Case 
 
 LEICESTER PUBLIC LIBRARY, 
 
 No. 
 
 Presented A 
 
 LIBRARY REGULATIONS, 
 
 Library open every Wednesday, 3 to 5, and 6^ to 7, 
 p. M. 
 
 Every resident of the town, over 16 years of age, 
 entitled to one book at a time. Heads of families, 
 two books. 
 
 All books to be returned lo Library on or before 
 first Wednesday of February, for inspection. Fine 
 for non-compliance, FIKTKKN CKNTS each book. 
 
 FIVK CKNTS tine per week for each volume detained\ 
 beyond time specified below. 
 
 No person to renew a book if called for by another. ' 
 
 Books lost or seriously injured to be replaced; and 
 by a set if belonging to a set. 
 
 No person to take books from the Library who does 
 not comply with the Regulations, or from whom a 
 fine is due. 
 
 Books to be renewed must be brought to the Li- 
 brary; if not, the tine is incurred. 
 
 This book may be kept 
 
 WeekJ .
 
 rtn 
 
 v CERTAIN DANGEROUS TENDENCIES 
 IN AMERICAN LIFE, AND 
 OTHER PAPERS. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 HOUGHTON, OSGOOD AND COMPANY. 
 
 1880.
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1880, 
 Bl HOUGHTON, OSGOOD & CO. 
 
 All rights reserved. 
 
 RIVERSIDE, CAMBRIDGE : 
 
 STEREOTYPED AND PRINTED BT 
 
 H. 0. HOUGHTOS AND COMPANY
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PASS 
 
 CERTAIN DANGEROUS TENDENCIES IN AMERICAN LIFE . 1 
 THE NATIONALS, THEIR ORIGIN AND THEIR AIMS . 51 
 
 THREE TYPICAL WORKINGMEN 77 
 
 WORKINGMEN'S WIVES 106 
 
 THE CAREER OP A CAPITALIST 141 
 
 STCDY OF A NEW ENGLAND FACTORY TOWN . . 157 
 
 PREACHING 203 
 
 SINCERE DEMAGOGY 226
 
 CERTAIN DANGEROUS TENDENCIES 
 IN AMERICAN LIFE. 
 
 THE character of our nation is highly complex. 
 It includes many elements, influences, and ten- 
 dencies, of different degrees of strength and im- 
 portance. In any real survey of the life and 
 thought of the country the chief of these qualities 
 and forces must be noted and compared with each 
 other, and some estimate made of their relative 
 significance. Some of the influences are whole- 
 some and vital, and tend to national prosperity. 
 Others are of the nature of disease, and depress 
 the national strength, tending, so far as they are 
 effective, to disorder and the decay of society. An 
 exact measurement of intellectual and moral ele- 
 ments is of course impossible, but there can be no 
 just estimate of our national character and ten- 
 dencies as a whole which is not based upon some 
 such careful study and comparison of the separate 
 factors, some real knowledge of the principal influ- 
 ences which, reinforcing or opposing each other, 
 are all included and summed up in the life and 
 thought of the people. Such an examination has 
 1
 
 2 CERTAIN DANGEROUS TENDENCIES 
 
 not yet been attempted, I believe, though it would 
 be difficult to overestimate the value of the under- 
 taking if it should be successful ; that is, if one 
 who has observed widely and truly could report 
 accurately and plainly what he has seen. 
 
 Since the civil war we have had new elements 
 and conditions in our national life, and there have 
 been important changes in the relative strength of 
 certain of the old forces. We have been confronted 
 by problems and dangers which we had thought 
 could never arise in the path of a nation with in- 
 stitutions like ours. Not only had we come to re- 
 gard our system of government as superior to all 
 others, but we trusted still more to that wonderful 
 perfection and vitality of character which we be- 
 lieved ourselves, as a people, to possess, and which, 
 as we boasted, enabled us to receive from all other 
 countries the most incongruous and unfavorable 
 materials, and assimilate and transmute them all 
 into the texture and substance of a noble national 
 life. We had not, before the war, been prepared 
 in any way for the tasks or difficulties which we 
 have since encountered. We had little practical 
 knowledge of pauperism or the labor question. 
 Our politicians had but slight knowledge of polit- 
 ical economy, and generally thought the study of 
 such subjects unnecessary in our country. They 
 knew little of financial theories or methods, or of 
 the principles which the long experience of the 
 civilized world had established in connection with
 
 IN AMERICAN LIFE. 3 
 
 the relation of government to the money and in- 
 dustries of the people. Indeed, the politicians of 
 those days cannot be said to have studied any- 
 thing very deeply besides party politics, except 
 the slavery question ; and they were fond of re- 
 peating that history had no lessons for us, and 
 that the experience of other nations was not in 
 any way valuable for our guidance. We rejoiced 
 in our exemption from the ills and dangers of 
 European society. 
 
 The intensity of intei'est which the slavery ques- 
 tion at last aroused, and the peculiar direction 
 which it gave to the thought of our people, left no 
 time or vitality for matters pertaining to the sci- 
 ence of government. That agitation unavoidably 
 exaggerated the sentimental character which al- 
 ready marked our politics, and gave them an im- 
 pulse toward humanitarian and intuitive methods 
 which has not yet spent its force. The war de- 
 stroyed hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of 
 property, and the government was compelled to 
 borrow some two thousand millions of dollars to 
 enable it to continue the struggle and maintain the 
 existence of the nation. These two facts are, for 
 any study of our present national life and condi- 
 tions, the significant features and results of that 
 contest. The more dramatic accompaniments, the 
 emancipation of the slaves and the management of 
 the revolted States after the war, have had far less 
 influence upon the life and thought of our people. 
 With our national wealth or productive property
 
 4 CERTAIN DANGEROUS TENDENCIES 
 
 so terribly reduced, and with the new, strange bur- 
 den of an enormous debt, there was but one course 
 of wisdom and safety, that of the most rigid 
 economy. But by a remarkable delusion our peo- 
 ple came to regard the paper money, every note 
 of which was a certificate and reminder of indebt- 
 edness and loss of property, as a real and bound- 
 less addition to our wealth, which not only made 
 good our material losses, but made us far richer 
 than we had been before the war. Under the in- 
 fluence of this astounding error the people and the 
 government plunged at once into reckless extrav- 
 agance of expenditure, thus greatly increasing the 
 loss which the nation had suffered by the war. 
 The heroic sacrifice and endurance of the people 
 during the war should have passed afterward into 
 the form of self-denial and renunciation of luxury 
 till our debts were paid. But there was very lit- 
 tle effort to pay what we owed. On the contrary, 
 the indebtedness of the nation, and of the States, 
 cities, and towns of the country, was prodigiously 
 increased. Most people lost their heads, and acted 
 as if debts were never to be paid, and as if wealth 
 without limit could be created at will by acts of 
 Congress authorizing the issue of paper promises 
 to pay. A still farther reduction, of enormous 
 extent, of the wealth of the nation was caused by 
 the general purchase and construction of things 
 which were not needed by the people articles 
 of luxury and display at a cost out of all pro- 
 portion to the wealth or income of the owners.
 
 IN AMERICAN LIFE. 5 
 
 My neighbor, who was the possessor of fifty thou- 
 sand dollars, bought a piece of land for eight thou- 
 sand, and built on it a house which cost him nearly 
 all his remaining fortune. He* seemed to think 
 that the money he had changed into stone walls, 
 fine carvings, and costly furniture would still be 
 productive, would yield him an income. When 
 he had thus improved the property, as he phrased 
 it, he claimed that it was worth at least sixty 
 thousand dollars ; that is, he had spent most of 
 his money and thought he was worth much more 
 than when he began. He has some high-priced 
 European paintings, but he cannot eat them, and 
 as he has nothing but his house and grounds he 
 has had to stint his children in their education, 
 and even in their clothes and food. He wishes to 
 sell his property, but thinks it still worth fifty 
 thousand dollars, though it would not sell for one 
 third of that amount. This is a pretty good rep- 
 resentation of the course of multitudes of business 
 men. The result is that the country is vastly 
 poorer than the people are willing to admit ; that 
 is, they value their property at vastly more than 
 it is really worth. Much of our wealth consists of 
 houses, furniture, mills, machinery, and railroads 
 which produce nothing, and which cannot be sold. 
 This is not real wealth. Much of the money in- 
 vested in such things is irretrievably lost, and it 
 would be better for us to face the disagreeable 
 truth at once. 
 
 This extravagance and the delifsion which fos-
 
 6 CERTAIN DANGEROUS TENDENCIES 
 
 tered it had some important results in the domain 
 of morals. Manual labor came to be regarded as 
 in great measure unnecessary, and to be despised 
 as a badge of inferiority by many who had always 
 been engaged in it. Multitudes of men who had 
 until then honestly earned or produced their liv- 
 ing by the work of their hands now began to live 
 by their wits, by starting and controlling business 
 enterprises for the investment of other people's 
 money, and by taking government contracts and 
 corporation jobs. The abounding dishonesty which 
 has since then been our curse, the repudiation of 
 the debts of States, towns, and cities, with the 
 alarming development of the disposition to steal 
 trust funds, these and other unfavorable ele- 
 ments in the life of the time had their source and 
 main impulse in the delusion about the nature and 
 powers of paper money, in the uncertainty of its 
 value, and in the extravagance engendered by the 
 war. A passionate greed for riches was developed 
 among our people. Men had no longer any vision 
 for realities, but built upon illusions and impossi- 
 bilities as if they were the solid facts and laws of 
 nature. The leading clergymen and writers of 
 the nation encouraged and defended this enor- 
 mous and reckless acquisitiveness, and talked, in 
 philosophical phrases, about the aspirations of the 
 masses for improved conditions, leisure for cult- 
 ure, and a higher civilization. The pulpit gave 
 to luxury the sanction of religion, and the press 
 urged the people onward in their career of extrav-
 
 IN AMERICAN LIFE. 7 
 
 agance in the name of patriotism, and declared 
 the national debt a national blessing. It was not 
 to be expected that the workjngmen should be 
 wiser than their teachers. The increase of wages 
 for all kinds of manual labor was very great, but 
 comparatively few of the workingmen saved any- 
 thing. They imitated the profusion of their em- 
 ployers and guides. Economy was deemed un- 
 necessary, stupid, and mean. New wants were 
 invented, prudence and simplicity of life went out 
 of fashion, and habits were formed and senti- 
 ments adopted which have wrought most impor- 
 tant changes in the character and aims of the 
 workingmen of this country. The sheer waste- 
 fulness of that period, if it could be adequately 
 portrayed, would appear incredible to all who did 
 not witness it. A curious feature of the time was 
 the fact that for so many men all foresight seemed 
 to have become impossible. They were intoxi- 
 cated by their fancied prosperity, and were confi- 
 dent that it would last forever. Into these condi- 
 tions was suddenly plunged a population which 
 had no sufficient moral safeguards whatever. The 
 transition to dishonesty had been prepared for 
 among all classes, and was already partly accom- 
 plished. 
 
 This leads me to consider the religious and 
 moral character and equipment which our people 
 possessed fifteen years ago, and the effect of the 
 new conditions upon these factors of our national 
 life. The nominal faith or religion of the country
 
 8 CERTAIN DANGEROUS TENDENCIES 
 
 was what was called evangelical Protestantism. 
 Its early creeds and symbols were still unchanged ; 
 but the real religion of the people was already, 
 to a great extent, a decorous worldliness. The 
 formal observances of religion depended largely 
 upon habit ; that is, the religious activities of our 
 people had long been chiefly the momentum re- 
 maining from old impulses, from influxes or evo- 
 lutions of moral or spiritual force which had in- 
 spired men in former times, and had then pro- 
 duced an earnestness and self-denial of which 
 even the tradition was mostly lost. The force 
 which remained was constantly diminishing. The 
 moral impulse received long before had mostly 
 passed into structure, had produced very nearly its 
 full effect upon the character of men and the forms 
 of life in society ; and by a well-known law, which 
 appears in the working of all forces of whatever 
 nature, the power that had thus been embodied 
 could not be used again in the same form. There 
 was no longer any considerable influx or evolution 
 of new religious power or vitality. Many minis- 
 ters, and multitudes of the more intelligent mem- 
 bers of the churches, had become skeptical in re- 
 gard to some of the cardinal doctrines of the 
 popular Christianity. These doctrines were, in 
 the preaching of the time, habitually so softened 
 and accommodated to the growing doubt that 
 nearly all their original meaning was explained 
 away. A vague feeling of alarm and uncertainty 
 had for some time pervaded the more earnest
 
 IN AMERICAN LIFE. 9 
 
 portion of the church, a distrust of tenden- 
 cies which yet seemed necessary and irresistible. 
 Preaching became more and more speculative and 
 rationalistic. Everywhere it almost ceased to deal 
 with morals or duty. It lost all edge, all direct- 
 ness of application to the real questions and inter- 
 ests of human life in this world. It was no longer 
 addressed to the conscience, but to the taste, to 
 the aesthetic judgment. The sweep of the new 
 time carried us out of the region and conditions 
 in which it had been the function of the pulpit 
 to rebuke the sins of men, to quicken and rein- 
 force their consciences by the faithful teaching of 
 the moral requirements of Christianity. The ef- 
 fect of the new hunger for wealth and display ex- 
 tended to religion and its organic activities. The 
 new tide of worldliness rose everywhere, and sub- 
 merged to a great extent a church which it found 
 open and without defense against the flood. The 
 conditions of -life, the temptations and enticements, 
 were new. The allurements to greed and dishon- 
 esty were appallingly strong. The religious peo- 
 ple of the country in general had no adequate 
 training or moral discipline to prepare them to 
 face the new foes. The church failed to meet the 
 needs of the time. She did vastly better than 
 those who did nothing, than many of her critics. 
 But that was not enough. 
 
 The disintegration of religion has proceeded 
 rapidly. There are now several features of our 
 national religious life and thought which must be
 
 10 CERTAIN DANGEROUS TENDENCIES 
 
 noted in any real study of our present condition. 
 No one statement or affirmation can be made to 
 include all the truth. The religion of our country 
 cannot be studied adequately or successfully in the 
 churches of the large cities alone. What of the 
 people in the smaller towns, the villages, and coun- 
 try neighborhoods ? What is their religion ? The 
 church is now, for the most part, a depository of 
 social rather than of religious influences. Its chief 
 force or vitality is no longer religious. There are 
 still, of course, many truly religious people in the 
 churches, who sincerely believe the old doctrines 
 embodied in all the creeds. But these are every- 
 where a small minority, and they are mournfully 
 conscious that the old religious life and power 
 have departed from the church. They distrust 
 the methods of the modern revivalism, and do 
 not feel at home among the younger members of 
 the church, with their advanced views and fash- 
 ionable, thorough-going worldlinesi* They are 
 alarmed to find the atmosphere and tone of the 
 church becoming more and more secular and busi- 
 ness-like. These people, who thus represent the 
 better elements of a former state of things, are 
 the real strength of the evangelical Protestant 
 churches, so far as religion is concerned, and their 
 character is one of the most wholesome and truly 
 conservative forces of our national life. They are 
 not liberal in their views, but they are sincere. 
 They live pure and good lives. They speak the 
 truth, a rare virtue now, and they can be trusted
 
 IN AMERICAN LIFE. H 
 
 with anybody's money. They will do what they 
 believe to be right, though all men deride or op- 
 pose, and at any cost to themselves in business or 
 worldly interests. But they are too few to regen- 
 erate the American church, though their influence 
 is highly valuable in resisting some of the evil 
 tendencies of the age. Most of them are old, and 
 they have few successors among the younger peo- 
 ple. They have already done most of their work, 
 and their number and strength dimmish from 
 year to year. 
 
 For a very large class of which we may next 
 speak the church furnishes opportunity for a 
 pleasant social life, which is in no way different 
 from the social life of amiable, intelligent people 
 out of the church ; that is, there is nothing dis- 
 tinctively religious about it. For this class all the 
 barriers and distinctions between the church and 
 the wocld have been removed. Church work is 
 for them, in a.11 its forms, a kind of sacred amuse- 
 ment. Public worship, with its pulpit oratory 
 and modern church music, is an aesthetic enter- 
 tainment. They have developed a religion which 
 is not religious. They have learned how to be 
 Christians, according to their meaning, without 
 self-denial, or any abridgment of the pleasures, 
 pursuits, or ambitions of people who acknowledge 
 no religious obligations. They are the most intel- 
 ligent members of the popular churches of this 
 country. They are decorously moral, conforming 
 to the easy, worldly criterion of people of like so-
 
 12 CERTAIN DANGEROUS TENDENCIES 
 
 cial position. They are nearly all able to live 
 comfortably, possessing the necessaries of life and 
 a few of its luxuries. They are not usually scru- 
 pulously truthful or conscientious, and do not be- 
 lieve it possible to maintain a very high standard 
 of justice or honesty in business life. They re- 
 gard the golden rule as impracticable, and with 
 more or less sincerity deplore the existence of in- 
 surmountable obstacles in the way of obeying it. 
 They do not believe the creeds which they sub- 
 scribe when they join the church, and generally 
 make no secret afterward of their doubt or disbe- 
 lief respecting various fundamental doctrines of 
 Christianity. But they have a horror of all dis- 
 sent which takes a man out of the popular church, 
 and show no respect for the plea of conscience in 
 such cases. They are all optimists, believing that 
 things are sure to come out right. They distrust 
 personal earnestness in religious matters, but are 
 capable of self-sacrifice or action for the public 
 good in ways approved by their class, while they 
 are without the qualities or temper enabling a 
 man to serve an unpopular principle or cause. 
 They give largely for all kinds of charities. In 
 them the religion popularly professed has spent its 
 force, and they can contribute little to aid in the 
 moral regeneration of the country. They are al- 
 most destitute of moral insight, and have little 
 confidence in principles, trusting entirely to man- 
 agement, to policy, and to present success. 
 
 Their ministers are men of intelligence and of
 
 IN AMERICAN LIFE. 13 
 
 considerable culture. They believe even less than 
 their people of the doctrines of their creeds. They 
 generally avoid doctrinal subjects in preaching, 
 and have for some years based their teaching 
 mostly upon utilitarian grounds. They have for 
 themselves accepted rationalistic beliefs far in ad- 
 vance of what they teach, and consider themselves 
 engaged in a most necessary and useful work, 
 that of leading the people gradually onward in 
 thought and knowledge by carefully giving them 
 the truth as they are able to bear it. Their cau- 
 tion is extreme, and they thus sacrifice whatever 
 strength may belong to courage and outspoken 
 sincerity. Their teaching is far less advanced and 
 rationalistic than the habitual thought of their 
 hearers. They do not understand the real tenden- 
 cies of the time, lacking the insight and the syn- 
 thetic judgment which result from independent 
 search for truth, and from heartiness of convic- 
 tion. They greatly overrate the success of their 
 system of repression, of keeping back most of 
 what they themselves believe. It fosters skepti- 
 cism, and spreads distrust of all moral and relig- 
 ious verity, as the people are aware that their 
 ministers practice the concealment of their real 
 beliefs. Their preaching is usually far more in- 
 tellectual than formerly, but is not based on the 
 creeds, nor on any announced or coherent philoso- 
 phy, fragments of hostile systems of thought often 
 appearing in amiable proximity, if not in any real 
 relation, to each other. There is nobody to crit-
 
 14 CERTAIN DANGEROUS TENDENCIES 
 
 icise the preaching of these clergymen. Their 
 teaching is often curiously remote from all the 
 practical concerns and conditions of life in our 
 time and country, and is almost entirely destitute 
 of moral authority and power. They regard the 
 general engagement of their people in the work of 
 charity organizations as evidence of the triumphant 
 vitality of Christianity in our age ; which is much 
 as if the officers of an army should boast that all 
 their soldiers able for duty are in the hospitals 
 caring for their sick comrades, and that all the 
 able-bodied men at home must soon be conscripted 
 for the same service. They do not see that Chris- 
 tianity, to be successful, must learn how to dry 
 up, in great measure, the sources of the rising cur- 
 rents of pauperism, vice, and crime, nor under- 
 stand that their own methods are largely respon- 
 sible for the magnitude of the burdens, rapidly 
 becoming intolerable, of the charities which are 
 their pride. 
 
 In the more prosperous American churches in 
 the regions to which modern styles of dress and 
 living have extended there are now but few poor 
 people, and these feel more and more each year 
 that the church is no home for them. There is 
 for them, usually, no fraternal association with 
 their more fortunate neighbors in the church ; no 
 wholesome, natural, cordial relation between them 
 as human beings or brethren. And there is a very 
 large class who are not extremely poor, but who 
 are obliged to dress plainly and to practice rigid
 
 IN AMERICAN LIFE. 15 
 
 economy in order to obtain the necessaries of life. 
 In favorable times they may be said to rise to con- 
 ditions of comfort, but for the most part they are 
 familiar with the pressure of hardship, and their 
 life is a struggle for the means to live. They of 
 course cannot aspire to what is now considered 
 good social position, as that usually depends upon 
 the style of dress and house-furnishing more ^han 
 upon character. This is a very important portion 
 of our population. Most of them are industrious 
 and honest, and many of them are advancing in 
 intelligence. Some of them have a strong desire 
 for knowledge, and read the best books they can 
 obtain. There is good material among them for 
 a*nore rational and practical culture than is yet 
 possessed by their neighbors who are in better cir- 
 cumstances. This class also is rapidly passing out 
 of the church. The movement is largely the re- 
 sult of impulses from the more prosperous people 
 in the churches, and is not caused so much by the 
 growth of irreligion among these men and their 
 families as by the development of an unfraternal 
 spirit, a class-feeling, among those more suc- 
 cessful in acquiring this world's goods. Many 
 who are thus separating themselves from the 
 churches are injured by the change. They enjoy 
 their greater freedom from restraint, and often 
 sink to a life of less strenuous effort at self-direc- 
 tion. They do not feel bound to resist temptation, 
 or deny appetite its gratifications. But most of 
 this class are still, in the main, moral and whole-
 
 16 CERTAIN DANGEROUS TENDENCIES 
 
 some in character and personal influence, chiefly 
 from the power of habit and family traditions of 
 rectitude. Many of them are gradually becoming 
 hostile and bitter toward the church and all spe- 
 cifically religious activities, and their children usu- 
 ally receive at home no religious instruction what- 
 ever, being free to go to church or not, as they 
 please. The effect of this parental indifference 
 upon the culture and morals of the young people 
 is not favorable. Among the more intelligent of 
 this class there has been, within the last fifteen 
 years, a rapid development of what is called infi- 
 delity ; that is, of opinions which involve the re- 
 jection of evangelical Christianity. Up to this 
 time the great mass of plain people in this coun- 
 try, of those who work with their h.ands, know 
 nothing of any religion besides evangelical Prot- 
 estantism and Roman Catholicism. The people 
 who reject the popular religious creeds, both among 
 the poor and among the more prosperous and cul- 
 tivated, with some exceptions to be noted farther 
 on, are generally giving up religion entirely. No 
 new system or form of religious belief or life is 
 taking the place of the old faith which has lost its 
 power. But these people are still accessible to 
 any vital improving influences not specifically ec- 
 clesiastical in form. Their morals are commonly 
 as good as those of the most prominent church- 
 members, and they are probably more truthful, 
 conscientious, and just than most people in the 
 church. But they are not religious ; that is, they
 
 IN AMERICAN LIFE. 17 
 
 have no ideas, principles, or beliefs in regard to 
 human responsibility which exercise any consider- 
 able power of restraint upon their conduct when 
 interest or appetite is involved. They feel no im- 
 pulse to association with their neighbors for any 
 kind of moral or religious culture. A few are in- 
 clined to propagate their negative notions and hos- 
 tility to religion ; the greater number are simply 
 indifferent. Many of them have read the news- 
 paper and magazine dilutions of the writings of 
 Darwin, Huxley, and Spencer, and have thus been 
 strengthened in their opposition to the old beliefs. 
 Most of them are sensible, practical, capable peo- 
 ple, not given to sentiment or illusions of any 
 kind ; often somewhat narrow and hard, but with 
 valuable intellectual and moral qualities. Their 
 greatest defect seems to be that they feel too little 
 responsibility for the moral culture of their chil- 
 dren and those of their neighbors. They have 
 too little aspiration and national feeling, and are 
 giving themselves entirely to material interests. 
 It cannot be said that they are as a class doing 
 much for themselves, and nobody else is doing 
 anything for them as to culture or morals. Their 
 future course depends upon that of the cultivated 
 classes. If there is within a few years a marked 
 expansion of national culture and increase of its 
 dynamic vitality, these people will do much to 
 strengthen the better tendencies of the nation's 
 life. They are capable of important changes. 
 Below these as to intellectual character and
 
 18 CERTAIN DANGEROUS TENDENCIES 
 
 equipment there is a larger class, in whom pre- 
 historic or savage thought still survives with very 
 slight modifications from science or any other 
 modern influence. Our fellow-citizens of this class 
 believe in luck, omens, dreams, signs of many 
 kinds (that is, in supernatural indications or fore- 
 shadowings of future events), and in the presence 
 and influence of the spirits of the dead, whom 
 they habitually or occasionally consult in various 
 ways. These have not all rejected evangelical 
 Protestantism, as great numbers of them are mem- 
 bers of the popular churches. Many of them have 
 wealth and social position. The women of this 
 class constitute the larger portion of the great 
 army of readers of worthless books of fiction and 
 serials in the story-newspapers. Perhaps a ma- 
 jority of the members of the evangelical Protest- 
 ant churches in this country have at some time 
 consulted the spirits of dead people, by the help of 
 some professional ghost-seer or medium. But out- 
 side of the church the believers in spirits, spells, 
 possessions, omens, visions, warnings, and the 
 other features of prehistoric supernaturalism are 
 usually hostile to Christianity. They think the 
 inspirations and revelations of many trance-speak- 
 ers and mediums in this country superior in value 
 to those recorded in the Bible. They have usu- 
 ally a scorn of history, and of the past as a 
 teacher, and are especially hostile to belief in any 
 authority except that of the individual soul. They 
 mostly regard society as a.great oppressor, and be-
 
 IN AMERICAN LIFE. 19 
 
 lieve that priests (they call all ministers priests) 
 have been the authors and are now the chief sup- 
 porters of nearly all the evils which afflict man- 
 kind. They are all sentimentalists ; that is, they 
 attach little, value to facts, and do not think it 
 important to study them. Their contempt for 
 scientific methods of investigation is nearly equal 
 to their scorn for history. They depend chiefly 
 upon intuition and the great instincts of humanity 
 for their guidance, and for the determination of 
 all problems. They would like to see the existing 
 organization and institutions of society displaced, 
 and think it would be a great gain to stop trying 
 to patch up the old systems of religion and law, 
 and begin anew. They see 110 great difficulty in 
 the attempt to establish an entirely new organi- 
 zation of society, with all necessary institutions, 
 machinery, and activities, and believe that it could 
 be done at once, with immense advantage to the 
 people, if only the priests and the money power 
 were put down. They have a kind of rage against 
 churches and all the organized activities of Chris- 
 tianity. They have not yet any religion of their 
 own, in the modern sense of the word, as they do 
 not worship or revere anything as higher or better 
 than themselves. Their nearest approach to ado- 
 ration is their belief in the omnipotence of a free 
 platform ; that is, of a mass-meeting of believers 
 in the sovereignty of the individual, with abso- 
 lutely no restrictions as to the direction or extent 
 of the discussions. They have a stronger impulse
 
 20 CERTAIN DANGEROUS TENDENCIES 
 
 to propagate their sentiments than is manifested 
 by any other class in our country at present, and 
 have more enthusiasm and self-sacrifice for their 
 cause and objects than the people who hold better 
 doctrines. (This stirring of powerful impulses 
 among the more ignorant and undeveloped, while 
 the cultivated classes, the leaders of society, are 
 bewildered and indisposed to action, is one of the 
 most significant features of our age.) They have 
 not wholly escaped injury to their morals in thus 
 casting off the restraints of the old beliefs. There 
 has been a serious and general lowering of moral 
 tone and quality among them during the last fif- 
 teen years, and this deterioration is still going on. 
 But this has not yet resulted in any great increase 
 of conci'ete immorality, except the immorality of 
 worthless talk, incessant, universal, and intermin- 
 able. There has been some sexual vice among 
 them, but it has been mostly of a cold-blooded 
 kind, the effort of theorists making experiments 
 and ostentatiously trying to be wicked, rather 
 than the wild play of ungoverned impulse and 
 passion. There is not yet a large growth of licen- 
 tiousness in American society. It increases only 
 as the criminal classes increase, and especially as 
 thieves become more numerous. Thieves of all 
 grades, burglars, and pickpockets habitually resort 
 to houses of ill-fame. It is the common method 
 of spending money dishonestly obtained. But 
 there is not yet any considerable spread of licen- 
 tiousness upward through society, and life is prob-
 
 IN AMERICAN LIFE. 21 
 
 ably cleaner and better in this respect in our time 
 than ever before. In other ways the immoral 
 effects produced by the ideas and sentiments of 
 the large class which I am now describing are 
 extensive and important. They have seriously 
 weakened respect for law in all parts of our coun- 
 try, and have profoundly influenced public senti- 
 ment in opposition to the punishment of criminals. 
 They have to a great extent abjured the doctrine 
 of individual responsibility for wrong-doing, and 
 their ideas have pervaded the atmosphere of the 
 age, and have so benumbed the conscience of the 
 nation that the unwillingness of good people to 
 have the laws enforced, and their sympathy for 
 criminals, are among the most threatening evils 
 of our society. Their worst immorality is their 
 teaching; especially the character of their ad- 
 dresses, lectures, and discussions, in which there 
 is almost everywhere a wild vehemence of attack 
 upon all tjie principles of religion, morality, and 
 social order, which is unrestrained by any regard 
 for truth, decency, or justice. The orators are ab- 
 solutely irresponsible, as they recognize no author- 
 ity but their own wills. They have a fluency of 
 extempore utterance, with ability to talk for any 
 length of time, which inspires great admiration 
 among the people ; for the masses in our country 
 have a boundless delight in what they call elo- 
 quence, meaning usually a great flow of words and 
 a confident manner, with many sounding phrases 
 about the progress of humanity, the grandeur of
 
 22 CERTAIN DANGEROUS TENDENCIES 
 
 free thought, and the resistless uprising of the peo- 
 ple. No other class is at present so successfully 
 educating the people of this country. They are 
 positive and aggressive, and have a certain power 
 of enthusiasm or afflatus which no other class now 
 possesses. They have many organized societies, 
 traveling lecturers, and missionaries, and a score 
 or two of newspapers, besides an enormous litera- 
 ture of their own, if one may apply the word lit- 
 erature to their productions. It is a great and 
 successful movement for the propagation of uned- 
 ucated thought, the spectacle of the untaught 
 classes and disorganizing forces of the time taking 
 possession of the printing-press, of the rostrum, 
 and of the ballot, and attacking modern society 
 with its own weapons. It is a wide-spread revolt 
 against civilization. 
 
 There can be no doubt, after any real investi- 
 gation of the matter, that this class in whom the 
 methods and tendencies of prehistoric thought are 
 still dominant and almost unmodified by modern 
 culture the class believing in omens, visions, 
 spirit communications, impressions, and intuitions, 
 and in the sovereignty of the individual's impulses 
 includes several millions of our countrymen. 
 They incline to think nearly all labor unnecessary, 
 and generally regard employers as oppressors who 
 defraud the workingmen of the larger part of the 
 fruits of their toil. They are met and reinforced 
 upon this ground by a great number of the work- 
 ing-class, who have no theories or ideas of progress,
 
 TN AMERICAN LIFE. 23 
 
 but who have done little honest work since the 
 great inflation of prices a few years ago. That 
 inflation had a most disastrous effect on the con- 
 science and sense of honor of multitudes of work- 
 ingmen. They have ever since acted on the plan 
 of getting all they possibly can out of their em- 
 ployers, and giving as little as possible in return. 
 They regard the capitalist, that is, whoever has 
 money, as their natural enemy and prey. The 
 theorists who wish to reconstruct society outright, 
 and govern it afterward by mass-meetings in con- 
 tinuous session, encourage the discontent and in- 
 dolence of the men who believe they ought to be 
 paid high wages for very light work. The pros- 
 tration of business and industry extending over the 
 whole country during the last few years has given 
 all these people unprecedented opportunity, and 
 has greatly stimulated the sentiments and tenden- 
 cies which they represent. They have the im- 
 mense advantage and sanction which their attack 
 upon the existing order of things derives from the 
 extreme hardship and real suffering now for some 
 time endured by many of the working people in 
 different parts of our country. 
 
 The political objects and plans of this large 
 class of our citizens are much more fully defined 
 and articulate than is yet believed by those who 
 regard them with contempt or indifference. Of 
 course they do not themselves know what their 
 own part may be in later stages of the enterprise 
 which they are undertaking. But some of their
 
 24 CERTAIN DANGEROUS TENDENCIES 
 
 aims are clear. They believe that the interests 
 of the laborer, of the people, as they say, will be 
 advanced by crippling and injuring capital in 
 every possible way ; and this they intend to do. 
 They will influence legislation in this direction 
 wherever they have the power. They do not re- 
 gard the capitalist as one of the people, but as a 
 criminal and enemy who has no rights that the 
 people should respect. Those who possess property 
 and who live in comfort and refinement are more 
 and more regarded as the foes of the workingmen. 
 Intellectual labor is not respected. Professional 
 men, scholars, teachers, and cultivated people are 
 none of them acknowledged as laborers, or as hav- 
 ing any just title to labor's rewards. The rela- 
 tions between the people who have property and 
 culture, on the one hand, and the workingmen, 
 on the other, are regarded by the latter more and 
 more as a state of war ; so that any advantage 
 gained or injury inflicted by the laborers is to be 
 regarded as justifiable and right. We are in the 
 earlier stages of a war upon property, and upon 
 everything that satisfies what are called the higher 
 wants of civilized life. The workingmen are 
 taught to regard works of art and instruments of 
 high culture, with all the possessions and sur- 
 roundings of people of wealth and refinement, as 
 causes and symbols of the laborer's poverty and 
 degradation, and therefore as things to be hated. 
 The movement has already in many places at- 
 tacked and crippled the higher departments of our
 
 IN AMERICAN LIFE. 25 
 
 public-school education, and its leaders assail all 
 endowments and appropriations for 'scientific re- 
 search. The strongest tendencies and influences 
 now operating among these people are leading 
 them to a region and condition in which regard 
 for the higher elements of the life of civilized man, 
 for art, literature, and culture, is impossible. They 
 do not value science more than art or religion, ex- 
 cept in those applications of it which have an im- 
 mediate commercial value. The war against all 
 these things will be prosecuted with desperate en- 
 ergy and persistence unless something is speedily 
 done to counteract and change some of the chief 
 tendencies of the age ; unless there is an evolution 
 or application of forces adequate to create a new 
 series of circumstances. The instincts of destruc- 
 tion are already very strong in multitudes of men 
 in this country. They are becoming fiercely hos- 
 tile to everything that does not belong to the ma- 
 terial life of man, or which is not required to sat- 
 isfy his bodily wants. 
 
 The greatest danger is not that of armed vio- 
 lence or riotous destruction of property. The 
 chief point of attack, naturally, and as arranged 
 by the leaders of the movement, is to be for some 
 time to come the money or currency of the coun- 
 try. They have for some years endeavored to 
 bring the whole subject of the currency, its char- 
 acter, basis, and amount, under the direct and im- 
 mediate control of the people in mass-meeting as- 
 sembled, so that all questions of the issue and
 
 26 CERTAIN DANGEROUS TENDENCIES 
 
 circulation of money shall be brought before the 
 country, voted upon, and decided anew at every 
 election. At present the leaders favor a series of 
 feints, that is, strenuous advocacy of some meas- 
 ure that cannot be adopted ; and, when it is de- 
 feated, the attempt, without attracting attention 
 or exciting opposition, to obtain in another form 
 as nearly as possible the same legislation. Unless 
 there is more effective effort to prevent such a 
 result, our experience of a vast inflation of the 
 currency, with the slow and painful climbing up 
 again to specie payments, is likely to be repeated. 
 There never was much purpose or cooperation 
 among people of this class in our country until 
 very recently, but they are now awaking to a 
 sense of their power. Their idea of government 
 is to place less emphasis upon constitutional pro- 
 visions, to disregard or set them aside when nec- 
 essary, and to depend more and more upon con- 
 gressional legislation; to make the judiciary and 
 all other offices elective, to increase as much as 
 may be the power of Congress, or rather of the 
 House of Representatives, and to place, as nearly 
 as possible, the entire administration of the gov- 
 ernment directly in the hands of the people, to be 
 conducted by means of the political canvass or 
 campaign. The aim is to destroy, little by little, 
 the constitutional and representative character of 
 the government, in order to enable the people to 
 decide everything anew, if they wish to do so, at 
 each annual election. There is to be an agitation
 
 IN AMERICAN LIFE. 27 
 
 or series of efforts for the reduction of all terras of 
 office to the shortest possible time. Our fellow- 
 citizens of this class hold that representatives of 
 the people should always obey instructions from 
 their constituents, or should immediately resign. 
 They do not trust each other very far, and the 
 workingmen especially believe that if one of their 
 own number is elected to a place in a state legisla- 
 ture, or in Congress, he can be bribed or " bought 
 up " by the money power, and that for a very pal- 
 try sum. They never before had any competent 
 directors ; but while they still quarrel among 
 themselves over details, a vast number are for the 
 first time in substantial agreement in their pur- 
 pose to seek the ends which I have described, and 
 to advance toward them persistently, and by any 
 methods that promise partial success. They hold 
 that it is the function of government to " make 
 good times " for the people, that is, for the work- 
 ingmen ; and that there is already sufficient wealth 
 in existence in our country to give the working 
 people good times, if it were only rightly distrib- 
 uted. 
 
 This, after many years of observation, extend- 
 ing to most of the States of our country, I believe 
 to be a just estimate of our present condition and 
 tendencies. We have a great increase and devel- 
 opment of unfavorable and disorganizing forces 
 within our national life, and no corresponding in- 
 crease of wholesome or vital activities. The in- 
 fluence of the church and of religion upon the
 
 28 CERTAIN DANGEROUS TENDENCIES 
 
 morals and conduct of men has greatly declined, 
 and is still declining. There is yet, as I have said, 
 a large amount of moral force and healthful life 
 in the church. Religion is not extinct. But the 
 really significant fact here is that it is constantly 
 losing ground. The empire of religion over hu- 
 man conduct, its power as a conservative moral 
 and social force, is so far lost that some things 
 which are indispensable to the existence of so- 
 ciety can no longer be supplied from this source 
 without a great increase of vitality in religion it- 
 self. The morality based upon the religion popu- 
 larly professed has, to a fatal extent, broken down. 
 Multitudes of men who are religious are not hon- 
 est or trustworthy. They declare themselves fit 
 for heaven, but they will not tell the truth, nor 
 deal justly with their neighbors. The money of 
 widows and orphans placed under their conti-ol is 
 not safer than in the hands of highwaymen. There 
 is no article of food, medicine, or traffic which can 
 be profitably adulterated or injuriously manipu- 
 lated that is not, in most of the great centres of 
 trade, thus corrupted and sold by prominent mem- 
 bers of Christian churches. I have made all these 
 statements as colorless as possible, desiring to pre- 
 sent a coldly accurate report of the more impor- 
 tant facts and tendencies of the life and thought of 
 our country as I have observed them. The evils 
 mentioned are highly complex in character, and 
 are parts of a system over which individuals, as 
 such, have little power. We must take account
 
 /TV AMERICAN LIFE. 29 
 
 of them as a wise captain acquaints himself with 
 the position and numbers of a hostile force. 
 
 Our situation is the more unfavorable because 
 of the inevitable decline of patriotism among us 
 immediately after the war, a lowering of na- 
 tional vitality which still affects us seriously. 
 This was largely caused by the utter exhaustion 
 of the faculties of the people ; an incapacity of 
 their powers of brain, nerve, and mind* for con- 
 tinued action in the same directions after the 
 fearful tension maintained during the struggle. 
 As all our intellectual and moral activities are 
 correlated with physical forces, this exhaustion 
 was unavoidable, and any great moral effort on 
 the part of the people at the close of the war was 
 next to impossible. This has most probably had 
 something to do with the great indifference in re- 
 gard to the violation of the laws displayed by 
 local communities. The leading citizens in many 
 places habitually transgress some laws, finding it 
 convenient or profitable to disregard them. In 
 one of the best towns of an Eastern State the 
 principal property holders and public-spirited citi- 
 zens met from time to time for some months, last 
 year, to devise measures to repress crime and im- 
 morality, and to promote flie order and welfare 
 of the community. The relation of society to 
 pauperism, the sources of vice, the province of 
 legislation, and the duty of good men in relation 
 to such subjects were freely discussed. Two or 
 three gentlemen urged the adoption of some ex-
 
 30 CERTAIN DANGEROUS TENDENCIES 
 
 pression, by these chief men of the place, of their 
 sense of the importance of strict obedience to the 
 laws on the part of all good citizens ; but it was 
 impossible to obtain anything of the kind. I have 
 learned that the same thing has occurred in sev- 
 eral other places. Some of this evil may be due 
 to over-legislation ; but, whatever may be the 
 causes, we are becoming a nation of law-breakers. 
 The laws relating to streets, sidewalks, and do- 
 mestic animals, for instance, and various other 
 minor statutes, are habitually violated in country 
 places by some of the best people. The great 
 number of people from other countries now living 
 in nearly all our towns and villages, and the fre- 
 quent removals to other places on the part of 
 many citizens, are hindrances to the speedy at- 
 tainment of a real unity or homogeneous character 
 by the population of our local communities. Peo- 
 ple will not love their country unless they love the 
 place where they live and endeavor to promote 
 its interests. 
 
