere enriched 
 by the artistic emanations of centuries, are produced operas 
 costing $10,000 a day, and palaces and cathedrals at an expen- 
 diture of the time of generations of men and of hundreds of 
 millions of dollars in money. 
 
FITNESS AND JUSTICE OF PROPERTY QUALIFICATION 63 
 
 It is often said that the main object of our government should 
 be to preserve our political institutions. This is too short- 
 sighted a view. These institutions are not an ultimate object; 
 they are only the means of promoting and protecting civiliza- 
 tion, the which ought to be the principal and ultimate object of 
 the State. This object is to be accomplished by encouraging 
 the citizens in the voluntary production of life's primal ma- 
 terial necessities: food, clothing, and shelter; in the conserva- 
 tion of the accumulated treasures of the past, and by favoring 
 the addition thereto of new contributions by this generation, 
 so that the total may be passed on intact to posterity. Any gov- 
 ernment is a failure which neglects that duty; which if accom- 
 plished, and a proper attention given to education, virtue and 
 morality will take care of themselves. In the play of "Major 
 Barbara," one of Bernard Shaw's best and most instructive 
 comedies, the distinguished author shows the difficulty, the 
 almost impossibility of the reclamation by mere admonition 
 of a man degraded by pauperism; but that good wages regu- 
 larly paid will do the job. Now, our present voting system 
 not only fails to encourage thrift, saving or accumulation of 
 wealth, or to promote civilization, but has a contrary ten- 
 dency, because it grants equality and power in government to 
 the non-producer, to the shiftless, lazy and vicious consumers 
 and wasters of property. 
 
 In order to fairly realize the gross injustice of granting gov- 
 ernmental powers to the thriftless classes, we must clearly 
 visualize and properly estimate the results of the lives and 
 labors of the thrifty and industrious. We must not fail to 
 fully understand that frugality is the creator and preserver of 
 the State. We have recently heard frequent appeals to save 
 and help win the German war; because to save is to contribute 
 to a fund out of which can be paid the expenses of the govern- 
 ment. But the common fund of the nation's wealth in peace 
 as well as in war exists and is drawn upon by every member 
 of the community, and it is just as true in peace as in war 
 that the citizen who saves money is thus contributing to 
 
64 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 that common fund and thereby to the strength and well-being 
 of the commonwealth, and this, whether he deposit his savings 
 in a bank where it is loaned out to aid industry and create 
 employment, or whether he invests it in commerce or manufac- 
 tures, directly or indirectly, by the purchase of stocks or secu- 
 rities in industrial or commercial concerns. The mere fact 
 of saving, that is to say of producing more than he consumes 
 makes him at once a contributor to this general fund; and 
 therefore any man who leaves behind him upon his death money 
 or property which he accumulated in his lifetime has been a 
 benefactor to the community, in the same sense as if he had 
 contributed a great book or a valuable invention to the world, 
 or had spent his life in benevolent work. To save or to make 
 money and then to usefully spend it in one's lifetime, reaping 
 the tribute of the world's appreciation is well enough; but to 
 frugally save for a long lifetime in order to do good or give 
 pleasure to others after one's eyes are closed in death is surely 
 nobler still. All the useful productions of man in the United 
 States, the dwellings, stores, shops, ships, roads, railroads, 
 telegraphs and telephones; the schools, colleges, hospitals and 
 church edifices; all the accumulated fuel and stores of manu- 
 factured and other goods, are the fruits of individual saving. 
 The greatness and power of the United States depend upon the 
 collected savings of generations gone by, and evidence their 
 industry, prudence and self-denial. The class of Americans 
 who have wasted their surplus or who have produced no more 
 than they earned; those devil-may-care fellows so admired 
 by sentimentalists, have been of no permanent material value 
 to the country; they are of the parasite class; they have no 
 part in the creation of its civilization which is represented by 
 its acquisitions and depends upon them for its continuance. 
 Many of these people give themselves airs of virtue and gen- 
 erosity because they are not "mean" as they say; they even 
 brag that they spend as they go, and for that attitude toward 
 life expect and sometimes receive applause from others as 
 great fools as themselves. Their ignorance prevents their per- 
 
FITNESS AND JUSTICE OF PROPERTY QUALIFICATION 65 
 
 ceiving their own selfishness; and their vanity hides from them 
 a suspicion of their worthlessness. The late Andrew Carnegie 
 is credited with many sayings wise and foolish; of the latter 
 one of the oftenest quoted is that it is a disgrace to die rich. 
 No proverb more mistaken and mischievous was ever uttered. 
 For since no man, however much he made but might have 
 squandered it all, therefore to die rich implies some prudence 
 and self denial, and usually means that the departed left the 
 world better off than he found it. The only anti-social rich 
 are the land grabbers. All who have become capitalists by 
 trade, production or invention, or by efforts in aid thereof, 
 are public benefactors. 
 
 Here let us stop to pay a well-earned tribute to the past and 
 present rank and file of the hard-working money savers of our 
 country, above all to those of the past; to such of the departed 
 ones and of the old superannuated fathers and mothers still 
 feebly lingering among us, as have lovingly toiled and scraped 
 and saved to leave something to their children and their de- 
 scendants. They are and have been among the best the world 
 produces, those honest, prudent, thrifty, self-denying Ameri- 
 cans, those brave old progenitors of ours, whose honest toil 
 and stinting and close bargaining for generations past built up 
 the wealth which makes so many of us comfortable and which 
 enabled America to give Germany her solar plexus blow. May 
 their memories be dear to their descendants and be honored by 
 all of us forever. 
 
 We hear much these days of "class consciousness"; of that 
 feeling of solidarity among the working classes which inclines 
 the mechanic or operative to feel the needs of his fellow workers 
 and to act with a view to their benefit, and this is well; but a 
 little guiding thought is never amiss in such matters, and will 
 surely lead to a conclusion favorable to a property qualification 
 for voters. First, the workers should remember that all good 
 workmen are interested in the creation and preservation of 
 capital. Their class consciousness should align them on this 
 question with those who produce and save. They should 
 
66 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 realize that immense numbers of workingmen have savings 
 bank accounts and other property and are therefore in the cap- 
 italistic class. Most of them have hopes and aspirations for 
 still greater wealth, for in the United States and in other 
 civilized countries where the ancient struggle for personal and 
 religious liberty is over, the chief modern aspiration of all 
 workers is to create and preserve property, and thus to enjoy 
 to the utmost the security and happiness which come with 
 civilization and are expressed in terms of property. They 
 should also understand that all capital is in a fund which is 
 accessible to all, and that their best contribution to the welfare 
 of their brothers would be the increase of this fund by their 
 own wise thrift and saving. The savings bank is a great crea- 
 tor and preserver of property, and operates by a process which 
 is vital to the existence of the unpropertied working man to 
 an extent which he often fails to realize till the destruction of 
 stored up capital by Bolsheviki methods brings him to star- 
 vation's verge. And while the property actually owned by 
 the working man is usually much less in dollar value than that 
 of almost any single capitalistic employer of labor, or business 
 men generally, yet its actual importance to him is as great 
 or greater; and then the use by the working man of property not 
 his own but accumulated by society, and its necessity to his 
 existence is usually almost as great and may be practically 
 greater than that of the rich man. The latter for instance 
 may be an invalid or of sedentary habits, making but little 
 direct use of mechanical forces; while the working man in 
 question may be constantly and necessarily using machinery, 
 railroads, and other transportation facilities, etc., in his daily 
 employment to such a degree as to be absolutely dependent 
 on them for his existence. In the case of another worker his 
 direct personal use of food, clothing, furniture, household 
 goods, books, etc., may be actually greater than that of his 
 wealthy but more secluded or abstemious neighbor. Such a 
 one whether or not he realizes it, is vitally interested in the 
 preservation and maintenance of the property of others through 
 
FITNESS AND JUSTICE OF PROPERTY QUALIFICATION 67 
 
 the use of which he obtains his livelihood, or on which his 
 comfort and happiness depend, and therefore that government 
 should be so organized as to protect that property. 
 
 As the thrift of the worker is the root of our material pros- 
 perity, so is the thrift of the rich its flower and choicest 
 fruit. What would America be, what would Europe be with- 
 out the savings of the well-to-do, accumulated from generation 
 to generation, and here now at our command and for our use 
 manifested not only in railroads, ships, canals, banks and all 
 the buildings and equipments of commerce and industry, but 
 also in fine mansions, in elegant furniture, in beautiful lawns 
 and gardens, in churches, cathedrals, hospitals, universities and 
 museums? From out the ranks of the opulent and thrifty 
 classes, and especially of those of them who have scorned 
 waste, extravagance, dissipation and vulgar display, came the 
 leaders in the social army, the noble pioneers of taste and 
 beauty. We hear much canting laudation of the frontier 
 pioneers, a rough and coarse set mostly, of whom such as did 
 their part deserve the credit. But far more excellent and ad- 
 mirable are those to whose zeal, enthusiastic taste and noble 
 self-denial we owe most of the preserved and accumulated 
 treasures of the earth in architecture, painting, sculpture and 
 ornamentation. In every age, in every generation they appear 
 on the scene, little bands of modest amateurs, devoting time, 
 patience and money to rescuing these treasures from destruc- 
 tion, and to fostering, instructing and creating public taste 
 for created beauty. They seek and teach the best in life, 
 leisure, refinement and loveliness; they introduce noble and 
 graceful fashions in dress, manners and deportment and set 
 fine examples to the world. The public museums and opera are 
 endowed by their benefactions; they are the patrons of the best 
 music, the purest drama, and the most inspiring architecture. 
 And not merely to the cultivated very rich who are able to do 
 so much, but also to the refined of the more modest middle 
 class is our gratitude due for their leadership in this same direc- 
 tion. We see their tasteful comfortable houses dotting the 
 
68 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 landscape; their good sidewalks, shady street trees, gardens 
 and orchards delight the wayfarer. In improving the public 
 taste in the choice of furniture, or book bindings, of music 
 and other things they are constantly helping along our civiliza- 
 tion and forwarding the interests of the Social Commonwealth. 
 They train their children so that they often become still more 
 tasteful than their parents; they set an example of decent 
 living to the poorer classes; they beautify the land; they give 
 the rest of us something to aspire to. As we pass through 
 a handsome well-kept American village let us give a thought 
 of gratitude to the folk of all degrees of well-to-do, most of 
 them now dead and gone, who planted and built well, who 
 dressed, talked and lived like gentlemen and ladies; who im- 
 proved the life and manners of their time and left the world 
 better housed, better mannered and better looking than they 
 found it. Of such is the history of the nation's progress. 
 Like the great artists and authors, they each contributed an 
 offering to civilization; they left something of value behind 
 them to make them remembered, were it only a little well-built 
 and well-designed house for someone to occupy after their de- 
 parture. Though their names are never in the mouths of plat- 
 form ranters, they are among the true patriots of America. 
 
 The manhood suffrage doctrine fails to recognize the vital 
 political difference heretofore referred to, originally pointed out 
 by Sieyes, that exists between the two classes of citizens; the 
 one the faithful members of the social commonwealth; the 
 progressive workers, loyal and active in the promotion of civi- 
 lization and in sustaining the state; and who because of such 
 civic activity, are accounted worthy of the suffrage; the other 
 the non-socials; the drones; the neutrals or disloyal and there- 
 fore ineligible for political functions of any sort; non-pro- 
 ducers, shirkers, wasters, and destroyers. Sieyes, who was a 
 statesman, publicist and member of the French National 
 Assembly in 1792, recognized the existence of these two clearly 
 separated classes of citizens, and, by a statute pro- 
 posed by him and subsequently enacted, all Frenchmen were 
 
FITNESS AND JUSTICE OF PROPERTY QUALIFICATION 69 
 
 divided accordingly into active citizens (citoyens actifs), hav- 
 ing the right to vote and hold office, and passive citizens 
 (citoyens passifs), who are excluded from both these privi- 
 leges. It is not just or fair that these latter, who are always 
 behind the chariot of progress, pulling backward and being 
 carried or dragged along, impeding the march of the race, 
 should compel the progressive workers, the real active citizens 
 of the country, to expend a large part of their efforts in over- 
 coming their resistance. 
 
 Consider also the gross injustice and folly of inviting a 
 large class who have contributed nothing to the treasury 
 of civilization to share in its management and control, 
 even permitting them to mismanage, misuse and waste 
 it. "That the tax eaters should not have absolute control 
 "over the taxes to be expended by the tax payers 
 "would appear to be entirely axiomatic truth in political 
 "philosophy. . . . That this suffrage is a spear as well as a 
 "shield is a fact which many writers on suffrage leave out 
 "of sight." (Sterne, Const. History, p. 270.) Those who made 
 this country what it is are the thrifty workers, the successful 
 business men. Now, is it asking too much to demand that the 
 destiny of the country should be placed in their hands? Is 
 it fair that government should be put under the control of the 
 wasteful and the foolish, that they may burden it with debt, 
 and bond their thrifty fellow citizens and all future genera- 
 tions to pay off the obligations thus imposed upon the nation? 
 
 A purely sentimental and therefore very popular argument 
 against property qualification is that the rights and claims of 
 humanity are separate from and superior to those of property. 
 This statement has really nothing to do with the case, since it 
 is not proposed to exclude humanity from the polls, but merely 
 to select for admission thereto a superior and more representa- 
 tive class. It is said by these sentimentalists that tie rights 
 of man are absolute and transcendant and must first be satis- 
 fied, while those of property are inferior and may be disre- 
 garded. This is on the absurd assumption that civilized man 
 
7O POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 and his property are separable and distinct forces; and that a 
 conception of civilized man without property is possible. And 
 so we are assailed with the catch phrase, popular with penny 
 papers and platform ranters: "Man is superior to property." 
 This, like most catch phrases, is found, when examined, to be 
 rather empty. Man is superior to property just as the head 
 is superior to the stomach, as the fruit of the tree is superior 
 to the roots. But when the stomach is neglected the head dies; 
 when the root is not nourished the fruit perishes; the only 
 way to preserve the head is to feed the stomach ; the only way 
 to produce the fruit is to fertilize the roots. Man in a state 
 of civilization cannot exist without property; if you sacrifice 
 his property you sacrifice him. The imagined comparison of 
 the value of human life in its entirety with human property 
 in the aggregate is absurd, it presents an impossible choice. 
 How, for instance, can you balance the value of human life 
 against that of the New York Croton Aqueduct system which 
 conserves the life of millions? Carry out the notion that all 
 property should be sacrificed rather than that one man should 
 perish, and you have the spectacle of a people without food, 
 fire, clothes, shelter or medicines, whereof not merely the one 
 sacred man, but the whole lot would perish forthwith. On the 
 other hand, a comparison of the value of individual life with 
 that of individual property depends on the character of the life 
 and of the property referred to. Whatever we may pretend 
 we do not practically treat the life of a human being as such, 
 say for instance, that of a savage, as equivalent in value to the 
 highest forms of property such as our great works of art, 
 our great public works, or the material equipment necessary 
 to our subsistence. It is probable that the aggregate 
 of the accumulated treasures of wealth and art which 
 existed in Europe at the time of the discovery of Amer- 
 ica was worth to civilization and to the moral and religious 
 universe a million times more than all the savage human life 
 on the North American continent at that time. To the exist- 
 ence of this accumulation of property and this organized so- 
 
FITNESS AND JUSTICE OF PROPERTY QUALIFICATION 71 
 
 ciety not only the well-to-do, but the most ignorant man, be 
 he ever so poor, owes whatever enjoyment he has in his daily 
 life. The little naked child is brought into the world by the 
 aid of physicians and nurses who have been trained in great 
 institutions established and sustained by organized civilized 
 society through the medium of property accumulated by the 
 men of years and generations past; and from his birth on, the 
 child, whatever be his station, is clothed, fed, sheltered and 
 nourished in sickness and in health; trained, educated, watched 
 over and preserved as long as he lives, by the aid of institu- 
 tions which were created and are maintained by Society through 
 the accumulation, the use and the application of property. The 
 poorest individual is more indebted to property accumulations 
 and is more dependent upon them in time of need than the 
 richest, because it is only from them that charities and benevo- 
 lences of all kinds, outdoor relief, free hospitals, dispensaries, 
 schools, colleges and churches can be maintained. Even Rob- 
 inson Crusoe on his island would have perished had it not 
 been for the use of such products of high civilization as he was 
 able to save from the wreck. 
 
 Following the argument founded on the justice of the case 
 comes that based upon the superior fitness of members of the 
 propertied class for the function of voters. This fitness 
 is derived from the training which is incidental to 
 the acquisition and care of property in the struggle for 
 life. The property qualification for voters is in 
 effect an educational test, and far more effective than 
 that of mere book learning, which so often turns out to 
 be quite insufficient as a preparation for the conduct of human 
 affairs, and is equally insufficient for the understanding of 
 politics. There is an education in life as well as in books and 
 the education in life is the more valuable of the two. To have 
 acquired and preserved property implies not only ordinary 
 school or theoretical education, but business training as well, 
 and as government is mostly a business affair a property quali- 
 fication presupposes a special preparatory course of training 
 
72 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 of the kind which is the best of all for the voter, and in addi- 
 tion such civic and political virtues as are necessary to success 
 in business. "In politics, as elsewhere, only that which costs 
 "is valued. The industrial virtues imply self-denial, which pre- 
 pares their possessors to wield political power; but pau- 
 "perism raises a presumption of unfitness to share in political 
 "power. The person who cannot support himself has no 
 "moral claim to rule one who can." (Lalor's Cyclopedia; 
 Suffrage.) 
 
 It is the actual contact with, and the masterful control of 
 the things of life that fits a man to give judgment on their force 
 and value; and his success therein is the test of his own ca- 
 pacity. In a very able and instructive article on "The Basic 
 Problem of Democracy" in the Atlantic Monthly for Novem- 
 ber, 1919, written by Walter Lipman, he dwells upon the 
 proposition heretofore generally overlooked that what is most 
 needed in our political system is some means of giving the 
 electorate true information as to facts. He says: 
 
 "The cardinal fact always is the loss of contact with objective 
 information. Public as well as private reason depends upon it. 
 Not what somebody says, not what somebody wishes were true, 
 but what is so beyond all our opining, constitutes the touchstone 
 of our existence. And a society which lives at secondhand will 
 commit incredible follies and countenance inconceivable brutalities 
 if that contact is intermittent and untrustworthy. Demagoguery 
 is a parasite that flourishes where discrimination fails, and only 
 those who are at grips with things themselves are impervious to it. 
 For, in the last analysis, the demagogue, whether of the Right or 
 the Left, is, consciously or unconsciously, an undetected liar." 
 
 For the purposes of this argument the point here is that not 
 only the mere rabble but the unpropertied and impecunious 
 from any cause, either from lack of interest or of capacity, live 
 at secondhand in their relations to politics and are not them- 
 selves at "grips with things" and therefore easily become the 
 prey of the demagogue, the undetected liar. 
 
 The practical value of the property qualification test though 
 
FITNESS AND JUSTICE OF PROPERTY QUALIFICATION 73 
 
 not properly appreciated has not been entirely overlooked 
 by previous writers. For example, Bagehot: 
 
 "Property indeed is a very imperfect test of intelligence; but it is 
 some test. If it has been inherited it guarantees education; if ac- 
 quired it guarantees ability; either way it assures us of something. 
 In all countries where anything has prevailed short of manhood 
 suffrage, the principal limitation has been founded on criteria de- 
 rived from property. And it is very important to observe that there 
 is a special appropriateness in this selection; property has not only 
 a certain connection with general intelligence, but it has a peculiar 
 connection with political intelligence. It is a great guide to a good 
 judgment to have much to lose by a bad judgment; generally speak- 
 ing, the welfare of the country will be most dear to those who are 
 well off there." (Parliamentary Reform, p. 320.) 
 
 Bagehot, like most political writers and speakers, while 
 recognizing the educative value to the voter of property owner- 
 ship and management, fails to give sufficient importance to the 
 effect of a business training. He elsewhere dwells upon the 
 beneficial influence upon the voter of leisure, of education, of 
 lofty pursuits, of cultivated society; but he overlooks the ob- 
 vious fact that all good government is a business enterprise, 
 and that a business training is essential to the instruction of the 
 electorate. This oversight was perhaps natural for two 
 reasons: one the traditionary contempt in which all business 
 was formerly held in England, and by the literary class 
 everywhere. Dickens, for example, had not the least idea of 
 business capacity or of the intelligent life of the business 
 world of London, and Thackeray very little. Their business 
 men are of varying degrees of stupidity. The fact is that the 
 world of art and letters has always been over conceited and 
 inclined on insufficient evidence to believe itself superior in 
 intelligence to the world of work and business. The other 
 reason for the oversight referred to is that in former days 
 business training was far less thorough and extended than it has 
 since become and is today. 
 
 Whatever may have been the case in days gone by, in our 
 
74 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 own time a business training is necessary to enable a voter to 
 make a proper choice of candidates for public office. The 
 only way to secure competent officials is through the demand 
 of the electorate for capable men and by close and intelligent 
 scrutiny of the candidates. But this implies capacity on the 
 part of the voters to pass on the candidates' qualifications and 
 to make a proper choice; in other words an electorate of 
 trained minds, good judgment and knowledge of men. The 
 voter needs not only understanding of the merits of public con- 
 troversies and knowledge of the published records of candi- 
 dates for office but also judgment to weigh their qualities. And 
 just as some knowledge of music is necessary to enable a lis- 
 tener to judge of the ability of a musician, so the voter who 
 is to choose men for office having proper business qualifica- 
 tions should himself have had fundamental business training 
 and experience, and an educated sense of honesty and justice in 
 such matters. 
 
 From all which it appears that business and the professions 
 furnish a school of which all voters should be graduates. In 
 this institution established by natural processes and every- 
 where in operation, citizens are being daily trained in prudence, 
 foresight, self-denial, temperance, industry, frugality, and the 
 capacity to reason. There is a continuous and automatic ex- 
 clusion of the unfit. First the worthless, very stupid, defective, 
 dishonest and lazy are eliminated. Either they refuse to enter, 
 or from time to time as boys or young men they are rejected 
 and discharged as incompetent; weeded out, and their places 
 taken by the more competent. As years go on the more in- 
 dustrious, clear-headed, honest and frugal of these surpass 
 the others and achieve success in proportion as they display 
 those qualities, together with good judgment and farsighted- 
 ness; while meantime they establish and maintain families, 
 raise children and acquire more or less property, all the while 
 gaining in training and experience in the affairs of life. They 
 become members of business firms, employers, superintendents, 
 business managers, etc. In agriculture they become successful 
 
FITNESS AND JUSTICE OF PROPERTY QUALIFICATION 75 
 
 farmers. In the professions they become known and estab- 
 lished as reliable, and acquire and accumulate clients and 
 patients, regular offices, books, equipment, furniture, together 
 with some money or other property. In literature they write 
 successful books. In teaching they become principals and col- 
 lege professors. There you have them, trained and graduated 
 in the school of life's affairs, the academy of evolution; a class 
 of the fittest armed with Nature's own credentials, certifying 
 them to be of proper stuff from which to build a safe founda- 
 tion for the democratic State, and thus has nature herself done 
 the preparatory work of selecting material for an electorate by 
 sifting out the inefficient, the non-social, the passive citizens; 
 by separating and putting in plain sight the efficient members of 
 the Social Commonwealth and stamping them with the seal 
 of competency for active citizenship. So that a property quali- 
 fication for voters appears upon a proper consideration to 
 be fit, appropriate, practical, effective and in accordance with 
 natural law. 
 
 Exceptions there probably are, instances of men of good 
 parts and judgment who through misadventure have been re- 
 duced to such poverty that they would be debarred from 
 voting under any fair property qualification rule. But the law 
 cannot provide for such misfortunes any more than for un- 
 avoidable absence from the polls on election day. Such minor 
 defaults will not affect the desired result, which is the pro- 
 duction of a class of reliable voters, and not merely a few ex- 
 ceptional ones. 
 
 Not only property but the honest and intelligent de- 
 sire for property should be represented in the councils of the 
 State. This aspiration has been stigmatized by twaddlers 
 as an "appetite"; but an appetite is a good thing; and essen- 
 tial to life. The desire for wealth is one of nature's construc- 
 tive forces and should be availed of by wise statesmen for the 
 purpose of nation building. Nothing is more offensive to the 
 intelligent thinking man than to hear hypocritical demagogic 
 ranters denounce as "greed" the honest efforts of thrift to col- 
 
76 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 lect together a competence for old age, a provision for helpless 
 children, or capital for a business enterprise. Politicians and 
 the impudent followers of politicians, vile parasites on the 
 body politic, scurvy knaves who have never earned an honest 
 hundred dollars in their lives, make a trade of this kind 
 of talk; preferring the business of flattering and cozening a 
 constituency of wooden heads and uncontrolled emotions to 
 earning a living honestly. The wish for property is a primal 
 impulse like the love of life, the appetite for food and drink, 
 and the desire for procreation; it is in the nature of every 
 healthy man; the want of it is abnormal and detracts from 
 capacity for constructive state work. Those who really lack 
 it become in politics as dangerous as lunatics; they are 
 dreamers, enthusiasts who ruin everything they control, such 
 as were Robespierre and thousands of his followers. One would 
 not trust one of these crackbrains to build a house, let alone a 
 nation. In private life they are shiftless and burdensome on 
 their friends and the public; in the lower classes they are 
 often known as loafers or deadbeats ; some of them become the 
 "floaters" of politics, the cheap material for bandit political 
 organizations. On the other hand this desire to create, to save, 
 to preserve and to perpetuate useful and beautiful things, 
 is a natural force which wise statesmen employ to the utmost 
 in the service of the State; whose development they encourage 
 in civics, in private life, in politics and in government, and 
 which found in the character of the individual should be 
 accorded its proper and legitimate, sane and steadying 
 influence. 
 
 The possession of property is also a necessary qualification 
 of a voter because it renders him pecuniarily independent. The 
 voter in a democracy should be so situated as to be free from 
 the need of yielding to the temptation of a bribe, either in the 
 shape of cash or the salary attached to a small office. We 
 pay judges large salaries, to lift them above the atmosphere 
 of temptation. The voter is a judge, called upon to pass judg- 
 ment upon the candidates whose names are on the ballot. That 
 
FITNESS AND JUSTICE OF PROPERTY QUALIFICATION 77 
 
 the verdict of the polls upon these candidates for office should 
 be rendered by paupers, by men whose means do not enable 
 them to vote with independence, is monstrous. The shelter 
 of secrecy afforded by the Australian ballot is no answer to 
 this objection. The purchased voter is corrupted before he 
 enters the booth; his soul is degraded as soon as he resolves to 
 take the bribe. Why should he be false to his bargain? 
 Surely not for patriotism or virtue, for the act of betraying his 
 purchaser would not cleanse him; it would only prove him 
 doubly recreant. To say that the elector besides being venal 
 will perhaps become a perjured traitor is a poor plea for his 
 admission to the suffrage. And yet, the tendency of manhood 
 suffrage being forever downward is towards pauper voting. A 
 New York newspaper of March 5, 1919, recorded that Lady 
 Astor, a candidate for Parliament in Plymouth, England, had 
 just visited the almshouses there in making her canvass for 
 votes. In the short time England has been afflicted with an 
 approximation to universal suffrage, this much has been accom- 
 plished. If it be right, it should go on, and great England's 
 Parliament, renowned for six centuries as the mother of all free 
 representative assemblies, should become a club of chattering 
 women, sent there by paupers and vagabonds. America should 
 face the other way. In its political life it has no need for 
 women nor for flabby and inefficient men; it needs honesty, 
 frugality, virile force, courage and efficiency; it needs a con- 
 structive and conservative spirit to replace the reckless and 
 wasteful temper now so prevalent. The electorate should in- 
 clude only active citizens, only those who have made good ; the 
 governmental state should correspond to the social state, rep- 
 resenting not only the working and thrifty people, but their 
 works, their homes, their property and their civilization. 
 
 The democratic advance thus proposed is a movement on- 
 ward and upward to better things. The manhood suffrage move- 
 ment was downward. In the next and succeeding chapters 
 the reader will find briefly sketched some account of that 
 descending progress into and through the muck of ignorance 
 and corruption for the past one hundred years. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 ORIGIN AND FIRST APPEARANCE OF MANHOOD SUFFRAGE AS 
 PART OF THE FRENCH TERRORIST MACHINERY 
 
 THE first national legislature to be elected by manhood 
 suffrage without distinctions or qualifications was the notorious 
 red radical French Convention which met at Paris, September 
 2Oth, 1792. It is that body which has the infamous celebrity of 
 establishing and prosecuting the bloody tyranny known as the 
 Terror, under which tens of thousands of innocent men and 
 women of France were put to death because of their supposed 
 political opinions. Though manhood suffrage may not be 
 entirely and solely responsible for the excesses of the conven- 
 tion, yet it is safe to say that it helped create the machinery for 
 the perpetration of the crimes and follies of the Terror; and 
 that none of these excesses would have been committed by a 
 body selected by a fairly qualified electorate. All that was 
 good in the French Revolution was accomplished through a 
 propertied electorate; and all that was worst was done under a 
 manhood suffrage regime. 
 
 The French Revolution began in 1789 as a peaceable and ra- 
 tional reform movement. None of the writings of Rousseau 
 which did so much to prepare the way for the great change had 
 directly discussed the suffrage question. The French National 
 Assembly which met in May, 1789, at Versailles, was a sane 
 and dignified body, chosen by a qualified electorate, and there 
 was in its deliberations no mention and in its membership 
 probably no thought of universal suffrage. 
 
 There was never any necessity for physical violence or revo- 
 lution in order to secure the attainment of all such political 
 reforms as even from the most liberal standpoint were needed 
 
 78 
 
SINISTER BIRTH OF MANHOOD SUFFRAGE 7Q 
 
 by France at that time. The government like all other gov- 
 ernments of that day was ignorant of economic laws, and the 
 people had suffered under inequalities in rank and privilege, 
 and an antiquated and inadequate financial system; but the 
 king and the nobility were pacifist, and in the main 
 humanitarian and inclined to liberal measures. Within 
 three months after the Assembly convened, the nobility 
 in open meeting voluntarily surrendered their historic 
 privileges. At that same session of 1789 the Assembly 
 undertook a number of reforms and the re-establishment 
 of France upon a firm constitutional and conservative 
 basis with proper security for all classes. Had the revolu- 
 tionary movement stopped there, and the better classes 
 been permitted to carry out their intelligent schemes, France, 
 under a constitutional monarchy, would have embarked upon 
 a new career of prosperity, and the wars which have since 
 devastated her would probably have been avoided. But the 
 Radicals got the upper hand; on pretence of remedying the 
 embarrassments arising from poor harvests and bad financier- 
 ing they established universal suffrage and the rule of the 
 rabble, which increased the miseries of the French people five 
 fold, and speedily evolved the Terror and precipitated the ruin 
 of the nation. A great many, perhaps most, of these radicals 
 were men of little experience, governed by mere sentiment and 
 passion; others, who ultimately became the working majority 
 were men of low moral character and defective reasoning 
 powers; lacking in principle; demagogues and adventurers; 
 cranks and scoundrels, who, claiming to be the champions of 
 an ideal democracy, found it to their advantage to spout 
 balderdash with which to gain the applause of the ignorant and 
 emotional masses. Their stupidities, antics, vagaries, thefts, 
 and other minor rascalities and follies; their guillotinings, 
 drownings, arsons, street slaughters and other butcheries and 
 outrages; their confiscations and banishments are matters of 
 history, and have to some extent been duplicated by the Bol- 
 shevik! rabble in Russia in our own day. To the tune of 
 
8O POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 crazy cries for liberty and more liberty, they attacked prop- 
 erty, vested rights, commerce, business, the church and the 
 Christian religion, and plunged France into chaos. They mur- 
 dered and outlawed her nobility and her priests, besides tens 
 of thousands of innocent people who were neither priests nor 
 nobles, including farmers, artisans, tradesmen, poets, artists 
 and professional men, the best of the land. Under the first 
 Republic, it is computed that a million French died of famine 
 and hardship, the direct result of Radical legislation and Radi- 
 cal tyranny, and chargeable to a great extent to the operation 
 of manhood suffrage. Nor is this the total record of their 
 mischief. Their misdeeds produced a violent reaction which 
 resulted in the placing on the French throne of Bonaparte, 
 whose ambitions deluged Europe with blood. A generation 
 later he was followed by another Bonaparte, equally a result 
 (though less directly) of the Revolution; and he plunged 
 France into a war with Germany, which in 1871 cost her the 
 loss of Alsace and Lorraine and out of which the recent great 
 war of 1914 was born. 
 
 France therefore has never yet recovered from the injuries 
 she suffered at the hands of the red radicals in the first Revo- 
 lution. She may thank universal suffrage and the extremists 
 of that time not only for the depopulation and misery inflicted 
 upon her by the so-called republic from 1789 to 1798, and by 
 the Napoleonic wars from 1798 to 1815, but also for the loss of 
 Alsace and Lorraine in 1871, for four invasions of her soil, for 
 her recent sufferings from 1914 to 1918 and her reduction from 
 the first rank to the third among the powers of Europe. In 
 short, she has paid one hundred and thirty years of torment 
 for the privilege of listening to the rhodomontade and va- 
 porings of crackbrains and demagogues. Let America take 
 warning. 
 
 Right here seems to be a good place to make a cheerful 
 contrast to the foregoing by comparing the radical French 
 convention of 1792 with the conservative French Assembly of 
 1871. It was after Germany had triumphed over Napoleon III, 
 
SINISTER BIRTH OF MANHOOD SUFFRAGE 8 1 
 
 that clay idol of the French populace; he was in exile, 
 the empire was at an end, the army was destroyed, and France 
 was without resources, credit, friends or prestige. She had 
 to form a new government and try to re-establish herself as a 
 nation, to raise five thousand millions of francs and to get the 
 invader from her soil. The elections were had for a new Na- 
 tional Assembly; the manhood of France went to the polls, 
 but with sad and serious faces. All the frivolity and humbug 
 of politics had disappeared. The masses were poor and 
 hungry; the Germans were at Paris; the Commune was 
 threatening the national existence. It was a time for the 
 people to turn to the genuine patriots, the real leaders of men, 
 the competent, the capable, the reliable. Did they go to the 
 demagogues, the orators, the enthusiastic ranters, the ultra- 
 radicals, the theorists, the politicians, the inspired blather- 
 skites whose froth and flattery are so much to the taste of the 
 populace? No, indeed. The fear of death being upon them, 
 the masses bethought them seriously, and for once refrained 
 from making fools of themselves at an election. The poorer 
 classes, the peasants, the workingmen, turned eagerly and fear- 
 fully to the solid men among their neighbors for counsel and 
 advice and followed it. Needless to say, the new Assembly was 
 the most able, intelligent, honest and conservative legislature 
 poor France had seen for many a day. It was composed of men 
 of experience, property, education, integrity and reputation; 
 men who were noted champions of society and of civilization. 
 As soon as the world heard what France had done at her elec- 
 tions, the joyful word was passed along, "France is saved," and 
 saved she was from that day. Confidence was restored, the 
 Commune was suppressed with a strong and vigorous hand; 
 public and private credit was re-established; the Prussian 
 enemy was paid off and his troops withdrawn; industry re- 
 vived, plenty came again, and France once more took her place 
 among the nations. It would be an insult to the reader's intel- 
 ligence to proceed to point the moral of this notable incident 
 in the political history of the world. 
 
82 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 The red radicals of the French revolution claimed to be- 
 lieve, and as they were a shallow lot, some of them probably 
 did believe as the masses here believe today, that pure man- 
 hood suffrage is a development of the principle of equality. 
 But they were fundamentally wrong, they were in conflict 
 with nature's laws, which cannot be trifled with. As equality of 
 power or capacity does not exist in nature, all that can 
 rightly be claimed in that direction is equality of opportunity, 
 which includes recognition of the superior claims of merit 
 and capacity, and therefore involves the divine principle of in- 
 equality of achievement. This the French radical revolutionary 
 leaders failed to perceive. For instance, they objected to the 
 old aristocratic regime because it was not founded on merit, 
 and because its offices were allotted to influence without ref- 
 erence to qualifications; they wanted as they said "La carrier e 
 ouverte aux talents" ; a career for talent, a very commendable 
 object. But the operation of manhood suffrage is just the 
 reverse of this; it denies the opportunity and the reward due 
 to merit, to talent, to study, to diligence, to education. As 
 far as possible it gives to ignorance and negligence the same 
 weight and power as to intelligence and assiduity. To give 
 power to electors unqualified by education or experience to 
 overrule the wishes of the educated and experienced on political 
 questions is to ignore merit and qualification, and that at the 
 very foundation of government. But while the best thinkers 
 of the French reform party at that time saw this plainly, the 
 radical leaders overruled them, because what they wanted was 
 a rabble constituency, since none other would give power to 
 such a gang of fools and ruffians as they. 
 
 The world has made great progress in well-being in the last 
 one hundred and thirty years, a progress due almost entirely to 
 its inventors and discoverers and to the industry and frugality 
 of its workers; and France has shared in that prosperity; but 
 her miseries and misfortunes have also been great, and these 
 were nearly all political, and due to one cause, the operation 
 of manhood suffrage. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 IMPORTANT INFLUENCE OF FRENCH RED RADICALISM IN 
 PROPAGATING THE MANHOOD SUFFRAGE DOCTRINE IN 
 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 THE doctrine of manhood suffrage was imported to America 
 from France in the latter part of the eighteenth century, and 
 began to infect American politics some twenty years after the 
 Independence, though its final triumph was delayed another 
 score of years. To some of us it seems almost incredible that 
 any honest man could avoid being strongly prejudiced against 
 a political institution which had produced such horrible re- 
 sults as manhood suffrage in France, and it would probably 
 today be but a poor recommendation of any political scheme to 
 an intelligent man that it was adopted by the French Revolu- 
 tionary Convention of 1792. But a century ago the masses in 
 the United States were not thinkers, and were even more in- 
 clined to be carried away by emotional crazes than they are 
 at present; no doubt the success of the American Revolution 
 had turned many heads. It was a time when young gentlemen 
 were much afflicted by morbid sentimentality; when ladies 
 did not fail to faint on proper occasion; when American gen- 
 tlemen fought duels because of sham sentiment or to sustain a 
 sham honor; when blood-curdling novels were devoured with 
 gusto; when Byron's all-defying pirate heroes were the rage; 
 when young clerks went about gloomily brooding in turned- 
 down collars and imagining that the whole world consisted of 
 oppressors and the oppressed. To such a romantic and super- 
 ficial young America the platitudes and empty sentimentalities 
 of the French Radicals made a stronger appeal than the plain 
 common sense talk of the British Tories. Besides all this 
 
 83 
 
84 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 a large part of the American people at the close of the Ameri- 
 can Revolution in 1783 were deeply grateful to the French 
 nation for its timely and effective assistance in the war for 
 Independence. Without French aid, it was thought that the 
 revolt might have failed, and of course they did not stop to 
 reflect that Lafayette and Rochambeau were noblemen; that it 
 was a French monarchy and not a republic which had been so 
 helpful to America. And so when a few years later France 
 became a Republic, largely owing, it was thought, to American 
 influence and example, there was great enthusiasm in many 
 American hearts for France and everything French, including 
 the new political theories of the Rights of Man, Liberty, 
 Equality and Fraternity. Even the Terrorists for a time had 
 their sympathizers here, some of whom probably were unaware 
 of the facts as the newspaper accounts of doings abroad were 
 meagre and distorted. The French partisans here even believed 
 and circulated slanders against the noble and spotless Wash- 
 ington. It is easy to believe interesting lies. Did not 
 our fellow Americans in the South work themselves up 
 in 1860 to a silly belief that they were or were about 
 to be plundered and oppressed by the perfectly harmless rest 
 of us? Did not the English and French make themselves be- 
 lieve and declare in January, 1865, that the Southern States 
 were on the eve of final victory when they were obviously 
 tottering to a final fall? Have not we Americans to the last 
 deluded man of us gone about for the past century believing 
 and swearing that we won a signal triumph in the war of 1812 
 and refusing to credit our own officers and historians to the 
 contrary? How many Americans failed to go wrong in their 
 sympathies at the beginning of the last Russian revolution? The 
 American radicals therefore probably chose to believe that 
 Marat, Robespierre, Danton and Co., instead of being 
 humbugs, blackguards and miscreants, were wise and honest 
 republicans, whose massacres of harmless prisoners and other 
 similar performances were excusable ebullitions of patriotic 
 zeal. When for instance the news of the defeat of Brunswick 
 
FRENCH TERRORIST INFLUENCES 85 
 
 by Dumouriez came to America in December, 1792, there were 
 great rejoicings among them. There were dinners, suppers, 
 speeches, cannon firing and processions in New York, Phila- 
 delphia, Boston, and other cities. The inns and taverns were 
 filled with those whose heads were turned by liquor and enthu- 
 siasm; some wearing liberty caps and cockades; all singing, 
 shouting and drinking toasts. On December 27th in New 
 York City the whole day was given up to public rejoicing, in- 
 cluding a celebration by the Tammany Society. 
 
 The instinct of imitation is strong, especially among children, 
 savages and the lower classes. We had been imitating the 
 British; we now took to imitating the French. Everything 
 French was popular; became the rage. When the French 
 Minister Genet, representing the Terrorist government, arrived 
 here in April, 1793, he landed at Charleston, whence he pro- 
 ceeded to Philadelphia, the seat of the Federal Government. 
 He really represented a band of blood-stained scoundrels who 
 had usurped power in France, who had just guillotined the king 
 and most of whom were for sale, yet he was hailed by a faction 
 here as a hero and the emissary of sages and patriots. There 
 were receptions, escorts, processions and banquets, where "Cit- 
 izen" Genet was glorified, our own government was denounced, 
 and an American reign of terror threatened. At some of the 
 banquets a red liberty cap was displayed; half drunken young 
 American radicals danced about the table; the guillotine was 
 toasted, and capitalists were threatened with death. At that 
 time England, outraged and disgusted by the insults and 
 bloody rapine of the French Terrorist government, had gone 
 to war with France; our howling mobs therefore yelled for 
 war with England, and mouthing politicians who had never 
 smelt gunpowder pretended to be eager to fight Great Britain, 
 although we had neither army, navy, transports nor money. 
 Two American privateers were actually fitted out to sail 
 under French colors and prey on English commerce in defiance 
 of the law and of the Federal Government. 
 
 Meantime the American friends and enemies of the French 
 
86 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 Revolution taunted and vilified each other in newspapers, 
 pamphlets, and otherwise publicly and privately. Some of 
 the American featherheads, in imitation of the antics of the 
 French Republicans, addressed each other as "citizen" and 
 "citess," instead of Mr. and Mrs. this and that. Serious 
 and sensible folk, including President Washington, looked 
 askance at these follies, and by many they were treated with 
 the ridicule they deserved. The rabble thereupon after their 
 nature and in further imitation of the French democracy which 
 they so admired, revenged themselves by flinging coarse insults 
 at their unsympathetic fellow citizens, including Washington 
 himself. In about three years' time this wild craze passed 
 away; but French influence continued. French dancing 
 schools, fencing schools, dishes, names, expressions, customs, 
 dress, music, and books were popular; French newspapers were 
 published in all important cities, and some permanent progress 
 was made by French Revolutionary influence and ideas. 
 
 We may here note that after the death of Robespierre and 
 the overthrow of the Terror and on September 23rd, 1795, 
 after a test of over three years, manhood suffrage was abolished 
 in France almost without a protest. It was unanimously recog- 
 nized that it was responsible for the Terror, for the disorder 
 and insecurity of life and property which had prevailed since 
 its adoption and for the complete financial and economic 
 prostration of France, whose people were starving by thousands 
 for need of that social order and confidence without which 
 modern civilization is impossible. In the official report on 
 the subject presented to the National Convention in 1795, and 
 which was adopted after full discussion, we read these words: 
 "We ought to be governed by the best; the best are the 
 "most highly educated, and those most interested in the main- 
 tenance of the laws. Now with very few exceptions you will 
 "only find such men among those who, possessing a freehold, 
 "are attached to the country which contains it, the laws which 
 "protect it, and the tranquillity which preserves it, and who 
 "owe to their property and their affluence the education which 
 
FRENCH TERRORIST INFLUENCES 87 
 
 "has fitted them to discuss with* justice and understanding 
 "the advantages and disadvantages of the laws which determine 
 "the fate of their country. ... A country governed by free- 
 holders is in a social condition; a country in which the non- 
 "proprietors govern is in a state of nature." Unfortunately 
 the mischief that had been already done by the radicals has 
 never been quite cured, and France has suffered many 
 things since then; but that is another story. The ex- 
 treme French Radicals did not for all this abandon their 
 attachment to their revolutionary ideas; their influence in the 
 United States continued to be very considerable, and the 
 rapid spread of the new-fangled doctrine of manhood suf- 
 frage in the young American states after the death of Wash- 
 ington had removed his conservative influence was no doubt 
 largely due to the effect of the plausible ranting and twaddle 
 of the French Revolutionists and their followers. 
 
 Everything has to be paid for in this world, and for the 
 help of France in the fight for independence, the United 
 States had something to pay in the corruption, waste and 
 deterioration caused by the adoption of the silly theory of 
 the French radicals that in governmental matters one man's 
 judgment and intent are as good as another's, those of the 
 ignorant and thriftless equal to those of the frugal, indus- 
 trious and well-informed. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 THE SAFEGUARD OF A PROPERTY QUALIFICATION FOR VOTERS 
 WAS DISCARDED BY A GENERATION OF AMERICANS WHO DID 
 NOT REALIZE ITS VALUE OR THE DANGERS ATTENDANT 
 UPON UNIVERSAL SUFFRAGE 
 
 THE circumstances of the adoption of the system of man- 
 hood suffrage by state after state a century ago are not such 
 as to justify us of today in according much authority to their 
 determination. The movement was one of weakness, igno- 
 rance and degeneracy, not part of an effort to further achieve 
 the highest ideals of republican theories, but a reactionary 
 yielding to cheap, selfish and opportunist politics. It was 
 successful because the mass of the American people lacked 
 both the experience and the foresight necessary to enable them 
 to realize the probably fatal result of the proposed change. 
 
 We have already noted that following the establishment of 
 the Federal Government in 1789, though the upper and edu- 
 cated classes, especially in the older American states, did not 
 display much enthusiasm for French radical political ideas, 
 and though Washington and the propertied class were openly 
 hostile to them, they were acclaimed by the working classes, 
 the poor farmers, the immigrants, and many of the romantic 
 youths of the country; and were partly adopted by Jefferson 
 and such others as like him were somewhat under French 
 influence. We may add to the influences favoring manhood 
 suffrage in the old and populous states that of the resident 
 foreigners, which was considerable. It would be a mistake 
 to suppose that at this early period there had been little immi- 
 gration to this country. The fact is that the proportion of 
 immigrants to the whole population was then probably greater 
 
 88 
 
AMERICAN ABANDONMENT OF PROPERTY QUALIFICATION 89 
 
 than at any subsequent time; the foreign element at the 
 time of the independence, including British and Irish, Ger- 
 mans, Dutch, Swedes and French, probably amounting to 
 about one-third of the entire population. Another class of 
 people who unquestioningly accepted the doctrine of manhood 
 suffrage was that of the frontiersmen or pioneer western 
 settlers. It is the fashion in these days to hail every political 
 novelty as an "advance," and accordingly the twaddlers, includ- 
 ing writers of that ilk, tell us unctuously that the adoption of 
 manhood suffrage was part of the "advance" of civilization. 
 The truth is, however, that it was not the fruit of an improved 
 civilization, but was first adopted when and where the popu- 
 lation was coarse, rough and unlettered. In the new and 
 sparsely settled states, New Hampshire, Vermont, Kentucky, 
 Georgia, Tennessee and Ohio, the principle of manhood suf- 
 frage was accepted almost as a matter of course and with- 
 out any serious discussion. In those states there was at 
 that time an approximation to practical equality among the 
 inhabitants both in property and intelligence, the standard 
 of both being low; political problems were simple and prim- 
 itive; and an equal share in government to all men seemed 
 natural and reasonable. There was but little property except 
 land which was plenty and cheap ; farming was the principal 
 occupation; and the farmer was confined to the home market 
 there being no railroads to carry his produce to distant places. 
 The great differences between rich and poor existing in older 
 communities were not present; none of the conditions which 
 render manhood suffrage so objectionable in large cities were 
 found in these new states. When Georgia adopted a low 
 qualification in 1789 her population was less than two to the 
 square mile; when Vermont entered the Union she had less 
 than ten to the square mile; Kentucky had two; Ohio one; 
 Tennessee two. There must have seemed little reason in 
 attempting to create distinctions in rude and primitive com- 
 munities where none actually existed. 
 Another consideration operating to lower the suffrage was 
 
90 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 the competition among the new states to get settlers on any 
 terms. Nearly all of those who had land in the newer states 
 had more than they could use and were not only very anxious 
 to sell some of it, but to get new neighbors on any terms, 
 since each new arrival measurably increased the value of 
 their holdings. One of the baits to induce immigration was 
 the right to vote and hold office offered to all new comers. 
 Even in our own day a number of western states permit 
 aliens to vote as an inducement to settle in their limits, and 
 we have had in the last few years the curious spectacle of 
 unnaturalized and presumably hostile Germans voting at elec- 
 tions. The right to vote was highly valued in those early 
 communities, where fortunes were not easily made, and where 
 political preferment was much sought after as the most avail- 
 able road to distinction. To close that avenue to ambition 
 was to discourage new settlers. It was therefore inevitable 
 that such of the original thirteen as were sparsely settled 
 states with populations composed partly of frontiersmen, and 
 also all the new states as they came in one by one, should be 
 willing to waive property qualifications for voters. And thus 
 it was that in 1789 Georgia reduced her suffrage qualification 
 to a small annual tax requirement; that in 1791 Vermont 
 and in 1792 Kentucky came into the Union under manhood 
 suffrage constitutions; that in 1792 New Hampshire adopted 
 manhood suffrage; that in 1803 Ohio entered with a minimum 
 tax qualification and that Indiana in 1816, Illinois in 1818 
 and Missouri in 1820 were admitted as manhood suffrage 
 states, while some of the others, such as Tennessee, Mississippi 
 and Louisiana, merely prescribed tax qualifications which were 
 far from onerous. 
 
 In the older states the advance of the manhood suffrage 
 movement was aided by the influences already referred to; by 
 the French Revolutionary party, including many foreigners; 
 the city laboring classes, the thriftless and discontented, and 
 the restless horde of theorists, dreamers, penny-a-liners, polit- 
 ical adventurers, demagogues, agitators, radicals of every 
 
AMERICAN ABANDONMENT OF PROPERTY QUALIFICATION 9 1 
 
 stripe, and many of that numerous class who had more facility 
 in talking than in thinking. There is even yet among people 
 of small intelligence a widespread belief in the miraculous effi- 
 ciency of voting; and that belief is no doubt accountable for 
 some of the eagerness with which the suffrage was demanded by 
 superficial men who thought to better their condition by 
 politics, and who, though plainly lacking in efficiency, unable 
 even to get together a few hundred dollars in property to 
 qualify them as voters, nevertheless rated high their own 
 capacity to decide problems of state. We may add to this 
 as helping the movement the plausibility to shallow minds of 
 the assertion that all men are equal; and the prestige given it 
 by its being quite unnecessarily put by Jefferson into the 
 Declaration of Independence. Another cause which has been 
 said to have contributed, was the severe financial panic of 
 1819 which brought widespread distress and consequent dis- 
 content with things as they were. Why not try a change? is 
 an argument which has more or less success at every elec- 
 tion. Then too the American easy good nature and hos- 
 pitality of character must have helped along; that softness 
 which makes many dislike to refuse a boon which will not 
 cost anything in cash or its equivalent. It must have seemed 
 to many men easy and pleasant to vote to allow their neigh- 
 bors to vote, especially when to a dull man the reasons to the 
 contrary were not altogether obvious. 
 
 Nor is it altogether strange that even in New York and 
 Massachusetts few except the best trained minds had any 
 real understanding of the dangers of letting in the ignorant 
 and the thriftless classes to a voice in government. The Amer- 
 ican people had no experience of a political machine or of 
 demagogues in power, and to most of them the operation of 
 government seemed comparatively simple and within easy com- 
 prehension. Even in the old states the population was 
 mostly rural; there were no railroads or telegraphs, 
 comparatively little machinery, and none operated by 
 steam. The property of the country consisted of houses, 
 
Q2 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 lands, farms, cattle and sheep; living was very plain, and 
 the expenses of government comparatively small. Life was 
 not then the complicated affair that it is at present, special- 
 ization was rare, efficiency in any branch of business was not 
 near so difficult to achieve as it has since become. Under 
 the election system then in practice, and following the old 
 colonial traditions then still extant, the candidates for office 
 had usually been men of distinction whose reputations were 
 well known in the community, and who were personally known 
 at least by sight and speech to most of the voters. The 
 people had had no real experience of government by election 
 in large constituencies. There were few large cities, the 
 largest in 1820 being New York, with a population of 125,000, 
 while Philadelphia had but 65,000 and Boston 45,000 popu- 
 lation. Probably it was comparatively safe in most urban 
 communities to leave the street door unguarded at night, a 
 practice scarcely recommendable in New York or Chicago 
 in these times. Their governors had previously either been 
 sent from England or chosen by their state legislatures, and 
 their high state officials had been appointed by the crown, 
 the governor, the proprietor or the legislature. Their only 
 real experience with the suffrage had been in small local elec- 
 tions, parishes, boroughs and towns, where the prizes of 
 office were small and everyone knew his neighbor. Most of 
 the voters were substantial American farmers and tradesmen, 
 who anticipated as the result of the granting of manhood suf- 
 frage nothing worse than that the roll of new voters would 
 include their own sons, the village schoolmaster, together with 
 a few poor artisans and farm hands who had no class preju- 
 dices, who could be depended upon to vote with their well-to-do 
 neighbors, and whose numbers were not sufficient to seriously 
 affect election results. 
 
 To the extent to which the manhood suffrage movement 
 was conscious of its own tendencies, it was a revolt led by 
 political adventurers against government by the intelligence 
 of the country, and above all and beyond all the forces operat- 
 
AMERICAN ABANDONMENT OF PROPERTY QUALIFICATION 93 
 
 ing in furtherance of the movement for manhood suffrage in 
 the older states was the new influence of the politicians and 
 political office seekers, who by 1820 began, though in a com- 
 paratively small way, to appear as a real political power in 
 the land. Though many of our ancestors early distrusted 
 and later learned to hate and despise the politicians, the 
 people have never organized to oppose them and in the begin- 
 ning failed to realize the insidious growth of their sway. 
 The politicians then as now clamored for an extended elec- 
 torate, the more ignorant, simple, emotional and easily influ- 
 enced the better. They welcomed the uninstructed male vote 
 of that day for the same reason that they welcome the still 
 more ignorant female vote of this day. The ears of the 
 masses were open to them because they could talk and bellow 
 the political cant and jargon in which the rabble delight. 
 Then as now they wanted all the offices made elective; suffrage 
 for everybody, even aliens, and especially the ignorant and 
 shiftless; and they kept up their efforts in the old states until 
 the bars were let down, and every man had a vote. 
 
 Most of the old populous states began the change by 
 lowering the qualification, changing it from the actual owner- 
 ship of property to the payment of a tax, usually a small 
 one, sometimes merely nominal. Pennsylvania, a state tainted 
 with French radical sympathies, had already reduced 
 the qualification to the payment of a state or county tax; 
 this standard was adopted by Delaware in 1792. In 1809 
 Maryland adopted manhood suffrage. In 1810 South Carolina 
 and in 1819 Connecticut reduced the qualification to an almost 
 nominal tax rate. In 1829 Virginia reduced the property re- 
 quirement and finally abolished it in 1850. New Jersey held 
 out till 1844. 
 
 The great battles, however, and those which finally decided 
 the controversy in the United States were fought in Massa- 
 chusetts and in New York in 1820 and 1821, though in both 
 states the success of the manhood suffrage party was a fore- 
 gone conclusion before the final test was made. The situa- 
 
94 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 tion was much the same as it has since been in relation to 
 woman suffrage. As long as woman suffrage partisans had 
 no votes anywhere the politicians gave them but scant courtesy. 
 Even after they gained one or two states they were not much 
 considered. But as soon as they had four or five states to 
 their credit the politicians began to flock to their standard; 
 the weaker and more unscrupulous going over first. The 
 reason is plain. Every politician of note has his eye on the 
 presidency either for himself or for his leader and his party. 
 Under our system where the presidential vote is by states a 
 single state may turn the election, and a woman suffrage state 
 as well as another. Mr. Wilson for instance and Mr. Roose- 
 velt, though on opposite sides on everything else, were united 
 in patriotism, in burning desire for office and in devotion to 
 democracy. Of course they both became champions of woman 
 suffrage just as soon as a few states had been captured by 
 the women and also of course their party followers took their 
 cue accordingly. So it undoubtedly was in 1820. By that 
 time there were nine new states west of the Alleghany Moun- 
 tains. When it was seen that in all these new states manhood 
 suffrage was in vogue, no presidential possibility dared oppose 
 manhood suffrage anywhere, nor dared his followers differ from 
 him on this point. It was a rush to get on the band wagon. 
 And why should the professional politicians oppose a measure 
 so obviously in their interest as a degradation of the ballot? 
 Naturally therefore, in the New York Constitutional Con- 
 vention of 1821 we had Martin Van Buren, a Jackson poli- 
 tician, leading the battle for extension of the suffrage and 
 carrying all before him. 
 
 One naturally turns for enlightenment on the merits of the 
 question to the records giving the arguments used pro and con 
 in the discussions on the suffrage extension propositions of 
 that time, but they are more interesting than important, be- 
 cause the debaters lacked the light of modern experience. Our 
 political bosses and machines had not yet arrived, and America 
 had then no immense populations of millions accustomed to 
 
AMERICAN ABANDONMENT OF PROPERTY QUALIFICATION 95 
 
 live on daily wages, lacking the slightest knowledge of the 
 principles or practical operation of finance, banking, trade and 
 commerce; ignorant of the very elements of political economy, 
 and yet ready to vote on all these matters under the direction 
 of demagogues, themselves in the employ of bosses and ma- 
 chines. There were then no such divisions of classes as now; 
 no large criminal and pauper population; no masses of for- 
 eigners herded together in tenement house life and ignorant 
 of our problems and conditions. Our ancestors of a century 
 ago were not gifted with imagination or prevision sufficient 
 to enable them to foresee the enormous future immigration 
 from Europe; the factory and tenement house systems; the 
 vote market; the absolute and corrupt oligarchy of politicians, 
 the political ring, machine and boss. Had they been gifted 
 with this foresight it is safe to say that instead of lowering 
 the suffrage qualifications they would have put the bars up so 
 high that the disgraceful record of American politics for the 
 last eighty years would never have been made. 
 
 In Massachusetts the Convention included as members, John 
 Adams, Webster, Judge Joseph Story of the United States 
 Supreme Court, Samuel Hoar and Josiah Quincy. The impor- 
 tance of protecting property interests had been recognized in 
 that state ever since long prior to the Revolution, both by a 
 suffrage qualification and in a provision whereby membership 
 in the State Senate was apportioned according to the total taxes 
 paid in each senatorial district. This system was continued 
 by the Convention of 1820 but was subsequently abolished. 
 Its sole importance was in its recognition of a principle; as a 
 barrier against the rising tide of suffrage extension it was use- 
 less. The suffrage previously limited to owners of a moderate 
 amount of property, real or personal, was by this Convention 
 extended to all male citizens having paid any state or county 
 tax. Adams, Webster and Story voted and spoke against the 
 extension, but the writer has not seen a report of their argu- 
 ments. Such of the speeches on the subject as are reported 
 are not illuminative. They do not go deeply into the matter; 
 
96 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 those in favor of an extension have the tone of the perfunctory 
 advocacy of a majority assured of success, those in opposition 
 that of a hopeless protest. In favor of the extension it was 
 argued that there was a popular demand for it; that it had 
 been enacted in other states; that the existing Massachusetts 
 qualification was in practice merely nominal; that it was easily 
 evaded by perjury and sham transfers; that the sentiment of 
 patriotism does not depend upon the possession of property; 
 that the right to vote goes with the levy of a tax and that on 
 principle all subject to even a poll tax were entitled to vote, 
 and were unjustly degraded when the right was denied them. 
 In opposition it was argued that property is the foundation of 
 the social state; that there is no natural right to vote, and 
 that the question is one of expediency; that the property qual- 
 ification was necessary as a moral force and a check on dema- 
 goguery; that it encouraged industry, prudence and economy, 
 was a protection against waste, elevated the standard of civil 
 institutions and gave dignity and character to voter and can- 
 didate; that very few beside vagabonds were actually ex- 
 cluded from the polls, and while the qualification required 
 was attainable by every efficient man, yet the principle was 
 an important one and should be retained in the Constitution 
 even though its enforcement had been somewhat lax and in- 
 effective. The majority both in the Convention and at the 
 polls in Massachusetts was decisive in favor of the proposed 
 extension. 
 
 In New York the Convention was practically committed to 
 the new measure before it met. The State Assembly had pre- 
 viously reported in its favor solely on the ground that the 
 property qualification excluded many of the militia; referring 
 probably to that large body of young militiamen who were too 
 young to have acquired property. The report said, "On that 
 "part of our Constitution which relates to the qualification of 
 "voters at election, your committee have to remark that al- 
 "though its provisions when applied to the State of New York 
 "may be salutary and necessary it excludes from a participa- 
 
AMERICAN ABANDONMENT OF PROPERTY QUALIFICATION 97 
 
 "tion in the choice of the principal officers of our government, 
 "that part of the population on which in case of war you are 
 "dependent for protection, viz., the most efficient part of the 
 "militia of our state." This meaningless "straddle" is very 
 suggestive of Van Buren. As an argument for manhood suf- 
 frage it is worthless. It is of course absurd to say that because 
 a man has served or may serve in the militia he should there- 
 fore be intrusted with any part of the functions of government 
 irrespective of his lack of other qualifications. Were the argu- 
 ment good it would require the extension of the vote to boys 
 of eighteen and upwards, and would call in question the right 
 to vote of any man incompetent to bear arms because of age 
 or infirmity. The business of government is one thing, and 
 the business of fighting in the field is another and very different 
 thing. But this flimsy argument was capable of being used 
 in an emotional manner and no doubt was so employed in the 
 Convention with considerable effect; and though some of the 
 militia had certainly failed to cover themselves with glory in 
 the war of 1812, and many commands had done nothing but 
 parade, no politician cared to offend them or even to appear to 
 have done so. Another so-called argument was that of the 
 Convention Committee on the Elective Franchise which handed 
 in a report in favor of the change, containing the meaningless 
 assertion that property distinctions were of British origin, but 
 that here all interests are identical. The true theory that voting 
 is the exercise of a governmental function was not suggested by 
 the Committee. 
 
 Manhood suffrage was opposed in the New York Convention 
 by three of our ablest jurists, Judges Spencer and Platt of the 
 Supreme Court and Chancellor Kent, the learned author of the 
 Commentaries on American Law and one of the most emi- 
 nent lawyers of the world. Judge Platt truly said that the 
 "elective privilege is neither a right nor a franchise, but is 
 "more properly speaking an office. A citizen has no more 
 "right to claim the privilege of voting than of being elected. 
 "The office of voting must be considered in the light of a pub- 
 
9 8 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 "lie trust, and the electors are public functionaries, who have 
 "certain duties to perform for the benefit of the whole com- 
 "munity." Chancellor Kent strongly and forcibly said "I can- 
 "not but think that considerate men who have studied the 
 "history of republics or are read in lessons of experience, must 
 "look with concern upon our apparent disposition to vibrate 
 "from a well balanced government to the extremes of the demo- 
 "cratic doctrines." Of the principle of universal suffrage he 
 said that it "has been regarded with terror by the wise men of 
 "every age, because in every European republic, ancient and 
 "modern, in which it has been tried, it has terminated disas- 
 trously and been productive of corruption, injustice, violence 
 "and tyranny. . . . The tendency of universal suffrage is to 
 "jeopardize the rights of property and the principle of 
 liberty." 
 
 The vote in the convention in favor of the extension was 100 
 to 19. The people of the State subsequently approved it by a 
 substantial vote. The majority in New York City favoring it 
 was 4608. On March 4th, 1822, the Legislature took the oath 
 under the revised Constitution. Flags were displayed, church 
 bells rung, there were salutes of cannon and an illumination 
 in New York City. Some slight vestiges of the property qual- 
 ification still remained after the adoption of the Constitution 
 of 1822 but they were abolished in New York State in 1826 
 by a vote of 104,900 to 3901. 
 
 Although the action of New York in 1821 following Massa- 
 chusetts in 1820 practically insured the triumph of manhood 
 suffrage in the United States, yet the most interesting and 
 ablest discussion upon the subject was yet to take place at 
 Richmond, Virginia, in the State Convention of 1829. The 
 State of Virginia had still clung to the old freehold suffrage 
 qualification; in that Commonwealth prior to 1829 it was not 
 enough that a voter should have property or business expe- 
 rience; he must be the owner of land or a freehold interest 
 therein. The standard was not high, from $2 5 to $50 accord- 
 ing to circumstances, but it established the principle and ex- 
 
AMERICAN ABANDONMENT OF PROPERTY QUALIFICATION 99 
 
 eluded the most degraded. Unfortunately, it also excluded 
 many thrifty and intelligent citizens whose holdings did not 
 happen to be in the form of real estate. On the demand then 
 made for extension of the franchise, an opportunity to consider 
 and discuss the theory of suffrage was naturally presented to 
 the Constitutional Convention. That body was composed of 
 about one hundred members, including the ablest political 
 thinkers and most skilful and aggressive debaters of Virginia. 
 In point of statesmanship and forensic ability its membership 
 has probably never been surpassed in the history of the United 
 States. It included ex-Presidents Madison and Monroe, Chief 
 Justice John Marshall, John Tyler, John Randolph, William 
 Giles and Alexander Campbell. The convention sat for over 
 three months and in the course of the discussion on matters 
 connected with the suffrage dozens of speeches were made, 
 the perusal whereof is very interesting to the political student. 
 Unfortunately, it so happened that though the debates were 
 able, the consideration of the whole matter was biased by 
 local rivalries and by the slavery question, then beginning 
 to confuse and prejudice the Southern mind, and the most 
 distinguished of the delegates took only a minor part in the 
 proceedings. Between the Blue Ridge and the sea was Eastern 
 Virginia, the Old Dominion, where tobacco raising flourished, 
 white labor was scarce and all influential white men were 
 freeholders. West of the Blue Ridge lay a new region, where 
 the industrial situation was similar to that of the free states, 
 and where there was a large body of non-freeholding white 
 working men of the borderland type, who for years had been 
 agitating for the abolition of the old freehold qualification. 
 It was a clash between the Old East and the New West; be- 
 tween free labor and slave proprietorship. The Convention 
 not only undertook the individual suffrage controversy, but 
 entered into the question which also divided the two sections of 
 the State, whether the basis of county representation in the 
 legislature or in either branch thereof should continue as here- 
 tofore to be property values rather than population; thus 
 
IOO POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 bringing up the fundamental question of whether numbers only 
 should govern without regard to intelligence, creative power 
 or value to civilization. In this controversy Eastern Virginia, 
 having the greater share of wealth and of conservative ideas, 
 stood for property rights, and the West stood for what it 
 dubbed "progress" and the "rights of man." The dispute 
 threatened the disruption of the Commonwealth, which actually 
 came to pass a generation later in 1863. The final action of the 
 Convention was satisfactory to neither section. The question 
 of county representation was finally settled by an elaborate 
 compromise by which each county and region was given an ar- 
 bitrary proportion. The champions of an extension of the suf- 
 frage were victorious by a vote of 51 to 37, Madison and Mar- 
 shall voting with the majority and Monroe with the minority; 
 and thus the suffrage which had theretofore been confined to 
 owners of land was extended to such heads of families as were 
 housekeepers and paid taxes. While the only immediate effect 
 was to let in a class of owners of personal property, yet it was 
 generally realized at the time that the new measure would prac- 
 tically open the door to all heads of families however limited 
 their means, and that universal suffrage was but a short step 
 further off. 
 
 One interested in Virginia history can hardly help wishing 
 that he might have witnessed the Convention in session. Some 
 of those present had taken part in the American Revolution; 
 all had breathed the Revolutionary atmosphere. Monroe, old 
 and feeble, presided as long as he could hold the gavel, 
 but finally was compelled by weakness to retire. He 
 was able to tell the Convention of a visit to another Conven- 
 tion in Paris over thirty years before, and of witnessing (an 
 ominous spectacle) the murder of one of its members in the 
 convention hall. Madison, another ex-President, was seventy- 
 eight years of age; he spoke two or three times during the ses- 
 sion, but his voice was so low that he could not be heard be- 
 yond a distance of a few feet. When he arose to speak the 
 members left their seats and grouped themselves respectfully 
 
AMERICAN ABANDONMENT OF PROPERTY QUALIFICATION IO1 
 
 about him. Randolph, who bitterly opposed the suffrage exten- 
 sion scheme, had been the most popular speaker in the state; he 
 was at that time stricken and shriveled by disease, but the 
 older delegates remembered him as one who in his youth had 
 been described as beautiful, fascinating, and even as lovely. 
 Alexander Campbell was there, a young man destined in later 
 years to be the founder of a great religious denomination. 
 
 These Virginia Convention debates were the last, the 
 ablest, and the most exhaustive public discussions of the suf- 
 frage question in the United States and must be considered as 
 having included all the arguments on either side which were 
 strongly present to the minds of American politicians and pub- 
 licists of the time. They were opened with great ability by 
 Judge Upshur in a very forcible argument lasting several days 
 in favor of property representation. Many of the superficial 
 minded among the delegates favoring extension had come to 
 Richmond relying upon the proposition that suffrage is a 
 natural right. Upshur shattered this notion right at the be- 
 ginning, and it was but little heard of in the Convention after- 
 wards. The absurdity of a savage being born with a natural 
 right to participate in a government which was not even 
 imagined until thousands of years afterwards was easily made 
 apparent. "Is it not a solecism" (said Barbour) "to say that 
 rights which have their very being only as a consequence of 
 government, are to be controlled by principles applying ex- 
 clusively to a state of things when there was no government?" 
 Some of the delegates were evidently familiar with Rousseau, 
 and with his theory of a social compact. They discussed at 
 length, but without result, the question whether suffrage is or 
 is not a right derived from this supposed agreement; and if so, 
 whether it was strictly personal or individual, or whether 
 property rights were also included within the contract, and 
 might therefore properly be considered in allotting suffrage 
 privileges. This naturally raised the question also inconclusively 
 debated whether property as such is a constituent element of 
 society; or whether it is not rather a result of society action, 
 
IO2 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 and its acquisition one of the principal inducements to enter 
 social bonds. 
 
 Although the doctrine that governments were instituted and 
 maintained for the protection of private property as well as 
 life and limb was prominent in the minds of all the conserva- 
 tives and was acknowledged by nearly every delegate in the 
 Virginia Convention, yet the undoubted fact that the act of 
 political voting is a responsible public function needing special 
 preparation and qualification was not in Richmond any more 
 than previously in Boston realized by the body of delegates; 
 nor was the fact that government is a business organization, 
 needing the services of expert business men, suggested among 
 them; nor the manifest expediency of using the practice of 
 business as a school for the voter. The philosophy of the 
 delegates did not go beyond the theory of government as an 
 agency for the protection of private property rights and the 
 kindred belief that a permanent and tangible interest in the 
 State was a necessary requirement of a voter. We have seen 
 that in the Virginia Bill of Rights, adopted in 1776, the right 
 of suffrage was expressly limited to men having "sufficient evi- 
 "dence of permanent common interest with and attachment to 
 "the community." In 1829 the principal, and with most of the 
 Virginia delegates the only objects aimed at in imposing a 
 qualification upon the voters were the protection of property 
 and the creation of an electorate interested in the prosperity of 
 the state; the right of society to demand that the voter bring 
 to the polls a trained and disciplined mind was lost sight of 
 altogether. 
 
 The narrowing effect of sectionalism and prejudice on the 
 human mind is curiously illustrated by the remarkable fact 
 that in the Convention debates it was assumed on both sides 
 that the entire benefit of the protection of private property 
 by the Commonwealth inured to its individual owners. West 
 Virginia delegates, therefore, insisted that the rich automati- 
 cally received a preponderant share in the blessings of govern- 
 ment; for example, said they, ten Virginians each owning 
 
AMERICAN ABANDONMENT OF PROPERTY QUALIFICATION 103 
 
 $20,000 of property receive in all $200,000 of protection, which 
 is double the total benefit received by one hundred citizens own- 
 ing $1,000 each; thus one group of ten men get twice as much 
 aggregate benefit from the state as another group of a hundred 
 men. Over and over again it was urged that government pro- 
 tection of property was principally for the benefit of the rich 
 minority. According to this absurd theory, the State of Vir- 
 ginia had no interest in the preservation of the accumulated 
 private property within its borders; and would not be dam- 
 aged if its dwellings, furniture, barns, stock, crops, vehicles 
 and vessels of every description were destroyed. The Virginia 
 clerks, laborers and hired workers of every description would 
 not suffer in such case by being deprived of employment; pos- 
 sibly they could subsist on air, ruins or radical doctrines. The 
 lack of business training and of business conceptions among 
 the exceptionally able men of that Convention, and the need 
 of such training for the membership of similar bodies today 
 is strongly brought to our attention by the circumstance that 
 such foolish reasoning passed unchallenged. The fact that 
 all property is of common utility; that it constitutes a vast 
 store from which all, rich, poor and middling are alike sup- 
 ported ; that the workman needs the factory at least as much as 
 the proprietor, was not in the mind of the Convention; the 
 probability that the destruction of the entire property of the 
 ten rich men above referred to would injure the community at 
 large even more than the owners was apparently not appre- 
 ciated by the Virginia delegates in 1829 any more than it would 
 be by the members of one of our aldermanic boards today. 
 
 The principal arguments urged in the Virginia Convention 
 in favor of manhood suffrage were, ( i ) the difficulty of apply- 
 ing any standard of property qualification; (2) that in the ship 
 of state all are passengers, and the poor among them have the 
 same interest in protection from the elements as the rich; (3) 
 that gratitude requires that old soldiers, though poor, should 
 be given a vote by the country they have served; (4) that man- 
 hood suffrage had worked well in other communities; (5) that 
 
104 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 men are naturally not robbers of each other but are inclined to 
 be affectionate, social, patriotic, conscientious and religious; 
 (6) that all men either have or desire property and are, there- 
 fore, natural supporters of property rights. The answer to 
 these propositions is obvious, (i) the difficulty of making the 
 standard of qualifications for any employment or function an 
 absolutely perfect one is never considered a sufficient reason 
 for failing to establish any standard whatever. Witness the 
 arbitrary standards of age and residence for voters and office 
 holders, the qualifications of teachers, doctors, lawyers, etc.; 
 (2) in no ship is the management, whether in fair weather or 
 foul, left to the untrained or those without pecuniary interest 
 in the voyage; (3) suffrage should never be given or accepted 
 by the unqualified as an expression of gratitude; the veterans 
 might as well demand to be licensed as dentists as to be allowed 
 to meddle with state affairs; (4) experience shows that man- 
 hood suffrage has not worked well but evil all over the world; 
 (5) some men are robbers and still others lack capacity to 
 select agents or rulers who are honest. The main question is 
 one of capacity to exercise the voting function to the advan- 
 tage of the state. (6) That all men do not sufficiently desire prop- 
 erty to enable them to act prudently and justly in their property 
 dealings is shown by the immense number of spendthrifts, 
 wasters, idlers, cheats, rogues, gamblers and vagabonds in the 
 world. 
 
 Some of those who then and there favored the extension 
 would probably oppose it today in our thickly populated com- 
 munities. Eugenius Wilson, for instance, an advocate of ex- 
 tension, admitted that suffrage should be restricted in an in- 
 ferior, corrupt or uninstructed constituency. 
 
 The convention was, of course, regaled by the radicals with 
 the usual popular sing-song cant. It was told that the suffrage 
 was "an inestimable privilege of the individual citizen," a prop- 
 osition which is in flat contradiction to the experience of every 
 voter and to the plain facts. This proposition Leigh had the 
 courage to deny, saying that good government for all and no* 
 
AMERICAN ABANDONMENT OF PROPERTY QUALIFICATION 
 
 a mere right to individuals to vote is the real desideratum. The 
 majority leaders talked of the "original principles" of govern- 
 ment, among them being that each citizen may vote, etc. 
 Upshur denied that there were any original principles of gov- 
 ernment, because he said "political principles do not precede, 
 they spring out of government." He further said that property 
 as well as persons is a constituent element of Society; 
 that the very idea of Society carries with it that of property 
 as its necessary and inseparable attendant, and that when man 
 entered Society it was to procure protection for his property; 
 take away all protection to property and our next business is to 
 cut each other's throats; the great bulk of legislation affects 
 property rather than persons, and without property govern- 
 ment cannot move an inch. Leigh uttered some things worth 
 quoting, among them these true and forcible words: "Power 
 "and property" (said he) "may be separated for a time by 
 "force or fraud but divorced never. For so soon as the 
 "pang of separation is felt, if there be truth in history, if 
 "there be any certainty in the experience of ages, if all pre- 
 hensions to knowledge of the human heart be not vanity and 
 "folly, property will purchase power, or power will take prop- 
 "erty. And either way, there must be an end of free govern- 
 "ment. If property buy power, the very process is corrup- 
 tion. If power ravish property the sword must be drawn, so 
 "essential is property to the very being of civilized society, 
 "and so certain that civilized man will never consent to return 
 "to a savage state." 
 
 The proposal to continue the freehold basis of suffrage was 
 defeated by a vote of 37 to 51, Monroe voting yea and Madi- 
 son and Marshall voting nay, and by a similar vote the right 
 of suffrage was extended to housekeepers, being heads of fam- 
 ilies and paying any tax whatever. The reader may be curious 
 to know how the people of Virginia themselves stood on the 
 question, but it is impossible to say. The vote on the adop- 
 tion of the constitution was 26,055 in favor, to 15,563 opposed; 
 but this vote was not a measure of Virginia popular opinion 
 
IO6 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 in regard to a property qualification. The election went off 
 on a different question and curiously enough, the new constitu- 
 tion which extended the suffrage was adopted by the votes of 
 those opposed to the extension. The western counties though 
 favoring, were disappointed because they were not given the 
 legislative representation they claimed; in that respect the new 
 constitution was considered favorable to the east, which though 
 opposed to suffrage extension, voted for ratification, while West 
 Virginia voted to defeat it. Of the total vote in opposition, 
 I 3?337> r ver five-sixths, came from the region west of the 
 Blue Ridge. 
 
 Thus the Virginia discussion of the suffrage question, which 
 engaged the ablest public men of the state for a generation 
 and which ought to have produced a valuable result, came after 
 all to nothing but compromise forced by clamor. Though 
 property qualifications were reduced by the convention, the 
 true principle involved was not presented or passed upon. The 
 champions of good government unfortunately took their stand, 
 not on the broad ground of property rights and political effi- 
 ciency, but on the narrow claim of landholders and slave owners 
 to control the legislature of the state; they permitted them- 
 selves to be placed in the false position of attempting to deny 
 to the most enterprising and successful business man the 
 vote which they offered to the shiftless proprietor of a log 
 cabin in the backwoods. They stood on no sound principle 
 and they were defeated. 
 
 And now, looking back after a century and considering the 
 immense importance of the subject, one cannot help regretting 
 that the fruits of the convention labors were merely local and 
 temporary; that it met after suffrage extension had been prac- 
 tically allowed to go by default throughout the Union, and that 
 the Virginia delegates came to Richmond pledged each to one 
 side of a sectional dispute, instead of prepared to take part in 
 a philosophical or statesmanlike search for political truth. Very 
 different might have been the result had the Virginia political 
 mind taken up this question freed from local and slavery 
 
AMERICAN ABANDONMENT OF PROPERTY QUALIFICATION IO7 
 
 prejudice, and had the political talent wasted in a struggle for 
 sectional control been employed in the useful work of studying 
 the real foundation principles of suffrage in a democracy and 
 presenting the conclusions to the Virginia electorate and to the 
 world. In such case it might have reached such a result and 
 brought out such a declaration of principles as would have 
 saved the country and the world centuries of wallowing in the 
 slough of political corruption and despond. 
 
 To complete the record it may be added, that in 1850, by a 
 vote of 75 to 33, another Virginia convention further extended 
 the suffrage to all male adult residents. As before, the 
 question was confused with the old dispute over the apportion- 
 ment of the respective claims of the east and west to represen- 
 tation in the legislature; this was again settled by a compro- 
 mise after a prolonged deadlock and the settlement was 
 approved by a popular vote of 75,748 to 11,060. This may 
 be said to be the final close of the property qualification con- 
 troversy in Virginia and in the Union, though it had been sub- 
 stantially decided a generation before; and since 1850 there 
 has been nowhere any serious discussion of the question of 
 the right of property to direct representation in government 
 and it has been generally regarded since that time as forever 
 disposed of. But nothing is finally setted till it is settled right. 
 
 And so, after a survey of the entire history of the establish- 
 ment of manhood suffrage in the United States, we see that 
 this great experiment was originally undertaken by the Ameri- 
 can people, with but little realization of its importance and 
 almost no foresight of its calamitous results. We have here 
 another of the numerous instances of the truth of the dictum 
 that "Often the greatest changes are those introduced with the 
 least notion of their consequence, and the most fatal are those 
 which encountered least resistance." 
 
 The majorities in favor of manhood suffrage, wherever the 
 question was tested, were overwhelming, but they prove noth- 
 ing; they merely illustrate once more the well known human 
 lack of vision. Many other equally foolish measures have 
 
108 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 been adopted by similar majorities and attended by similar 
 popular manifestations of satisfaction. The vote in South 
 Carolina for secession was unanimous and the popular 
 rejoicing thereat was unbounded. Yet we all now see 
 that that secession vote was a stupendous blunder made 
 without moral or political justification or ground for hope 
 of success. Many of the French Revolutionary lunatic 
 performances were almost unanimously decreed and approved 
 by popular vote. In like manner the American people 
 in the first quarter of the nineteenth century were 
 blinded into the acceptance of manhood suffrage or into com- 
 parative indifference concerning it, little realizing that in place 
 of thereby securing as they were told for themselves and their 
 descendants a greater measure of political liberty, they were 
 thereby fast riveting upon them the chains of political bondage. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 FIRST EFFECTS AND SUBSEQUENT RESULTS OF MANHOOD SUF- 
 FRAGE; SPOILS SYSTEM; TRAFFIC IN VOTES; ORGANIZED 
 CORRUPTION; THE BOSS; THE MACHINE; RULE OF POLITI- 
 CAL OLIGARCHY. 
 
 Then cried they all again, saying, Not this man, but Barabas. 
 Now Barabas was a robber. (John: Chap, xviii, 40.) 
 
 ON March 4th, 1829, the old Federal regime died with the 
 departure of John Quincy Adams from the White House. The 
 year 1828 is generally taken as the last full year of the old hon- 
 orable and high-toned political system inaugurated by Wash- 
 ington; the last year at the Federal capitol of real statesman- 
 ship, of high ideals and of strict and uncompromising devo- 
 tion to duty. Manhood suffrage had by this time become 
 established and in operation in almost every state in the Union, 
 and it had succeeded in electing as president of the United 
 States a spoilsman, Andrew Jackson, the apostle of extreme 
 democracy, by whom the former rule of appointments to public 
 office for merit only, and the old doctrine of the continuance 
 of faithful officials in their places were flung to the winds. 
 
 The change in the electorate effected by manhood suffrage 
 was not merely superficial, it was radical; what then appeared 
 to many a mere liberalizing of the franchise was in reality a 
 breaking down of the guard wall which had hitherto kept the 
 country from slipping down into the slough. It degraded the 
 practice of American politics from an honorable exercise of 
 patriotism to a sordid business employment; it created a class 
 of professional politicians, self-seeking traffickers in office and 
 the spoils of office; and transferred to them the political con- 
 
 109 
 
IIO POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 trol which had theretofore rested in the hands of the gentlemen 
 of the country. This unexpected result of manhood suffrage 
 was due to the fact not sufficiently realized at the time, that it 
 brought into American politics the important element of the 
 controllable vote, to which was speedily applied by the politi- 
 cians methods of organization, crude and makeshift at first, and 
 afterwards thorough and scientific. The American people did 
 not then foresee the existence of a proletariat city vote, nor 
 the immense possibilities in the organization of floaters. 
 The local politicians of the day, however, saw their chance 
 and seized it; from amateurs they developed into professionals, 
 and they speedily made these floaters the nucleus of a small 
 well-disciplined regular army, by means whereof they seized 
 the machinery of elections and of government, which they have 
 ever since retained. 
 
 Let us here stop for a moment to consider and realize what 
 the country lost at one stroke by manhood suffrage in its swift 
 descent from the high character and traditions of that Federal 
 government, the presidency of which, much against his will, 
 John Quincy Adams transferred on March 4th, 1829, to An- 
 drew Jackson. The administrations of Washington and the 
 older Adams had been of rigid integrity; Jefferson, Madison 
 and Monroe had followed in their footsteps. At the time there- 
 fore of the election of the second Adams in 1824, the nation 
 had already acquired an established tradition of about as 
 pure an administration of government as was humanly possible. 
 The most valuable political asset of a people consists of its 
 high political standards and traditions; established slowly and 
 imperceptibly and by forces of subtle operation they are ele- 
 ments of the highest importance to its well being. They afford 
 the explanation of many instances of the superior success of 
 one country over another in operating the same political 
 machinery. Already in the United States of 1824 there existed 
 traditions and standards of this high character; among them a 
 belief that men should enter politics if not solely from pa- 
 triotic motives, then at least from a worthy ambition for honor 
 
EFFECTS AND RESULTS OF MANHOOD SUFFRAGE III 
 
 and power, and in order to further ideas of public policy. This 
 was undoubtedly the doctrine extant at that time; and men 
 could not then as now live and flourish in political life under 
 the scarce denied imputation of being in politics in order to 
 gather political spoils, or for the mere sake of salary or from 
 other sordid motives. 
 
 The high national traditions were well maintained and 
 strengthened by John Quincy Adams during his four years' 
 term from 1825 to 1829. He represented the opposite of the 
 manhood suffrage ideal, he was unflinchingly opposed to gov- 
 ernment by numbers; to the spoils system, to machine political 
 methods and objects; he was a statesman rather than a poli- 
 tician, and an honest gentleman first of all. His lineage was 
 of the best, his public experience great; his learning deep; his 
 reputation unsullied; he was austere, just and high-minded; 
 his public record was pure and honorable. He was the only 
 president except Washington who obtained the office entirely 
 on his merits, without having done anything to court political 
 support. While president he made appointments to office 
 solely on fitness, applying that test even to his political and 
 personal opponents, keeping them in office provided they were 
 qualified for its duties, and absolutely refusing to use in the 
 slightest degree his executive power so as to procure his 
 renomination. In 1868 a congressional committee reported 
 that having consulted all accessible means of information, they 
 had not learned of a single removal of a subordinate officer 
 except for cause from the beginning of Washington's adminis- 
 tration to the close of that of John Quincy Adams. Under such 
 management and prior to 1829 the average of office holders 
 was generally fair; most of them were men who had led ap- 
 proved lives, had inherited or acquired a good standing in 
 society, and had achieved a certain prominence by a combina- 
 tion of social and political qualities, and through the operation 
 of a kind of civic evolution which had brought them forward 
 in their respective localities. The effect of the property quali- 
 fication laws, and of the traditionary respect for ability, prop- 
 
112 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 erty and social standing of which those laws were at once a 
 cause and a symptom, was to tend to push such men to the 
 front, and to make it a matter of course that they should be 
 selected as members of Congress, judges, representatives in the 
 legislature, and for similar high offices. They were not re- 
 quired to resort to trickery and intrigue to keep their places. 
 It was by men of that type that the Revolution had been led 
 to success. It was a fatal mistake of a later generation to 
 suppose that a like class of men could be selected by a general 
 vote, and that the good results of what had practically been 
 a system of natural evolution and selection would be attained 
 by an appeal to the suffrages of the unlettered and the unwise. 
 
