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diff --git a/13706-h/13706-h.htm b/13706-h/13706-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5c3b794 --- /dev/null +++ b/13706-h/13706-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,1436 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> +<html> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of Socialism And American Ideals, by William Starr Myers, Ph.D.</title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + P { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + H1,H3,H4,H5,H6 { + text-align: center; font-family: garamond; /* all headings centered */ + } + H2 { + text-align: center; color: maroon; font-family: garamond; /* centered and coloured */ + } + HR { width: 33%; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; + } + BODY{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + .tble {text-align: center;} /* centering tables */ + .tdright {text-align: right;} /* aligning cell content to the right */ + .tdleft {text-align: left;} /* aligning cell content to the left */ + .linenum {position: absolute; top: auto; left: 4%;} /* poetry number */ + .note {margin-left: 2em; margin-right: 2em; margin-bottom: 1em;} /* footnote */ + .blkquot {margin-left: 4em; margin-right: 4em;} /* block indent */ + .pagenum {position: absolute; left: 92%; font-size: smaller; text-align: right;} /* page numbers */ + .totoc {position: absolute; right: 2%; font-size: 85%; text-align: right;} /* page numbers */ + .sidenote {width: 20%; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em; padding-left: 1em; font-size: smaller; float: right; clear: right;} + + .poem {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; text-align: left;} + .poem br {display: none;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem span {display: block; margin: 0; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i2 {display: block; margin-left: 2em;} + .poem span.i4 {display: block; margin-left: 4em;} + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13706 ***</div> + +<a name='Page_-6'></a> + + +<a name='Page_-5'></a> +<h2>SOCIALISM AND AMERICAN IDEALS</h2> + +<h2>by</h2> +<h2>William Starr Myers, Ph.D.</h2> +<h3>Professor Of Politics, Princeton University</h3> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> + +<p style="text-align: center; font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 80%">Princeton University Press<br /> +Princeton<br /> +London Humphrey Milford<br /> +Oxford University Press<br /> +1919</p> +<a name='Page_-4'></a> + +<hr style='width: 25%;' /> + +<p style="text-align: center; font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 80%">1919, by<br /> +Princeton University Press</p> +<br /> +<br /> +<p style="text-align: center; font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 80%">Published February, 1919<br /> +Printed in the United States of America</p> +<a name='Page_-3'></a> + +<hr style='width: 25%;' /> + +<p style="text-align: center; font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 120%">To<br /> +The Memory Of<br /> +Samuel Selden Lamb<br /> +In Partial Fulfilment Of A<br /> +Mutual Promise Made At<br /> +"dear Old Chapel Hill"</p> +<a name='Page_-2'></a> + + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<a name='PREFACE'></a><h3>PREFACE</h3> +<br /> + +<p>The following essays originally appeared in the form of articles +contributed at various times to the (daily) New York <i>Journal of +Commerce and Commercial Bulletin</i>. Numerous requests have been received +for a reprinting of them in more permanent form, and this little volume +is the result.</p> + +<p>I am deeply indebted to my friend Mr. John W. Dodsworth, of the <i>Journal +of Commerce</i>, for his kind and generous permission to reprint these +articles. Since numerous changes and modifications from the original +form have been made the responsibility for these statements and the +sentiments expressed rests entirely upon me.</p> + +<p><a name='Page_-1'></a>I hope it is not necessary for me to say that this is not intended as an +exhaustive study of the more or less widespread movement to advance +paternalism in Government. My object is to lay before the people, in +order that they may carefully consider them, the reasons for thinking +that Socialism is in theory and practice absolutely opposed and contrary +to the principles of Americanism, of democracy, and even of the +Christian-Jewish religion itself.</p> + +<p style="text-align: right; font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%">Wm. Starr Myers.</p> +<p>Princeton, N.J.<br /> +November 28, 1918.</p> +<a name='Page_0'></a> + + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<a name="toc" id="toc"></a><h3>CONTENTS</h3> + +<div class='tble'> + <table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="1" width="80%" summary="Table of Contents" style="align: left"> + <tr> + <td width="10%" style="font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 80%" valign="top"> </td> + <td width="80%" class="tdleft" style="white-space: nowrap;"><a href="#intro">Introduction</a>—Materialism and Socialism + </td> + <td width="10%" class="tdright" valign="top">3</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td width="10%" style="font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 80%" valign="top"><a href="#chapter_i">I</a></td> + <td width="80%" class="tdleft" style="white-space: nowrap;">The Conflict with the Idea of Equality of Opportunity + </td> + <td width="10%" class="tdright" valign="top">13</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td width="10%" style="font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 80%" valign="top"><a href="#chapter_ii">II</a></td> + <td width="80%" class="tdleft" style="white-space: nowrap;">Why Socialism Appeals to Our Foreign-Born Population</td> + <td width="10%" class="tdright" valign="top" style="font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 80%">23</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td width="10%" style="font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 80%" valign="top"><a href="#chapter_iii">III</a></td> + <td width="80%" class="tdleft" style="white-space: nowrap;">Its Conflict with the Basic Principles of Democracy and Religion</td> + <td width="10%" class="tdright" valign="top" style="font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 80%">34</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td width="10%" style="font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 80%" valign="top"><a href="#chapter_iv">IV</a></td> + <td width="80%" class="tdleft" style="white-space: nowrap;">Some Instances of its Practical Failure + </td> + <td width="10%" class="tdright" valign="top" style="font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 80%">54</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td width="10%" style="font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 80%" valign="top"><a href="#chapter_v">V</a></td> + <td width="80%" class="tdleft" style="white-space: nowrap;">The True Antidote Found in Co-operative Effort + </td> + <td width="10%" class="tdright" valign="top" style="font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 80%">74</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td width="10%" style="font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 80%" valign="top"> </td> + <td width="80%" class="tdleft" style="white-space: nowrap;"><a href="#index">Index</a></td> + <td width="10%" class="tdright" valign="top">87</td> + </tr> + </table> +</div> + +<a name='Page_1'></a> + + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<a name="intro"></a><h3>INTRODUCTION</h3> +<a name='Page_2'></a> + + +<h3><a name='Page_3'></a>MATERIALISM AND SOCIALISM</h3><span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span> +<br /> + +<p>It was about a decade ago that Professor E.R.A. Seligman of Columbia +University published his valuable work on the "Economic Interpretation +of History," which gave a great impetus to the study, by historians, of +the economic influences upon political and social development. Professor +Seligman showed conclusively that one of the most potent forces in the +growth of civilization has been man's reaction upon his material +environment. Since that time the pendulum has swung so far in this +direction that many students of history and economics would seem to +think that all of life can be summed up in terms of materialism, that +environment after all is the only important element in <a name='Page_4'></a>the advance of +society, and that mankind is a rather negligible quantity. This is just +as great a mistake as the former practice of ignoring economic +influence, and even so great an authority as Professor Seligman would +seem to tend in that direction.</p> + +<p>On the other hand, Mr. George Louis Beer rightly claims that "the chief +adherents of economic determinism are economists and Socialists, to whom +the past is, for the most part, merely a mine for illustrative material. +The latter, strangely enough, while explaining all past development by a +theory that conceives man to be a mere self-regarding automaton, yet +demand a reorganization of society that postulates a far less selfish +average man than history has as yet evolved."<a name='FNanchor_1_1'></a><a href='#Footnote_1_1'><sup>[1]</sup></a></p> + +<p><a name='Page_5'></a>Most thoughtful people of to-day know that the political and economic +elements were just as strong as the religious one in the Protestant +Reformation in Germany, but that fact by no means would lessen the value +of the gains for intellectual and religious freedom that were won by +Martin Luther. Again, bad economic conditions had as much, or more, to +do with the outbreak of the French Revolution as did political and +philosophical unrest. Also taxation, trade and currency squabbles had +more to do with causing an American Revolution than did the idealistic +principles later enunciated in the Declaration of Independence. And +there was a broad economic basis for the differences in crops, +transportation and the organization of labor which expressed themselves +in a sectionalism which finally assumed the <a name='Page_6'></a>political aspect that +caused the Civil War. Yet the student who would forget the spiritual +element in our life, who would overlook the fact that man is a human +being and not a mere animal, will wander far astray into unreal bypaths +of crass materialism.