LIBRARY 
 
 OF THK 
 
 University of California. 
 
 OIF-T OF 
 
 Received yQ^tOyrr ,i8gS. 
 Accession No. fc y V y'v5 ^ Class No. 
 
 f 
 
 
 -- 
 
 
 Sample Dook 
 
 PROPERTY OF 
 
 THE HlCKS=JUDD CO. 
 
 23 First Street 
 
 San Francisco 
 
 SP 
 
 
'^^i'^^Wt 
 
 
 ^^^$''1 
 
 mi 
 
 * -J 
 
 
 m^ 
 
 
 Wk 
 
 'ti9i^^ 
 
 -- -"TV- ' iJ>"' 
 
 ^ ^ n.S .^Vl 
 
 'M 1 
 
POLITICAL PROBLEMS 
 
 jessaK^s on (Questions of tbc Da^ 
 
 BY 
 
 LYMAN ALLEN, H. D. 
 
 Author of "Fruit Growing in Southern California" in "A Southern 
 California Paradise" etc. 
 
 SAN FRANCISCO 
 
 CALIFORNIAN PUBLISHING CO. 
 1892 
 
-'$ 
 
 Copyright, 1893 
 By LVMaN aLLKN, M. D. 
 
 FROM THE PRESS OF 
 
 THE SAN FRANCISCO PRINTING CO. 
 
 411 MARKET ST., S. F. 
 
/ OF THE ^ 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 There obtains in the minds of a large and increasing 
 number of .people, a conviction that we fall far short of 
 living by the full light of modern knowledge and experi- 
 ence ; that the masses of the people do not receive an 
 equitable share of the fruits of their labor, and do not 
 enjoy an adequate measure of benefit from the cumulated 
 results of human labor, study, research and invention ; 
 that in a land of abundant wealth and production there 
 should not be such want, such privation and such neces- 
 sity for unremitting toil ; that somehow and somewhere 
 there must be grave errors in our system of society, in 
 our commercial life or in our government, much waste 
 and loss and injustice, to cause the wide difference in 
 condition between the many who toil through life for a 
 bare living, and the few who are possessed with abundant 
 wealth. 
 
 It is a common error with physicians to attribute a 
 patient's sickness to some one cause, and to treat the 
 case accordingly, when, perhaps, there are several causes 
 for his ailment, and it is not unusual for some of those 
 who seek to enlighten us upon the causes of our financial 
 
 (iii) 
 
IV PREFACE 
 
 ills to ascribe them all to some one cause, and to propose 
 some one remedy as a complete cure for poverty and for 
 all our material disorders. 
 
 It is the purpose of this work to consider the various 
 principal causes for our financial ailments ; to show the 
 relative importance of each ; to point out the defects in 
 some of the proposed remedies for these disorders ; and 
 to advocate such remedies as appear, in the light of 
 reason or experience, to offer the largest measure of 
 relief to the burdened industrial classes. 
 
 LYMAN ALLEN. 
 
 Pasadena, California, 
 
 December, 1S92, 
 
OF THE 
 
 DIVERSITY 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 PART I 
 OBSTACLES, DIFFICULTIES AND DUST pagr 
 
 CHAPTER L Party Prejudice Popular Prejudice 9 
 
 CHAPTER II. Political Ignorance Defective Sources of 
 
 Knowledge ] 2 
 
 CHAPTER HI. The Spoils System Saloon Domination- 
 Wrong Idea of Government 19 
 
 PART II 
 
 A SEARCH FOR CAUSES OF POVERTY AND THE 
 UNEQUAL DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH 
 
 CHAPTER IV. Millionaires 25 
 
 CHAPTER V. Individual Habits and Characteristics 
 
 Natural Causes and Environment The Drink Habit. 38 
 
 CHAPTER VL Cost of the Liquor Traffic 41 
 
 CHAPTER VII. Speculation in Land The Credit System. 46 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. Monopolies and Trusts 52 
 
 CHAPTER IX. Unwise Taxation 55 
 
 CHAPTER X. The Tariff Trust Tariff Clog Tariff .. . 56 
 
 CHAPTER XL The Tariff Question as a Supreme Issue.. 02 
 
 PART III 
 
 REMEDIES FOR DEFECTIVE GOVERNMENT, FOU 
 
 FAULTY EDUCATION, FOR SOCIAL EVILS, FOR 
 
 BURDENS OF OPPRESSIVE MONOPOLIES 
 
 AND INEQUITABLE TAXES, AND FOR 
 
 UNEQUAL DISTRIBUTION AND 
 
 WASTE OF WEALTH. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. Moral Training in the Schools 77 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. A Clean Ballot Civil Service Reform. 86 
 CHAPTER XIV. Equal Suffrage Equal Political and 
 
 Civil Rights 90 
 
 CHAPTER XV. Objections to Woman Suffrage Considered. 97 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. Prohibition of the Liquor Traffic 104 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. Nationalization OF the Liquor Traffic . 113 
 CHAPTER XVIII. National Highways, Railway and Tele- 
 graph Lines 117 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. Methods of Constructing and Capitalizing 
 
 Railways 122 
 
 Cv) 
 
VI CONTENTS , 
 
 PAGE 
 
 CHAPTER XX. Four Reasons for National Ownership of 
 
 Railways 125 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. Fifteen Reasons for National Ownership 
 
 OF Railways 133 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. Five Reasons for National Ownership 
 
 OF Railways 142 
 
 CHAPTER XXriI. Mr. C. P. Huntington on Railway Con- 
 solidation 149 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. The Telegraph 153 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. Objections to National Ownership of 
 
 Railway and Telegraph Lines Considered 156 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. The True Province of Government 
 Duty of the State Conservative Methods and Unsafe 
 Tendencies 101 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. The Currency Evils of Our Financial 
 
 System Coin and Paper Money The National Banks . 166 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. Postal Savings Banks Improvements 
 
 in Postal Exchange 172 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. Money Monopoly Do We need Fifty 
 ])ollars per Capita? Money Supply of Different 
 Nations Scarcity of Money not the Cause of the 
 Farmers' Depression 175 
 
 CHAPTER XXX. Loans upon Lands and upon Farm Prod- 
 ucts Free Coinage of Silver 181 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI. The Sub-Treasury Plan Five Objec- 
 tions set Forth Loans upon Land Security 187 
 
 CHAPTER XXXII. Taxation Various Ways of Raising 
 
 Revenues Some General Principles for Taxation. .. 192 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIII. Necessity for an Income Tax Expe- 
 rience OF Other Countries Objections Considered . . . 200 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIV. A Tax on Inheritances Advantages 
 
 OF Such a Tax 204 
 
 PART IV 
 
 AFTERMATH RESULTS AND LESSONS OF THE CAM- 
 PAIGN OF 1892 THE POLITICAL OUTLOOK 
 
 CHAPTER XXXV. Some Questions Settled An Obstacle 
 
 Removed A Reform that Languishes 211 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVL The Political Parties Tftetr Policy 
 IN THE Campaign of 1892 Republican, Democratic, 
 Prohibition, Peoples 216 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVII. A New Political Party, Necessity for 
 
 IT What it should stand for Three Great Questions 225 
 
POLITICAL PROBLEMS 
 
 PART I 
 
 OBSTACLES, DIFFICULTIES, AND DUST 
 
POLITICAL PROBLEMS 
 f 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 f 
 
 PARTY PREJUDICE rOPULAR PREJUDICE 
 
 At the outset of any effort to reform our methods of 
 government or to improve the condition of the people, we 
 are confronted by a mountain of party prejudice. This 
 consists of 1, the conviction that one's party contains 
 nearly all the good people, and that the other party is 
 largely composed of the worst elements of society; 2, that 
 upon the success of one's party depends the welfare and 
 perpetuity of all good government; 3, that fealty to one's 
 party, to its every measure and every candidate, is the 
 first duty of every good citizen, and that one who fails 
 to support his party is a bolter and a traitor; 4, that 
 loyalty and patriotism mean subservience to party 
 dictates; 5, that whatever the party papers and speakers 
 say mu8t be true, and goez ; 6, that duty to family, to 
 church, to society, to the country are second to duty to 
 party. 
 
 Partisan prejudice leads to submission to "party tyranny. 
 It becomes the whip and the club by which good men are 
 
 9 
 
10 PARTY PREJUDICE 
 
 forced to submit to the dictates of the party bosses ; 
 by which the man who hates the saloon is compelled to 
 vote and work in its interest, and by which a man who 
 abhors iniquity and despises a corrupt man is made to 
 march up to the polls and cast a ballot for men he knows 
 are corrupt, and who may vote or work for such schemes 
 as they are paid to work for, though they be subversive 
 of all good government and wasteful of the people's 
 wealth. 
 
 Party prejudice apologizes for that great enemy of 
 all good and efficient government, the " spoils system."' 
 It blinds men's eyes to the corruption which exists and 
 largely controls party management. As the old, time 
 serving parties could no longer exist without party pre- 
 judice and party spirit, it becomes the chief duty of the 
 party papers and leaders to strengthen and intensify 
 them. In this way they are able to hold the party ranks 
 together, to strengthen their outposts and entrench them- 
 selves against all raids and incursions. In short party 
 prejudice is the one great obstacle in the way of success 
 of all attempts by the people to undertake reforms in 
 our government. It makes it nearly impossible to get a 
 hearing for any cause which is not advocated as a party 
 measure, or to get any full or just consideration of it 
 when once heard. 
 
 Anything, a thunderbolt from heaven or a tidal wave 
 from the deep sea ! a Farmers' Alliance or a cry for cheap 
 money, which would knock this abominable conceit out of 
 the heads of several millions of good American citizens, 
 and leave them in a condition to consider the things which 
 vitally concern their temporal salvation, would be as the 
 first glimmer in the east which hails the coming day 1 
 
POPULAR PREJUDICE 11 
 
 POPULAR PREJUDICE ''THE GOOD OLD IVAV" 
 
 In all ages men have opposed improvements and 
 reforms. In science, in inventions, in politics and in 
 religion this has been true. Men have been persecuted, 
 imprisoned or executed for announcing the discovery of 
 a great law of nature, for trying to introduce a labor- 
 saving machine, for promulgating a new religious 
 doctrine, or for advocating a social or moral reform. 
 
 This was true one thousand or one hundred years ago, 
 and it is in a measure true today. We do not need to go 
 back one hundred years or ten years to search for a hero 
 or a martyr. Not only Galileo, and Latimer, and 
 Williams, and Lovejoy and their compeers, but Gambrel 
 and Pladdock add to the long list of martyrs. 
 