 No doubt there were instances of corruption in American 
 public life long before manhood suffrage was established ; bank 
 scandals for instance. Banks are now chartered under a 
 general act. A century ago, however, they were created by 
 special acts of the legislature, and the granting of their 
 charters was sometimes attended with charges of legislative 
 corruption. As early as 1805 at the passage of the New York 
 Merchants Bank charter, in 1812 at the granting of the 
 charter of the New York Bank of America, and again in 1824 
 when the New York Chemical Bank was organized, such 
 charges were made. Such disclosures were plain warnings of 
 the dangers of laxity in public affairs. 
 
 Population and wealth were increasing and so was govern- 
 mental expenditure. Even as early as 1820 there began to 
 appear in the larger cities a class of idle, vicious, ignorant 
 and therefore purchasable men. The possible means of polit- 
 ical corruption and the temptations thereto were therefore 
 all in plain sight; and wisdom would have suggested, especially 
 in view of the continued flood of immigration, that the greatest 
 care be taken to make the source of government in the 
 electorate as pure and efficient as possible. The electorate is 
 the foundation of a free republic, whose political destiny 
 clearly depends on laying well that foundation. Instead of 
 leaving the choice of its materials to hazard and caprice it 
 
EFFECTS AND RESULTS OF MANHOOD SUFFRAGE 113 
 
 should have been the subject of conferences of the very wisest 
 among the American statesmen of those days; the silly twaddle 
 of the extremists of the French Revolution about a natural 
 right to vote should have been publicly and systematically 
 discredited; the doctrine that suffrage is not a right but a 
 function should have been formally stated and promulgated 
 with all the authority and prestige of our ablest and most 
 prominent men. The people of the older states should have been 
 warned and warned again by assiduous propaganda against 
 the danger of permitting ignorance and incapacity to lodge 
 at the very bottom of the structure of our government. The 
 people of the newer states should also have been instructed 
 that however permissible as a temporary measure designed to 
 attract settlers to their vacant lands, the practice of universal 
 suffrage is dangerous and should be abolished as soon as 
 society was settled down upon a permanent foundation. 
 Nothing of the kind was done; on the contrary, it was at 
 this critical time, just when in view of the changing conditions 
 active means should have been taken to preserve the purity 
 of politics, that the very opposite course was taken, and the 
 scheme of suffrage extension was put into effect by a heedless 
 majority led by politicians who overruled the wise and dis- 
 interested counsels of such able, experienced and far-seeing 
 men as the venerable John Adams of Massachusetts and 
 Chancellor Kent of New York. 
 
 The really important result of manhood suffrage and one 
 which was entirely unforeseen and unexpected by most people 
 of the time was the introduction into American politics of 
 the purchasable or controllable element as a permanent fea- 
 ture of the electorate, and the tremendous power thereby 
 acquired by the politicians; and the great defect in the man- 
 hood suffrage doctrine lay in its completely ignoring the sinis- 
 ter possibilities of suffrage extension in this direction. The 
 floater or controllable vote speedily became and still is the 
 main reliance of the political oligarchy. Prior to 1828 the 
 activities of politicians had been mostly local. In every 
 
114 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 village and small town where offices are filled by election there 
 is a field for the political activity of small men of a well known 
 and inferior type, lazy, vociferous and more or less unscrupu- 
 lous. Under the system of property qualification their ac- 
 tivities were much restrained; most of the rabble whom they 
 were able to influence had no votes. With the subsequent 
 growth of the country in wealth and population, the creation 
 of cities of say over thirty thousand inhabitants, and the in- 
 creasing devotion of industrious citizens to their own affairs, 
 the field for the labors of these political gentry perceptibly 
 widened ; but it was manhood suffrage and the election of Jack- 
 son which gave them their final triumph and placed them in 
 power all over the land. The secret of this power lies in the or- 
 ganization of this floater vote into small local political societies 
 which combined form at least the nucleus of a species of politi- 
 cal army ready to do the bidding of its officers. It consists prin- 
 cipally of that considerable body of men who have no political 
 principles and no appreciable pecuniary interest in the com- 
 munity. As they pay no taxes they are quite willing that the 
 government outlay be increased provided that they get a share 
 of the plunder. They include the worthless classes, the very 
 ignorant, the needy and shiftless, drunkards, petty criminals, 
 fools, and loafers. Men with small political ambitions, men 
 who are business failures, men too lazy to work, are attracted 
 to these organizations by hopes of political office or other 
 sinecure employment. In this way, a fairly sufficient nucleus 
 of controllables is obtained. To these may be joined a class of 
 thriftless partisans or followers of the bosses; frequenters of 
 saloons and small local political clubrooms; such men as seek 
 political advantage by cheap means or have a taste for low 
 politics. Bribes are distributed, sometimes in the shape of 
 small loans, sometimes as small jobs or employments for them- 
 selves, their relatives, or friends. Their careless habits and 
 want of principle and of fixed belief in anything, their small 
 cynicism and their ignorance of public affairs, make such 
 men easily manageable by certain politicians who are not above 
 
EFFECTS AND RESULTS OF MANHOOD SUFFRAGE 115 
 
 dealings of that character. The vote of every man jack of 
 them is as effective as that of a bishop or publicist, and any 
 score of them are much more easily managed and reliable 
 than twenty bishops and publicists would be. The local or- 
 ganization thus formed lives off a traffic in votes and offices; 
 it buys votes, works them up into elective offices and resells 
 them with its trade mark to the highest bidder. 
 
 It was the chiefs of such an organized rabble who seizing 
 the electoral machinery rejected Adams in 1828, crying "Away 
 with him, give us Barabas!" and made Jackson, the illiterate 
 spoilsman, President of the United States. Adams' defeat 
 ended the epoch of high-minded, disinterested statesmanship 
 in the White House. "His retirement" (says Morse) "brought 
 "to a close a list of Presidents who deserved to be called states- 
 "men in the highest sense of that term, honorable men, pure 
 "patriots, and with perhaps one exception all of the first order 
 "of ability in public affairs." (Life of Adams, p. 214.) But 
 manhood suffrage did more by that stroke than oust Adams; 
 it destroyed the pure political system which he represented, 
 the noble traditions of forty years, and deprived the nation 
 of all future hope of seeing as long as manhood suffrage en- 
 dures a Washington, a Hamilton or an Adams in high office 
 in this country. "It was" (says Merriam) "by far the most 
 "important change made during the Jackson epoch, for it rad- 
 ically altered the foundation of the Republic." (American 
 Political Theories, p. 193.) 
 
 Some of the mischief attendant upon the institution of 
 manhood suffrage must have been apparent to the discerning 
 eye wherever and as soon as it was adopted, but not its full 
 extent. Time was required to get rid of competent and hon- 
 orable leaders, traditions and standards, to replace them by 
 new ones, and to invent catch words and war cries. But as 
 time went on this downward movement became accelerated. 
 Facilis descensus Averno. At first, little by little, afterwards 
 more rapidly, the ambitions and creeds of the early Republic 
 were everywhere replaced by the sordid cravings and sham 
 
Il6 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 sentimentalities of the rabble. In a surprisingly short time 
 we got down into the political mire, where we now miserably 
 splash about making a stench with every effort to escape. 
 
 The inauguration of Jackson brought the new maleficent 
 forces into full play. Jackson was the embodiment of the 
 manhood suffrage ideal, and of the growing revolt against 
 the government of intelligence. Lecky says that he "deserves 
 "to be remembered as the founder of the most stupendous sys- 
 "tem of political corruption in modern history." The follow- 
 ing, from the pen of Roosevelt, throws light on the situation: 
 
 "Until 1828 all the presidents, and indeed almost all the men 
 who took the lead in public life, alike in national and in state 
 affairs, had been drawn from what in Europe would have been 
 called the 'upper classes.' They were mainly college-bred men 
 of high social standing, as well educated as any in the community, 
 usually rich or at least well-to-do. Their subordinates in office were 
 of much the same material. It was believed, and the belief was 
 acted upon, that public life needed an apprenticeship of training 
 and experience. Many of our public men had been able; almost 
 all had been honorable and upright. The change of parties in 
 1800, when the Jeffersonian Democracy came in, altered the policy 
 of the government, but not the character of the officials. In that 
 movement, though Jefferson had behind him the mass of the people 
 as the rank and file of his party, yet all his captains were still 
 drawn from among the men in the same social position as himself. 
 The Revolutionary War had been fought under the leadership 
 of the colonial gentry; and for years after it was over the people, 
 as a whole, felt that their interests could be safely intrusted to 
 and were identical with those of the descendants of their revolu- 
 tionary leaders. The classes in which were to be found almost 
 all the learning, the talent, the business activity, and the inherited 
 wealth and refinement of the country, had also hitherto contributed 
 much to the body of its rulers. 
 
 "The Jacksonian Democracy stood for the revolt against these 
 rulers; its leaders, as well as their followers, all came from the 
 mass of the people. The majority of the voters supported Jackson 
 because they felt he was one of themselves, and because they under- 
 stood that his selection would mean the complete overthrow of 
 
EFFECTS AND RESULTS OF MANHOOD SUFFRAGE 1 17 
 
 the classes in power and their retirement from the control of the 
 government. There was nothing to be said against the rulers 
 of the day; they had served the country and all its citizens 
 well, and they were dismissed, not because the voters could truth- 
 fully allege any wrong-doing whatsoever against them, but solely 
 because, in their purely private and personal feelings and habits 
 of life, they were supposed to differ from the mass of the people." 
 (Life of Bent on, pp. 70, 71, 72.) 
 
 President Jackson's administration speedily gave discerning 
 men an opportunity to measure the standards and ideals of 
 the newly enfranchised voters. He and they considered the 
 public offices as loot to be distributed among party workers. 
 With the cry of "To the victors belong the spoils" the benefi- 
 ciaries of universal suffrage began the work of plunder and 
 misrule which they have ever since continued. Jackson and 
 Van Buren a slick politician became the leaders of the 
 mobocratic movement, which they called "democratic/' and the 
 demand for offices became its war cry. In his first presidential 
 message Jackson proclaimed "that every citizen has a right 
 "to share in the emoluments of the public service," an ardent 
 bid for the support of the worthless class of men recently 
 granted the vote. We can easily imagine what creatures they 
 were. In that early time in a new country, with opportunity 
 knocking at every man's door, work to be had for the asking, 
 large farms given by the government free to settlers, with 
 every inducement to an honest man to follow an industrious 
 calling, they preferred to loaf around corners, to infest bar- 
 rooms, to become members of gangs of political rowdies, to 
 beg, bully and coax for petty offices. Too lazy or incompetent, 
 or both, to accumulate or even to retain the small amount of 
 property needed to qualify them as voters, their only ambition 
 was by fair or foul means to live off the community with 
 the least possible exertion. After Jackson's inauguration in 
 March 1829, as we are told by Ostrogorski: 
 
 "The vast popular army which marched triumphantly through 
 the streets of Washington dispersed to their homes, but one of 
 
Il8 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 its divisions remained, the corps of marauders which followed it. 
 This was composed of the politicians. They wanted their spoils. 
 The victory was due to their efforts and as the laborer is worthy 
 of his hire, they deserved a reward. By way of remuneration 
 for their services, they demanded places in the administration. 
 They filled the air of Washington like locusts, they swarmed 
 in the halls and lobbies of the public buildings, in the adjoining 
 streets they besieged the residences of Jackson and his ministers." 
 (Democracy and the Party System in the United States., p. 21.) 
 
 "It was" (says Schurz) "as if a victorious army had come to 
 take possession of a conquered country, expecting their general 
 to distribute among them the spoil of the land. A spectacle was 
 enacted never before known in the capital of the Republic." (Life 
 of Clay, Vol. I, p. 334.) 
 
 "A new force, compounded in about equal proportions of corrup- 
 tion and savagery, was soon made potential, alike in the battle 
 fields of politics, in the methods of election and in the processes 
 of administration." (Lalor's Cyclopedia; Spoils System.) 
 
 Prior to Jackson's time only seventy-four Federal officials 
 had been removed from office in the entire history of the gov- 
 ernment. In the first year of his administration he dismissed 
 or caused to be dismissed more than two thousand, and all 
 for political reasons. The number of persons employed by 
 the Federal Government in the first year of John Quincy 
 Adams' administration was about 55,000; under Jackson it 
 was increased to over 100,000. In his eight-year term he no 
 doubt doubled the number of Federal officials. 
 
 "A perfect reign of terror ensued among the officeholders. In 
 the first month of the new administration more removals took place 
 than during all the previous administrations put together. Appoint- 
 ments were made with little or no attention to fitness, or even 
 honesty, but solely because of personal or political services. Re- 
 movals were not made in accordance with any known rule at all; 
 the most frivolous pretexts were sufficient, if advanced by useful 
 politicians who needed places already held by capable incumbents. 
 Spying and tale-bearing became prominent features of official life, the 
 meaner office-holders trying to save their own heads by denouncing 
 
EFFECTS AND RESULTS OF MANHOOD SUFFRAGE IIQ 
 
 others. The very best men were unceremoniously and causelessly 
 dismissed; gray-headed clerks, who had been appointed by the 
 earlier presidents by Washington, the elder Adams, and Jeffer- 
 son being turned off at an hour's notice, although a quarter of 
 a century's faithful work in the public service had unfitted them 
 to earn their living elsewhere. Indeed, it was upon the best and 
 most efficient men that the blow fell heaviest; the spies, tale-bearers 
 and tricksters often retained their positions. In 1829 the public 
 service was, as it always had been, administered purely in the 
 interest of the people; and the man who was styled the especial 
 champion of the people dealt that service the heaviest blow it has 
 ever received." (Roosevelt; Life of Benton, pp. 82, 83.) 
 
 In a speech in the House of Representatives in 1834 Henry 
 Clay referred to "the ravenous pursuit after public situations 
 "not for the sake of the honors and the performance of their 
 "public duties but as a means of private subsistence." He 
 said that the office hunters were so greedy that they watched 
 with eagerness the dying bed of an actual incumbent. Daniel 
 Webster, about the time of Jackson's election said: "As far 
 "as I know there is no civilized country on earth in which, 
 "under change of rulers, there is such an inquisition of spoils 
 "as we have witnessed in this free republic." From this time 
 forward this degenerate type of office seekers became an im- 
 portant factor in every American election. The victory of 
 Jackson, says Farrand, 
 
 "Was a victory of the South and West, especially by the latter; 
 it was a victory for democracy; but it was also a victory of 
 organized politics ... it seems to mark the rise of a class of 
 professional politicians. These men were not like the old ruling 
 class whose members were in politics largely from a sense of duty 
 and public service, or for the honor of it, or even for the sake 
 of power; but they were in politics as a business, not for the 
 irregular profits to be derived therefrom but to make a living." 
 (Development of the United States, pp. 156, 157.) 
 
 It is really astonishing to note how speedily manhood suf- 
 frage developed its appropriate mischiefs. Soon, with the 
 
I2O POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 increase of a purchasable constituency the traffic in votes 
 became more easy and common, and the struggle for the 
 spoils grew rapidly in intensity. The policy then put into 
 play of making the offices the spoils of politics produced in 
 a comparatively few years the beginnings of the political 
 machine. 
 
 "General Jackson, the candidate of the populace, and the rep- 
 resentative hero of the ignorant masses, instituted a new system 
 of administering the government, in which the personal interests be- 
 came the most important element, and that organization and 
 strategy were developed which have since become known and 
 infamous under the name of the political machine." (Life of 
 J. Q. Adams by Morse, p. 214.) 
 
 About 1830 a new flood of immigration set in and the 
 politicians made it their business to win the favor of the 
 immigrants and to organize the great foreign vote and especially 
 the Irish vote in New York City and elsewhere. This was 
 not difficult as there was neither opposition norj competition. 
 In New York they seized Tammany Hall, and perfected and 
 employed its organization and similar organizations elsewhere; 
 they developed and enthroned political bosses, and established 
 and operated political machines. The growth of this class 
 is thus described by Ostrogorski: 
 
 "But in proportion as the old generation which had founded the 
 republic disappeared, as the development of the country entailed 
 that of the public service, and the political contingents increased 
 through extension of the suffrage, the scramble for the loaves 
 and fishes became closer and keener. There arose a whole class 
 of men of low degree who applied all their energies in this direction, 
 and who sought their means of subsistence in politics, and especially 
 in its troubled waters." (Democracy and the Party System in the 
 United States, p. 19.) 
 
 And further: 
 
 "The old political supremacy wielded by the elite of the nation, 
 . . . passed to an innumerable crowd of petty local leaders who stood 
 
EFFECTS AND RESULTS OF MANHOOD SUFFRAGE 121 
 
 nearer to the masses but who too often were only needy adventurers." 
 (P. 23.) 
 
 Jackson was followed in 1837 by his lieutenant, Van Buren, 
 who was the first machine-made President, and the situation 
 is thus described by Roosevelt: 
 
 "During Van Buren's administration the standard of public 
 honesty, which had been lowering with frightful rapidity ever 
 since, with Adams, the men of high moral tone had gone out of 
 power, went almost as far down as it could go; although things 
 certainly did not change for the better under Tyler and Polk. 
 Not only was there the most impudent and unblushing rascality 
 among the public servants of the nation, but the people them- 
 selves, through their representatives in the state legislatures, went 
 to work to swindle their honest creditors. Many states, in the 
 rage for public improvements, had contracted debts which they now 
 refused to pay; in many cases they were unable, or at least so 
 professed themselves, even to pay the annual interest. The debts 
 of the states were largely held abroad; they had been converted 
 into stock and held in shares, which had gone into a great number 
 of hands, and now, of course, became greatly depreciated in value. 
 It is a painful and shameful page in our history; and every man 
 connected with the repudiation of the states' debts ought, if remem- 
 bered at all, to be remembered only with scorn and contempt." 
 
 Towards the close of Van Buren's administration, complaint 
 was made of waste of public money. 
 
 "There was good ground for their complaint, as the waste and 
 peculation in some of the departments had been very great. . . . 
 While they had been in power the character of the public service 
 had deteriorated frightfully, both as regarded its efficiency and 
 infinitely more as regarded its honesty; and under Van Buren the 
 amount of money stolen by the public officers, compared to the 
 amount handed in to the treasury, was greater than ever before or 
 since. For this the Jacksonians were solely and absolutely re- 
 sponsible; they drove out the merit system of making appointments, 
 and introduced the 'spoils' system in its place; and under the latter 
 they chose a peculiarly dishonest and incapable set of officers, whose 
 sole recommendation was to be found in knavish trickery and low 
 
122 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 cunning that enabled them to manage the ignorant voters who 
 formed the backbone of Jackson's party." (Life of Benton, pp. 219, 
 230, 231.) 
 
 In 1841 Harrison succeeded Van Buren; there was a change 
 of parties; the Democrats went out, and the Whigs, who had 
 inveighed against the spoils system, took their places. But 
 the expected reform did not come off; it was no longer a ques- 
 tion of parties or policies ; the electorate itself had been hope- 
 lessly degraded by manhood suffrage, and the leaders of both 
 parties were unable, if they wished, to purify politics; they 
 were obliged either to adopt manhood suffrage low methods, 
 or go out of public life. In vain Clay, the great Whig leader, 
 thundered in Congress against the spoils system. 
 
 "In solemn words of prophecy, he (Clay) painted the effects 
 which the systematic violation of this principle (Government is 
 a trust), inaugurated by Jackson, must inevitably bring about; 
 political contests turned into scrambles for plunder; a system 
 of universal rapacity, substituted for a system of responsibility; 
 favoritism for fitness; a Congress corrupted, the press corrupted, 
 general corruption; until the substance of free government having 
 disappeared, some pretorian band would arise, and with the gen- 
 eral concurrence of a distracted people, put an end to useless 
 forms." (Schurz, Life of Clay, p. 335, Vol. I.) 
 
 Clay's influence in Congress was enormous, but he was 
 powerless to cure the inherent rottenness of a manhood suf- 
 frage constituency. The pressure of the spoilsmen upon the 
 Whig Harrison's administration equalled or surpassed that 
 upon the Democrat Jackson, and is said to have caused 
 Harrison's death. It is thus described by Ostrogorski: 
 
 "When Harrison took up his abode in the White House, the 
 rush became tremendous; the applicants literally pursued the min- 
 isters and the president day and night; they besieged the former 
 in their offices or in their homes, and even in the streets; a good 
 many candidates for offices slept in the corridors of the White 
 House to catch the president the next morning as soon as he got 
 up." (Democracy and the Party System in the U.S., p. 36.) 
 
EFFECTS AND RESULTS OF MANHOOD SUFFRAGE 123 
 
 Schurz thus describes the operation of the manhood suf- 
 frage spoils system as it had developed in ten or twelve years 
 after its introduction in 1829: 
 
 "Not only were the officers of the government permitted to become 
 active workers in party politics, but they were made to understand 
 that active partisanship was one perhaps the principal one 
 of their duties. Political assessments upon office holders with all 
 the inseparable scandals became at once a part of the system. 
 The spoils politician in office grasped almost everywhere the reins 
 of local leadership in the party. . . . The spoils system bore a 
 crop of corruption such as had never been known before. Swart- 
 wout, the collector of customs at New York, one of General Jack- 
 son's favorites, was discovered to be a defaulter to the amount of 
 nearly $1,250,000, and the District Attorney of the U. S. at New 
 York to the amount of $72,000. Almost all land officers were 
 defaulters. . . . Officials seemed to help themselves to the public 
 money, not only without shame, but in many cases apparently 
 without any fear of punishment." (Life of Clay, Vol. II, 
 pp. 183, 184.) 
 
 This from Roosevelt referring to 1838: 
 
 "The Jacksonian Democracy was already completely ruled by a 
 machine, of which the most important cogs were the countless 
 office-holders, whom the spoils system had already converted into 
 a band of well-drilled political mercenaries. A political machine 
 can only be brought to a state of high perfection in a party con- 
 taining very many ignorant and uneducated voters; and the Jack- 
 sonian Democracy held in its ranks the mass of the ignorance of 
 the country." (Life of Benton, p. 185.) 
 
 Some writers put all the blame on Jackson for the over- 
 throw of the old lofty ideals and standards of Federal politics, 
 which occurred in his presidency. But Jackson, though 
 coarse and ignorant, was not evil-minded nor intentionally 
 unpatriotic; nor was he, even if so disposed, gifted with the 
 power of corrupting the entire politics of the country. The 
 mischiefs which broke out in his time were nation-wide and 
 must have been due to a nation-wide cause. The fact is that 
 
124 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 the party of which Jackson happened to be the leader was 
 caught in a movement, the full meaning and effect of which was 
 unsuspected by everybody. The wash of the French Revolu- 
 tion had reached us and had swept manhood suffrage into our 
 boat. Schurz says that in Jackson's administration there was 
 infused into the government and the whole body politic a 
 spirit of lawlessness which outlived Jackson, and of which 
 the demoralizing influence is felt to this day; that barbarous 
 habits were then first introduced into the field of national 
 affairs, and selfishness made a ruling motive in politics, re- 
 sulting in a crop of corruption which startled the country. 
 All this is true; the mistake is in ascribing to Jackson or 
 to any one person a widespread deterioration no one man 
 could possibly have accomplished. For such a far-reaching 
 effect, a universal cause was needed; and that that cause 
 was manhood suffrage no candid investigator can possibly 
 doubt. McLaughlin in his Life of Cass (p. 136) recognizes 
 that the introduction of the spoils system in 1829 cannot be 
 solely charged to Jackson or to Van Buren; that they were the 
 mere conduits through which was conducted into federal poli- 
 tics the flood of corruption produced by other causes. But those 
 causes he fails to specify. "It came by natural evolution 
 "... the offices of trust were handed over to the men who 
 "brought the greatest pressure to bear, and could make plain 
 "their political influences to the scullions of the kitchen cabinet. 
 "If the student of American politics is to understand the place 
 "which the spoils system holds he must see that its introduction 
 "was a natural phase in our national development." And he 
 describes the brutality of "the scrambling, punch-drinking mob 
 which invaded Washington at Jackson's inauguration." It 
 needs no Sherlock Holmes, however, to tell us that the advent 
 of this mob and their possession of the administration would 
 not have been "a natural phase in our national development" 
 had it not been for the specific operation of the new institution 
 of manhood suffrage. The influences which it introduced in our 
 political structure were favorable to the spoils system, which 
 
EFFECTS AND RESULTS OF MANHOOD SUFFRAGE 125 
 
 was popularly felt to be a proper result of the filling of all 
 offices by vote of the masses. The Cyclopedia of American Gov- 
 ernment states that the people favored the introduction of the 
 spoils system. As Marcy said in a speech about that time, 
 <k They see nothing wrong in the rule that to the victors belong 
 "the spoils of the enemy." In a word the Democratic spirit 
 ignored efficiency in office as well as in the voter; and the office 
 became what it still continues to be, a reward, a token of grati- 
 tude for political activity. 
 
 The lamentable effects of manhood suffrage continued in 
 full sweep after the death of Harrison and the return of the 
 Jackson Democracy to power under Polk in 1845. The re- 
 sultant flagrant misgovernment caused growing popular re- 
 sentment which might have produced valuable results had 
 it not been for the slavery agitation which soon drove all other 
 political questions into the background. Already in 1843 the 
 dissatisfaction of large numbers was displayed by the organiza- 
 tion of the American or Knownothing party, which born in 
 New York and baptized with blood in Philadelphia rapidly 
 spread through the country. Formed ostensibly to check 
 the growing power of Irish Roman Catholic politicians, its 
 real grievance was manhood suffrage misrule. Its leaders mis- 
 took the cause of the new political scandals. They wrongly 
 attributed them exclusively to the Irish; they were really due 
 to the effect of the voting power of the newly enfranchised 
 and organized political floaters, both foreign and American. 
 Polk's election was secured by the machine in 1844: 
 
 "By the almost solid foreign vote still unfit for the duties of 
 American citizenship; by the vicious and criminal classes in all 
 the great cities of the North and in New Orleans; by the corrupt 
 politicians, who found ignorance and viciousness tools ready forged 
 to their hands, wherewith to perpetrate the gigantic frauds with- 
 out which the election would have been lost." (Roosevelt, Life of 
 Bent on, pp. 290, 291.) 
 
 On Pierce's inauguration in 1853, sa Y s Rhodes, "the importu- 
 nate begging for official positions in a republic where it was so 
 
126 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 easy to earn a living was nothing less than disgraceful. Office 
 seekers crowded the public receptions of the President, and 
 while greeting him in the usual way, attempted at the same time 
 to urge their claims, actually thrusting their petitions into his 
 hands." (Rhodes, I, 339.) 
 
 Meantime the bribery of voters and of legislatures rapidly 
 grew more common and shameless, and about this time the 
 purchase of legislation began to be a scandal. Referring to 
 this period, Prof. Reinsch says: 
 
 "In those earlier days things were often managed with little 
 adroitness. There was much indiscriminate and broadcast bribery; 
 to buy men for a moderate amount per vote was the acme of 
 ambition to the successful lobbyist." (American Legislatures and 
 Legislative Methods, p. 231.) 
 
 And Farrand writes, referring to the same period: 
 
 "For the first time in contemporary accounts much was made 
 of the vile corruption of politics, the charge being with the growth 
 of a class of professional politicians and the great increase of 
 wealth that money was used improperly, both for bribing of 
 voters and for accomplishing the miscarriage of justice." (Develop- 
 ment of United States, p. 209.) 
 
 Under the united influence of manhood suffrage and its 
 offspring the spoils system, corruption, rascality and official 
 incapacity increased enormously as time went on. The his- 
 torian Rhodes writing of the decade from 1850 to 1860 says 
 that "plentiful evidence of the popular opinion that dishonesty 
 prevailed may be found in the literature of the time." And 
 that, "the executive and legislative departments of the national 
 "government were undoubtedly as much tainted with corrup- 
 tion between 1850-60 as they are at the present time." (1904.) 
 Senator Benton of Missouri writing in 1850 said: 
 
 "Now office is sought for support and for the repair of dilap- 
 idated fortunes; applicants obtrude themselves, and prefer claims 
 to office. Their personal condition and party services, not quali- 
 fication, are made the basis of the demand; and the crowds which 
 
EFFECTS AND RESULTS OF MANHOOD SUFFRAGE 127 
 
 congregate at Washington, at the change of an administration, sup- 
 plicants for office are humiliating to behold, and threaten to change 
 the contest of parties from a contest for principle into a struggle 
 for plunder." (Thirty Years in Congress, Vol. I, p. 81.) 
 
 And further: (p. 163). 
 
 "I deprecate the effect of such sweeping removals at each revolu- 
 tion of parties and believe it is having a deplorable effect both 
 upon the purity of elections and the distribution of office, and 
 taking both out of the hands of the people and throwing the 
 management of one and the enjoyment of the other into most 
 unfit hands. I consider it as working a deleterious change in the 
 government." 
 
 About this time public officials were assessed for political 
 contributions ; afterwards the offices were put on sale. "Under 
 "Buchanan (1857-1861) was established the practice of taxing 
 "federal office holders. The politicians after the war carried 
 "it to perfection. There were five categories of assessments 
 "on salaries; federal, state, municipal, ward and district." 
 (Ostrogorski; Democracy, p. 68.) 
 
 The politicians under Lincoln were no whit behind their 
 predecessors. The new administration machine went merrily to 
 work right after March 4, 1861. Then followed such scandals 
 as might naturally be expected from the appointment as Secre- 
 tary of War of Simon Cameron, the rapacious and corrupt 
 Pennsylvania boss. Carbines were sold by the Government 
 at $3.50 each and repurchased at $15, and the contract re- 
 peated, the second purchase being at $22. Large sums were 
 spent without accounting in violation of law. Brothers-in- 
 law were in luck. Cameron's brother-in-law was president of 
 a railroad which in one year exacted from the Government a 
 million or more for excessive transportation charges. One 
 Morgan, the brother-in-law of the Secretary of the Navy, 
 was made purchasing agent for railroad supplies, although he 
 was absolutely without experience in that line. Other politi- 
 cians received similar favors. A great scandal was caused 
 
128 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 by the issuing of permits for trading with the enemy under 
 which supplies to numerous amounts sufficient to furnish whole 
 armies were sent through the rebel lines. The machine was 
 able to obtain the signature of Lincoln himself to these permits. 
 Foreign affairs were neglected in order that the offices might 
 be distributed. (Stickney; Organized Democracy, Chap. III.) 
 
 Coming to the next decade we find a systematic corruption 
 of the electorate, a large part whereof was willing no doubt to 
 be corrupted. Ostrogorski says that "after the (Civil) War 
 a the exasperation of party spirit and the extraordinary de- 
 "velopment of the spoils system led to bribery being used as 
 "a regular weapon. . . . The parties often secure, in much 
 "the same way, the votes of the members of the labor unions; 
 "the leaders 'sell them out' to the parties without the work- 
 "men having a suspicion of it. The voters who deliberately 
 "sell themselves belong in the cities, mostly to the dregs of 
 "the population." 
 
 And also referring to states where the vote was close: 
 
 "These states ranked among the doubtful ones, four or five in 
 number, are drenched with money during the presidential cam- 
 paign for buying the 'floaters,' the wavering electors who sell 
 themselves to the highest bidder." (Pp. 206, 207.) 
 
 During all this period and down to the present time, the 
 spoils system built on manhood suffrage has been the dominant 
 force in our public life. 
 
 "It is" (says Bryce) "these spoilsmen who have depraved and 
 distorted the mechanism of politics. It is they who pack the pri- 
 maries and run the conventions so as to destroy the freedom of 
 popular choice, they who contrive and execute the election frauds 
 which disgrace some States and cities repeating and ballot stuffing, 
 obstruction of the polls and fraudulent countings in. 
 
 In making every administrative appointment a matter of party 
 claim and personal favour, the system has lowered the general tone 
 of public morals, for it has taught men to neglect the interests of 
 the community, and made insincerity ripen into cynicism. No- 
 body supposes that merit has anything to do with promotion, or 
 
EFFECTS AND RESULTS OF MANHOOD SUFFRAGE I2Q 
 
 believes the pretext alleged for an appointment. Politics has been 
 turned into the art of distributing salaries so as to secure the max- 
 imum of support from friends with the minimum of offence to 
 opponents. To this art able men have been forced to bend their 
 minds: on this Presidents and ministers have spent those hours 
 which were demanded by the real problems of the country." (Amer- 
 ican Commonwealth, Vol. II, p. 137.) 
 
 Meantime the politicians, not content with the original opera- 
 tion of manhood suffrage on the spoils of office, have be- 
 thought them of adding to the fruits of these operations by in- 
 creasing still further the number of elective offices. It has been 
 easy to persuade to this move many of that small number of 
 intelligent voters who trouble themselves about such matters. 
 The pretence of extending the sway of democracy and liberty 
 which has always been used to cover schemes of public plunder 
 was found sufficient once more. On this pretence the ad- 
 ministrative and judicial offices of various states were made 
 elective instead of appointive as formerly. As Ostrogorski 
 says (Idem, p. 25): 
 
 "The democratic impulse which carried Jackson into power had 
 forced the way, in the constitutional sphere, for two important 
 changes: the introduction of universal suffrage, and the very con- 
 siderable extension of the elective principle to public offices." 
 
 Under this system which still obtains in many states, scores 
 of state, county and municipal offices are offered at every 
 election to the choice of the mass of electors who on approach- 
 ing the polls find themselves called on to select in addition 
 to the members of the state legislature and Congress and 
 state governors, a dozen or a score of administrative officials 
 and judges. Sometimes they are invited to vote for an at- 
 torney-general, a state engineer and surveyor, a state treasurer, 
 a state comptroller, half a dozen judges and justices, a district 
 attorney, a sheriff, a mayor, a city treasurer, a couple of 
 coroners, besides a governor, a state senator, and assemblymen 
 and aldermen, say twenty in all. Sometimes as at an election 
 
I3O POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 in St. Louis, the list contains thirteen city officials to be elected, 
 besides state officers and congressmen. In the cities of Ohio 
 it sometimes includes an average of twenty-two officers at each 
 yearly election. In a small town near New York there are 
 about fifteen local offices to be filled at an election besides 
 a dozen or two state and federal offices and so on throughout 
 the Union. "Let the people rule," say the politicians, because 
 when the people attempt to rule by choosing administrative 
 officials, it is really the politicians who make the choice. It is 
 doubtful if there ever was a voter, even a professional poli- 
 tician, who was sufficiently well acquainted with each of the 
 candidates on such a ticket and with his duties to enable him 
 to decide intelligently upon his merits as compared with his 
 rivals. Certainly not one in a hundred is competent to do so. 
 Remember, too, that the voter has no real choice in the original 
 selection of these candidates; that they are all chosen before 
 the election by party managers in secret conclave, and forced 
 through the primaries by the power of the machine; that if 
 the voter rejects one rogue or incapable whom he happens to 
 know or has heard of, he can do no more after all than to vote 
 for the other party candidate who is quite likely to be likewise 
 of the same evil stripe. The reader can see that manhood suf- 
 frage applied in this way is an infallible method of making 
 easy and safe the selection of incompetent rascals for public 
 office. For what the voter usually does in such case is to vote 
 the whole party ticket, rogues, fools and all, realizing that if 
 he fails to do so the rival set of scamps and incompetents will 
 be the sole gainers. 
 
 Subsequent to 1850 and by degrees the army of American 
 politicians became more and more skilled and specialized in 
 their craft; they became highly organized and disciplined; 
 having leaders, officers, rules and traditions. Men went into 
 politics in youth as a profession, grew old and rich in its prac- 
 tice, and trained up their deputies and successors. The politi- 
 cal leader became known as the Boss; a group of Bosses as a 
 Ring; a combination of Rings as the Machine whose power 
 
EFFECTS AND RESULTS OF MANHOOD SUFFRAGE 131 
 
 is sometimes irresistible. Especially after the Civil War 
 (1865) the power of the bosses increased, and they habitually 
 after that time distributed nominations, collected assessments, 
 and gave orders to state legislatures. The system thus per- 
 fected has continued to the present day and is everywhere 
 working smoothly. The American people have now practi- 
 cally ceased resistance to the bosses. In a letter addressed to 
 Francis A. Walker signed by William Cullen Bryant, Carl 
 Schurz and others, dated April 6, 1876, reference is made to 
 "the widespread corruption in our public servants which has 
 "disgraced the republic in the eyes of the world and threatens 
 "to poison the vitality of our institutions." On March 31, 
 1876, Schurz writes to Bristow: "We have been so deeply dis- 
 graced in the estimation of mankind by the exposures of cor- 
 "ruption in our public servants, and the faith of many of our 
 "people in our institutions has been so dangerously shaken." 
 David Dudley Field of New York, writing in 1877, says: 
 
 "The corruption of American politics is a phrase in everybody's 
 mouth, not only in this country, but in others. . . . We see 
 offices claimed and bestowed not for merit but for party work, 
 and as a natural consequence we see the public service inefficient 
 and disordered. We see venal legislatures and executive officers 
 receiving gifts. . . . We see legislatures, state and federal, guar- 
 anteeing monopolies to corporations and individuals, making gifts of 
 the public lands and bestowing subsidies from the public treasury; 
 we see the plunder of local communities by what is called local 
 taxation, and we see demagogues clamoring for largesses under pre- 
 tense, perhaps, of equalizing bounties, or other equally dishonest 
 pretenses. . . . The condition of our civil service is a scandal 
 to the country. . . . Taking the country together two-thirds of 
 the present official force would do all the work needed and do it 
 better than it is now done." 
 
 And proceeding, he spoke of politics as then pursued as a 
 branch of business, and the office holders as a band of mer- 
 cenaries who were the supporters of misgovernment. (Cor- 
 ruption in Politics; International Review, Jan., 1877.) 
 
132 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 Physicians tell us that from a source of disease, however 
 small and obscure, a disordered tooth for instance, an infection 
 may spread through the body until despite its apparent vigor, it 
 in undermined and finally destroyed. The corruption begun in 
 the electorate, has spread beyond the political system and has 
 reached and invaded business life. This progress is so easy to 
 trace that every business man in the country is familiar with 
 it. Political leaders and bosses are purchasable and so are 
 often machine-made legislators. Hence the two-fold evil, on 
 the one hand the bribery of legislators and public officials, and 
 on the other, threats and acts of oppression by the latter so 
 as to compel business to pay tribute. These practices are so 
 notorious and instances of them are so familiar, many of them 
 referred to in this volume, that at this point it is sufficient to 
 call attention to their frequency and extent. Again quoting 
 Bryce: 
 
 "In the United States the money power acts by corrupting some- 
 times the voter, sometimes the juror, sometimes the legislator, 
 sometimes a whole party; for large subscriptions and promises of 
 political support have been known to influence a party to pro- 
 cure or refrain from such legislation as wealth desires or fears. 
 The rich, it is but fair to say, and especially great corporations, 
 have not only enterprises to promote but dangers to escape from at 
 the hands of unscrupulous demagogues or legislators." (American 
 Commonwealth, Vol. II, p. 614.) 
 
 In 1889 George William Curtis, referring to the United 
 States, approvingly quoted the saying of a United States Sena- 
 tor made in 1876 that "the only product of her institutions in 
 "which she surpassed all others beyond question was her cor- 
 ruption." In 1890 he said that political corruption "has in- 
 "creased, is increasing and ought to be diminished." In 1891 
 Curtis said that "corruption in our politics was never felt to be 
 "so general, so vast and penetrating, as during the last quarter 
 "of a century." In the Omaha Populist platform of 1892, it 
 was declared that: 
 

 EFFECTS AND RESULTS OF MANHOOD SUFFRAGE 133 
 
 "We are meeting in the midst of a nation brought to the verge 
 of moral, political and material ruin. Corruption dominates the 
 ballot box, the Legislators, the Congress and touches even the ermine 
 of the bench. People are demoralized. . . . The fruits of the 
 toil of millions are boldly stolen to build up colossal fortunes. 
 ... From the same prolific womb of political justice we breed 
 x the two great classes tramps and millionaires." 
 
 We forbear to quote later opinions or authorities on this 
 branch of our subject at this point, though contemporary 
 magazines and newspapers afford them in great number, be- 
 cause we have wished as far as possible to keep within the 
 domain of history and to avoid the doubtful field of present- 
 day partisan political controversy. If proof of the evil of 
 present conditions were desirable it is sufficiently found be- 
 tween the covers of this book, but such proof is quite unneces- 
 sary. The unsatisfactory character of the political life of 
 today is as well known to the intelligent reader as to the writer 
 or to anyone else. There has been no betterment of recent 
 years. The activities of our political masters have kept pace 
 with the march of prosperity, the increase of the nation's 
 wealth and population, and the growth of its great cities. There 
 is today practically no political liberty in the United States. 
 The country is badly, corruptly and shamefully ruled by a 
 class, an oligarchy, one of the most corrupt and tyrannical at 
 present existing anywhere, and composed of small groups of 
 weak and tricky men not five per cent of whom under a sys- 
 tem of properly qualified suffrage would have votes at all. In- 
 stead of free elections to public office what actually occurs is 
 as described by Dr. Charles P. Clark: 
 
 "Two organized bands of active, intriguing and self-seeking 
 politicians, composing less than one hundredth part of the whole 
 voting population, dispute with each other, and one of them obtains 
 the selection mark the pregnant meaning of the word of every 
 public functionary." (The Machine Abolished, p. 29.) 
 
 Having identified the source and origin of this evil political 
 condition with the institution of manhood suffrage and traced 
 
134 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 the mischief down to the present-day generation, let us pro- 
 ceed to the next chapter wherein will be set forth a brief de- 
 scription or example of the nature and characteristics of the 
 professional politician, the political Boss, the political Ma- 
 chine, the political Ring, and the Lobby; all of which beautiful 
 creations are the product or result direct or indirect of that 
 much vaunted institution, manhood suffrage. It is doubtful 
 if any of them can be found elsewhere than in America; cer- 
 tainly they reach their highest development in the United 
 States. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 SHORT SKETCHES OF MANHOOD SUFFRAGE PROGENY; THE POLI- 
 TICIAN AND THE BOSS; THEIR CREATIONS THE RING 
 AND THE MACHINE; AND THEIR BY-PRODUCT, THE LOBBY 
 
 No account of manhood suffrage would be complete with- 
 out proper mention of the politicians and their work, for they 
 are the essential product of the system, its distinctive feature 
 and its condemnation. It is they who manage the controllable 
 vote created by manhood suffrage and without which they 
 themselves would cease to exist; and it is they who nurse that 
 vote, feed it and train and fashion it to their malign uses as 
 an instrument of perfect control of American political life. 
 The politicians are absolutely indispensable to the working 
 of the present political system in the United States. They 
 handle the voters like cattle intended for the stock market; 
 like the animals the voters go willingly or half willingly to the 
 places prepared for them, in pursuance of plans in which 
 they take no part, which they do not understand. The voters 
 are bargained for and delivered in batches just as the animals 
 are, and the managers and their subordinates in charge are 
 the political masters of the country. 
 
 These managers from the very first have been a sordid 
 lot. De Tocqueville, writing about 1835, when the manhood 
 suffrage regime was only ten years old said of them, "I have 
 "heard of patriotism in the United States, and I have found 
 "true patriotism among the people, but never among the leaders 
 "of the people." (Democracy in America, Vol. I.) The pres- 
 ent-day professional politicians may be as lacking in patriotism 
 as the political leaders of De Tocqueville's time, but taken 
 
 135 
 
136 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 all together they are and have always been a picturesque com- 
 pany, who have been frequently described by able writers, 
 from some of whom extracts will here be given for the delec- 
 tation and information of the reader. 
 
 There are of course high and low grade politicians, small 
 and large leaders and managers and various grades between; 
 besides retainers and subordinates, known as captains or 
 henchmen with their followers or heelers. In cities, the local 
 or district leader is often an able man in his way; and of 
 late years as politics has developed into a science, he is often 
 found to be sober, shrewd and well mannered. His duties 
 are varied. He assists and protects his constituents in local 
 political matters; obtains the saloon license; also permits for 
 the small trades or businesses, the boot-black, the lemonade 
 seller, etc. He protects against arrests, gets bail for culprits, 
 sees police judges, lends small sums, distributes coal in winter, 
 gives poultry at Christmas, sends medicine for the sick, helps 
 bury the dead by procuring credit or cheap rates at the under- 
 taker's, orders drinks at the saloon, and is looked on as a 
 ready helper in time of trouble of all kinds. He may have 
 placed a large number of men on the city pay-roll who never 
 do much work and whose principal duties are to attend con- 
 ventions, get out the vote on election day, promise places 
 and favors, and threaten and intimidate opposition to the 
 regular ticket. In some cities these petty leaders are num- 
 bered by the thousand. It was estimated at one time that 
 they totaled 12,000 to 15,000 in New York alone. As time 
 passes the outward semblance and methods of the politician 
 may change, or they may vary with his situation and station 
 in the political hierarchy, but his spirit and objects and evil 
 influence continue unaltered. The politician of our day is 
 thus described by Dr. Clark: 
 
 "The perfect type of the American politician is a mixture of the 
 demagogue, the intriguer and the jobber; flattering the people, 
 locking arms with every surrounding influence and all the time 
 looking out for himself." (The Machine Abolished, p. 43.) 
 
MANHOOD SUFFRAGE PROGENY 137 
 
 Bryce thus sketches the ward politician: 
 
 "As there are weeds that follow human dwellings, so this species 
 thrives best in cities, and even in the most crowded parts of cities. 
 It is known to the Americans as the 'ward politician,' because the 
 city ward is the chief sphere of its activity, and the ward meeting 
 the first scene of its exploits. A statesman of this type usually 
 begins as a saloon or barkeeper, an occupation which enables him 
 to form a large circle of acquaintances, especially among the 
 'loafer' class who have votes but no reason for using them one 
 way more than another, and whose interest in political issues is 
 therefore as limited as their stock of political knowledge. But he 
 may have started as a lawyer of the lowest kind, or lodging-house 
 keeper, or have taken to politics after failure in store-keeping. 
 The education of this class is only that of the elementary schools; 
 if they have come after boyhood from Europe, it is not even that. 
 They have of course no comprehension of political questions or 
 zeal for political principles ; politics mean to them merely a scramble 
 for places or jobs. They are usually vulgar, sometimes brutal, not 
 so often criminal, or at least the associates of criminals. They it 
 is who move about the populous quarters of the great cities, form 
 groups through whom they can reach and control the ignorant 
 voter, pack meetings with their creatures." . . . 
 
 "In the smaller cities and in the country generally, the minor 
 politicians are mostly native Americans, less ignorant and more 
 respectable than these last-mentioned street vultures. The bar- 
 keeping element is represented among them, but the bulk are petty 
 lawyers, officials, Federal as well as State and county, and people 
 who for want of a better occupation have turned office-seekers, 
 with a fair sprinkling of store-keepers, farmers, and newspaper 
 men." . . . 
 
 "These two classes do the local work and dirty work of politics. 
 They are the rank and file. Above them stand the officers in the 
 political army, the party managers, including the members of 
 Congress and chief men in the State legislatures, and the editors 
 of influential newspapers. Some of these have pushed their way 
 up from the humbler ranks. Others are men of superior ability 
 and education, often college graduates, lawyers who have had 
 practice, less frequently merchants or manufacturers who have 
 
138 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 slipped into politics from business. There are all sorts among 
 them, creatures clean and unclean, as in the sheet of St. Peter's 
 vision, but that one may say of politicians in all countries. 57 
 (American Commonwealth, Vol. II, pp. 63, 64, 65.) 
 
 The political leaders, says Eaton, endeavor to bring "every 
 "form of human depravity, imbecility and ignorance to the 
 "polls. They and their minions search the garrets and the 
 "cellars, the prisons and the asylums, the grog shops and the 
 "poor houses; they lead and hustle to the ballot boxes the vil- 
 "est specimens of humanity which can be made to cast a vote" 
 (Government of Municipalities, p. 122), and he adds that 
 some of these leaders are public officials, some have even been 
 on the bench of justice as police magistrates. Here is a sketch 
 of a New York district leader, veracious though imaginary, 
 from the facile pen of O. Henry (The Social Triangle). 
 
 "Billy McMahan was the district leader. Upon him the Tiger 
 purred, and his hand held manna to scatter. Now, as Ikey 
 entered (the bar room) McMahan stood, flushed and triumphant 
 and mighty, the center of a huzzaing concourse of his lieutenants 
 and constituents. It seems there had been an election; a signal 
 victory had been won; the city had been swept back into line 
 by a resistless besom of ballots. How magnificent was Billy 
 McMahan, with his great smooth laughing face; his gray eye 
 shrewd as a chicken hawk's; his diamond ring; his voice like a 
 bugle call; his prince's air; his plump and active roll of money; 
 his clarion call to friend and comrade oh, what a king of men 
 he was! How he obscured his lieutenants, though they them- 
 selves loomed large and serious, blue of chin and important of 
 mien, with hands buried deep in the pockets of their short overcoats." 
 
 Besides the immediate lieutenants of the boss there are in 
 the cities gangs of "heelers" formed by the political organiza- 
 tions who, as said by Ostrogorski, constitute a latent political 
 force under the management of henchmen. They are de- 
 scribed by him as ignorant, brutal, averse to regular work, 
 mostly recruited from the criminal or semi-criminal classes, 
 from among frequenters of drinking saloons and from failures 
 and loafers of every description. When the elections come 
 
MANHOOD SUFFRAGE PROGENY 139 
 
 around they furnish compact bands of "floaters" or "repeaters" 
 as they are often called, ready, for a consideration, to vote early 
 and as often as permitted. Professor Woodburn of Indiana 
 University writing in 1903, says that: 
 
 "A politician has come to mean one devoted not to the science 
 and art of government, but to the success of a political party; a 
 party worker who devotes himself to the art of making nominations 
 and carrying elections; one who manages caucuses, committees 
 and conventions, by which the party business and the party ma- 
 chinery are carried on. It is because the people have consented 
 to turn over their parties and their party government to this self 
 constituted class of party managers that they have come under the 
 control of rjngs and bosses." (Political Parties and Party Prob- 
 lems, p. 360.) 
 
 He describes a political ring as a group of these professional 
 politicians who live by politics, bound together for mutual 
 support in pursuit of offices, public patronage, contracts and 
 other pecuniary opportunities, and generally unscrupulous in 
 their methods. The leader of the ring is the boss, who usually 
 does not hold office but controls the offices from outside, by 
 backstairs influence. 
 
 This from Professor Hyslop: 
 
 "But the single purpose that animates the average politician is 
 the same that inspires the beggar or the thief. Either he has failed 
 for want of ability of an honest kind in legitimate methods of busi- 
 ness and in competition with his fellows, and seeks a public salary 
 with freedom to indulge his natural indolence, or he uses his 
 ingenuity and abilities to secure the irresponsible power to plunder 
 the public with impunity." (Democracy, p. 270.) 
 
 The purchase of votes and the collection of funds for that 
 purpose has always been an important part of the politician's 
 work. The expression "bunches of five" has become a byword 
 ever since its use some twenty years ago by a prominent Re- 
 publican politician in reference to delivery of votes for money. 
 "Frying out the fat" is another striking expression which be- 
 
140 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 came current about the same time in the same way and was 
 intended to be descriptive of the method of getting large sums 
 from corporations for use in election purposes. The total 
 amounts thus contributed in the past forty years to carry 
 presidential elections would probably run into the hundreds 
 of millions. In 1910 President Vreeland of the Metropolitan 
 Street Railway of New York testified before a legislative com- 
 mittee that his company contributed campaign funds to both 
 parties. One year it divided about $40,000 between them. 
 This is not mentioned as an exceptional instance but as illus- 
 trative of a well known practice. 
 
 Let us now glance at the great man himself, the real Boss, 
 the magnate, the prince of American Democracy, the man 
 who of all men most thoroughly believes in manhood suffrage, 
 understands it and profits by it; one of the real political 
 rulers of the American people; he who makes and unmakes 
 governors, senators and high judges; he for whom sheriffs, 
 aldermen, assemblymen, state senators, and sometimes even 
 our mayors of cities are glad to run errands and to wait in 
 anterooms. Writing in 1914 Goodnow says of the bosses: 
 "They control the making of laws and their execution after 
 "they are made." (Politics and Administration, p. 1 69.) What 
 is a boss like? What are his outward manifestations? 
 
 About the best analysis of his character and functions was 
 made by Professor Reinsch of Wisconsin, as follows: 
 
 "Sooner or later there is evolved the boss, the fruit and flower 
 of commercial politics in America. He represents the main interest 
 but also holds the balance between the minor tributary groups. 
 The secrecy necessary for his work gives him great power. He 
 alone holds all the threads that bind the system together. In his 
 person are united the confidence of the favored interests and the 
 hopes of his political lieutenants. He commands the source of 
 supplies. He has mastered the study of political psychology and 
 knows by intimate experience the personal character of the promi- 
 nent politicians in the state. Most of them are dependent upon 
 him for future favors or are bound to him through past indiscre- 
 
MANHOOD SUFFRAGE PROGENY 141 
 
 tions. The character of the system demands an absolute ruler. 
 For this reason, too, the power of the boss is continuous; it is 
 rarely overthrown from within and only a great public upheaval 
 can affect it. Bosses maintain themselves in the saddle and enjoy 
 a long lease of power, because of their direct and confidential rela- 
 tions with the controlling interests; their inborn secretiveness leads 
 them to keep their own counsel, and not to allow any other person 
 a complete insight into all the intricacies of the system. They 
 grow stronger as the years pass and no indiscretion or even crime 
 is able to shake their authority while they keep in their hands the 
 main threads connecting influence with its obedient tools. The 
 abler men of this type are filled with a keen sense of the irony 
 of their position. They have the clear insight into the coarser 
 actualities of politics that characterized Machiavelli. The political 
 exhorter who sways the multitudes from the stump does not be- 
 come a boss; to achieve that position the power of cool analysis, 
 of impassive control, and of unflinching execution, are more essen- 
 tial than any gifts of popular leadership." (American Legislatures 
 and Legislative Methods, pp. 236, 237.) 
 
 Another sketch: 
 
 "It must not be supposed that the members of Rings, or the great 
 Boss himself are wicked men. They are the offspring of a sys- 
 tem. Their morality is that of their surroundings. They see 
 a door open to wealth and power, and they walk in. The obliga- 
 tions of patriotism or duty to the public are not disregarded by 
 them, for these obligations have never been present to their minds. 
 A State boss is usually a native American and a person of some 
 education, who avoids the grosser forms of corruption, though he 
 has to wink at them when practised by his friends. He may be a 
 man of personal integrity. A city boss is often of foreign birth 
 and humble origin; he has grown up in an atmosphere of oaths and 
 cocktails; ideas of honour and purity are as strange to him as 
 ideas about the nature of the currency and the incidence of tax- 
 ation; politics is merely a means for getting and distributing 
 places." (Bryce, American Commonwealth, Vol. II, p. no.) 
 
 Under the supervision of the political boss blackmail is 
 levied for party purposes from gambling houses, saloons and 
 
142 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 houses of ill repute. He is not primarily concerned with polit- 
 ical opinions. He controls his best men by their interests. 
 It is his business to carry the elections and thus get power 
 and places for self and followers. He is able to dismiss 
 almost any politician from office and to close his political 
 career. He and not the people is the real master of the 
 inferior office-holders. "At all hazards he must prevent the 
 "incoming of an honest administration that will apply the 
 "public offices for public uses." For this purpose the bosses 
 of opposite parties unite when necessary. Woodburn men- 
 tions an instance of this in Philadelphia in 1901, and adds 
 referring to the boss: 
 
 "Those who support him have their reward the laborer gets 
 his job, the placeman office; the policeman his promotion or his 
 "divvy"; the contractor a chance at the public works; the banker 
 the use of the public money ; the gambler and the criminal immunity 
 from prosecution; the honest merchant certain sidewalk privileges; 
 the rich corporations lowered assessments and immunity from 
 equitable taxation. All buy these special favors by support of 
 the Boss's power and policy, and all enjoy the blessings of the 
 Boss's government, high taxation, maladministration, stolen fran- 
 chises, robbery of the public treasury, and criminal disorder in the 
 community." (Political Parties and Party Platforms, p. 364.) 
 
 In an article in the Outlook, April 2, 1898, Miss Jane 
 Addams of Chicago, a well-known settlement worker, writing 
 no doubt from personal observation, describes the Boss as an 
 institution of American politics in similar language to that of 
 Professor Woodburn. She depicts the typical city political boss, 
 his personality and good-natured freebooting methods with 
 piquancy and vigor; he is, she says, a successful boodler who 
 is popular with the poor because in their ignorance they sup- 
 pose that he only robs the rich while to the poor he is a sym- 
 pathetic friend; or as they say, he has a good heart. The 
 reader can easily trace for himself the direct connection 
 between this point of view of the lower classes and their 
 support of Tweed, the robber politician whom a New York 
 
MANHOOD SUFFRAGE PROGENY 143 
 
 City district triumphantly elected state senator shortly after 
 his rascalities were exposed. With that connection in mind 
 the relation between the power of the boss and universal 
 suffrage is perfectly apparent. The class of voters brought 
 in by unqualified suffrage prefer friendly bosses and free- 
 handed boodlers to men who are governed by motives so su- 
 perior to their own as to seem to them visionary or fantastic; 
 who have in their pockets no stolen or easy got cash to 
 squander on their followers, and who not being professional 
 "handshakers" seem to the masses lacking in sympathy for 
 common men. 
 
 But there is a power greater even than the Boss; and that 
 is the Machine, a creation which has reached its highest de- 
 velopment in our own time and of which the greatest politicians 
 speak with awe. Theodore Roosevelt, the "Big Bull Moose," 
 was a big politician, a glorified Boss; but he went down at 
 Chicago in 1912 crushed by the steam roller attachment of 
 the Machine. "For the Roller came and with great eclat it 
 laid that turrible animile flat," was the doggerel verdict of a 
 newspaper of that day. 
 
 "The tremendous power of party organization has been described. 
 It enslaves local officials, it increases the tendency to regard mem- 
 bers of Congress as mere delegates, it keeps men of independent 
 character out of local and national politics, it puts bad men into 
 place, it perverts the wishes of the people, it has in some places set 
 up a tyranny under the forms of democracy." (Bryce, American 
 Commonwealth, Vol. II, p. 612.) 
 
 The word "machine" indicates its character. 
 
 "The professional politicians (says Ostrogorski) operated, under 
 the direction of the managers, and the wire pullers with such uni- 
 formity and with such indifference or insensibility to right and wrong, 
 that they evoked the idea of a piece of mechanism working automati- 
 cally and blindly; of a machine; the effect appeared so precisely 
 identical, that the term "machine" was foisted on the Organization 
 as a nick-name which it bears down to the present day." 
 (Democracy, p. 60.) 
 
144 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 In this machine the voter is a very small cog; he neither 
 devised the machine, nor can he in the least control it, nor 
 is it constructed to serve his interests. It is organized in the 
 interests of discipline and on the principle of obedience. In 
 New York, for instance, an important part of the Tammany 
 Machine is the Committee on Organization, composed of the 
 leaders of certain wards and districts, each one of whom 
 either holds a public office or has a valuable public contract 
 or is in some way dependent on the Boss for his yearly income. 
 The committee man looks after his district and is responsible 
 to the Boss for its vote. Not by the people but by the polit- 
 ical machines are offices filled, laws enacted, government car- 
 ried on. The machine discipline though sometimes severe 
 operates on the whole for the benefit of the politician by 
 protecting the faithful. The efficient members of the class 
 of professional politicians are never more than temporarily 
 shelved. If defeated at one election they are chosen at an- 
 other. If they fail to get one office, room is made for them 
 somewhere else, and so they are made to form a class of 
 permanent office-holders, and the power and efficiency of the 
 political oligarchy are steadily maintained. 
 
 "The City machine makes friends with saloon keepers, with 
 gamblers and other criminal classes, or with large financial institu- 
 tions, seeking to obtain control of the vast sums expended for 
 public improvements. This source of revenue has of late proved 
 vastly more fruitful than the earlier and more primitive methods. 
 By means of these various alliances a large body of pledged sup- 
 porters is secured. In addition to ordinary party officers the machine 
 employs a body of workers formerly known as ward heelers now 
 more generally called workers, gangs, gunmen, or district leaders, 
 some of whom are accustomed to commit various sorts of crime, 
 such as securing fraudulent naturalization papers for foreigners, 
 entering fictitious names on the register of voters, organizing re- 
 peaters and voting them on election day." (Cyclopedia American 
 Political Government, Machine, Political, 1914.) 
 
 We quote once more from Bryce, writing in 1894, as to 
 the operation of machine rule in New York City: 
 
MANHOOD SUFFRAGE PROGENY 145 
 
 "Such an organization as this, with its tentacles touching every 
 point in a vast and amorphous city, is evidently a most potent 
 force, especially as this force is concentrated in one hand that 
 of the Boss of the Hall. He is practically autocratic; and under 
 him these thousands of officers, controlling from 120,000 to 150,000 
 votes, move with the precision of a machine. However, it is not 
 only in this mechanism, which may be called a legitimate method 
 of reaching the voters, that the strength of Tammany lies. Its 
 control of the city government gives it endless opportunities of 
 helping its friends, of worrying its opponents, and of enslaving 
 the liquor-dealers. Their licenses are at its mercy, for the police 
 can proceed against or wink at breaches of the law, according to 
 the amount of loyalty the saloon-keeper shows to the Hall. From 
 the contributions of the liquor interest a considerable revenue is 
 raised; more is obtained by assessing office-holders, down to 
 the very small ones; and perhaps most of all by blackmail- 
 ing wealthy men and corporations, who find that the city authorities 
 have so many opportunities of interfering vexatiously with their 
 business that they prefer to buy them off and live in peace. The 
 worst form of this extortion is the actual complicity with criminals 
 which consists in sharing the profits of crime. A fruitful source 
 of revenue, roughly estimated at $1,000,000 a year, is derived, 
 when the party is supreme at Albany, from legislative blackmailing 
 in the legislature, or, rather, from undertaking to protect the 
 great corporations from the numerous 'strikers/ who threaten them 
 there with bills. A case has been mentioned in which as much 
 as $60,000 was demanded from a great company; and the president 
 of another is reported to have said (1893): 'Formerly we had to 
 keep a man at Albany to buy off the "strikers" one by one. This 
 year we simply paid over a lump sum to the Ring, and they 
 looked after our interests.' But of all their engines of power none 
 is so elastic as their command of the administration of criminal 
 justice. The mayor appoints the police justices, usually selecting 
 them from certain Tammany workers, sometimes from the criminal 
 class, not often from the legal profession. These justices are often 
 Tammany leaders in their respective districts." . . . 
 
 "With such sources of power it is not surprising that Tammany 
 Hall commands the majority of the lower and the foreign masses 
 of New York, though it has never been shown to hold an absolute 
 
146 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 majority of all the voters of the city. Its local strength is exactly 
 proportioned to the character of the local population; and though 
 there are plenty of native Americans among the rank and file as well 
 as among the leaders, still it is from the poorer districts, inhabited 
 by Jews, Irish, Germans, Italians, Bohemians, that its heaviest vote 
 comes." (American Commonwealth, Vol. II, pp. 398-400.) 
 
 A booklet published in 1887 gives some account of the 
 organization of the political machines of New York City, 
 showing that they all depend upon the use of a minority 
 controllable vote presumably of men without substantial means 
 and whose political support is therefore purchasable in one 
 way or another. The writer says: 
 
 "The machine is governed by a singleness of purpose which 
 produces a compactness against which good citizens can only 
 break themselves to pieces when fighting it from within, while 
 if they organize an outside opposition in which everything is done 
 by honest discussion, compactness is almost impossible of achieve- 
 ment. . . . The politicians would not be difficult to beat if the 
 people would organize for their own protection and from principle; 
 but it is the matter of organization which is difficult, and no one 
 understands this better than the bosses." (Ivins, Machine Politics.) 
 
 The machine is not peculiar to the cities: 
 
 "It is also found at the court house of the rural county, at the 
 cross roads postoffice, the village store, the town hall. The differ- 
 ence is one of degree; the mechanism is everywhere the same. . . . 
 The corrupt political machine of today controlled by a boss is 
 contrary to the American system of government, and were it not 
 a terrible reality this creation would be deemed an impossibility. 
 It is in its present state of perfection, rule of the people by the 
 individual for the boss, his relatives and friends. It is the most 
 complete political despotism ever known." (Coler on Municipal 
 Government, 1900, pp. 188-190.) 
 
 Nor is the use of the machine confined to the Democratic 
 party; even in New York it is part of the Republican party 
 system also. In an address delivered in New York May 2d, 
 1880, George William Curtis described the Republican polit- 
 
MANHOOD SUFFRAGE PROGENY 147 
 
 ical machine and its operations, how it practically excluded 
 nearly nine-tenths of the Republican voters from the pri- 
 maries. He stated that the bosses were "huge contractors 
 "of votes, traders and hucksters in place and pelf," who "made 
 "personal servility the condition of political success" and were 
 ready to "betray the party by bargaining with the enemy"; 
 "that good men stayed at home feeling that "politics are tire- 
 "some and dirty and politicians vulgar bullies and bravadoes"; 
 that "public officers multiply uselessly that there may be more 
 "rewards for political and personal service. Primaries, cau- 
 "cuses, conventions, are controlled by the promise and expec- 
 "tation of a chance of plunder which the machine distributes." 
 Here is an account of how the votes of working men were 
 used in Philadelphia by the Republican boss McManes, to 
 build up a corrupt political organization: 
 
 "This gentleman, Mr. James McManes, having gained influence 
 among the humbler voters, was appointed one of the Gas Trustees, 
 and soon managed to bring the whole of that department under his 
 control. It employed (I was told) about two thousand persons, 
 received large sums, and gave out large contracts. Appointing his 
 friends and dependents to the chief places under the Trust, and 
 requiring them to fill the ranks of its ordinary workmen with per- 
 sons on whom they could rely, the Boss acquired the control of 
 a considerable number of votes and of a large annual revenue. He 
 and his confederates then purchased a controlling interest in the 
 principal horse-car (street tramway) company of the city, whereby 
 they became masters of a large number of additional voters. All 
 these voters were of course expected to act as 'workers,' i.e., they 
 occupied themselves with the party organization of the city, they 
 knew the meanest streets and those who dwelt therein, they attended 
 and swayed the primaries, and when an election came round, they 
 canvassed and brought up the voters. Their power, therefore, went 
 far beyond their mere voting strength, for a hundred energetic 
 'workers' mean at least a thousand votes. With so much strength 
 behind them, the Gas Ring, and Mr. McManes at its head, be- 
 came not merely indispensable to the Republican party in the 
 city, but in fact its chiefs, able therefore to dispose of the votes 
 
148 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 of all those who were employed permanently or temporarily in 
 the other departments of the city government a number which 
 one hears estimated as high as twenty thousand. Nearly all the 
 municipal offices were held by their nominees. They commanded 
 a majority in the Select council and Common council. They man- 
 aged the nomination of members of the State legislature. Even 
 the Federal officials in the custom-house and post-office were forced 
 into a dependent alliance with them, because their support was so 
 valuable to the leaders in Federal politics that it had to be pur- 
 chased by giving them their way in city affairs." (Bryce, American 
 Commonwealth, Vol. II, p. 405.) 
 
 "Machine politics are completely subversive both of democracy 
 and of the principle of responsibility for which democracy is 
 supposed to stand. It constitutes nothing except a system of 
 self-appointed rulers, and the principle of elective representation 
 of which we boast becomes a farce. Public servants and officers can 
 in some way, usually, be made responsible for the administration of 
 government, but political bosses never, or at least not until they 
 have retired with plunder enough to live without politics. The 
 despotism of Russia can lay some claim to legitimacy. The Czar 
 obtains his throne and power by the forms of law and has a healthy 
 fear of something, but not so with our bosses. They nominate our 
 candidates for office and mortgage their support, so that we are 
 ruled by men who are not elected to govern us at all, our nominal 
 officers being the mere puppets of the machine. Public opinion is 
 defied until its patience is exhausted, when it is gratified in some 
 caprice and it lapses back again into indifference and the old 
 game goes on. Property of all kinds is blackmailed directly or 
 indirectly, and business terrorized. Even vice and crime come in 
 for tribute as is well known. This is anarchy, not government, and 
 yet we indulge the pleasing illusion that democracy is a paradise." 
 (Hyslop, Democracy, pp. 32-33.) 
 
 And further: 
 
 "It is the insolent disregard of public welfare, the deliberate 
 exclusion of intelligent and honest men from office, the refusal to 
 reason about public policy, the shameless corruption of its leaders, 
 its organized methods of deception, bribery, and blackmail with 
 
MANHOOD SUFFRAGE PROGENY 149 
 
 public jobbery and frauds upon the tax-payers, that make, machine 
 politics so despicable in the estimation of the public conscience." 
 (Idem, p. 268.) 
 
 All nominations for public office to be voted on by the people 
 are made by a machine whatever may be the party in whose 
 name they are made. This is true not only of the high 
 offices, such as president, governor, senator, etc., but also of 
 such lower offices as mayor, judges of the state courts, state 
 senators and assemblymen. Sometimes these nominations are 
 made at primaries which are carried by the boss through the 
 local organizations; or at political conventions also controlled 
 by the machine. The details of the secret manipulations 
 under the recent primary laws have not yet been and may 
 never be published and exposed ; but those of the old political 
 conventions were laid bare in a book published in 1899 by 
 Senator Breen, an experienced politician of New York. He 
 there describes the power of the bosses and the subserviency 
 of the masses. 
 
 "There is scarcely a place on earth (says Breen) where one can 
 see so fully the extremes of sycophancy to which human nature 
 will descend as one does in a political convention in the City of 
 New York. ... I blush to record the fact that the convention 
 which I attended (and the same may be said of every political 
 convention in this city even at the present day) was composed 
 of as spineless a lot of creatures as ever prostrated themselves be- 
 fore a throne, or crouched in the presence of autocratic power. 
 Subserviency was shown not only to the local leader or deputy 
 boss himself, but to the understrappers, who were supposed to have 
 his ear. Not able to get into the immediate presence of the leader, 
 persons well dressed and apparently prosperous, as well as those 
 who were ill conditioned, fawned upon forbidding looking beings 
 who were supposed to be close to the leader, and whose intelligence 
 was limited to understanding orders and obeying them. . . . 
 
 "Several positions connected with the court were at the disposal of 
 the judge to be elected; the Democratic nomination was equivalent 
 to the certificate of election. There were 177 delegates in all, and 
 although many of them had the appearance of independent men, yet 
 
I5O POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 every one of them was there as an automaton to be set in motion 
 and shifted hither and thither at the whim of the local boss. Free 
 born citizens, though they were, with the sacred right of the ballot, 
 they were there merely to register his will and obey his orders with- 
 out question. Not only this, but they seemed to revel in their 
 subserviency, and to feel joyous and even proud of the distinction 
 of being political slaves. Nor was this degradation confined to 
 the ignorant. Men of education, men who were members of the 
 learned professions, were in that body, and vied with the worst 
 in snivelling sycophancy. They knew, as every one knew, that 
 the person who was to be nominated for a seat on the bench was 
 wholly incompetent, in point of education and training, to fill the 
 office, not to speak of other disqualifications. Yet they were there 
 to obey pliantly the mandates of a deputy boss and stifle their 
 conviction and their conscience." ( Thirty . Yews of New York 
 Politics, pp. 205, 206, 207.) 
 
 Here you have a veracious picture made by an expert of the 
 actual operation of manhood suffrage, which according to the 
 twaddlers is so effective in stimulating the manly character 
 of the citizens of a free republic. 
 
 Bryce visited one of these conventions, and this is what 
 he saw: 
 
 "During the morning, a tremendous coming and going and 
 chattering and clattering of crowds of men who looked at once 
 sordid and flashy, faces shrewd but mean and sometimes brutal, 
 vulgar figures in good coats forming into small groups and talking 
 eagerly, and then dissolving to form fresh groups; a universal 
 camaraderie, with no touch of friendship about it; something 
 between a betting-ring and the flags outside the Liverpool Exchange. 
 It reminded one of the swarming of bees in tree boughs, a cease- 
 less humming and buzzing which betokens immense excitement 
 over proceedings which the bystander does not comprehend. After 
 some hours all this settled down; the meeting was duly organized; 
 speeches were made, all dull and thinly declamatory, except one by 
 an eloquent Irishman; the candidates for State offices were pro- 
 posed and carried by acclamation; and the business ended. Every- 
 thing had evidently been pre-arranged; and the discontented, if 
 
MANHOOD SUFFRAGE PROGENY 
 
 any there were, had been .talked over during the swarming hours." 
 (American Commonwealth, Vol. II, p. 105.) 
 
 The members of these nominating conventions, or "dele- 
 gates," as they are called, are supposed to be chosen by the 
 voters at elections held for that purpose, called "primaries." 
 The vote at these primaries is never more than a fraction of 
 those belonging to the party. It ranges from two per cent 
 to ten per cent unless when there is a contest between two 
 party men, when it may go as high as forty per cent of those 
 entitled to vote. Outside of the party workers, scarcely any- 
 one attends these primaries. Bryce sketches the means taken 
 by the boss to control the primary election, which include 
 trickery, fraud and violence. (American Commonwealth, Vol. 
 II, pp. 102, 103.) He describes the workings of the primary 
 system and the convention as in operation in Philadelphia 
 under the management of the Gas Ring in 1881: 
 
 "The delegates chosen were usually office-holders, with a sprink- 
 ling of public works contractors, liquor-dealers, always a potent 
 factor in ward politics, and office expectants. For instance, the 
 Convention of i3th January, 1881, for nominating a candidate for 
 mayor, consisted of 199 delegates, 86 of whom were connected with 
 some branch of the city government, 9 were members of the city 
 councils, 5 were police magistrates, 4 constables, and 23 policemen, 
 while of the rest some were employed in some other city department, 
 and some others were the known associates and dependants of the 
 Ring. These delegates, assembled in convention of the party, duly 
 went through the farce of selecting and voting for persons already 
 determined on by the Ring as candidates for the chief offices. The 
 persons so selected thereby became the authorized candidates of 
 the party, for whom every good party man was expected to give his 
 vote. Disgusted he might be to find a person unknown, or known 
 only for evil, perhaps a fraudulent bankrupt, or a broken-down 
 barkeeper, proposed for his acceptance. But as his only alter- 
 native was to vote for the Democratic nominee, who was probably 
 no better, he submitted, and thus the party was forced to ratify 
 the choice of the Boss." (American Commonwealth, Vol. II, p. 408.) 
 
152 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 The method adopted by the local boss in Breen's time, to 
 assure himself that every man in the convention would do 
 his bidding, is worthy of admiration for its bold and un- 
 scrupulous impudence. He does this, says Breen, in advance 
 of the primary election by making out a list of the delegates 
 whom he desires chosen and obtaining from the inspectors a 
 certificate that they have been duly elected. What occurs 
 thereafter at the primary election is of little consequence as 
 the credentials are already in the possession of the leader, who 
 when the convention meets draws them from his pocket and 
 as there is no going behind the returns the delegates take 
 their seats. Times and laws have changed since Breen's time 
 and this plan may have been superseded by another, at present 
 not generally known, but the Boss and Machine are still with 
 us as powerful as ever; the class of officials they put over us 
 is the same as before, there is the same material to work 
 with and it is presumable that the present system is equally 
 corrupt and tyrannical with the old one. 
 
 A large part of the fuel to keep the machine going is pro- 
 vided for by voluntary contributions from business men and 
 corporations desirous of political favors, such as street privi- 
 leges, franchises, contracts, or is levied as blackmail upon 
 them or upon saloon keepers, gamblers, keepers of brothels 
 and others whose habits or occupations leave them open to 
 police persecution; also by assessments on office holders, 
 candidates for office and levies on corporations sometimes 
 called "strikes." 
 
 "The levying of blackmail on companies, either as a contribution 
 to campaign expenses or as fees to pay for protection, is now one 
 of the principal sources of a Boss's revenue, and, in states like New 
 York, goes a good way towards enabling him to defy hostile senti- 
 ment. It furnishes him with funds for subsidizing the legislature 
 and the press." (Atlantic Monthly, July, 1896.) 
 
 Bryce states that the collection of revenues of a political 
 Ring flow from five sources, viz., public subscriptions, con- 
 
MANHOOD SUFFRAGE PROGENY 153 
 
 tributions from contractors and others expecting favors, sur- 
 reptitious appropriations from the city or state treasury, assess- 
 ments upon the office holders, and sale of offices and nomina- 
 tions to office. Breen says truly in the book already quoted 
 that the majority of voters are utterly unaware of what is really 
 going on in the party. There are, he says, "scarcely 5,000 
 "persons in the City of New York who are aware of the secret 
 "and surreptitious methods governing the inside of politics or 
 "of the subterranean channels thereto by which gross wrongs 
 "are perpetrated. The secret combinations, conspiracies, deals 
 "and bribery are confined to the expert politician." How few, 
 for instance, know the facts in relation to the practice of the 
 barter of high offices. One of the inevitable results of the 
 development of the present system is the sale of nominations 
 to public office negotiated by the boss for the benefit of the 
 machine. The existence of this traffic though secretly con- 
 ducted is well known in political circles. Sometimes the 
 payment is direct; sometimes it is disguised in the shape of 
 contributions to campaign funds made by the candidate or 
 someone in his behalf. 
 
 "In the large cities, with New York at their head, practice es- 
 tablished a sort of tariff for each set of offices according to the 
 length of the term and the importance of the place. Thus a 
 judgeship, that is to say, the nomination to it amounted to $15,000; 
 a seat in Congress was rated at $4,000; for membership of a state 
 legislature $1,500 was demanded; a like amount for the position 
 of alderman in a city council, etc." (Ostrogorski, Idem, p. 70.) 
 
 "Candidates for the judiciary in New York City have paid 
 Tammany Hall $5,000 to $10,000 for their offices." (Commons 
 on Proportional Representation, p. 303.) 
 
 Dr. Clark writing in 1900 says: 
 
 "By credible accounts as much as $100,000 has been paid to 
 get nominated by the Convention of the dominant party for Clerk, 
 Register or Sheriff of the County of New York; half that sum for 
 Treasurer of Pennsylvania, and, in proportion to their opportunities 
 
154 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 for others the like offices all over the country. A seat on the 
 Supreme Judicial bench costs from $5,000 to $15,000. A nomina- 
 tion to Congress from the lean pastures of Vermont or New 
 Hampshire can sometimes be had for a thousand dollars, but in 
 the golden fields of California and Nevada it has cost fifty thou- 
 sand." (The Machine Abolished, p. 40.) 
 
 The figures contained in Bryce's American Commonwealth, 
 Vol. II, p. 119, as to ruling rates for political nominations 
 under this much prized system of political brigandage are 
 these: Alderman, $1,500; Legislature, $500 to $1,500; Judge- 
 ship, $5,000 to $15,000; Congress, $4,000. The New York 
 County Clerk at one time collected about $80,000 a year in 
 fees, of which the political machine required him to hand over 
 two- thirds. Writing in 1899 Dorman B. Eaton states the 
 regular price of a high judicial nomination is $10,000 to 
 $15,000. (Government of Municipalities, p. 107.) Another 
 more recent writer gives the figures for political assessments for 
 the large city as follows: For County Clerk and Register, 
 $15,000; Alderman, $13,000; Sheriff, $25,000; Comptroller, 
 $10,000; Mayor, $20,000; Police Justice, $6,500. 
 
 Not only the offices but the party itself is sometimes for 
 sale in this or that ward or city. The bargains between the 
 Republican and Democratic machines in New York City and 
 elsewhere have been so frequently denounced and exposed by 
 the politicians themselves as to need no proof. It is a matter 
 of common knowledge that the bosses are able at times in 
 shrewd transactions with opposing bosses to barter certain 
 public offices, batches of offices and measures for other similar 
 merchandise, and to carry out the bargain; thus causing the 
 votes cast at an election to have directly the opposite effect 
 from that supposed to be desired by the voters, though perhaps 
 many of the floaters or regulars among them would be per- 
 fectly satisfied with the "deal." It must be borne in mind 
 that the ultimate object of all these "deals" and this political 
 traffic is money; the party managers are not looking for 
 public honors but for cash; they are actually engaged in build- 
 
MANHOOD SUFFRAGE PROGENY 155 
 
 ing up fortunes for themselves and their backers, who are 
 public contractors and the like. "Hence it is the oppor- 
 tunity and desire for public pelf, directly or indirectly, and 
 "for gratifying personal ambition without reference to public 
 "service, that are the most potent influences in the formation 
 "and cohesiveness of the 'machine.' ' (Democracy, p. 269.) 
 
 An instance of the friendly relations between rival machines 
 is mentioned by Bryce in writing of. the effort to get the 
 Democratic machine in Philadelphia in 1870 to help oust the 
 Republican Gas Ring: 
 
 "But the Democratic wire-pullers, being mostly men of the 
 same stamp as the Gas Ring, did not seek a temporary gain at 
 the expense of a permanent disparagement of their own class. 
 Political principles are the last thing which the professional city 
 politician cares for. It was better worth the while of the Demo- 
 cratic chiefs to wait for their turn, and in the meantime to get 
 something out of occasional bargains with their (nominal) Re- 
 publican opponents, than to strengthen the cause of good government 
 at the expense of the professional class." (American Common- 
 wealth, Vol. II, p. 411.) 
 
 And Eaton mentions an instance in New York City of the 
 leaders of one political party being in the pay of the other. 
 (Government of Municipalities, p. 116 Note.) 
 
 Here, to make the sketch complete must be said a brief 
 word about the lobby, by which expressive term is designated 
 the class of paid agents of public service corporations and 
 others, who frequent the lobbies of the state legislatures and 
 of Congress in order to promote legislation favorable to their 
 principals and to watch and fend off "strikes," "hold-ups" and 
 other legislative attacks upon them. In a country where 
 ridiculously small salaries are paid to members of legislative 
 bodies the lobby does much to make a legislator's career profit- 
 able. Details of those lobby transactions have been often 
 published as newspaper sensations, and some of them will be 
 referred to in this book later on. A short quotation from Prof. 
 Commons will suffice here to give an idea of their character: 
 
156 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 "It is not to be inferred that the lobby alone is responsible for 
 corrupt legislatures and councils. It is equally true that corrupt 
 legislatures are responsible for the lobby. Law-makers introduce 
 bills attacking corporations for the express purpose of forcing a 
 bribe. This is called a 'strike/ and has become a recognized 
 feature of American legislation, to meet which the corporations 
 are compelled to organize their lobby." (Commons, Proportional 
 Representation, p. 47.) 
 
 A word from Bryce, on the lobby: 
 
 "All legislative bodies which control important pecuniary inter- 
 ests are as sure to have a lobby as an army to have its camp 
 followers. Where the body is, there will the vultures be gathered 
 together. Great and wealthy States, like New York, and Penn- 
 sylvania, support the largest and most active lobbies. . . . Thus 
 there are at Washington, says Mr. Spofford, 'pension lobbyists, 
 tariff lobbyists, steamship subsidy lobbyists, railway lobbyists, In- 
 dian ring lobbyists, patent lobbyists, river and harbour lobbyists, 
 mining lobbyists, bank lobbyists, mail-contract lobbyists, war dam- 
 ages lobbyists, back-pay and bounty lobbyists, Isthmus canal lobby- 
 ists, public building lobbyists, State claims lobbyists, cotton-tax 
 lobbyists, and French spoliations lobbyists. Of the office-seeking 
 lobbyists at Washington it may be said that their name is legion. 
 There are even artist lobbyists, bent upon wheedling Congress into 
 buying bad paintings and worse sculptures ; and too frequently with 
 
 He also says that women are said to be among the most 
 active and successful lobbyists at Washington, and that they 
 have been widely employed and efficient in soliciting members 
 of the Legislature with a view to the passing of private bills 
 and the obtaining of places. (American Commonwealth, 
 Vol. I, p. 680; Vol. II, p. 732.) 
 
 So here let us end the chapter on the politicians, with the 
 picture of a purchasable legislature created by a political 
 machine and representing a purchasable manhood suffrage 
 constituency, and of the traffic conducted by bosses and rings 
 
MANHOOD SUFFRAGE PROGENY 157 
 
 on one side and a lobby on the other. Granted American 
 activity, and enterprise in public improvements to cause the 
 stream of dollars to flow steadily, and what more is required 
 to produce what Mr. Carnegie happily dubs "Triumphant 
 Democracy"? 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 THE EFFECT OF MANHOOD SUFFRAGE IS TO FASTEN ON THE 
 COUNTRY AND MAKE PERMANENT THE RULE OF THE 
 POLITICIANS 
 
 THE political oligarchies rule, have ruled and will continue 
 to rule this country through the medium of the controllable 
 vote. This is plainly inferable from what has already been 
 said about the strength and operations of the Machine, and 
 is in a vague way to some extent understood or at least sus- 
 pected throughout the country. The object of this chapter is 
 to emphasize it, to bring it home to the reader, to make him 
 realize it, and to cause him to reflect upon it, and to thoroughly 
 appreciate the absolute impossibility of throwing off the odious 
 bondage of the politicians unless and until the suffrage is 
 restricted to a well-qualified class of voters. 
 
 By the extension of the franchise to the unpropertied 
 and thriftless class there was injected into the veins of the 
 electoral body a new and poisonous element, the virus of 
 cupidity. A certain portion of this class, the so-called floaters, 
 is directly purchasable; another large portion is indirectly 
 purchasable or controllable and capable of being organized 
 on a basis of bargains made or understood. The vote there- 
 fore which by degrees as the organizations have developed has 
 come to adhere to these predatory bands is not confined merely 
 to the directly purchasable; it includes the controllables; all 
 such as the organization reaches by the manipulation of low 
 motives; by appeals to cupidity direct or indirect; by favors 
 to themselves or their relatives, by rewards of public em- 
 ployment, whether as laborers, petty officers, policemen, fire- 
 men or the like; by protection, as in the case of gamblers, 
 
 158 
 
THE CONTROLLABLE VOTE 159 
 
 liquor sellers, and others who adhere to the organization for 
 purposes of personal advantage. The organization therefore 
 will always be permanent and effective because its members 
 are materially interested in its existence and power. 
 
 The manner in which the controllable vote is marshalled to 
 the polls is described by Eaton (Govt. of Municipalities, 
 chap. V). Its existence is recognized by him as a reason why 
 our great cities are not fit for home rule. He divides this 
 vote into two classes: "the mercenary city vote" and "the vile 
 "city vote," But this material is not confined to the large cities, 
 it is to be found in towns and villages and wherever there are 
 worthless, shiftless men. Writing in 1871 Sterne says: "The 
 "nomination for public offices is with us entirely in the hands 
 "of professional politicians" and this he states to be the case 
 equally in both the country and cities. (Representative Gov- 
 ernment, p. 83.) The conditions have not changed since his 
 time. The local political associations or bands organized for the 
 securing, management and operation of the controllable vote 
 have developed in the last century. They are now frequently 
 able, especially in the large cities, to secure a considerable class 
 of recruits of a type somewhat superior to the "floaters," from 
 among the social failures and misfits. Most of these are 
 sloppy-minded fellows, who, tempted by social proclivities, or 
 misled by weak ambitions and the appearance of political 
 success, join the "Regular Organization" as they call it. Some 
 of them are rather vicious; social degenerates or perverts; 
 men who have not judgment and honesty enough to insure 
 their voting right even in matters small enough to be within 
 their mental grasp; and whose ideals are not honesty, justice, 
 public honor, and intelligence, but smartness, cleverness and 
 guile. Sometimes they are motived by prejudice and class 
 hatred; often they are rabid, loud-mouthed radicals, anti- 
 capitalists, etc. Others are weak and shiftless, people natu- 
 rally harmless but incapable of correct observation in political 
 and economic matters, or of correct reasoning upon what they 
 observe; men who are recognized as failures in the world, more 
 
l6o POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 or less incapable of self-support; burdens on their relatives 
 and friends, or on churches or societies with which they or 
 their families are connected; men who never can get employ- 
 ment, or if they do, cannot keep it; fellows of lazy and careless 
 habits who having failed to do their part in organized society 
 have had to pay the penalty of their remissness. There are 
 those who have got into a mental habit of chronic dissatisfaction 
 with the established ethics of life and have finally grown to 
 disbelieve in them altogether; who doubt whether honesty is 
 the best policy; who are unable to recognize what it is that 
 really constitutes success, or who fail to find the true path 
 to reach it. To some of them the man who gets power or 
 money at any price is the successful man and him they envy 
 and applaud. They themselves hate to work or to deny them- 
 selves, merely in order to save or to accumulate; and yet 
 they want money, and long for its possession, and finally 
 grow to actually respect successful rogues political and other 
 who seem to defy and triumph over the old established rules 
 of social life. Bryce describes these organizations as he found 
 them in New York City in 1894: 
 
 "In each of the thirty districts there is a party headquarters 
 for the Committee and the local party work, and usually, also, 
 a clubhouse, where party loyalty is cemented over cards and whisky, 
 besides a certain number of local 'associations/ called after promi- 
 nent local politicians, who are expected to give an annual picnic, 
 or other kind of treat, to their retainers. A good deal of social 
 life, including dances and summer outings, goes on in connection 
 with these clubs." (American Commonwealth, Vol. II. p. 398.) 
 