 It is said that our system of popular education 
 provides sufficient safeguards against the dangers 
 here pointed out. But even if its work were 
 henceforth to be perfect, its operation would nec- 
 essarily be too slow for some things which our 
 present situation requires. Our school system as 
 it now exists cannot be depended on to remedy 
 or avert the evils which threaten us. Most of 
 the class whose use of prehistoric methods of 
 thought leads them to rely upon instinct and in-
 
 IN AMERICAN LIFE. 31 
 
 tuition, rather than upon any results of human 
 experience, have enjoyed the opportunities of our 
 schools, and have received, in an average degree, 
 the benefits which our system of education now 
 confers. The people from whom these dangers 
 arise are not stupid or ignorant, nor are their minds 
 inactive. They have been through our schools ; 
 they edit newspapers, make our political speeches 
 in all the country places, and represent us in Con- 
 gress. They are not so much uneducated as mis- 
 educated ; their faculties are active, particularly 
 of late years, but they are undisciplined and mis- 
 directed, and the result of their thinking is largely 
 erroneous. For these difficulties our public school 
 system furnishes no adequate remedy. Two things 
 are especially to be noted in our popular school 
 education : it usually leads to no interest in lit- 
 erature or acquaintance with it, nor to any sense 
 of the value of history for modern men, a very 
 serious defect ; and its most characteristic and 
 general result is a distaste for manual labor. We 
 have some good schools, of course ; but great 
 numbers of teachers and principals of our high 
 schools in country places have for several years 
 explicitly taught their pupils, and urged upon 
 parents, the sentiment that in this country edu- 
 cation should raise all who obtain it above the 
 necessity of drudgery ; that there are better ways 
 of making a living than manual labor " at so 
 much for a day's work," and that these higher ways 
 will be open to those who '.' get an education."
 
 32 CERTAIN DANGEROUS TENDENCIES 
 
 All this has resulted in a dainty, effeminate, and 
 false view of the world as a place where only un- 
 educated and inferior people need work hard, or 
 engage in toilsome or unattractive employments. 
 
 There are two or three small bodies of dissent- 
 ers from the popular religions whose work is one 
 of the factors of the life of the nation. They 
 have prepared some excellent material for a bet- 
 ter state of things. A few cultivated men among 
 them have given the nation the best of its litera- 
 ture. The work of most of the ministers among 
 these dissenters is at present, indeed, rather more 
 literary in its character than is desirable. They 
 do not so much preach as write literary essays. 
 Their position is, however, in large measure, a 
 necessity, and the character of their work up to 
 the present time has been the inevitable product 
 of the most important intellectual and religious 
 movement of the century. But a vital advance 
 ought also now to be inevitable for them. Some 
 of them see the gravity of our national situation 
 and prospects, and are doing all in their power to 
 prepare the people about them for wise and whole- 
 some action and life in the service of the country. 
 Others cherish an urbane philosophical optimism, 
 and smile at the idea of any serious danger to 
 American institutions, political or religious. But 
 these live curiously remote from the common peo- 
 ple, or meet them only in the peculiar relations 
 which charity involves. They often know more 
 about other times and lands than our own. Most
 
 IN AMERICAN LIFE. 33 
 
 of them are, like the best men in the pulpits of all 
 the churches, loyally devoted to truth, and eager to 
 be helpful to mankind, but they have to contend 
 at every step against the spirit of the age. The 
 people of this country are to apply a phrase 
 from M. Raoul Pictet " prone to value none but 
 paying facts." They know what kind of preach- 
 ing they want, and they intend to have it. ^If one 
 minister does not supply it, they employ another. 
 It is expected that ministers will preach on na- 
 tional interests or morals on Thanksgiving Day 
 and on the Fourth of July ; but as things are now 
 few congregations would listen, without serious 
 dissatisfaction, to any thorough or adequate treat- 
 ment of the subjects which are most important 
 and vital for us as a nation. After a few such dis- 
 courses there would be an imperative demand for 
 sermons of the usual type. The good people in 
 the churches are weary and careworn when Sun- 
 day comes, and wish to be comforted, soothed, and 
 entertained by the preaching. And in this com- 
 mercial age they will not " pay " for preaching 
 which does not suit them. So there are many 
 men whose religious teaching is of the wisest who 
 have much difficulty to live, and who are entirely 
 unable to equip themselves as they should for 
 their work. If there is any new development of 
 moral forces or increase of religious vitality in our 
 time, these small companies of dissenters from the 
 popular religion will have a close and vital connec- 
 tion with it, though not in sectarian ways.' 
 
 3
 
 34 CERTAIN DANGEROUS TENDENCIES 
 
 As to that numerous class of people who insist 
 that Christianity is itself exhausted and outgrown, 
 and that we have already reached something bet- 
 ter, they have not developed anything that can 
 help us in our present needs. They do something 
 in opposing the superstitions and absurdities of 
 some church people, but thus far their criticism 
 has been narrow, sectarian, and unpractical. The 
 priests of the Roman Catholic Church occupy a 
 position of great importance in relation to the new 
 conditions and tendencies of our national life. Al- 
 though many of them are rather churchmen than 
 American citizens, their influence is likely to be, 
 on the whole, rather helpful than otherwise. 
 They do a vast deal of good work upon very diffi- 
 cult material. Their course should be critically 
 observed, but they. deserve far more sympathy 
 and recognition than they receive. Their teach- 
 ing forbids consultation of the spirits of the dead, 
 and membership in secret societies. This last re- 
 quirement will keep many voters out of the move- 
 ment for the inflation and debasement of the na- 
 tional currency, as the leaders of that enterprise 
 make great use of the machinery of secret socie- 
 ties. 
 
 What then can be done ? Is our condition 
 hopeless ? By no means. Are we to wait, as 
 some people urge, until these errors and delusions 
 have spent their force ? They do not tend to ex- 
 haust themselves. They belong naturally to hu- 
 man beings in the stages of development to which
 
 /AT AMERICAN LIFE. 35 
 
 those who are affected by them have attained. 
 They have no self-limiting quality, but have 
 abundant power to reproduce and extend them- 
 selves. Are we to depend chiefly upon force, as 
 employed in the repression and punishment of 
 riotous proceedings and crimes against property, 
 as the best means for the protection of society 
 and the maintenance of civilization ? No. It is 
 true that all positive law rests upon force in the 
 last analysis, and it is often conservative and mer- 
 ciful to enforce obedience to law at whatever cost. 
 But the value and permanence of property, and 
 the vitality of other elements of civilization, de- 
 pend upon settled, orderly, and peaceful conditions 
 of .society. If the evil tendencies I have described 
 are not checked, if we are to live in a state of con- 
 stant apprehension of riots and conflagrations, or if 
 we rely chiefly upon aYrned force to prevent such 
 outbreaks, our legislation will necessarily be im- 
 wholesomely affected to such an extent, and the 
 business and industries of our country so disturbed 
 and depressed, that our national condition would 
 have to be regarded as little better than the real 
 failure of our institutions. Other dangers than that 
 of the pillage and destruction of our cities by 
 armed mobs may be serious enough to tax the 
 vital resources of the nation to the utmost. We 
 must somehow eliminate and transmute a large 
 proportion of this dangerous and inflammable ma- 
 terial, and we must greatly increase the healthful 
 forces in the life of the nation.
 
 36 CERTAIN DANGEROUS TENDENCIES 
 
 The evil of false and foolish teaching can be 
 adequately resisted only by true teaching and wise 
 action. It is said that persons who hold the sen- 
 timents and cherish the aims here depicted are 
 beyond the reach of argument or reason. That 
 is true of many, pi'obably of all, the teachers and 
 leaders of this class. But it is not true, as yet, of 
 the multitude from whom this class is being con- 
 stantly recruited. It is not yet true of the young 
 people \vho are coming up, year by year, to take 
 their places in those ranks. The ideas and im- 
 pulses which tend to disorder and disintegration, 
 when they have taken possession of the minds of 
 men, do indeed constitute a craze, an epidemic hal- 
 lucination or contagion of unreason and folly. This 
 conception has been well developed, and it gives 
 us one of the most acute and discriminating no- 
 tions of our time. It is the key to many things 
 otherwise inexplicable in history. But the cir- 
 cumstances, influences, and conditions which pre- 
 dispose or prepare men for the reception and de- 
 velopment of the germs of this contagion have 
 not been sufficiently considered. Here is a fact 
 of great interest for us. The number of those 
 who cannot be influenced by argument or any di- 
 rect intellectual appeal is increasing from month 
 to month, and it is recruited from classes who are 
 still accessible, who could be guided if there were 
 anybody to guide them ; who could be taught and 
 enlightened if the right means were used; who 
 might be confirmed and established in their now
 
 IN AMERICAN LIFE. 37 
 
 wavering allegiance to truth, justice, and sound 
 reason. There is a vast field and opportunity for 
 successful work in this direction. It waits only 
 tlic awakening of the cultivated classes to the per- 
 ils, needs, and duties of the hour. 
 
 But the people who cannot be influenced by ar- 
 gument are by no means in a state so hopeless as 
 most of our teachers believe. The truth is that 
 comparatively few men are controlled or guided 
 so much by argument and reason as by the ear- 
 nestness, the convictions, and the confident activ- 
 ity of those who have made up their minds, and 
 are heartily interested in a definite object. And 
 especially are men influenced and attracted by the 
 volume and mass of the teaching and movements 
 around them. They are swayed and decided by 
 the continuity of attack, by the cumulative force 
 of the constant iteration of the same idea in 
 varying forms. These things depend upon nat- 
 ural laws, and the apostles of disorder are work- 
 ing in accordance with these laws, which are 
 always potent in the propagation of feelings, opin- 
 ions, and convictions. These laws are not partial 
 to falsehood and folly. They lend themselves as 
 readily and efficiently to the dissemination of truth 
 and good sense. 
 
 But there is a kind of fetich worship of the 
 power of ideas which prevails among our culti- 
 vated people, which leads them to think that when 
 they have demonstrated the excellence and supe- 
 riority of certain principles, by means of a paper
 
 38 CERTAIN DANGEROUS TENDENCIES 
 
 in a review, or an essay at a meeting of ministers, 
 their work is done, and that the conquest of the 
 world by their opinions is only a matter of time ; 
 and so they turn away, serenely triumphant, to 
 await the happy consummation. But ideas have 
 little practical efficiency until they are incarnated, 
 so to speak, made alive and personal in men 
 and women ; until a few people, at least, care a 
 great deal about them, and feel a resistless impulse 
 to their propagation. This impulse is precisely 
 what our cultivated people do not feel in regard 
 to any ideas whatever. Propagandism of any 
 kind repels them. This is the weakness of our 
 nation to-day, and the source of its greatest dan- 
 ger. The people who believe in civilization are 
 giving away the victory to their wild antagonists 
 by their own inaction, a delusion of their culture 
 which makes them disdain to learn the use of new 
 weapons and methods. Culture itself is not yet 
 in this country vital or dynamic. It lacks the im- 
 pulse and virility necessary for its own propaga-" 
 tion. It is too dainty for a land like ours, and 
 is inclined to be discouraged about the masses, 
 or else to trust everything to " the resistless ope- 
 ration of the laws of progress." Now that is a 
 phrase merely. Many persons feel soothed and 
 strengthened when they hear it, but it does not 
 mean much. If anything is done for the improve- 
 ment of life and its conditions in .this country we 
 must begin, and must be prepared for a large and 
 persistent expenditure of time, of thought, and of
 
 IN AMERICAN LIFE. 39 
 
 personal effort ; with the usual accompaniments of 
 partial failure, of the incompetence of some of 
 the agents, and of much unrecognized and unhon- 
 ored toil. Direct endeavor for the elevation of 
 any class is less repulsive after we have heartily 
 engaged in it. However distasteful it may be, it 
 is the condition of our success, and cannot be 
 safely postponed to a more favorable time. Such 
 work is not so hopeless as some would have us 
 believe. Two fluids may be kept permanently 
 apart by a thin membrane if both are at rest ; but 
 if one is set in motion the other will pass through 
 the intervening wall and join in the movement. 
 When there is a vital advance on the part of our 
 cultivated people new motions will be set up and 
 new centres of force developed in the life of the 
 nation at large. The working people will exert 
 themselves for their own improvement if we be- 
 gin ; they are not likely to do so otherwise. 
 
 We shall wholly fail if we think we can im- 
 prove society, or any portion of it, by any plan 
 which does not require improvement on the part 
 of the more fortunate and cultivated classes. 
 Much of their culture is superficial and unpracti- 
 cal, consisting rather of unrelated fragments of 
 thought, and vague impressions concerning what 
 is supposed to be known, than of real knowledge 
 resulting from the ordered activity of a disciplined 
 intelligence. We need a better culture for our 
 teachers and leaders ; not merely more of the 
 same kind they now possess, but culture of a
 
 40 CERTAIN DANGEROUS TENDENCIES 
 
 higher order. It will not do to confine our inter- 
 est or efforts to the lower strata. We must learn 
 how to solve such problems as pauperism, or poor- 
 relief, and prison management ; but woe to our 
 nation if we expend all our vitality upon them. 
 We must do this and have strength for higher 
 interests and more constructive work. The lower 
 classes are now educating us. A necessary ten- 
 dency and peril of democracy, of a universal suf- 
 frage arrangement of society, is a general medi- 
 ocrity, the adoption of low standards, a halting 
 of the army of civilization while we wait for the 
 camp-followers to come up. Let us distribute 
 rations among these if that is best. But their 
 place is not in front, and the head of the column 
 must move on. We must open the way ahead, 
 and not merely fortify the rear of our position. 
 
 The people who believe in culture, in property, 
 and in order, that is in civilization, must establish 
 the necessary agencies for the diffusion of a new 
 culture. Capital must protect itself by organized 
 activities for a new object, the education of the 
 people. Those who possess property, and those 
 who value it as one of the great forces and sup- 
 ports of civilization, will be obliged to learn that 
 legislation, even if the laws are properly enforced, 
 is not an adequate means for the protection of 
 property and the repression of the disorderly and 
 'destructive elements in our society. Legislation 
 itself is fast becoming a weapon in the hands of 
 the hostile forces ; and even if it were always the
 
 IN AMERICAN LIFE. 41 
 
 work of wise men it is only one factor of civiliza- 
 tion, and would not give us security without a 
 great advance in the culture and character of the 
 people. Our present conditions cannot be per- 
 manent. If they are not improved they will soon 
 grow worse. The evils which threaten us must 
 be studied and understood, and then dealt with 
 rationally, and some of their sources must be 
 cut off. 
 
 The present slovenly and miserably inefficient 
 procedure in dealing with tramps, vagrants, and 
 people destitute of food and employment must be 
 changed by taking some unit of territory, a town- 
 ship, ward, or county, and then confining all who 
 need relief to the district in which they belong or 
 may be found. Labor which will yield them food, 
 not wages, should be provided, and all persons 
 supplied with food should be compelled to work. 
 As it is now, a vast army marches around the 
 land, refusing all work, and receiving far more 
 food and money than would be necessary to main- 
 tain it if the business were organized on business 
 principles. Our country roads are unsafe for 
 women, and our cities swarm with stalwart beg- 
 gars who threaten when their demands are not 
 satisfied. 
 
 A friend of mine, a missionary in one of our 
 largest cities, last winter preached in a large hall 
 on Sunday evenings, and spent some hours each 
 Saturday night in 'the streets and alleys of that 
 vicinity. To all who asked for money to procure
 
 42 CERTAIN DANGEROUS TENDENCIES 
 
 something to eat or a place to sleep he gave food 
 (when they would take it; many would accept 
 nothing but money), and secured for them a com- 
 fortable lodging. Then, giving each applicant a 
 card, with time and place of services for the next 
 evening, he invited him to attend the meeting, 
 and promised him supper and lodging for Sunday 
 night also. More than a hundred men were thus 
 kindly treated, but not one of them ever came to 
 the Sunday evening meeting. My friend said 
 that of the whole number there was but one who 
 seemed to be really hungry. 
 
 But there are more types than one, and we 
 must not estimate the situation by one such re- 
 port alone. During the last few years I have my- 
 self seen the wives and children of workingmen 
 in country towns die of inanition, after having 
 long subsisted on a little Indian meal. Discovery 
 came too late. These people met their fate si- 
 lently. They were known to be poor and out of 
 work, and " they would not beg." Many persons 
 have died in some regions of our country, during 
 the last three years, from disease induced by in- 
 sufficient nourishment, and many invalids among 
 the poor have succumbed to the effects of scant 
 and unsuitable food. A young girl, whose wages 
 as a servant had procured a bare subsistence for 
 her mother and three small children, lost her place 
 recently by the death of her mistress. Unable to 
 find employment, and distracted by the hunger of 
 the children, she applied to a friend of mine for
 
 IN AMERICAN LIFE. 43 
 
 advice. Said she, " Mrs. , what is the right 
 
 way for people to live when they can get nothing 
 to eat ? " On behalf of her inarticulate class I 
 repeat her question. As teachers of the poor we 
 should be prepared to offer them a philosophy of 
 life suited to their circumstances. We say truly 
 that some of their theories are wild, and their 
 aims fatal to their own interests. But we must 
 give voice to the plea which they ought to make, 
 and ourselves champion the aims which would be 
 wise and right for them. Again the question, 
 What are they ? If we should have for several 
 years a succession of abundant crops, the pressure 
 and urgency of some of our dangers would be 
 lessened. If, on the other hand, we have unfavor- 
 able seasons and continued industrial depression, 
 these difficulties would be aggravated. It is not 
 wise to depend for safety upon chances which are 
 in no degree under our control. 
 
 I am aware that my arraignment of the inade- 
 quacy of the means now being used requires some 
 suggestion of more vigorous methods of action for 
 our national regeneration, or for a decided in- 
 crease of healthful activities in the intellectual 
 and moral life of our country. A society with a 
 plan or method of work resembling that of the 
 New England Loyal Publication Society, which 
 did so much to reinforce the national sentiment 
 during our civil war, could now render quite as effi- 
 cient service. Few people, except newspaper 
 men, know to what extent most newspapers out of
 
 44 CERTAIN DANGEROUS TENDENCIES 
 
 the cities are made up, or supplied with matter, 
 by the mere accident of proximity, or readiness to 
 the editor's scissors, of articles of suitable length, 
 already printed, so that they can be rapidly 
 glanced over and conveniently transferred to his 
 paper. I would have a society or arrangement of 
 some kind for printing and sending to the coun- 
 try newspapers everywhere a series of broadsides 
 or sheets filled with short articles, plainly written, 
 direct and spirited in style, without eloquence or 
 bookishness, and with few figures of speech ; set- 
 ting forth and repeating in ever-varying forms the 
 few great simple truths and facts which explain 
 our present national condition, especially in con- 
 nection with such subjects as debt, paper money, 
 resumption of specie payments, and the relation 
 of individual habits and expenditures to national 
 welfare. 
 
 We need also the publication of a small, low- 
 priced newspaper, for circulation in all parts of 
 the country ; to be printed in the best style, giv- 
 ing a good digest of the most important news ; to 
 be dedicated to the propagation and definite teach- 
 ing of strict honesty, wise economy, fraternal self- 
 denial and a religious devotion to our country, and 
 the interests of a nobler civilization than we have 
 yet attained ; a paper for the people, which shall 
 have for its aim the development of a national 
 spirit and temper, of a practical, capable, and 
 wholesome nature, leading men away from empty 
 theories of millennial progress and attainments to
 
 IN AMERICAN LIFE. 45 
 
 manly self-reliance and intelligent recognition of 
 the real conditions of human life in this world ; a 
 paper, in short, which shall represent and propa- 
 gate principles, sentiments, and activities in ac- 
 cord with the central ideas of this article. 
 
 We need some small books on subjects con- 
 nected with political economy, which shall teach 
 what is known, however little that may prove to 
 be, and not merely perplex the brains of work- 
 ingmen by reporting the speculations of all the 
 schools. We need a great deal of elementary 
 teaching, and should have books written for plain 
 people, by authors who can drive straight at the 
 mark and stop when they have done. 
 
 The persuasive power of public speaking, lect- 
 uring, and preaching is of course indispensable. 
 It should be employed in the education of the 
 people as fast as honest men who have a real 
 grasp upon these principles can be found to speak 
 clearly and usefully. People everywhere who per- 
 ceive these needs should meet, confer with each 
 other, and begin to work. 
 
 The central or fundamental philosophical truth 
 which underlies the mental and moral culture 
 which the age requires is the truth of the moral 
 order of the universe. Human life belongs to an 
 actual order, a cosmos, not a chaos; and this 
 order is a moral order, and tends to and prefers 
 truth, justice, and righteousness. The opposite 
 error, which has misled a large portion of Amer- 
 ican society, is the opinion that the moral order to
 
 46 CERTAIN DANGEROUS TENDENCIES 
 
 which man's life belongs is subjective only ; that 
 nothing is true or right in itself, but only as it 
 seeins so to us ; that there is no real standard of 
 human conduct, only a conventional one; and 
 that if men would generally agree to it the rela- 
 tions and nature of right and wrong might be 
 reversed. This is what is really fatal in unbelief 
 in our time, not the rejection of the creed of 
 my church or yours, but the loss of the perception 
 and assurance of the truth that the laws of nat- 
 ure and the inevitable working of the forces of 
 the universe are hostile to falsehood and in j ustice ; 
 that extreme individualism is now abnormal and 
 self-destructive ; and that fraternal or social jus- 
 tice is provided for and required by the constitu- 
 tion of things, by the laws of an order which man 
 did not make and cannot change. There is a 
 great deal to be said on the other side. If there 
 were not, we should have no difficulties or prob- 
 lems, and no such arduous task before us here in 
 the education of the people and their emancipa- 
 tion from error and folly. 
 
 We must insist on the necessity of sincerity and 
 of knowledge on the part of religious teachers. 
 We need the development of a religion for this 
 world, for the needs and duties of life here. 
 Strictly speaking we have no knowledge of an- 
 other world or a future life. We may believe pro- 
 foundly, but we do not know. Belief, trust, and 
 faith are also, as truly as knowledge, great dy- 
 namic forces in human life, and have a value of
 
 /AT AMERICAN LIFE. 47 
 
 their own. We must have a religion and moral 
 philosophy which will inspire patriotism, and hold 
 us strenuously to the work of making this country 
 a clean, orderly, and wholesome dwelling-place, 
 school, and home for human beings. The relig- 
 ious people and the scientific people are alike fool- 
 ish and blind when they do not see their equal 
 need of each other as allies against the assault 
 of forces which are equally hostile to both. All 
 who will work, for the health of the nation must 
 be welcomed and encouraged. What is good and 
 effective in the church and its teaching will dis- 
 entangle itself somewhat from that which is life- 
 less and worldly, if there is anywhere a distinct 
 forward movement. The secular press should crit- 
 icise frankly the preaching of the day, in so far as 
 it concerns morality and national interests, and 
 we must all expect the most rigid scrutiny of what 
 we teach. We must hasten the introduction into 
 religious speech (varying a little Professor Clarke 
 Maxwell's expression) " of words and phrases con- 
 sistent with true ideas about nature, instead of 
 others implying false ideas." 
 
 The people who believe that the utilitarian 
 doctrines provide a sufficient basis for morality 
 should feel an imperative requirement, in the cir- 
 cumstances of our country, for the development of 
 those doctrines. So far as they are capable of 
 becoming a religious inspiration and motive for 
 men, they should be made available to the utmost 
 possible extent. They do not yet constitute a
 
 48 CERTAIN DANGEROUS TENDENCIES 
 
 religion, except perhaps to a few persons, who 
 represent in a rare degree what is best and high- 
 est in American civilization. We need work, just 
 here, by a master's hand, in setting forth the char- 
 acter, meaning, scope, and practical requirements 
 of the utilitarian doctrines in relation to the cir- 
 cumstances and conditions of life in this country 
 to-day. What does utilitarianism teach, and why 
 shouid men regard and obey it ? 
 
 A change in the reading of the people is neces- 
 sary, if we are to improve the national life. Men 
 who could really teach English literature, and 
 show people how to read and understand it, so as 
 to receive culture from it, would be among the 
 most valuable missionaries of the new order of 
 things. If there are such men it would be profita- 
 ble to employ them. 
 
 Men of property or wealth, capitalists, and peo- 
 ple of culture who understand the value of prop- 
 erty in civilization must accept a great and direct 
 responsibility in regard to all matters pertaining 
 to the moral education of the people. Their 
 course will decide what our national condition 
 shall be for some time to come. We have been 
 too much inclined to hold a few half-starved cler- 
 gymen chiefly responsible for the moral culture of 
 the masses. There is no good reason for making 
 self-sacrifice and unrecompensed labor for such ob- 
 jects the business of ministers exclusively. 
 
 People will say, All this will require a great 
 deal of money. True ; but it will save much
 
 IN AMERICAN LIFE. 49 
 
 more. If the future of this country is to be 
 evolved from the elements and tendencies of the 
 present, then, unless something like what is here 
 outlined is undertaken and carried forward, the 
 loss of property (not to speak of moral losses) will 
 be greater than the amount of money that would 
 be required for an educational enterprise on a 
 larger scale than any the past has known. We 
 ought to expend a million of dollars in this work 
 during the next three years, as a beginning. It 
 would be a most profitable business enterprise, 
 considered merely as an investment of money, 
 on account of the pecuniary losses which it would 
 prevent. 
 
 I observe much complaint lately of the difficul- 
 ties involved in universal suffrage. They are 
 doubtless great. If the world were wholly differ- 
 ent we might do fine things. But we must have 
 methods that can be used as things are, to be- 
 gin with, at least. The age is probably the most 
 unteachable since the Revival of Learning. But 
 we can work to-day only where we are. We are 
 shut up to this universal suffrage organization of 
 society, and must find out how to make it serve 
 the ends for which society exists. The franchise 
 is not likely to be narrowed greatly in our time. 
 If America were a jungle of human tigers, still it 
 is our country and the country of our children, 
 and its people, however undeveloped and intract- 
 able, are our neighbors, brethren, and fellow-citi- 
 zens. We must live in some relations with them, 
 4
 
 50 CERTAIN DANGEROUS TENDENCIES. 
 
 and to make these relations orderly, beneficent, 
 and just is worth all it can cost. The union of 
 the States is geographical, official, and mechan- 
 ical ; the unity of the people must be vital, or- 
 ganic, and spiritual. Such unity is not yet act- 
 ual, only potential.
 
 THE NATIONALS, THEIR ORIGIN AND 
 THEIR AIMS. 
 
 THE history of the National Party begins with 
 the financial legislation of our civil war. The 
 equipment of the Union soldiery, and other prep- 
 arations for national defense, required the expen- 
 diture of vast sums beyond what the national treas- 
 ury could supply. The government issued printed 
 notes promises to pay to the amount of many 
 millions of dollars, enacting that these notes should 
 be regarded and used as a legal tender in all the 
 ordinary business of the people, but excepting 
 from this provision certain dues and payments of 
 the government for which coin was required. As 
 the war assumed greater proportions the necessary 
 purchases became enormous in extent, and the 
 remarkable discovery was made that everybody 
 might easily become rich by selling goods to the 
 government at prices many times greater than 
 their real value. It was easy to print the paper 
 promises to pay, and the government scattered 
 them with lavish hand among the people. There 
 was an unexampled expansion and activity in all 
 kinds of business. Everybody could obtain em- 
 ployment at high wages. There was a new mar- 
 ket for everything, and the demand seemed un-
 
 52 THE NATIONALS, 
 
 limited. Men counted their new wealth by hun- 
 dreds of thousands and millions. It consisted of 
 the evidences of the government's indebtedness, 
 that is, of their own. The result of the war was 
 for some time uncertain. No day had been fixed 
 for the payment of the legal-tender notes, and 
 their purchasing power declined as the numbers 
 issued were multiplied. The war ended. The 
 government went out of business, that is, it was 
 no longer a purchaser to any great extent ; the 
 new market was closed. Most of the people of 
 the country had been really in the employ of the 
 government during the war, nearly all traders and 
 speculators receiving lavish salaries in the excess- 
 ive profits of their business. Now everybody was 
 discharged. The hasty, desperate, make-shift 
 financial legislation at the beginning of the war 
 had produced a great " expansion of the cur- 
 rency," filling the hands of the people every- 
 where with the new paper money. But the vast 
 amount in circulation had to be reduced ; some 
 arrangement for complying with the promise to 
 pay (printed on the face of every note) had to be 
 adopted, or the notes would soon be worthless. 
 Then came the contraction of the currency by the 
 retirement of some of the legal-tender notes. The 
 new taxes were a great burden ; the best invest- 
 ments produced but small profits ; and we were 
 rudely awakened from splendid dreams of increas- 
 ing prosperity to distasteful economies and com- 
 parative poverty. The nation began, in great
 
 THEIR ORIGIN AND THEIR AIMS. 53 
 
 depression and bewilderment, the payment of its 
 tremendous war debt. The people had generally 
 used the government's promises to pay as real 
 money, vaguely considering the new paper cur- 
 rency as an addition to the actual wealth of the 
 country, without fully realizing that the people 
 had to pay the debt of the nation. There were 
 multitudes who did not understand why the vast 
 expansion of business and industry should be tem- 
 porary ; why the " prosperity of the war-time " 
 should not continue forever. There was no ade- 
 quate effort to teach them. They had been in- 
 credulous when the first signs of the inevitable 
 decline and collapse appeared. They had lost the 
 habit of hard labor, and when they found that the 
 days of contracts and jobs, and of easy, profuse 
 living were past they were profoundly dissatisfied. 
 In that dissatisfaction was the origin of the discon- 
 tent, the grievances, hopes, and purposes of the peo- 
 ple who constitute the mass of the national party 
 of to-day. The stream has received some important 
 tributaries in later times, but this was its source. 
 
 It took some little time to formulate the new 
 feeling. But it was soon discovered that when 
 the paper money was abundant the country was 
 prosperous, and that the first contraction of the 
 currency and the decline in business were coinci- 
 dent in time, and were therefore related to each 
 other as cause and effect. It was affirmed that if 
 the paper money had been made a full legal ten- 
 der, that is, if it had been received by the gov-
 
 54 THE NATIONALS, 
 
 ernment for all dues and used in payment of all 
 claims, it would always have been equal to gold in 
 value or purchasing power. The legislation pro- 
 viding that coin should be used in the payment of 
 duties, and of the interest on national bonds, was 
 denounced as injurious to the people, as was also 
 the act establishing national banks. A feeling of 
 opposition to the payment of debts which were 
 incurred during the period of the inflation of the 
 currency became very strong, especially in the 
 West. The continued and increasing depression 
 of business and of industry has deepened and 
 strengthened these tendencies, and the time has 
 been in many ways propitious for their growth. 
 
 A history of the paper-money delusion from its 
 origin, through the various stages of its influence 
 upon both the great political parties of the coun- 
 try, with a careful study of their platforms and of 
 the utterances of their leading men upon financial 
 subjects during the last seventeen years, includ- 
 ing a review of the development of allied influ- 
 ences and of the effect of all these tendencies 
 upon the national thought and life, would be a 
 most instructive and valuable work, but it must 
 be left to other hands. What is here undertaken 
 is a presentation or report of the specific opinions, 
 grievances, illusions, hopes, and purposes of the 
 people who are identified with the national party. 
 In making this report I have as far as possible 
 used the exact words of my neighbors and fellow- 
 citizens who hold these opinions ; and when ver-
 
 THEIR ORIGIN AND THEIR AIMS. 55 
 
 bal changes were necessary I have endeavored to 
 preserve their thoughts and ideas with scrupulous 
 accuracy. No part of the materials for this report 
 is taken from newspapers or printed documents, 
 or from public addresses. During the last few 
 weeks I have had very full and satisfactory con- 
 versations with thirty-four workingmen who are 
 earnest adherents of the new national party. The 
 number includes residents of three different States, 
 Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey. I am 
 personally acquainted with all of them. They are 
 natives of this country, and men of good repute 
 for honesty and general morality. Most of them 
 are poor, and they all work with their hands. 
 They have what is usually called in this country 
 a good common-school education, and most of them 
 have more than this. More than half have been 
 teachers. They are of all ages, from thirty-two 
 to fifty-seven. What is here presented was ex- 
 pressed in answer to my questions on all the sub- 
 jects brought forward. In every instance I re- 
 ceived the utmost courtesy, with permission to 
 communicate to the public the information thus 
 given to me. I used a note-book and pencil as we 
 talked, recording as fully as possible what was 
 said, often repeating the questions and reading my 
 memoranda to my neighbor for his approval. On 
 most essential points there was substantial agree- 
 ment among all these men, but I have noted some 
 differences of individual opinion and aim. Here 
 are the notes :
 
 56 THE NATIONALS, 
 
 BANKS AND BANKING. 
 
 " The national party is the result of a great up- 
 rising of the people. The industrial classes are 
 becoming enlightened. It is a movement from 
 the bottom of society. We have no leaders as 
 yet, and it is probably better so. The movement 
 may develop leaders by and by. It has grown 
 thus far by talks between neighbors, and by the 
 influence of newspapers and printed documents. 
 We have one weekly paper, with a circulation of 
 six hundred and fifty thousand copies, and an in- 
 crease each week of twenty thousand. We are 
 organizing in every school district in many States, 
 and in every ward of the cities. We wish to abol- 
 ish the national banks. All the commercial pan- 
 ics in our history have been caused largely by the 
 system of state and national banking. The bank- 
 ers deposit one hundred thousand dollars at Wash- 
 ington, and the government gives them back 
 ninety thousand dollars in bank-notes for the bare 
 cost of printing, say one per cent. The govern- 
 ment pays them six per cent, on the one hundred 
 thousand dollars. Then they have ninety thou- 
 sand dollars to loan at the legal rate of interest, 
 and as much more as they can get. They receive 
 from twenty-five to fifty per cent., and sometimes 
 one hundred per cent., per annum on their origi- 
 nal investment. We want absolute money, not a 
 promise to pay ; would have gold, silver, and 
 paper all issued directly by the government, with-
 
 THEIR ORIGIN AND THEIR AIMS. 57 
 
 out the intervention of any banking corporation ; 
 the legend to be, This is a Dollar (or whatever 
 the amount may be), making it a legal tender in 
 payment of all dues and claims whatever. Of 
 course we shall need new legislation for such a 
 currency. This national absolute money would 
 buy anything in any market of the world with 
 one fourth or one half of one per cent, discount in 
 exchange. There are about two thousand national 
 banks, and they now have a surplus fund of six- 
 teen hundred millions of dollars. The bankers 
 have received so much interest that nearly all ex- 
 isting deposits are clear profit ; that is, they have 
 cost them nothing. The masses of mankind are 
 jtrddden under foot and enslaved by a vicious finan- 
 cial system, and we are tending to the low condi- 
 tions of the older nations. Combinations of cap- 
 italists and unfavorable legislation crush the la 
 borer. The beginning of these evils is the fallacy 
 of a gold basis. There is not enough gold for all 
 the world's money ; if there were it would be all 
 right. Banks may have done good in early times 
 in the West, but our advanced civilization requires 
 a currency not based upon coin. We favor the 
 immediate repeal of the resumption act. With 
 national absolute money no resumption of specie 
 payments would be required. The bullionists 
 favor resumption and contraction ; they bring gold 
 to par by their designing manipulations. It is 
 no advantage to the people to have gold at par. 
 European capitalists have influenced the financial
 
 58 THE NATIONALS, 
 
 legislation of our country a great deal. Their 
 design is to break up our republican government. 
 We have positive proof that a man came over 
 from England with half a million of money to 
 oppose the passage of the silver bill ; but he found 
 that it would do no good. History shows that no 
 country has ever prospered on a coin basis." 
 
 FRIENDS AND FOES. 
 
 " We have some of the most talented men in 
 political economy with us, but not many. Profes- 
 sional men, such as clergymen, are not enough in- 
 terested in these matters to investigate the real 
 condition of the laboring classes and their needs. 
 The masses are sufficiently intelligent and morally 
 educated to see that class legislation or any injus- 
 tice would be fatal to themselves. The mass of 
 mankind have common sense. It requires no 
 special talent for investigation to enable men to 
 understand what is necessary for their own inter- 
 ests in such matters. When members of Con- 
 gress begin to legislate in favor of the moneyed 
 class their constituents ought to be able to say, 
 Stop ! that is not what you were employed to do. 
 Legislators should execute the wishes of the peo- 
 ple who elect them. We favor shortening the 
 hours of labor. Political economists say that four 
 hours a day would probably be adequate to main- 
 tain all mankind in comfort, and give them some 
 of the luxuries of life, providing richly for the 
 helpless."
 
 THEIR ORIGIN AND THEIR AIMS. 59 
 INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 " We would have the government begin imme- 
 diately the construction of extensive works of in- 
 ternal improvement. The Erie Canal should be 
 enlarged to a ship canal sufficient for vessels of 
 two thousand tons burden. A canal of the same 
 capacity should be constructed across the State of 
 Michigan, and another across Northern Florida." 
 
 MONEY AND BONDS. 
 
 " I do not undertake to speak for the national 
 party ; there are differences of opinion on many 
 points among those who are working together in 
 this movement. I would not permit individuals 
 or corporations to engage in any kind of banking 
 enterprise ; not even for exchange, or to receive 
 deposits. All such business should be conducted 
 by the government. The value of gold and silver 
 coin is in the government stamp upon it, and not 
 in the intrinsic worth of the metal. Money should 
 be made of material which has no intrinsic value. 
 The contraction of the currency is the greatest 
 cause of the prostration of industry. The na- 
 tional bonds are a fraud upon the people, and 
 Rothschild knew it at first. The 5-20 bonds were 
 originally to be paid in greenbacks, and only their 
 interest in coin, but by a change in legislation the 
 principal was afterwards required to be paid in 
 coin. The bonds cost holders thirty-five cents on 
 the dollar in gold, and by laws contracting the
 
 60 THE NATIONALS, 
 
 currency the bonds have been made worth more 
 than gold. The holders have already received 
 more than the cost of the bonds, and still hold 
 them." 
 
 GOVERNMENTAL OWNERSHIP. 
 
 " The government is a great commune. All 
 railroads, canals, and means of commercial trans- 
 portation, and all mines and land, should belong 
 to the government. There should be no individ- 
 ual ownership in land, but only of improvements. 
 There should be no law for the collection of in- 
 terest. The amount of money in circulation 
 should be increased by the government issuing as 
 much absolute money as is needed by the people, 
 and paying it out for all government expenses, 
 and for the wages of laborers employed on public 
 works. Resumption is a speculation of the capi- 
 talists. There is no need of specie payments. 
 The people have not asked for the measure ; it is 
 forced upon them. The resumption act should be 
 immediately repealed. All history shows that in 
 order to maintain specie payments we must have 
 more specie than paper money. There should be 
 enough money to give the people a sufficient me- 
 dium of exchange. We should pay the bonds in 
 greenbacks as far as possible. If the legislation 
 changing the nature of the bonds and requiring 
 their payment in coin was right, then counter- 
 legislation would be."
 
 THEIR ORIGIN AND THEIR AIMS. 61 
 
 PROHIBITION OF LARGE FORTUNES. 
 
 " All officers should be elected by the people di- 
 rectly, and no law should take effect until it has 
 been submitted to the people and been approved 
 by them. We should have whatever legislation is 
 necessary for imposing an income tax graduated 
 so as not to touch small incomes, to grow heavier 
 for larger fortunes, and to be made absolutely pro- 
 hibitive for accumulations beyond a certain limit. 
 No man should be permitted to hold more land 
 than he uses, and the acquisition of great fortunes 
 should be made impossible. One of our greatest 
 dangers is the power of a landed aristocracy." 
 
 REPRESENTATION OF CLASSES. 
 
 " All classes should be represented in our na- 
 tional legislature in proportion to their numbers. 
 Legislation by lawyers is always devoted to the 
 interests of their own class. The people of cult- 
 ure in this country underestimate the intelligence 
 of the masses. Capitalists could buy working- 
 men's votes as easily as they now buy those of 
 lawyers : we shall have to depend largely upon 
 the effect of the opposition between different 
 classes for checking any tendency to excess, injus- 
 tice, or corruption. Capitalists feel like kings and 
 aristocrats, and regard the workingmen as their 
 slaves. If these evils cannot be removed by legis- 
 lation, it will be done in some other way. If peo- 
 ple dread war or mob-law, they should help the
 
 62 THE NATIONALS, 
 
 workingmen overthrow the money power. Capi- 
 talists dread nothing so much as the uprising of 
 the masses. We have two thousand bankers rep- 
 resenting two billions of capital." 
 
 CULTIVATED PEOPLE ANTAGONISTIC. 
 
 " The college men are not in the national 
 movement, rnd usually misunderstand it entirely. 
 Their education destroys natural perception and 
 judgment ; so that cultivated people are one- 
 sided, and their judgment is often inferior to that 
 of the working people. History shows that all 
 through the ages the evolution of new ideas has 
 come from the lower classes, the uneducated. We 
 should naturally look outside of the professions 
 for the leaders of a new movement. Professional 
 men are usually against us. The uneducated are 
 more accessible, more easily influenced, than the 
 educated. Cultured people have made up their 
 minds, and are hard to move. There should be a 
 check upon Chinese immigration. Our civilization 
 cannot maintain itself in contact wi#i Chinese civ- 
 ilization. That will survive where ours cannot, 
 and if we live together we shall have to conform 
 to their civilization." 
 
 MONEY AND CONSTITUTIONS. 
 
 " For three hundred years the progress of civil- 
 ized nations has been in the direction of absolute 
 money. Money should be composed of some ma- 
 terial that is not in itself precious or commercially
 
 THEIR ORIGIN AND THEIR AIMS. 63 
 
 valuable. Constitutional provisions are of little 
 importance compared with the direct expression 
 of the will of the people. The real law is not 
 written or printed. Popular feeling is really the 
 law rather any statute." 
 
 HAPPINESS AND LOST LUGGAGE. 
 
 " Happiness is the legal tender of the soul. 
 Four hours a day is enough for anybody to work, 
 but people should work every day. To rest on 
 Sunday, or one day each week, is wrong. Gov- 
 ernment should own and operate the railroads of 
 the country. We could then recover the value of 
 trunks if they were lost in transportation. Now 
 it is often difficult or impossible. Burning up the 
 money when it was called in to contract the cur- 
 rency, instead of sending it out again to circulate 
 among the people, is the real cause of the distress 
 of the country. No lawyer should be elected to a 
 a place in any legislative body." 
 
 HELP FROM THE SPIRIT WORLD. 
 
 " We might obtain much help from the spirit 
 world. There is a Congress there of all our great 
 statesmen, who have passed away. They see the 
 future and know the motives of men, and they 
 preside over the affairs of our country. They 
 have already had much to do with our national 
 affairs. The spirit of Washington once sent a 
 medium to Lincoln with military plans which the 
 president executed. It would be wise to put the
 
 64 THE NATIONALS, 
 
 management of the Indians wholly under the di- 
 rection of the spirits. We might obtain very great 
 aid from the spirit world in regard to all difficult 
 questions connected with the science of govern- 
 ment. The national movement is likely to go 
 farther than most people foresee." 
 
 GOVERNMENTAL PAWNBEOKING. 
 
 " The government might loan money to the 
 people to the extent of half the value of goods 
 deposited in government warehouses (appraised by 
 competent men, and to be held until redeemed). 
 We should use gold, silver, and paper, till the 
 metals naturally drop out of circulation. Paper 
 money will soon expel gold and silver money from 
 the country. Government should not require more 
 than three per cent, interest on loans to the peo- 
 ple; many of the nationals would have interest 
 prohibited by a provision in the Constitution of 
 
 the country." 
 