 We should be slow to ridicule or denounce any one 
 without due consideration, for advocating some new 
 method or plan for improving the physical, the material, 
 the social or moral condition of mankind, simply because 
 it strikes us as being absurd or unwise. 
 
 We are accustomed to accept our present ways and 
 methods as being the best that can be devised, and to 
 consider every innovation as wild and visionary. Men 
 prefer -what they are pleased to think is the "good old 
 way.'' If potatoes have been " planted in the dark of 
 the moon," dark of the moon it is I As unregenerate 
 infants were held to be eternally damned, damned they 
 must be! As woman's "sphere" was circumscribed to 
 the home, home she must stay I As Latin was the chief 
 study in a liberal course fifty years ago, so it must be 
 to-day. And as there are tens of thousands of democrats 
 
12 POLITICAL IGNORANCE 
 
 and republicans who feel that they must live and die in 
 the fold of the good old party, it may be necessary to 
 wait until many of them pass on before we shall see the 
 fullness of the better day. (A good Methodist Bishop 
 remarked that ''there could be a union between the 
 church North and South as soon as we had a few promi- 
 nent funerals.") 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 POLITICAL IGNORANCE DEFECTIVE SOURCES 
 OF KNOWLEDGE 
 
 The ordinary citizen depends almost wholly for his 
 knowledge, his facts, his news and his opinions upon all 
 subjects relative to political and governmental affairs 
 (and this includes many moral and social questions 
 which should be treated by the government), upon his 
 party paper. The party paper as a rule publishes such 
 facts and statements as are in the interests of its party 
 (or derogatory to the interests of the other parties), and 
 suppresses all facts which are not in its interest. This 
 is what it was born for, and what the party bosses hire it 
 to do. 
 
 How can a man correctly judge who does not have the 
 facts on which to base a correct judgment? How can we 
 expect the ordinary American citizen, well educated 
 though he be, to accept or even consider any plan 
 or idea of reform in government which is opposed 
 
DEFECTIVE NEWS SOURCES 13 
 
 by his party, and either ignored, ridiculed or denounced 
 by the party papers, while he depends on such papers 
 for facts and conclusions in regard to it? 
 
 If popular government has not perished from off the 
 face of the earth, popular knowledge of government and 
 the subjects which should be treated by the government 
 have almost disappeared so far as the teachings of the 
 American party paper is concerned. It is a conspiracy 
 of misrepresentation and silence. 
 
 These statements will not be accepted by the ordinary 
 citizen who is solid for his party. Even men and 
 women who are well informed in a general way, flatter 
 themselves that their daily paper furnishes them all the 
 news of the day which is of any moment to a substantial 
 citizen. Their daily paper is loaded with news. It is a 
 great blanket sheet. The managers represent the very 
 soul of enterprise. The paper gives full particulars of 
 all obtainable cases of scandal, and if there is a dearth of 
 such news it has some stories of that class made to order I 
 It gives full page accounts of divorce trials! It publishes 
 lengthy reports of the " rounds " of the prize ring 1 It 
 contains many other things of a similar character which 
 go to make it a great engine for the depression of the 
 social and moral conditions of humanity. 
 
 And then it has the associated press dispatches, and 
 "you know" that these dispatches contain all the 
 political news of any importance to any body, (to the old 
 parties, would be correct.) Who originated the press 
 dispatches? AVho manage them? Who use them? 
 Who pay for them? Why the associated press of course. 
 Who are they? The leading daily papers, nearly all of 
 which uphold one or other of the old parties. No body 
 
14 PARTISAN MISREPRESENTATION 
 
 else. That is to say, they are managed in the interest of 
 those w^\o pay for them. It is a matter of business with 
 them. They gather such news as they are called upon 
 to furnish. 
 
 The press dispatches contain such news as are not pre- 
 judicial to either old party, to whose organs they are 
 sent. The faults, the failings, the lapses from rectitude 
 of the party leaders, must as a rule be passed in silence. 
 No stained garments must be exposed to the public. No 
 evil practices may be criticised. No unwelcome reforms 
 favored. 
 
 Each old party depends upon spoils, upon plunder, 
 upon the saloon, upon the great monopolies and trusts, 
 upon rings and bosses, upon bribers, brewers, saloon- 
 keepers. And these great agencies and agents necessary 
 for party power must not be derided, and the press 
 reporters must hew to this line. 
 
 For example, whoever read in a republican paper any- 
 thing about the notorious Gas Trust of Philadelphia, a 
 ring as bold, as corrupt, as grasping as the celebrated 
 Tweed Ring of New York? This Gas Ring held com- 
 plete sway in Philadelphia for about twenty years from 
 1860 to 1881 fattened upon the people, controlled the 
 republican party of the state and in this way almost 
 absolutely ruled the state. It also had large influence in 
 national affairs. Mr. James Bryce in his " American 
 Commonwealth," says of the ring: 
 
 " The possession of the great city offices gave the 
 members of the ring the means not only of making 
 their own fortunes, but of amassing a large reserve 
 fund to be used for " campaign purposes.'' Many of 
 these officers were paid by fees and not by salary. Five 
 
THE PHILADELrHIA GAS TRUST 15 
 
 officers were at one time in the receipt of an aggregate of 
 $223,000 a year or an average of $44,600 each. One, the 
 collector of delinquent taxes, received nearly $200,000 a 
 year. Many others had the opportunity, by giving out 
 contracts for public works on which they received large 
 commissions, of enriching themselves almost without 
 limit, because there was practically no investigation of 
 their accounts." 
 
 During the rule of the ring, from 1860 to 1881, the 
 city debt rose from $20,000,000 to $70,000,000, and taxa- 
 tion reached a point where it amounted to between one 
 fourth and one third of the net income from the property, 
 with the property assessed at nearly its full value. 
 
 This ring was finally broken through the exertions 
 of a Citizens' Committee of One Hundred. A reform 
 democrat, Mr. Hunter, was elected Mayor in 1881, and 
 the way for reform was opened. For a time many 
 reforms were instituted, corruption in high places was 
 stopped, bad laws repealed, and city politics purified. 
 But the labors of the Committee of One Hundred had 
 been so arduous, it took so much of their time, and they 
 were fought so persistently by the party leaders, that 
 the members became tired, and in 1883 and 1884, their 
 candidates were beaten by the republican machine, and 
 they retired from the field. (Any one wishing an account 
 of this ring should read Mr. Bryce's Work.) " As a dog 
 returneth to his vomit, and a sow that was washed to 
 her wallowing in the mire," so do the people in this 
 '' land of the free and home of the brave " under the 
 blind dictation of party prejudice and party spirit return 
 to be led and robbed by party bosses. 
 
 After the Committee gave up its work, under machine 
 and ring rule the affairs of the city gradually returned 
 
16 DEFECTIVE NEWS SOUKCES 
 
 into some of the old ways, until it was again checked by 
 the revolt of a portion of the republican party of the 
 state from the notoriously corrupt management of the 
 party bosses, by the election of a democratic governor 
 in a state overwhelmingly republican, and finally by the 
 arrest of several offenders and the collapse of the Key- 
 stone Bank. 
 
 And the worst feature in connection with it is that 
 Mat. S. Quay, one of the most corrupt of all party 
 bosses, for years the boss of the republican machine in 
 Pennsylvania, was for a long time Chairman of the 
 National Republican Committee, and was kept in that 
 position for months after he had been publicly charged 
 with malfeasance in office, and until he was really com- 
 pelled to resign by the clamors against him in his party 
 at home. And when he resigned his position as chair- 
 man, the committee "gave him a character," highly 
 commending him as a pure, high minded and patriotic 
 citizen 1 1 
 
 Now, such facts are not advertised in republican papers. 
 Of course the fact of Bardsley's arrest and defalcation 
 was mentioned in the press dispatches. When a public 
 officer is convicted of embezzlement the fact is made 
 public. But the facts connected with it and which led 
 up to it are not enlarged upon by a party paper. 
 
 On the other hand, the present notoriously corrupt man- 
 agement of New York City affairs under Tammany rule, 
 notwithstanding the fact that the ring was broken and the 
 offenders brought to justice during the noted Tweed admin- 
 istration, is not dwelt upon by democratic papers. Nor do 
 the democratic papers have anything to say about the 
 democratic ring which rules the city of Baltimore. 
 
SILENCE OR MISREPRESENTATION 17 
 
 One of the most common cases of failure to give news 
 by the great dailies is the obliviousness to news favorable 
 to temperance and prohibition movements. Any one 
 familiar with the facts knows this to be true. A marked 
 instance of this was the failure of all the dailies to make 
 any mention of the intimidation and violence practiced 
 at the polls in the election in Omaha at the close of the 
 prohibitory 'amendment campaign. There never was a 
 case of the '* shotgun policy " practiced in the South to 
 intimidate the blacks from voting, more outrageous than 
 was this case of " bludgeon policy " as practiced in Omaha 
 on that day. There were many instances of intimidation, 
 of men being hooted at, driven from the polls and 
 beaten, on that day, in order to carry the election in the 
 interest of the saloons and the old parties, but never a word 
 appeared in regard to it in a single great daily, and not a 
 mention of it in any associated press dispatch. The 
 kind of press dispatches we saw at that time were: 
 " Prohibition snowed under in Nebraska." '* A big major- 
 ity against the amendment." " Reports from Iowa go to 
 show that Prohibition is losing ground there, and that 
 the law will probably be repealed at the next session of 
 the legislature." " Prohibition in Kansas is proving to 
 be an utter failure; liquors are freely and openly sold 
 everywhere in that state." 
 
 While the results of the State elections of 1891 were 
 being reported, telegraph dispatches were sent over the 
 country to the effect that the vote of the Farmers' 
 Alliance had greatly fallen off, that the Alliance was 
 evidently going to pieces and need no longer be feared as 
 a disturbing element in politics. These reports were 
 entirely without foundation. Although the total vote in 
 
18 NEWSPAPER MISREPRESENTATION 
 
 1891 was much less than that of 1890, there was 
 uniformly an increase in the Alliance vote. In Kansas 
 this increase was about 11 per cent. The Republican 
 majority in South Dakota was reduced from 10,000 in 
 1890 to 2,760 in 1891, and in Nebraska the People's 
 party came within 3,000 votes of defeating the combined 
 power of both the old parties, and elected eleven district 
 judges. 
 