 It is such organizations, and not the independent farmers 
 or business men, which because they have united and practical 
 aims and methods constitute the real political powers in the 
 United States. They select and put forward candidates, 
 regulate and carry primaries, combine with other associations, 
 and constitute themselves a real effective working political 
 force. The great extent of their power will not astonish any- 
 
THE CONTROLLABLE VOTE l6l 
 
 one familiar with the effect of organization and discipline. 
 The strength of the French Jacobin party lay in their clubs. 
 The French Revolution, the American Revolution and the 
 Russian Revolution were all carried to such success as they 
 had by organized and active minorities. A magazine writer 
 says this of these local political associations: 
 
 "The members of the organizations, like every one else, 
 "want power, money and place. That is the reason they are 
 "members. They get leaders who will deliver a part at least 
 "of what they want. Leaders who do not deliver are quickly 
 "decapitated." Even should .reformers get control of the 
 party (the writer says) and win at the polls, these floaters 
 will break down the new administration unless it yields the 
 offices to them. (American Political Science Review, Febru- 
 ary, 1917.) 
 
 In the words of Bryce: 
 
 "The source of power and the cohesive force is the desire for 
 office, and for office as a means of gain. This one cause is sufficient 
 to account for everything, when it acts, as it does in these cities, 
 under the condition of the suffrage of a host of ignorant and pliable 
 voters." (American Commonwealth, Vol. II, p. 107.) 
 
 These predatory bands are encouraged and supported not 
 only in the ways already mentioned, but by the money contri- 
 butions of the well-to-do. At every important election enor- 
 mous sums are raised and expended by both parties. In 1896 
 the Republican National Committee had at its disposal an 
 immense fund, variously stated at $6,000,000 to $16,000,000, 
 much if it obtained from business corporations; it was 
 charged that part of this was used to purchase votes. It is 
 through these local clubs and associations that such money is 
 expended. 
 
 The case in a nutshell is that of an enlisted regular army, 
 small in numbers with a poorly paid and unlettered rank and 
 file, but well officered and capable of holding in check a whole 
 population of unarmed, undisciplined and unorganized citi- 
 
1 62 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 zens. This trained and subsidized force cannot be perma- 
 nently overthrown by any possible counter organization of 
 reformers, and all attempts in that direction have always 
 proved and always will prove futile. The mass of the citizens 
 have no motive for permanent political organization; nor can 
 one be supplied; for all such counter-organizations being 
 merely sentimental, must lack a motive or rallying force such 
 as cupidity affords to the "regulars," holding them together and 
 inspiring them with persistent energy. A noted illustration 
 of this feature of politics appeared in the defeat in 1884 of the 
 Reform Party in Philadelphia by the Gas Ring, after it had 
 triumphed in 1881 and had effected many reforms. Its sup- 
 porters got tired out and lost interest. They lacked the sus- 
 tained motive which animated the spoilsmen. In an account 
 published at the time, by two gentlemen connected with this 
 reform movement, they stated, referring to its work: 
 
 "In its nature, however, the remedy was esoteric and revolutionary, 
 and therefore necessarily ephemeral. It could not retain the spoils 
 system and thereby attract the workers. Its candidates, when 
 elected, often betrayed it and went over to the regulars, who, they 
 foresaw, had more staying qualities. Its members became tired 
 of the thankless task of spending time and money in what must be 
 a continuous, unending battle." 
 
 Instances of the power of local and political organization 
 built up on a manhood suffrage basis to force a notoriously 
 unfit candidate through a contested election are extremely 
 numerous. Practically the entire list of candidates at any 
 election may serve to illustrate the practice; unfitness for their 
 offices being the rule among our officials. Two examples will 
 have to suffice here, John Morrissey of New York was for 
 thirty years a notorious gambler and prize-fighter. After at- 
 taining manhood these were his occupations; he had no other 
 except politics. The people of the City of New York with full 
 knowledge of his record, elected him four times to office by 
 large majorities. He was in the State Senate at his death, 
 
THE CONTROLLABLE VOTE 163 
 
 having previously served two terms in Congress. Here is his 
 official record, taken from the Encyclopedia of Congress 
 Biography. 
 
 "John Morrissey, born in Ireland in 1831, limited school education 
 in this country. Worked in iron foundry as molder. Active in 
 1848 in New York as 'Anti-Tammany shoulder hitter.' Prize 
 fighter from 1851-1858. Retired from prize ring and became 
 proprietor of gambling houses in New York and Saratoga, and pur- 
 chased controlling interest in Saratoga Race Course in 1863. 
 Elected representative from New York to 4Oth Congress as a Demo- 
 crat; re-elected to 4ist Congress. Engaged in New York politics 
 as an opponent of Tammany Hall. Elected in 1875 to State Senate 
 and re-elected in 1877. Died 1878. (4Oth Cong. 1867 4 Ist 
 Cong. 1869)." 
 
 Here is the record of his vote for Congress: 
 
 1867 McCartin (Ind. Dem.) 4,494 
 
 Train (Rep.) 2,583 
 
 Morrissey (Dem.) 16,064 
 
 1869 Taylor (Ind. Dem.) 6,503 
 
 Elliott (Rep.) 2,293 
 
 Morrissey (Dem.) 9,162 
 
 Comment on these figures is superfluous. 
 
 William M. Tweed of New York City had been for many 
 years prior to 1871, the most notorious political boss and 
 corruptionist in the United States; probably in the world. He 
 and his confederates systematically plundered the City of New 
 York for a long time by means of false vouchers, etc. The 
 amount of his individual peculations was about $5,000,000. 
 The total amount taken from the city by the Tweed ring has 
 been estimated at $80,000,000. In July, 1871, these misde- 
 meanors were discovered and exposed in the newspapers. Dur- 
 ing that summer the whole city was aroused, arrests, indict- 
 ments and prosecutions of Tweed and his associates followed 
 thick and fast. Many of the city and county officials were im- 
 plicated, including several judges of the highest courts; two 
 
1 64 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 were driven from the bench of the Supreme Court. On Sep- 
 tember 4, 1871, an immense mass meeting was held at which 
 the famous Committee of Seventy was created to prosecute the 
 criminals and reorganize the city government. It appeared 
 that the county court house, which was expected to cost 
 $2,500,000, had cost no one knew how much, but from $8,000,- 
 ooo to $13,000,000 without being finished. On October 28, 
 1871, Tweed was arrested and held to bail on charges of mis- 
 appropriating public money. Notwithstanding these exposures 
 and all the denunciations of Tweed and his confederates by the 
 press, he was re-elected in November, 1871, to represent a 
 senatorial district of New York City by an increased vote of 
 three to his competitor's one. The following are the figures 
 for this and the previous election. Note the increase in Tweed's 
 vote following his exposure; and then reflect on the beauties 
 of universal suffrage and on the value of publicity as the sure 
 cure reform agent that we hear so much of nowadays. 
 
 1867 Leggatt (Rep.) 2,175 
 
 Kerrigan (Ind. Dem.) 5,9^6 
 
 Tweed (Dem.) 16,144 
 
 1871 Rossa (And Ring Dem.) 6,927 
 
 Tweed (Dem.) 18,706 
 
 The organized power which manhood suffrage has in the past 
 placed behind Morrissey and Tweed and tens of thousands of 
 others continues in operation to this day. Writing in 1881, 
 Reemelin says: 
 
 "There is but one political status in history, which at all equals 
 the conditions of things that now curse the United States. It was 
 that of the latter part of the Middle Ages when the Condottieri 
 were masters of society. But these soldiers of fortune had at least 
 military capacity; their personal bearing was brave, if venal. Our 
 politicians are many of them ruffians; true indeed, while it pays, to 
 a cause; but they sneak in and out in ways that are disgusting to 
 themselves and to those that employ them. They are the only 
 well-defined class in this country; they infect all party movements, 
 
THE CONTROLLABLE VOTE 165 
 
 rule every legislature as lobbyists, control presidents, are familiar 
 with judges, cabinet ministers, governors, and can and do pro- 
 scribe the political culture and integrity of the land. They defeat 
 every reform, ravish ballot boxes, count in and out whom they 
 please. Publicly divided into two parties, they fraternize in secret. 
 The voters are their puppets, the abuse of taxation and of public 
 credit their means of support." (American Politics, p. 149.) 
 
 The New York Evening Post of November i4th of the year 
 1919 refers to a feature of the city election just held in San 
 Francisco. One Schmitz of that city a after twice being 
 "elected mayor, underwent a sensational trial in 1907 on 
 "charges of corruption, and escaped the penitentiary when the 
 "State Supreme Court set aside the verdict against him on a 
 "technicality." Nevertheless in 1915 he ran again for mayor 
 and polled nearly one-third of the total vote; in 1917 he polled 
 33,000 votes for supervisor; in 1919 he again polled 34,128 
 votes for mayor out of a total of about 100,000. In other 
 words, one-third of the San Francisco manhood suffrage elec- 
 torate can be marshalled in support of a candidate with a no- 
 toriously smirched record. 
 
 We must not allow ourselves to be lulled into indifference by 
 surface politicians who offer delusive hopes of substantial 
 reform by flimsy measures which deal with symptoms leaving 
 the electorate unswept and ungarnished to continue as the 
 breeding place of the malady. Mr. Bryce, for instance, who is 
 very shy of criticising manhood suffrage, likes to indulge in 
 optimistic imaginings. He says: 
 
 "If the path to Congress and the State legislatures and the 
 higher municipal offices were cleared of the stumbling-blocks and 
 dirt heaps which now encumber it, cunningly placed there by the 
 professional politicians, a great change would soon pass upon the 
 composition of legislative bodies, and a new spirit be felt in the 
 management of State and municipal as well as of national affairs." 
 (American Commonwealth, Vol. II, p. 75.) 
 
 It has also been stated that if the sky would fall we would 
 catch larks. As Shakespeare says, "There is great value in 
 
1 66 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 "your 'If.' " The principal "dirt heap," cunningly placed in 
 the path by the professional politicians is the controllable vote; 
 but Bryce, himself a politician belonging to a "Liberal" party, 
 is very careful to shut his eyes every time he smells that par- 
 ticular dirt heap. But we Americans may as well, and if we 
 desire results, we must, realize that the political oligarchies are 
 irresistible under the present suffrage system; that they have 
 never been defeated in the United States; that their organiza- 
 tions backed by the revenue derived from fat frying, contribu- 
 tions, blackmail, protection money, official fees and perquisites 
 and the sale of offices and appointments have always been 
 found in practice sufficiently strong not merely to hold their 
 own against the public, but to prevent the possibility of any 
 serious attempt to unseat the machine politicians as the masters 
 of the country. In point of fact the rule of the machine poli- 
 ticians is practically unquestioned; and the battles at the polls 
 are and for generations have actually been conflicts between 
 two political machines, between two rival bands of political 
 leaders and their followers, in which the public interest was 
 only indirect. The citizens have the option, of course, either 
 of falling in the rear of one of the political bands and helping 
 swell its numbers and secure its triumph or of remaining 
 aloof; the result in either case will be victory for the politicians 
 on one side or the other. 
 
 Not only do the political oligarchies win at the polls by dis- 
 cipline and organization, but they gather strength by the adop- 
 tion of popular fads and fancies. For example, if some fanatics 
 start an agitation for special reform legislation so called, the 
 organization may determine to favor it as a means for creating 
 new public offices and patronage for the faithful, and so on. 
 The condition of a community or state desiring to have some 
 notion put into legal effect would be pitiable without the aid 
 of the party organizations. Most of the American people have 
 no clear idea of the working of political machinery; and when 
 they want anything done in politics they are apt to run to the 
 very politicians they habitually denounce. In this way astute 
 
THE CONTROLLABLE VOTE 167 
 
 political leaders learn the course of the popular currents and can 
 act accordingly, cunningly adjusting selfish motives, taking up 
 popular cries and adding strength and prestige to the plunder 
 bund. They have no principles that stand in the way of their 
 espousing any cause. Is the war feeling rampant or can it be 
 readily developed and made available? The politicians begin 
 yelling for war and waving the banner. Is woman suffrage 
 popular or can it be profitably used? We have a female suf- 
 frage plank forthwith put in the party platform by men not one 
 of whom has the slightest belief in it. All this however is con- 
 ditioned on the proviso that nothing be put forward against the 
 interests of organized politics, for the politicians do not govern 
 by yielding or catering to majorities, but by means of perma- 
 nent organizations which gather in, build up, compel and con- 
 trol majorities. The organizations also get power by forming 
 public opinion to suit their purposes. Their managers are not 
 concerned in abstract or sentimental questions; but where their 
 interests appear to be involved they are apt to intervene 
 either to create issues or to mould public opinion or to give it 
 a favorable twist in their direction. 
 
 Each political body controlled by one of these oligarchies 
 has a moving force far beyond that of the sum of its individual 
 members. The old conception of a constituency composed of 
 voters who each spontaneously forms his individual opinion on 
 all live political questions and expresses it at the polls by 
 his vote was of village origin; applicable at most and only 
 partially to small communities. In all cities and towns of over 
 ten thousand inhabitants the citizen is seldom able to form 
 his own opinion unaided even on matters of local politics. He 
 is not familiar with the city budget, nor with its health con- 
 ditions, nor with its public works, nor its administration gen- 
 erally; nor with its needs or its program for the ensuing year; 
 nor is he usually personally acquainted with its officials. The 
 larger the city the less each individual knows of its affairs. 
 As to State matters the knowledge of the ordinary voter sel- 
 dom goes beyond the name and politics of the governor and 
 
1 68 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 of the local members of the legislature. The citizen therefore 
 usually needs someone to furnish him his opinions ready made. 
 Indeed, beliefs political or other are seldom spontaneously 
 created in the human mind; they are usually injected into it; 
 and the ordinary citizen receives from without nearly all his 
 opinions on matters not pertaining to his household or his 
 business. Now, the rival organizations in order to catch the 
 Independents, usually a conceited and gullible element, find it 
 convenient to manufacture "political issues"; some trivial, 
 empty controversy is started, often of a personal nature; the 
 politician gives the cue to the newspapers, the papers pass on 
 the tale to the reader, and there you have so-called public 
 opinion. In this way was an opinion fabricated which helped 
 elect Jackson to the presidency; he was wafted into the White 
 House on the wind of lies invented for the purpose, and the 
 process has been constantly repeated ever since. Therefore, 
 the managers of these corrupt political organizations are able 
 through them to materially influence the more honest and 
 intelligent majorities by furnishing them ready-made opinions, 
 which for lack of better they are compelled to adopt. 
 
 To resume: this is the situation. The independent vote 
 being divided by honest and therefore shifting opinion, is 
 not and never can be permanently organized. The controllable 
 vote can be and is permanently organized on the basis of cu- 
 pidity; and its organization is such that it not only controls 
 the entire election machinery but is able to create, manage 
 and use for its own purposes a considerable share of the public 
 opinion of the country. 
 
 Thus it is that the politicians are firmly intrenched in power. 
 And what is the extent and character of that power? Is it 
 limited either in extent or by responsibility to the people? 
 Neither. Within the limits of the state and federal constitu- 
 tions the power of the political oligarchies is absolute and un- 
 controlled except so far as one political organization chooses 
 to oppose or to interfere with the other. It is part of the com- 
 mon talk of the careless optimists among us and of the con- 
 
THE CONTROLLABLE VOTE 169 
 
 stant prattle of the newspapers that the people rule when they 
 choose to do so; that the overwhelming majority are wise and 
 good people, and that when they "rise in their might' ' they 
 can and will set all things straight. The newspapers for 
 their own purposes assist the illusion of popular choice at elec- 
 tions, and print declamatory rubbish of this sort to flatter 
 their readers and to keep up their interest in the political game 
 so that they will continue buying the papers. This claptrap has 
 a mischievous effect, for it tends to prevent the people from 
 realizing their real situation. The picture, were it a true one, 
 of a community, relieving its ordinary dull submission to mis- 
 government and plunder by occasional bursts of rage is far 
 from flattering to the electorate; but the facts are even worse; 
 for the public never does "rise in its might" to overthrow its 
 ruling oligarchy. It merely changes, or pretends to change one 
 ruling band or machine for another. Nor do the politicians 
 usually cater to the public, nor do they need to do so nearly 
 as much as some of us fondly imagine. The common talk 
 about our office holders being public servants is cant and 
 humbug. The prevalent popular conceit that the politicians 
 as a class need public support, and must and do defer to the 
 public in order to exist, lacks support in the facts, though it 
 derives some color from the appeals frequently made to the 
 electorate for votes by parties or political machines. For 
 though the voter always has a choice between two or more can- 
 didates, he is never permitted to go outside of the ranks of the 
 political oligarchy, which exists and flourishes despite popular 
 criticism and dislike. 
 
 Most of the office holders are practically independent of the 
 people. In the cities especially, they occupy salaried places, 
 obtained by the use of back stairs or secret influence. They 
 could of course be ousted by a united public demand, but such 
 demand as that is in most cases inconceivable and will never 
 be made; no one but the politicians know these men, or have 
 in mind the particulars of their duties and appointments: and 
 none but politicians would have the patience or skill to manage 
 
170 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 a public movement to oust them. As a matter of fact few of 
 them ever are finally expelled from political life; they are 
 merely transferred from time to time from one job to another. 
 To one who knows, it is often pathetically ludicrous to hear a 
 voter incensed by the tyranny or incapacity of some office 
 holder threaten to withhold his vote from him "next time." 
 The irate citizen will probably forget all about "next time," 
 or will never hear of its having arrived; or the next office will 
 be an appointive one, higher up. Even if he do carry out his 
 threat it will be like putting a straw down in an elephant's 
 path; the question whether the object of his wrath will go on 
 the ticket will be decided not as the result of a public discus- 
 sion, but of a secret conference, and whether elected or de- 
 feated, the majorities will be mostly composed of myriads of 
 voters who have blindly obeyed the will of the machine and 
 scarcely noticed the name of the candidate. The protest of the 
 individual voter if too much emphasized, is most likely to in- 
 jure himself. Even a great daily city newspaper usually finds 
 it a hopeless task to attempt to down the machine or its can- 
 didates; indeed, the latter have been known to triumph over 
 four or five dailies united. Sometimes an office holder is de- 
 tected in a scandalous transaction and the machine deems it 
 prudent to temporarily retire him; but if his dirty work was 
 done for the organization's behoof and benefit, he may soon 
 be seen occupying a still higher appointive office, or placed on 
 the state or county ticket at a presidential election and voted 
 into power by an immense self-satisfied and innocent majority 
 of the very people who a year or two ago condemned him mer- 
 cilessly, and who in the meantime have actually forgotten his 
 name. 
 
 This situation should be clearly understood, because there 
 are in this country millions of people so blind, ignorant or inno- 
 cent as to imagine that the public at large are really partici- 
 pants in the whole business of politics and government when 
 in fact they have no share in it whatever. Let the reader who 
 doubts this statement attempt to interfere as an amateur in 
 
THE CONTROLLABLE VOTE 1 71 
 
 politics. He will find it impossible to do so and that he cannot 
 interpose with any, even the slightest effect except by himself 
 joining one of the political gangs or parties, becoming one with 
 them, submitting to their rules and methods and aiding in 
 their schemes to purchase and manage the controllable vote. 
 To the ordinary voter, and to the mass of millions of voters, 
 to that populace which foolishly believes itself the ruler of the 
 nation it is forbidden even to know what politicians intend or 
 are doing. Each voter may meekly attend at the polls and 
 ratify what one machine or the other has already determined 
 on, but there he must stop. If he attempts to do more, to pro- 
 test or to air his opinions he will be ignored ; and if he persist 
 he will be treated with the scorn and contempt due to a med- 
 dling fool. 
 
 The fact of the absolute control of our government by a 
 political oligarchy has been frequently recognized and com- 
 mented upon. Here, for instance, by a recent writer who favors 
 the principle of a property qualification: 
 
 "Our ruinously expensive government, shameful system of na- 
 tional taxation, blackmailing of individuals and corporations, and 
 bribery at elections and in the legislatures, show clearly enough 
 that universal suffrage does not eliminate the influence of wealth 
 from politics, or produce the millennium and paradise for any but 
 scoundrels. In fact, our present system only puts wealth, or 
 the power which it represents, into the hands of the unscrupulous 
 who can always use the proletariat for any irresponsible power that 
 is wanted, and for plundering the community in some form, whether 
 by taxation or blackmail. They have become so bold that they do 
 not discuss the problems of government at all, but carry on their 
 business with the audacity of pirates and the immunity of saints. 
 Universal suffrage is simply the useful instrument to this end, and 
 the boasted policy which was to cure poverty and destroy the in- 
 fluence of wealth has only increased its power and handed govern- 
 ment over to the anti-social classes, with a struggle between the anti- 
 social rich to plunder everybody else and the anti-social poor to 
 do the same. The proper limitation of the franchise would cut 
 off the sources of the politician's influence over the proletariat 
 
172 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 and place the balance of power in the great middle class whose 
 social and moral qualities are superior to those of the rich who 
 buy the plebs with a mess of pottage or false promises in order 
 to mulct society, and whose intelligence and prudence are superior 
 to those of the proletariat." (Hyslop on Democracy, pp. 248, 249.) 
 
 The reader now understands that there was no exaggeration 
 in the statement heretofore made and repeated in this book 
 that the government of this country is entirely in the hands of 
 a political oligarchy. This being the case, what is the vote 
 worth to a fair-minded independent American citizen, living in 
 New York, Chicago or Boston, or in any one of the hundreds 
 of cities in the land? What is the actual value to the unproper- 
 tied American of the yearly privilege of voting, which 
 the twaddlers and the politicians keep saying is "inesti- 
 mable"? Absolutely nothing except for purposes of sale 
 to the politicians. This statement may be sweeping, 
 but it is true. The boasted gift of the ballot has be- 
 come a mockery to every honest man by being made 
 the mere vehicle or form by which are registered the de- 
 crees and appointments of venal and corrupt political cliques. 
 The only remedy lies in the destruction of the oligarchy of poli- 
 ticians, and of this there is no hope or prospect while the sys- 
 tem of manhood suffrage continues to produce the controllable 
 vote. 
 
 "Experience (says Bagehot) proved what our theories suggest, 
 that the enfranchisement of the corruptible is in truth the estab- 
 lishment of corruption. The lesson of the whole history indubitably 
 is, that it is in vain to lower the level of political representation 
 beneath the level of political capacity; that below that level you 
 may easily give nominal power, but cannot possibly give real power ; 
 that at best you can give the vague voice to an unreasoning instinct ; 
 that in general you only give the corruptible an opportunity to be- 
 come corrupt." (History of the Unreformed Parliament, 1860.) 
 
 In other words, it is practically impossible to bring the 
 rabble element to take an active part in good government. 
 [There is no possible organization of these corrupt groups 
 
THE CONTROLLABLE VOTE 173 
 
 save on the basis of corrupt leadership. Bryce made a study 
 of the subject and devotes several pages to it (American Com- 
 monwealth, chap, cxviii), and although always optimistic, 
 he is not able to point to any genuine source of relief. The 
 "machine," he says, "will not be reformed from within; it 
 must be assailed from without." His hopes for future relief 
 are based on Civil Service reform, the secret ballot, and time. 
 To rely on time is childish. Civil Service reform, if pushed 
 to extremes, will give us a bureaucracy, such as has afflicted 
 Germany and Russia. The secret ballot was the hope of politi- 
 cal dreamers who imagined the rabble as possessed of hidden 
 springs of knowledge and virtue; as secretly devoted to causes 
 and leaders they never even heard of and never want to hear of. 
 In the same chapter Bryce admits the possibility of future 
 "strife and danger," and closes it by speaking of "a hope that 
 is stronger than anxiety." This devil-may-care attitude may 
 be appropriate to a foreigner, but no American worth his salt 
 is willing to sit down in the face of such threatened danger and 
 wait for time and chance to save the country. Those who will 
 not make a move to save themselves are not worth saving. The 
 Fortnightly Review recently says, in explanation of Bolshevism 
 in Russia, that "the dregs of society have come to the surface, 
 as they will anywhere when the ordered fabric of civilization 
 built up on respect for law and personal rights is broken up." 
 But this is precisely what they are constantly invited to do by 
 manhood suffrage. If it is not an invitation to the dregs to 
 come to the surface, what is it? If they are in power it is be- 
 cause we have been silly enough to open the door. Today they 
 are organized for party plunder; tomorrow they may combine 
 to loot the country. 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 INJURIOUS EFFECT OF MANHOOD SUFFRAGE UPON 
 AMERICAN LEGISLATIVE BODIES 
 
 THE political machine, the political ring, and the political 
 boss crush out all independence, and bury all talent which 
 will not lend itself to their purpose; discourage all statesman- 
 ship, wither all genuine political ambition and debauch the poli- 
 tical conscience of the nation. One result is plainly shown in a 
 distinct lowering of the quality of our public officials, including 
 the membership of our legislative bodies, state and federal. 
 The establishment of machine or party organization political 
 rule by means of the controllable vote has replaced the former 
 free play of individual talents and opinions; has discouraged 
 our best men from entering political life and has degraded 
 those who take part in it. Our Congressmen are of mediocre 
 ability and deficient in strength and honesty; our state legisla- 
 tors are of a still lower type; our legislatures both federal and 
 state and their members are more often the subject of public 
 ridicule than of praise; the political opinions of their members 
 fail to command public respect; with the public at large they 
 do not stand nearly so high as during the first forty years of the 
 republic, when they were chosen by qualified constituencies. 
 At that time the mass of the American voters were uneducated 
 men, yet they sent first rate men to Congress; now the mass 
 is far better instructed and send third rate men to Congress. 
 This is because the national political spirit has been lowered ; it 
 no longer seeks to express itself by its best. All the above is 
 so generally asserted and commented on in books, magazines, 
 newspapers and in daily conversation as to be notorious. It 
 is likely that every intelligent reader of this book is fully 
 aware of it. 
 
 174 
 
LEGISLATIVE DECAY AND DEGRADATION 175 
 
 In explanation of America's failure to put the best men in 
 high places, it is sometimes said that it is the result of a certain 
 weakness everywhere attendant upon democracy. A similar 
 tendency has been observed by John Stuart Mill, to accompany 
 the widening of the suffrage in England. He says: 
 
 "The natural tendency of representative government, as of modern 
 civilization, is toward collective mediocrity; and this tendency is 
 increased by all reductions and extensions of the franchise, their 
 effect being to place the principal power in the hands of classes more 
 and more below the highest level of instruction in the community." 
 (Representative Government, p. 159.) 
 
 In France the deputies to the Chambers are elected on a 
 manhood basis. The result is typical of the system. Prof. 
 Garner says: 
 
 "The role of the French Deputy is today largely that of a sort of 
 charge d'affaires sent to Paris to see that its constituency obtains its 
 share of the favors which the government has for distribution. In- 
 stead, therefore, of occupying himself with questions of legislation 
 of interest to the country as a whole, he is engaged in playing the 
 role of a mendicant for his petty district. He spends his time in the 
 ante-rooms of the ministers soliciting favors for his political sup- 
 porters and grants for his arrondissement." 
 
 Sometimes the constituents ask the deputy to procure nurses 
 for their families, or to do shopping. Some want appointments 
 as vendors of tobacco; the ministers, to purchase their support, 
 agree to appoint their friends to office, give them decorations 
 and advance them politically. The deputy must look for ap- 
 propriations for local railroads, repairs for churches, pictures 
 for the exhibition, public fountains, monuments. All the school 
 teachers, tobacconists, road overseers and letter carriers are 
 expected to work for him. (American Political Science Re- 
 view, Vol. 7, p. 617.) An interesting book has recently been 
 published by a member of the French Academy, in which he 
 accuses democracy of having an inevitable tendency to produce 
 inefficiency in government. He testifies that such has been the 
 
176 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 experience in France. It is in the very spirit of democracy, he 
 says, to favor incompetence in all public officials. (Cult of 
 Incompetence, Faguet.) 
 
 This lowering of the official standards has been observed 
 elsewhere, wherever manhood suffrage obtains. Mr. E. L. 
 Godkin, a distinguished New York publicist, writing some 
 years ago said: 
 
 "There is not a country in the world living under parliamentary 
 government which has not begun to complain of the quality of its 
 legislators. More and more it is said the work of government is 
 falling into the hands of men to whom even small pay is important 
 and who are suspected of adding to their income by corruption." 
 (Unforeseen Tendencies of Democracy, p. 117.) 
 
 The apologists for our present unsatisfactory political sys- 
 tem point to this universal democratic tendency to mediocrity 
 as a reason for acquiescing in the present evil condition which 
 they say is an incident of democracy everywhere, deplorable 
 but unavoidable. This is a mistaken attitude. In adopting 
 the democratic regime we have not bargained to perpetuate its 
 errors; it is our business to correct and abolish them. Hav- 
 ing observed the democratic tendency to produce inferiority 
 in public life it is for us to be specially careful to adopt meas- 
 ures to avoid that danger. It is plainly due to inferiority in 
 the voting mass and the obvious remedy is to elevate the 
 character of the electorate. The inferior product referred to by 
 Faguet and others is that of a democracy of mere numbers, 
 where there is failure to give proper effect to natural civilizing 
 influences. On the other hand, in the administration for 
 example of the great cities of Europe where property is rep- 
 resented and character and reputation are taken into account, 
 the operation of the democratic system is comparatively satis- 
 factory. 
 
 America is not lacking in men competent for public life. The 
 field of choice is large and the material is there. A member 
 of Congress represents a constituency of about 300,000, or say 
 
LEGISLATIVE DECAY AND DEGRADATION 177 
 
 60,000 male voters. The average state legislator may repre- 
 sent a constituency of 50,000 or say ten thousand male voters. 
 The ablest man in the district of 50,000 people or among say 
 ten thousand men is apt to be a superior man; the ablest man 
 of the 60,000 men in a congressional district must be a very 
 superior man indeed. Such are the types of men who ought to 
 be in the legislature and in Congress and who under a proper 
 system would be found there; a type far superior to that which 
 manhood suffrage has actually produced for us after ninety 
 odd progressive years ; progressive in everything else except the 
 quality of our government. Comparisons are odious, and it 
 would not be permissible, even if physically possible in a work 
 like this, to discuss severally by name the four hundred actual 
 members of Congress, still less the ten thousand actual mem- 
 bers of our State Legislatures, or any part of them. But it must 
 be admitted that those occupying these places are not as a rule 
 first-class men; they do not even measure up to second-class; 
 some of them are very far down on the list indeed. Recently 
 when engaged in the most severe struggle of its history, the 
 nation found that its best and ablest men were in private life; 
 and not only had there been no demand for them to perma- 
 nently enter public service, but its business had been com- 
 mitted to the care of small, needy politicians, political adven- 
 turers, men without political experience or training, who had 
 been sent to the state or national capitol as a reward for cheap 
 political work, or for money contributions, or for subserviency 
 to the political boss or the machine. Such are the fruits of man- 
 hood suffrage in the most enlightened country in the world. 
 
 M. de Tocqueville, a distinguished Frenchman, who visited 
 this country in 1831, ten years after manhood suffrage had 
 been widely established, was struck by the vulgar aspect of the 
 men whom he found in the House of Representatives at Wash- 
 ington. He said : "They are for the most part village lawyers, 
 dealers or even men belonging to the lowest classes." No one 
 would have said that of the Continental Congress nor of any 
 Congress before Jackson's time. 
 
178 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 The very latest observers give similar testimony.. Mr. God- 
 kin notes the disappearance from Congress and from public 
 life of the class of statesmen and great political leaders of 
 former days, such as Webster, Clay, Calhoun, Silas Wright, 
 Marcy and Seward, and ascribes it to the political bosses who 
 will tolerate no independence. Mr. Bryce says: 
 
 "The members of legislatures are not chosen for their ability or 
 experience, but are, five-sixths of them, little above the average citi- 
 zen. They are not much respected or trusted, and finding no excep- 
 tional virtue expected from them, they behave as ordinary men do 
 when subjected to temptations." 
 
 And again: 
 
 "It must be confessed that the legislative bodies of the United 
 States have done something to discredit representative government." 
 (American Commonwealth, Vol. II, pp. 587, 609.) 
 
 Writing of Congress in 1907 Professor Commons says: 
 
 "Why is it that a legislative assembly which in our country's 
 infancy summoned to its halls a Madison or a Hamilton to achieve 
 the liberties of the people has now fallen so low that our public- 
 spirited men hesitate to approach it?" (Proportional Representation, 
 p. 8.) 
 
 Professor Commons does not further attempt an answer 
 to his own question, but it is not difficult to find one. When 
 an inferior choice is made, the fault is always with the chooser. 
 Congress is inferior because the electorate is inferior, and 
 because the manhood suffrage machine insists on mediocrity 
 and slavishness in Congress and everywhere else and has low- 
 ered the political spirit of the nation. Writing about 1899 
 Professor Hyslop of Columbia University, New York, says: 
 
 "Congressmen require considerable omniscience to fulfil their 
 responsibilities, but they possess very little of that qualification, 
 and too often no honesty, public spirit, or devotion to the real in- 
 terests of the country. Too poor to disregard the salary attached 
 to the office, they must consider their personal interest to secure a 
 
LEGISLATIVE DECAY AND DEGRADATION 179 
 
 re-election, which puts them at the mercy of any unscrupulous man 
 or men who may hold the balance of power in their districts; and 
 consequently the man who will follow the 'boss' or 'work' the 
 proper portion of his constituents can get the place and salary while 
 the intelligent and concientious man who thinks less of the remunera- 
 tion than of his duty to the public must remain at home. The time 
 servers, demagogues, and men with an elastic conscience are the suc- 
 cessful bidders for the offices and salaries. They know how to use 
 good sentiments and patriotism for votes, the voters all the while 
 running trustfully after the devil, who is sure to draw them into 
 the bottomless pit." (Democracy, p. 172.) 
 
 This deterioration is observable in our public men gen- 
 erally. 
 
 "Sincere men no longer deny that the offices of trust and profit 
 are now filled, in the United States, with much more inferior men 
 than as compared with former periods; indeed, it is admitted that 
 if we want to find political conditions like unto ours, anywhere, we 
 have to search in the records of the worst phases of public adminis- 
 tration which history affords." (Reemelin, American Politics, p. 307.) 
 
 As late as the present year, 1919, Brooks Adams, in one of 
 his writings, refers to the undoubtable deterioration of the 
 standard of our public men as compared with the time of his 
 grandfather, John Quincy Adams. Ostrogorski writes that: 
 
 "The unreasoning discipline of party and the innumerable con- 
 cessions and humiliations through which it drags every aspirant 
 to a public post have enfeebled the will of men in politics, have 
 destroyed their courage and independence of mind, and almost ob- 
 literated their dignity as human beings." (Democracy, p. 389.) 
 
 Professor Reinsch alludes to this moral degradation in 
 striking language. Referring to the bosses, he says: 
 
 "Their servants are indeed paid liberally in money and preferment, 
 but they are reduced to a position of dependence in which the soul 
 is burnt to ashes. The cynicism of the political boss and his satel- 
 lites and the temptations which they hold out, are the greatest cor- 
 ruptors of youth in our age. . . . It is not surprising that politics 
 
180 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 does not in general offer a satisfying career. Able men of high 
 character are disgusted with the usual demands made upon politi- 
 cians. While youth is corrupted, manhood is tyrannized; and 
 wherever the commercial system has been most successful, prop- 
 erty, honor, and even life have been rendered unsafe." (American 
 Legislatures and Legislative Methods, pp. 239, 240.) 
 
 Next, John Stuart Mill, a champion of democracy: 
 
 "It is an admitted fact that in the American democracy, which 
 is constructed on this faulty model, the highly-cultivated members 
 of the community, except such of them as are willing to sacrifice 
 their own opinions and modes of judgment, and become the servile 
 mouthpieces of their inferiors in knowledge, do not even offer them- 
 selves for Congress or the State Legislatures, so certain is it that 
 they would have no chance of being returned." (Representative 
 Government, p. 160.) 
 
 J. Bleecker Miller of New York writes: 
 
 "Our rights as individuals are not properly protected by our so- 
 called representatives because they as a rule are not up to the gen- 
 eral moral and intellectual standard of the average citizen." (Trade 
 Organizations in Politics, p. 38.) 
 
 Let us give a moment's special attention to our state legis- 
 latures. There manhood suffrage has a chance to do its best. 
 Both houses are elected usually by manhood or universal suf- 
 frage. What do we find? It is notorious that the reputation 
 of the membership in most of them is so bad that reputable and 
 able men absolutely refuse to serve. It is also notorious that 
 every meeting of a state legislature is anticipated with alarm 
 and anxiety by the industrial and business classes. Their 
 well founded fear is of some piece of narrow or blundering 
 legislation in the interest of some class, or which will be inimi- 
 cal to some industry or business, either in the way of restric- 
 tion, taxation or other unfairness. The chronic degradation 
 of these bodies is evidenced by the ever increasing limi- 
 tations upon them in the state constitutions. It is a mat- 
 ter of public belief that three-quarters of our state legislation 
 
LEGISLATIVE DECAY AND DEGRADATION l8l 
 
 is useless, and that a considerable proportion of it is injurious; 
 that many of the members spend a large part of their time 
 planning for the promotion of their personal interests, or for 
 procuring places for themselves or their supporters. And yet 
 in this case the facts probably surpass the rumors. The public 
 hardly realizes the infamous character of much of our state leg- 
 islation. It is a frequent practice of legislators to introduce bills 
 injuriously affecting corporations for the mere purpose of black- 
 mail. The corporation is expected to pay tribute in the shape 
 of cash bribes to the members of the committee having tie 
 bill in charge; and sometimes to other members or to the boss 
 to prevent this legislation. On such payment being made the 
 proposed measure is in one way or another defeated or allowed 
 to lapse. Such extortions are variously called "hold-ups/' 
 "strikes," "sandbaggers," "fetchers," or "old friends," "bell- 
 ringers" and "regulators." During a legislative investigation 
 into insurance scandals in 1906 a president of one of the insur- 
 ance companies declared that eighty-five per cent of all legis- 
 lative bills were hold-up measures. A great part of the ses- 
 sion is sometimes, occupied in manoeuvring these scandalous 
 bills. Enormous sums of money must be obtained either by 
 legislators or bosses by such means; and all sorts of methods, 
 including that of a friendly game of poker are used in these 
 transactions in the transfer of the cash, some of which no 
 doubt is ultimately used to influence elections, thus completing 
 the vicious circle. 
 
 The following is from a recognized authority: 
 
 "The integrity of State Legislatures is at a low ebb. Their action 
 is looked upon as largely controlled by the business interests and 
 by political bosses. . . . Charges of direct bribery are frequent. 
 ... It has been well recognized that the Legislatures of certain 
 States, notably New Hampshire, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and 
 California, have been controlled through a long series of years by 
 great railway corporations. ... A number of the members of 
 Legislatures are 'owned,' that is, controlled by some outside in- 
 terest. Usually there is a political leader, or boss, to whom the 
 
1 82 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 member is indebted for his seat. In other cases a member is 
 serving some particular interest to which he is bound by the fact 
 that his campaign expenses have been paid or other substantial 
 favors given him." Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Government, 
 1914, Corruption, Legislative.) 
 
 In an article on "Phases of State Legislation," Theodore 
 Roosevelt stated that about one-third of the members of the 
 New York Legislature wherein he sat were corrupt or open to 
 corrupt influences. He had been a member of that legislature 
 three times and in his American Ideals (1897) ne gives some 
 account of his experiences there. While careful not to attack 
 manhood suffrage, he pictures these legislative bodies as very 
 inferior and corrupt assemblies whose best men were common- 
 place" and narrow-minded; whose worst men were venal, igno- 
 rant and semi-barbarous. The best he could say was that 
 among its one hundred and fifty members, "there were many 
 "very good men"; but he added "that there is much viciousness 
 "and political dishonesty, much moral cowardice and a good 
 "deal of actual bribe taking in Albany, no one who has had any 
 "practical experience in legislation can doubt." After a careful 
 examination, he and some fellow members learned "that about 
 "one-third of the members were open to corrupt influences in 
 "some form or other." (Pp. 64-68.) He mentions four other 
 states which are equally as badly off in the character of their 
 legislators, if not worse. Mr. Godkin writing on the subject 
 says: 
 
 "If I said, for instance, that the legislature at Albany was a school 
 of vice, a fountain of political debauchery, and that few of the 
 younger men came back from it without having learned to mock 
 at political purity or public spirit, I should seem to be using unduly 
 strong language, and yet I could fill nearly a volume with illustra- 
 tions in support of my charges. The temptation to use their great 
 power for the extortion of money from rich men and rich cor- 
 porations, to which the legislatures in the richer and more pros- 
 perous Northern States are exposed, is great; and the legislatures 
 are mainly composed of very poor men, with no reputation to main* 
 
LEGISLATIVE DECAY AND DEGRADATION 183 
 
 tain, or political future to look after. The result is that the country 
 is filled with stories of scandals after every adjournment, and the 
 press teems with abuse, which legislators have learned to treat 
 with silent contempt or ridicule, so that there is no longer any 
 restraint upon them." (Unforeseen Tendencies of Democracy, 
 p. 140.) 
 
 The same writer states that the more intelligent class have 
 withdrawn from legislative duties; that it is increasingly diffi- 
 cult to get able men to go to Congress, and almost impossible 
 to get them to consent to go to the state legislature. He might 
 have added that it would be impossible for them to get the 
 favor of the parties or the machines so as to be elected. He 
 describes a great part of the actual legislation as absolutely 
 absurd. He tells of the vicious practice of log-rolling, that is, 
 the exchange between individual members of Congress and of 
 the legislature of support of one bad measure in return for the 
 support of another equally bad. He tells how inferior and 
 shiftless men are sent to the legislature in order that they 
 may get the salary to help them through the winter. He com- 
 plains of the immense legislative output which in these days 
 is about twenty thousand new laws each year. He describes 
 how corporations are at the mercy of state bosses who manipu- 
 late the legislature, and therefore have it in their power to 
 raise their taxes, or in the case of gas or railroad companies 
 to lower their charges or to cause annoying and harassing in- 
 vestigations of their affairs. To avoid this oppression the cor- 
 porations are, of course, ready to pay blackmail in the shape 
 of campaign contributions to the bosses, some part of which 
 probably remains in the pockets of the boss, but a large part 
 of which goes into a fund to purchase and control the lower 
 classes of voters. As a result large corporations are in the 
 habit of employing an agent to remain at the state capitol 
 during the session, so as to be on hand to forestall these schemes 
 by paying in advance. From another writer: 
 
 "The majority of our legislatures are either constituted or con- 
 trolled by men who either cannot or dare not discuss the measures 
 
184 POPULAR MISGOVERNMEN1 IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 proposed by them. They maintain silence against all reason and 
 vote submissively in obedience to a 'boss' or they open their mouths 
 only to obstruct legislation and to make a 'strike.' " (Democracy, 
 Hyslop, p. 127.) 
 
 This is from Professor Lecky: 
 
 "A distrust of the servants and representatives of the people is 
 everywhere manifest. A long and bitter experience has convinced 
 the people that legislators will roll up the State debt unless positively 
 forbidden to go beyond a certain figure; that they will suffer rail- 
 roads to parallel each other, corporations to consolidate, common 
 carriers to discriminate, city councils to sell valuable franchises to 
 street-car companies and telephone companies, unless the State con- 
 stitution expressly declares that such things shall not be. So far 
 has this system of prohibition been carried, that many legislatures 
 are not allowed to enact any private or special legislation; are not 
 allowed to relieve individuals or corporations from obligations to the 
 State; are not allowed to pass a bill in which any member is inter- 
 ested, or to loan the credit of the State, or to consider money bills 
 in the last hours of the session." (Democracy and Liberty, Vol. I., 
 p. 103.) 
 
 In 1910 in a speech in Chicago Roosevelt said of the Illinois 
 Legislature, referring to recent disclosures, that it "was guilty 
 a of the foulest and basest corruption." (New Nationalism, 
 p. in.) 
 
 Referring to the Gas Ring misgovernment in Philadelphia 
 in and prior to 1870, Bryce says: 
 
 "The Pennsylvania House of Representatives was notoriously a 
 tainted body, and the Senate no better, or perhaps worse. The 
 Philadelphia politicians, partly by their command of the Philadel- 
 phia members, partly by the other inducements at their command, 
 were able to stop all proceedings in the legislature hostile to them- 
 selves, and did in fact, as will appear presently, frequently balk the 
 efforts which the reformers made in that quarter." (American Com- 
 monwealth, Vol. II, p. 412.) 
 
 Bryce describes the condition of the California state gov- 
 ernment in 1877: 
 
LEGISLATIVE DECAY AND DEGRADATION 185 
 
 "Both in the country and in the city there was disgust with poli- 
 tics and politicians. The legislature was composed almost wholly 
 either of office-seekers from the city or of petty country lawyers, 
 needy and narrow-minded men. Those who had virtue enough not 
 to be 'got at' by the great corporations, had not intelligence enough 
 to know how to resist their devices. It was a common saying in 
 the State that each successive legislature was worse than its prede- 
 cessor. The meeting of the representatives of the people was seen 
 with anxiety, their departure with relief. Some opprobrious epithet 
 was bestowed upon each. One was, 'the legislature of a thousand 
 drinks'; another, 'the legislature of a thousand steals.' County gov- 
 ernment was little better; city government was even worse." 
 
 And later, writing in 1894, he says there is no improvement 
 in that State. (American Commonwealth, Vol. II, pp. 430 and 
 441.) No wonder that by its state constitution California has 
 felt itself obliged to disable its legislature by prohibiting to 
 it thirty- three different classes of state legislation. 
 
 Professor John R. Commons of the University of Wisconsin, 
 writing in 1907, quotes the San Francisco Bulletin as saying: 
 
 "It is not possible to speak in measured terms of the thing that 
 goes by the name of legislature in this State. It has of late years 
 been the vilest deliberative body in the world. The assemblage 
 has become one of bandits instead of law-makers. Everything 
 within its grasp for years has been for sale. The commissions to 
 high office which it confers are the outward and visible signs of 
 felony rather than of careful and wise selection." (Proportional 
 Representation, p. i.) 
 
 The author himself says: 
 
 "Every State in the Union can furnish examples more or less 
 approaching to this. Statements almost as extreme are made re- 
 garding Congress. Great corporations and syndicates seeking legis- 
 lative favors are known to control the acts of both branches. The 
 patriotic ability and even the personal character of members are 
 widely distrusted and denounced. These outcries are not made only 
 in a spirit of partisanship, but respectable party papers denounce 
 unsparingly legislatures and councils whose majorities are of their 
 
1 86 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 own political complexion. The people at large join in the attack. 
 When statements so extreme as that given above are made by 
 reputable papers and citizens, it is not surprising that the people at 
 large have come thoroughly to distrust their law-makers. Charges 
 of corruption and bribery are so abundant as to be taken as a mat- 
 ter of course. The honored historical name of alderman has fre- 
 quently become a stigma of suspicion and disgrace." (Idem, p. 2.) 
 
 The same malign control by bosses and rings heretofore 
 so often referred to is directly responsible for this sad condi- 
 tion of affairs. 
 
 "Thus it would happen not infrequently that a state legislature 
 almost equally divided between the two parties would not have one 
 member in twenty or one in fifty whose nomination and election 
 had not been agreeable to forces behind the two machines, and 
 whose legislative action could not be counted upon by those who 
 held the party reins. ... It is probably within the bounds of 
 truth to say that there is not one of our states which has not to a 
 very considerable extent come under the baneful influence of this 
 system, by means of which the political life of the people is domi- 
 nated and exploited for private ends by rich working corporations 
 in alliance with professional party politicians." (Shaw, Political 
 Problems, pp. 148, 149.) 
 
 Professor Reinsch in his work hereinbefore referred to 
 (American Legislatures) gives an extended account of the 
 means and methods of legislative bribery through the lobby, 
 resulting in "commercial governments" and a situation where 
 "any business man can get what he wants at a reasonable 
 price." He describes the "boss" as the fruit and flower of the 
 system, his absolute authority, his endless tenure of power, 
 and the degrading influence of the machine. The reader will 
 find in this work much of interest on the subject of corrupt 
 state legislation which cannot be reproduced here. 
 
 The legislative evil record still continues to be made. The 
 tree and the fruit are the same year after year. In the session 
 of 1919 forty-six bills affecting New York City which passed 
 both houses of the New York Legislature were so flagrantly 
 
LEGISLATIVE DECAY AND DEGRADATION 187 
 
 bad as to require and receive vetoes. The Citizens Union of 
 New York reported that twenty-eight additional noxious city 
 bills actually became laws. Allowing an equal grist for the 
 rest of the state and we have a total of one hundred and forty- 
 eight mischievous measures which passed both houses in one 
 session. Of the work of this very recent session of the New 
 York Legislature, the New York Evening Post, a very respec- 
 table paper, says (August n, 1919)* 
 
 "Despite the influence of the Governor and the efforts of the legis- 
 lative leaders, log-rolling, trading, and dickering continued as usual. 
 Carelessness and sloppiness were characteristic of the session. In 
 his veto messages the Governor called attention of the members to 
 this matter. Again and again bills slipped through one house or the 
 other in such shape that they had to be recalled and repassed." 
 
 Charges against congressmen and state legislators of 
 accepting bribes have been frequently made, and instances are 
 given in this book of public exposures in consequence. Some 
 years ago the writer was informed by a leading politician that 
 the truth far exceeded public rumor, and his information else- 
 where obtained leads him to believe that this offense has been 
 common. Bryce says in substance that bribery in Congress is 
 confined to say five per cent of the whole number; that it is 
 more common in the legislatures of a few states; that it is rare 
 among the chief state officials and state judges; that the influ- 
 ence of other considerations than money prevails among legisla- 
 tors to a somewhat larger extent; that one may roughly conjec- 
 ture that from fifteen to twenty per cent of the members of 
 Congress, or of an average state legislature, could thus be 
 reached, and that the jobbery or misuse of a public position for 
 the benefit of individuals is common in large cities. That is to 
 say, about twenty members of each Congress are for sale for 
 cash, and from sixty to eighty can be bought for "other con- 
 "siderations." According to Bryce, and he is probably very 
 conservative, one can calculate that about one thousand, all 
 told, members of Congress and the various state legislatures 
 
1 88 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 sitting at one time are absolutely corrupt. (American Com- 
 monwealth, VoL II, p. 164.) Looking through the pages of 
 Bryce's great work, one meets casual references to noted in- 
 stances of such improprieties; as for instance, secret influences 
 brought to bear upon legislatures in reference to the Granger 
 laws; improper relations between railroads and legislators, 
 amounting to secret control of the legislatures by the railroads, 
 and to blackmailing of the railroads by the legislatures; thus 
 requiring the presence of adroit railway agents at the state 
 capitals, well supplied with money, to defeat legislative at- 
 tacks made by blackmailers, or the tools of rival roads. 
 (American Commonwealth, Chap. CIII.) 
 
 "A large number of congressmen were treated to a very profitable 
 investment in connection with the building of the Union Pacific 
 Railway. If this was not technical bribery, it was accounted its 
 moral equivalent." (Cyclopedia American Government, Bribery.) 
 
 And in the same article it is stated that "State Legislatures 
 "are less subject to bribery than are City Councils, but here 
 "also the cases of proven or confessed bribery are numerous." 
 
 It is difficult to imagine what can be said by the defenders 
 of manhood suffrage in reply to these charges and proofs. The 
 witnesses are mostly Americans, friends of democracy, men of 
 trained minds and high standing, speaking from observation 
 and common report. Look again at the array of names : James 
 Bryce; Theodore Roosevelt; John Stuart Mill; Professor Gar- 
 ner; M. Faguet; E. L. Godkin; Professor Commons; Profes- 
 sor Hyslop; Ostrogorski; Lecky; Professor Reinsch; Albert 
 Shaw; J. Bleecker Miller; M. de Tocqueville; Reemelin; 
 Brooks Adams; New York Evening Post; Appleton's Cyclo- 
 pedia; San Francisco Bulletin; American Political Science Re- 
 view; no one can impeach such testimony. It covers the whole 
 period under survey. These witnesses charge that the present 
 system of election of legislators by manhood suffrage in the two 
 most enlightened countries where practised, namely, France and 
 the United States, has produced inferior legislators; that the 
 
LEGISLATIVE DECAY AND DEGRADATION 1 89 
 
 tendency to widen the suffrage has everywhere brought about 
 like results; that the quality of the membership of the United 
 States Congress has strikingly deteriorated under the manhood 
 suffrage regime, while the state legislatures composed of still in- 
 ferior men have actually become infested by blackmailers and 
 the like; that the legislature of New York is like a school of 
 vice, while that of California is vile, an assemblage of bandits; 
 that the others are similarly corrupt; their members being the 
 tools of political machines, and that highly cultivated men 
 therefore refuse to accept seats in these bodies. A great part 
 of what they thus assert is within the knowledge or reach of 
 knowledge of most of us. Is the American reader of these lines 
 willing to continue to tolerate longer this atrocious system? 
 Whether he believes in a property qualification for voters or 
 not, the writer calls upon him to resolve that this present foul 
 system be forever destroyed, and be replaced by something 
 which an American can think of without rage and shame. 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 MANHOOD SUFFRAGE AS APPLIED TO THE GOVERNMENT OF 
 AMERICAN CITIES HAS NOT ONLY BEEN A FAILURE BUT A 
 DISASTER AND A SCANDAL 
 
 THE worst ravages of pestilence do not appear in thinly set- 
 tled countries, but in the dense populations of cities. In like 
 manner the worst records of our manhood suffrage misgovern- 
 ment are to be found in American cities rather than in country 
 districts. In the United States all elective municipal officers 
 are chosen by manhood suffrage. In Europe this is not the 
 case. In England, France and Germany it has not been con- 
 sidered safe to trust the populace with the power to squander 
 away the city taxes; the municipal purse is by one device or 
 another kept within the control of the local property owners 
 and business men. The result is that the city governments in 
 all these three countries are far superior to ours. A prominent 
 American writer says: 
 
 "There can be no reason or justice in permitting people who do 
 not pay taxes to vote away the property of those who do. In the 
 European cities, however wide the suffrage may be in national mat- 
 ters, probably not one-half the men vote for city offices. In Great 
 Britain, the Low Countries, Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy 
 such an absurdity as universal suffrage for city officers is unknown 
 (except in the very rare cases where a non- taxpayer's educational 
 qualifications prevent his voting being absurd); and it is in these 
 countries that cities are best and most fully developed, and do 
 most for the health and happiness of the very people who are not 
 permitted to vote." (Holt, Civic Relations, 1907.) 
 
 Limit of space forbids going into the details of the municipal 
 governments of the foreign countries just referred to; for that 
 the reader is recommended to Munro's Government of Euro- 
 
 190 
 
THE PLUNDER OF THE CITIES IQ1 
 
 pean Cities and Albert Shaw's two works, Municipal Govern- 
 ment in Great Britain and Municipal Government in 
 Continental Europe. The important thing in city politics is 
 to get the right men in office, and the inferiority of American 
 public officials as a class as compared with European office 
 holders is well known. In the New York Times of October 19, 
 1919, this inferiority is stated as a cause for a certain con- 
 tempt of foreigners for American institutions for which you 
 can scarcely blame them. We quote: 
 
 "The very poor types of public officials in our large cities, 
 "particularly in New York, make a decided impression on our 
 "foreign element. In their native countries public officials are 
 "held in great respect, nearly all of them being men of standing 
 "in their communities and generally men of education and cul- 
 ture. Socialist agitators take great delight in holding up to 
 "ridicule the grade of men appointed and elected to public office 
 "in this country. Most of these agitators being foreign born 
 "realize that the high ideals of the foreign born have been shat- 
 tered after they have learned that ignorant and uncouth men 
 can reach high public position." 
 
 The complete failure of municipal government in the United 
 States has caused great disappointment not only to our city 
 taxpayers, but to the friends of democracy throughout the 
 world. Those who can not or will not see the fatal defects in 
 manhood suffrage are quite at a loss to explain the situation. 
 One of these is Lord Bryce, who says: 
 
 "The phenomena of municipal democracy in the United States 
 are the most remarkable and least laudable which the modern world 
 has witnessed; and they present some evils which no political 
 philosopher, however unfriendly to popular government, appears to 
 have foreseen, evils which have scarcely showed themselves in the 
 cities of Europe, and unlike those which were thought characteristic 
 of the rule of the masses in ancient times." (American Common- 
 wealth, Vol. II, p. 377.) 
 
 It would be impossible in this volume to give even a summary 
 account of the effects of manhood suffrage upon municipal gov- 
 
I Q2 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 ernment in this country. In New York City the ill results of the 
 extension were plainly discernible shortly after its institution 
 in 1826 and increasingly thereafter. (See Myers' History of 
 Tammany Hall; the Evarts Report; and Moss's American Me- 
 tropolis hereinafter referred to.) The local affairs of the 
 other smaller and newer cities were not of course prominent 
 till later years. There is not space here to treat the subject in 
 detail, and only a few illustrative instances can be given. But 
 this must be said at the outset, that the record of city govern- 
 ment in the United States since 1830 has been infamous; that 
 on the whole it is a history of ignorance, incapacity, venality, 
 waste, extravagance, corruption and robbery, carried to such 
 an extent as to demonstrate the utter incapacity of the popu- 
 lace for self-government; and that nothing but the circum- 
 stance that in one way or another means have been found 
 to check the power of the people and their municipal represen- 
 tatives put in power by the controllable vote has saved many 
 of these cities from bankruptcy and ruin. Looking into the 
 record of the conditions of our own time in our great cities, we 
 find them thus described by Bryce: 
 
 "A vast population of ignorant immigrants ; the leading men 
 "all intensely occupied with business; communities so large 
 "that people know little of one another, and that the interest of 
 "each individual in good government is comparatively small." 
 There are, he says, large numbers of ignorant and incompetent 
 immigrants controlled by party managers; a large shifting 
 population, and the political machinery so heavy and compli- 
 cated as to discourage the individual, who feels himself a drop 
 in the ocean. "The offices are well paid, the patronage is 
 "large, the opportunities for jobs, commissions on contracts, 
 "pickings, and even stealings, are enormous. Hence, it is well 
 "worth the while of unscrupulous men to gain control of the 
 "machinery by which these prizes may be won." 
 
 He further says: 
 
 "The best proof of dissatisfaction is to be found in the frequent 
 changes of system and method. What Dante said of his own city 
 
THE PLUNDER OF THE CITIES 1 93 
 
 may be said of the cities of America: they are like the sick man 
 who finds no rest upon his bed, but seeks to ease his pain by turning 
 from side to side. Every now and then the patient finds some relief 
 in a drastic remedy, such as the enactment of a new charter and the 
 expulsion at an election of a gang of knaves. Presently, however, 
 the weak points of the charter are discovered, the State legislature 
 again begins to interfere by special acts; civic zeal grows cold and 
 allows bad men to creep back into the chief posts." (American 
 Commonwealth, Vol. I, p. 649; Vol. II, 99-100.') 
 
 Bryce condemns the giving the suffrage to the immigrants. 
 "Such a sacrifice of common sense to abstract principles has 
 "seldom been made by any country." But it is manifestly ab- 
 surd to charge all our municipal corruption upon the immi- 
 grants. Our native crop of controllable voters far exceeds the 
 imported one. Bryce is compelled to recognize the situation in 
 Philadelphia, where the Gas Ring ruled politics for a genera- 
 tion by controlling the native American vote under American 
 managers. He says that "most of the corrupt leaders in Phila- 
 "delphia are not Irishmen, but Americans born and bred, and 
 "that in none of the larger cities is the percentage of recent 
 "immigrants so small." (American Commonwealth, Vol. II, 
 "p. 421.) Though nothing will induce Bryce, or any other 
 British or American politician, to see the deformities of man- 
 hood suffrage, yet he is willing to testify to the facts. He says: 
 
 "There is no denying that the government of cities is the one con- 
 spicuous failure of the United States. ... In New York extrava- 
 gance, corruption and mismanagement have revealed themselves on 
 the largest scale. . . . But there is not a city with a population 
 exceeding 200,000 where the poison germs have not sprung into 
 a vigorous life; and in some of the smaller ones down to 70,000 it 
 needs no microscope to note the results of their growth. Even in 
 cities of the third rank similar phenomena may occasionally be dis- 
 cerned." (American Commonwealth, Vol. I, p. 608 quoted ap- 
 provingly by Rhodes, Vol. Ill, p. 62.) 
 
 It is impossible to give here even an outline of the mass of 
 evidence in the case or to make an approach to a picture of the 
 
1 94 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 enormous pillage that has been in progress in our municipal 
 affairs. Steffens in The Shame of Cities gives a summary of 
 part of the facts relating to six American cities, namely: New 
 York, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Chicago, Minneapolis and Pitts- 
 burgh; and it makes a book of 300 pages. In each of the gov- 
 ernments of those cities Steffens discovered organized graft, 
 bribery and corruption. In St. Louis he reports a number of 
 the members of the municipal assembly as "utterly illiterate 
 and lacking in ordinary intelligence ... in some no trace of 
 mentality or morality could be found ; in others a low order of 
 training appeared, united with base cunning, groveling in- 
 stincts and sordid desires. Unqualified to respond to the ordi- 
 nary requirements of life they are truly incapable of compre- 
 hending the significance of an ordinance and are incapacitated, 
 both by nature and training, to be the makers of laws." Fran- 
 chises, etc., worth $50,000,000 had been granted in the past 
 ten years and scarcely one without bribery. As much as 
 $50,000 was paid for a vote in the municipal assembly. Com- 
 panies were driven out by blackmail. Boodling was the real 
 business of the city officials. In Minneapolis in 1901 and there- 
 after the city authorities were in a regular partnership with the 
 underworld and a large and steady revenue was collected for 
 the ring by corrupt methods. In Pittsburgh Steffens found a 
 boss in control and the usual systematic corruption. He no- 
 ticed that the Pittsburgh method was to put into all places 
 of power dependents of the boss, men without visible means of 
 support; in fact the manhood suffrage idea was carried out 
 to its logical results. There was an agreement in writing be- 
 tween the city boss and the state boss (Quay) for the control 
 of politics. Space will not permit the insertion here even of 
 Steffens' summary of Pittsburgh graft and corruption; it dealt 
 with franchises, public contracts, profits of vice, public funds 
 and miscellaneous sources of revenue. Philadelphia is de- 
 scribed as the most corrupt city in the land. Good citizens 
 there ask "What is the use of voting?" The city machine is a 
 mere dependent of the state machine. The system there is to 
 
THE PLUNDER OF THE CITIES 1 95 
 
 apply to the public service by way of compromise with the 
 public a handsome percentage of the collected taxes. Steffens 
 recognized in Philadelphia the complete and permanent over- 
 throw of popular and honest government. In Chicago he found 
 a persistent struggle going on against the ever active and ever 
 powerful poison of corruption. He claims that some headway 
 has been made in the direction of reform by the efforts of a 
 powerful Chicago organization known as "The Municipal 
 Voter's League," a watchdog affair, reaching after control, and 
 whose existence is a proof and a confession of the absolute 
 breakdown of manhood suffrage. Steffens was compelled to 
 say that he saw no remedy for the sad state of affairs which he 
 described as existing in these six different cities. 
 
 The testimony from all sources and periods since 1840 goes 
 to establish the prevalence of municipal corruption and mis- 
 government. Here is Ostrogorski, referring to the year 1872 
 and succeeding years : 
 
 "Almost all the cities whose population exceeded one hundred 
 thousand, or even a lesser figure, had their Rings. In the course of 
 these last years, many great cities, such as St. Louis, Minneapolis, 
 San Francisco, added new pages of disgrace to the history of munic- 
 ipal corruption carried on under the flag of political parties." (De- 
 mocracy and Political Parties in the United States, pp. 84, 85.) 
 
 Another writer (J. B. Miller) states that the debts of the 
 cities of the Union rose in the twenty years from 1860 to 1880 
 from about $100,000,000 to $682,000,000; from 1860 to 1875 
 the increase of debt in our eighteen largest cities was 270 per 
 cent; the increase of taxation was 362 per cent; whereas the 
 increase in taxable valuation was but 157 per cent and in popu- 
 lation but 70 per cent. In 1883 the late Andrew D. White 
 wrote as follows: 
 
 "I wish to deliberately state a fact easy of verification the fact 
 that whereas, as a rule, in other civilized countries municipal Gov- 
 ernments have been steadily improving until they have been made 
 generally honest and serviceable, our own, as a rule, are the worst 
 
196 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 in the world, and they are steadily growing worse every day." (Mes- 
 sage of Nineteenth Century to Twentieth.) 
 
 In a work published in 1899 by Dorman B. Eaton on the 
 Government of Municipalities, he summarizes in Chapter II 
 the well known and undeniable evils connected with our mu- 
 nicipal affairs. He condemns our municipal governments gen- 
 erally as needlessly expensive and inefficient institutions, 
 wherein bribery, blackmail and corruption are characteristic 
 features. He calls "the management of municipal politics and 
 "elections a degrading business by which a class of useless and 
 "vicious politicians prosper," and speaks of the system as dis- 
 creditable and scandalous. "It is not," he says (p. 22), "the 
 "gifted, the noble or the honored men who generally hold the 
 "highest municipal offices, but scheming politicians, selfish, 
 "adroit party managers, or men of very moderate capacity and 
 "even of not very enviable reputation, who would not be desired 
 "at the head of a large private business." In December, 1890, 
 in an article in the Forum Mr. White wrote that he had so- 
 journed in every one of the great European municipalities; 
 and that in every respect for which a city exists they were all 
 superior to our own except Constantinople, where Turkish 
 despotism produced the same haphazard, careless, dirty, cor- 
 rupt system which we in America know so well as the result 
 of mob despotism. We quote: "Without the slightest exagger- 
 "ation we may asert that, with very few exceptions, the city 
 "governments of the United States are the worst in Christen- 
 dom the most expensive, the most inefficient, and the most 
 "corrupt." Bryce, writing in 1894, found political rings in 
 existence in New York, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Cincinnati, 
 San Francisco, Baltimore and New Orleans. He might easily 
 have found similar, though smaller and less conspicuous con- 
 trivances in a thousand other cities, towns and villages in the 
 United States. Writing about 1898, Professor Hyslop recites 
 a statement of some of the various well known forms of munici- 
 pal robbery prevalent in our city administrations: 
 
THE PLUNDER OF THE CITIES 
 
 "Sales of monopolies in the use of public thoroughfares; sys- 
 tematic jobbing of contracts; enormous abuses of patronage; enor- 
 mous overcharges for necessary public works. Cities have been 
 compelled to buy land for parks and places because the owners 
 wished to sell them; to grade, pave and sewer streets without in- 
 habitants in order to award corrupt contracts for the works; to 
 purchase worthless properties at extravagant prices; to abolish one 
 office and create another with the same duties, or to vary the func- 
 tions of offices for the sole purpose of redistributing official emolu- 
 ments ; to make or keep the salary of an office unduly high in order 
 that its tenant may pay largely to the party funds'; to lengthen the 
 term of office in order to secure the tenure of corrupt or incompe- 
 tent men. When increasing taxation begins to arouse resistance, 
 loans are launched under false pretences anol often with the assist- 
 ance of falsified accounts. In all the chief towns municipal debts 
 have risen to colossal dimensions and increased with portentous 
 rapidity." (Hyslop, Democracy, pp. 14, 15.) 
 
 This from another writer: 
 
 "No candid man can wonder at it. It is the plain, inevitable 
 consequence of the application of the method of extreme democracy 
 to municipal government. The elections are by manhood suffrage. 
 Only a small proportion of the electors have any appreciable in- 
 terest in moderate taxation and economical administration, and a 
 proportion of votes, which is usually quite sufficient to hold the 
 balance of power, is in the hands of recent and most ignorant immi- 
 grants. Is it possible to conceive of conditions more fitted to sub- 
 serve the purposes of cunning and dishonest men, whose object is 
 personal gain, whose method is the organization of the vicious and 
 ignorant elements of the community into combinations that can 
 turn elections, levy taxes, and appoint administrators? The rings 
 are so skillfully constructed that they can nearly always exclude 
 from office a citizen who is known to be hostile; though a 'good, 
 easy man, who will not fight, and will make a reputable figure- 
 head, may be an excellent investment/ Sometimes, no doubt, the 
 bosses quarrel among themselves, and the cause of honest govern- 
 ment may gain something by the dispute. But in general, as long 
 as government is not absolutely intolerable, the more industrious 
 and respectable classes keep aloof from the nauseous atmosphere of 
 
198 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 municipal politics, and decline the long, difficult, doubtful task of 
 entering into conflict with the dominant rings." 
 
 "The problem," says Mr. Sterne, "is becoming a very serious one, 
 how, with the growth of a pauper element, property rights in cities 
 can be protected from confiscation at the hands of the non-producing 
 classes. That the suffrage is a spear as well as a shield is a fact 
 which many writers on suffrage leave out of sight; that it not only 
 protects the holder of the vote from aggression, but also enables 
 him to aggress upon the rights of others by means of the taxing 
 power, is a fact to which more and more weight must be given as 
 population increases and the suffrage is extended." (Lecky, De- 
 mocracy and Liberty, Vol. I, pp. 99-101.) 
 
 This from a high and recent authority: 
 
 "The standard of integrity in City Councils is far lower even than 
 in State Legislatures. The calibre of membership has so far de- 
 teriorated that in a large proportion of the cities of the country 
 these bodies are held in public contempt." (Appleton's Cyclopedia 
 of American Government, 1914; Corruption, Legislative.) 
 
 In the same work it is stated, in the article on "Bribery," that 
 "The crime of accepting bribes has at one time or another 
 "been proved against members of city councils in a large pro- 
 portion of American cities." This from Ida Tarbell, the well- 
 known writer: 
 
 "It is not too much to say that the revelations of corruption in 
 our American cities, the use of town councils, state legislatures, and 
 even of the Federal Government in the interests of private busi- 
 ness, have discredited the democratic system throughout the world." 
 (The Business of Being a Woman, p. 79.) 
 
 In a report of a commissioner on the Boston city charter, 
 November 6, 1884, it is stated that "the lack of harmony be- 
 tween the different departments, the frequent and notorious 
 "charges of inefficiency and corruption made by members of the 
 "government against each other, and the alarming increase in 
 "the burden of taxation are matters within the knowledge of all 
 
THE PLUNDER OF THE CITIES 1 99 
 
 "who have taxes to pay or who read the proceedings of the 
 "City Council." That report showed that during the previous 
 thirty years the population had increased 190 per cent; prop- 
 erty valuations 200 per cent; expenditures 450 per cent. The 
 appropriations were equal to $27.30 per inhabitant, those of 
 New York $16.76 per inhabitant. The Boston politicians 
 seem to have worked more stealthily and more successfully 
 than the Tweed Ring. 
 
 The corruption in Philadelphia city politics has been noto- 
 rious for a long time. The operations of the infamous Gas Ring 
 caused the debt of the city, which stood at $20,000,000 in 
 1860, to reach $70,000,000 in 1881. "Taxation rose in pro- 
 portion, till in 1 88 1 it amounted to between one-fourth and 
 "one-third of the net income from the property on which it was 
 "assessed, although that property was rated at nearly its full 
 "value. Yet withal, the city was badly paved, badly cleansed, 
 "badly supplied with gas (for which a high price was charged) 
 "and with water." (American Commonwealth, Vol. II, p. 410.) 
 In a memorandum presented to the Pennsylvania legislature in 
 1883 by a number of the leading citizens of Philadelphia, they 
 stated that the city's affairs were in a most deplorable condi- 
 tion. It is there stated to be the worst paved and worst cleaned 
 city in the civilized world; sewage so bad as to endanger 
 health; public buildings badly constructed and then allowed 
 to decay; slovenly management and high taxation. The Gas 
 Ring system was that already described. The political boss 
 originally gained a following of the floating and controllable 
 voters, by which means he got in addition political control of 
 the city's gas workmen, and through them of the primaries, 
 and thus complete power over city affairs. Elections were 
 controlled by repeating, personations, violence, ballot box 
 tampering and other frauds. It was not until 1887 that the 
 final defeat of this ring was obtained, after tremendous efforts. 
 In that year the loose city charter of 1854 was replaced by 
 the tight-string Bullitt charter, and the old gas ring was suc- 
 ceeded by a new combination of rascals. Under this regime 
 
200 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 the city has been governed by oligarchies of city contractors. 
 One of the sources of corruption and scandal has been the 
 garbage and street cleaning contracts. There have been scan- 
 dalous dealings with street franchises. The elections have 
 been fraudulently conducted. Citizens have regarded it as 
 hopeless to vote; out of 416,860 qualified citizens in the spring 
 of 1919 only 241,090 registered as voters. Probably only one- 
 half of the voters actually went to the polls, and those who 
 voted were presumably the most unfit. Why should an intelli- 
 gent man trouble himself to go through such an empty form 
 as that of voting a mere protest against an overpowering gang 
 of organized freebooters? In 1918 the levying of political 
 assessments on city employees was still in force in Philadelphia, 
 and collections were made from ninety-four per cent of the city 
 employees; the total being $250,000 to $500,000 per year to 
 the Republican party alone. A new city charter has now 
 (1919) been enacted and great reforms are promised, but 
 charter tinkering will never cure the evils created by a politi- 
 cally rotten constituency. Judging the future by the past, 
 there will soon be a new Philadelphia plunder machine which 
 will function till about 1950 when there will be a new revolu- 
 tion and a new ring, and so on. 
 
 Bryce states that similar complaints to those made by 
 the Philadelphians were constantly made by the citizens of 
 the other principal cities of the United States. 
 
 He gives a table of the increase of population, valuation, 
 taxation and debt in fifteen of the largest cities of the United 
 States from 1860 to 1875, as follows: 
 
 Increase in population 70.5 per cent. 
 
 Increase in taxable valuation I 5^-9 " " 
 
 Increase in debt 270.9 " 
 
 Increase in taxation 363.2 " " 
 
 Bryce described city government in California in 1877 as 
 very bad and continuing bad up to his present writing (1894). 
 He says: "The municipal government of San Francisco was 
 
THE PLUNDER OF THE CITIES 2OI 
 
 "far from pure. The officials enriched themselves, while the 
 "paving, the draining, the lighting, were scandalously neg- 
 lected; corruption and political jobbery had found their way 
 "even into school management, and liquor was sold everywhere, 
 "the publicans being leagued with the heads of the police to 
 "prevent the enforcement of the laws." 
 
 And again: 
 
 "San Francisco in particular continues to be deplorably misgov- 
 erned, and passed from the tyranny of one Ring to that of another, 
 with no change save in the persons of those who prey upon her." 
 (American Commonwealth, Vol. II, p. 446.) 
 
 It is well known that the great loss of life and property in 
 San Francisco following the earthquake shock of 1906 was 
 chargeable to civic misgovernment. The damage done by the 
 earthquake itself was comparatively light, but the city aque- 
 duct had been so badly built that it was shaken down and the 
 city was left without water, so that it was impossible to put 
 out the numerous fires resulting from the earthquake shock, 
 which, small in their beginnings, were allowed to ravage the 
 city. 
 
 The evidence as to smaller cities is similar. "In Minneapolis, 
 "for instance," says Steffens, "the people who were left to 
 "govern the city hated above all things strict laws. They were 
 "the saloon keepers, gamblers, criminals and the shiftless poor 
 "of all nationalities." (Shame of Cities, p. 65.) 
 
 The failure of manhood suffrage is also well illustrated by 
 the history of the City of New York, where there is a large 
 class of unpropertied voters and of which J. B. Miller, writing 
 in 1887, sa id that the interests of the City were represented 
 almost exclusively by liquor dealers both in the municipal and 
 the state legislatures. In 1840 the New York City debt was 
 $10,000,000, about $33 per capita. In 1870 it was $73,000,000, 
 about $90 per capita. In 1918 (for the new and larger city) 
 it was $1,335,000,000, about $242 per capita. In 1816 the 
 New York tax levy was $344,802, being less than half of one 
 
202 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 per cent of the taxable property. In 1918 the tax levy was 
 $198,232,811, being 2.30 per cent of the taxable property. In 
 1898 the New York City budget was $70,000,000; by 1909 
 it amounted to $156,000,000. The increase in population 
 was only 39.4 per cent in that time, while the city's expenses 
 increased 123 per cent. 
 
 Further evidence may be found in the report of a Commis- 
 sion appointed by Governor Tilden of New York in 1875, to 
 consider the evils of the municipal government of New York 
 City and the necessity of adopting a new and permanent plan 
 for city government. Tilden was a man of recognized ability. 
 He appointed a commission of ten New Yorkers, including 
 judges, lawyers and publicists, men past middle age and of the 
 highest integrity, business experience and reputation. The 
 chairman was William M. Evarts, a distinguished statesman, 
 leader of the New York Bar, who at times held the offices of 
 Attorney General and Secretary of State of the United States. 
 Their report, which was carefully prepared and unanimous, de- 
 scribed the steady deterioration in the government of the city 
 of New York which had then been progressing for a generation 
 past, and which they had seen in progress with their own 
 eyes for that period of time. The following extracts from 
 the report are pertinent: 
 
 "In 1850, we reach a period when, as the annals of the metropolis 
 at that time and the recollections of those yet living, who were then 
 familiar with its affairs will attest, a marked decline had occurred, 
 through a great deterioration in the standing and character of the 
 city officers, bringing with it waste, extravagance and corruption." 
 
 The report refers to the period from 1850 to 1860. It says: 
 
 "Observers of the local government and politics of the metropolis 
 during this period will remember that it was the time when the local 
 managers first organized on a large scale their schemes to control, 
 through compact political arrangements, the management and dis- 
 tribution of the revenues of the city, which then amounted to so large 
 a sum, and it may be said that from that time to the present, with 
 
THE PLUNDER OF THE CITIES 203 
 
 the exception of one short but memorable period, the disposition of 
 these revenues has remained substantially in the hands of the chiefs 
 of trained political organizations, which are mainly supported, in 
 some form or other, from this fund." 
 
 Again: 
 
 "In truth, the public debt of the city of New York, or the larger 
 part of it, represents a vast aggregate of moneys wasted, embezzled 
 or misapplied." 
 
 This waste and theft of public money the report refers to 
 had its direct cause in the incapacity and rascality of public 
 officials all or most of whom as we know were chosen either 
 directly or indirectly by manhood suffrage. The report further 
 says on this point: 
 
 "We place at the head of the list of evils under which our muni- 
 cipal administration labors, the fact that so large a number of im- 
 portant offices have come to be filled by men possessing little, if 
 any, fitness for the important duties they are called upon to dis- 
 charge. . . . There is a general failure, especially in the larger 
 cities, to secure the election or appointment of fit and competent 
 officials. . . . Animated by the expectation of unlawful emolu- 
 ments they expend large sums to secure their places and make 
 promises beforehand to supporters and retainers to furnish patron- 
 age or place." 
 
 Also: 
 
 "It would be clearly within bounds to say that more than one- 
 half of all the present city debts are the direct results of the species 
 of intentional and corrupt misrule above described." 
 
 Further: 
 
 "We do not believe that, had the cities of this State during the 
 last twenty-five years had the benefit of the presence in the various 
 departments of local administration of the services of competent 
 and faithful officers, the aggregate of municipal debts would have 
 amounted to one-third of the present sum, nor the annual taxa- 
 tion one-half of its present amount: while the condition of those 
 
2O4 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 cities in respect to existing provisions for the public needs would 
 have been far superior to what is now exhibited." 
 
 The New York City tax levy for 1877, the year of the 
 report, was $28,400,000, one-half of which was caused by offi- 
 cial robbery. Therefore, according to the report of these able 
 and experienced citizens made after an examination of the 
 city's finances, the city had been robbed of a sum which 
 represented fourteen millions a year, and which capitalized 
 at five per cent amounts to $280,000,000, a fair estimate of 
 the amount of politicians' loot up to that time. In other words, 
 every family in New York had on an average, been plundered 
 to the tune of $1400 by state and city politicians. If this 
 $280,000,000 was not loot what was it? And if not chargeable 
 to manhood suffrage to what is it chargeable? 
 
 The committee showed its opinion of the cause by its choice 
 of the remedy. It recommended the creation of a Board of 
 Finance to control municipal expenditures, and to be elected 
 by tax and rent payers only. This expedient, so objectionable 
 to greedy and grafting politicians, was never adopted or even, 
 offered to the people for adoption. The report fell flat in a 
 legislature elected by the controllable vote, and of course 
 thoroughly corrupt and unpatriotic. 
 
 Looking back still further and for the benefit of those who 
 would like additional evidence upon the political degeneracy 
 of New York City, a few facts will be given taken from Myers' 
 History of Tammany Hall and by him taken mostly from pub- 
 lic documents, commencing about 1826 shortly after "the great 
 "advance" which the twaddling sentimentalist writers tell us 
 was made by the introduction of manhood suffrage. 
 
 In the November election of 1827 was the greatest exhibi- 
 tion of fraud and violence ever seen in the city. "Now," 
 (says Myers) "were observable the effects brought forth by the 
 "suffrage changes of 1822 and 1826." Repeating flourished 
 and honest voters were beaten and arrested for trying to vote. 
 Next year, in 1828, hundreds, if not thousands, of illegal 
 votes were counted, including those of boys of nineteen and 
 
THE PLUNDER OF THE CITIES 2 05 
 
 twenty years of age. This practice was continued in the en- 
 suing decade. It was then just one year after the complete tri- 
 umph of manhood suffrage in New York State that money 
 was first used to influence voting in New York City elections. 
 The city was carried in 1828 by Tammany Hall for Andrew 
 Jackson. Four years later in 1832, and subsequent years, the 
 price of votes in New York City was stated at $5.00 each. 
 Paupers from the almshouse and convicts were voted at the 
 polls. In 1838 Swartwout, a Jackson collector of the port, 
 and an unsavory politician, became a defaulter for $1,200,000, 
 an enormous sum for that time, and Price, the United States 
 district attorney, defaulted for $75,000. Civic frauds were fre- 
 quent and increasing. An aldermanic committee in 1842 re- 
 ported that dishonest office holders had recently robbed the city 
 of near $100,000, equivalent to a theft of $2,000,000 from New 
 York City in our time. The wholesale naturalization mill was 
 put in operation, turning out several thousand new voters a 
 year. From 1841 to 1844 the total vote of the city was thus 
 increased about twenty-five per cent in newly naturalized for- 
 eigners alone; most of them probably without interest in the 
 country or real understanding of its institutions and history. 
 At the election of 1844 it was estimated that twenty per cent 
 of the votes were fraudulent. The primaries were organized 
 by violence and reeked with fraud. The character of many 
 of the noted city politicians was notoriously bad, including 
 professional gamblers, pugilists and even thieves. About this 
 time the city political gangs began to appear. The ward 
 heelers with a following of repeaters were a new power in poli- 
 tics. In one period of ten months, 1839-1840, there were 
 nineteen riots and twenty murders in a city of only 300,000 
 population. Mike Walsh's was the principal gang. The 
 gangs increased in number till in 1856 the Bowery Boys and 
 Dead Rabbits had a pitched street battle in Jackson Street, 
 where ten were killed and eighty wounded. 
 
 The sale of nominations to office first became notorious in 
 1846. Prices ranged from $1,000 to $20,000. This circum- 
 
206 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 stance alone is almost convincing proof of universal corruption 
 in public affairs since no one buys an office unless with the 
 knowledge that money is to be made corruptly in its adminis- 
 tration; and this is usually impossible or too dangerous to be 
 undertaken unless the general administration is so corrupt as 
 to be tolerant of fraud, bribery and extortion. The common 
 council was notoriously for sale; it was believed that every 
 city department was corrupt. In 1851 the Williamsburg 
 Ferry scandal broke out and it was shown that $20,000 in 
 bribes had been paid to New York City aldermen. The 
 "Forty Thieves" was the name given to the New York City 
 aldermen of 1852, to whom one Jacob Sharp first applied for a 
 franchise to build a street railway on Broadway, New York. 
 An injunction was obtained; but they passed the franchise in 
 defiance of the injunction. Of the aldermen who thus voted, 
 one was imprisoned for a fortnight and the others fined. A 
 similar affair was the sale of the New York Third Avenue 
 Street Railroad Franchise by the same board of aldermen; 
 over $30,000 was said to have been paid in bribes for this 
 franchise, a great sum for those days. 
 
 Occasionally when a quarrel broke out over the distribution 
 of the spoils the most appalling disclosures were made; such 
 as those on an investigation by the Grand Jury in 1853, when 
 it appeared that the aldermen demanded a share in every 
 city contract. On February 26th, 1853, the grand jury of 
 New York County handed down a presentment with testi- 
 mony to the effect that enormous sums of money had been 
 expended for the procurement of street railroad franchises in 
 New York City. It was ascertained that $50,000 had been 
 paid in 1851 for the Eighth and Ninth Avenue Railroad fran- 
 chises; that in 1852 $30,000 was paid in bribes for the Third 
 Avenue Railroad franchise; that money was paid for alder- 
 manic votes on franchises of the Catharine Street, Greenpoint, 
 Williamsburg, Grand Street and Wall Street ferries. Numer- 
 ous other instances were given of bribery of members of the 
 common council in connection with sale of city property and 
 
THE PLUNDER OF THE CITIES 207 
 
 other contracts. Evidence as to police corruption was plenti- 
 ful. The chief of police had received one hundred and sixty- 
 three conveyances of property in one year. (Board of Alder- 
 men Documents, Vol. XXI, part 2, No. 55, pp. 1333-35 an( i 
 p. 1573; Myers' History of Tammany Hall, 167. 
 
 Out of sixty thousand votes polled in 1854, ten thousand 
 were for sale. "In the city at this time were about ten thou- 
 "sand shiftless, unprincipled persons who lived by their wits 
 "and the labor of others. The trade of a part of these was 
 "turning primary elections, packing nominatkig conventions, 
 "repeating and breaking up meetings." In 1856 Josiah Quincy 
 saw $25.00 paid for a single vote for a member of Congress. 
 The day "was enlivened with assaults, riots and stabbings." 
 
 The frauds and scandals in city affairs continued and grew 
 from 1854 to 1860; it was impossible to learn from the city's 
 books how much was being plundered. In three years the 
 taxes nearly doubled. From 1850 to 1860 the expenses of the 
 city government increased from $3,200,000 to $9,758,000. 
 
 Politics in the old Sixth Ward of New York is briefly 
 sketched by Frank Moss, at one time Police Commissioner, in 
 his interesting work, The American Metropolis. No doubt 
 civilization existed in that district from 1845 to 1865, tne 
 period referred to by Moss; there were churches and schools, 
 family and business life as elsewhere. It was originally a 
 fairly respectable neighborhood, but thanks to manhood suf- 
 frage, the political life of the community was thoroughly sav- 
 age and its representatives savages, and it and they did much 
 to degrade the whole ward. First we find "that hard-faced, 
 "heavy-handed old rapscallion Isaiah Rynders was the con- 
 trolling spirit. There was nothing that Rynders could not or 
 "would not do, and there are many dark stories of his conduct 
 "during the draft riots of 1863." He was the Boss of the dis- 
 trict, his assistants were ruffians, his leaders and backers were 
 office-holding politicians with the "Hon." prefix to their no- 
 torious names. He was succeeded by Con Donoho, the head 
 of the street cleaning department, whose gang finally 
 
208 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 trounced the Rynders gang into submission and who became 
 thereafter "on close terms with the strongest political men of 
 the city." Moss finds thirty years later a similar alliance be- 
 tween crime and politics in the Eighth Ward of New York, 
 among whose political rulers are, he says "pimps, gamblers, 
 "thugs, fighters and dive keepers." 
 
 In 1860 the mayor was accused of selling appointments to 
 offices. The Grand Jury in a presentment charged him with 
 robbing the tax payers of $420,000. The New York Tribune 
 in June 1860 publicly charged the municipal authorities with 
 theft of public funds. Other newspaper criticism was silenced 
 by orders for public advertising. The money voted for street 
 cleaning was squandered, and the streets were so filthy that the 
 death rate in 1863 was thirty-three per thousand. In a court 
 proceeding in 1867 it incidentally transpired that $50,000 had 
 been paid the common council for one gas franchise. 
 