</p> + +<p>On the other hand, it would be hard to find an economic explanation for +the emigration of the Pilgrim Fathers to Plymouth, for the Quaker +agitation that supported John Woolman in his war upon slavery or for +most of the Christian missionary enterprises of the present day. Also it +would take a mental microscope to find the economic cause for the +extermination of the Moriscos in Spain by Philip III. or the expulsion +by Louis XIV. of the Huguenots from France. These two great crimes of +history had important economic consequences, but the cause behind <a name='Page_7'></a>them +was religious prejudice. Prof. James Franklin Jameson, of the Carnegie +Institution at Washington, rightly has stressed a study of the religious +denominations in the United States, of the Baptist, Methodist and other +"circuit riders" of the old Middle West, as one of the most fruitful +sources for a fuller knowledge and understanding of the history and +development of the American nation. Neither George Whitefield, Peter +Cartwright, nor Phillips Brooks of a later day, can be explained in +terms of economic interpretation.</p> + +<p>This false and entirely materialistic conception of the development of +society and civilization is a mistake not only of the learned, but of +the pseudo-learned, of the men and women of more or less education whose +mental development has not <a name='Page_8'></a>progressed beyond an appreciation of Bernard +Shaw, Henrik Ibsen and H.G. Wells. Most of them are estimable people, +but the difficulty is that they are so idealistic that, so to speak, +they never have both feet upon the ground at the same time. This is +especially true of our esteemed contemporaries, the Socialists. These +cheerful servants of an idealistic mammon pride themselves upon +completely ignoring human nature. A few years ago, at a London meeting +of the "parlor Socialists" known as the Fabian Society which, by the +way, was presided over by Bernard Shaw, an old man began to harangue the +audience with the words, "Human nature being as it is—" At once his +voice was drowned out by a chorus of jeers, cat-calls and laughter. He +never made his address, for the audience <a name='Page_9'></a>was unwilling to hear anything +about "human nature." No Socialists in general are willing to do so, for +human nature, with the mental and spiritual sides of life, is just the +element with which their fallacious creed cannot deal, and they know it. +But the human element must enter into business and trade in the problems +of direction, management, even in the form of competition itself, and +cannot possibly be eradicated.</p> + +<p>It is amusing to note that these same Socialists are busily occupied +with pointing out what they consider to be the failures of government, +as well as of "business and capitalism." Yet they do not realize that +they are thus condemning their own system, for if the governments of the +world have failed to do the work at present laid upon them, how can they +<a name='Page_10'></a>ever undertake the gigantic additional political and capitalistic +burden that Socialism would impose? Thomas Jefferson, the patron saint +of the party that President Wilson now leads, always expressed a fear of +"too much government." It would appear that the present Administration +and the Democratic members of Congress have wandered far from their old +beliefs, and if recent legislation is the result of it, their +Socialistic experiments have not been much of a success.</p> + +<p>FOOTNOTES:</p> + +<a name='Footnote_1_1'></a><a href='#FNanchor_1_1'>[1]</a><div class='note'> <i>The English-Speaking Peoples</i>, p. 203.</div> +<a name='Page_11'></a> + + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<a name='SOCIALISM_IS_IT_AMERICAN'></a><h3>SOCIALISM—IS IT AMERICAN?</h3> +<a name='Page_12'></a> +<a name='Page_13'></a> + + +<hr style='width: 25%;' /> +<a name="chapter_i"></a><h3>I</h3> + +<h3>ITS CONFLICT WITH THE IDEA OF EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY</h3><span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span> +<br /> + +<p>One of the main difficulties in discussing Socialism is to find a +working definition; for this political or social movement is based upon +a system of a priori reasoning which often is vague and lacking in +deductions from practical experience. Socialism also is unreal in its +assumptions and impractical in its conclusions, so that a person finds +it almost impossible to give a definition that will include within its +scope all the Socialistic vagaries and explain all the suppositions +based upon nonexistent facts. Bearing this difficulty in mind, perhaps +the following will serve as a working definition for the purposes of +<a name='Page_14'></a>the present discussion. Socialism is the collective ownership (exerted +through the government, or society politically organized) of the means +of production and distribution of all forms of wealth. This means wealth +not alone in mere terms of money but in the economic sense of everything +that is of use for the support or enjoyment of mankind. Of course +"production and distribution" means the manufacture and transportation +of all forms of this economic wealth.</p> + +<p>Inevitably this system would imply the substitution of the judgment of +the government, or of governmental officials, for individual judgment, +and for individual emulation and competition in all forms of human +endeavor. Dr. David Jayne Hill recently has remarked that "if the +tendency to monopolize and direct for its own <a name='Page_15'></a>purposes all human +energies in channels of its own [i.e., the government's] devising were +unrestrained, we should eventually have an official art, an official +science and an official literature that would be like iron shackles to +the human mind."<a name='FNanchor_2_2'></a><a href='#Footnote_2_2'><sup>[2]</sup></a> The Socialist probably would object that this +statement is extreme, but at least it is logical, and if Socialism be +reasonable it must be logical, and it must be both reasonable and +logical if it is to be popularly accepted.</p> + +<p>The above might be stated in another way by saying that Socialism means +the substitution of governmental judgment for that of the individual and +for individual ambition as well. This is one of the strongest arguments +against Socialism. Individual ambition is not only justifiable <a name='Page_16'></a>but also +an absolute necessity for the integrity and growth of the human mind. +Like everything else, ambition may be wrongly used or directed. It only +goes to prove that the greater the value of anything the greater is the +wrong when it is abused and not rightly used. In fact, proper ambition +is the desire for greater opportunity for service according to the +dictates of individual conscience and it lies at the basis of all +religion and morality. Without ambition the individual mind goes to +seed, so to speak,—there is no further growth or progress. This desire +for greater service is the thing that produces patriotism, that causes +men and women to work at the expense of personal interest for Liberty +Loans, the Red Cross, Y.M.C.A., etc.</p> + +<p>Professor Richard T. Ely well <a name='Page_17'></a>expresses the same thought by +saying—"When we all come to make real genuine sacrifices for our +country, sacrifices of which we are conscious, then we shall first begin +to have the right kind of loyal love for our country. We shall never get +that kind of love merely by pouring untold benefits upon the +citizens."<a name='FNanchor_3_3'></a><a href='#Footnote_3_3'><sup>[3]</sup></a> Also, Edward Jenks, the brilliant British historian, says +that—"A society which discourages individual competition, which only +acts indirectly upon the bulk of its members, which refuses to recruit +its ranks with new blood, contains within itself the seeds of decay."<a name='FNanchor_4_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_4_4'><sup>[4]</sup></a></p> + +<p>The attempt by Socialism to substitute a governmental standard of +happiness for individual desire and ambition is merely <a name='Page_18'></a>another attempt +to legislate human mind and character. A government cannot make a man +happy by law any more than it can make him moral or religious by the +same means. All that law can do is to endeavor to place a man in such an +environment that his moral or religious nature may be aroused and that +his desire or ambition be encouraged. It was the inability to understand +and realize this fact that caused the religious persecutions of past +centuries when Catholics persecuted Protestants and Protestants +persecuted Catholics, and both persecuted the Jews, and everybody +thought that it was possible to legislate a man's belief and enforce it +by the sanction of the law. Happiness, like religion, must have its +impulse from within.</p> + +<p>Furthermore, it is along this identical <a name='Page_19'></a>line of reasoning that +Socialism is essentially un-American. The primary object of the +government of the United States, the whole theory upon which our nation +was formed, is not to give happiness to the individual. The Fathers of +our country were too wise to attempt any such ridiculous undertaking. +The ideal or object of the United States is to give equality of +opportunity for each individual to work out his or her own salvation in +a political, a moral or an economic sense. In other words, to give +equality of opportunity for each individual to work out or achieve his +or her own happiness. That is the only possible way in which happiness +can be gained. For this reason the American people believe in public +schools and child labor laws and other forms of social, not Socialistic, +legislation, in order to help less <a name='Page_20'></a>fortunate individuals to help +themselves, and not to help them in spite of themselves. The former plan +is in accordance with the needs of human nature and with American ideas +and ideals; the latter is the essential basis of Socialism and +inevitably pauperizes and atrophies human character.