The ^ Vital Question OR How To Get Real Democracy In The United States By WILLIAM N. OSGOOD "When all shoot at one mark, the gods join in the combat." — EMERSON. Published by THE PEOPLE'S SERVICE LEAGUE Tremont Building, Boston public meetings, and various other educative in- fluences. The potency of public opinion, when crystal- lized, is wonderfully effective. Public opinion, for illus- tration, for a long time told President Wilson to keep us out of the war, and, like a true representative and a servant of the people, and not a self-appointed leader, he bowed to its mandate and deferred a declaration of war. Almost in a day public opinion changed, because the people, unable longer to endure the outrages and insults heaped upon their country, loudly demanded war. The President obeyed the behest of public opin- ion with alacrity, besought the assistance of Congress, and war was promptly declared. In a democracy there can be no higher mandate than that of public opinion, a real public opinion, not an imaginary or fan- ciful one, but one that is based upon mature and delib- erate consideration by the people as a whole. It must, of course, be so overwhelming in its manifestation that it cannot be mistaken or misinterpreted, and such manifestations not infrequently in the past have hap- pened when we refused to debate further about the subject matters involved. Assistance in moulding and forming public opinion becomes, therefore, an exceedingly valuable public ser- vice whose consequences may be far-reaching even if indiscernible. When the individual citizen asks what he can do towards forming public opinion, the answer may be given that he should do all he can to organize those who hold the same convictions concerning public welfare that he does, and above all strive to convince them of the urgent necessity of political action, in order to secure the enactment into law of those measures which will give greater freedom and^protection of op- portunity in the various activities of life, and curb the THE VITAL QUESTION n power of those who would appropriate or destroy op- portunity. Public opinion is to be first won. Then the task o£ securing concrete action by the governing powers be- comes an easy one. The first service, therefore, to be performed by each of us is to do all in his or her power to enlighten the electorate concerning the most impor- tant public questions, and then through concerted action, by means of proper organizations, compel action by the law-making department of our government. The following pages contain the writer's contribu- tion as to what can be done in the forming of public opinion. He will first deal with some of the specific subjects for political, social and economic improvement, and will then suggest a plan of organization, which may be employed in bringing together in any locality those who hold similar sentiments and views upon matters of public concern. CHAPTER I. The People's Cause, or the So-Called Labor Problem. It is certain, that rule by the people in varying de- grees of perfection is bound at the close of the war to be extended more and more widely throughout the world. The battle now being fought in the conflict of arms is but a battle between democracy on the one side, and autocracy and militarism upon the other. At the termination of that war the nations of the earth, as never before, will engage in intense but friendly rivalry to prove that democracy can be based upon foundations more enduring and just than those of im- perialism, and be in the long run even more efficient and economical than those of a potent autocracy. Popular government in the future will be more than a mere form of government. Its essence, justice and equal opportunity to live and to enjoy life, will find ex- pression in concrete remedies and laws. Its machinery must be workable and results must prove its wisdom and prosperity, all things considered, over all other forms of government. We in the United States, as individual citizens, should discharge the great and peculiar duty we owe to mankind, to make our so-called experiment in democ- racy so successful that it will be studied and copied by other nations. We have already done much in the direction of popular government but there still remains much for us to do. Our mistakes and failures of the past must be corrected. We must pay more serious attention to the welfare of all useful and desirable per- sons in the community, and to the abolition of special privilege. The old threadbare phrases "equal rights THE VITAL QUESTION 13 for all and special privileges to none" must be literally reduced to concrete law, and not used merely to adorn speech. Kossuth, the justly famous Hungarian exile, who, two generations ago, thrilled American audiences with his impassioned oratory in behalf of liberty, said shortly before his death, "It is clear that the social, in- dustrial question surmounts all others. Society is sick of a malady that defies cure. The progress of civiliza- tion has given the great mass of people desires which were once confined to the few, and each workingman today regards as necessaries what his predecessor con- sidered luxuries. So-called socialism will not cure the sickness. The weak will always go down before the strong. Monarchy will not cure the malady. Mon- archy is going down all over the world, and republi- canism is coming up. The monarchical principle is not extending itself, while the principle of republican- ism is gaining ground, as the recent change of govern- ment in Brazil shows. But republicanism will not cure the malady, for is there not in America the nearest pos- sible approach to a real republic, with an enfranchised democracy, free education and popular institutions? Still America has this social malady. There seems to be no remedy. Meanwhile the earth will continue to revolve, and some day the present population may be swept from its surface, and a new race more capable of a new civilization may appear." This was said by Kossuth before the destruction of the South African republics by Great Britain, and the acquisition and control of the Philippines by the United States, and the spread of popular ideas of government in China, and I may add the Great War of 1914, in which, sad to relate, his native land was upon the side of imperial- ism. Such was the sombre and melancholy view of this great patriot and champion of human rights, It is not I 4 THE VITAL QUESTION to be wondered at, that even Kossuth in the eventide of his life should have been discouraged because of the ignorance of men, and their indisposition to organize and to devise and apply the proper remedies for eradi- cating the final vestiges of tyranny and oppression, that had their birth in the dark ages. When he lamented that there was no cure for these wrongs, we must remember that he was about passing from the stage of life, and that where he left off others as able and conscientious stand ready to begin, with full faith that many steps forward in the grand march of human progress are about to be taken. Force alone should not dictate governmental policy. Might cannot make right. It matters little whether the force used is the physical force of absolute despot- ism, or whether it is the refined mental force of men who are skilful in inventing schemes for the corruption of legislatures. The struggle which manifests itself today in the United States is the old story attired in new language. It is the old battle of the people against a privileged few. In ancient times, the contest was between the people and absolute kings, feudal lords, a titled nobil- ity, or a military dictatorship. The power against which the people must now wage battle is an aristoc- racy of monopolists, or plutocracy, if you choose. Wealth and luxury are excellent things in themselves, yet we do not want a select few exclusively to enjoy and control them. The more of the good things of this life each one has to a certain extent, the better it is, or ought to be for the general welfare. The first step to be taken is to place man where he belongs, above mere riches. Do not legislate first for the dollar and then for the man. The inanimate and feelingless dollar ought never to occupy a position higher than the being who hopes for immortality. Neither should man be subjected to the same law as THE VITAL QUESTION 15 the inferior animals — that the weak must yield to the strong. Any aristocracy of wealth, title, office or military power cannot long receive the sanction of the Ameri- can people. All such are repugnant to the true spirit of our institutions. Any power or aristocracy which has for its end the invasion of our political or industrial liberty, will sooner or later be destroyed by a justly in- dignant people. The only aristocracy which the Amer- ican people will ever respect or long tolerate is a true aristocracy, composed of the best citizens of the nation, best in intellect, best in heart, and unswervingly de- voted to the real advancement and progress of the en- tire community. The people's contest is not to be permanently waged between labor and capital, between which there is arid can be no natural antagonism, but by a coalition of labor and legitimate capital against a common enemy — monopoly. By this I mean monopoly of franchises and functions that properly belong to the people, and also monopoly of every other kind and description, that tends to obstruct and impede the free and fair play of those natural economic laws which if left alone would bring prosperity, and plenty to all prudent and indus- trious persons. In order to discuss intelligently the relationship of labor and capital to each other, it is necessary to agree at the outset, if possible, upon correct definitions of la- borers and capitalists. Who are laborers and who are capitalists? My answer is that over ninety per cent, of our population are both laborers and capitalists. They differ from each other only in degree. After some reflection, I have arrived at the conclu- sion that everyone engaged in a useful occupation is a laborer amd a capitalist. It makes no difference whether a man projects a vast railroad system across the continent, erects houses, builds bridges, engineers l6 THE VITAL QUESTION canals, tunnels mountains, illuminates cities, surveys the bottom of the ocean for naval warfare or for the purpose of marrying the two hemispheres with bands of iron, preaches, teaches, sells dry goods or flour, or digs gravel, he is, in the true sense a laborer so long as his occupation is honorable and useful in adding to the comforts of his fellowmen. The man who con- tributes the most good to mankind is he, who is the most useful, and he is in strictness the greatest laborer. No greater labor can be performed than is sometimes performed by self-sacrificing men and women, who are ready and willing to spend their fortunes and their lives in the cause of humanity. Who can be greater laborers than Wilberforce, Garrison, Phillips, Sumner, Lincoln, Tolstoi and the rest who were impelled by the sublimest motives of self-sacrifice, and those noble men and women of our times who stand ready to devote their fortunes and their lives to the uplifting of human- ity and the securing of social, economic and industrial justice? The person who leads a useless life, like a gambler is not a laborer in any good sense, whether he gambles in legislative grants, in gilded halls of lux- ury at Monte Carlo, or in the secluded haunts of vice and infamy. On the other hand, everyone engaged in a useful occupation is also, in a measure, a capitalist. One may possess many millions of dollars, while another may have only the breakfast in his stomach, or the dinner in his pail, or the hoe in his hands — yet both are capitalists. The one merely has more capital or wealth stored up or reserved than the other. The one may receive as wages a thousand dollars an hour the year around, and the other may receive only ninety cents or a dollar for ten or eleven hours' work and find employment but a part of the year — yet both are labor- ers — only one gets more than he earns, and the other gets less, or has no chance to earn what he ought to THE VITAL QUESTION 17 earn, or even the skill or ability to find or make oppor- tunities for himself. The tyranny which we should at all times and places be prepared to denounce is the tyranny of the big laborer over the small laborer, the tyranny of the big- capitalist or monopolist with special privileges over the small capitalist, the tyranny of the millionaire over the laborer with only the breakfast in his stomach for his capital, the tyranny of the large and lordly owners of thousands of acres of fertile land with untold treasures both above and below its surface, over the struggling small farmers and producers of the coun- try, the tyranny of the large and extensive manufac- turers over the small manufacturers, the tyranny of the princely merchants over the shopkeepers of small means; in fine, the tyranny of every name and nature which holds mere wealth in higher esteem than men — which holds the railroads, the magnificent edifices of our cities, or the stately ships as greater in importance than the image of God. Man made all these from ma- terials supplied by nature. Can the created be greater than the creator? Can manufactured articles be greater than the owner of the hands which fashioned them? One of the principal obstacles to a speedy solution of the labor problem, so called, is the popular miscon- ception as to who are the laborers. The clerk at the counter, the banker at his desk; the merchant in his store, do not consider themselves laborers. The labor problem they do not think concerns them in the least. A graver blunder could not be made. The labor prob- lem is but another expression for the people's prob- lem. As I said before, everyone engaged in a useful occupation is a laborer, and is equally interested in a correct solution of our problem, whatever his social of vocational position may be. We often pride ourselves upon the representative character of our government, as though every class in 18 THE VITAL QUESTION the community were fairly represented in it. The theory of our form of government is excellent. Yet, are the actual producers, the useful citizens or laborers and moderate owners of capital justly represented in our legislative bodies? Are the middle classes, for ex- ample, adequately represented in the upper branch of Congress? Why do the people not rush in large num- bers to Congress and demand special legislation? Their enemies do. Is it not because they think they can attend to and manage their own affairs quite well without any assistance from the government? But what takes place in their absence from the halls of legisla- tion? Hydra-headed monopoly, ever on the alert, crawls in. The railroad magnates, the iron and coal barons, the princely owners of vast portions of the soil, form a clamorous horde of genuine paupers and men- dicants for special favors. They infest the halls of "leg- islation with their insatiable demands for recognition and plunder. They are not greedy or selfish. Oh, no ! They merely want to obtain public assistance in conducting their private businesses so that they may assume guardianship over the dear people, as though the people could not take care of themselves if others would only let them alone. When any class of our citizens besiege our representatives, the theoretical* servants of the people, and secure from them power which enables them to rob us, we feel tempted to say that a people who will tamely submit to such treachery on the part of their representatives, ought to be robbed and enslaved. It requires no prophet to declare that they will continue to be robbed and enslaved, as long as they neglect to organize themselves, and elect as lead- ers those who believe in real and genuine popular gov- ernment. Jay Gould said, "If labor and capital are left to themselves, they will bring about a satisfactory adjust- ment." A most wise observation if they are left to THE VITAL QUESTION 19 themselves. That is the identical thing we are fight- ing for. And when we shall succeed in bringing about the free and normal relations of labor and capital, our task will be accomplished. But when large and exces- sive capital secures special privileges unto itself, to levy unjust taxes and exact unjust tribute from the people; when it secures valuable corporate franchises without paying the people for them and then charges the people excessively for using their own property; when it ob- tains corruptly through legislative action lands of im- mense value without rendering any equivalent for the same; when monopolies in general are permitted to wield sufficient power and strength to crush out any formidable rivals, even to starving an honest inventor and forcing him through expensive and long litigation, and, perhaps, for a mere trifle, to part with the fruits of long and weary days and nights of severe toil and study; when trusts, combinations and immense aggre- gations of capital are allowed to shut up mills and throw thousands of employees out of work without no- tice, then, Mr. Gould, labor and capital are not left to themselves. In a word, the aim of labor, or of the people, just as you prefer, should be to ascertain the most efficacious means of increasing the burdens of dangerous monop- olies, and decreasing the burdens of the industrious poor and those in moderate circumstances. For it is a notorious fact that those of special privilege escape bearing the public burdens they ought to bear, and that the poor bear directly and indirectly more than their just share of those burdens. We must embarrass the monopolist and encourage and assist the honest, thrifty and industrious man who is battling for an ex- istence to gain a mastery over the reasonable comforts and even reasonable luxuries of life. Upon this great issue of the age we must take sides. The logic of events so compels us. There is no es- 20 THE VITAL QUESTION cape. Either we must serve the monopolist or the com- mon people. We cannot serve both masters, for either we "will hate the one and love the other, or else will hold to the one, and despise the other." Is there any doubt of the existence of a people's cause, or a labor problem, when men and women greedily grasp the charitable wages that are handed them by the captains of industry who think they are conferring a rich boon upon humanity by giving em- ployment to any one? Why should men and women be. compelled to rush like so many animals jostling each other to seize an opportunity to support life, just as though God and nature gave life and neglected to pro- vide amply for its maintenance? Why should it be nec- essary for wives and children to enter our unwholesome factories and compete with men? If they are forced by poverty and want to do the same work as men by means of some labor-saving machine, why in the namei of fair play shouldn't they receive the wages of men? Why should children of tender years be obliged to compete with their fathers and therefore reduce the fathers' wages, when they ought to be at school or romping in the fields? This system is doubly censur- able, for wherever it is tolerated, the combined earn- ings of the father, mother and children are scarcely adequate to support the family, and in but few instances exceed the wages which should be paid to an able- bodied and industrious man working eight hours a day. The first task to which we should devote ourselves, is, to awaken, more and more public thought and interest in our cause. This can be done only through persist- ent and united effort. No matter how much men may differ in regard to remedies, let them all turn their footsteps in the same direction and march forward to- gether. The common destination is the land of Truth. Let there be no stragglers, no deserters. Let all drown individual opinions and differences in the undisputed THE VITAL QUESTION 21 conclusion that all monopoly, or special privilege, is an implacable foe that must not only be defeated but an- nihilated. It should not be treated with. No com- promise, should be the answer to all overtures of mo- nopoly. CHAPTER II. Direct Legislation. The strong need no champions. Monopolies need no friends. They are independent, self-reliant, and often defiant, being conscious of their strength. One hundred millions of dollars are naturally strong, be- cause naturally organized. The interest of each dollar is identical with the interest of every other dollar, and they work together in obedience to an inexorable law. One hundred millions of liberty loving people with in- dependent and individual interests are naturally dis- organized and consequently weak under present condi- tions. It is only when their few common and collec- tive rights are assailed or threatened, that they arti- ficially organize, so to speak, and seek to overthrow their oppressors. When the liberties of the American people are endangered by any power, we must expect sooner or later to witness some organized action on their part against such a power. That such action is about to be taken is evidenced on every hand. In the present chapter, I shall attempt to show that direct legislation by the people, the initiative, the refer- endum and the recall, is consistent with the true spirit of our institutions and affords the best, and perhaps the only means for successfully coping with the ene- mies of the public welfare. "I do not love the word people," said Bacon the philosopher. "The public be blanked," exclaims Van- derbilt, the practical business man. Democracy can- not exist anywhere in the world, according to Machia- velli, and the despairing Kossuth, whose words are quoted above. THE VITAL QUESTION 23 A United States Senator said, not many years ago, "I am not afraid to say to the American people that} it is dangerous to trust any great power of government to their direct or inconsiderate control." On the other hand, nature cast Jefferson, Lincoln and Phillips in a different mould, and they never hesi- tated to express unbounded confidence in the people's ability to manage their own affairs. Mr. Gladstone declared in 1892: "The classes of leis- ure, the educated classes, the titled and wealthy classes have always been in the wrong." John Morley has written: "The best part of the working classes are most fitted for political influence in the community." "Everybody is cleverer than anybody," said Talley- rand. Paul preached "of one blood are all people." Abraham Lincoln was a sincere believer in the people. Contrast his position with the United States Senator who is obliged to summon all his courage so as to be in a condition to say: "I am not afraid to tell the people that I do not trust them." Theodore Parker in one of his addresses made use of the following lan- guage: "Democracy is direct self- government over all the people, for all the people, by all the people." A copy of this address, according to Mr. Coffin, fell into the hands of Mr. Lincoln long before he was thought of as a presidential candidate, and Mr. Lincoln drew a heavy pencil mark around the above sentence of Mr. Parker's, which he subsequently paraphrased in his brief but immortal oration at Gettysburg. Thus, we have two kinds of men of unquestioned eminence and ability holding diametrically opposed views concerning the people. Which is right? Which is wrong? This problem has troubled those who have gone before us and must be solved by us. The politi- cal tendency of the times is unquestionably towards a bestowal of greater power upon the people. 