 In 1857 the notorious William M. Tweed came into promi- 
 nence and acquired political power which he retained for 
 fourteen years, during which time he and his followers were 
 steadily at work looting the city and squandering and amass- 
 ing fortunes. The history of the Tweed regime of plunder in 
 New York City is well known. In 1867 he was at the height 
 of his power. Prior to that date all public contractors in New 
 York City had been required to add ten per cent to their bills 
 and pay over that percentage to certain politicians. In 1867 
 this percentage was increased to thirty-five per cent of which 
 twenty-five per cent went to Tweed. The County Clerk's and 
 Register's office brought in $40,000 to $80,000 a year each; the 
 Sheriff's office $150,000 a year. A part of this income was of 
 course available for election purposes. Tweed and all his 
 associates became rich notwithstanding that they lavished 
 millions in the purchase of voters and public officials. Out 
 of his stolen millions Tweed in the winter of 1871 gave 
 $50,000 to the poor of his own ward and perhaps as much 
 more throughout the city. This made him popular with the 
 thriftless or pauper classes. Many of his transactions were in 
 
THE PLUNDER OF THE CITIES 
 
 the nature of purchases of the state legislature at Albany. He 
 influenced the press by means of advertising contracts, 
 presents to reporters, etc. One newspaper got a profit of 
 nearly $200,000 on a printing contract; another got $80,000 
 a year for advertising; presents to newspaper men ranged from 
 $200 to $2500 a year. In 1871 the New York Sun proposed 
 to erect a statue to the great man. At his daughter's wedding 
 the gifts were worth $100,000. From $36,000,000 in 1868 
 the city debt rose to $136,000,000 in 1871. The new county 
 court house cost the city $12,000,000, of which $9,000,000 
 was undoubtedly stolen; repairs on armories the value of 
 which was $250,000 were charged at $3,000,000 and so on. 
 The total thefts of the Tweed ring amounted to somewhere 
 between $100,000,000 and $200,000,000; the precise figure 
 has never been ascertained. Had Tweed been less greedy, had 
 his gang taken $25,000,000 instead of six times that sum they 
 might have escaped. They went too far and the Tweed ring 
 was overthrown in 1871 by a powerful citizens' movement. 
 
 The reader may wonder what the decent people of New 
 York were thinking, saying and doing all these years while 
 these operations of the managers of the controllable vote were 
 in progress. Just exactly what they are now thinking, saying 
 and doing all over the country; complaining and deploring 
 that it can not be helped. Sometimes on the heels of some 
 unusually scandalous disclosure a reform movement would be 
 started, aided perhaps by young men intensely patriotic, fresh 
 from school and college where they had read about our fine 
 political structure in books that fail to refer to the rotten foun- 
 dation. They learned by sad experience as others before them 
 that the stream will rise no higher than its source; that with 
 a controllable electorate kindly provided by the manhood suf- 
 frage constitution and an organization of scallawags, loafers 
 and criminals to control it the politicians had the best of the 
 situation. Bryce, who was in New York in 1870 and saw the 
 Tweed Ring in its glory, gives us a fine picture of the effect 
 of manhood suffrage in prostrating public conscience and 
 
2IO POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 energy. He says that the respectable democratic leaders 
 winked at the Ring's misdeeds for the sake of the vote; that 
 the press had been purchased or subsidized; that the bench 
 was controlled; that three-quarters of the citizens "paid little 
 "or nothing in the way of direct taxes, and did not realize that 
 "the increase of civic burdens would fall upon them as well as 
 "upon the rich." Here you have the case as plain as day; the 
 electorate, whose business and function it was to secure 
 good government and prevent these evils, failed in its 
 duty; it was itself corrupt and inefficient; and why? 
 Because three-quarters of it paid little or no direct taxes. 
 In other words, they were not property holders. Just as 
 the human soul is undiscoverable except as revealed by the 
 human body, so civilization exhibits itself in property; 
 and the rabble who are unfamiliar with property and 
 are devoid of sympathy with its rights, feel no interest 
 in good government or in any other incident of civilization. 
 Bryce further says: 
 
 "Moreover, the Ring had cunningly placed on the pay rolls of 
 the city a large number of persons rendering comparatively little 
 service, who had become a body of janizaries, bound to defend the 
 government which paid them, working hard for it at elections, and 
 adding, together with the regular employees, no contemptible quota 
 to the total Tammany vote. As for the Boss, those very qualities 
 in him which repelled men of refinement made him popular with the 
 crowd." (American Commonwealth, Vol. II, p. 391.) 
 
 Notwithstanding the Tweed disclosures there was no serious 
 attempt to apply the only practical remedy by reforming the 
 electorate. Here and there a voice was heard crying in the 
 wilderness, but no one regarded it. In October 1876, a writer 
 in the North American Review was clear-eyed enough to read 
 the lesson of the Tweed Ring. He wrote: 
 
 "A very few unscrupulous men, realizing thoroughly the changed 
 condition of affairs, had organized the proletariat of the City; and 
 through the form of suffrage had taken possession of its government. 
 
THE PLUNDER OF THE CITIES 211 
 
 They saw clearly the facts of the case, which the doctrinaires, 
 theorists and patriots studiously ignored or vehemently denied." 
 
 And as a remedy he proposed "A recurrence to the ancient 
 "ways; a strong executive, a non-political judiciary," and that 
 "property must be entitled to representation as well as persons." 
 
 Of course, the article had no perceptible effect. 
 
 Once more the impossible task of creating a good govern- 
 ment by means of the votes of a purchasable constituency was 
 attempted. Such of the ablest men of the city as were willing 
 to dip into the mire of manhood suffrage politics devoted them- 
 selves to the task but in vain. The hopelessness of the under- 
 taking ought to have been apparent from such facts as this, 
 that Tweed's own district re-elected him senator by a large 
 majority in November 1871 after he had been thoroughly ex- 
 posed and while he was being prosecuted for his crimes. The 
 so-called reformers who supplanted the Tweed clique in public 
 office were only political adventurers of a different type; more 
 scrupulous, refined or timid than their predecessors, but poli- 
 ticians after all, since none other could be induced to enter 
 the political arena. The coarse robberies of Tweed's time 
 were discontinued, but the government of New York City by 
 a political clique organized on the basis of the use of the city 
 spoils to secure the controllable vote was continued. It was 
 only for a few months that the tempest cleared the air. The 
 good citizens soon forgot their sudden zeal, or became dis- 
 couraged at the odds against them in a manhood suffrage 
 community. Neglecting the primaries where they had ob- 
 tained but slim results they allowed nominations to fall back 
 into the hands of spoilsmen, and the most important city 
 offices to be fought for by factions differing only in their name 
 and party badges, because all were clearly bent upon selfish 
 gain. Roosevelt, writing' in 1886, tells something of the po- 
 litical conditions of this reformed "after-Tweed" period: 
 
 "In the lower wards (of New York City), where there is a large 
 vicious population, the condition of politics is often fairly appalling, 
 
212 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 and the (local) boss is generally a man of grossly immoral public 
 and private character. In these wards many of the social organiza- 
 tions with which the leaders are obliged to keep on good terms are 
 composed of criminals or of the relatives and associates of criminals. 
 . . . The president of a powerful semi-political association was by 
 profession a burglar; the man who received the goods he stole was 
 an alderman. Another alderman was elected while his hair was still 
 short from a term in the State prison. A school trustee had been 
 convicted of embezzlement and was the associate of criminals." 
 (Century Magazine for November, 1866.) 
 
 Ostrogorski thus describes the period following Tweed's 
 overthrow: 
 
 "The principal instrument of this plunder was the police; they 
 levied a regular toll prescribed by a fixed tariff on all the saloons, 
 houses of ill fame, and gambling hells; extorted money on false 
 pretenses or on no pretenses at all from small traders whom they 
 had the power of molesting. Other perfectly lawful businesses were 
 subjected to a tribute; steamboat companies, insurance societies, 
 banks, etc., paid blackmail in return for the protection accorded 
 to them. The police captains and even the policemen had to buy 
 their places. The government of the city in fact became a huge 
 market in which the officers might as well have sat at little tables 
 and sold their wares openly." (P. 81.) 
 
 In other words, the much vaunted reform uprising which 
 overthrew Tweed was without radical or permanent results, 
 because it left the city still at the mercy of the controllable 
 vote. 
 
 A few later incidents may be added to Mr. Myers' interest- 
 ing collection. In 1874 one McKenna was shot dead in an elec- 
 tion fight in New York and Richard Croker was accused of the 
 crime and tried ; the jury disagreed. Croker afterwards became 
 Tweed's successor and political boss of New York, retiring 
 about 1899 to his native Ireland, with millions made out of 
 politics. About this time the Harlem court house was built. 
 The amount possible to steal was small, but the politicians 
 displayed a spirit worthy of past days; for $66,000 worth of 
 
THE PLUNDER OF THE CITIES 213 
 
 construction they collected from the city $268,000, or at the 
 rate of four to one. In 1884 twenty-one members out of twenty- 
 three of the Board of Aldermen of New York voted to give the 
 franchise for a surface railway on Broadway to the Broadway 
 Surface Railroad Company. The rival road, the Broadway 
 Railroad Company, tried to bribe the Aldermen with $750,000, 
 half cash and half bonds. The Aldermen feared the bonds 
 might be traced, and considered it wiser to accept the $500,000 
 cash offered by the Surface Company. Each alderman was to 
 receive $22,000. Three aldermen were convicted, six fled to 
 Canada and three turned State's evidence. Ten others were 
 indicted but never brought to trial. After 1884 more scien- 
 tific methods replaced the rough old ways, and New York 
 City settled down to a steady stream of boss and machine 
 rule, supported by small graft, blackmail, voluntary contribu- 
 tions and assessments on office holders. During the Croker 
 regime, which commenced about this time, it was understood 
 that men of means, or corporations who wanted "protection" 
 in their property rights or in their various transactions, lawful 
 or otherwise, were expected to send their checks for propor- 
 tional sums to Croker without word or comment. For these 
 contributions he could not be required to account as he held no 
 public office. It was believed that Croker was fair to his con- 
 tributors and that if trouble came they would be looked after. 
 This surely was better than paying blackmail to all sorts of 
 government officials. The machine therefore ran smoother 
 than in Tweed's time; and probably the same kindness towards 
 political bosses is still practised by business men and corpora- 
 tions. There can be no legal objection to such methods, they 
 are safe in every way. In 1889 the Fassett investigating com- 
 mittee appointed by the state senate took about 3500 pages 
 of testimony in regard to city affairs showing that blackmail 
 was systematically levied on gambling houses, liquor saloons, 
 and other places. In 1892 there arose the "Huckleberry" 
 street railway franchise scandal connected with the grant of a 
 valuable franchise in the Bronx, New York City. In 1894 
 
214 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 the Lexow Committee made a new state senate investigation 
 into New York City politics, disclosing fraudulent voting 
 under police protection; sale of police appointments at prices 
 from $300 to $15,000; blackmail levied systematically on 
 liquor sellers, gamblers, swindlers, and loose women. The 
 revenue from these sources was estimated at $7,000,000 annu- 
 ally. This did not include contributions from corporations. In 
 1900 the so-called Mazet Senate Committee conducted a third 
 investigation which brought out evidence tending to show that 
 the mayor (Van Wyck) had been a party to a conspiracy 
 to create a monopoly of ice in the City of New York. The 
 essential meanness of a scheme to fatten on the needs of the 
 poor during the sultry months was apparent even to the most 
 stupid voter; the mayor became unpopular and at the end of 
 his term retired to Paris with great wealth as it was said. The 
 Mazet committee unearthed the fact that the city contracts 
 went to politicians, not to business men. 
 
 Particulars of other scandals, such as the Ramapo Water 
 Scheme; the system of judicial assessments for office, the silent 
 partnerships of political leaders in city contracts, and police cor- 
 ruption must be omitted here for want of space. About 1900 
 the New York, Westchester and Boston Railroad Company, an 
 adjunct of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad 
 Company, was seeking a franchise to enter New York City; 
 it obtained it in 1904 from the New York municipal authori- 
 ties. Ten years afterwards in 1914 it was ascertained in an 
 investigation by the Interstate Commerce Commission that in 
 order to get the franchise the Railroad Company had been re- 
 quired to distribute $1,500,000 in cash to politicians and to 
 give a $6,000,000 contract to a business corporation controlled 
 by politicians. This same corporation obtained other contracts 
 from other quarters, about $15,000,000 in all, through politi- 
 cal influence. 
 
 The foregoing instances of New York municipal scandals 
 are more than sufficient for the purposes of this chapter. For 
 an extended account of some of the evils and problems of 
 
THE PLUNDER OF THE CITIES 21$ 
 
 American municipalities the reader is referred to Eaton on 
 Government of Municipalities, published in 1899, and to 
 other works herein referred to. But you cannot (says Steffens) 
 put all the known incidents of the corruption of an Ameri- 
 can city into a book; and it is probable that a mere sketch 
 of all the actual discovered and known American municipal 
 frauds and malpractices committed or culpably permitted in 
 the past eighty years would fill many large volumes. The 
 statements of the writers hereinbefore quoted in proof of the 
 deplorable failure of American municipal government, though 
 necessarily general in terms are sufficient and convincing; and 
 the specific instances herein mentioned were given not 
 so much to sustain this undisputed general testimony as 
 to illustrate it; and as a local map or sketch may aid 
 a traveller to call to mind the ground traversed in past years, 
 so here to assist the memory of the reader as to the details and 
 quality of frauds and rascalities notorious in their time, and 
 with the story of which he is or has been more or less familiar. 
 Nor will the limits of this volume permit an attempt to set 
 forth an account however slight of the various futile efforts 
 made from time to time to reduce the stream of municipal 
 corruption. They have all failed because they did not reach 
 the source of the flow. In some American cities an attempt 
 at a qualified dictatorship has been made; instead of the elec- 
 tion of all civic functionaries, as required by the logical applica- 
 tion of the manhood suffrage doctrine, the plan has been 
 adopted of electing only a mayor, for four years, and giving him 
 the unqualified power of appointment of all other city officials. 
 Instead of the annual election of say ten heads of bureaus, or 
 departments, a year, making forty appeals to popular wisdom, 
 we have thus in four years only one such call for the vox 
 populi. This is on its face a complete admission of the failure 
 of manhood suffrage; and in reality, this one-man system has 
 always been adopted after some disgusting exposure of rotten- 
 ness in city government had demonstrated that failure. 
 Bryce furnishes a chapter, written by Mayor Low, a reform 
 
2l6 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 mayor of Brooklyn, advocating this sort of dictatorship, which 
 was in use during his incumbency. Low says that die local 
 city legislative bodies have almost everywhere abused their 
 powers. This fact is notorious. Local self-government of 
 cities by boards of aldermen, or city councils, elected by the 
 people under the manhood suffrage system, has been produc- 
 tive of so many grotesque blunders, shameful wastes and 
 robberies, beside neglect and mismanagement of city affairs, 
 that it has been frequently thrown into the discard, and re- 
 placed by boards, commissions, superintendents and other 
 appointive officials, as proposed by Low. But according to the 
 manhood suffrage theory this is all wrong and the municipal 
 legislatures chosen by the people, boards of aldermen, common 
 councils (it used to be a joke among the young men to call 
 them "common scoundrels") or what not should have power 
 to lay, collect and expend all city taxes. But every one knows 
 that if that were done, a perfect riot of extravagance and 
 plunder would forthwith ensue followed by insolvency, dis- 
 order, and finally anarchy. Take the City of New York for 
 instance, where the Board of Aldermen, which is the municipal 
 legislature, is elected by manhood suffrage, and give that body 
 the power of governing the city which logically belongs to it 
 upon the manhood suffrage theory, and in one month's time, 
 demoralization would be apparent; the police and fire depart- 
 ments unreliable, fire insurance rates doubled, expenses mount- 
 ing upward, the air filled with political scandals, and the city's 
 credit stunned and languishing. Such is no doubt the opinion 
 of probably nineteen New York business men out of twenty, 
 based upon history, traditions, experience and observation. 
 If manhood suffrage be right in principle, the government of 
 cities by representatives chosen at ward or district elections 
 would be the most successful feature of the American democ- 
 racy; for all the adjuncts of a working democracy, public 
 schools, newspapers, conferences and discussion of political 
 questions abound in the city more than in the country; but the 
 contrary is the case. All these advantages are offset and more 
 
THE PLUNDER OF THE CITIES 217 
 
 by the simple fact that the controllable vote is greater in the 
 city than in the country. As to city government by officials 
 appointed under legislative authority, that too has always 
 failed for the reason that it has always been corrupted by the 
 legislative taint. Most of Tweed's plundering was done with 
 legislative sanction. 
 
 There is nothing in the American atmosphere nor in the 
 American blood to prevent a pure civic administration. This 
 appears by the actual experience of the City of Washington. 
 In 1867 Congress established municipal government by man- 
 hood suffrage in the District of Columbia. "Under these 
 "conditions unrestricted suffrage produced extravagance, cor- 
 "ruption and other incidents of bad government." Lalor's 
 Cyclopedia, Suffrage.) Result, that in 1878 Congress had to 
 abolish elections in the District and to go back to the system 
 which had been adopted in 1798 of a government by an ap- 
 pointed board of three commissioners. "Nevertheless" (says 
 Eaton) "the City of Washington, under this new system, has 
 "had the most economical, efficient, and respectable government 
 "of any city in the United States." (Government of Munici- 
 palities, p. 156.) Here the appointing power is absolutely 
 free from the influence of the controllable vote or of any vote 
 of the people of Washington. This instance shows clearly 
 that the mischief in our popular system lies in the electorate 
 itself. Meantime the people of Washington are to be con- 
 gratulated that they are free from the brutality and roguery 
 of a universal suffrage popular government. 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 BRIEF REFERENCE TO MANY NOTED DISCLOSURES OF GOVERN- 
 MENTAL CORRUPTION MOSTLY IN STATE AND FEDERAL 
 AFFAIRS SINCE THE INSTITUTION OF MANHOOD SUFFRAGE 
 IN THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 IT is an unpleasant task, that of dragging to light past 
 records of malversation in office, and it is nearly equally un- 
 pleasant to inspect them after production; and though it be 
 necessary for the purpose in hand to set before the reader a 
 number of instances of such misdeeds, the tale will be con- 
 densed and shortened as much as possible, down almost to a 
 mere enumeration of the scandals referred to. Most writers, 
 native and foreign, who have undertaken to criticize official de- 
 linquency in this country, have been content to rely upon their 
 readers' general knowledge of the facts. The present writer 
 is aware that his readers also are probably already prepared 
 to give from memory and tradition a general assent to the 
 accusations herein contained, but he wishes for present pur- 
 poses to refresh this recollection and to fortify this tradition. 
 After all, most of us have but a dim remembrance of even the 
 most interesting details of past history; that is why each gen- 
 eration repeats the mistakes of the last one. The distinguished 
 Spanish philosophical novelist Blasco Ibanez has been fre- 
 quently heard to say that nations learn but little by their mis- 
 takes; that when disaster comes the people cry aloud in pain, 
 anger and indignation, and make strong resolves of future 
 amendment; but when the trouble passes they forget alike the 
 lessons learned and the good resolutions taken. The writer 
 earnestly desires to create in the minds of his readers such a 
 feeling of indignation as can only arise from a clear and defi- 
 
 218 
 
STATE AND FEDERAL CORRUPTION 2 19 
 
 nite realization of the facts, and yet it is impossible to give 
 them in detail ; the volume would be too great. The scandalous 
 instances referred to in this chapter and elsewhere in this book 
 are but a very small part of the story of popular misgovern- 
 ment in the United States under the manhood suffrage regime, 
 and even if to them were added every other instance of official 
 misconduct discovered or published for the period we are con- 
 sidering the whole would fall far short of a full measure of 
 the mischief done, for it would amount to no more than a recital 
 of its superficial indications and symptoms. We all know 
 that gross but hidden corruption may long fester in the body 
 politic, or in a public institution, unknown to the world at 
 large, until disclosed by some flagrant display, which like a 
 spot on the surface of an apple reveals the decay and putridity 
 within. And so here, the whole American political system has 
 been corrupted by the virus of the controllable vote; and these 
 scandals are but the eruptions denoting the diseased inward 
 condition. Besides this, the reader is asked to bear in mind 
 that the instances here given by no means constitute a com- 
 plete record; they are only a few of the most important pub- 
 licly disclosed cases. No attempt was made at thorough re- 
 search or investigation; only those are mentioned which are 
 generally known, and which came readily to the writer's 
 memory, or appeared on a cursory examination of a few pub- 
 lications; whereas out of one hundred discovered, an average of 
 but ten are publicly denounced and but one judicially convicted. 
 Here are only the large and important, only the national and 
 state plunder conspiracies ; the misdeeds of the chiefs and mas- 
 ters; for each one of these there have been a hundred smaller 
 thefts, pilferings and frauds; a thousand village, town and 
 county knaveries. Below or attached to each chief were scores 
 or Jiundreds of subordinates or followers; how many of them 
 escaped the contagion of the evil example of their leaders and 
 superiors? These half hundred scandals about to be set down 
 in this chapter, properly considered, do not merely represent the 
 trespasses of fifty individuals; they really show forth the mis- 
 
220 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 conduct and depravity of a class and the corruption and dis- 
 grace of an entire political system. 
 
 The Golphin claim for $43,000 was an old revolutionary 
 claim originally made not against the United States, but against 
 Georgia. In 1835 a politician named Crawford became at- 
 torney for the claimants on a contingent fee of one-half. In 
 1848 a bill authorizing its payment out of the U. S. Treasury 
 was passed through Congress without discussion, and the claim 
 was paid in full. In 1850, this same Crawford being Secretary 
 of War, the Treasury Department was induced by some one 
 to pay the claimant $191,000 for back interest in addition to 
 the principal already paid. Of this sum Crawford received 
 $94,000. The names of three cabinet officers were smirched 
 by the scandal which ensued on the discovery of the facts. 
 
 A majority of the Wisconsin legislature of 1856 was bribed 
 to vote for a valuable land grant to the La Crosse and Mil- 
 waukee Railroad Company. Stocks and bonds to the amount 
 of $175,000 were distributed among thirteen senators, and 
 $335,000 among members of the Assembly. The Governor 
 received $50,000; his private secretary $5,000, and other 
 officials corresponding sums all in bonds of the company. 
 (Rhodes, III, p. 61.) 
 
 "The investigation of the scandal of the Milwaukee and La 
 "Crosse Railway Company in Wisconsin (1858) showed that 
 "about $900,000 worth of bonds had been distributed among 
 "legislators and prominent politicians in the state. Conditions 
 "like these have probably obtained in all the states at some time 
 "or other." (Reinsch, p. 231.) . 
 
 In 1857 three members of the National House of Represen- 
 tatives were proved guilty of corrupt practices, and resigned 
 their seats to avoid expulsion. 
 
 In 1867-8 was the famous Erie Railroad scandal which for 
 months occupied the attention of the public of the entire coun- 
 try. It presented a series of dramatic incidents, and the 
 merest possible outline of its history is sufficient to enlighten 
 the reader as to the rotten conditions then prevailing in New 
 
STATE AND FEDERAL CORRUPTION 221 
 
 York State politics. William M. Tweed was the political 
 boss of New York City and was aiming to control the Legis- 
 lature. The judges of the New York Supreme Court had been 
 elected by manhood suffrage and one of them named Barnard 
 was one of his creatures. Jay Gould, a financial adventurer 
 of New York City, who died worth fifty millions of dollars, was 
 then at the beginning of his career; one of his associates was a 
 still more picturesque adventurer named Fisk. The Vander- 
 bilts, then and now a very wealthy family of New York City, 
 desiring to get control of the management of the Erie Railroad 
 Company started to purchase in the open market enough shares 
 of its stock for that purpose. To defeat this project one Drew, 
 then in control of the Erie Railroad Company, issued 58,000 
 new shares of Erie stock. It was charged that this issue was 
 illegal and that Drew kept printing the shares as fast as the 
 Vanderbilts could buy them. Jay Gould was reported to have 
 pocketed several millions by the transaction. Thereupon, the 
 Vanderbilts took legal proceedings to annul this 58,000 shares. 
 Drew, Fisk, Gould and others escaped during a fog in row- 
 boats from New York City across the Hudson River to New 
 Jersey and began a suit for conspiracy against the Vanderbilts 
 and Judge Barnard of the Supreme Court. An attempt to 
 kidnap them and bring them back to New York was made and 
 failed. Gould obtained a handsome residence in New Jersey, 
 and the Drew clique and he began an effort to acquire a cor- 
 rupt control of the New Jersey Legislature for the purpose 
 of getting their acts legalized, and also had a bill introduced 
 into the New York Legislature with that object. Doubtless it 
 was hoped to set the two legislatures of New York* and New 
 Jersey underbidding each other for the Drew-Gould money. 
 The New York legislators were only getting $300 a year sal- 
 ary at that time, and were eager for a share of the money 
 which was expected to be distributed in payment for this 
 legislation. All ordinary usiness of the New York legislature 
 was comparatively neglected, while groups gathered about the 
 hallways and the cloak room of the Capitol in Albany talking 
 
222 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 in undertones. A fair rate for members' votes was mentioned 
 as between $2,000 and $3,000 each. The Erie people, how- 
 ever, at first offered only $1,000 a vote, $500 down and $500 
 when the bill became a law. Boss Tweed advised the members 
 to stand firm and they would get more from the Vanderbilts. 
 The matter got before the Railroad Committee of the As- 
 sembly. The Committee was reported to be divided. Sud- 
 denly a rumor started that Vanderbilt and Drew were com- 
 promising. This created a panic among the Albany legislators. 
 Some of them it was said began to offer to take $500. Soon 
 the Assembly Railroad Committee reported unanimously 
 against the bill ; the report was agreed to and the bill was sup- 
 posed to be killed. A member of the Assembly named Glenn 
 then stated openly that he had been approached and offered a 
 bribe of $500 to vote for the Erie Bill and asked for a commit- 
 tee of investigation. The committee was appointed and re- 
 ported that they had examined the books of the railroad com- 
 pany and found that no money had been used to influence 
 the legislature. Glenn resigned his seat. Finally the bill 
 actually passed the Legislature. This was followed by ve- 
 hement charges of corruption in the public press and elsewhere. 
 It was stated that one senator had obtained $15,000 from one 
 side, and then $20,000 from the other side; and still not satis- 
 fied, wanted $1,000 more for his son who acted as his private 
 secretary. Another committee of investigation was appointed 
 which subsequently reported that they could find no proof of 
 wrong doing. Vanderbilt and Drew now compromised mat- 
 ters and Tweed joined the Drew, Gould and Fisk combination 
 and was made a director of the Erie Company as part of a 
 scheme to obtain the votes of the counties through which the 
 Erie Railroad ran for Hoffman, who was Tweed's man, as 
 Governor. Tweed was to manage the courts in the interests of 
 the Erie. Then began an effort by the Erie to get control of 
 the Albany & Susquehanna Railroad and thereupon ensued 
 another fight in the courts, Judge Barnard, who was Tweed's 
 judge, issuing orders on one side in New York and Judge Peck- 
 
STATE AND FEDERAL CORRUPTION 223 
 
 ham making counteracting orders in Albany. Gould and Fisk 
 secured the Grand Opera House at Eighth Avenue and Twenty- 
 third Street, New York City, for the main offices of 
 the Erie Railway Company, where they also established 
 their personal headquarters. Miss Josie Mansfield, a 
 well-known friend of Fisk's, took an adjoining house, 
 where it was alleged Judge Barnard held court and issued 
 injunctions and orders of various kinds. The Susquehanna 
 Railroad people found it impossible to get service upon 
 either Gould or Fisk of court orders issued on their 
 behalf, because no one who was not known to be friendly could 
 get into the Opera House where the clique in power were well 
 guarded. The President of the Albany & Susquehanna Com- 
 pany thereupon sent his own son to New York to serve papers. 
 They never were served and the body of the young man was 
 found a corpse in the Hudson River soon afterwards. 
 
 The Erie Railroad scandal was connected with the Wall 
 Street conspiracy to corner the gold market as it was called, 
 in which Fisk and Gould were also interested. Gold coin was 
 then selling at a premium everywhere in the United States; 
 the price fluctuated from hour to hour; a New York Brokers 
 Exchange, called the Gold Room, was entirely devoted to this 
 speculation; a daring attempt was made by Gould, Fisk and 
 others to monopolize the gold supply and advance the price 
 enormously. The mystery as to what, if any, high politicians 
 were concerned in this plot was never solved. Says Henry 
 Adams: "The Congressional Committee took a quantity of 
 "evidence which it dared not probe and refused to analyze. 
 "Although the fault lies somewhere on the administration and 
 "can lie nowhere else, the trail always faded and died out at 
 "the point where any member of the administration became 
 "visible. . . . The worst scandals of the Eighteenth Century 
 "were relatively harmless by the side of this, which smirched 
 "executive, judiciary, banks, corporate systems, professions and 
 "people, all the great active forces of society, in one dirty 
 "cesspool of vulgar corruption." (Education of Henry Adams, 
 p. 271.) 
 
224 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 On March 18, 1875, Governor Tilden, in a special message 
 to the New York State Legislature, stated that for five years 
 ending Sept. 30, 1874, millions had been wasted on the canals 
 by unnecessary repairs and corrupt contracts. Upon ten 
 fraudulent contracts New York State had paid more than one 
 and one-half million dollars while the proposals at contract 
 price called for less than half a million. The exact figures are: 
 
 Paid by the State $1,560,769.84 
 
 Amount of Contracts 424,735.90 
 
 A commission to investigate was created. Indictments were 
 found against the son of a state senator, a member of the 
 board of canal appraisers, an ex-canal commissioner, two 
 ex-superintendents of canals, and one division engineer. (See 
 Political History of New York, Alexander, p. 324.) 
 
 From 1867 to 1872 were in progress the Union Pacific Rail- 
 road irregularities commonly known as the Credit Mobilier 
 frauds in which a number of prominent United States Congress- 
 men were implicated. 
 
 The Freedmen's Bureau (Federal) irregularities covered 
 1871 and 1872, and after investigation large sums remained 
 unaccounted for. 
 
 From 1872 to 1874 were exposed the Internal Revenue 
 Moiety frauds, involving millions and implicating Secretary 
 Richardson of the United States Treasury and many other 
 Treasury and Internal Revenue officials. 
 
 In 1874 were investigated and exposed the District of Co- 
 lumbia government scandals involving "Boss" Shepherd and 
 others connected with the Washington City administration. 
 
 The noted whiskey ring frauds were perpetrated from 
 1869 to 1874 and were exposed about the latter date. In those 
 frauds a number of important United States government offi- 
 cials were implicated and the Treasury was defrauded out of 
 over two millions thereby. 
 
 Pennsylvania State politics have for over half a century had 
 the reputation of being extremely corrupt. One of its most 
 
STATE AND FEDERAL CORRUPTION 22$ 
 
 noted political bosses was Simon Cameron, who was at the 
 head of the principal Pennsylvania ring for about twenty 
 years prior to 1877. He was able more than once to force or 
 purchase his election as United States Senator and was also 
 able to deliver the vote of the State of Pennsylvania to Lincoln 
 in the Chicago Convention of 1860 thus defeating Seward. For 
 this service and as the result of a bargain then made he was ap- 
 pointed by Lincoln Secretary of War in 1861. His adminis- 
 tration of that office was so scandalous that he was soon com- 
 pelled to resign. (Arena, January, 1905.) 
 
 The Belknap War Department scandals covered the period 
 from 1870 to 1876. Belknap was Secretary of War and being 
 threatened with impeachment resigned his office. 
 
 The Star Route frauds exposed in 1881 were the result of 
 conspiracies between high post-office officials at Washington, 
 a former United States Senator Dorsey of Arkansas and others. 
 Large sums of government money were obtained by means of 
 fraudulent mail contracts. 
 
 Philadelphia. Next to the New York Tweed Ring the most 
 famous in American municipal life was the Philadelphia gas 
 ring (1870-1881). Its boss (Republican), named McManus, 
 absolutely controlled about twenty thousand voters who were 
 dependent on the ring in one way or another. No candidate 
 hostile to the ring could be nominated for office. The posses- 
 sion of the great city offices gave the ring members oppor- 
 tunity to make fortunes and at the same time the power to 
 contribute large sums to the party funds. Great numbers of 
 city employees were put under pay. The debt of the city, 
 which was $20,000,000 in 1860 rose in 1881 to $70,000,000. 
 Finally a committee of one hundred citizens was created to 
 obtain redress and there were legal proceedings against those 
 implicated and some convictions. Referring to this episode 
 a writer says: 
 
 "Its debt (Philadelphia's) increased at the rate of three 
 "millions a year without any important improvement being in- 
 troduced into the municipal plant; inefficiency, waste, badly 
 
226 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 "paved and filthy streets, unwholesome and offensive water and 
 "a slovenly and costly management. The ring manufactured 
 "majorities at the polls by means of frauds in the voting and 
 "counting of the ballots; it bought votes wholesale and re- 
 "tail, forcing all those who received salaries from the city to 
 "provide the wherewithal for corruption. The policemen them- 
 "selves had to contribute. Like the Tammany Ring, the Gas 
 "Ring stopped the mouth of the press by regular subsidies so 
 "that not a single paper could be found to plead the cause of 
 "honest government." The story of the Philadelphia Gas Ring 
 is well told by Mr. Bryce. (American Commonwealth.) 
 
 Philadelphia municipal scandals have been so numerous that 
 they would require a volume to themselves to treat them fully. 
 In 1901 there was the Street Franchise scandal. Fourteen 
 street franchises worth millions were granted free by the 
 Philadelphia city government to members of a political ring. 
 As proof of the rascality of the transaction John Wanamaker 
 publicly offered the city $2,500,000 cash for these same 
 franchises, admitting that they were worth much more. The 
 political corruption there was said to equal that of anything 
 ever known in New York except in Tweed's time. In certain 
 parts of the city in 1905 about forty per cent of the vote 
 cast was said to be fraudulent. "Crimes against the ballot 
 "box no longer seemed to affront the public conscience." 
 
 In 1898 there was a great scandal in connection with the 
 failure of the People's Bank of Philadelphia in which United 
 States Senator Quay and State Treasurer Haywood were im- 
 plicated. About $500,000 state funds and $50,000 city funds 
 disappeared and were never recovered. 
 
 In 1900 occurred the Grand Rapids Water Scandals. Bribes 
 to the amount of $100,000 were distributed to City officials. 
 The City Attorney was convicted, and there were twenty-four 
 indictments of ex-aldermen, politicians, newspaper men and 
 others. 
 
 Spanish War Scandals. These were numerous. Here is one 
 specimen of many. In 1899 military goods were sold for 
 
STATE AND FEDERAL CORRUPTION 227 
 
 $10,500 and purchased back for $60,000. There were in- 
 dictments and convictions. 
 
 In January, 1903, President Roosevelt instituted an inves- 
 tigation in the Post Office Department which resulted in the 
 revelation of a large number of fraudulent contracts by which 
 the government had been robbed of thousands of dollars, and 
 the criminal conviction of two United States senators. 
 
 St. Louis. The following interesting story of political ras- 
 cality appeared in McC lure's in November 1902. In 1898 
 one Snyder, capitalist and promoter, came to St. Louis with 
 a traction proposition inimical to the interests of the city rail- 
 ways, who were then paying seven members of the council 
 $5,000 each per year to protect them, besides paying another 
 councilman a special retainer of $25,000 to watch these seven 
 boodlers. Snyder set about buying the members, who then 
 went back on their first bargain, and arranged a meeting to 
 see if they could not agree on a new price. The meeting broke 
 up in a row and each man started in to work for himself. 
 Four councilmen got from Snyder $10,000 each, one got 
 $15,000, another $17,500, another $50,000; twenty-five 
 members of the House of Delegates got $3,000 each. In all 
 Snyder paid $250,000 for the franchise, and as the traction 
 people had raised only $175,000 to beat it, the franchise was 
 passed. Then Snyder sold out to his old opponents for $i,- 
 250,000. He was criminally convicted some years later on 
 charges growing out of this affair. 
 
 Missouri 1903. Baking Powder Scandal. Various 
 members of the legislature charged with accepting bribes in 
 connection with legislation in favor of the baking powder 
 monopoly. 
 
 1904 Oregon Land Scandal. Senator Mitchell, Congress- 
 man Williamson and others were charged with conspiracy and 
 bribery in an attempt to defraud the government. Two con- 
 gressmen were convicted. 
 
 St. Louis. In an editorial in the Arena for January 1905 
 it is stated that in St. Louis free government has been de- 
 
228 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 stroyed by shameful crimes; and in an article by Lee Meri- 
 wether, formerly Labor Commissioner for Missouri, and 
 author of a number of books of travel, the writer describes 
 a transaction by which a street franchise was obtained in St. 
 Louis in January 1902 by one Turner. The amount to be 
 paid the municipal council for the franchise was $135,000 
 which was put in a safety-vault box of which an agent had one 
 key and the boodlers the other. The franchise was granted, 
 but a citizen obtained an injunction from the courts, where- 
 upon the agent refused to pay. Afterwards Turner became 
 State's evidence; the box with the $135,000 was produced in 
 court, a number of the members of the municipal council were 
 convicted, and some fled the country. 
 
 California Legislature. In 1905 the California Senate ap- 
 pointed a committee of seven to investigate alleged misman- 
 agement of certain building and land associations. A majority 
 of the committee selected an agent to approach the officers of 
 one of the associations, with the result that the sum of $1400 
 was agreed upon and paid to stop the investigation. The 
 agent confessed; four senators were expelled, and two were 
 convicted by the courts. 
 
 Ohio. An important investigation was undertaken by the 
 Drake Committee of the Ohio Senate in 1906. In inquiring 
 into the affairs of Cincinnati, the committee caused the return 
 to the public treasury of over $200,000, which had been given 
 as gratuities to (state) treasurers, by banks favored in the 
 deposit of Hamilton County funds. 
 
 New York Insurance Frauds. A New York legislative com- 
 mittee investigated the great life insurance companies in 
 1905-6. Results showed that Republican as well as Demo- 
 cratic legislators had been bought, and that enormous corrup- 
 tion funds had been contributed to both political parties. 
 Bribery expenditures were classified on the various insurance 
 companies' books as "legal expenses." In 1904 alone, the 
 Mutual Life Insurance Company thus disbursed $364,254, the 
 Equitable Life Assurance Society $172,698, the New York Life 
 
STATE AND FEDERAL CORRUPTION 22() 
 
 Insurance Company $204,019. From 1898 to 1904 the Mu- 
 tual Company expended more than $2,000,000 in so-called 
 "legal expenses" supposed to be payments to influence legis- 
 lation. From 1895 to 1904 the total payments made by the 
 New York Life to its chief lobbyist at Albany were $1,312,197. 
 
 Boston, Mass. In 1907 public hearings before a com- 
 mittee of investigation resulted in eleven indictments mostly 
 of city officials and contractors for frauds against the city. 
 Gross incompetency, neglect and non-efficiency of some of the 
 city departments and officials and mismanagement of city 
 business was revealed. 
 
 Pennsylvania , 1907. The State Capitol scandals. About 
 $9,000,000 was paid for furniture for the State Capitol, being 
 an excess of $6,000,000 over actual cost. There were a 
 number of criminal convictions of public officials in connection 
 with this affair. 
 
 San Francisco 1907 and 1908. The Ruef Scandals. 
 These related to the procuring of street franchises by the 
 bribery of members of the San Francisco board of supervisors 
 through the agency of Abraham Ruef, a political boss. Nearly 
 one hundred indictments were filed, and there were some con- 
 fessions and convictions. 
 
 Larimer Scandal. A general corruption fund called "the 
 jack-pot" was made in 1908, from which payments were made 
 to the Illinois legislators for their votes. Lorimer was elected 
 United States Senator, January nth, 1909, through a Republi- 
 can-Democratic combination. There were negotiations for the 
 delivery of a block of fifteen votes at prices reported to be as 
 high as $30,000. Certain votes were purchased at $900 to 
 $2500. There were judicial proceedings and some confessions. 
 
 The New York "Yellow Dog" Scandal. On the investiga- 
 tion of charges that Senator Allds of New York had in 1910 
 accepted money for preventing legislation, it was shown that 
 in the course of a few years two or three joint funds were 
 raised among bridge-building companies for political "protec- 
 tion" at Albany. The names of a former speaker of the 
 
230 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 legislature and another member, both dead, were given as 
 having received these bribes. 
 
 Colorado. In the Cosmopolitan Magazine for December, 
 1910, it was stated that on one occasion, when the franchises 
 of some public service corporations were in peril, a Republican 
 leader took $20,000 of his campaign fund to Democratic head- 
 quarters to save the day for his "interests." As many as 8,000 
 fraudulent votes have been available in Denver for whichever 
 party was slated by the "interests" to win. 
 
 Pennsylvania. William Flinn, who together with Senator 
 Quay was in control of Republican politics for many years 
 in Pennsylvania, testified before a senatorial committee in 
 1912 that he had contributed so far that year nearly $150,000 
 to the political campaign, both for the work in the primaries 
 before the convention, and for the presidential campaign after 
 the convention. 
 
 In an article entitled "Case of the Quaker City" (Outlook, 
 May 25, 1912) the writer states that Philadelphia has paid a 
 contractor $520,000 each year to remove its garbage, which 
 he has then resold in the form of profitable products; in an 
 outlying district people have been arrested for feeding their 
 own garbage to their own pigs ; the contractor wanted it. Upon 
 a change of administration in 1912, over $800,000 of unpaid 
 bills for 1911 and previous years were found. It required 
 about $4,000,000 of borrowed money to make up the deficiency 
 in appropriations for current expenses for 1912, and about 
 as much more to provide for routine items of neglected main- 
 tenance, such as condemned boilers, elevators, dilapidated 
 sewers, dangerous bridges. All this notwithstanding the fact 
 that, in addition to funds raised from taxation and other cur- 
 rent revenue, $51,000,000 was borrowed in the last four years 
 with practically nothing to show for it. Commenting on this 
 state of affairs the writer says: 
 
 "To democracy are we committed. Does this mean that we 
 "are forever to live loosely, scandalously, until nature rebels 
 "and we have to fly to a violent cure, a political Carlsbad, a 
 
STATE AND FEDERAL CORRUPTION 231 
 
 "civil war, be cleansed only to begin over again each time? 
 "Does the theory of democracy exact more than human nature 
 "has to give?" 
 
 Congress. The United States Congress, judged by any 
 proper ethical standard, has been for a long time past a more 
 or less corrupt body, as has frequently appeared by its fre- 
 quent large and scandalous misappropriations of public funds 
 made on the demand of a very low class of voters manipulated 
 by rascally politicians. The money thus stolen and wasted has 
 earned the euphonious title of "Pork," and has usually been 
 distributed in the shape of appropriations for unnecessary pub- 
 lic buildings, or harbor improvements. Federal court houses 
 costing very large sums have been extravagantly built and are 
 being maintained in places where the court sits only a few 
 days in a year, and where therefore the hiring of a few rooms 
 for the occasion of the court's session would have been suffi- 
 cient. Among the items represented in the appropriation bill 
 for 1913 are the following: 
 
 The City of New Haven, with a population of 180,000, for a 
 post-office, pink marble, $1,200,000. 
 
 For court houses: 
 
 At Texarkana, Texas, where court is only held four days a 
 year, $110,000. At Harrison, Arkansas, having a population 
 of 1600, where court is only held nine days in a year, $100,000. 
 At Evanston, Wyoming, having a population of 2500, where 
 court is only held two days in a year, $15,000. At Mariana, 
 Fla., where court only sits two days a year, $70,000. 
 
 Gadsden, Alabama, a small town, Federal building, $188,- 
 ooo. At Anderson, S. C., a court house at $70,000 was or- 
 dered, and at Pikeville, Ky., and in twelve other towns where 
 there was no court sitting, court houses were voted. 
 
 Post-office at Gainesville, Fla.: population 6000; cost 
 $150,000. 
 
 In Virginia the Federal building at Big Stone, with a popu- 
 lation of about one thousand, cost or is costing $100,000 and 
 a few years ago it was stated that at that time there were 
 
232 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 twenty-five others being erected or recently built in that State 
 in similar small towns costing from $5,000 to $75,000 each. 
 
 Expensive post-offices were ordered at Newcastle, Wyo- 
 ming, with a population of 975; Jasper, Ala., with a popula- 
 tion of 2500; Vernal, Utah, with a population of 836, and an- 
 other place with a population of 942. Four other small towns 
 in Utah each have expensive post-offices. 
 
 These are samples of the Federal Building Bill or "Pork" 
 Bill as it was called, of 1913, amounting to $45,000,000, which 
 was rushed through both houses on the log-rolling principle. 
 It was in effect a congressional conspiracy to plunder the gov- 
 ernment. Of this bill Senator Kern said that it was the 
 "boldest and most audacious raid on the public treasury that 
 "has been attempted in recent years. The pork in this barrel 
 "is of such quality that it smells to Heaven." This kind of 
 rascality has been increasing. There was bought a few years 
 ago at Seattle for a federal building at a cost of $160,000, 
 land which was seven feet under water. In 1906 the Federal 
 Government had only 503 buildings in the United States, and 
 therefore the rate prior to that time had only been four new 
 buildings a year. In 1916 it had 967, an increase of 464, at 
 the rate of 46 a year for the preceding ten years. These appro- 
 priations were generally made with the object of getting the 
 votes of political contractors and laboring people, who are sup- 
 posed to represent a propertyless class, and not being required 
 to pay any direct taxes are believed to be indifferent to the 
 depletion of the public treasury. 
 
 Pension Frauds. Under President Cleveland the Commis- 
 sioner of Pensions Lockrien unearthed enormous pension 
 frauds; he dropped 2266 names from the rolls and reduced the 
 ratings in 3343 cases. The cases of clear fraud amounted to 
 $18,000,000 a year. 
 
 Former Secretary of War, Stimson, states that from 1878 
 to 1908 the cost of the Federal Government increased nearly 
 400 per cent, while the increase in population was less than 
 84 per cent. 
 
STATE AND FEDERAL CORRUPTION 233 
 
 MISCELLANEOUS MINOR SCANDALS. 
 
 Illinois 1901. Investigation disclosed that $65,000 a 
 year was being collected by politicians from the salaries of 
 those employed at the State Insane Hospital and other State 
 Institutions. 
 
 Minnesota 1903. Minneapolis City scandals. Convic- 
 tion of Chief of Police and an ex-Mayor on charges of black- 
 mailing gamblers, etc.; attempted bribery of County 
 Commissioners. 
 
 Land and Post-Office. In 1903 politicians and others were 
 indicted in Nebraska for corrupt land and post-office transac- 
 tions. 
 
 Other similar post-office irregularities in McKinley's ad- 
 ministration, implicating high officials; many indictments; 
 gross department incompetence and carelessness revealed 
 
 (1903). 
 
 New York, 1904. Fire Department scandals, fraudulent 
 hose purchases of $23,410. 
 
 Kansas, 1905. Government land frauds implicating a state 
 senator and other officials. 
 
 New York, 1905. "The notorious 'Ten' carried through a 
 "scheme in the New York Senate, by which the Chicago and 
 "Eastern Illinois Railway bonds were to be included in the 
 "savings bank bill as proper securities for investment. The 
 " 'Black Horse Cavalry' had succeeded in a similar deal for- 
 "merly and members had made a large profit on the consequent 
 "appreciation of the bonds in question." (Reinsch, p. 248.) 
 
 New York 1906. Ahearn scandals; padded payrolls, il- 
 legal purchases, etc., amounting to millions, involving office of 
 Borough President. 
 
 New York 1914. Hunts Point Bathing Place; value 
 $4300, sold to the City of New York in 1914 for $247,000. 
 
 Indiana 1908. Conspiracy to defraud the State; former 
 legislative speaker indicted. 
 
 New Jersey 1913. One Kuehnle, political boss of At- 
 
234 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 lantic City, sentenced to prison for voting as a water com- 
 missioner to award a contract to a company of which he was 
 a stockholder. 
 
 In 1899 a book of about eight hundred pages, entitled 
 Thirty Years of New York Politics, was published by Breen 
 who had been for a generation active in New York politics 
 and had held office as member of the state legislature and as 
 local magistrate. It presents a vivid picture of the corruption, 
 rascality and incapacity that characterized the politicians of 
 New York City and State from about 1860 to 1890. He tells 
 of forgeries of items in legislative tax bills, the true bills im- 
 mediately after passage by the legislature being altered by 
 additions of items and the forged tax bills placed before the 
 governor and signed by him. Some of Breen's tales are even 
 amusing, showing the open way in which the business of offi- 
 cial bribery has been carried on and the fun there was sup- 
 posed to be in the business. In one instance there was a gas 
 bill before the New York legislature opposed by the company 
 interested. A lobbyist was in charge whose original orders to 
 pass the bill were revoked and he was directed to kill it. In 
 order to make his services appear more valuable to the com- 
 pany the lobbyist had the bill reported favorably. Subse- 
 quently he had it defeated and the members waited upon him 
 for their cash at the Kenmore House, Albany, N. Y., the fee 
 of each being $250. Meantime another bill had been intro- 
 duced regulating the price of gas and the members were told 
 that they would get nothing until they also killed the second 
 bill. This was very annoying as it required them to do two 
 jobs for one fee; but it had to be done. Then the lobbyist 
 began paying off some of the members at the Kenmore House, 
 Albany, while to avoid suspicions which might be aroused by 
 the presence of too many members in one place his assistant 
 undertook to pay off the others at the Delavan House. By 
 mistake eight of the members got money at each hotel. When 
 a return was demanded they, partly in joke and to worry the 
 lobbyist, refused, claiming that as they had done two jobs they 
 
STATE AND FEDERAL CORRUPTION 235 
 
 were entitled to two fees; but finally the duplicate money was 
 returned to the alarmed lobbyist. The reader will thus see 
 that there is sometimes entertainment as well as profit in the 
 vote traffic, when well understood by the participants and 
 spiritedly conducted. One veteran member used to say that 
 he considered it injurious to the health to have anything to 
 do with a "contingent bill," that is to say where the bribe de- 
 pended upon the result. "I never can sleep at all when I have 
 "a contingent bill on my mind; it undermines my health and 
 "my life is valuable to the state. Spot cash is my gait; it 
 "saves all bother." Another interesting incident told by 
 Senator Breen is that of one Hackley, a contractor, who put 
 in a bid for a street-cleaning contract in New York. The al- 
 dermen delayed voting the contract. Hackley received a letter 
 unsigned requesting him to leave $40,000 in a package on a 
 table in the City Hall. He left the money in $500 bills on the 
 aldermanic table in a package without any address. As he 
 entered to do so he saw four of the aldermen casually con- 
 versing by the door; when he came out they were still stand- 
 ing there. Nothing was said. The next day he got the 
 contract. The courts were for some years occupied with some 
 questions of legality regarding this contract and incidentally 
 this little episode came to light. 
 
 If the reader has been at all interested, or edified by the 
 display already made in this book of the product and opera- 
 tions of the manhood suffrage governments, perhaps he would 
 like a glimpse of the methods by which these worshipful bodies 
 are from time to time originally created. Here is a specimen 
 account of a recent event, taken from the New Republic of Sep- 
 tember 29, 1917. There was a contest for the Republican 
 leadership of the Fifth Ward, Philadelphia, in which ward, 
 as it happens, Independence Hall is situated. The 
 police were under the control of a local boss named 
 Deutsch who was himself subject to the Vere Brothers. 
 The opposition boss was named Carey. Ten days be- 
 fore election thirty patrolmen were transferred to other 
 
236 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 districts and their places taken by men who could be 
 relied on to work for Deutsch. There were nightly fights and 
 arrests; even reporters were arrested on false charges of dis- 
 orderly conduct. On the eve of election the followers of 
 Deutsch attacked a Carey meeting while a number of police 
 stood quietly by. The following morning a detective was mur- 
 dered and a district attorney slugged. The mayor himself 
 was accused and was subsequently arrested on a charge of 
 conspiracy in connection with the affair. 
 
 Another sample of manhood suffrage in operation was ex- 
 hibited at the primary elections at St. Louis in 1904 when Folk 
 was nominated for governor of Missouri. A magazine writer 
 describing what took place says that the ring opposed to the 
 nomination of Folk "stationed thugs outside the polling places 
 "with orders to slug, kick, beat, and if necessary kill, any- 
 thing to defeat Folk/' and that scores of men, some of them 
 prominent, were knocked down in broad daylight, kicked and 
 beaten, etc., while the police stood idly by. Also that "there 
 have been instances where for weeks before an election mem- 
 bers of the police department have gone about locating vacant 
 houses and assisting in registering fictitious names from such 
 houses" and he gives instances of houses where many more 
 names were registered than it was possible there could be resi- 
 dents at the house. The result was that of the population of 
 600,000 people, not one delegate favorable to Folk was elected. 
 "Former Lieutenant Governor of Missouri, Norman J.Coleman, 
 "and Secretary of Agriculture under President Cleveland, stood 
 "long in line to vote, without making any progress. He stepped 
 "out to make an investigation and found that men were being 
 "admitted into the polling place by a rear door and that there 
 "was no chance for him. Finally a politician whom he knew 
 "came up to him and said : 'I will get one of the men out of the 
 "line up here and give you his place.' As he was about to give 
 "Mr. Coleman the place he asked him for whom he was going 
 "to vote. 'For Folk, of course/ was the answer. Then I can't 
 "do anything for you.' " 
 
STATE AND FEDERAL CORRUPTION 237 
 
 The intelligent reader needs no argument to convince him 
 that under a rule of substantial property qualification none of 
 the above described ruffianism would find a place in politics. 
 Under such a rule none of these precious gangs would appear 
 at the polls or primaries; their leaders would be without po- 
 litical influence; a mayor or governor supported by such 
 blackguards would never be chosen and would not even be a 
 candidate. 
 
 In 1891, Roosevelt, as Civil Service Commissioner, went to 
 Baltimore to examine the primaries and made a report from 
 which Ostrogorski prints an extract. He there saw a fight for 
 the offices between two factions of the Republican party. There 
 was fraud and violence. Democratic repeaters were voted; 
 accusations of ballot box stuffing freely made; a number of 
 fights took place; many arrests, including some of the election 
 inspectors; bribery was charged; cheating was talked of as a 
 matter of course; men openly justified cheating as fair, pro- 
 vided you were not caught. Usually, however, primaries and 
 elections are comparatively quiet; the previous manipulation 
 of the controllable vote has been so perfectly done, the man- 
 agers are in such complete accord, and opposition is so hope- 
 less, that even the most violent and headstrong of the defeated 
 party are subdued into silence, often no doubt quelled by 
 envious admiration for the victorious scoundrels. Such must 
 for instance have been the case at the elections in Colorado in 
 1904, when women voted and they as well as men took part in 
 wholesale frauds. In eight precincts a thousand fraudulent 
 votes were cast. Each candidate for governor charged gi- 
 gantic frauds against the other. Investigation showed that 
 both charges were true. In one county nine thousand fraudu- 
 lent votes were cast. A number of election judges and others 
 were convicted of ballot box stuffing, repeating, etc. 
 
 In 1908 Helen Sumner made a prolonged investigation of 
 political conditions in Colorado, and thus describes the failure 
 of universal suffrage in that new and prosperous state. 
 
 "Both sexes stay away from caucus and convention because 
 
238 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 "they know they are helpless and that they can succeed only by 
 "debasing themselves to the level of hired political workers. 
 "The caucus and convention are arranged long in advance. 
 "Corporations, the saloon element, and special interests that 
 "seek control can afford to furnish the bosses abundant funds 
 "to hire these professional workers, and both men and women 
 "who value their honor and patriotism will not descend to 
 "these mercenary methods." (Equal Suffrage, p. 94.) 
 
 It is useless to multiply instances of fraud and humbug at 
 popular elections; the whole business is one gigantic piece of 
 fraud and humbug. Its extent may most easily be described 
 by the amount of money it costs. Ostrogorski says that: 
 "It is considered that in 1896 the Republican National chair- 
 "man disposed of a campaign fund of seven million dollars. 
 "In 1900 of three millions and a half, and in 1904 of three mil- 
 lions." This national campaign fund of $3,000,000 to $7,000,- 
 ooo is only a small portion of the total amount collected and 
 disbursed for the purpose of misleading, defrauding, deluding, 
 and humbugging the nation into giving a preference to one of 
 two organized gangs over the other for two or four years more. 
 Probably from $50,000,000 to $100,000,000 in all is expended 
 in this way in a Presidential election. The latter figure is the 
 estimate of the historian Sloane. And then we are told with 
 well-simulated indignation of the expenditure of $2,000,000 
 a year for the support of the British Royal family. If only 
 our millions were spent as innocently as in maintaining royal 
 dignity or dignity of any sort! But our cash goes for the pur- 
 pose of creating and maintaining indignities rather than dig- 
 nities; to pay for the assertion and publication of lies and 
 slanders; to stir up strife at home and abroad; to forward 
 the interests of political managers and those behind them and 
 to hire cheating and fraud at elections. The latter crimes are 
 still being perpetrated. Wholesale election frauds were com- 
 mitted in New York City at a recent mayoralty election and 
 many election officials were convicted. As late as November, 
 1919, there were widely distributed the circulars of the "Honest 
 
STATE AND FEDERAL CORRUPTION 239 
 
 Ballot Association/' whose officers included New York men and 
 women of considerable prominence and political experience. 
 Its object was stated to be "To insure clean elections in New 
 "York City, and to prevent honest votes from being offset by 
 "trickery and fraud." It states in its circular that "through its 
 "efforts the fraudulent vote of the city, which before its organ- 
 ization was a public scandal, has been materially reduced. 
 "Much remains to be done to prevent recurrence of like 
 "frauds." In other words, the public authorities of New York 
 City cannot be trusted to supervise and procure a fair election, 
 and it is generally believed that in that respect New York is 
 better off than some other large cities. 
 
 Nine States of the Union, namely, Alabama, Arkansas, Flor- 
 ida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South 
 Carolina and Tennessee, have been driven by misgovernment 
 in one form or other under the regime of manhood suffrage to 
 repudiate their solemn financial obligations. 
 
 Alabama. In 1819 the State of Alabama began to establish 
 state banks, all of which became insolvent in 1842. To the 
 debt of about $3,500,000 incident to this business, represented 
 by bonds held by innocent holders in London and New York, 
 was added obligations amounting to $21,000,000 incurred in the 
 negro suffrage reconstruction period, elsewhere described. In 
 1876 the State scaled down the whole debt to $12,574,379, a re- 
 pudiation, including interest, of about $15,000,000 State debt. 
 
 Arkansas. In 1837 and 1838 Arkansas issued about $3,- 
 000,000 of bonds in aid of two state banks. Part of this debt 
 was subsequently repudiated. During the reconstruction 
 period about $8,000,000 of state bonds were issued under 
 legislative authority for railroad and levee construction and 
 all were repudiated in 1880, thus reducing the state debt from 
 $17,000,000 principal and interest to about $5,000,000. 
 
 Florida. In 1833 the Territory of Florida issued $3,000,000 
 bonds to the Union Bank, and in 1831 and 1835 $900,000 more 
 to other banks. These obligations were definitely repudiated 
 
24O POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 when Florida entered the Union in 1845. Under an Act 
 passed in 1855, the state issued $4,000,000 bonds in aid of 
 railroad construction; and these also have been repudiated, on 
 the claim that the legislature lacked authority to authorize 
 them. 
 
 Georgia. From 1868 to 1871 the State of Georgia issued 
 about $8,000,000 of bonds in aid of railroad construction. 
 In the years 1875, 1876 and 1877 all these bonds were repudi- 
 ated by state legislation. 
 
 Louisiana. The debt of Louisiana at the outbreak of the 
 Civil War was about $10,000,000. The Civil War debt was 
 ignored. Reconstruction legislation brought up the state debt 
 to about $50,000,000. This was scaled down by legislative 
 enactment to $12,000,000 and the rest repudiated. 
 
 Mississippi. In June 1838 the State of Mississippi issued 
 $5,000,000 of state bonds in payment of five thousand shares 
 of stock in the Union Bank of Mississippi. Four years later 
 these bonds, then held by innocent third parties, were repu- 
 diated by the state, although the highest court in Mississippi 
 had declared that they were legally issued. A similar issue 
 of $2,000,000 of state bonds issued to the Planters Bank was 
 repudiated in 1852. The State of Mississippi has never re- 
 deemed its honor or paid the bonds. 
 
 North Carolina. In 1879 North Carolina passed a funding 
 bill by which in settlement of a long controversy with its bond- 
 holders it repudiated about $15,000,000 of State indebtedness. 
 Bonds issued before the Civil War were redeemed at fifty 
 cents on the dollar; bonds issued after the war to secure pre- 
 war debts at twenty-five cents; and reconstruction bonds at 
 fifteen cents on the dollar. 
 
 South Carolina. South Carolina was in debt about $3,800,- 
 ooo at the time the Civil War began in 1861. The war debt 
 was repudiated. The reconstruction debt amounted to no- 
 body knows how much, say $20,000,000 and upwards. Nearly 
 all of the state debt was practically repudiated in 1879 and 
 prior thereto. 
 
STATE AND FEDERAL CORRUPTION 24! 
 
 Tennessee. In 1852 the State of Tennessee authorized the 
 issuance of state bonds in aid of turnpike and railroad com- 
 panies. There were also state debts incurred in aid of state 
 banks, for the building of the state capitol and other pur- 
 poses; in all $21,000,000. About $14,000,000 more bonds 
 were issued after the war in aid of railroads. In 1883 the 
 state repudiated about one-half of this debt. 
 
 The various acts of repudiation took different shapes in dif- 
 ferent states, but in every instance the state government was 
 a manhood suffrage institution; none of them have had any 
 other system. It is perfectly fair to charge every dollar of 
 these stolen and wasted millions and every repudiation spot 
 and stain on the fame and record of these nine states to 
 manhood suffrage. In fact the candid historian cannot, if 
 he would, escape the damning record and the inevitable con- 
 clusion. Manhood suffrage has shamefully bankrupted and 
 dishonored nine American states. 
 
 Oh, that some one with ability, money and patience would 
 get together materials for a complete "History of Manhood 
 "Suffrage/' and with clear and burning pen, would give to the 
 world the story of its iniquitous century career. Even if he 
 omitted its record of blood and corruption in France, and con- 
 fined himself to this country, the work might easily swell to 
 many volumes. He could spend twenty busy years visiting 
 one village, town and city after another, gathering up the facts 
 and figures of the briberies, corruptions, frauds, cheatings, 
 embezzlements, defalcations and thefts; the public riots, the 
 drunkenness, the civil and criminal court proceedings, directly 
 produced by manhood suffrage; the story of the rogues and 
 incompetents whom it has put in public offices high and low, 
 their follies and villainies. Its grotesque legislation, its 
 wretched administration, its wastes, extravagances, blunders 
 stupidities and misgovernments would fill an encyclopedia 
 of human unwisdom. But no such work has ever been under- 
 taken, and this volume only presents a hint of the direful 
 
242 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 totality. After all it is enough. The category of official 
 crime in this one chapter contained is sufficiently convincing. 
 These fifty cases are not like fifty instances of peculation 
 discovered by expert eyes under a watchful system, leaving it 
 pretty certain that there was no more behind. Fifty individual 
 thefts in eighty years would not make a shocking story as the 
 world goes. But this collection is merely illustrative of an 
 immense mass of similar material which cannot be produced to 
 the home reader any more than an ore bed could; though the 
 existence thereof any one may verify by proper investigation. 
 The opportunities of public men for improper acquisition are 
 limitless; there is no one over them to prevent them: they 
 are themselves the watchmen; and if they work with outside 
 rogues detection is ordinarily impossible. The discovery of 
 each of these fifty instances was the result of a blunder on the 
 part of these very careful and intelligent thieves; of a quarrel 
 amongst themselves, a mere chance of some sort, and by the 
 law of chances may be taken to represent fifty thousand similar 
 undetected frauds. Consider too the character of many of 
 these items; some represent a foul episode in the history of a 
 state; others in that of a great city; in one case the fact 
 that the politics of a rich commonwealth have been corrupt 
 for half a century is compressed into a statement of a few 
 lines which is capable of being expanded to a volume of 
 separate accusations. Fifty years of spoliation of a great 
 state: eighteen thousand days; say one hundred separate 
 acts a day: one million eight hundred thousand large and 
 petty frauds, thefts and peculations are crowded into this 
 single chapter. Each of the fifty foregoing items affords a 
 glimpse at rivers, seas, regions of official rascality. In one 
 case it is a state legislature which goes wrong. This means 
 that back of each of its tainted members there is a whole 
 history of putridity, a rotten county, a score of rotten town- 
 ships, years of local crookedness, trickery, intrigue, falsehood, 
 bribery and corruption. The district and county which sells 
 or traffics its honors; which sends an unworthy man to rep- 
 
STATE AND FEDERAL CORRUPTION 243 
 
 resent it in the councils of the nation, must itself first have 
 undergone a process of degeneration the details whereof would 
 alone require a volume. The instances in the foregoing list 
 do not represent individual or sporadic cases of disease; they 
 indicate a moral pestilence, the result of widespread filth and 
 unsanitary conditions of long standing and the existence 
 whereof is proven by the additional testimony of the array of 
 intelligent, unbiased and high-minded men and women, states- 
 men, students, publicists, lawyers and teachers, already quoted. 
 Taking the whole evidence together, the record and the wit- 
 nesses, it amounts to a mass of absolutely convincing and even 
 overwhelming proof of the thoroughly evil and corrupt char- 
 acter of this government which for the past eighty years 
 has been imposed upon the American people by the political 
 oligarchy directing the controllable vote. 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 
 THE FOUR YEARS CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES IS 
 DIRECTLY CHARGEABLE TO MANHOOD SUFFRAGE 
 
 THE American Civil War, which lasted four years, was both 
 morally and politically absolutely unnecessary and therefore 
 absolutely unjustifiable. It is difficult for an American to dis- 
 cuss the subject coolly even at this distance, when he realizes 
 that this, the greatest calamity which ever befell the country, 
 was perfectly avoidable and was due entirely to stupidity and 
 mismanagement. It is time that the truth was told; the Civil 
 War was caused, not by the difficulty of the questions to be 
 dealt with but by a lack of statesmanship, by the dull selfish- 
 ness and asininity of the politicians of the day and by the 
 system of low politics which had long before been established 
 among us. To say that the question between the free and the 
 slave states was of a nature which required a settlement by 
 the sword is absurd. In 1860 there were fifteen slave and 
 eighteen free states. The constitutional right of the former 
 to the ownership of their slaves could not be denied; and the 
 vast majority of the people in the free states so believed 
 and asserted. The question on which the country was divided 
 was whether slavery could or should be established in the 
 Territories and in the new states to be erected from the Terri- 
 tories. To assert that that question could not be settled 
 peaceably is to assert either that the American people were 
 fools and brutes, which is not true, or that their representatives 
 having the matter in hand were incapables or worse, which is 
 true. The war was entirely due to the conduct and mis- 
 conduct of the politicians in power and they were placed there 
 by manhood suffrage. 
 
 244 
 
CIVIL WAR CHARGEABLE TO MANHOOD SUFFRAGE 245 
 
 The American people North and South at that time were 
 as harmless and peaceable a people as ever existed on the face 
 of the earth. They did not want any war, least of all a civil 
 war. Tens of thousands of inhabitants in each of the two 
 sections had dear friends and relatives in the other section. 
 Most people refused even to believe it possible until hostilities 
 actually began that a civil war could possibly be forced 
 upon the country. Neither side was in any way prepared 
 either in men, officers, equipment, ships or money for even a 
 small war. There was no desire for a conflict on either side, 
 and no need of it; and yet it came; because the country was 
 in the hands not of patriotic statesmen, but of a manhood 
 suffrage politician President, and a manhood suffrage politician 
 Congress, infused with a small, mean, manhood suffrage spirit, 
 the spirit of humbug, of selfishness, of insincerity, and of 
 moral cowardice. It came because for his own petty tempo- 
 rary purposes, each of the politicians, too dull and short 
 sighted to see the danger of his own acts, had been for years 
 nagging the people of his own district into dislikes, suspicions 
 and hates towards the people of other districts and portions 
 of the country. 
 
 We may concede the difficulties of the situation. The 
 slavery question had been so mismanaged that as far back 
 as 1844 it had become a delicate one needing to be handled 
 with patriotic and enlightened statesmanship; but the men in 
 public life qualified to so handle it were after 1828 becoming 
 fewer and fewer. Of courageous and patriotic statesmen there 
 was after 1852 scarcely one in public life, and it was 
 finally left to the newspapers and the populace, who 
 undertook to deal with it themselves in their own 
 characteristic way. This of course was to hold public 
 meetings, at which were made inflammatory and abusive 
 speeches; to publish and circulate these speeches with furious 
 newspaper comments; and to issue books and pamphlets de- 
 nunciatory of everybody in public life. How does the ordinary 
 manhood suffrage politician, the mediocrity who after obeying 
 
246 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 orders of vulgar bosses for years finds himself rewarded with 
 a nomination for Congress; how does he deal with a question 
 where both money and feeling are involved? He "side-steps"; 
 he pussy- foots; he twists and dodges and sneaks in and out 
 till one side or the other shows a decided preponderance of 
 votes, and then he mounts the platform and rants defiance 
 and insults at the minority. Such is his idea of statesmanship; 
 and though it makes the judicious grieve it tickles the ears 
 of the groundlings who are the majority of the organization 
 followers. The newspaper files inform us and the reader can 
 readily imagine how for years Northern and Southern orators 
 hurled defiance at safe distances; how the holders of per- 
 fectly honest opinions on both sides were publicly insulted 
 every day in the week as slave drivers; nigger lovers, dough- 
 faces, etc. When the legal question of the rights of slavery 
 in the territories came up, there was no one to decide it; it 
 was a difference demanding for its settlement a courage which 
 mere politicians never have; and requiring as well a states- 
 manship and tact which are qualities of trained thinkers; 
 of men of wide vision; of experience in public affairs, and 
 gifted with self-control; qualities in short which especially 
 belong to the well-educated classes. It should have been 
 dealt with by picked men; men of high prestige; uncontrolled 
 by passion, and above a desire for the plaudits of the mob. 
 Such men were not to be found in public life; and so it 
 was left to the decision of what was called public opinion; 
 which means in effect that it fell into the hands of demagogues, 
 platform orators, second-rate politicians, extremists, visionaries 
 and newspaper writers. Thousands of individuals honest and 
 dishonest; fanatics, abolitionists and demagogues on the 
 Northern side, and cranks, general humbugs and notoriety 
 seekers on the Southern side, began to write and talk on the 
 subject; and when they had succeeded in irritating everybody, 
 and when a certain emotional and hysterical class was 
 thoroughly inflamed, the manhood suffrage machine was put 
 in operation and an election for president was had. The 
 
CIVIL WAR CHARGEABLE TO MANHOOD SUFFRAGE 247 
 
 voters split into four* parties ; certainly not according to 
 reason, which had long before been flung to the winds by most 
 of them; but rather according to temperament; the more excit- 
 able and intolerant taking an extreme position; the others 
 offering the customary political platitudes. The electoral col- 
 lege plan for the election of the president, which had been 
 prescribed by the Constitution to obviate just such a catas- 
 trophe, had been long since foolishly discarded by the people 
 in favor of a direct election by manhood suffrage. Lincoln, 
 a then comparatively unknown man, who had been nominated 
 in a roaring political convention, was elected President of the 
 United States by a minority of the total vote. A few of the 
 Southern states whose politicians were dissatisfied with the 
 election promptly proposed to secede from the Union. They 
 were permitted to do so and set up independent governments; 
 the administration at Washington being as usual in the hands 
 of men who had neither sufficient diplomacy, firmness, decision 
 nor patriotism to deal with the situation, or with any other 
 requiring the employment of honesty and courage. 
 
 The politicians in power at Washington, as they were 
 incapable of properly dealing with slavery, so they were in- 
 capable of properly dealing with secession. As nothing timely 
 was done to coerce the first seceding states they were in time 
 joined by others; the demagogic rant and newspaper clamor 
 and abuse continued unabated on both sides, but nothing 
 practical was done to save the situation or to preserve the 
 Union; the seceding states were allowed four months to con- 
 summate their plans; and were permitted without molestation 
 or hindrance to seize one fort and arsenal after another, until 
 the enterprise of rebellion, which, originating in a few 
 hot heads could have been summarily suppressed in Decem- 
 ber 1860 had in April 1861 resulted in the establishment 
 of a southern armed confederacy of eleven states. Mean- 
 time the Northern Democracy looked on complacently 
 and did nothing till the South made the dramatic 
 blunder of firing on Fort Sumter. Sluggishness and 
 
248 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 indifference in the North were now succeeded by indig- 
 nation and fury; hostilities began and lasted four years; 
 hundreds of thousands of lives and thousands of millions 
 of property were uselessly sacrificed, and all because among the 
 governing politicians of the United States there had not been 
 enough patriotic statesmanship to undertake the task of de- 
 vising and enforcing a peaceable arrangement. That there 
 was no inherent difficulty in the case, insurmountable by 
 diplomacy, is perfectly apparent to any intelligent mind; and 
 is almost conclusively demonstrated by the conceded fact that 
 even after four years' bloody strife no hopeless division be- 
 tween North and South existed; that the defeated Southern 
 rank and file and their leaders, officers and generals admitted 
 that they had even then no insufferable grievance; that they 
 really preferred the Union, even without slavery, to disunion; 
 and that the Southerners immediately came back into their 
 places as citizens of the Union and have ever since been and 
 still are as true and loyal to the flag as the northern population. 
 They never really disliked the Federal Union; they had in 
 fact always loved it; but they had been crazed year after 
 year in the course of one political campaign after another by 
 the assaults and insults of Northern platform press and pulpit 
 ranters, and had been deceived, misled and egged on to vio- 
 lence by their own demagogues. It was a case of the cumu- 
 lative effect of years of repeated word provocations and word 
 retorts on both sides; all delivered either to promote the 
 sale of wicked and sensational newspapers or for electioneer- 
 ing purposes, or to capture the votes of a senseless rabble. 
 The effect of this long-continued agitation was to derange the 
 shallow judgment of the irresponsibles, a class which includes 
 hot-headed youths, lovers of turmoil, improvident men 
 with more sail than ballast; those who lack prudence both in 
 politics and in business; who show the same poor judgment 
 in giving a vote as in making a bargain; who are as willing 
 to rush into a foolish war as into a foolish business enterprise; 
 who are reckless because, never having much, they can never 
 
CIVIL WAR CHARGEABLE TO MANHOOD SUFFRAGE 249 
 
 lose much; in short, that class who, though absolutely unable 
 to manage their own affairs, are by our laws considered quite 
 capable of attending to those of the community, and who 
 whenever a storm arises lose their heads and do their best 
 to wreck the ship. In a word, the course of conduct adopted 
 by the politicians of the country which resulted in the war 
 was intended to win the applause and the votes of a set 
 of men most of whom should not have been allowed to vote 
 at all. Had the business men and the propertied classes alone 
 been consulted the civil war would never have broken out. 
 
 And it is to-day just as it was then. When any question 
 capable of being made the subject of political discussion, and 
 having an emotional or sympathetic aspect, is brought before 
 the public, it is sure to be seized upon by fanatics and time 
 servers who make it the subject of clamor and vociferation. 
 These are in time joined by a lot of honest but inexperienced 
 youth; emotional enthusiasts; sympathetic women more or 
 less hysterical; people with grudges to pay off; political ad- 
 venturers; platform ranters eager for an audience; dema- 
 gogues out of a job and vain fools anxious for the lime light; 
 empty heads who find society and excitement in political or- 
 ganizations and meetings. These classes of agitators and the 
 followers of agitators exist and have always existed here as 
 well as in Russia and elsewhere; and they are put in the front 
 when they ought to be suppressed and sent to the rear or out of 
 sight. They are apt to be abnormal in vanity, and stop at 
 nothing to obtain notoriety. Those of them who are soft and 
 emotional become crazed with mental dwelling on one sub- 
 ject, with the excitement of political speaking and the applause 
 and criticism they receive; those of them who are cold of 
 heart and head keep up the din to attract attention to them- 
 selves and to further their political fortunes; with them the 
 end justifies the means; exaggerations, dishonest equivocations, 
 lies and even slanders are to their small minds justified by the 
 object to be attained. We have, for instance, recently seen 
 some of the women suffragists both in England, and to a less 
 
250 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 extent here, in what they call their militant campaigns act 
 on the principle that there are no morals in politics. In Eng- 
 land they resorted to open and violent misconduct and even 
 to crime to keep up the agitation. Their avowed purpose 
 in doing this was to keep their cause before the public, and 
 as to some of them incidentally to earn the salaries paid by 
 their associations for this vile work. They believed, and with 
 good reason, that under a system of manhood suffrage mere 
 arguments are insufficient; the unthinking rabble had to be 
 won over; and their foolish ears must be filled with noise 
 in order to gain and keep their attention. 
 
 A similar process was used by the politicians and agitators 
 on both sides of the negro slavery question. There was the 
 unreasoning vote to be captured. Each candidate for Con- 
 gress, instead of desiring the matter amicably settled, wished 
 rather to use the dispute as a means for his own election. 
 Now, it is a fact well known to politicians that it is impossible 
 to get all the voters to the polls at any election. Besides 
 securing the floaters by means of agents with cash and shrewd- 
 ness, the best way to induce the remaining nondescripts and 
 light weights to take the trouble to vote, is to create artificial 
 excitement by means of meetings, processions, bands of music 
 and inflammatory oratory. The opposite side and their lead- 
 ers must be denounced as fools, humbugs, liars, scamps, 
 thieves and traitors. The wisest are repelled by this course, 
 but they are a minority in every community. Besides, some 
 of the men who know better than to believe an unscrupulous 
 demagogue, will vote for him, partly out of gratitude because 
 he has amused them by his attacks on his opponents, partly 
 because he is the party candidate, and partly as the result 
 of a sort of mental contagion. Now, it was this campaign 
 of inflammatory denunciation; this output of lies, slanders and 
 vilification indulged in by the platform talkers on all sides 
 in the political campaigns of 1856, 1858 and 1860 that 
 brought on the Civil War. This is well known; but what is 
 not known and never will be known is just how much of this 
 
CIVIL WAR CHARGEABLE TO MANHOOD SUFFRAGE 251 
 
 rascally oratory was hired and paid for in cold cash contributed 
 by that class of people who always contribute to election 
 funds. And this brutal and stupid process is the natural and 
 inevitable result of an attempt to decide important political 
 questions by manhood suffrage, that is by a public agitation 
 undertaken to obtain the votes of the most thoughtless, care- 
 less, dull and unreasonable men of the country. 
 
 But, some may ask, how could the slavery question have 
 been amicably settled? Was not the Civil War inevitable? 
 By no means. Great Britain, Spain, Brazil, Portugal, Hol- 
 land and other countries each had the same problem. Russia 
 had a similar one in the case of her serfs. Slavery in the 
 British West Indies was abolished in 1838 at a cost of $100,- 
 000,000 cash compensation paid to the masters, and other 
 European nations having colonial slaves had followed Eng- 
 land's example. Brazil and Cuba were both large slave-own- 
 ing countries; in Cuba one- third of the population was at one 
 time in slavery; a much larger proportion than in the United 
 States, and yet in both countries emancipation was gradually 
 and peaceably accomplished by legal methods. In Russia the 
 serfs were freed without bloodshed. Nowhere except in the 
 United States was it found necessary to make the country a 
 shambles to accomplish such an inevitable reform. To say 
 that the American people are so inferior in political capacity 
 to the British, Russians, Spaniards and Brazilians as this 
 miserable emancipative Civil War of ours would indicate is 
 preposterous. 
 
 That the Civil War was a politicians' and not a people's 
 war was perfectly apparent at the time to all steady-minded 
 folk. During its progress nothing was more frequent than to 
 hear such people say that the politicians were responsible for 
 it all. And this was true. Had the settlement of the matter 
 been left to a committee of statesmen or business men the 
 result would have been that under some system of gradual 
 emancipation and payment to the owners the thing would 
 have been quietly done, and with a great saving of money. 
 
252 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 X The war cost at the lowest possible estimate twenty thousand 
 millions of dollars. There were in this country say three mil- 
 lions of slaves which at the high figure of $500 each would 
 have cost not more than fifteen hundred millions of dollars or 
 less than a twelfth of the cost of the war in money, to say 
 nothing of human lives. Even this cost would have been 
 nominal, since the outlay would have been divided up amongst 
 our own people and left the nation not a cent the poorer. 
 But this plain and sensible course could not be adopted because 
 under our mobocratic system the question was made one of 
 politics rather than of statesmanship. And when the strug- 
 gle was over were the politicians blamed or called to account; 
 or was the system condemned which produced them and really 
 brought about the American Civil War? Not at all. The 
 same humbugs and schemers continued in control; once more 
 they were seen on political platforms, greedy and brassy as 
 ever, bellowing hypocritical praise of the victims of the fight 
 and demanding and obtaining continued offices and salaries 
 and perquisites for themselves; and so their course of public 
 plundering was vigorously continued and their rule was 
 strengthened year by year. With one hand deep in the public 
 chest, they waved the banner with the other, and the years 
 immediately succeeding the Civil War were perhaps richer 
 in patriotic platform oratory and in political corruption than 
 any the country has ever seen. 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 
 FAILURE AND CONDEMNATION OF MANHOOD SUFFRAGE 
 AFTER 
 STATES 
 
 AFTER A TEN YEARS' EXPERIMENT IN THE SOUTHERN 
 
 PERHAPS the most noted instance of a complete test of the 
 principles upon which manhood suffrage claims to be founded 
 was that made in the Southern States during the so-called re- 
 construction period from 1866 to 1876, when the establishment 
 by the Federal Government of unrestricted suffrage in a dozen 
 states where a considerable part of the population was com- 
 posed of negroes resulted in a complete and even scandalous 
 failure. It not only failed in the opinion of the world at large, 
 but even in that of most if not all its supporters, and finally 
 had to be abandoned; so that in all those dozen states where 
 most of the laborers and many of the farmers to the number 
 of about two millions of voters are negroes, they have been for 
 the last forty years and upwards excluded from the polls. 
 
 For the ten years, however, from 1866 to 1876, which was 
 the period of the manhood suffrage experiment, they were 
 permitted and urged to vote, under the protection of the Fed- 
 eral Government. At the close of the Civil War in 1865, when 
 the conquered Southern States had undertaken to establish 
 state governments on the basis of white suffrage, Congress 
 and the Federal Government had interposed the strong arm 
 and required negroes to be included in the electorate; thus 
 making pure manhood suffrage the foundation of the new 
 state governments. In so doing the Federal Government was 
 logically right, upon any and all of the manhood suffrage 
 theories. On none of them can the negro vote be properly 
 rejected. The southern negroes were natives of the soil, free, 
 
 253 
 
254 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 self-supporting, and intensely loyal to the government. 
 Whether you adopt the theory of a natural right to vote, or 
 that the ballot is a weapon of defence for the poor, or that it 
 is an educative force, or that the desires of all classes should 
 be represented in the vote, the negroes' claim to the franchise 
 was and is well made out. 
 
 The trial of manhood suffrage that was actually made in the 
 instance referred to was in all respects a fair and good test of 
 its qualities. It was of course a severe one, because the ne- 
 groes were very numerous and mostly very ignorant; but for 
 that very reason the test was valuable. To ascertain the real 
 effects of ignorance and incapacity as of other elements, they 
 must be tried out as far as possible without dilution or mix- 
 ture. In this instance the amount of both that was injected 
 into the body politic was greater than the dose which the 
 Northern electorate has received, but the effect pro tanto was 
 the same. The test was unusually good for another reason, 
 namely, because it was suddenly applied and as suddenly 
 ended, and therefore the period of its operation is distinctly 
 separated from the time before and after, so that the com- 
 parison between the negro suffrage epoch and that of the be- 
 fore and after period is clear and easily made. Again, the 
 trial was good because it was applied to large regions of 
 country, all parts of which were inhabited by great numbers 
 of the newly made voters, amounting to hundreds of thou- 
 sands in all; so that merdy local causes could not be said to 
 affect the result. And further, the negroes were, generally 
 speaking, illiterate and propertyless ; and this circumstance 
 also helped to make the test more clear and certain; for the 
 claim of the extreme manhood suffragists everywhere is and 
 has been that the poor and lowly are above all entitled to the 
 vote. 
 
 So here we have had a trial in our own country of manhood 
 suffrage plain and simple; of the much vaunted system ap- 
 plied to a class of people who most needed the so-called up- 
 lifting power or influence of the ballot. Here were the negroes, 
 
THE TEN YEARS' PILLAGE OF THE SOUTH 255 
 
 simple, poor, unsophisticated, unspoiled by the possession of 
 wealth, the ideal people of the radical orator and philosopher. 
 They were docile and religious, being nearly all evangelical 
 Christians; very much under the influence of their clergymen; 
 intensely patriotic and devoted to the government and the 
 flag. In short the southern negroes at the close of the war, 
 as was then pointed out by their friends, had every quality 
 to entitle them to vote except book learning, business experi- 
 ence and property, neither of which in the eyes of the cham- 
 pions of manhood suffrage is essential to the voter. Other 
 conditions there were favorable to the success of the experi- 
 ment. The new voters did not have to construct a state, a so- 
 cial polity, or a code of laws, or to establish public order. The 
 framework of a well-developed republican government was 
 already erected; the statute books contained the political wis- 
 dom of a highly civilized and free people; they had the United 
 States government to guide and encourage them; there was 
 perfect order everywhere, and a friendly and well-disciplined 
 army was quartered among them to maintain it and to protect 
 them in the exercise of their rights. They had therefore that 
 guidance, precedent and protection, the lack of which has been 
 said to have caused the failure of similar attempts by peoples 
 unpractised in self-government. Besides all this, they had 
 abundance of moral' support and enthusiastic sympathy. At 
 that time the Republican party organs claimed a monopoly of 
 patriotic enlightenment, and throughout the great North and 
 West a large portion of the most intelligent and vociferous 
 American press, including nearly all the Republican news- 
 papers, also two thirds of the protestant clergy, besides moral 
 and political orators by the thousand, justified and applauded 
 the proposal to give the vote to the late slaves then and at 
 once without delay or qualification, and poured out the slush 
 and uttered the gush appropriate to such agitations. The proj- 
 ect was enthusiastically heralded as a "Reform," as a "Liberal 
 Measure," as an inevitable step in advance; as a carrying out 
 and logical application of democratic doctrines ; it was proudly 
 
256 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 pointed to as an evidence of our superiority in wisdom over 
 our ancestors. The cry was that the ballot is a natural right; 
 that the republican legend is not that some men, white men, 
 educated men, or propertied men may vote; but that all men 
 have an absolute right to the suffrage; a right inherent in 
 man as man: and was not the freedman a man and a native 
 of the soil? The ballot, said they, is a weapon of defense, 
 needed more by poor peasants and laborers be they white, 
 black or brown than by any other class. What if the negroes 
 were ignorant and easily led; give them the vote and they 
 would swiftly acquire learning and strength of character. 
 People talked as if the ballot box was a cure-all; as if there 
 was a sort of magic in it; as if merely to handle it was sal- 
 vation; without it, said they, man is still a slave and can 
 never be expected to improve; nor can the community rise 
 while he is "disfranchised" as they expressed it; but with the 
 ballot in hand he will at once mount to meet his opportunities. 
 This arrant nonsense has been recently made familiar to us 
 by the woman suffragists and need not be further recapitu- 
 lated. 
 