 / 
 
 THE MONEY POWER TO BE BROKEN DOWN. 
 
 " The object of the greenback party is to break 
 down the money power, politically, commercially, 
 and industrially. The government should build 
 a railroad from Norfolk, Virginia, to California, 
 and should take possession of all railroads, canals, 
 and telegraphs. All should be operated at cost, 
 without profit. We make no account of constitu- 
 tional difficulties in the way of these things, or 
 of what the Constitution forbids or allows. It is
 
 THEIR ORIGIN AND THEIR AIMS. 65 
 
 not best to make many constitutional provisions. 
 Constitutions are things to have discussions about, 
 and to form the subject of points of order in de- 
 bate, rather than for practical efficiency or ob- 
 ligation. They should be composed, as nearly as 
 may be, of undoubted basic principles. These ob- 
 jects should be attained either by cooperation or 
 by communal organization. The greenback sys- 
 tem tends to a national communal organization or 
 association as to banking, railroad transportation, 
 and similar branches of business." 
 
 FREE LAND. 
 
 " Air, earth, and water should be free to all. 
 A man may own improvements, but not the land. 
 We should make the taxes on large accumulations 
 of landed property so high that the owners can- 
 not pay them, and so cannot keep the land. Land 
 in its natural, original, and unimproved condition 
 is not rightly to be regarded as property. Its use 
 should be subject to control by the government." 
 
 ORIGIN AND ORGANIZATION. 
 
 " The national party includes the greenback 
 movement, which originated in the dissatisfaction 
 of the people with the contraction of the currency 
 after the war, and the other gold-basis legislation 
 of that period; the labor movement is another 
 branch of the party. The growth of our cause 
 has also been largely stimulated and assisted by 
 the influence of the internationals and of the Ger- 
 5
 
 66 THE NATIONALS, 
 
 man socialists. Our present programme is not 
 final or complete. The first object is to change 
 the nature of the currency and abolish the banks. 
 Then comes the seizure by labor of its rightful 
 empire, and government ownership of railroads 
 and other means of transportation and commerce ; 
 it is not yet certain which of these will come first. 
 The granger movement has done much to prepare 
 material for the national party, and trades-unions 
 and other secret organizations have had a large 
 share in developing it ; they are now among the 
 most efficient agencies for the propagation of our 
 principles and the extension of our power. It is 
 believed that fifteen hundred thousand voters be- 
 long to secret labor organizations in this country, 
 but it is impossible to be certain of the numbers. 
 In every place in which the nationals have been 
 successful in elections, their strength has come 
 from these secret labor organizations." 
 
 TERMS OF OFFICE. 
 
 "Nobody should hold office longer than one 
 year, except the president and members of Con- 
 gress. They might be elected for two years, and 
 they should all go out together, so as to have all 
 new men after each election." 
 
 CONTINUOUS ELECTIONS. 
 
 " I would have a continuous election. The polls 
 should be kept open all the time, so that when- 
 ever a citizen desires he can go and change his
 
 THEIR ORIGIN AND THEIR AIMS. 67 
 
 vote and give it to a new man. Then whenever 
 a majority of all the voters of a district or State 
 has pronounced in favor of a new representative, 
 the old one should give place. If the people are 
 dissatisfied with a representative in three weeks 
 after he is chosen, they have a right to dismiss 
 him and elect another." 
 
 REDUCED HOURS OF LABOR. 
 
 " Whenever the hours of labor have been re- 
 duced, or the pay of workingmen increased, there 
 has been an increase of intelligence and morality, 
 and a diminution of intemperance and crime." 
 
 BONDS. 
 
 " The 5-20 bonds, of which seven or eight hun- 
 dred millions are still out, were originally to be 
 paid in greenbacks ; the law requiring their pay- 
 ment in coin should be repealed. We should have 
 legislation making all bonds payable in green- 
 backs. All bonds that are to be paid in gold 
 were made so by fraud." 
 
 NEW ISSUE OF CURRENCY. 
 
 " An issue of two thousand millions of the new 
 currency (absolute money) would probably not 
 depreciate the currency more than thirty per 
 cent." 
 
 GOVERNMENTAL EDUCATION. 
 
 " We favor education by the state ; it should 
 be industrial and compulsory, allowing for differ-
 
 68 THE NATIONALS, 
 
 ences in character and circumstances. The prob- 
 lems or examples in school-books should be of an 
 industrial and not of a commercial nature." 
 
 LABOR BUREAUS. 
 
 " The government should establish a labor bu- 
 reau in each State, and one for the nation, to col- 
 lect industrial statistics, and, in time, to regulate 
 the agricultural production of the country, to 
 determine, for instance, how many sweet potatoes 
 would probably be needed each year, so that the 
 market might not be oversupplied." 
 
 ASSOCIATIONS. 
 
 " The people will form associations everywhere. 
 When we have an international government or 
 superintendency, as we must have with interna- 
 tional money, this will lead to the gradual disuse 
 or comparative abolition of nationalities, and the 
 association of the people of the whole world for 
 the government of the whole world." 
 
 CATHOLIC NATIONALS. 
 
 " We think the national movement, so far as it 
 tends to association, is opposed to the influence of 
 the clergy. We have a strong following among 
 the Catholics, and thousands of them are in the 
 secret labor societies." 
 
 ABSOLUTE MONEY. 
 
 " United States bonds were at first to be paid in 
 legal-tender notes ; a clique of the moneyed men
 
 THEIR ORIGIN AND THEIR AIMS. 69 
 
 got together and changed the language so as to re- 
 quire coin, and then demonetized silver. After 
 that the bankers got control of Congress, and 
 enacted that the legal-tender notes should not be 
 received for duties. If the government had re- 
 ceived the paper money for all dues it would al- 
 ways have been equal to gold. It is said that 
 absolute money would not be received in Europe ; 
 we are not making a currency for Europe, but for 
 our own country. Gold and silver for money are 
 relics of heathenism. Paper money would natu- 
 rally expel coin from circulation. We should re- 
 peal all laws requiring bonds to be paid in gold. 
 The bonds were all bought at greenback values. 
 One thousand dollars in gold bought two thou- 
 sand five hundred dollars in greenbacks, and that 
 bought two thousand five hundred dollars in United 
 States bonds." 
 
 TRAMPS. 
 
 " The government should employ many of the 
 tramps, and should engage in the construction of 
 extensive public works for the relief of the unem- 
 ployed. All wages should be paid by the hour." 
 
 GOVERNMENTAL BANKING AND EMPLOYMENT. 
 
 " The government should establish post-office 
 savings banks, and should pay interest at a rate 
 not above that of the annual increase of the wealth 
 of the country, now about three and a half per 
 cent, per annum. The government ought to be 
 the employer of the people if the government is
 
 70 THE NATIONALS, 
 
 honestly and judiciously administered ; and it is 
 more likely to be so administered under this sys- 
 tem than any other. Of course, if the government 
 takes possession of the railroads it would naturally 
 manufacture its own engines, cars, rails, and equip- 
 ments generally, and the nation would become a 
 vast cooperative association." 
 
 THE PEOPLE ALL-WISE. 
 
 " The selfishness of the people will teach them 
 to be just and wise. They are too intelligent to 
 commit any excesses. They will lay politicians 
 on the shelf, and take new men. No capitalist or 
 banker should be nominated for any office what- 
 ever by the nationals." 
 
 "No doubt there will be excesses of various 
 kinds, and measures of retaliation, when the work- 
 ingmen obtain control of the government. That 
 will be only human nature. There is a consider- 
 able proportion of low and brutal material in the 
 national party, but we are not responsible for that. 
 The same men belonged to the other two parties 
 before they joined us, and they are no worse now 
 than when they voted with our opponents." 
 
 SOCIETY TO BE CHANGED. 
 
 " None of us can speak for the party. We can 
 only tell you what we think would be best,, what 
 we believe in, and what we would do if we could. 
 If we succeed, the general structure of society 
 will be modified in important respects, and relig-
 
 THEIR ORIGIN AND THEIR AIMS. 71 
 
 ion and morality will no doubt be affected by 
 changes so vital, but in what way, or to what ex- 
 tent, nobody can now foresee." 
 
 MORALITY AND RELIGION. 
 
 " It is not likely that the organization of society 
 will be affected in any serious way by the changes 
 we propose to make. Morality and religion under 
 the new order of things will be about what they 
 are now." 
 
 PROTECTION. 
 
 " We favor protection and oppose free trade. 
 We would admit raw materials (such as are not 
 .produced in this country) free of duty, but would 
 tax imported manufactured goods." 
 
 THE SENATE USELESS. 
 
 " The workingmen should direct their efforts to 
 securing an adequate representation, by members 
 of their own class, in the national house of repre- 
 sentatives. The senate is of little consequence, 
 and might well be abolished." 
 
 It remains for me to add a few facts not in- 
 cluded in the conversations thus reported. It was 
 made plain to each of these workingmen that it 
 was not confidential information in regard to the 
 plans of the national party which I sought, but 
 his own estimate of the causes of the movement 
 and of the grievances of the people, and his own 
 opinion and hopes in regard to desirable changes ;
 
 72 THE NATIONALS, 
 
 and that I sought such information with the pur- 
 pose to make it public, and thus report as accu- 
 rately as possible the thought, sentiment, and aims 
 of the masses, the working people. 
 
 More than two thirds of the whole number of 
 these workingmen favor protection in some form 
 for American industry ; but some half dozen be- 
 lieve in free trade. 
 
 None of these men are Catholics. All of them 
 hold what are called advanced or liberal views of 
 religious or theological subjects, and a few are 
 atheists. Eighteen of the number believe that 
 the spirit world has inspired the new political dis- 
 content, and that the national party is constantly 
 aided and reinforced from " the superior spheres." 
 I have myself observed that many mediums and 
 trance-speakers are among the most popular and 
 influential orators now employed in propagating 
 the sentiments of the new party. 
 
 In connection with this movement women are 
 engaging in politics more directly and effectively 
 than ever before. Many of them are traveling 
 through the country, speaking on political and so- 
 cial subjects, and their oratory often influences 
 voters as much as that of the men on the same 
 platform. The women have political clubs which 
 meet regularly for discussing the questions of the 
 time. 
 
 The thirty-four workingmen with whom I thus 
 conversed are, I think, quite as intelligent as the 
 better class of voters in either of the other two
 
 THEIR ORIGIN AND THEIR AIMS. 73 
 
 parties. They are well-educated men, according 
 to the popular American standard and idea of 
 education : that is, they are all ready talkers ; 
 most of them could make nearly as good speeches 
 as an average congressman ; and they have a great 
 deal of such information as is to be obtained from 
 scraps and items in newspapers. They are " up 
 with the times," to use a phrase now very common 
 among the people of this country, and know what 
 is said pro and con regarding the questions of the 
 day. There is probably a larger proportion of the 
 members of the national party than of either of 
 the other political parties who are able to " make 
 a good speech," and who are now engaged in writ- 
 ing for the newspapers of the country. They 
 have incessant drill and practice in talking, and 
 the fondness of the masses for oratory gives these 
 propagandists a great opportunity. They are all 
 aggressive and confident, and most of them mani- 
 fest a degree of exultation in prospect of speedy 
 success. As I have been familiar with their views 
 from the first in the Northwestern States, and for 
 many years past in the three States mentioned 
 before, I have heard little that is new in these re- 
 cent conversations. Perhaps the chief change is 
 that our friends of the new party now talk a great 
 deal about history, and constantly appeal to its 
 lessons, whereas they formerly derided scornfully 
 the notion of assistance for us from the experience 
 of other nations. A great deal of the history 
 brought forward I confess I never heard of before.
 
 74 THE NATIONALS, 
 
 It is true that these thirty-four men are much su- 
 perior to the majority of the national party, but 
 they, and such as they, are the true representa- 
 tives of the masses who have neither opinions nor 
 power of expression, and who are as clay in the 
 hands of the potter under the influence of these 
 workers and organizers. Precisely the same thing 
 is true of the other parties. What these active, 
 capable workingmen think and say is what their 
 silent brethren are acting upon and supporting 
 with their votes. 
 
 All these men are very much in earnest, but I 
 could discover no sign of that sense of responsi- 
 bility which all men of insight feel in undertaking 
 movements which must seriously affect the wel- 
 fare of many millions of human beings. It seemed 
 to me that they had no adequate conception of 
 the real nature or magnitude of the changes in our 
 national life and society which they were trying 
 to accomplish. Most of them seemed somewhat 
 reckless in regard to possible consequences of 
 these changes. None of them, I think, are ac- 
 quainted with the later conceptions of history, and 
 its value as a record of the experience of society, 
 of its efforts, illusions, gains, and failures during 
 the ages which have been necessary to develop 
 and establish such civilization and political and 
 social organization as we have attained. 
 
 There were differences of opinion among these 
 workingmen upon some points, but it is to be ob- 
 served that they agree in their belief in " absolute
 
 THEIR ORIGIN AND THEIR AIMS. 75 
 
 money," money that is not a promise to pay, 
 nor composed of any material having intrinsic 
 value ; in desiring the government to become the 
 employer of the people by constructing public 
 works of enormous extent, and in thinking that it 
 should own and operate railroads, canals, and 
 telegraphs for the benefit of the people ; in favor- 
 ing government ownership of land, legal prohibi- 
 tion of large accumulations of wealth by individu- 
 als, and the substitution, to a great extent, of the 
 will of the people, as ^expressed each year (or 
 each day), for fixed constitutional provisions and 
 limitations. They agree in thinking lightly of 
 culture, and in the purpose to legislate and tax 
 " the money power" out of existence. But none 
 of them spoke of the need of industry, economy, 
 or wise self-direction on the part of their own 
 class, though they were confident of their ability 
 to reorganize and direct society. If their under- 
 taking could succeed, we should have wealth with- 
 out labor, and a system of morals without self- 
 restraint ; and instead of the orderly empire of 
 law we should have " mob-voiced lawlessness," 
 anarchy uttered or ordained by the people. I 
 have seen no reason for thinking we are near the 
 end of this conflict. 
 
 I observed another trait in intellectual charac- 
 ter. It appeared to me that very few of these 
 men had received any education in regard to the 
 laws, methods, and difficulties of clear and trust- 
 worthy thinking. They seemed unconscious of
 
 76 THE NATIONALS. 
 
 the danger from illusions, and of the necessity for 
 testing and verifying opinions and theories by 
 patient analysis and comparison. Many of them 
 indeed professed the belief that the direct mental 
 vision or intuition of uneducated men is more 
 valuable, in determining matters connected with 
 legislation and the organization and progress of 
 society, than the trained and disciplined faculties 
 of students or men of culture. They esteem very 
 lightly the judgment or authority of scholars, and 
 believe that American workingmen are entirely 
 competent to understand and decide rightly the 
 problems which have perplexed thoughtful states- 
 men and patriots for ages. Their faculties have 
 not been trained to analysis or comparison, or to 
 the study, by trustworthy methods, of the rela- 
 tions between causes and effects. They still use 
 very largely the methods of thought of uncivilized 
 or prehistoric men. At every step they are the 
 unconscious prey of illusion, and they are to a 
 great extent incapable of receiving guidance or 
 assistance from anybody wiser than themselves. 
 Their intellectual character is a matter of pro- 
 found interest to me, because I believe it to be 
 very nearly that of a vast majority of the voters 
 of our country ; and almost precisely that which 
 our existing methods of education are fitted to 
 produce.
 
 THREE TYPICAL WORKINGMEN. 
 
 THERE are many types or varieties of character 
 among the workingmen of this country. As ac- 
 quaintance with many individuals must precede 
 any useful attempt at classification, I present these 
 sketches of workingmen I have known without 
 trying to determine in what degree they are typi- 
 cal or representative persons. Of course one can 
 report only what he has seen. Workingmen are 
 not equally communicative with everybody, and 
 there are few observers who, to use a phrase com- 
 mon among the workingmen, can " put things to- 
 gether ; " few who distinguish what is significant, 
 or penetrate to the relations between the most fa- 
 miliar facts, or even remember and think about 
 what they have seen. My acquaintance with 
 American workingmen in different parts of the 
 country has impressed me with the essential truth 
 of the saying that the whole world is everywhere, 
 and that although many things seem strange or 
 unusual when first seen, continued observation re- 
 veals the existence of similar facts and instances 
 almost everywhere. Of course the life of working- 
 men and their families varies in many of its feat- 
 ures in different regions. There are observable 
 diversities of type, in conditions and in character,
 
 78 THREE TYPICAL WORKIXCMEN. 
 
 as we pass from the mountain mining regions to 
 the farms of the Western prairies or of New Eng- 
 land. Manufacturing communities have their pe- 
 culiarities. Changes in employment modify the 
 character of the population. The establishment 
 of a great factory employing a thousand men or 
 women would produce important social and moral 
 modifications in any community. Wide-spread 
 changes in opinion also affect the prevalent type of 
 character, and in time even the structure of society. 
 The increased hostility to the churches which has 
 been developed in some classes of our population 
 within the last twenty years has already produced 
 in many places a greater feebleness of community. 
 There is not always now, on the part of the peo- 
 ple living near each other, so general or vital co- 
 operation for the promotion of the interests of the 
 neighborhood, as formerly existed ; and the more 
 definite and active opposition to Christianity in 
 our time has already produced changes in the ad- 
 ministration of charity, and, what is more impor- 
 tant, in the moral guardianship of the younger and 
 more dependent members of many communities. 
 There is often less interest on the part of society 
 in the establishment of young men in business or 
 profitable industry. Such shifting of currents and 
 tendencies in the life and thought of the age often 
 goes on for some time without being recognized ; 
 but no student of the subject believes that great 
 changes can take place in the circumstances, occu- 
 pations, opinions, habits, and educational condi-
 
 THREE TYPICAL WORKINGMEN. 79 
 
 tions of any population without some resulting 
 modification in personal character and the struct- 
 ure of society. 
 
 Strong driijk is still the greatest evil in the life 
 of multitudes of American workingmen, though 
 the number of those who do not use ardent spirits 
 at all has greatly increased during the last twen- 
 ty-five years, and is still increasing. Yet there 
 are workingmen everywhere who are fighting this 
 appetite, and trying to throw off the bondage of 
 the habit of indulgence. One such I have known 
 for many years. He^was born in New England, 
 and was a member of the first company of soldiers 
 who left Boston for the seat of war at the begin- 
 ning of the rebellion. He was shot through the 
 hand at Antietam, and receives a pension of five 
 dollars per month from the government. Four or 
 five of his children are in the public schools, and 
 there are two or three smaller ones at home. Pie 
 has been for several years a shoemaker, working 
 in the large shops or " factories " of a country 
 town. There seems to be nothing loose or defect- 
 ive in his original equipment ; he has in almost 
 every respect a fine nature; but he had a hard 
 struggle for several years with the habit of social 
 drinking. It beset him most severely in times of 
 depression, when he was out of work, or after 
 sickness in his family. His pastor once told me 
 of having chanced to see him coming out of a sa- 
 loon one day while the shops were closed. The
 
 80 THREE TYPICAL WORKINGMEN. 
 
 clergyman met him with an impetuous expression 
 of grief and disappointment that he should not 
 have cared more for the trials and perplexitie3 of 
 his minister's lot, and should be willing to add 
 thus to his burdens, mentioning several working- 
 men about whom he had long been anxious, and 
 whom he had tried to encourage and fortify against 
 the appetite for liquor. " If you workingmen go 
 on in this way," he concluded, " how can I have 
 strength or hope to try to do anything ? It is 
 enough to break a man's heart to see that nobody 
 cares about what he is trying so hard to accom- 
 plish." The man's face grew white ; he burst 
 into tears, and said, " I did not know you cared so 
 much about it as that. I will never go into such 
 a place again." And the minister thinks he has 
 kept his word. 
 
 The life of such a man has its trials and hard- 
 ships. During many years past he has scarcely 
 ever received more than enough for the subsist- 
 ence of his family in time of health. He is now 
 able, while working by the piece, to earn a dollar 
 and a half per day. This, with the pension added, 
 amounts at the utmost to about five hundred and 
 thirty dollars per year. Out of this he must pay 
 rent for his house, and provide all that his family 
 can have to live upon. The closest economy con- 
 sistent with health does not avail to save any con- 
 siderable part of such an income. But sickness 
 comes to all homes, and most frequently to those 
 of the poor. When it visits a household like this,
 
 THREE TYPICAL WORKINGMEN. 81 
 
 even if the workman is not kept from the shop by 
 the illness of child or wife, there is unavoidably 
 some increase of expenditure. There can be but 
 very little increase without incurring debts, and in 
 such circumstances how can debts ever be paid ? 
 
 Then there are sometimes losses from other 
 causes than sickness in the family. Two or three 
 years ago this man worked for manufacturers 
 who did not (perhaps could not) pay their hands 
 promptly. My friend's children had been ill, and 
 he was straining every nerve to make extra wages, 
 frequently working fifteen hours out of the twen- 
 ty-four. He had gone on thus for some months, 
 when his employers suddenly closed their shop 
 and left the town. Other creditors seized the 
 stock on hand, and the workmen were left unpaid. 
 The amount due my neighbor was about one hun- 
 dred and fifty dollars. I went to see him. He 
 was depressed, of course, and indignant, but bore 
 the stroke bravely. It was a serious matter for 
 him. His wife was troubled and anxious lest her 
 husband might, under such discouragement, yield 
 to the temptation he had long withstood, and so 
 lose the mastery of himself he had so hardly won. 
 He was half sick for a day or two, but wise neigh- 
 bors invited him and his family out for two or 
 three visits. He soon emerged from his depres- 
 sion, and as soon as possible obtained work in an- 
 other shop. Since then he has not been able to 
 free himself from debt, but he told me recently 
 
 6
 
 82 THREE TYPICAL WORKINGMEX. 
 
 that with a year of steady work and close econ- 
 omy he can pay all that he owes. 
 
 I asked him lately if he was attending the polit- 
 ical meetings now being held nightly in the town 
 where he lives. " No," said he ; "I do not go at 
 all this year. I joined the greenback people last 
 year, listened to their speeches, and voted their 
 ticket. But their talk has disgusted me. I told 
 my wife they were depending on getting something 
 out of nothing. We are all to be prosperous with 
 very little labor. Now, I don't see how that can 
 be. It may be that poor people are oppressed, 
 and I think myself some things are wrong, and 
 they are hard to bear ; but as I look at it, it takes 
 a deal of hard work to keep this world going on, 
 and it seems to me these labor reformers would 
 only make things worse. One thing I have no- 
 ticed : I have been out of work sometimes for a 
 few weeks, and even when we had plenty to live 
 on the idleness did me no good." This man is 
 growing in self-control and strength of character. 
 He has a good wife, and his children are doing 
 well in the public schools. 
 
 I have observed that workingmen who habit- 
 ually drink even the lighter beverages, such as 
 beer and ale, are usually more irritable at home, 
 and are more frequently involved in domestic dis- 
 turbance and unhappiness, than those who use no 
 liquor. In the towns and cities the children of 
 those who do not drink are commonly more intel- 
 ligent, quiet, and well behaved than the children
 
 THREE TYPICAL WORKINGMEN. 83 
 
 of parents who drink even moderately. This re- 
 sults largely, I suppose, from the fact that men 
 who do not drink are at home at evening much 
 more, and their family life becomes more social, 
 intellectual, and active. 
 
 Another hardship and temptation for multi- 
 tudes of workingmen arises from the fact that 
 they have been systematically taught by all their 
 guides that in this country men should " aspire " 
 to the possession of nearly everything that appears 
 in any way desirable. The old moral teaching, 
 which emphasized intelligibly and without mysti- 
 cism the strength which comes from the repression 
 of desires, has been to a great extent disused. It 
 is harder and more painful than formerly for 
 workingmen and their families to "do without 
 things." In very few communities has there been 
 any example of moderation on the part of the 
 more fortunate classes, and these are not without 
 some degree of responsibility for the alienation 
 and discontent recently apparent among working- 
 men. The unwillingness to begin where they are, 
 and accept the facts of their situation, with the 
 wearing, fruitless endeavor to live on a scale re- 
 quiring an expenditure greater than their income, 
 is perhaps the chief evil and error in the life of 
 American workingmen as a class. (Of course 
 this does not now apply to those who are entirely 
 without employment.) Would that this evil were 
 confined to the class of workingmen !
 
 84 THREE TYPICAL WORKINGMEN. 
 
 The next story is of a man who is now between 
 forty-five and fifty years of ago, who was born in 
 New England. He was from boyhood an earnest 
 abolitionist ; was a common soldier and afterward 
 a commissioned officer in the Union army; and 
 has been a farmer and house-carpenter since the 
 close of the war. In speaking of him I feel that 
 I ought to begin with the fullest recognition of the 
 many excellent qualities in his character. He is 
 a man of most amiable and kindly disposition ; of 
 great tenderness and benevolence to the poor, the 
 sick, and all who are in distress ; a faithful and 
 sympathetic nurse when disease invades the homes 
 of his neighbors ; and ready to divide his last crust 
 with those whom others neglect or abuse. He is 
 what people call a well-informed man ; his knowl- 
 edge of what may be learned from the encyclo- 
 paedias and from good books being above the av- 
 erage attainments even of " cultivated people." 
 Yet he is poorly fitted for life in a world where 
 effects depend upon causes, and most good things 
 have their price in toil. My friend has always 
 been greatly interested in the elevation of man- 
 kind, the improvement of society, and the progress 
 of humanity, to use three phrases which are 
 very dear to him. But he has not been, and is 
 not now, able so to apply and direct his own pow- 
 ers as to gain a subsistence for himself and his 
 family. He once had a farm, which, if it had been 
 managed wisely and cultivated with energy, would 
 have been a sufficient means and source of support,
 
 THREE TYPICAL WORKINGMEN. 85 
 
 a most comfortable and desirable home. But he 
 would never begin his work at the right time, or 
 follow it persistently after his tardy beginning. 
 
 In the late spring, when his neighbors were al- 
 ready plowing their corn, they would sometimes 
 ask each other, " How's the captain's corn ? " 
 And the usual reply would be, "The captain 
 has n't planted yet. Fact is, he has n't got his 
 plans made out for this season's crop." This re- 
 ply hints at one of my friend's greatest difficulties. 
 His plans are always so large and complex, and 
 all his movements so deliberate, that it is almost 
 impossible for him to begin even the simplest and 
 most ordinary operations of the farm. 
 
 He is an inveterate reader, and has read many 
 good books during the long summer days when 
 his labor was sadly needed on his farm. He has 
 always had an especial fondness for the specu- 
 lative or theoretical side of the physical sciences, 
 and is deeply interested in all labor-saving inven- 
 tions, and especially in projects which promise 
 great results from apparently trifling causes. He 
 has almost boundless faith in the possibility of 
 such inventions or discoveries. I think he would 
 scarcely be staggered by the announcement that 
 somebody had a plan to warm the polar regions 
 of the globe and cool the tropics, or had found out 
 how to evolve power enough from a pail of water 
 to drive a railway train across the continent. He 
 has a vivid imagination, but it has never been dis- 
 ciplined, or brought into relations with the facts
 
 86 THREE TYPICAL WORKINGMEN. 
 
 of life. I think the greatest happiness of his life 
 has been the study of the works of Tyndall, Hux- 
 ley, and Darwin. He is very familiar with these, 
 and has eminent delight in Mr. Darwin's specula- 
 tions regarding the origin and development of ani- 
 mal and human life. He has good conversational 
 powers, and is a very interesting companion on a 
 journey or in the social circle. 
 
 Yet this man, with all these endowments and 
 with good health and ample strength of body and 
 limb, has not been successful in life. He early 
 began borrowing money for current expenses, for 
 the means of subsistence, mortgaging his farm to 
 secure the payment of these sums, which grew 
 larger and larger, and were never paid. By and by 
 the whole value of the farm was swallowed up, and 
 he was dispossessed. He has many children, and 
 the family would often have suffered sharply if it 
 had not been for the patient, laborious industry of 
 the wife and mother, who is not at all poetical or 
 imaginative, who has no great plans or theories, 
 but who has an old-fashioned, practical faith in 
 hard work. For many years the family has in 
 large measure subsisted upon the scanty proceeds 
 of her work with her sewing-machine. If she had 
 been seconded by equal industry and application 
 on the part of her husband, they might now have 
 been a prosperous family in a home of their, own. 
 Instead of this the man is hopelessly, fatally, in 
 debt. His credit was gone long ago. 
 
 My friend has recently been profoundly inter-
 
 THREE TYPICAL WORKINGMEN. 87 
 
 ested in the science of government, and especially 
 in subjects connected with the financial systems 
 of different nations. He now attributes the loss 
 of his farm to fatal mismanagement on the part of 
 our government, and an evil discrimination in our 
 national legislation against the workingmen and 
 in favor of capitalists. His theories of these sub- 
 jects need not be 'recorded here at length. They 
 are essentially the same as those held by most of 
 the men who think the way can be opened into a 
 new Garden of Eden for mankind by intrusting 
 the guidance and control of society to leaders who 
 have not been spoiled by culture or knowledge. 
 His expectations have, however, an Oriental rich- 
 ness of coloring, a breadth and sweep surpassing 
 all that I have heard or read in the most sanguine 
 predictions of the prophets of the national party. 
 The opinions or theories of this class relative to 
 financial subjects, and other matters connected 
 with the government and the organization of so- 
 ciety, however wild and baseless we may esteem 
 them, are held naturally by their votaries. Our 
 fellow-citizens who still display the characteristics 
 of prehistoric thought are, in an important sense, 
 logical and consistent. They think as they must 
 think till they have a different education. These 
 theories and prepossessions are coherent with their 
 usual- intellectual methods, and with the whole 
 body of their thought. They are such as should 
 have been expected, under existing circumstances, 
 from a class with their equipment and education.
 
 88 THREE TYPICAL WORKINGMEN. 
 
 I think the failures of this life can be traced far 
 back, if not entirely to their sources. My friend 
 has always been, as he himself declares, a dreamer 
 and idealist. When he was young he loved to in- 
 dulge in reverie, in beautiful and happy imagin- 
 ings of a world unblighted by evil and Buffering. 
 It would probably have reqiiired, even in early 
 manhood, strenuous self-restraint, a severe and 
 protracted course of effort and discipline, to over- 
 come this inclination to luxurious, indolent think- 
 ing. The habit has so long been firmly fixed 
 that probably no endeavor of which he is now 
 capable would avail to free him from this bond- 
 age, a bondage which is in some respects not un- 
 like that of opium or strong drink. His neighbors 
 cannot afford to employ him, because he so often 
 forgets himself or his work. Even in such occupa- 
 tions as require the constant attention and recip- 
 rocal activity of two men, such as handling lum- 
 ber or brick, he becomes oblivious, in the briefest 
 interval, respecting the necessity of cooperation 
 with his fellow-workman. 
 
 Our friend has never used intoxicating liquors, 
 having been faithful to his habit of total absti- 
 nence even while an officer in the army. An old 
 neighbor and faithful friend of his, who is in no 
 degree blind to his faults, says that the captain 
 would face all possible obloquy in support of an 
 unpopular principle or cause, and that he would 
 undoubtedly meet death unflinchingly at the hands 
 of an angry mob, if that were the penalty for pro-
 
 THREE TYPICAL WORKWOMEN. 89 
 
 tecting a helpless woman or child from abuse, or 
 befriending an oppressed negro or Chinaman ; and 
 my own acquaintance with the man leads me to 
 regard this estimate as only just. He is capable 
 of any devotion or sacrifice that would not require 
 faithful, patient industry, and a recognition of the 
 hard facts and conditions of human life in this 
 world. He has always preferred illusions to truth. 
 At a meeting of a greenback club a few weeks 
 ago, after our friend had made a speech in which 
 representations of the woes of the unemployed 
 millions of American workingmen were mingled 
 with glowing millennial prophecies of the good 
 time coming, " when the people shall have buried 
 the capitalist and the politician in one wide, deep 
 grave," an old farmer gave his neighbors his view 
 of the state of the country : " The man who works 
 for money and then saves it will have it ; but the 
 man who spends good working-days talking poli- 
 tics will never have much of anything. It 's well 
 enough for neighbors to talk over these things on 
 Saturday evenings down at the store, specially if 
 there 's anybody there that knows anything about 
 such matters ; but a good many men about here 
 would rather talk all day on the streets about the 
 hard times and the meanness of the bond-holders 
 than to do an honest day's work. I have been 
 farming here, in the edge of the village, for fifteen 
 years. Before that I farmed in Northern New 
 York. Have always hired one or two hands. 
 Men do not generally work so well of late years
 
 90 THREE TYPICAL WORKIMIMEN. 
 
 as before the war. The high wages just after the 
 war seemed to spoil a good many of them. They 
 acted as if they thought they were working en- 
 tirely for their own interest, and not at all for 
 mine. One of my hands told me once that was 
 in 1865 or 1866 tbat while he could make three 
 dollars a day he would n't stand much orderin' 
 around from anybody. I discharged him at once, 
 for I thought he might soon conclude that he 
 owned the farm, instead 'of me. I always hired 
 men from New York (where I used to live), for 
 six months or a year at a time, till three years 
 ago my wife and I thought that as so many men 
 here were out of employment, and there was real 
 distress on account of it, I ought to give my 
 neighbors a chance to do whatever work I had for 
 hired men. But it has been unprofitable for me, 
 and has not seemed to do them much good. I 
 have not found many men who were ready to go 
 to work at any particular time. Some who had 
 complained bitterly of the hard times, and of not 
 being employed, engaged to work for me, but 
 they never came. Others came so late in the 
 morning and worked so leisurely that it made me 
 tired to see their movements. One man made 
 greenback speeches to me nearly all one day ; 
 they were pretty good speeches, too, of the 
 kind. At night I paid him, and told him I did 
 not feel comfortable in having a man at work in 
 my fields who could speak so well as he. He was 
 very poor and needed every cent he could make,
 
 THREE TYPICAL WORKINGMEN. 91 
 
 but I would have paid him pretty good wages to 
 stay away rather than have him on my place. I 
 have tried to have some men work for me who get 
 help from the town in winter, but I never could 
 get much out of them." 
 
 It is a little more than ten years since a sturdy 
 young friend of mine, whom the neighbors called 
 Jim, bought sixty acres of land about two miles 
 from a thriving country town in one of the larg- 
 est States. It was high ground, lying on the first 
 " bench " or elevation above a river valley or 
 " bottom," to use terms common in that region. 
 It had been rendered nearly worthless for agricult- 
 ure by the use of the upper stratum of clay over 
 most of its surface in the manufacture of brick. 
 Then it had been for a long time part of an un- 
 settled estate belonging to non-resident heirs, and, 
 as nobody took care of it, excavations were made 
 upon it for earth to fill up low-lying lots, and for 
 road-making, till it was as rough and uninviting a 
 place as one would see in a day's ride, made up 
 mostly of irregular hillocks of clay, small ponds, 
 and tracts of mire. At last it was to be sold, and 
 this young fellow, who had just attained his ma- 
 jority, was the purchaser. He was an orphan, free 
 after he was sixteen years of age to make his own 
 living, and without a dollar in the world, or any 
 possession but sound health and a strong will. He 
 had at that time gone into the army, and after the 
 war was over he had worked on the farms and in
 
 92 THREE TYPICAL WORKINGMEN. 
 
 the stone quarries in the vicinity, and in these five 
 years had saved enough to make a good first pay- 
 ment on this piece of land. He had now to im- 
 prove his property and finish paying for it. He 
 had a surveyor look over the ground and advise 
 about drains. Then he bought a little scrub mule 
 and an old cart, as he was determined not to go 
 in debt for anything besides the land. He began 
 digging down banks, opening ditches, and filling 
 up ponds. He obtained permission to remove the 
 earth thrown out in enlarging and extending a 
 mill-race not far away, and engaged in carting this 
 on to his land. He planted every foot of his 
 ground that would produce anything, and labored 
 early and late to bring more of it into a state of 
 fitness for cultivation. When obliged to have 
 money, he worked for a few days in the stone 
 quarries. He put up a little cabin on his own 
 ground, and brought an old negro woman from 
 the town to keep house for him. 
 
 I sometimes saw him in those days, going out 
 to the cabin on Sunday afternoons for a little talk 
 with him. The old woman went to church regu- 
 larly on Sunday morning, and Jim went along, 
 because, as he said, it kept fellows away whom he 
 did not wish to associate with. I thought this a 
 good reason, and did not press him for others. He 
 did not use tobacco nor any kind of strong drink. 
 " The fact is," he said, " vices are luxuries, and I 
 can't afford to have any." I found that his rep- 
 utation among the farmers and business men was
 
 THREE TYPICAL WORKWOMEN. 93 
 
 excellent for industry and faithfulness. One old 
 man told me that Jim lost less time in getting 
 at his work than any other hand he had ever em- 
 ployed. " He '11 be in the middle of a job, goin' 
 on steady and regular, while other men are sort o' 
 preparin' to get ready." 
 
 Last year I visited Jim again. Walking out to 
 his place, I met him driving. a span of gigantic 
 mules harnessed to a wagon-load of stone. He 
 stopped his team, and sprang off his load, in order 
 to greet me. Then, as there was a long reach of 
 level road ahead, he invited me to share his seat, 
 and we talked of old times, of the state of the 
 country, and of his affairs. He had made the last 
 payment for his place some months before, owned 
 the team he was driving, and had made various 
 improvements on the land, as he would show me 
 in the afternoon. He told me, among other 
 things, that a few years before he had bought, for 
 a merely nominal sum, the privilege of cleaning 
 the streets of the neighboring town, removing the 
 sweepings to his place for their value as fertilizing 
 material. He said the streets had not been cleaned 
 before, in any thorough or systematic way, and 
 that at first he could not induce even idle men who 
 were in quest of employment to assist in cleaning 
 them for good wages. " No," said one of the col- 
 ored men, " I'se had pretty hard times ; I'se had 
 to git down pretty low, but I'se never come to 
 that." But Jim soon changed that by going into 
 town on Saturday, when the streets were full of
 
 94 THREE TYPICAL WORK1NGMEN. 
 
 people, and loading up his cart before a crowd of 
 wondering boys. One or two acquaintances jeered 
 good-naturedly ; but Jim soon extended his opera- 
 tions, and hired men and boys to collect the street 
 sweepings, litter from stables and barns, and rub- 
 bish from door-yards, all of which enriched his 
 land, and left the town one of the cleanest I have 
 seen, whereas it was formerly a very dirty one. 
 "You see," said he, "my ground will bear a deal 
 of fertilizing. It has a clay subsoil, and will keep 
 all I give it." 
 
 In the afternoon we looked over his place to- 
 gether. There was hardly a trace of its old ap- 
 pearance left. All the ground had been brought 
 under cultivation ; a barn had been built, trees 
 planted, and the cabin enlarged. I saw a work- 
 bench under a shed, and stopped to look at the 
 tools. " Yes," said Jim, " our workingmen buy 
 too many things ; buy things that they ought to 
 make for themselves. I've saved a good many 
 dollars here, and have n't lost any time, for I 
 should have to go twice to town for each job of 
 repairing done there." In the house the furniture 
 was nearly all home-made. (I have been in scores 
 of the homes of unemployed workingmen, in dif- 
 ferent parts of our country, during the last five 
 years, where the chairs, tables, and bedsteads were 
 all worn out and breaking down, so that in many 
 instances there was not a safe or comfortable seat 
 in the house. Yet the furniture had all been 
 bought of dealers at high prices, if we consider
 
 THREE TYPICAL WORKWOMEN. 95 
 
 its quality and its capacity for use, or rather 
 for going to pieces, and these workingmen were 
 not able to repair it, or even to make new stools 
 on which to sit while eating their food. They had 
 been at work in shops, mills, or factories, and 
 when these closed had so little power of self-help 
 that months of idleness passed without anything 
 being done to make their homes more comfortable. 
 In such cases everything that comes into the house, 
 or that is used about it, must be bought, and re- 
 quires money for its purchase.) 
 
 The old colored woman was still housekeeper. 
 On shelves against the wall I saw two or three 
 volumes of Gray's botanies, with some recent 
 books on chemistry, geology, and mineralogy. " I 
 thought I would learn something about my own 
 ground and what grows on it. I have given very 
 little time to these things, a few minutes now 
 and then after dinner, or while the mules were 
 resting ; but it has been a kind of rest to me when 
 I was tired to look for things, and then try to 
 learn about them after I had found them. I was 
 surprised to find so many kinds of plants on this 
 small piece of ground. I have found several 
 which the books say are rare, and it is likely 
 there are many that I have not happened to see." 
 
 " Did you have no instruction ? " 
 
 "Only from the books, at first, but they are 
 very plain. All one needs is a start. I was plow- 
 ing here one day, when a man came along and 
 asked if he might walk over the field and look at
 
 96 THREE TYPICAL WORKINGMEN. 
 
 what grew on my ground. I said, Yes, and asked 
 if I might go along. So I let my team stand, for 
 I thought it worth while to leave my work for an 
 hour if I could learn something. The gentleman 
 knew about plants, and gave me some good hints, 
 and said the real good of such studies was in the 
 discipline or cultivation that we get by observing 
 and comparing things. It was an hour well spent. 
 The gentleman advised me to make a list or rec- 
 ord of all the plants and trees growing here, and 
 also of the different minerals and kinds of stone ; 
 but I do not get along very fast with it. Some- 
 times I wish I could have been here before the 
 place was worked over so much." There were 
 many geological and mineralogical specimens in a 
 little cabinet ; a few of them such as would be 
 highly valued by collectors. *' I have come really 
 to love the place," said my young friend, " but I 
 am going to leave it soon." 
 
 " Why," said I, " why is that ? " 
 
 " Well, it is getting to be very comfortable 
 here, and easy, and I am too young for that. 
 Whenever I see a rough, wild piece of ground, 
 that has never had any chance, I feel like taking 
 hold to see what can be made of it. We never 
 know what is in such a wild, forsaken place till 
 we begin to work with it ; then the land seems 
 to take hold and do the best it can. There 's a 
 very rough place out among the hills, a few miles 
 from here, that I should like to make a partner- 
 ship with for a few years. It 's entirely different
 
 THREE TYPICAL WORKWOMEN. 97 
 
 from this, so I shall like it for that. It 's full of 
 rocks, and is very uneven, with another kind of 
 soil, and I shall have to learn nearly everything 
 new. I have concluded to buy it." 
 