24 THE VITAL QUESTION I start with this proposition, that if a person believes in the people he will favor direct legislation by them; and if he distrusts them he will oppose their direct con- trol of the laws. Let me ask those who distrust the people and their ability to govern themselves, when have the people ever betrayed themselves when numerically strong or voluntarily placed themselves in any position from which they might not extricate themselves and correct their mistakes? When did they ever rebel against them- selves? Have the great revolutions by the people been against themselves? Have they overturned govern- ments because they possessed too much power or be- cause they were granted too few political privileges and immunities? Were they not at such times demanding more power? It is absurd to claim that the people, any more than individuals, would wittingly act against their own interests. De Tocqueville wrote: "Extreme democracy prevents the dangers of democracy." It is well known that the people have been rash and precipitate only against aristocracies of various kinds, which deemed themselves divinely entrusted with au- thority to administer government for others — and themselves. Some of our modern political leaders seem to be imbued with a similar idea which they have not the courage "to confess. No, the people are not dissatisfied because they pos- sess too great power, but rather because they possess too little power and demand more. It may be true, however, that the more power they gain the more they will desire. That is natural and just. It is right that the people should strive for all the power they can get, because, under our theory of government, the most ad- vanced and advancing theory is that all political power springs from them and by right is theirs. The sovereignty of the government is admitted by us all to be in the people. Therefore, their title to the THE VITAL QUESTION 25 sovereignty is superior to that arrogated by any por- tion of the community, and if it has been taken away from them, or even delegated by them, they have a right to demand its restoration. What is direct legislation by the people and what is aimed at by its advocates? It is simply to give back to the people what belongs to them and what has been carelessly given away by them, or unjustly exercised by their representatives. No objection is raised by those in favor of direct legislation to the form of our government. On the contrary, the representative, or republican, form of government must be perfected and preserved. The mistake was originally made in dele- gating the sovereignty to "agents" and "substitutes" of the people for a period which intervened between elec- tion days. The sovereignty should remain at all times where it belongs, in the keeping of the people, and they should have the right at all times to exercise it, if need be, in certain well-defined legislative matters. If the agents or representatives of the people, as they are presumed to be, were invariably capable, faithful and patriotic they would do better than the people themselves. But representatives are human and liable to be more devoted to themselves and special interests than to the people, and are frequently too susceptible to influences opposed to the public welfare. Mr. Bryce in his "American Commonwealth" is of the opinion that it is so difficult for us to secure able and honest representatives that he encourages an exten- sion of direct legislation by the people, which he ob- serves acts in American politics as a "bridle and bit" and not as a "spur," that is, that popular action is con- servative and prevents more evil than it causes. Von Holtz remarks that the consciousness on the part of the American people that they are the ultimate repository of the sovereignty, even under their present 26 THE VITAL QUESTION limited right of direct action, serves to hinder revolu- tions and popular uprisings. The advocates of direct legislation believe that the people have committed a grievous mistake in delegat- ing to representatives even a temporary right to the entire sovereignty; that a sufficient part of the sover- eignty should at all times be retained by the people themselves, to enable them to enact laws for their own benefit and defeat the passage of laws framed against the public weal, or designed to serve merely private or special interests; that the people should have not only the right to petition, but the power to compel action upon their petitions; in fine, that the people at all times should assume the right to propose proper laws, that is, laws not urgent but important, and the right to veto such laws by appealing from the acts of their representatives to a popular vote. It is certain that direct legislation by the people will deal a death blow to the lobby, and destroy the cor- rupting influences upon legislation of political rings and those seeking special privileges. It is not claimed that the people should directly leg- islate upon matters of great and immediate urgency, but that they should directly legislate upon matters not urgent but, nevertheless, important, as intimated above. Mistakes made by some communities where direct leg- islation has been adopted were due to attempts on the part of the people to vote concerning unimportant and trivial matters, under very crude and impracticable schemes of direct legislation. Under a well-matured system of direct legislation, many hasty and ill-considered measures would never become laws, for the reason that legislators would hes- itate to favor bad laws, being cognizant that their acts were being constantly scrutinized and subject to popu- lar disapproval and amendment. The people would not officiously interfere with the work of their repre- THE VITAL QUESTION 27 sentatives. On the contrary, they would concern themselves with only important and far-reaching public questions not requiring immediate legislative action, like appropriations for current expenses of state, and unusual sanitary and police exigencies. The existence of monopolies would be rendered impossible, the ex- treme bitterness of partizanship would disappear, the highest political independence would be encouraged, and the highest patriotism would be fostered. Our government would then become in fact, as well as in theory, a government by the people. All persons who believe in particular reforms should co-operate in secur- ing direct legislation even if they are unable to work together for any other purpose, for, in no other way can they secure a possible expression of the people con- cerning such reforms. If the majority of the people look with favor upon any special reform, it will be in- corporated into our laws. If they look with disfavor upon it, its advocates may seek a reversal of public opinion or abandon their cause as hopeless. At any rate, all will have to abide by the ultimate popular ver- dict, as they should in a truly democratic country. The idea of direct legislation, especially in local and even state public affairs, is by no means an untried or novel one in the United States. A great deal has been written concerning the initiative and referendum of Switzerland, and we are supposed by many to be imi- tators of that country in respect to direct legislation. While Switzerland affords an excellent and convincing illustration of the practicability of our plan, and has carried it to a high state of perfection in actual appli- cation, still it need not be said that we are imitators or followers of the Swiss. We may be said to be imi- tators or followers of the Swiss Republic only because our history happened to begin at a period later than hers. The idea of direct legislation by the people is in complete harmony with the spirit of our own laws. 28 THE VITAL QUESTION What examples of direct legislation by the people have we in this country? The town meeting is indeed the most familiar one. The manner of conducting our town meetings is too well known to require a detailed description. The voters assemble and directly propose, discuss, pass and defeat local measures. Our critics will say that is true and the system works well in small communities, but why do towns when they attain a considerable size almost invariably petition the Legis- lature for city charters? The answer is, that the meet- ings become large and unwieldy — yes, unwieldy by those who usually want to control the affairs of the town. Then, again, a great many are seemingly fasci- nated with the notion of living in a city. The large taxpayers in a mixed community favor the change from, a town government to a city government, because they can have more influence with the latter. The transi- tion is natural and exemplifies the progress of political evolution common to all growing communities. Yet, some towns decline to make the change, because a large majority of the citizens may be wealthy and en- lightened and may be depended upon to directly con- trol public affairs in their own interests. Such com- munities instead of furnishing an argument against direct legislation in reality endorse it. What occurs after the acceptance of a common city charter, the last direct action, by the way, of the voters in purely local matters? A form of government is se- cured that is removed from the direct control of the people, subject to comparatively easy political manipu- lation, until we have the problem of correct municipal government presented to us. The great mistake in the past was made in granting and accepting city charters which practically remove from the voters the right to directly control the affairs of the newly made municipalities. Note, I say tha right to control the affairs of the city. By this, I do THE VITAL QUESTION 29 not mean that the citizens should literally manage and direct every detail of legislation, for then there would be nothing gained by the change from the town meet- ing, but that they should have the option, if so disposed, to propose measures which must be acted upon and to veto bad measures passed by their city councils. Those powers never should have been surrendered by the inhabitants of the towns, but should have been expressly reserved in the city charters to them and their successors. That this view is correct is proven by the adoption by over one hundred American cities of new charters which have incorporated in them not only the initiative and referendum but also the recall of city officials. The Constitution of Massachusetts contains the fol- lowing provision: "The people have a right in an orderly and peace- able manner to assemble and consult upon the common good; give instructions to their representatives and to request of the legislative body by the way of addresses, petitions or remonstrances redress of the wrongs done them, and of the grievances they suffer." Many of the Constitutions of the several States con- tain similar provisions. The right to assemble, to consult, to give instruc- tions to representatives and to request action of them, to petition and remonstrate, are insignificant rights and totally inadequate, if the servants of the people are not compelled to listen and obey. Perhaps, indeed, the fathers thought the representa- tives would heed public opinion without being forced to heed it. Their times, however, were not our times. There is no express provision in the Massachusetts Constitution, which I use merely for illustration, allow- ing the people to demand action upon their petitions or a right to appeal from legislative acts. This seems at first thought to have been an almost unpardonable 30 THE VITAL QUESTION oversight on the part of the framers of the Constitu- tion, especially when it is provided in that instrument that, "All power residing originally in the people and being derived from them, the several magistrates and officers of government, vested with authority, whether legislative, executive, or judicial, are their substitutes and agents and are at all times accountable to them." This language is unequivocal and proves conclusively that the sovereignty was in spirit, at least, to reside at all times in the people. Still, there is no provision made for making the said "substitutes and agents" at "all times accountable" to the people. The most prob- able explanation of this omission on the part of the framers is that they did not deem it necessary to make such a provision, not dreaming that the "agents" of the people would ever abuse or betray, to any serious degree, the confidence reposed in them. They had no thought of the great corporate interests, the enor- mous and powerful railway systems, the great variety of corporations made possible by the application of elec- tricity, the thousand and one trusts that are the prod- ucts of our modern commercial and social conditions, sending their tools to the halls of legislation to obey their mandates. The lot of the framers was cast in a different period, when political and commercial life and methods were comparatively simple, and public officials were person- ally well known to the citizens. The only provision in the Massachusetts Constitu tion which suggests a remedy for dealing with "agents" who betray the people, is this: "In order to prevent those who are vested with authority from be- coming oppressors, the people have a right at such periods and in such manner as they shall establish by the frame of their government, to cause their public officers to return to private life, and to fill up vacant places by certain regular elections and appointments THE VITAL QUESTION 31 That is, if the representatives become oppressors, re- tire them to private life. Not one word occurs in ref- erence to undoing or preventing their acts of oppres- sion. There is nothing said about restoring or for- bidding the giving away of sovereign rights to corpo- rations and monopolies. The Constitution of Massachusetts provides that gov- ernment is instituted for the people and not for any one man, family or class of men. No mention is made of monopolies, corporations and trusts. The fathers were unacquainted with such things or they would have re- ferred to them. Let us not be too cynical concerning the framers. We admire the general excellence and perfection of their work and must remember that they builded ac- cording to the wisdom which they had for the condi- tions which confronted them. May we display an equal or even an approximate wisdom in regard to the 4 problems which are presented to us. 1 The only provision in the Massachusetts Constitu- tion looking towards direct legislation by the people relates to the adoption of amendments to the Consti- tution — a kind of referendum. The people do not di- rectly propose these amendments. They must be pro- posed in the General Court or Legislature, passed by that body, and by the one next chosen, and "then it shall be the duty of the General Court" to submit such amendments to a popular vote. If a majority of the votes cast at an election held for such purpose are in favor of the amendments, then without further action they become parts of the Constitution. I have taken the Massachusetts Constitution merely for illustration. The same observations may be made in reference to similar provisions in the constitutions of many other States. The local right to vote upon a question of granting liquor licenses is another example of direct legislation 32 THE VITAL QUESTION long possessed by the people in many towns and cities. Many States permit popular votes upon such subjects as appropriations for specified purposes, location of public buildings, purchase of lands, education, etc. I have purposely refrained from examining in detail the Swiss initiative and referendum, for the reason that direct legislation is in perfect consonance with our in- stitutions, and has been decided by the Supreme Court of the United States to be compatible with a republi- can form of government, and that the Swiss system has already been admirably described by many well known writers who have furnished us full and complete ac- counts of legislation by the people of Switzerland. The works of these writers should be studied by those who wish to become familiar with what others have done for true democracy, and who entertain no doubt con- cerning the practicability of direct legislation enjoyed by three millions of liberty-loving people, who have been going forward and not backward. History is being made so rapidly at the present day in many of our municipalities and States in relation to the adoption of the initiative, referendum and recall, that I need but refer you to such municipalities and States for ample data concerning the successful operation of direct leg- islation in our very midst. To the critics of the theory of direct legislation by the people, it is only necessary to point to its great growth throughout the United States and ask them to point to any instances of repeal of direct legislation where adopted, or even to any con- siderable agitation anywhere for such repeal. It may be well to note at this point that in addition to the numerous American cities above referred to, eighteen States have already adopted direct legislation. These States are North Dakota, South Dakota, Oregon, Maryland, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Maine, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, Arkansas, New Mexico, Colorado, Ohio, Arizona, Washington and California. THE VITAL QUESTION 33 Direct legislation is now pending in many other States for popular endorsement, having been passed by Legis- latures or constitutional conventions. Among such States are Idaho, Wyoming, Mississippi, Wisconsin, Massachusetts, and possibly some others. The reform is certainly advancing rapidly and it does not require a prophet to predict its general adoption by all the States in the near future. It must be admitted, how- ever, that considerable is to be learned from its erro- neous and absurd misuse and application in some west- ern States. While these mistakes may afford some comfort to the critics of direct legislation, they by no means affect the principles involved and the end in view. , To those persons who consider direct legislation im- practicable in national affairs owing to the great size of our country, I would say that although our numbers are large, and we are distributed over a vast area, yet we live nearer together by reason of modern means of inter-communication than our ancestors, who were scattered over a comparatively small territory. By means of the telegraph and the press, the events oc- curring in one part of the country are almost immedi- ately told to the citizens of the most distant part. These facilities for the rapid transmission of news tend to make us a homogeneous people with many common hopes and aspirations, assist us in quickly forming in- telligent public opinion concerning public questions and prepare us to give expression to the same. To obtain a record of public opinions concerning even a national issue is simply a matter of detail, at once suggested by the manner in which we now hold elections. There is no legal provision for a direct vote of the people of the United States upon any national question. To render such a thing possible would require an amendment of the National Constitution. That is a question which need not disturb us at the present time. 34 THE VITAL QUESTION It may not become necessary after the adoption by the different States of direct legislation, now that we have the direct election by the people of United States Sen- ators, for then, all the members of Congress would rep- resent constituencies that had true popular govern- ments. Federal measures that could possibly be referred to popular vote would most certainly be very few in kind and number, as by far the largest number of important subjects for legislation are, and ought to be, local sub- jects. Let us first adopt direct legislation in all the cities and States. If it works successfully in these, as we think it will, then we may consider its application to national affairs. What would be the result of direct legislation by the people judging from our own experience, the experi- ence of the Swiss Republic and our own reason? The lobby would disappear with all its evil associations. The power of special privilege would be destroyed. Combinations between the politicians of opposing par- ties to enrich themselves at the public expense wouU1 be impossible. The political boss and his heelers would be but faint reminiscences of a past age. Only able, honest and patriotic men would dare to aspire to popular favor. The power of any one man would scarcely exceed that of another, except it was tem- porarily conferred upon him by his fellow-citizens, sub- ject at all times to their recall. Successful business men, who now devote themselves too selfishly to pri- vate pursuits, would discover that public service would be honorably recognized and would become more in- terested in public affairs. Legislators would be forced to inform themselves carefully concerning public opin- ion upon any matter that might come before them, or invite popular disapproval. Few special or private' laws would be passed, few valuable franchises would be donated to private corporations, and the public welfare THE VITAL QUESTION 35 would be the first and last consideration of the repre- sentatives. The way would be open for more general discussion and interest in public questions. The age of eloquence would be revived, not for the merely rhetorical and grandiloquent orator, but for the speak- er thoroughly conversant with the subject which he was presenting to a highly intelligent audience, quick to detect and frown down any clap-trap or catch phrases. The influence of the press would still be pow- erful, although its power would be exerted in a differ- ent manner than it ofttimes is at present. Instead of attempting to mould public opinion in the interests of its patrons, instead of giving color to the suspicion that its editorials were dictated in the counting room, it would seek to ascertain public opinion, to reflect it, and would be compelled to become more unbiased and less influenced by purely commercial considerations than is sometimes now the case. If the press desired to retain and extend its influence, it would necessarily be forced to advocate the true interests of the people. Public questions would be discussed not only in the newspapers but upon every