 The negroes were thereupon invited to go through all the 
 performances in which the white masses had long been accus- 
 tomed to display themselves; and, as a Chinaman once said, 
 to exercise their ignorance. They, and especially the fools and 
 idlers among them, responded with alacrity. They talked 
 politics at great length; those who could read fed their minds 
 with newspaper rubbish; they attended political meetings ad- 
 dressed by frothy orators and office seekers just as many white 
 people do, and like them they fell under the leadership of 
 designing demagogues some of whom speedily learned to be 
 competent rivals in rascality to many white politicians. Of 
 course the colored peoples' political orators were of a new 
 crop; the old-fashioned pretentious white humbugs who had 
 deceived and tongue lashed the southern people into a heart- 
 less and hopeless insurrection were out of the running, or, 
 driven to the side of the dismayed and discouraged conserva- 
 
THE TEN YEARS* PILLAGE OF THE SOUTH 257 
 
 tives, stood hungrily envying the luck of their late servants. 
 In vain the better class of the whites protested against the 
 prospect of being squeezed by this new and ignorant democ- 
 racy out of whatever the war had left them; their protests 
 were received with derision by the radical and enlightened 
 North. They and their minority of conservative northern 
 sympathizers were stigmatized as would-be autocrats, aristo- 
 crats, oppressors of the poor; old time Bourbons unable to 
 grasp new ideas; this and that piece of wisdom had not 
 "dawned" on them; with their antiquated brains they could 
 not realize the beauty and power of true democracy carried 
 to the limit, etc. The controversy between the southern whites 
 and the new colored democracy was given great prominence 
 in excited political discussions all over the country; in most 
 states the general elections were made to turn upon this ques- 
 tion; all the sentimental "highbrows" and the same class of 
 emotionalists and enthusiasts who are now advocating woman 
 suffrage were then supporting negro suffrage; to oppose it was 
 to be ignorant or antiquated. The friends of unlimited 
 suffrage carried state after state in the North and West by 
 majorities far exceeding those since recorded in favor of 
 woman suffrage, and the negro was by Federal authority given 
 the vote in every southern state. 
 
 The first elections, of course, went off successfully; nothing 
 x is easier or requires less intelligence than to cast a ballot; a 
 \hild of ten years can be taught the trick in an hour. The ne- 
 groes voted in great numbers ; and the cry went up from pulpits 
 and other mouthpieces of American super-intelligence, from 
 newspaper offices and political platforms, "Behold one more 
 "triumph for universal suffrage!" That is what they called it, 
 for at that time the notion of giving the vote to negresses had 
 not become popular. That is a later fad reserved for our 
 day; the great American people usually amuses itself with but 
 one political folly at a time. The negro had shown himself 
 to be a qualified voter according to the only recognized test, 
 namely, ability to talk and to vote in droves under leadership. 
 
258 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 As for office-holding capacity it is and always has been a 
 fact that uncultivated men, white or black, usually apply and 
 can apply but one test to a political candidate; that of elo- 
 quence. If he has but a winning tongue most of them consider 
 him competent for any office no matter how difficult its duties. 
 The colored people produced men of their race who readily 
 reached the standard of glibness and who made political 
 speeches which charmed and convinced even white audiences 
 of a certain shallow and emotional type. Just as women have 
 been found who can compare favorably with men in platform 
 ranting, so were negro politicians found who, gifted with flu- 
 ency, filled with vanity and stimulated by applause showed 
 themselves equal or nearly equal to white demagogues in that 
 fascinating art. And thus the champions of universal suffrage 
 were able in 1868 to point triumphantly to succcessful 
 southern political campaigns conducted to a considerable ex- 
 tent by colored men who passed all the tests nowadays applied 
 by a white democracy in a similar case; the leaders talked and 
 orated fluently and the masses voted for them in droves as 
 slavish and unquestioning as the best trained white voters. 
 And so the black leaders got into office and at once began the 
 customary idle and dishonest career of the professional place 
 hunter. 
 
 The result is told in one of the darkest chapters in American 
 history. Many white friends and champions of the colored 
 race went south to aid them in their political life, but the case 
 was hopeless from the start. The negro level of intelligence 
 and honesty was so low, and the business experience of the 
 voters so small, that even their very ablest representatives 
 would have been sadly deficient in the primary qualities nec- 
 essary for legislation and administration; but as is inevitable 
 under the system of universal suffrage, the worst were often 
 chosen at the polls. The men elected to the state legislatures 
 in the South under this regime were often ignorant, drunken, 
 debauched and dishonest. Many of them were without means, 
 had never paid taxes and were incapable of measuring the 
 
THE TEN YEARS' PILLAGE OF THE SOUTH 259 
 
 value of money, or of understanding financial dealings. All 
 the Southern States had suffered severely during the Civil 
 War; most of them were so financially exhausted as to be 
 deserving of real sympathy, but the new gang of black and 
 white scallawags was pitiless. Waste, peculation, folly and 
 every form of misgovernment followed; public credit was de- 
 stroyed, property values fell; there were ten wretched years 
 of violence, scandals and shame, at the end of which negro 
 suffrage had disappeared, abandoned even by its strongest sup- 
 porters. As soon as it was gone a sound reaction began, public 
 credit was restored, values increased, public waste and robbery 
 diminished, political scandals became fewer and less flagrant, 
 and the South entered at once upon a career of comparative 
 prosperity in which it has continued to this day. Such misgov- 
 ernment as still continues in the South is mild compared with 
 the experience of those ten dreadful years of negro domination. 
 Let us for a moment refer to the recorded testimony con- 
 cerning this remarkable episode in the history of manhood 
 suffrage in this country. The historian Lecky says: 
 
 "Then followed, under the protection of the Northern bayonets, 
 a grotesque parody of government, a hideous orgy of anarchy, vio- 
 lence, unrestrained corruption, undisguised, ostentatious, insulting 
 robbery, such as the world had scarcely ever seen. The State debts 
 were profusely piled up. Legislation was openly put up for sale. 
 The "Bosses" were all in their glory, and they were abundantly re- 
 warded, while the crushed, ruined, plundered whites combined in 
 secret societies for their defense, and retaliated on their oppressors 
 by innumerable acts of savage vengeance." (Democracy and Lib- 
 erty, Vol. I, p. 94.) 
 
 Senator Tillman of South Carolina, who lived in the midst 
 of it, described the result as a "government of carpet-baggers 
 "and thieves and scalawags and scoundrels who had stolen 
 "everything in sight and mortgaged posterity; who had run 
 "their felonious paws into the pockets of posterity by issuing 
 "bonds." 
 
26O POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 From another writer: 
 
 "When installed in power the negroes and their white mentors 
 indulged in an unprecedented robbery of the public purse. They 
 made the legislatures issue bonds on the state to provide for public 
 works which were never taken in hand, and shared the proceeds 
 among themselves, leaving the taxpayers to submit to fresh tax- 
 ation ; they openly passed fraudulent disbursements or swelled the ex- 
 penses incurred for furnishing offices, etc., in the wildest fashion, 
 fitting them up, for instance, with clocks at $480 apiece, with 
 chandeliers at $650. The official positions were distributed among 
 illiterates; in one state there were more than two hundred negro 
 magistrates unable to read or write; justice was openly bought and 
 sold." (Ostrogorski on Democracy, p. 56.) 
 
 A few of the details are as follows: In Mississippi the 
 yearly expenditures trebled; the state debt was greatly in- 
 creased, the actual figures have been disputed; the tax levy 
 was multiplied by fourteen. In 1866 the State Treasurer em- 
 bezzled $61,962. The state librarian is believed to have 
 stolen books from the state library. In South Carolina upon 
 the inauguration of manhood suffrage, there followed, says the 
 Encyclopedia Britannica, "an orgy of crime and corruption." A 
 bar and restaurant was annexed to the legislative chambers, 
 free to the members and their friends; in place of the plain 
 furniture placed there by the South Carolina aristocracy, con- 
 sisting of $5 clocks and $10 benches, there were installed by 
 the representatives of the working people of the state sofas 
 at $200 each on which the black and white legislators might 
 loll and repose, and clocks at $600 each, for those capable of 
 reading time. In one session $95,000 and in four years 
 $200,000 was appropriated for State House furniture. When 
 the orgy was over a few years later, the whole lot was valued 
 at less than $18,000. In eight years the printing ring stole 
 or squandered over $150,000 of state money. Enormous 
 sums were obtained by means of fraudulent pay certificates 
 issued under legislative authority. In the four years from 
 1868 to 1872 the state debt increased from less than $7,000- 
 
THE TEN YEARS' PILLAGE OF THE SOUTH 261 
 
 ooo to an unknown sum, of which over $18,000,000 was actual 
 and evidenced by written obligations, to which might be added 
 about $10,000,000 more, clearly fraudulent and contingent on 
 the continuance in power of the plunderers. It may be said 
 that all of this increase beyond the original $7,000,000 repre- 
 sented waste and theft. A large part of this debt was after- 
 wards repudiated. In Florida $600,000 in taxes was collected 
 and embezzled by the collectors and the treasury was swept 
 absolutely bare. Legislative expenses were quadrupled, state 
 taxes increased eight- fold; in the four years from 1868 to 
 1872 the state debt mounted from $4,000,000 to $12,000,000. 
 In Tennessee the state debt rose from $16,000,000 to $42,000- 
 ooo. In Arkansas land taxes were increased ten-fold and state 
 expenses twelve-fold in eight years. Of over $7,000,000 ex- 
 pended by the state in six years, the greater part was squan- 
 dered; only $100,000 was spent for public improvements. A 
 bonded debt of $10,000,000 was fraudulently created and the 
 money wasted on pretence of paying for buildings and rail- 
 roads which were never constructed. In Georgia the state debt 
 was increased from $6,000,000 to $18,000,000 in three years 
 without any benefit whatever. In Alabama members publicly 
 boasted of receiving large sums for passing measures. The 
 state debt increased from $8,000,000 to $25,000,000 in two 
 years. The value of land fell from $50 an acre to between $3 
 and $15 an acre. In Louisiana two hundred new offices were 
 created; the public debt in two years jumped from $7,000,000 
 to $41,000,000. In four years state and city government 
 expenses increased to ten times their normal volume; taxation 
 was enormously increased, and about $54,000,000 of debt cre- 
 ated with nothing to show for it. "In North Carolina," says 
 the Encyclopedia Britannka, "the government established 
 "in accordance with the views of Congress in 1868 was corrupt, 
 "inefficient and tyrannical." The state debt was increased in a 
 few years from $16,000,000 to $42,000,000 and the proceeds 
 wasted. In Texas the extravagance of the reconstruction 
 period caused a debt of $4,700,000. In all these states salaries 
 
262 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 and miscellaneous expenses were enormously increased during 
 this episode. Crime was unpunished, pardons were bought and 
 sold and bribery of public officials was notorious. At the close 
 of the manhood suffrage rule nine southern states were unable 
 to pay their debts, amounting in all to about $170,000,000 and 
 had to repudiate them. This is not extraordinary when we 
 consider that these states had been stripped by the war of all 
 property but land, and that in seven of them the increase of 
 state debts ranged from $35 to $94 per capita inhabitant. A 
 New York state debt of $940,000,000 in 1918 would corre- 
 spond in figures with what was saddled on poor Louisiana in 
 1872; but in order to express its relative weight, considering 
 the date and the value of money and the wealth of the state, 
 it would have to be multiplied at least five times. Imagine a 
 New York state debt of $4,700,000,000. It seems an 
 impossible misfortune, but granted an illiterate population 
 and we might reasonably expect such a result in about ten 
 years' time, under a system of universal suffrage. 
 
 The attempt to establish manhood suffrage in the South by 
 means of the Fifteenth Amendment was a crime. The amend- 
 ment itself is founded upon a palpably false conception. In 
 effect it provides that the right of colored citizens of the United 
 States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by any state. 
 It amounts to a solemn declaration that there are no inferior 
 races and that a voter does not need intelligence. It proposes 
 to establish a government to be called civilized where the igno- 
 rant shall govern the intelligent; the inferior shall govern the 
 superior; poverty shall rule wealth; the pyramid shall stand 
 on its apex. It turns the democratic movement into a back- 
 ward march; assuming to speak for democracy, it declares it 
 an enemy of civilization; it flouts the wisdom of science; it 
 overrules the Creator, who created five races of men funda- 
 mentally different in capacity. To attempt this was a crime 
 and not the less but the more so because done through a sham 
 legality. As already shown in these pages, a law passed in 
 contravention of civilization, in opposition to the canons of 
 
THE TEN YEARS' PILLAGE OF THE SOUTH 263 
 
 Society is no law, and therefore the old statutes authorizing 
 the tortures of the Inquisition, the execution of witches and the 
 rendition by free peoples of fugitive slaves to their masters 
 were illegal and void, and disobedience thereto was a virtue. 
 The Abolitionists were fond of denouncing the Constitution as 
 a covenant with hell ; the Fifteenth Amendment was a compact 
 with rascality, entered into at the command of passion and 
 party advantage rather than of cool reason and patriotism. It 
 was possible because the long regime of political corruption 
 had demoralized the best of the party leaders; they had grown 
 accustomed to quackery and demagogism and a corrupt use of 
 the spoils of office to control elections and government, and 
 they found it easy to apply these means to the problem of the 
 government of the conquered Southern States, with the object 
 of party gain. But they never would have dared to do the 
 deed had the way not been first prepared by the spread of the 
 false doctrine that every man has a natural right to a vote. 
 Thus once more we have the lesson of the ultimate costliness 
 of lying and false logic. 
 
 Nor has the evil passed away with the practical nullification 
 of the amendment. One of the most mischievous of all shams 
 is a sham law. The Fifteenth Amendment, which our man- 
 hood suffrage politicians are too cowardly to repeal, has still a 
 place in the Constitution, a sham law, a dead carcass, breeding 
 disease and pestilence. This is plain to the student of Ameri- 
 can politics, though millions of American voters are too igno- 
 rant to recognize it and too irresponsible to care. For over 
 forty-three years this amendment has been by eleven southern 
 states openly flouted and defied because its enforcement would 
 mean negro domination and a relapse into barbarism. The 
 nullification of any existing law, and above all of a constitu- 
 tional provision, is demoralizing to the nation; but in this case 
 not only the fact of its nullification has been demoralizing, but 
 the manner in which it was done ; by methods admittedly evil 
 in themselves, by violence, electoral trickery, theft of and tam- 
 pering with ballot boxes, falsification and the use of fraudulent, 
 
264 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 technical and tricky law and procedure. There were probably 
 850,000 adult negro citizens in the southern states in 1870, 
 of whom all but about 50,000 were ultimately disfranchised 
 by these means, and by methods still in effectual operation. It 
 is difficult to say which has been more scandalous, the enact- 
 ment of the amendment by its friends, or the method of its 
 nullification by its enemies. Nor is this the whole story of this 
 shameful business. The net result has been and is to deprive 
 a dozen southern states, say one-quarter of the Union, of 
 all proper share and interest in Federal politics. This comes 
 about because while the Fifteenth Amendment stands the 
 South feels that there is danger of its enforcement by the Re- 
 publican party; a fear encouraged by the weak hypocrisy of 
 the blatant northern Republican politicians who pretend to 
 believe in manhood suffrage and by the warnings of the 
 blatant southern Democratic politicians who also pretend to 
 believe in its imminence. The southern whites, therefore, 
 have for over forty years voted, and still vote, en masse, the 
 Democratic ticket for Congress and the president irrespective 
 of all questions of Federal statesmanship. It is a most de- 
 plorable state of things, tending to corruption in one party, 
 to partisanship in the other, and to confusion all around. Hence 
 the "Solid South." Be the question one of war or peace, high 
 or low tariff, colonial expansion, internal improvement, civil 
 service betterment or any other important question, the vote 
 of the "Solid South," instead of expressing the opinion of the 
 southern people merely voices a negative to the Fifteenth 
 Amendment. 
 
 The result is practical disfranchisement, north and south. 
 The total vote in Louisiana, Mississippi and South Carolina 
 fell from 492,357 in 1876 to 177,822 in 1900. Allowing for 
 the increase in population, it should have been about 690,000, 
 evidencing an extinguishment of three-fourths, by fraud, ter- 
 ror, or discouragement. In South Carolina the Republican 
 vote, mostly colored, fell from 91,780 in 1876, to 3,963 in 
 1908. In 1910 the vote for congressmen in proportion to 
 
THE TEN YEARS' PILLAGE OF THE SOUTH 265 
 
 the population was in Massachusetts one to eight; in South 
 Carolina one to fifty; in Mississippi one to seventy-five. A 
 population equal to that which provided a hundred votes in 
 Massachusetts, provided no more than sixteen in South Caro- 
 lina and eleven in Mississippi. Allowing the negroes as a 
 rough estimate half the population, we find that thirty-four 
 white men in one hundred refrained from voting in Mississippi. 
 These whites were not actually forbidden to vote, but they 
 were practically disfranchised by a system of solid Democratic 
 representation which made voting a useless ceremony. The 
 menace of the Fifteenth Amendment is such that only one 
 party can exist in the Southern States. In the present Congress 
 every single member in both the Senate and the House from 
 the States of Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, 
 Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Texas, is a 
 Democrat and from Virginia there is but one Republican mem- 
 ber. And so it comes about that a constitutional measure pre- 
 tended to be enacted to enfranchise the blacks not only com- 
 pletely fails of that intent, but results in partly disfranchising 
 the whites both north and south. The southern white voter is 
 disfranchised because he is practically prevented from making 
 a free choice between candidates; the northern white voter is 
 practically disfranchised wherever a Republican measure which 
 he favors is defeated without consideration of its merits by 
 southern votes cast against him under this arbitrary pressure. 
 There are about twenty million white people in eleven southern 
 states who are thus misrepresented and held in political bondage 
 owing to the enactment of the Fifteenth Amendment 
 by manhood suffrage fanaticism and stupidity. Assuming that 
 these people, if liberated from the fear of the brutal regime of 
 manhood suffrage with which they are threatened, would di- 
 vide about equally in politics like their northern fellow citi- 
 zens, and we have say ten millions of northern people, and 
 about two millions of male northern voters who are practically 
 disfranchised; their votes being nullified by the blind vote of 
 these eleven southern states. The existence of this condition 
 
266 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 of affairs is well recognized by lawyers and statesmen. Says one 
 writer, "The indifference to political interests and responsibili- 
 ties which such conditions produce is a serious menace to the 
 "progress of the south and to that of the country as well." 
 (Appleton's Cyclopedia; American Government, Suffrage.) 
 
 Such in brief is the story of the results and reactions of the 
 attempt made a generation ago with great power and with all 
 the seriousness of fanaticism, to put into actual effect in our 
 Southern States the silly doctrine of the political equality of 
 all men. The lesson and the conclusion are alike plain and unde- 
 niable. No sensible white man is now heard to urge that the 
 pauper southern negroes be once more invited to take part in 
 our political life. And yet, if there be truth in the theory 
 that every man is entitled to a vote, no matter how humble, 
 then the disfranchisement of the southern negro is a foul in- 
 justice, for which the whole American people are responsible, 
 since they all acquiesce in it. But there is no truth in it. 
 The mass of negroes are properly excluded from voting 
 in the South, because as a class they lack the training, 
 experience and temperament necessary to a proper exer- 
 cise of the suffrage. All this seemed perfectly plain 
 from the beginning; and yet it was only after a long and severe 
 political agitation, accompanied by violence and bloodshed, 
 that the South got rid of its rotten manhood suffrage govern- 
 ments; and it will take time and much talk to bring the 
 American people to the point where they will feel compelled 
 to apply to the ignorant and shiftless whites the principle then 
 so fully illustrated, tried out and verified, that the suffrage is 
 a function of government and cannot safely or justly be con- 
 ferred on any class which is morally or mentally incompetent 
 to perform it. 
 
CHAPTER XVII 
 
 THE EFFECT OF MANHOOD SUFFRAGE IS TO ENSURE INEFFI- 
 CIENCY IN DOMESTIC LEGISLATION AND ADMINISTRA- 
 TION. 
 
 IT is expressing oneself very mildly to say that manhood 
 suffrage produces inefficiency; rather one may say that in- 
 efficiency is of its very essence. Preparedness is a major es- 
 sential of the management of our successful business 
 enterprises, while unpreparedness is a characteristic feature 
 of our government administration. To take a concrete and 
 conceded instance. The Spanish war of 1898 found us totally 
 unprepared for war; without guns, powder, artillery, trans- 
 ports or officers trained for high command. (Alger, Spanish- 
 American War, p. 455.) Our troops in that war were not 
 properly equipped, rationed or cared for. The cause, says 
 Stickney, was "the wholesale fraud and corruption which 
 "then permeated the entire administrative force in Wash- 
 "ington. That fraud and corruption still continue in full 
 "force." In the New York Sun of February ;th, 1920, the lead- 
 ing editorial was on American want of preparedness. The 
 writer said, "We are a people who will not practice prepared- 
 "ness. We did not prepare for war, we did not prepare for 
 "peace. We have never prepared for anything. But sooner or 
 "later the man that will not prepare must be damned." This 
 well-recognized want of foresight in national matters is not 
 an American failing; it is entirely due to the manhood suf- 
 frage habit of voting into responsible positions men of in- 
 trigue and oratory instead of men of business. Says Reemelin, 
 "There is not a bank, a factory, a store or a farm, which if 
 "managed on the basis of American government would not im- 
 poverish its owner." (American Politics, 1881, p. 324.) 
 
 267 
 
268 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 In every department of human activity, including govern- 
 ment, the chief desideratum is efficiency. In the primary 
 struggle for a bare existence, it is efficiency that wins. The 
 first and principal enemy of man is Nature; her wildness and 
 inclemency must first be overcome, and food, shelter and 
 clothing be forced from her bosom at the price of an endless 
 and ceaseless vigilance. As human society grows older the 
 efficiency which comes of systematic training becomes more 
 essential to its maintenance. People may doubt whether the 
 world improves or whether human existence becomes more 
 precious and enjoyable with the passing of time, but no one 
 can doubt that life is growing more complicated every year. 
 The increase of population, the achievements of invention, the 
 growth of knowledge of our environment, and the cultivation 
 of new tastes and desires have all tended and are tending with 
 accumulated force to make life more difficult for the unin- 
 structed and to increase the necessity for scientific thinking 
 and acting in dealing with new problems. As stated by Mr. 
 Lowell the specialization of occupations is brought about by 
 complexity of civilization, growth of accurate knowledge, prog- 
 ress of invention and the keenness of competition. A few 
 years ago a private citizen could take up a new business with- 
 out prior preparation; he can no longer safely do so. The 
 use of experts is increasing in business concerns and industrial 
 enterprises. Universities are erecting new specialized depart- 
 ments. Sixty years ago there was scarcely a school of engi- 
 neers in the country; to-day there are many of them. The 
 inexorable rule of the tendency of the fittest to survive is still 
 an active force in the world, and the recent struggle with Ger- 
 many gave terrible warning that efficiency is more than ever 
 the price of existence. 
 
 Next to the struggle with wild Nature comes the contest 
 with human disorder and the necessity for government, in 
 order that men may best secure and enjoy the spoils and fruits 
 achieved from Nature; and again efficiency is the essential 
 quality. We hear much these days about moral force; but 
 
INEFFICIENCY IN DOMESTIC AFFAIRS 269 
 
 there is no force but material force; what is usually meant by 
 moral force is the influence of moral ideas directing action, 
 for without efficient action, moral ideas will be fruitless. They 
 will not make crops grow nor cause a machine to operate, nor 
 check the deadly velocity of a volley of musketry, nor save a 
 sinking ship, nor check a conflagration; moral force will not 
 win a battle, a campaign or a war, nor save a nation. Combe 
 in his Constitution of Man, long ago pointed out that a 
 pirate in a good sea-going ship was safer than a missionary in 
 an unseaworthy one. Moral ideas may serve to give action 
 a right direction; but training and force are necessary to make 
 it effective; without training in action and a proper supply of 
 material force, the moral ideas will never be manifested at 
 all to our senses, and therefore efficiency in action is the final 
 object of all practical teaching, and the true test of good gov- 
 ernment. Governmental efficiency means good order; wise 
 legislation; foresight in public affairs; the proper selection of 
 work to be done; the doing it well and expeditiously; speedy 
 and impartial justice; good home administration generally and 
 wisdom and firmness in foreign relations. It is difficult to 
 see how a government which is efficient can be bad, or one 
 which is inefficient can be good. In fact, efficiency makes 
 more for human happiness than any other governmental 
 quality. The ultimate object of the creation of the Federal 
 Union was to secure increased efficiency in government. The 
 old Confederation had been inefficient and was justly con- 
 demned and abolished; and the present Federal government 
 was therefore established with powers as stated in the Con- 
 stitution to levy and carry on war, to control and promote 
 commerce, to establish and sustain postal facilities and a na- 
 tional coinage and to secure peace with foreign nations; all 
 of which purposes might be included in the phrase "national 
 efficiency." 
 
 In an address delivered at Chicago, January i2th, 1918, by 
 Otto H. Kahn, a patriotic and far-sighted New York business 
 man familiar with German methods, he truly said: 
 
27O POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 "One of the main reasons for Germany's remarkable develop- 
 ment in peace and amazing power of resistance in war, is the way 
 she has dealt with the complex and difficult problems of economic, 
 commercial and fiscal policy. She recognized, long since, that such 
 problems cannot be successfully handled haphazardly or in town- 
 meeting fashion, or emotionally; still less can they be made the 
 football of politics. The German way has been to turn such mat- 
 ters over for study and report to those best qualified by experience 
 and training, and thus having obtained expert advice to respect 
 it and in its large outlines to follow it. And appointments to 
 office are made not on a basis of political affiliations or personal 
 friendship or social sympathies, but for experience and tested 
 fitness." 
 
 He is right, and it is a well-recognized fact that German 
 efficiency in the late war enabled her to make head for over 
 three years against the most powerful combination of modern 
 times. 
 
 Consider the vast importance of the work of our own Con- 
 gress and of our state legislatures. Think of what is com- 
 mitted to the charge of these bodies; reflect for a moment on 
 the importance of our state affairs; our harbors, canals, rail- 
 roads, highways, schools, colleges, courts of justice, penal and 
 charitable institutions, public utilities, all the manifold com- 
 mercial, political and criminal legislation of the State; and 
 then glance at the immense fields of Congressional authority: 
 the power of declaring war and making treaties; the main- 
 tenance and support of the army and navy; foreign affairs, 
 tariffs; interstate railroads; the post-office; the federal courts 
 of justice. The human mind is appalled at the magnitude of 
 the task of properly governing the enormous population and 
 of safeguarding the immense wealth and interests of the United 
 States. The future political existence of the country and its 
 status as a nation may and very probably will depend on the 
 capacity and ability of its legislators and administrators. Yet 
 but few voters realize the necessity of business experience and 
 of technical knowledge to members of the state or national 
 
INEFFICIENCY IN DOMESTIC AFFAIRS 271 
 
 legislatures. It is not sufficiently considered that by far the 
 greater part of legislative work is made up of strictly business 
 matters requiring special knowledge. Take for instance one 
 item of Federal legislation, namely, that relating to the admin- 
 istration of 200,000 square miles of timbered land owned by 
 the United States government an area equal to France 
 where the people dwelling or operating in the lower regions de- 
 rive their water from wooded uplands: and also relating to 
 another area of 100,000,000 acres or 150,000 square miles con- 
 taining petroleum, coal and other minerals. In these two tracts 
 "The government will henceforth be selling standing timber to 
 "lumbermen, water power for electrical transmission, water for 
 "irrigation rights, and oil, coal, and mineral privileges, on an 
 "ever-increasing scale of magnitude; while it will rent grazing 
 "lands equal in extent to the greater part of the country east 
 "of the Mississippi River." (Shaw on Political Problems, 
 p. 114.) 
 
 This case is not exceptional in Congress as may be seen 
 by the following list, which includes all the important general 
 Federal legislation for the year 1917, which happens to be the 
 latest at hand: 
 
 1. Increasing the membership of the Interstate Commerce 
 Commission, and increasing the powers of the Commission. 
 
 2. Excess Profits Tax on Corporations. 
 
 3. Civil Government for Porto Rico. 
 
 4. Literary Test for Alien Immigrants. 
 
 5. Military Measures, namely, Declaration of War against 
 Germany; Liberty Bond Issue; Ship and War Material Act; 
 Draft Law; Food Control; Espionage; War Risk Insurance. 
 
 6. Appropriation Bills. 
 
 These measures are all of general effect and all require 
 expert knowledge. It appears from a mere reading of the 
 list that they are such as to presume and require in the legis- 
 lators a knowledge of finance; taxation; shipping; food pro- 
 duction; transportation; insurance; and other subjects. 
 
272 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 New York state legislation for 1917 dealt with the follow- 
 ing subjects, all or nearly all relating to business matters: 
 Court officers and judicial procedure; decedents' estates; do- 
 mestic relations, including marriage and illegitimacy laws; 
 penal and criminal statutes; civil service laws; state account- 
 ing and budget; state police; municipal government regula- 
 tions; sales act; warehouse receipt act; partnership; cold- 
 storage; negotiable instruments; extradition; land registra- 
 tion; probate of wills; highways and motor vehicles; dog 
 licenses; railroad crossing protection; commercial regulations 
 relating to trading stamps; patent medicines; food products; 
 blue sky law; insurance laws; corporations; regulation of 
 public utilities; conservation of resources; taxation laws; the 
 care of the insane; building regulations; banking; education; 
 public health; liquor dealing and labor laws. This list is not 
 at all exceptional and the public need of trained and informed 
 men in government service is more apparent every day. 
 
 "There is now" (says Willoughby) "demanded on the part of our 
 lawmakers, not only patriotism and political sagacity of the 
 highest order, but scientific knowledge, and strict disinterestedness 
 far beyond that formerly required. Many of the economic inter- 
 ests that are now discussed in our legislative halls require, in the 
 highest degree, scholarly research and judgment." (Nature of the 
 State, p. 416.) 
 
 Now, when manhood suffrage was established here as an 
 institution ; when, as the twaddlers like to say, the people took 
 command, it became the privilege and the duty of the ruling 
 populace to establish and enforce proper standards of quali- 
 fication for its representatives and agents. Its orators pro- 
 fessed that they were going to show the world great results of 
 popular government. The wretched practical results we know. 
 But what efforts did they make? What have they in fact done 
 in three generations towards securing efficiency in their elective 
 officers? Absolutely nothing. If any despot had ever shown 
 such complete disregard of decency and propriety in his sys- 
 tem of appointments as our manhood suffrage democracy has, 
 
INEFFICIENCY IN DOMESTIC AFFAIRS 273 
 
 he would be held up to public reprobation. Not only are and 
 have been the state and national legislators and other elective 
 officials commonplace or below commonplace in character and 
 ability, but no effort whatever has been made or is being made; 
 no scheme has been even proposed, whereby to secure men of 
 efficiency for these important places in the gift of the people. 
 The manhood suffrage electorates are reckless, unscrupulous 
 and hopelessly behind the age; they never have recognized 
 the growing need for efficiency. As Lowell says, "We are train- 
 ing men for all services but that of the public." 
 
 In fact, the scheme of manhood suffrage makes no provision 
 for efficiency, nor any serious pretence thereof; it ignores it 
 completely in the selection of its agents and otherwise. What- 
 ever efficiency may be secured in a democracy is obtained in 
 some way other than by a manhood suffrage vote. The only 
 test applied by the populace at an election is the oratorical test, 
 and sometimes not even that. Its favorites at the polls are the 
 talkers; by talk they become known; by talk they become 
 candidates; by speeches they gain elections and by speeches 
 they maintain their places. No one knows or cares whether 
 they can do anything else but talk. No one ever heard of a 
 candidate for an elective public office being required to pro- 
 duce proof of his equipment for the place. A candidate for 
 alderman is not expected to have served an apprenticeship in 
 any city department; nor to pass an examination in harbor 
 facilities, sanitation, school management, public lighting, 
 sewage, water supply, transportation nor any of the depart- 
 ments of city government. The candidate for mayor of New 
 York is not required to know the contents of the Charter of 
 the city. Congress is supposed to be the real governing body 
 in this country, and would be such if it were not so scandalously 
 incompetent and untrustworthy. But a man who can get by 
 hook or crook on the machine ticket and can make what the 
 rabble calls "a rattlin' good speech" is qualified for a seat 
 in Congress. Whoever heard of a candidate for Congress or 
 a state legislature being required to know anything whatever 
 
274 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 about anything or to have ever done anything as a prerequisite 
 to his candidacy? Such tests would be inconsistent with the 
 very theory of manhood suffrage as now entertained. That 
 standards will ultimately have to be applied even to elective 
 offices if democracy is to prevail no far-seeing man can doubt. 
 And there is nothing impracticable about the suggestion. Even 
 now, in the states where judges are elective, custom requires 
 that the candidate shall have previously passed an examina- 
 tion for admission to the bar. There is no reason whatever 
 why all candidates for elective offices should not be required 
 to be reasonably qualified for the offices they seek; nor why 
 the electors themselves should not be such persons as are quali- 
 fied to vote, and have proved their fitness for the ballot by 
 the record of their lives in the community. But the essential 
 quality of manhood suffrage is that it rejects all tests for 
 voters, and so beginning at the very source of government its 
 anti-efficient influence extends all along the line, and tends to 
 neutralize every effort to elevate the standard of democratic ad- 
 ministration. Its spirit is directly opposed to the demand for 
 efficiency in governmental affairs. Efficiency is exclusive, it 
 applies tests, and rejects those who fail. Beginning with the 
 voter, manhood suffrage refuses to apply to him any tests 
 whatever, and denies not only the policy of their application 
 but the right to use them. It views the elective franchise as 
 the personal belonging of the individual, even the most ignorant 
 and degraded, to be used to justify his whim, his pleasure, 
 his spite, his prejudice. The newspapers, unconsciously per- 
 haps, voice this spirit. We constantly read in the public -press 
 urgent invitations to vote, addressed to the careless or indif- 
 ferent in politics, those who presumably have no compelling 
 opinions and are therefore quite unprepared and unfit to vote. 
 Instead of being warned of the wrong and danger of frivolous 
 and ignorant voting, they are urged by the newspapers to go 
 to the polls as if to take part in an amateur baseball game: 
 "Come, join in; even if you don't do it well; it's the national 
 "game! There are prizes too, the spoils; and though you don't 
 
INEFFICIENCY IN DOMESTIC AFFAIRS 275 
 
 "compete yourself you may have the fun of seeing them 
 "distributed, and root for the victors." People are more care- 
 less in voting for high officials than in hiring an office boy. 
 They vote for men whom they do not know even by sight; 
 whose very names are unfamiliar; and are usually quite un- 
 ashamed of trifling with the suffrage in a manner deserving 
 punishment. This is one result of our cheapening of the fran- 
 chise. 
 
 If the reader will peruse the list of measures passed or 
 considered by Congress or his state legislature for the current 
 year, he will perhaps be able to judge whether his representa- 
 tive in Washington or in the state capital is competent to deal 
 with such matters. Not one in a hundred is fit for the job. 
 For most of the subjects of legislation the average public rep- 
 resentative has had no previous training whatever. And if 
 after long service he happens to become proficient in any of 
 them, the chances are that he will be sent back to private life 
 by the vote of a manhood suffrage constituency under orders 
 of the district boss. As a consequence it is well known that 
 the legislative output is and has been for generations past 
 very inferior indeed. The abuse of state legislation is dealt 
 with elsewhere in this volume; it is so notorious that it needs 
 no proof, and is so vast that its complete discussion is far be- 
 yond the compass of this work. The reader experienced in 
 politics is probably well aware that Ostrogorski is right, in 
 his brief summary (p. 374): "The laws are made with singu- 
 lar incompetence and carelessness. Their number is excessive, 
 "running into volumes each session; but they are mostly laws 
 "of local or private interest. The motives which enter into the 
 "making of these laws are often of an obviously mercenary 
 "nature." (Democracy.) 
 
 Before the German war the state legislative output in the 
 United States was about fifteen thousand enactments per year, 
 of which about one-third were public or general laws and the 
 remaining two-thirds special and local statutes. This year it is 
 probably greater. In a recent single session of Congress up- 
 
276 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 wards of twenty thousand bills and resolutions were introduced, 
 of which about five thousand were passed, including nearly two 
 thousand public or general laws. Probably nine-tenths of this 
 legislation is unnecessary and a large part of it is undoubtedly 
 vicious. 
 
 The just resentment of America's business men is being 
 constantly voiced at the manner in which business interests 
 are being flouted by the doctrinaires and demagogues to whom 
 our political system entrusts the reins of government. The 
 following extracts from the address of Otto H. Kahn, before re- 
 ferred to, will serve to illustrate some phases of this attitude of 
 business towards politics: 
 
 "A somewhat similar case is the railroad legislation which Con- 
 gress enacted under the Taft administration. That legislation rep- 
 resented the tearing to shreds and the subsequent recasting, patch- 
 ing up and ill-devised piecing together by Congress of a carefully 
 thought out, though, in my opinion, by no means faultless measure, 
 which had been introduced with the backing of the Administration. 
 You all know the result. The spirit of enterprise in railroading 
 was killed. Subjected to an obsolete and incongruous national 
 policy, hampered, confined, harassed by incessant, minute, narrow, 
 multifarious and sometimes contradictory regulations, that great 
 industry began to fall away. Initiative on the part of those in 
 charge became chilled, the free flow of investment of capital was 
 halted, creative activity was stopped, growth was stifled, credit 
 was crippled. ..." 
 
 "What we business men protest against is ignorance, shallow 
 thought or doctrinairism assuming the place belonging to expert 
 opinion and tested practical ability. We protest against sophomor- 
 ism rampant, strutting about in the cloak of superior knowledge t 
 mischievously and noisily, to the disturbance of quiet and orderly 
 mental processes and sane progress. We protest against senti- 
 mental, unseasoned, intolerant and cocksure 'advanced thinkers' 
 being given leave to set the world by the ears and with their stri- 
 dent and ceaseless voices to drown the views of those who are too 
 busy doing to indulge in much talking. And finally do we protest 
 against demagogism, envy and prejudice, camouflaging under the 
 
INEFFICIENCY IN DOMESTIC AFFAIRS 277 
 
 flag of war necessity and social justice in order to wage a campaign 
 through inflammatory appeal, misstatement and specious reasoning 
 to punish success, despoil capital and harass business." 
 
 And further on: 
 
 "We deny the suggestion that patriotism, virtue and knowledge 
 reside primarily with those who have been unsuccessful, those who 
 have no practical experience of business, or, be it said with all 
 respect, with those who are politicians or office holders." 
 
 This remonstrance of Mr. Kahn is but a sample which 
 might be multiplied by the hundreds. It is typical of a con- 
 stant stream of complaints which business men in all parts of 
 the country are continually uttering. The universal testimony 
 of our merchants, manufacturers and financiers is that neither 
 at the federal or state capitols do they find men either ca- 
 pable of understanding the rules and operations of business or 
 willing to study them, or interested in the business prosperity 
 of the people. If the reader will but examine a list of 
 members of any legislative body he will understand the cause 
 of this deplorable situation. Let him study the names of the 
 delegation at present representing in the state legislature the 
 immense interests of the City of New York, her commerce, 
 manufactures, wealth and population. She ought to be rep- 
 resented there by the class of honorable and successful active 
 or retired merchants; financiers of high standing; manufac- 
 turers of note and ability and leaders in the professions; by 
 publicists; scholars, and men of the first prominence in labor 
 organizations ; to be or to have been a member of a state legis- 
 lature should be a badge of honor. On that list he will prob- 
 ably find not one name known outside the ranks of petty 
 ward politicians; and men of the high character above de- 
 scribed would feel it as a stigma to have it said that they had 
 served in a legislative body. 
 
 Next, as to the judiciary. It is the property of evil to 
 spread, and it is one of the curses of the manhood suffrage 
 system, that not content with control of the legislature which 
 
278 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 is properly elective, it seizes upon and degrades the judicial 
 and administrative branches of government which are both 
 naturally appointive. Its effect upon the judicial bench has 
 been necessarily bad, frequently covering the ermine with the 
 mire of politics. During the period from 1865 to 1873 so 
 many of the judges sitting in New York City were notoriously 
 unfit and corrupt, that their doings furnished material for a 
 great scandal. The state supreme court judges, elected by 
 manhood suffrage, were the most conspicuous sinners, but 
 many of the inferior judges, including those appointed by a 
 manhood suffrage mayor, were equally unworthy. Bryce 
 visited one of those courts, probably about 1870, and this is 
 what he saw: 
 
 "An ill-omened looking man, flashily dressed and rude in de- 
 meanor, was sitting behind a table; two men in front were address- 
 ing him; the rest of the room was given up to disorder. Had one 
 not been told that he was a judge of the highest court of the city, 
 one might have taken him for a criminal. His jurisdiction was un- 
 limited in amount, and though an appeal lay from him to the Court 
 of Appeals of the State, his power to issue injunctions put all the 
 property in the district at his mercy." 
 
 He further declares that at that time there were on the 
 bench in New York City, bar room loafers, broken-down 
 Tombs attorneys, needy adventurers, whose want of character 
 made them absolutely dependent on their patrons. "They did 
 "not regard social censure, for they were already excluded from 
 "decent society. Impeachment had no terrors for them, since 
 "the state legislature, as well as the executive machinery of 
 "the city, was in the hands of their masters. It would have 
 "been vain to expect such people, without fear of God or man 
 "before their eyes, to resist the temptations which capitalists 
 "and powerful company could offer." And further: 
 
 "A system of client robbery had sprung up, by which each judge 
 enriched the knot of disreputable lawyers who surrounded him; he 
 referred cases to them, granted them monstrous allowances in the 
 name of costs, gave them receiverships with a large percentage, and 
 
INEFFICIENCY IN DOMESTIC AFFAIRS 279 
 
 so forth; they in turn either at the time sharing the booty with him, 
 or undertaking to do the same for him when he should have de- 
 scended to the Bar and they have climbed to the Bench. Nor 
 is there any doubt that criminals who had any claim on their 
 party often managed to elude punishment. The police, it was said, 
 would not arrest such an offender if they could help it; the District 
 Attorney would avoid prosecuting; the court officials, if public 
 opinion had forced the attorney to act, would try to pack the jury; 
 the judge, if the jury seemed honest, would do his best to procure 
 an acquittal; and if, in spite of police, attorney, officials, and 
 judge, the criminal was convicted and sentenced, he might still 
 hope that the influence of his party would procure a pardon from 
 the governor of the State, or enable him in some other way to slip 
 out of the grasp of justice. For governor, judge, attorney, officials, 
 and police were all of them party nominees; and if a man cannot 
 count on being helped by his party at a pinch, who will be faithful 
 to his party?" (American Commonwealth, Vol. II, pp. 637, 639, 
 640.) 
 
 Although this extremely degraded judiciary has passed 
 away, yet the whole story is as pertinent today as it ever was, 
 for the vileness Bryce describes was the result of the op- 
 eration of manhood suffrage in a large city; and the same 
 causes are still in existence. In practice in the great cities the 
 higher state judges are usually selected by the political 
 bosses; and the election is often a mere form, or at most a 
 contest between rival bosses in which the public takes but a 
 languid and futile interest. When the boss is a rich man as 
 often happens in a great city, he gets to know some able 
 lawyers and sometimes makes fairly good selections for the 
 higher judicial vacancies. This is far better than the populace 
 would be likely to do if left to themselves. Another means of 
 protection for judicial honor has been the influence of an 
 educated bar, endeavoring to enforce the traditions of the 
 past, and the examples of other civilized countries to the 
 effect that judges should be exempt from political influence 
 and bias. But when all is said and done it is largely a matter 
 of luck even in the highest courts whether the judges are fit 
 
280 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 or otherwise. That the highest judges are still "bossed" is 
 not a mere vulgar notion. How can they escape? In the elec- 
 tion for judges of the highest New York courts in 1919, the 
 charge that certain judicial candidates were " bossed" was pub- 
 licly and persistently made by ex-judges and leading lawyers. 
 Of the California judges in 1877, Bryce says: 
 
 "The judges were not corrupt, but most of them, as was natural, 
 considering the scanty salaries assigned to them, were inferior men, 
 not fit to cope with the counsel who practised before them. Partly 
 owing to the weakness of juries, partly to the intricacies of the law 
 and the defects of the recently adopted code, criminal justice was 
 halting and uncertain, and malefactors often went unpunished. It 
 became a proverb that you might safely commit a murder if you 
 took the advice of the best lawyers." (American Commonwealth, 
 Vol. II, p. 430.) 
 
 The most determined efforts of the lawyers of our great 
 cities to make a manhood suffrage constituency understand a 
 judicial election have been complete failures. It is sometimes 
 amusing to see the straits to which lawyers and their intelli- 
 gent friends are driven to keep the judiciary from degradation. 
 In New York, for instance, where the judges are elected for 
 fourteen-year terms, the lawyers hit upon the plan of demand- 
 ing that sitting judges whose terms expire should always be 
 renominated by the bosses, on pain of active opposition to 
 the entire ticket, including their proposed successors. 
 This really involved a violation of the spirit of the 
 constitution, for it aimed at a life tenure for judges 
 instead of the fourteen years fixed by that instru- 
 ment, to which these lawyers had sworn allegiance. It further 
 involved the absurdity of allowing the boss to select a judge, 
 but never to drop him, no matter what his record; and it re- 
 sulted that a candidate might be opposed by the bar the first 
 time, but if elected would certainly be supported by them the 
 next time without in either instance any real investigation of 
 his record, character or attainments. All this absurdity has 
 been and is committed by intelligent lawyers in their efforts 
 
INEFFICIENCY IN DOMESTIC AFFAIRS 28l 
 
 to avoid the risk of manhood suffrage popular elections of 
 high judges. The reader can judge from this how lively the 
 fear of popular judicial elections must be in the hearts of the 
 lawyers of the city of New York. 
 
 There is of course something repulsive in the very thought 
 of a judge of a high court being selected in an election con- 
 test, and of his owing his place to the suffrages of a low popu- 
 lace. And then, there is the practical objection to an elective 
 judiciary, that a judge's qualities are special and such as can 
 only be ascertained upon personal acquaintance and by men 
 of superior attainments. The office is properly an appointive 
 one, but with manhood suffrage in play, some of the worst 
 selections for the bench have been made by state governors, 
 in order to reward followers or venal newspapers. There is 
 really no remedy and no way of taking the judiciary out of 
 politics while either the judge himself or the appointing power 
 is created by manhood suffrage. The trail of the serpent is 
 over everything that comes from that quarter. As for the 
 lower courts, the selections of their judges have been scan- 
 dalous; men have been put on the bench who were ignorant 
 of the first principles of law; drunkards, reckless politicians, 
 ignorant, dishonest, uncouth, unmannerly specimens who have 
 sought judicial office because they had no taste for hard work, 
 or because their ignorance or habits were such that they were 
 unable to earn an honest living at the bar. Some of them 
 are notoriously owned by politicians. Senator Breen says that 
 "After being whispered about among a coterie of closest 
 "friends it becomes well-known that this particular politician 
 "owns a certain judge and can get him to do anything. . . . 
 "The miserable creature who is robbed in judicial honors re- 
 "poses in perfect ignorance of the ignominy which his acts of 
 "dishonor are bringing on his name. This has been the fate of 
 "many a judge." (Thirty Years in New York Politics, p. 25.) 
 A New York newspaper in the Tweed days said that there 
 was no quarter of the civilized world where the name of a 
 New York judge is not a hissing and a byword. The New 
 
282 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 York bench has on the whole improved since 1871 when this 
 was written; but it is very far from being what it ought to 
 be, and its attainment of a high standard is impossible under 
 manhood suffrage. 
 
 Taking the judicial system of the United States as a whole 
 for the last three quarters of a century it must be said 
 that the administration of justice has been inefficient; a large 
 percentage of the judges have been and are unfit for their 
 places; clerks and sheriffs corrupt and incapable; there have 
 been chronic and intolerable delays; juries almost everywhere 
 carelessly selected, and usually incompetent and morally weak 
 or dishonest; inferior magistrates corrupt and unfit; many of 
 the trial judges weak and slow and referees and masters 
 grasping and extortionate. Congress and the several states 
 have adopted the stupid policy of underpaying the bench, ap- 
 parently on the theory that any lawyer is capable of being a 
 judge; and of employing as few judges as possible in order 
 to save some of the money elsewhere so wickedly squandered. 
 These foolish economies to offset reckless waste are charac- 
 teristic of the lower classes; they are given effect by uni- 
 versal suffrage, and harmonize with the whole inefficient 
 outfit. The result is that in many cities important cases are 
 on the trial calendars for months and even years waiting to 
 be heard because there are not judges enough to hear them 
 promptly; erroneous decisions of weak and ignorant judges 
 keep the appellate courts busy ordering reversals and grant- 
 ing new trials; and a controversy that ought to be disposed 
 of in a few months may drag along for years and until some 
 of the witnesses have disappeared or died and others have 
 forgotten all they once knew about the case. Mr. Bryce, in 
 his American Commonwealth, treats the subject of the ju- 
 diciary with great circumspection, and with an evident desire 
 to speak well of the American bench, but is unable after "care- 
 ful inquiries" to answer even in the matter of honesty for 
 more than "nearly all the northern and most of the southern 
 and western states." He says that "In a few states, probably 
 
INEFFICIENCY IN DOMESTIC AFFAIRS 283 
 
 "six or seven in all, suspicions have at one time or another 
 "within the last twenty years attached to one or more of the 
 "Supreme judges," and has "never heard of a state in which 
 "more than two or three judges were the objects of distrust at 
 "the same time." It is worth while to stop to realize what this 
 amounts to: from twelve to twenty dishonest judges of the 
 highest state courts in the United States, actually sitting day 
 after day, dealing out infamy under the name of justice; 
 criminals put on the bench by the election machinery; a ju- 
 diciary in six or seven states so tainted that the foul smell 
 reached the nostrils of a visitor from other lands. This state of 
 things makes one suspect a low standard for the entire ju- 
 diciary, or at least for that of each of those six or seven sus- 
 pected states, for it indicates the unscrupulous power of 
 politics. In a state where even two or three judges sell or barter 
 justice for politics, who will not suspect that others, promoted 
 by the same bosses, or by the same system, are incompetent, 
 careless or otherwise unfit? 
 
 The third class of public officers, being that which is gen- 
 erally styled administrative, ought not, any more than the ju- 
 diciary, to be affected by politics and should therefore never be 
 chosen by popular election. The function of the legislator is 
 to enact new measures in accordance with the progressive 
 needs of the people, and he should therefore to a certain extent 
 consult their wishes in framing legislation. But the adminis- 
 trative official is there to obey and to enforce the law as it 
 exists; his duty is merely that of an honest, painstaking ex- 
 pert, and his office should be appointive and should never be 
 treated as political. This distinction between legislative and 
 administrative officials is plain and wide to the vision of any 
 man with the least knowledge of government; and yet in pre- 
 paring the constitutions and laws with which they deign to 
 provide us, it is frequently ignored by politicians in pursuit 
 of political power and patronage; the pretense being the fur- 
 therance of democratic institutions and the rule of the people. 
 And so in the great state of New York the attorney general, 
 
284 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 the state engineer and surveyor, the secretary of state and 
 the state treasurer have been made and are elective officials; 
 and since female suffrage has been established in that state 
 we have the edifying spectacle of those important offices being 
 filled and their incumbents chosen, not by the governor of the 
 state, nor by any body of experienced lawyers, engineers, busi- 
 ness men or others somewhat acquainted with the workings 
 of the respective offices and candidates, but by four millions 
 of miscellaneous people; including motormen, hod carriers, 
 servant maids, seamstresses, society ladies, firemen, boiler 
 makers, farm laborers, gamblers, loafers, etc., of whom ninety- 
 nine out of a hundred have no idea what an attorney general 
 or a state engineer is, nor what are the duties of any of these 
 officials, and would be unable the day after election even to 
 name the candidates for whom they voted for those offices. 
 In fact the gross ineptitude of the institution of manhood 
 suffrage is nowhere more strikingly apparent than in the elec- 
 tion of state officers in the Empire State. 
 
 Nowhere in private life is the principle of popular election 
 applied to the choice of administrators or managers; such folly 
 is confined to public affairs. The merchant service and the 
 army and navy are not conducted upon the principle of uni- 
 versal suffrage; neither the crew nor the passengers, nor both 
 united, are permitted to select the officers of a ship; nor are 
 the rank and file permitted to vote for their officers in any 
 navy, or in any well-disciplined army. The sick man does 
 not choose his physician, nor the business man his lawyer or 
 broker by taking the votes of his neighbors or friends. In 
 all these instances, and in every similar case of necessary care 
 in making a choice of an agent, the prerequisite which is in- 
 sisted upon as first indispensable and controlling is efficiency; 
 and such efficiency can only be obtained by intelligent selec- 
 tion. Administrative officials should always be possessed 
 of character, experience, intelligence and other qualities which 
 go to produce efficiency. Such possessions can only be recog- 
 nized by those who are personally acquainted with the candi- 
 
INEFFICIENCY IN DOMESTIC AFFAIRS 285 
 
 dates and are competent to pass upon these qualities. Their 
 selection should preferably be made by those who are to super- 
 vise their conduct in office, and to keep them up to the stand- 
 ard required. An appointing body is able to consider all the 
 candidates who present themselves or whose friends present 
 them; the electorate can only consider two or three to any 
 advantage. The appointing body can examine personally all 
 the candidates; the voters are incapable of properly examining 
 any, and have neither the means nor the leisure for the careful 
 scrutiny needed to estimate professional or expert qualifica- 
 tions. All administrative officers should therefore be placed 
 in office by appointment of their superiors or supervisors who 
 are to be held responsible for their conduct in office, and never 
 by popular election at the polls. Of course, the politicians 
 may reply, though they are not likely to do so, that the elec- 
 tion of these state officers is a sham; that they are usually 
 far from being the nondescripts whom the populace might 
 choose if left unbossed; that they are really selected in secret 
 long before election, by a political autocracy, which taking 
 advantage of the ignorance and indifference of the mass of 
 voters, sees to it that the powers and patronage of these offices 
 go in the direction of selected favorites of the machine, not 
 destitute of ability. This is at least partly true, for the ten- 
 dency of manhood suffrage is to turn the elections into mere 
 formal ratifications of the will of the bosses. And a machine 
 appointment to an administrative office usually results much 
 better for the public interest than a choice by manhood suf- 
 frage, especially where there are spoils in sight and where 
 rival organizations sharpen their claws, as for instance in a 
 mayoralty contest in a large city. Then ensues a real struggle, 
 heightened by newspaper lies and clamor, with a tendency to 
 give the victory to that one of the factions whose managers 
 are most artful, impudent and mendacious. In the American 
 Popular Science Review, February, 1918, p. 121, Edgar Daw- 
 son, speaking of the election of a city mayor, an office which 
 under any rational system is treated as administrative, says: 
 
286 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 "Does it require argument to prove to thoughtful people that 
 wise choice is not likely to be made in the midst of the revel of 
 hysteria, sham, demagogy, falsehood and ignorance, which we call 
 a direct popular election of administrative officers? Is choice likely 
 to be wise when nine out of ten of those who make it know nothing 
 of the candidates they support or oppose, and are equally ignorant of 
 the work the candidates ask the privilege of doing?" 
 
 Thus arises a question difficult to decide, between appoint- 
 ments by a machine, and those of a machine-directed populace. 
 
 The immense importance of scientific management of cities 
 is so obvious as not to need discussion. It is set forth in detail 
 in a book published in 1918 by M. L. Cooke, Director of Pub- 
 lic Works in Philadelphia, to which the reader is referred. 
 The author states that "Governmental work, Federal, State 
 "and Municipal, is still almost exclusively in the unsystema- 
 "tized stage." 
 
 Here is an extract from a competent writer, a man of actual 
 experience in city matters: 
 
 "When the Public Builds Buildings. Twenty-seven million dol- 
 lars for a City Hall that was to have cost $7,000,000; no water on 
 the second floor of a public bath because the water mains were made 
 too small ; an emergency order, without competitive bids, for repair- 
 ing a police precinct, given to a contractor sixteen miles away; 
 $20,000 for cleaning a City Hall that could be kept clean for $2,000; 
 fifteen employees dead from tuberculosis in one germ-infested, dark, 
 unclean room. What's the use of multiplying examples?" 
 (Woman's Part in Government, by W. H. Allen, p. 330.) 
 
 The lack of efficiency in Federal administration which has 
 been notorious for ninety years is due to the malign influence 
 of manhood suffrage which renders it impossible to enforce 
 standards of capacity. What Faguet calls "the religion of in- 
 competency" is displayed even in the presidential appoint- 
 ments where men are moved about from office to office like 
 checkers on a board, and put in places for which they have had 
 no previous training whatever. This method of appointment 
 
INEFFICIENCY IN DOMESTIC AFFAIRS 287 
 
 is in itself convincing proof, not merely of the unfitness of the 
 appointments, but of the vice of the whole system of selection. 
 A jack of all trades is master of none. What would be said 
 of the fitness of a man to superintend a watch-making estab- 
 lishment who had never worked at the trade or business of 
 maker or of dealer in watches, and whose entire experience 
 had consisted of one or two years in each of the employments 
 of carpenter, dentist, cook and piano tuner? Yet the practice 
 of politics sanctions just such appointments as that would be. 
 Even for great offices requiring the highest skill, preparatory 
 training or experience is rarely required. Looking back from 
 1918; out of forty- four United States Secretaries of State from 
 the beginning of our history, thirty-three were lawyers; only 
 three or four had any previous diplomatic experience; out of 
 the sixteen last Secretaries of the Treasury, twelve were lawyers 
 and only four bankers; out of the last thirteen Postmasters 
 General, only one had ever before been in the Post Office De- 
 partment; of forty-nine Secretaries of War in our history 
 thirty-five were lawyers; the others were editors, bankers, etc., 
 and only three or four had any previous military experience; 
 out of thirty-eight Secretaries of the Navy twenty-seven were 
 lawyers, three authors, and seven were business men. Not 
 one of them all had any naval experience prior to taking control 
 of the United States Navy. A former Secretary of the Navy 
 gave the writer to understand that he had been appointed prin- 
 cipally to distribute the patronage and to hold the state politi- 
 cally in line. Now, while it is quite true that a knowledge of the 
 law and a training in the art of reading and understanding law 
 is extremely important to any cabinet official, yet surely a 
 lawyer cannot be expected to build sliips, conduct a post-office 
 business, direct the diplomacy of a great nation or carry on war 
 properly without any appropriate previous training whatever. 
 Yet under a system of government by manhood or universal 
 suffrage untrained men are sure to get these high appointments 
 because they are vote-getters and can obtain the support of the 
 controllable class for the party in power; in short because they 
 
288 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 are machine men and the needs of the machine are first and 
 imperative. 
 
 The extent to which some of these cabinet officers have been 
 shifted about is astonishing. Mr. Cortelyou for instance had 
 been stenographer and private secretary to President McKin- 
 ley; and in a few years thereafter filled the offices of Secretary 
 of Commerce and Labor, Postmaster General and Secretary of 
 the Treasury. Mr. Meyer was Postmaster General under Roose- 
 velt and Secretary of the Navy under Taft, the next President. 
 Moody from the place of Secretary of the Navy under Roose- 
 velt was suddenly jumped onto the bench and made Justice of 
 the Supreme Court. Charles Bonaparte was Attorney General 
 when he was shifted into the place of Secretary of the Navy. 
 Now it is a sufficient tax on human credulity to ask one to be- 
 lieve that the original appointments of these men were made 
 entirely because of fitness ; but it exceeds the limit when we are 
 required to suppose that while in the office of Postmaster Gen- 
 eral Mr. Cortelyou was really learning finance and becoming 
 fitted for Secretary of the Treasury, while Mr. Meyer in the 
 same Postmaster General's office was becoming a great naval 
 expert, a real seadog justified to be "Ruler of Uncle Sam's 
 Navee." 
 
 It is notorious that all state appointments by the governor 
 are made not for merit, but as a reward for political service, 
 and invariably from the members of the political oligarchy who 
 procured the governor's election, or under their direction to 
 members of their family or backers. The results are often 
 grotesque. Look for a moment at a batch of state appoint- 
 ments; take the very first that happens to come to hand from 
 New York. State Tax Commissioner W. was formerly State 
 Comptroller and before that Postmaster. Election Superinten- 
 dent R., formerly Assistant District Attorney in New York 
 City, was before that in the Attorney General's office in Albany 
 and Superintendent of State Prisons. R. 2 was recently Col- 
 lector of the Port of Rochester; he now holds a state office. 
 Another couple: V. has been successively Commissioner of 
 
INEFFICIENCY IN DOMESTIC AFFAIRS 289 
 
 Excise, Commissioner of Police, Commissioner of Docks, Po- 
 lice Justice, Commissioner of Elections; Superintendent of 
 Public Buildings; Superintendent of Elections. H. has held 
 the offices of Deputy Collector of Internal Revenue; member 
 of Board of Alderman; Grain Superintendent; Sealer of 
 Weights and Measures; Superintendent of Streets and Clerk 
 of the Court. The practice is the same in all states and cities, 
 and these five instances could be easily increased to five thou- 
 sand and with time and research to five hundred thousand. In 
 fact it is rare to find a man of over thirty-five years of age in 
 public office who has not filled several entirely different po- 
 litical employments. It is said that one of the members of the 
 New York Constitutional Convention of 1846 proposed that 
 public officials should be selected by lot; and it is doubtful 
 whether in some cases the result would not be an improvement 
 on the present system. Is it any wonder that government ad- 
 ministration is a joke, an object of scorn to business men? 
 Efficiency cannot be expected in any department of govern- 
 ment or business whose chief is ignorant of the details of its 
 operations. And yet so demoralizing has been the effect of the 
 manhood suffrage political tradition, so accustomed are not 
 merely the politicians but the public to the vicious practice of 
 distributing these most important offices as rewards for politi- 
 cal work, that the proposal to require them to be filled by men 
 of experience and training in the work of their respective offices 
 would probably be met with derisive laughter in every govern- 
 mental department. 
 
 Let us not flatter ourselves, therefore, that under a manhood 
 suffrage government any real improvement can be obtained 
 by the mere expedient so often urged of filling the offices by 
 appointment instead of by election. Experience teaches the 
 contrary. At present the appointments to office, whether made 
 by the president, governor or other officer are of the same 
 general character as those made by popular election; that is, 
 they are nearly all bad; the spirit of Jackson still controls 
 most of them; the spirit of politics, of deference to the will of 
 
2 90 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 the machine, of compliance with the theory on which uni- 
 versal suffrage stands; the theory that participation in the 
 activities, honors and emoluments of government is a sort of 
 perquisite of citizenship or privilege in which each citizen is 
 entitled to share. This pernicious theory must be forever 
 cast out of our political system and replaced by the true one; 
 namely, that both the vote and office are to be entrusted only 
 to the qualified, before we can expect permanent improvement 
 in the administration of public affairs. In vain we may con- 
 tinue the long struggle to abolish the spoils system as long as 
 every candidate from the president down to constable has to 
 face the demands of the insatiable regular army of the poli- 
 ticians. Not only every legislative candidate, but every as- 
 pirant for a judicial or administrative office, has now in one 
 way or another to satisfy these disciplined gangs of political 
 marauders, their bosses and their machines. These hireling 
 bands must be disfranchised and disbanded and the institution 
 of manhood suffrage overthrown before efficiency will become 
 an established feature of our governmental system. 
 
 Of the fact that a pure and efficient administration of public 
 affairs is possible there cannot be the slightest doubt. The 
 result was actually achieved in this country in federal admin- 
 istration by President Washington, and continued in the forty 
 years that intervened till Jackson's time. It has also been 
 accomplished by ourselves in the Philippines, by the French 
 and Dutch in some of their colonies, and notably by Great 
 Britain in all parts of the world. Read for instance the report 
 from which the following is an extract, made by Alleyne Ire- 
 land, a specialist in Colonial affairs, appointed Colonial Com- 
 missioner in the Far East, by the University of Chicago. 
 (North American Review, May, 1918.) 
 
 "Administration as a non-political function of government is a 
 conception unfamiliar to the American mind; and I propose to de- 
 scribe in outline how administrative problems appear to the eye 
 of a man who has spent twenty years in studying those forms of 
 government in which administration is conducted on a non-political 
 
INEFFICIENCY IN DOMESTIC AFFAIRS 2QI 
 
 basis. I have observed in actual operation ten distinct forms of 
 government which conform to this condition. They are the Crown 
 Colony System in various British Colonies; the Central Government 
 of India; the Indian Provincial System in Burma; the system of 
 Protected Native States in the Malay Peninsula; the Government 
 of a Commercial Company in Borneo; the Rule of an Independent 
 White Raja in Sarawak; the early American Government in Min- 
 danao; limited Parliamentary Government in British Guiana and 
 Barbados; the French Colonial System in Indo-China; and the 
 Dutch Colonial System in Java. In the countries I have named 
 there are administered the public affairs of more than 300,000,000 
 people. Although these governments have been constantly attacked 
 on the ground of their lack of a popular political element it is the 
 general verdict of those who have observed them in action that, 
 leaving political participation aside, they furnish this vast popula- 
 tion with a larger measure of the tangible fruits of good govern- 
 ment than is enjoyed by any people under the more 'liberal 1 con- 
 stitutions of Europe and America. . . . The influence exerted upon 
 policy by the one and by the other of these two modes of procedure 
 differs profoundly. In the United States the matter is decided, 
 initially, by some hundreds of men, and many having strong political 
 motives for taking a particular view; in India the matter is decided, 
 initially, by six men, each of whom is a trained and experienced 
 administrator, and none of whom has any electorate to please, any 
 powerful business interest to placate, or any political party to sup- 
 port. In the former instance the veto rests with one man who may 
 have no more than an amateur's acquaintance with the question in- 
 volved; in the latter the veto also rests with one man, but this man 
 is, in practice, guided by the advice of the India Council, a body of 
 from ten to fourteen men, sitting in London, composed as to the 
 majority, of ex-Indian officials of long service and varied adminis- 
 trative experience." 
 
 We are not lacking in material in America; we have 
 the best in the world; energetic, honest, upright, clear-headed, 
 healthy, vigorous, disinterested, patriotic, well-educated men; 
 noble fellows, plenty of them; eager for work; but they are 
 not in politics and never will be there under the present vile 
 regime. It is just because they prize honor and reputation 
 
2 Q2 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 that they stay out of politics. Bryce truly says that "the 
 "American system does not suceed in bringing the best men 
 "to the top. Yet in Democracy more perhaps than in other 
 "governments, seeing it is the most delicate and difficult of 
 "governments, it is essential that the best men should come 
 "to the top." What prevents our best men from coming to 
 the top? What prevents our having in this country the purity 
 and efficiency witnessed by Mr. Ireland in ten different juris- 
 dictions? Principally, our political spoils system, whose source 
 and support are manhood suffrage and the controllable vote. 
 Secondarily, our failure to recognize formally and actually the 
 principle of efficiency as the prime essential in government. 
 Such recognition will neither be genuine nor effective unless it 
 begins with requiring an efficient electorate. After that what 
 remains to be done will be comparatively easy and natural. 
 Without it, the cause of substantial reform is practically hope- 
 less. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 WEAKNESS AND INEFFICIENCY OF OUR MANHOOD SUFFRAGE 
 GOVERNMENT IN ITS FOREIGN RELATIONS 
 
 THE qualities which render a government popular or suc- 
 cessful at home do not always work for efficiency in foreign 
 relations. In home matters the nation discusses, divides, and 
 experiments; in its foreign relations it must act as one man 
 and present to the other nations the same single attitude as 
 would be offered by a dictatorship. Therefore it has been 
 often said that a democracy is apt to be weak in its foreign 
 policy, because it has to reconcile so many opinions before it 
 can effectually act. But this weakness is not inherent in every 
 conceivable democracy; it is possible for a democratic elec- 
 torate if sufficiently intelligent to select one man or a small 
 group of men to represent it in foreign affairs with firmness and 
 ability. This, however, cannot be expected from an unintelli- 
 gent constituency such as manhood suffrage provides, much 
 less from an organization for spoils such as it has developed 
 and placed in power in the United States. 
 
 The manhood suffrage politicians who have had the popular 
 ear for the past century have not understood the necessities or 
 proprieties of our foreign relations, and have misinformed the 
 people on the subject. They have adopted the cheap news- 
 paper attitude of sneering at skill, tact and secrecy and ap- 
 plauding truculence and bluff in foreign diplomacy. They 
 have never realized the value of trained and cultivated states- 
 manship. Its importance is however transcendent. As long 
 as the world continues to be composed of many different na- 
 tions each including large populations, differing more or less 
 in race, religion, habits and prejudices from each of the others, 
 
 203 
 
294 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 there will be new and delicate situations constantly arising, 
 requiring the practice of tact, statesmanship, diplomacy, and 
 a historical as well as a present day practical knowledge of 
 foreign countries. But under the system of universal suffrage 
 the populace is king, .the machine is his chief minister, the 
 cheap daily press is his mouthpiece, and statesmen and dip- 
 lomats are not valued by either. The inferior newspapers 
 want men in office who depend not on merit but on advertise- 
 ment; who rely for promotion on journalistic control of a 
 public which gets all its information from the daily press. 
 They prefer politicians who toady to them to statesmen who 
 despise their ignorance, their lies and their vulgarities. It is 
 the custom of both politicians and newspapers to belittle 
 statesmanship, because the politicians have no knowledge of 
 its history and capacities, and because real statesmen are in- 
 disposed to tolerate the pretensions and the interference of 
 either newspapers or politicians. All three, populace, press 
 and political machine, would like to see the general policy of 
 the nation, including its foreign affairs, confided to such poli- 
 ticians as would seek guidance rather in the opinions of the 
 mob and the columns of the newspapers than in studies of the 
 history of foreign politics, of economics, of institutions and of 
 the dynamic forces of the time. 
 
 There can be no successful diplomatic or even business ne- 
 gotiation without a decent amount of secrecy. The cheap 
 newspapers dislike this precaution. They pretend to see no 
 need for secret diplomacy; they insist that all negotiations 
 between nations should be public. They are not prone to 
 understand pride or delicacy in any quarter, and would like 
 to see made public the private transactions not only of na- 
 tions but of individuals, so that they might thus satisfy the 
 cheap curiosity of their readers; for this reason they are op- 
 posed to the law of libel and to every protection to human 
 privacy. They tell us in their flippant and cock-sure way that 
 diplomacy and secrecy are not necessary parts of the policy 
 or of the procedure of a free nation; that all treaty negotia- 
 
INEFFICIENCY IN FOREIGN AFFAIRS 295 
 
 tions should be open; and they are fond of denouncing with 
 a great show of moral indignation the secret diplomacy of the 
 so-called autocracies of the world. But common sense teaches 
 us that as long as national pride continues, and treaties are to 
 be made and war and peace decided upon by governments, 
 that is to say, as long as opposing and warlike nations exist, 
 secrecy will be necessary in the discussion of treaties and in 
 all important international negotiations; and that the govern- 
 ment which neglects to use the precaution and to give the 
 guaranty of secrecy will be sometimes left in the lurch. 
 
 We hear a lot about a League of Nations in these days. The 
 greatest and most successful league of sovereign powers ever 
 established was this Union of States by and under a Consti- 
 tution which was forged and created at Philadelphia in 1787 
 by some forty educated and propertied gentlemen working in 
 absolute secrecy. Neither the newspapers nor the populace 
 was allowed to be present or to be represented at their delibera- 
 tions, nor to know what was going on, nor to read or otherwise 
 learn of their debates or processes, therefore the delegates 
 were able to work untrammelled and to produce good results. 
 Absolute secrecy in its construction made our American Con- 
 stitution possible. 
 
 Besides secrecy, great skill is required in the making of 
 treaties and constitutions. The nations whose rulers and dip- 
 lomatic agents are chosen under a system of universal suffrage, 
 of government by demagogues and platform ranters who are 
 allowed and expected to distribute diplomatic posts among 
 their supporters; such nations will suffer in competition with 
 those whose polity brings to the front and puts in command a 
 set of trained educated statesmen and diplomats. The two 
 greatest triumphs of the United States in its entire history 
 were diplomatic achievements; and both were accomplished 
 by statesmen trained under the old property qualification suf- 
 frage system, before manhood suffrage had cheapened our in- 
 stitutions. It was diplomacy, and secret diplomacy at that, 
 which under the astute management of Franklin obtained for 
 
2Q6 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 the American States the aid of France and made successful 
 the American Revolution. It was diplomacy, secret and highly 
 skilled diplomacy, which procured in 1803 the cession to the 
 United States by France of Louisiana, from which territory nine 
 great states and the greater part of four others were created 
 and which made the United States a real power in the world. 
 The story of that acquisition as described by Fiske is that of 
 one of the greatest diplomatic achievements in history; and, 
 after making all allowances for good luck in the affair, we 
 find there pictured a statesmanship and a patriotism calculated 
 to thrill the heart of every American. The men who were 
 most conspicuous on the American side from first to last in 
 that transaction, were not of the class of politicians who are 
 to-day being chosen for high office by the popular vote; they 
 were Washington, Adams, Jefferson and Robert R. Livingston; 
 all of them men of position, property, good family, descent 
 and education. All but Washington were college graduates. 
 All were brought to the front by a system established upon 
 the votes of a propertied electorate. 
 
 As government by the propertied class was successful in 
 diplomacy in those old days, so that of manhood suffrage has 
 been a diplomatic failure in our own time. The most recent 
 and terrible instance of the direful results of lack of govern- 
 mental efficiency has been that of the episode of the German 
 War just concluded. Democracy was not only unprepared in 
 1914 for the struggle with Germany, but it completely failed 
 to foresee or even to suspect its approach. The crisis of 1914 
 found the four great democratic nations of the world deficient 
 in military organization, in preparation for defense, and in 
 international vision and information. Granted the existence 
 of a Germany, armed to the teeth, and sharpening her sword 
 for mischief, Democracy should have had in charge of its 
 foreign affairs men with vision sufficient to enable them to 
 foresee or at least to conjecture her designs. Of these designs 
 her democratic neighbors had no conception, and the United 
 States was as unsuspecting as a child. No effort had been 
 
INEFFICIENCY IN FOREIGN AFFAIRS 2 97 
 
 made to study the situation. Our rulers were mere vote- 
 getters, local politicians, with a ridiculously small knowledge 
 of foreign affairs, and of the dreadful impending future no 
 vision whatever. We had then and we have now no adequate 
 foreign affairs organization at Washington or abroad; and no 
 sufficient popular conception of the need of one. It was part 
 of the business of an efficient national government in 1914 
 to understand thoroughly our foreign relations; and therefore 
 to keep competent representatives in all foreign countries; to 
 measurably understand the policy of Germany and every other 
 first class power and its true significance; the extent of Ger- 
 many's military and naval preparations and their object, and 
 the issues involved in the war; it was its business to realize 
 our true interests therein; to keep informed of every phase of 
 the struggle as it proceeded; to lead and advise the press and 
 the representatives of the people on all these matters; to cause 
 due preparation to be made for all eventualities, and to pre- 
 scribe a consistent and dignified policy for the nation. No one 
 can possibly deny that the Washington administration failed 
 in all and every one of these respects. It did none of these 
 things; and let us haste to say that it is not to be supposed 
 that the opposite party could have done any better. In these 
 important matters Washington could not help but fail, because 
 our political system created by universal suffrage and guided 
 by its paltry spirit makes no provision for statesmanship or 
 diplomacy; for forethought, sagacity and profound policy in 
 foreign affairs; nor for preparation for great wars. Nor were 
 the other great democracies, Great Britain, France, or Italy, 
 much better off, as is shown by the miserable Russian fiasco, 
 when they and ourselves, with an incredible fatuous folly per- 
 mitted and even aided or encouraged the Bolsheviki and their 
 German assistants to destroy the Russian alliance, by deposing 
 the friendly Czar who was maintaining a government which 
 had fought nobly and effectively for the common cause, and 
 which was the only civilized government possible in Russia. 
 It was then in the power of the Allies backing the Czar to 
 
2Q8 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 have stamped out Bolshevism. They allowed him to be de- 
 posed by a gang of adventurers, while we stupidly applauded 
 and raised the silly cry that Russia was now a democracy; 
 a free country forsooth. Misled by our ignorant and 
 worthless Foreign Office the masses who foolishly believe 
 that freedom consists in merely voting at elections were de- 
 lighted; our politicians and newspapers really or affectedly 
 joined in this senseless joy; and the few among us who under- 
 stood what was really being done were unable to get a hearing. 
 Civilization in Russia and the cause of the Allies was betrayed 
 by the ignorance of the politicians who controlled the Allied 
 policies, and the result has been the loss of tens of thousands 
 of American lives and billions of American dollars. 
 
 A corresponding inefficiency was displayed elsewhere 
 by the great allied democracies. From the moment of 
 the first blare of the German war trumpet in 1914 we saw 
 them piteously struggling to free themselves from the burden 
 of the political ineptitude which this pernicious system of uni- 
 versal suffrage and vote-getting politics had fastened upon 
 each of them; striving to oust the democracy of ignorance and 
 weakness, and to give the aristocracy of merit the place it 
 must have before the fierce contest could be won. Some of 
 the incompetents chosen for office by the much vaunted elec- 
 tive system were pushed to the rear out of sight; some were 
 otherwise got rid of or superseded; and some were slowly 
 trained up to the efficiency they should have already possessed 
 before being put in places of trust and power. In the mean- 
 time, there was over there failure and again failure; failure in 
 Serbia; failure in Greece; failure in Rumania; failure in Ire- 
 land; failure in Russia. And here in our own country as the 
 war proceeded, want of foresight, want of preparation, ineffi- 
 ciency and waste; and though democracy conquered at last 
 it was by sheer weight of numbers and resources, while its 
 slowness to understand, to decide and to act brought us to 
 the very verge of disaster and cost untold lives and money, 
 which efficiency would have saved. 
 
INEFFICIENCY IN FOREIGN AFFAIRS 2 99 
 
 For the benefit of short memories, the writer presents here 
 a few extracts from publications pointing out our criminal 
 want of preparation for defense at all times prior to 1918. 
 For this situation, each political party blames the other; 
 the fact being, that the fault is chargeable, not to any party, 
 group or individual, but to our political system and cheap 
 traditions. 
 
 "And we are unprepared. We have neither gates nor bars. We 
 are careless of the future, and the machinations of wicked men and 
 the ambitions of royalty. We sit in fancied security, trusting to 
 the potency of our riches and the divinations of our stargazers. We 
 are fat, otiose, spineless, insolent and rich. Could the devil himself 
 add anything to this catalogue to make us riper for plucking?" 
 (Henry D. Estabrook "Bewaredness," the American Academy of 
 Political and Social Science. The Annals, July, 1916. 
 
 "The term, a 'fool's paradise,' describes to perfection the dream- 
 land in which Americans have slumbered for years in their com- 
 placent indifference to national defence." (Huidenkoper's Military 
 Preparedness, p. 252.) 
 
 "We never want to face another (war) in such ridiculous help- 
 lessness as has crippled us in facing this one." (New York Mail, 
 Ed. July 26th, 1917.) 
 
 "More than thirty months after the outbreak of the European 
 War, with all its terrible lessons, we have still to lay the statutory 
 foundations of a proper system of land-defense." (H. L. Stimson, 
 Scribners', April, 1917.) 
 
 "The United States of America is prepared for war neither com- 
 mercially nor physically. ... We have neither a merchant fleet to 
 carry our commerce nor any army and navy to protect it." (Chi- 
 cago Evening Post, Feb. 14, 1917.) 
 
 "The crisis finds us unprepared." (Chicago Tribune, Feb. isth, 
 1917.) 
 
 A well-known authority on naval and military affairs, writing 
 in the Outlook of April nth, 1917, says, p. 651: 
 
 "The greatest fault in democracy is the lack of imagination of its 
 administrators. Our press are held in the hollow of the hands of 
 
300 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 political men whose knowledge of the art of war is only of the 
 primary school standard." 
 
 "The European War has demonstrated to our people, among 
 many other things, that this country is as unprepared on land to 
 defend herself in case of an attack as was Belgium." (Adj. Gen. 
 Charles H. Cole, of the Mass. National Guard, Worcester Magazine.) 
 
 "The close of 1915 found the United States Government involved 
 in most serious diplomatic differences with Germany and Austria. 
 . . . The Navy, which in 1904 stood second in strength, is now third 
 in material strength and fourth or fifth in the strength of personnel. 
 ... As showing the farcical weakness of our mobile land forces, it 
 is sufficient to say that we have in the continental United States 
 to-day only 30,000 effective militia, but, in the event of a surprise 
 invasion, it would take thirty days to concentrate these 90,000 regu- 
 lars and militia against the enemy." (Scientific American, Jan. ist, 
 1916.) 
 
 "At a moment when by the sheer force of perfect preparedness 
 Germany is winning victories all along the line against the greater 
 part of Europe allied against her, we permit our army to sink close 
 to the point of inefficiency." (New York American, Oct. 31, 1914.) 
 
 "America is wasteful, chiefly through lack of efficient organiza- 
 tion. We are now spending, under recent military legislation, enor- 
 mous sums for a totally obsolete kind of regular army. . . . We 
 have voted to build a large navy, and are taxing the people to pay 
 immense bills, but have not enough collective efficiency to spend 
 the money and get prompt results." (Review of Reviews, Feb., 
 1917.) 
 
 "Secretary Garrison has shown us that the entire army of the 
 United States available for movement to a point of danger is less 
 than three times the number of New York's policemen." (Review 
 of Reviews, Feb., 1916.) 
 
 Here is the case of England, another democracy, presented 
 in an extract from an article in the North American Review 
 for July, 1918, by A. Maurice Low: 
 
 "When England entered the war against Germany it was not ex- 
 actly with a light heart, but it was only with a faint conception of 
 the magnitude of the task she faced and the strain it would im- 
 pose upon her. Instead of immediately adopting conscription, she 
 
INEFFICIENCY IN FOREIGN AFFAIRS 301 
 
 dallied with it, talked about it, made it a political question, and then 
 accepted a compromise, which is the usual English fashion, and only 
 when much valuable time had been lost and the emergency was so 
 great that further delay was impossible, universal service was en- 
 forced. It was the same with many other things. The blockade 
 of Germany was lax because of the timidity of the Foreign Office. 
 Business as usual was our boast, and we went about our several 
 ways spending money foolishly and refusing to be put on rations 
 or voluntarily reducing our consumption of luxuries. . . . Time, of 
 course, taught us wisdom. We bought our experience and a 
 pretty price it cost us." 
 
 Not only were the American people unprepared for physical 
 action of any kind at the outbreak of the war of 1914, but the 
 Congress then sitting in Washington was mentally unprepared 
 and unequipped for dealing with that or any similar situation. 
 It needed first rate men; and manhood suffrage furnished and 
 is still furnishing the Capitol with a supply of third and fourth 
 raters. It is not merely that they were wrong on the European 
 situation; the fact is that they were nowhere; that a large 
 proportion of them had no opinions whatever on the questions 
 involved in the conflict, and were incapable of forming any; 
 they were absolutely ignorant of European politics; were un- 
 able to read a French newspaper or to understand the political 
 discussions of an English one; a few or none of them had ever 
 made an adequate preparation for a congressional career; they 
 were mere vote-getters, representatives of the political ma- 
 chines of their respective districts; they waited for the news- 
 papers to tell them what was the popular thing and for the 
 bosses to inform them as to the strength of the German vote. 
 At every step in the nation's progress from August 1914 to 
 the declaration of the state of war in February 1917 the 
 country and the President showed plainly that they did not 
 trust Congress; and Congress showed plainly that it did not 
 deserve to be trusted in such an emergency. Neither the man- 
 hood suffrage Congress nor the manhood suffrage administra- 
 tion nor its political opponents in Congress took the lead at 
 
302 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 any time during this fateful period in forming, enlightening, 
 instructing or fixing public opinion; they lacked courage and 
 statesmanship to do it, and the nation finally got into the war 
 by the process of drifting stern foremost. Once in, and blood 
 drawn, real work began with the officers of the army and navy 
 acting and compelling action; and after all when it comes to 
 waving the banner and making appropriations our congressmen 
 are seldom derelict. 
 
 The popular belief in the inefficiency of the Federal govern- 
 ment, and the mischievous operation of the rabble vote, are 
 manifested by the unwarranted meddling of individuals and 
 groups of individuals with the administration of our foreign 
 affairs. Any one looking into the New York Times on a cer- 
 tain day in July in the year of grace 1919 might have 
 there read of the activities of the "National Association for 
 the Protection of American Rights in Mexico," whose princi- 
 pal offices are in New York City and which seems to be a regu- 
 larly organized and possibly incorporated body with directors 
 and other officers. The intentions of the members of this 
 association may be innocent enough, yet the fact is undeniable 
 that the United States is and ought to be the true and only 
 "National Association for the Protection of American Rights" 
 not only in Mexico but everywhere; and it is difficult to 
 imagine just what this Society can perform in pursuance of 
 its avowed purpose without undue interference with the sov- 
 ereignty and proper functions of the United States Govern- 
 ment, and without endangering the peace of the two countries 
 mainly affected. And although the whole community ought 
 to have been shocked at an organized movement founded on 
 a contempt for the Federal government and a belief in its 
 incompetence or worse, it seemed to excite no comment, and 
 there was probably little notice taken of this particular half 
 column of the newspaper except by those directly interested 
 in Mexican affairs. In the same and other newspapers of the 
 same week were items of news concerning an agitation openly 
 being carried on in New York, Boston, and other large Ameri- 
 
INEFFICIENCY IN FOREIGN AFFAIRS 303 
 
 can cities to forcibly overthrow the government of Great 
 Britain, as it actually exists in Ireland, and to establish in its 
 place not merely another government, but another form of 
 government. At the very time this scandalous agitation was 
 being promoted by solicitations, subscriptions and collections of 
 money, and the usual acessories of dinners, receptions and 
 bunkum speeches by politicians, the United States was just 
 finishing a great war in practical alliance with Great Britain; 
 the moral ties which bound the two nations were of the 
 strongest; each owed its very existence at that moment to the 
 other; and the two had just signed a compact binding them 
 to unite in defense of France. The proposals of the agitators, 
 if they meant anything practicable, were therefore in every 
 way improper and seditious; they included a breach of faith 
 toward Great Britain, a betrayal of France and a disregard 
 of the best interests of the United States. It is true that few 
 take these agitators seriously or believe that they will attempt 
 a revolution in Ireland or that if they should they could pos- 
 sibly succeed; it is doubtful if all the world combined would 
 be able to wrest Ireland from England by force; it is true also 
 that the majority of the American people probably believe that 
 the so called Irish grievances have no substantial existence, 
 and really mean no more that the exclusion from power of a set 
 of political adventurers. But the agitators count on the well- 
 known weaknesses of the British and American governments, 
 both chosen by universal suffrage, and the equally well-known 
 fact that a minority if sufficiently well-organized and impudent 
 can bully and humbug its way along far enough to be certain 
 to get money and place for its chiefs and always with a chance 
 of some substantial concessions to its desires. Already the 
 money is coming in, and the leaders are living in luxury, at 
 the expense not merely of their dupes but of the friendly re- 
 lations of the United States with Great Britain and Canada 
 and of its reputation for good faith in its foreign relations. 
 
 The nation is in constant danger of being pushed into seri- 
 ous difficulties by the interested meddling with its foreign 
 
304 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 affairs of political adventurers and fanatics who would never 
 think of daring to thus insult and interfere with a government 
 founded upon an electorate composed of the propertied and 
 intelligent classes, nor to bully a Congress representing them. 
 For it is reasonable to suppose that the immediate effect of 
 excluding the irresponsible voters from the congressional elec- 
 tions would be to smash the machines, and to clear the way 
 for such an improved representation in Congress, as would 
 certainly be demanded by a constituency of men of substance 
 and education. To sit in Congress might become once more 
 a distinction worthy of the ambition of proud, honorable and 
 able men; the standard of its membership would be sensibly 
 elevated; the administration backed or criticised as the case 
 might be by a really able and high-minded Congress would 
 at once be stimulated and encouraged to energetic action on 
 the highest attainable level, and America would present as 
 she ought a firm and thoroughly intelligent attitude towards 
 the rest of the world. 
 
CHAPTER XIX 
 
 ROTATION IN OFFICE; A MISCHIEVOUS BY-PRODUCT OF THE 
 MANHOOD SUFFRAGE DOCTRINE AND ANOTHER FACTOR 
 IN POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT; AND HEREIN OF CIR- 
 CUMLOCUTION OFFICE REFORM. 
 
 ONE of the incidents of manhood suffrage is the practice of 
 rotation in office, which may be called a by-product of man- 
 hood suffrage and represents a doctrine which is only applic- 
 able to machine politics. It is sometimes supposed to mean 
 that a public office is a desirable job at which every man 
 should have his turn; but this arrangement is impossible, since 
 there are not nearly offices enough for that purpose even with 
 replacements once a year, which is the limit of frequency thus 
 far proposed for office shifts; and although the politicians are 
 assiduous in making new laws and creating new officials to 
 enforce these laws; who are to be found registering, recording, 
 inspecting and reporting in every possible direction; though 
 they discourage diligence in office and encourage short hours 
 and idleness in office holders, so as to still leave a show of em- 
 ployment for others; yet with all they can do, there will still 
 be one hundred candidates for each place, and ninety-nine of 
 them disappointed. In practice therefore the bestowal of good 
 offices under the rotation system is necessarily limited; its 
 benefits are usually confined to the machine politicians and to 
 a certain number of favored candidates for machine favor; 
 and the vision of a future turn at the public provender is for 
 most party followers altogether illusory. 
 