 In the evening Jim harnessed his mules and 
 drove me to town. As we left his gate I said, 
 " You like mules best ? " 
 
 He laughed, and answered, " They are not 
 handsome, but in the mud and on rough ground 
 they can do what 's wanted of them, and are worth 
 more than fine horses. I think, sometimes, 
 there 's a good deal of hard mule work wanted in 
 this country. I know when I came here I needed 
 about as much straightening out as this piece of 
 ground ; and you remember bow it looked. The 
 mules have helped me a little, besides improving 
 the place." 
 
 " Have you not wished you had some easier 
 work ? Some of your neighbors here, I believe, 
 think men ought not to work so much or so 
 hard." 
 
 " I do not know how it may be with others, 
 though I think most young fellows are much alike, 
 but it takes about twelve hours a day to keep 
 me up to what a man ought to be. I am some- 
 times almost frightened to find how fast the weeds 
 will grow in a fellow's disposition with a little 
 idleness. All sorts of unprofitable and dreamy 
 thoughts come up, and get stronger and stronger. 
 It would not take long to feel meddlesome and 
 envious and sour and discontented. I believe I 
 
 7
 
 98 THREE TYPICAL WORKINGMEN. 
 
 should soon be a savage if it were not for hard 
 work." 
 
 " Do you see much of other young men here ? " 
 " Most of them belong to so many societies in 
 the town that they have no time for anything but 
 their meetings. They wanted me to join all of 
 them, and I asked what they did. So they told 
 me their course of proceeding for the evening. 
 That might do very well for one time, I thought, 
 but they said they did the same things over again 
 every time they came together, and that would 
 not do for me. The young fellows that belong to 
 these societies don't seem to know what to do 
 with themselves when they are at home or alone." 
 "Do they seem to be well informed ? " 
 " None of us are well informed. A few of us 
 know a little of a good many things, but we know 
 nothing to the bottom. And now this reminds 
 me of what I have for a long time wished to ask 
 you. What shall I read ? What can I tell these 
 young men to read ? Some of them are not satis- 
 fied with the way they are going on. One day I 
 was thinking how reasonable it was that I should 
 know something about the ground I was working 
 over every day, and I wished I could know about 
 the history of this very spot all the way through 
 the old ages, and how it had come to be what it is 
 now. I thought it might help me to know what 
 to do with it. And I should like to know about 
 human society, especially in our own country, 
 about the changes and steps by which it has come
 
 THREE TYPICAL WORK1NGMEN. 99 
 
 to be what it is now. T can't find out very well 
 what it is now, what is the real condition of 
 things. I see different people working in differ- 
 ent directions. Some of these movements must 
 be wrong, and I should like to know which I 
 ought to help and work with. I can't read the 
 great newspapers. They are too large, and it 
 would take more time than workingmen can spare 
 to read them. The writers seem to think people 
 have nothing else to do but read their long arti- 
 cles. Is there any rather small paper that will 
 tell the truth and explain things plainly, that I 
 can read and show to the young men about 
 here ? " 
 
 (The same inquiry has been addressed to me 
 hundreds of times during the last dozen years by 
 workingmen in nearly all the Northern States, 
 when I have conversed with them about the state 
 of the country and the interests and duties of 
 their class. I have always had to answer that 
 although we have a few invaluable publications 
 which are organs of wise and sound thinking, they 
 are for the most part addressed to the cultivated 
 classes, and are more elaborate and bookish, as 
 well as more costly, than reading for workingmen 
 should be ; and that there is as yet no such means 
 for the education of the workingmen as such a pa- 
 per would supply. Of late i have to reflect that, 
 although I cannot yet point workingmen to such a 
 newspaper as they need, hundreds of thousands 
 of them receive each week one that is devoted to
 
 100 THREE TYPICAL WORKWOMEN. 
 
 the propagation of theories of government and a 
 philosophy of life which, if generally accepted by 
 its readers, must not only stimulate the growth 
 of erroneous opinions, but also lower the tone and 
 standard of character among American working- 
 men ; and this organ of illusion and destructive 
 error, although as large as our leading American 
 newspapers, is supplied to subscribers for twenty- 
 five cents per year. Why should sound and 
 wholesome teaching cost so much more than that 
 which is mischievous? Although the exponents 
 of prehistoric or uncivilized thought claim to be 
 the friends and representatives of the poor, they 
 are not without means for the propagation of 
 their ideas. They give their publishing enter- 
 prises a vigorous support, and are ready to pay 
 large sums for the services of acceptable speak- 
 ers.) I told my young friend I thought there 
 would be such a paper before many years had 
 passed, and advised him to ask two or three of the 
 most thoughtful young men to join him in taking 
 some of the best newspapers, and to buy such 
 numbers of the magazines as contain articles of 
 special interest and value ; and then we parted. 
 
 My observation of the life and thought of work- 
 ingmen impresses me with the conviction that the 
 cultivated men of the country are not, in a suffi- 
 cient degree, in communication with the great 
 body of the laboring people ; and that a more 
 direct and vital relation between them would be
 
 THREE TYPICAL WORKINGMEN. 101 
 
 a great gain to both classes. The things which 
 our best and wisest men are saying to each other 
 should be addressed, and in suitable forms of ut- 
 terance might be addressed, to the workinginen 
 of the nation. 
 
 There is danger that we shall accept as neces- 
 sary and inevitable the permanence of the condi- 
 tions which have produced our present difficul- 
 ties ; that even our leaders, those who " in their 
 motion are full-welling fountain-heads of change," 
 may not see how imperative is the need of a sys- 
 tem of education that shall be so disciplinary of 
 the mass of the people as to make them truly self- 
 governing ; or, in other words, to make purely 
 democratic institutions compatible with progress 
 in civilization. Existing means and agencies for 
 the political education of our people are very inad- 
 equate. We have depended upon our common 
 schools for results which they alone could not 
 possibly produce. 
 
 I suppose few intelligent men now think our 
 chief peril is from communistic outbreaks or rev- 
 olution. But it is somewhat remarkable that peo- 
 ple should so readily conclude that if we are not 
 threatened by this particular danger we have no 
 cause for apprehension ; and that the condition 
 and prospects of our country are therefore, on the 
 whole, satisfactory and encouraging. About the 
 utmost mischief in the power of communistic 
 mobs would be the burning of some of our cities, 
 and to accomplish even so much as that they
 
 102 THREE TYPICAL WORKINGMEN. 
 
 would have to be aided by the accidental concur- 
 rence of many favoring conditions. But history 
 shows us that nations have often been lulled into 
 fancied security by their deliverance from one 
 form of danger, while from sources unnoticed or 
 deemed contemptible more serious mischiefs arose, 
 and wrought lasting injury. 
 
 Are not the conditions of intellectual soil and 
 atmosphere favorable for the growth of plausible 
 fallacies, of illusions about what can be accom- 
 plished by legislation in "lightening the burdens 
 of poverty and toil, and bringing back the days 
 of prosperity to a suffering people," illusions 
 which will lead the minds of men away from the 
 study of the real problems of the time, and make 
 them more and more impatient and unteachable ? 
 May we not reasonably anticipate a long period 
 of wasteful and often very perilous experiments 
 (if we can rightly use the word " experiment " 
 for what is the result of mere impulse and reck- 
 lessness ; for what is undertaken without fore- 
 sight, carried forward without critical observation 
 or intelligence, and looked back to when it is past 
 with no increase of wisdom from experience), 
 experiments which will greatly exhaust the na- 
 tional vitality and resources, and which are there- 
 fore too costly to be undertaken if they can be 
 avoided ? But it is common among cultivated 
 people, who feel, not unreasonably, a kind of awe 
 of the vastness and complexity of our modern 
 life, to urge that each of these mischievous falla-
 
 THREE TYPICAL WORKINGMEN. 103 
 
 cies and illusions " will play its part in the edu- 
 cation of the people," and that the result of this 
 educational process is what we must chiefly de- 
 pend upon for the increase of wisdom among us, 
 and for the development of such qualities in the 
 national character as shall secure our continued 
 progress in civilization. 
 
 Let us examine this briefly. We have need of 
 clear thinking here. A trust in events, in gen- 
 eral conditions, and in the influence of the total 
 environment of society, as the chief means or 
 sources of change, is one of the prominent feat- 
 ures of modern cultivated thought. As it is now 
 held, this trust, with the scientific and philosophi- 
 cal theories with which it is correlated, marks an 
 important stage in intellectual and social evolu- 
 tion, but it admits of modification and further de- 
 velopment. We are apt to be somewhat dazed 
 and bewildered by the modern revelations of the 
 immensity of the universe. Everywhere we en- 
 counter a tangle and maze of elements, conditions, 
 and relations, practically of infinite extent; and 
 in the study of civilization, or the evolution of so- 
 ciety, this impression of the slow working of re- 
 sistless forces, through a limitless complexity of 
 causes and effects, recurs continually, and with 
 especial emphasis. If everything around us is the 
 result of movements which began when the pri- 
 mordial atoms floated together, where is there 
 room for us to put in our hand ? What can we 
 do but wait for events ? The moral or social
 
 104 THREE TYPICAL WORKINGMEN. 
 
 world seems to many of the cultivated minds of 
 our time a great stage for the vast spectacular 
 drama of history. It is one of their illusions that 
 they are only spectators and critics of the play. 
 But the vast, eternal movement easily incorpo- 
 rates human and personal effort. A man's thought 
 or work becomes, in the measure of his wisdom 
 and personal vitality, a factor in the life of his 
 time, a source of change, a cause which transmits 
 some effect to the near future. 
 
 But, more specifically, men and nations are com- 
 monly educated by events only as the events are 
 wisely interpreted and explained by competent 
 teachers and guides. There is no magical power 
 in the mere succession of occurrences of any kind 
 to give men wisdom. One insanity or popular de- 
 lusion may succeed another, leading to any num- 
 ber of disastrous experiments, and the masses may 
 garner no stores of valuable experience from such 
 fateful seed-sowing, unless the time brings forward 
 teachers who can show to the people the meaning, 
 origin, and tendencies of contemporary events ; 
 who can come to their work with a power of anal- 
 ysis which will enable them to distinguish the 
 several factors of the life of the time, and a syn- 
 thetic judgment by which to estimate the national 
 character, position, and capabilities. The great 
 need of our people to-day is precisely this wise in- 
 terpretation of the events of the last twenty years, 
 this competent explanation of current legislation 
 and the other important factors of our national
 
 THREE TYPICAL WORKWOMEN. 105 
 
 life and thought. Even partisans should be able 
 to appreciate the fact that much of the prev- 
 alent dissutisf acton with the older political organ- 
 izations Iras been produced by the partisan inter- 
 pretations of political issues and events so persist- 
 ently advanced by the newspapers and orators of 
 both parties. The substitution of unreal for real 
 issues has been so general that the people have 
 nearly everywhere recognized it, and many of 
 those whom they formerly trusted are not now be- 
 lieved even when they tell the truth.
 
 WORKINGMEN'S WIVES. 
 
 IN these studies of American life nothing is in- 
 vented or purposely colored. They are reports of 
 the experience and talk of persons I have known, 
 and their interest, for me at least, is in the thought 
 of these men and women, in the effect of their 
 circumstances, experience, and total environment 
 upon their intellectual character and activities. 
 In all my acquaintance with the working people, 
 I have observed that the women appear to be de- 
 pressed and injured less than the men by the 
 hardships of their life. The anxiety and suffer- 
 ing to which so many of them have been exposed 
 during the last few years have usually been borne 
 by the wives of workingmen with superior pa- 
 tience and courage, and they have developed such 
 readiness of resource as yields only to absolute im- 
 possibilities. In many cases the wives of work- 
 ingmen have for several years supported their fam- 
 ilies almost entirely. While there has been no 
 work for the men, the women have done washing, 
 sewing, and general housework for all who would 
 employ them. Some women do the washing for 
 half a dozen families each week. In such cases 
 their own home-work must be done at night, and 
 on Sunday. But there are few women who have
 
 WORKWOMEN'S WI VES. 107 
 
 strength for so much work of this kind, and fami- 
 lies often live upon what the wife and mother 
 receives for two, three, or four days' work each 
 week. Sometimes the men assist their wives in 
 the home housekeeping, and even in the washing 
 which is taken in for the neighbors, but I have 
 seen few woi'kingmen who seemed able or in- 
 clined to render much assistance in women's work, 
 although idle for months together. 
 
 Workingmen's wives are, as a class (so far as 
 my acquaintance extends), more saving or eco- 
 nomical than their husbands. They have also 
 less dislike for small jobs, and less contempt for 
 the trifling sums received for them. I am com- 
 pelled to say that many workingmen appear un- 
 willing to accept transient employment, especially 
 if of a kind to which they are not accustomed; 
 but their wives are usually ready for any kind of 
 work, however disagreeable or poorly paid it may 
 be. The men often yield to complete discourage- 
 ment, and become listless and stupid, and are sour 
 and cross at home, until, unable longer to endure 
 the misery of inaction, they take to the road and 
 become tramps. It is easy to censure the folly of 
 leaving home for work in times like these, but 
 few persons who live comfortably understand the 
 mental strain and torture borne by unemployed 
 workingmen, who see at each meal that every 
 mouthful on the table is really needed by their 
 children. Hunger does not make men philosoph- 
 ical. In the cities and larger towns some work-
 
 108 WORKINGMEWS WIVES. 
 
 ingmen's wives take to drink, as do the men, when 
 their condition and prospects have become desper- 
 ate, but among working women who do not drink, 
 I have never yet seen one relinquish effort and 
 yield to despair. Even when the wolf has long 
 been inside the door, and life is a daily struggle 
 with pinching want, I have noted the silent en- 
 durance of workingmen's wives, the effort always 
 renewed, the spirit which never yields. 
 
 One such woman, whom I have known for sev- 
 eral years, has often excited my wonder by the 
 quiet strength and beauty of her character. She 
 is about thirty-five years of age. Her father was 
 a prosperous farmer, and she grew up in the large, 
 old-fashioned farm-house, where the abundance of 
 hired help made it unnecessary for her to do any- 
 thing beyond taking care of her own room and 
 clothing. But she learned housekeeping in the 
 intervals of attending school, taught school two 
 or three years near her home, and then married a 
 business man whose fortune, consisting largely of 
 landed property, was amply sufficient to promise 
 a life of comfort, and the opportunities for intel- 
 lectual improvement which she so much coveted. 
 Their life was pleasant and prosperous until a few 
 years after the war. Then her husband sold his 
 property and removed to a distant State, where he 
 bought a farm which had been exhausted by bad 
 tillage, and which required extensive improve- 
 ments. About this period the approach of the 
 hard times began to be foreshadowed by a gen-
 
 WORKWOMEN'S WIVES. 109 
 
 eral decline in values, to the consequent disap- 
 pointment of business men who had looked for 
 profits from the continued rise in prices. 
 
 Some of the men to whom our friend had sold 
 portions of his property were unable to pay. 
 Loans which he had thought well secured were 
 not repaid, and could not be collected. The 
 man's health declined, and he was obliged to hire 
 all the labor required in the cultivation of his 
 land. It soon appeared to be advisable to sell the 
 farm, as it was rapidly absorbing all that remained 
 of his money, and yielding very little in return. 
 It was sold for an amount much less than the ag- 
 gregate cost of the land and the improvements. 
 A house was bought in a small town at a price 
 which now seems extravagant. About half of it 
 was paid at the time out of the money received 
 for the farm, and a mortgage on the house given 
 to secure the remainder. Most of these changes 
 now appear to have been unfortunate, but they 
 were such as many business men were making in 
 those years, and to have followed a wiser course 
 would have required a degree of foresight which 
 very few at that time possessed. Our friends soon 
 found themselves without any assured income. 
 The hope of receiving something on various old 
 debts was not relinquished until several years 
 later, but it has never been realized. There were 
 now four persons in the household, the two chil- 
 dren being nearly old enough to go to school. The 
 father hoped to find in the village some employ-
 
 110 WORKWOMEN'S WIVES. 
 
 ment which would enable him to support his fam- 
 ily, but salaries were being rapidly reduced, and 
 each month added to the number of men seeking 
 places. About this time the wife was engaged for 
 some months in sewing straw goods at home for 
 manufacturers in one of our large cities. It did 
 not yet appear absolutely necessary for her to earn 
 money for the sustenance of the family, but she 
 preferred to help. Their state and prospects be- 
 came more serious, and the piano was sold. It 
 had been a marriage gift to the wife from her 
 mother. 
 
 Part of the money obtained by the sale of the 
 piano was used to buy a sewing-machine ; and 
 while the husband did what he could as a day la- 
 borer, at gardening, farm- work, sawing wood, etc., 
 the wife took sewing from a large manufactory of 
 woolen clothing. The price for her work was 
 ninety cents per dozen of the garments upon which 
 she was employed. For several months she used 
 the sewing-machine fifteen hours per day, and by 
 working for that length of time she could make 
 three fourths of a dozen of these garments each 
 day. She was thus able to earn three and a half 
 or four dollars per week. But the labor was too 
 great for her strength, and in less than a year she 
 was compelled to relinquish it. During this pe- 
 riod she was often unable to sleep from the weari- 
 ness and pain resulting from excessive labor. 
 
 The first payment made on the village property 
 was also the last. All that could be obtained by
 
 WORKWOMEN'S WIVES. Ill 
 
 the efforts of both husband and wife" was often 
 insufficient to supply the family with needed food. 
 The man's strength declined so much that his 
 labor was not very profitable either to himself or 
 to his employers. It became impossible to pay 
 the interest on the debt for the house, now over- 
 due, and the property was surrendered to the for- 
 mer owner. Owing to the great decline in values, 
 it would not now have sold for more than the 
 amount which was still due on it. Since that 
 time this woman has paid rent for the house 
 which she once hoped soon to own. It is but six 
 dollars per month, yet that is a large sum for her. 
 There have been 'many dark days. After it be- 
 came plain that the work with the sewing-machine 
 could not be kept up, my friend learned to make 
 various small articles of women's apparel then in 
 fashion, and has kept a small store of them at her 
 home for sale, and has taken orders from custom- 
 ers for their manufacture. The family needs for 
 food, as she has told me, three dollars and a half 
 per week, but there have been many times when 
 they lived on a dollar per week. Sometimes in 
 winter they have been without food or fuel. They 
 often live almost wholly upon bread, and have no 
 meat for weeks together. The woman is a mem- 
 ber of a prosperous church, "and attends its meet- 
 ings with great regularity. 
 
 " Does your minister come to see you ? " I in- 
 quired. 
 
 " Oh yes."
 
 112 WORKWOMEN'S WIVES. 
 
 " Does he know how you are situated ? " 
 
 " No." 
 
 " Why do you not tell him ? " 
 
 " He has not asked me, or spoken of such 
 things, and I would rather converse with him on 
 other subjects." 
 
 " But some of your friends in the church are 
 acquainted with your circumstances? " 
 
 " They know that we have "nothing to live on 
 but what I earn, except when my husband can do 
 a little work now and then ; but I do not think 
 they know anything about how much or how little 
 we have." Here she paused, and I saw that she 
 was making an effort to speak quietly. Her lips 
 moved in silence, but she soon spoke again in the 
 same clear voice: "It is sometimes hard to be told 
 that such and such ladies have remarked that I am 
 always wonderfully well dressed. It is quite cer- 
 tain that I should have more work if I were rag- 
 ged and slovenly. People would interest them- 
 selves about me, and give me something to do, if 
 I gave up trying to be neat. But I can't do that, 
 you know." And she laughed gayly, though her 
 eyes were ready to overflow. 
 
 She possesses in an unusual degree the power, 
 apparently so easy and natural for some women, of 
 dressing with exquisite taste, even with the poor- 
 est materials. My wife says that Mrs. would 
 
 appear well dressed if she had only an Indian 
 blanket, and tfould somehow make it look about 
 the same as the costume of all women of taste.
 
 WORKWOMEN'S WIVES. 113 
 
 People say that she does not look like a working 
 woman. After a few months' rest from work 
 with the sewing-machine she grew stronger, an 1 
 undertook dress-making, an industry which she 
 still practices. But there are many others en- 
 gaged in it ; many ladies do their own sewing of 
 late, as a measure of necessary economy ; and our 
 friend often has great difficulty in obtaining suffi- 
 cient work. She feels that debt would be failure 
 and ruin. " I could never keep up heart and en- 
 ergy if we were in debt." 
 
 " What are your expectations, your hopes, for 
 the next few years ? " 
 
 " My children have thus far been kept at 
 school ; they are doing well in their studies, and 
 I feel that they must, at any cost, have a tolerable 
 education. My daughter, now about fourteen 
 years of age, has a passion for teaching ; and it is 
 my utmost ambition, I suppose I may say, to fit 
 her for that work. My hope is that my health 
 and strength may hold out, and that I may have 
 work enough for the support of my family, and 
 especially to pay my house rent." 
 
 " Do you ever look back with regret ? " 
 " I have not time, and if I had that would be 
 foolish and useless." 
 
 " Do you blame anybody for your hardships ? " 
 
 " I feel sometimes, as I suppose all women do 
 
 in such circumstances, like saying, ' If you had 
 
 only taken my advice, or done as I wished ; ' but
 
 114 WORKWOMEN'S WIVES. 
 
 it would do no good, and I have never allowed 
 myself to say it." 
 
 " Does it seem to you that people are cold and 
 harsh and unkind ? " 
 
 " No ; they are generally kind-hearted. They 
 are sometimes thoughtless, but we must expect 
 that. Not many know much about the lives of 
 those around them." 
 
 " Does your religion help you ? is it a real force 
 and aid ? " 
 
 " Yes ; there are times when I could not go on, 
 or have the strength. I need, without it. I am not 
 a very pious person, not enthusiastically re- 
 ligious ; I do not expect that God will do my 
 work for me, or make everything easy and pleas- 
 ant ; but I could not live, I think, without the feel- 
 ing that his goodness and justice and love are over 
 all things, and that somehow, in ways I cannot 
 understand, He is with me and cares for me in the 
 darkest times. I am obliged to believe that help 
 is sent me sometimes in answer to prayer." 
 
 " Then, why is it not always sent ? why is 
 prayer not always answered ? " 
 
 " That is not for me to understand." 
 
 This woman's religion appears to be a real force 
 in her life. There seems to be but little mysti- 
 cism in her thought. She does cheerfully and 
 courageously all that lies in her power, and en- 
 dures patiently the hardships she cannot avoid. 
 She is certainly made stronger by her faith in the 
 divine goodness, which, in spite of appearances to
 
 WORKINGMEN'S WIVES. 116 
 
 the contrary, she believes is at the heart of things, 
 and is a factor in all human affairs. She thinks 
 that human labor, wisdom, and self-sacrifice are 
 necessary for the right direction of human life, 
 individual and social; and that men must learn 
 how to avoid and cure the evils that now afflict 
 society. " God will not do these things for us, 
 but He will help us if we do our best in any good 
 work." She does not seem to have been injured 
 by her harsh and trying experience. I have ob- 
 served that many women (and men too) are made 
 cynical by hardship ; others adopt eccentric theo- 
 ries about religion or the organization of society, 
 and console themselves by a vehement advocacy of 
 those opinions, or steep their faculties in benumb- 
 ing dreams of the future, losing thus all power and 
 disposition for present struggle. But this woman, 
 while ready for any drudgery that will enable her 
 to support her family, has lost no iota of self-re- 
 spect, and does not seem to have been in any wise 
 weakened or degraded by trial and suffering. She 
 retains her old interest in culture, especially in lit- 
 erature, and manages to read each year a few good 
 books. She is well acquainted with the writings 
 of the best American and English poets, and likes 
 biography and essays. She converses well, has a 
 fine presence, and is always in request to preside 
 at tables at church fairs and festivals. Our 
 friend's circumstances do not of course permit her 
 to be much in society. She is rarely away from 
 home, and has no traits or qualities that would fit
 
 116 WORKWOMEN'S WIVES. 
 
 her to be a reformer of any kind ; but her exam- 
 ple and influence are most wholesome and encour- 
 aging. 
 
 My next story is of a woman who, although a 
 good housekeeper, has had much to do with the 
 life in numerous homes besides her own. She is 
 the wife of a mechanic, an unusually intelligent 
 and thoughtful man. Their home is in a village 
 not far from a large city, and there are several 
 manufacturing towns of considerable importance 
 in the same region. I became acquainted with 
 these persons soon after the close of the civil war. 
 They are so inseparable in their thought and work 
 that I cannot well write of one alone. The hus- 
 band had entered the Union army early, and 
 served to the close of the contest, and they both 
 felt that their connection with the nation's strug- 
 gle had been a kind of religious experience to 
 them. This first drew me to acquaintance with 
 them. They had a clear idea of a principle of pa- 
 triotism which should draw men together in times 
 of peace, and inspire them with a feeling of com- 
 radeship and of devotion to the interests of their 
 country. As I was myself at that time thinking 
 much of these subjects, and becoming more and 
 more fully convinced of the importance of encour- 
 aging and propagating such ideas, I soon became 
 greatly interested in the thought and activities of 
 this workingman and his wife. The man had 
 read much, and was still reading, about govern-
 
 WORKWOMEN'S WIVES. 117 
 
 merit and the organization of society, and had a 
 considerable knowledge of history. He talked with 
 his wife about his reading, and often read aloud the 
 most important passages. For some time before I 
 met him he had been troubled by the growing 
 conviction that many things in the best writings 
 on political economy and similar subjects were in- 
 applicable and impracticable in this country, and 
 among the workingmen whom he knew ; and it 
 had just occurred to him to inquire whether there 
 are perhaps some special or peculiar conditions or 
 elements in the circumstances and character of so- 
 ciety in this country which have not yet been suf- 
 ficiently considered by our teachers. 
 
 At the period referred to, artisans were still 
 making money in the shops and factories of that 
 region, and there was much talk among them 
 about life insurance. We spent many evenings 
 together : my friend reported the discussions which 
 had occurred at the shops during the dinner hour, 
 and read from various books passages bearing upon 
 the subject; his wife told of what the women 
 were saying, and expressed her own judgment in 
 relation to the matters we were considering. While 
 her husband had been in the army she had had 
 much intercourse with the families of working- 
 men in the village, and since his return they had 
 worked together for the advancement and eleva- 
 tion of the class to which they belonged. They 
 both thought there were serious objections to life 
 insurance, though it might yet be the best thing
 
 118 WORKWOMEN'S WIVES. 
 
 available, as a method of saving, for many work- 
 ing people. 
 
 " Something of the kind is necessary," said the 
 wife, " because the men cannot keep money. As 
 soon as they have a small sum they either wish to 
 buy something with it, or to invest it in a way 
 that will bring them more. Most women can keep 
 money much better than men can. It pleases 
 them to go on adding to the little stock they have 
 hoarded up, and to look at it now and then ; but 
 when a man has a few dollars, he is apt to be rest- 
 less and unhappy till he has expended it." 
 
 " But this is a costly way of saving," observed 
 her husband. " I have been at the principal of- 
 fices in the city. Two of the companies are put- 
 ting up showy and expensive buildings. Their 
 officers -have good salaries, and the commissions 
 allowed to agents are large. Of course all these 
 things are paid for by the people who are insured. 
 The men who are building up and managing this 
 great business of life insurance are doing it for the 
 profit it will bring to them, of course. That is 
 all right, but it will be far more profitable to them 
 than to the working people." 
 
 " The women are inclined to like savings-banks 
 better," said his wife ; " they think the money 
 would not be so entirely out of their reach." 
 
 " They are partly right," the husband replied, 
 "but we are coming to have too many savings- 
 banks and life insurance companies too. The de- 
 positors in the savings-banks have no real security
 
 WORKWOMEN'S WIVES. 119 
 
 for the safety of their money except the honor and 
 foresight of the bank officers. It is always possi- 
 ble in a time like this that the value of real estate 
 securities may decline so much as to fall below the 
 amount for which they are pledged. It is not 
 likely that prices will always keep up." 
 
 " I am sure," said the wife, " that men are buy- 
 ing too many things ; they make too many im- 
 provements ; and these things eat up the profits, 
 it seems to me, of all kinds of business about here. 
 If I should buy so much improved machinery for 
 housekeeping, we should soon be in debt instead 
 of saving anything, and that appears to be just 
 what the men are doing. And if so many people 
 go to making shoes and silks and steel rails, it will 
 bring the prices down so that there will be no 
 profit. Besides, I should think we would have 
 more of these things by and by than anybody will 
 want, or can afford to buy. I cannot see that 
 many people, either workingmen or others, are 
 really saving anything except as they insure their 
 lives or deposit something in savings-banks. So 
 I suppose these plans for saving will really benefit 
 people." 
 
 " No doubt they will do good in some ways," 
 was the reply, " but much of the money so in- 
 vested will probably never come back to those 
 who earned it." 
 
 " Then there is something very wrong about it," 
 answered the wife, " for the certainty of having 
 what they save is more important for the working
 
 120 WORKWOMEN'S WIVES. 
 
 people than anything else. connected with money. 
 I have thought a great deal about this matter of 
 interest for money as it affects our people. No 
 doubt it is necessary and right for rich men, who 
 loan large sums, and in the great affairs of the 
 business world. But for working people it does 
 harm, and not good. Many of our class are ex- 
 cited and dazzled by the thought of their money 
 increasing, and, as they say, ' piling up while we 
 are asleep,' so that they often risk losing the whole 
 of it by lending it to men who are not to be 
 trusted, or venturing into wild speculations. I 
 suppose some of these things are too deep for me, 
 but I am sure the effect of interest for money is, 
 for many of the working people, very much like 
 the influence of gambling. It gives them unrea- 
 sonable hopes for the future, and leads them to 
 desire above all things to escape from the neces- 
 sity of work ; and, as I said, they often lose 
 their money by it." 
 
 " Do you not think the ambition to rise above 
 the condition of working people a good feeling, 
 and one to be encouraged ?" I asked. 
 
 "No," said she, "I do not. If we are all to 
 rise above the condition of working people, who 
 will be left to do the world's work ? Everybody 
 seems to think it would be very fine, but I can see 
 that such notions are doing mischief. Is it really 
 degrading to work ? It sounds well to talk about 
 our fitting ourselves for something better. There 
 must be some deception in what our teachers are
 
 WORKWOMEN'S WIVES. 121 
 
 saying about these things. If we could be wise 
 enough and unselfish enough to do our part in 
 every way as working people should, I think we 
 should be more useful in the world, and much 
 happier than we can be by trying to rise to posi- 
 tions which are not suited to us. Five or six of 
 the men at the shops have bought pianos within a 
 year or two. A political speaker from the city 
 spoke of this at the town hall, a few weeks ago, 
 as an evidence of the superiority of American 
 workingmen and their opportunities, and said 
 that laborers in other countries cannot have such 
 things. That is true, I suppose, but I think if 
 our men had been wise they might have found 
 better uses for their money. You can hear one of 
 the instruments now. Our neighbor's daughter is 
 taking lessons. Her teacher tells her it is a great 
 pity she could not have begun sooner, because the 
 work she has done has spoiled her hands for the 
 piano. Her mother does all the hard work now, 
 and her daughter dresses in style and takes care 
 of her hands. It is not at all likely that her play- 
 ing will ever be the means of real cultivation to 
 herself or of pleasure to others. A year or two 
 ago she was an earnest, industrious girl, affection- 
 ate and happy ; now she is affected, discontented, 
 and disagreeable. She wants many things which 
 she cannot possibly have, and has no idea of being 
 serviceable to anybody. Such changes are going 
 on among nearly all the working people that we 
 know, and if there 's a great deal of good in them, 
 there 's some harm too."
 
 122 WORKINGMEN'S WIVES. 
 
 " Well, wife," said her husband, " tell us, since 
 you are in the way of it, what you think the 
 working people ought to aim at, and what they 
 most need." 
 
 " We ought to do our work well and faithfully, 
 so as to be really of service to our employers and 
 to the country. We need to feel more interest in 
 one another as a class, without any enmity toward 
 other people, and to help and encourage one an- 
 other to gain more of such kinds of knowledge as 
 will be of use to us in our circumstances and way 
 of living. The knowledge that makes the work- 
 ing people dissatisfied with their lot is no blessing, 
 and it is not a kindness to give it to them. We 
 need somebody to tell us and teach us what would 
 be most useful to us. But I can see that the 
 women need to know how to cook a great deal 
 better than they do now, and how to keep their 
 houses and things about them in a wholesome con- 
 dition, so as not to invite disease into their fami- 
 lies. They need to feel more responsibility for 
 their children every way. And then I must 
 come back to that the working people need 
 some way of saving money that will be absolutely 
 safe, so that they can be perfectly certain of hav- 
 ing it when they want it. Whenever men have 
 steady work, even at moderate wages, they can 
 save something, and they ought to lay by a little 
 at a time, till each family has two, three, or four 
 hundred dollars, as a provision against sickness 
 or possible lack of employment; or has a little
 
 WORKWOMEN'S WIVES. 123 
 
 sum for each of the children as they grow up and 
 begin life for themselves, and perhaps some small 
 provision for the old age of the parents. To use 
 all our earnmgs as we go along has an unfavorable 
 and demoralizing effect. To bind ourselves by a 
 resolution to save a small part of each week's in- 
 come is a useful discipline, one that we all re- 
 quire. It teaches us to be able to do without 
 some things that we could have, and that is a kind 
 of education that would be good for everybody. 
 But the uncertainty about receiving their money 
 does more than anything else to discourage the 
 working people from trying to save. I have 
 thought a great deal about this, and it seems to 
 me a very important matter, and one that the wise 
 men of the nation might well think about. I do 
 not know anything about the science of govern- 
 ment, but there must be something very imper- 
 fect in our civilization, or the organization of so- 
 ciety, when all the wisdom of this great country 
 and all the power of the government cannot give 
 a laboring man who saves fifty dollars any secu- 
 rity that he shall have it returned to him when he 
 needs it. I have sometimes seen such mischief 
 and suffering result from this state of things that 
 I could not sleep, and I have spent many hours in 
 trying to think out some plan for changing it. 
 Whenever money that is loaned or put in a sav- 
 ings-bank is lost, it makes workingmen reckless 
 and improvident." 
 
 " Tell our friend about your plan," said her
 
 124 WORKWOMEN'S WIVES. 
 
 husband, " and perhaps he will say what he 
 thinks of it." 
 
 " My plan seems to me a very simple one. It 
 is for the national government to receive money 
 from the people at the post-offices everywhere, and 
 give them certificates of deposit, charging a small 
 fee to pay for the clerical labor involved. The 
 important thing, as I look at it, is that the gov- 
 ernment is not to pay interest on these deposits. 
 Even if only two or three per cent., or only one 
 per cent., were proposed, there would be serious 
 objections to such a system ; but I cannot see how 
 this plan could do any harm, or why there should 
 be any great difficulty in putting it into practical 
 operation." 
 
 " The present organization and character of life 
 insurance and savings-bank business," remarked 
 the husband, " tends to produce everywhere an 
 increasing feebleness of community ; and any- 
 thing that does that works an injury for which 
 nothing can be sufficient compensation. Every 
 life insurance company and savings-bank is a part- 
 nership made up of the men who establish the 
 business and of all who invest money in it, that 
 is, the depositors and those who are insured. The 
 thousands of men whose earnings furnish so large 
 a proportion of the capital have no voice or power 
 in the management or direction of the business. 
 But what is much worse than this, the partners 
 are not acquainted with each other. The mana- 
 gers do not live in the same community with their
 
 WORKINGMEXTS WIVES. 125 
 
 partners in the business, and they possess none of 
 those common interests and responsibilities which 
 proximity naturally tends to establish. In any- 
 thing so important in its effects upon character 
 and the chief interests of society, each community, 
 village, or neighborhood should, as it seems to me, 
 organize and direct its own business. If I lend 
 money to my neighbor, he is more apt to conduct 
 his business carefully, and to repay me honestly, 
 because he is my neighbor. When the working 
 people have put their money into the hands of 
 men in the city whom they have never seen, they 
 may feel more interest in the welfare of the city 
 people ; yet this is a barren kind of interest, as 
 there can be no personal relations between them ; 
 but the working people will feel less interest in 
 their own town and in the welfare of their fel- 
 low-citizens and neighbors here. I think our 
 money, our business, our interests, should, as far 
 as possible, all be here, where we live, and that 
 we should all be concerned and responsible for the 
 welfare of all the members of the community. If 
 we have savings-banks or life insurance, the entire 
 business should be here, all the officers our own 
 citizens, and no money should be drawn from the 
 people of other places. There should be no ex- 
 pensive buildings, and as little as possible of the 
 element of speculation in the business, but the 
 greatest possible degree of certainty in the pres- 
 ervation of the funds. But the life insurance 
 which I think most important is that which con-
 
 126 WORKWOMEN'S WIVES. 
 
 sists in the strength of community among the peo- 
 ple of each village or small town ; in their neigh- 
 borly good-will, interest, and practical kindness 
 for each other ; in their cooperation in what we 
 may call the moral control and administration of 
 the community ; in the education, protection, and 
 guidance of all its members ; in the repression of 
 license, of ignorance, idleness, and all other vices 
 which seriously threaten social or public interest." 
 I have not room for any further report of these 
 conversations. My friends still live in the same 
 village. Visiting them early last summer, I found 
 that most of these opinions had been confirmed by 
 observation and experience of the effect of trial 
 and hardship upon the working people. This 
 man always advised his neighbors against trades- 
 unions and secret societies of every kind, but 
 urged them to have places of meeting where any- 
 body might come and talk. Such open clubs have 
 from time to time been sustained by the working- 
 men there, and have been useful. When the gen- 
 eral prostration of business and industry reached 
 the place, my friend had saved nearly a thousand 
 dollars, but had not insured his life, or put his 
 money into a bank. He had loaned it without 
 interest in sums of one or two hundred dollars to 
 business men who were his neighbors. It was all 
 repaid him ; but he told me that a man who had 
 about two hundred dollars of his money came to 
 his house one evening, and said, " Here is your 
 money. I cannot go on much longer, and there
 
 WORKINGMEWS WIVES. 127 
 
 will not be much for anybody, I fear. This is a 
 personal matter, and I cannot have you lose any- 
 thing." At one time all the laborers in the shops 
 and mills were discharged, and a few months' idle- 
 ness reduced some of them to great straits. My 
 friend then began lending small sums, without in- 
 terest, to the most needy workmen, from two 
 to twenty-five dollars to each. He says most of 
 the money has been repaid, and loaned again so 
 often that the aggregate is more than four thou- 
 sand dollars. He has lost about one third of his 
 money, as he supposes, finally. Some of the men 
 who had it have gone away, and he has lost sight 
 of them, and a few have died. " But," he says, 
 44 the good and help of it all were so great that I 
 do not regret a dollar of it." He still thinks this 
 the best kind of life insurance. His wife has 
 taught the women how to make old clothing over 
 again to the best advantage, how to cook beef- 
 bones so as to obtain much food from what they 
 had before thrown away (by long boiling to ex- 
 tract all the nutritious elements), to utilize scraps 
 and remnants of all kinds, and to avoid dangers 
 to health from foul cellars and bad drainage. The 
 two have influenced in a notable degree the life 
 of the village. This report of our conversations is 
 from notes made at the time many years ago. I 
 then preserved these records of the talk of a 
 workingman and his wife, because I thought they 
 contained some germs, at least, of genuine Ameri- 
 can thought. The man was born in Vermont, and
 
 128 WORKWOMEN'S WIVES. 
 
 the woman in Massachusetts. The families of 
 both have been in this country more than a hun- 
 dred and fifty years, and have always been work- 
 ing people, and, as my friends say, " none of them, 
 were ever ' in better circumstances ; ' they all had 
 to work for their living, so their descendants have 
 not had to ' come down in the world.' " 
 
 I have for many years enjoyed acquaintance 
 with a woman whose home overlooks the great 
 prairies of Southeastern Kansas. Twenty-five 
 or thirty years ago, as she has told me, it was 
 common, where she grew up, for girls engaged to 
 be married to go out to service and earn money 
 for the purchase of their housekeeping outfit. She 
 was in her sixteenth year when she left home for 
 this purpose. Her girlhood had been happy and 
 busy. Her parents lived on a small farm. There 
 were many daughters, and they learned to love 
 the freedom of out-door work in haying and corn- 
 planting time. Idleness and piano-playing and the 
 modern styles of dress had not then become fash- 
 ionable among young women in that region. An 
 earnest, practical spirit ruled the somewhat prim- 
 itive society, and the better class of young people 
 had a real thirst for knowledge and improvement. 
 The few books and newspapers were passed from 
 hand to hand, and read in almost every house of 
 the neighborhood. My friend says there is much 
 more reading among the young people now, but 
 the books read are not, where she is acquainted,
 
 WORKINGMEN'S WIVES. 129 
 
 equal in character to those with which she was 
 familiar in her girlhood. They are less thought- 
 ful, and require less mental exertion on the part 
 of the reader. 
 
 She was married at seventeen, and soon after- 
 wards set out on the westward journey of a thou- 
 sand miles to the region in which she was to find, 
 or rather make, her home. The young couple had 
 money to purchase enough wild prairie land for a 
 farm, and to supply the means of living till they 
 could raise the first crop of corn, but not much 
 more. The grassy plains stretching away to the 
 horizon on every side showed few human habita- 
 tions. There were at first about a dozen houses 
 within as many miles, and within that distance all 
 were neighbors. But there were new arrivals 
 every year, and life soon became less lonely, or at 
 least less solitary, for the young wife, who battled 
 bravely against home-sickness, and threw herself 
 with energy into all the activities of her new sphere 
 ol action. The settlers in the neighborhood rep- 
 i esented nearly all parts of the country, except the 
 Pacific coast. There were families from New Eng- 
 land and the Middle and Southern Atlantic States, 
 and from the different regions of the great Missis- 
 sippi Valley, north and south. One of the first 
 things in the new life which impressed this young 
 woman was the fact that the moral differences be- 
 tween the life around her and that to which she 
 had been accustomed all seemed to have been pro- 
 duced by a lowering of the old standards. Men
 
 130 WORKWOMEN'S WIVES. 
 
 who used profane language acknowledged that 
 they had not done so in their old homes ; some 
 who had brought letters of fellowship from East- 
 ern churches went hunting on Sundays. Nearly 
 everybody made and received visits on that day, 
 and it was a jolly, social holiday. The new citi- 
 zens and neighbors were good men and women ; 
 there were few coarse or vicious persons among 
 them, but there was a strong and general tendency 
 to revert to a much lower type of civilization than 
 any of them had been acquainted with in the older 
 portions of the country. This facility in adopting 
 lower standards, so manifest all about her, caused 
 the young woman many an hour of anxious, pain- 
 ful thought. It was by no means easy to deter- 
 mine what would be right or wise for herself un- 
 der the new conditions of her life. Here was a 
 modest, quiet girl, with no one to advise her, with 
 no one at first even to understand her, who saw 
 that society was in process of formation around 
 her, and felt that some very important elements 
 and influences were wanting, the lack of which 
 she was sure would be felt more and more as an 
 evil and injury as inclination hardened into habit, 
 and tendencies became fixed in custom. Her in- 
 terest was the greater because her. husband ap- 
 peared not at all disposed to resist the influences 
 which excited her distrust. He grew fond of rang- 
 ing over the prairies with his gun, and steady 
 work on the farm seemed to affect his health un- 
 favorably. When several men worked together he
 
 WORKWOMEN'S WIVES. 131 
 
 was willing to share in the kbor for the sake of 
 companionship, but solitary employment grew more 
 and more distasteful to him. This often led to ex- 
 changes of work and other plans for enjoying the 
 society of some of his neighbors, who, like himself, 
 liked conversation so much that work seemed an 
 interruption and an impertinence. His farm and 
 dwelling soon showed signs of neglect and ineffi- 
 ciency, and it was not long till he had contracted 
 debts which the surplus productions of the farm 
 were not sufficient to pay. 
 