platform. There is little danger to be feared from free and unrestricted speech at meetings peaceably called and conducted. There is infinitely more danger to be feared from a tendency to stifle free and full discussion by permitting inter- ested editors, corporations and politicians to do our thinking for us. In fine, a restoration to the people of their full sov- ereignty, the right to manage their own affairs and, when that is not literally practicable, to have the right at all times to hold their agents accountable, as con- templated in our constitutions, by proposing and veto- ing laws not urgent, and also by demanding their re- call, would bring greater prosperity and happiness to the people as a whole. We should recollect that popu- lar revolutions are caused not by conferring rights, but 36 THE VITAL QUESTION by refusing them. The people would not be levelled down, but levelled up. Monopolies and trusts alone would be levelled down as they in justice should be. The average law-abiding, prudent and industrious citi- zen would be afforded a fairer opportunity to secure the inalienable rights enumerated in our several con- stitutions and to live and enjoy his life. True democ- racy, or popular government, is to be more and more emphasized in this country in the immediate future, and promises to find continually widening fields in other lands. CHAPTER III. Trusts, Combinations and Effects on Prices and Labor. Trusts or large business combinations are not natur- ally co-operative, and they tend to divide all citizens into two classes, the employer and the employee, with antagonistic interests, and to destroy normal competi- tion and force the small man to the wall. Yet it is claimed by some that "big" business has come to stay, and that competition is a thing of the past and that the effect of trusts is to lower prices and that the people have never obtained the necessaries of life at so low a price as since the organization of trusts — a sort of post hoc propter hoc argument. Others insist that trusts sometimes temporarily lower prices for the pur- pose of ruining competitors and that ultimately they raise- prices. This has recently been done in meats and other necessaries of life, as is known by every housekeeper and every person who goes to market. Of course, if the effect of trusts is to monopolize a business and raise prices nothing can be said in their favor. If, on the contrary, the effect is to lower prices, the burden is upon the friends of trusts to prove that the life of trade, or competition, is not destroyed, and that if competition is destroyed, such destruction is beneficial, and that the means of one's securing a liveli- hood are not narrowed and restricted ; that men are still able to get the same wages, or more, with which to buy the cheaper goods and be able to save more than they could before the formation of trusts. In other words, cut off the means or opportunities of a person to get a living, offer him cheaper goods, and he will be in a better position than ever. This is absurd. A man 38 THE VITAL QUESTION with no money finds cheap goods dear indeed. In- stead of benefiting men even by cheap goods, trusts would have the effect of taking away from those that have not, all that they have and giving it to those that have. Yet, do not understand me as conceding that trusts tend to cheapen prices of commodities, for I think that the opposite tendency is true. Let us now examine a few more of the injurious ef- fects to individuals in the event of the complete control by trusts of the commercial world. In this connection, just imagine for a moment the vast number of persons who would be thrown out of employment, even if the volume of goods produced by the trusts remained the same as before their complete organization. It would not follow that the same num- ber of unskilled laborers would be employed as before, for it is to be presumed that economy would be prac- tised in every direction, and that labor-saving devices and so-called scientific management devices would con- tinually be invented and introduced. The number of employees would certainly be decreased, as has already been done by the closing of many concerns which have joined existing trusts. Many employees other than unskilled laborers are also sure to lose their positions, such as superintend- ents, foremen, bookkeepers, clerks, etc., whose services may readily be dispensed with, when many concerns in a particular industry come under a single management, because single management means economy of per- sonal services of every kind. What become of tho^e discharged employees? They must seek new employ- ment in other businesses already over supplied with similar officials, or go down a step in the industrial ladder and compete with men who obtain less salary or wages than they have been accustomed to receive, thus tending to glut the common labor market still more and to make wages still lower. What hope is there for THE VITAL QUESTION 39 these men to rise in the world when they cannot stay where they are and possibly cannot secure even infe- rior employment anywhere? Always bear in mind that when you lessen the opportunities of individuals to bet- ter their condition, you cannot be advancing the gen-* eral welfare. The entire superstructure of society rests upon them and will topple and crack like any other structure if the foundation is neglected. Again, by combining all business under one manage- ment it may be true that you save dollars and cents, but you save them at the expense of the liberty and freedom of the citizens to engage in healthy and nor- mal competition. Natural competition is just as truly, the life of trade today as it ever was, and it always will be so. This is an inexorable and immutable law that all the trusts and their corrupt legislators and lob- byists combined cannot annihilate, any more than they can annihilate the law of gravitation. To niggardly economize in the production of commodities for the benefit of a few, and sacrifice the liberty of the many by placing upon them the shackles of serfdom, is not na- tional economy. It is rather national extravagance and waste. It is a crime that sooner or later must be atoned for by its authors, or their beneficiaries. The persons injured are not only the discharged ser- vants formerly employed by the trusts in the different grades of employment, but many outside the trusts are also injured. Capitalists of moderate means, who de- sire to enter a particular business, cannot do so with any chance of success if that business is monopolized or artificially controlled by a trust. By destroying competition the cause of labor becomes the cause of moderate capital. The man with moderate wealth or, with ambition to become a capitalist, a laudable ambi- tion, would then be precluded from making the most of himself. Can it be said within the bounds of reason, that it is for the general welfare that capitalists should 40 THE VITAL QUESTION not be encouraged, and that the young men of the country should be prevented from engaging in business upon their own account, and that the doors of such an opportunity should be closed to them? It is for the benefit of the country as a whole that the employment of capital, as well as labor, should be fostered to the greatest possible extent. Unlimited employment of capital is the natural and normal condition of human activity. Trusts tend to limit the employment of both. The time has arrived when moderate capitalists and laborers should unite politically to right their common wrongs against a common enemy. There is no longer a labor problem only, but a people's problem in whose correct solution all useful and liberty-loving citizens are equally concerned. Vote secretly, if need be, but vote against trusts and monopoly until all laws favoring them are blotted from our statute books. The future welfare of this country is imperilled, and all patriotic and law-abiding citizens both for their own welfare and for the welfare of those who are to come after them, should invoke all lawful means to destroy the trusts and their baneful effects. To neglect to do this, is but to invite and encourage the growth and de- velopment of a tyranny and despotism unparalleled in history, and to afford amusement to foreign friends of centralized power and ruling classes, and to excite the exultation of the domestic enemies of true democracy. Let the people exercise their neglected political rights by thorough organization. Divided, the people are weak. United, they would be irresistible. One of two things is in store for them. Destruction of monopoly and special privilege, or destruction of liberty. Which shall it be? Shall they be deprived of what God has given them, or will He aid them in the recovery of their just inheritance — the earth and the right to enjoy the ful- ness thereof, and to "delight themselves in the abun- dance of peace"? CHAPTER IV. Equable Taxation. One of the most important and far-reaching func- tions of a government is that of levying taxes upon its citizens for its maintenance. During the troublous times of war, there is little opportunity for discussing mere theories of taxation. All property real and per- sonal, incomes, businesses, commercial and legal trans- actions must contribute to the immediate defense and preservation of the nation. The so-called war taxes will be repealed after the return of peace as rapidly as the exigencies of the government may permit. The following system of equable taxation, therefore, like many other reforms, is certain to receive, after the war, serious and extensive consideration. The writer claims no originality in respect to the substantial features of the system, which is generally known as the single tax. He is here making the attempt to state in as condensed form as practicable the salient points in its favor, and is willing to submit to the candid judgment of the reader whether, on the whole, the placing of all taxes upon the rental values of land, rather than burdening personal property with any taxes at all, is not in the long run preferable, and for the general welfare, that is, the welfare of both labor and capital? The single tax theory, if accepted by public opinion, would no doubt revolutionize and greatly improve so- cial and industrial conditions. By this, it is not meant that it will require a violent civil disturbance for its adoption. It will merely require a partial remodelling, so to speak, of our social and industrial fabric, which has been too artificially fashioned. We want first of 42 THE VITAL QUESTION all to get back to primary principles, and insist that our development shall in the future be rational, normal and just. The single tax should not be considered a panacea for the industrial ills of mankind, although many look upon it as one of the greatest economic remedies, or reforms, ever presented to reason and common sense. Its adoption would clear the way for the normal action of certain economic laws that are essential to social and industrial health, which alone can be conducive lo real happiness and contentment. Single taxers are neither socialists nor anarchists, although some careless persons say they are both. So- cialists desire to make use of present governments and to accomplish their ends, they insist that the State shall own all means of production, and that each shall work for all and all for each, through constitutional and law- ful means. At least, that is what they claim. On the other hand, the anarchists do not believe in participat- ing in governments, but insist upon their overthrow, holding that a co-operative commonwealth would nat- urally rise from the ruins. The socialists represent one extreme, that of collectiveism, or the destruction of individual liberty, and the anarchists the other ex- treme, that of the greatest possible individual liberty without governmental interference. The single taxers represent neither of these ex- tremes. They are more conservative than either so- cialists or anarchists. They believe in liberty and free- dom in individual or private affairs, the right to the ab- solute ownership of one's share of production, and in the State control or ownership of those functions which are public and which pertain to the State, and which have been thoughtlessly or corruptly transferred to private interests, like the transportation of persons and com- modities, the transmission of intelligence, the furnish- ing of gas and electric light, et cetera. This is not social- THE VITAL QUESTION 43 ism, but only a restoration to individuals of their rights, and to the state of what originally belonged to it and relate to its normal functions. Let us now proceed to learn specifically what the single tax is and what its effect would be. By it, all taxation of every kind would be abolished except that upon land values. This does not mean tax upon land according to area, but according to its market valua- tion. The land that had the most value would pay the greatest tax, — land that had no value would pay no tax. The first question that arises is, what has a system of taxation to do with the general social and industrial welfare of mankind anyway? The answer is, that it has everything to do with it. Iniquitous systems of taxation have caused most uf the great revolutions and wars of history. Unjust systems of taxation injure both capitalists and laborers, and all useful citizens are both laborers and capitalists in varying degrees, and what injures labor injures capi- tal under the operation of natural laws. The term capital is not used synonymously with that of monop- oly by single-taxers, a distinction which should be kept in mind, but is used as meaning wealth engaged in pro- duction. The only way open to us* to provide for the mainte- nance of government, and secure all the protection and benefits which result from government, is taxation. This, in some form or other, is a necessary burden, and in fact should in theory be imposed upon us directly by the government. The power to impose it should not be delegated by the government. Both capital and labor should be taxed as lightly as possible. The the- ory of the single tax is that neither of these factors of wealth should be taxed at all, and that as a conse- quence, capital would largely increase and that wages 44 THE VITAL QUESTION would in like manner advance and receive far greater employment. Then if neither labor nor capital is to be taxed, where is the income to maintain the government to come from? It is to come, we say, from the value of land. We say that land is in reality an element of na- ture, like air and water, and that those who use this element called land should pay the government, as a public landlord, for such use in rent or taxes. It would not be considered unwise or unjust that persons monopolizing the air or water, if that were possible, should be compelled to pay for the great privilege of using those elements to our exclusion. Instead of making such persons pay taxes for doing this, it would not take us long in some way to get air and water from them, and we might be tempted to place them where they would have no further use for either. Of course, the land originally belonged to all and no one was entitled justly to any part of it unless he made good use of it. That is the starting point of the singie tax. It is merely saying that everyone who gets a por- tion of the earth's surface, whether he obtained it justly or unjustly, secured it by force or inherited it, shall use it and pay the community for such use, and that if he is unwilling to use it or pay for its use, to let some one else use it who is willing to pay his fellows or the community for the privilege. Whether it is unjust or not to privately own land is not of the slightest consequence. To argue and harp upon this injustice, if it be one, only seems to antago-, nize present land owners, both great and small, those who hold land for legitimate purposes and those who hold it for injurious purposes. To start out and call a man a robber and a thief is certainly not a good pre- liminary to asking him to sit down and reason with ns upon the solution of questions, in which he ought to be deeply concerned. The better way to proceed is to THE VITAL QUESTION 45 admit that landowners have a good right to their lands, and that their titles are not to be disturbed in the least. Then try to convince the landowners, or more especially the landusers, that they would in fact be ben- efited by a tax levied upon the values of land alone. The only landowner, in fact, the only person in the com- munity, that would not be benefited by the single tax would be the land speculator, the man who doesn't use the land or improve it, and wants the community to im- prove all the land around him and add thereby greater value to his land. He is unwilling to pay anything into the general fund in payment for this benefit — for this privilege of having others labor for him and con- tribute to his wealth. He wants the contribution all to go in one direction, and that direction is towards his pockets and not the public treasury. It is not nec- essary, therefore, that we should charge that even the land speculator unjustly owns land; we need only say that he should pay the community a considerable part of the benefits which the community gave him and which he did not earn. I assert, that all the owners of land who actually use and improve their lands would be greatly benefited by the single tax. The single tax, you will understand, is placed only upon the value of the land, and would not be placed upon any improvements upon the land, like houses, or other structures. Under the single tax definition, nothing is land but the natural surface of the earth underlying all improvements. What is com- monly meant by real estate, is not what is meant by single-taxers when they use the term. They mean only the natural land, and that is all. The improve- ments of every description placed upon the land or added to it they call personal property. So the term personal property as used by the single taxers includes every conceivable kind of property except the natural land, that is, property or wealth, the production of 46 THE VITAL QUESTION which persons had something to do with. All this per- sonal property, single taxers would make perfectly free from taxes. If this were done, what would be the result and who would be benefited? The result would be that personal property, and that indeed would in- clude houses as well as every form of movable wealth known to man and contributing to his comfort and luxury, relieved of the danger of being taxed, would emerge from all places of concealment, engage in pro- ducing more wealth and greatly extend the employ- ment of labor and increase the rate of wages. It is hardly necessary to argue that a tax placed only upon land values would benefit capital and labor. It would also benefit holders of land who used it or improved it. The land speculator is, as was said above, the sole person who would be injured. Land- owners who used land by erecting buildings upon it ( would be benefited, because business being better, more capital and labor would be employed, greater general prosperity would be experienced, and greater demand for their buildings would be made by new tenants able to pay a fair rent because of their increased employ- ment and consequent advance in wages. It would be easier to get some land to use if it were taxed according to its value. In other words, it would be sold by those who would not use it and pay taxes upon it. As a result, it would be comparatively easy for the honest and industrious man who was anxious and willing to use and improve land to get possession of some of it. This would mean a new impetus to the building of houses, and to the manufacture of the thou- sand and one things that enter into the construction of buildings, or are used in them when completed. The easiest way to grasp the principles of the single tax is simply to carry in mind that all wealth, notwith- standing all the antiquated nonsense that has been spoken and written upon the subject in times gone by, THE VITAL QUESTION 47 is the result of the action of labor upon land. The result has been wealth in its various forms. Capital is merely wealth that co-operates with labor in acting upon land and producing new wealth. Therefore, any- thing which relieves labor and capital of burdens, and taxation is only a burden, will benefit them both. It will aid in the accumulation of capital and add to the reward of labor and increase its employment. It is possible to decrease capital and lower wages by taxa- tion, but land cannot be so decreased. Its quantity remains fixed. You cannot by any means decrease the area of the globe. Land should be controlled by man, and not be permitted to control him. It should serve him and be his slave, and not his master. The earth should contribute the greatest number of comforts and blessings to those who dwell upon it, and it would nat- urally and justly do so if certain people, who do not adequately use the land or improve it, were not allowed to monopolize so much of it, and exclude those who are willing to make rightful use of it and pay for the same. You cannot change the quantity of land. All must use some of it and no one should have the right to more than he can use or improve. We cannot have too much personal property in the world, or too many opportunities for labor, using the term labor in its broadest sense. The ereat and overwhelming argument in favor of the single tax, is, that its adoption would vastly enlarge and extend the chance for the average man, indus- trious, frugal and intent on being a good citizen, to ac- quire a mastery over the comforts and even many of the luxuries of life, on account of the increased oppor- tunitv to work which its adoption would afford and the resultant increased demand for labor. It is not necessary to ar^ue that the poor are con- stantly growing poorer, and that the rich are con- stantly growing richer, and that wealth under our 48 THE VITAL QUESTION present and imperfect system is being rapidly concen- trated in fewer hands year by year, and that an aris- tocracy of wealth, based upon land in its broadest sense, is being built up in this country, threatening destruction to our institutions, and serfdom to our people. It is enough if we can show that the poor people of this country, as a whole, would under the system of single tax grow richer, and obtain more and more of the good things of this world. It is quite safe to make this assertion, that all the wealth of this world rests in the last analysis upon land and labor, and that those who own or monopolize the land control wealth, and that means the control of both capital and labor. You cannot imagine any wealth that has not utilized the element of land in its produc-* tion. Single taxers believe that laborers are entitled to an equitable share in all that they produce, and that they and their products