 The same plan of either misrepresenting or entirely 
 ignoring the facts, which had been practiced so long in 
 regard to the Prohibition party, was thus begun with the 
 People's party, and this system of lying by wholesale 
 may be depended upon from the corrupt management of 
 the old parties. 
 
 These reports were sent for political effect. No effort 
 was made to correct them. In 1890 the Democratic 
 party, in strongly Republican districts, united with the 
 Alliance, but in 1891 in many localities the old parties 
 combined in self defense against their common enemy. 
 
 Instead of this being a government of the people, for 
 the people and hy the people, it is a government of the 
 party, for the party and hy " the boss." The question 
 with the modern statesman is not " What will benefit the 
 people?" but "What will profit my party?" and "What 
 will help me and my friends to a place?" 
 
 This chapter was written before the opening of the cam- 
 paign of 1892, and it is but fair to say that there has been 
 a decided improvement in the tone of many of the lead- 
 ing dailies this year in reporting news of the new parties. 
 The reports of their conventions have been quite full and 
 fair as compared with those of previous years. This is 
 very commendable, and a notable sign of the times. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 ''THE SPOILS SYSTEM'' SALOON DOMINATION- 
 WRONG IDEA OF GOVERNMENT 
 
 " The Spoils System " is responsible for nearly all of 
 our present corrupt or inefficient administration of the 
 government. Men get responsible positions in charge of 
 the business and affairs of the nation, not because of 
 fitness for the positions, not because they are honest, 
 honorable, able, qualified and adapted to the places; but 
 because of party service, because of " claims upon the 
 party " or the party bosses, and because of ability and 
 disposition to still serve the party, while occupying (not 
 filling) a place in government employ. 
 
 In this way the party " boss," the men who manage 
 the canvas, those who contribute the funds, the men who 
 control the saloon vote, the bribers, the brewers, the 
 " ward heelers," the thugs and the toughs are coming to 
 a considerable extent to fill the offices from United States 
 senator to policeman. 
 
 This is especially the case in the government of some 
 of the large cities, and the power they obtain in the 
 councils of the State and Nation, brings discredit and 
 dishonor upon our public affairs and upon the name of 
 popular government. The government of the average 
 American city has come to be a disgrace and a blot upon 
 our boasted civilization. Modern politicians deem the 
 offices to be their legitimate spoils, and the people's 
 wealth their legitimate plunder. This is the crying evil 
 
 19 
 
20 THE SPOILS SYSTEM 
 
 and abomination of our politics and government to-day. 
 It is at once the life of the old, time serving parties, and 
 the death of decent popular government. 
 
 The mismanagement, extravagance and peculation too 
 often found in our administration of public affairs, and 
 for which the spoils system is responsible, is the chief 
 argument advanced in opposition to any proposed exten- 
 sion of public business by the government. We are told 
 that the government should not undertake more business 
 because there would be " so much corruption." This 
 argument comes from those who are defenders of the 
 spoils system, or from those who have lost faith in our 
 ability to carry on a pure and honest government, and is 
 in itself a charge that popular government in our great 
 Republic has already proved a failure. 
 
 No reform of government can be effectually carried out 
 without complete and absolute reform of our civil service. 
 
 SALOON DOM/NATION 
 
 Next to the spoils system and going hand in hand with 
 it, comes the saloon, as a prime factor in American 
 politics. It is not simply the fact that the saloon is a 
 " school of vice " and a " nursery of crime " that makes 
 it an obstacle to any and all reforms, but the fact that in 
 our country it has in a measure come to dominate poli- 
 tics, and to shape legislation and select the officials, that 
 makes it an arch enemy to all good government. 
 
 Neither of the old parties, as a national party, has any 
 quarrel with the saloon. They both receive its support 
 and give it their countenance and endorsement. They 
 can not do otherwise and do not propose to. 
 
SALOON INFLUENCE IN POLITICS 21 
 
 It is true that in Iowa and to a less extent in Kansas 
 tlie Republican party supports prohibition. The Repub- 
 lican State Convention in Iowa in 1891 pronounced by a 
 vote of nine hundred and fifty one to one hundred and 
 seven in favor of prohibition as the law of the state and 
 against high license and local option. (This was written 
 before the meeting of Iowa republicans of this year, at 
 which their action was not nearly so pronounced for pro- 
 hibition.) 
 
 It is also true that in several southern states a large part 
 of the territory is under local prohibition and that in every 
 case this has been brought about almost entirely by demo- 
 cratic votes. But these facts do not alter the general fact 
 that in most of the northern and in all of the southern states, 
 and as a national party, the Republican party is a license 
 and a whiskey party; and that the Democratic party in 
 all the northern states and as a national party is entirely 
 devoted to the saloon interest so far as that is concerned. 
 
 The saloon is the friend of bribery and corruption; the 
 copartner with the lottery, the gaming table and the 
 bawdy house; the patron of the prize ring; the rendezvous 
 of the burglar and the assassin ; the headquarters of the 
 " ward heeler " and the " thug," and the potent ally of 
 the political boss. It is often the chosen place for the 
 ward caucus and the precinct election. From no man 
 or set of men can we expect any genuine, effective, or 
 lasting service for reform who do not openly and boldly 
 oppose this gigantic evil. 
 
 WRONG IDEA OF GOVERNMENT 
 
 Finally in considering state and national affairs, we 
 must correct our ideas, rather our ^ense than our knowl- 
 
22 MISTAKEN IDEA OF GOVERNMENT 
 
 edge, of government; what it is; what it means. We 
 should constantly bear in mind, that the people are the 
 rulers. That we are or should be the government. 
 That all power and authority is in us if we would but 
 exercise it. That the officers of the government are our 
 servants. We should instruct them. 
 
 All the money and support comes from us. The 
 public lands are ours. The Government mortgages 
 against the Union and Central Pacific Railroads are ours. 
 All needless expense and waste and loss in public affairs 
 comes out of our pockets. The nation has no bank, or 
 mine, or considerable source of wealth except in the toil, 
 the economy, the thrift and the wealth of its people. 
 Every subsidy, every bounty, every pension, every tax, 
 every expense must be paid by our labor or taken from 
 our capital. 
 
 Let us not make the mistake of looking upon the 
 government as something separate and apart from us, a 
 thing in and of itself, depending on its own power, 
 volition and resources. We should do nothing as a 
 nation that we would not in like circumstances, do as 
 individuals. 
 
 And we should always remember, that when we speak 
 of the government, we speak of ourselves, our delegates, 
 our servants and employes. So if there is praise or 
 blame to bestow we are its recipients. Let us then 
 profit by our experience and by that of others, even 
 though we learn of the " pauper laborers " and " effete 
 monarchies " of Europe, and of the despised heathen in 
 far off isles of the sea. Let us not be vain of our 
 wisdom or proud of our ways. We have much to learn, 
 much to be ashamed of, much room for improvement. 
 
OBSTACLES IN THE WAY OF REFORM 23 
 
 Let us try to approach the subject with a clear vision 
 and an honest mind, unclouded by party spirit, by old 
 time prejudice or misrepresentation, and undisturbed 
 by the clamor of those who would resort to desperate 
 means or the ridicule of those who are well satisfied with 
 present conditions. 
 
 Thus as we enumerate and specify these various 
 obstacles which stand as a high wall in the way of 
 material, social and moral advancement, we begin to 
 realize in a measure how difficult it is to get a hearing 
 for any cause or any method which does not accord with 
 present ways, or cannot be worked out with the present 
 political machines. We see how ignorant, how blind, 
 and how deaf and dumb are the masses of the people to 
 some of their best interests. We see how strong is the 
 grip of the party, the " boss " and " the machine " and 
 of the plutocrat, the spoilsman and the saloon. 
 
 TARIFF AS A SUPREME ISSUE 
 
 Lastly, we have the tariff question as the main issue 
 between the old parties, monopolizing the thought of 
 the people, preventing consideration of other questions, 
 and acting as a cloud of dust, filling the eyes and dis- 
 tracting the attention of a majority of the American 
 people. For particulars see chapter on the tariff. 
 
PART II. 
 
 A SEARCH FOR CAUSES OF POVERTY AND 
 
 THE UNEQUAL DISTRIBUTION 
 
 OF WEALTH 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 MILLIONAIRES 
 
 At the outset of our consideration of the questions per- 
 taining to the disparity in the material conditions of the 
 people, and the causes for this disparity, we will observe 
 first men of greatest wealth and the sources from which 
 their vast accumulations have been derived, and perhaps 
 in taking this general survey we may be able to learn 
 some of the causes of poverty by observing the sources of 
 greatest individual wealth. When too much of the life 
 current flows to the central organs of the body the ex- 
 tremities become cold, and the patient has a chill. In 
 like manner we may reasonably expect that when a large 
 proportion of wealth the life current of the nation 
 flows into the coffers of the few, the many must needs be 
 impoverished by the drain upon the common source of 
 supply. With the nation as with the individual, con- 
 gestion at one point produces lack of blood at another. 
 
 Keliable information regarding the number of million- 
 aires, and especially the amount and sources of individ- 
 ual wealth, are not readily obtainable. A statement of 
 the amount of wealth of any of our great millionaires 
 should be taken as approximate. We have, as a rule, no 
 means of ascertaining with exactness the wealth of rich 
 men in the United States, except after their death. In 
 England, where an income tax is collected from the rich, 
 it becomes the business of the government to know the 
 
 26 
 
26 A MILLIONAIRE ERA 
 
 
 
 wealth of individuals. But we may learn the amount of 
 the wealth of our rich men with sufficient accuracy for 
 our comparisons. 
 
 Mr. Thomas G. Shearman, in his i^orw^n article has made 
 an extended enumeration of some of our great millionaires 
 with an estimate of their individual wealth, which is 
 probably as nearly correct as may be found. The Neio 
 Yorh Tribune has also furnished an extended list of men 
 throughout the country who are reputed to be worth a 
 million or more, but it does not give estimates of individ- 
 ual wealth, except in a few instances, so that its list is 
 not satisfactory in this respect. There is a wide difference 
 between a fortune of a million and one of a hundred 
 millions. 
 
 A notable fact in regard to millionaires is that the 
 United States has furnished, during the last thirty years, 
 a field for the accumulation of large fortunes vastly 
 beyond that of any other nation or of any other period in 
 history. Indeed, in that time individual fortunes have 
 been amassed in the United States upon such a stupend- 
 ous scale as to very far surpass any acquisition of wealth 
 before known among men. 
 