 After long and painful resistance to a conviction 
 which seemed a kind of disloyalty to her husband, 
 the young wife was compelled to recognize the 
 fact that the wisdom, energy, and responsibility 
 properly belonging to the head of a family were 
 required of her, and that unless her resources 
 proved equal to the unexpected demand, her home 
 life was likely to prove a failure, a life-long disap- 
 pointment and misery. There was a period of 
 wild and lonely bitterness, and then she quietly 
 accepted her lot, and resolutely entered upon her 
 work of building the temple of home upon better 
 foundations, and of trying to cultivate and encour- 
 age as much as possible all the higher elements 
 and aptitudes of her husband's character. She 
 wished, as I suppose most women do, to look up 
 to her husband ; to feel that he was her head ; to 
 respect his superior strength and authority. But 
 she set forward to make the best of everything, 
 and soon developed a kind of happiness in cour-
 
 132 WORKWOMEN'S WIVES. 
 
 ageous effort and endurance. She had much to 
 endure. More than once the homestead itself has 
 been imperiled by bad management. But the 
 business men of the region gradually recognized 
 the fact that when debts were paid it was by the 
 wife's economy and energy, and the danger from 
 the husband's injudicious investments and engage- 
 ments lessened as the years passed. While she 
 was thus endeavoring to do her part faithfully at 
 home, her interest in the life around her grew 
 more profound and serious. She told her husband 
 of her feelings and desires regarding the intellect- 
 ual and moral condition and needs of their neigh- 
 borhood, and asked his counsel as to her own 
 course. He thought that any effort to influence 
 their neighbors would probably be resented by 
 them as an officious and unfriendly interference, 
 and, while deploring the want of moral and relig- 
 ious teaching in the region about them, was of 
 the opinion that people should be left to the teach- 
 ing of experience. " If they do wrong and get into 
 trouble, they will learn to do better next time." 
 Still he did not more decidedly oppose her wishes, 
 and she felt that the way was clear for her doing 
 what she could. But what should she attempt ? 
 Although herself earnestly religious, she thought 
 it not wise to undertake teaching religion directly 
 or specifically. What she did may appear rather 
 shocking to many good people, but I can only re- 
 port the truth. The time was approaching for a 
 great Sunday visit at her house. It was her turn
 
 WORKWOMEN'S WIVES. 133 
 
 to entertain her neighbors. Some fifteen or 
 twenty pen-sons, old and young, would dine with 
 her, and spend the afternoon in conversation and 
 such amusements as they were accustomed to en- 
 joy or might improvise for the occasion. The aim- 
 less and thoughtless character of the talk in these 
 social meetings had given my friend much discom- 
 fort. It had no direction or purpose, but depended 
 upon mere impulse and accident in its selection of 
 subjects. Its tone was often rather low, and there 
 was never, as she said, anything profitable. If, 
 as often happened, a young person made a serious 
 or thoughtful remark, some older member of the 
 circle would make it the point of a joke or repar- 
 tee. This young woman's beginning, that Sunday 
 afternoon, for the regeneration of society, was a 
 series of tableaux vivants, based on the pictures in 
 a copy of Shakespeare's plays. Everybody was 
 delighted, and there was an unexpected and most 
 gratifying desire to know what it was all about, 
 who the soldiers and ladies were who had been 
 represented, and what they had done. " Tell 
 us about them," said the young people. Her 
 strength was failing. The battle had been fought, 
 and she had gained the victory. She could not 
 tell stories now. Years afterward she told me of 
 her gratitude to a gentleman present, a physician 
 who, profoundly touched by the change which he 
 felt had passed upon their association, said ear- 
 nestly, " Not now ; we have had enough for to-day. 
 I have the books, Shakespeare and the English
 
 134 WORKWOMEN'S WIVES. 
 
 histories, that tell about it all. If any of you 
 will stop at my house, my wife will show them to 
 you. It is time for us to go now." And with a 
 respectful dignity of manner which awed his neigh- 
 bors he advanced to the centre of the room and 
 took leave of his hostess. Everybody followed his 
 example. 
 
 The next day the doctor rode a few miles out 
 of his course across the prairie, to call on this new 
 acquaintance. They had a long conversation, and 
 she told him of her feelings regarding the com- 
 munity, of her fervent wish for the beginning 
 of a better order of things. " Well," said the doc- 
 tor, " we have had the beginning. We will meet 
 at my house next time. Come over, you and 
 your husband, on Saturday afternoon, and we will 
 make our plans for the entertainment." He was 
 always afterward her faithful ally. It proved, as 
 he said, that a beginning had been made. 
 
 The Sunday visits grew into meetings for read, 
 ing, music, and conversation. From the first the 
 mirth was less boisterous and the talk more 
 thoughtful, but there was no loss of real freedom 
 or geniality. I have always wondered most that 
 my friend did not try to do too much. But the 
 hour had come, and the woman. And she could 
 not only do what the occasion required of her ; 
 what was quite as necessary to her success, she 
 knew how to choose her marshals. People seemed 
 to develop new capabilities under her influence. 
 Her home life was always trying in many ways.
 
 WORKINGMEWS WIVES. 135 
 
 It was necessary to hire some labor to assist in 
 bringing the land into cultivation, and in order 
 to have means for this she took two or three 
 boarders, men from the East working upon new 
 farms in the vicinity, who had not brought their 
 families with them. The people for many miles 
 around came to depend upon her superior judg- 
 ment and readiness of resource as a nurse in all 
 cases of severe illness of women and children. 
 Her kindly arms were the first resting-place for 
 scores of little ones upon their arrival in this 
 strange, new world, and she closed the weary 
 eyes of age as the shadows deepened of " the 
 night before the eternal morning." Young lov- 
 ers came to her, sure of one friend who would not 
 smile at their perplexities and disappointments, 
 nor break the kindly silence which guarded the 
 secret of their pains or joys. No bride's attire 
 could be designed without her judgment. Few 
 social enterprises were regarded as well begun 
 without the sanction of some suggestion from her. 
 She had no children of her own, but two or 
 three years after marriage she adopted two moth- 
 erless little boys. One was two years old, but 
 the other had come into life as his mother passed 
 out of it. Never had orphaned babes a tenderer 
 foster-mother. As they grew older, others like 
 them were brought, one after another, to this house 
 of refuge. Some remained for a short time, until 
 they set their little faces toward the land where 
 their mothers had gone before them. Others
 
 136 WORKWOMEN'S WIVES. 
 
 were nourished and guided until suitable homes 
 could be found for them elsewhere. When a lit- 
 tle child was left motherless by the death of a 
 betrayed and forsaken woman, the neighbors said, 
 
 " Mrs. will take it," and under her guidance 
 
 the child whose life was a legacy of shame has 
 grown to be a young man of unusual promise. 
 
 She has done nearly all the work of her house- 
 keeping, including for many years past a consider- 
 able dairy, with sometimes a little assistance for a 
 few weeks when she is threatened with complete 
 exhaustion of her strength. Her health has suf- 
 fered greatly from her long-continued over-exer- 
 tion. But her culture has gone forward, fed not 
 only by her rich and varied experience of life, but 
 also from the best literature of our time. She has 
 read much ; I can scarcely say how it has been 
 possible for her to do so, but when I was for a 
 short time at her house, four years ago, I observed 
 that an open book lay always within her reach, 
 and that it was often glanced at for a minute or 
 two in some pause of the culinary processes, or a 
 passage would be read now and then in connection 
 with the conversation. She writes well, in easy, 
 graphic narrative, with a clear and vital expres- 
 sion of thought and sentiment. A few articles 
 from her pen have been published in Eastern 
 newspapers, and she has written much for the 
 papers of her own county. Her experience would 
 be a treasure to a writer of fiction. At the time 
 referred to I was looking into the geology and
 
 WORKWOMEN'S WIVES. 137 
 
 botany of the State in which she lives, driving 
 across the country, in fine weather, in an open 
 carriage. On two or three occasions I asked her 
 to accompany me. Her enjoyment of the open 
 air, of the dewy brightness of the morning, of 
 the sultry summer noon brooding over the wide 
 lands, was as fresh as that of a child. But what 
 interested me most was her reception by the peo- 
 ple. As we drove along the roads, and sometimes 
 crossed the great farms where she knew the way, 
 the men everywhere dropped their work, or left 
 their teams standing, and hastened across the 
 fields to greet her. They begged us to stop at 
 their homes to see their wives ; and where the 
 house was near the women were called out. I 
 noted a repressed intensity of feeling on their 
 part, like that of lovers meeting in the presence 
 of strangers. She seemed to be in complete sym- 
 pathy with every one, and received their affec- 
 tionate homage with quiet, frank delight. After- 
 ward, when I met the physician, her early friend, 
 and still her co-worker in various schemes for 
 popular culture and improvement, he told me the 
 story of her work. (Every one I saw had some- 
 thing to tell of her kindness or wisdom.) He 
 thought it one of the most noticeable features 
 of her life and influence that she inspired all the 
 men with profound respect and admiration, and 
 yet no woman ever felt in the slightest degree 
 jealous of her. I dined with the doctor, and his 
 wife told me the same thing. Said she, " We 
 women all love her, and the men adore her."
 
 138 WORKWOMEN'S WIVES. 
 
 The country is much changed since she made 
 it her home. The great valley is populous now. 
 There are half a dozen churches of different de- 
 nominations within easy reach of her dwelling. 
 She has not joined any of them, but often attends 
 the meetings at two or three of the nearest. The 
 ministers all visit her, and all regard her as a val- 
 uable friend and assistant in their work. No one 
 appears to have thought her capable of sectarian 
 feeling. One feature of the work of the Sunday 
 reading club has been the establishment of a 
 neighborhood library. The plan of dining to- 
 gether on Sundays was given up after the first 
 year, as involving too great labor for the hostess, 
 and also because it was felt that the convivial ele- 
 ment and interest should be subordinated to the 
 higher objects of the meetings. Most of the peo- 
 ple now go to church in the morning, and a few 
 meet still in the afternoon for reading and conver- 
 sation. A recent letter says, " When the Eastern 
 war came on we obtained a few books and maps 
 (very cheap little things they were), and thought 
 we would give a week or two to learning about it. 
 But our studies grew like the war itself, and we 
 were led to the history of the Turks and of Greece, 
 and kept on for many months. We should never 
 have known Curtius's and Finlay's wonderful his- 
 tories if it had not been for this war. We even 
 got into the history of the Holy Roman Empire. 
 I forget how it came in, but we read Bryce's little 
 book." They gave a good deal of time to Biblical
 
 WORKWOMEN'S WIVES. 139 
 
 studies a few years ago, and did not quarrel. My 
 friend says that one of the most stubborn evils 
 with which they have had to contend is the deluge 
 of worthless reading matter which has within a 
 few years extended to that region. She thinks it 
 would be better for people not to read at all than 
 that they should be miseducated by the writings 
 of persons without culture or knowledge. 
 
 As we rode homeward on the last day of my 
 visit, I asked her what was still most needed by the 
 people of the valley. She said, " They need dis- 
 cipline, the power and habit of self-restraint and 
 self- direction in nearly everything, but especially 
 in their use of money. They are full of life, and 
 love good living, love to * have things.' They 
 might all be rich, but they are so impulsive and 
 extravagant that most of them are in debt, and 
 are often pressed and harassed by their inability 
 to pay their notes when they are due. It is ab- 
 surd that this should be so in a country with such 
 resources as this region possesses. If we only had 
 some good, convenient way of taking the women's 
 money, whenever they have saved a few dollars, 
 and keeping it for them, they would soon grow 
 more economical. As it is, they always say, ' It 
 is my money, and if I do not buy something with 
 it my husband will spend it for something that 
 will do me no good.' They have little foresight 
 of possible future needs ; but the worst difficulty 
 is that they cannot keep money, and have no place 
 to put it where it will be safe. Some of the girls
 
 140 WORKINGAfEWS WIVES. 
 
 who are at work about here leave their money 
 with me, .but I wish there were some officer, 
 somebody appointed by the government, to take 
 care of people's money, and keep it safely for 
 them. Could it not be so ? " 
 
 " What have been your greatest difficulties and 
 discouragements ? " 
 
 " My own lack of ability for the work of life, 
 the want of opportunity for acquiring the culture 
 I need, and the general disposition of people to be 
 contented with low things." 
 
 Both the parents of this woman are descendants 
 of families who removed from Virginia to Ohio 
 about the first of this century ; their ancestors 
 were from England, and came to Virginia in very 
 early times.
 
 THE CAREER OF A CAPITALIST. 
 
 THIS story is not a warning. It outlines the 
 life of a man belonging to a class against whom 
 there has been much clamor in this country during 
 the last few years. He is a capitalist. Accord- 
 ing to the teaching of the reformers he is a non- 
 producer, a man who lives by the labor of others, 
 and therefore an oppressor of those whose toil 
 has given him his wealth. It is indeed true that 
 he has never worked with his own hands since 
 the time when, in his early boyhood, he engaged 
 in catching fish for the markets of his native town. 
 Pursuing this industry for a few weeks, he found 
 himself possessed of an accumulation of small sil- 
 ver coins amounting to about twenty-five dollars. 
 The money was for some reason put aside, and 
 is still preserved by his children. "This," he 
 once said to me, " is the first and last money that 
 I ever earned by my own manual labor." His 
 home is on one of the great peninsulas of our At- 
 lantic coast, at the head of navigation on a small 
 river, which permits the passage of vessels of a 
 thousand tons burden. He is fifty-six years old, 
 and still lives on the spot where he was born. 
 His early education was inconsiderable in extent, 
 and so unsystematic that it did not even give him
 
 142 THE CAREER OF A CAPITALIST. 
 
 an idea of the methods by which knowledge might 
 be acquired. When he was married he could read 
 but very imperfectly ; but his young wife insisted 
 upon his taking a daily newspaper, and then 
 with affectionate firmness required him to read it 
 through each evening. At first there was much 
 that he did not understand, but he learned the art 
 of wise and stimulating inquiry, and so drew from 
 those about him whatever knowledge they pos- 
 sessed. This habit still gives his conversation a 
 remarkable interest and vitality. He appears to 
 have been able to carry unanswered questions in 
 his mind for any length of time, until some new 
 source of information was revealed. 
 
 He was left an orphan when about seventeen 
 years of age, and the next year entered upon the 
 life of a man of business. His father had been the 
 proprietor of a country store with a trade of about 
 forty thousand dollars a year. After his death two 
 of his brothers, who settled the affairs of his es- 
 tate, decided to continue the business, admitting 
 their nephew, our young friend, to a partnership 
 with them. He received from the estate of his 
 father about fifteen hundred dollars. The affairs 
 of a country store at that time embraced the sale 
 of everything the people of the region needed for 
 use, and the purchase of everything they wished 
 to sell. There was not yet any separation of the 
 different lines or departments of trade, such as 
 dry goods, groceries, hardware, clothing, millinery, 
 etc., but articles belonging to all these classes, and
 
 THE CAREER OF A CAPITALIST. 143 
 
 many others, were sold at the same place, which 
 also afforded a market for whatever was produced 
 or manufactured in the surrounding countiy. The 
 store was the great vital centre for the life of the 
 region, for the reception and distribution of every- 
 thing. There the farmers bought their plows, 
 harness, shovels, hoes and scythes, hats and shoes 
 (most of their clothing was manufactured at home 
 in those days), and there they sold their wheat and 
 corn, bacon, hay, and other productions of their 
 farms. Thither their wives and daughters car- 
 ried young fowls, eggs and butter, and home-made 
 cloth, and took away in return calicoes, muslin de 
 laines, bonnets, ribbons, combs, and needles. Here 
 the wood-cutters bought their axes ; the handles 
 were generally made by somebody possessing un- 
 common dexterity in this particular manufacture, 
 and brought to the store for sale. (There are 
 very few men who can make a good axe-handle ; 
 not so many, probably, as write poetry for the 
 magazines.) The plans for new undertakings and 
 enterprises were generally discussed and arranged 
 at the store, and it had important relations to the 
 social life of the people. There were opportuni- 
 ties for a genuine and useful education in such a 
 place, and our young Mend entered with hearty 
 interest upon his new course of life. 
 
 He soon came to have a large share in the 
 organization, direction, and management of the 
 business, and in a few years became its real head. 
 He was always a close observer of men, and of the
 
 144 THE CAREER OF A CAPITALIST. 
 
 effect upon them of their circumstances and occu- 
 pation. He early became convinced that the in- 
 terests of a community or country are advanced 
 by increasing the number of employers, of men 
 who direct and pay for the labor of others. He 
 observed that many men lack capacity for the wise 
 direction and organization of their own labor, 
 while they are highly useful and successful when 
 working for a competent employer. Others pos- 
 sess qualities of mind and character which fit them 
 to be leaders or masters of the industry of others. 
 When our friend saw these qualities in the men 
 around him, he felt a strong desire that they 
 should have means and opportunities for their de- 
 velopment and practical application in some suit- 
 able sphere of action. As his business increased 
 and brought him facilities for extending it in new 
 directions, he began to confer with some of the 
 young men of the neighborhood in regard to their 
 employment 'and wages. Most of them worked 
 by the day, at cutting and hauling wood, burning 
 charcoal, and similar occupations, but there was 
 not yet in the region any systematic industry 
 which afforded regular or profitable occupation to 
 the people. Men were often idle for weeks to- 
 gether. The country needed men to employ and 
 lead the labor of their neighbors. 
 
 So our friend said one day to a young married 
 man who lived near him, " You are making shoes, 
 I believe ? " 
 
 "Yes, when anybody wants them, and I can 
 get money to buy stock."
 
 THE CAREER OF A CAPITAUST. 145 
 
 " Why don't you open a shop, and hire two or 
 three hands ? There is young so-and-so, who is 
 doing nothing. He can whittle out anything with 
 a jack-knife, and he ought to have something to 
 whittle that will be of use. He would soon learn ; 
 and you could find one or two more." 
 
 " Why, do you think I could get work enough ? " 
 
 " Well, there are a good many people about here 
 that wear shoes. How much are you making 
 now ? " 
 
 " Oh, perhaps a dollar and a half a day, when 
 I have work." 
 
 " Well, there is that little house of mine on the 
 corner. You can have that free of rent, and I 
 will let you have money to buy stock. I will in- 
 sure you your dollar and a half a day ; you shall 
 pay me interest at the legal rate for the money 
 you have from me, and we will divide the profits 
 equally." 
 
 The shoe shop was opened, and was successful. 
 It was enlarged in a year or two, and for many 
 years gave steady and .profitable employment to a 
 considerable number of men. 
 
 By arrangements essentially similar our friend 
 formed partnerships, during the first twenty-five 
 years of his business life, with harness-makers, 
 blacksmiths, wheelwrights, tinsmiths, lumbermen, 
 lime-burners, oystermen, farmers, and manufact- 
 urers. He has had scores of such partnerships 
 with wood-cutters and charcoal burners. In the 
 same way he has supplied means for building and 
 10
 
 146 THE CAREER OF A CAPITALIST. 
 
 operating numerous flouring and saw mills, using 
 both steam and water power. He has owned 
 farms and timber lands in South Carolina, Vir- 
 ginia, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New 
 York, and Ohio, with stores in each region to 
 supply his farmers and the laborers at his mills. 
 Thousands of men have been employed in connec- 
 tion with these enterprises, and hundreds of them 
 enabled to become in their turn employers and or- 
 ganizers of labor. In many instances men have 
 worked for our friend, and with him, during a 
 term longer than that of an average life-time. 
 Almost always the relations of employer and la- 
 borer, and of business partnership, have passed 
 into those of personal friendship ; and when, as 
 has often occurred, men have wished to leave him 
 to go into business for themselves, he has felt a 
 genuine interest in their undertakings, and done 
 what he could to promote their success. Those 
 who have worked for him longest say that he 
 never employs a man merely for what he can get 
 out of him. 
 
 Many years ago he took a young carpenter into 
 partnership, and engaged in ship-building. The 
 oyster fisheries along the coast near him are of 
 great excellence, and furnish employment for 
 thousands of men with their vessels. Of many 
 of these boats, constructed in his ship-yard, our 
 friend retains a share in the ownership, and this 
 relation with the fishermen has promoted stead- 
 iness, industry, and sobriety among them in a
 
 THE CAREER OF A CAPITALIST. 147 
 
 marked degree. The larger vessels, of from eight 
 hundred to a thousand tons burden, built under 
 his supervision, are known in every sea for the 
 superiority of all the materials used in their con- 
 struction, and the careful honesty of the work. 
 Many of these he owns in part. 
 
 The first carts that were ever taken across the 
 mountains from Acapulco to Oaxaca were made 
 in our friend's shops, and sent out to an acquaint- 
 ance who had a building contract in the latter 
 city. They were objects of great interest to the 
 native workmen, who were eager to be permitted 
 to use thein in transporting the stone and other 
 building materials which they had been carrying. 
 A dozen mules were harnessed, and with some dif- 
 ficulty fastened to the " new carriages." When 
 the first cart, drawn by a rather diminutive mule, 
 was brought to the place where it was to be 
 loaded, the laborers swarmed around it, and piled 
 so much stone into the rear of the vehicle that it 
 tipped over backward and lifted the astonished 
 mule into the air, where it hung and struggled 
 until the removal of the stone restored it to its 
 normal position on the ground. 
 
 Some fifteen years ago our friend became desir- 
 ous of finding some means for preserving and 
 utilizing the enormous quantities of fruit pro- 
 duced in the region in which he lives. He erected 
 a large building and put in the necessary machin- 
 ery for canning fruit, and this has ever since, dur- 
 ing the season for the business, afforded employ-
 
 148 THE CAREER OF A CAPITALIST. 
 
 ment to about one hundred women and more 
 than half as many men. The principal products 
 canned are peaches and tomatoes, and of these 
 many millions of pounds have been used, and the 
 goods are known in all the markets of the world. 
 This is an industry which produces and stimulates 
 many others. 
 
 The little straggling hamlet in which the young 
 man began his business life has become a hand- 
 some and important town, with seven or eight 
 thousand inhabitants, most of them operatives 
 employed in manufacturing industries, in the 
 production of glass, iron, cotton and woolen goods, 
 shoes, buttons, chemicals, etc. There is probably 
 not one of these industries which was not in some 
 way aided by our friend in the earlier stages of 
 its growth. For many years there were but few 
 men engaged in business of any kind in the town 
 who had not been employed by him, or associated 
 with him in such relations as I have described. 
 The original character of the site of the town 
 made the construction of suitable streets a matter 
 of some difficulty and of a great deal of labor, 
 and to this object our friend has devoted much 
 time and effort. For such work he has never ac- 
 cepted any compensation, regarding all measures 
 for the improvement of the place as matters of 
 enlightened self-interest for business men rather 
 than of duty. 
 
 The circumstances of most of the population, 
 their employments and general environment, have
 
 THE CAREER OF A CAPITALIST. 149 
 
 been such as favored the development of habits of 
 intemperance. Some of the largest manufactories 
 are closed for two months in summer, and dur- 
 ing this time the men and boys are idle. They 
 have good wages during the remainder of the year, 
 and it is not wonderful that drinking and gam- 
 bling should seem to them only natural amuse- 
 ments and diversions during this long holiday. 
 These industrial and social conditions have given 
 the friends of oi'der, sobriety, and good morals 
 cause for much anxiety, and for constant effort in 
 endeavoring to counteract these unfavorable ten- 
 dencies. The influence of the various churches of 
 the place, Methodist, Presbyterian, and Roman 
 Catholic, has been highly effective among the op- 
 eratives as a means of moral restraint and guid- 
 ance. The public schools of the town have more 
 than average excellence, and the place has one of 
 the best Kindergartens in the country. (It is a 
 real Kindergarten, and not a travesty of F rebel's 
 principles.) There is a valuable public library 
 with several reading-rooms. Temperance socie- 
 ties of various kinds have rendered important as- 
 sistance in the mental and moral education of the 
 workingmen. For several years past there has 
 been but little intoxicating liquor sold in the 
 place. All these agencies for the promotion of 
 the most important ends for which society exists 
 have received assistance, encouragement, and sym- 
 pathy from our friend, and people know before- 
 hand that he may be counted amongst the sup-
 
 150 THE CAREER OF A CAPITALIST. 
 
 porters of any measure likely to advance the in- 
 terests of the community. 
 
 He is the most quiet and unobtrusive of men ; 
 he never makes speeches or addresses public meet- 
 ings, and in arranging matters of business never 
 rambles away from the subject in hand to irrel- 
 evant topics. I think he does not belong to any 
 church, but he understands the value of the church 
 in the community, and has a genuine fraternal es- 
 teem for all who are laboring to overcome evil and 
 promote good- will among men. He is eminently 
 conscientious, gentle, and forbearing, simply and 
 silently religious. In society his manner is marked 
 by a quiet cordial dignity. He is eminently so- 
 cial, and little children, strangers, and diffident 
 people are at ease with him at once. He likes to 
 entertain his friends by giving them the freedom 
 of his house, the use of horses and carriages, and 
 other means of diversion, while he joins them 
 from time to time with apparently equal interest 
 in whatever his guests prefer as the pursuit of the 
 hour. If a new game is introduced for the chil- 
 dren, or young people, he learns it with them, and 
 engages in it with a zest as great as theirs. I 
 think no visitor at his house ever left it without 
 wishing to return. 
 
 He has a cultivated and interesting family. His 
 own experience of the disadvantages resulting 
 from the want of culture in early life has led him 
 to give his children an unusually judicious and 
 practical education. His principal recreation con-
 
 THE CAREER OF A CAPITALIST. 151 
 
 sists in hearing his wife or daughters read, com- 
 monly some of the works of American authors of 
 our own time. (His old friend, the daily news- 
 paper with which he began his education, is still 
 faithfully read, as it has been for all the years 
 from the first.) He enjoys the writings of our 
 principal American poets, likes biography and 
 travels, and has an especial fondness for books 
 that describe clearly the character, resources, and 
 productions of different countries, with the habits 
 and industries of the people, and the particular 
 conditions under which society exists in various 
 parts of the world. His house is frequented by 
 intelligent and cultivated men and women from 
 different parts of the country, and is one of the 
 chief intellectual and social centres of the region 
 where he lives. A score or so of his neighbors 
 have for some years assembled there once a fort- 
 night for the purpose of reading Shakespeare's 
 plays. No one participates with heartier interest 
 than our friend in the work of this little club. He 
 always wishes to know the meaning of what is 
 read, and is not satisfied till he has learned what- 
 ever is attainable about the historical personages 
 or occurrences mentioned in the play. 
 
 He likes to see the best actors occasionally. 
 He unites, in as great degree as any man I have 
 ever known, the wondering, receptive spirit of a 
 child with the critical analysis and judgment of a 
 mature and cultivated intellect. He has a genu- 
 ine enjoyment of good pictures, and prefers small,
 
 152 THE CAREER OF A CAPITALIST. 
 
 quiet landscapes. He is always greatly interested 
 in machinery, and readily understands its con- 
 struction and movements. I have met few persons 
 who saw and comprehended so much as he of the 
 exhibition in Philadelphia in 1876. He has great 
 delight in the miscix>scope and its revelations. He 
 is very fond of flowers, and has always been a 
 close observer of the forms and habits of plants. 
 When some friends were setting out from his 
 house, a few years ago, upon a botanical excursion, 
 he joined them, and on hearing various flowers 
 and plants described was able to tell where they 
 grew twenty-five or thirty years before, though 
 he did not know their names. 
 
 He appears to have no eccentricities. He never 
 uses profane language or ardent spirits. When he 
 was young, rum was sold at every country store, 
 but his father had refused to keep it for several 
 years before his death, and our friend never sold a 
 drop of intoxicating liquor of any kind. He was 
 an earnest anti-slavery man, and ever since the 
 end of the war he has been deeply interested in 
 the development and prosperity of the Southern 
 States of the Union. He is cordially patriotic, 
 and feels much interest in politics, but is not a 
 partisan, and seems able to recognize true worth 
 and excellence in all parties and classes. He has 
 always been solicitous for the diffusion of sound 
 and practical ideas among the laboring people, 
 having comprehended at an early period the truth 
 that the conditions of life and business in this
 
 THE CAREER OF A CAPITALIST. 153 
 
 country, especially those connected with universal 
 suffrage, involve some difficult problems, and some 
 serious disadvantages for those who work for wages. 
 I have here presented as many of the principal 
 facts of this man's life and work as I am able to 
 embody in a paper of no greater length. A mas- 
 ter of fiction could portray an ideal character, and 
 supply more dramatic incidents. This account is 
 merely true. It describes the life of a quiet, hu- 
 mane gentleman, one who has been most useful 
 to his fellows, who has aided in the development 
 of whole regions of our country, and who, I am 
 sure, never knowingly harmed any human being. 
 And yet this man, according to the teaching of 
 those who pretend to be the best friends of the 
 laboring man, is an enemy to society, an oppressor 
 of the poor and of all who toil. He has a beauti- 
 ful home, with pictures, flowers, books, scientific 
 collections and instruments. But it is urged that 
 my friend has no right to these possessions, that 
 they are the evidences and proceeds of injustice, 
 because he is a capitalist, because he does not la- 
 bor with his hands. Yet he has provided and 
 directed remunerative labor for an army of men 
 who had not ability or opportunity to provide 
 it for themselves. He has trained hundreds of 
 these men till they were able in their turn to pro- 
 vide work for others. As I have heard the abuse 
 and execration which unreasoning partisans have 
 heaped upon all capitalists, I have wished to tell 
 the story of some lives that I have known. I am
 
 154 TEE CAREER OF A CAPITALIST. 
 
 well assured that wise teaching the truth re- 
 specting the relations between capital and labor, 
 or rather those between capitalists and laborers, 
 is still as important and necessary as before the 
 recent political defeat of some of the disorganiz- 
 ing elements and tendencies in our society. We 
 shall be exposed to similar dangers and difficulties 
 while so large a proportion of the whole people 
 retain the qualities of mind and thought which 
 are the real source of our perils. We cannot ex- 
 pect speedily to suppress or root out these evils ; 
 we can only hope to maintain our ground against 
 them, and gradually to expel them by wise vigi- 
 lance and by unhesitating acceptance of the re- 
 sponsibility of propagating knowledge and true 
 culture. 
 
 My friend has always clearly understood the 
 necessity of honestly paying the debts of the na- 
 tion which were incurred during the war, and he 
 thinks that if our people could have been wise 
 enough to be strictly honest in matters of national 
 finance and currency, we might have escaped 
 something of the paralysis of business and indus- 
 try from which we have recently suffered. He 
 laments the madness of the workingmen in de- 
 manding irredeemable paper money, but thinks 
 that the cultivated people and business men of the 
 nation should understand that, if there is great 
 disturbance and depression of industry in the 
 country, and particularly if many people are for 
 some time out of employment, some such popular
 
 THE CAREER OF A CAPITALIST. 155 
 
 madness is almost certain to arise. He believes 
 there may still be danger and difficulty before us 
 in matters of national finance, on account of the 
 clumsy and unnecessary silver legislation, and 
 fears that the fluctuating value of silver may be 
 an embarrassing element in the problem of re- 
 sumption of specie payments. I find that most 
 of the business men of my acquaintance distrust 
 the effect of a double standard of value, and be- 
 lieve the present experiment of a bi-metallic cur- 
 rency can end only in disaster ; but they fancy 
 it is inevitable that we shall try many foolish ex- 
 periments, and that we may as well try this one 
 now. My friend thinks the American people will 
 be obliged to learn that the yard-stick has been 
 made for some time, and its length established, 
 and that for all honest men it is thirty-six inches 
 long ; that there are one hundred cents in a real 
 dollar; and that the hope even of pecuniary gain 
 from schemes of readjustment, repudiation, and 
 debasing the currency is an illusion. All en- 
 deavors to obtain something for nothing he regards 
 as stupid and foolish ; fairness and integrity being 
 in his estimation a kind of capital without which 
 success in business is impossible. This gentleman 
 never engages in electioneering, and does not pur- 
 posely influence those who are in his employ ; but 
 the facts of his life, such as I have here described, 
 have profoundly impressed many of the working 
 people about him, and the intellectual conditions 
 of the region where he lives are in consequence
 
 156 THE CAREER OF A CAPITALIST. 
 
 comparatively unfavorable for the development of 
 hostility to capitalists, although the vvorkingmen 
 constitute so large a proportion of the population. 
 It might be instructive to compare this life with 
 the course of any one of the politicians who de- 
 nounce capitalists with such vehement bitterness. 
 I asked ruy friend not long ago if he had not lost 
 much money by trusting dishonest or incompetent 
 men. He replied that he had had such losses, 
 adding, " But every kind of business has its risks, 
 and I should probably have had greater losses if 
 I bad invested in stocks or mortgages in the usual 
 way." He said that such a course would have 
 given him far less labor, care, and anxiety than 
 the one he has followed. In times of great de- 
 pression he has felt burdened and anxious on ac- 
 count of the difficulty of providing labor for his 
 people ; and has often kept them employed for a 
 long time when nothing could be sold for as much 
 as it cost. He holds that when laborers are idle, 
 capital always declines in value. He thinks the 
 first step toward improvement in times of great 
 depression is for workmen to live on as little as 
 possible, and for capitalists to employ as much la- 
 bor as they can. Let the laborers live savingly, 
 and the capitalists be content with small profits.
 
 STUDY OF A NEW ENGLAND FACTORY 
 TOWN. 
 
 THE place has about fifty thousand inhabitants. 
 It has one great industrial occupation, the making 
 of cotton cloth of various kinds. There are more 
 than forty mills used for this manufacture, 
 great buildings, some of them hundreds of feet 
 in length, and six stories high ; most of them are 
 of granite, but a few are of brick. They do not 
 occupy any particular region in the city, but are 
 found in nearly every part of it, in the central 
 squares and principal business streets, and even in 
 those in which the most substantial and elegant 
 dwellings are situated, as well as in the poorer 
 quarters and in the suburbs. 
 
 I visited the place recently, and saw something 
 of the life of the operatives and of other portions 
 of the population. Various friends had offered 
 me letters of introduction to prominent citizens 
 and owners of the mills ; but I have long been 
 aware that when one wishes to see things directly, 
 and for himself, introductions are not always help- 
 ful. They are apt to commit an observer to cer- 
 tain lines and methods of investigation, and they 
 necessitate the adoption, at the outset, of some 
 plan of operations; and this, whether it is ad-
 
 158 STUDY OF A 
 
 hered to or discarded," is commonly a disadvan- 
 tage. A man who is capable of making valuable 
 observations of the life around him can usually 
 obtain access to all those persons who possess 
 knowledge or information which is essential to his 
 objects ; and he can do this most successfully by 
 making his plans as he goes on, that is, by leav- 
 ing himself free to adapt his methods, at every 
 step, to circumstances and conditions which could 
 not possibly be foreseen. 
 
 I employed one day in leisurely sauntering 
 about the city, in the course of which I saw 
 nearly all its streets and by-ways, its nooks and 
 out-of-the-way corners. During the day the noise 
 of the machinery of the mills fills the air of the 
 whole city with a muffled humming sound, which 
 is not unmusical, but rather soft and dreamy ; in- 
 side of the mills the shrill buzz and clatter are 
 at first rather painful to unaccustomed ears. In 
 the evening I saw the mill people on their way 
 to their homes. When I walked in the direction 
 opposite to theirs, so as to meet them and see 
 their faces, I noted that they all regarded me with 
 alert, searching glances, and they were plainly 
 at once aware that I was a stranger. A group 
 of children came first, laughing and chattering. 
 They were about twelve or fourteen years old. 
 One of the girls gave me a critical look, and re- 
 marked to her companions, " He 's a detective." I 
 heard that exclamation many times during the 
 first few days of my sojourn, but the operatives
 
 NEW ENGLAND FACTORY TOWN. 159 
 
 soon recognized me everywhere. I often walked 
 in the same 'direction with them, going a little 
 more slowly than they, so as to hear their talk. 
 It did not differ greatly from that of young peo- 
 ple of about the same age of any class with which 
 I am acquainted : "what Jane said about you ; " 
 " what Ned told Delia Smith ; " and animated 
 remarks about the " new things " which some of 
 the girls had bought lately, with grave talk of the 
 sickness of some of their companions ; all this 
 accompanied and interrupted by frequent careless, 
 noisy laughter. It was rather pleasant and en- 
 couraging. The young people of the mills ap- 
 peared to be very much like other young people 
 when in a crowd together in the street. 
 
 When I inquired at the hotels whether one 
 could see the mills, the answer was, " Yes, most 
 of them ; but at a few of the largest the rules for- 
 bid the admission of visitors. The officers are 
 very strict, and if you are a stranger you cannot 
 go in." In the shops and business houses which 
 various errands led me to visit, and in which I 
 always met gentlemen who were ready to talk 
 about the trade and manufactures of their city, 
 this information about the mills from which vis- 
 itors were excluded was often repeated, and the 
 same mills were always named. I therefore de- 
 cided to begin by looking through the places 
 which were thus reported to be difficult of access. 
 I encountered no obstacle anywhere that was not 
 easily surmounted. I passed through more than
 
 160 STUDY OF A 
 
 half a dozen of the largest mills, inspecting all 
 the processes and details of the manufacture, from 
 the boiler room in the cellar, where the smooth, 
 resistless swing of the gigantic Corliss engines 
 made one feel as if he were watching the. motion 
 of a planet in its path, to the enormous tubs of 
 sizing, high up in the attic. 
 
 In all the mills which I visited, far more than 
 half the operatives were girls and women. I saw 
 very few children who appeared to be under 
 twelve years of age, though I heard much criti- 
 cism, among some of my new acquaintances in 
 the city, of the cruelty of the laws and usages re- 
 lating to the employment of young children in the 
 mills. As to nationality or descent, the English, 
 Scotch, and Irish operatives, with their children 
 born here, constitute the most numerous classes, 
 but there are also many French Canadians. I 
 had often heard and read the assertion that very 
 few Americans, or, more strictly, descendants of 
 American families, now work in the mills.. But I 
 found among the operatives a considerable pro- 
 portion of young women who are the children of 
 families that have lived in this country for one 
 hundred and fifty or two hundred years, and I 
 have since learned that the same thing is true of 
 several other factory towns. 
 
 All the mill people looked as if they had enough 
 to eat, but some of them showed in their faces in- 
 dications of the effects of poor cookery. Some 
 had the peculiar look which comes from living in
 
 NEW ENGLAND FACTORY TOWN. 161 
 
 impure air, and this result is produced chiefly, as 
 I was convinced by what I saw in the mills and 
 in the homes of the people, by the foulness of the 
 air in the rooms in which the operatives eat and 
 sleep. In many, probably in most, of their homes 
 the cooking is done in the *' sitting-room ; " that 
 is, the apartment in which the members of the 
 family pass the evening together until bed-time. 
 The cost of fuel is one of the principal expendi- 
 tures and burdens of the household, and economy 
 in its use is one of the most important means of 
 saving ; so the room is kept closely shut to pre- 
 vent the escape of heat and the entrance of cold 
 air from the outside. The impurity of the air in 
 these rooms during cold weather is very great, and 
 this is one of the most unwholesome features of 
 the life of the operatives. 
 
 The cotton is brought to the mills in the bale, 
 " just as it comes from the fields in Indiana, or 
 wherever it grows," as an obliging overseer in 
 one of the largest mills explained to me, and all 
 the processes of picking, cleaning, carding, spin- 
 ning, weaving, dressing, and finishing are per- 
 formed in the same building. Nearly all this 
 work is done by machinery, and the labor of the 
 operatives consists almost entirely in attendance 
 upon the machinery. There are a few things, 
 such as the drawing of the threads of the warp 
 through the " harness," which are done with the 
 fingers, but the wonderful capabilities of the ma- 
 chines leave very few things to be done by human 
 11
 
 162 STUDY OF A 
 
 hands. Many of the looms are so constructed 
 that they stop at once if a thread breaks, and do 
 not go on till it is mended. Each girl tends four, 
 five, or six looms. A few of the most skillful can 
 manage eight looms each, as many as the best 
 hands among the men. 
 
 There is not much work that requires great 
 muscular strength or exertion, not much lifting or 
 handling heavy materials or articles of any kind. 
 Most of it requires alertness and exactness of at- 
 tention, the concentration of the faculties and their 
 constant application to the processes going on un- 
 der one's hand, rather than severe muscular effort. 
 Such work usually exhausts the nervous vitality 
 quite as rapidly as many occupations which ap- 
 pear to be more difficult and toilsome. Most of 
 the operatives are necessarily on their feet nearly 
 all the time, and this feature of their work has an 
 unfavorable effect upon the health of the women 
 and girls. They all appear to be tired at the end 
 of their day's toil, though I saw no signs of ex- 
 treme weariness or exhaustion. It is very hard 
 for any one who is not well, or who is " nervous " 
 and sensitive. The noise of the machinery then 
 becomes insufferably irritating and torturing. 
 
 No part of the work in the mills appeared to 
 me so severe, or so unwholesome, for girls and 
 women as is the toil of those who run sewing-ma- 
 chines in city shops ; yet it is work which requires 
 good health and high average vitality. The high 
 temperature which is necessary for some of the
 
 NEW ENGLAND FACTORY TOWN. 163 
 
 processes of cotton manufacture renders the opera- 
 tives specially liable, during the winter, to injury 
 by taking cold when they pass into the open air, 
 unless they use some precautions against it by 
 putting on extra clothing when they leave the 
 mills. But I observed that most of them were 
 careless in this respect, though not more so, prob- 
 ably, than is usual among the pupils of the high- 
 schools in every part of our country. I noted con- 
 siderable coughing, and some complained of sore 
 throats. In several departments of a mill the air 
 is always filled by fine flying fibres and particles of 
 cotton. Some of these are drawn into the lungs, 
 and this produces injurious effects. When the 
 lungs are at all sensitive or inclined to disease, this 
 dust increases the irritation. Even for persons 
 who are strong and well it is of course unwhole- 
 some, and it probably causes greater injury to 
 health than any other feature or condition of mill 
 work. 
 