should be exempt from all taxes, es- pecially when the revenue, which would be derived from taxing land values only, would be ample to defray all the expenses of the national, state and municipal govern- ments. Indeed, it has been estimated that probably not over one-half of the rental value of land, exclusive of all improvements, would be needed for a prudent and eco- nomical administration of public affairs. Another great advantage of the single tax would De the ease, certainty, economy and honesty of its assess- ment and collection. Now it is absolutely impossible to tax all personal property. Much of it is concealed. Its possessors frequently perjure themselves when asked to make returns to the State of all their personal property. A great many well meaning persons holcf that the only true system of taxation is to tax every- thing, that is, all real and personal estate. However beautiful and correct this theory may seem, it has never been carried into effect and never can be. Sin- THE VITAL QUESTION 49 gle taxers believe that that theory would be unjust, in- asmuch as enormous public revenue can be obtained by taxing a part only of the rental value of land. The single tax can be levied with absolute certainty. The land cannot be hidden from the assessors, and Hs value apart from improvements can be estimated with equal certainty, as it is now done in many localities, notably in Boston. The system need not be applied at once. It is only necessary to repeal or abolish the taxes that are now inequitably and falsely assessed, one by one, until we get down to the tax on land values alone. There would be very little difficulty in doing this under the several State constitutions if the voters de- sired to do so. Without going into a legal discussion, it is sufficient to say that in order to collect national taxes upon land values directly, it would first be neces- sary to amend the United States Constitution, which provides that "direct taxes" shall be apportioned among the States according to population and by im- plication, not according to value of land. It is true that an amendment to the Federal Constitution is a difficult thing to effect, still if a strong public sentiment were awakened in favor of a single tax, it would be quite possible to secure such an amendment. This reform is more than a mere fiscal or economic reform. It is a moral reform as well. It would pow- erfully aid in solving the labor problem, by throwing open to men limitless fields and opportunities for em- ployment. It would abolish poverty except for the sluggard, the invalid and the imbecile. Under this sys- tem over-production, or glut, in the market of com- modities would be impossible, because there would be no under-consumption, for the reason that the ability of the people to pay and consume would be inestimable. Labor-saving machines would prove a blessing, instead of a possible injury, in many cases, because it would 50 THE VITAL QUESTION be easy for the people to obtain fair chances and fair wages for operating these machines which now they are not always able to obtain. Besides, skilled labor- ers demanding a high standard of living are displaced under present conditions by the unskilled and those who are willing to be content with a low standard of living and low wages. Laborers, skilled and unskilled, would under the single tax become better educated and better citizens, because they would obtain more leisure and means for the acquirement of education and better citizens, because they would obtain more in the enjoyment of greater liberty and freedom. Some questions and answers in respect to the single tax which might naturally suggest themselves, are printed below. Q. If you tax only the rental value of land, will im- provements and personal property bear any of the public burden ? A. Certainly, because all wealth in the final analysis is based upon land, or more strictly speaking, is produced by land and labor. By taxing the rental value of land, therefore, you are sure to take some of the product of land and labor in the form of taxes, because you do not take any of the land. O. Then how can you claim that railroad stocks and bonds are taxed if you tax land values only? A. For the reason that the stocks and bonds of rail- roads, generally speaking, are but the representatives of the value of the road-bed or the franchise, which is but a right or easement in the land. We may say that the stocks and bonds of a railroad are but the evidence of land values, and resemble a deed of land divided into many parts. Bonds, indeed, are but conditional deeds of the property whose value depends upon the value of the land or easements owned. What value would the THE VITAL QUESTION 51 rolling stock, and other personal property of railroads have, independently of the franchise or right to use the land? Q. Would the single tax, equal to the rental value of land only, be enough to meet the demands of govern- ment? Yes, it has been estimated that it would not be neces- sary to use all for the needs of government; that prob- ably a little more than fifty per cent, of the rental values would be sufficient. This has been accurately figured out by Mr. Shearman in his work entitled "Natural Taxation." O. Suppose a person owning a lot of land erects a building upon it, would not that increase his taxes? A. Under the present system of taxation it would, because we tax his improvements. In other words, we fine him for improving his land. Q. Ought a neighbor of his who owns adjoining land and does not erect a house upon it, to pay the same tax? A. Yes. He should improve or pay for the privilege of preventing others from using and improving it. His neighbors, by building upon their lots, add value to his land without any exertion on his part. Q. Suppose a man did not pay his tax on his land value and had a house upon it, what would be done and what would become of his house and improvements? A. The title to his land, and the houses and im- provements would be all sold at public sale, just as land is now sold for non-payment of taxes, and all money received from such a sale, in excess of the amount due for taxes, could be paid back to the delinquent. This would be entirely equitable and just. Q. Would the farmer be benefited or injured by the single tax? A. As a land speculator he might be injured, as a farmer, he would be greatly benefited. His personal 52 THE VITAL QUESTION property as defined under the single tax, and consisting of farming implements, stock, products, houses and barns, house furnishings, etc., would all be exempt from taxation. Now, he pays more tax upon personal prop- erty than even the wealthy residents of cities. His profits from farming would be correspondingly increased. If the rental value of his land only was taxed, the amount of the tax might be very small. The farmer is taxed too heavily at present and he is taxed more in propor- tion than other owners of land. It has been roughly estimated that he owns about half of the property of the country and pays about three-quarters of the total tax collected in the country. Q. How would you tax mines ? A. The same as any other industry based upon land, upon the value of the property as a mine. Q. How would you apply the single tax to a steam railroad, a street railway, a gas, an electric or telephone company ? A. By taxing the value of the land, or the value of the easement or right of way over the highway, measured by the worth of the privileges for those purposes. O. Would not houses become vacant under the single tax? A. No. Many houses now become vacant just as soon as "hard times" come on. Under the single tax there would be no "hard times." Labor would be con- stantly employed by reason of new opportunities, and laborers would have more money with which to hire houses. There could not be a surplus of houses. De- sirable houses favorably situated would more readily and constantly find tenants than now. The owners of such houses would be benefited. A great many more houses would then be built and occupied, and a great many of them would be homes owned by people who are now un- able to own homes. Both tenants and owners of houses would be benefited. THE VITAL QUESTION 53 Q. Would not the storekeeper make his customers pay the tax which was levied upon the value of his land? A. He could not, because removing taxes from the commodities he offers for sale tends to increase the pro- duction of those commodities and the natural competi- tion which would result, would alone determine and reg- ulate the price of commodities. He would have to con- form to the prevailing price or lose his customers. Q. Would not a poor man who has invested his savings in a lot of land upon which he intended to build a home, be injured by the single tax? A. He would be benefited much more than he would be injured. It is true that he would pay more tax upon his land, but it would be much easier for him to get increased wages, and secure his house. He would save more than he would pay out, and in addition he would be permanently better off in every respect. Q. Would the single tax aid or injure the man who owed debts of any kind, and particularly mortgages upon his land? A. It would aid him. There would be greater de- mand for both his personal services and the products of his land if he was a farmer. It would be easier for him to secure the means to more rapidly wipe out his debts and pay off his mortgage. Again, there would be less occasion for him to get into debt, or to mortgage his land. Q. Undoubtedly the single tax would destroy land monopoly. How about monopoly in personal property? Would not that he possible under the single tax? A. No, for the reason that the single tax would open up the field in every department of human activity to free and natural competition. Where there is natural and un- restrained competition and equal opportunity to apply labor to land, the real factors of wealth, no such thing as 54 THE VITAL QUESTION a long continued monopoly could exist. It would soon be broken down by successful competition. Q. Some land is made or filled in and rendered valu- able, which before was valueless and useless. How would the single tax affect such land? A. The earth that is filled in is an improvement just as a building erected upon land is an improvement, and should be exempt from taxation. You would tax the value of the land under the filled land or improvement, just the same as the land under a building. Its value would be measured by the value of a lot in the vicinity not improved. Land would not be filled in that had no ascertainable value. Q. What increases the value of land? A. It is increased by the growth of the community in the vicinity of the land. Q. Why is there any more harm in speculating in land than in personal property? A. Because the quantity of land, or the most desira- ble and choice land, is limited, while the possibilities of producing personal property is unlimited and cannot and should not be prevented under a system of free competi- tion. There can never be too much personal property in the world. Q. Is it right that the laborer should go untaxed and that the landowner be taxed ? A. Yes, because the laborer has a natural right to all that he can produce. He has a right to own himself. The landowner," although he has a legal right or title to his land, has no natural right to it and its value. The value of the land was not created by him but by the community, for which he should pay the community in the nature of a tax. Besides, the laborer cannot escape paying a tax in the nature of rent to his landlord if he is only a tenant. Q. How much of a rise in wages do you think would result from a general adoption of the single tax? A. Mr. Shearman in "Natural Taxation" estimated THE VITAL QUESTION 55 that the demand for labor would not fail to increase by more than a third, and that this would cause a rise in wages of one hundred per cent. Q. Would the single tax tend to help labor at the expense of capital? A. Certainly not. The single tax would help both labor and capital and would tend rather to assist in re- storing their normal relation to each other, and that is mutuality of interest. It would remove all provocation for strife between labor and capital. Q. Is any reorganization of society demanded to secure full operation of the single tax ? A. Nothing of the kind is necessary. It is based up- on the true spirit of our institutions and is in perfect harmony with them. Only a slight amendment in our national constitution would be required, and but little change in our state laws beyond the repeal of unjust and unscientific tax laws. Q. How would the single tax affect the cheap tene- ment house problem? A. It would supply the poor tenants with better tene- ments for the same rent, because houses would be built in increased numbers upon unimproved and unused land. CHAPTER V. Public Ownership of Public Utilities. Public ownership of public utilities, such as the rail- roads, telegraph, gas, electric companies and the like, was much more generally discussed a dozen years ago than at any time since. Very recently, however, this subject has been revived and promises in the immedi- ate future to demand sincere reconsideration and per- manent settlement. In the past, public ownership of public utilities had many timid friends who, while they believed in it, yet hesitated openly to espouse it. Many writers con- demned it with faint praise, and many public men evaded it and sedulously veiled any convictions they might have had about it. Frank Parsons, now an acknowledged authority upon the subject, an exceptionally thorough and pains- taking investigator, was fearful of the immediate adop- tion of public ownership during his life by reason of the heterogeneous character of our people. Mr. Bryan traveled around the world a few years ago to study the question, returned convinced of its justness and practicability. Nevertheless, he did not deem tbe time as then ripe for its open advocacy in his subse- quent presidential campaign. Many eminent states- men like Mr. Lodge, though conversant with foreign affairs, called public ownership a "curse." Many rail- road and "big business" men like Mr. Perkins pro- nounced the idea socialistic and impossible. A great change in conditions and sentiment has now taken place, since England and France have national- ized their railroads, and the United States, the great THE VITAL QUESTION 57 conservative republic, is about to empower the Presi- dent to take control of and manage for war purposes all the required railroads of the country. The number of miles of railroads in the entire world under, and still likely to be under private ownership and management, is reduced to almost a negligible figure and quite too small to support any formidable argument in favor of private ownership of public transportation. No proof would seem to be necessary to show that what a gov- ernment can do in time of war it has the ability, integ- rity and capacity to do in time of peace, if it then had the desire so to act. We should not forget that during peaceful times rail- road securities have steadily declined, that the blun- ders and crimes of past management have been coming home to roost, that experts have been clamoring for more and more government regulations, for the adoption of fantastic schemes of valuation, and for a partnership with the government in order to use its credit to secure possibly thirty billions of new capital for the extension of the railroads during the next quarter of a century to meet the estimated threefold increase in the public re- quirements of transportation. If all the desires of the railroads should be complied with, the following generation will face a problem of public ownership of considerable magnitude. It should not be overlooked that the trivial amount of thirty billions, which slips so trippingly from the tongues of railroad experts, is more than four times the amount that would be required to buy all the capital stock of the railroad companies in the United States, and probably eight times the sum that would be needed to purchase a majority of the capital stock of such com- panies, at present market quotations, and certainly a majority of the stock of those railroad companies en- gaged in interstate traffic. Nothing is more universally conceded in regard to 58 THE VITAL QUESTION railroads than this proposition, if regulation by the government should fail government ownership would be inevitable. Government regulation of railroads has already been tried and failed in every country of any . prominence throughout the world. It does not now obtain out- side of the United States, and is practically a failure here at the present writing, with the railroad interests loudly crying for state aid. During the war the Presi- dent will no doubt be given full control and manage- ment of all of the railroads of the country. This prec- edent may prove an unanswerable argument in times ob peace to support the claims of those who believe that the government is the only competent power to own and manage the railroads. In regard to the taking over of the railroads by Great Britain during the war, the Outlook for May 16, 1917, published the following in an article by W. M. Acworth : "Of course, Great Britain, with twelve per cent, of its total population under arms, and with almost as many more engaged in the manufacture of military supplies, is in the war deeper than the United States is ever likely to be. But if the experience of the United Kingdom has any lessons for the people of the United States, they would seem to be twofold: (1) Even if the government should think fit to take over the railways, it should leave the management and oper- ation wholly in the hands of the old staff; and (2) if it does take them over, or if, without taking them over, it so far interferes with the normal traffic as to upset the customary balance between income and expendi- ture, it should at once come to a fair agreement with the proprietors, securing the result that they receive a normal return of income from- their property, and not wait for subsequent discussion and possible litigation, with heated charges of blackmail on the one hand and confiscation on the other." THE VITAL QUESTION 59 In the nature of things government regulation of railroads is doomed to failure, and public ownership is sure to take its place. If by any superhuman power regulation should succeed, the success would only show that the government could regulate and superintend public enterprises so well and so efficiently, as to sur- pass the regulation and superintendence of private owners of such enterprises. For the government per- fectly to regulate railroads, by fixing rates and sala- ries, determining earnings, issues of stock and bonds, and dictating the policies of every kind for the rail* roads to follow, it would be nothing more or less than the government exercising the functions of public own- ership. Nothing more would be needed to demon- strate governmental capacity for full ownership. The dilemma into which the advocates of government regu- lation of railroads force themselves is inescapable. If, regulation fails, public ownership must follow. If reg- ulation succeeds public ownership is the result, no mat- ter by what name you call it. But government regula- tion of railroads, as we have before observed, has in- variably failed, because public business cannot have two masters and thrive. There has been such a complete change in general conditions, that it becomes almost unnecessary to re- view in detail the well known arguments for and against public ownership. Still it might be profitable for the reader, who has given little attention to the subject, particularly as it pertains to the railroads, to refer to a few of those arguments which are also applicable to other kinds of public utilities. Without wearying the reader with an exhausting array of statistics, it may be generally stated that the steam railroads of the country consist of about 252,230 miles, and are capitalized and bonded for about $21,- 000,000,000, a little less than half of which is repre- sented in capital stock. Five per cent, earnings upon 60 THE VITAL QUESTION this vast sum, a moderate rate, would be a little over one billion of dollars, but the total dividends on shares and interest on debts amount to only about four per cent. The stock and bonds per mile issued by the rail- roads of the country reach the excessive sum of $66,661. Forty thousand miles of railroads of the United States are now in the hands of receivers, which is only another way of saying that such are already being managed by the government, that is, by one of its arms, the courts. Reputable authority informs us that the railroads of the country can be rebuilt for one-half their present capi- talization, represented in capital stock and indebtedness. If such is the fact, then the people are, in round figures, paying annually one-half a billion of dollars, or over one and one-half million dollars for every working day in the year, more than they ought to pay for the use of the railroads. This amount ought to be saved. It is now an economic waste and is unnecessarily taken from the peo- ple's pockets. Our scientific management and efficiency experts should first advocate saving this amount before seeking to speed up and standardize the employees in the sacred name of efficiency. Squeeze out the water from the excessive valuations of the railroads before seeking to economize by squeezing the skilled and unskilled em- ployees of the railroads. What is a just and fair remedy for this condition of the railroads, which are now so loudly asking for more and more government aid and support, increased facilities to borrow more and more and still more money to conceal and repair the past mistakes and greed of promoters and speculators, the remission of taxes and numerous other governmental favors? The business of railroads is a public business in its nature, and ought not in reason to be longer owned and managed by private interests. Let the public at- tend to things that are public and the individual to THE VITAL QUESTION 6l things that are private, or to industries that depend solely upon his initiative and give full, just and natural play to his liberty to compete upon equal terms with his fellows. As we have already seen, the railroads are at pres- ent owned and nationalized by all the principal coun- tries of the world, and the final step is but a short one for the United States to take in order to acquire com- plete ownership and full control of a sufficient portion of the interstate railroads and commerce of the coun- try, and leave to the individual States to deal with their respective internal or local railroad problems. It has been carefully estimated that only about 167,824 miles of interstate railroads would have to be acquired by the national government to insure virtual national ownership of interstate railroad traffic. The