 The doctrine of rotation in office has acquired a certain 
 favor in political circles, because it serves as an excuse for 
 replacing competent and experienced officials by new and in- 
 
 305 
 
3O6 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 competent ones, for enforcing the "spoils" system, and aids 
 in keeping in hand the controllable vote. 
 
 It is born of the same civic immorality as the manhood 
 suffrage doctrine, and is an incident or offshoot of the vicious 
 theory that the vote is a natural right or privilege of the 
 citizen. The manhood suffrage claim is that the vote is for 
 the benefit of the voter ; the rotation doctrine is that the office 
 exists for the advantage of the office holder. The two claims 
 are related. On the one hand if the vote be regarded as a 
 function to be exercised only by the capable, then it is easy 
 and natural to insist upon proper qualifications for public 
 office holders and for permanency in office for the qualified; 
 on the other hand, if the citizen, as such, has an absolute right 
 to vote, why not to hold office? The analogy between a voter 
 and an office holder is not perfect, but it has often been found 
 in practice sufficient to satisfy the popular mind, unaccus- 
 tomed to disinterested reflections. You may say that the fact 
 that a man is allowed to vote is no reason why he should be 
 permitted to hold office, and business men or men of property 
 will agree with you, for they are not easily tempted to seek 
 public employment. Not so, however, your voter who has 
 neither property nor settled income, nor business capacity 
 sufficient to acquire either. His education often early tends 
 towards office seeking; he is strongly advised by the news- 
 papers and by twaddlers generally, to take part in the 
 primaries, to become active in politics; and if he does so, he 
 soon learns just how the thing is done. Why may not he then 
 have a turn at the trough as well as another? The politicians 
 encourage this attitude. They are of course strongly in favor 
 of rotation in office as a system which is in every way capable 
 of use to the advantage of machine politics. It accomplishes 
 two things for them; it creates office vacancies, and it dis- 
 penses with merit in filling them, leaving them absolutely at 
 the disposition of the machine to reward party services. The 
 politicians therefore are able and willing to persuade the un- 
 educated voters of the virtue of office rotation. Nor could 
 
MANHOOD SUFFRAGE AND ROTATION IN OFFICE 307 
 
 they well openly condemn it. You cannot admit the shiftless 
 and ignorant into the electorate, and then systematically spurn 
 the ideas and claims which are natural and appropriate to them 
 as a class. One of these ideas is, that one who has held any 
 office a couple of years has had a fair share, and ought to be 
 satisfied to give way to someone else; and that if he insists on 
 coming up for re-election no matter how competent he may 
 be, he should be "knifed" as they say. And so we have in 
 this country to a mischievous extent the doctrine and system 
 of rotation in office as one of the troublesome and vicious 
 incidents and results of manhood suffrage. 
 
 It is interesting to note the dealings of the political managers 
 with this rotation doctrine, which as already stated is im- 
 possible of practical enforcement except in a very limited way. 
 They have no idea of permitting this or any other theory to 
 operate to their personal disadvantage. The leaders must in 
 any case be constantly fed at the public crib; they must in 
 any event be well provided for or the whole system would 
 collapse. In order therefore to keep up the illusion of rota- 
 tion for all, and a show of fairness, the managers are constantly 
 shifted about from one office to another. In this way there 
 is in fact a continuing series of changes among the office 
 holders; and as a rule no sooner does an incumbent become 
 familiar with his duties than he is displaced; but if he be a 
 faithful party man he is at once put on the list for something 
 else. In fact, all of the class of regular politicians are practi- 
 cally in office for life; the only effect of our frequent elections 
 being that they are constantly shifted from one office to an- 
 other. If any one will take the trouble to compare the list 
 of office-holders from year to year, he will see that most of 
 the names appear in successive administrations; but that 
 they are moved from place to place with the change in the 
 political fortunes of the different parties. When a candidate 
 is defeated at an election, he is usually, if a good politician, 
 soon afterwards appointed to another office; if necessary, a new 
 office is created for him. If defeated at a city election, he 
 
308 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 may be appointed to a federal office; if his party loses the 
 federal election, he soons turns up in a state or city office, 
 and so on; and so we have in the career of a politician a sort 
 of ambulatory office incumbency. He may be in turn tax 
 collector, district attorney, secretary or commissioner of this 
 or that, judge or justice, state senator, county clerk, foreign 
 consul and so on. If high up in the party, he will appear in 
 the president's cabinet, or as a foreign minister or as member 
 of some high salaried commission. Being a politician he is 
 supposed to be eligible for anything and everything, and when 
 at last he dies endowed with honors and with usually a fair 
 amount of cash after a life which has certainly been spent in 
 the service of his country, his newspaper obituary will point 
 out to an edified world how men of humble origin prosper in 
 this free land. 
 
 This system has the effect of strengthening party discipline; 
 under it every office holder is much more obligated to the party 
 boss than to the public. True, he apparently owes his elec- 
 tion to the people; but usually only apparently; since most 
 of the votes he receives are strictly party votes, representing 
 merely the will and the direction of the boss and the machine. 
 But to the latter the candidate's obligation is clear, direct and 
 personal; to them he owes his nomination, or at least the 
 suggestion of his name to the primaries which makes his elec- 
 tion possible; and if defeated at the polls, his future is still 
 in their friendly hands. The party leaders and managers 
 being thus cared for, and their faithful service forever secured 
 by the distribution among them of all the best public employ- 
 ments, guaranteed by the rotation system developed into a 
 "steady job insurance" scheme, there remain the inferior 
 county, city, town and village offices for apportionment among 
 the smaller fry, and to these minor places a real rotation 
 system is applied to a greater or less extent. It is often under- 
 stood that a sheriff, alderman, tax collector, police magistrate, 
 town solicitor or attorney, county clerk, town or village official, 
 etc., must be satisfied with one or two terms and then give 
 
MANHOOD SUFFRAGE AND ROTATION IN OFFICE 309 
 
 place to some other more hungry politician. This is the rota- 
 tion system in practice. 
 
 The demoralizing results of such a custom are easy to be 
 seen among us and still more easily imagined. Many public 
 office holders in view of the probable brevity of their tenure, 
 try to hold on at the same time to both private business and 
 public office, with the natural result that both are neglected. 
 Elections are expensive. An official owing last election's bills 
 finds the next one approaching with marvellous rapidity. 
 From rigid enforcement of laws enemies might result, from 
 whom next year's candidate need expect neither money nor 
 support, but rather opposition; and after all, one year in office 
 is a paltry reward for a faithful party man after many years 
 of fruitless canvassing. And so comes lax administration, 
 blinking of the eyes and scandal more or less smothered. And 
 in this and other ways the character of the office holder is 
 impaired. The lure of this kind of politics is as demoralizing 
 as that of gambling. Thousands of individuals who uncor- 
 rupted by political life might have remained honest and in- 
 dustrious citizens, are spoiled for real steady work by their 
 experience of easy living at the public cost, and become half 
 knavish and altogether poor business men, and sometimes even 
 debauched and intemperate. And if the office holder does his 
 very best it usually happens that just when he has learned his 
 duties and begins to perform them well, his term approaches 
 its finish and a greedy greenhorn takes his place. 
 
 Everybody knows this and that it is all wrong. No one 
 would think of proposing such a vicious system for any private 
 business; everyone is aware that employes become more valu- 
 able with experience and training, and that the success of a 
 business establishment depends largely upon keeping its old 
 force in service year after year. Indeed, if justice requires 
 rotation in the well-salaried offices, the system should be 
 greatly extended, for after all, these political offices are not 
 the real prize employments; they are found in the high 
 places in banks, banking houses and great industrial and mer- 
 
310 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 cantile establishments. But no one suggests than in a democracy 
 there should be rotation of private employment, that a bank 
 cashier has had enough after two years of $20,000 a year and 
 that a mill superintendent should retire after three years at 
 $6,000 and be both replaced, one by a patriotic bank porter 
 and the other by a radical travelling salesman. The service of 
 the people is the only one that professional patriots insist upon 
 breaking down by frequent changes in the working force; by 
 constant disorganization. 
 
 The reason for this hard treatment of the public service 
 seems to be that it sounds democratic and alluring to say that 
 public office is a prize open to all. It is remarkable how willing 
 people are to be gulled by catch phrases and sayings, like this 
 of "rotation in office," "government by the people," and the 
 like. The first Napoleon caught a lot of gudgeons by the say- 
 ing that every private soldier carried a marshal's baton in his 
 knapsack. American youths are gravely told that each of them 
 has a chance to become president of the United States; an- 
 other humbug, since about only one man out of every million 
 can possibly reach that office, no matter what the merits or 
 deeds of the others may be. Suppose some one opens Carne- 
 gie Hall, New York, free to all comers to hear Caruso sing at 
 a certain day and hour; no one could say that he was excluded 
 by the terms of the invitation; and yet the manager would 
 know perfectly well that only three thousand could possibly 
 be admitted, and that all who came after the first three thou- 
 sand would better have stayed at home. It would sound to 
 the thoughtless like a more generous and democratic act than 
 the distribution of three thousand free tickets, and yet it 
 would in reality be less so; it would indeed have somewhat 
 the effect of a fraud on all except the first three thousand. Now 
 something like this invitation is what is offered the American 
 people when they are each invited, as they constantly are in- 
 vited, by the politicians in their universal suffrage constitutions 
 to come in and take a part as public officials in the government 
 of the nation. It is in every way impossible for all of us, or 
 
MANHOOD SUFFRAGE AND ROTATION IN OFFICE 311 
 
 for more than a very few of us to do so; and all they really can 
 and do offer us is just what we would have under a restricted 
 suffrage, namely leave to fight or wheedle our own way to 
 public employment or to political influence in the face of all 
 who are determined to forestall us, the number whereof is by 
 these very constitutions made as numerous as possible. And 
 the so-called democratic invention of rotation in office is just 
 another worthless and fraudulent gift, of leave to each of us, 
 to struggle for a paltry office in competition with every politi- 
 cal adventurer in the community; when by the very terms of 
 the gift, the office itself is stripped of all honor and dignity, 
 and has attached to it the certainty that the winner is almost 
 certain to be deprived of the employment as soon as he shall 
 have learned to fill it with ability and credit to himself. Truly 
 Barnum was right when he undertook to build his fortune on 
 the theory that most people love to be humbugged. 
 
 Such are the ideals and practical workings of the democratic 
 principle of rotation in office, first put in practice by President 
 Jackson and his party managers, animated by the inspiring 
 slogan "to the victors belong the spoils." It is difficult to 
 imagine any system more calculated than this to establish and 
 encourage inefficiency in public and private life. And though 
 in consequence of the endless changes of officials in the public 
 service, the state and community are always poorly served, 
 the inferior party workers seldom get a turn at the good places ; 
 they are just fooled by the higher politicians who, while pre- 
 tending frequently to surrender the offices, merely exchange 
 them among themselves. Thus the masses are made to suffer 
 all the evils of poor and dishonest public service, without even 
 the small compensation of a fair turn at the spoils. 
 
 Vigorous efforts have been made in the past thirty years to 
 obviate some of the mischiefs of the spoils system; especially 
 by the application of the system of civil service examinations 
 to nominations to public office. Under this system which is 
 only applied to certain classified offices, the appointment is 
 supposed to be given to the candidate who passes best in an 
 
312 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 examination prepared beforehand by a civil service board and 
 open to all applicants. There is neither space nor fitness here 
 for an extended discussion of the merits ana weaknesses of this 
 Civil Service Reform plan as it is called. Its one pretended 
 merit is that it takes the appointments "out of politics" as 
 they say, that is out of the control of the political heads of the 
 departments. No more crushing condemnation of our political 
 system could be imagined than is contained in these federal 
 and state statutes which deprive our high officials of the power 
 and privilege of the selection of many of their own subordinates, 
 the most important function of the head of a department. That 
 these chiefs should be furnished with advice and assistance in 
 making appointments where numerous, would be reasonable 
 enough; but that it should be found necessary as by this so- 
 called remedial system is actually done, to deprive them of all 
 choice, direct or indirect, in the selection of their subordinates 
 indicates a shocking condition of things. It means just this 
 that the men whom manhood suffrage puts in command are 
 declared by statute to be unfit to be trusted. 
 
 The defects of the Civil Service Reform plan are obvious, 
 and have been repeatedly pointed out. There are two princi- 
 pal ones; defects in material and weakness in organization. All 
 experience shows that mere ability to answer questions is but 
 slim proof of actual fitness for most employments. The minds 
 of the successful candidates are apt to be storehouses of mem- 
 ory rather than factories of living ideas. The tendency of the 
 examination system must be to emasculate the public service, 
 to furnish it with half-hearted hirelings, destitute of initiative; 
 routinists, who secure in their places and deprived of incentive 
 to new achievement, gradually become mere wooden cogs in a 
 lifeless machine. The head of such a force cannot be expected 
 to accomplish much with men not chosen by him nor subject 
 to his censure or removal. Such a civil service will be weak in 
 time of prosperity, and may become intolerable in time of 
 trouble and danger; an institution similar to the bureaucracies 
 of continental Europe or to Charles Dickens' "Circumlocution 
 
MANHOOD SUFFRAGE AND ROTATION IN OFFICE 313 
 
 Office." The late Andrew Carnegie, the great iron master, 
 ascribed his success entirely to his luck and wisdom in choos- 
 ing his deputies. A political department is really a business 
 organization, and to be efficient, it should have a competent 
 head supported by a force of vigorous men of his own selec- 
 tion; chosen not by book examinations, but for practical ca- 
 pacity, all constantly guided and controlled by him, and in- 
 spired with the feeling of mutual responsibility for results. The 
 vice of the Civil Service Reform system is that it entirely lacks 
 the vigor and effciency thus to be obtained. 
 
 No better proof of the hopeless desperation of the American 
 political reformers can be offered than their willingness even to 
 consider the establishment of this bureaucratic system among 
 us. Bryce approves it with the approval of despair: 
 
 "Rather, they would say, interdict office holders from participa- 
 tion in politics; appoint them by competition, however absurd com- 
 petition may sometimes appear, choose them by lot, like the Athe- 
 nians and Florentines; only do not let offices be tenable at the 
 pleasure of party chiefs and lie in the uncontrolled patronage of 
 persons who can use them to strengthen their own political position." 
 (American Commonwealth, Vol. II, p. 609.) 
 
 The present writer has been unable to think of anything 
 worse to say of our present system of political appointments 
 than this statement that it is worse than appointments by lot. 
 Let it go at that. 
 
 This is not the only country where men are dazzled by a 
 vision of rotation in office. The golden dream of public place 
 as an idle refuge, to be occupied in turn by lucky politicians, 
 with opportunity for respectable theft, is much indulged in 
 in Cuba and the Central and South American republics, and 
 assists in the promotion of revolutions in those countries. 
 They feel there, that a bright and active man in a good office, 
 ought to be able in from three to five years to steal his share, 
 and should then be willing to retire in favor of someone else. 
 For similar reasons, a political party should go out every few 
 
314 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 years and give the others a chance. This doctrine is accepted 
 even by independent onlookers of those countries, who often 
 sympathize with the hungry outs in their natural desire to get 
 their turn at the public chest. And this is why, when 
 President Menocal's first Cuban term of four years expired, 
 the opposition felt so outraged that he and his party should 
 not be willing to rotate out of office, that a revolution would 
 probably have supervened had it not been for the Platt Amend- 
 ment. The faults of foreigners are very conspicuous in our 
 eyes, and therefore the reader will surely agree that these 
 foreign gangs of political adventurers, whose only thought of 
 their country is to drain her blood, are a scurvy and contemp- 
 tible lot, whose greed and lack of patriotism are abominable. 
 As for our own professional office seekers, now planning for 
 their next turn it is safest to say nothing; they may be our 
 masters in a few days or months, and prudence is a profitable 
 virtue. 
 
CHAPTER XX 
 
 THE EFFECT OF THE OPERATION OF MANHOOD SUFFRAGE 
 HAS BEEN TO GIVE A LOWER TONE TO AMERICAN 
 PUBLIC LIFE. 
 
 THERE is a quality in an individual, an association of in- 
 dividuals, a community or a public institution, which though 
 difficult to describe in exact terms is everywhere well recog- 
 nized as something valuable and important, and is often re- 
 ferred to as "tone" or "style" or "distinction." A youth who 
 goes to college, travels, and then enters on a business career 
 acquires in ten years a different "tone" from his homekeeping 
 brother. It is not merely dress, or manners, or education; 
 it is separate from all these; it produces an effort comparable 
 to that of the toning up of a musical instrument, and applies 
 to the man's acts, gestures, and thoughts; giving him a dif- 
 ferent and mayhap higher place in the world and in the regard 
 of his fellows. So we find clubs, associations, communities 
 whose tone is higher or lower than others, and are therefore 
 esteemed or contemned accordingly. The tone of an institution 
 sensibly affects its character; we feel its influence and are 
 affected by it. No one for instance, can visit the Supreme 
 Court of the United States or West Point Academy without 
 immediately appreciating the superior tone or atmosphere of 
 the institution. And so the government of a nation, its public 
 life, has a tone, an atmosphere which all the world recognizes 
 as higher or lower in quality than that found elsewhere. The 
 tone of the administrations of the early presidents from 
 George Washington to John Quincy Adams, covering a period 
 of forty years, was high; all the world recognized the fact; 
 Americans were proud of it; it was something of a value not 
 
 315 
 
316 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 to be measured by dollars, nor by power or cleverness; it was 
 a fine emanation of the lofty ambitions and high traditions of 
 our governing class; it meant that our country was ruled and 
 represented by gentlemen. We all somehow realize that that 
 tone and atmosphere have vanished; they are mere memories, 
 like the old stage coaches, knee breeches and hoopskirts of our 
 ancestors; and now we have a low tone in almost every depart- 
 ment of public life; in some of them it is even mean and vulgar. 
 It is not necessary to offer proof of this statement, the fact 
 is practically involved in much that has been already presented 
 to the reader in this volume; it is something which everyone 
 can confirm who has had much contact with public officials, 
 or who is familiar with the daily current reports concerning 
 their character and methods. The knavery that has been sys- 
 tematically perpetrated here, under the name of politics for 
 the last three generations, could not possibly have gone on, 
 without a distinct degradation of the moral and social tone of 
 our political life. Lord Bryce though a liberal in politics has 
 discovered that the attempt of the multitude to govern in- 
 volves the danger of "A certain commonness of mind and tone, 
 "a want of dignity and elevation in and about the conduct of 
 "public affairs, and insensibility to the nobler aspects and final 
 "responsibilities of national life" and that such a tendency is 
 more or less observable in the United States; and he adds, 
 "The tone of public life is lower than one expects to find it 
 "in so great a nation. . . . In no country is the ideal side 
 "of public life, what one may venture to call the heroic ele- 
 "ment in a public career, so ignored by the mass and repudi- 
 "ated by the leaders. This affects not only the elevation but 
 "the independence and courage of public men; and the country 
 "suffers from the want of what we call distinction in its con- 
 "spicuous force." (Bryce, American Commonwealth, Vol. II, 
 PP- 583-585.) The language of this criticism is mild, in ac- 
 cordance with the style of the book, which is that of studied 
 friendliness and compliment to the American people and gov- 
 ernment; but the plain truth is there, though the accents are 
 
THE LOW TONE OF PUBLIC LIFE 317 
 
 gentle. Lord Bryce was disappointed to find a people whom 
 he elsewhere describes in this same book as generous, high- 
 minded and patriotic, in the political control of a lot of low 
 politicians. The learned author, in common with some Ameri- 
 can writers, professes to be at a loss to account for this sad 
 state of things; there has been a remarkable shutting of eyes 
 to the sins of manhood suffrage. But it is impossible to deny 
 that the low public tone which we have all observed and all 
 regret came in with that institution. 
 This is from another eminent writer: 
 
 "There is a risk of vulgarizing the whole tone, method and con- 
 duct of public business. We see how completely this has been done 
 in North America, a country far more fitted, at least in the 
 Northern States, for the democratic experiment than any old coun- 
 try can be. Nor must we imagine that this vulgarity of tone is a 
 mere external expression, not affecting the substance of what is 
 thought or interfering with the policy of the nation; no defect 
 really eats away so soon the political ability of a nation. A vulgar 
 tone of discussion disgusts cultivated minds with the subject of 
 politics: they will not apply themselves to master a topic which be- 
 sides its natural difficulties, is encumbered with disgusting phrases, 
 low arguments, and the undisguised language of coarse selfishness." 
 (Bagehot, Parliamentary Reform, p. 316.) 
 
 Treitschke on this subject utters a despairing note. 
 
 "The strongest lungs always prevail with the mob, and there is 
 now no hope of eliminating that peculiar touch of brutality and that 
 coarsening and vulgarizing element which has entered into public 
 life. These consequences are unavoidable, and undoubtedly react 
 upon the whole moral outlook of the people; just as the unchecked 
 railing and lying of the platform corrupts the tone of daily inter- 
 course. Beyond this comes the further danger that the really edu- 
 cated classes withdraw more and more from a political struggle 
 which adopts such methods." (Politics, Vol. II, p. 198.) 
 
 A low tone is the sign and indication of low ideals, which 
 dwelling with and in a man or institution influence his or its 
 thought, act and self manifestation. The ideals of cheap and 
 
318 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 common men, and of those who live by catering to them, are 
 alike cheap and common. There is a politics which consists 
 of a study of principles applied to government; in that pursuit 
 the ideals are necessarily lofty; it was their presence which 
 gave the tone to the administrations of the first six presidents. 
 There is a politics which consists in a systematic pursuit of 
 jobs and places; it is that which has mainly characterized 
 the administrations from Jackson downwards. The resultant 
 loss to the nation is additional to that caused by the waste, in- 
 efficiency, mismanagement and political despotism already de- 
 scribed; and though this lowering of tone is of course implied 
 in the decline of political morals heretofore discussed, it yet 
 constitutes a separate and additional public misfortune. We 
 can imagine a moral descent without a corresponding falling 
 off in outward behavior, as in the French Court of Louis XV; 
 but in our country, the two declines have been contempo- 
 raneous. 
 
 Much will have to be done before this can be corrected, but 
 one remedy is absolutely essential, and that is the elevation 
 and perfection of the electorate. The degradation of the tone 
 and destruction of the old-time dignity of American political 
 life which we all so much deplore is the work of manhood 
 suffrage, immediately followed it, belongs to it and is insepa- 
 rable from it. If we would restore tone and dignity to our 
 politics we must begin with the electorate; we must create a 
 body of unpurchasable voters; men who have shown that they 
 are free from the ordinary temptations of corrupt politics by 
 earning a good living in other ways which they have preferred 
 to politics; men pecuniarily independent, who have a stake 
 in the country; something, nay much to lose, and nothing to 
 gain by misgovernment; men, therefore, whose ideals in gov- 
 ernment matters are purity and efficiency. By that class of 
 prosperous middle class men, high ideals may be and always 
 have been adopted; they are of the proper combination of 
 energy, capacity and independence. It is impossible for most 
 men to cultivate lofty ideals when they are hourly struggling 
 
THE LOW TONE OF PUBLIC LIFE 319 
 
 for a mere subsistence; one cannot think philosophically when 
 he is in actual need, nor when in danger of being in need. 
 No part of the burden of government should be put upon such 
 shoulders as those of the needy class, the residuum, the dere- 
 licts, the pecuniarily unfortunates or incapables of our civiliza- 
 tion. We can only elevate our political tone to the level of 
 the time of Washington and John Quincy Adams by elevating 
 our electorate to the plane which it occupied when it selected 
 them and others of their type to represent it in the high places 
 of government. 
 
CHAPTER XXI 
 
 GENERAL PRIVATE AND PUBLIC CONDEMNATION BY THE 
 INTELLIGENT CLASSES OF MANHOOD SUFFRAGE POLITICS 
 AND GOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES; AND HERE- 
 IN OF WATCH DOGS AND YELLOW DOGS. 
 
 A GOOD test of the character of a man or an institution is 
 public reputation; let us apply that test in this case. Man- 
 hood suffrage, its methods, its politics, and its officialdom are 
 generally not merely distrusted, but scorned, held in utter con- 
 tempt and openly repudiated by the most intelligent classes 
 of Americans. With the exception of a few among them who 
 consider it their bounden duty to do civic missionary work, 
 those classes take no active part in politics; many of them do 
 not even vote, others only vote for president, entirely disre- 
 garding state and local elections; most of them totally neglect 
 the primaries; many of them do not even know the names of 
 their representatives in Congress. As for the obscure poli- 
 ticians who sit in the city and state legislatures they are ab- 
 solutely beneath the social or political vision of most of our 
 well-to-do and well-educated people. No really worldly wise 
 American father recommends his son to enter public life; its 
 snares and dangers and the lack of esteem in which public 
 officials are held are too well known. Of course to many 
 ambitious and inexperienced young men there is much temp- 
 tation in a political career. The prospect of addressing po- 
 litical meetings, of being called "Senator" or "Judge/' of 
 receiving mail addressed "Hon.," of dealing with public 
 measures, and of figuring in the newspapers, is alluring to 
 many a young college graduate; while poor young lawyers are 
 often tempted to struggle for public office by the salary at- 
 
 320 
 
GENERAL ILL REPUTE OF MANHOOD SUFFRAGE 321 
 
 tached thereto. They find later that the reward of politics is 
 Dead Sea fruit that turns to ashes on the lips; even the suc- 
 cessful ones are usually disappointed; the pay is small; it is 
 part of the manhood suffrage meanness to court the applause 
 of the low-waged rabble or the no-wage loafers by keeping 
 down official salaries; the incidental expenses are many and 
 annoying, including small loans to hangers on and other petty 
 exactions; to get money out of politics it is necessary to be 
 crafty and more or less dishonest. The young adventurer is 
 disappointed in his aspirations for glory; the newspaper 
 notices are few and frequently uncomplimentary; he finds that 
 the platform at public meetings is usually reserved either for 
 a notoriety of some sort or a blatherskite; and instead of en- 
 joying public respect he encounters a pushing familiarity, 
 which is most offensive even when it comes disguised as flattery 
 from obsequious job hunters. Probably no business or pro- 
 fession has been in such disrepute, or has offered so much that 
 is mean, sordid and repulsive to a noble nature, as has politics 
 since manhood suffrage was ordained in this country. 
 
 Under the property qualification regime young politicians 
 had the inspiration of great and highly respected leaders, and 
 the incentive of a prospect of ultimately filling their places. 
 Among such leaders in New York in the first quarter of the 
 nineteenth century were Alexander Hamilton; John Jay; James 
 Kent; De Witt Clinton; John Lansing; Rufus King; Gouver- 
 neur Morris; Robert R. Livingston; Brockholst Livingston; 
 William W. Van Ness; Daniel D. Tompkins; Nicholas Fish; 
 Erastus Root; John C. Spencer and William L. Marcy; fifteen 
 distinguished names; a number proportionately according to 
 population equivalent to one hundred and fifty at the present 
 time. Each of them was eminent in something; most of them 
 in several things; and all are still illustrious in the annals of 
 the state. Some of their political acts are open to criticism, 
 but they were all men of superior mentality, for the old system 
 put the best brains we had into politics, while the present 
 system inevitably puts into public place the cheapest and 
 
322 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 poorest, so that we are now, as Bagehot says, "deprived of 
 "the tangible benefits we derive from the application to politics 
 "of thoroughly cultivated minds." 
 
 The present public attitude towards officialdom not only in- 
 dicates a steady consciousness of its inferiority, but a disbe- 
 lief in its honesty and a plain distrust of its intentions. By 
 many persons, officialdom and the people are supposed to be 
 engaged in chronic warfare, and office holders as soon as 
 chosen are assumed to be potential rascals; so that it becomes 
 the presumptive duty of every patriotic organization and of 
 every public-spirited citizen to watch their every movement 
 and to sound the alarm at each of their expected attacks on 
 the rights of the people. Eternal vigilance is popularly urged 
 as the only means of security against the misconduct or calami- 
 tous blundering of the office-holding politicians. Nor is this 
 attitude confined to the upper classes. Politicians are fond of 
 pretending affection for the working people and that the man- 
 hood suffrage was a gift especially to that class. But none 
 more than the wage earners mistrust politicians; they are the 
 first to suspect official misconduct, and the most outspoken in 
 its denunciation. Listen to their comments when a public 
 question comes up in which they are concerned. They are not 
 then heard to say that their interests are safe in the hands of 
 the good officials chosen by the people; they are more apt to 
 complain of improper influence, "frame-ups," bribery actually 
 suspected or expected, "playing politics" and the like. Many 
 of them in despair of democracy have become socialists, and 
 find in the rascality and inefficiency of the manhood suffrage 
 government of the day ample material for argument. The 
 remainder unable to see any possibility of a remedy usually 
 assume an attitude of resignation, evincing a desire to profit 
 by whatever little pickings may be had from the political 
 feasts of the more fortunate. The attitude of the intelligent 
 middle classes is more frankly hostile and aggressive than that 
 of the wage earners; it does not, unfortunately, take the shape 
 of a demand for a higher basis for suffrage, but of a persistent 
 
GENERAL ILL REPUTE OF MANHOOD SUFFRAGE 323 
 
 opposition to the characteristic operations of manhood suffrage 
 government, such as appropriation of the spoils, and to its 
 various political expedients to please the rabble or bamboozle 
 the public. It is practically assumed by the middle class citi- 
 zen, that officialdom is inimical to the public welfare; and, 
 especially in the great cities, there is a steady and outspoken 
 demand for a remedy for the present notorious misgovernment; 
 that something be done to protect Society against its enemies, 
 the politicians in and out of office. 
 
 This feeling of American distrust of our own public servants 
 is frequently apparent in legislation enacted as a result of agi- 
 tation following one of the numerous revelations of official 
 misconduct. Thus, in some cities the police power has been 
 taken entirely out of the hands of the local authorities and 
 lodged in the government of the state. One reform city 
 charter of St. Louis provided that the mayor elected for four 
 years could not remove any official till his own third year in 
 office. These and many similar statutes are in effect formal 
 assertions of the complete breakdown of manhood suffrage; 
 that the elected municipal officials cannot be trusted either to 
 police the city or to remove or appoint subordinate officers. 
 The mayor under such a system has to manage the best he 
 can with deputies over whom he has little or no control. It 
 seems as if political imbecility could go no farther than to 
 create a system under which the mayor of the city is certain 
 to be untrustworthy and must therefore be deprived of power 
 to control his subordinates. And yet no doubt these pro- 
 visions were but the recognition of the desperate situation of 
 a manhood suffrage municipality. In one of the instances just 
 referred to the object of the city charter seems to have been 
 to vary the misery; two years chaos and two years ring-rule, 
 turnabout. 
 
 This feeling of despondent suspicion is constantly being 
 voiced by the middle-class newspapers and by groups of promi- 
 nent citizens, by committees of fifty, of one hundred, etc., in 
 circular appeals distributed by the ten thousand to all men of 
 
324 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 any standing in the community, urging them to "fight" as it 
 is called, day and night, to save the town, city, county, state 
 and nation from disaster. A stranger reading one of these 
 urgent calls would naturally ask with curiosity for the names 
 of the enemies to be thus attacked; are they Huns, Bolsheviki, 
 hoodlums, gunmen, rioters or what? The grotesquely pathetic 
 answer is that they are all our neighbors, our fellow citizens, 
 nay, our "Honorable" fellow citizens; elected by ourselves by 
 large majorities last year, last month, or yesterday perhaps, 
 or appointed by men whom we have ourselves recently elected; 
 they are his honor the mayor; honorable members of the 
 city or state legislature; of boards of supervisors; of Con- 
 gress; of this and that public commission; of the state govern- 
 ments; officials of every class, both elective and appointed, 
 county, city, state, and federal. It is not against hostile out- 
 siders or natural adversaries, but against our own manhood 
 suffrage officials that we have to "fight"; it is these officials 
 and their associates, agents, and party superiors or "bosses" 
 who we are told by press and pulpit, in newspaper, book and 
 magazine, in private conversation and in public address, and 
 above all at the meetings of independent citizens and re- 
 formers, are the actual or potential enemies, furtive or open, 
 conscious or unconscious, of good government, of our pocket- 
 books, our health, our comfort, and our lives. We are ur- 
 gently reminded that our manhood suffrage government is by 
 no means to be trusted; that the only hope of tolerable gov- 
 ernment is to arouse every good citizen to an attitude and a 
 habit of constant distrust of our chosen representatives and 
 rulers and to regard them with sleepless jealousy and suspi- 
 cion. It is not enough to vote; you must attend primaries; 
 nay more, you must anticipate the primaries and plan to elect 
 certain primary candidates and to defeat others; even when 
 your own men are chosen, you cannot safely trust them; you 
 must doubt every member of Congress, every legislator and 
 every official, including those just seated by your own vote; 
 you must suspect every new proposal, every legislative bill, 
 
GENERAL ILL REPUTE OF MANHOOD SUFFRAGE 325 
 
 every municipal ordinance; a good citizen will watch them 
 all; he will at private expense procure advance copies of all 
 of them; he will if he can employ a lawyer to study them; he 
 will join all kinds of political organizations and attend all their 
 meetings, and will use constant vigilance to see that these or- 
 ganizations are not "captured" or purchased by the politicians, 
 and that he himself is not captured without suspecting it, so 
 wily are these political experts and so cunning and numerous are 
 the snares and temptations of political life. Nor is even this 
 all; he must work up and join deputations to the sessions of 
 the municipal administration and to those of the town and 
 county authorities, to the state capitol, to Washington; he 
 must write to the newspapers, he and others must at times 
 bombard Congress and the state legislature and their com- 
 mittees with letters and telegrams. In short the system is this: 
 you select the incapable and worthless for office and then wear 
 your soul out in efforts to keep them from blundering and 
 plundering. Common sense would suggest the selection in 
 the first place of men who could be trusted; and if the method 
 of selection failed, to replace it by a better one; but this 
 cannot be done ; manhood suffrage though rotten is sacred, and 
 those who have the patience and courage continue their en- 
 deavors to make a marble temple of justice out of a mud 
 electorate. 
 
 This widespread attitude of suspicion and resentment 
 toward public officials, originally private and individual, has 
 of late years become open, formal and public through the 
 systematic activities of clubs and associations of supposedly 
 disinterested and public-spirited citizens principally located 
 in large cities; non-partisan in character, and organized for 
 the purpose of preventing or undoing the more flagrant of the 
 illegal, immoral and improper operations of state and local 
 governments. In plain words, just as we have detectives to 
 watch thieves, so we have voluntary associations to watch 
 public officials. This sounds queer, but it is true. And these 
 societies founded on contempt and distrust of officialdom are 
 
326 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 not made up of eccentrics; they include some of the most in- 
 telligent men in their respective communities; they are kept 
 busily employed a large part of every year; and are sustained 
 by the best public opinion in their open opposition to the 
 measures proposed by the manhood suffrage officials, and in 
 their frequent active hostility to the officials themselves. 
 These associations may well be called "watch dog" societies, 
 their function being to protect the community from political 
 wolves; to bark loudly on any attempt of theirs to rob the 
 sheepfold and thus either to scare them off or to give such 
 warning as will result in their designs being frustrated. Thus 
 we have in almost every city and town "Taxpayers Associa- 
 tions"; "Citizens Associations"; "Good Government Clubs"; 
 "Public Welfare Societies"; "Patriotic Societies"; "Security 
 Leagues"; and the like; some temporary but others permanent 
 bodies, formed for general supervision and bringing to book 
 of legislators and public officials. These watch dog societies 
 are always on the alert; ready to receive complaints from any 
 source; to investigate them through committees, and to attack 
 anybody and anything in what they may choose to consider 
 the public interest. They even employ private detectives and 
 lawyers in these enterprises, just as in pursuit of criminal of- 
 fenders; and they are usually able to get newspapers to sup- 
 port them and to publish bitter attacks not merely upon 
 individual office holders but on entire boards, departments, 
 committees, legislatures and congresses, and sometimes the 
 courts; whereby the public are told over and over again that 
 these official bodies, composed as they are of from five to five 
 hundred men each, are inefficient and corrupt. There is no 
 pretence on the part of some of these societies of concealment 
 of their mean opinion of the office holders, especially those 
 elected by the popular vote. One of them, the New York 
 Citizens Union, publishes an annual statement containing notes 
 of the character and record of each of the local representa- 
 tives in the state legislature, some of them far from compli- 
 mentary, and all critical and superior in tone, like the report 
 
GENERAL ILL REPUTE OF MANHOOD SUFFRAGE 327 
 
 of a master of a reform school on the behavior of the pupils. 
 In fact, though these watch dogs do not directly attack the 
 institution of manhood suffrage, their attitude towards its 
 creatures in state and city government is that of a policeman 
 toward a professional criminal. This practice of auxiliary and 
 supervisory government by organized meddlers is well ex- 
 pounded in a book ably written by W. H. Allen of New York, 
 Director of the Bureau of Municipal Research; a man of 
 sufficient experience in political life to have learned its 
 diseased condition, and to earnestly desire a palliative of its 
 evil symptoms, but who is without apparent hope of discover- 
 ing or extirpating the cause of the disease. He wrote the book 
 for the purpose of inducing citizens, especially women, to 
 attend to their civic duties, and he urges his readers to join 
 one or more of these watch dog organizations and to actively 
 prosecute their work. (Woman's Part in Government.) 
 
 Examples of the operations of these societies are easily 
 found, since they by no means hide their lights. It will be suffi- 
 cient here to refer to a recent one as a sample. In January 
 1917, and again in April 1917, one of the best known of the 
 associations, the City Club of New York, filed with the Gov- 
 ernor a complaint against the District Attorney, charging him 
 in effect with gross misconduct in connection with certain 
 prosecutions for homicide. The Club employed lawyers to 
 prosecute the charges and there was a furious, scandalous and 
 prolonged controversy in the courts, in the public press and be- 
 fore the Governor, involving beside the District Attorney him- 
 self some of his assistants and others. Another powerful 
 watchdog association is the well-known Chicago Voters 
 League, established in 1896. The League claims that at that 
 time of the sixty-eight members of the Chicago City Council 
 only ten were even liable to a suspicion of honesty, while the 
 rest were organized into a gang for plunder and blackmail. 
 To correct this situation the League was established and still 
 operates. Its self-perpetuating Executive Committee of Nine 
 publicly opposes and condemns candidates for the City Coun- 
 
328 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 cil and directs the citizens how to vote. This, of course, 
 amounts to a qualified oligarchy; in conformity with the usual 
 tendency of manhood suffrage, to create ring government in 
 one way or another. 
 
 The whole attitude of these watch dog associations towards 
 the constituted civil authorities is most extraordinary, in view 
 of the respectability of most of their membership, and strik- 
 ingly illustrates the deplorable results of manhood suffrage. 
 Their general scheme of action is founded on the open assump- 
 tion of each of them that its members are superior in wisdom, 
 honesty, patriotism and knowledge of public affairs to the 
 officials whom they denounce, lecture and admonish; and, by 
 implication that these members are superior also to the con- 
 stituents who elected these office holders. The state legislature 
 and other public bodies are watched closely, and when a meas- 
 ure in which any of these societies or their controlling members 
 actually have or choose to feign a great interest is before any 
 legislative body or official board for action or determination, 
 the agents of the interested association begin to interfere; the 
 public officials having the matter in hand are not allowed to 
 deliberate and decide impartially and coolly even should they 
 desire to do so; they are scolded, coaxed, threatened, bullied 
 and wheedled into doing what the association desires. Some 
 of these private associations have funds subscribed by indi- 
 viduals, or arising from the collection of dues; they are there- 
 fore able to employ lawyers to prepare arguments and briefs 
 and political agents to go about soliciting signatures; 
 arrangements are made for a systematic campaign directed 
 towards the officials concerned, who are bombarded with 
 letters, telegrams, postal cards and petitions; sometimes 
 public meetings large or small are organized, and resolutions 
 couched in peremptory language are passed and presented at 
 the proper quarters. Should the officials prove refractory, 
 they are apt to find their motives impugned, their "records' 7 
 and personal history unearthed, and their characters publicly 
 assailed, all from the same source. All this, which often 
 
GENERAL ILL REPUTE OF MANHOOD SUFFRAGE 329 
 
 amounts to coercion, is so frequently practised upon public 
 bodies and their members as to have become a recognized 
 feature of American public life. 
 
 A large addition to the list of political scandals contained 
 in this book might be made by recourse to the archives of these 
 watch dog associations and to the published reports of the 
 charges made by them from time to time against the member- 
 ship of the state and city legislative and administrative 
 bodies, and to the evidence collected by them in support there- 
 of, but space will not permit even the most condensed recital 
 of this material. Let it suffice to present here the societies 
 themselves, composed as they are of thousands of our citizens 
 of best standing and information, as witnesses to the bad char- 
 acter and reputation of manhood suffrage. By their very ex- 
 istence they go far to establish the significant fact that the 
 manhood suffrage state and local governments of the United 
 States have utterly forfeited the respect and confidence of the 
 American people. 
 
 It must not be supposed that by the work of these watch 
 dog associations the evil of manhood suffrage operations is 
 sensibly alleviated. On the contrary, when carefully con- 
 sidered, that work, though presumably well intended, must be 
 considered as a public misfortune, and as resulting in an aggra- 
 vation rather than a diminution of the evils of our misgovern- 
 ment. In an individual instance their efforts may produce good 
 effects limited to that special transaction, just as might be 
 said of any voluntary interference with constituted authority; 
 but in theory and in principle and in the large and final results, 
 the practice of such interference is and must be politically 
 noxious, and the case to justify it even in one instance must 
 be indeed extreme. The public-spirited citizens who form an 
 important part of their membership probably do not realize 
 just what they are doing when they coerce the will of the 
 chosen representatives of the people. They would be horrified 
 at the suggestion of using physical force or physical threats 
 upon legislators to compel them to deviate from their own 
 
330 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 best judgment; and yet they do not scruple to use what they 
 call moral force to the same purpose, and such moral force 
 as almost amounts to physical stress and coercion. The dif- 
 ference in effect between threatening a member of the legis- 
 lature with a cudgel or with printed defamation issued by a 
 powerful clique or league is not always appreciable. In either 
 case the general result is the adoption of measures or modifica- 
 tions thereof reflecting rather the views of the threatening 
 meddler than those of the public official in question or of the 
 majority who elected him. This is a clear usurpation of 
 power. Again, the watch dog operations do not offer any per- 
 manent result in return for this trampling down of popular 
 government; their programme includes no method of improv- 
 ing the quality of our officials but only one for watching and 
 nagging them. Third, it offers no security whatever that the 
 volunteer or self-appointed government censors shall them- 
 selves be competent or worthy, or that they shall be anything 
 more than idle and presumptuous fools or designing hypocrites. 
 Fourth, others less worthy and disinterested, are by the ex- 
 ample of these societies encouraged to similar acts. So that the 
 final result of the watch dog plan is likely to amount to no 
 more or other than this actual situation: A number of corrupt, 
 weak and worthless legislatures, town boards, city councils, 
 boards of supervisors, etc., constantly nagged, worried, insulted 
 and pulled this way and that, by all kinds of people, including 
 watch dog associations and their officers, newspaper men, 
 cranks, fanatics, busybodies generally and possibly scamps and 
 adventurers. Even suppose we make the extravagant suppo- 
 sition that no knaves or fools whatever, but only the better 
 type of citizens do and will respond to the appeal to organize 
 to boss the bosses, the system is still impracticable, and if 
 practicable would be mischievous; since it would result in 
 oligarchical tyranny. For the work proposed for these civic 
 organizations and for their members would be enormous; it 
 would require an acquaintance with legislative and other po- 
 litical methods far beyond that possible to any one who has 
 
GENERAL ILL REPUTE OF MANHOOD SUFFRAGE 331 
 
 any other business; it would necessitate among other things 
 the careful scrutiny and thorough understanding of every bill 
 or resolution introduced into the state or municipal legisla- 
 ture, and a steady watch from day to day of each of these 
 bills, and of the members of the bodies where they may be 
 pending, and especially of those of the committees having them 
 under consideration. Besides this it involves the defense of 
 every step taken, at the cost of endless controversy. As the 
 ordinary citizen cannot possibly undertake this labor of super- 
 vising oversight of government activities, it is evident that if 
 done at all by this volunteer method, it must fall to a com- 
 paratively few people who have means and leisure, or who 
 have special interests to serve; or more likely, to hirelings em- 
 ployed by those people. 
 
 The result of the watch dog programme even if successfully 
 carried out, would therefore be the creation of an 
 imperium in imperio; an irresponsible self-created govern- 
 ing oligarchy acting through the present class of worthless and 
 corrupt politicians. A more complicated and mischievous po- 
 litical system nor one more likely to produce tyranny and 
 public scandals could scarcely be devised. But though the 
 watch dog scheme cannot be approved, its actual existence is 
 a strong argument against manhood suffrage; for though bad 
 reputation is not of itself proof of misconduct, yet it usually 
 accompanies wrong doing; and when evidence of evil reputa- 
 tion is here added to the general as well as particular proof 
 already furnished of the mischiefs resulting from manhood 
 suffrage, the case against that system can hardly fail to be so 
 materially strengthened as to be practically unanswerable. 
 
 The weakness and inferiority of our public officials afford 
 opportunity for interference by another set of meddlers in 
 public affairs who are of inferior breed to the watch dogs, and 
 for the infusion of eccentric and fanatical ideas and theories 
 into legislation and administration, such as would not occur 
 in a well-founded governmental system. The class referred 
 to is composed of political adventurers, eccentrics, cranks, and 
 
332 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 fanatics; people whose mental vision is inaccurate; who are 
 out of harmony with nature and its operations, and whose un- 
 disciplined minds are filled with impracticable theories. Many 
 of them are well-to-do idlers able to give time to the agitation 
 of any cause they may happen to espouse. Compared with 
 the watch dogs they are as the yellow dogs of politics. They 
 function in every state as promoters of crank legislation, the 
 history whereof in the United States would no doubt make, 
 if compiled, a very interesting volume, containing many sur- 
 prises to the general reader. While sane and prudent men are 
 content to confine their attention to their private affairs, and 
 while modest men, be they ever so well informed, are apt to 
 doubt their own capacity in affairs of state, a certain class 
 of cranks are always eager to meddle with politics; full of 
 conceit they are not troubled with doubts as to the correctness 
 of their own opinions. When one such takes up a fad, re- 
 ligious, moral, political or social, he becomes more and more 
 engrossed in it; nothing else matters to him half so much; 
 family and business are neglected; he writes for the news- 
 papers; he attends and organizes public meetings; he serves 
 on committees; he makes speeches; he circulates literature; 
 he contributes to the cause within his means, which sometimes 
 are large, and collects for it from others. When a "move- 
 ment" as it is called is once fairly started it is sure to be 
 joined by many with ulterior motives, impelled by vanity, by 
 mere love of notoriety, by fondness for excitement; by those 
 who seek the pleasure of serving on committees, of speaking 
 in public, or of seeing their names in print; others come to 
 make new acquaintances; to escape ennui; to become politi- 
 cally important. Under a strong and intelligent government 
 these collections of faddists, adventurers, humbugs and fools 
 would do little more harm than so many debating societies; 
 but when, as now, those in power are of mediocre ability, weak 
 calibre or politically timid, such societies are potent for mis- 
 chief. The ordinary politician holding an office obtained per- 
 haps by a majority of a few votes, or otherwise precarious in 
 
GENERAL ILL REPUTE OF MANHOOD SUFFRAGE 333 
 
 its tenure is easily frightened by a show of organization. 
 Where the proposed new measure is one opposed to the pe- 
 cuniary or political interests of the bosses the cranks get but 
 slight attention; but where there are only principles involved 
 their chances for success are often very good indeed. The 
 fact that they are armed with theories however foolish, makes 
 them appear mysterious and redoubtable antagonists to small 
 politicians, who cannot understand principles or the motives of 
 people professing principles. The official finds himself con- 
 fronted and baited by an inexorable pack of those yellow dogs, 
 small in number, but terrible in noise and clamor, who give 
 him no rest; while on the other hand the sane and sensible 
 folk of his constituency are not only silent and apparently 
 indifferent but scarcely seem aware (as indeed most of them 
 are not) of his name or existence. Getting no orders from his 
 boss, who takes no interest in the matter one way or another, 
 what wonder if the weary legislator or administrator, either 
 becomes half convinced by the din of arguments which he is 
 too weak or ignorant to answer, or frightened by the criticism 
 he is receiving, yields at last with a sigh of relief. And so 
 the crank project often goes through without public notice 
 except the applause of the agitators, who print a triumphant 
 account in the newspapers of the adoption of another "reform 
 measure" and get one of their members to write it up in some 
 magazine with a laudatory reference to himself and his asso- 
 ciates. The effect of "crank" or yellow dog influence upon 
 our weak state governments is another of the evil results of 
 manhood suffrage. 
 
CHAPTER XXII 
 
 THE ELECTORATE FUNCTIONS NOT BY ITS INDIVIDUALS BUT 
 BY GROUPS WHEREBY THE ENFRANCHISEMENT OF THE 
 SHIFTLESS AND IGNORANT GROUP NECESSARILY TENDS 
 TO CREATE A VICIOUS POWER IN POLITICS. 
 
 MOST of us have from time to time in the course of our 
 lives, heard a good deal of indignation expressed by worthy 
 citizens over the politicians' organization and use of the con- 
 trollable vote. But if we give a little thought to the manner 
 in which the electoral representative system actually and nec- 
 essarily operates, we will see that the organization of the non- 
 propertied voters was a perfectly natural, and one might say 
 an inevitable result of their enfranchisement. It was a step 
 to which they were and are practically invited by the situation 
 itself, and for taking which neither they nor their leaders are 
 logically blamable. The only people to be criticised are those 
 who opened the door to this class of voters. The unpropertied 
 vote became an organized group, because it could not other- 
 wise function in our political system, which operates entirely 
 though groups or classes and ignores the individual. A few 
 of the astute public men of a century ago understood this; the 
 mass did not; they imagined that in extending the suffrage to 
 the unpropertied, the incapables, they were conferring a harm- 
 less compliment upon scattered individuals whose votes would 
 be distributed among those of the other classes, and absorbed 
 in the general mass without perceptible effect. Had this been 
 the only result, the gift of the vote would have been a barren 
 one, costing the givers nothing and of no benefit to the re- 
 cipients. But far from being empty, it was costly, it was real, 
 and the newly enfranchised immediately made use of it, as we 
 
 334 
 
GENESIS OF THE PREDATORY VOTE 335 
 
 have seen, forming themselves into effective groups for the 
 accomplishment of their own small and sordid desires. And 
 so the generation of Americans who saw manhood suffrage 
 established, were astonished to find shortly after, that the 
 voting power was almost suddenly taken out of their hands by 
 a new force in politics. They have never been able to get it 
 back, and most people do not yet understand the theory of 
 what has occurred. They do not comprehend, their ancestors 
 of the last century did not comprehend that the enfranchise- 
 ment of the unpropertied voters meant that they were invited 
 not merely as individuals, but as a class, and through their own 
 local groups or subdivisions to take such part in forming the 
 government as they were able. It was not merely that they 
 were enfranchised as a body, but that our political system is 
 such that only by groups, classes and factions can any share 
 in the government be obtained. This fact is so important, 
 and though patent to every one its significance has been so 
 generally overlooked, that it deserves the entire chapter al- 
 lotted to it in this volume. 
 
 In our scheme of government the individual voter as such 
 counts for absolutely nothing. Our elective system is not, 
 as so many believe, at all intended or contrived as a medium 
 of individual political expression, but as a means for measuring 
 the force of groups, factions and parties and of creating ma- 
 jorities. The gift of the ballot is intended for collective and 
 not for individual employment and advantage. It does not 
 imply as is commonly supposed the right of a man "to govern 
 himself" nor to have his individual opinions and wishes con- 
 sidered and acted upon. It necessarily implies joint and not 
 individual action; the individual voter is only remotely a 
 factor in the process of government making; the direct fac- 
 tors whereof are groups, factions and parties. The separate 
 voter's influence is no more than that of a component atom in 
 a large moving body, and just as the snowflake cannot move 
 the steam engine till it ceases to be a snowflake and becomes 
 part of a volume of steam, so the individual cannot become 
 
336 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 any part of the moving power in politics till he merges his in- 
 dividuality into some of the political groups or factions of the 
 community. 
 
 Although these plain facts are never mentioned by the poli- 
 ticians, the newspapers or the twaddlers who write text-books 
 on American democracy, yet every sensible man realizes that 
 when he votes to any effect he is really obeying orders. If 
 he should write his true and individual choice for governor or 
 alderman, it would probably be some worthy man of his ac- 
 quaintance whose name does not appear on any official ballot 
 or designation whatever, and his vote thus cast would be a 
 nullity; scorned and thrown aside by the inspectors; not 
 counted; returned as "scattering." Knowing that a vote for 
 his individual choice will be disregarded, he feels practically 
 compelled to accept the candidate of some group, faction or 
 party; one with whom he has no personal acquaintance what- 
 ever; and who if elected will represent not the voter at all, nor 
 his views, but the combination which put him forward, and 
 which has an existence, a history, leaders and motives of its 
 own. Therefore, in the act of voting, your would-be indepen- 
 dent citizen, willy nilly, surrenders his individuality just as 
 completely, and is practically just as subservient to the group 
 or party managers as any political heeler of the local boss. 
 Nor does the citizen by the contribution of his vote become 
 entitled to the slightest share of control over the group which 
 he has thus strengthened; that group may have some political 
 weight, while he has none that is appreciable. If he wants to 
 talk politics he may of course do so if he can get a listener; it 
 will usually be as effective a performance as the child blowing 
 on the mainsail of a ship at sea. 
 
 The ordinary plain citizen in a democratic community of 
 ten thousand votes may suppose that he has the privilege of 
 exercising one ten thousandth part of the governing power of 
 that community. He flatters himself. If he belongs either to 
 no group or to the minority group or faction, he has and ex- 
 ercises absolutely no part whatever in, or influence upon, the 
 
GENESIS OF THE PREDATORY VOTE 337 
 
 community's policy or government. If he affiliates with the 
 majority party, his part in government is very far from being 
 represented by his fractional share of its numbers. His fac- 
 tion or party has a life and will of its own, and unless he has 
 a place in its directing mind, he has no influence upon its move- 
 ments or operations. His importance is comparable with that 
 of a member of a volunteer military body or procession march- 
 ing in obedience to orders from headquarters. The individual 
 member may remain on the sidewalk or go home, in either of 
 which cases he will have no part in the function; but even 
 should he join in the procession he will be entirely without say 
 or influence concerning its movements. His only effect will 
 be as one of the constituent atoms of a body which has an 
 existence, mind and direction of its own apart from and su- 
 perior to and controlling that of each of its members. 
 
 Notwithstanding this obvious situation, impossible to deny, 
 most people fail to realize it, and many cannot see or will not 
 admit even to themselves the futility of individual voting. 
 The illusion of the value of an independent vote, the product 
 of self-conceit and political superstition exists in the minds 
 of numbers of intelligent men, and daily manifests itself in 
 the cant and rubbish of every-day speech. A very large pro- 
 portion of American men like to believe or pretend that they 
 believe, that an effective vote can really be cast by the indi- 
 vidual citizen expressive of his own individual will and spon- 
 taneous desire, and that thereby such will and desire will be 
 manifested and reflected in the policy and acts of the govern- 
 ment. The privilege of casting this impossible vote is by such a 
 man imagined as one of the inestimable privileges of American 
 citizenship. He is, he proudly thinks, an independent voter, 
 free from party trammels; and he fondly supposes that by 
 so much as he holds himself aloof from party organization is 
 his voted opinion the more valuable and effective. We fre- 
 quently hear a man threaten to vote against this and that 
 candidate; sometimes, filled with self-importance, he notifies 
 his newspaper of his dire intention; others who have not even 
 
338 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 membership in any party gravely tell you that you should 
 always vote for somebody, that it is your duty to do so, and 
 having themselves voted for men of whose policies they have 
 not the slightest knowledge or control, try to fancy that they 
 have employed their time and shoe leather to great advantage. 
 The fact is that these self-styled independent voters are in 
 all this the happy victims of pleasant delusions. Each of them 
 is either a party voter or a mere trifler. When he pretends 
 to revolt from political control, he usually does nothing of the 
 kind; he simply changes his vote from the candidate of one set 
 of politicians to the candidate of the other set. In other words, 
 instead of being independent, he joins, for the time at least, 
 the other party or group and finds himself compelled to sur- 
 render his individual preferences and to vote the name they 
 give him. If he really selects his own independent candidate 
 and votes for him, his vote is practically lost; his act is futile; 
 it is a vote "in the air"; he might as well vote for a dead man. 
 "So that the elective franchise merely gives the voter the privi- 
 lege of joining with others in the formation of a political group 
 or body capable of aspiring to influence or power. But in 
 order to do this, the individual at the very outset is compelled 
 to surrender his individual wishes, preferences and ambitions 
 to be transmuted into the collective wish, preference and power 
 of his group. He has usually no more control over the move- 
 ments of the group or party which contains him than a drop 
 of blood in the veins of a bull has over the movements of the 
 animal. 
 
 When therefore about ninety years ago the unpropertied 
 citizens were admitted into the political arena it was perfectly 
 natural that they should speedily form themselves into new 
 and distinctive groups. The electorate has always grouped 
 and divided itself according to its interests and passions; wit- 
 ness the old division between Eastern and Western Virginia 
 already referred to; the tariff and slavery divisions, etc. The 
 unpropertied non-voters had already been distinguishable from 
 the propertied voters by their different traits, characteristics 
 
GENESIS OF THE PREDATORY VOTE 339 
 
 and desires. When they obtained the vote the difference be- 
 tween the two classes widened; the attitude toward the offices 
 and the spoils of office being that of unscrupulous and hungry 
 greed on one side, and on the other that comparative disinter- 
 estedness which comes from physical comfort and well being. 
 The core of the membership of the new group of voters was 
 in penury; it needed the spoils of office, to which the older 
 voters were comparatively indifferent. Stimulated by this 
 need the non-propertied groups at once sought and obtained 
 a greater cohesive power than any possible rivals; enabling 
 them to overcome and survive them all. They became united 
 and predatory political bands; easily manageable by their 
 leaders; willing to waive aside as comparatively impertinent, 
 the various abstract questions on which the propertied voters 
 were hopelessly divided. In short, they became a unified 
 power, and often the only unified power in practical politics. 
 
 The strength and discipline of the controllable groups of 
 voters, have always given them an immense advantage in the 
 final and supreme governmental process, that of the formation, 
 management and maintenance of governing majorities. The 
 creation of such a majority, or the ability to become a part 
 thereof is the final test of political capacity. Occasionally 
 majorities create themselves; as in great popular agitations 
 when the people "rise in their might" and overwhelm the con- 
 trolled voter. But such irregular movements last at most 
 but a few weeks or months, whereupon the before established 
 oligarchy resumes control and continues its steady business 
 of majority formation and maintenance. It is a job requiring 
 constant and compelling discipline; and one in which the 
 controllable and always reliable vote is the chief element of a 
 uniformly successful management. 
 
 It comes then to this, that in a democracy no man should be 
 admitted to vote, unless his class or group will be of service in 
 government. In considering proposed legislation for extension 
 of the franchise, the first question should always be, what will 
 be the character of the group or faction with which the new 
 
340 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 voters will identify themselves? And if the result is going to 
 be the introduction of a new faction or party into our political 
 system, or the dominance of one at present in the minority, 
 the effect thereof should be seriously considered before the 
 change is authorized. This being a government not of indi- 
 viduals but of groups, the right of any individual to vote can 
 be conceded to him only as one belonging to a class or group 
 entitled and competent to take part in the government. And 
 if his group is of the ignorant, the worthless, the non-contribu- 
 tors to the commonwealth, where is its claim to govern? Those 
 therefore who believe in unlimited suffrage, that is in the right 
 of the ignorant and worthless to vote, must believe either that 
 such vote will be unorganized, in which case it is an empty 
 gift of a valueless privilege, or they must believe in the natural 
 right of organized worthlessness to do what it has actually 
 done and is still doing, namely to rule the country, or to take 
 effective part in such rule, and incidentally to degrade the 
 standards of government to a point as near the low level of 
 its own intelligence and conscience as possible. 
 
 Prior to manhood suffrage the political groups were all 
 transient, shifting and undisciplined bodies representing de- 
 batable theories and principles; this continued from Wash- 
 ington's time to Jackson's. Manhood suffrage furnished the 
 material everywhere for new groups founded on need and 
 appetite and organized by professional politicians; these have 
 become drilled and disciplined, have learned to live off the 
 country and to obey leaders. They have won the usual ad- 
 herence of success; drawing from every direction the indif- 
 ferent, the lukewarm, the careless, the unprincipled, the weak, 
 the foolish, the men of small ambitions, the business failures, 
 and the odds and ends, in total the material for a great preda- 
 tory political army. The leaders of that army constitute the 
 power which governs the United States to-day. 
 
CHAPTER XXIII 
 
 ANSWER TO THE PLEA THAT THE BALLOT SHOULD BE 
 GRANTED TO THE UNPROPERTIED CLASSES AS A PRO- 
 TECTIVE WEAPON 
 
 THE argument is frequently used in certain quarters that 
 the vote in the hands of the unpropertied classes is a weapon 
 of defense needed to protect their weakness against govern- 
 mental oppression or to enable them to procure needful affir- 
 mative legislation. This argument though without real force is 
 sufficiently plausible to merit attention. 
 
 The first and readiest answer is that the experiment has 
 been tried and grievously failed. They have had the ballot 
 ninety years and have used it for naught but mischief to 
 themselves and others. The second answer is that govern- 
 mental oppression of the poor in this country is an impossi- 
 bility. It would only be possible through class legislation and 
 there is no conceivable class legislation which would favor the 
 prosperous people at the expense of their poorer fellow citi- 
 zens. There has never been class legislation in this country, 
 and it is impossible to devise, much more to enact it in a way 
 to be effective, because we have no fixed classes. We may 
 use the word "class" for convenience, but there is no permanent 
 class of poor people any more than there is a fixed class of 
 lazy or sickly or dissolute people, or of professional men or 
 farmers or blacksmiths. There is at all times a body of skilled 
 and one of unskilled laborers, but they are not fixed classes; 
 nor are their members generally paupers or propertyless ; most 
 of them either have or expect to accumulate money or property 
 either individually or in their families, and desire to have it 
 secured to them by equal and just laws. The poor come from 
 
 341 
 
342 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 all ranks, occupations and families and so do the rich. The 
 son of a rich farmer is a struggling doctor and the daughter 
 of a laborer becomes the wife of a banker. In fact, the prin- 
 cipal cause of the envy of the rich by the less rich is not usu- 
 ally that they belong to a fixed class, but the contrary, because 
 they have not remained where they were but have managed 
 by hook or crook to get ahead of their former associates. 
 Class legislation scarcely exists today in any civilized coun- 
 try; it disappeared with the permanent classes of former days 
 and is now merely a tradition of a gone-by period when no 
 doubt the system of fixed classes served a necessary purpose. 
 But even if we choose to consider the different occupations of 
 men, or their pecuniary circumstances from time to time as 
 class divisions, there is no possibility of unequal legislation 
 affecting them, because it is so difficult as to be practically 
 impossible to separate their interests so as to make such legis- 
 lation profitable to any special interest. We may of course, 
 to please our fancy, imagine attempts at class legislation even 
 here and now. We may imagine enactments aimed at red- 
 headed men or sculptors. And so we may dream of laws 
 against the poor, enacted by a people whose charity and gen- 
 erosity to the poor and unfortunate is proverbial; but they 
 will never be seriously considered in this country until we 
 have become politically insane, in which case all democracy 
 will be practically non-existent among us. As things actually 
 are our intelligent people are fully aware that business pros- 
 perity to be real must be universal; that the well-being of the 
 laboring people is absolutely essential to the well-being of the 
 rest of the community, and they will never even consider a 
 suggestion of legislation oppressive towards the wage earners. 
 There are three principal bodies of propertied men; farmers, 
 professional men and traders ; who together constitute the bulk 
 of the propertied electorate. No one can imagine the farmers 
 as consenting to any persecution of the poor; and the suc- 
 cessful traders and professional men are interested in the pros- 
 perity of their poorer neighbors; they are fed by a stream of 
 
THE BALLOT NOT A CLASS WEAPON 343 
 
 wealth which comes from a surplus created and expended by 
 the working classes. The business interests of all the people 
 are so bound together that the prosperity of one is in reality 
 the prosperity of all; the wealth of one furnishes a market for 
 the industries of the other; the need of one man gives em- 
 ployment to his neighbor; and all this is true though the la- 
 borer and the employer and the trader and the customer are 
 separated by mountains, plains, seas or national boundaries. 
 All business workers, in whatever capacity, form part of a 
 great joint enterprise, and the body of the poorer people have 
 therefore no business interests which are antagonistic to those 
 of the propertied class. Rather are they interested in the 
 successes of the wealthy, of the capitalists, and especially of 
 those of them who are engaged in mercantile pursuits, or man- 
 ufacturing industries, because it is on such prosperity that 
 their employment depends. And the situation in political 
 matters is similar to that in business matters. What all need 
 in government is ability and honesty; and the poor man might 
 as well object to being medically treated by one of a wealthy 
 family, as to object to a competent man sitting in the legisla- 
 ture or administering a public office because he is rich. From 
 Washington down to Roosevelt the men of old and wealthy 
 families have in politics always given the poor the benefit of 
 disinterested and enlightened service. 
 
 The upper classes are the least likely of all to favor op- 
 pressive legislation because being the best trained and most 
 accustomed to deal with large matters, they have been and are 
 the quickest to learn true principles, and to adopt the common 
 sense doctrine that the prosperity of the country is their pros- 
 perity, and that class legislation is bad for everybody, and 
 especially bad for property owners. The suffrage was origi- 
 nally conferred upon the unpropertied by the vote of the prop- 
 ertied class; and it is almost nonsensical to suppose that 
 nothing but the ballot saves the former from political oppres- 
 sion at the hands of the very people who voluntarily conferred 
 the gift of the ballot upon them. In fact, the prosperous 
 
344 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 classes of our race have not heretofore been anywhere inclined 
 to exercise political tyranny upon the less prosperous. On the 
 contrary liberalism has always been promoted by the upper 
 classes. Had they legislated with effect so as to crush those be- 
 neath them when they had the uncontrolled power to do so, the 
 lower classes would never have been permitted to ascend. De 
 Tocqueville says that "almost all the democratic movements 
 which have agitated the world have been directed by nobles." 
 Historically, the case can best be judged by reference to Eng- 
 land as a nation with political institutions much resembling 
 ours, but much older and including an aristocratic order. 
 There, liberal political measures have always been actively 
 advocated by members of the upper classes; and though these 
 originally held all political power, it was not through usurpa- 
 tion, but naturally, and out of the necessity of the case; the 
 lower classes being totally illiterate and the middle classes 
 politically indifferent. And so, according as the lower and 
 middle classes acquired knowledge and wealth, they were ad- 
 mitted step by step to a share in the government. Here we 
 must distinguish between individual political ambition and 
 class legislation. The members of the gentry and of the great 
 families sought to keep their individual places and power, for 
 the same reason that any office holder of the present time holds 
 on to his place with all the assistance he can muster. But 
 they did not work together as a class against the others as 
 a class. Had they done so the inferior orders could never have 
 risen. In France in 1789 the Revolution was fathered by the 
 upper classes. Lafayette and Rochambeau, who came to 
 America to help Washington, were noblemen, and yet strong 
 advocates of free political institutions. The nobility of France 
 in the National Assembly aided the progress of the Revolution 
 as long as it was sane. They voted almost to a man for the 
 abolition of the feudal system and of hereditary privileges. 
 It was only when the Terrorists began to tyrannize by means 
 of riot and slaughter, that the French nobility turned against 
 the Revolution, which had practically become an obscene and 
 
THE BALLOT NOT A CLASS WEAPON 345 
 
 bloody march towards atheistic anarchy. This liberal attitude 
 is not surprising, because the effect of education and refinement 
 is to make men not only more benevolent and sympathetic but 
 also more just. Every man of understanding and experience 
 knows, that he is more likely to get both justice and com- 
 passion from a man of high rank and breeding, well educated 
 and in easy circumstances, than from one of the lower classes. 
 That is why the aristocratic British judges stand so high in 
 the world's opinion, and why some of the wiser among us 
 endeavor, often with poor success, to see to it that the judges 
 of our highest courts are well bred, well educated and paid 
 high salaries. 
 
 Returning to the subject of class legislation, there has never 
 been in the United States any attempt in that direction. 
 Whether considered historically therefore, or in the light of 
 present day experiences, the fear of class legislation in this 
 country in favor of the middle class against the poor, is so 
 unfounded as to be almost absurd. 
 
 The suggestion that the unpropertied should be given the 
 suffrage, so that they may obtain affirmative remedial legis- 
 lation in their behalf, remains to be answered. But it involves 
 a really unthinkable proposition, namely, the making people 
 prosperous who are naturally unfitted for prosperity. As well 
 think of creating musicians or mathematicians by legislative 
 enactment. By no legislation can the thriftless be made thrifty. 
 By caring for them in almshouses, hospitals, and by donative 
 relief, the State has gone to the limit of taxing the efficient to 
 preserve the inefficient. 
 
 The doctrine that the rule of the propertied voters would be 
 oppressive to the poor is not only false, but falsely assumes the 
 existence of a universal tendency fatal to democracy and even 
 to civilization. For, the avowed purpose of our democracy 
 is to promote the material prosperity of the masses ; and there- 
 fore, to encourage the production of property and the increase 
 of wealth ; but if property and wealth have the effect of making 
 the common people tyrants; if the thrifty educated and indus- 
 
346 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 trious masses cannot be trusted to carry on government with- 
 out the practise of tyranny upon the less prosperous, then de- 
 mocracy is a complete failure, and the advance of civilization 
 is hopeless. Fortunately there is no ground for any such con- 
 clusion. All legislation which favors property favors all classes, 
 ranks and occupations. The attitude of democracy towards 
 property should be similar to its attitude towards education, 
 that of complete friendliness, founded on the knowledge that 
 it is a good thing, and that we all want it created as rapidly and 
 distributed as widely as possible. The better it is protected 
 the more there will be of it for everyone. The interest of the 
 nation's workers of all classes is not to oppose property, but 
 to own and control as much of it as they can get. 
 
CHAPTER XXIV 
 
 ANSWER TO THE PLEA THAT THE PRIVILEGE OF SUFFRAGE BE 
 GRANTED TO ALL AS A MEANS OF POLITICAL EDUCATION; 
 AND HEREIN OF SILK PURSES MADE FROM SOWS' EARS AND 
 OF AMATEUR HARPING 
 
 STRANGE as it may seem to any one who has given any seri- 
 ous thought to the subject, the proposition has been, if not 
 urged, at least put forward, by respectable writers, that the suf- 
 frage should be granted to all citizens without distinction, 
 solely for the educational benefit they will receive from it. The 
 voting booths are evidently viewed by these easy-going minds 
 not as they really are, as judgment seats, as the beginnings and 
 sources of actual government, but as schools for all comers in 
 politics and patriotism; as practise grounds; experimental sta- 
 tions; where every clumsy dunce may try his hand, hit or miss. 
 The author has not been able to find any well-worked-out argu- 
 ment in favor of this fantastic proposition, but it has been seri- 
 ously presented by men who evidently thought they were 
 uttering sense. The strongest plea in its favor heretofore pub- 
 lished appears to be the following from Maccunn, which is 
 quoted in full because the notion is such a queer one that it 
 cannot safely be paraphrased. 
 
 "Doubters about democratic franchise are apt to insist that no 
 man should have a vote till he is fit to use it. The necessary re- 
 joinder, however, is that men can only become fit to have votes 
 by first using them. There is no other way. Preparation there may 
 be, in the home, in school, in industrial organization, in the conduct 
 of business. But these will not suffice. Not so easily is the citizen 
 made. It is as Aristotle has it; the harper is not made otherwise 
 than by harping, nor the just man otherwise than by the doing of 
 
 347 
 
348 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 just deeds. How can it be otherwise here, how can the capable 
 voter be made except by voting capably? Citizenship is, after all, 
 but a larger art; and to teach men to do their duties to the State, 
 the only finally effective plan is to give them duties to the State 
 to do. It is for this reason that many a believer in Democracy is 
 ready with an equanimity wrongly construed by his critics as levity 
 or simplicity, to sit unmoved under the warning that a raw Democ- 
 racy may mismanage; or that even an experienced Democracy may 
 not be the best machine for governing." (Ethics of Citizenship, 
 p. 81.) 
 
 And again as stated by Professor Woodburn: 
 
 "It is the old truth that one learns to do by doing. There is no 
 other way. Here is seen the unreason of the contention that no man 
 is entitled to the enjoyment of political rights till he is proved fit to 
 exercise them. It is an impossible requirement. Before he has po- 
 litical rights no man's fitness for them can be proved. There are 
 certain tests, educational and economic, which may be accepted as 
 securities, but there is only one proof of fitness the experimen- 
 tal proof which shows how men use their rights after they have 
 them. . . ." 
 
 "The ethical argument for a wide suffrage as wide as person- 
 ality and manhood is that voting is involved in the right of self- 
 government; that it promotes patriotism and leads to an interest in 
 public affairs; that it tends to remove discontent and promote a 
 feeling of partnership and responsibility; that civil and religious 
 liberty depend upon power, and that the community or body of men 
 who have no political power have no security for their political lib- 
 erty; that the suffrage is an enlightening and educational agency 
 and that only by active citizenship can the political virtues be de- 
 veloped." (Political Parties, p. 342.) 
 
 This, which may be called the "harper theory," is directly 
 contrary to the doctrine herein advocated, that voting is a 
 function of government to be operated solely for the benefit of 
 the state, and by means of machinery as perfect and efficient 
 as art and science can make it; the "harper" theory being 
 that the election power house is a practise school for ama- 
 
FALSITY OF THE " HARPER " THEORY 349 
 
 teurs and blockheads, to be operated in the vague hope that 
 the use of it may somehow improve their natures and under- 
 standings. The mere statement of this proposition ought to 
 make its gross absurdity manifest to everybody. It would 
 justify giving the suffrage to children sixteen years of age. As 
 well propose to let boys snowball the passers by, because it 
 would tend to give them exercise and raise their spirits; or to 
 let the hens scratch in the garden, because they get such bene- 
 fit from it. 
 
 The reasoning of the extracts above given strangely ignores 
 the public interests directly involved, the mischiefs of unwise 
 and corrupt voting and the real purpose and history of public 
 elections in this country. Not a word as to the importance 
 of selecting honest and competent men for office; not a hint 
 at the notorious political scandals heretofore caused by the 
 frequent election of fools and knaves; nothing said about the 
 systematic use of the low voting class as organized political 
 banditti. The notedly unfit must continue to vote knavery 
 and folly into high places, and the honest and capable must be 
 discredited and sent to the rear; peculation and blundering 
 must continue indefinitely, in the hope that a set of ignorant, 
 idle, shiftless, dissipated and worthless men may learn to do 
 well by being trained by politicians to do evil. No doubt the 
 act of voting will make even an incapable man think for a few 
 minutes; possibly he may be tempted to wonder what it all 
 means; his mind may be instructed as that of the small child 
 who experiments with a hammer and a looking glass. We are 
 told that the "harper is not made otherwise than by harping," 
 but his practising is conducted under the control of a master, 
 and not at a public function. A better illustration than Aris- 
 totle's harper would be the Irishman in company, who had 
 never played the violin but was willing he said to do his best 
 if desired. "How can the capable voter be made except by 
 voting capably?" What is complained of is that he is voting 
 not capably but incapably; and is being trained for that pur- 
 pose. The assertion that men cannot be trained for any func- 
 
350 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 tion except by the exercise of it is absurd. The universal 
 practice of mankind is to the contrary. According to the 
 "harper" theory, lawyers, doctors and engineers should be ad- 
 mitted to practise, and army officers granted commissions 
 without preparation; since no man can prove his ability in 
 anything until he has attempted its exercise. While it is 
 perfectly true that no man's fitness for any enterprise, pro- 
 fession or work can be finally ascertained except by actual 
 test, and not always then, yet preparation may be required 
 and preliminary tests made whereby the capacity of classes 
 of men can be judged in advance ; and the fear of the mischiefs 
 that the ignorant or unskilled practitioner may do calls for the 
 requirement of these wise precautions. It is well known that 
 appropriate preparatory instruction and discipline tend to 
 qualify men for certain duties, and the lack of them to dis- 
 qualify them therefor; that a class of men trained for law, 
 engineering, medicine, surgery, or the army will probably be- 
 come competent officers, engineers, lawyers, doctors, etc., 
 while untrained men will be absolutely incompetent. Lay- 
 men are not put on the bench, there to learn the law at the 
 expense of a series of blunders. The same theory which is ap- 
 plied in licensing men for the professions and in selections for 
 the judiciary is that which should be applied in establishing 
 suffrage tests. Those who desire to be allowed to meddle with 
 government should first be required to think; and if ignorant, 
 to learn in some other way than at the expense of the public 
 weal. The training of men as voters should be carried on in 
 the school of life, where their mistakes will injure only them- 
 selves, and that to a small degree, and not the whole com- 
 munity or nation to a great degree. To permit people who 
 have never practised thinking, to begin by experimenting in 
 the making of laws to govern their neighbors, or in the ap- 
 pointment of officials, is preposterous. The late war and a 
 hundred other similar experiences ought surely to have taught 
 the most silly of our doctrinaires, and the most absurd of our 
 demagogues, how dangerous it is for fools to meddle with the 
 
FALSITY OF THE "HARPER 57 THEORY 351 
 
 affairs of government, and how reprehensible it is for sensible 
 people to permit the fools to do so. 
 
 What these writers above quoted must mean if they mean 
 anything practicable, is that those who are already capable 
 voters are stimulated by the actual exercise of the franchise 
 into greater curiosity and knowledge of public affairs. This 
 is undoubtedly true; the young doctor learns by practice, but 
 only after he is qualified to practise. An untrained man would 
 never become a competent physician by killing patients. The 
 argument for the "harper" theory confuses the question; it 
 ignores the difference in capacity between classes of citizens, 
 and thus misses the point. It urges the educational value of 
 the suffrage to all voters without making a proper distinction 
 between the intelligent and propertied men and the unintelli- 
 gent floaters and other controllable voters. But it is not pro- 
 posed to disfranchise the former, and they do not need the 
 suffrage for educational purposes. The question then is en- 
 tirely confined to the venal and otherwise dangerous residuum, 
 whether they shall be invited to take part in government 
 merely in order to stimulate them to think on state questions. 
 The answer cannot be doubtful. We may recognize the fact 
 that the interest in politics of an already capable voter is prob- 
 ably stimulated by his taking part in an election; but the pro- 
 posal that a dishonest or incapable man's vote should be in- 
 vited merely for the purpose of starting his dormant interest 
 in politics, or in the hope of stimulating him to be more of a 
 patriot and less of a rascal is ridiculous. 
 
 There is as already pointed out in a previous chapter a 
 school of preparation and a test for voters in full operation, 
 of whose valuable instruction the state may take the benefit; 
 namely the school of business and the test of business success. 
 In that school all may aspire to earn the certificate of dili- 
 gence, industry and good judgment, which in the shape of a 
 fair amount of material prosperity is given to all successful 
 aspirants. This method will not be infallible any more than 
 the graduate professional examinations; but it will establish 
 
352 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 the principle of fitness; it will purify and elevate politics and 
 will afford a fairer test than any other at present known to 
 the world. 
 
 In the foregoing discussion it has been conceded for the 
 sake of argument, that voting might possibly be a means of 
 moral or mental development to the voter. But the assumption 
 is unwarranted and contrary to the facts. There is no healthy 
 stimulus of any kind to be gained in manhood suffrage poli- 
 tics. The spectacle of popular elections as at present con- 
 ducted, and the display of fraud and humbug which they pre- 
 sent, is demoralizing to the whole nation, and especially to its 
 young men. The moral injury to the voter caused by the 
 operation of universal suffrage, and by the immoral attitude of 
 the nation solemnly asserting the falsity that the vote of the 
 ignorant and disorderly is as valuable as that of the orderly 
 and educated man was recognized by John Stuart Mill in his 
 work on Representative Government, where he says that equal 
 voting is "in principle wrong, because recognizing a wrong 
 "standard, and exercising a bad influence on the voter's mind. 
 "It is not useful, but hurtful, that the constitution of the coun- 
 try should declare ignorance to be entitled to as much po- 
 litical power as knowledge." (P. 188.) That the practical 
 influence of political life as at present conducted tends rather 
 to degrade than to elevate the masses is the universal testi- 
 mony of all having knowledge on the subject. The pursuit of 
 politics as a business is vile, and its continued practice must 
 have a deteriorating effect on those engaged in it. As for the 
 influence of ordinary political activity upon the average voter, 
 it is in no way beneficial ; if anything it is injurious. For gen- 
 erations, worthless men have been in the enjoyment of the suf- 
 frage in the United States. It has never made an intellectual 
 man out of an ignorant one, nor reformed a drunkard, but it 
 has created many drunkards and loafers, and has had the effect 
 of training many to sell their votes and to spend their time in 
 low and disreputable local political intrigues. As for the ma- 
 jority, thoe who confine their political activities to voting for 
 
FALSITY OF THE "HARPER" THEORY 353 
 
 one of two candidates without any strong convictions in his 
 favor, they cannot be said to receive thereby any ethical or in- 
 tellectual exercise or benefit whatever. 
 
 "Mere existence" (says Bagehot) "under a good government 
 "is more instructive than the power of now and then contribut- 
 ing to a bad government." (Parliamentary Reform, p. 340.) 
 The mere act of voting for a man or a measure without proper 
 knowledge is demoralizing to the mind and deadening to the 
 conscience. Nor is there moral stimulus in the exercise of a 
 trifling privilege, which is also enjoyed by the meanest and the 
 least worthy, and the employment whereof is usually at best 
 a mere futility, and frequently a farce. What moral elevation 
 can be gained from voting to put in place either a humbug 
 whom you know, or a non-entity whom you don't know? And 
 yet this is about what the exercise of the franchise usually 
 amounts to in every village, city and town in the United States. 
 
 The "harper" suffrage doctrine in its entirety was in the 
 decade from 1865 to 1875 applied to the Southern states, when 
 the negroes were granted the suffrage in compliance with the 
 hysterical demands of demagogues, fanatics, and sentimen- 
 talists, who made the American people believe that all a man 
 had to do to become a harper was to get a harp and keep harp- 
 ing. The disastrous results were told in a previous chapter of 
 this book. The history of that experiment with its sordid in- 
 cidents, ought to be sufficient to convince the most credulous 
 believer in popular rule, that our Revolutionary ancestors were 
 right in insisting that "a silk purse cannot be made out of a 
 "sow's ear," that there should be no harping except under the 
 supervision of a competent master, and that an untrained 
 musical performer at a concert is certain to spoil the perform- 
 ance, disgrace himself, and benefit nobody. 
 
CHAPTER XXV 
 
 ANSWER TO SUGGESTION THAT UNLIMITED SUFFRAGE 
 IS A PART OF AMERICAN LIBERTY 
 
 "In all these scenes that I have mentioned I learn one thing 
 that I never knew before and that is that the key to Lib- 
 erty is not in the hands of License, but Convention holds 
 it. Comity has a toll-gate at which you must pay, or you 
 may not enter the land of Freedom. In all the glitter, 
 the seeming desire, the parade, the abandon, I see this 
 law, unobtrusive, yet like iron, prevail. Therefore, in 
 Manhattan you must obey those unwritten laws, and then 
 you will be freest of the free. If you decline to be bound 
 by them, you put on shackles! 1 (0. Henry, A Ramble 
 in Aphasia.) 
 
 THERE is no doubt a vague impression abroad, which though 
 entirely erroneous, is somewhat generally entertained, that 
 American manhood or universal suffrage is in some way actually 
 or historically connected with American liberties. Indeed, in 
 some minds the right to vote for something or for someone, is 
 either confused or confounded with liberty itself, or is regarded 
 as the guarantee or guardian of liberty, or its open and visible 
 sign, or a combination of all three. To some, the universal bal- 
 lot is a sort of fetish, which they distrust and despise yet dare 
 not offend. There are even those who will grant all here re- 
 counted of the evils and stupidities of manhood suffrage, and 
 yet will answer that all these, and more, if need be, must we en- 
 dure for the sake of the preservation of liberty; which in some 
 unexplained way depends on the continuation of the voting 
 privilege to those incapable of properly exercising it. This 
 prepossession is not sustainable by the reason or facts of the 
 
 354 
 
UNLIMITED SUFFRAGE NOT A BULWARK OF LIBERTY 355 
 
 case, but just because it is sentimental rather than rational, it 
 is for that very reason more difficult to overthrow by logic. It 
 is easier to meet an argument than to dispel an illusion or to 
 destroy a prejudice. It is especially difficult when the preju- 
 dice is not definite nor formulated, but lies dormant in the 
 mind ; shadowy, vague and traditional, and yet amounting to a 
 real obstacle to the acceptance of the truth. One might do 
 battle with it by arraying sentiment against sentiment; the 
 true against the false; offsetting the sham sentiment for an 
 imaginary liberty by a true impulse of patriotic indignation at 
 the frauds, rascalities, corruptions and waste attached to the 
 wardenship of this pretended guardian of liberty; but this 
 play of sentiment against sentiment can safely be left to work 
 itself out in the breast of the reader. This chapter will there- 
 fore be devoted to an appeal to reason to dispel whatever prej- 
 udice in favor of manhood suffrage as a supposed bulwark of 
 liberty may still linger in the reader's mind. 
 
 First, as to our political liberties. A convincing proof that 
 the suffrages of the unpropertied class are not needed to pre- 
 serve them is found in the fact that they were originally se- 
 cured without those suffrages. We are not indebted to man- 
 hood suffrage for our free institutions, nor for the valuable 
 rights and guarantees secured by the Constitution, nor for 
 the ideas and aspirations from which those institutions 
 sprung. These rights and guarantees were secured, these free 
 institutions were founded by practical and intelligent men of 
 affairs; the propertied leaders of a propertied constituency, 
 and by the use of practical methods, to whose success the 
 populace only contributed their obedience to directions. 
 Neither the Revolution, nor the Constitution recognized the 
 doctrine of a natural right to the franchise. The Revolution 
 in fact did not deal with individual rights at all; it was merely 
 a movement to get rid of British imperial rule, not in order to 
 obtain more liberty, but to secure greater efficiency in gov- 
 ernment. It came to pass because the thirteen colonies had 
 developed to such a point, that their general interests and 
 
356 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 defense required the establishment of a central authority. 
 The British Parliament attempted to function for that purpose 
 by laying taxes etc.; the colonies revolted, and finally created 
 a central governing and taxing power of their own, necessi- 
 tating political independence. The only question settled by 
 the Revolution was that the supreme governing power should 
 be American and not British; it in no way concerned itself 
 with the individual liberties personal or political of the Ameri- 
 can people, nor their relations to the state; it asserted no new 
 principle of government, nor did it enlarge the suffrage. The 
 United States Constitution was framed by delegates, all of 
 whom were men of property, and represented propertied con- 
 stituencies. In short, American Independence was schemed, 
 the Union founded, the Constitution adopted, and all the 
 foundations of the greatness and freedom of this country es- 
 tablished, without the aid of manhood suffrage, without the 
 unpropertied vote, and by men who believed in and practised 
 a property qualification system. It is not even likely that an 
 inferior class of men would have ever done the work, which 
 required skill, experience and ripe wisdom; qualities more 
 often found in the successful than in the unsuccessful, and 
 never to be looked for in the populace. 
 