 A group or company of the young people of the 
 mills, when approached by a stranger, always ex- 
 hibits the peculiar instinctive shrinking and draw- 
 ing together for self-defense which is shown by 
 wild animals in similar circumstances. In the 
 mill people it is a feeling of distrust, suspicion, 
 and hostility regarding all who do not belong to 
 their class. The first question asked of a stranger 
 is always, " Do you wish to get work in the 
 mill ? " Of course I was simply a stranger, who 
 wished to see the mills and the work which was
 
 164 STUDY OF A 
 
 done in them. During the hour at noon, when 
 the machinery is at rest, is a favorable time for 
 forming some acquaintance with the operatives. 
 Many of them have brought their dinner with 
 them, and they eat it sitting on the floor, or stand- 
 ing in groups together. One scarcely knows when 
 or how the eating is done in some of these little 
 companies, for the talk and chatter and laughter 
 are incessant. The presence of a stranger is at 
 first a restraint, and excites their caution when he 
 approaches or addresses them. Unless a man 
 knows how to penetrate and disarm this reserve, 
 he will learn little from them of their thought or 
 life. They soon became merry and communica- 
 tive with me. Some of the younger girls were 
 then inclined to be forward and impudent, but 
 they were checked and controlled by the older 
 ones. 
 
 The girls and young women in the mills " learn 
 to take care of themselves," to use a phrase which 
 one often hears among them ; that is, they are not 
 at all ignorant of evil or vice. They know what 
 are the dangers that beset and threaten young 
 girls in their circumstances, among men many of 
 whom are coarse and sensual. In such conditions 
 the delicacy and modesty of thought, deportment, 
 and speech which are so precious and lovely in the 
 character of young women are almost impossible, 
 and we have no right to require or expect them. 
 But these girls are not so liable to be led into act- 
 ual vice or immorality as are some of the pupils in
 
 NEW ENGLAND FACTORY TOWN. 165 
 
 our Sunday-schools, whose very ignorance of evil, 
 and of the need of avoiding or resisting it, some- 
 times exposes them to temptation unwarned and 
 unprepared. The mill girls are familiar with 
 coarse and vile language, and can hear it una- 
 bashed and without blushing; they can answer 
 in like terms. But these facts are not, in their 
 case, marks of extreme depravity or immorality. 
 They afford no evidence of unchastity. I do not 
 believe that this vice prevails to any considerable 
 extent among the young women of the mills. 
 Some of the older women, especially among the 
 English and Irish, have not always been successful 
 in self-protection, or in repelling temptation, as 
 one can plainly see. But there is, as I am thor- 
 oughly convinced, far less of sexual vice among 
 the factory operatives than is usually attributed 
 to them. I am certain that working-people in 
 general, of both sexes, are more pure and free 
 from this vice than most moralists and clergymen 
 think them. Their toil represses passion. Their 
 time is filled by their regular occupations, and they 
 have little leisure for vicious thoughts, for nourish- 
 ing mischievous and profligate desires. It is among 
 idle men and women that this evil finds most of 
 its recruits. No system of morals or of religious 
 culture has yet been devised which provides any 
 effective safeguard against licentiousness for those 
 who are exempt from toil. 
 
 In studying the life of any class of people, an 
 observer soon distinguishes the persons who can
 
 166 STUDY OF A 
 
 be of use to him, who represent or possess some- 
 thing which he wishes to learn or understand. 
 When I had found several men and women who 
 could thus be of service to me, the next step was 
 to visit their homes, which I did upon their invi- 
 tation. I saw their food and their methods of pre- 
 paring it, examined the books and papers which 
 they read, and listened to their accounts of their 
 own life and work and experience. 
 
 There are but few " tenement houses " in this 
 place owned by the mill proprietors. Most of the 
 operatives find homes or apartments wherever 
 they prefer, and many of them live in small build- 
 ings where there are only two or three families 
 under the same roof. I think this much better 
 than the system of large tenement houses, unless 
 these could be superior in design and arrangement 
 to the buildings of this class which are ordinarily 
 found in American cities. There are, however, 
 a few large buildings here belonging to the mill 
 owners, and each is occupied by a large number 
 of families. I examined two or three of them, 
 and am compelled to say that their construction 
 is not what it should be. In some cases the cel- 
 lars are not properly secured against the ingress 
 of surface water, and the water-closets are inad- 
 equate and unsuitable. The city government 
 should give this matter immediate attention. The 
 tenants should be required by the proprietors to 
 keep the yards surrounding these houses in a more 
 wholesome and cleanly condition than that in 
 which I found them.
 
 NEW ENGLAND FACTORY TOWN. 167 
 
 The cookery in the homes of the operatives, if 
 judged by what I saw and learned in several fam- 
 ilies, is not usually very good. They fry too much 
 of their food, and many do not know how to ex- 
 tract the nutritive elements from beef-bones by 
 long boiling. They throw out to their dogs what 
 would give them the basis for a valuable and de- 
 licious soup. (The operatives keep a great many 
 dogs, as is the custom among poor people gener- 
 ally, in this country.) If the women had sufficient 
 knowledge in regard to the best methods of pre- 
 paring it, they could have better food and more 
 of it without additional expense. Much good 
 might be done by an arrangement for instructing 
 these women and girls in economical methods of 
 preparing wholesome and appetizing food. Per- 
 haps the good women of the city who possess the 
 advantages of wealth and culture can do some- 
 thing to aid their less fortunate sisters among the 
 operatives in this matter. 
 
 The young people of the mills generally read 
 the story papers, published (most of them) in New 
 York city, and devoted to interminably "contin- 
 ued " narratives, of which there are always three 
 or four in process of publication in each paper. I 
 have read some of these stories. They have usu- 
 ally no very distinct educational quality or ten- 
 dency, good or bad. They are simply stories, 
 vapid, silly, turgid, and incoherent. As the rob- 
 ber-heroes are mostly grand-looking fellows, and 
 all the ladies have white hands and splendid at-
 
 168 STUDY OF A 
 
 tire, it may be that some of the readers find hard 
 work more distasteful because of their acquaint- 
 ance with the gorgeous idlers and thieves, who, in 
 these fictions are always so much more fortunate 
 than the people who are honest and industrious. 
 But usually, as I am convinced by much observa- 
 tion, the only effect of this kind of reading is that 
 it serves " to pass away the time," by supplying 
 a kind of entertainment, a stimulus or opiate for 
 the mind, and that these people resort to it and 
 feel a necessity for it in much the same way that 
 others feel they must have whisky or opium. 
 The reading is a narcotic, but it is less pernicious 
 than those just named. 
 
 Many hundreds of the older operatives, espe- 
 cially foreigners, of two or three nationalities, were 
 reading a paper which is devoted to the liberation 
 of the working-people of America. Its principal 
 literary attraction at this time was a very long 
 serial story of the overthrow of the republic in 
 1880. This is written as if the events which form 
 the subject of the narrative had already occurred. 
 It introduces General Grant as dictator, and de- 
 scribes elaborately the character and effects of the 
 terrible despotism which he establishes, in that 
 year, upon the ruins of popular government. He 
 "suppresses Congress," seizes New York city at 
 the head of an armed force and by the assistance 
 of the capitalists or " money power " of the coun- 
 try, and is about to make himself emperor, when 
 the working-people rise in arms, under the direc-
 
 NEW ENGLAND FACTORY TOWN. 169 
 
 tion of a nameless leader, " a man with the exec- 
 utive intellect of Caesar, Napoleon, and Bismarck, 
 and the lofty impulses of Leonidas, Cincinnatus, 
 and Washington." (To continue the description 
 of this personage, " he was a man of huge bulk 
 and brawn. His head was the size and shape of 
 Daniel Webster's, whom he greatly resembled, 
 except in being of the blonde type. His awful 
 gray eyes had a power in them far beyond that of 
 the orbs of the indolent Webster.") 
 
 The workingmen, soldiers of the new revolu- 
 tion, are instructed by this hero to supply their 
 own needs from the abundant stores of their neigh- 
 bors, giving them receipts in the name of the rev- 
 olution for the property thus forcibly appropriated. 
 They accordingly seize the national banks, and 
 help themselves to as much money as they desire. 
 This story was read with deep interest by many 
 of the older operatives, especially those who were 
 interested in labor reform. The paper containing 
 it prints each week a declaration of principles, 
 which affirms that the government should hold all 
 the land of the nation ; that it should be without 
 price (the free use of as much of it as he can cul- 
 tivate being secured to every man) ; that ground 
 rents of towns and cities should be controlled by 
 government ; that gold and silver should be de- 
 monetized, and that in their stead absolute paper 
 money should be issued by the government ; thal^ 
 interest on money should be forbidden ; that all 
 mines, railroads, and highways should be owned
 
 170 STUDY OF A 
 
 and controlled by the government ; that the gov- 
 ernment ought not to interfere for the collection 
 of debts between individuals, but that the pay- 
 ment of debts should be left entirely to the honor 
 of the debtor. There should be an income tax on 
 all incomes above one thousand dollars, growing 
 heavier for larger sums. Eight hours' labor should 
 be a legal day's work, and the senate of the United 
 States should be abolished. Recently the paper 
 has devoted much space to the advocacy of " the 
 right of -the people to free travel: " the govern- 
 ment should own the railroads, and tax capitalists 
 to obtain means for operating them, and people 
 who do not wish to pay fares should be permitted 
 to ride free. This paper has a large circulation 
 among operatives, miners, and city mechanics, in 
 nearly all parts of the country. It is a large sheet, 
 and is conducted with much ability. It always 
 contains two or three serial stories by popular writ- 
 ers, which are designed to " float " the heavier ar- 
 ticles devoted to the propagation of the doctrines 
 of the agitators, who seek to establish a univer- 
 sal, international sovereignty of workingmen upon 
 principles and methods which contradict and op- 
 pose every essential of civilization. The tone and 
 spirit of the paper are indescribably bitter, and 
 expressive of intense hostility against the possess- 
 ors of property and culture. It represents capi- 
 talists as a class of cruel and inhuman, oppressors, 
 and instructs the working-people that the time is 
 at hand for them to seize the rights of which they
 
 NEW ENGLAND FACTORY TOWN. 171 
 
 have been so long deprived. All its teaching is 
 opposed to the spirit and principle of nationality, 
 and tends, so far as it has any effect, to produce 
 social and political disintegration. 
 
 There is a labor-reform newspaper published in 
 this city of mills, and I had much conversation 
 with the editor. He thinks the mill owners and 
 capitalists of the city ate thoroughly selfish and 
 heartless ; that they have no regard for the inter- 
 ests or welfare of the operatives, and care only to 
 obtain the greatest possible amount of labor from 
 them for the least possible pay. He was engaged, 
 \\licn I saw him, in the promotion of a movement 
 1 laving for its object the reduction of the hours 
 of labor in the mills. The legal day's work is 
 now ten hours, but my friend the editor informed 
 me that the mill agents often disregard the law 
 and work the hands ten and a half, and even 
 eleven hours per day. He said that the largest 
 mill in the city was run nearly seventy hours one 
 week, and that the agent of this mill was " deter- 
 mined to be king of devils." 
 
 I asked the editor what change he regarded as, 
 at present, most important and necessary for the 
 emancipation of labor and the improvement of the 
 condition of the working-people ; and he replied, 
 44 The next great step is the reduction of the hours 
 of labor." 
 
 44 What should be the length of a day's work ? " 
 
 44 We are working now to obtain more stringent 
 legislation against running the mills more than
 
 172 STUDY OF A 
 
 ten hours, but six hours a day would be enough 
 for people to work." 
 
 I asked him if he could give me any informa- 
 tion regarding the amount of deposits by opera- 
 tives in the savings-banks of the city. This is 
 his reply, in a note which he kindly sent me not 
 long ago, and which is now before me : " I have 
 no exact means of stating the precise amount, 
 but it is practically nothing. There is no city 
 where the operatives own fewer bank-books than 
 here. The operatives of this city are very poor 
 indeed, perhaps no place poorer, and the per cent, 
 who own their homes is a great deal smaller. 
 Factory life has almost reached serfdom." 
 
 I thought my friend a well-meaning, sincere 
 man, but extreme in his bitterness against cap- 
 italists. He could give me little information re- 
 garding the most important features of the life of 
 the operatives of his city, but I am grateful to 
 him for the opportunity for acquaintance with his 
 opinions and the aims of his fellow- reformers. 
 
 I am obliged to say that I found few signs of 
 interest among the work people in reforms of any 
 kind. Most of them appeared to be entirely in- 
 different to such matters, and to political subjects 
 in general. But there is a considerable number 
 of men, especially among the spinners, who are 
 discontented under what they deem tyranny and 
 oppression on the part of the mill owners and 
 agents. These operatives have an organization, 
 or society, for the promotion of their aims, and
 
 NEW ENGLAND FACTORY TOWN. 173 
 
 they employ a secretary with a salary sufficient to 
 enable him to devote his time to their interests. 
 I met this secretary, and had a long conversation 
 with him. He is a foreigner, and seemed a very 
 good-natured fellow. He thought that in cases 
 of dissatisfaction on the part of the operatives, 
 the employers were usually ready to hear and con- 
 sider any statement which the working-people 
 might wish to present through a committee of 
 their own choosing. He appeared to regard the 
 owners and agents as reasonable men, who were 
 disposed to deal justly with the laborers ; and I 
 thought that he, more than any other of the re- 
 formers whom I met, understood that both cap- 
 italists and laborers in this country are suffering 
 from the operation of causes which no legislation 
 or reform could at once remove. 
 
 The operatives are paid by the piece, and not 
 by the day or hour ; that is, it is the quantity of 
 goods manufactured, and not the amount of time 
 employed, which determines the amount of wages 
 paid. The reformers complained that when a 
 new mill is opened the agent stimulates the opera- 
 tives to the highest possible performance and pro- 
 duction for the first few days, and then adjusts 
 the wages- rate upon the basis of what the best 
 hands have thus been able to do for a short time. 
 As only a few operatives are capable of such a 
 pace, and even they cannot maintain it perma- 
 nently, the arrangement has the effect of estab- 
 lishing a low rate of wages. (That is, if we rep-
 
 174 STUDY OF A 
 
 resent by one hundred the amount of work per- 
 formed in a day by the best hands when spurred 
 to unusual activity, the average daily performance 
 will not rise above eighty-five or ninety ; but the 
 amount of pay is regulated upon the assumption 
 that the average daily work will reach one hun- 
 dred.) 
 
 The reformers thought the average pay of the 
 operatives of the city, at the time of my visit, was 
 considerably less than one dollar per day for " full 
 hands," that is, for those who can do a full day's 
 work ; but the mill owners and agents assured me 
 that the average pay was above one dollar per 
 day. .1 visited the agents and managers of several 
 of the largest mills, and asked them for their view 
 of the condition of the operatives and of the sit- 
 uation and prospects of the cotton manufacture 
 in the city. They answered my inquiries with 
 ready, quiet courtesy. Here is the substance of 
 the notes which I made as we talked: 
 
 " The women weavers are paid a little more 
 than one dollar per day. Any boy of thirteen or 
 fourteen years old can make two dollars and a 
 half per week. Operatives pay for rent, for four 
 rooms, from three and a half dollars to six dol- 
 lars per month. The owners and managers are 
 satisfied with the ten-hour law, and do not think 
 any additional legislation necessary (in this State) 
 for the proper regulation of the relations between 
 capital and labor, or the working-people and their 
 employers. We prefer ten hours per day, but as
 
 NEW ENGLAND FACTORY TOWN. 175 
 
 the machinery is run by steam-power we have to 
 start it a little before the hour, tind some of the 
 hands always go to work at once, in order to add 
 a little to the day's production, and so to their 
 wages. At present rates of pay, the average op- 
 eratives can save something from their wages. 
 If we compare the cost of living and wages of the 
 times before the war, say in 1860, with the cost 
 of living and wages now, we shall find that op- 
 eratives are better paid now than they were then. 
 All of us, operatives and employers, have lived 
 more extravagantly since the war than ever be- 
 fore. All wars make waste, and we are all of us 
 suffering from the consequences of the waste 
 caused by our civil war, and especially by the 
 unwise expenditure of money since 1865. When 
 wages were very high, a few years ago, the oper- 
 atives wasted nearly all that they received. Few 
 of them saved anything. We must all learn and 
 practice economy. Many people who are regarded 
 as being rich are living more carefully and eco- 
 nomically than most of the working-people, be- 
 cause they have more foresight and a clearer un- 
 derstanding of the absolute necessity of keeping 
 their expenditures within their income. 
 
 " The corporations do not own one fourth of 
 the tenements or dwellings occupied by the op- 
 eratives. It is for the interest of the capitalists 
 that the operatives should own the houses they 
 live in, and that as many as possible should have 
 homes of their own. The capitalists and mill
 
 176 STUDY OF A 
 
 owners of the city all wish the operatives to buy 
 land and build houses, and are always ready to 
 sell them land at low rates, and to allow as much 
 time for the payment as the purchasers desire. 
 Many of the operatives in the largest mill, and 
 some in all of them, have thus come into posses- 
 sion of comfortable homes. A man and his wife 
 came into one of the mills, a few years ago, from 
 a manufacturing town in England. They were 
 then about fifty years old, and had never been 
 able to have meat on their table except when now 
 and then the man caught a hare. They were 
 industrious and economical, saved money, and 
 bought a piece of ground. A year or two ago 
 they built a four-tenement house (a house with 
 suites of rooms for four families). They occupy 
 one and let the three others to tenants, and are 
 living in comfort and happiness. 
 
 " For several years the mills have been run in 
 the interest of the operatives. Probably not more 
 than one fourth of the mills in the city can pay 
 any dividends during the current year. The capi- 
 tal invested in the mills amounts to nearly thirty 
 millions of dollars ; and for several years the 
 profits upon these investments have not equaled 
 one half of the lowest rates of interest paid by 
 the savings-banks of the country. If the ideas 
 or principles of the trades-unions could be carried 
 out, half the mills would be bankrupt in ten years. 
 The intelligence of the laboring people is increas- 
 ing ; we hope so, at any rate. A few wrong-
 
 NEW ENGLAND FACTORY TOWN. 177 
 
 headed and impracticable men wish to make mis- 
 chief. In all cases of dissatisfaction on the part 
 of operatives if they appoint a committee to meet 
 the managers, everything can be amicably ar- 
 ranged ; but a few agitators do whatever they can 
 to produce discontent among the working-people, 
 and to disturb the relations between them and 
 their employers. One of the labor reformers 
 bought a share or twp of the stock of one of the 
 largest mills, in order to gain admission to the 
 meetings of the stockholders. Then he constantly 
 reported the proceedings of these meetings to the 
 trades-union of which he was a member, and used 
 the knowledge he had obtained relative to the 
 affairs of the mill corporation as a basis for per- 
 petual complaint and agitation among the opera- 
 tives." 
 
 The capitalists and mill owners of the city with 
 whom I conversed attributed the prevailing de- 
 pression of business and industry in large meas- 
 ure to the waste of capital necessarily produced 
 by our civil war, and in still greater degree to the 
 extravagance of expenditure which was so gen- 
 eral among our people a few years ago. They 
 thought that the principal means of recovery must 
 be economy and wisdom in expenditure ; that cap- 
 italists and employers have come to understand 
 this necessity more fully than the operatives do, 
 as a class ; and that those who belong to the cap- 
 italist class are at present really more saving and 
 12
 
 178 STUDY OF A 
 
 economical in their methods of living than the 
 operatives. 
 
 I was greatly interested in learning about the 
 amusements or diversions of the mill people. My 
 first step was to ask a great many of the young 
 women what they did in the evening, after work- 
 ing hours were over. The French Canadian girls, 
 who are Catholics, nearly all replied, " We stay 
 at home. We have to sew, and mend our clothes, 
 and wash them. We do not know anybody, and 
 so we have no place to go in the evening." At 
 times the answer was, " My mother " or " my sis- 
 ter will not let me go out." Most of the other 
 young women said, " Oh, we go out with our fel- 
 lers, and with some of the other girls." " And 
 where do you go ? " " Oh, along the streets, down 
 town ; to the post-office, or the candy-store, if 
 the boys will shout." " If they will shout, what 
 is that?" "Oh, don't you know? Why, that 
 means if they will treat, if they will buy some 
 candy for us." " And do you drink something, 
 too ? " To this the younger women always an- 
 swered, "No, we don't drink anything, unless it's 
 soda-water, sometimes, in warm weather." But 
 they usually pointed to some older companion, 
 and said, " She drinks, she drinks beer." Then 
 the woman thus spoken of would laugh, and toss 
 her head, and say, " Ain't you goin' to shout ? " 
 And when I met the same group in the street in 
 the evening, the question would be repeated, with 
 a smile of recognition.
 
 NEW ENGLAND FACTORY TOWN. 179 
 
 I do not think these girls and younger women 
 have usually any habitual amusement, except this 
 walking out with their friends which I have just 
 mentioned. Once or twice during the winter 
 many of them go to a ball. To go more fre- 
 quently would be regarded by their own class as 
 an extravagance, as an indication of unsteadiness 
 and a tendency to dissipation. I found many 
 young people in the mills who " belonged," as 
 they said, to the Methodist church, and some who 
 were Baptists. Probably there were, among the 
 operatives, members of other religious societies, 
 but I did not happen to meet them. 
 
 The young people whom I have thus far been 
 describing appeared to be rather steady and well- 
 behaved. They looked and acted as if they kept 
 good hours, and had no marks of anything wild 
 or irregular about them. But I saw others, both 
 young men and women, whom I knew at once to 
 be of a different type. Every class, every type 
 of character, has a rhythm of its own, which runs 
 through all bodily movements, through the tones 
 of the voice ; which is accented in glances and 
 changes of expression, and is revealed in all spon- 
 taneous mental action. I knew that some of these 
 young people would have other amusements than 
 those I have described. I did not think it wise 
 to ask any of them how they passed their even- 
 ings. I thought there might be better ways of 
 acquiring this knowledge. 
 
 I had observed in various parts of the city such
 
 180 STUDY OF A 
 
 signs as " Harmony Hall," " The Avon Arras," 
 "St. George's Hall," etc. I sauntered into one 
 of these places, one evening, about nine o'clock. 
 It was on the second floor, and was reached by 
 an open stair-way running up from the street. I 
 found a hall about fifty feet long and twenty-five 
 wide. At one end was a bar for the sale of liq- 
 uors, and at the other a curtained recess and a 
 small stage or platform elevated two or three steps 
 from the floor. There were about fifty persons pres- 
 ent, grouped around eight or ten tables. About 
 one fourth of them were young women. Some 
 of the young men were smoking. There were 
 glasses on the tables, and some of the young peo- 
 ple were drinking beer. As I went up the stairs, 
 I heard the clang of a piano much out of tune and 
 the clapping of hands, and a young man was just 
 descending from the stage, while he smiled and 
 bowed in acknowledgment of the applause. He 
 sat down with one of the groups nearest the stage, 
 and some one at the table called for " four beers." 
 The four glasses were taken away by a pleasant- 
 looking English girl, and brought back filled. 
 There were similar requests from various parts of 
 the room, and after she had responded to them 
 the young waitress approached the place where I 
 sat alone, and civilly inquired, " Is there anything 
 you wish for ? " I gave her an order that would 
 bring her back to my table now and then. 
 
 When most of the glasses had been emptied 
 once or twice, some one said, quietly, "Mr. Lee
 
 NEW ENGLAND FACTORY TOWN. 181 
 
 will oblige," and there was a general clapping of 
 hands. A young Englishman ascended the stage, 
 and sang, in tolerable accord with the weary, pro- 
 testing piano, a melancholy song about a sailor 
 lover who sailed away from his mistress and never 
 returned. Both hearts were true : one lies " in 
 his long, last sleep, a thousand fathoms deep, 
 where the wild monsoons do sweep " forever above 
 his rest ; the other " watched her life away, look- 
 ing seaward o'er the bay," from a New England 
 hill-top, and hoping to the end for one who came 
 no more. At the close there was more applause 
 and more beer, and for some time busy, chatter- 
 ing talk. There was nothing loud or boisterous. 
 One of the girls, who was a little tipsy, came 
 across the room, in a rather demonstrative way, 
 and asked me if I was not " going to shout ; " but 
 a young man at the table she had left reproved 
 her sharply, and one of the young women from 
 the same company came over and led her back to 
 her place. 
 
 By this time I had noted most of those present 
 as persons whom I had met before, in the mills 
 and on the streets. They were nearly all opera- 
 tives, or had at some time belonged to that class. 
 But I observed at one of the tables, with half a 
 dozen young men and women around him, a 
 young colored man whom I had never seen until 
 now. He was more silent than any other member 
 of the company, but was evidently the object of 
 general attention and respect. He was the only
 
 182 STUDY OF A 
 
 person of his color in the hall, but was plainly 
 as welcome there as any one. He seemed ob- 
 viously superior to his neighbors, and I was in- 
 terested at once, and felt that I must know some- 
 thing about him. Presently there was another 
 invitation to the stage, and when the young col- 
 ored man rose to comply with it there was un- 
 usually hearty applause. He sang one song after 
 another till he seemed tired, but the audience was 
 still impatient for more. The songs were of many 
 kinds, comic, sentimental, pathetic, and silly. One 
 had these stanzas : 
 
 '' Sampson was a strong man, 
 lie was not counted lazy; 
 He took the jaw-bone of a shark 
 And slewed the gates of Gazy. 
 
 "It rained forty days and forty nights 
 
 Exactly by the countin', 
 And landed Noah and his ark 
 On the Alleghany mountain." 
 
 When he sang " I got a mammy in the promised 
 laud," with 'a strange, wailing refrain, the English 
 waiter-girl, who was sitting at my table, wiped 
 her eyes with her apron, and everybody was very 
 quiet. He sang and acted with a kind of sup- 
 pressed intensity of manner and expression, and 
 I thought that to him the dusty hall and its some- 
 what squalid appointments had given plaoe to 
 a grand theatre, thronged by an admiring, ap- 
 plauding audience. He seemed rapt and inspired. 
 His face was black, and the features African in 
 type, but not at all repulsive or unpleasant. When
 
 NEW ENGLAND FACTORY TOWN. 183 
 
 he left the stage, I sent the waiter-girl to tell him 
 I wished to see him. He came down the hall 
 with a dignified courtesy of manner ; we were in- 
 troduced, and had a little conversation. I found 
 him very intelligent. He talked well, but quietly 
 and deliberately. His speech was that of culti- 
 vated New England people, and had none of the 
 peculiarities which usually mark the language 
 and utterance of colored persons. 
 
 It would not do to show too much curiosity or 
 interest there, as this was my first visit to the 
 hall ; but I arranged to meet my colored friend 
 next day, and took my leave, assured of a wel- 
 come there whenever I might return. I visited 
 half a dozen similar places before midnight. They 
 were all much alike. I spent several hours, at 
 various times, in these music halls, calling some- 
 times in the afternoon, because the attendants had 
 more time then than in the evening. Some of 
 them had stories to tell which I wished to hear, 
 but I had to wait till I had established such re- 
 lations between us as would inspire them with 
 the willingness to talk to me. 
 
 All the attendants at these places had worked 
 in the mills. The young man who plays the piano 
 is usually paid four or five dollars per week, be- 
 sides his board. The young men who sing receive 
 one dollar per night, but most of them board 
 themselves. The real business at all these places 
 is the sale of liquor. They all keep cigars, and 
 most of them have pies and a few other articles
 
 184 STUDY OF A 
 
 of food, but the profits come from the drinking. 
 The piano, the singing, and recitations attract and 
 entertain visitors. These resorts are sustained al- 
 most entirely by the operatives, besides a great 
 many other places where there is no music or en- 
 tertainment of any kind, except the drink. At 
 the city clerk's office I learned from the official 
 records that there are in the city two hundred 
 and fifty-seven houses licensed to sell liquors, and 
 many of the leading citizens expressed the opin- 
 ion that the unlicensed drinking places (where 
 liquor is sold unlawfully) were at least equal in 
 number. Last year there were 5,400 voters in the 
 city ; so there was a licensed drinking saloon for 
 every twenty-one voters. The city's revenue from 
 these licenses last year was $38,782. This large 
 sum, and a great deal besides, the liquor dealers 
 received from the working-people, a very large 
 proportion of it from the mill hands. At one of 
 these music halls the woman in charge informed 
 me that " the expenses of the establishment " 
 averaged two hundred dollars per month, and I 
 visited several places which did a much larger 
 business than this one. 
 
 The editor of the labor-reform newspaper told 
 me that the most usual course for a man who for 
 any reason falls out of the 'ranks of mill workers 
 (if he loses his place by sickness, or is discharged) 
 is the opening of a liquor saloon or drinking place. 
 He takes up this business for a living and rarely 
 quits it for any other occupation. At first, he
 
 NEW ENGLAND FACTORY TOWN. 185 
 
 buys a very small stock, a keg of beer, or a 
 few gallons of low-grade whisky. He hires a lit- 
 tle corneF or closet in some shop or basement, or 
 he begins in his own cellar, and is soon able to lay 
 in a larger and more varied supply. After much 
 observation and study of the subject in most of 
 the States of our country, I believe there is no 
 other kind of business or employment which can 
 be entered upon or engaged in with so little capi- 
 tal, or which will yield so large a return in propor- 
 tion to the amount invested. There is greater 
 profit and less risk of loss than in any other occu- 
 pation which is open to so many people. Its prin- 
 cipal support comes from the classes engaged in 
 manual labor. Many men will buy intoxicating 
 liquors when they and their families are suffering 
 for food. Whatever degree of poverty may pre- 
 vail among the working-people, those who sell 
 liquor to them still find the business profitable. 
 The great causes of the drinking habit among the 
 working-people are poor cookery, living in impure 
 air, and the lack of any dramatic entertainment 
 or amusement for their evenings or times of lei- 
 sure. 
 
 I met the young colored man several times, and 
 found him a person to give one a sad kind of in- 
 terest in him. He was just then doing more to 
 amuse and entertain the mill people than any one 
 else in the city, so I gave a little time to conver- 
 sation with him. I like average and ordinary 
 men and women best, and have not commonly
 
 186 STUDY OF A 
 
 found what is unusual or extraordinary in human 
 life or character best worth study or acquaint- 
 ance. But this man was not precisely what I 
 was looking for. On one occasion I asked him 
 who was the author of a song he had just sung. 
 Looking at me keenly, he asked, " Do you like 
 it ? " " Yes," I said ; " it is simple and tender 
 and natural." " Well," he replied, " it is mine, 
 such as it is." " Do you mean that you wrote 
 the words ? " " Yes, the words and the music." 
 " Have you written others ? " " Oh, yes ; I have 
 quite an income from my songs." " Where are 
 they published ? " He gave me the name of a 
 well-known music-publishing house in Boston, and 
 when I came home I ordered specimens of my 
 friend's compositions. They were sent to me, and 
 I found everything as he had told me. 
 
 I asked him if he had been singing at these 
 places in the city very long. "Nearly a year," he 
 replied ; and then he told me that his business was 
 negro minstrelsy and theatricals. He had traveled 
 with the principal companies in this country, and 
 had a permanent engagement at a good salary. 
 But about a year ago his mother died. . He was 
 greatly attached to her, was with her in her last 
 illness, and was " too heart-broken to be making 
 money. I did not feel like acting, and thought it 
 would show more respect to my mother, if she 
 knows about it, if I did not appear in public for a 
 year. I sing a little in this private way to accom- 
 modate my friends here, and because it is not good
 
 NEW ENGLAND FACTORY TOWN. 187 
 
 to be doing nothing." He acknowledged that he 
 drank too much, and that his life was not what it 
 should be. I asked him if anybody had ever en- 
 couraged him to cultivate his mind and make a 
 man of himself. " No," said he ; " the only en- 
 couragement anybody ever gave me -was, ' Bill, go 
 another dollar on this ! " But many people would 
 probably find this man's story more interesting if 
 it were not true. 
 
 At the principal hotel I met many salesmen and 
 book-keepers from the shops and stores of the 
 city, and when there was opportunity I sometimes 
 made inquiries regarding the mill people, their 
 character and ways of living. These gentlemen 
 always appeared to be surprised that I should be 
 interested about the operatives, or suppose there 
 was anything in their life that was worthy of 
 attention. At one time there was considerable 
 excitement among my friends at the hotel, on ac- 
 count of the announcement that a certain " cele- 
 brated star troupe " of actors would appear " for 
 one night only " at the Academy of Music. It 
 was to be a " variety entertainment," to comprise 
 a play in two acts, songs, dances, a trapeze per- 
 formance, etc., all of the very highest charac- 
 ter. My companions at the table courteously ad- 
 vised me to go. It would be a good opportunity 
 to see the people of the city, as the attendance 
 would be very large. " Will the mill people be 
 there ? " I inquired. " Oh, no [with impa- 
 tience] ; they are not capable of appreciating any-
 
 188 STUDY OF A 
 
 thing of this kind. They have their own low 
 amusements, but this is first-class:" I went. The 
 house was filled with well-dressed people of both 
 sexes. The feature of the entertainment which 
 was most to the mind of the audience was a song. 
 A rather pretty girl came out in spangled tights, 
 and sang half a dozen stanzas with this refrain : 
 
 " So, boys, keep away from the girls, I say, 
 
 And give them plenty of room ; 
 For when you are wed they will bang till you 're dead 
 With the bald-headed end of a broom." 
 
 This was " received with great enthusiasm," as 
 the play-bills said it would be, and was encored 
 again and again. I looked around over the ap- 
 plauding multitude ; the mill people were not 
 there. 
 
 The mills were running on full time, and were 
 worked to their utmost capacity, with all the 
 hands the machinery would employ. They re- 
 quire about fifteen thousand hands. But there 
 were, as I judged from all I could learn about the 
 matter, between fifteen hundred and two thousand 
 persons of the operative class in the city in excess 
 of the number which the mills could employ. 
 These were destitute of work, except when, now 
 and then, the temporary illness of some hand left 
 a place vacant, and so gave the opportunity of 
 work to one of these superfluous laborers for a 
 day or two. There was much hardship among 
 these people. Many had families, and their chil- 
 dren suffered for food. In some of the worst
 
 NEW ENGLAND FACTORY TOWN. 189 
 
 cases the city gave assistance ; the labor unions 
 sustained others, in part ; and neighborly kind- 
 ness among the operatives was more helpful than 
 either. The labor -reform agitation, in all its 
 stages, from vague discontent to violent denuncia- 
 tion, was reinforced and sustained chiefly by the 
 presence of this unemployed class. Their life 
 was a daily struggle against the inevitable, a 
 long and useless waiting for what could not come. 
 Every morning some hundreds of these seekers 
 after employment presented themselves at the 
 doors of the mills, in the hope, almost always a 
 vain one, that a few of them might be wanted. 
 
 The overseers at the mills kindly allowed per- 
 sons seeking work to put down their names in ap- 
 plication for the opportunity of filling vacancies 
 when they should occur. In visiting one of these 
 unemployed families, I saw a fine-looking, capa- 
 ble young man, who had been idle for months. 
 His name was on the list at one of the principal 
 mills, but there were twenty-eight names before 
 his, and it was not probable that his turn would 
 ever come. This young man bears a well-known 
 name, and his ancestors have lived in the State 
 more than two hundred years. The presence of so 
 large a number of superfluous hands in any place 
 is a matter of grave importance. There were too 
 many laborers there already, but every day there 
 were new arrivals from other manufacturing towns. 
 Some, on learning that the mills were crowded, 
 resumed their quest in new directions. Others
 
 190 STUDY OF A 
 
 had not means to go farther, and remained to 
 swell the number of the unemployed and discon- 
 tented. Is it impossible to devise some plan which 
 would prevent this migration of crowds of labor- 
 ers to places where there is no demand for labor 
 and no prospect of their finding employment ? 
 We already map the course of the winds and the 
 state of the weather for the whole country each 
 day. Would it be much more difficult to map the 
 state of the labor market for the whole country 
 every week or every month, or less valuable in its 
 results? The impotence of society in the presence 
 of such evils is more apparent than real. 
 
 I found several large Catholic temperance socie- 
 ties among the mill people. They were working 
 vigorously and with excellent effect. The Catho- 
 lic Church is doing more than any other, I think, 
 for the moral guidance and improvement of the 
 operatives. The Methodist Church comes next, 
 and its work is important and salutary. I saw 
 evidences, now and then, among the young Meth- 
 odist converts, of strong sectarian feeling, a dispo- 
 sition to employ social pressure as a means of in- 
 creasing the influence of the church. As this was, 
 under the circumstances, a sign of earnestness and 
 vitality, it was a less evil than indifference. The 
 Baptist Church has also a considerable share in 
 the religious culture of the mill people ; and it is 
 probable that other religious bodies, besides those 
 which I have named, are at work with noticeable 
 energy and success among the operatives, but I
 
 NEW ENGLAND FACTORY TOWN. 191 
 
 had no opportunity of observing their activities. 
 The Unitarian pastor informs me that his church 
 has some influence among the young mill people, 
 " but it reaches very few, as you might naturally 
 expect it would. It is not fitted to their appre- 
 ciation, nor, perhaps, to their wants." He adds, 
 " Being brought little into contact with the opera- 
 tive class, I can in general speak only from hearsay 
 in regard to them, and therefore should not pre- 
 sume to give an opinion to one who is searching 
 for facts." 
 
 Many of the older operatives, especially among 
 the English, Scotch, and Americans, are strongly 
 influenced by what is called modern scientific 
 thought, and have come to regard religion as 
 something outgrown and antiquated for all intel- 
 ligent persons, but still useful and necessary for 
 the ignorant and inferior classes, the common 
 people. The strongest separative and unfraternal 
 influence which I have encountered or observed 
 in American life and thought is this tendency of 
 " scientific thought " to produce a feeling of con- 
 tempt for those who do not share it, for " the 
 unenlightened masses." 
 
 Several of the mill corporations of this city are 
 embarrassed by indebtedness out of all propor- 
 tion to their financial strength or available assets. 
 Some of them have recently been forced to sus- 
 pend payment, and it is probable that others will 
 soon have a similar experience. These difficulties 
 have been caused in part by embezzlements and
 
 192 STUDY OF A 
 
 defalcations, of which the city has had its share, 
 within a few years, in common with most other 
 places in our country ; but the popular judgment 
 attributes far too large a proportion of the finan- 
 cial troubles of the mills to this source. Most of 
 them have resulted from the effects upon business 
 and industry produced by our civil war, and from 
 the peculiar intellectual and psychological condi- 
 tions which prevailed among our people for a few 
 years after that convulsion. Usually these evils 
 or embarrassments are the result of false or erro- 
 neous thinking. There was too much money in- 
 vested in machinery for the manufacture of cotton 
 goods, more than was required for all the busi- 
 ness that could be done. More mills were built 
 and equipped than could be employed with profit. 
 These excessive and abnormal investments of cap- 
 ital in a particular branch of business were made 
 because capitalists and manufacturers depended 
 upon imaginary markets, upon a demand for cot- 
 ton goods which was supposed to be practically 
 unlimited. 
 
 The labor reformers insist that there can be 
 no overproduction while any human want remains 
 unsupplied. This is pure sentimentalism, worthy 
 of the political economy of Rousseau, and has no 
 scientific or practical quality whatever. What is 
 more to be regretted is, that many of the writers 
 of our time who are trying to aid the develop- 
 ment of rational ideas on these subjects are them- 
 selves influenced, and much of their work is viti-
 
 NEW ENGLAND FACTORY TOWN. 193 
 
 ated, by the same illusions which have made the 
 sentimentalists their prey. When we declare, in 
 poems, sermons, and optimistic essays, that men 
 everywhere should be able to possess and enjoy 
 whatever can add to the comfort, refinement, and 
 happiness of life, it has a delightfully generous 
 and philanthropic sound, and we are disposed to 
 feel that we have done something to hasten " the 
 good time coming." But the simple fact, of in- 
 expugnable strength, upon which the whole mat- 
 ter depends in actual business is that overproduc- 
 tion occurs whenever a manufacturer produces so 
 many more goods than he can sell that the amount 
 left upon his hands absorbs the profits of his busi- 
 ness, or such a proportion of the profits as gradu- 
 ally to impair and lessen his productive capital. 
 Men do not manufacture cotton cloth, or grow 
 corn and wheat, or make newspapers, from mo- 
 tives of generosity or sentimental philanthropy. 
 They produce all these articles to sell them ; and 
 fraternal justice to the laborers employed, and the 
 use of whatever means can be applied for their 
 education, will give increasing productiveness, 
 security, and permanence to all these branches of 
 industry. But it will not do to make any kind of 
 goods merely because people ought to have them. 
 We might insist that life must be a condition of 
 squalid misery in every family where there is not 
 a seven-octave piano ; but the manufacturer who 
 should therefore undertake to make pianos for all 
 who do not now possess them would soon be in a 
 
 13
 
 194 STUDY OF A 
 
 position to give lessons to our political economists 
 on the real nature of overproduction. It is not 
 true philanthropy to employ men to make goods 
 which cannot be sold. To do so must always result 
 in the destruction of capital and the injury of the 
 laborer. Of course, there are chances of loss by 
 the production of unsalable goods which cannot 
 be foreseen, but this only makes all possible fore- 
 sight the more necessary. We have built many 
 mills and bought much costly machinery for the 
 manufacture of cotton and iron goods which no- 
 body would buy. Some of these enterprises have 
 already come to an end in necessary ruin. Others 
 are deferring their fate by adding to an indebt- 
 edness which is already greater than the present 
 value of the entire property or investment. Much 
 of the capital thus invested is lost, and can never 
 be recovered by any possible skill or ingenuity. 
 