</p> + +<p>There is as much difference between social legislation and Socialism as +there is between the common-sense advancement of the ideas of peace and +the selfish or cowardly brand of treason that is known as pacifism. In +both Socialism and pacifism the essential idea is that the individual +should mentally "lie down" and "let George do it." In contrast with +this, the common sense way to gain peace is actively to restrain wrong +in order that right may triumph. The United States <a name='Page_21'></a>recently has been +engaged in just this kind of an undertaking. Also, man is a social +animal as well as an individual being, so social consciousness or social +responsibility consists in the common responsibility of society to see +that each individual gets a "square deal" in the form of equal +opportunity for advancement by self effort.</p> + +<p>In fact, the American ideal is to restrain human initiative only to the +extent that is necessary to give equality of opportunity to all, and +that the government should act only on the principle of the greatest +good of the greatest number. Hence Americans believe that Rousseau was +right when he said that the individual gives up a small part of his +personal liberty, or license, in order to receive back full civil +liberty, which is much greater because it has a wider outlook and +<a name='Page_22'></a>possibilities and is guaranteed through the support of society. +Furthermore, they believe that real liberty is freedom of individual +action within the law as the expressed will of the people.</p> + +<p>But everything depends upon the fact that the impulse to use this +liberty must come from within, and not be commanded by a government from +without. In the words of the Declaration of Independence, Americans +believe "that all men are ... endowed by their Creator with certain +inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit +[not the gift] of happiness." On this basis alone was this nation +founded and has it prospered.</p> + +<p>FOOTNOTES:</p> + +<a name='Footnote_2_2'></a><a href='#FNanchor_2_2'>[2]</a><div class='note'><p> <i>The Rebuilding of Europe</i>, p. 63.</p></div> + +<a name='Footnote_3_3'></a><a href='#FNanchor_3_3'>[3]</a><div class='note'><p> <i>The World War and Leadership in a Democracy</i>, p. 111.</p></div> + +<a name='Footnote_4_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_4_4'>[4]</a><div class='note'><p> <i>Law and Politics in the Middle Ages</i>, p. 306.</p></div> +<a name='Page_23'></a> + + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<a name="chapter_ii"></a><h3>II</h3><span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span> + +<h3>WHY IT APPEALS TO OUR FOREIGN-BORN POPULATION</h3> +<br /> + +<p>It is often remarked that a reading of the names of the members of the +present Socialist party, or of those who advocate Socialism in the +United States to-day, will disclose the fact that most of these names +denote foreign or Continental European, as contrasted with American or +British, origin. This can readily be understood when it is remembered +that the governments of Continental Europe are theoretically on a +different basis and of different origin from those of the United States +and Great Britain or of those countries where the English Common Law +prevails.</p> + +<p><a name='Page_24'></a>Whether in democratic France, Italy, Belgium or Norway, or in autocratic +Germany or Austria-Hungary, the government is considered as in a sense +coming down from above. It is believed, and taught, that government +exists by divine right and that it has per se its own position and +rightful place of domination. That it exists for itself, and not as a +means to an end. But in Great Britain, the United States, and also in +the British self-governing colonies, as compared with this, the whole +order of things is upside down, so to speak. We believe that all +governments arise from the people, that they should derive their just +powers from the consent of the governed, and that they are merely an +instrumentality to help the people to help themselves—to protect them +in their inherent, inborn right to life, <a name='Page_25'></a>liberty and the pursuit of +happiness. Also the government should act upon the principle of the +greatest good of the greatest number as a test when there is any +conflict between individual and social rights.</p> + +<p>Of course it is now popularly understood that an autocracy like that of +Germany until recently, was built up on the theory of the divine right +of governments and of the princes who administered them. The +constitutions of the German states and especially of the Empire of +Germany, were the gift or gifts of the German princes to the people and +not the expression of the will of the people, as in the United States, +or of the people as represented in Parliament, as in Great Britain. Thus +the King of Prussia, who was also Emperor of Germany, was God's +representative on earth and responsible to God <a name='Page_26'></a>alone for the +administration of his office. He, as well as the various princes in +their respective states, were above all earthly law, were laws unto +themselves, and they and their serving (or servile) officials were to be +obeyed without question. Disobedience to the "princes'" laws was not +only treasonable but sacrilegious as well. This fact goes far to explain +the atrocities committed with the consent of German public opinion. +William the Damned and his bureaucracy were believed to be above all +moral or human law, and from the earthly standpoint were infallible and +irresponsible. Their orders must be obeyed without question.</p> + +<p>As already stated, few people realize that while even the European +democracies do not accept the bald theory of the divine right of kings +but believe in the divine <a name='Page_27'></a>right of the people, yet somehow or other +these divine rights come down to the people by the gift of the +government, and are not inherent or inalienable, as our Declaration of +Independence would say. This is well illustrated by the principle of the +freedom of the press, which is usually considered one of the greater +guarantees of individual liberty. An examination of the provisions of +various continental constitutions shows that this freedom is given or +guaranteed by the government or by these documents themselves.</p> + +<p>"The press shall be free," says the Constitution of Italy (Article 28). +"No previous authorization shall be required in order that one may +publish his thoughts or opinions through the press, except that every +person shall be responsible according to law."—Cons. of The +Netherlands <a name='Page_28'></a>(Art. 7). "There shall be liberty of the press."—Cons. of +Norway (Art. 100). "Every third year the Riksdag (Parliament) ... shall +... appoint six persons of known intelligence and knowledge, who with +the solicitor general as president shall watch over the liberty of the +press ... If they decide that the [any] manuscript may be printed, both +author and publisher shall be free from all responsibility, but the +commissioners shall be responsible."—Cons. of Sweden (Art. 108). "The +freedom of the press is guaranteed. Nevertheless, the cantons, by law, +may enact measures necessary for the suppression of abuses.... The +Confederation may also enact penalties for the suppression of press +offenses as directed against it or its authorities."—Cons. of +Switzerland (Art. 55). "The press is free; no censorship <a name='Page_29'></a>shall ever be +established; no security shall be exacted of writers, publishers or +printers. In case the writer is known and is a resident of Belgium, the +publisher, printer, or distributor shall not be prosecuted."—Cons. of +Belgium (Art. 18). But this same Constitution later on says quite +pointedly (Art. 96, clause 2) when prescribing the administration of +justice,—"In case of political offenses and offenses of the press +closed doors shall be enforced only by a unanimous vote of the court." +Also (in Art. 98) "The right of trial by jury shall be established in +all criminal cases and for all political offenses of the press." A +further reading of the provisions of these constitutions will show that +the whole intention of the documents is to <i>grant</i> various rights and +privileges to the people.</p> + +<p><a name='Page_30'></a>In contrast with these establishments of the freedom of the press by the +constitutions and governments of the various European countries, the +Constitution of the United States merely says in the First +Amendment—"Congress shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of +speech or of the press." Stating this in other words, our Constitution +merely protects an already existing, inalienable right. Its guarantee is +in an entirely different sense from that of one of the above named +European constitutions.</p> + +<p>In case of riot or disorder, the divinely constituted government of a +country of Continental Europe need merely "suspend the constitution," +usually by the method of executive decree, and it suspends the freedom +of the press and all constitutional guarantees with it, as was done in +<a name='Page_31'></a>Hamburg, Germany, recently. In the United States this would be +impossible. Even though Germany or some other nation should invade this +country and destroy the governments at Washington and Albany, let us say +for extreme illustration, yet if any person were unjustly thrown into +prison in any part of New York state and a judge of any duly constituted +court happened to be nearby, he undoubtedly would issue a writ of habeas +corpus and the person be brought into the court for substantiation of +the charges in a legal manner according to the common law. It would not +matter whether there were a government or not, the inalienable common +law rights of an American citizen would continue to exist and the +destruction of the government would only remove one of the means of +protecting these <a name='Page_32'></a>rights and not destroy the rights themselves. In other +words, the judge would merely act on the common law rights of the +individual.