 Therefore, in our organic scheme of political liberty, man- 
 hood suffrage counts for nothing, and its only activity in rela- 
 tion thereto has been to misuse it. But, says one, how about 
 the citizen's daily enjoyment of freedom and sense of freedom 
 in actual life? The people of the United States like those of 
 other civilized countries, enjoy a life enriched with a thousand 
 material comforts and conveniences, with a sense of assurance 
 of their continued enjoyment; is that or any part of it due to 
 or supported by manhood suffrage? Not at all. None of this 
 can be credited to any extension or enlargement of popular 
 privileges or liberty, either by widening of the franchise or 
 otherwise. The tendency of democracy is not towards an in- 
 crease of personal individual liberty, and the act of voting, 
 no matter how conducted, can in no way tend to confer per- 
 
UNLIMITED SUFFRAGE NOT A BULWARK OF LIBERTY 357 
 
 sonal liberty on the individual; because personal liberty is not 
 existent in any civilized society. The progress of the 
 country has been marked by development in the direction of 
 the application of restraint to human actions; in other words 
 by the very opposite of the enlargement of individual liberty. 
 The nearest approach to a free man in a modern community, 
 is the tramp who saunters along the road; and his existence 
 is maintained, not by operations of liberty but by methods of 
 compulsion. The very road upon which he walks is there 
 because other men were compelled by government to build and 
 maintain it. And so, the happiness of each of us is assured to 
 him not by liberty granted, but by liberty withheld as well 
 from him as from his neighbors. A familiar instance of this 
 is in the creation and use of a public park in a great city; 
 an artificially created privilege, which is not conceivable with- 
 out the strictest regulation, restraint, and denial of individual 
 liberty of action. Personal liberty as understood by the 
 masses, that is the privilege of doing as one pleases, does not 
 exist in any civilized community, and could not be introduced 
 to any appreciable extent without steps toward anarchy. This 
 is not a land of liberty, but a land of civilization, which is the 
 antithesis of liberty. As has been well said by Moorfield 
 Storey, "Civilization is the process of restraining the will of the 
 individual by law." 
 
 Every American citizen is born and lives under the whole- 
 some but constant and severe restraint of a high civilization. 
 Such a thing as personal liberty is unknown to him from the 
 beginning; his infant limbs are clad, his baby food prescribed, 
 his habits regulated, according to rules established long before 
 he was born. As he matures, his boyish dress, his books, his 
 studies, his language and his play are nearly all arbitrary and 
 conventional. He must eat certain food at certain times; his 
 hours for sleep and waking are fixed by others. This system 
 continues through school and college, and when he enters the 
 business world he finds an absolute regime of dress, food, 
 hours, employment, language, games, habits and life generally 
 
POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 from which there is no escape. Even his beliefs, historical, 
 religious, and scientific, are all laid out for him. When he 
 goes on a short vacation even for a tramp in the mountains, 
 his movements are all restrained, not only by the rigors of na- 
 ture and the daily needs of existence, but by the rules of so- 
 ciety. In fact all his relations to other men, involve social 
 rules of behaviour which must be obeyed, and all these rules, 
 laws, fashions, customs, beliefs and obligations were fixed 
 without consulting him, and in most cases before he and his 
 parents were born. 
 
 This subjection to Society is a condition of our life. The 
 president is just as much bound by it as the poorest day la- 
 borer; it is the result of the growth of population, of public 
 order, of civilization. The business man arising in the morning 
 and going out to his work, is reassured by seeing the police- 
 man at the corner; with a despotic gesture the officer stops 
 the traffic and the man crosses the street in safety. Though 
 he may have enemies, he knows they will not be permitted to 
 insult him in the street, nor to libel him in the morning papers, 
 nor in the private correspondence just then being delivered by 
 the government postal carrier, because happily free speech is 
 not permitted in civilized countries. He enters the government 
 inspected street car, elevated or subway, protected by strict 
 authority from the presence of people with contagious diseases. 
 He encounters the same regulative tendency in his private 
 business life. In the elevator, in his office, in the commerce ex- 
 change, in his transactions with banks and merchants, in the 
 restaurants, everywhere and all day long, he is under severe 
 restrictions, without which, as applied to others, he could not 
 transact his business or even live in safety. The lease to his 
 office which fifty years ago contained but a few simple stipu- 
 lations, now includes a hundred strict requirements formerly 
 unheard of, all giving great power to the landlord but really 
 operating for the protection of the tenant. A similar govern- 
 ment is seen in social life; a man's manners and the tones of 
 his voice, his attitude, gestures and general behaviour are reg- 
 ulated by despotic custom. All this restraint and discipline, 
 
UNLIMITED SUFFRAGE NOT A BULWARK OF LIBERTY 359 
 
 though it may seem to curtail liberty, yet in an indirect but 
 perfectly perceptible way it actually enlarges its scope, by 
 giving access to new fields of enjoyment, made available as 
 such by restrictions on their abuse. So that all our satisfac- 
 tions, all our joys and pleasures, our prosperity, our bodily 
 health, our very lives are derived from and depend not upon 
 liberty but upon protection, and that moral and physical re- 
 straint which is incident to protection. 
 
 This dependence of man upon law, order and restraint for 
 every good in life, is not a new thing, nor a creation of modern 
 times; it is inherent in the nature of human society; and was 
 as true of the primitive man as of ourselves. This is not 
 always understood. Some visionary writers have pronounced 
 a state of liberty to be the ideal state, and have imagined 
 liberty as a precious boon originally bestowed upon man, and 
 enjoyed in past ages in a higher degree than at present; they 
 regard restrictions as evils, incident to civilization, perhaps, 
 but still evils. They consider liberty to be something positive 
 and beneficial in its character, like a birthright which man 
 has from time to time bargained away like Esau for the pot- 
 tage of social advantages. This is an utterly false and mis- 
 chievous conception which has heretofore helped to create 
 trouble, and being interpreted by half-educated leaders to a 
 foolish populace may do so again. Looking back as far as we 
 choose down the vista of the past, we find that then just as 
 to-day law and order made life worth living, and liberty or 
 the absence of restraint meant misery and death. To find 
 a condition of perfect liberty we must go back to a solitary 
 savage; for complete human liberty and solitary savagery are 
 practically identical. From that point on every addition to 
 human society or civilization, whether in the shape of persons 
 or property, carries with it as a necessary incident its own 
 demand for protection and restraint. Assume if you please 
 the existence of the solitary primitive man, imagined by these 
 dreamers as having perfect liberty, yet that supposed liberty 
 did not include any positive or definite rights whatever. It 
 
360 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 did not for example include the right to interfere with others, 
 because the others did not then exist. When society came in 
 contact with him, he did not surrender to her any previous 
 rights in relation to others because such rights could not be 
 created till those others actually arrived. Nor could he have 
 possessed liberty in the sense of exemption from social rules, be- 
 cause as there was no society, there were no such rules. Society 
 therefore and government came as a clear gain to humanity; 
 they were additions to the imaginary abstract or natural man 
 and to his life; and the restrictions referred to are but part of 
 the gift; they are incidental to it, and constitute its essential 
 condition, and in no way change its character as a clear benefit 
 and gift to man. Thus, if one gives me a horse, it in no way 
 detracts from the character of the gift that I must feed and 
 shelter the animal. If I give a boy a drum, it is none the less 
 a clear gift because he is forbidden to drive a hole in its head. 
 His liberty is not thereby restricted, because before he had 
 the gift he was also unable to punch the hole. The imaginary 
 original solitary man, upon the arrival of a neighbor, gains in 
 companionship, protection, help, division of labor, etc. He 
 loses nothing in being forbidden to kill, to maim or to rob the 
 newcomer. First, because the privilege of wanton destruction 
 does not exist as a human right, nor is it a part of natural 
 human liberty, but is in its nature and effect a curtailment 
 thereof. Second, because, in his former solitary state, there was 
 no one in existence whom he might kill, maim or rob. Coming 
 up then to tribal existence, and observing the very earliest 
 and lowest exhibitions of social life, we find no trace of the 
 mythical liberty the theorists have imagined, but rather the 
 practice of restraint applied by law or custom as far as requi- 
 site to protect the individual. One savage is not permitted to 
 assault another, without paying the penalty according to the 
 custom of the tribe, or suffering the vengeance of the assaulted 
 party or his friends. He does not possess the liberty to destroy 
 or appropriate any ornament, weapon or other property that 
 any one of his fellow savages possesses. To the first beginnings 
 
UNLIMITED SUFFRAGE NOT A BULWARK OF LIBERTY 361 
 
 of property, is attached as a part thereof, the incident of pro- 
 tective restraint upon its non-owners. When, whether in bar- 
 barous or highly civilized communities, the citizen is forbidden 
 to plunder or injure property, he is not thereby deprived of 
 any part of a man's inherent liberty; the restraint is merely 
 a qualification or condition of the property in question which 
 does not affect third parties or detract from their previous 
 rights. When modern society forbids trespassing on, or plun- 
 dering cultivated fields or orchards, it does not deprive any 
 one of anything that his ancestors theretofore had, because in 
 their primitive state there was no right of trespass on or 
 plunder of that property; there were no cultivated fields or 
 orchards to rob or on which to trespass. 
 
 In short, there is no such condition either natural or ac- 
 quired as that of human liberty, nor does liberty of any sort 
 exist in this world or even in the whole universe. The very 
 word "liberty" is without concrete signification, it is a mere 
 negation like "anarchy" and "nothingness," and represents an 
 idea which is incompatible with government of any sort. This 
 truth is fully realized by the best students of civics, and is 
 just as true of American or republican government as of that of 
 any other country or system. "All government," says Sir 
 William Temple, "is a restraint on liberty, and when men seem 
 "to contend for liberty, it is indeed but to have a change of 
 "those who rule." The consent of the governed can be given 
 only to the mere form of government, said Webster, in a 
 speech at the Charleston Bar Dinner, 1847, and further: 
 "Liberty is the creation of law, essentially different from that 
 "authorized licentiousness that trespasses on right. It is a 
 "legal and refined idea, the offspring of high civilization, which 
 "the savage never understood and never can understand. Lib- 
 "erty exists in proportion to wholesome restraint; the more 
 "restraint on others to keep off from us, the more liberty we 
 "have. It is an error to suppose that liberty consists in a 
 "paucity of laws that man is free who is protected from 
 "injury." 
 
362 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 In thus showing that what is commonly called "liberty" 
 really consists in restraint, Webster in effect smashed the silly 
 "liberty" legend. And Ruskin voices the same idea (Pol. 
 Economy, Works, Vol. 17, p. 432): "Americans, as a nation, 
 "set their trust in Liberty and in Equality, of which I detest 
 "the one, and deny the possibility of the other." And again, 
 (Vol. 8, p. 248) : 
 
 "How false is the conception, how frantic the pursuit of that 
 treacherous phantom which men call Liberty; most treacherous, 
 indeed, of all phantoms ; for the feeblest ray of reason might surely 
 show us that not only its attainment, but its being, was impossible. 
 There is no such thing in the Universe. There can never be. The 
 stars have it not; the earth has it not; the sea has it not; and we 
 men for the mockery and semblance of it have used heaviest pun- 
 ishment. ... If there be any one principle more widely than another 
 confessed by every utterance, or more sternly than another imprinted 
 on every atom of the visible creation, that principle is not liberty, 
 but law." 
 
 "The only liberty," says Burke, "that is valuable is a liberty 
 "connected with order, that not only exists along with order 
 "and virtue, but which cannot exist at all without them; it in- 
 heres in all good and steady government, is in its substance 
 "and vital principle." The blessings commonly called by the 
 name of liberty are therefore seen to be the result of just and 
 efficient government, and the evidence is overwhelming that 
 of such government in this country manhood suffrage has been 
 a constant enemy. 
 
 Sometimes a foolish suggestion may be seen in print that 
 manhood suffrage is needed to safeguard religious liberty in 
 the United States. Religious liberty and political liberty are 
 practically identical. The noted religious struggles and per- 
 secutions in Europe were really political affairs; and the 
 framers of our Constitution included therein guarantees for 
 religious freedom as a matter of course. No further safe- 
 guard is needed. The English race has everywhere adopted 
 religious liberty as a definite policy ever since 1688, and the 
 
UNLIMITED SUFFRAGE NOT A BULWARK OF LIBERTY 363 
 
 right to religious liberty is no longer questioned by anyone, 
 either in this or in any English-speaking country. There are 
 say two hundred different religious sects in the United States, 
 some of which have but very few followers, and are destitute 
 of means or influence to defend themselves against small or 
 great persecutions; yet no one ever hears of their being mo- 
 lested or even seriously criticised for their religious views, and 
 their security and protection are amply guaranteed by the 
 fundamental law and settled opinions of the American people. 
 There is no more need of shaping our suffrage laws so as to 
 guard against religious persecution, than there is of private 
 gentlemen wearing swords, or of our building our dwellings in 
 the shape of castles for defense, as our ancestors did in the 
 England of the Plantagenets. But were it otherwise, and were 
 any tendency to religious intolerance apparent in this country, 
 it is almost certain that it would crop out among the unedu- 
 cated and the thriftless rabble, and not among the well-to-do, 
 the educated or the middle class. History and experience teach 
 that it is among the lowest class that the strongest prejudices 
 exist, and that it is that class who are the most violent, tyran- 
 nical and intolerant in their expression. The great religious 
 persecutions authorized by governments in past times were 
 incited by the clamor of the populace. The upper and more 
 learned classes were always less superstitious, more skeptical, 
 tolerant and merciful. It was the Jewish mob who demanded 
 the death of Christ when the enlightened Roman Governor 
 would have set him free; it was the Roman rabble who roared 
 for the blood of the early Christians; and nearly all subse- 
 quent religious persecutions in civilized nations, have either 
 been in accordance with popular opinion, or have been used 
 as weapons in the strife between two factions of the people 
 at large. It was the lower classes of French who slaughtered 
 the Catholics in the time of the French Revolution. In our 
 own time, the brutal and lawless attacks on religious minorities 
 in this and other countries, the pogroms of the Jews in Russia 
 and Poland, and the massacres of Christians in the Turkish 
 
364 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 dominions were popular performances. So therefore, judging 
 by the past, if religious liberty should ever be threatened in 
 this country, the menace would not come from the educated 
 or middle classes, nor from such thrifty and peaceable workers 
 as may have accumulated a few hundred or a few thousand 
 dollars of property, but from a lawless mob of the unthinking 
 class who degrade our elections. 
 
 The reader may now fairly ask, what then was the struggle 
 for liberty of which we have all heard so much as continuing 
 for centuries in Europe and America? It had two aspects, in 
 both of which the sympathy of the element added to the 
 voting list by manhood suffrage has been consciously or 
 unconsciously on the side of tyranny. One aspect was that of 
 the resistance of religious minorities to majority oppres- 
 sion; the other, the resistance of business men to 
 governmental oppression, by way of excessive taxes, im- 
 posts and restrictions. The non-propertied classes would 
 probably in the one case have swelled the tyran- 
 nical majority, and in the other would have favored as they 
 still do interference with business by the state. In the middle 
 ages the resistance of business men to governmental and baro- 
 nial exactions was almost continuous, and was displayed by agi- 
 tations and revolts frequently described as struggles for lib- 
 erty. Always the real object was the same; the privilege 
 claimed by business men, of conducting honest and peaceful 
 industries, businesses and exchanges without interference and 
 secured from confiscation. There has also been in the past a 
 steady clearing away by merchants, traders, craftsmen and 
 their friends and partisans, of obstacles placed by govern- 
 mental stupidity, error and prejudice in the way of peaceful 
 labor, business and general betterment. In short it has been 
 a struggle to put business men and business methods in con- 
 trol. These contests continue everywhere; they are still going 
 on in the United States; but the non-propertied classes have 
 never joined in them on the side of liberty; they have been and 
 are prejudicially arrayed against business methods and busi- 
 
UNLIMITED SUFFRAGE NOT A BULWARK OF LIBERTY 365 
 
 ness men. The business world has always had to win its way 
 and hold its ground despite them. 
 
 The other aspect of the so called struggle for liberty in the 
 days gone by, was that already referred to, of the resistance 
 of religious minorities to persecution. This persecution, 
 though governmental in form, was in reality a majority oppres- 
 sion, in which the government merely represented the prevailing 
 opinion. Such were the persecutions of the British Protestant 
 dissenters, the American Quakers and Baptists, and the 
 French Huguenots. Had manhood suffrage then prevailed, 
 the majority demanding the persecutions would probably have 
 been greater and more truculent. We may be sure that the 
 populace would have uttered no word for toleration. 
 
 Since manhood suffrage has been established the people have 
 created six amendments to the United States Constitution, of 
 which five were unwise, unjust or arbitrary and one merely 
 formal. The record is not flattering to popular wisdom or 
 justice. Here they are: 
 
 Article XIII. Abolished slavery. This was unjust and ar- 
 bitrary. The slave owners had bought and paid for their 
 slaves under legal and judicial sanction. To emancipate them 
 without compensation to the owners was an unauthorized con- 
 fiscation. England paid for her slaves in the West Indies when 
 she set them free. But then, the British voters were property 
 owners and believers in property rights. 
 
 Articles XIV and XV. These were intended to give the 
 vote to the newly enfranchised Southern negroes. After pro- 
 ducing much turmoil, political rascality and misgovernment in 
 the South, the enforcement of these measures was abandoned 
 and they are now dead letter provisions. 
 
 Article XVI. This was not a new measure; it provides for 
 an income tax which it was formerly supposed could be levied, 
 and was levied, till it was found by judicial inquiry that 
 the Constitution had failed to authorize it. Its ratification was 
 little more than a formality. 
 
 Article XVII. This provides for the election of senators in 
 
366 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 Congress by the people instead of by the legislatures. The 
 result has been a strengthening of the bosses and a lowering of 
 quality of members of the Senate. 
 
 Article XV III. Prohibits the manufacture and sale of alco- 
 holic liquors. A manifestly arbitrary and oppressive majority 
 measure. 
 
 The operation of manhood suffrage in our great cities has 
 clearly been tyrannical, because of the absence of proper re- 
 straint upon evil doers. Can any one truly say that the people 
 of these cities have been benefited in the slightest degree, by 
 the so-called privilege of voting for their magistrates or rulers? 
 Assuming that their political bosses would let them vote as 
 they wished, or that the bosses are popular agents, and that the 
 people do or can govern in their cities, where is the public 
 benefit? It seems to be generally conceded that on the whole 
 the city of Washington is the best managed city in the Union, 
 and it is governed by a Congress in whose choice the people of 
 Washington have no share. Does any one find his comfort 
 or his freedom curtailed or his life in danger in Washington? 
 The fact is that the exercise of suffrage is a function, whose ob- 
 ject is not to preserve liberty, but the opposite, namely, to 
 establish proper control, and when that can be effectively done 
 without popular elections everybody is better off. 
 
 The conclusion of the whole review of the relation between 
 manhood suffrage and the liberty of the citizen is that happi- 
 ness and all good results in the personal relations of men are 
 to be found not in liberty, but in just law, order and restraint, 
 which no one believes are better subserved by admission of 
 the weak and ignorant to the suffrage; and that as sound 
 political institutions and religious toleration were achieved 
 without manhood suffrage in the past they would probably be 
 safer without it in the future. 
 
 This leads one naturally to the subject of the operation of 
 manhood suffrage in connection with government by majorities 
 in the present day, which will be treated in the next chapter. 
 
CHAPTER XXVI 
 
 AN UNQUALIFIED NUMERICAL MAJORITY RULE IS NOT 
 IN ACCORD WITH GOOD STATESMANSHIP 
 
 For wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to 
 destruction, and many there be which go in thereat; be- 
 cause strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which 
 leadeth unto life; and jeiv there be that find it. Mat- 
 thew, vii: 13, 14. 
 
 A SPECIOUS argument in favor of manhood suffrage is some- 
 times condensed into the expression "Let the majority rule"; 
 a popular catchword, misleading like most catchwords, and far 
 from expressing a sound principle in politics. That our na- 
 tional polity does to a large extent recognize the legitimacy of 
 a numerical majority power is true enough; but it neither 
 does, nor ought it, declare the numerical majority opinion to be 
 the only, nor even the final abiter. No thoroughly enlightened 
 scheme of government of a great nation can do so, for pure ma- 
 jority government is merely the rule of brute force. Wisdom 
 and ability are usually in the minority in this world; and a 
 better saying would seem to be "let the minority rule"; in 
 other words, let patriotic intelligence, justice and efficiency 
 bear sway, and let them as far as possible lead the majority 
 into a better way. In the practical affairs of every day life, 
 people do not seek to learn of the majority, but of the few. 
 In the administration of justice the better opinion is that ma- 
 jority verdicts of juries should not be received; such verdicts 
 are apt to be hasty and careless, and to lack that element of 
 care and deliberation which the requirement of unanimity tends 
 to produce. In a casual group of fifty men, the opinion of 
 twenty-five, properly selected, or a majority of them, is worth 
 
 367 
 
368 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 far more than the opinion of a chance majority of the total 
 fifty. In nothing except politics is an appeal to the majority 
 ever made; everyone turns to a small minority of men, or even 
 to one single man, for guidance in every important conjuncture 
 of life. When a serious disease attacks a man, he does not 
 take a vote of the public or of his family, friends and neigh- 
 bors as to the course of treatment to be adopted to save his 
 life; he turns to one learned and trustworthy man, and puts 
 himself in his hands. So in the navigation of a ship, whether 
 in tempest or fair weather; the trained and experienced mind 
 of the captain controls at every moment of the voyage; it is 
 the same in the conduct of a law suit; of a business enter- 
 prise; of the construction of dwellings, bridges, railroads and 
 tunnels; in military campaigns; in all the serious undertakings 
 of life, guidance is never sought in the voices of the many, but 
 in the opinion of a select few or of a still more selected one. 
 It is a fatal error in the manhood suffrage theory that it 
 assumes that numbers rule, and are capable of giving the final 
 sanction. Such is not the fact. Despite all that demagogues 
 may do or say, no amount of vociferation, resolutioning, ap- 
 plauding, cheering, registering, and voting will serve to prevent 
 or delay the operation of natural law. Mind and reason must 
 govern in politics as elsewhere. The power that is best capable 
 of establishing and sustaining governments and governmental 
 systems is a combination of forces; including principally 
 energy, intelligence and numbers, producing a sum total of 
 effectiveness. When allowed free play to its powers, as in 
 India for instance, an energetic and intelligent minority will 
 often control an inert and ignorant majority. The basic cause 
 for the recognition of the majority principle in government, is 
 not a belief in majority opinion, but an assumption that the 
 majority actually possesses sufficient physical force to master 
 the minority, and that therefore in the last appeal the majority 
 must rule. But true statesmanship distrusts majority opinion 
 in everything; seeks to escape its interference, and to educate 
 and guide it in the right direction. It yields to it at last with 
 
FALLACY OF RULE OF MAJORITY THEORY 369 
 
 reluctance, and only as we all yield to any of the overpowering 
 forces of Nature; to darkness, to the deadly frost of the poles, 
 to torrid heat, to the desert; to each of which we give way 
 only to the extent to which we are unable to circumvent them, 
 and to prevent their interference with our enterprises. And so, 
 astute politicians are often active in seeking expedients, to com- 
 pel the often blind will of majorities to conform to reason and 
 the inevitable. It is the ambition of real statesmen to drive 
 the state coach; while the mere politician is content to climb 
 up behind, or to run up and down at the heels of the populace, 
 like a servile flunkey after a demented master, whose follies 
 he dares not correct, and out of whose worst extravagances he 
 is ready to profit. Political leaders realize that a majority 
 vote does not always, perhaps not often, represent the weight 
 of the effective public opinion of the state; that such a vote 
 frequently not only lacks understanding, but also lacks any 
 guarantee of future support for the politician who shall rely 
 upon it. And so it is the part of statesmanship to mitigate 
 or prevent pure majority rule; to manage public opinion; to 
 muzzle, assuage or pacify it; to create and guide majorities; to 
 soothe and placate them for the time being; and sometimes to 
 divert their attention, till they melt away and disappear and 
 reason resumes her sway. 
 
 The necessity of effectively curbing, moderating and checking 
 majority action, was well understood by the framers of the 
 Constitution, who erected various anti-majority or one might 
 say anti-snap-judgment barriers. First, there was the existing 
 property qualification for voters; Second, the fundamental 
 guarantees for personal property rights, contained in the Con- 
 stitution and intended to protect minorities against hasty ma- 
 jority legislation; Third, the immutable constitutional pro- 
 Vision for the equal representation of the states in the Senate. 
 This last is a clear flouting of the majority theory, since it gives 
 a small state the same representation as a large one, and con- 
 ceivably enables a minority to defeat a majority. Fourth, the 
 creation of an electoral college to select the president; thus 
 
370 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 intending to deprive the people of all direct voice in his elec- 
 tion; Fifth, the veto placed in the hands of a president not 
 elected by popular vote; Sixth, the election of federal senators 
 by the state legislatures instead of by the people; Seventh, 
 the creation of a supreme court with power to nullify uncon- 
 stitutional legislation; Eighth, the system of appointment in- 
 stead of election of all federal officials. 
 
 Calhoun discussed the subject of majority vote in a very 
 interesting way in his Disquisition on Government. He 
 there distinguishes between the sense of the majority of the 
 community and the sense of the entire community; he recog- 
 nizes the tendency to misgovernment by a numerical majority, 
 and the necessity of checking that tendency by some means, 
 and he proposes the creation of a countervailing "Organism" by 
 which would be called into operation the sense of the com- 
 munity as a whole. This would merely amount to the adoption 
 of an additional constitutional check on majority rule ; and such 
 checks are of course useful; but they are insufficient; they are 
 directed against the operation of the mischief, but not against 
 its root and origin. The political machine should be so con- 
 structed that the constitutional checks on its operation would 
 only be needed on rare occasions, like the stops in an elevator, 
 which come into play only in cases of accident when the ma- 
 chine gets beyond ordinary control. A vital error in the scheme 
 of majority rule is pointed out by John Stuart Mill in his 
 "System of Logic"; it lies in the vicious extreme to which it 
 has been carried. All excess is mischievous. All systems of 
 government are bound to be defective in results, and therefore 
 none should be radically enforced. The so called French ex- 
 treme logical application of general -rules tends to aggravate 
 imperfections. "In these, and many other cases, we set in 
 "motion a principle from which, while it is under control we 
 "derive signal advantage, but which, if it breaks loose and 
 "follows its own tendencies unchecked, is highly dangerous: of 
 "which we may say, as of fire, that it is a good servant but a 
 "bad master." (Lewis on Authority, p. 239.) In other words 
 
FALLACY OF RULE OF MAJORITY THEORY 371 
 
 the doctrine of majority rule represents only one principle ap- 
 plicable to government: it contains only a part of the truth; 
 and should not in practise be applied to excess, or as if it were 
 the only principle involved; but its original operation should 
 be combined at the very outset with that of other steadying 
 forces such as intelligence, experience and morality. "The 
 "mere counting of votes (says one writer) is insufficient when 
 "parts of the nation are electing representatives for the whole. 
 "The parts must be arranged according to quality so as to 
 "guarantee the election of the best men, and to give due pro- 
 "portion to the intellectual, moral and material elements of the 
 "nation." (Bluntschli; Theory of the State.) 
 
 The foregoing may serve to clear up the difficulty in the 
 minds of many people, who have thought of the construction 
 of a governmental machine as of a problem in mathematics, 
 where only numbers are to be considered. As Mills the logician 
 points out, the doctrine of pure numerical majority rule is not 
 logical, and other considerations besides mere numbers must be 
 given value in weighing the national verdict in political ques- 
 tions. In determining what those other considerations should 
 be, it is obvious that property rights, and the qualities which 
 create and preserve property, are of first availability and impor- 
 tance, and that the neglect and oversight of these rights and 
 qualities constitute the most glaring defects of popular govern- 
 ment. The property qualification is obviously that most readily 
 applied to the electorate and its institution is a return to the 
 natural and original practice of the American people. 
 
 The use of the property qualification as a corrective of the 
 excesses attendant upon pure majority government is also 
 recommendable on the ground of efficiency and practicability. 
 It will effect a needed check on hasty, emotional, prejudiced 
 and unsocial measures more easily and with less jar and rack- 
 ing than any of the other expedients in practise or suggested for 
 that purpose. The marginal vote between right and wrong, 
 between wisdom and folly, is often very small; some- 
 times five or ten per cent. It is safe to assume 
 
372 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 that a propertied electorate would give enlightened verdicts 
 in many cases, where the present inferior voting body 
 renders barbarous ones; and such decisions would carry with 
 them all the prestige of a popular vote. The constitutional 
 expedients now in force to check majority action, or any which 
 may be invented, should not be subjected to every day use, 
 for they have serious drawbacks. They are not preventive; 
 they are not final; at best they effect no more than delay, 
 and they irritate the masses by opposing a technical and in- 
 ferior power to theirs; a mere obstruction as it were, and that 
 interposed by those whom they assume to call their servants. 
 There can be no doubt that the logical and safe thing is to 
 avoid and prevent mistakes of the electorate, rather than to 
 allow them to be made, and afterward to attempt by extraneous 
 means to offset them or to thwart their operation; and this 
 especially when these means are such as to the masses may 
 seem obstructive and oppressive. As the real difficulty in the 
 case lies in this vicious constitution of the electorate, why not 
 meet it there? The object is to prevent foolish, oppressive and 
 fluctuating majority decisions. To effectuate this, the 
 property qualification scheme, while accepting the fact 
 that voting power rule is one necessary factor in re- 
 publican government, creates at the outset a majority 
 body of voters from which it has eliminated the politi- 
 cally worthless element. It thus furnishes an electorate con- 
 taining, and capable of producing out of itself, a numerical 
 majority which will also carry a preponderance in property, 
 intelligence, public spirit and in political weight, prestige and 
 power. Such a majority will never attempt to rule in defiance 
 of justice and good policy; and the assurance furnished by 
 its very existence will promote business confidence and gen- 
 eral prosperity. 
 
CHAPTER XXVII 
 
 OF EDUCATIONAL AND AGE SUFFRAGE QUALIFICATIONS 
 FOR VOTERS 
 
 AN educational qualification for voters would be incom- 
 patible with the theory of this volume, which viewing govern- 
 ment as preeminently a business institution, prescribes as a 
 preparation for the voter a practical business training, and 
 demands the application to the proposed elector of the test 
 of practical success in business life and of interest in business 
 affairs. But were an educational qualification otherwise de- 
 sirable, it would have to be rejected as totally impracticable. 
 It might be possible under certain circumstances to exact a 
 requirement that every voter should be able to read simple 
 English sentences. But even that would be difficult to en- 
 force; and if enforced would accomplish no more than merely 
 to exclude the grossly illiterate; it would not provide a real 
 educational qualification. Even to go so far as to require 
 an examination on a few simple subjects would result in a 
 merely nominal test; in practice absolutely ineffective, while 
 to make it substantial would be practically impossible; no 
 machinery exists or could be created for the purpose. The 
 present class of election inspectors have neither the requisite 
 courage nor sufficient knowledge to apply such requirements; 
 they cannot themselves be expected to do much more than read 
 and write, and do a plain sum in arithmetic; the very thought 
 of such officials applying a real educational test to their 
 neighbors, or to anyone else, is ludicrous. A board of college 
 professors or men with similar attainments would have to be 
 constituted in each district; the expense would be enormous; 
 the examiners would be worked and worried to the verge of 
 
 373 
 
374 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 insanity; they would have to sit constantly all the year round; 
 with the probable result after all of riots at each election and 
 ten years' litigation afterwards. No two men in the country 
 would agree upon the subjects or rules for the examinations; 
 whether English grammar should be required, or geography, 
 or botany, or mensuration, or astronomy, or geology, or 
 whether any of these should be admissible. Shall he who 
 fails to spell "procedure" or "acquiesce" correctly be passed 
 because he remembers the name of Hamlet's mother; or shall 
 the man who says "droring" or he who does not know the 
 name of the governor of the state, be excluded, or shall both 
 be admitted? Indeed, any thorough examination would result 
 in the disfranchisement of nearly all middle-aged men except 
 teachers and clergymen. In short, the idea of applying any 
 book examination whatever as a test for political capacity is 
 false and impracticable, because there is no real relation be- 
 tween capacity to remember the contents of school books, and 
 that common sense and good judgment which is the founda- 
 tion of all good government. But there is a practicable test 
 of both these qualities, though book examinations will not 
 afford it; it is that applied in daily life and in business, and 
 is expressed in terms of property. The possession or lack of 
 that good judgment and of that common sense is openly 
 certified every day by the success or failure of business men. 
 Their case is like that of students who during the whole term 
 have been competing for prizes. Their records and certificates 
 issued by the school of life are open to inspection; the ablest 
 pupils have been marked, stamped as it were for public recog- 
 nition. No examination or trial of any sort would furnish 
 tests as valuable and accurate as those applied to every man 
 day by day in the struggle of life. 
 
 There is no fear that any well-educated but unpropertied 
 man will suffer injustice through being excluded from the 
 polls. As it is to-day, all educated men who are not in active 
 politics find the right to vote to be a hollow privilege to per- 
 form an empty ceremony; they learn that its value is nullified 
 
EDUCATIONAL AND AGE SUFFRAGE QUALIFICATIONS 375 
 
 by the worthless men and frivolous women of the neighbor- 
 hood, and by the sordid political organizations created by 
 universal suffrage. No patriotic man desires the vote merely 
 for his own gratification, or except for the general good; and 
 how can it be for the public gain to let down the bars in his 
 case, if a score of incapables thereby get through the fence 
 and offset and defeat his vote twenty times over? It is prob- 
 able that fifty undesirables will be excluded from the polls by 
 a property qualification for every man of worth kept away 
 because of his poverty; and the latter will be consoled and 
 recompensed by seeing his class at last obtain an influence and 
 a hearing. And, after all, the value to the state of the political 
 judgment and opinion of such few electors as are able to pass 
 an educational examination, and yet are not possessed of the 
 equivalent of a reasonable property qualification, cannot be 
 very great; probably all put together it is less than nothing. 
 A man with all the advantage of a good education who is un- 
 able in this country to save enough money to put him on the 
 roll of the thrifty, is presumably incompetent to advise the 
 commonwealth; and it is perhaps one of the advantages of 
 a property qualification that it saves the state from the ill 
 counsel of his class. 
 
 The complete failure of mere school and college education 
 to fit man for civic duties is recognized by the heads of our 
 educational system, as well as by business men. In an ad- 
 dress delivered at New Haven September 28, 1919, President 
 Hadley of Yale University laid proper emphasis on this point, 
 and on the risks attending undisciplined democracy. He said 
 in substance that there is danger that our free institutions may 
 break down for want of capacity in the voters, and admitted 
 that the schools and colleges had proved incapable of creating 
 a competent electorate. The' "vision" which Hadley found 
 lacking in the voters of today as contrasted with the Fathers, 
 is the insight into life which a man may get in caring for 
 property or in successfully fending for himself and family. 
 
 Besides the men of books without practical vision or judg- 
 
376 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 ment there is another type whose hands should be kept off the 
 wheels of government; namely, those who have sufficient edu- 
 cation and fluency of speech to give them sway over the foolish 
 and dissatisfied masses, but who are themselves weak in prin- 
 ciple and devoid of knowledge of political economy. As long 
 as such a one enjoys a fortune he is comparatively safe; 
 but let him be penniless and he is apt to become a dangerous 
 agitator. The state is safest without such men in any part 
 of its organization. A purely educational qualification system 
 would give high place to the featherhead revolutionary agi- 
 tators of Russia and France, Nihilists, Anarchists, Bolsheviki, 
 Terrorists, political scoundrels and madmen. It must be 
 steadily borne in mind that our civilization is founded on 
 private property, and that the rights of private property can- 
 not be safely disregarded by the makers of the modern demo- 
 cratic state but must be always held paramount if our 
 fundamental institutions are to endure. 
 
 The qualification age of voters should be advanced from 
 twenty one to twenty five years. The age of twenty one has 
 by common consent of most civilized people been selected as 
 that at which the tutelage of a youth shall cease, and he shall 
 become a free man with the right to regulate his own life and 
 dispose of his own property. In point of fact this theory 
 substantially accords with the truth in the majority of cases; 
 the average boy ends his schooling at about seventeen years 
 of age, and after four years spent at college or in learning 
 the rudiments of some business, trade or calling his period 
 of training for manhood is usually ended. And so, on the 
 theory that suffrage is a natural right of a man it might well 
 be said that the vote should be given on attaining manhood; 
 but starting with the correct theory that suffrage is a function 
 of government, for which the school of life is a preparation, 
 it is clear that a proper additional period must be granted for 
 that preparation. Ordinarily, the four years from the age of 
 twenty-one to that of twenty-five, represent the period of the 
 youth's first experience in making his own living, in managing 
 
EDUCATIONAL AND AGE SUFFRAGE QUALIFICATIONS 377 
 
 his own property, in planning and selecting his own career and 
 associates, in making and executing his own decisions, and 
 generally in the actual exercise of free and uncontrolled man- 
 hood. There can be no doubt that these four years thus spent 
 have a great effect on a young man's character; and that or- 
 dinarily he who was but a youth at twenty-one is found at 
 twenty-five to be a man, with a stock of manly ideas and 
 experience all acquired in the last four years. Four years 
 apprenticeship to actual life is none too long a preparation for 
 political duties, and the necessity of this requirement will no 
 doubt be acknowledged by most young men over twenty-five 
 years of age. In the case of those who have inherited prop- 
 erty, it is plain that a four years' acquaintance with its man- 
 agement, and of actual contact with the taxing power, will 
 give to their votes a weight and value which are usually quite 
 lacking to those of the ordinary youth of twenty-one years. 
 
CHAPTER XXVIII 
 
 WOMAN SUFFRAGE IN THEORY 
 
 Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection, but I suffer 
 not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the 
 man, but to be in silence. (I Timothy, ii; 13, 14.) 
 
 THERE be those to whom the words of the great apostle to 
 the Gentiles speak with power and authority; who believe that 
 Holy Writ will be read and heard with reverent faith long after 
 the claptrap of to-day has been replaced by a later folly and 
 is utterly forgotten; and there be those also who disdain St. Paul 
 as one far inferior in deep sagacity to themselves. The pre- 
 cept of the ancient text will no doubt be valued by each reader 
 as belikes him. The beauty of the landscape is in the eye of 
 the human spectator; there is reason to believe that neither 
 the grazing donkey nor any of his fellow quadrupeds has yet 
 felt its fascination. 
 
 Woman suffrage has been steadily gaining ground in the 
 United States for the last ten years, and the leading politicians 
 have recently taken it up. It is a corollary and a sequence of 
 manhood suffrage, its most fatal and noxious derivative. It is 
 distinctly Bolshevik in its tendencies; it represents an absolute 
 negation of the rights of property and the claims of capacity in 
 government, and it threatens the severest blow which democ- 
 racy has ever yet sustained. It implies the past failure of 
 democracy as a governing power and is destined if accepted, to 
 confirm and complete that failure in the future. Its 
 adoption by a number of states of the Union is a 
 disgrace and a dishonour, because it implies that 
 the men of the nation are unfit to govern it. The 
 implication is necessary and conclusive, but the charge does 
 not rest on mere implication; the suffragettes have repeatedly 
 
 378 
 
WOMAN SUFFRAGE IN THEORY 379 
 
 ^* m an( j i n their literature. Yes, to such 
 generations of its odious operations, 
 3ught our people, that our women 
 our men of incapacity to govern the 
 ig woman suffrage in sixteen states 
 he charge; for if they were compe- 
 re even as competent as the women, 
 tiling in the latter to interfere. They 
 the male electorate thereby stands a 
 ad yet the charge of incapacity made 
 ; they are competent to manage the 
 ell, but the politicians who have been 
 lelm of state are not competent; and 
 nd forty years of independence and 
 told by a parcel of fools and fanatics 
 .e country is not and never has been 
 :s affairs. Disguise it as you will, that 
 means. It is not merely an open af- 
 ihood, but it is also an aspersion at 
 aid its intelligence; for it is a declara- 
 ;entury of actual participation in busi- 
 s and in government, our men are so 
 )men who have none of this experience, 
 are more w~ r . lan they to counsel and direct in all 
 these important matters. In vain will the nincompoops and 
 sentimentalists who gave us women suffrage attempt to avoid 
 this plain conclusion by references to a few superior and ex- 
 ceptional women, such as their favorite wonder, Mme. Curie. 
 The invitation to vote was not confined to the exceptional; we 
 have called in the whole adult female population, black and 
 white, from the most intelligent and refined lady in the land 
 down to the vilest negress from the slums. The obvious effect 
 was and is to offset every man's vote by a woman's vote; and 
 thus practically to disfranchise the men of the country. The 
 votes of the banker, the lawyer, the physician, the business 
 man, the farmer, the manufacturer, the architect, each of 
 
380 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 whom has spent most of his days in learning lessons in the 
 actual struggles of life, are to be negatived by the votes of 
 their wives and daughters, who have passed their existence in 
 sheltered homes, and who are so ignorant of the business of 
 life and politics, that they do not even know its terms or its 
 language. In every family, in every occupation, in every 
 quality and grade of life, the same absurd and degrading per- 
 formance is to be repeated year by year, as long as men will 
 subject themselves to the futile humiliation of appearing at 
 the polls. All the way up and down the scale our women 
 are notoriously inferior to our men in business and political 
 knowledge and judgment; and all the way down and all the 
 way up, all the votes of such of the wise and experienced males 
 as may hereafter trouble themselves to vote are to be nega- 
 tived and nullified by those of the ignorant and inexperienced 
 females. To say that no such result is intended is to say that 
 the promoters of woman suffrage acted without reason or logic, 
 which is probably true. They did not realize the meaning or 
 effect of a great deal of what they said and proposed; but yet, 
 whether or not they are capable of understanding it, woman 
 suffrage must, if it does anything, modify or lessen man's 
 authority. Some of the suffragette leaders saw this, and the 
 literature of the movement is well peppered with sharp asper- 
 sions on the capacity of men to rule the country. Indeed, if 
 male government was satisfactory, why was a change proposed? 
 The entire argument of the movement was that masculine rule 
 is not satisfactory, and that therefore it was proposed to super- 
 sede and supplant it by a mixed government of men and 
 women, now and forever. This change in management is in- 
 excusable, unless it is intended to produce practical results in 
 legislation and administration; and each of these practical 
 results cannot be or mean less than an overruling of the male 
 power by the female power, and a public and formal assertion 
 of superior female capacity in government. 
 
 To say that none of this is to happen, that after all this 
 hullabaloo about woman's wrongs and rights, the women are 
 
WOMAN SUFFRAGE IN THEORY 381 
 
 going to vote in obedience to the directions or wishes of the 
 men of their respective families, and that man's government 
 control and management will therefore remain unaffected by 
 the triumph of their cause, is to make the whole movement 
 futile and ridiculous. Not only that; but such a nullification 
 of the women's vote would add to the mischief of the affront 
 already put upon the men by putting a separate affront upon 
 the women. Far better for them to stay at home, and make 
 no pretence of political action, than to go out to the polls, and 
 pretend to do the part of freewomen, while really acting the 
 part of puppets. If therefore a practise of proxy voting is to 
 be the real effect of woman suffrage, and there is good reason 
 to suspect that it is so in many instances, let it be done openly 
 and straightforwardly. There is already too much fraud and 
 humbug in politics; let the law be amended so that for in- 
 stance, when a manufacturer with a wife and four other 
 women in his family puts in six votes for a protective tariff 
 it can be done openly; let him cast the six votes himself, with- 
 out resorting to the troublesome expedient of having these 
 five women, much against their will, trained and required to 
 take a mean part in a sham transaction; first carefully in- 
 structed to vote the straight ticket and then taken to the polls 
 and compelled to go through the tiresome form required by 
 the man-made election law. Indeed, if men were permitted 
 to vote by proxy for their women, the probability is that 
 female attendance at the polls would before long become un- 
 fashionable and shrink almost to nothing. If, however, the 
 female voters, inspired by the suffragette dreams, change their 
 natures so far as to want to use their new powers in complete 
 independence of the men, then will be seen the interesting pic- 
 ture of our women, publicly exercising their ignorance, and 
 in defiance of all claims of loyalty and gratitude, trampling 
 under foot family ties, assuming hostile attitudes towards the 
 men, and negativing the votes of fathers, brothers and hus- 
 bands whose bread they eat, who protect and care for them 
 and whose business and political experience and wisdom is 
 
382 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 ten times their own. Imagine the theory of woman suffrage 
 plainly and fully in effect, and see what it would mean. Pic- 
 ture, if you will, the assembled men of a hamlet or village 
 voting "yea" on any proposition; say to build a school house 
 or a sewer; to pass an ordinance, to favor war or peace, or 
 to select a public official; and imagine the women in like 
 separate assembly overruling the word of their men and voting 
 "nay." Would not this be to affront and dishonour the men 
 of the community; and is there any doubt as to which body 
 would be in the right in whatever decision had been made? 
 Yet that or nothing, is the effect of this measure. Of the 
 woman who favors woman suffrage it can therefore be said 
 that she wishes to see the dearest opinions of her experienced 
 father, her brother and her husband overruled not only by 
 herself but by every gossiping wench in the neighborhood. 
 Truly a noble movement! For the men who have acceded to 
 it the most charitable excuse is indifference. The long con- 
 tinued operation of rotten politics has eaten into the civic fibre 
 of our manhood; we have for generations seen elections turned 
 into farces, public offices bargained and sold, and a vulgar 
 oligarchy of rogues native and imported ruling this land, till 
 our best men have almost ceased to care who votes or who 
 is elected. If the male "suffragist" doubts this to be his real 
 mental attitude, let him imagine the women of his family over- 
 ruling him in a business transaction, or one of personal friend- 
 ship, or any other matter in which he is really concerned, and 
 wherein he is better informed than they; and he will realize, 
 that his willingness to submit to having the exercise of his 
 citizenship nullified at the polls, by the vote of an un- 
 instructed woman is due to his contempt for politics, his in- 
 difference to political results, and his realization that the 
 suffrage has been already -degraded so that it is practically 
 worthless. 
 
 Not only is woman suffrage a dishonor and a disgrace, but 
 it is a danger, for it threatens the existence of the state; it 
 is a weakening of the foundations at a time when we are 
 
WOMAN SUFFRAGE IN THEORY 383 
 
 menaced with attacks by every band of the rapidly organizing 
 enemies to property and to the social order. Is it fit when the 
 day of stress comes that the power of this country should be 
 in the hands of women and woman-led politicians? If we will 
 not take counsel of common sense, let us be warned of our 
 fears, to step backward while there is time, for the precipice 
 is directly in our path. 
 
 The progress of the cause of woman suffrage, like to that 
 of manhood suffrage a century ago, is due to the apathy of 
 half the population and the failure of the other half to under- 
 stand the question. And just as manhood suffrage was 
 adopted without serious discussion or any real study of its 
 tendencies, so woman suffrage is rapidly making its way in a 
 careless, stupid and bewildered electorate, of which a large 
 portion and that the most intelligent has long ago abandoned 
 politics as hopeless and disgusting. No doubt, the adoption 
 of the manhood suffrage theory prepared the way for this re- 
 sult, first by promulgating the false doctrine of a natural right 
 to vote, and second by weakening the electorate. When the 
 principle of a qualified electorate was abandoned, we lost the 
 only sane and safe basis on which a democratic government 
 can possibly exist; once reject the rule of fitness, and there 
 is no valid reason why all the deficient and worthless should 
 not have their say in government, and the way is laid open 
 for rule by ignorant and incapable numbers instead of by 
 knowledge and capacity. The admission of women to the 
 voting booths is merely a new and wider application of the 
 former doctrine of the right of the ignorant and unfit to govern. 
 Let it be conceded that no voter can be excluded from the 
 polls for incapacity shown by failure in life, and it becomes 
 difficult to exclude for similar incapacity resulting from sex. 
 The abolition of all qualifications for male voters, and the 
 admission of a horde of male incompetents to the ballot box, 
 has prepared the way for the granting of the privileges of the 
 ballot to a sex almost universally incompetent for the exercise 
 of the franchise. 
 
384 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 And further, manhood suffrage not only smoothed the path 
 for woman suffrage by weakening and degrading the electorate 
 who were to pass on the question, but incidentally by driving 
 out in disgust great numbers of the wise and worthy from 
 active participation in politics; with the result that the body 
 politic has hardly, if at all, power or virtue sufficient to save 
 itself from the assaults of that clamorous band of female 
 fanatics and triflers who seek diversion in public affairs. The 
 adoption of woman suffrage at the command of this noxious 
 horde is the most degraded performance of and the most mis- 
 chievous transgression by the manhood suffrage system since 
 its establishment. 
 
 The ruling politicians of both parties, who were at first 
 afraid of woman suffrage, and next doubtful or lukewarm, have 
 now generally come to favor it, and are quite ready to wel- 
 come an influx of new voters still more ignorant and emotional 
 than those they had already learned to master. They might, 
 of course, have defeated the movement; but they had no mo- 
 tive to exclude from the polls masses of women, mostly ig- 
 norant and gullible, and often sordid, who with a little change 
 in methods, may be purchased, deceived and controlled, even 
 more easily than the nondescript men who have heretofore 
 constituted the sure following of the bosses. Besides, the 
 politicians cannot safely or consistently advocate or counte- 
 nance the establishment of any qualification whatever for the 
 exercise of political functions; the leaders and their instru- 
 ments being notoriously unfit for the offices and their followers 
 for the voting booths. 
 
 That the great state of New York should be one of those to 
 grant full suffrage to women strikingly illustrates and proves 
 the incapacity of the manhood suffrage electorate. The state's 
 vote in that behalf could only have been given by a constit- 
 uency grossly stupid, or so neglectful of its duties as to be 
 indifferent to the grotesque scandals already produced in New 
 York by the operation of manhood suffrage. And now, its 
 voting mass, which already was far inferior in intelligence and 
 
WOMAN SUFFRAGE IN THEORY 385 
 
 efficiency to what it should be, has by its own decree provided 
 that hereafter it will be still more ignorant and inefficient. The 
 fact is, that the whole American electorate, especially in states 
 containing great and absolutely machine ruled cities, has be- 
 come demoralized by manhood suffrage to the extent that it has 
 ceased to study the philosophy of government and finds itself 
 totally unprepared to discuss the suffrage question intelligently. 
 A few cheap catch words such as the "majority must rule" 
 and "every citizen should vote" constitute nowadays the 
 political creed and sum up the political knowledge of the ordi- 
 nary American. The women suffragists utter mere claptrap; 
 but claptrap perfectly suits the popular ear, and is all that 
 any one has needed to utter on political platforms ever since 
 manhood suffrage was adopted; they press upon the voters 
 their superficial argument that as no qualification was required 
 from a man, none should be required of a woman; they con- 
 trast the good respectable women who are refused the suffrage 
 with the miserable male sots, loafers and ignorant boors to 
 whom it has been granted ; and they urge that nothing can be 
 worse than our present political condition. In this, by the way, 
 they will find their mistake as time goes on; for Uncle Sam, 
 like the man who is made shaky on his legs by two glasses of 
 whiskey, will not be steadied by doubling the dose that dis- 
 abled him. However, in these and similar arguments, there 
 appears to the superficial mind so much plausibility that on 
 the strength of them, millions of women have been put on the 
 voting lists; most of them absolutely ignorant of business life 
 and of the practical workings of political institutions built up 
 by men year by year in the centuries gone by; most of them 
 besides almost totally devoid of any realization of the tragedy 
 of the situation, of the tremendous interests involved, or of 
 the dangers to which a nation is subject, which goes drifting 
 along without firm, strict and competent masculine govern- 
 mental management and control. 
 
 Let it be clearly understood before proceeding further, that 
 it is not within the scope or plan of this book to discuss what is 
 
386 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 called "feminism," or even to go into the whole case against 
 woman suffrage, but merely to apply to the female suffrage 
 problem, the reasoning herein applied to the manhood suffrage 
 institution. The inquiry here is merely whether or not women 
 may be expected by their votes to contribute to the public 
 welfare. It will be well, however, just to mention the principal 
 points made by those opposed to giving the franchise to woman, 
 which are additional to those included in the argument herein 
 presented, so as to make it clear that the failure of the writer 
 to urge them hi detail must not be taken to indicate any disre- 
 gard of their value; they are not dwelt upon only because out- 
 side of the scheme of the work. These miscellaneous points 
 made by the anti-female suffragists are as follows: 
 
 That the ultimate sanction for every political decree is force ; 
 modern force is expressed in naval and military terms; women 
 are incapable of military or naval service, they cannot back 
 their votes by force. To say that because they can nurse 
 the wounded they are therefore combatants is like saying that 
 the man who blows the organ is a musician. We have also the 
 objections founded on mental or moral deficiency; that 
 government needs creative energy, and that women are not 
 as creative as men, no supreme work of genius for instance 
 having ever been created by a woman; that woman is inferior 
 to man in strength of intellect, in power of concentration and 
 moral perception; that she has no larger view than man on any 
 subject, but on many subjects a much narrower view; that 
 women are more subject than men to passion and prejudice; 
 that they have less public or civic virtue, and that in order to 
 overcome their inferiority in these particulars they would have 
 to pass through all the developing experience of men in all the 
 past centuries. Another: that women are usually dependents, 
 whereas no voter should be a dependent. Also, that the State 
 does not need women except to raise children; all other ser- 
 vices, such as agriculture, manufacturing, transportation, mili- 
 tary and naval duties, construction, shipping, engineering, 
 finance, literature, science, invention, etc., being better per- 
 
WOMAN SUFFRAGE IN THEORY 387 
 
 formed by men. There are also biological considerations of great 
 force operating generally against the feminist theory of the 
 natural equality of the sexes; and which though not sufficient 
 to forbid woman's casting a vote, are effective reasons against 
 her going into political strifes and contests. There are, for 
 instance, the physical weaknesses incidental to their sex, the 
 importance of maternity and of all the functions appertaining 
 thereto; the need in the interests of humanity of guarding the 
 mothers of the race present and future from all undue physical 
 strain and burden; tfre danger as a result of feminism of the 
 evolution of a type of woman expressing masculine character- 
 istics, and incapable of arousing the passion of love, thus de- 
 priving men of the beauty and charm of women, imperiling 
 the comeliness of the race, abolishing the lady and ladyhood, 
 and drying up the source of poetry; then there is the argument 
 that the biological development and evolution of woman, and of 
 the race, is destined to come by means of the growth of greater 
 and greater differences between the sexes, and not by women 
 copying men; that feminism in all its aspects is hostile to mar- 
 riage; that the years necessary to feminist training would 
 bring women to an age too advanced for the best marriages; 
 that women and men are not equals, there being no equality in 
 nature; and that women need the maintenance and protection 
 of the male for their best advantage and that of their children, 
 whereas the tendency of the woman suffrage movement and of 
 all feminism is clearly towards separation of the sexes and 
 female economic independence. 
 
 Having thus merely mentioned these points which have been 
 often presented and discussed by other writers, we may pro- 
 ceed to apply to the question of woman suffrage the same test 
 already applied to manhood suffrage, by propounding the 
 query whether it is for the benefit of the state? And here we 
 find that every objection already urged in this volume to giving 
 the vote to unpropertied men, applies with increased force to 
 giving it to women of all classes. As there is no natural right 
 in man to the vote, so there can be none in woman; and in 
 
388 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 the light of reason, woman suffrage stands condemned on 
 every ground urged in this book for the condemnation of man- 
 hood suffrage. In whatever respects manhood suffrage has in 
 this book been condemned as injurious, woman suffrage is more 
 injurious. In short, the theory upon which woman suffrage 
 is advocated by its supporters is entirely incompatible with the 
 theory of suffrage advanced by the writer, and indeed with 
 any theory on which a property qualification can be imposed 
 upon voters. In dealing with this subject therefore, instead 
 of treading again ground already gone over, the writer prefers 
 to call attention briefly to the doctrines of the woman suffrage 
 creed already dealt with and confuted by him in his discussion 
 of manhood suffrage, as follows: 
 
 Woman suffragists adopt the manhood suffrage theory of 
 a natural right to vote, and seek to widen its application; the 
 writer and those who agree with him condemn that theory, and 
 seek to narrow its operation. They insist that political voting 
 is a natural right; we, that it is a public function. They 
 regard the vote as cast for the benefit of the voter; we insist 
 that it be given solely for the benefit of the state. They 
 affirm that the present suffrage is not wide enough; we say 
 that it is too wide. They seek a remedy for misgovernment by 
 going further in our present course; we propose to retrace 
 our steps. They demand that all adults be invited to partici- 
 pate in government; we insist that all but the well qualified 
 should be excluded. They say that the adult population in 
 the mass is competent to pass upon candidates and policies; 
 we say it is not; that a much more competent and honest 
 body for the purpose is furnished by the successful men of 
 business, evolved by the process of natural selection. They 
 seek political counsel of everyone; including the weak, the in- 
 experienced and unreliable; we reject all but that of the strong, 
 experienced and trustworthy. They consider the polling booth 
 as a preparatory school for triflers, fools and the ignorant; we 
 regard it as a seat of judgment from which those three classes 
 should be strictly excluded, They speak of "liberty" and "self 
 
WOMAN SUFFRAGE IN THEORY 389 
 
 government" as ideal products of universal suffrage; we say 
 in the first place that "liberty" and "self government" are 
 impossible in a civilized country; and second, that instead of 
 "self government" manhood suffrage has produced and can 
 only produce machine and ring government; and that the votes 
 of women given under universal suffrage will and must 
 strengthen these rings and machines. 
 
 Summarized in the fewest possible words, the gist of the 
 previous chapters, as far as they affect both sexes, women as 
 well as men, is, that voting is not a natural right but a public 
 function, to be exercised solely for the benefit of the state; 
 and that the suffrage should be entrusted only to those who 
 have shown themselves to be duly qualified, and never to the 
 weak, inexperienced or dependent. These simple propositions, 
 accepted or considered established, the question of granting 
 or refusing the vote to women is much simplified, being nar- 
 rowed to one of political expediency, dependent upon their 
 proven capacity to function as voters. 
 
 It is manifestly not a question of the capacity of some, 
 but of all women, for unless the quality of the entire female 
 electorate is politically superior to that of the entire male 
 electorate the former should not be introduced into our po- 
 litical system. Nor is it a matter of comparison of any other 
 than civic or political quality; it is immaterial whether women 
 are morally superior to men, or better church goers or more 
 sentimental; the question is whether they are politically as 
 capable; that is whether they are as capable of selecting the 
 directors of the state, or of directing her themselves, and of 
 shaping her policies as the men are. But of the answer to 
 this there can be no possible uncertainty; no one doubts male 
 superiority in these capacities; to deny it in the face of the 
 well-known characteristics of the human male, as well as the 
 notorious advantages that men have over women in point of 
 business and political training and experience, is to defy com- 
 mon sense. Government is an institution established for a 
 kind of work which is essentially masculine. It is designed 
 
3QO POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 not only for the prosecution of great business enterprises in 
 peace, but of foreign wars great and small, for national de- 
 fense, and for that diplomacy which is armed and threaten- 
 ing. Political capacity requires mental power, courage, firm- 
 ness of character, determination, physical strength, military 
 capability , business training and experience and ability to 
 rule. These are essentially maculine qualities; and while few 
 men have them all highly developed, yet those attributes or 
 some of them are moderately present in most men and to a 
 considerable extent in some men in every community; whereas 
 most women are almost or quite destitute of all of them. 
 Sensible women fully recognize their difference from men in 
 respect to those qualities, and for that reason they especially 
 value them, and seek for them in selecting their husbands, 
 lovers, lawyers and physicians. It is apparently conceded even 
 by the female suffragists, that most public offices should be 
 filled by men rather than by women, on account of this mascu- 
 line superiority in political efficiency. Now, it cannot surely be 
 expected that women who are notoriously lacking in firmness, 
 courage, determination and good judgment, will as voters be 
 as expert as men in weighing these qualities, in appreciating 
 their extent, or in discovering their presence or absence in the 
 various male candidates for office presented for a choice. 
 
 Not only are the majority of women destitute of capacity 
 to take a personal part in government themselves, but they 
 have no taste for politics, nor desire to become proficient 
 therein; they usually dislike to read or to seriously discuss 
 political matters of any kind. One would like to be able to 
 say, that none of them care to take part in the vile intrigues 
 or acts of violence, which are the unfortunate incidents of 
 certain low political work, but this cannot truthfully be said, 
 in view of the ballot box stuffing in Colorado, the picketing of 
 the White House, the insults to and assaults upon high officials 
 here and in England and the numerous petty crimes committed 
 there by militant suffragettes or their hirelings. But for high 
 or abstract politics, the study of political questions, states- 
 
WOMAN SUFFRAGE IN THEORY 39 1 
 
 manship, political history and political economy, women have 
 very little taste, if any. It is the general opinion that the 
 great majority, probably three-fourths of the women of the 
 United States do not desire the vote at all, never have desired 
 it, and have no idea what to do with it. The suffragette 
 leaders are not politicians nor political students, but agitators; 
 being impelled to that vocation not by a taste for politics but 
 by a love of money and notoriety. The only recorded case of 
 a census of women's opinion on female suffrage which has 
 come to the writer's attention was in or about 1908, when a 
 Mr. Bray, a member of the legislature from some city of Wis- 
 consin, took a ballot of the women in his district, about eight 
 thousand in number, for his private instruction upon this sub- 
 ject; with the result that not a single ward, city or village 
 returned a majority for suffrage. In a certain working people's 
 ward, the vote was from three to seven against the franchise 
 to one in its favor. Most teachers, older scholars, librarians, 
 nurses and dressmakers voted "Yes." A large majority of 
 bookkeepers, stenographers, clerks, factory girls and hotel em- 
 ployees voted "No." Of the whole eight thousand women, 
 fully two-thirds voted "No" on the question. That is to say, 
 two-thirds of the women agreed that not only they themselves 
 but also the other one-third were unfit to be voters. The 
 fact that the other third considered themselves competent is 
 of little consequence; probably they excel the others in 
 nothing more than self-conceit, and that supremest ignorance 
 which is unaware of its own want of knowledge; but even if 
 this third were eager to vote and would make a good use of 
 the franchise, that fact would not justify the admission to the 
 electorate of the other two thirds, who by their own admission 
 are certain to misuse it. A sensible man will not eat an entire 
 apple of which two thirds is rotten or unripe, and whoever does 
 so is likely to pay the penalty. 
 
 In the United States or the communities of the United States 
 where women at present vote, it is presumable and the best 
 evidence obtainable shows that most of those who really ex- 
 
3Q2 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 pect advantage from the suffrage are political adventuresses, 
 socialists and female cranks; the remainder exercise the vote 
 without any real understanding of what they are doing; some 
 because they are paid or coerced, others reluctantly and 
 only from a mistaken sense of duty, or upon the advice or 
 direction of some husband, father, brother, lover, clergyman or 
 friend ; or in gratification of some spite, passion, fad or caprice 
 which has possessed them for the time being. Most of them, 
 even those who pretend to intelligence, are less fit to vote than 
 the grimy day laborer, whose daily talk in the beer saloon is 
 largely of the practical politics of the district. 
 
 Some suffragettes, while acknowledging the existence of this 
 notorious political indifference and ignorance of women, say 
 that it is but temporary, and will disappear with time; that 
 with the incentive of the vote women will by degrees acquire 
 a taste for politics. This is the same hollow "harper" 
 argument herein already punctured, that was used to justify 
 the giving the ballot to the Southern freedmen in 1866 with 
 disastrous results. It offers a very poor outlook for the state ; 
 presenting at best a dim hope that the quality of the female 
 vote may aspire some centuries later to equal that which we 
 have already obtained in the male vote. Meantime the country 
 must suffer while the women practise and learn; and after all 
 the result will only be to bring us up to our present standard 
 and that some generations hence. 
 
 But in fact there is no such hope; the women will never 
 learn politics because they will never study it; the incentives 
 offered do not appeal to women with sufficient force to induce 
 them in the mass to enter into politics ; their indifference thereto 
 is incurable; it amounts in many cases to positive aversion, 
 and proceeds from causes which are likely to continue to oper- 
 ate for an indefinite period, and which are sufficiently perma- 
 nent in their nature to justify a strong apprehension 
 that if woman suffrage prevails the national fabric may 
 sometime be endangered thereby. Foremost among these 
 causes is the compelling power of Nature herself, 
 
WOMAN SUFFRAGE IN THEORY 393 
 
 who gave the woman an organism, instincts, and ambi- 
 tions of her very own; who ordained that she should be some- 
 thing better and more precious than a cheap echo and imita- 
 tion of man, and that she should have her own pleasures, her 
 own tastes, her own loves and hates, her own life, and a ca- 
 pacity for higher existence than grovelling in the muck of uni- 
 versal suffrage politics. One of these natural instincts requires, 
 and always will require, healthy minded women to make it 
 their first object to please men. Now, the female politician is 
 odious to most men, and the display of masculine qualities 
 by a woman is apt to provoke them to something like disgust. 
 This, the female suffragette leaders fail to realize; they them- 
 selves are rather peculiar than typical; some of them are eccen- 
 trics who imagine themselves superior when they are merely 
 odd, and are or pretend to be devoid of that instinctive desire 
 for male admiration and to be charming, which is the inspira- 
 tion of the best in woman. But they will never be followed by 
 the mass of loving and practical women into the dreary abode 
 where they pass their cold and shrill existences. Already the 
 women voters in States where woman suffrage is established 
 are deserting these female agitators; they are being deposed 
 from leadership, and male politicians are rapidly taking com- 
 mand, and replacing them by their own lieutenants, usually 
 women who avoided the suffrage agitation; often the wives and 
 sisters of these politicians. So that it is already coming to pass 
 that female politics, instead of representing woman's political 
 independence, will strengthen male bossism; thus affording one 
 more instance of the operation of Nature's fiat that certain 
 jobs are exclusively for men, and that one of them is the job of 
 governing the world and every part thereof. 
 
 Not only is it true that women as a class have no natural 
 liking for politics, but they will never become acquainted with 
 it for want of proper opportunity. Such opportunity is in the 
 nature of things confined to the men of the nation, and comes 
 from mixing with other men, and with the transactions and 
 business of other men day after day. A slight acquaintance 
 
394 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 with it may be acquired by reading, or instruction, but 
 not nearly as much as by the constant, never-ending inter- 
 course of men of affairs with each other, on the mart, and in 
 the business places of the city and country. Our standards 
 of life are such, that women, even if their natural tastes did not 
 disincline them to it, are necessarily excluded from that inter- 
 communion with business men; therefore, the information and 
 experience thus obtained by men are not within the reach of 
 women, even of those employed by men in stores and offices, 
 most of whom are further debarred therefrom by their being 
 in subordinate employments. Nor are women, even so-called 
 business women, as a class, engaged in the acquisition of 
 property; even when employed in business or a profession, their 
 proficiency being inferior to that of men, they do not often 
 earn sufficient to enable them to make substantial accumula- 
 tions; and they seldom make a life career of any employment 
 in which they are engaged. Of the comparatively small num- 
 ber of women employed in mercantile pursuits or in the busi- 
 ness part of manufacturing, the practical knowledge possessed 
 by most of them, of the effects of legislation in government 
 administration, of the tariff for instance, taxation, corporate 
 law, banking law, etc., is so small as to be negligible. 
 
 Passing, because it speaks for itself, the case of the millions 
 of negresses to whom it is proposed to give the ballot, and 
 considering that of the white women only, we find that to the 
 vast majority of farmer's wives, female servants, factory girls, 
 dressmakers, sewing women, waitresses, shop girls and the like, 
 the very word "politics" conveys no exact or correct meaning; 
 by far the most of them are not only lacking in acquaintance 
 with the subjects of political economy, finance, constitutional 
 law, foreign trade relations and treaties with foreign nations, 
 but they are unable even to correctly define the names of those 
 subjects. Then coming to a better read class of women, such 
 as teachers, stenographers, bookkeepers, cashiers, typewriters, 
 etc., while many of them would be able to give the definitions 
 alluded to, their knowledge would scarcely go farther. Very 
 
WOMAN SUFFRAGE IN THEORY 395 
 
 few of them ever read the newspaper political articles; still 
 fewer have ever read or heard discussed a work of any sort on 
 politics or political questions. Why, indeed, should they read 
 works which deal exclusively with matters belonging to mascu- 
 line life? In fact most women belonging to the classes above 
 mentioned, except such factory girls as are socialists, have 
 refrained from taking part in the suffrage agitation and from 
 any demand for the ballot. Most good women who believe in 
 woman suffrage, hope to become instructed in politics through 
 reading books, newspapers and magazines; and it is noticeable 
 that the female suffragists constantly talk and write as though 
 intelligence enough to read were sufficient qualification for a 
 voter; they assume that one can learn how to vote by merely 
 reading the newspapers; completely ignoring the qualities and 
 training which will enable the voter to properly understand 
 and weigh the newspaper statements, and to discard newspaper 
 lies. Mere general intelligence is not a sufficient endowment for 
 a voter; otherwise an entire stranger in the community could 
 cast a wise vote at its elections ; he needs as well that good judg- 
 ment and firmness, that knowledge of actual life, of business 
 needs and conditions, of local circumstances, and of the mo- 
 tives and reputation of public men, which women can never 
 hope to acquire in the same degree as men. No subject can be 
 mastered merely by reading, and politics least of all ; and it is 
 of all branches of knowledge the one which women are least 
 fitted to acquire. For politics is concerned with the doings of ! 
 men in their pursuit of money and fame; and in modern' 
 times especially with their business doings. The pursuit of 
 money and fame are essentially masculine vocations; it is im- 
 possible for women even to attempt to compete with men in 
 those undertakings, nor to understand their conditions, nor 
 with rare exceptions do women ever really wish to do so. As 
 a branch of knowledge politics includes such subjects as his- 
 tory, finance, economics, foreign trade relations, war, legal 
 principles, constitutional law, naval affairs, the study of men 
 and of their prejudices and capabilities. Few men have time or 
 
3Q6 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 inclination to study these matters in the abstract sufficiently 
 to enable them to properly estimate important political meas- 
 ures. But this defect in men's education is corrected to a 
 very considerable extent, by daily practical experience. Busi- 
 ness men are experts in innumerable activities of which their 
 women are absolutely ignorant, and they are thus made capable 
 of understanding the language of many of those subjects. 
 They have besides, the inestimable advantage of actual contact 
 with men and groups of men, in their daily business life, who 
 are more or less interested in these matters; of hearing their 
 opinions directly or at second hand; with the further advantage 
 of experience direct or indirect in the results or effects of politi- 
 cal action. All this is part of the atmosphere and circum- 
 stance of a man's business life. An appreciable portion of 
 this information is constantly being spread and distributed by 
 business men, and find its way from them into the minds of the 
 farmers, mechanics and other men similarly interested. The re- 
 sult is, and has been, to set up among active and thrifty men a 
 current of practical information concerning public matters, 
 and to create a taste for politics, and for the subjects cognate 
 to politics, which is practically universal among men, and is 
 almost utterly lacking in women, who not only do not possess 
 it, but do not realize its existence. Many a village boy of 
 fifteen has more curiosity about politics, and more real knowl- 
 edge thereof than any women in the community. 
 
 Having thus it is hoped without too much prolixity, pre- 
 sented our argument against female suffrage, let us take up one 
 by one and reply to the principal points made by its friends 
 in its favor in their publications and other public utterances. 
 
 A. The "Nagging" or "Henpeck" scheme. This is a theory 
 or explanation of the intended operation of woman suffrage, 
 offered by many suffragists, who apparently realize some of the 
 manifest dangers and absurdities likely to attend upon female 
 legislation and administration. They deprecate any idea of 
 abolishing man's supremacy in government, or of subverting his 
 time-honored institutions; they insist that female suffrage does 
 
WOMAN SUFFRAGE IN THEORY 397 
 
 not mean the introduction into politics of a new political power, 
 nor even a modification of the present masculine regime; it 
 is no more than a convenient method of placing at the disposal 
 of the governing males a source of female wisdom of which 
 they have heretofore been deprived. The female politicians are 
 merely to recommend and urge such measures, mostly in family 
 and sociological matters, as the governing males may happen to 
 overlook; it being assumed, no one knows why, that woman's 
 knowledge of these subjects is intuitive, inborn, at any rate 
 superior to man's. Under this plan, the men are of course 
 to be free to reject the advice of the new women; otherwise 
 they would be in the position of an East Indian rajah to whom 
 the British government has assigned an "adviser," and who if 
 he should refuse to profit by his "advice" would be quickly 
 brought to book by the British military power. The theory 
 then is, that the male officials are not to be exactly subject to 
 the female bosses or leaders who may become their monitors; 
 but it is understood, of course, that they are likely to listen 
 respectfully to counselors, who though they may roar, look 
 you, as gently as a sucking dove, will be backed by an earnest 
 and somewhat excitable and vociferous petticoated constitu- 
 ency. No doubt in order to get what they want, these ladies 
 will soon find means of persuasion, of which the least urgent 
 will consist of the process known to some unfortunate husbands 
 as "nagging," and to the derisive neighbors as "henpecking." 
 So, though the general superiority of the male governmental 
 faculty is conceded, the male governing officials are not to be 
 allowed to go on quite as they have been doing; the women will 
 be there to "advise." In plain words the proposition is to 
 henpeck the public officials and other politicians into giving 
 offices to the female bosslets, and into the adoption of their 
 ladylike fads and frills. The picture in "Pinafore" of a high 
 political dignitary on his official rounds with a squawking com- 
 pany of women at his heels, is to become actually embodied 
 in American political life. 
 This suggestion of pressure upon government by harmless 
 
398 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 nagging and henpecking is certainly shallow and unpractical, 
 and is probably insincere. If this is all that was intended, it 
 was worse than folly to force the general suffrage upon mil- 
 lions of reluctant women. Those women who wished to nag 
 and agitate were always at perfect liberty to do so. They were 
 always free to talk; and if they wanted to be clad with formal 
 authority to represent these few matters in which they claim a 
 special interest, that too could have been provided for; repre- 
 sentative women could have been elected or appointed to ad- 
 visory boards or committees, commissioned to present their 
 views to the public officials in an authoritative manner; leav- 
 ing the latter to act in their discretion. But no; the suffra- 
 gettes demanded, and are demanding, nothing less than a full 
 and equal share with men in actual government, with equal 
 responsibility for the results. The talk about women merely 
 acting as advisers or proposers is sham and nonsense. Under 
 the new regime, the female spirit is to take possession equally 
 with the male, of every part of the body politic, with the ob- 
 vious result of dislodging half of the masculine element in our 
 governmental system. A vote cast by a woman is not a mere 
 suggestion; it is an act of government; once deposited in the 
 urn, it counts equal to and effective with a man's vote. And 
 each woman's vote must either cancel or confirm the vote of 
 some man. There is no logical or practical escape from this 
 situation. Woman suffrage can have no actual effect except such 
 as involves a defeat of masculine government; a nullification 
 to some extent of what men are doing or have done. If it is to 
 operate in mere confirmation of the rules or decrees of man, it 
 is unnecessary, and will be ineffectual; its only possible effect 
 must be in contravention of man's political control. It is either 
 this or nothing. As for womanly counsel, whatever of that was 
 effective under a male suffrage polity, will with woman suffrage 
 established, necessarily be replaced by female political coer- 
 cion and intrigue. When men are in supreme power, a deputa- 
 tion of benevolent ladies urging some remedial measure or 
 charitable modification, is sure to receive consideration from 
 
WOMAN SUFFRAGE IN THEORY 399 
 
 public officials; but what politician will be foolish enough to 
 give ear to non-political ladies offering mere womanly counsel 
 on any subject, when his female constituents are thundering 
 at his door with contrary demands, which they have the power 
 to enforce by political methods? The effect of woman suffrage 
 is thus to completely destroy the political influence of all 
 ladies who are not political workers, and to replace it by the 
 domination, meddling and intrigue of female politicians, who 
 will speedily learn from the men to invent reforms with jobs 
 attached, to swap political support for graft, and to market 
 moral issues. 
 
 Consider the unescapable facts, and note the silliness and 
 fraud of the pretence that the women in politics will be no 
 more than gentle advisers to the men in certain matters. In 
 the woman suffrage states women vote with the men, and at 
 the same elections, for president and vice-president of the 
 United States; members of Congress, senators and represen- 
 tatives; governors and other state officers; members of state 
 legislatures; mayors of cities; city and county officers, etc. 
 etc. In every election contest there are usually two principal 
 candidates for each of the above offices; say a better fitted 
 or superior candidate A and an inferior candidate B, the in- 
 terest of the public being to select A. Now if the majority of 
 each sex favors A he is elected, but to no more purpose than 
 he would have been without the woman vote. How then in 
 that first case, have the women aided or counselled the men? 
 But if as will certainly happen in most elections one of the 
 candidates A or B is defeated by the woman vote, what dif- 
 ference is there between the effect of each woman's vote and 
 that of each man's? Can anyone say that the women merely 
 counselled with the men, that they did not overrule them? If 
 a candidate is defeated by aid of the female vote who would 
 not otherwise have been defeated, are not the men overruled? 
 The question is absurd; as well say that the men merely ad- 
 vise the women, as that the women merely advise the men. 
 The same reasoning applies to votes on legislative proposals; 
 
4OO POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 the woman's vote will in every case either overrule the ma- 
 jority male vote, or it will be totally ineffective. There is 
 absolutely no escape from the logic of the case. 
 
 The pretence that certain women have some secret and mys- 
 terious knowledge to impart to lawmakers and law adminis- 
 trators is preposterous. It is the offspring of the conceited 
 minds of some well-to-do idle female faddists, who want to 
 get into public notice. Some of them pretend that this private 
 knowledge concerns factory girls, whose cause they pretend 
 to espouse, but who in fact hate and despise them and their 
 officious meddling. When working women have anything to 
 say to public officials, they can say so directly or hire a lawyer 
 to do it for them, as the men do. Some of those busy bodies 
 pretend that they have the secret of the proper treatment of 
 fallen women; but legislation will never help these people; it 
 has not needed the vote to enable most women to be cruel to 
 them in the past, nor is the franchise needed to-day to qualify 
 good women to be charitable to them or to any other human 
 beings in the future. Truth is, that in the entire domain of 
 sociology the female suffragists have nothing whatever to pro- 
 pose except what they have borrowed from the socialists; and 
 that we had already, and knew to be worse than worthless. 
 Their talk about superior ability to care for the children is 
 more prattle; one of the best feminist writers, Mrs. Gilman, 
 has called attention in strong and plain language to the record 
 of notorious incapacity on the part of women in the care of 
 children (Women and Economics). The best that a woman 
 can do for her child when ill is to take advice from the best 
 available male physician. The administration of foundling 
 asylums, children's hospitals and homes is safer in the hands 
 of men than in those of women. Most real reforms and im- 
 provements in medicine, surgery, ventilation, diet, architec- 
 ture, drainage, plumbing, and other branches of hygiene and 
 sanitation have come and will come from the male intellect 
 and will be and are best enforced by masculine administration. 
 
 Under the regime of universal suffrage it is safe to predict 
 
WOMAN SUFFRAGE IN THEORY 401 
 
 that the "Naggers" will have little influence in government. 
 They will interest themselves as the "Watch Dogs" do, and 
 sometimes they will collide with the "Watch Dogs," whose 
 ideal is to save public money, while that of the "Naggers" 
 will be to spend it. Their sympathies will probably tend 
 towards the cranks, or "Yellow Dogs" of politics. They will 
 very much enjoy meddling in all sorts of things of which they 
 know nothing; and now and then they will get something 
 through, over which they will crow and chuckle. But the 
 female masses will make but little response to independent 
 appeals of "Naggers," "Watch Dogs" or other similar bands 
 of insurgents. They will be quite under the control of the 
 machines of the respective parties; their votes will be cast for 
 the machine candidates; and so political ignorance and cor- 
 ruption doubly supported will flourish more and more. 
 
 To conclude with the "henpeck" project; this notion of 
 sending the weak and incompetent to hinder or modify the 
 counsels of the strong and capable on pretence of giving them 
 advice, is one of the most foolish of many foolish products of 
 the untrained intellect. It is a childish subterfuge of those 
 who are ashamed to say outright that their fathers, husbands 
 and brothers are inferior in political capacity to their mothers 
 and sisters. But that assertion is just what is implied in 
 female suffrage, which by reducing by one half the value and 
 force of the ballot of each male voter, will have the actual 
 effect of a moiety disfranchisement of the men of the country. 
 
 B. Man-made law. One of the silliest claims of the female 
 suffrage agitators, is that they want political power, in order 
 to repeal what they flippantly call "man-made law." As well 
 sneer at man-made geology, man-made mathematics or man- 
 made astronomy; man-made they are indeed, and so are all 
 the arts and sciences, industries and philosophies. Of the 
 fact that law is a great science with its roots deep in the his- 
 tory of the past ages; of the immensity of the great body 
 of the law, with its scores of divisions and branches, and 
 hundreds of subdivisions, these chatterers seem to have no 
 
402 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 suspicion. When they undertake to specify the defects in the 
 great juristic achievements of our law givers past and present, 
 they point with scorn to two or three instances of ancient 
 British legislation affecting the family relation, which like all 
 really useful and practical law represented the customs and 
 ideals of the time. Those ideals have since been modified, 
 and the law has been changed accordingly; in one case for 
 instance by a statute passed about 1850 by which married 
 women are permitted freely to dispose of their separate prop- 
 erty. But this measure, of which the suffragists always speak 
 as if they had put it through, was adopted upon the suggestion 
 of men long before women had any political power, and en- 
 tirely without their aid. The results of that act have not been 
 altogether happy; it is nothing to boast of specially; it was 
 not a tribute to higher ideals, but a concession to human 
 weakness, and has enabled many a rascal to cheat his creditors 
 by putting his property in his wife's name. The old common 
 law ideal was much the higher one; it conceived of the family 
 as a unit; and placed all its property in one common fund in 
 the name of and under the guardianship of the husband, as 
 the head and representative of the house. Its motto was like 
 that of the Three Musketeers, "One for all and all for one," 
 which is a much more noble and lofty conception, and much 
 more likely to promote family happiness and family success, 
 than any represented by the Woman's Separate Property Act, 
 or by all that has been so far offered to the world by all the 
 women suffrage associations put together. Under the old 
 common law, a knave could not, as now, shelter himself from 
 his creditors behind his wife's skirts, and keep her and his 
 family in base luxury while his trusting creditors suffered. 
 
 C. The legend "No taxation without representation" is 
 one of the suffragist catchwords. Just what is meant by this 
 nobody knows; but if it be offered as a political maxim de- 
 rived from our ancestors, the answer is that they never under- 
 stood or interpreted this saying as justifying woman suffrage, 
 or any other right to vote than that of the propertied classes. 
 
WOMAN SUFFRAGE IN THEORY 403 
 
 By taxation, they meant direct taxation on tangible property; 
 and as to representation, they considered that the women and 
 children as a class were politically represented by their men. 
 If, however, by this saying, "No taxation without representa- 
 tion/' the suffragists mean that every taxpayer has a right to 
 vote, that proposition has already been answered herein by 
 the true doctrine that suffrage is not a right at all, but a func- 
 tion of government, to be performed by those classes whom 
 the state may select as duly qualified. Nor does taxation ever 
 confer a right to vote; taxation is justified not by the fran- 
 chise, but by the protection given by government to the taxed 
 property; property owners pay the tax as a return for that 
 protection; and therefore not only women but non-residents, 
 resident aliens, and children owning property in the com- 
 munity are justly taxed, though not allowed to vote. 
 
 D. The maternity claim. Some emotional women have ac- 
 tually made claim to the franchise based upon the merits and 
 dangers of maternity. This is mere nonsense. If women are 
 not competent to vote on public affairs, their votes will be 
 injurious to the republic; and they cannot be permitted to do 
 themselves and others an injury merely because they have 
 borne children. It is not enough to mean well; the female 
 turkey means well by her chickens but she will often clumsily 
 trample them to death if not prevented. To bear children is 
 natural to women and is its own great reward; it is dangerous, 
 but no more so than going to sea, and it is not proposed to 
 give the vote to sailors to recompense them for their risk. 
 The suffrage is not a reward; it is a function and a trust. 
 
 E. That women have interests 'separate from that of 
 men. This is an absurd proposition. The social and family 
 ties and obligations of the sexes and their interests in 
 public matters are identical. The very existence of a woman 
 implies the care and devotion of a father, and also the ties 
 of family interest, family life and family love, all of which are 
 male as well as female. The sex difference is not as other 
 differences are, a separating influence; it is a unifying impulse; 
 
404 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 it not only unites but fuses the subjects of its action. In al- 
 most all instances the prizes achieved by the individual man, 
 riches, ambitions, and all the rest are shared to the utmost 
 with his women. On the other hand women never think of 
 sharing their lives or their incomes with strangers of their 
 sex, but always with those of their own family and blood, males 
 as well as females, the preference if any being to the males. 
 But though under the present system the interests of men and 
 women are made as far as possible identical, the tendency of 
 feminism is to separate them, with a prospect of very ill results 
 for women. 
 
 F. Man's alleged unfairness to women. To those who 
 have not suffered the annoyance of having to read suffragist 
 literature, it will seem almost incredible that even the most 
 unscrupulous of its purveyors would accuse men of general 
 unfairness to women. Nevertheless, they have done so re- 
 peatedly and the charge must therefore be noticed. Indeed it 
 is well that it should be given prominence, so that people may 
 realize the offensive character of some of the incidents of the 
 suffrage movement. Women should always realize that they 
 owe all they are and have to the generosity, love, foresight 
 and ability of men. Most of the harridans and termagants, 
 who in the suffrage agitation have displayed themselves as 
 slanderers and insulters of men, were born and raised in houses 
 built by men, fed and clad with material furnished by men, 
 educated by books written by men, attended schools and col- 
 leges founded and maintained by men, or with money earned 
 by men, are cared for by male physicians, and are now either 
 living on the income of money amassed by men, or are em- 
 ployed by men, from whom they receive the salaries and 
 instructions necessary to enable them to earn a living. 
 
 G. That women's wages in factories and stores are too low 
 and should be higher. No voting or legislation can perma- 
 nently augment the income or comforts of any class of people, 
 or increase women's wages with any good effect. All wages 
 seem low to the recipient and high to the employer. Increased 
 
WOMAN SUFFRAGE IN THEORY 405 
 
 wages usually produce higher rent and higher cost of living; 
 the increased cost of living makes marriage and home life 
 more difficult, and from this women as well as men ultimately 
 suffer. If women generally really believe that their incomes can 
 be increased by voting and legislation, that of itself proves their 
 total unfitness to meddle in government. But suppose that 
 it were possible by legislation to materially increase the wages 
 of factory women and store girls, what would be the ultimate 
 result to the community? A large increase in the number of 
 women taken out of households and put into stores and factory 
 life. No intelligent person believes that this change would 
 really be to the advantage of women as a class, nor doubts 
 that it would be the result of artificially advancing wages of 
 such women above their natural level. 
 
 H. That women should be consulted on new legislation af- 
 fecting marital relations. No such legislation is needed. The 
 marriage status of a couple is not to be regulated by law; it 
 is controlled by social usage, by religion and by sentiment. 
 The only really important legal provision is one dictated by 
 nature and by custom, namely that the husband must sup- 
 port the family. This requirement necessarily involves the 
 right of the husband to seek and select his own vocation, and 
 to choose the style and place of family residence. None of 
 these arrangements can be materially modified without break- 
 ing up the family and the state. That to destroy the family 
 and the state is the tendency of the feminist movement no 
 thinking man can doubt. 
 
 Some of the suffragist agitators, pretending to be moved by 
 a sentimental tenderness for the feelings of mothers, demand 
 that the law be changed so as to give the guardianship of chil- 
 dren to the mother in case of separation of parents. The law 
 as it stands rightly provides that the interests of the child in 
 each particular case, and not the whims or desires of the par- 
 ents, are to be considered as paramount in settling that matter. 
 This is man-made law, and is much more humane and just 
 than anything the suffragists have ever suggested. 
 
406 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 J. That women have special capacity for municipal 
 government because it resembles housekeeping. This argu- 
 ment is an unfortunate one for the suffragists, for if there is 
 one art in which most of them are notoriously inefficient it is 
 in housekeeping. But municipal government is a matter 
 of administrative detail; of business methods combined with 
 highly developed specialized practical science, and not at all 
 like housekeeping. As President Lowell says, "The City Gov- 
 ernment is essentially an administrative, not a legislative con- 
 cern." It is not, therefore, a fit subject for political twaddle 
 and sentimental vaporings such as the suffragists revel in. Nor 
 should city officials be elected by the people under any system 
 of suffrage. They should be appointive and not elective offi- 
 cials; carefully chosen experts; competent to deal with matters 
 of public health, protection against fire, liquor regulation, water 
 supply, disposal of sewage, cleaning and maintenance of streets 
 and bridges, wires and pipes in streets, public lighting, ferries, 
 rapid transit, erection and maintenance of public buildings, 
 wharves and docks, public education, treatment of disease, 
 pauperism and crime, besides the levying assessment and collec- 
 tion of taxes and the financing of thousands and even millions of 
 dollars yearly. Yet suffragists talk of "housekeeping" in cities 
 as if it were a matter of dusting the parlor furniture and laying 
 the table for dinner. How many of them are capable of 
 planning for the water supply, and the disposal of the sewage of 
 a great city, for instance? Here are matters which require to 
 be dealt with by men of practical knowledge and force of char- 
 acter, and who have the wisdom derived from actual experi- 
 ence in finance, engineering, sanitation, medicine, surgery, ped- 
 agogics and law. To say that women as a class are equal or 
 any way near equal to men in knowledge of these subjects or 
 capacity to deal with them is absurd. 
 