 England is the great commercial and financial center 
 of the business world, yet England, with her landed 
 nobility who own vast estates, her great bankers, manu- 
 facturers and merchants, does not furnish millionaires to 
 compare with those of our country. The noted bankers 
 of England and France, whose names are familiar to 
 American readers, do not nearly approach in the magni- 
 tude of their fortunes the colossal wealth of several rich 
 Americans. 
 
 During these three decades, while wealth has greatly 
 
CAUSES FOR MILLIONAIRES 27 
 
 increased in the hands of the few, as a rule the values of 
 the farmers' lands, except in the newer states and in 
 proximity to cities, have depreciated, and the proportion 
 of farm mortgages and of tenant farmers has largely 
 increased. This would seem to indicate that the causes 
 which have made a few rich have made many poor. And 
 not this alone, but the fact that along with this rapid 
 accumulation of great fortunes we have an increase in 
 the proportion of people who lack for the comforts of life, 
 who are forced to the most exacting toil to maintain a bare 
 existence or are unable to find sufficient employment to 
 provide for a decent living ; that with our illimitable 
 sources and facilities for producing almost everything 
 required for the comfort of mankind there should be so 
 many who do not secure a fair share of the wealth pro- 
 duced, that is arresting the attention of the American 
 people and has incited the present upheaval in our polit- 
 ical life. 
 
 With such notable and unquestionable facts, showing 
 the existence of conditions which have produced and are 
 still producing this wide inequality in the distribution of 
 wealth, we may well consider what the causes and what 
 shall be the remedies for these evils. 
 
 In our search for millionaires we will first look among 
 the farming classes, as they constitute the largest number 
 of workers and are the principal producers of wealth. Do 
 we find them ? Is there a considerable proportion of 
 farmers who have become millionaires? No. There is 
 not. We might search diligently and would find but few 
 instances of men who have made a million in any ordinary 
 farming enterprise. Men have made millions by securing 
 large tracts of cheap lands, especially of government 
 
28 WHO ARE THE MILLIONAIRES 
 
 lands, by fraudulent entries or by collusion of dishonest 
 government agents and holding for advanced values, by 
 herding large flocks of cattle or sheep upon the public 
 domain, and in some western states by growing grain 
 upon an extended scale. Many farmers become " well to 
 do," they acquire thousands, but not millions. 
 
 Who then are the millionaires, and how did they make 
 their money ? They are men who manage the railway 
 and telegraph lines and express companies ; men who 
 control the production and distribution of coal, and oil, 
 lumber and refined sugar ; those engaged in manufactures 
 of iron, steel, glass, cordage ; those engaged in mining 
 silver, gold, copper and lead ; bankers, brokers, specula- 
 tors ; those who have been made rich by rise of real 
 estate in cities ; men who are in the position to dictate the 
 prices people must pay for their meat and many other 
 articles of prime necessity ; these and others who have to 
 a large extent a monopoly of the business in which they 
 are engaged, and are enabled to exact exorbitant charges 
 for the services rendered the people. 
 
 By far the larger number of great American millionaires, 
 and especially those . whose fortunes have been acquired 
 during the last three decades, are men who have made 
 their money mainly in constructing, capitalizing, manag - 
 ing and consolidating railway lines. Perhaps one-half of 
 the total acquisition of the notably great fortunes in that 
 time have been made in that way. These are the men 
 whose absorption of a large proportion of the p*rofits of 
 labor has been a chief cause for close times among so 
 many people. 
 
 It is probable that a list of fifty individuals, includ- 
 ing estates, could be made, whose combined wealth would 
 
RAILWAY MILLIONAIRES 29 
 
 aggregate $1,500,000,000, mainly amassed in railroad 
 affairs. This list would include Cornelius Vanderbilt, 
 William K. Vanderbilt, Jay Gould, Leland Stanford, John 
 I. Blair, Collis P. Huntington, G. B. Roberts, F. W. Van- 
 derbilt, Russell Sage, Calvin S. Brice, Charles M. McGhee, 
 Chauncey M. Depew, Chester W. Chapin, John H. Inman, 
 Samuel Sloan, Samuel Thomas, Timothy Hopkins, Fred- 
 erick L. Ames, James I. Hill, Erastus Corning, Austin 
 Corbin and J. Rogers Maxwell, and the estates of Charles 
 Crocker, Thomas A. Scott, J. W. Garrett, Moses Taylor, 
 Mark Hopkins, Nathaniel Thayer, E. F. Drake, Wm. L. 
 Scott, Wm. Thaw, Horace F. Clark and Sidney Dillon. 
 
 Also smaller fortunes have been made by a much 
 larger number of men in a similar way, and by men 
 who were also engaged in banking, mining or other busi- 
 ness, and a considerable part of whose wealth was 
 acquired in railway investments. No very definite 
 estimate can be made of the aggregate wealth possessed 
 by these lesser railway millionaires, but we may fairly 
 assume that taking altogether the men who have made 
 large fortunes in railway affairs, their total wealth 
 acquired by this means amounts to at least one-half as 
 much as the present total value of all the railways of the 
 country, about $2,500,000,000 or $3,000,000,000. 
 
 But, be this as it may, the indisputable fact remains, 
 that much the largest number of our great millionaires 
 are railway men, and this fact is a significant one for the 
 American people. It shows that the question of cheaper 
 transportation is the greatest economic problem before the 
 American people. It means that a large amount of wealth 
 has been taken from its legitimate channels by men who 
 have been managers of what should be national highways, 
 
30 SOME COMPARISONS 
 
 by exacting extortionate tolls upon the traffic over these 
 highways and thus taxing the industries of the whole 
 country, and is now piled up in these colossal fortunes. 
 It does not stand for legitimate earnings, savings or 
 profits. 
 
 For the farmer it has stood for low prices of wheat and 
 cattle and corn, and for high prices of coal and tools and 
 lumber. It stands for mortgages on many farms. For the 
 mechanic, laborer and tradesman it has added to the cocst 
 of his food, his tools and his home, and has deprived him 
 of many comforts and luxuries which he should have had, 
 in order to swell the vast fortunes of these railway 
 millionaires. 
 
 The average earnings of able-bodied mechanics, farmers 
 and laborers in the United States, those who are fortunate 
 and have work, is less than $500 a year. The average 
 savings of such men who are ordinarily thrifty is less 
 than $100 a year. Mr. Jay Gould has amassed a fortune 
 of about $100,000,000 in the past thirty years by man- 
 aging and manipulating railway properties. This fortune 
 represents an amount equal to the total earnings of 200,000 
 busy men for one year ; it represents an amount equal to 
 the total savings of 1,000,000 busy and thrifty men for one 
 year. As the majority of men do not earn or save so 
 much, and as many do not have steady or profitable 
 employment, such a fortune is a greater sum than the 
 total savings of 100,000 ordinary men in a lifetime. 
 
 If Ferdinand and Isabella had decreed that Christopher 
 Columbus and his heirs after him should receive a per- 
 petual pension of $250,000 annually from the Spanish 
 government as a reward for his great service in the dis- 
 covery of a new world, and the amount had been regu- 
 
NOTED MILLIONAIRES 31 
 
 larly paid from 1492 to this date, the total payments 
 would have amounted to a sum no greater than the pres- 
 ent wealth of a Gould, Vanderbilt or Stanford. 
 
 As we investigate the problem of our railway manage- 
 ment, we shall find that there are many ways in connec- 
 tion with it by vv^hich the few are enriched and the many 
 impoverished. As indicated by the proportion of our 
 great millionaires who are railway men, we will find that 
 the present methods of railway management in our 
 country is one of the chief causes for the disparity in the 
 conditions of the people, and one which we have not as yet 
 begun materially to remedy. The railway problem is an 
 important one, and one which urgently demands the 
 attention of the people. The subject is treated at length 
 in several chapters of this work. 
 
 John Jacob Astor, William Waldorf Astor and Mrs. 
 William Astor are supposed to be the three wealthiest 
 persons of one family in the world, with possessions val- 
 ued at about $100,000,000 each. John Jacob Astor, 
 founder of the Astor estate, made a great fortune for 
 his time, by merchandising and in the fur trade, and 
 this fortune, invested in New York real estate in early 
 times, has grown to be the largest estate held in one 
 family, unless it be that of the Vanderbilts. 
 
 Commodore Vanderbilt got his start in life in the steam- 
 boat business, but he early embarked in railway man- 
 agement and made the bulk of his fortune in that 
 line of business. He was the first of the great railway 
 managers, and was a notable financier. Although the 
 Astor estate had grown to many millions before Vander- 
 bilt was fairly started on the road to wealth, yet the 
 Vanderbilt estate, now owned principally by three sons. 
 
32 
 
 amounts to nearly or quite as much as the wealth of the 
 Astors. 
 
 The most notable group of millionaires next to the 
 railway managers is composed of the Standard Oil men. 
 Mr. John D. Rockefeller stands with J. J. Astor, "William 
 Waldorf Astor, Cornelius Vanderbilt, William K. Vander- 
 biltj Jay Gould and Leland Stanford, having wealth in 
 the neighborhood of $100,000,000. John D. Rockefeller, 
 Wm. Rockefeller, H. M. Flagler, O. H. Payne, John H. 
 Flagler, Oliver B. Jennings and others, including the 
 estate of Charles Pratt, representing the Standard Oil 
 Trust, have a combined wealth of about $300,000,000. 
 
 The best known millionaire next to those already named 
 is Mr. Andrew Carnegie, of Homestead fame. He belongs 
 to a very numerous list of millionaires who have been 
 enabled to build large fortunes by aid of our high pro- 
 tective tariffs. These fortunes have been made in manu- 
 factures of iron, steel, glass, cordage, drugs, fabrics^ in 
 mining copper, borax, lead, and in many other lines of 
 business which are made very profitable by our tariffs. 
 In many cases protected industries have become monop- 
 olies by the practical exclusion of foreign competition, 
 which enabled producers, by combining, to exact exor- 
 bitant prices for their products. Pennsylvania furnishes 
 a large list of millionaires of this'class. 
 
 The New York Tribuyie, in its list of millionaires, pub- 
 lishes the names of 197 in a total of 379 millionaires of 
 Pennsylvania who made their fortunes mainly in protected 
 industries. These fortunes were made mostly in manu- 
 factures of iron, steel and glass and in mining coal. 
 