 My friend the editor of. the labor-reform news- 
 paper holds that the best means for securing the 
 rights of the laboring people, and obtaining a just 
 remuneration for their labor, is the multiplication 
 of their wants ; that is, they should be taught to 
 live more and more expensively. He says that 
 civilization consists in this constant increase in 
 the number of the wants of human beings, and 
 that we must encourage the working-people to de- 
 mand and use so many things as necessaries of 
 life for them that employers will be compelled to 
 give them higher wages. But I think that all the 
 facts which have any relation to the subject indi-
 
 NEW ENGLAND FACTORY TOWN. 195 
 
 cate that this particular element or tendency of 
 civilization has already an excessive development, 
 and that most persons in this country have already 
 more wants than can possibly be satisfied. It 
 would tend to greater clearness of thinking if 
 people would remember that there is no evidence 
 of any provision in the nature of things which as- 
 sures us the possession of everything we may want. 
 It does not appear that the earth contains mate- 
 rials for unlimited wealth, or that it will ever be 
 possible for everybody to be rich and live in lux- 
 ury. The earth does contain materials for sub- 
 sistence for human beings, as long as there are 
 not too many of them. But the overproduction of 
 human beings is a frequently recurring fact in the 
 history of the race. It is a possibility in nearly 
 all civilized countries, and though it may not re- 
 quire attention here for a long time to come, it is 
 certain that its recognition is already necessary in 
 all systematic treatment of the chief subjects con- 
 nected with political economy and national wel- 
 fare. 
 
 I believe the labor reformers are in error in 
 thinking that the continued and indefinite reduc- 
 tion of the hours of labor would be a benefit to 
 the working-people ; but I am aware that they 
 have the support, in this view of the matter, of 
 nearly all the political economists of every school. 
 Most writers upon the subject eulogize the effect 
 of labor-saving machinery upon the interests of 
 the workingman, affirming that any inconvenience
 
 196 STUDY OF A 
 
 resulting from it is but temporary, and that the 
 permanent effects are necessarily beneficial. It is 
 constantly assumed, as if it were an indisputable 
 certainty, that the less men have to work the bet- 
 ter for them. I cannot discover any necessity or 
 provision in the nature of things which renders it 
 thus certain that all devices and inventions which 
 result in dispensing with human labor are to work 
 advantage to mankind. It is time to challenge 
 this assumption. It is entirely a question of fact, 
 and a priori reasoning is here out of place. The 
 most positive proof that labor-saving machinery is 
 beneficial up to some certain point or degree of 
 development and application cannot be safely ac- 
 cepted as evidence that its development and ap- 
 plication can be profitably extended without limit. 
 I believe that for most men more than eight 
 hours' work per day is required for the mainte- 
 nance of physical, mental, and moral health. I 
 think that for most men, including operatives, 
 mechanics, farmers, and clergymen, more than 
 eight hours' labor per day is necessary, in order 
 to keep down and utilize the forces of the animal 
 nature and passions. I believe that if improve- 
 ments in machinery should discharge men from 
 the necessity of laboring more than six hours a 
 day, society would rot in measureless and fatal 
 animalism. I have worked more than ten hours 
 per day during most of my life, and believe it is 
 best for us all to be compelled to work. It would 
 be well, I think, if we could make it impossible
 
 NEW ENGLAND FACTORY TOWN. 197 
 
 for an idler to live on the face of the earth. Re- 
 ligious teachers are not without responsibility for 
 having taught that the necessity of labor is a 
 curse. The world owes most of its growth hitherto 
 to men who tried to do as much work as they 
 could. Its debt is small to the men who wished 
 to do as little as possible. 
 
 The principal thing required in connection with 
 these interests of our national life is, I think, that 
 the operatives and other working-people shall 
 have a better education, an education which 
 shall include some more adequate safeguards or 
 defenses against illusion than are provided by the 
 methods of culture and training now in common 
 use in this country. As things are, it can scarcely 
 be said that any effort is made to teach the work- 
 ing-people anything regarding their duties, rights, 
 and interests as citizens, as Americans, except by 
 the churches and the labor reformers. As religion 
 is at present usually understood by its teachers in 
 this country, it does not habitually give great 
 prominence or emphasis to the cultivation of feel- 
 ings of attachment, responsibility, and obligation 
 to our country. It is commonly regarded as deal- 
 ing with men only as individuals, and as accom- 
 plishing the elevation of society by improving the 
 character of the units of which it is composed. 
 Few, even of our best people, have now any vital 
 feeling or sense of nationality, of our position and 
 duties as Americans. Nor have I been able to find 
 anywhere a clear exposition of the claims which
 
 198 STUDY OF A 
 
 our country has upon us all, of any service which 
 the nation rightly demands of its children, except 
 what is required in time of war. 
 
 I think the time will come (and should come 
 soon) when the preparation and supply of suita- 
 ble reading matter, as an instrument for the edu- 
 cation and guidance of the working-people, will 
 be regarded as a necessary part of the equipment 
 of the manufacturers in a town like this. It is 
 so now, but the prevailing optimism, being essen- 
 tially unintelligent, and therefore wanting in flex- 
 ibility, is not yet aware of the new conditions and 
 tendencies in our industrial, social, and national 
 life. The capitalists, manufacturers, and cultivated 
 people of every town where there are one thousand 
 operatives should unite in the publication of a 
 small, low-priced newspaper for circulation among 
 the working-people, a paper conducted by some 
 one who understands that the elements arid tend- 
 encies of our national life cannot be adequately 
 dealt with by the subjective method which most 
 of our teachers now employ ; by a man who sees 
 clearly that the knowledge and recognition of the 
 objective facts of human experience supply the 
 only sufficient basis for wise action. 
 
 The use of such means for the education and 
 guidance of the working-people would cost far less, 
 in money even, than the present plan of letting 
 things take their course. The confident expecta- 
 tion that an improvement or revival of business 
 will soothe the discontent of the working classes,
 
 NEW ENGLAND FACTORY TOWN. 199 
 
 and relieve the country from anxiety regarding 
 their action, which has become general within the 
 last few months is, in part, the result of a hasty 
 and superficial judgment of the facts of the time. 
 There are many workingmen and teachers of 
 workingmen in this country, believing in the 
 absolute sovereignty of the laboring classes, who 
 would not be rendered less active or determined 
 in their campaign against the existing order of 
 things by any possible degree of industrial pros- 
 perity. They believe in a different order of so- 
 ciety, and hope to organize the wage laborers of 
 the United States, and unite them in a persistent 
 endeavor to modify the existing social and politi- 
 cal order. They have more impulse and endur- 
 ance than most of the supporters of our existing 
 civilization, and also a better understanding of 
 the necessity of adapting means to ends. They 
 have also a measure of truth on their side, for the 
 existing order and civilization cannot be defended 
 as complete, or wholly just; they need improve- 
 ment. 
 
 I wish to deal gently with the impenetrable 
 inapprehension which thinks it a sufficient an- 
 swer to all such pleas for an increase of activity 
 on the part of cultivated people to say that the 
 ignorant and visionary schemers who would like 
 to overthrow our institutions can never succeed. 
 Sarcasm here would be a waste of force. But 
 intelligence can understand that some things short 
 of absolute ruin are still so undesirable and in-
 
 200 STUDY OF A 
 
 jurious that it is worth while to try to prevent 
 them. The force by which the world has chiefly 
 grown hitherto is the love of excellence for its 
 own sake, the feeling of obligation to try to make 
 things better, to remedy injustice, and to remove 
 hurtful, enslaving ignorance whenever we can do 
 so. But it is to be confessed that these are con- 
 siderations of little weight with the optimism of 
 our time. 
 
 It is not enough that people who have money 
 and culture pay the operatives their wages. That 
 is not all that justice requires. It is my belief 
 that, in the city of which I have here written, 
 the manufacturers were paying the laborers, at 
 the time of my visit, all that they could pay, and 
 that in some cases their wages absorbed the en- 
 tire profits of the business. But the working- 
 people are ignorant, and they are not taught as 
 they should be. They are among the most valu- 
 able and indispensable of all the children of our 
 country. Our national industry and prosperity 
 would be impossible without them. Their life is 
 at best rather hard and uninviting, with little 
 room or means for the ameliorating, refining, and 
 sustaining influences which vary and brighten life 
 for many others. There is far too little fraternal 
 interest in them, too little disposition to share 
 their burdens, and to help them to make the 
 best of their life and of themselves that its in- 
 evitable conditions will allow. We do not know 
 as much about them as we should. Most people
 
 NEW ENGLAND FACTORY TOWN. 201 
 
 think and care very little about the operatives, 
 except when they threaten to make trouble. It 
 is not safe or wise to allow so large a class to be 
 so far alien and separate from the influences and 
 spirit of our national life. I do not think the 
 mill people are, as a class, inferior in morality, in 
 the ordinary sense of that word, to any equally 
 numerous class in this country. On the contrary, 
 I believe they are superior in this respect to any 
 class of men and women who do not work. 
 
 We ought to know more about this sort of peo- 
 ple, about their circumstances, their ways of living, 
 their thought, and the tendencies and effects of 
 such a life as theirs upon character and civiliza- 
 tion. As things are, there is nobody to speak for 
 them. We should know more about what they 
 do with their wages ; how much they are able to 
 save, and to what extent they have the disposition 
 to save anything from their earnings. I was very 
 desirous to learn something of this last feature of 
 their life in the city herein described ; but al- 
 though I visited all the savings-banks, and met 
 everywhei'e gentlemen desirous of assisting me, 
 nobody, so far as I could learn, had any knowl- 
 edge of the amount of deposits by operatives in 
 the savings-banks of the city. The matter had 
 once been " looked up " as an electioneering 
 measure, but the statistics had not been preserved. 
 The mill owners thought the amount was very 
 large, while the labor reformers, as we have seen, 
 believed it was " practically nothing."
 
 202 A NEW ENGLAND FACTORY TOWN. 
 
 I received the utmost courtesy and kindness 
 from all whom I met, without exception. In 
 these qualities the city is not surpassed by any 
 place I have ever visited. I am indebted to many 
 persons there for invaluable assistance, and am 
 most grateful to some who will never see what I 
 have written.
 
 PREACHING. 
 
 IT is to be observed that preaching is something 
 in which perfection is not attainable. The high- 
 est excellence in this work is but an approxima- 
 tion. The object of preaching, expressed in the 
 largest way, is the formation, culture, and devel- 
 opment of human character, and the guidance of 
 conduct or life, in accordance with the laws, re- 
 quirements, and obligations of our moral nature or 
 being. With this in view as the end, preaching 
 employs, as an instrument or means, the presenta- 
 tion of religious truth and thought, especially 
 in Christian teaching the truths and doctrines 
 of Christianity ; the chief source whence these 
 are to be drawn being the Scriptures of the New 
 Testament, with illustrations and helps from the 
 Hebrew sacred books, and from the religious his- 
 tory and experience of mankind. 
 
 The essential or fundamental principles and 
 truths of Christianity are not presented or ex- 
 pressed in the New Testament in the form of 
 exact, definite, direct propositions, so as to be 
 apprehended with equal readiness, success, and 
 perfection by minds of every character ; but these 
 principles belong to a class of ideas which in some
 
 204 PREACHING. 
 
 measure depend for their apprehension upon moi'al 
 and mental conditions, upon states of the will, the 
 heart, or the moral character. In the phrase of 
 the New Testament, they are spiritual truths or 
 principles, and must be spiritually discerned or 
 understood. These principles of Christianity are 
 in this respect like most of the ideas which are 
 conveyed in poetry and by the forms of other 
 kinds of art ; that is, for their adequate reception 
 a certain preparation in the quality or attitude of 
 the mind, and in the character of the person, is 
 necessary. 
 
 Ideas and truths connected with almost all sub- 
 jects of serious human interest may be appropri- 
 ately employed in preaching. Innumerable facts 
 of science in all its great departments may be 
 rightly used in sermons, when such facts and 
 truths are dominated and subordinated by a spir- 
 itual or religious purpose. Anything which can 
 be made to serve a spiritual end may be of use, 
 but all the elements and materials employed in 
 preaching should be fused by a central, control- 
 ling, religious idea and motive. This spiritual or 
 religious idea is of course complex. On one side 
 it has, of necessity, an intellectual character ; that 
 is, in so far as it consists of thought, or is ex- 
 pressed in the form and by the terms of thought. 
 But preaching, when rightly considered and per- 
 formed, is not chiefly intellectual, but religious, or 
 spiritual; that is, it concerns itself primarily and 
 principally with those faculties of man's being
 
 PREACHING. 205 
 
 which find expression in reverence, trust, and obe- 
 dience. Preaching deals with the will, and with 
 action or conduct, and it addresses the intellectual 
 faculties for the sake of these objects. But man's 
 being or nature is a unit, and if the culture of the 
 intellect is neglected, the religious character be- 
 comes ill balanced, morbid, and unwholesome. 
 The evils and dangers resulting from excessive 
 development of the emotional element in religion, 
 though less portentous now than in other ages, 
 still require examination, and render necessary 
 whatever safeguards knowledge and foresight can 
 supply. 
 
 Let us endeavor to see clearly some of the char- 
 acteristics of the spiritual or religious idea. One 
 of its essential qualities is that it always tran- 
 scends the sphere of the transient, special, or par- 
 ticular, and passes into the region of the perma- 
 next and universal. All teaching which is truly 
 spiritual or religious maintains a constant and di- 
 rect relation with a moral order which is univer- 
 sal and eternal. This order is always recognized 
 or the belief in its existence is necessarily implied. 
 The end, object, or purpose of all preaching or 
 religious teaching is the production, development, 
 or cultivation of obedience to the requirements of 
 this moral order, of trust in its sovereign ade- 
 quacy, and of harmony and conformity with it. 
 The personality or character of man as a moral 
 being stands within this moral order, and is re- 
 lated to it. This order existed before he began
 
 206 PREACHING. 
 
 to be, and he is in some sense produced by it, and 
 is a part of it. It is a peculiarity of man's being 
 and of his relations to this order that he learns 
 progressively of its existence, nature, and require- 
 ments ; that he can never know or comprehend it 
 perfectly, or attain to a complete or finished har- 
 mony or unity with it. His nature possesses or 
 includes the capability of endless approximation 
 or advance toward a perfection of vital harmony 
 and oneness with this order, which is never to be 
 completely attained, but which constitutes, in 
 every stage of his progress, a mosl powerful in- 
 centive, inspiration, and ideal. 
 
 The preacher's faculties being finite, and their 
 work necessarily imperfect, it constantly results 
 that he does not adequately distinguish between 
 what is special, transient, and subordinate, and 
 what is universal, permanent, and supreme. His 
 work is here so much a matter of relative or com- 
 parative emphasis, its quality depends so largely 
 upon the character, insight, and genius of the man 
 himself, that no adequate rules or directions for its 
 right performance can be given. Some men have 
 minds so mechanical and unspiritual that it is im- 
 possible for them ever to learn to preach usefully, 
 and it may be conceded that some representatives 
 of this class have in almost every age found their 
 way into the pulpit. 
 
 One of the chief dangers or defects of preach- 
 ing in our time, in this country at least, is its ten- 
 dency to become predominantly intellectual, to
 
 PREACHING. 207 
 
 deal with all its materials by intellectual methods. 
 The facts, truths, principles, and ideas employed 
 and illustrated in American preaching to-day be- 
 long, in great part, to the domain of the intellect, 
 and are of a nature to stimulate chiefly the intel- 
 lectual faculties, and to be apprehended by them. 
 They are not marshaled by a spiritual purpose to 
 spiritual ends, are not fused or assimilated by any 
 power of adequate spiritual vitality. Preaching 
 of this intellectual kind consists largely of argu- 
 ment and discussion, and it therefore necessarily 
 produces and cultivates chiefly activity of the in- 
 tellectual faculties ; that is, a mental condition or 
 attitude of a critical or questioning character, a 
 spirit of doubt. The religious spirit is essentially 
 the spirit of trust and of obedience. The special 
 tendencies and developments of thought which 
 characterize our own age have been, in too great 
 measure, reproduced in the preaching of the time. 
 We have had too much of "preaching for the 
 times ; " that is, the preaching has dealt too 
 largely with things which are recent and tran- 
 sient, with the superficial and particular rather 
 than with the vital, permanent, and universal. 
 
 The deepest and highest powers of the nature 
 of man respond only to spiritual or universal in- 
 fluences and ideas. Nothing is potent or vital 
 enough to summon his faculties to their highest 
 and best activity except a perception or revelation 
 of his relations to the universal order, and of the 
 duties proceeding from and depending upon these
 
 208 PREACHING. 
 
 relations. It is wholesome and good for man 
 it feeds the very sources of his life to stand 
 awed before the majesty and beauty of the moral 
 order of the universe and the strength of its eter- 
 nal laws. It is not possible that his nature should 
 be so expanded, stimulated, and purified, or raised 
 to such perfection of vitality and action, by any 
 other influence. To produce and develop this per- 
 ception is one of the most important objects of 
 preaching ; but it is not attained by the method 
 of treating religion chiefly as a matter of knowl- 
 edge, as something to be explained and under- 
 stood, a theory or system of thought, to be de- 
 fended by argument and sustained by refuting 
 objections. 
 
 There is much preaching in this country which 
 is a potent and valuable means of intellectual cult- 
 ure, but which has little of the religious or spir- 
 itual quality which should characterize Christian 
 preaching. Many of the most intelligent, active, 
 and influential ministers have for several years de- 
 voted much attention to the peculiar literature of 
 modern science ; and they have reported to their 
 hearers the speculations and theories of the men 
 who write about science for the magazines and re- 
 views, regarding subjects which are most closely 
 and vitally connected with the religious and theo- 
 logical beliefs belonging to Christianity, and with 
 the principles, laws, sanctions, and obligations of 
 Christian practice and character. The dissolving 
 or disintegrating tendencies of modern scientific
 
 PREACHING. 209 
 
 thought have thus been to a great extent combined 
 with the preaching of the time, and so conveyed 
 into the minds of the people who make up the 
 churches of this country. Multitudes have in this 
 way been made acquainted with the skeptical ele- 
 ments and tendencies of the thought of the age, 
 and have been brought to feel the force of the ob- 
 jections which materialism has recently urged 
 against the doctrines of Christianity. In many 
 cases the scientific, skeptical, and critical ideas 
 thus presented have had more force with the hear- 
 ers than the answers or refutations brought for- 
 ward by the preacher. 
 
 Many of these scientific objections to the doc- 
 trines of Christianity have received far more at- 
 tention than is rightly their due on any ground 
 of intrinsic weight, value, or respectability ; and 
 many of the ministers of the country have thus as- 
 sisted in the propagation of skeptical notions to an 
 extent which has noticeably influenced the thought 
 of the people. Many persons have been affected 
 by negative and disintegrating ideas with which 
 they would have had little acquaintance but for 
 the carefulness and iteration with which these 
 opinions have been presented in the preaching of 
 the time. It is possible to have too much discus- 
 sion in preaching. Hearers are convinced and 
 confirmed, strengthened and established, rather by 
 the thoroughness and strength of the minister's 
 own beliefs, by their perception of the confidence 
 
 14
 
 210 PREACHING. 
 
 and certainty which he feels, than by his presen- 
 tation of arguments against skepticism. 
 
 It is always necessary to distinguish between 
 what is superficial and of slight significance in the 
 thought of the time, and what belongs to the class 
 of forces and ideas which work deeply and widely 
 in the mind of an age, gradually producing im- 
 portant changes in opinion, and so, at length, 
 modifying the structure of society and the civili- 
 zation of nations or races. I suppose we must say 
 that this power of distinguishing between the su- 
 perficial and insignificant manifestations of popu- 
 lar caprice and the real spirit, thought, and voice 
 of the age is something which cannot be taught, 
 communicated, or learned in its entirety ; but all 
 real culture assists the development of this dis- 
 criminating judgment or estimate of the compara- 
 tive value of the different products and tendencies 
 of human thought. It is also important to ob- 
 serve that the study of history and acquaintance 
 with the world's best literature are specially 
 adapted to assist the formation of the intellectual 
 character which is the basis of such judgment 
 and the pledge of its value. 
 
 Christianity properly changes front from time 
 to time, to meet new forms of evil and error ; and 
 its continued existence depends upon this neces- 
 sary flexibility. What changes of relative em- 
 phasis in Christian teaching and practice are re- 
 quired by the new conditions of human life and 
 its environment in our age is an important ques-
 
 PREACHING. 211 
 
 tion, the most vital and momentous, indeed, 
 which can now engage the thought of Americans 
 in connection with religious subjects. This is at 
 once the real issue and the common ground be- 
 tween the conservative and the modern parties in 
 the Christian church. One party emphasizes the 
 value of what has been tried and has done good 
 service in the past ; the other emphasizes the need 
 of new weapons, and the advantages of a partial 
 change of front. Neither party has clearly de- 
 fined its own ground or aims, nor have the leaders 
 on either side thought it necessary to understand 
 the position of those from whom they differ. No- 
 body seems prepared, as yet, for any thorough ex- 
 amination or discussion of the subject. 
 
 It is especially easy, in a time when thought 
 upon religious subjects is becoming less vital and 
 spiritual, for men to imagine that there is great 
 value in the use of terms and phrases which have 
 lost their primary significance and vitality, even 
 for those who utter them. The truths, facts, ex- 
 periences, and forms of thought and expression 
 which furnish the most varied, adequate, and val- 
 uable illustrations of the relations between man 
 and the universal order, or Supreme Will, which 
 are anywhere accessible to the preacher, are to be 
 found in the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures. 
 But the forms of expression used in these books 
 have no magical value. They cannot be success- 
 fully used as charms or spells. Their mechanical 
 repetition or pronunciation by the human voice
 
 212 PREACHING. 
 
 does not necessarily, or in itself, benefit those who 
 hear. The use of phrases drawn from these high 
 sources is helpful and tends to edification only if 
 they are employed appropriately, and in connec- 
 tions or relations in which they have actual mean- 
 ing, truth, and efficiency. Many preachers with 
 whom I am acquainted, even among those of 
 most pronounced rationalistic tendencies, often 
 appear to think there is great value in the mere 
 repetition of Old Testament phrases and figures 
 of speech. But in our time even church mem- 
 bers read the Bible so little that such expressions 
 are often unintelligible, and tend to obscure the 
 thought of the preacher instead of illustrating it. 
 
 The preacher always deals most successfully 
 with the special sins, dangers, temptations, and 
 evils of any time by using, as the chief substance 
 and texture of his teaching, the great fundamental, 
 permanent, and universal principles and truths of 
 the moral nature and life of man, as they are il- 
 lustrated in human experience and in the moral 
 aspects of the history of mankind. He may safely 
 trust to the universal nature which is in man and 
 over him to make nearly all necessary special ap- 
 plications of general moral principles and univer- 
 sal truths. It is rarely best to give very elabo- 
 rate treatment to such themes as form the staple 
 of the newspaper writing of the time, or the prev- 
 alent gossip of the community. Yet the neces- 
 sary distinction here does not consist so much in 
 the difference of the subjects presented as in the
 
 PREACHING. 213 
 
 spirit and manner of their treatment. Many 
 things can be profitably used as incidental illus- 
 trations which could not properly be employed as 
 the chief topics or substance of a sermon. A 
 minister of my acquaintance was once preaching 
 on the subject of truthfulness, and after various 
 illustrations of its importance in practice, and of 
 the temptations to unveracity in modern life, he 
 said, " It is not open to a member of this church 
 to evade the payment of the tax on dogs by any 
 falsehood or equivocation whatever." He passed 
 at once to other topics, but this sentence produced 
 important changes in the practice of the citizens 
 of that community, and in the amount of the rev- 
 enues of the town. It is not likely that the effect 
 would have been so salutary if my friend had de- 
 livered a lecture on dogs, with interesting facts and 
 illustrations from history and literature, though 
 such a lecture would not have been greatly unlike 
 some modern sermons. 
 
 One of the special dangers and defects of 
 preaching in this country is connected with the 
 popular liking for oratory in the pulpit, the de- 
 mand for what is called eloquent preaching. The 
 common American idea of pulpit eloquence is 
 low and sensational. It means chiefly a rapid and 
 emphatic utterance of sonorous sentences, with 
 something extreme, paradoxical, and violent in 
 the thought presented, though not much thought 
 is required. People demand of the preacher that 
 he shall arouse and excite them, and they enjoy
 
 214 PREACHING. 
 
 with a kind of voluptuousness the temporary stim- 
 ulus and thrill of emotion which the preaching 
 causes. It results from the laws of mental action' 
 that preaching of this kind does not inspire con- 
 scientiousness, nor tend to practical moral activity. 
 It necessarily produces and fosters mental condi- 
 tions which are extremely unfavorable to spirit- 
 uality of character and life. 
 
 This appetite for eloquence, working with other 
 tendencies of the age, has helped to make the 
 preaching in this country dramatic and entertain- 
 ing, but, in large measure, unspiritual. This, I 
 think, can be rightly regarded only as a calamity, 
 a tendency opposed to the interests of religion, 
 adapted to weaken and subvert it, and to lead the 
 people who are influenced by it into a region 
 where religion will be impossible or regarded as 
 unnecessary. This is one of the most important 
 among the unfavorable tendencies of the age. It 
 has made preaching " more interesting and at- 
 tractive to the masses," but this has been accom- 
 plished by sacrificing much that is essential in re- 
 ligion itself. 
 
 There is a peculiar peril in oratory or eloquence 
 for the orator himself, and few of the idols of pop- 
 ular taste have escaped it. This is the tempta- 
 tion to say things which will arouse and excite 
 people, and so give them the emotional thrill 
 which they require the orator to produce, rather 
 than the things that are true, and that would tend 
 to acquaintance, on the part of the hearers, with
 
 PREACHING. 215 
 
 their own needs and duties, and to a more rigid 
 subjection of their practice to the laws of Chris- 
 tian morality. The preacher's own taste for truth 
 is dulled, and his power of perceiving and distin- 
 guishing it is gradually lost. Seriousness declines, 
 and the most solemn and sacred doctrines and 
 facts of Christianity come to be regarded merely 
 as materials for oratorical display. An enormous 
 egotism disorders all the preacher's perceptions of 
 fitness and relation, subverts reverence, and eman- 
 cipates him from moral obligation. His hearers, 
 on their part, make the emotional enjoyment 
 which they experience in hearing eloquent preach- 
 ing a substitute for Christian conduct and charac- 
 ter. Exceptional instances of this kind are chiefly 
 interesting and significant as indications of gen- 
 eral tendencies. 
 
 The requirements of the people regarding the 
 social life and occupations of the minister form a 
 serious hindrance to the spirituality and useful- 
 ness of his work. His work demands, more than 
 almost any other, except, perhaps, that of poets 
 and artists, periods of solitude, of silent thought 
 and waiting, of receptive communion with the 
 universal and eternal within him and around him. 
 It needs, in a peculiar degree, a free, unfettered 
 condition of his faculties. This is indispensable 
 for the best performance of his work, for the pro- 
 duction of the higher qualities in his preaching. 
 Many men have been able to enjoy this disengage- 
 ment of their faculties, this freedom for devotion
 
 216 PREACHING. 
 
 and allegiance to the Highest, in the midst of af- 
 fairs, conditions, and circumstances which, to most 
 observers, appear to have been highly unfavorable 
 to such concentration of faculty. But only the 
 man himself can ascertain and decide what are the 
 necessary conditions for the most successful per- 
 formance of his work. Yet there are very few 
 persons in the churches of this country who ap- 
 pear to have any understanding or appreciation of 
 this law of the minister's work. The people with 
 whom the preacher lives in closest relations usu- 
 ally think they know much better than he how he 
 should arrange and employ his time during the 
 week ; and the popular judgment decides that 
 most of his time should be devoted to drinking 
 tea with his parishioners, to what is called ", going 
 about among the people, and making himself at 
 home with them." 
 
 The history of Christianity shows that the min- 
 istry has never possessed great power or author- 
 ity, or the church a high degree of spiritual vital- 
 ity, at any time when ministers were accustomed 
 to pass a great portion of their time among their 
 people in ordinary social intercourse with them. 
 It is one of the features of the life of our time 
 that pastoral visiting, that is, short calls devoted 
 to conversation upon religious subjects, has given 
 place to ordinary social visiting and intercourse 
 between the minister and his people. This change 
 is closely connected with important features and 
 tendencies of the religion of the age. It has had
 
 PREACHING. 217 
 
 a great effect apon preaching in this country. 
 The modern practice has made impossible, in 
 great measure, the habit of solitary study, and 
 has thus shorn the preaching of the time of the 
 peculiar authority and impressiveness which be- 
 long to utterances which come from lonely heights 
 of thought and experience. 
 
 As things are at present, the minister's hearers 
 are to a considerable extent already familiar with 
 his thought before they meet him at the church. 
 He has been with them during most of the week, 
 and has thus had little time for thoughts arising 
 from beyond the circle of pleasant, worldly conver- 
 sation. I concede willingly all that may be claimed 
 for the influence of the clergyman in thus promot- 
 ing culture and refinement among his people, and 
 so aiding the development of a higher civilization ; 
 but I wish to point out the fact that the minister 
 has in this way lost much of power and authority 
 for his work as a preacher, and it is this work 
 which we are now considering. It is not visiting 
 among the poor or sick that injures a man's power 
 as a preacher, but the modern expectation that he 
 shall spend most of his time among the agreeable 
 people of his parish, who live comfortably and 
 like to be entertained. 
 
 The preaching of the time in this country is as 
 good as the people are willing to hear. Neither 
 in the church nor out of it is there any consider- 
 able demand for better preaching. Where there 
 is most intelligence or culture the chief desire in
 
 218 PREACHING. 
 
 regard to preaching is that it shall be entertain- 
 ing, and thus suited to attract many hearers who 
 will help to pay the expenses of the church. Un- 
 der the " voluntary system," as it is called, which 
 prevails here, it would be very difficult to give the 
 people any kind of preaching which they do not 
 want. The persons who need to be taught, 
 guided, and instructed thus fix the standard and 
 determine almost wholly the character of the 
 teaching which they are to receive. This is an 
 incidental effect of the dominion of the masses, 
 of our universal-suffrage arrangement of society. 
 In very few of the churches or congregations in 
 this country can there be any continuous or ha- 
 bitual religious teaching which the people do not 
 approve. The standard, or ideal, as to preaching 
 is usually higher among ministers than among 
 their hearers, and many clergymen maintain a 
 constant struggle against the injurious tendencies 
 of the popular taste, and try to create in the 
 minds of their hearers an appetite for the higher 
 and more spiritual qualities in religious teaching. 
 But the preaching of the country, like nearly 
 everything else in our national life, is likely to 
 become more and more completely representative 
 of the culture, taste, morality, and entire charac- 
 ter of the people who compose the churches. If 
 this is the tendency, the character of the preach- 
 ing will not thereby be elevated or improved. 
 
 At last, everything among us must depend upon 
 the average or aggregate culture, character, and
 
 PREACHING. 219 
 
 will of the people. They are the real source of 
 everything in our national life, of whatever good 
 we can hope to keep or establish here, and of all 
 the evils which injure or threaten us. Their sov- 
 ereignty has been commonly regarded as having 
 its sphere and operation in political affairs. The 
 ballot is esteemed its proper symbol and expres- 
 sion. It is time for us to recognize the fact that 
 under this sovereignty of^the people everything in 
 the life and character of our nation, its institu- 
 tions, religion, morality, culture, and civilization, 
 are dependent upon the character, development, 
 and will of the people. Our people are not yet 
 prepared or disposed to permit or sustain such 
 preaching as is needed for the purification and 
 guidance of our national life, and the growth of a 
 higher civilization. 
 
 The church is still a valuable conservative and 
 vital agency in our national life, but it exhibits 
 only such spirituality, moral illumination, and 
 earnestness as are possessed by the people who 
 compose it ; and it is marked by all that is de- 
 fective in their culture and character. Under the 
 voluntary system, preaching in this country is, in 
 fact and of necessity, almost exactly what the 
 people who have money wish it to be. Most of 
 the preaching needs improvement. Some influ- 
 ences which our national interests most impera- 
 tively require should naturally come from this 
 source. They are not now supplied by any agency 
 whatever. But the preaching of the country can
 
 220 PREACHING. 
 
 be improved, so as to make it more valuable to 
 the nation, only by elevating the popular taste 
 through an advance in the culture of the more in- 
 telligent classes of our people. No adequate in- 
 strumentalities for effecting such an advance are 
 yet in existence. The preachers of the country 
 could do much to prepare the way for a better 
 state of things if they would give earnest atten- 
 tion to the facts, conditions, and tendencies of our 
 national life, but the popular optimism is averse 
 to such study of the facts of the time. The teach- 
 ing of the Bible in regard to preaching, especially 
 its marked emphasis of the idea that it is the 
 business of the preacher to proclaim the will of 
 God, to deliver a message from Him, to teach 
 the truth, whether men wish to hear it or not ; 
 that he is to utter whatever his ultimate convic- 
 tions of duty require him to speak, accepting 
 whatever of suffering or loss may be the result, 
 this has great influence upon all manly and sin- 
 cere young men in the ministry. It inspires them 
 with something of heroic feeling, and still, even 
 in our time, gives to this profession an element 
 of solemnity, an ideal quality, and a culture in 
 elevated sentiments not found in equal degree in 
 other professions or occupations, except perhaps 
 among artists. But it soon comes to seem impos- 
 sible, under the conditions of our modern life, to 
 obey these principles, or to maintain an attitude 
 in any wise heroic, except in personal self-denial 
 on the part of the minister for the sake of his
 
 PREACHING. 221 
 
 work, and in the endurance of life-long pain and 
 regret on account of the diHiculty of keeping the 
 Bible estimate of his work in sight even as an 
 ideal. It would soon increase the vitality of re- 
 ligion among us in a marked degree, and greatly 
 improve our national life, if the more influential 
 clergymen would unite and cooperate in develop- 
 ing and disseminating scriptural ideas of the 
 moral authority of the pulpit, and its rightful free- 
 dom from popular control. 
 
 The dangers to religion in our time, as well as 
 to the moral interests of our country, are very 
 grave ; but it is for the present nearly impossible 
 to interest Americans in anything which depends 
 upon the operation of general and complex influ- 
 ences, or far-reaching tendencies. Optimism dis- 
 courages effort for improvement. It is a great 
 maker of phrases, and delights in announcing that 
 " truth and right must triumph in the end." It 
 refuses to regard anything that may occur in the 
 mean time as worthy of serious attention. AI;my 
 are anxious, but comfort themselves with the hope 
 that " things will remain about as they are " in 
 our time, and that those who come after us may 
 be wise enough to deal with the increasing diffi- 
 culties of the next age. Nothing seems very im- 
 portant to our people unless it is of the nature of 
 a catastrophe ; nothing arouses them to serious 
 interest but the belief in the near approach of a 
 terrible crisis. There is little love of excellence 
 for its own sake among us at present, and we are
 
 222 PREACHING. 
 
 generally not only indisposed to earnest, steady 
 devotion to high ideals, but we are almost desti- 
 tute of respect, veneration, and enthusiasm for 
 those who have, in other times, lived in high and 
 noble ways. One chief reason why the heart of 
 the age is not more potently moved by the central 
 personage of the New Testament story is the fact 
 that men have, to a great extent, lost the power 
 to recognize greatness and heroism in human 
 character, as they have lost the faculty of rever- 
 ence for moral grandeur. 
 
 )Ve have reached a state of things, a stage in 
 the evolution of thought, when a partial change 
 of front on the part of Christianity is necessaiy 
 to meet the forms of error and evil which have 
 been developed under the new conditions of so- 
 ciety in modern times. The enthronement of the 
 masses, and the extension of man's acquaintance 
 with the physical universe, democracy and sci- 
 ence, these have been the principal agents in 
 the production of a new environment for religion 
 in modern life. Some considerable changes in 
 relative emphasis in Christian teaching are im- 
 peratively required by the conditions that have 
 been developed in society since the revival of 
 learning. That such changes will some time be 
 made appears to me, for various reasons, probable. 
 But such changes are never wrought by Almighty 
 power operating directly and without human 
 agency. Neither are they produced by " the re- 
 sistless influence of the laws of progress." They
 
 PREA CH1NG. 223 
 
 have hitherto been brought about very slowly, as 
 the result of many small movements and efforts on 
 the part of religious teachers, and of other persons 
 interested in religion and in human welfare. 
 
 Other-world sanctions have to a great extent 
 lost their force in Christian teaching, and in the 
 thought both of Christiana and of the people out- 
 side of the church. The influence of what are 
 called the miraculous or supernatural facts of 
 Christian history has also less potency in human 
 thought than ever before. Neither the distant 
 past nor the distant future awes, inspires, or 
 restrains men now as heretofore. The church 
 will be obliged to recognize these changes. The 
 chief line or method of advance is by an increased 
 emphasis upon the sanctions, obligations, and ac- 
 tivities belonging to this world and to the moral 
 life of the present time. Heaven can wait. It is 
 not necessary to think much about it while we 
 have strength and time for labor here. But this 
 world ought to be purified, and life here devel- 
 oped, organized, and directed in obedience to the 
 requirements of order and justice. And for us 
 for Americans this world means our own coun- 
 try. We have no real opportunity or relation 
 with hunfanity in general. As they are usually 
 set forth in the phrases of sentimentalists, the 
 brotherhood of mankind and our duty to human- 
 ity are abstractions without vital meaning or prac- 
 tical value. We have most vital relations, we 
 have boundless opportunity, with the people of
 
 224 PREACHING. 
 
 our own country. We need the influence of the 
 strongest emphasis that religion can give to our 
 duties as citizens, as members of the national 
 family. Religion should translate the idea of the 
 brotherhood of man into the idea and fact of the 
 fraternity of the people of our country. Right- 
 eousness, justice, order, patriotism, these are 
 the principles which religion should henceforth 
 emphasize in this country. If Christianity should 
 come to mean this and do this, it would regain its 
 lost vitality and sovereignty; it would be again 
 a light to guide and a law to govern mankind. 
 
 But all the experience of the past makes it prob- 
 able that such a change of front and shifting of 
 relative emphasis on the part of Christianity will 
 not be accomplished without enormous loss, in- 
 jury, and moral disintegration. I do not know 
 how much of this might be prevented if a few of 
 our teachers and leaders were wise enough to 
 begin at once to act upon the lessons which time 
 is sure to teach ; but there are few signs of such 
 wisdom among us. The old beliefs are losing 
 their power, but no new sanctions of equal or 
 adequate vitality are taking the place of the con- 
 victions which are thus perishing. No human 
 power can prevent this decay of the old beliefs, 
 and no wise man could wish to hasten it. We 
 need now insight and impulse for the develop- 
 ment of the new methods and forms of thought 
 and teaching, and the new ideas of life, which are 
 to house and clothe, feed and guide, the " emanci-
 
 PREACHING. 225 
 
 pated " but untaught multitudes, who, if left to 
 themselves, are the helpless, predestined prey of 
 the delusions always ready to ravage and desolate 
 the life of a race or generation which has not in- 
 herited a vital and adequate religion. 
 
 Probably the most groundless and irrational of 
 the teaching of our time is that of the " liberal " 
 or " rationalistic " optimists, who insist that there 
 is no loss of moral vitality, or decay of religion 
 itself, in this wide-spread breaking down of the 
 old beliefs. The history of times of transition in 
 the past and the known laws of mental action and 
 social change should lead us to expect a long pe- 
 riod of intellectual bewilderment, of religious and 
 moral disintegration and political debasement. 
 We shall probably try many wasteful and hazard- 
 ous experiments ; the optimists will still prophesy 
 triumphantly ; and the people who live after us 
 may learn, if we do not, that new agencies for the 
 education of the people are indispensable, and a 
 new consecration to the interests and objects of 
 our national life. A few men will think of the 
 flag with something of the passionate devotion 
 with which men formerly thought of the cross, 
 and will transmit their high ideal to their children 
 as a holy trust, to be guarded and enshrined by 
 each succeeding generation. After measureless 
 toil and suffering, it may be found that Christian- 
 ity has made a partial change of jront, that men 
 in this land have again a religion, and that civili- 
 zation has moved forward to higher grounds. 
 
 15
 
 SINCERE DEMAGOGY. 
 
 I HAVE recently had much conversation, on 
 subjects connected with politics and our national 
 life and interests, with several thoughtful and 
 earnest men in two of the principal New England 
 States. Some of them are laborers in cotton 
 mills ; some are manufacturers and capitalists ; 
 others are farmers. Some are possessors of con- 
 siderable property, and live in easy comfort, if 
 not in affluence ; others are very poor. There is 
 a noticeable agreement of ideas or convictions 
 among them in regard to some problems which 
 are becoming more and more important for the 
 people of our country. I asked the same ques- 
 tions of these representatives of various classes of 
 my fellow-citizens ; and the absolute identity, not 
 only of thought or belief, but of the forms of ex- 
 pression, in most of the answers, indicates, I 
 think, a pretty thorough indoctrination by the 
 same teachers of the whole school or party holding 
 these sentiments. I give, for the most part, my 
 own questions, with the replies, which were nearly 
 the same from all. Much of the language is re- 
 ported exactly,Jrom notes made while we talked. 
 Some slight verbal changes were necessary, but 
 the meaning is given as accurately as possible 
 throughout.
 
 SINCERE DEMAGOGY. 227 
 
 The first question was, usually, " Do you think 
 the condition of our country prosperous and en- 
 couraging?" And the answer was, uniformly, 
 *' Not for the many, the mass of the people. 
 There can be no real prosperity for our country 
 under such conditions as now exist for laboring 
 people." 
 
 " What do you regard as the chief dangers of 
 our country ? " 
 
 " There are two great dangers. The first is the 
 aggregation of wealth in a few hands, especially 
 the aggregation of wealth in the possession of 
 large corporations, in which ambitious and un- 
 scrupulous men use the power which money gives 
 as a means for the control of legislation and of 
 public thought and its expression. The great 
 moneyed corporations, or a few rich men in them, 
 own all the influential newspapers, and they allow 
 no thought opposed to their opinions or interests 
 to reach the people. No one can speak for the 
 interests of the people except through a few fee- 
 ble and obscure journals. The control of the 
 great moneyed corporations over legislation is, in 
 our country, almost absolute." 
 
 " The other great danger is the growing belief 
 in the necessity of a strong government, and the 
 fear, even in the minds of good men, that the peo- 
 ple cannot safely be trusted, and that some men 
 must be kept away from the polls. There seems 
 to be a growing tendency in the minds of literary 
 men to regard universal suffrage as a failure, and
 
 228 SINCERE DEMAGOGY. 
 
 to wish the possession of the ballot to be confined 
 to a more select body than the whole people. It 
 is believed that the history of republics shows 
 that every experiment in republican government 
 has ended in an aristocracy, in the elevation of 
 a few men to complete control ; and that our sys- 
 tem must have the same result and end. We have 
 already made some changes in this direction. 
 The cry is that the people of cities are not fit to 
 govern them. There is a strong tendency in re- 
 cent legislation to limit the right of suffrage in 
 the name of political purity." 
 