</p> + +<p>Furthermore, in the United States no person, whether high or low, +official or private citizen, is immune from the operation of the common +law. All are finally subjected to it, and the temporary immunity of the +President, a Governor, or any other official, only exists during the +term of office for which that official has been elected. At the +expiration of the term the obligations and penalties of the law +immediately are again in operation. On the other hand, in the countries +of Continental Europe the officials are not subject to the common law +but to the <i>Droit Administratif</i> or Administrative Law, which is an +official law for the regulation <a name='Page_33'></a>or trial of officials. The average +European would consider it almost an act of sacrilege to hale an +official into court like any other private citizen.</p> + +<p>All the above goes to show why many of our foreign-born population look +upon a government as "something from above." They are wont to be more +subservient to it, or to look upon it as responsible for the welfare of +its citizens. Therefore Socialism, which stands essentially for the +dependence of the individual upon the State as well as for the +governmental direction of the individual and the substitution of State +for individual judgment, for this reason appeals to them, and it has +made its greatest gains upon the Continent of Europe or among the +foreign-born or descended citizens of the United States.</p> + +<p>The Socialists answer the charge that <a name='Page_34'></a>Socialism is not American by +saying—"Neither is Christianity. It is a 'foreign importation.' Its +founder was a 'foreigner,' and never set foot on American soil. Then +there is the printing press. It isn't American, either, though somehow +we manage to get along with it as well as the other 'foreign +importations' mentioned." Of course this smart kind of argument gets +nowhere. It is, in fact, intended to appeal to the half-baked type of +mind which has only begun to think and has never progressed beyond the +point of a consequent mental indigestion that would account for its +Socialist nightmare. What the Socialists do know and are not honest +enough to admit, is that this country was settled three centuries or +more ago by a people who did not come hither to enjoy the fruits of +other men's labor but who <a name='Page_35'></a>came here to carve out a new State in America +literally by the sweat of their brows. Also they consciously founded it +upon the basis of individual freedom and responsibility as proclaimed +and enforced by the precepts of the Christian-Jewish religion and by the +English Common Law. It is upon this foundation that they built their +success. Upon this same basis their descendants and successors to-day +weigh, measure and estimate that which is new in thought or invention +whether "native" or "foreign-born." And they have weighed Socialism in +this American balance and found it wanting.</p> + +<p>But they brought with them neither certain loathsome diseases nor +Socialism. All of these are likewise the results of immorality—<i>moral</i> +and <i>political</i>—and of a type of decadent civilization still <a name='Page_36'></a>prevalent +on the Continent of Europe and at that time threatening to gain a +foothold even in England. It was this last-named threat from which the +founders of the American nation were wise and energetic enough to +escape, even though their escape meant going into the hardships of an +unknown and almost uninhabited wilderness.</p> + +<p>Socialism is not only essentially un-American, but it is essentially +undemocratic. A democracy means a government by public opinion, and this +opinion is the result of the co-operative impulse or community feeling +of the people of a free country—a people who are given the opportunity +to think for themselves, and are not thought for by a divinely +constituted government. As Thomas Jefferson maintained, liberty is not a +privilege granted by a government, but government is a <a name='Page_37'></a>responsibility +delegated to its officers by the people. "On this distinction hangs all +the philosophy of democracy."<a name='FNanchor_5_5'></a><a href='#Footnote_5_5'><sup>[5]</sup></a> The people must decide questions for +themselves and make their common will known through the representative +organs of a government which is after all only the instrument intended +to produce the best expression and administration of this public will.</p> + +<p>FOOTNOTES:</p> + +<a name='Footnote_5_5'></a><a href='#FNanchor_5_5'>[5]</a><div class='note'> +<p>David Saville Muzzey, <i>Thomas Jefferson</i>, p. 311.<br /> +"Generally speaking, one may say of the German soldier that he is +normally good-natured and is not disposed to do injury to harmless +people, so long as he finds no obstacles put in his prescribed way. +But once disturbed, he becomes frightful, because he lacks any +higher capacity of discrimination; because he merely does his duty +and recognizes no such thing as individual conscience and, besides, +when he is excited becomes at once blind and super-nervous." "The +Germans are, indeed, a good-natured people, born to blind obedience +and humble willingness to let others do their thinking for them." +Wilhelm Mühlon, <i>The Vandal of Europe</i>, pages 172 and 251.</p></div> +<br /> +<a name='Page_38'></a> + + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<a name="chapter_iii"></a><h3>III</h3><span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span> + +<h3>ITS CONFLICT WITH THE BASIC PRINCIPLES OF DEMOCRACY AND RELIGION</h3> +<br /> + +<p>In the course of a conversation during the past winter one of the +members of the present city government of New York remarked that +although he was not a Socialist, yet he failed to see how the election +of Morris Hillquit on his un-American platform to be Mayor of New York +would have had any result except as regards the national safety and the +immediate influence upon our international relations. He added that the +life of the city would have gone on just the same for a time at least; +hence why the great fear of Socialism? What this man failed to see was +that in fact the life of the city would <a name='Page_39'></a>go on for a time without change +only on account of the impetus the former democratic government had +given. That the policy of individual responsibility and judgment, which +had always been the professed aim of American government in the past, +had produced leadership and popular experience by the process of natural +selection, and that this leadership would last only until the time that +the deadening influence of Socialism had its true effect.</p> + +<p>Let us consider for a moment the result of Socialism as a permanent +policy. It means the substitution, as already shown, of government or +official judgment and initiative for that of the individual. The whole +process would be one to deaden and atrophy the powers of the people in +general, with the result that there would follow a leveling down to a +plane of <a name='Page_40'></a>mediocrity rather than a leveling up according to individual +capacities and ambitions, exercised through equality of opportunity.</p> + +<p>It should not be forgotten that the varying degrees of success in the +different walks of life finally have caused so-called social +differences. These differences result from the attempt on the part of +mankind to meet "the inequality of men in their capacity for the work +with which they are confronted in this life," said the New York <i>Journal +of Commerce</i>, with great acuteness, in a recent editorial discussion of +the phase of the question.<a name='FNanchor_6_6'></a><a href='#Footnote_6_6'><sup>[6]</sup></a> It continued by saying,—</p> + +<p>"What we must strive for is intelligent understanding and sound +reasoning on the question of rights, and a just application of +principles for the common benefit. <a name='Page_41'></a>Everything should be done to develop +and train intelligence and increase the capacity of the people for their +various tasks and duties, and they should be stimulated by the rewards +to which they are fairly entitled in the results; but that cannot be +made to mean that they are all equal in contributing to results and +entitled to equality in the returns. Nothing could be more inconsistent +with a sound democracy than the distribution of the material results of +productive activity applied to the resources of nature, regardless of +the merits or just claims of those engaged in the work. To apply that +so-called principle of equality of rights without regard to the part +taken in producing results, would deaden the energies applied in +achieving them, and greatly reduce the product. It would prevent +material <a name='Page_42'></a>prosperity and defeat national progress."</p> + +<p>In a Socialistic State, inevitably there would be formed a bureaucracy +of selfish office holders. Although, owing to the impetus of our +previous free Democracy, the first Socialist officials might be men of +ability who had gained their places through successful experience, yet a +close corporation of officials would follow them and retain the exercise +of power. The people gradually would sink to a level of servile +conformity.</p> + +<p>We have a perfect illustration of this in the Germany of the past forty +years. There is a good reason for the fact that Germany, in the hands of +a selfish and conscienceless autocracy, made more successful use of +practical Socialism than any other nation in history and even carried +efficiency itself to a point of great success. <a name='Page_43'></a>Her close corporation of +bureaucratic officials, playing upon the remains of feudal and +aristocratic loyalty among the people that have survived the darkness of +past centuries as nowhere else among civilized nations, successfully +carried through Socialism in many practical ways, just as Morris +Hillquit and his un-American followers probably would have succeeded in +doing in New York for a short time. But the inevitable followed. The +German people have been reduced to a very low level of political +ability.</p> + +<p>The German is one of the poorest politicians in the world, as every +student of political science knows. His lack of ability to run a +government on constitutional principles has been found in the inane +vaporings and factional maneuvering of the Reichstag, the supposedly +"popular" <a name='Page_44'></a>House of the Parliament, which was merely a machine to +register the will of the aristocratic autocracy. The individual citizen +is the most servile and unthinking person in any civilized country of +the world to-day. He has been trained to political incapacity.