 There is a large number of millionaires who have made 
 their wealth mostly in the ownership of pine lands and 
 
THE " IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT " 33 
 
 in the lumber business, which is a protected industry. 
 Michigan has, according to the Tribune list, about 50 of 
 this class in a total of 90, more than any other state. 
 
 The Tribune furnishes a list of names of 1,125 million- 
 aires who made their fortunes mainly in protected indus- 
 tries, in a total list of 4,047. The most striking contrast 
 shown by its summing of classes is as follows : 
 
 Number of millionaires who made their fortunes mainly 
 in protected manufacturing, including saw mills and 
 lumber 757. 
 
 In unprotected manufacturing 2. 
 
 Our government has succeeded by its high tariffs, not 
 only in " nursing infant industries," but in nursing the 
 millionaire industry, as well. This subject is treated 
 at some length in chapters on the tariff. 
 
 There is a considerable number of millionaires who 
 have made their fortunes mainly in banking and in 
 merchandizing, but there is no instance of a fortune 
 having been made in either of these lines which 
 amounts to even one-half as much as those of the great 
 railway kings, unless we except the Astor estate, and this 
 was not, for it was built up mainly by the rise in value of 
 New York real estate. Neither bankers, merchants, or 
 men engaged in any other ordinary calling, where there 
 is no special opportunity for controlling an entire line of 
 trade, have furnished any very marked examples of great 
 millionaires. The most prominent of these are A. T. Stew- 
 art, H. B. Claflin, John V. Farwell and Marshall Field 
 among merchants, and F. A. Drexel, A. J, Drexel, J. S. 
 Morgan, J, P. Morgan and the Seligmans among bankers. 
 But neither of these amassed a fortune amounting to but 
 little more than one-fourth as much as those of the great 
 
34 GOVERNMENT CONTROL 
 
 railway magnates, although requiring a longer period of 
 time in acquisition. 
 
 The Oil Trust, the Dressed Beef Trust, the Sugar Trust, 
 some protected manufacturing and mining industries and 
 other combinations of capital aside from the railway, 
 telegraph and express lines have often exercised great 
 power in obtaining legislation in their interests. Great 
 wealth in the hands of a few men represents a great and 
 very dangerous power over productive, financial and com- 
 mercial interests, over legislation and over the conduct of 
 government. 
 
 It is this vast power which capitalists and combinations 
 of capitalists have, not only over almost every material 
 interest throughout the land, but over large bodies of 
 mechanics and laborers, over whole communities of men 
 and women in manufacturing and mining districts, that 
 has brought the burning question of the " irrepressible 
 conflict '^ between capital and labor to a point where it is 
 imperative that the state and national governments shall 
 come in and decide by legislation and by arbitration all 
 differences between such large contending interests. 
 These large fortunes and this vast power in the hands of 
 a few men have been built up, have been made possible, 
 through and by the direct aid of the government and of 
 the whole people ; by franchises, subsidies, bounties, 
 privileges, loans and credits ; by high tariffs and by the 
 protecting hand of a strong government. 
 
 That which the government creates it should control. 
 We should not construct engines that we cannot manage 
 when built. We should not help men to build great high- 
 ways by granting franchises, special privileges and 
 bounties, and when built submit to a direct tax from the 
 
SOLUTION OF THE LABOR QUESTION 35 
 
 men we have aided, by allowing them to " charge what 
 the traffic will bear." If we subsidize favored industries 
 by aid of high protective tariffs which act as a direct tax 
 upon all consumers of the products of such industries, 
 we should at least see that the laborers engaged in them, 
 those who make the wares, should have a fair proportion 
 of the profits. Not only the industry but the laborer 
 engaged in it should be protected. It should not be left 
 entirely to capital to say what reward labor shall receive. 
 
 Our country should no longer be disgraced and the 
 well-being of the laboring masses jeopardized by strikes 
 and lockouts; by riot, murder and wholesale destruction 
 of property; by the exactions of powerful corporations on 
 the one hand, or the clamors of noisy and unreasonable 
 leaders among employes on the other. It is high time 
 that instead of all this we should have a reign of reason, 
 law and order, and that- the questions of rights and com- 
 pensations between employer and employed shall be 
 decided and enforced by competent authority. 
 
 The ultimate solution of this labor question so far as 
 regards the differences between great corporations and 
 their armies of employes will not, however, be found along 
 lines so far suggested. In the case of the transportation 
 problem, the results of legislation and commissions have 
 been found to be only palliative, and the solution of the 
 question is to be found only in the line advocated in the 
 several chapters on that question in Political Prohlems, 
 So in regard to this labor problem, the results of legislation 
 and commissions will be found to be but palliative, and the 
 final solution of the question must come along the same 
 line as will the final remedy for the burdens resulting 
 from our present system of corporate management of the 
 
36 SUBSIDIZING MILLIONAIRES 
 
 railways. But, as a present remedy, government arbitra- 
 tion should be resorted to wherever the differences between 
 the conflicting interests cannot be otherwise amicably 
 settled. 
 
 We have also the political plutocrats, men who have 
 amassed wealth by managing politics, by getting fat places 
 and holding them for all the money that could be made 
 out of them, by levying tribute upon the people, by job- 
 bery and plunder. Of such is the political " boss," and 
 some of these have been able to place themselves in the 
 United States Senate. 
 
 Most of the men who have made great fortunes in the 
 past thirty years have been enabled to do so by direct aid 
 of the people ; by grants of land ; by credits, subsidies, 
 loans ; by franchises and special privileges and immunities : 
 by laws which favored monopolies; and by combina- 
 tions of capital and power which acted to destroy com- 
 petition and afford clear fields for the operations of great 
 trusts. The railways have been, to a large extent, built 
 by subsidies and favors from the people. The Standard 
 Oil men got special rebates on freight charges from the 
 railways, which alone would have enabled them to kill all 
 competition. And so by subsidy, special privilege, job- 
 bery and combine are many millionaires made. 
 
 It is not a crime to be rich. A man may be a million- 
 aire and not be a villain It does not always follow that 
 a man has swindled the people in accumulating a million, 
 but it does follow that he has obtained wealth which he 
 has, as a rule, not earned, and is not justly entitled to. 
 And it follows that the people are not wise in offering 
 premiums to the millionaire industry, in voluntarily pay- 
 ing tribute to it, in furnishing special inducements for its 
 
WHICH CLASS SHALL WE FAVOR 37 
 
 growth. It is among the industries which we do not need 
 to " nurse." It is not on the '' infant '" list. 
 
 It is the man who has but a hundred or a thousand 
 who should be assisted in his endeavors to add to his 
 wealth, rather than the man who has a million or a hun- 
 dred millions. While we have prated much of " protection 
 to American industry," as the chief and solid corner-stone 
 of our political fabric, we have in fact, in more ways than 
 one, protected the American millionaire industry and 
 failed to protect the industry of the American millions. 
 Perhaps we have undertaken in our day and generation 
 to exemplify literally the words of the Book ; " Unto him 
 who hath much, much shall be given, but unto him who 
 hath little shall be taken away, even that which he hath." 
 
 The problem of how to favor the millions, and how not 
 to favor the millionaires, is coming to be an important 
 question with the American people, and will, in the pro- 
 cess of time be considered by American statesmen. There 
 are many questions which bear upon this problem and 
 become a part of it, and a large part of this work is 
 devoted to a consideration of some of these questions. 
 We can plainly show how we have been as a people, 
 systematically, blindly going on laboring to enrich the 
 few and impoverish the many, and how we may and 
 should cease to do evil in these ways, and learn to do well 
 by lightening the burdens, smoothing the rugged path- 
 way, and adding to the comfort and the store of the toiling, 
 care-oppressed millions. 
 
 A remedy for the perpetuation of millionaire estates by 
 the transmission of wealth from parent to child may be 
 found in a graduated tax upon legacies, making a heavy 
 tax on the estates of millionaires. This subject is treated 
 in the chapters on taxation. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 INDIVIDUAL HABITS AND CHARACTERJSTTCS 
 
 NATURAL CAUSES AND ENVIRONMENT- 
 
 THE DRINK HABIT 
 
 We find those who are more or less active, industrious, 
 enterprising and frugal and we speak of a combination of 
 these qualities as thrift. And we usually find those who 
 are thrifty comfortably provided for even under adverse 
 surroundings, while often the unthrifty are unable to 
 properly care for themselves and families though con- 
 ditions be favorable. 
 
 Thrift and unthrift account for much of the difference 
 in condition between rich and poor. The thrifty are 
 always gathering, always caring for what they have in 
 store : the unthrifty fail to gather as they should, and 
 they allow moth and rust and mice and storm to decimate 
 their supply. 
 
 " A penny saved is good as twopence earned." The 
 success of an individual in " getting a start in life '' depends 
 upon saving more than upon earning. Wastefulness, 
 extravagance, living close up to or beyond one's income 
 and buying what one cannot pay for : these are guide- 
 posts on the highway to poverty and the almshouse. 
 
 To have a provision for a regular income that can be 
 depended upon, is the first requisite to success in life. To 
 be able to do something, and to do that something well 
 to excel in one's vocation, marks the first mile stone on 
 the highway to a competence or a fortune ; to live within 
 
 88 
 
INDIVIDUAL CHARACTERISTICS 39 
 
 one's income marks the second mile stone ; and the 
 amount which one is able to lay by each month or year 
 " for a rainy day,'' and the measure of ability to wisely 
 use or invest the savings, determines the relative rapidity 
 with which the mile stones may be passed. 
 
 Not that prudence and habits of saving are always 
 virtues, but that they are potent means of acquiring 
 wealth. 
 
 Some would-be philosophers tell us that thrift and 
 unthrift account for nearly all of the differences in the 
 material conditions of individuals. But we know this is 
 not true. We have often seen conditions prevailing 
 where nearly all were well provided for and surrounded 
 by plenty, and we have seen times and places where the 
 many were hard pressed to obtain a comfortable living. 
 
 Again we have those who are cunning, grasping and 
 unscrupulous, ready to take any possible advantage of 
 their fellows, ready to take from the widow and the 
 friendless, and to " grind the face of the poor," and for 
 such, as far as may be, the law should prescribe bounds. 
 
 NATURAL CAUSES AND ENVIRONMENT 
 
 The farmer contends with rocky and barren soils ; with 
 heats and frosts ; with the wet season and the drought ; 
 with weevil, chintz bugs, borers, gophers, rabbits, rats and 
 many other trials and pests. 
 