 " The two greatest dangers are the corruptions 
 of aggregated wealth, and the indisposition to 
 trust the whole people with a share in the govern- 
 ment." 
 
 " All history shows that the many have never 
 dpne wrong to the few, but the few have often 
 done wrong to the many. All legislation by the 
 people has been honest and fair to the few. His- 
 tory acquaints us with no instance to the con- 
 trary." 
 
 " Delusions never seize upon, possess, or mis- 
 lead the many, the mass of the people, but always 
 have their development and mischievous influence 
 in some select class, among persons who are, 
 by their tastes or culture, separated from the mass 
 of the people." 
 
 " When a particular, select body or class of men 
 acquire what is now commonly called education 
 (it is usually partial and unpractical), they are
 
 SINCERE DEMAGOGY. 229 
 
 thereby enabled to impose their theories upon the 
 people, thus deluding and enslaving the masses 
 for the aggrandizement of their self-appointed 
 guides. Massachusetts is, in greater degree than 
 any other part of our country, the prey of delusions 
 of all kinds, as she has more of what is called 
 culture than any other State." 
 
 " But is not education or culture necessary to 
 fit the people for the duties of citizenship, espe- 
 cially in our country, where problems so grave and 
 difficult require solution ? " 
 
 " There is already sufficient intelligence in the 
 possession of the mass of the people to enable them 
 to govern wisely, justly, and beneficently, if they 
 were not thwarted, misled, and oppressed by the 
 few. The people go wrong, not from lack of in- 
 telligence, but from being deceived ; and in this 
 respect things are growing worse in our country. 
 The people do not think, but allow editors to 
 think for them." 
 
 " What can we do to hinder or prevent the ag- 
 gregation of wealth in the hands of a few men, 
 and in the possession of great corporations ? " 
 
 " When the fathers formed the constitution of 
 our country, they did not imagine it possible that 
 such evils or abuses could ever arise under its op- 
 eration. We ought to have laws requiring the ab- 
 solutely equal division of estates, at the death of 
 parents, among all their children. We should 
 adopt measures looking to the abolition of the 
 corporate possession and management of wealth."
 
 230 SINCERE DEMAGOGY. 
 
 " All moneyed corporations should be dissolved, 
 and, in time, their charters should be revoked. 
 The constitution of the United States should con- 
 tain an absolute prohibition of national corpora- 
 tions." 
 
 " We should repeal all laws that limit the right 
 of suffrage ; should make the ballot absolutely se- 
 cret ; and should give the ballot to every man 
 simply because he is a man. No State should 
 have power to limit the suffrage, or to exclude 
 any class of men from the exercise of this sacred 
 right." 
 
 " The many always know more than the few 
 about every subject connected with the science 
 of government and its practical working. Any 
 ten thousand men know more than any one man." 
 
 " As to matters of national finance, we would 
 have the government issue all the currency the 
 people need in the form of paper money. Neither 
 gold nor silver should hereafter be used as money. 
 Our financial and industrial depression is the re- 
 sult of our having reduced everything to a gold 
 standard of value. We have brought everything 
 to a low value, that is, we have destroyed a great 
 part of the wealth of the country, by making gold 
 the standard, because there is not gold enough to 
 go around. We have issued only enough green- 
 backs and paper money to produce some slight 
 alleviation of our difficulties." 
 
 " The gold standard has paralyzed our indus- 
 tries. Money is invested by hundreds of millions
 
 SINCERE DEMAGOGY. 231 
 
 in bonds at a low rate of interest. Nobody can 
 engage in any productive industrial enterprise. 
 There is frightful speculation in stocks and bonds 
 of worthless companies, but nothing is undertaken 
 that, if it were successful, would add to the real 
 wealth of the country. Money is put into four 
 per cent, bonds, because the gold standard has 
 made it impossible to obtain any considerable 
 profit from any legitimate business or industry." 
 
 ' What we should do is to have money issued 
 by the government according to the wants of the 
 people. The government pays out some hundreds 
 of millions of dollars each year to the people who 
 work for it, to soldiers and sailors, to clerks 
 and officers, in its service. Let it pay them in its 
 own paper money, which shall be used for all pur- 
 poses, for which money is needed, and shall be the 
 only money of the country. Our opponents as- 
 sert that we wish the government to give money 
 to the people without equivalent or service from 
 them, but this is not true." 
 
 " Money should be made of some material which 
 has no intrinsic value, so that it cannot be made 
 an article of commerce. Its sole value should con- 
 sist in the government stamp upon it." 
 
 " The government should derive all its revenues 
 from direct taxation, chiefly from the taxation of 
 incomes, with taxes on tobacco, whisky, and other 
 articles of luxury." 
 
 " Would you permit unlimited immigration 
 from all parts of the world to our country."
 
 232 SINCERE DEMAGOGY. 
 
 " Yes ; let everybody come who comes freely 
 and of his own motion. All our troubles connected 
 with immigration have resulted from imported 
 labor, as in the case of the negroes and the Chi- 
 nese. But those who are influenced by their own 
 judgment to seek better opportunities for them- 
 selves and their children will benefit our country, 
 not injure it." 
 
 " Is there no danger of our country's being over- 
 crowded ? " 
 
 " No ; we have room and ample means of sup- 
 port for five hundred millions of people in this 
 country. Our having assimilated so many races 
 here, mingling the blood of all the principal na- 
 tions of the world, is one of the chief causes of 
 our superiority over all other countries and their 
 people." 
 
 " Then you think Americans are superior to all 
 other nations ? " 
 
 " Undoubtedly. We are developing a higher 
 type of manhood than has ever existed anywhere. 
 Americans are more conscientious than any other 
 people. The average intellectual character of our 
 people is much higher and better than it was a 
 hundred years ago. Our national morality is im- 
 proving." 
 
 " How would you have the railroads of the 
 country managed?" 
 
 " We should break up the corporations, and 
 the railroads should be owned by the government. 
 They should be made common highways, and
 
 SINCERE DEMAGOGY. 233 
 
 every man who might wish to put a car on the 
 road, and engage in the business of transporting 
 freight or passengers, should be permitted to do 
 so, under suitable regulations. The roads should 
 be supported by taxation, if necessary. It is ab- 
 surd to say that a navigable river is a public high- 
 way, and belongs to the people, while a railroad 
 which runs by the side of the river, along its whole 
 length, cannot be a common highway, but must 
 be the exclusive possession of a few men in a 
 chartered corporation." 
 
 "What would you have the people taught in 
 regard to morality, or the ground and standard of 
 moral obligation ? " 
 
 " Temperance, industry, and probity constitute 
 all the morality a man in this country needs." 
 
 " Is falsehood ever profitable to a man in public 
 life, or to a political party ? " 
 
 " No man ever succeeds by falsehood. The 
 man who uses it comes to an end. There is no 
 political success, no future, for a man or a political 
 party guilty of falsehood. Frank truthfulness is 
 wisdom and strength. Pretense and concealment 
 are folly and weakness. There never was a cause 
 strong enough, or good enough, to sustain the in- 
 jury of lying and dishonesty on the part of its 
 supporters or advocates." 
 
 " What are your wishes in regard to our system 
 of public education ? " 
 
 " We would not make much change. We would 
 require every child to go to school, but would not
 
 234 SINCERE DEMAGOGY. 
 
 teach a little of everything, as is done now. We 
 would make education more practical, and more 
 thorough in the branches of knowledge which 
 would benefit the common people." 
 
 " Are your people generally optimists ? Are 
 you hopeful about our country's near future ? " 
 
 " We are growing worse as to the impoverish- 
 ment of the people. We have a greater number 
 of men now who are enormously rich than ever 
 before. These great aggregations of wealth make 
 extreme poverty inevitable for the mass of the 
 people. We do not expect speedy improvement. 
 Perhaps there will have to be a great uprising of 
 the people to right these wrongs. The ballot is 
 the remedy for every evil and wrong in this coun- 
 try, and if the people can have the ballot they 
 will make everything right. But if the ballot is 
 withheld from any class, the people may take 
 things into their own hands. We may be sure 
 that the people will have their rights in one way 
 or another." 
 
 " What kind of income tax would you ap- 
 prove ? " 
 
 "We should tax all incomes, large and small, 
 at the same rate. But we should define income 
 as that which ' comes in ' from invested wealth. 
 The earnings of labor and the profits on the busi- 
 ness of a merchant should not be regarded as in- 
 come. Dividends received for money which is no 
 longer in the owners' hands, which are paid year 
 after year to men who do nothing to earn them,
 
 SINCERE DEMAGOGY. 235 
 
 should be taxed. They constitute real income. 
 We should also have a heavy legacy tax. These 
 arrangements would enable us to tax the income 
 from bonds of every kind and class." 
 
 " Great accumulations of property in a few 
 hands caused the downfall of Rome, and are now 
 the worst curse of England. How soon the peo- 
 ple may see these things, and assert their rights,' 
 nobody can tell, but all these reforms must come 
 in time. There will probably be a great deal of 
 trouble before the people open their eyes and take 
 possession of their rights. At present the country 
 is not proceeding or acting upon any rational sys- 
 tem or method ; we are merely stumbling, and 
 tumbling, and wallowing along." 
 
 " What can be done to give the people greater 
 advantages in connection with journalism ? " 
 
 " We hope for electrical printing ; for such ad- 
 vancements in science and invention, and such im- 
 provements in machinery, as will make printing 
 so cheap that everybody can enjoy the advantages 
 and opportunities which are now the exclusive 
 possession of the very rich. There is no limit to 
 what science may do for us. The earth is made 
 for man, and all the powers and elements of nat- 
 ure are for his use and benefit. There is abun- 
 dant provision for all human wants, if nature's 
 rich gifts are not monopolized by the few to the 
 exclusion and injury of the many." 
 
 " Are there some good and honest men who op- 
 pose you and your doctrines ? "
 
 236 SINCERE DEMAGOGY. 
 
 " On, yes. The cultivated men do not believe 
 in the people. We do. We trust the people. 
 We think this country belongs to the people, and 
 that they have a right to govern it. The Harvard 
 men think we would ruin the country, but we 
 only want the people to have what belongs to 
 them." 
 
 " But would not your doctrines open the way 
 to frequent and radical changes of our system of 
 government, and thus imperil some things which 
 are of great importance, some things which are 
 essential to our free institutions and our national 
 life?" 
 
 " The very essence and object of our system of 
 government, as the fathers established it, is that 
 the people shall govern, and shall make any 
 changes which in practice or experience they may 
 see to be necessary." 
 
 Having thus reported the opinions of my fel- 
 low-citizens as fully as possible in the form in 
 which they were expressed in conversation, I wish 
 to add some account of the impressions made upon 
 me by the persons themselves. About the time 
 of the close of our great civil war, or a little be- 
 fore, I had many opportunities of becoming ac- 
 quainted with ideas and sentiments closely resem- 
 bling those which are here described ; and since 
 that time it has seemed worth while to study 
 these tendencies and products of the intellectual 
 life of our country directly, to converse with men 
 of all classes and conditions of life who hold these
 
 SINCERE DEMAGOGY. 237 
 
 opinions, in order really to know what they be- 
 lieve and seek, and upon what grounds they hold 
 such convictions and cherish such aims. I have 
 not adopted the judgment of their enemies, or that 
 of their friends, in regard to the doctrines or the 
 character of these men, but have sought to obtain 
 first their own account of their principles. 
 
 I think these men are, as a class, thoroughly 
 sincere in their opinions and sentiments regard- 
 ing political subjects. They honestly believe wluit 
 they profess, upon grounds which to them appear 
 reasonable and sufficient. They manifest greater 
 earnestness, or intensity of conviction, than is ex- 
 hibited at present by the members of the other 
 political parties of the country. This may result 
 naturally from the fact that their party has never 
 been in power, and that they are in consequence 
 free from responsibility for the mistakes and evils 
 of the time. They are likely to gain more and 
 lose less than others by a frank avowal of their 
 aims, even by the bold profession of doctrines 
 which are generally regarded as extreme and dan- 
 gerous. It is commonly remarked that both the 
 old political parties are now somewhat wanting 
 in earnestness, or strength of conviction, in re- 
 gard to some important political doctrines. This 
 is natural, and in a way inevitable, because both 
 parties are manoeuvring for position for the open- 
 ing of the canvass preceding the next national 
 elections. Probably the party managers do not 
 greatly care upon what ground the contest is
 
 238' SINCERE DEMAGOGY. 
 
 waged, if they can, at the beginning of the fray, 
 secure advantages which will give them hope of 
 " breaking the enemy's line, and throwing his 
 forces into Confusion." They do not, on either 
 side, quite believe the dreadful things they have 
 been saying of their adversaries. What I wish 
 here to point out is that, while this manoeuvring 
 and the want of moral earnestness which it reveals 
 are, under the circumstances, inevitable, and re- 
 quired by the necessities of political warfare, such 
 tactics have certain disadvantages and embar- 
 rassments connected with them, from which our 
 friends of the third party are entirely free. Bold- 
 ness and frankness are elements of power in their 
 appeal to the people. These men have more 
 of sentiment than any other political class, and 
 can more readily and successfully appeal to " the 
 great American ideas of freedom and the rights of 
 man." They are the natural heirs of some of the 
 heroic elements and influences which formerly be- 
 longed to the attitude of the anti-slavery people. 
 Upon examination this will be found a matter of 
 considerable practical importance. I think that 
 our fellow-citizens of this class may be said to be 
 characterized by amiable and generous qualities. 
 They are usually possessed of benevolent disposi- 
 tions and strong sympathies. They all hold ex- 
 tremely hopeful and optimistic views of human 
 nature, and sincerely believe that the common 
 people are sages, saints, and heroes. 
 
 As to their thought or doctrines, these friends
 
 SINCERE DEMAGOGY. 239 
 
 of ours have remarkably clear and definite ideas 
 in regard to the objects of their efforts, and the 
 means by which they expect to attain them. They 
 believe that nature lias provided abundantly for 
 the wants of all her children, that the earth 
 rightly belongs to the people, and that if men 
 were not wrongfully deprived of their heritage all 
 would live in comfort. Happiness is the object 
 of human life. Man has a natural right to hap- 
 piness, but the masses are robbed of their rights 
 by the misrule and oppression of the few. They 
 believe that excessive toil is one of the chief 
 causes of unhappiness among the people, and they 
 intend to shorten the hours of toil. They think 
 that the labor of the common people is inad- 
 equately paid, and that the capitalist receives far 
 too large a proportion of the profits of labor, and 
 they intend to transfer a considerable proportion 
 of these profits to the laborer himself. They be- 
 lieve that unhappiness and pain, weariness and 
 poverty, can be in a very great measure abolished, 
 and they mean to accomplish this by reorganiz- 
 ing society under the rule of the common people. 
 They think it entirely right to change all consti- 
 tutional provisions or other features of our system 
 of government which are found to obstruct the 
 will of the people, and that such changes should 
 be made as often as the people may think it nec- 
 essary, and in such ways as the people may pre- 
 fer. 
 
 These friends of ours believe that the people,
 
 240 SINCERE DEMAGOGY. 
 
 as they are, are capable of governing rightly and 
 wisely, and that if they had the power in their 
 hands their rule would always be just and benefi- 
 cent. They think the notion that there is any- 
 thing very difficult in the science of government 
 or its practical administration, which requires pe- 
 culiar wisdom, or culture superior to that pos- 
 sessed by the mass of the people, is a fiction, an 
 invention of the oppressors of the people, by 
 which they seek to strengthen their wrongful 
 rule over the masses. They hold that " the hearts 
 of the people are always right ; " that the people 
 love justice with a passionate and enthusiastic 
 worship, that they are superior to all such un- 
 worthy and injurious passions as revenge, greed, 
 envy, and selfishness, and that they are as wise 
 as they are good ; that the best dreams and ideals 
 of poets and prophets are realized in the character 
 of the common people of our country. 
 
 In conversing with my countrymen who cherish 
 these sentiments and opinions, I am constantly re- 
 minded of Rousseau. Their ideas, and even their, 
 phrases and forms of expression, are often identi- 
 cal with his. I quote a few sentences from the 
 " fimile " (Nugent's translation, London, 1763) : 
 
 " Conscience affords greater light than all the 
 philosophers ; we have no occasion to read Cicero's 
 Offices in order to learn to be honest." (Vol. ii. 
 p. 271.) 
 
 " It is evident to the last degree that the learned 
 societies of Europe are no more than public schools
 
 SINCERE DEMAGOGY. 241 
 
 of falsehood ; and there are certainly more errors 
 propagated by the members of the Academy of 
 Sciences than are to be found among a whole 
 nation of savages." (Vol. i. p. 304.) 
 
 " It is in vain that we aspire at liberty under 
 the protection of the laws. Laws ! Where are 
 they ? And where are they respected ? Wher- 
 ever you have directed your steps, you have seen 
 concealed under this sacred name nothing but 
 self-interest and human passions. But the eternal 
 laws of nature and of order are still in being. 
 They supply the place of positive laws in the eye 
 of the man of prudence ; they are written in the 
 inmost recess of his heart by the hands of reason 
 and conscience ; it is to these he ought to submit 
 in order to be free." (Vol. ii. p. 392.) 
 
 " It is the common people that constitute the 
 bulk of mankind ; the rest above that order are 
 so few in number that they are not worth our 
 consideration." (Vol. i. p. 339.) 
 
 " You should therefore respect your species : 
 remember that it is essentially composed of the 
 common people ; that if all the kings and philoso- 
 phers were to be taken away, they would not be 
 missed, and affairs would be conducted as well 
 without them." (Vol. i. p. 341.) 
 
 " Were we to divide all human science into two 
 parts, one common to the generality of mankind, 
 the other particular to the learned, the latter 
 would be very trifling compared to the former." 
 (Vol. i. p. 48.) 
 
 16
 
 242 SINCERE DEMAGOGY. 
 
 It is not probable that these resemblances of 
 thought and language proceed from familiarity on 
 the part of my friends with the writings of Rous- 
 seau. Few of them, I suppose, have read any- 
 thing from his pen. Such thoughts and ideas 
 have arisen naturally in their minds, as they did 
 in his. These opinions and beliefs regarding the 
 political and social interests and relations of man- 
 kind have been produced or developed here anew 
 by the conditions of our national life. If we con- 
 sider the circumstances of our people, their edu- 
 cation and experience, and the natural and neces- 
 sary effect of democracy, or the universal suffrage 
 arrangement of society, I think we must expect a 
 general development of such doctrines among the 
 masses, and that the influence of these tendencies 
 may possibly become so wide-spread and potent 
 as to subject our system of government and the 
 structure of society in this country to a very con- 
 siderable strain. We shall not understand the 
 causes, direction, or power of these ideas while 
 we regard their development and career among 
 us as accidental or anomalous. Their appearance 
 and growth result from causes adequate to pro- 
 duce them. The phenomena attending their op- 
 eration are not likely to be so transitory as to 
 make examination difficult. We shall probably 
 have time to study them. 
 
 Our friends appear to think that men of wealth 
 and culture are of a nature essentially different 
 from that of " the people." They always speak
 
 SINCERE DEMAGOGY. 243 
 
 of them as belonging to a different class, and as 
 bring inspired by motives, passions, and princi- 
 ples entirely unlike those of the people. They 
 think that the ciixrn instances and position of men 
 of property and culture, and the effect of the sys- 
 tem of social and political organization under 
 which they have so much power, necessarily make 
 them selfish, grasping, unjust, and oppressive. 
 They are convinced that there is no reason to 
 hope for the improvement of society while the 
 men of wealth and culture retain control, and 
 are therefore determined to displace them. I am 
 obliged to say that, while our fellow-citizens thus 
 contemn culture, many of them have about as 
 much of what now goes by that name as is pos- 
 sessed by most of those who belong to the " cul- 
 tivated classes." So in regard to their ideas of 
 wealth : they think it dangerous under the exist- 
 ing system and order of things, likely to pro- 
 duce extreme selfishness, and alienation from the 
 cause and interests of the people ; yet some of 
 them are themselves capitalists, and possess the 
 means of enjoying what they denounce as luxury 
 when it is exhibited by those who are not " of the 
 people." 
 
 It is curious and interesting to note the fre- 
 quent resemblances between the doctrines which 
 I am now examining and the fundamental ideas 
 and assumptions of much of the best literature 
 which our country has produced. That part of 
 our national literature which contains the direct
 
 244 SINCERE DEMAGOGY. 
 
 expression of opinions in regard to the nature of 
 man, the principles of social and political order, 
 the genius of our institutions, and the true mean- 
 ing and mission of America is almost all intensely 
 optimistic, and it supplies great store of maxims 
 and arguments of the highest dignity and respec- 
 tability, which would serve as most convenient 
 weapons in the hands of our friends against many 
 features of the existing order of things. 
 
 One of the most important and characteristic 
 elements of influence in the movement which I 
 am describing is to be found in the ideas regarding 
 science which are held by this class of our people, 
 and propagated by their teachers. They expect 
 a millennium of universal plenty and happiness, 
 a golden age, under the dominion of science. No 
 imaginable invention for producing food, dispens- 
 ing with labor, or creating wealth appears to 
 them impossible. If a great inventor should an- 
 nounce that he had discovered a method by which 
 he could evolve from a pail of water power suffi- 
 cient to drive a freight-train from New York to 
 San Francisco, or that by establishing connections 
 between the opposite corners of a square league 
 of desert and the poles of a powerful electrical 
 battery he could in a few hours change the barren 
 sands to soil of matchless fertility, many of these 
 friends of ours would say, truthfully, that they 
 had long expected such achievements. Their 
 faith in " positive and negative electricity '' would 
 scarcely be staggered by any possible story of
 
 SINCERE DEMAGOGY. 245 
 
 miraculous power or performance. They know 
 of no reason why anything which they would like 
 to have done for them should not be accomplished 
 by means of this wonderful natural force ; or, in- 
 deed, why any human want should remain unsup- 
 plied. Their ideas and methods of thought in re- 
 gard to science, and the expectations which they 
 cherish respecting the deliverance of mankind 
 from the necessity of toil by means of scientific 
 invention and discovery, are becoming important 
 factors in our political and social conditions. 
 
 I have observed that the men in comfortable 
 circumstances, who hold these doctrines, usually 
 appear to feel but little personal enmity or bitter- 
 ness against the classes whom they denounce. 
 They say it is the system which is to be con- 
 demned, rather than the persons who sustain or 
 administer it. But many of the poorer men and 
 laborers seem to feel a degree of exultation in the 
 prospect of the overthrow of the classes who, as 
 they declare, have so long oppressed the people. 
 All classes of believers in these doctrines are con- 
 vinced that if the people are much longer thwarted 
 and oppressed ; if the ballot, which would enable 
 them to right all their wrongs by peaceful means, 
 is kept out of their hands, or its effect neutralized 
 by the machinations of the money power, then the 
 masses will rise in their might, and crush at once 
 the system which is the source of their adversity. 
 Most of them appear to feel a kind of sadness in 
 view of the terrible suffering that may necessarily
 
 246 SINCERE DEMAGOGY. 
 
 precede the coronation of the people, but they 
 think it is all fated and inevitable. This mood, 
 now becoming so common, is one in which many 
 things are possible. 
 
 I see nothing to prevent the rise of a leader of 
 this class, of a man who, despising culture, 
 shall possess as much of it as most of his antag- 
 onists, and, while denouncing wealth as the chief 
 source of danger to the liberties of the people, 
 shall himself be rich ; who, holding these polit- 
 ical and social doctrines in sincerity, shall advo- 
 cate them with enthusiasm. If such a man should 
 appear, and should add to thesB means of influ- 
 ence the potency of attractive social qualities, 
 great kindness of heart, readiness of resource, 
 commanding eloquence, and a stainless personal 
 character, it may be that under such circum- 
 stances these ideas would attract more serious at- 
 tention than they have yet received from our 
 teachers and leaders. 
 
 Some of the opinions and sentiments hei % e de- 
 scribed appear to me erroneous and untrustworthy. 
 The fundamental doctrine of the divine right of 
 the people, for instance, as taught by our friends, 
 is but the old doctrine of the divine right of kings 
 in a new form. Its essence is unchanged. Un- 
 der the new conditions of national life which ac- 
 company democracy, or result from it, the doc- 
 trine means the divine right of the majority. 
 And as the believers in the divinely appointed rule 
 of kings hold that the king can do no wrong, we
 
 SINCERE DEMAGOGY. 247 
 
 are witnessing the development, under democratic 
 forms of government, of the doctrine that the 
 people that is, the majority can do no wrong ; 
 that the people are always unselfish, patriotic, 
 and incorruptible, and possessed of wisdom ad- 
 equate for every emergency, rendering injustice 
 arid serious error impossible under their sway. 
 Now this doctrine of the divine right of a ruling 
 class, and its supernatural equipment with all 
 needed virtues, is a crude and barbarous concep- 
 tion, belonging naturally to the prehistoric or 
 savage conditions of society under which it had 
 its rise and development. It does not appear to 
 have been improved by presenting it in its mod- 
 ern form, in association with democracy, nor can 
 I learn that any new reasons or arguments have 
 been brought forward in its support. 
 
 If this doctrine is true, then in a state composed 
 of one million citizens, divided into two parties by 
 their political opinions, five hundred and ten thou- 
 sand men might constitute the party of the^ peo- 
 ple. They would of course be in the utmost de- 
 gree wise and just, and the four hundred and 
 ninety thousand opposed to them would be un- 
 wise, and misled by dangerous error, if they were 
 not selfish and corrupt. If the people are wise 
 and right, those opposed to them must be foolish 
 and wrong. But as a matter of fact it frequently 
 happens that the foolish minority is able to con- 
 vince and win over a small portion of the major- 
 ity ; and then the minority, without any change
 
 248 SINCERE DEMAGOGY. 
 
 of principles, character, or aims, itself becomes 
 the divinely authorized majority. That is, those 
 who were last year the enemies of the people are 
 now, though cherishing the same purposes which 
 so recently made them dangerous enemies to lib- 
 erty, themselves the people, and the only true 
 friends of freedom. At the same time, some hun- 
 dreds of thousands of men, who were last year 
 members of the wise and virtuous majority, though 
 still battling as earnestly as ever in support of the 
 ideas which were then the perfection of wisdom 
 and virtue, now constitute a deluded minority, 
 and are the only "enemies of the people." No, 
 friends, majorities are often wrong. The people 
 are sometimes in error in regard to very impor- 
 tant practical matters. They are sometimes ill 
 informed and influenced by prejudice and passion, 
 and are consequently unjust. There was a time 
 when the people believed that the sun went around 
 the earth every day. It is most probable that 
 for ages the whole human race believed human 
 sacrifices to be right. If the people are right to- 
 day, they must often have been wrong in the 
 past, for they have changed their beliefs again 
 and again under the influence of advancing cult- 
 ure. Though they may be wiser than ever be- 
 fore, there is nothing to support the assumption 
 that they have become infallible. The theory 
 that the dominion of the people will secure man- 
 kind against all dangerous error, and abolish the 
 evils which now afflict society and imperil civiliza- 
 tion, is a convenient fiction.
 
 SINCERE DEMAGOGY. 249 
 
 Is it true that " any ten thousand men always 
 know more than any one man " ? If one intui 
 were instructed in navigation, would he not know 
 more about it than ten thousand men who had 
 never seen a boat, or water enough to float it ? 
 A similar question might be asked in regard to 
 the art of printing, the science of chemistry, the 
 profession of law, and many other things. Does 
 not any one man who can speak, write, and teach 
 the German language correctly know more about 
 it than any million of men who have never heard 
 or seen a word of it? The art of government, 
 of organizing the life of a nation and adminis- 
 tering its affairs, is not the simple and easy task 
 which our friends assume it to be ; it must rather 
 be one of the most complex and difficult of hu- 
 man achievements. To persuade the persons who 
 are intrusted with the government of a coun- 
 try like ours that their work requires no serious 
 preparation or sense of responsibility is to prop- 
 agate a most dangerous delusion. 
 
 Our friends regard the production and perpet- 
 uation of wealth as being due almost entirely to 
 labor. They often say that laboring men as 
 distinct from the class of capitalists and cultivated 
 people have created the wealth of the country, 
 and it is sometimes added that it justly belongs 
 to them. The working people do not generally 
 understand how much the production and exist- 
 ence of wealth depend upon other elements than 
 mere muscular exertion. They do not appreciate
 
 250 SINCERE DEMAGOGY. 
 
 the part which is performed by cultivated men 
 and capitalists in organizing and equipping busi- 
 ness enterprises, in adapting production to the 
 markets of the world, and in so directing the 
 labor of multitudes of men and the use of costly 
 machinery as not to impair the capital invested. 
 They do not even understand clearly that the de- 
 struction of capital ruins the laborers of the coun- 
 try by destroying the business which gives them 
 employment. Many laborers think they are in 
 some way benefited by all the losses sustained by 
 capitalists. Wealth is not so stable or permanent 
 as our friends believe. It is of a sensitive nature, 
 and does not bear rough handling. It is easy to 
 destroy the value of any kind of property or in- 
 vestment by injurious legislation or mischievous 
 municipal administration. But many men believe 
 that by means of legislation " in the interests of 
 labor," and by severe taxation, most of the wealth 
 now in the possession of rich men and corpora- 
 tions can be transferred, without impairment, to 
 the hands of the working people. I think the 
 actual result, if their plans could be carried out, 
 would be the gradual annihilation and expulsion 
 of the wealth of the country. There would no 
 longer be any disparity of conditions between rich 
 and poor, because all would be poor alike. Our 
 organized industries would be destroyed. All ma- 
 chinery which requires the cooperation of many 
 laborers would be disused, and we should be 
 obliged to return to the conditions and methods
 
 SINCERE DEMAGOGY. 251 
 
 of life of the days before the introduction of im- 
 proved labor-saving machinery, when the people 
 of our country depended almost wholly upon agri- 
 culture and such manufactures as could be carried 
 on in their homes. The world's wealth will not 
 be perpetuated or reproduced if the essential con- 
 ditions under which it has been created are de- 
 stroyed. 
 
 Might does not make right or justice on the 
 side of the people, any more than on that of the 
 tyrannical few who are regarded as their oppress- 
 ors. Excessive taxation is robbery, though the 
 guilt and dishonor of it may be distributed among 
 millions of voters. When the people make a law 
 which compels the capitalists of a city to deliver 
 up their wealth at the doors of the city treasury, 
 for distribution among the laborers of the mu- 
 nicipality, in the form of unnecessary and dishon- 
 est appropriations for improvements, the act is 
 not more honest because committed by the people 
 under the forms of law. It is not wise to teach 
 the people of our country that nothing in their 
 political action can be wrong or unjust ; that rob- 
 bery and injustice are to be accounted right when 
 perpetrated by the majority by means of the bal- 
 lot. 
 
 The beliefs of our friends regarding Nature or 
 Providence, and the attainable objects and ideals 
 of human life, are natural in the earlier stages of 
 mental and social development. They are the 
 products of subjective conditions, of what people
 
 252 SINCERE DEMAGOGY. 
 
 cafl their own intuitions. Strong and passionate 
 desires, uncluistened by reason x or experience, are 
 regarded as evidence that whatever they crave has 
 been specially created for their gratification. It 
 is held that " men have a right to be happy, have 
 a right to the possession of whatever will satisfy 
 their nature." Here, again, our friends are in 
 error in regarding the order of human life, or the 
 system of universal being, as something extremely 
 simple and transparent. It is not so easily ex- 
 plicable. We are of such .a nature that we want 
 many things, but I cannot find that there is any 
 provision or arrangement in the order or laws of 
 nature for our having whatever we want. Much 
 of the popular teaching about the wise and benefi- 
 cent adaptation of everything to everything else 
 in the universe, the relation between all natural 
 wants and the means for satisfying them, and the 
 wonderful economies of Nature rendering waste 
 and failure impossible in her domain, is pure as- 
 sumption, and will not bear examination. We do 
 not really know so much about these matters as 
 many people suppose. Whether we talk of the 
 bounty of Nature or the wisdom and goodness of 
 God, the difficulties are the same. The subject 
 is too deep for us. It is pleasant and comfortable 
 to believe that everything is made for our hap- 
 piness, and that the universe is pervaded and 
 controlled by a wise and omnipotent tenderness. 
 But as a matter of experience and fact, there ia 
 measureless pain in the world, failure and cruelty,
 
 SINCERE DEMAGOGY. 253 
 
 hideous and uncompensated wrong and suffering. 
 Life is a stern, hard service, and the wisest and 
 noblest have learned to think little about happi- 
 ness, and to give their strength to the work of the 
 day, because " the night cometh, when no man 
 can work." I have myself tried living for happi- 
 ness, and have found that the effort, even when 
 successful, tends to disintegration and chaos. My 
 -observation of the lives of others convinces me 
 that these doctrines which lead men to feel that 
 they have a right to be happy, and that they are 
 wronged and oppressed unless they have every- 
 thing they want, are the result of defective analy- 
 sis. The people who hold this philosophy of life 
 are sincere, but their thinking is erroneous. It 
 does not follow that we are to make no effort for 
 the deliverance of mankind from injustice and 
 oppression. To right what is wrong, and im- 
 prove the conditions of human life, is the noblest 
 work to which we can give our hearts in this 
 world. But our friends of whom I am now writ- 
 ing fail in large measure, and injure their own 
 work, because they have not given sufficient at- 
 tention or patience to the endeavor to understand 
 the difficulties that lie in our way. It is not so 
 easy as they think to know what are the best 
 means for bringing about the changes which all 
 good men should desire to see accomplished. 
 Our friends especially need more knowledge, in 
 order to be able to discriminate truly between 
 objects that are really desirable and attainable
 
 254 SINCERE DEMAGOGY. 
 
 and those which human passion naturally craves 
 in its early, " uucharterecl freedom," but which 
 are either impossible of attainment, or of a nat- 
 ure to cause injury and loss when attained. 
 
 This brings me to the error of our friends in 
 rejecting and denouncing culture. They might 
 do good by exposing what is crude, superficial, 
 and unpractical in what goes by the name of 
 culture, and by expressing their sense of the 
 need of something better. If the working peo- 
 ple would thoughtfully try to understand what 
 is defective in the education of their class, and 
 would give their countrymen their judgment re- 
 garding what is most needed for the equipment 
 of their own children for their place and work in 
 life, it would be a valuable service. If the state 
 undertakes the education of the children of the 
 people, as it does in this country, I think the 
 working men have a right to claim for their 
 children the best education the state can give; 
 that is, such an education as will in the largest 
 measure possible fit them for the work and expe- 
 rience of their life. The people of our country, 
 without exception or distinction of classes, need 
 more knowledge and better education. The peo- 
 ple of wealth and culture have much to learn and 
 to do. They do not yet understand how insecure 
 is their own position. They have little real knowl- 
 edge of the new conditions of society in this coun- 
 try. The people of whom I have here written 
 are not wholly wrong. They have some measure
 
 SINCERE DEMAGOGY. 255 
 
 of truth and right on their side, some reason for 
 discontent. Our politics are deficient in patriot- 
 ism, and our partisan leaders have too little inter- 
 est in the welfare and guidance of the people. 
 The people of wealth and culture need a closer 
 acquaintance and association with the working 
 people and the poor. They generally lack some- 
 thing of the fraternal spirit which they should feel, 
 but they are especially wanting in the manifesta- 
 tion or expression of such kindly and fraternal feel- 
 ings as they really have in their hearts. The 
 workingmen misapprehend the people of wealth 
 and culture. There is, indeed, mutual misappre- 
 hension and want of acquaintance between the 
 working people and their employers. If the opin- 
 ions of the masses are wrong and their aims im- 
 practicable, it is worth while to do far more than 
 has yet been done in this country to show them 
 how they are wrong, and to teach them what- 
 ever fundamental principles are available for 
 their guidance. There is too much impatience 
 shown by many of our writers and leaders because 
 the masses do not learn more rapidly, are so per- 
 sistently wrong-headed, etc. What is the value, 
 after all, of the culture which qualifies us to dis- 
 pute learnedly regarding the chief social and polit- 
 ical tendencies of the people of ancient Greece and 
 Rome at every period of their history, but does 
 not equip us for any real study of the life of our 
 own time and country, nor enable us to understand 
 the growth of destructive tendencies in the society
 
 256 SINCERE DEMAGOGY. 
 
 of which we are members ? It is most mischiev- 
 ous to assume, as is constantly done on both sides, 
 that some of the different classes of our people are 
 already so completely separate and distinct that it 
 is next to impossible for them to understand or in- 
 fluence one another. It is the assumption of those 
 who -are too indolent to study the facts of our con- 
 dition. The cultivated people have not yet made 
 a tithe of the effort to teach the working classes 
 which is necessary to prove whether they can be 
 taught or not. There is great unteachableness, 
 not only among the working people, but in the cul- 
 tivated classes ; yet no large class in this country 
 is hopelessly inaccessible to teaching, or insuscep- 
 tible of guidance. (Could not something be done 
 in the way of increased publicity on the part of 
 their managers regarding the essential features, 
 methods, and conditions of the great business and 
 manufacturing enterprises of the country, so that 
 workmen could better understand the justice and 
 necessity of the course of action pursued by their 
 employers ?) 
 
 It is somewhat strange and ominous that so 
 many cultivated people should insist, apparently 
 with a degree of pride, that they are themselves in- 
 capable of addressing the working people so as to 
 be understood by them ; that they have no power 
 to establish such relations with them as would 
 enable them to influence their opinions. When, 
 a few months ago, I suggested with other meas- 
 ures for producing a better understanding between
 
 SINCERE DEMAGOGY. 257 
 
 the different classes in our country the publi- 
 cation, by those who believe in property and in 
 culture, of a good, low-priced newspaper for cir- 
 culation among workingmen, there were emphatic 
 protests from prominent journalists, who assured 
 me that a newspaper dealing with the life and 
 wants of operatives, if edited by capitalists, man- 
 ufacturers, and cultivated people, would certainly 
 fail of influence among the class whom it would 
 be designed to benefit, for the reason that their in- 
 evitable aversion to everything bearing the stamp 
 of capital would strangle the well-meant enter- 
 prise at its birth. This indicates want of ac- 
 quaintance, on the part of such writers, with the 
 feelings, spirit, and character of our working peo- 
 ple. There is not yet any such incurable aliena- 
 tion and hostility between the workingmen and 
 their employers, the capitalists of the country. 
 There is much misunderstanding, and some of 
 the facts of our condition are gravely unfavora- 
 ble; but they do not by any means sustain the 
 despairing conclusion that no direct effort to en- 
 lighten and convince the workingmen would be of 
 any avail. My own opinion is that the working- 
 men are, as a class, quite as accessible to teaching 
 or enlightenment as our cultivated optimists. 
 
 In endeavoring to understand the spread of 
 false and hurtful ideas among the workingmen, 
 we observe, first, that these beliefs arise naturally 
 and legitimately in many minds under such con- 
 ditions as have prevailed here during the last 
 
 17
 
 258 SINCERE DEMAGOGY. 
 
 eighteen years. In the next place, we should 
 recognize the fact that many persons have de- 
 voted themselves with remarkable zeal, energy, 
 and success to the propagation and inculcation of 
 these opinions and sentiments. The chief remain- 
 ing feature in the matter is the entire absence of 
 corresponding or adequate activity on the part of 
 those who should feel most intei'est in preserving 
 and extending whatever is valuable in the results 
 of our civilization. In this inaction, this want of 
 cooperation and of direct effort for the propaga- 
 tion of their own convictions, on the part of those 
 who believe in property and culture, and in the 
 value and necessity of constitutional government, 
 is the chief source of danger for our country. All 
 these interests are seriously imperiled, not alone 
 by the ideas of the working class, but by the gen- 
 eral operation of disintegrating influences in our 
 society, and by the want of better training and 
 principles, and higher character, among all classes 
 of our population. The dainty and querulous 
 tone of many who should be among the teachers 
 and leaders of our time shows that the disorgan- 
 izing influences of the age are already affecting 
 the cultivated classes, and diminishing our na- 
 tional vitality. 
 
 There is great need of wise and effective resist- 
 ance to the attack upon constitutional government. 
 Most of our people need a better understanding of 
 the necessity of some accepted principles and sys- 
 tem of national organization and administration,
 
 SINCERE DEMAGOGY. 259 
 
 which shall not be subject to change at every elec- 
 tion. Some of the strongest tendencies of the 
 time lead in the direction of the absolute empire 
 of the majority, without restriction or limitation 
 from any source whatever, the rule of the ca- 
 price of the hour, and the entire repudiation of all 
 precedents, pledges, charters, and constitutional 
 regulations and provisions. We have adopted uni- 
 versal suffrage to begin with, and now we must 
 prepare for it afterward. The essential and dis- 
 tinguishing feature of our system is that it is gov- 
 ernment by the people. But the mere adoption 
 of this system of government does not confer 
 upon the people the wisdom which they need for 
 its administration. That must be obtained by 
 other means. Our system was not devised by its 
 founders to introduce and maintain the absolute 
 and tyrannical rule of mere majorities, though 
 this view of its purpose and character is now 
 urged with great vehemence. It was meant that 
 changes in our political methods should be made 
 slowly, and that they should not extend so far as 
 to destroy the organic character of the national 
 government. . 
 
 If the people who do not approve the doctrines 
 I have here described are in earnest, it is neces- 
 sary that they should learn to address the masses. 
 Those who believe that property and culture are 
 essential to our civilization must present their 
 case. They and their interests are on trial, and 
 it is time for them to plead the cause of what they
 
 260 SINCERE DEMAGOGY. 
 
 most value. It is not a matter of extreme diffi-. 
 culty. Surely our cultivated men should be able 
 to speak intelligibly to the whole nation and to 
 every class it contains. To admit that capitalists 
 and cultivated men cannot gain the attention and 
 confidence of the workingmen implies distrust of 
 the justice and reasonableness of the principles 
 and position of the conservative class. Americans 
 who feel that their cause is a righteous one should 
 not fear to speak for it before their own country- 
 men. I have had considerable experience in writ- 
 ing for the working people to read, and have 
 found that they can understand plain speaking 
 and sincerity. If I had the money required for 
 such an enterprise, I should at once proceed to 
 establish such a newspaper as I have recom- 
 mended. What we most need cannot be accom- 
 plished by ordinary political journalism, though 
 political parties are necessary and useful. The 
 need of the time is the education of the people 
 in the principles and duties of American citizen- 
 ship and fraternity. I have not attempted a com- 
 plete examination of these subjects, that is a 
 work for the people of our country.; but I have 
 hoped to bring about a more general and thorough 
 discussion of these questions of the time. I am 
 not devoted to any particular plans or measures 
 for improvement. I should be glad to see each of 
 my suggestions set aside for something better.

 
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