</p> + +<p>What has the success of German Socialism amounted to? We find that +Germany, from the political standpoint, is nothing but an organized +machine without soul. Professor Ely, in taking the Moral side of the +matter into consideration, well says that "it may be added that truth, +an attribute of the gentleman, is less valued in Germany than in English +speaking countries. As long ago as 1874 Professor James Morgan Hart in +his book <i>German Universities</i> called attention to this weakness in the +German character. A German <a name='Page_45'></a>mother will say to her child, 'O, you little +liar,' and does not imply serious reprobation thereby, and Professor +Hart said that if you called a German student a liar, he might take it +calmly, but if you called him a blockhead, he would challenge you to +fight a duel. All this has been amply exemplified during the present +war. It was the German socialist Lassalle who said of the lie that it +was one of the great European Powers! It was natural enough that he +should have said it."<a name='FNanchor_7_7'></a><a href='#Footnote_7_7'><sup>[7]</sup></a></p> + +<p>The public preparatory schools in Germany are so arranged that the +pupils are trained to unthinking subservience to the labor policy and +materialistic aims of a selfish, bureaucratic State. In fact, it is well +to remember that this German illustration only proves that Socialism, +instead <a name='Page_46'></a>of being democratic, is essentially undemocratic in its +effects. It produces an autocracy of officials which is as unfair and +selfish, because entirely materialistic, as any aristocracy of wealth or +birth could be. Shrewd observers note the same tendency in the +Commonwealth of Australia where the full fruition of its +semi-Socialistic policy of recent years has been somewhat retarded by +the individualistic influence of the English Common Law. When the +Socialistic autocracy is once completely in power, with its professed +policy of taking away human ambition and initiative, its position will +be almost impregnable and become more and more secure as the average +citizen becomes more and more servile, lazy and unambitious. Socialism +is politically decadent and contains within itself the germ of +self-destruction. <a name='Page_47'></a>During this process of self-destruction the people at +large will offer a rich field for exploitation by the demagogue, the +corrupt politician and the charlatan.</p> + +<p>Furthermore, Socialism is essentially unChristian. It also is opposed +absolutely to the whole basis of the Jewish religion as well. The +foundation of the Jewish-Christian religion, for they are essentially +the same in basis, is the belief in the value of the individual soul in +the sight of God, and the dependence upon its relation to something +Divine. The impulse from within the human heart is the basis of all +right living. Thus Christ taught the social responsibility of the +individual for his neighbor. The appeal always was made to the +individual and the responsibility was laid upon him.</p> + +<p>We read in the New Testament—"<a name='Page_48'></a>Remember the words of the Lord Jesus how +he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive." (Acts, XX, 35.)</p> + +<p>Right giving, which results from an appreciation of the obligations of +service, is an individualistic action; receiving, which means a benefit +from the activity and initiative of someone else (and often irrespective +of the real deserts of the recipient), is essentially Socialistic in +tendency. The one causes a growth in individual character; the other +tends to stunt or weaken it. St. Paul mentioned (1st Corinthians XIII, +3) as one of the greatest possible forms of service the bestowal of all +one's goods to feed the poor. But he did not suggest as a better way +that the individual should sit back, let the State take over his goods +and attend to the feeding of the poor, and thus relieve him from +<a name='Page_49'></a>responsibility. In fact, "love" itself, which is declared to be the +greatest thing of all, is essentially an individual impulse and never +could be called forth from the human heart, nor supplied to it either, +by the fiat of a government.</p> + +<p>The same note runs through the Jewish Scriptures. At the beginning +(Genesis, chap. IV), in the old story of Cain's murder of Abel, when +Cain inquired of the Lord "Am I my brother's keeper?" the inference to +be drawn most decidedly is that the Lord thought he was, and not the +State, or the tribal government of that day, in his stead. Both the +Christian and Jewish religions are essentially individualistic in appeal +and social in responsibility, and so also is Democracy.</p> + +<p>May not the extreme brutality of the German soldier of to-day be the +result not <a name='Page_50'></a>only of the ruthless command from the official higher up but +also of the de-souling, materialistic influence of Socialism on the +common people of Germany during the past twenty-five years? Is not the +viciousness of Prussian militarism plus the demoralizing influence of +Socialism a sufficient explanation?</p> + +<p>According to Mr. J. Dover Wilson, "the German nation, in fact, is +suffering from some form of arrested development, and arrested +development, as the criminologists tell us, is almost invariably +accompanied by morbid psychology. That Germany at the present moment, +and for some time past, has been the victim of a morbid state of mind, +few impartial observers will deny. It has, however, not been so +generally recognized that this disease—for it is nothing less—is due +not to any national <a name='Page_51'></a>depravity but to constitutional and structural +defects."<a name='FNanchor_8_8'></a><a href='#Footnote_8_8'><sup>[8]</sup></a></p> + +<p>Many Socialists point to the housing, sanitary, insurance and other +State activities of Germany as showing the care of the Government for +the laboring man. My dogs are well fed, are kept clean, dry, healthy and +amused, and are carefully looked after in every way. But they are still +dogs. They have no soul or any right or power of self-determination. So +recent events show beyond cavil that the German workingman, from the +standpoint of the State and Government, was in reality a political dog. +He existed only for the good of the divinely constituted State and its +God-given princely proprietors, and as such was used and sacrificed for +the imperial and national glory. The German <a name='Page_52'></a>laboring man was the most +exploited, the most servile, the most unfairly treated worker on earth. +He was given enough material comforts or even amusements (religious, +theatrical, musical or otherwise) to keep him seemingly content, but +politically he was not permitted to think—or economically either, when +taken in the broad sense of the term. Therefore those who expect from +the revolution or uprising against the Kaiser and his military henchmen +the immediate establishment of a well-ordered and democratic republic, +are reckoning without their host. People must be experienced in +self-government before they can make a success of democracy as that term +is understood in America, and experienced the German people are not.</p> + +<p>While the Socialists of the United <a name='Page_53'></a>States, "parlor" and otherwise, +include in their number many sincere and thoughtful, as well as +idealistic people, it is well to remember that a large part of them is +composed of individuals who have nothing, and want to divide it all with +everybody else. It is the old jealousy of the "have nots" for those who +have, which usually means the "will nots" for those who have the +ambition and will. Or if they are not of this kind, the best that can be +said of them is that they are foreigners, who are in reality not +Americans, who don't believe in democracy, but in autocracy, and +probably don't even know what democracy means. Autocracy is the +government of the many by and for the benefit of the selfish few. Real +democracy is the government by and for the many, who express their will +through their duly chosen representatives.</p> + +<p>FOOTNOTES:</p> + +<a name='Footnote_6_6'></a><a href='#FNanchor_6_6'>[6]</a><div class='note'>Issue for November 12, 1918.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_7_7'></a><a href='#FNanchor_7_7'>[7]</a><div class='note'><p> <i>Op. cit.</i> p. 172.</p></div> + +<a name='Footnote_8_8'></a><a href='#FNanchor_8_8'>[8]</a><div class='note'><p> <i>The War and Democracy</i>, p. 58.</p></div> +<a name='Page_54'></a> + + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<a name="chapter_iv"></a><h3>IV</h3><span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span> + +<h3>SOME INSTANCES OF ITS PRACTICAL FAILURE</h3> +<br /> + +<p>I have stated my conviction, and the reasons for it, that Socialism is +essentially undemocratic and unChristian, as well as unAmerican. Yet +after all it is in the practical realm of experience that it has proved +to be most lacking and inefficient. To prove this, it is hardly +necessary to point to the classic illustrations of the utter failure of +Socialism when actually tried in France under the leadership of Louis +Blanc and Albert during the days of the Second Republic in the year +1848, or again when tried under the form of the Commune in 1871. The +horrors of the extreme form of Socialism known as Bolshevism, <a name='Page_55'></a>as seen +in the Russia of 1918, are destined to implant a useful lesson, not soon +to be forgotten, in the minds of intelligent people throughout the +entire world.