capital stock of such necessary railroads aggregate three and one-half billions of dollars, and sold in 1914 for about one hundred dollars per share. A majority of such capital stock could in fact be acquired by the government for less than one-half of said sum, with all the debts, property and obligations of such companies, This would be no innovation, because the United States a few years ago acquired a majority of the capital stock of the Panama Canal railroad, although it also paid a lump sum in addition for it. This method of the acqui- sition of railroads by the government is perhaps the simplest and fairest to all persons concerned, and re- moves the necessity of resorting to the cumbersome machinery of taking them over under the power of emi- nent domain, with its subsequent delays and adjust- ments. In these times of "big business" and big na- tional loans, the undertaking by the national govern- ment to control, and even to own the requisite inter- state railroads, does not assume very staggering pro- portions. Carl S. Vrooman, whose work on American Railway 62 THE VITAL QUESTION Problems should be read by everyone who seeks light and authoritative information upon this subject, says, "Unquestionably anyone is entitled to hold the belief, if he cares to, that our country is incapable of doing successfully what all these European countries have done," and "it is no longer permissible to dispute the statement that in Europe, at least, government railways on the whole have been more satisfactory and success- ful than have the corporation-owned lines." What is true in respect to the advantages of public ownership of railroads, in comparison with their private ownership, is also essentially true in respect to all other public utilities which are owned by the State or the municipality. The advantages of municipal ownership have been carefully enumerated by Carl D. Thompson in a very recent work which can be studied with much profit. Among many of the advantages common to both State and municipal ownership a few may be referred to. The government under public ownership can borrow money at lower rates than private interests, would be obliged to pay only dividends expressed in improved service to the public and not in dollars and cents, would save several billions annually for the people at large, would eliminate the lobby from our legislative halls, with its attendant enormous expenses, lessen other corrupting influences upon legislation by special privilege, tend to destroy civic indifference because of increased interest, selfish interest if you please, of citizens in governmental affairs directly affecting them, and generally conduce to the public welfare. Labor, which in the broadest sense is but another word for the public, would be directly and indirectly benefited by the adopton of public ownership. Those employees who worked for the government would, as elsewhere, enjoy shorter hours and better wages than under private ownership. Their working conditions THE VITAL QUESTION 63 would be more comfortable, sanitary and safe by rea-~ son of the adoption of up-to-date appliances and inven- tions. Strikes in public utilities would be unnecessary be- cause equitable means would be devised for the speedy settlement of all just grievances, and the employees would know that they were a part of the governmental machinery whose motive power was mixed with hu- mane sentiment and justice. Under considerate civil service rules permanent employment for faithful em- ployees would be guaranteed, and fair and just old age pensions provided for. Such employees would more fully appreciate the privileges of American citizenship and feel that they had a voice of increased potency in the public welfare. They would enjoy greater oppor- tunity for self-improvement in mind and body and be in a better position to care for those dependent upon them. Most important of all, they would be shining examples of the advantages of maintaining as high a standard of liv- ing as possible, not only for themselves, but also for the entire community. Public ownership would mean the establishment of uniform rates for all patrons. In the matter of rail- road transportation, for illustration, coal miners, large dealers in the necessaries of life, farmers and consum- ers alike, as in sending mail matter through the post office, would pay equal and uniform rates, whether they shipped in large or small quantities. This would tend, indeed, to discourage monopolies in the necessaries of life, to prevent high prices and to restore and maintain, normal commercial conditions, both for the producer and the consumer. Mr. Dunn, editor of the Railway Gazette, not an avowed friend of government ownership in 191 5, said: "In respect to the importance of the question of gov- ernment ownership of railways, it is hardly surpassed by any other that seems likely ever to be presented to the American democracy for settlement." 64 THE VITAL QUESTION The question is certainly one that demands serious thought and attention by all, who are ready and deter- mined to render some tangible and lasting service to their fellow citizens. The most common and seemingly most insuperable argument against government ownership of public utilities is, that a horde of corrupt office seekers and in- competent persons under the leadership of political bosses would demand and secure employment to the exclusion of efficient and specially trained managers and experts, and cause the complete demoralization of the public business. A conclusive answer to this argument is. that the American people under recent events have amply proven that they are not a heterogeneous people but a people of common purpose with superb patriot- ism, and that what other nations have done they can do. The day has passed when any one would be bold enough to question the ability, and determination of the American people to attempt the solution of all do- mestic problems, as well as to assist in solving those of other peoples. The experience of Great Britain, since the taking over of the control of the railroads by the government, has been that the former railroad man- agers of the various companies remained, and under military superintendence successfully solved all prob- lems of transportation that naturally arose under the new conditions. Such would be the experience in the United States under similar conditions. Under public ownership of public utilities as under private ownership the best service of great railroad managers would be easily procured. This was shown, at the very inception of the war with Germany, when at the nation's call the ablest and most prominent railroad presidents and managers of the country at once sev- ered their private official positions, and offered their serv- ices to the President of the United States, and prompt- ly accepted positions as railroad directors under the THE VITAL QUESTION 65 Council for the National Defense. It is fair to such men and their subordinates, to say, that they would do the same thing, if the taking over by the national gov- ernment of the requisite railroads for war emergencies should be ultimately adopted by the government as a permanent policy. Every true American must be assumed to be patriotic in times of peace as well as in times of war, and as willing to render the kind of service he is best able to render. Under government ownership of the railroads all em- ployees would become public officers, and retain their positions as long as they faithfully performed their duties, under rules and regulations more certain and fair than now obtain under private management in respect to wages and hours of employment, with a chance for promotion for merit and not by reason of favoritism and family connections. To say that great railroad men would not evince the same efficiency and willingness to administer railroad affairs under public employment as under private em- ployment is to doubt common sense and common patri- otism. In most cases, the specially trained railroad man would be less hampered and controlled in his ef- forts to render the best service to the public as a pub- lic servant, than when working under the dictation of private owners whose selfish interests might at any time clash with those of the public, with which they are naturally and unchangeably antagonistic. CHAPTER VI. Scientific Management. Scientific management is a phrase that has recently come into general use, and purports to describe a method or remedy for securing greater efficiency in pro- duction, together with better relations between em- ployers and employees. We have heard of Scientific socialism, of scientific religion, and are now being treated to effusive discussions on scientific manage- ment. Some of the advocates of scientific management are careful to premise their remarks upon the subject by stating that they are champions of neither labor nor capital, but represent a third something or somebody — the public, the consumers. In passing, it may be well to suggest that the true public servant must, in the nature of things, be a cham- pion of both labor and legitimate capital, and that the public interests apart from these two great factors of wealth are but fanciful and fleeting shadows. It is sophistry to claim that there is any interested third fac- tor that needs representation, provided always that the normal and just relations between labor and legitimate capital are observed. It is a truism to say that the real interests of labor and capital are naturally identical and reciprocal. They would, indeed, always be so unless prevented by artifi- cial causes. Therefore, it is advisable to keep this truism constantly in mind when considering the much heralded scientific management. Neither of these great factors of wealth can normally grow and thrive at the' expense of the other. Under prevalent artificial condi- THE VITAL QUESTION 6/ tions induced by unwise tax laws, and special privileges unwisely conferred, it is possible for large capital to secure an undue domination and control of labor. Will scientific management bestow on labor greater freedom and opportunity and a greater share in production than it now enjoys? Or will it have the opposite tendency? And if it improves for the time being the fortunes of a favored few, will it cast off the many to crowd the ranks of the unemployed? These are the important questions which arise concerning this subject. We may further inquire whether scientific manage- ment is but another subtle invention to impede the or- ganized efforts of wage-earners to better their condi- tion, or to weave about them a new and more refined network of embarrassment and discord? The term itself, scientific management, in some inde- finable manner gives one a shudder. It seems utterly devoid of warmth and sentiment. Greater efficiency of men and machines must be had at any cost. The captains of industry do not appear to be philanthropists but cold calculating men impelled by bloodless science. We are reminded that science has no need of a heart and a circulatory system, and that it may relate to the stars or the "insensible rocks." Scientific management may be mathematically cor- rect and unassailable as a system, if it were to be ap- plied to machines and inanimate things. But, this would-be science is to be applied to living men, women and children. It is not even to be applied to horses and mules, for it would be hopeless to attempt to con- trol and manage them by holding up before them a studiously evolved "standard," which must be learned and imitated to avoid being discharged. Scientific management, however, is intended for hu- man beings. How farther to control and manage em- ployees, without arousing their suspicion of additional burdens and new exploitation, seem to disturb the slum- 68 THE VITAL QUESTION bers of many directors of modern industry, and excite their powers of invention. They advise going slowly, using tact, and converting one employee at a time. The subject itself of scientific management should admit of only open discussion and open application. The term, scientific management, is most unfortu- nately selected by its advocates. It is certainly expres- sive. Its meaning is clear and unambiguous. It is as frigid and uncompromising as Mount Washington in mid- winter. It has not the elastic interpretation and appli- cation that some of its friends would give it. They profess to believe that its general adoption would pro- duce a veritable millennium in industry, and that it would then no longer be necessary to consider such bel- ligerent subjects as co-operation and profit-sharing. The natural import of the words, scientific manage- ment, cannot be misunderstood. Their selection must have been made with deliberation, and perhaps with malice aforethought. It is eminently fair to assert that they cannot mean the mutual interests of employer and employee. Science is defined in the Standard Dic- tionary to be "knowledge reduced to law and em- bodied in a system." We might call it organized knowledge. Management is defined by the same au- thority to be "The act, art or manner of managing, car- rying on, directing, treating or conducting." This is unilateral, or one-sided, and does not include or con- template any action on the part of the men or things managed. They alone are to remain passive and acted upon, uncreative and uninventive. That scientific management relates primarily to the interests of the owner of the industry is too obvious to require argument. Mr. Taylor, an authority on scien- tific management, says distinctly and explicitly in the American Magazine for April, 191 1, that he told the men with whom he formerly worked "that he was now working on the side of the management." THE VITAL QUESTION 69 By no possible stretch of meaning can scientific man- agement include, even in a secondary sense, the true in- terests of the employee, unless it is admitted that it implies a just assumption of guardianship of employees by employers, and that the former are an inferior order of beings and fit only to be first subjected to experi- mental training, and if found qualified and tractable, then guided and managed. The scheme as at present applied seems like an attempt to fortify the doctrine that the right to govern pertains to those that have the might — a species of divine right to rule. It may amount to scientific disorganization of labor and scien- tific discouragement for the unskilled and the unin- structed. Scientific management is as narrow and feelingless in its intended application as political economy used to be. It follows the old and abandoned conception of- political economy and treats of "pure economics" in a particular industry, with especial regard for the produc- tion and distribution of wealth in the interest of capital alone. Whatever is distributed of the product to labor, as increase in wages, is a gratuity, dictated by policy and in no manner naturally or inherently incident to the system. Under this plan too much is left to tht ■ caprice and generosity of employers, which are certain to vary among different employers. This can be noth- ing else than exceedingly unscientific, as far as labor is concerned, especially in these days of large corpora- tions, in which the personality of the employer has been eliminated and the old-timed personal acquaintance and friendly intercourse between employer and employee have been destroyed. The conditions which largely obtain in modern indus- try are not natural but artificial. It is, therefore, im- possible to evolve a truly scientific method or philos- ophy for conducting modern industry, if those artificial conditions are ignored. A true science, like astron- JO THE VITAL QUESTION omy, or chemistry, is based upon the unyielding facts of nature, and not upon artificial and fictitious data. All ground that has been traversed in those sciences is firm and accurately and absolutely known. Many other sciences are inexact or in an empirical stage. For ex- ample, sociology may be a true science, but it seems to us now to be inexact and experimental. The causes of the advance, retrogression or stagnation of civilization among various peoples in different ages may be capa- ble of orderly and exact arrangement and formulation, if known. The difficult and almost super-human task is to collate from very insufficient records adequate data of the laws, customs and impelling forces of by- gone peoples, upon which can be constructed a system comprehensive enough to be a science. So, in a smaller degree it is difficult and quite futile to con- struct a system of scientific management in modern in- dustry without considering as of first importance thq human element, the man and his relation to the artifi- cial conditions which surround him. He is a part of them and cannot, like a mere commodity, be separated from them. He and his attributes as a human being cannot be disregarded. He cannot be subjected forci- bly or otherwise to inflexible rules which may dictate the proper sizes of shovels, the proper consistency of mortar, the proper position of bricks for laying, the best machines, etc. Labor, itself, in the nature of things should not be deemed to be a commodity and subject to the same laws. Labor, wages, man, are one and the same. They cannot be divorced or differen- tiated from each other. One of the greatest crimes of civilization and one of the greatest impediments to more rapid progress is the stubborn attempt of many leaders of industry to bring both men and things under the operation of the same economic laws. For instance, it is frequently urged that wages, the price of labor, man's services, are regu- THE VITAL QUESTION 71 lated by the same law of supply and demand as the price of commodities. That this is not true will appear upon a moment's reflection. Take any staple commodity, like flour. Its price is determined normally by the law of supply and demand and is the same throughout the country, and we may say throughout the world, except where tariffs or un- just speculation interpose, plus the cost of transporta- tion from its principal place of production. In the abstract, the rate of wages would seem to be determined by the same law. Indeed, it is frequently said that wages like water seek a common level. As a matter of fact, however, wages do not find a common level. They vary in different countries and even in' different parts of the same country. Natural causes like climate, fertility of soil, rich mines newly opened, territory and industries newly developed, or artificial causes like the organized efforts of workmen, or even war and disaster may raise wages above the normal rate, either permanently or temporarily, and force them to seek, unlike water, a higher level. Yet, aside from these causes, wages cannot and do not adjust them- selves to uniform rates in different localities. This results because wages are inseparably connected with a human being. This human being may be the head of a family. He may have a partly paid for home. His children may be partly educated in special depart- ments of knowledge in a particular city or town. He may have various obligations to discharge to those to whom he may be indebted, or to those who may be dependent upon him. There may be many other ties and associations which influence him to remain in a cer- tain place, and prevent him from quickly changing his abode even though higher wages may prevail else- where. Hence, it is neither just nor true to assert that wages are determined by the same inexorable law of supply and demand as the prices of commodity. Labor -J2 THE VITAL QUESTION cannot be correctly defined as a commodity. It cer- tainly is not, when traveling around with the man. When separated from him it does become something else. That something else is a commodity and is called product or wealth. It is of supreme importance to learn, what increased portion of the product which labor is instrumental In creating, would be left to labor or graciously bestowed upon it by scientific management. In other words, does scientific management tend to scientific "co-opera- tion" between capital and labor, and secure to the latter a greater share of the wealth produced? A leading ex- ponent of scientific management, already referred to, declares with great complacency that it causes "en- forced co-operation." Does he not mean, in reality, "enforced production"? Otherwise, he must think he means enforced distribution of product to labor, or at least admit that he is inaccurate in his use of terms or is attempting to confuse and mislead his readers. To prove this, we have but to examine two illustrations cited by him of the workings of scien- tific management: One of these was that of brick- layers who were paid less than fifty per cent, increase in wages for about two hundred per cent, more work done. The other illustration related to pig-iron hand- lers who were paid about seventy per cent, increase in wages for about three hundred per cent, more work done. Take another example, which appeared in the Review of Reviews for March, 191 1, of the application of scientific management to shovellers by the Bethle- hem Steel Works, as follows: Old Plan New Plan Number of yard laborers 400 to 600 140 Average number of tons per day per man 16 59 Average earnings per man per day $1.15 $1.88 THE VITAL QUESTION 73 Average cost for handling each long ton $0,072 $0,033 In the above figures are included all the extra ex- pense of new superintendence, clerical work and time study that were required. As will be readily seen, about seventy per cent, in number of the men formerly employed, and about sixty per cent, of their total wages at the old rate of $1.15 per day were saved, and also more than fifty per cent, in the cost of handling each ton. The men kept, and not discharged or given other jobs if found scientifically needed, were paid in the ag- gregate about one hundred dollars more per day and saved the Steel Works in their department the wages of approximately three hundred and sixty men, or over four hundred dollars per day. That is to say, the workmen retained saved the owners in wages alone more than three times the amount of increase paid to them. To express the result in another way, under scientific man- agement these men got about twenty-five per cent, of the amount saved, and the Steel Works got the remain- ing seventy-five per cent. This may be "enforced" co-operation, but it is very far from being scientific co-operation. Scientific man- agement cannot, in the nature of things, be equivalent to scientific co-operation. Scientific management mav be scientific as far as the sole and selfish interests of the management are concerned. That I have no in- clination to deny. Indeed, that is exactly what I am contending for. If the friends of scientific manage- ment would admit that, there would be nothing more to be said and they would stand convicted as unfeeling and even unpatriotic men. What I do claim stren^ ously is that much