 The merchant is dependent upon the farmer and 
 mechanic. His goods are liable to rust, decay, fade, go 
 out of style, depreciate in value. He often has to pay 
 high rents, insurance, taxes ; sometimes competition is 
 close. There is no business which is not subject to 
 
40 NATURAL CAUSES 
 
 changes, depressions, annoyances, losses, dull times, and 
 to the necessity of close, exacting attention in order to 
 succeed. 
 
 All men are more or less creatures of circumstances, of 
 heredity, of education and early training, of associations 
 and surroundings, of locality and environment. So that 
 when we consider the results of experience in any indus- 
 trial enterprise or under any law or regulation, we should 
 remember that there are many factors which enter into 
 almost any problem of human life and human endeavor, 
 and that it is often difficult to judge the power of any partic- 
 ular cause or force in bringing about the results obtained. 
 
 The Drink Habit is one of the most apparent causes of 
 poverty and distress. It is a thing " known and read of 
 all men " from the early dawn of history. Wherever the 
 saloon is, there are found men the strong, active, and 
 intelligent as well as the weak and the ignorant who 
 should be able to provide abundantly for themselves and 
 families, but who look " seedy," their wives and children 
 clothed in shabby garments and their homes becoming 
 dilapidated. And when it is known of such a man that 
 '' he drinks," that fact sufficiently accounts to the mind 
 of any one for the man's failure to succeed in the world. 
 
 Everyone knows that the man's earnings, which should 
 have bought food, clothing and other necessaries for the 
 home, have instead largely gone over the counter of the 
 saloon. And that while the man's money has gone to the 
 saloon keeper, that which he received for his money has 
 been making him day by day less able to obtain work, 
 and less able to perform his labor. He is not only wast- 
 ing his substance but wasting his physical energies, and 
 degrading his manhood. 
 
THE DRINK HABIT 41 
 
 The drink habit is a most fertile source of poverty, 
 disease and want, and the most prolific cause of demoral- 
 ization, degradation, pauperism, vice and crime. All this 
 and much more is well known of the evil results of strong 
 drink. The facts are well established and are seldom 
 denied. The vast majority of the people of the United 
 States know something of the magnitude of this evil and 
 concede and appreciate its force and bearing on the moral, 
 physical and financial well being of our people. No man 
 can enumerate all the evils and horrors which follow in 
 its train. Few realize the weight of this burden upon our 
 people. 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 COST OF THE DRINK TRAFFIC 
 
 The people of the United States pay about one thousand 
 million dollars a year for liquors. Statistics are often 
 unreliable. In many cases it is impossible to get reliable 
 data for showing cost or waste, or loss or gain, in important 
 matters in regard to which we need the facts. In many 
 things we can make only estimates. 
 
 As to the amount of the nation's drink bill, we have 
 exact data from which to make up the bulk of the account. 
 It is a plain business proposition. The production of 
 liquor is directly under national supervision, and the 
 
42 THE DRINK HABIT 
 
 Internal Revenue Department shows the amount of 
 liquors " withdrav/n for consumption " each year. For 
 1889 there was of : 
 
 Domestic distilled spirits - - 70,000,000 gals. 
 " wines - 30,000,000 " 
 " fermented liquors - 25,000,000 bbls. 
 Any one by learning the retail prices for liquors can 
 readily compute the approximate cost of these amounts 
 to the people. By adding one-fifth to the quantity of dis- 
 tilled " proof spirits " for reduction to the strength as 
 ordinarily retailed, and counting it at six dollars per 
 gallon as an average price as sold by the glass, counting 
 the wine at two dollars per gallon, and beer at eighteen 
 dollars per barrel (at five cents per half pint glass it 
 would amount to twenty-four dollars per barrel) we have 
 the cost at retail as follows : 
 
 Domestic distilled spirits - - $500,000,000 
 
 " wines - 60,000,000 
 
 " fermented liquors - 450,000,000 
 
 Imported " 20,000,000 
 
 Illicit, smuggled and home made ) on 000 000 
 
 liquors, estimated - ) ' ' 
 
 $1,050,000,000 
 Mr. F. N. Barrett, editor of the American Grocer, at the 
 request of the Chief of the Bureau of Statistics, submitted 
 a report on this subject, based on the Government statis- 
 tics for the year 1886, in which he made the direct retail 
 cost for liquors for that year to be $700,000,000. His 
 figures must be conservative for he thought the " fanatical 
 advocates " had made their sum too large. Mr. Edward 
 Atkinson, about the same time made a computation agree- 
 ing with that of Mr. Barrett. The amount of liquors 
 
THE DRINK HABIT 43 
 
 consumed in 1889 was greater than in 1886. Some esti- 
 mate the nation's liquor bill to be $1,100,000,000 a yeai, 
 and we may consider one billion as a fair calculation. 
 
 This sum represents the first cost of the liquor to the 
 people who drink, and is a total loss to the consumers. 
 It is a sum which should be paid for food and clothing, 
 for houses and lands, for tools and furniture, for books 
 and periodicals, for churches and schools, for carrying on 
 the business of life. It is an immense sum. It represents 
 a fearful waste. But it is only a part of the cost of the 
 drink trafiic to the drinkers and to the nation. The 
 liquors are not only of no possible benefit to those who 
 use them, but are a positive injury. They do not give 
 health or strength or vigor. They do not make the brain 
 clearer or the step more elastic. They cause weakness and 
 sickness, disorders of the body and the mind. So far as 
 the drinkers are concerned, this vast sum would be far 
 better cast into the sea, than to be spent for that which de- 
 stroys character and manhood, wastes fortunes and blasts 
 lives. No man can enumerate all the evils which follow in 
 the train of the drink traffic, but we can tell enough. 
 We must add to the cost of the liquors in order to approxi- 
 mate the total cost of the drink trafiic, other items as follows : 
 
 1. Lost Labor. From loss of health and strength and 
 endurance, from loss of character, from loss of time and 
 opportunity, from loss of place. Loss from debauch and 
 sickness and imprisonment. Loss from enfeebled mind and 
 shortened lives. Some rate the loss of productive ability 
 from drink to be equal to the cost of the drink that the 
 ordinary drinker, especially the hard drinker,as a rule, loses 
 in this way in a lifetime, as much as the drink costs. Prob- 
 ably a fair estimate is to place it at one-third as much. 
 
44 THE DRINK HABIT 
 
 2. Cost of Sickness from Drink. Expense of care, 
 board and medical service. Some careful computations 
 go to show that there are on an average about one hun- 
 dred and fifty thousand persons sick at all times from the 
 use of liquors, and that it costs fifty thousand dollars 
 a year to care for them. 
 
 3. Cost of Crime from Drink. At least three-fourths 
 of the crimes are caused by the use of liquors. A large 
 part of the cost of police service, of criminal courts and 
 officials and of prisons and reformatories is made nec- 
 essary by drink. The cost of arrests, trials and impris- 
 onment, from being " drunk and disorderly/' and from 
 graver crimes caused by intemperance, becomes a large 
 tax upon the people, estimated at $35,000,000 a year. 
 
 4. Cost of Pauperism and Insanity Caused by Drink. 
 Estimated at $15,000,000. 
 
 The figures here given show the annual cost of the 
 liquor traffic in the United States to be : 
 
 Cost of liquors - - - $1,000,000,000 
 
 Loss of labor . - - - 330,000,000 
 
 Loss from sickness - - - - 50,000,000 
 
 ^^' '' crime - - - 35,000,000 
 
 " pauperism and insanity - 15,000,000 
 
 Total, $1,430,000,000 
 
 As an offset to this we have municipal, state and 
 national taxes paid by the liquor traffic, about $135,000- 
 000 per year. And we suppose the traffic should receive 
 credit for the amounts paid for fruits, grains and other 
 material, and for labor used in manufacture of liquors. 
 But after making all reasonable reductions we would still 
 
THE DRINK HABIT 45 
 
 have as the cost and loss to the nation each year for drink, 
 over one billion dollars in cash. 
 
 Data for making these computations has been taken 
 from " The Encyclopedia of Temperance and Prohibition," 
 by Funk and Wagnalls. 
 
 But we have so far been enumerating only the direct 
 cost and loss to the people who use the liquors and the 
 amounts needed for their care, correction and mainte- 
 nance. Besides^ there is the sickness, wounds, insanity 
 and death in the families of the drinkers caused by want, 
 exposure, neglect and cruel treatment^and also the attend- 
 ant poverty which makes the drinker's family often a 
 burden upon society. 
 
 And is this all ? Shall we take no account of the sor- 
 row, the suffering, the shame, the disgrace? Can we 
 measure the deep degradation and misery of the drunk- 
 ard or the untold anguish and the bitter desolation 
 of the drunkard's wife and children ? Can we conceive 
 of the heartache, the dread, the despair of the drunkard's 
 father and mother? Shall we consider only food, raiment 
 and shelter for the body, and have no thought for the 
 peace and comfort and happiness of the mind ? Are 
 truth, and honor, and virtue and sobriety not:*to be 
 weighed in the balance? And shall we take no account 
 of the tens of thousands of human lives destroyed each 
 year by this drink plague? 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 SPECULATION IN LAND THE CREDIT SYSTEM 
 
 More notable, more sweeping, more wholly wasteful and 
 disastrous to communities than almost any other cause 
 of poverty and loss, is speculation in land. Like measles 
 and scarlet fever, it appears, now here, now there. It 
 comes on gradually and increases in force and volume. 
 It is infectious. Men and women take it from their 
 friends, and inhale it from the air. It regards neither 
 age, sex, color or " previous condition of servitude." 
 
 Banker and barber, preacher and doctor, farmer and 
 merchant, servant girl and washerwoman, yes, the widow 
 and the orphan, all alike bring their tribute, they bring 
 often all they have houses, lands, homes and cast it on 
 the flood-tide of speculation and see it swept out into the 
 remorseless sea of utter waste and loss. 
 
 Like the appetite for drink, or passion for the game, it 
 grows on one. It is insidious, seductive, enticing ; and 
 apparently legitimate, respectable and safe. 
 
 Some men can drink or can let it alone ; the ordinary 
 man can not. Some can win large stakes and quit with 
 a full purse, but that is not the usual way. 
 
 For a time, speculation in land is a winning venture, 
 and the greater the gains and the longer continued, the 
 more wholly is the speculator absorbed in the game. But 
 by and by the end approacheth, and the man who " can 
 drink or can let it alone '' quits, while the multitude go 
 on to financial ruin. 
 