</p> + +<p>One of the best illustrations of the failure of a practical Socialistic +State is that of the "Mayflower" settlement at Plymouth in 1620. In +order to raise the money needed for the venture the Pilgrims borrowed +seven thousand pounds from seventy London merchants. In order also to +provide a species of sinking fund it was decided to accept the +suggestion of the creditor merchants that the net earnings of the +colonists should go into a common fund for the space of seven years and +then should be divided among the shareholders. It should especially be +remembered that the Pilgrims were a set of people small in number and as +a consequence easy to <a name='Page_56'></a>govern; of a high type of industry and integrity; +and that they were united by the strongest of all common and social +interests,—that of deep religious conviction. Furthermore, the relative +positions in life of the personnel of the entire Plymouth Colony showed +a remarkable equality. Their method of living was primitive and most +simple in form, without the usual complications of the life of even +three hundred years ago, much less of that of today. And yet this +communal or Socialistic system in Plymouth resulted in such a marked +lack of interest among the inhabitants, the whole arrangement worked so +badly, that the settlement verged on failure and destruction. The system +virtually was abolished after only three years trial in the year 1623 +and good results showed themselves immediately. "<a name='Page_57'></a>Individual effort +returned with the prospect of individual gain." The cause of the failure +is evident,—the system was opposed to the fundamental facts of human +nature.</p> + +<p>But what is "human nature"? Let us take a definition from the Socialists +themselves. "If the phrase means anything at all, it means man, with his +loves and hates, his desire for pleasure and aversion to pain, his noble +and ignoble traits, his interests, feelings, beliefs, prejudices, +ignorance, knowledge, fears and hopes. All these motives, desires and +emotions vary in each individual, some of them usually dominating over +the rest, yet all more or less active. Some one or more of them may be +cultivated by favorable environment or almost crushed by an unfavorable +environment. A saint may be dragged down to hell by adverse conditions +and a <a name='Page_58'></a>rake win eminence in the same environment. If the cultured +educator ... was suddenly forced to earn his living in a vile mining +center, his polish would soon wear off, and he would brood over a world +that now strikes him as on the whole all right. If cast adrift at sea, +within a week the wolf stare of hunger would make him and his associates +seriously consider casting lots as to who should be eaten. Later the +feast might actually begin and ... human nature find it easy enough to +gnaw the shin bone of a fellow castaway. This thing we call human nature +is a bundle of emotions and desires that will find expression in +different ways, according to the environment in which it is located, as +we have seen in the example given."<a name='FNanchor_9_9'></a><a href='#Footnote_9_9'><sup>[9]</sup></a></p> + +<p><a name='Page_59'></a>This is exactly true in thesis, though utterly false in detail. But it +is the object of democracy to give equality of opportunity for human +nature, starting from the essential point of individual impulse (which +is the precise expression of character), to work out the best of which +it is capable. On the other hand, it is the object of Socialism, acting +through political and economic machinery, to crowd out these varying +attributes of human nature and reduce the individual to the mental +status of a dull, unthinking animal. Of course human nature always has +rebelled against this repression and always will do so in the final +analysis. It is impossible for Socialism or any other system of uniform +and outward repression to fetter the human soul and it inevitably will +fail to do so in the end. It is from an experience of <a name='Page_60'></a>the difficulties +and dangers, the unhappiness and injustice that will accompany this +process of failure, that the opponents of Socialism and the believers in +Democracy wish to spare the people of the world to-day.</p> + +<p>This failure of Socialism especially is true as applied to Germany. The +un-souling of the people has come as the direct result of the use of +Socialism by the military autocracy for its own selfish purposes. Also +its failure is repeatedly seen in its actual working, and in spite of +the German boast of efficiency. The best illustration of this, because +the one most used by the Socialists on the other side of the argument, +is that of the railroads.</p> + +<p>Most of the railroad lines of importance in Continental Europe are owned +and operated by the various governments. I <a name='Page_61'></a>can say from my own personal +experience and observation that the only railroads that are really well +run, so far as I have traveled, are those under private ownership and +direction, as in Great Britain and the United States. I have tried the +various trains de luxe and Blitzzüge of Continental Europe and their +slow progress and often indifferent accommodations make one long for an +English or American express train. And then to hold first-class tickets +in Germany, and be refused admission to first-class compartments still +empty "because some officials may want them," as was my experience in +going from Nürnberg to Mainz, does not add to one's desire for +governmental control. The best European trains do not for one moment +compare with those of the privately owned British and American +railroads.</p> + +<p><a name='Page_62'></a>According to statistics published in 1913, the railroads of the United +States were capitalized at $60,000 per mile under private ownership; the +government-owned German roads at $109,000 per mile, and this in spite of +the far cheaper costs of building. Railroad rates in the United States, +both freight and passenger, under private ownership have been among the +lowest in the world. The first thing that our government control has +brought about is a raise in rates that exceeds by far what the private +managements would have dared even to imagine, much less ask of the +Interstate Commerce Commission. And this has been accompanied by a +marked deterioration of service, all of which can by no means be blamed +upon conditions resulting from the war. Poorer service at higher cost is +the almost <a name='Page_63'></a>universal experience, in the long run, of government-owned +public utilities both here and abroad.</p> + +<p>The Boston <i>Commercial</i> in 1913 called attention to the fact that in +France the year 1912 was marked by the largest increase in gross +receipts on record, for both government and privately owned railroads, +but the privately owned roads showed an improvement in net earnings +almost three times as great as that of the nationalized railroads. These +failings noted above are almost inevitably found wherever the government +owns the railroads or other utilities, or else these utilities are run +at a loss and the difference made up in the tax bills of the people. +Government control never is as efficient and economical as private +control, even though all questions of political power and <a name='Page_64'></a>influence be +omitted from consideration.<a name='FNanchor_10_10'></a><a href='#Footnote_10_10'><sup>[10]</sup></a></p> + +<p>The important testimony of Mr. W.M. Acworth, an English authority upon +railroads, which he gave by invitation before the Senate Committee on +Interstate Commerce at Washington, has not been fully appreciated by +American public opinion. The National City Bank of New York rightly +stressed the importance of this <a name='Page_65'></a>testimony in one of its bulletins +during the year 1918. Mr. Acworth was in this country during the early +part of 1917 as a member of the special Canadian Commission on Railways, +and he told the Senate Committee that "while American companies have +revolutionized equipment and methods of operation, Prussia has clung to +old equipment and old methods. This is typical. In all the history of +railway development it has been the private companies that have led the +way, the State systems that have brought up the rear. Railroading is a +progressive science. New ideas lead to new inventions, to new plant and +methods. This means the spending of much new capital. The State official +mistrusts ideas, pours cold water on new inventions and grudges new +expenditure. In practical operation German railway <a name='Page_66'></a>officials have +taught the railway world nothing. It would be difficult to point to a +single important invention or improvement, the introduction of which the +world owes to a State railway."</p> + +<p>Is it not a rather significant fact that with all their boasted advance +in science and learning, the Germans have failed utterly in the two +realms of politics, as shown in the preceding pages, and of railroading? +And these are the two most extensive fields of the influence of German +Socialism.</p> + +<p>The American citizen has before him in clear outline the sure result +from a continuation of governmental ownership or control as a permanent +policy in the United States after the war. As regards railroad +personnel, if the positions from top to bottom were filled with Mr. +<a name='Page_67'></a>Bryan's "deserving Democrats," as was the case with our diplomatic and +consular service in 1913, the results would be as striking, though +perhaps in a different and even more serious way.</p> + +<p>Of course the Civil Service, which has been a solid measure of reform +and one from which we dare depart only at our peril, would probably be +called into use and be evaded in exactly the same way as it has been in +the past. And even if it were not evaded, we must remember that the +Civil Service examinations and rules are not a guarantee of efficiency +or excellence. The best that can be said for them is that they are a +protection against absolute incompetence and, to a certain extent, +against political spoiling. But in a positive sense, the Civil Service +is merely a guarantee of mediocrity. And <a name='Page_68'></a>mediocrity never yet made a +success of a great transportation or productive system such as our +railroads or industrial corporations. The political possibilities of a +"railroad vote" of several million employees of the government need only +be referred to, to be feared.