remains to be done. Scientific man- agement will fall short of success just so far as it fails to divide and apportion profits and savings equitably and fairly between itself and the other factor of produc- tion, labor. Otherwise the public is not served and the 74 THE VITAL QUESTION advocates of scientific management convict themselves as representing a single party only. One advocate of scientific management has recently advised workmen to be promptly upon the spot and demand a fair share of the profits, and not repeat the mistakes of the past when great improvements were made in machinery. For one, I would like to be in- formed how workmen are going to grow in ability and strength in the future, with any hope of success in their demands for a fair division of the increased profits and savings, when the entire theory and practice of scien- tific management tend to disorganize' them and segre- gate them into grades and classes? Will it not be too late for them to secure recognition of their demands after the "standards" of work have been found and established, and when the strongest and most active of their number have been selected and practically bribed by increased wages to exert themselves to the utmost to establish those "standards"? We are told by Mr. Taylor, quoted above, that the "standards" are "en- forced." I am only using the language used by him and cannot therefore be accused of employing false terms and erroneous premises. After the standard has been ascertained, the work- men seeking employment must perform the work re- quired under it, or get no employment. He has no choice in the matter. In what position is he to demand an equitable share of the profits? If he secures a job he can do little in that direction acting as an individual. He must have the united assistance of his craft. Or- ganized labor would have to be stronger than ever under the new conditions to be of assistance to him. The danger threatened is that it would be weaker. Labor may well hesitate to endorse such a system. Its general adoption would, in my judgment, engender, an industrial war between labor and capital more bitter and intense than any in the past. Let those who pose THE VITAL QUESTION 75 as friends of the public cease to advise labor to wait and demand rights after they are appropriated. The best time to represent the public is before, and not after, the wrong has been done. Let such men appear before the owners of industries and urge them to adopt scientific co-operation instead of cold and unsympa- thetic scientific management. Tell them to pay a little more consideration to the welfare of the human souls in their charge, to be a little more altruistic towards their employees and a little more generous in permit- ting them to partake of the fruit of their mutual efforts. It is deplorable that modern industrial methods have so nearly destroyed the friendly and personal relation- ship that formerly existed between employer and em- ployee. If scientific management has a tendency to widen still more this breach between employer ind employee, how important does it become for the owner, whether an individual or a corporation, to favor some other policy that will foster amity and harmony, and not continued and intensified warfare between em- ployer and employees! Scientific management as at present conceived and selfishly applied cannot conduce to the permanent and general welfare of workmen and their families. It must be more generously applied and vastly more com- prehensive. It must embrace not only the improved welfare of labor and capital devoted to a particular in- dustry, but also the improved welfare of all labor and all legitimate capital devoted to all industry. To be of permanent value it must do this, or, by concentrating capital, create an industrial tyranny which may for a time wield tremendous power, but which in the end "as sure as night follows the day" will cause its own de- struction and inflict terrible and widespread disaster upon labor and the public. No doubt a lamentable waste of energy obtains in all industries caused by crude and antiquated methods, 76 THE VITAL QUESTION illustrated in the unnecessary motions for ages used in laying bricks, and the very small percentage of the latent force of coal that finally appears in the electric light, or in the work of the engine. It is, indeed, of great importance that this tremendous waste through- out the industrial world should be reduced as much as possible by science and art, not alone for the benefit of certain individuals, but for that of the entire com- munity. Yet, are there not other kinds of waste which in the natural order of things, or, we may say, in the scientific order of things, ought first to be dealt with and eliminated? Imagine, if you can, because it is well- nigh impossible to find figures enough to express it, the oceans and oceans of watered capital that have been poured into our railroads, telephone and telegraph companies, electric light and gas companies, other pub- lic utility companies, and the thousands of incorporated trusts, mines and commercial enterprises. Upon this vast aggregate of fictitious capital, represented in stocks and bonds, interest and dividends have to be paid. They have to come out of labor's legitimate share of earnings. They can come from no other source. I am not arguing that legitimate capital is not entitled to fair returns. Far from it, although I will affirm that even legitimate capital should get its re- turns by co-operating with labor. Otherwise, it is something else. It is mere inanimate wealth or stored- up product of past capital and labor. If this is true of legitimate capital, how wicked it is that labor, human beings, should be compelled by the possessors of capi- tal created only by the printing press to contribute from their rightful wages enough to pay unearned and unjust interest upon the many billions of fictitious cap- ital in the country! I say that this monstrous waste and tax upon labor should first be removed before we seriously discuss questions of increasing the efficiency of labor. THE VITAL QUESTION Jj If the general result of scientific management should be to advance a few workmen and degrade the vast majority of them, or, at least, grade them with military precision, and subject them to military discipline, or classify them as various machines and thus consign them to hopeless and permanent places, a great waste and not a great saving would be made to labor as a whole and a consequent injury to the public welfare. To deprive men of industrial liberty and independence to choose occupations, making them only pawns to be moved by others, would be to render them powerless to act politically against monopoly and special privilege wherever enthroned. The strong would only grow stronger and the weak weaker. The loss to the aver- age citizen would be inestimable. The increase in wages which might be grudgingly doled out to "en- forced efficiency" would be expended many times over in enforced idleness in old age, or enforced sickness. The unfortunate and inefficient would be industrial outcasts, or camp followers, and sure to become public charges. Scientific management might be of advantage to workmen who are ready to acknowledge that they are wards, requiring guardianship, and are incapable of or- ganizing and securing an equitable part of the wealth they produce. How can men expect to obtain the rea- sonable comforts of life for themselves and their fami- lies, if they surrender or permit to be taken from them by any refined system, no matter how attractively it may be clothed in language, the sacred rights and op- portunity to pursue happiness and prosperity guaran- teed by our fundamental laws? Scientific management does not and cannot indi- vidualize workmen. It can only tend to specialize them into mere machines and discourage invention and mental action. They would become more subservient and manageable under it. Otherwise, the whole scheme 78 THE VITAL QUESTION would fail. Employees must stand ever ready strictly and promptly to obey all orders, "to do or die and not to reason why." In other words, they are literally in- dustrial soldiers. Do not take my word for this, but read what an admirer of the system says in the Review of Reviews for March, 191 1: "The planning depart- ment is to the business house what the staff is to the army, ... in which the soldiers of the line do the actual fighting." Mr. Emerson, an authority on the subject, in his book, Efficiency, page 69, uses this gen- tle language: "The member of the line, whether in church, state, army or navy, must obey blindly and im- plicitly." It is not strange that a writer who so idealizes and nearly deifies efficiency and scientific man- agement as this one does, should mix the gentle vir- tues of religion with the stern, harsh and relentless realities of military discipline. Let me quote again from this same Emerson. He writes in the same work, page 90: ''As a general pro- ductive proposition, there is no difference between a man and a machine," and on page 63, "There is no logical difference between money spent on materials and money spent on labor. A brick wall is a combina- tion of labor and materials. Every issue of materials, every issue of labor should be standardized in advance and checked; the same system of accounting and dis- tribution should be used for both labor and material." If this is not putting labor and commodities on the same basis and subjecting them to the same unfeeling laws, what is? We might well exclaim that at last under scientific management monopoly and special privilege are "smoked out" and forced into the open. On page 164 of Mr. Emerson's book we find these soft words of consolation: "Let each man work with the reliability of a steam valve, yet with the joy of a hunting dog and the inspiration of an artist," and he might have added what he said on page 19, that men THE VITAL QUESTION 79 "earned" three times as much under scientific manage- ment as before. Note the word "earned" used by him, and his statement on page 20 that the men increased output in handling iron 500% and received only 69%' in wages. The hunting dog that would be overjoyed, or the artist inspired anew over this munificent division of amount "earned," should be pre-empted by some museum to be exhibited after death. One more quotation from Mr. Emerson, page 147, "If the efficient men are appreciated and rewarded at their true value, if the inefficient are allowed automati- cally to eliminate themselves, an esprit-de-corps is de- veloped that will make the working shop force as active and powerful an aggregation as a football or baseball team." How beautiful! But how about the crowds outside the grounds who have no money to see the game? They represent those who have been automati- cally eliminated, who cannot bat or run bases, or buck the centre or even look on. They certainly do not have the "joy of a hunting dog and the inspiration of the artist." We might add, however, that some dogs have no joy, and some artists no inspiration, and live in back alleys and garrets and have little or no food. It is refreshing and fortifies our position to have the advocates of this new system, unconsciously perhaps, supply us with such apt and cogent arguments and illustrations against themselves. Yet that must be in- evitable if we have truth and justice on our side. In the face of the untenable, unjust and inhuman at- titude of these advocates, it cannot be possible that workmen will be ambitious to become "soldiers of the line" in the industrial army, knowing nothing of the plan of campaign, what they are to do beforehand, and whither they are marching. They cannot consent to be uninformed of the uses to which their muscles are to be put by a superior directing and managing power, to allow their mental powers to become dwarfed and 80 THE VITAL QUESTION atrophied by reason of disuse, and submerge their indi- viduality. Should they become so blind and thought- less, then let them throw their hats high in air for scien- tific management, and cast their fortunes and the for- tunes of their children and all chances to secure equal opportunity for complete development for them and themselves, as spoils into the luxurious laps of their industrial generals, who will be more empowered than even now, vicariously to vote for labor in a scientific manner and more scientifically to manage the legisla- tion of state and nation in the interests of special privi- lege. Eternal vigilance is the price of industrial liberty, as well as the price of political liberty. Industrial vigi- lance cannot be effectively, and to borrow a term from our scientific management friends, so "efficiently" ex- ercised by labor unless it be thoroughly organized. The reason why labor has accomplished so much in the past is because it has been organized. The reason why it has accomplished so little is because it has not been sufficiently organized, and sufficiently interested in great industrial and economic questions that not only directly but indirectly affect the earnings and the re- wards of labor. It is natural for organized labor con- stantly to seek shorter hours and higher wages, but it ought not to lose sight of the causes that lead to shorter hours and higher wages, or those that prevent them. These are often beyond the control of the indi- vidual employer. He, like the individual employee, is subject to certain political and industrial conditions that are purely artificial, over which he has little con- trol and concerning the remedy of which he often acts less intelligently than labor itself. Therefore, labor should be cautious about yielding to the fascinations of a new invention designed by those who classify human beings with brick walls and ma- chines. THE VITAL QUESTION 81 Organize, organize, organize, should be the persist- ent and ever present watchword of labor. It should jealously at all times resist all insidious attempts of outside foes and their emissaries to undermine and disintegrate its forces. It should continuously strive to enlist new recruits until it shall have enrolled in its ranks approximately all that are eligible. It should adopt, not an "enforced" standard, but a standard vol- untarily chosen by its free and independent members, upon which should be emblazoned letters of imperish- able gold: Self-Management, a Fair Opportunity and no Delegated Privileges. It has long been my belief that a complete and prac- tically perfect organization of labor means its peaceful emancipation. When that time arrives, and its arrival is by no means visionary or improbable, and the con- stant hope of beholding it should be the inspiration of labor and urge it ever onward, then will be achieved the great victory and "consummation devoutly to be wished," and which cannot be attained in any other way — real and actual co-operation between the two great factors of wealth, labor and capital, each directed and scientifically managed, if you please, by justice and wis- dom. The reason for this is sound and indisputable, for when labor's army is complete, with no mercenaries or guerrillas misrepresenting it from within and without, it can effect a natural and economic alliance with legit- imate capital. These combined, or co-operating forces, will be invincible, and monopoly, special privilege, and all enemies of true industrial and social welfare will surrender to them. This successful alliance between labor and capital would be inevitable with complete organization of labor. Both would be compelled to accept terms of everlasting peace. These terms would have to be fair and equitable to both sides. Neither could go on with- g 2 THE VITAL QUESTION out the other. In this way only can labor be emanci- pated and secure what belongs to it. The same is true of moderate capital, that is struggling outside the breastworks of monopoly and special privilege. The discord now often existing between labor and capital is unnatural. Capital is timidly conservative or takes shelter behind special privilege of various kinds. Capital so entrenched is much more easily organized than labor possibly can be, which quite fully explains the present disadvantage of labor. Labor cannot ally itself with special privilege. It must, therefore, be completely self-reliant, self-governing, and self-manag- ing, jealous of all outside interference. This will not narrow or specialize its members and consign them and their children hopelessly to a particular class, but make them better workmen and better citizens with greater independence and intelligence to deal with all questions which intimately concern them. Then, let labor in the name of justice and humanity conduct in earnest the campaign that is crying out to be conducted. Let the great army of organized labor with steady and unfaltering step march boldly against special privilege wherever it has enthroned itself upon the property and rights that belong to all the people. Let labor profit by any mistakes of the past and ag- gressively assume the championship of political and economic liberty as well as of industrial liberty. Com- pel legitimate capital to sever its connection with special privilege and unite with its natural helpmeet, labor, and lift humanity and civilization to a plane yet scarcely dreamed of. The present combination of inflated and fictitious capital and special privilege is far too powerful and is already threatening the industrial, social and political welfare of the nation itself. This combination, like Carthage of old, must be destroyed. It plays with loaded dice and wins by devices that are unfair, un- THE VITAL QUESTION 83 sportsmanlike and wicked, even according to the ethics of the street urchin. Special privilege must be driven out of politics. It must also be driven out of private industry. It must cease to disturb the amity that should exist between labor and capital. What social force, or indeed what force, political or other, in the community can do more in this direction than organized labor? Will it rise to the occasion? Sometimes I think that organized labor is strangely oblivious to its great latent powers and responsibilities. It is like a strong man asleep, a kind of Joshua, who upon awakening might command the industrial sun the political moon to stand still, or indeed, direct their courses in harmony with the spirit of our fundamental laws and institutions. This indifference of organized labor to real and possible political and economic re- forms is the most stupendous blunder of the times. Its inactivity has proven the opportunity of the enemies of popular government, and well have they improved the opportunity. Upon the future action of organized labor depends its fate and the just and equitable settlement of impor- tant public issues now too long deferred. It is un- doubtedly approaching a crisis in its career. Its ene- mies, open and secret, are alert, well equipped and thor- oughly organized, with expert generals and staffs sci- entifically managed, ever ready and watchful to raise false issues and take advantage of any misstep or in- discreet action of any of its leaders. One of two things will certainly happen in the not distant future. Organized labor will either be weak- ened, divided and then conquered by an oligarchy of scientific management allied with special privilege, or its membership will be greatly augmented and wield vastly increased power, not only in the industrial world, but also in the political and economic worlds. Which g 4 THE VITAL QUESTION will happen, new life, new ideals and new inspiration for united labor, or disintegration and surrender? The importance of this question is so tremendous as to make us pause when we consider the awful and possi- ble effects of the answer to present and future genera- tions. Will organized labor, I repeat, rise to the great emergency? Will it succeed in the great struggle for self-preservation? If it should find the contest too diffi- cult — what then? I leave the arrogant monopolists and their scientific satellites, with no industrial recall, initia- tive or referendum to quality their actions, to answer. It is not fair under modern ideas of fairness, that the arbitrary control of any department of human activity — I do not refer to pure sciences like mathematics, chemistry or astronomy — should be reposed in the hands of any men or class of men that represent but one side. Scientific management, as at present ex- pounded, is industrial government without industrial representation of its subjects. In these artificial times, employees have an equitable interest of some kind in the industry to which they have devoted, it may be, the best years of their lives. They should have a voice oi some kind in the government of that industry, espe- cially if it is based on special privilege, and should not in their old age when they can no longer keep the pace set by younger and stronger men, be cast ruthlessly, aside and thrown upon a human junk heap. If you think these words strong and extravagant, remember that the wrong is done not by men as men, for men are supposed to have consciences, but by a thing that does not breathe and does not possess immortality — a soul- less corporation, founded, it may be, upon special privi- lege, a mere creature of the people's government, which, as the creator, has the power to command it in tones of thunder not to trample in the dust the rights of labor and the rights of God's creatures. Artificial combinations, the mere creatures of man, no matter THE VITAL QUESTION 85 how expert their mathematicians and engineers may be, have no right tc invent and enforce a scheme for the unjust and arbitrary control of man made in the image of God. In the Scriptures, we are told that "The meek shall inherit the earth." That surely can- not mean that engineers, as the tools of inanimate cor- porations, are to appropriate unto themselves the earth and the title thereof and establish rules of conduct for "all that tread the globe." The industrious and the lowly should have some voice in framing these rules, or at least in adopting or rejecting them. A contract has two sides and greater, not less, consideration should be granted under the laws to the rights of a natural person than to those of an unnatural person or artificial thing, a corporation possibly with special privileges, made and, in fact, controllable by the natural person himself. Of course, we must do more than to criticise scien- tific management. It would be folly to assert that no improvements in the methods of modern industry as applied to machines and employees are possible, but employees must not be coerced and cajoled "one at a time" into adopting "enforced standards" and "enforced co-operation" — expressions coined and used by the friends themselves of scientific management. Employees must have some chance to exercise their reason and their volition, especially when opposed by those who do not act in their individual capacity but who