 46 
 
SPECULATION IN LAND 47 
 
 The man who begins to speculate in land, like a man 
 who puts " a mortgage on the farm," is starting on the 
 road to penury and want. Every " boom " in land values 
 is bound to come to an untimely end, and the higher the 
 fever and the greater the boom, the greater the disaster 
 when the end comes. 
 
 Somewhere we read of " land hunger," with the Okla- 
 homa boom as an example showing how '' hungry " men 
 are for land. In Los Angeles, during its third and latest 
 boom, men stood in line all night, or hired substitutes to 
 hold their places, in order to be among the first in the 
 morning to have a chance to select lots in a proposed town 
 out on a rocky, barren waste. Probably some of these 
 same Los Angeles boomers were " in at the death " at 
 Oklahoma. 
 
 Away in Winnepeg, Manitoba, men bought town lots 
 which they never saw, at auction by lamplight. This kind 
 of " land hunger " is not of the kind which tends to make 
 two blades of grass to grow where only one grew before. 
 Indianapolis, Kansas City, Fort Smith, Wichita, Denver, 
 San Diego, Los Angeles, Seattle and Tacoma and most of 
 the towns and cities of the country have had their booms 
 and their depressions. 
 
 And this is not only the case with town property, but 
 farm lands also have their periods of exalted and fictitious 
 values and of depressions below the point of intrinsic 
 worth. Many a farmer has lost a good farm by trying to 
 possess one or two more. To be " land poor " is to be 
 poor indeed. 
 
 Buying something which one does not need because it 
 seems cheap, with the hope of selling to some one who 
 does need it at a higher price, is always a risky under- 
 
48 SPECULATION IN LAND 
 
 taking. Things so bought are often found to be very dear 
 before they are sold. Every period and phase of undue 
 exaltation is bound to be followed by its period of undue 
 depression. 
 
 An elderly gentleman who passed through the Indian- 
 apolis boom, says that after the boom had collapsed he 
 paid out sixty thousand dollars in good money to try to 
 save his property and then lost it all. That " Truth is 
 stranger than fiction " is exemplified in the history of any 
 great real estate boom. 
 
 In the unwritten history of the great boom in Southern 
 California in 1886 and 1887 one might find abundant 
 material for the wildest romance, and that by telling a 
 " plain unvarnished tale." 
 
 Thousands of good people, all sorts of people, almost 
 whole communities, those who were ordinarily careful, 
 saving, penurious, as well as the extravagant and venture- 
 some, launched out on the sea of speculation and suddenly 
 became wealthy. They counted not their wealth by hun- 
 dreds or by thousands, but by tens of thousands, hun- 
 dreds of thousands and millions. 
 
 And then, in a few months, the boom rolled by and 
 most of these people found themselves poor. The most of 
 them so poor that they could not pay their debts, and 
 they had a hard time of it to " keep body and soul 
 together." They didn't have roast beef and turkey so 
 often, but were glad to get mush and potatoes. 
 
 Men who in 1887 had bank transactions footing up 
 many thousands each month, in 1889 did not know how 
 to make a turn to pay for another sack of flour. 
 
 While the great and long extended boom of Kansas 
 City was drawing its last breath, and the high flown boom 
 
SPECULATION IN LAND 49 
 
 of Southern California was suffering from a bad state of 
 collapse, Denver was at the zenith of its exaltation, and 
 the lively boom at Seattle and Spokane was in the acme 
 of its glory. Now, at the close of 1891, while Southern 
 California has succeeded fairly well in pulling itself 
 together after its great disaster, Denver real estate is hunt- 
 ing lower levels, and the glory of Spokane, Seattle and 
 Tacoma and the ''Sound Country" is waning from its 
 highly exalted state. 
 
 Besides, when men think they are making money 
 rapidly they are almost sure to spend rapidly, and to 
 become extravagant and wasteful. It is not at all a diffi- 
 cult matter to spend money. '' Easy come easy go." And 
 so it follows that, while the speculation goes on lively, a 
 large per cent of the amount handled is expended, 
 consumed or wasted in one way and another ; in build- 
 ings, equipages, furniture, servants, travels, amusements, 
 fine clothes, dissipations and the thousand ways known 
 to man and to woman. In this way the accumulations 
 made by years of hard earning and careful saving are in 
 a short time swept into nothingness. What was not lost 
 by the venture is lost by fast living. By the bunghole or 
 the spigot it all goes. Wealth so spent is swept out of 
 existence as much as if by fire or flood. Though it be 
 '' an ill wind that blow^s nobody good," yet what is lost to 
 the individual is, in the main, lost to the state. 
 
 During the speculative period production is reduced to 
 zero, because all the producers have become speculators, 
 and consumption has been raised to a hundred (or a thou- 
 sand) because all the speculators are "millionaires of a day." 
 
 It follows as the outcome of the speculation, that the 
 community as a whole is a great loser ; that the vast 
 
50 THE CRE->IT SYSTEM 
 
 majority of the people have suffered a very serious loss, 
 and that for many individuals, the loss is well-nigh 
 irretrievable. Some localities and some individualfc are 
 gainers, but only to a small extent of the total loss. As 
 a whole it counts heavily on the debtor side. 
 
 Speculation, and especially speculation in land, is one 
 of the great causes of poverty, loss and disaster to the 
 individual and to the state, and calls for remedies wherever 
 and whenever practicable. Not "land monopoly," but 
 " land speculation " is the greater evil so far as the land 
 question is concerned. 
 
 The great financial panics and disasters of our own and 
 other countries have been caused largely by speculation. 
 The panics of 1837, 1857 and 1873, in the judgment of 
 our most careful historians, were mainly the result of 
 speculation. 
 
 THE CREDIT SYSTEM 
 
 As the social evil depends largely for its life and growth, 
 on its twin vice, drink, so does the evil of speculation in 
 land depend to a great extent for its vitality and magni- 
 tude, on its twin evil, the credit system. Did men buy 
 only what they paid for, the risk of loss in speculation 
 would not be nearly so great. 
 
 It is true that men often begin to speculate in a careful, 
 moderate way, just as the man who takes his first glass 
 begins in a moderate way. But the temptation to " invest " 
 induces him first to buy something which in order to pay 
 for requires capital which he needs in his business or for 
 his living, and then the prospect of large gains tempts him 
 to buy on a partial payment, hoping to sell and realize a 
 profit before further payments fall due. 
 
THE CREDIT SYSTEM 51 
 
 And so it comes about that the amateur speculator who 
 began with a good resolution of " pay as you go," and with 
 a righteous fear of a mortgage, more and more gets to 
 buying as much as possible with the capital in hand by 
 buying where the least payment can be made. In specula- 
 tion, the greater the hazard, the greater the gain, and the 
 greater the loss in the end if one waits to the end (as 
 most do) for a " round up." The men who " can drink 
 or can let it alone," (and you know how many there are 
 who can do that ! ) could perhaps be trusted to speculate 
 in land by buying on partial payments, but those who 
 can not be sure of control over their appetites should not 
 begin. 
 
 But, aside from buying land or other things on specula- 
 tion without paying for them, in buying anything which 
 one does not pay for there is risk and danger. Remember 
 that unpaid bills at the stores and shops are very apt to 
 bring a mortgage on the farm. And the bills and the 
 mortgage, either or both, are very likely to take the farm 
 sooner or later. 
 
 You may be poor, be " hard run," have to wear a patched 
 coat and live on bread and potatoes, but, once get a home 
 and have it paid for, and buy only what you pay for, and 
 you will always have a place of your own while you 
 live, and the widow and the children will have a place to 
 call home if you leave them behind when you go to your 
 final home. 
 
 There are occasions when it is proper and expedient for 
 individuals, or cities or states to incur debt, but a debt 
 is a burden as a rule wherever it is, and should be 
 avoided and lightened and lifted whenever possible. 
 Every man starting out in business, or undertaking to 
 
52 MONOPOLIES AND TRUSTS 
 
 retrieve his fallen fortune and get on a solid footing, 
 should make it a cardinal principle of business to "Pay 
 as you go." If you can't pay, don't go. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 MONOPOLIES AND TRUSTS 
 
 Among the most apparent causes of poverty are the 
 great giants which have arisen in these latter days; those 
 creatures of the Plutocrats which have bodies, heads, arms 
 and " sacks," but no souls ; which are often possessed 
 with great vigor and vitality, and which never tire, 
 never get sick, never grow old and never die ; which are 
 able to wear out, tire out and crush out of existence all 
 small competitors, and in whose grasp the laboring man 
 is but as the hare in the clutch of the wolf. Those stern 
 rulers which exact tribute from the people, whatever 
 they do or whichever way they go, and tax them upon 
 almost everything which they produce or consume. 
 These are the autocrats who rule us with a relentless 
 sway, who domineer us and scourge us and hedge us about 
 and drive us to the wall. 
 
 The octopus, or devil-fish, is a denizen of the deep most 
 dreaded by man. Whatever comes within its reach is 
 clutched by its long arms, drawn into its embrace, and 
 beneath the deep waters its life is crushed out. The 
 
OPINIONS OF POLITICAL LEADERS 58 
 
 monopoly is the octopus of the business world. It reaches 
 out its powerful arms and crushes the life out of any- 
 competing business. Where monopoly comes competition 
 must go. 
 
 And what do our great political leaders those sentinels 
 of ours who stand upon the outer wall that they may be 
 ready to cry aloud when danger approaches tell us about 
 the trusts ? Do they see danger? And do they tell us 
 how to avert it, or defend ourselves from its attacks? 
 Hear what they say : James G. Blaine, the great Captain, 
 says : 
 
 " Well, I shall not discuss trusts this afternoon. I shall 
 not venture to say that they are advantageous or dis- 
 advantageous. They are largely private affairs, with 
 which neither President Cleveland nor any private citizen 
 has any particular right to interfere." 
 
 So, you see, these trusts are not such dangerous things 
 after all. Mr. Blaine is a brilliant leader and ought to 
 know about them. Perhaps we have been imposed upon 
 by the talk about monopolies. 
 
 Mr. Thomas B. Reed, the republican leader in Congress, 
 speaks of "the great new Chimera Trusts," and says : 
 " Outside the patent office there are no monopolies in this 
 country, and there never can be. A dozen men fix the prices 
 for sixty million freemen ! They can never do it." 
 
 Mr. Andrew Carnegie also denies the existence of monop- 
 olies in this country. He says they are impossible. 
 