</p> + +<p>Perhaps no one would suffer more from a policy of government ownership +than the present force of railroad employees in the United States. They +have won their present positions for the most part by individual +achievement, but their future advancement would depend not upon the +continued successful handling of their work, but upon either the +injustice of political favoritism or the undiscriminating rules of the +Civil Service. That some of the employees have not failed to grasp the +political possibilities is shown by my own <a name='Page_69'></a>recent experience upon a +train between Philadelphia and New York. I had a difference with one of +the train crew who was collecting the tickets in my car, and which was +caused by carelessness and indifference on his part. The employee +finally answered my protests by remarking—"Oh well, we don't care so +long as Woodrow Wilson is in the White House." The truth or untruth of +this statement is not the important thing, but the fact that he made it.</p> + +<p>The personnel would tend steadily to deteriorate in efficiency. The +successful government employee is the one who follows most closely the +beaten track of precedent and past experience. If he departs from this +track, he inevitably arouses the opposition of his fellow-employees or +of the unthinking part of the public, who <a name='Page_70'></a>usually desire no change. He +also takes all the risks of experiment and if he succeeds, the rewards +are uncertain and small; if he fails, he personally bears all the +consequences. This is the reason for the tendency toward steady +deterioration on the part of all public service. Employees of the State +must follow the path of absolute conformity to the past. This deadens +individual initiative, ambition and inventiveness.</p> + +<p>At this point it would be well to repeat the penetrating question +recently asked by Mr. Otto H. Kahn in the course of an address before +the American Bankers Association in Chicago. Said Mr. Kahn—"Now, you +and I, who are trained in business, have all we can do to conduct our +respective concerns and personal affairs with a fair measure of success. +On what <a name='Page_71'></a>grounds, then, can it be assumed that by becoming endowed with +the dignity of a governmental appointment, men of average or even much +more than average ability will develop the capacity to run successfully +the huge and complex business undertakings which the devotees of +paternalism would place in their charge?"</p> + +<p>Furthermore, the plant and its upkeep would be subject to political +influence and objects. Just as we have needlessly expensive or even +useless post office buildings, harbor improvements and other works of +national cost built as the result of sectional log-rolling of +Congressional politicians, so probably we would have railroad stations, +tracks, subway crossings, and service in general offered not from the +standpoint of efficiency and public service, but as indirect campaign +<a name='Page_72'></a>contributions to needy Congressional candidates for re-election.</p> + +<p>It should be realized that the mistakes and delays in our shipping and +airplane production during the first year of the war were probably not +so much the fault of the government at Washington and the administration +of affairs in these departments, as they were the inherent defects of +the Government itself doing the work, and these effects were overcome +only by the heroic efforts of Mr. Schwab, Mr. Ryan, and the other men +whom President Wilson wisely chose to insure the success of these war +measures as a patriotic necessity.</p> + +<p>Our present postal service, the most necessary, next to the public +schools, of all the means for the formation of community feeling and +public opinion <a name='Page_73'></a>essential to a democracy, has been under the charge of +deterioration and inadequate service for the past ten years. Also it +must be remembered that the government-controlled systems of telegraph +and telephone in the various European countries are unspeakably bad, +according to the standards of service to which we have become accustomed +through long years of efficient private management. Therefore, in the +light of this experience the taking over of our systems by the +government has its justification only as a war necessity. As a matter of +permanent policy, it would be an entirely different and very serious +matter. The marked deterioration that almost immediately appeared in the +telegraph service, is sufficient proof of this fact.</p> + +<p>FOOTNOTES:</p> + +<a name='Footnote_9_9'></a><a href='#FNanchor_9_9'>[9]</a><div class='note'><p> Quoted from an editorial in the (daily) New York <i>Evening +Call</i>, issue for August 29, 1918.</p></div> + +<a name='Footnote_10_10'></a><a href='#FNanchor_10_10'>[10]</a><div class='note'><p> "The advantages which might be derived from a single +united administration of all the railroads are doubtless somewhat +analogous to those we derive from the post office, but in most other +respects the analogy fails completely and fatally. Railway traffic +cannot be managed by pure routine like that of the mails. It is +fluctuating and uncertain, depending upon the seasons of the year, the +demands of the locality, or events of an accidental character. Incessant +watchfulness, alacrity, and freedom from official routine are required +on the part of a traffic manager, who shall always be ready to meet the +public wants." W.S. Jevons (reprinted in <i>Selected Readings in Public +Finance</i>, by C.J. Bullock, p. 103).</p></div> +<a name='Page_74'></a> + + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<a name="chapter_v"></a><h3>V</h3><span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span> + +<h3>THE TRUE ANTIDOTE FOUND IN CO-OPERATIVE EFFORT</h3> +<br /> + +<p>There is one term, the use of which is anathema to the Socialist, and +that term is "human nature." He never wishes to meet or discuss this in +an argument, and with good reason, for it has been shown that it is only +by ignoring human nature entirely, both in theory and in practice, that +Socialism can make even the semblance of a reasonable showing. But +another term, which the Socialist especially likes, is "co-operation," +and that is one to which he has no manner of right. Cooperation is a +social movement, the impulse for which comes from within the human +heart, while Socialism as already <a name='Page_75'></a>stated, is essentially a working +together only as the result of outward direction and dictation. The +first is the act of a free man; the latter results from the obedience of +a political and mental slave.</p> + +<p>We Americans have made one of the greatest successes of history along +the line of political co-operation. Our whole democratic type of +government is based upon this principle as a foundation. But we have +done little toward the free and successful use of co-operation in +business or production. It is here that our British cousins have far +exceeded us even though we have outdistanced them, we think, along +political lines of activity.</p> + +<p>It was shown in <i>The Journal of Commerce and Commercial Bulletin</i> for +January 25, 1918, that this co-operative movement in Great Britain has +developed to <a name='Page_76'></a>such an extent that at the present time distributive +societies there number some 3,500,000 members. The turnover of these +societies last year amounted to $605,000,000, to which should be added +$350,000,000 from the co-operative wholesale and the hundred +distributive societies. As a contrast to this, the American people have +been so filled with the individualism necessary to the spirit of the +pioneers who in reality have been "subduing a continent" that they have +failed to realize what a wonderful field for efficient, popular effort +the commercial and industrial activities of the country offered if we +only would adopt the principle of co-operative organization. Probably +one of the greatest lines of development after the war will be this +co-operation between producers and consumers. In no other way can those +<a name='Page_77'></a>activities and profits of the middlemen, which are more or less +unnecessary, be entirely eliminated.</p> + +<p>I have it on good authority from members of the American Federation of +Labor that fully 95 per cent of its membership is opposed to Socialism, +and that the Socialistic 5 per cent is largely among the laboring men of +the Pacific Coast, with possibly a few in the Middle West, especially +Kansas. This latter is probably an after effect of the old "Populistic" +craze of the early 'nineties. On the other hand, American labor is +feeling the need of cooperative action, not only as regards themselves, +but also as regards capital as well, and Mr. Gompers has proved himself +of the stature of real statesmanship in appreciating and advancing this +idea in the most patriotic way since <a name='Page_78'></a>the war began. Individual laboring +men with whom I have talked say they "like the working together" that +Socialism advocates, but after explaining their position more fully, in +nine cases out of ten it is found that they utterly repudiate the +dictatorial, outwardly-directing theory upon which Socialism stands, and +in reality desire the advance of this spirit of co-operation. Thus they +look upon a bonus from profits as merely a partial gift on the part of +corporate management. What they desire is profit-sharing, as standing +for a recognition of the just right of labor to a larger part of the +just proceeds of its work. Thus probably the greatest antidote and enemy +of Socialism is profit-sharing, and after all it is only a recognition +of the fact that production is the joint work of both capital and labor, +<a name='Page_79'></a>that both are requisite and necessary, and that their whole success is +based upon this spirit of co-operation.</p> + +<p>There is no doubt that there are men to-day who are in official +positions of power and influence in our national, state and city +administrations throughout the United States and who are more or less +openly using the present crisis of unusual and war conditions in order +to precipitate the country into a complete Socialistic organization. It +may be that we shall come to Socialism as a final political and economic +development. Personally, I for one do not believe that we will, or that +even a small part of the real thinking American people, either native or +foreign born, would desire this. Even if we did enter upon such a policy +it would only be temporary in duration, and be followed by <a name='Page_80'></a>a terrible +struggle of readjustment to the old conditions. But if we do undertake +Socialism, let us at least do it with our eyes open. Let us realize that +we are entering upon an entirely new and untried policy which is +diametrically opposed to all the ideas and ideals, the history, the +fundamental thought and theory upon which this country was founded and +has prospered and developed so marvellously up to the present time. +Those officials, no matter where placed as regards power and +responsibility, who by underhand means would throw us into this entirely +new method of life without due thought and consideration, are +politically dishonest, no matter how sincere they may be, and are as +traitorous to American life and thought as are the pro-German or the +pacifist.