 K. That many women have property of their own. The 
 point of this argument lies in the question, why not a property 
 qualification for women as well as for men? The answer is, 
 that as already stated in this volume, the vote is not given to 
 
WOMAN SUFFRAGE IN THEORY 407 
 
 the property but to the property plus the human owner, with 
 his added endowment of experience acquired in its acquisition 
 and care. It is proposed to limit the franchise to this class of 
 men, as on the whole best fitted to exercise it for the benefit of 
 the state. In the case of women, the mere possession of prop- 
 erty does not, as in the case of men, carry with it a general pre- 
 sumption of business experience and ability. The class 
 of women who own property are, no doubt, better voting ma- 
 terial than the propertyless women; but, as a class, they have 
 had far less business and political training than the propertied 
 men. The great majority of propertied women are so merely 
 by inheritance; and are but little more informed in business 
 matters than their servants. Their tastes and predilections do 
 not as a rule extend beyond dress, society, music and household 
 matters. Not having themselves accumulated property, they 
 do not understand property or business rights, and their tem- 
 peraments and circumstances forbid that they shall ever 
 understand them. Women passengers at sea have property 
 and precious lives to be protected, yet they are never allowed 
 even in danger to interfere in the management of the ship. 
 Nor do individual or exceptional cases matter. Legislation 
 must be made to fit classes, not individuals, and therefore ref- 
 erences to George Eliot and Mme. Curie are unconvincing. 
 Alexander Hamilton at eighteen was probably better qualified 
 to vote than many actual voters, but that was no reason for 
 changing the law so as to allow youths to vote. A whole class 
 of incompetents must not be let in merely to get a few intelli- 
 gent votes. The mere fact that so many women are willing that 
 this should be done, proclaims a condition of egotistic stupidity 
 and a lack of patriotism which is appalling. Propertied women 
 should be content to let the propertied men vote for them for 
 a reason similar to that which requires any one of them to 
 give way to a physician's orders in the case of a sick child. 
 
CHAPTER XXIX 
 
 WOMAN SUFFRAGE IN PRACTICE 
 
 IN the year 1918 women were first granted complete suffrage 
 by the great State of New York. The result has not been such 
 as to surprise any thinking man, but it must have astonished 
 the many credulous ones who expected political progress and 
 reform from the fair hands of women, for it has been merely 
 to strengthen the power of the bosses and political rings every- 
 where throughout the state. In New York City, where the 
 dominant political machine is the Tammany Democratic or- 
 ganization, the Tammany vote which in 1917 under manhood 
 suffrage was 314,000 sprang in 1918 to 547,000 and the Tam- 
 many majority was increased by over 100,000, reaching the 
 high figure of 258,000. Fools build houses and wise men live 
 in them. The female suffrage edifice, so toil fully erected day 
 by day for the past fifty years by the feverish and ambitious 
 hands of shrill-voiced lady agitators, is now occupied by the 
 Tammany Ring, composed of hard-headed and experienced 
 men. When they vacate the premises it will be to give place 
 to a rival machine. True, it is, that women are now received 
 into the political party fold; but as servants, not as masters. 
 There is a female organization attachment, but it is strictly of 
 the old orthodox Tammany brand; the vociferous new women 
 are sent to the rear, their voices must not be too loud, there is 
 no place in party ranks for skirted faddists, nor for women who 
 want to lead in a "cause" or "movement." Silence and disci- 
 pline are the rules in machine organizations. Tammany and 
 the New York Republican organization have had published a 
 list of female associate leaders for each assembly district, about 
 thirty-five in all. The names of great female uplifters, the 
 
 408 
 
WOMAN SUFFRAGE IN PRACTICE 409 
 
 leaders, as they foolishly thought themselves, are absent from 
 these rolls, where may be read the names of those whose hus- 
 bands and brothers will carefully transmit to them the orders 
 from headquarters. Thus ends the pipe dream of the suffra- 
 gette "leaders" that they would some day walk in, and take 
 possession of the comfortable seats of the mighty. The arro- 
 gant conceit of a bunch of foolish women, who imagined them- 
 selves to be all-conquering, has received its quietus, and let us 
 be grateful accordingly. Far better submit to the plunderings 
 of the old rings, than to suffer from the antics and Bolshevism 
 of the socialist suffragette combination. 
 
 Passing New York, where the evil results of woman suffrage 
 are only just beginning to show themselves, let us look at Col- 
 orado, where it was adopted in 1892. In 1908 Helen Sumner 
 went to that State to investigate the results of fifteen years of 
 female voting. She was favorable to the cause and her in- 
 quisition was backed by women. The results were published 
 by her in a book where she plainly endeavors to be impartial, 
 notwithstanding her evident suffragette affiliations. In the 
 hope of learning something of the moral effect of the fran- 
 chise, she made thousands of inquiries, without eliciting any- 
 thing favorable, except that voting made women take more 
 interest in politics than before. Miss Sumner considered this 
 an advantage and she puts it thus: 
 
 "Thousands vote; and to every one of these thousands the 
 "ballot means a little broadening in the outlook, a little glimpse 
 "of wider interest than pots and kettles, trivial scandal and 
 "bridge whist." ... "A closer companionship and under- 
 Standing between men and women." 
 
 And so the government of the country must be entrusted 
 to people whose chief interests in life are pots and kettles, 
 scandal, and bridge whist. "Poor things," muses Miss 
 Sumner, "they are so lonesome, and they take no interest in 
 cooking; let them vote, it will divert their minds." Appar- 
 ently she has no pity for the poor men folk, who must pay 
 in high taxes and indigestion the price of this diversion. But 
 
410 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 why stop at this point; the merely going to vote will only 
 give a woman a temporary jolt, scarcely equal to matching a 
 ribbon at the store; why not give her something more exciting; 
 why not pass a law permitting all women to practise medicine 
 or to drive a locomotive, or to shoe horses? Only a compara- 
 tively few would suffer, and it would give the dear women "a 
 little glimpse of wider interest." Or to be fair to both sexes, 
 why not let schoolboys vote; they too might like interesting 
 "glimpses"; and they would thus become accustomed to talk 
 politics with mamma and sister; never mind the harm to the 
 country, it is big and long suffering. Now, when we consider 
 that Miss Sumner is probably a very superior woman, and 
 that as this extract shows, she has no idea whatever of the 
 significance or dignity of the franchise, we may judge how 
 far her less developed sisters are from being qualified for the 
 exercise of the vote. 
 
 Let us consider for a moment what kind of "glimpses of 
 interest and companionship" the Colorado women get by going 
 into politics. Miss Sumner 's inquiries did not lead her to 
 believe that woman's morals were injured, or her affairs neg- 
 lected as a consequence of the mere act of voting. Perhaps 
 not; that large class of either very docile or shrewd women, 
 who march to the polls with husband or father, vote as he 
 directs, and quickly return with him, cannot be said to have 
 suffered much direct harm in the process; nor indeed on the 
 other hand to have got many "glimpses of wider interest." 
 And yet, what of the indirect results? Is it degrading or not 
 to act a lie publicly and solemnly, to deliberately trifle with 
 country and conscience, as one does by voting for people of 
 whom he knows nothing, and for legislation which he does 
 not thoroughly understand? Is it nothing to trifle with a 
 weighty obligation? When a citizen goes to the polls and 
 votes, does he, or does he not, in effect represent and declare, 
 before God and his country, that he has investigated the 
 matter, and that his ballot represents his solemn and true con- 
 viction? And if that declaration be false, if he has no solemn 
 
WOMAN SUFFRAGE IN PRACTICE 411 
 
 or true conviction on the subject, is he, or is he not, acting 
 the part of a perjured rascal and traitor, and can his conscience 
 pass through that ordeal unscathed? Here is food for thought 
 for many a male voter and for nearly all the female voters. 
 
 Miss Sumner learned out there, some interesting particulars 
 of the "broadening in the outlook" and the new "companion- 
 ship" which Colorado women get from exercising the suffrage; 
 and the experience must have astonished some of the decent 
 ones among them till they got used to it. Her book fairly 
 reeks with the tainted atmosphere of female corruption; the 
 whole woman's movement there was steeped in moral filth. 
 Here are her own words (p. 258): 
 
 "Politics in Colorado are at least as corrupt as in other states, 
 and the woman of ideals who goes into political life for reform soon 
 finds, not merely that she is working in the mire, but that she is 
 persona non grata with the habitual denizens of the mire and with 
 those persons who profit by its existence." 
 
 Among the first fruits of woman suffrage in Colorado seems 
 to have been the development of a big batch of female crim- 
 inals. In Arapahoe County in 1900 there were 5284 fraudu- 
 lent registrations of voters of which 3512 were men and 1772 
 women. Seventeen hundred female criminals in one county! 
 There must have been a considerable "broadening in the out- 
 look" for women theretofore accustomed to decent homes; 
 and a "closer companionship" with rogues, and understanding 
 of their devices was no doubt arrived at. In fact Colorado 
 has been said to be the most corrupt electorate in the United 
 States. Of its effects there United States Judge Hailett, a resi- 
 dent of the state, said, "if it were to be done over again the 
 "people of Colorado would defeat woman suffrage by an over- 
 "whelming majority." It stands because politicians are cowards 
 and unscrupulous, and Colorado like other states is ruled by 
 politicians. It has increased political corruption in the state. 
 In 1905 about thirty men were sent to jail in Denver and fined, 
 and in Pueblo there were 257 indictments, all for election 
 
412 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 frauds. It has not diminished political rowdyism. In an 
 article in the Outlook in Januuary 1906, Lawrence Lewis, 
 who studied the subject for several years in Colorado, says 
 that since woman suffrage went into effect, there has been a 
 continuation of the former frauds, drunkenness, fights and 
 arrests for crimes. Referring to the notorious election 
 knaveries committed by both parties in November 1904, the 
 second year of female voting, he says: 
 
 "In Denver neither in November 1904 nor for twenty years has 
 there been an election that decent citizens of either party would un- 
 hesitatingly assert was anywhere near on the square." 
 
 He further says, that in the cities such as Denver, Pueblo, 
 etc., a great number of fallen women vote under the control of 
 the bosses, often under compulsion. 
 
 "It is safe to say that under ordinary conditions and under ordi- 
 nary police administration, ninety per cent of the fallen women in 
 our cities are compelled to register and to vote at least once for the 
 candidates favored by the police or sheriff officers. But in ordinary 
 times these women are also compelled to repeat. ... A former 
 city detective or fine collector in Pueblo has been tried, convicted 
 and sentenced to a term of years in the penitentiary for compelling 
 an unfortunate woman to repeat her registration. He is under further 
 indictments for compelling the same woman to forge fictitious names 
 by the hundreds to district registration sheets, all of which names 
 were to be voted on election day by other fallen women from whom 
 the fellow collected fines." 
 
 Other similar instances are given by the writer in this same 
 article. And he adds that: 
 
 "It would indeed appear that the average character of the actual 
 voting body has either remained unchanged or has been slightly 
 lowered as regards actual political intelligence and discrimination." 
 
 Also this: 
 
 "We have practically (in Colorado) all the forms of graft and 
 misgovernment found elsewhere. Woman's suffrage seems to have 
 
WOMAN SUFFRAGE IN PRACTICE 413 
 
 been neither a preventive, an alleviator, nor a cure for any of our 
 political ills." 
 
 Only about one-third of the Colorado women actually vote, 
 and a great many of them flatly and indignantly refuse to do 
 so. Referring to an election in Colorado, 1910, Miss Seawell 
 
 says: 
 
 "At the election in May, 1910, the sale of women's votes was open 
 and shameless. At each of the 2 1 1 voting precincts in Denver, there 
 were four women working in the interests of the saloon-keepers. 
 These women had previously visited the headquarters of the saloon- 
 keepers and openly accepted each a ten dollar bill for her services. 
 In this and other ways Mr. Barry says he saw about $17,000 paid 
 to women voters, who apparently made no effort to conceal it, as 
 indeed it would have been useless. . . . Such wholesale corruption 
 has probably never been approximated in any city in the United 
 States." 
 
 Robert H. Fuller says that: 
 
 "Some of the worst election frauds ever perpetrated in this coun- 
 try marked the Colorado election of 1904. The character and aver- 
 age intelligence of the voting population, as a whole, have not im- 
 proved in the states where women vote; there has been no improve- 
 ment in the fitness or capacity of the elected public officials." (Gov- 
 ernment by the People.) 
 
 Miss Seawell says that in the election case of Bonynge vs. 
 Shajroth, in the First Congressional District of Colorado, con- 
 taining the City of Denver (Second Session of the Fifty- 
 eighth Congress, H. R. report No. 2705), it appeared that out 
 of 9000 ballots in the boxes there were 6000 fraudulent ones 
 which had been prepared by three men and by one woman. 
 One woman poll clerk voted three times; forgeries were com- 
 mitted by the women; two women arranged to have a fight 
 started so as to distract the attention of the watchers at the 
 polls, while a third woman stuffed the ballot-boxes. Because 
 of this exposure, Shafroth resigned. 
 
 Moral stimulus there certainly could be none in contact with 
 
414 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 this fraud organization which goes by the name of politics in 
 Colorado. Of mental stimulus and "broadening in the out- 
 look" thus to be miraculously achieved by the mere process of 
 selecting one out of two scamps for public office, Miss Sumner 
 was reluctantly compelled to admit, that after all in actual 
 result she found but little. Few people were able to give her 
 any clear reason why they favored woman suffrage nor why 
 they opposed it. It seems likely that all the mental stimulus 
 the Colorado women ever got by entering the mire of politics, 
 they could have obtained at less expense to their delicacy and 
 good manners, by taking part in church fairs, golfing, garden- 
 ing, playing base-ball, walking, lawn tennis, singing schools, 
 literary societies, spelling bees, horseback riding or dancing. 
 And if some of the precious creatures must at any rate be 
 kept amused while the rest of us work, it would be less ex- 
 pensive to the state to provide these amusements at state 
 charge than to permit them to divert their minds by playing 
 with our national welfare, and using poor old Uncle Sam as 
 the object on which to try their various experiments in po- 
 litical quackery. 
 
 Glancing over the New York Evening Post of August 
 27, 1919, the writer was interested to read that a young lady 
 politician, convicted in 1916 of a murder during a political 
 quarrel at Thompson Falls, the victim being one Thomas, also 
 a politician, had been paroled from the Montana State Peni- 
 tentiary. It is reassuring to know that a suffragette murderess 
 actually risks three years confinement (softened no doubt by 
 sympathy) in Montana, the first woman suffrage state, and 
 the one who gave us our first lady "congressman." 
 
 The plain truth is, that the entry of women into politics 
 has brought no promise to the American people of any prac- 
 tical help in any of their real problems. The whole movement 
 bears the stamp of crudeness and mediocrity. Its ideals and 
 operations have been low and its leaders lacking in every 
 quality of greatness. Part of its success is no doubt due to 
 the love of novelty, and the inability in most minds to 
 
WOMAN SUFFRAGE IN PRACTICE 415 
 
 distinguish what is really progress from what is merely 
 blind or foolish experiment. To many superficial people 
 there is a fascination attached to everything which smacks 
 of revolution; because in the past an occasional revolt 
 has been justified, they think it is heroic and noble to take 
 part in any political rumpus. But nothing either noble 
 or heroic was ever in or behind the woman suffrage 
 movement, or has ever come out of it. The really great po- 
 litical agitations have all produced something worth while/ in 
 orators, leaders or authorship; see, for example, the chronicles 
 of the American Revolution or the abolition movement; even 
 the French Revolution, in its compass from Rousseau to Na- 
 poleon, evolved some greatness to offset the mass of rubbish 
 and infamy which it vomited forth. Its political incapables 
 though unfit for any good constructive work were at least able 
 to talk and write with effect; they drew attractive political 
 pictures and proposals, and could promise and speculate in a 
 way to arouse interest. Not so the suffragists. Among po- 
 litical agitators they stand supreme for dullness and stupidity. 
 Looking at their literature one is immediately struck by its 
 cheapness, by its utter lack of noble and patriotic sentiments, 
 by the lack of appeal to broad and elevating motives. We 
 have had thousands of suffragist speeches, and tons of printed 
 literature, and after all, what have they or what has their 
 movement offered to the nation or to the world? Nothing, 
 absolutely nothing. The movement has not produced one idea 
 worthy of the consideration of a well-educated and sensible 
 man; it has apparently been motived by vanity, love of no- 
 toriety and power, and characterized by hysteria; the proposals 
 advanced have been pilfered from socialists and other fanatics; 
 the oratory and literature of the suffragists is characterized by 
 flippant insincerity and unscrupulousness ; progressive legis- 
 lation in which they had no perceptible part is boldly claimed 
 as their work; their leaders often display dense ignorance of 
 the political history of the country, and a sad lack of capacity 
 to understand sound political principles or to sympathize with 
 
41 6 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 anything beyond the popular smartness of the hour. The 
 personnel of their leaders has been commonplace and unin- 
 teresting. Some of them have been sincere fanatics; most of 
 them are political adventuresses. Dr. C. L. Dana says of the 
 movement: "It is adopted as a kind of religion, a holy cult of 
 "self and sex, expressed by a passion to get what they want. 
 "There is no program, no promise, only ecstatic assertions that 
 "they ought to have it and must have it, and of the wonders 
 "that will follow its possession. . . . Measured by fair rules 
 /'of intelligence testing, I should say that the average zealot in 
 "the cause has about the mental age of eleven." (Letter to 
 Miss Chittenden.) During the war with Germany the pa- 
 triotism of many of the leaders was doubtful, and their associ- 
 ates suspicious. And during the progress of the whole 
 agitation, there has been no suggestion of any effort to be 
 made by those women or their followers to stop political graft 
 or corruption, or to raise the standard of politics or of legis- 
 lation. They have had the vote at two annual elections in 
 the great state of New York; what do they offer there? 
 Nothing. Who are their standard bearers and who has benefited 
 by their vote? The most notorious boss and the most noted 
 and powerful political machine in the world. 
 
 The strongest proof, however, of the utter unworthiness of 
 the cause of female suffrage and the meanness of its motives 
 is furnished by the public declarations of its female advocates. 
 Many of these addresses are flavored with half contemptuous, 
 half vicious and altogether impudent and vile sneers at men, 
 and assertions of masculine inferiority, which could not have 
 been readily displayed but by those familiar with households 
 whose men habitually receive at home but scant respect. 
 Those scoffs at men are accompanied by a great show of half 
 hysterical, all gushing, admiration for the mystic excellences 
 of contemporary women, and of contempt for those of the 
 last generation; in fact these female reform leaders usually 
 assume a top-lofty attitude of disdain for our ancestors gen- 
 erally, their work and their ideals. Each of them is of course 
 
WOMAN SUFFRAGE IN PRACTICE 417 
 
 filled with wonder at her own superior wisdom. One cannot 
 help suspecting that most of this display of crudity and 
 egotism is due to the fact that much of the suffragist work 
 was done by newly fledged graduates of female colleges, where 
 uppish young women, largely of the type who dislike home 
 duties, or sometimes it is feared work of any kind, are sent by 
 their parents either to get rid of them for a while, or because it 
 is the thing to do, or to fit them for teaching. As from the 
 college president down, nothing of actual life is known, or ever 
 was known, within the college walls, where everything needed, 
 buildings, endowments, salaries, books, instruments and sus- 
 tenance, is provided by someone else, one can readily imagine 
 the quality of the stuff expounded in these places under the 
 pretence of instruction in sociology, politics and economics, 
 and greedily swallowed by the extremely silly and conceited 
 undergraduates. On leaving college, the best or most for- 
 tunate of these girls, aided by good luck or guided by wise 
 parents, go to work at some useful occupation, and begin to 
 get real lessons in life followed usually by still higher instruc- 
 tion as wives and mothers later on. Of the lazy, rattle- 
 brained, and otherwise good for nothing, a certain percentage 
 find their way every year into the field of female suffrage agi- 
 tation. Some scraps of knowledge they have picked up in the 
 class-room, the value of which they enormously exaggerate in 
 their own minds, and give themselves intellectual airs in con- 
 sequence. Many of them lack sense or judgment sufficient to 
 enable them to appreciate the immense importance of the busi- 
 ness world, the great mental capacity required in dealing with 
 problems of commerce, manufacturing and finance, and feel 
 a certain contempt for business people who take no part in 
 the literary and artistic patter of the day, or who lack taste 
 for trashy new poetry and rubbishy modern novels. The par- 
 ticipation of this class in the "movement" is prompted partly by 
 morbid desire to associate with men; and partly by vanity and 
 a longing for notoriety, and for opportunity to display their 
 own imagined powers. Fools, being afraid of no social or 
 
41 8 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 political problems, walk in where angels fear to tread; and 
 it is no unusual thing to see charming and prudent women 
 reduced to meek silence by these female blatherskites, with 
 their irrelevant harangues about primitive men, cave dwellers, 
 man-made law, dual-sexed insects and female spiders who 
 devour their mates. If the reader doubts that such have been 
 of the class of female suffrage deliverances it will be because 
 he has been fortunate enough not to have heard many of them. 
 Part of the success of the woman suffrage agitation is due to 
 the use of money. Just as the accumulations of the rich are 
 often poured by their sons into channels of profligate folly, so 
 by their widows and daughters they are often turned into 
 ditches of political folly. In countries like England and the 
 United States, where large and small fortunes are constantly 
 being accumulated by hard-working men, and large portions 
 thereof bequeathed to female relatives, there will always be 
 found a certain proportion of the latter who lack the wisdom 
 to properly use their surplus cash; some waste it shamefully; 
 some lose it to sharpers; some bestow it upon worthless and 
 sham benevolences; some squander it to gain notoriety. One 
 carj scarcely imagine any "cause" or "movement" so absurd 
 that people cannot be found to believe in it, or to pretend to 
 do so, and to subscribe to it if properly approached and 
 tempted by visions of celebrity. For the woman suffrage agi- 
 tation sums aggregating very considerable have been thus se- 
 cured in England and America. With this cash a number of 
 poorer women can be employed to do propaganda work and to 
 perpetrate acts of lawlessness. In England they assaulted cab- 
 inet officials and others; they used dynamite, they smashed 
 windows, they broke up public meetings by violence, they 
 practised rowdyism and blackguardism, they attempted even 
 murder. Here, they have allied themselves with anarchists 
 and socialists, enemies of the republic; they have lawlessly in- 
 terrupted public meetings; they publicly affronted the Presi- 
 dent at the Arlington Hotel on April i5th, 1910, a thing never 
 before done in the history of the country; and they subse- 
 
WOMAN SUFFRAGE IN PRACTICE 419 
 
 quently insulted another President, by picketing the White 
 House in an offensive manner for weeks together. They jus- 
 tify this by saying that they were in earnest, and ready to 
 suffer for the cause; and the same has been said by other 
 fanatical criminals. Their course has been such as would 
 have discredited even a good cause in any field but that of 
 politics, where vile and dastardly methods are customary and 
 considered appropriate. 
 
 Up to a few years ago the politicians were accustomed to 
 ridicule the woman suffrage agitation, and for years made it a 
 standing joke at the various state capitals; thus it was for- 
 merly the well known practice of the New York state legisla- 
 tors to deceive and humbug the woman suffrage managers by 
 passing one of their measures in one house, with the under- 
 standing that it would be defeated in the other. But as soon 
 as the movement began to make real headway, the politicians 
 began to favor it, seeing the chance of advantage to them- 
 selves from that course. The only opinion those gentry fear or 
 respect is that backed by organized force or easy money. 
 The suffragists organized and raised immense amounts of 
 cash; their opponents failed to do either and almost ignored 
 the movement. Now, reasoned the politicians, should the 
 suffrage proposals fail nothing will be lost by having supported 
 them; and should they succeed we will have a still more 
 credulous, corrupt and easily managed constituency than 
 before, and may hope for the gratitude and friendship of the 
 suffrage leaders. And now that in sixteen states women have 
 the vote, the politicians on both sides strongly favor woman 
 suffrage, and are one and all ready to swear everlasting devo- 
 tion to the cause of woman. The presidential aspirants dare 
 no longer oppose it. So that judging the future by the past, 
 the cause of woman suffrage has a fair chance of winning in 
 all or most of the states of the Union. It certainly will do so 
 unless there be a strong organized effort to defeat its progress, 
 of which at present no signs are visible. In the political world 
 the most powerful forces are money and fanaticism. The effect 
 
42 O POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 of money is familiar to us all every day. The effect of fanati- 
 cism is equally familiar to readers of history. It produced the 
 Mohammedan Empire, the Crusades, and the Spanish In- 
 quisition, and assisted in the downfall of Spain; it furthered 
 the Mormon political sway; the violent abolition of slavery; 
 the prohibition movement; the woman suffrage agitation and 
 Bolshevism. That female suffrage is the last important step 
 in the downward march of the American democracy is the 
 belief of the writer of this book. If at this point the reaction 
 does not begin, the democratic regime in this country is doomed 
 to final failure, and even to possible overthrow at the hands of 
 red radicalism. 
 
CHAPTER XXX 
 
 A PROPERLY QUALIFIED ELECTORATE WILL REMOVE THE CAUSES 
 OF THE PREVALENT POPULAR DISSATISFACTION AND SERVE 
 AS A DEFENSE AGAINST THE PRESENT MENACE OF 
 BOLSHEVISM. 
 
 THE institution of unlimited suffrage is favorable to the 
 various radical, anti-social movements which for convenience 
 sake may here be conjointly designated as Bolshevism. It is 
 thus favorable in three important particulars, one being a mat- 
 ter of principle and the two others matters of practice. The 
 error in principle is the adoption of the theory of numbers as the 
 sole source of political authority, in direct disregard of the 
 just claims of property and property rights, and resultingly 
 to the detriment of efficiency, justice and civilization. That the 
 scheme of government by mere numbers is Bolshevik in charac- 
 ter is plain enough. It had its origin in the French Terror which 
 was a Bolshevik regime. It accords no direct representation 
 or place in government to property or the rights of property; 
 which are left to take their chance in the shuffle of politics. 
 As long as property is deprived of its proper place in the consti- 
 tution of our government and is denied representation in the 
 electorate, it is an alien, without security for its existence; and 
 only here by sufferance. Bolshevism, which actually deprives 
 private property of all right to exist, goes further than unlimited 
 suffrage which merely ignores it, but both are upon the same 
 track, and move in the same direction. The second particular 
 in which manhood suffrage has favored Bolshevism is by 
 corrupting and degrading the operations of American democ- 
 racy and bringing into disrepute as has been shown. And 
 third, it has aided Bolshevism by admitting an anti-social 
 element into the electorate and thus decreasing the offensive 
 
 421 
 
422 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 and defensive power of the democratic regime, as has also 
 been shown. 
 
 And now that we are under the menace of Bolshevism, let 
 us for one moment consider the extent and the character of that 
 menace. It has seized a large part of Russia; it has found a 
 lodging in Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the United 
 States, and threatens every democratic nation where democracy 
 is inefficient. It is an organized and widespread attempt at 
 the destruction of property and of all who own property; of 
 society and civilization and of all who support society and 
 civilization. It is not a new or a momentary phenomenon. 
 Though operating under new names it is as old and 
 persistent as ignorance and brutality. Over five centuries ago 
 it appeared in England in Wat Tyler's insurrection identical 
 in spirit with the French Revolutionary Terror which from 
 1789 to 1798 ravaged France and has been the source of nearly 
 all her subsequent misfortunes. By its violent actions and 
 reactions it became the indirect yet certain cause of the des- 
 potic rule and constant wars of the time of Napoleon I. and 
 of the Franco-Prussian war of 1870, which left France again 
 almost ruined; and it reappeared in the horrors of the Paris 
 commune in 1871. Let not the reader of moderate means and 
 large selfishness solace himself with the thought that, should it 
 obtain here, though our great capitalists may suffer, he will 
 escape. The finish of capitalists is the end of capital; and 
 the end of capital is the finish of us all. And the reader's 
 interest in this matter measured by the extent of his personal 
 peril is probably nearly equal to that of any of his richer neigh- 
 bors. In France in 1793 the Terrorists spared no one who was 
 respectable. The only safety was to go in rags or to join the 
 revolutionary army. People were slain because they were 
 clergymen or nuns; because they were prosperous; because 
 their friends were prosperous; because they were conservative 
 in opinion or well dressed; because they were religious; because 
 they were suspected of any of these things. Some of the Reds 
 of that day were planning to butcher half of France, when 
 
REMEDY FOR POPULAR UNREST AND BOLSHEVISM 423 
 
 stopped by Napoleon's timely usurpation. The Bolsheviki of 
 today are if possible more ignorant, cruel, brutal and murder- 
 ous than the French radicals of a century ago. It is their 
 declared intention to do away with all but the laboring classes, 
 who they say should alone enjoy the fruits of the earth. They 
 repudiate all private property rights, and consider property 
 owners, great and small, as public enemies. The right to own 
 and hold private property is therefore now openly and fiercely 
 challenged throughout the world, and the challenge must be 
 accepted just as Germany's challenge was accepted. The en- 
 tire structure of our civilization is endangered by this attack. 
 Without private property neither the home nor the family can 
 exist; when private property is abolished chaos will come 
 again. 
 
 Bolshevism has obtained a lodgment in the United States. 
 We must disabuse our minds of the notion that this is a foreign 
 menace which can be got rid of by deporting a hundred or a 
 few hundred aliens a year. Bolshevism is a theory; a state 
 of mind likely to appear in any race of people under certain 
 circumstances. The so-called Independent Workers of the 
 World (I.W.W.s) are largely native Americans. Under the 
 present or any other social system including the ownership 
 of private property, the capable, saving and industrious will 
 have, and the others will lack; and as those who lack are 
 frequently deficient in morals and judgment as well as in 
 prudence and industry, there will be envy, covetousness and 
 discontent; which being joined to a profound ignorance of 
 economic law, will produce Bolshevism. All these elements 
 are here in America, where the enemies of society have some- 
 times shown themselves in force, even in the last century; for 
 instance, in Shay's rebellion in Massachusetts in the year 
 1790. Heretofore, their numbers have been small, owing to 
 our peculiar circumstances, notably our immense land offer- 
 ings to all comers; but times have changed, and American 
 Bolshevism is here under conditions which make it a serious 
 menace. 
 
424 POPULAR MISGOVERN MENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 Let not the reader fool himself with the prophecy that the 
 spirit of Bolshevism will disappear from Europe with the ad- 
 vent of spelling books and newspapers into the homes of 
 European laborers, artisans and peasants. Quite the con- 
 trary. As well expect good family morals to come from read- 
 ing obscene literature, as expect good business or political 
 principles to issue from most of the rubbish printed by the 
 decadents of today. The Bolshevik leaders are often literary 
 men. It is not the lack of spelling and reading, but the want of 
 sound economic principles that characterizes the assassins of 
 Society; and the only school which provides popular instruc- 
 tion in true economics is the school of business, which Bol- 
 shevism is determined utterly to destroy. 
 
 Neither must we count on Bolshevism dying out of itself 
 here, for lack of congenial soil or atmosphere. People love 
 to imagine miracles, and we hear a lot of nonsense about 
 America's wonderful power of assimilating foreigners; as if 
 there was some marvelous quality in our air to change the 
 ideas and disperse the prejudices of immigrants. The fact 
 is, that many of the so-called American qualities are merely 
 such human characteristics as develop everywhere under con- 
 ditions of well-repaid industry. The acquisition of property 
 operates very quickly in every country, to modify the habits 
 and character of any man previously poor; and the real cause 
 of the personal changes referred to under the phrase "national 
 assimilation" is material prosperity. In this new and open 
 country, just as in Australia and South America, there has 
 been great opportunity to turn energy into cash; and the 
 foreigners whom we readily assimilated were those who made 
 money, and became very like prosperous Americans. They 
 have been educated in the business school, and they will never 
 be Bolshevists. But the class of immigrants who remain 
 paupers will not be so easily converted to a doctrine which 
 offers them nothing; and they will find leaders in the group 
 which, though acquainted with books, is inefficient in business, 
 unsuccessful and discontented. And the pauperized, defeated, 
 
REMEDY FOR POPULAR UNREST AND BOLSHEVISM 425 
 
 shiftless classes of Americans are likely to turn to Bolshevism, 
 for the same reasons as foreigners under the same circum- 
 stances. Men who are failures in life, no matter what their 
 nationality, are not to be trusted to do justice to the successful 
 ones, nor to vote to protect property or property rights. 
 Wherever the principles of political economy are not under- 
 stood, there is a field for Bolshevism; and they are not under- 
 stood by the working classes in the United States. The propa- 
 ganda of organized discontent is very active among us; and 
 its activities are not likely to diminish. Thousands of Ameri- 
 cans, disappointed in life, are also disappointed at seeing their 
 government in the clutches of an oligarchy of sordid politi- 
 cians. And these conditions may grow worse with the growth 
 and expansion of industry and commerce, with the increase of 
 legislative meddling with business, and the increasing tendency 
 of business acting in self-protection to endeavor to improperly 
 control legislation and politics. If nothing be done to remedy 
 this state of things who knows how many Americans will be 
 found to be on the side of the Bolsheviki when the time comes 
 for a settlement of the question between us and them? 
 
 There is cause for a serious apprehension of an attack by 
 organized Bolshevism upon our democracy if proper measures 
 are not adopted to further protect property rights, and if the 
 present political oligarchical misgovernment is permitted to 
 continue unchecked. In that day it may be that in the large 
 cities the enemies of the social order will be championed by 
 one or two yellow newspapers, and their cause be taken up 
 by one of the political organizations. The result might be 
 such as to make the property classes regret their apathy. The 
 material for an efficient radical political army already exists 
 in the organized controllables who now manage the primaries 
 under direction of the bosses; in the politically unattached 
 hordes of irresponsible city voters; in the village loafers; in 
 the immense number of irresponsible women politically and 
 economically ignorant and easily moved to violent emotion. 
 There are at this moment in every city in the United States 
 
426 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 hundreds of writers, school teachers, and college educated 
 youths of both sexes, superficial, fluent of speech, ambitious, 
 ready for anything; and as ignorant of economic law as a 
 common laborer. Of such would be the leaders of the Bol- 
 sheviki movement. On the other hand the able youth of 
 America, the well-educated, gifted young business men, those 
 of high ideals, patriotic, disinterested, energetic; those of the 
 class upon whom every country should rely for its working 
 leadership in civics, are mostly unavailable to defend society in 
 such an emergency, because they are untrained in public affairs, 
 unknown to the public; have been kept in the rear out of 
 sight; not permitted to seek public employment; the places 
 they ought to fill occupied by the cheap tools of the machine; 
 most of them indifferent to politics; despising its incidents; 
 scarcely willing to vote. From them no quick help could be 
 expected in such a case. 
 
 As for the political oligarchical managers at present in 
 power, from them no aid can ever be expected in any good 
 cause. They are mere time-servers. In fact the politician is 
 the natural enemy of the propertied and capitalistic class. 
 Already, there are plain indications that the universal suffrage 
 governing oligarchy stands ready to sacrifice American prop- 
 erty rights. For example, the Vice President of the United 
 States once said in a public speech in the hearing of the 
 writer that there is no natural right in children to inherit from 
 their parents. Here is a glimpse of a politician's heaven; 
 where all the property in this country will be at the behest 
 of these organized brigands. In fact, a step in the direction of 
 confiscation of private property has already been taken, both 
 here and in England, by the enactment of the lately invented 
 Inheritance Tax Laws. Consider how that so-called tax can 
 be made a ready means of Mexicanizing the nation by confis- 
 cating a large part of its accumulated capital, and by destroy- 
 ing at the same time much of the incentive to future accumu- 
 lations. A nation which is supported by inheritance taxes is 
 like a spendthrift living off his capital whose ultimate ruin is 
 
REMEDY FOR POPULAR UNREST AND BOLSHEVISM 427 
 
 therefore sure. Let a large fortune pass three times through 
 the Probate Court, which might easily happen in twenty years, 
 and about half of it is gone in taxes, to be dissipated, squan- 
 dered and stolen by politicians. The taste of blood is good 
 to a hungry beast. After despoiling large fortunes they are 
 already beginning to attack smaller ones. A full treasury 
 encourages waste, and so it goes on. How many of the ne'er 
 do wells whom universal suffrage calls to the polls, are aware 
 or could possibly be made to realize, the value of stored up 
 capital, or to understand that the accumulations of money 
 called private fortunes which are thus being broken up and 
 wasted, are the only sources from which enterprise is daily 
 being fed, and millions of workmen and workwomen employed 
 and paid? 
 
 Under a universal suffrage regime, government leadership 
 in opposition to Bolshevism cannot be relied upon, and with- 
 out such leadership it is doubtful if proper resistance to Bol- 
 shevism can be expected at the hands of the American people. 
 They are utterly destitute of political power, are without organ- 
 ization and guidance or the material for either. They have 
 never been able to effectually resist the bosses; politically they 
 are a lot of sheep, accustomed to say "baa" and to follow the 
 old bell wethers. It is probable that any party organization 
 having control of the election and governmental machinery 
 could speedily, if it chose, put the proletariat in possession of 
 the government of the manufacturing states, such as New York, 
 Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and Illinois. In case of gov- 
 ernment ownership of transportation and intelligence utilities, 
 the party in power might, in aid of this purpose, get control 
 of a couple of million additional votes. After that, who knows 
 what next? It might then be too late for us to throw off the 
 yoke; like the French of 1793, like the Russians of today, we 
 might find ourselves a subjugated people. People say that in 
 the end truth and justice must triumph; but that phrase "in 
 the end" is portentous. The end of Bolshevism might be de- 
 layed for a half century of wasteful struggle, wherein the 
 
428 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 immediate generation and most of its belongings would prob- 
 ably perish. 
 
 To successfully meet the Bolshevist attacks whether made 
 by propaganda or violence, we should thoroughly cleanse our 
 politics and restore our government to its original high place in 
 the respect of the people. It was said in our first chapter 
 that the American democracy has not fulfilled its early prom- 
 ise of creating a government popular in the sense of good and 
 economical public service. Had the political record of the first 
 forty years of the Republic been equalled by that of the fol- 
 lowing ninety, it is possible that our example would have saved 
 the world from organized Bolshevism. We may choose to 
 shut our eyes to the story of corruption and inefficiency out- 
 lined in the foregoing pages, but the rest of the world has not 
 failed to read it and to comment on it. Large numbers of the 
 discontented classes of Europe have interpreted that dismal 
 chronicle to mean the failure of democracy, and have turned 
 to red radicalism. It is notorious that the principal leaders of 
 Russian Bolshevism are native Russians who have lived in 
 America; and the accounts of the falling off of democracy 
 within this country, which were carried back home by them, 
 and by thousands of their countrymen here, no doubt featured 
 largely in the spread of Bolshevik doctrines there. They had 
 heard the praises of American democracy trumpeted abroad, 
 and they came here to see and take part in its perfect work; 
 they found the country in the hands of sordid, corrupt and in- 
 efficient politicians, and they turned from democracy in despair. 
 Seeing the misuse of money in our politics, they decided that 
 the power of money should be abolished altogether. Like our- 
 selves, they overlooked completely the fact that the real cause 
 of the diseased condition of our American political life is not 
 the purchasing power of money, but the existence of a pur- 
 chasable electorate. Recently a man wrote to a New York 
 daily paper, urging that the way to win immigrants to love 
 America, was to teach them the lessons of patriotism found in 
 American history. This patriotic writer only thought of his- 
 
REMEDY FOR POPULAR UNREST AND BOLSHEVISM 429 
 
 tory as found in the school treatises, and utterly ignored the 
 fact that these immigrants are actually learning contemporary 
 American history every day from our newspapers. He wanted 
 them, he said, to be told of Washington, Franklin and Robert 
 Morris. But the immigrant soon learns that not only are 
 those great men dead, but that their successors in power are 
 and are likely to continue to be, a lot of ignorant, greedy and 
 unscrupulous modern politicians. As well tell the modern 
 Greek to be satisfied with political rascality there, because Aris- 
 tides the Just lived in Athens thousands of years ago. 
 
 No one can doubt that a similar feeling of political disap- 
 pointment with the workings of our government, of hatred and 
 contempt for our oligarchy of politicians, of want of faith in 
 the honesty, integrity, ability and earnestness of those in power, 
 is largely responsible for the progress of American socialism, 
 for other organized protests against the democratic system 
 and for that phenomenon frequently referred to as "popular 
 unrest." 
 
 Elihu Root in the North American Review for December, 
 1919, refers to Roosevelt, when president about twelve years 
 ago, as recognizing the existence of this popular dissatisfaction, 
 that "a steadily certainly growing discontent was making its 
 "way among the people of our country" and that millions were 
 "then beginning to feel that our free institutions were failing." 
 But Roosevelt was too much of a politician himself to dare to 
 touch the real sore spot, or to propose to cut out the cancer, 
 and neither Root nor Roosevelt, nor any other noted politician 
 has assigned any adequate cause for the unrest of these times. 
 The fact is that the public has come to despise in its heart a 
 political system in which weakness and rascality are so promi- 
 nent. Roosevelt went up and down, says Root, making fran- 
 tic appeals for obedience to law. The American people, of 
 whom there are millions just as honest and common-senseful 
 as Roosevelt, know that the law must be obeyed as a practical 
 rule of business ; but they refuse to implicitly believe in the wis- 
 dom, honesty or sanctity of statutes and ordinances promul- 
 
430 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 gated by an oligarchy of place-hunting politicians. There is 
 no substantial difference between the attitude towards this oli- 
 garchy taken by the thrifty honest working class and that of 
 the honest mercantile or professional class; they are all dissatis- 
 fied with our governmental system for the same reason; namely, 
 because it is morally and intellectually unworthy of the Ameri- 
 can people. Jealousy of great fortunes has been mentioned as 
 a possible cause of the popular discontent. But the bulk of 
 the American people are not so meanly and stupidly envious as 
 that suggestion would imply. They are no more inclined to envy 
 a man his honestly acquired wealth than his superior health, 
 strength, musical talent or the acquisition of a foreign language. 
 The honest rich live plainly; they work hard and they give 
 munificently and wisely; they are not in power; the people 
 know it and would much prefer them to the ruling horde which 
 now afflicts us. Roosevelt himself was in the eyes of the masses 
 a rich man, but he was very popular and all the more so 
 because he was known to be pecuniarily independent. The 
 cause of the public dissatisfaction is not the doings of the rich, 
 but the misdoings of the grafting politicians. The latter go 
 about wondering at the cause of what they call "unrest," when 
 they themselves are that cause. The intelligent workers of 
 modest incomes, farmers, mechanics, traders, professional 
 men, clerks, etc., see with their own eyes a lot of ignorant, sor- 
 did knaves obtain undeserved public offices and honors and 
 graft themselves into wealth, and they partly envy and com- 
 pletely dislike and despise the whole lot. Thence it follows 
 that transactions between the politicians and business men of 
 all kinds become distrusted by the public, who are ready to 
 suspect all railroad and other corporations, all importing and 
 manufacturing interests which are affected by legislation or 
 governmental action, whether tariff, taxation, rate regulation 
 or otherwise, of bribery, fraud and corruption in all trans- 
 actions with government or wherein government officials are 
 concerned. The people are also dissatisfied because the office- 
 holding class is weak and lacking in dignity and firmness. 
 
REMEDY FOR POPULAR UNREST AND BOLSHEVISM 431 
 
 The attitude of a public official with his ear to the ground is 
 low and brings him into contempt. The public finds too 
 much smartness and cleverness and too little manly pride and 
 directness in our machine-made rulers. They find that they 
 lack courage to do affirmative justice with due speed; that 
 they are able to do nothing without first being assured of a 
 majority at their backs. Their decisions are governed not 
 by the application of principles but by a process of additions 
 and subtractions; they are not leaders of the people but fol- 
 lowers of the rabble. And this slavish cowardice has been in- 
 creased since the votes of women are being sought by new 
 forms of pandering. If we want the people to respect and 
 love the government we must give them one worthy of respect 
 and love. To ensure the loyalty and devotion of the immi- 
 grant as well as of the native, we must make our political in- 
 stitutions as nearly perfect as possible; we must offer for the 
 support of the American people a government like that of 
 the Fathers; pure, patriotic and efficient, one that can com- 
 mand respect as well as enforce obedience. 
 
 We have reaffirmed our belief in democracy as a method 
 of government and have asked the rest of the world to accept 
 it, and we are therefore called upon to point to a method for 
 its practical operation. The only method heretofore found 
 practical, the only one we are prepared to offer, is representa- 
 tive government. Unless that system can be made to work 
 well the experiment of democracy will have been a practical 
 failure. We are bound to see to it that this does not happen, 
 that representative government be made a working success, 
 that it operate with justice, efficiency, economy and humanity. 
 That it has not heretofore operated here or in any part of the 
 world with anything near perfect satisfaction is admitted by 
 its strongest supporters. The friends of democracy are there- 
 fore called upon to correct the situation; in the slang of the 
 day, "it is up to us to make good." This is a part of the 
 national and world work which we Americans have under- 
 taken; it is a continuation of the enterprise of making the 
 
432 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 world "safe for democracy." Should it fail hereafter it will 
 be as though it had failed in the German war, and the world 
 would be left to Autocracy, Socialism and Bolshevism to divide 
 between them. It is the claim of the enemies of representa- 
 tive democracy, who are numerous, and many of them very 
 intelligent, that it never can be made successful; that it has 
 failed not only in France, Italy, Spain and Greece but in 
 Great Britain and the United States; and that its failure is 
 due to lack of quality in the electorate, that is to say, in the 
 mass of the population. And these critics are no doubt so far 
 right, that whatever may be the practical shortcomings of the 
 system of representative government they are due to that very 
 cause. Therefore, it is plainly our business to make repre- 
 sentative government a success by the only method practicable 
 or possible, namely, by a reform, elevation and purification of 
 the electorate. 
 
 Our second step in the way of preparation to meet the 
 menace of Bolshevism is to take a definite stand for property 
 rights, based upon the plain doctrine that our government is 
 designed and intended to protect American civilization ex- 
 pressed as all civilization is expressed, in terms of property. 
 If we did not believe that, if it were not true, then we might 
 as well at once surrender to Bolshevism. But it is not enough 
 that it is accepted as true by all the wise and thoughtful among 
 us. To meet the exigency now before us we must formulate 
 that doctrine, proclaim it, make a creed of it, and teach it 
 to our children and to the ignorant. We cannot expect to de- 
 stroy Bolshevism by merely using strong language about it. 
 Its strength is partly due to its courage and consistency. To 
 oppose it we must be courageous and consistent. We must meet 
 the attack on property by arming property with weapons of 
 self-defense. Political attack must be met by political action. 
 When fundamentals are assailed foundations must be strength- 
 ened. We must weave property rights into the very fabric of 
 our political life and make them an essential part of Ameri- 
 canism. Seven-eighths of our adult men are owners of or in- 
 
REMEDY FOR POPULAR UNREST AND BOLSHEVISM 433 
 
 terested in property. They should take steps to make their 
 rights therein absolutely secure by creating a private property 
 electorate. Universal suffrage, manhood suffrage, and every 
 other similar anti-social heresy should be expunged from our 
 statute books. Manhood suffrage which formerly spelled 
 merely thievery and plundering, now spells destruction. And 
 female suffrage is even worse, a plain, palpable, odious and 
 contemptible humbug and abomination, a malignant source 
 of peril. The fight against Bolshevism can only be conducted 
 on principles which exclude from the ballot box every form 
 of practical inefficiency. There is no place for ignorance, de- 
 pendency, and sentimentalism, feminine or other, in an effi- 
 cient democracy. 
 
CHAPTER XXXI 
 
 THE CASE is URGENT; THERE SHOULD BE NO DELAY 
 
 WHATEVER IN ESTABLISHING THIS GOVERNMENT UPON 
 A PROPERTY BASIS. 
 
 ANY demand for a qualified suffrage is certain to be met 
 by a plea for delay. The temptation to postpone action is 
 natural and springs at once to the heart of almost every man 
 whose judgment counsels him to undertake anything new and 
 troublesome. There is, too, an immense party interested in 
 maintaining the present corrupt regime; including the politi- 
 cians, office holders, political heelers and featherhead agitators, 
 and a considerable predatory band who live off the pickings 
 and stealings of politics. In opposing any effort to establish 
 a voters' property qualification these will be supported by 
 some honest believers in the present system, as there are 
 honest believers in all established systems; including in this 
 case multitudes of visionaries and the inexperienced, especially 
 the young. Even some of those most willing to admit the mis- 
 chiefs attendant upon universal suffrage will make the plea 
 of delay for delay's sake; the plea of the indolent, the inert, 
 the timid, the weak, the hesitating. The first answer to this 
 plea is that the importance of the matter will not admit of 
 delay. The health of the nation is involved, and with a nation 
 as with a man the question of health is one of life itself. When 
 the body is ill and suffering a deadly and poisonous infection 
 not an hour's delay should be tolerated in applying the neces- 
 sary corrective. Who can say how soon the man or the nation 
 may have to meet an attack that will strain his or its strength 
 to the very utmost? Next, it is to be realized that there is 
 no proposal of an alternative remedy; and no delay therefore 
 
 434 
 
THE CASE IS URGENT 435 
 
 is needed for the purpose of choice. No writer or publicist so 
 much as suggests any other different medicine or treatment, 
 nor is it possible to do so. The cause of the mischief is unlim- 
 ited suffrage, and nothing but the removal of the cause will 
 avail. There remains to be considered the appeal of those 
 who say "leave it to time" to improve the situation. If there 
 be those who really expect relief in this matter from the pas- 
 sage of time and from the changes that time unaided may 
 bring, they are much mistaken. The same causes which have 
 heretofore produced the mischiefs complained of are still opera- 
 tive and will continue to operate; they include the power of 
 organization, human cupidity, and the existence of a control- 
 lable class of voters. The first two of these are permanent and 
 continuous forces; the latter is what we propose to abolish. 
 The political oligarchies never were as strong as they are to- 
 day; the dearth of great and good men in political life was 
 never so great as now; all the mischiefs referred to in this 
 volume are in full blast, if not in one place then in another. 
 One looks in vain into newspapers, books or magazines, one 
 listens in vain to political speeches or private talks for any 
 definite promise or even suggestion of relief from any quarter. 
 The general attitude seems to be that nothing can be done to 
 improve the situation. Each reader of this book is therefore 
 warned that it is for him or some one like him to make the 
 start. This book is an offering to the cause; who will follow 
 it up by action? 
 
 The professional reformers dare not attack universal suf- 
 frage; they are nearly all office-seekers, open or conceded. 
 The writers on American politics and government are generally 
 careful to ignore the evils of the system, so they cannot pos- 
 sibly urge its removal. In fact, the reader needs to be warned 
 against most of them as blind guides; the more apparently 
 respectable are the more timid and time serving; unable to 
 entirely overlook the grievous condition of affairs, they care- 
 fully avoid criticism offensive to popular vanity and to the 
 powers that be; they flatter us by pretending to ascribe 
 
436 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 the actual and notorious failure of our democracy to 
 the careless generosity of our national character. They 
 prattle of American good nature, national optimism, easy-going 
 tolerance; of our engrossment in business, and of American 
 "fatalism," all of which nonsense is supposed to account in a 
 manner rather to our credit for our submission to plunder and 
 misrule. There are other explanations equally amusing. We 
 are told with an air of profundity that these rascalities have 
 been permitted because of peculiar circumstances; from 1860 
 to 1870 it was because of slavery agitation and the Civil War; 
 that people were too busy agitating and fighting to watch the 
 thieves. In the very next breath we are told that in the Civil 
 War the "moral forces" were in possession of the nation. For 
 the next decade the excuse is that we were immersed in great 
 speculations and so on. But these explanations really explain 
 nothing; they fail to explain why our official guardians and 
 rulers systematically rob us whenever we are too busy to 
 watch them, nor why they are not replaced b)' people who can 
 be trusted. These expounders proclaim that the people need 
 only to "arise in their might" and the corruption of three gen- 
 erations will become incorruption. When at any election one 
 political ring goes out and another comes in they utter childish 
 blasts of triumph. One wonders, inexperienced as some of 
 these so called publicists are, whether they really can them- 
 selves believe such rubbish. After the explosion of some su- 
 perlative political scandal they can often be heard telling the 
 public that all will come right by and by; which means that 
 we have only to continue to sit patiently and let ourselves be 
 fleeced until the kind fairies bring good times. We are sup- 
 posed to be very easily sootheJ and perhaps we are. Bryce, 
 for instance, who as a political radical has been trained to 
 give ear to the bellowing of the vox populi, speaking of our 
 rascal legislators, tells us reassuringly that "if before a mis- 
 chievous bill passes, its opponents can get the attention of the 
 people fixed upon it, its chances are slight." (Vol. II, p. 369.) 
 As though one should say to a merchant, "Don't worry about 
 
THE CASE IS URGENT 437 
 
 your clerk robbing you, any time you actually catch him 
 stealing he'll stop; he won't persist in that particular theft 
 anyhow; he'll just be compelled to drop that and wait for a 
 chance at something else." From all which it appears as a 
 result of all these discussions that no one pretends to see any 
 definite prospect of substantial improvement or alleviation. In 
 all the ten thousand pages on American government written 
 by a score of authors, domestic and foreign, not one is able 
 to say that we have an honest, decent or efficient governmental 
 system, and not one offers any definite scheme for practical 
 relief. On all sides we are told that there is little to do but 
 to believe and hope. 
 
 As far as this hope can be said to refer to anything specific 
 or to be more than mere sighing wishfulness which profiteth 
 nothing, it is founded on belief in the educational work of 
 the schools and the vague notion that thereby all the people 
 will some time become so good and so well informed that man- 
 hood suffrage will be pure, safe and efficient. This hope is 
 all moonshine. The mentally deficient and the ignorant will 
 always be with us. There will always be upper, middle and 
 lower classes as long as private property endures and free 
 play is given to human activities; that is to say as long as 
 our American civilization prevails. In the march of life some 
 will always be in the front and some hopelessly in the rear. 
 Faster than the increase of the information of the common 
 man and the development of his mentality will proceed the 
 growth of the great body of human knowledge; and the 
 greater therefore will be the comparative ignorance of the 
 ordinary citizen. The wealth, education, refinement, mental 
 power, efficiency and achievement of the gifted will always 
 far exceed those of the common people; and the distance be- 
 tween the efficient and the inefficient, the dullards and the 
 intellectuals will probably become even greater and greater 
 as time goes on. Though ordinary information will become 
 more widespread, the science of government as well as other 
 sciences will continue year by year in the future as in the 
 
438 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 past to become more complicated; and more and more as the 
 years pass it will be found essential that the hands which 
 operate the machinery of state shall be skilled to the very 
 utmost. Meantime envy, prejudice, cupidity, neglect, intol- 
 erance and imprudence will continue to be human qualities, 
 pushing men downward physically and morally; disease and 
 misfortune will continue to do their work in the world, and a 
 century from now it will be more dangerous even than today 
 to trust men of the least developed or more unfortunate classes 
 to select competent and trustworthy managers of the business 
 of government. The future as far as can now be seen will 
 not of itself give us relief from our present misgovernment; 
 the action of our own hands and brains must be invoked for 
 that purpose. Of that action there should be neither delay 
 nor postponement. Our plight needs a remedy and needs 
 it now. 
 
CHAPTER XXXII 
 
 CONCLUSION 
 
 HERE, in the last chapter, seems to be an appropriate place 
 to anticipate and reply to a few prospective objections. 
 
 Objection that the project is undemocratic. This assumes 
 that universal suffrage is a democratic institution; but in 
 practise it operates to the contrary as has already been shown. 
 The prospect practically offered by the property qualification 
 project, is the democratic one of the door of political oppor- 
 tunity opened to that honest ability which is now by the ma- 
 chines and rings excluded from a public career. So much 
 for the practical test. Looking at the project in the abstract, 
 it is satisfying to the democratic mind, whether viewed in the 
 light of high principle, of idealism, of nature's law, or of demo- 
 cratic policy. It recognizes and rewards merit, it puts a 
 premium on industry and capacity, and thus satisfies a prin- 
 ciple. Its ideal is noble; it is that of the creation of a high 
 grade of citizenship, the establishment of a democracy of 
 virtue and talent. It conforms to nature's law by preferring 
 the fittest; by creating order in the ranks of citizenship; by 
 putting government into the hands of those whom nature 
 herself has selected as competent. It accords with demo- 
 cratic policy because it will give democracy more strength 
 and more wisdom; because it is progressive, and calculated 
 to encourage progress; because it glorifies citizenship by mak- 
 ing it a token of distinction; because it at once makes its 
 active citizenship select by excluding the unworthy, and at 
 the same time, open and free to all, by inviting all to qualify 
 to exercise it. It will create a true majority rule; for the new 
 electorate will undoubtedly constitute a great majority in 
 numbers of the men of the country; and will represent prac- 
 
 439 
 
44O POPULAR MISGOVERN MENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 tically all its civilization, education, talent, energy and ability. 
 It will give the humble his due which is opportunity to rise; 
 he is entitled to no more. To the poor man of capacity the 
 door to the voting booth will be as wide open as the free high 
 school door is to his son; the entrance in either case is for 
 those who can qualify and the terms are the same for all. To 
 admit the unqualified would not benefit them, while it would 
 harm those who are properly inside. Only the shiftless and 
 worthless poor are permanently excluded. The industrious 
 thrifty poor man is only postponed; and he will know that 
 when he does enter by virtue of achievement, he will possess 
 something worth while, something of value; he will be an 
 active citizen, and his suffrage will not be offset and nullified 
 by the purchased vote of a worthless loafer. 
 
 Objection that the proposal is oppressive. It would be op- 
 pressive if it were arbitrary, or unreasonable, or personal; but 
 it is none of these. It is a greater hardship to be discharged 
 from a job than to be prevented from voting at a public elec- 
 tion; and if a man can properly be discharged for incompe- 
 tency, he can certainly be deprived of his vote for incapacity, 
 under a rule which applies to all under similar circumstances. 
 
 The objection that the project will be barren of results is 
 sure to be made. But good results will surely issue from it 
 unless the whole conception of this volume is a mistake. It 
 was within the purpose of some of the master-minds of the re- 
 public's early days to direct the nation in the paths of true and 
 scientific Federal achievement. The far-reaching plans of 
 Washington and John Quincy Adams for the development of 
 mutually interacting national systems of industrial, trans- 
 portational and educational development were finally defeated 
 by the ignorant and tiger-like rapacity of the Jacksonian man- 
 hood suffrage bands. (Degradation of the Democratic Dog- 
 ma; Brooks Adams, p. 13-62.) But those noble though 
 aborted schemes at least serve to indicate the great possibilities 
 belonging to pure and scientific government. In Fed- 
 eral affairs we may confidently expect a return to the pure 
 
CONCLUSION 441 
 
 and noble traditions of the old Federal government of the 
 second Adams and his predecessors, when the democratic prin- 
 ciple was infused with the aristocratic passion for excellence; 
 and our representatives will then be qualified to consider and 
 deal with national questions with ability and intelligence, and 
 a patriotism such as has not been in political operation in this 
 country for ninety years. Some of the direct benefits 
 of the reform may be expected to appear in the 
 most striking and satisfactory possible manner, in the 
 complete reconstruction of our state legislatures, and our 
 municipal governments. The change will seem almost magical. 
 The creation of the new and purified electorate will at one 
 stroke smash the machines, and dislodge the political oligar- 
 chies; the standard of public conscience will be immediately 
 elevated, and bribery at elections will almost disappear. We 
 will then be justified in expecting to elect legislators who 
 can be trusted to legislate, and worthy and competent 
 municipal officials. We will be relieved from the bur- 
 den of maintaining watch dog societies and they will 
 disappear together with the daily political scandals which 
 brought them into being. In a word, we will be able to do 
 for the body politic that which is done in every decent business 
 corporation in the land; find and employ men, honest and 
 competent, for the work assigned to them. The prospect is 
 alluring; one is tempted to dwell on the fine possibilities were 
 each of our forty-eight state legislatures composed of the 
 first men in each state in probity, experience and political in- 
 telligence. There has not in our day been much really good 
 government in the world. One would like to see our first-rate 
 American men, of the type and class who have developed our 
 industrial and transportation systems, get a fair opportunity 
 to show the world what can be done, not only in progressive 
 and enlightened domestic legislation, but also in pure and effi- 
 cient administration of public affairs. Dignified and purified 
 elections; advanced and just legislation; improved and honest 
 administration; a justified and scientific democracy; such if 
 
442 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 not fully within the promise of the proposed reform are within 
 the possibilities for which by appeal to the new electorate we 
 will be encouraged to work with a fair hope of success. 
 
 Objection that the new system will not accomplish this or 
 that desirable thing. Of course, no one will claim that it will 
 bring about everything humanly possible in the way of po- 
 litical improvement. No one can doubt that even after a puri- 
 fication of the electorate there will remain many evils in 
 politics and much still to be done to improve our governmental 
 system. There will remain, for instance, the problem of fur- 
 nishing the electorate with the facts concerning public meas- 
 ures, or the means of getting them; a problem heretofore gen- 
 erally ignored. Walter Lippman in a very able article in a 
 recent number of the Atlantic Monthly has pointed out the 
 great importance of providing the public with real political in- 
 formation, to take the place of the mess of misinformation now 
 daily served up to us by the daily press. There is an entirely 
 new field to be covered lying in that direction. Then there 
 is the question of how, in great cities especially, the voter is 
 to be made acquainted with the personality and qualifica- 
 tions of the respective candidates. But why attempt to 
 specify, when the fact is that the whole region of scientific 
 domestic legislation remains almost unexplored and unculti- 
 vated. Under our machine system of politics, the science of 
 legislation has been absolutely neglected for generations, and 
 the whole administrative and judicial system in every state 
 in the Union needs revision. But the primary, the essential 
 reform is that of the electorate. We must begin there, because 
 by so doing we cleanse and put in good working order the ma- 
 chinery which will itself undertake what else remains to be 
 done. We cannot expect wise measures to be furthered or 
 even understood by an ignorant and corrupt electorate; nor 
 can we expect a sordid political oligarchy to enforce them, 
 even though enacted. The electorate is the Alpha and Omega; 
 .the key to everything in politics and government. 
 
 For example, the proposed elevation of the franchise would 
 
CONCLUSION 443 
 
 have the effect of making practicable municipal home rule. 
 We are all familiar with the evils of state control of our large 
 cities; and yet the mischiefs of civic home rule under man- 
 hood suffrage are even greater. At present, the voters of the 
 great cities are necessarily deprived of all share in many de- 
 partments of municipal management; which are put in the 
 hands of state boards and commissions because the voters 
 cannot be trusted. The establishment of a competent and con- 
 servative electorate in cities, would at once prepare the way 
 for the granting to cities of local self-government; thus ad- 
 vancing the cause of practical democracy, and effecting a re- 
 sult for which civic reformers have labored ineffectually for 
 years. 
 
 Another good effect will be the elevation of the political tone 
 of the country. This can never be done while the electorate 
 remains degraded. It is inspiring to think of the healthful 
 stimulus which the politics of the nation will receive when 
 our men come to realize more and more the honor and respon- 
 sibility attached to the office of active citizen of the republic. 
 To be enrolled on the list of voters will be a distinction which 
 will be valued by those who possess it, and coveted by those 
 who do not; by the youth just entering his career; by the 
 man born poor who is saving to establish a home; by the 
 reformed spendthrift; by every American who turns from a 
 career of folly to the path of wisdom and prudence. Men of 
 substance, education and judgment, who have not visited the 
 polls for years will find it worth their while to vote. And 
 every voter will attend with a feeling that his vote is intended 
 to be effective for good; and will act with a sense of responsi- 
 bility entirely inappropriate now, when the only real respon- 
 sibility for an election rests with the boss and the machine. 
 
 And yet, beneficial as the above specified effects of the pro- 
 posed measure seem likely to be, still in the mind of the writer 
 its greatest, its transcendent value lies not in any of them nor in 
 their totality so much as in the expectation that it will be a 
 decided step towards the solution of the world's problem 
 
444 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 of the creation of a wise, politic and progressive democracy. 
 The elevation of the electorate; the purification of elections; 
 the destruction of the machines and the rings; the abolition 
 of the political oligarchies; the better government of cities; 
 the heightening of the political tone; an increased efficiency 
 in public affairs; all these are of immense consequence; but 
 beyond and over all is the importance to America and to the 
 world of putting the democratic movement firm on its feet; 
 on the right road; facing the better day and prepared to do 
 its part in carrying on the world's politics. This it is at present 
 quite unable to do because it has failed to widen its concep- 
 tions with the enlargement of its power and opportunities. 
 The ultimate, the supreme power in the state, should possess 
 capacity and understanding. Democracy has undertaken to 
 make of the electorate that supreme power. To do this suc- 
 cessfully it had to see to it that the electorate is suffused with 
 intelligence, and it has failed so to do. Its duty in that regard 
 was partially admitted and attempted by means of school 
 education of the young, but the recognition of the principle 
 has not been full or satisfying; nor have the means adopted 
 been adequate. The world is unable to give its full confidence 
 to the democracy of to-day, because of its failure to fulfil its 
 implied undertaking to produce a competent electorate. The 
 great objection to democracy in the minds of modern thinkers 
 is, that originally created and idealized as the champion of in- 
 dividual rights, it has gone no further; it has failed to provide 
 for capacity and efficiency, or to recognize its duty in that 
 direction. On the contrary, its declared policy for the last 
 century has been in the direction of degrading the quality of 
 the voting mass by the process of increasing its volume from 
 below. If democracy is to be the future governing force, it 
 must absolutely and unreservedly commit itself to the prin- 
 ciple of a thoroughly competent electorate; to be established 
 not merely by preparation of the fit, but by rigorous exclu- 
 sion of the unfit. The chief value therefore of the proposed 
 electoral reform consists in its inaugurating a complete change 
 
CONCLUSION 445 
 
 of policy in this vital matter; and in the fact that it will sig- 
 nify that the American democracy has awakened to the 
 understanding of this necessity, and has in good faith under- 
 taken the duty of carrying out the task of making its foun- 
 dation sure and eternal. 
 
 Politics is a progressive science and it may be that the doc- 
 trine of a qualified, that is to say, a competent electorate once 
 accepted for general purposes, will receive hereafter extended 
 application. We cannot put a limit to the possibilities of 
 democratic efficiency to be attained through the further selec- 
 tion and elevation of the voters. While the plan of property 
 qualification is apparently the only one at present practicable 
 and efficacious, it would be foolish to suppose that our success- 
 ors may not extend the application of the principle in directions 
 now unthought of. For instance, in addition to the establish- 
 ment of means for furnishing the electorate with reliable infor- 
 mation as Mr. Lippman has so sagaciously suggested, measures 
 may in time be adopted for recourse to an instructed opinion on 
 proposals for official action, by submitting them to that part 
 of the electorate whose tastes and occupations have given them 
 special light on the subject to be passed upon. Just as there is 
 an instructed minority in musical matters, so there are always 
 minorities with special knowledge of educational affairs, 
 charities, sanitation, public schools, transportation, finances, 
 etc. In the great cities these groups may each amount to tens 
 of thousands of individuals, each group constituting a true and 
 enlightened democracy of opinion on the special subjects in 
 which its members have interested theselves. In a great city 
 like New York, for instance: one can imagine a set of voters 
 qualified on banking and currency; another on constitutional 
 questions; another on public health, and so on; each of them 
 containing perhaps ten thousand highly qualified persons, ex- 
 perts on the subject referred to; whose opinions or decisions 
 might be given as called for, and each carry with it a certain 
 weight, or have a certain political or merely informative effect, 
 as might be provided; and so as new circumstances or situa- 
 
446 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 tions arise, as changes occur, as experiences accumulate, the 
 principle of qualified voting, of an appeal to a competent and 
 responsible array of selected public opinion may be applied in 
 many new ways, to the advantage of the community. 
 
 Objection that the requirement of a qualification may be 
 evaded. One of the criticisms of the property qualification 
 rule when it was the law of the land, was that it was frequently 
 evaded by sham property transfers. Every statute or regula- 
 tion is likely to be the subject of schemes of evasion which 
 have to be encountered as they develop. It is hardly 
 worth while at this point to discuss imaginary difficulties 
 which may occur in exceptional cases in carrying out 
 the reform. It will certainly never be adopted until it 
 has conquered public opinion; in which case means will readily 
 be found to enforce it. Sham transfers are not unknown in 
 the business world; but though sometimes troublesome, they 
 do not practically interfere with the volume of business trans- 
 actions. 
 
 Objections founded on certain standards of qualification. 
 The writer has omitted to discuss the exact amount, character 
 or measure of property to be named in the qualification 
 standard. It is said that the enforcement of a rate-paying 
 qualification in the City of London, by excluding from the 
 polls paupers, dependents on others, idle and inefficient work- 
 ing men, and the semi-criminal and criminal classes, effects a 
 reduction of about twenty-five per cent from a full manhood 
 suffrage poll list. An equivalent purging here, would com- 
 pletely purify our voting system. But here in this country, 
 the standard would have to vary according to local conditions, 
 and to the judgment of the different legislative bodies having 
 jurisdiction. 
 
 As to the possibility of the success of a movement to obtain 
 the enactment of a proper qualification for voters, there can be 
 no doubt. The proposition is new and it will have to be care- 
 fully explained and earnestly advocated; but it will be adopted 
 
CONCLUSION 447 
 
 and put in force just as soon as the people become convinced 
 of its justice and expediency; and not before. This means a 
 lot of preparatory and educational work, and therein lies 
 perhaps a chief value of the project. Before it can be adopted, 
 it will have to be thoroughly understood and believed in; the 
 electorate will have to be made to know its own present weak- 
 ness and corruption, and its own great possibilities, in future 
 power and purity. In short, the proper consideration of a 
 proposal for an elevation of the electorate, will of itself in- 
 volve such self-examination and bracing up of standards, as 
 will purify the political atmosphere even before its acceptance 
 by the legislatures and the people. 
 
 There is no legal difficulty to be overcome, no Federal con- 
 stitutional provision in the way; and the reform can go into 
 effect in any state, upon a vote of its people changing its con- 
 stitution. This vote can be obtained. The majority of the 
 voters in every state are property holders ; it is in their power 
 to assume control at their pleasure. If this project is right, it 
 will be possible to convince them of that fact. There is no 
 reason why the working classes should oppose it; it is in their 
 interest; most of them are family men, property owners and 
 intelligent. It is they who have suffered most by the depreda- 
 tions of politicians. They would be dull and stupid beyond 
 all that has ever been supposed, to fail to see that misgovern- 
 ment and want of efficiency are their greatest enemies; that 
 excessive taxation eats up year by year a large part of their 
 surplus product; and when convinced of the justice and ex- 
 pediency of the measure, these serious workers will find means 
 to silence the senseless clamor for the vote, should there be 
 such on the part of the inferior and worthless in the ranks of 
 labor. Among the politicians themselves, no doubt there are 
 men who will break away from machine tyranny and favor 
 the reform; men of real ability, who realize that working in 
 a purer atmosphere they would achieve more real distinction 
 than they now obtain; men who inwardly despise the things 
 they are compelled to countenance and perform. Much form- 
 
448 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 less prejudice there will be also to be overcome no doubt; but 
 that will yield to explanation and to reason. 
 
 Thoughtful men everywhere are beginning to realize the 
 humbug and menace of manhood suffrage. Writing in the 
 North American Review for March, 1920, Hanford Henderson 
 says of universal suffrage that "it harms even those whom 
 "it is supposed to benefit. To give every man and woman a 
 "vote and to declare these votes equally important and signifi- 
 "cant is both unsound and mischievous. . . . Universal suf- 
 frage is a characteristic example of the democratic failure in 
 "discrimination. ... An electorate not properly qualified is 
 "an ever present public danger." There is such a prevalent 
 disgust for present political methods that any well-planned 
 scheme of relief will be welcomed. We need only consider 
 whether the measure is right; that once made clear it can be 
 carried. To doubt that is to doubt the possibility of a reason- 
 able democracy. 
 
 Just how far the American public is mentally prepared to 
 seriously consider the dominant theories of this work; just 
 how soon, if ever, these theories will become familiar and 
 popular among us, it is impossible to judge. It may be that 
 some proofs of their acceptance will speedily follow the publi- 
 cation of this volume; it may be that years or even generations 
 will pass before the principles herein advocated will get a 
 hearing. But to those of his readers be they ever so few, who 
 believe that the things here written down are true, the author 
 would say in the words with which this volume is begun, 
 written by Washington on the eve of a great and doubtful 
 enterprise: "Let us raise a standard to which the wise and 
 the honest can repair; the event is in the hand of God." 
 
BRIEF SKETCH OF WRITERS REFERRED TO 
 
 ADAMS, BROOKS, American lawyer and publicist; author of "The Law 
 of Civilization and Decay," and other works. 
 
 ADAMS, HENRY, historian; author of "History of the United States"; 
 "Life of Albert Gallatin," and other works. 
 
 ALLEN, WILLIAM H., is a prominent social worker and author, and 
 is director of the Bureau of Municipal Research and National 
 Training School for the study and Administration of Public 
 Business. Author of "Woman's Part in Government," referred 
 to in this volume. 
 
 ALGER, RUSSELL A., Major General of Volunteers in the American 
 Civil War; Governor of Michigan and Secretary of War under 
 President McKinley. 
 
 BAGEHOT, WALTER, distinguished English publicist and economist; 
 member of the English Bar; banker; editor of the Economist, 
 and active for many years in business and politics. Author of 
 "The English Constitution," "Lombard Street," "Physics and Pol- 
 itics," "Literary Studies,"and "Economic Studies," in the two 
 former of which he describes the practical workings of the British 
 governmental machine and the London money market respec- 
 tively. The extracts herein given are from magazine articles 
 written by him. 
 
 BENTON, THOMAS H., U. S. Senator from Wisconsin from 1820 
 to 1850; afterwards Member of the House of Representatives. 
 Author of "History of American Government for Thirty Years." 
 
 BLUNTSCHLI, JOHANN K. (1808-1881), Swiss jurist and politician; 
 professor of constitutional law in Munich; author of a number 
 of standard works on Constitutional and International Law. 
 
 BREEN, MATTHEW, was a New York lawyer, state senator and 
 municipal justice. Author of "Thirty Years of New York Poli- 
 tics," referred to in this volume. 
 
 BRYCE, JAMES, VISCOUNT, English historian and diplomat, was 
 elected member of Parliament in 1880. Afterwards Under-Secre- 
 tary of State for Foreign Affairs and President of the Board of 
 Trade. He was one of the British members of the International 
 
 449 
 
45O POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 Tribunal at the Hague; Chief Secretary for Ireland and Ambassa- 
 dor to the United States. His book, the " American Common- 
 wealth," is the result of a long and careful study of American 
 politics made on the spot, is much used as a source and text-book, 
 and is referred to and freely quoted in this volume. 
 
 BURKE, EDMUND, illustrious British statesman, orator, parliamen- 
 tarian and writer. 
 
 CLARK, CHARLES P., American author of "The Machine Abolished," 
 referred to in this volume. 
 
 COMMONS, JOHN R., whose work entitled "Proportional Representa- 
 tion" is quoted herein, is Director of the American Bureau of 
 Industrial Research and Professor of Political Economy at the 
 University of Wisconsin. He was a member of the Federal Com- 
 mission on Industrial Relations in 1913-1915. He is the author 
 of a number of books dealing with the industrial problems of the 
 United States. 
 
 CARTER, JAMES C, New York lawyer; counsel for the U. S. Gov- 
 ernment in the Alaska arbitration at Paris; author of "Law, Its 
 Origin, Growth and Function." 
 
 CALHOUN, JOHN C., American lawyer and statesman; Secretary of 
 War; Vice President United States; Secretary of State; United 
 States Senator 1832-1843 and 1845-1850; author of two posthu- 
 mous works, "Disquisition on Government" and "Discourse on the 
 Constitution and Government of the United States." 
 
 CURTIS, GEORGE WILLIAM, New York editor, public speaker, civil 
 service reformer and man of letters. 
 
 DANA, CHARLES L., noted New York physician, lecturer and author. 
 
 DAWSON, EDGAR, is Professor of History and Political Science at 
 Hunter College. He is a joint editor of "The Practical History 
 of the World." 
 
 EATON, DORMAN B., New York lawyer and Civil Service Reformer; 
 Chairman of the Civil Service Commission 1873-1875, and mem- 
 ber 1883-1885. 
 
 ESTABROOK, HENRY D., noted American lawyer. 
 
 FIELD, DAVID DUDLEY, New York lawyer; prominent legal re- 
 former; principal author of New York Code of Civil Procedure 
 of 1848, and of other proposed Codes of Law. 
 
 FULLER, ROBERT H., American newspaper writer. 
 
 FARRAND, MAX, Professor of History at Yale, is a frequent con- 
 tributor to American Historical Reviews. He is the author of 
 
WRITERS REFERRED TO 451 
 
 "Development of the United States" quoted from in this vol- 
 ume; and also "Legislation of Congress for the Government of 
 the Organized Territories of the United States (1789-1895)"; 
 "Framing of the Constitution"; and "Records of the Federal 
 Convention of 1787." 
 
 FAGUET, M., member of the French Academy; author of "La Culte 
 d 'Incompetence," referred to in this volume and other works. 
 
 GARNER, JAMES W., is Professor of Political Science at the Uni- 
 versity of Illinois. He is American collaborator for the "French 
 Revue Politique et Parlementaire" and contributor of more than 
 two hundred articles on political and legal subjects to the New In- 
 ternational Encyclopedia, and various articles in the Encyclopedia 
 of American Government and the Encyclopedic Americaine. He 
 is a frequent contributor to various magazines. 
 
 OILMAN, CHARLOTTE P., author, lecturer, magazine writer. Author 
 of "Women and Economics," herein referred to. 
 
 GODKIN, EDWIN L., was one of the most prominent journalists of 
 the United States. He established the Nation in 1865 and was 
 editor of the New York Evening Post up to the year of his death 
 in 1902. He was the author of a "History of Hungary," "Re- 
 flections and Comments," "Problems of Democracy," and "Un- 
 foreseen Tendencies of Democracy." The latter work, quoted 
 herein, is a keen analysis and study of the forces in the American 
 political system. 
 
 HART, ALBERT B., may be said to be the dean of living American 
 historians. He is Professor of Government at Harvard Univer- 
 sity. He has written many books and his contribution to the 
 study and interpretation of American History assumes almost 
 monumental proportions. He was president of the American 
 Historical Association in 1909, and was appointed Exchange 
 Professor, Harvard to Berlin, in 1915. 
 
 HYSLOP, PROF. JAMES H., has been connected with Columbia Uni- 
 versity as an instructor and professor of logic, philosophy, ethics 
 and psychology. He organized the American Institute for Sci- 
 entific Research and became editor of the Proceedings and Jour- 
 nal of the American Society for Psychical Research. His book 
 on "Democracy," published in 1899, is extensively quoted in this 
 volume. He there favors a qualification for voters based upon the 
 payment of an income tax. 
 
 HUNT, HENRY T., is a prominent lawyer and public man. He was 
 
452 POPULAR MISGOV'ERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 a member of the Ohio Legislature from 1906-1907 and Mayor 
 of Cincinnati from 1912-1914. He is a trustee of the Cincinnati 
 Southern Railroad which is owned by the city of Cincinnati. 
 
 IRELAND, ALLEYNE, British and American traveler, editor and essay- 
 ist; American university lecturer. 
 
 IVINS, WILLIAM M., prominent New York lawyer and politician. 
 
 KAHN, OTTO H., banker and publicist, is a member of the banking 
 firm of Kuhn, Loeb and Company, a director of the Union Pacific 
 Railroad, and the Morristown Trust Company. He is a profound 
 student of and writer upon financial affairs. 
 
 LECKY, WILLIAM E. H., an Irish historian and publicist who died 
 in 1903, became famous at the age of twenty-seven with the pub- 
 lication of his "History of the Rise and Influence of the Spirit of 
 Rationalism." He was a member of Parliament for Dublin in 
 1895 and re-elected in 1900. He declined the offer of Regius 
 professorship of History at Oxford in order to devote himself to 
 public life. "Democracy and Liberty," published in 1896, and 
 here quoted from, is used as a reference book in all the large 
 universities in the United States. 
 
 LEWIS, SIR GEORGE CORNWALL, British lawyer, editor and states- 
 man; Chancellor of the Exchecquer; celebrated author; wrote 
 (1849) "Influence of Authority on Matters of Opinion" here 
 quoted, and other learned works. 
 
 LEWIS, LAWRENCE, American newspaper and magazine writer. 
 
 LIPPMAN, WALTER, American author and publicist; associate editor 
 of New Republic, and frequent contributor to magazines. 
 
 Low, A. MAURICE, British and American author and journalist. 
 
 Moss, FRANK, New York lawyer; former president Board of Po- 
 lice, New York City; author. 
 
 MORSE, JOHN T., lawyer, editor and author of several biographies, 
 including "Life of John Quincy Adams," quoted in this volume. 
 
 MILL, JOHN STUART, was an English philosopher and economist and 
 one of the greatest English prose writers of the nineteenth century. 
 Author of works on Logic, Political Economy and Utilitarianism; 
 wrote "Representative Government," quoted in this volume; 
 "Liberty," "Subjection of Woman," etc. He served in Parliament 
 for several years. From 1835 to 1840 he was editor and part 
 owner of the London Westminster Review. 
 
 MILLER, J. BLEECKER, New York lawyer, political student and 
 writer; author of "Trade Organizations in Politics," 
 
WRITERS REFERRED TO 453 
 
 MACCUNN, JOHN, is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy in the Uni- 
 versity of Liverpool, where he taught for many years. He is 
 author of "The Making of Character," "Six Radical Thinkers," 
 "Ethics of Social Work," "The Political Philosophy of Burke," 
 and "Ethics of Citizenship." The latter work is quoted in this 
 volume. 
 
 MYERS, GUSTAVUS, author of "History of Tammany Hall," herein 
 referred to and several other works on political subjects. 
 
 OSTROGORSKI, MOISEI iKOVOLEviTCH, a Russian political scientist 
 educated in France, has a profound knowledge and understanding 
 of the British and American political systems. Ostrogorski was 
 a member of the First Russian Duma or Parliament. Quotations 
 in this volume are from his "Democracy and The Party System in 
 the United States." 
 
 REINSCH, PAUL S., whose well-known work on "American Legis- 
 latures and Legislative Methods," is extensively quoted in this 
 volume, is one of the most widely read of American political sci- 
 entists and historians. He is the author of many books which 
 have been translated into Japanese, Chinese, Spanish, and German, 
 and a frequent contributor to reviews, historical and economic 
 periodicals. He was Professor of Political Science in the Uni- 
 versity of Wisconsin for over twelve years. He was Roosevelt 
 Professor at the Universities of Berlin and Leipzig in 1911-1912. 
 He is an honorary member of the Faculty of the University of 
 Chile, and a member of the National Academy of Venezuela. He 
 was United States delegate to the Third Pan-American Conference 
 at Rio de Janeiro in 1904 and the Fourth Conference at Buenos 
 Aires in 1910, and United States minister to China. 
 
 RHODES, JAMES F., is a prominent historian and lecturer. He was 
 president of the American Historical Association, and was awarded 
 a gold medal by the National Institute of Arts and Letters in 
 1910 for his contributions to historical literature. In 1913 he 
 delivered lectures on the American Civil War at Oxford Univer- 
 sity. Is author of a "History of the United States," herein 
 quoted. 
 
 ROOSEVELT, THEODORE, twice President of the United States, pub- 
 licist, politician, statesman and author of "Life of Benton," from 
 which this book quotes, and other works. 
 
 ROOT, ELIHU, distinguished New York lawyer, politician and pub- 
 
454 POPULAR MISGOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 licist; has been United States Senator, United States Secretary 
 of War, and United States Secretary of State. 
 
 RUSKIN, JOHN, English author, art critic and reformer; made a 
 great impression on the literature and thought of the latter part 
 of the nineteenth century. His writings, devoted mainly to art, 
 have a strong ethical tendency. 
 
 REEMELIN, CHARLES, writer and lawyer; former member of the 
 Ohio Legislature; student of political subjects; newspaper editor 
 and writer; author of several works on politics, including "Ameri- 
 can Politics" (1881), from which extracts are here taken. 
 
 STICKNEY, ALBERT, prominent New York lawyer. 
 
 STEFFENS, LINCOLN, American editor, writer and lecturer. Author 
 of the "Shame of the Cities," and other works and frequent con- 
 tributor to magazines. 
 
 SIEVES, EMMANUEL JOSEPH, French Abbe and statesman of the 
 Revolutionary and Napoleonic era ; member of the States General 
 and the Convention; member of the Directorate of 1799 and 
 Senator of France. 
 
 SCHURZ, CARL, distinguished German American; came to America 
 in early youth and became an American writer, soldier, orator 
 and statesman; was United States Minister to Spain; United 
 States Senator from Missouri and Secretary of the Interior. 
 Author of "Life of Henry Clay," from which quotations are here 
 made. 
 
 SEA WELL, MOLLY E., American journalist and novelist; author of 
 "The Ladies' Battle," a work written in opposition to female 
 suffrage. 
 
 SHAW, ALBERT, is editor of the American Review of Reviews, and 
 author of several widely read works on Municipal Government, 
 for which he was awarded the John Marshall prize by Johns Hop- 
 kins University in 1895. He has also written many books deal- 
 ing with different phases of American life and government, and 
 has lectured at many universities and colleges. He was appointed 
 professor of Political Institutions and International Law at Cor- 
 nell University in 1890, but declined. He is a trustee of the 
 General Education Board and a member of the Bureau of Munici- 
 pal Research. Is the author of "Political Problems," quoted from 
 in this volume. 
 
 STIMSON, HENRY L., American lawyer, was Secretary of War under 
 President Taft for two years. 
 
WRITERS REFERRED TO 455 
 
 SUMNER, HELEN L., Assistant Chief of the Children's Bureau of 
 the Department of Labor at Washington. Was special investiga- 
 tor of woman suffrage in Colorado for the New York Collegiate 
 Equal Suffrage League in 1916-1917. She is the author of many 
 books dealing with industrial problems, and is a frequent contribu- 
 tor to economic and other publications. She published a book 
 "Equal Suffrage," from which a quotation is made in this volume. 
 
 TOCQUEVILLE, ALEXIS HENRI CHARLES DE, was a French statesman 
 and political philosopher of the first half of the nineteenth cen- 
 tury. Visited America in 1831 and wrote his monumental work 
 "De la democratic in Amerique," which is one of the world's 
 classics. 
 
 TARBELL, IDA M., is a prominent sociologist and publicist, and an 
 associate editor of the American Magazine. She is author of "A 
 Short Life of Napoleon Bonaparte," a "Life of Lincoln," a "His- 
 tory of the Standard Oil Company," and "The Business of Being 
 a Woman," the latter quoted in this book. 
 
 VON TREITSCHKE, HEINRICH (1834-1896), publicist, political essay- 
 ist; German university lecturer; member of the German Reich- 
 stag; the most brilliant historian of the Prussian school. 
 
 WEBSTER, DANIEL, orator and statesman; was member of United 
 States Senate and Secretary of State of the United States. 
 
 WHITE, ANDREW D., was an American educator, scholar and diplo- 
 mat. He was president of Cornell University from 1868 to 1885, 
 minister to Germany from 1879-1881 and to Russia in 1892-4. 
 From 1897 to 1902 he was Ambassador to Germany. He was 
 chairman of the American delegation to the Hague Peace Con- 
 ference. He is the author of several books dealing with historical 
 studies. 
 
 WOODBURN, JAMES A., is Professor of American History at Indiana 
 University. Has contributed articles to the American Year Book, 
 the American History Review, Indiana Magazine of History, En- 
 cyclopedia Americanae, and the Encyclopedia of American Gov- 
 ernment, and is the author of several political works, including 
 "Political Parties and Party Problems," from which are the quo- 
 tations made in this volume. 
 
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