conceal themselves behind the ramparts and pro- tecting walls of corporations and special privilege. It is true that government by experts chosen by a small governing body is now advocated by many thoughtful and public-spirited men and women in American cities. That idea standing alone would be indefensible. It would in fact be a government by the few and would be in form an aristocracy. But the members of the governing body are chosen by direct nominations and elections, and subject to the recall, 86 THE VITAL QUESTION initiative and referendum of the citizens. Therefore, the number of the members of the governing body, in cities for example, becomes unessential, because such members are at all times directly accountable for their acts to the sovereign voters who elected them, and they constitute strictly and literally a popular govern- ment. So, I argue, in the industrial government, particu- larly of corporations, the employees should have some- thing to say. Under scientific management, as advo- cated, at present, the employer has everything to say. He, or rather it, is not subject to any industrial recall or referendum, and has arrogated to himself or itself, all control of the initiative. Perhaps there is no harm in letting the employer have the initiative and not be subject to a recall, but it would seem just, equitable and fair that the employee should have some kind of a referendum or qualifying veto vote or voice concerning the methods and standards under which he is to work At first thought it may seem difficult fully to sug- gest how this should be done, but as I said above, cor- porations are the creatures of the state and subject for the continuance of their lives, and the manner of their living, to the pleasure of the state. It would no doubt be sufficient first to attempt to control only corpora- tions in this respect, as, under modern conditions, in- dustries which injuriously affect the welfare of great bodies of employees are largely conducted by corpora- tions, and corporations, indeed, often based upon pub- lic property and public franchises. If this application of the referendum to industry is found to be too difficult to work out under the law, the success of which I think depends solely upon public opinion, then the only recourse left to employees is to organize more completely and effectively than they have ever done before, and put themselves in a position to demand by some plan of referendum the submission THE VITAL QUESTION 87 of standards and methods initiated by the employer to them, or to some tribunal in which they have a voice. The disappearance of organized labor, under modern conditions or even its undermining by an extraneous force of any kind, would be a calamity too tragic and pathetic, even for thought. Therefore, in conclusion, I most strongly urge the members of organized labor, to take a keener interest than ever before in the great movement for social and political justice, that is now spreading so rapidly throughout the world for the per- manent comfort and prosperity of struggling men and women. CHAPTER VII. Woman Suffrage. "The men have done fairly well in matters of gov- ernment, and we think that they properly represent us." Such were the words recently spoken to the writer by an attendant at the local headquarters of the anti- suffragists. If those words are true, there should be no further agitation for woman suffrage. If they are not true, then the question of woman suffrage becomes of the utmost importance, and entitled to the most careful considera- tion by all men, as well as all women, who are inter- ested in the political and economic welfare of the nation. If the position of the auti-suffragists is sound, that politics is but modified warfare, and require for its conduct the superior physical force of men, that equal suffrage means that women will be compelled to per- form the most heavy and dangerous manual labor, that they must become corrupt politicians, neglect their do- mestic duties and generally abandon those graces and refinements which distinguish them from the sterner sex, then let women suffragists close their headquarters, destroy their presses, burn their literature, erect statues to Hercules, and seek the enforced seclusion of women of many inferior peoples. The anti-suffragists quite feelingly insist in their pub- lic utterances, far from the fireside and the cradle from which they think all other women should not wander, that only a small part of the women indeed, are asking for the ballot and would not use it if granted to them. This claim is not based upon fact and is easily dis- proved by consulting many election returns. Were it THE VITAL QUESTION 89 true it would mean nothing and does not touch the merits of the issue involved, and has not the remotest relation to the subjects upon which women might be required to vote, or that their present condition is not susceptible of much improvement, or that they are satis- fied with their present status. Many women may be uninformed concerning the benefit that would follow the adoption of woman suffrage. Such may blindly leave their political and economic welfare in the hands of the men, be fortunately situated and totally oblivious or indifferent to the welfare of their sisters and of hu- manity in general. By way of illustration, I might refer to the condi- tion of the culinary workers in many of the hotels, clubs and restaurants of American cities. For one, I know that their industrial condition is bad almost be- yond description and belief. They are compelled in very many instances to work unconscionably long hours every day in the week and every week in the year, for miserably low wages and in exceedingly unsanitary surroundings. They are far from sure of long employ- ment, and are practically enslaved by those employed over them, who possess autocratic power to grant them mere subsistence or drive them into literal starvation. Now, if such conditions actually obtain among the culinary workers, and no protest is sent forth by them against their conditions, and if they do not adequately organize from timidity or even from ignorance of their latent strength, or from demoralization from any cause fail to publish their wrongs to the outside world, would the anti-suffragists be justified in claiming that because they did not hear the complaints of a large number of culinary workers of their sufferings, there was, there- fore, nothing wrong and nothing to be done, and that those workers themselves were not interested in and would take no interest in a well directed and efficient organization to improve their welfare? 90 THE VITAL QUESTION So much for the minority argument of the anti- suffragists based upon the pretended indifference and failure of women to express themselves upon the mat- ter of equal suffrage. As far as the writer has observed, the anti-suffra- gists as a class are not in harmony with our democratic ideals of government. They are would-be aristocrats in intent and purpose. They are modern exponents of the obsolete notion that a part of the community, whether a king or an oligarchy, is divinely delegated to rule the rest. They are conservatives of conserva- tives, standpatters of standpatters, are perfectly satis- fied with things as they are, and are evidently disciples of the philosophy which teaches that "whatever is, is right." As a matter of fact, they are behind the times and are but the belated advocates of the long since ex- ploded doctrine of hisses faire. They are largely represented in the political and economic world by those men who enjoy special privilege and who, by almost limitless exploitation of the people and the people's government, have prospered and grown wealthy and powerful. Does not the public appearance of anti-suffragists so inconsistent with the normal duties of women, as de- fined by them, in reality demonstrate the fallacy of their own position, and that it is a mistake on their part to leave so much of the administration of government to their male representatives, who encourage them to as- sume an attitude in public which they themselves do not dare to assume, and who, in the meantime, diplomati- cally take refuge behind the skirts of anti-suffragists? All the arguments which the anti-suffragists ad- vance against woman suffrage as being allied with so- cialism, anarchy, and feminism are absolutely untenable and have no relation to the main subject under consid- eration. The policies, which women under equal suf- frage may advocate, no doubt will resemble in kind and THE VITAL QUESTION 91 variety those advocated more or less fervently by men. It is far more important to know how they will deal with them. Will their action be better or worse than that of the men? If women, as anti-suffragists would have us believe, are naturally less intelligent than men, more fickle, more deceitful and more susceptible to flat- tery than their brothers, then indeed, we must concede that disastrous results would certainly follow the adop- tion of woman suffrage. If the men have performed their political duties as well as they could be performed under present condi- tions, then equal suffrage will be no improvement. Who sincerely believes, however, that male government has produced the best attainable results, or that it cannot be greatly improved in the near future, either by men alone or by men and women in co-operation? Is any one bold enough, except anti-suffragists and the possessors of special privileges, to claim that present political and economic conditions are satisfactory and not capable of improvement ? When billions of money are each year unjustly ex- acted by monopoly and special privilege from our people as toll for using their own property, as exemplified in the business of quasi-public corporations, to pay divi- dends and interest upon oceans of watered stocks and bonds, and as a direct consequence the concentration of wealth and opportunity in comparatively few hands, and when the employment of young children is permitted in our industries and the physical well-being of future gen- erations is thereby being threatened, it cannot in truth be said that the affairs of government are being suc- cessfully administered, unless the gratification of avarice and selfishness at the expense of struggling humanity may be said to be successful and idealistic. The anti-suffragists, at least those of them who are well meaning and possibly misguided and misinformed, would do well to investigate the evil forces in the com- g 2 THE VITAL QUESTION munity that are opposed to the extension of woman suf- frage, and the means which are employed to prevent it, and also to decide whether they really desire to be iden- tified and affiliated with those forces. In further discussing the merits of woman suffrage I would like to devote a little space to the topic, the superiority of either sex to perform the ordinary func- tions of government. Each is so different from the other in many natural characteristics that it would be hardly fair to claim absolute superiority for either in this re- gard. Still it might not be difficult, even aside from a chivalric point of view, to prove that woman is superior to man in the possession of a larger number of excellent characteristics and virtues, which especially differen- tiates her from him. In evidence of the possible supe- riority of woman over man, or at least that she is a more important subject than he is, it might be well to remind the reader that it requires many more books and treat- ises to describe and deal with problems relating to her. In the Boston Public Library, for example, an entire alcove is devoted to books on woman, and none to works on man as such. It takes seven times as many index cards and seven times as many boxes containing index cards in that library to furnish the titles only of books and pamphlets on woman as those on man. If this evidence is not conclusive of a certain supe- riority of woman, it surely affords some food for speculation. In warlike, as well as in peaceful pursuits, which de- mand great physical strength the man may be said to be superior to woman. In peaceful pursuits, generally speaking, the woman is certainly equal to if not supe- rior to man. In primitive times the women per- formed practically all work, domestic, agricultural, the procuring of food and clothing — in fine, everything ex- cept the making of implements of war and the chase, and engaging in actual warfare. Even in times of war THE VITAL QUESTION 93 she renders services that may fairly be deemed superior to those rendered by man. His principal occupation at such times is in destroying precious lives and valuable property. The woman nurses the sick and the wounded of both combatants, and tempers the horrors of barba- rous murder and rapine with the gentleness of peace. In peaceful vocations, such as domestic, social, char- itable and religious work, her superiority over man needs no proof. To discuss the political equality of the two sexes, aside from all questions of natural superiority of either, seems entirely superfluous, because it has been proven a thousand times by able writers and speakers. It is no longer debatable that women are people, and should not be classified with incompetent and undesirable citizens. The subject which I wish particularly to treat and emphasize, is woman and her power — the power to as- sist in uplifting humanity. This power nature has bountifully bestowed upon womankind. Up to the pres- ent time its full and complete exercise has been impeded by artificial barriers which must be removed. In writing of woman and her power I am not going to refer to her power as a great ruler although there have been many great female rulers in history. Neither am I going to refer to her power in science and mathe- matics, although there have been) many celebrated women scientists and mathematicians ; nor to her power as an artist of the first rank in poetry, painting, sculp- ture, literature, music and the drama, for her brilliant successes in each of these arts are well recognized; nor to her extraordinary power in social welfare work and in her effective efforts to secure justice for the indus- trially unfortunate; nor to her power, though gentle in its ministrations, to the sick and wounded in peace as well as in war, nor lastly to her still greater power and influence as a mother and a wife in the home. I desire rather to refer to woman and her latent and 94 THE VITAL QUESTION hitherto inadequately used power to render great and almost incalculable service to humanity, mankind as well as womankind. Instead of women pleading with men to grant them equal political and social rights, the men should cry unto them, as Caesar unto Cassius, ''Help me, or I sink." Men need women's assistance in politics and in economics, even more than women need their assistance. Where men have failed in the fields of legislation, women possess the power and the virtues to succeed. Beyond question, men have failed to establish extensively anywhere on earth in all history even for themselves a real and genuine popular government. Even that great problem cannot be solved by the terrible and destructive war now pending. Only a firm and hoped for permanent foundation can be made up'pn which such a real and genuine structure of popular government may be erected. Men have made this at- tempt many times with the teaching of the Sermon on the Mount shining before their very eyes, and have miserably failed, except approximately, and within very limited and restricted areas. The little, that they have actually accomplished in this direction, serves to indicate the great service to humanity that they might have rendered in the past, had they been true to the most common and instinctive ideals of woman. Until recent times, woman has apparently been un- conscious of her great power to serve the state, as she has served the church. She has always been content to excel the men in observing only the first great com- mandment. In the future she must employ her power tc compel the men to co-operate with her in a more gen- eral and literal observance of the second great com- mandment, to love our neighbors as ourselves, and by actual and visible demonstration and example teach others just how this can be done. In the days that are to come this great truth must THE VITAL QUESTION 95 not only be preached, but must be reduced to concrete realization. The mere right to vote will not alone enable women to accomplish this result any more than it has the men. The obtaining of equal political rights by women is not an end. It would indeed be but a beginning. They would then have to prepare themselves and seek in- formation concerning the political journey they were about to undertake, in order to avoid errors in trains and destination. Men acting alone in the administration of govern- ment, I repeat, have signally failed. They have not reasonably succeeded in establishing a true rule by the people, or rather by one half of the people, their own sex. Under the domination of men, special privilege, the gov- ernment by the few, the iniquitous exploitation of the weaker of their own sex as well as members of the other, the concentration of wealth and opportunity, caus- ing unemployment on every hand, have all been permitted to flourish without proper restraint until the theories of liberty and equality, which inspired the founders of our government, are in imminent danger of being shattered. Unless a halt is soon called in our present political and economic debauchery, we and our children will be com- pelled to repeal many of the laws now upon the statute books, and enact new ones more in conformity with modern conditions wrought by modern inventions and methods. Hence, it is impossible to overestimate the grave responsibility of women who may obtain equal surirage. Upon them may fall the solution of important political and economic problems, which, as yet, they may not have sufficiently considered. Wherein men have failed in providing adequately just and humane laws, the women must succeed. If they fail, all progress supposed to be the fruit of the doctrine of popular rule will be stopped and special privilege, allied with militarism, or, as its 96 THE VITAL QUESTION sole successor, will be more strongly entrenched than ever before. The solution of these important problems will de- mand the aid of woman's natural power and willingness to render sympathetic, just and even sentimental service to the unfortunate and worthy members of society of both sexes — the very power and willingness in which she is divinely superior to men. This great power to render political service to mankind, and womankind, is ap- parently scarcely known or dreamed of by her. Men are certainly densely ignorant of it, or are intentionally oppressing her, and preventing its natural exercise and expression. In order that the average woman may know just what use to make of the ballot after she has secured it, much remains to be said and done. If men, after gen- erations, are uninformed and incapable of understanding the fundamental social and political questions which confront us, and are able to suggest only crude and superficial solutions of those questions, it may be safe to assume that women, notwithstanding their intuitive and alert mentality, without considerable study and po- litical experience will be insufficiently prepared to make the most expedient and efficient use of the suffrage. Therefore, they must be better equipped to discharge civic and political duties than men in general have shown themselves to be, and they should at once, by self-education, or otherwise, prepare themselves so that when the actual test comes, they may prove themselves not only equal, but superior, to the men in facing the solution of great political and social welfare questions. Thus equipped under the guiding influence of their superior and instinctive understanding of justice and equality, the results to be achieved by them for humanity, in a comparatively brief period, ought to be far greater than these achieved by men alone in the past. It is only by the co-operation of educated and determined men and THE VITAL QUESTION 97 women that we can repair the evils of past legislation. Yet, we should not dwell too much on the past and its mistakes. It is in the present or the future that we must live. As Goethe well expresses the idea, "There is no past that we need long return to, there is only the eter- nally new which is formed out of enlarged elements of the past; and our genuine longing must always be pro- ductive for a new and better creation." The new problems for women to assist in solving will be the old problems over which men have flound- ered. These and the condition in which men, by their mistakes and indifference, have left many fundamental questions must be studied and understood by the women before taking any possible precipitate action. To assist in this study, it might be well, first, to learn what are the present so-called legal rights of women, as compared with those of men. In Massachu- setts, for example, although not yet a woman suffrage state, women have been tolerably well cared for by the men in respect to their legal rights as distinguished from their political rights. LEGAL RIGHTS OF WOMEN. In this state women have practically all the legal rights of men, and a few that men do not have. Each may solely hold and dispose of all kinds of property. Each may sue and be sued. Each may carry on business in separate name. Each possesses similar power to make a will sub- ject to certain rights of the other. The wife is especially favored against husband in separate support cases and in divorce proceedings. Work performed by wife outside of family is pre- sumed to be on her separate account. Non-resident married women living apart from their 98 THE VITAL QUESTION husbands, for cause, can sell real estate in Massachusetts as though they were sole. Women are favored by many labor laws and their hours in mercantile and manufacturing establishments carefully regulated, especially in textile employment, in which they are not to be employed between 6 P. M. and 6 A. M. Women are also favored in stores and factories, in certain sanitary arrangements and comfort appliances. It must be conceded that the legal rights of woman in this state, and in many others, are an unfinished monument to the chivalry of the men in control of legis- lation, yet they are quite insignificant when we contem- plate the economic and social matters which pertain to her best welfare, as well as to that of the community itself, and which have been lamentably neglected by the men in the halls of legislation, in both the states and the nation. The most important rights or privileges to be con- ferred upon women are therefore political in their na- ture, for only with them would they be upon an equal footing with men. Should they then omit properly to exercise those rights, the blame would be theirs. If they then