</p> + +<p>The reaction against measures of <a name='Page_81'></a>government ownership and control which +have been made necessary by the exigencies of a great war crisis already +has appeared in Great Britain. The English papers contain open criticism +of the government operation of the railways, of shipbuilding and of +production in general. The London <i>Times</i> said editorially last year: +"The railways are certainly short of labor, but is it established that +all the officials are putting their very best efforts into the solution +of the present problems? The railways are now Government controlled +institutions and competition has diminished where it has not vanished. +It seems to be a question whether quite the same amount of thought and +work is being put into the efficient management of the companies as in +the days before the war when the lines were keenly competing <a name='Page_82'></a>against +each other. This question which has been raised of a slackening of +effort directly in consequence of the nationalization of the railways is +a serious one and evidently deserves inquiry.... The public is entitled +to know if the railways are now using what remains to them (of labor and +capital) with the utmost efficiency." Also the best authorities, and +even the government investigators themselves, are urging a speedy return +to private ownership and operation at the earliest possible moment after +the war. The same undercurrent of feeling, or rather conviction, is +rapidly spreading among our own people in the United States.</p> + +<p>Mr. Hoover has expressed this same view in the most emphatic terms in +the course of an address to the special conference of Federal Food +Administrators <a name='Page_83'></a>held in Washington, D.C. on November 12, 1918. "It is my +belief," said Mr. Hoover, "that the tendency of all such legislation +except in war is to an over degree to strike at the roots of individual +initiative. We have secured its execution during the war as to the +willing co-operation of 95 per cent of the trades of the country, but +under peace conditions it would degenerate into an harassing blue law."</p> + +<p>But the advocates of Socialism are especially active during the time of +uncertainty and confusion that necessarily follows the close of a great +world war. At such times, they always are. In the words of Mr. +Kahn,—"They possess the fervor of the prophet allied often to the +plausibility and cunning of the demagogue. They have the enviable and +<a name='Page_84'></a>persuasive cocksureness which goes with lack of responsibility and of +practical experience. They pour the vials of scorn and contempt upon +those benighted ones who still tie their boat to the old moorings of the +teachings of history and of common sense appraisal of human nature. And +being vociferous and plausible they are unquestionably making converts."</p> + +<p>Recently I saw little "stickers" pasted on the walls of a railway +station in a small New Jersey city which read as follows—</p> + +<p style="text-align: center">The Masters Fear Slaves That<br /> +Think<br /> +If you think right you will act right<br /> +Study Socialism</p><br /> + +<p>This is typical of the fallacious arguments so often encountered. First +of all, it has the tone of darkest Hungary or Bolshevist Russia, and is +absolutely <a name='Page_85'></a>contrary to the facts as regards conditions in the United +States. The so-called "toasters" or "capitalistic class;" for suppose it +is to them that this refers, have been in the forefront of the movement +to educate the masses, and have given their time, money and sympathy to +aid in its success. I heartily agree with the <i>non sequitur</i> statement +that "if you think right you will act right." I am perfectly willing to +join in the demand that our people should "study Socialism," for if the +American people will not only study it but also think their way through +in regard to it, no sincere believer in democracy and in American ideals +need have any doubt as to the final outcome.</p> + +<p>We Americans believe that our people, in the long run, will decide right +upon any question to which they have given due <a name='Page_86'></a>thought and +consideration. So in their hands we may safely leave the whole question +of Socialism and government ownership or operation. All we ask is, that +they be given due knowledge and instruction. Furthermore, if Socialism +be true, it should not fear open and complete examination. If the truth +is the truth, it must prevail in the end. Therefore the surreptitious +and secret attempt to foist Socialism upon an unsuspecting people savors +much of the lack of sincerity and of belief in its real truth on the +part of its own advocates. At least they should stop making their appeal +mainly to the uninstructed foreign-born and to the apostles of +half-baked learning, and lay their case before the hard-headed laborer, +the business and the professional man.</p> +<a name='Page_87'></a> + + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<a name="index"></a><h3>INDEX</h3><span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span> + + +<ul> +<li>Acworth, W.M., quoted, <a href='#Page_64'>64-66</a>.</li> + +<li>Ambition, <a href='#Page_15'>15-16</a>.</li> + +<li>American Federation of Labor, <a href='#Page_77'>77</a>.</li> + +<li>American Revolution, <a href='#Page_5'>5</a>.</li> + +<li>Australia, <a href='#Page_46'>46</a>.</li> + + +<li>Beer, George, Louis, quoted, <a href='#Page_4'>4</a>.</li> + +<li>Belgium, Constitution of, quoted, <a href='#Page_28'>28-29</a>.</li> + +<li><i>Boston Commercial</i>, quoted, <a href='#Page_63'>63</a>.</li> + +<li>Brooks, Phillips, <a href='#Page_7'>7</a>.</li> + + +<li>Cartwright, Peter, <a href='#Page_7'>7</a>.</li> + +<li>Christ, individualistic teachings of, <a href='#Page_47'>4-48</a>.</li> + +<li>Civil Service, <a href='#Page_67'>67-68</a>.</li> + +<li>Civil War (American), <a href='#Page_6'>6</a>.</li> + +<li>Common Law Rights, <a href='#Page_31'>31-32</a>.</li> + +<li>Co-operation, <a href='#Page_74'>74-79</a>.</li> + + +<li><i>Droit Administratif</i>, <a href='#Page_32'>32</a>.</li> + + +<li>Ely, Richard T., quoted <a href='#Page_16'>16-17</a>, <a href='#Page_44'>44-45</a>.</li> + + +<li>Fabian Society, <a href='#Page_8'>8</a>.</li> + +<li>French Revolution, <a href='#Page_5'>5</a>.</li> + + +<li>Germany, theory of government in, <a href='#Page_25'>25-26</a>; +<ul> +<li> labor in <a href='#Page_51'>51-52</a>;</li> +<li> failure of Socialism, <a href='#Page_59'>59</a> <i>et seq.</i>;<a name='Page_88'></a></li> +<li> railroads in, <a href='#Page_60'>60-66</a>.</li></ul></li> + +<li>Gompers, Samuel, <a href='#Page_77'>77-78</a>.</li> + + +<li>Hill, David J., quoted, <a href='#Page_14'>14-15</a>.</li> + +<li>Hillquit, Morris, <a href='#Page_38'>38</a>, <a href='#Page_43'>43</a>.</li> + +<li>Hoover, Herbert, quoted, <a href='#Page_82'>82-83</a>.</li> + +<li>Huguenots, <a href='#Page_6'>6</a>.</li> + +<li>Human Nature, definition, <a href='#Page_57'>57-60</a>.</li> + + +<li>Ibsen, Henrik, <a href='#Page_8'>8</a>.</li> + +<li>Italy, Constitution of, quoted, <a href='#Page_27'>27</a>.</li> + + +<li>Jameson, J.P., <a href='#Page_7'>7</a>.</li> + +<li>Jefferson, Thomas, <a href='#Page_10'>10</a>, <a href='#Page_36'>36-37</a>.</li> + +<li>Jenks, Edward, <a href='#Page_17'>17</a>.</li> + +<li>Jevons, W.S., quoted, <a href='#Page_64'>64</a> (note).</li> + +<li>Jewish Scriptures, and Socialism, <a href='#Page_49'>49</a>.</li> + +<li><i>Journal of Commerce</i>, quoted, <a href='#Page_40'>40-42</a>, <a href='#Page_75'>75-76</a>.</li> + + +<li>Kahn, Otto H., quoted, <a href='#Page_70'>70-71</a>, <a href='#Page_83'>83-84</a>.</li> + + +<li>Louis XIV., <a href='#Page_6'>6</a>.</li> + + +<li>Moriscos, <a href='#Page_6'>6</a>.</li> + +<li>Mühlon, W., quoted, <a href='#Page_37'>37</a> (note).</li> + + +<li>National City Bank (New York), <a href='#Page_64'>64</a>.</li> + +<li>Netherlands, Constitution of, quoted, <a href='#Page_27'>27</a>.</li> + +<li>Norway, Constitution of, quoted, <a href='#Page_28'>28</a>.</li> + + +<li>Object of Government, <a href='#Page_19'>19-20</a>.<a name='Page_89'></a></li> + + +<li>Philip III (of Spain), <a href='#Page_6'>6</a>.</li> + +<li>Plymouth Colony, <a href='#Page_6'>6</a>, <a href='#Page_55'>55-57</a>.</li> + +<li>Postal Service, <a href='#Page_72'>72-73</a>.</li> + +<li>Press, freedom of, <a href='#Page_27'>27-30</a>.</li> + +<li>Profit-sharing, <a href='#Page_78'>78-79</a>.</li> + + +<li>Railroads, <a href='#Page_60'>60-71</a>, <a href='#Page_81'>81-82</a>.</li> + +<li>Rousseau, <a href='#Page_21'>21</a>.</li> + + +<li>Seligman, E.R.A., <a href='#Page_3'>3</a>.</li> + +<li>Shaw, G. Bernard, <a href='#Page_8'>8</a>.</li> + +<li>Socialism, definition of, <a href='#Page_14'>14</a>.</li> + +<li>Sweden, Constitution of, quoted, <a href='#Page_28'>28</a>.</li> + +<li>Switzerland, Constitution of, quoted, <a href='#Page_28'>28</a>.</li> + + +<li><i>Times</i> (London), quoted, <a href='#Page_81'>81-82</a>.</li> + + +<li>United States, Constitution of, quoted, <a href='#Page_30'>30</a>.</li> + + +<li>Wells, H.G., <a href='#Page_8'>8</a>.</li> + +<li>Whitefield, George, <a href='#Page_7'>7</a>.</li> + +<li>William, ex-Emperor, <a href='#Page_26'>26</a>.</li> + +<li>Wilson, J. Dover, quoted, <a href='#Page_50'>50-51</a>.</li> + +<li>Wilson, Woodrow, <a href='#Page_10'>10</a>, <a href='#Page_69'>69</a>.</li> + +<li>Woolman, John, <a href='#Page_6'>6</a>.</li> +</ul> + +<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13706 ***</div> +</body> +</html> |