neglect to become well informed concerning correct economic and social remedies, little, if any, improvement would be observed in their industrial and political condi- tion. If they,, on the other hand, are careful to advo- cate the enactment of only safe and really conservative laws, they will be potent enough to destroy the power of monopoly and gain greater opportunity in the commer- cial and economic world, for both men and women, to employ more widely their respective talents. Special privilege and its baneful influences must be driven out of our political and economic life. Up to the present time men acting alone have shown themselves incapable or unwilling to do this. The female anti-suf- fragists are largely the wives or beneficiaries of those THE VITAL QUESTION 99 who possess special privileges and would, if possible, perpetuate present conditions and obstruct the further progress of genuine popular government. Those women and their male friends who are striv- ing to secure equal suffrage, have indeed grave respon- sibilities which but increase in proportion to the increas- ing prospects of success. If women sincerely desire to obtain the full fruition of their power in the political and economic fields, which equal suffrage will give them, they must study and ponder well the subjects or questions which are referred to hereafter. The times are ripe for the enumeration of specific reforms, that must be considered and adopted by all citizens, men and women, fully determined to approxi- mate as nearly as practicable, under present deterrent conditions, a realization of those reforms and no longer to depend solely upon the advocacy of mere generalities that are greedily used for ornamenting party platforms by pretended friends of our institutions. An attempt is made to treat briefly in the present work the subjects or topics, which appear to the writer to relate to the most essential problems which newly enfranchised women as well as the men will be called upon to solve. The wicked wastefulness of capital, and the sinful and abusive exploitation of the labor of both men and women, should first be prevented before schemes for ex- acting greater speed and efficiency from wage-earners are invented. Economy in production is commendable, but the first savings should be the billions of money annually extorted from a patient and indulgent people to pay the dividends and interest upon fictitious capital and the people's own property. Upon the re-establishment of a normal relationship between the employer and employee, which would result from depriving special privilege of its power in the IOO THE VITAL QUESTION industrial and economic world, there would be far less reason for legislative interference in such relationship than at present. In order to advance the cause of economic and so- cial justice to the point to which it ought to be advanced, and discharge our full duty to humanity, it will demand the concerted political action of both men and women. "Useless each without the other," are words that are more truthfully applicable to the future co-operation of the man and the woman in public affairs than to their individual or domestic affairs. This concerted political action may be partisan or nonpartisan, but the most effective results can be se- cured through the national organization of those men and women who are determined to ameliorate the social and economic condition of struggling humanity. Equal suffrage may be only an instrument,, but placed in the hands of women reasonably equipped to perform conservative and just political service for the nation and the state, would afford them a promising opportunity to excel in conjunction with the men all political achievements attempted in the past by men act- ing alone. CHAPTER VIII. Additional Remedies. It is, of course, impossible to treat in detail within the scope of this work all the important questions or problems that present themselves for solution. The general problem of how to act so as to render the greatest service to the public is indeed stupendous be- cause it relates to a subject of great magnitude and complexity. Social science itself is no doubt a true and even an exact science, but we are too insufficiently in- formed concerning the data and causes, which influence all civil and social progress, fully to understand such a science. Unfortunately, no individuals and no school of indi- viduals are possessed of adequate knowledge of the springs of action of all past peoples to formulate dog- matically in a comprehensive and organized manner, a plan or code of action for a people who may be inspired with an ambition to attain the highest civilization. The most we can do is to proceed along paths that are more or less clearly defined, with well recognized general principles for our guide-posts. Therefore, many specific remedies or reforms which the reader may deem the most important and far- reaching may have been omitted or possibly too gently touched upon in the foregoing pages. Among such may be mentioned the following : Prohibition, the Tariff, the Money Question, Wages and Hours of Labor, Mini- mum Wages, Old Age Pensions, Workmen's Com- pensation Acts, Employees' Insurance, and various Social Welfare Reforms. Extensive treatises have been published upon many of these subjects which are well known and accessible 102 THE VITAL QUESTION to anyone seeking detailed information concerning them. Many of these reforms are not fundamental, and would become of minor or of little importance after the removal of the evils which monopoly and special privi- lege have inflicted for ages, and which they now inflict with greater refinement than in the past upon both capi- tal and labor. For example, prohibition relates to social conditions, deplorable, cruel and wasteful as they are, but whether those conditions are a cause or a result of the injustice and tyranny of favoritism, or the violation of economic and social laws, are subjects which open wide the doors of debate. The settlement of the liquor traf- fic by its destruction would probably tend to clear the way for unquestionably great economic reforms. That its abolition alone would produce anything like an ideal state of society is indeed irrational. Still, public opinion may insist that prohibition shall be the first of the great issues to be taken up and disposed of. If so, it would not be the part of public-spirited citizens to interpose any obstacle, because the evils of the traffic aimed at, almost infinitely outweigh any of its possible benefits. Both the tariff and the money questions are in a fair way to be settled upon scientific bases, as they naturally should be settled. The questions of wages, hours of labor, profit shar- ing, old age pensions, industrial insurance, and the va- rious so-called social welfare reforms, important as they all are, would largely disappear or be self-regulat- ing, if a true and just relationship between the produc- tive factors of wealth were established by law as the result of enlightened and humane public opinion. If common justice .and equity should be made to pre- vail between the weak and the powerful, between mo- nopoly and those exploited by it, the people at large THE VITAL QUESTION 103 would be in far less danger of being worried about the poor house and the winter of old age, and would secure vastly more leisure and opportunity for self-improve- ment and enjoyment of life than at present. Indus- trial and social conditions would change for the better, and tend to become normal, and citizens would have freedom to work and freedom to live and enjoy in much greater measure "protection against wrong," as liberty was once defined by an eminent writer of the past. If special privilege and the long line of resultant abuses which follow in its wake were driven from power, many artificial conditions would yield to normal and more just and equitable conditions, under which moderate capital and labor would be rejuvenated and prosperity would increase with leaps and bounds never before experienced and scarcely dreamed of in our na- tion. Much of the present and even recurrent distress and suffering among poor but willing people are caused by the prevailing false economic and industrial policies, promoted and supported by the greed and corruption of unpatriotic citizens. The present relative importance of economic and so- cial questions in the near future may be seriously dis- turbed by the war and its unforeseen and far-reaching results. On the other hand, much may be learned! from the war, and the unsuspected efficiency which the nations involved in the great struggle are sure to evince in the handling of public business, which in the past they have unwisely, in too many instances, dele- gated to private ownership and management. The wisest and most patriotic attitude for each one of us to assume, is to be at all times ready and prepared to render the best service he is capable of to advance the reforms or measures he deems most conducive to the public welfare. For the most effective results, all should aid in promoting and maintaining organizations whose cardinal aims and purposes are to increase indi- vidual opportunity, and to abolish special privilege. CHAPTER IX. Suggested Practical Plan of Action. As we have observed in the earlier part of this work, as an indispensable preliminary to the enactment into law of any progressive measures we may advocate, it is necessary first to enlist public opinion upon our side. To gain public opinion there must be widespread dis- cussion, and it is practically impossible to have effec- tive discussion unless it is conducted systematically and persistently. This cannot be properly done without some well di- gested plan or organization. Individuals working alone and independently can indeed do something; but no considerable number of citizens will or can act un- less organized. The organization of citizens in large and small bodies must be effected in some way. How can this be done becomes, therefore, of the very first importance. Political and legislative action will follow, as a matter of course, efficient organization. The or- ganization need not comprise all or indeed a majority of the citizens of any given locality. It should, how- ever, include in its membership as many of the citizens as possible, who are sincere thinkers and investigators of truth and justice and are known as interested in the public welfare. This does not mean that only persons of wealth, collegiate education and high social standing should be invited to join the organization, but all in- telligent citizens of both sexes, who are intent upon performing some service in improving the temporal welfare of their fellows, without interfering in the least with their spiritual or religious welfare. These two THE VITAL QUESTION 105 kinds of welfare should indeed supplement and assist each other. The writer in order to aid the reader in the for- mation of a citizens' organization for the above purpose suggests the following plan or outline, which, of course, may be modified to meet local requirements: CONSTITUTION AND BY-LAWS of The People's Service League of ARTICLE I. Objects and Purposes. The People's Service League of has been formed to meet the imperative necessity for uniting those citizens in the community who believe that the time is ripe for genuine, and not pretended, popular gov- ernment, and for determined and intelligent action against special privilege and its unjust and baneful in- fluences. No public-spirited citizen should hesitate to join the League and openly advocate what he privately acknowl- edges to be right. Even his permanent personal and selfish interests prompt him to do this. Special privilege, or license to dictate laws, to appro- priate public property at nominal cost, and to charge the public for using its own property, has already too long fooled the people, restricted their opportunities and added enormously to their cost of living. It does not bear a just share of taxes, and by undue inflation and confessed private mismanagement on every hand, unblushingly seeks to extort ever increasing tribute from every citizen. io6 THE VITAL QUESTION Special privilege or oligarchy of this character must be driven from power. Efficient popular government must be enthroned in its place. Careful and thorough organization of the people is absolutely demanded to secure this result. The founders of the People's Service League are fully aware that an efficient and progressive popular gov- ernment can be obtained only by a very intelligent, and above all, an actively interested electorate. The League intends to aid in the further information of the citizen upon some of the great questions of the day, by providing permanent headquarters for the League, a library of publications relating to the ob- jects of the League, a lecture bureau, the holding of social and public meetings, the dissemination of litera- ture and information concerning the above objects, and the establishment of local People's Service Leagues. It will, so far as possible, keep watch of the future at- tempts of public utility corporations and other forms of special privilege, to secure legislation hostile to the public welfare, and keep its members informed of the same, and as far as its funds may permit to prevent by legitimate means any such hostile legislation. The League is strictly non-partisan in its objects. Any citizen of either sex subscribing to the Consti- tution and Declaration of Principles of the League is eligible to membership. ARTICLE II. Declaration of Principles. We, as members of the People's Service League of do herebly heartily and sincerely endorse, and subscribe to, the following Declaration of Princi- ples of the League, and earnestly and faithfully pledge ourselves to do all in our power to hasten their adop- tion and incorporation into law. THE VITAL QUESTION 107 i. The establishment of a real and genuine popular government in local, state and national affairs. 2. The abolition of special privilege, and especially the owning and conducting of public business by pri- vate interests. 3. The ultimate government ownership of all public utilities. 4. In the meantime, we insist upon and demand the lowest possible rates consistent with the public service. Private ownership of public utilities has already proven a failure in its bold and unpatriotic efforts to get pos- session of public property for scarcely nothing and be- come the people's rulers and tax gatherers. 5. Equable taxation to lighten the burdens of both labor and legitimate capital. We also favor direct legislation by the people, equal suffrage and [any other principles that it may be deemed advisable to adopt]. BY-LAWS. ARTICLE I. Name. The name of this organization shall be The People's Service League of , and its headquarters shall be in . ARTICLE II. Membership. The membership of the League shall be unlimited in number. Each member shall sign the Constitution and By-Laws, or a duly authorized copy thereof, and shall pledge himself or herself to support the same. 108 THE VITAL QUESTION ARTICLE III. Officers and Their Duties. The officers of the League shall consist of a Presi- dent, a Secretary, Treasurer and an Executive Com- mittee of members, of which the President and Secretary shall be ex-officiis .members. All officers shall be chosen at the annual meeting of the League for one year. The President shall preside at all meetings of the League, and in his absence a temporary chairman may be chosen from the members present. The Secretary and Treasurer shall perform the duties usually performed by such officers and keep proper records of the proceedings of the League, and of all moneys received and expended by it. The Treas- urer may be required to furnish a sufficient bond for the performance of his duties to be approved by the Executive Committee. The Executive Committee shall have the general management of the affairs of the League under the di- rection of the League, and shall audit and authorize all expenditures of the League. Such additional officers and sub-committees may be chosen as the League, from time to time, may deter- mine. ARTICLE IV. Headquarters, Etc. The League, as soon as the funds of the League shall warrant, may secure and maintain suitable headquar- ters, provide a library of publications relating to the objects and purposes of the League for the benefit of its members, establish a lecture bureau for the benefit of the local People's Service League and others, hold THE VITAL QUESTION 109 public meetings and entertainments, and generally to spread in the community information for public en- lightenment and improvement, consistent with the ob- jects and purposes of the League. ARTICLE V. Fees and Dues. The admission fee to membership of the League, which shall include the dues for the first year, shall be one dollar. The annual dues thereafter shall be one dollar, payable in advance. Failure to pay dues shall per se terminate membership, unless revived by vote of the Executive Committee. ARTICLE VI. Meetings. The regular annual meeting of the League shall be held on the first day of in each year, be- ginning with the first day of , 19 . Special meetings of the League may be called at any time by the President or by a majority of the Execu- tive Committee. The Executive Committee may determine the times of holding its own meetings. ARTICLE VII. Amendments. Any of the foregoing articles may be amended at any annual meeting of the League, or at any special meet- ing of the League duly called for that purpose, pro- vided that no change shall be made in the Declaration of Principles of the League at any meeting, except it HO THE VITAL QUESTION be made on a majority referendum vote of all its mem- bers voting thereon. Note — This form may be changed to meet local condi- tions and requirements. CHAPTER X. Conclusion. The criticism may be made that the present time, being one in which the nation is actively engaged in war, is inopportune for publishing the foregoing pages which largely have to do with conditions of peace. Upon the surface this criticism is fair and just, but in a broad, sense any attempt to assist the general move- ment of democracy against autocracy, or the govern- ment by the few claiming to act under divine authority or under special privileges granted by the state, is seasonable, whether we are at peace or war. The citizen who stands ready at all times to make such an attempt is a good patriot, as well as a servant of mankind. No greater service to our fellowmen can be rendered, than to do all that lies in our power at all times to make our republic so prosperous and potent, that no government hereafter based upon any other theory than our own, can hope to destroy ilt. Any other government founded upon the principles underlying and inspiring our government, would not desire to en- gage in war with us or to seek our destruction or to ac- quire dominion over us. Our assured success in the present conflict means that we must lead other nations in the near future in the formation of a world federa- tion for enforced peace, and in reducing to a minimum the submission of international disputes to the arbitra- ment of force, and the inhumanities and wastes of mod- ern warfare. The task of perfecting popular government so that it shall equal the efficiency of a refined and perfect au- 112 THE VITAL QUESTION tocracy is, strictly speaking, theoretically impossible. The concentration of power in a single person who hap- pens to be great in heart and great in intellectual and administrative ability, may result in accomplishing things of magnitude more expeditiously and economi- cally, than can be accomplished by a government with powers, divided among many individuals. But there are, nevertheless, advantages which are inherent in popular governments that do not pertain to autocratic governments. While autocratic government may be superior in efficiency under a wise and humane autocrat, under a cruel and barbarous one, it may be ex- tremely inefficient and bring ultimate waste, ruin and di- saster upon the governed whose only refuge is revolution and the establishment of some form of popular govern- ment. If popular government, because of a division of au- thority, necessarily causes some delay and much waste in reaching results, it is absolutely more certain in the long run to reach right results, because it possesses within, itself the power to correct and chastise itself, without resorting to the violence of revolution. A rev- olution is inconceivable within any government that reasonably approximates popular government. It could not occur unless the government had passed into the hands of an autocracy or oligarchy. The people never rebel against themselves. It is only against their enemies -and opponents who would exploit them and deprive them of rational self-government. The wastes vtfhich are incident to popular govern- ment, and which exceed those of an efficient autocratic government and which may be atoned for and cor- rected as we have before observed, constitute the price which must be paid by those enjoying popular govern- ment. This is only saying that liberty is so precious and so valuable that we should be willing to pay any price to get it and to keep it. Good things cost much. THE VITAL QUESTION 113 The best costs most. Liberty is worth any price de- manded, whether of treasure, or life itself. Doing all we can to secure liberty for ourselves and others, to live and have access to the opportunities that normally and justly belong to us as individuals, and in- cidentally striving to arouse our fellows to organize effectively for these ends, certainly should meet with en- couragement during war as during peace. The su- preme duty of the hour is to employ all the power we possess to secure a military victory for democracy, and our next important and urgent duty is to prepare for the enduring democracy that is sure to spread over the earth at the termination of the present inhuman, irra- tional and unavoidable clash of arms. Genuine popular government must be firmly, widely and permanently estab- lished. Usurped and indifferent popular government must disappear. This result can be accomplished in but one way, and that is, by a permanent organization of the people at all times alert and watchful of their true interests. Are American citizens equal to the task? They have been remiss in the past. Will they be more vigilant and more faithful in the future? The preservation and perpetuation of true democracy admit of but one answer. We must compel ourselves to be efficient in peace as well as in war. In war, all have sincerely joined in advocating inter- national or world democracy. In peace, let all as earn- estly join in advocating real and genuine internal, or na- tional democracy, and make our republic the true and permanent exemplar of a wise and beneficent civiliza- tion for all peoples. The End. 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