 Mr. McKinley says he has no sympathy with com- 
 binations organized to control the supply and thereby 
 control prices, and he speaks of " the oil trust and the 
 whiskey trust which are so commanding and powerful, 
 which make prices and alter them." He claims, however, 
 that there is nothing in our tariff laws to proriaote or even 
 
54 
 
 AN ERA OF TRUSTS 
 
 suggest monopolies. He then goes on to say : "There is 
 a trust or combination made up of all the plate-glass 
 manufacturers of Europe." 
 
 Now, if all the plate-glass manufacturers of Europe 
 can combine and control prices, why not all the plate- 
 glass manufacturers of America? And if all the plate-glass 
 manufacturers can combine, why not all the manufac- 
 turers of window glass, and steel rails, and steel beams, 
 and white lead, and cordage, and jute bags, and copper, 
 and borax, and a lot of other things ? Most assuredly 
 they can and do. These combinations are on every hand 
 and in almost every line of business. 
 
 This is an era of trusts. During the last two decades 
 there has been a great increase in the number and power 
 of business combinations. We have seen one kind of 
 business after another go under the control of a combine. 
 It would be difficult to enumerate all the many branches 
 of business now controlled mainly by a combination. We 
 have monopolies in the trade in beef, borax, bags, coal, 
 copper, coffins, lumber, land, lead, sugar, salt, telegraphs, 
 telephones, twine and in many other lines of business. 
 
 The monopolies in transportation and communication 
 are the greatest and most oppressive, and the question of 
 the ownership and management of the railway and tele- 
 graph lines is the greatest economic question now coming 
 before the American people. These questions will be 
 found treated at length in Part III. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 UNWISE TAXATION 
 
 A considerable part of the burdens of the industrial 
 classes in this country is chargeable to our unwise methods 
 of taxation. Probably in no other enlightened nation is 
 there to be found a system of taxation so unwise, so 
 vicious as our own so oppressive to the poor, so partial 
 to the rich. From taxes upon imposts to taxes upon 
 " beds, bedding and cooking things," do we carry out our 
 unstatesmanlike methods of putting the greater propor- 
 tion of burdens upon those who are least able to bear them, 
 and of favoring those who have the greatest ability to pay 
 the cost of government maintenance. This is true in a 
 larger degree in some states than in others. 
 
 California presents the extreme of our cumbersome and 
 burdensome methods of taxation. In this state, a poor 
 widow whose sole earthly possessions consist of a small 
 stock of poor household goods, a slender wardrobe, a cow 
 and some chickens, and who is unable by dint of the 
 most persistent toil and the exercise of the most pinching 
 economy to decently support herself and her children, is 
 compelled by the law of the state to pay the usual rate 
 of tax upon her pittance of property. Such a tax is an 
 outrage upon common decency. It is barbarous. Those 
 who are unable to bear burdens should not be compelled 
 to bear them. In exacting taxes from the very poor, we 
 but emulate the example of those despots who compel 
 their poorest serfs to pay to the ruler a proportion of all 
 they produce. 
 
 55 
 
56 UNWISE TAXATION 
 
 We also tax mortgages with the intent of making the 
 holder of the mortgage pay a part of the tax on the prop- 
 erty, but the man who loans money always exacts an 
 additional per cent to cover the mortgage tax. 
 
 In some states a limited amount of property is exempted 
 from taxation, and in this way the poor are favored. In 
 but very few instances do we lay a tax upon incomes. 
 The income is the best measure of ability to pay taxes. 
 
 As the subject of taxes upon imports is made the chief 
 issue between the old political parties, the tariff question 
 is treated as a whole in the next two chapters. Other 
 questions relating to taxation are treated in Part III. 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 THE TARIFF TRUST TARIFF CLOG TARIFF 
 
 A tariff is a tax laid on imports or exports. A protective- 
 tariff i^ a tax on imports of articles produced, or which it 
 is thought should be produced, in the country. A non- 
 protective tariff is a tax on imports of articles not pro- 
 duced in the country, that is, not profitably produced or 
 in any sufficient quantity for the needs of the country. 
 Free trade is the absence of tariff. The term " free trade 
 tariff " is a misnomer, and the term free trade is loosely 
 used in tariff discussions, and is misleading. 
 
 The policy of our government has been mainly pro- 
 tective. We tax a long list of articles which we produce 
 to a greater or les3 extent, and we admit many articles 
 
THE PROTECTIVE POLICY Ot 
 
 free of duty , but we do not, as a rule, have non-protective 
 (or " revenue " ) tariffs. All nations have tariffs. Most 
 nations have tariffs similar to ours. Some nations have 
 export duties, but we do not. Great Britain and Holland 
 have no protective tariffs. They have non-protective 
 tariffs and free trade. France, Germany, Italy and most 
 nations have protective tariffs. 
 
 The primary and legitimate objects of a protective 
 tariff are to " nurse infant industries " by placing such 
 tax upon the foreign article as will shield the producer 
 until he can secure such necessary capital, machinery, 
 skilled labor and experience, as will enable him to 
 successfully compete with his foreign rival, and to con- 
 tinue the tax while such protection is needed. The rate 
 of tax being justly apportioned so as to encourage and 
 foster economic and profitable production but not exor- 
 bitant prices. It should not be prohibitory. 
 
 The argument for protection is, that a nation should, 
 as far as practicable, produce all the things it needs or 
 can make profitable for export, thus diversifying its 
 industries and employing its capital and labor, instead of 
 paying tribute to foreign capital and foreign labor, and 
 also thus adding to the market for its home products. 
 
 In many cases, beyond question, important American 
 industries have been established and built up by the aid 
 of a protective tariff, and in many cases, beyond question, 
 burdensome monopolies have been fostered and upheld by 
 the same means. 
 
 In what cases, and to what extent such protection 
 should be given is a question to be decided in each case 
 by a careful consideration of the needs, the importance 
 and the merits of each industry. 
 
^" FREE TRADE. TRUST TARIFF. 
 
 The argument for a non-protective (or ''revenue") 
 tariff, is that it is a tax, pure and simple, borne equally 
 by all the consumers and paid directly to the government, 
 while a protective tariff is a tax paid alike by all the 
 consumers, but which goes partly or wholly, as the case 
 may be, to the producer that a protective tariff is a tax 
 upon the people of one class or locality to benefit those of 
 another, and as such is primarily unjustifiable, and leads 
 to wide partiality and discrimination. 
 
 The argument for free trade is that there should be no 
 restrictions upon legimate industry or trade ; that the 
 citizen should be allowed to produce that which he can 
 produce most profitably, and to buy where he can buy 
 cheapest and sell where he can sell dearest ; that nations 
 should produce the things which they can produce cheaper 
 than other nations, and buy of other nations the things 
 which they can not as profitably produce at home. 
 
 A tariff, at least a high tariff, on articles which we pro- 
 duce as cheaply as other nations, brings little revenue, and 
 as a rule, does not benefit the nation,but tends to foster mon- 
 opoly, and is not properly a protective, but a trust tariff. 
 The trust tariff is not always a tax upon the consumer. 
 Sometimes it is and sometimes it is not, but its tendency 
 is that way and it acts as a premium upon monopoly. 
 When, by its aid, the producer is enabled to pay freights 
 and then sell his goods cheaper in the foreign market than 
 he sells at home, the trust tariff accomplishes its mission. 
 
 By it the manufacturer or producer is enabled to exact a 
 price for his product above reasonable cost and profit of pro- 
 duction, and this charge becomes a direct tax upon the con - 
 sumer to enrich the producer, and the government has used 
 its strong arm to compel the many to pay tribute to the few. 
 
CLOG TARIFF 59 
 
 A legitimate protective tariff is a beneficent measure, 
 but a trust tariff becomes a curse to any people. A tariff 
 that is practically prohibitory in any article which admits 
 of a combination of producers, tends to establish and 
 maintain trusts. 
 
 We also have under the guise of protection what should 
 be termed clog tariffs, which may be in a measure pro- 
 tective, but which to a larger extent are a clog upon 
 industry. These are tariffs on raw or partly manufactured 
 materials needed by our manufacturers and not produced 
 by us in sufficient quantity, and which, if our manufac- 
 turers could obtain as cheaply as their foreign rivals, 
 would enable them to supply our home market with the 
 finished product and often to make their goods a profitable 
 export. 
 
 While it remains the duty of the nation, as of the 
 individual, to provide first for its own, the protective 
 policy should be adopted and retained in cases where it 
 best subserves the interests of all its people, and in cases 
 where protection of any particular industry does not 
 " promote the general welfare " we should have free trade. 
 
 The old, old question of whether protection or non- 
 protection should be the policy of our government should 
 not monopolize the time and thought of our national law 
 makers so far to the exclusion of questions of vastly 
 greater importance to the American people. We should 
 not deal with theorieSj but with conditions not fancies, 
 but facts. 
 
 One industry needs protection, another does not. One 
 is a grinding monopoly, another struggles for bare exis- 
 tence. To apply the theory of protection to any industry 
 regardless of its needs, its importance and its merits is 
 
60 CLOG TARIFF 
 
 unwise. To apply the theory of free trade to all is 
 equally unwise. But let no citizen be alarmed. The 
 country needs no great or sudden change of the tariff, 
 and in any event there will be none. No party and no 
 considerable proportion of the people contemplate such a 
 change. The Mills Bill, with a large surplus in the treas- 
 ury, proposed a reduction of about seven per cent, from 
 forty-seven to forty per cent. The McKinley Bill with 
 a decreasing surplus made a raise of about the same per 
 cent. (In many cases too high, no doubt.) 
 
 The ignorant, the partisan, the stalwart, the blind and 
 deaf advocates of protection claim that it always benefits 
 and is never an injury to a nation that it never fosters 
 wasteful production, exorbitant prices, or monopoly. 
 Similar advocates of free trade or of revenue tariffs claim 
 that protection is always an injury and never a benefit. 
 Between these two extremes there must be, there always 
 has been and always will be, a mean of reason and of 
 common sense. 
 
 When any industry has been "protected " for a long 
 term of years ; when it has at command ample capital, 
 machinery, skill and experience ; when it no longer needs 
 a nurse ; then if it can not compete with the foreign rival 
 while having the advantage of saving the cost of trans- 
 portation and importers' profit, the question of continu- 
 ing its protection should be well considered before asking 
 the people to longer pay tribute to it. In some cases it is 
 better to still give it the benefit of a moderate tariff, and 
 in others to let it stand on its own bottom. 
 
 It is a question of compensations ; whether, if an in- 
 dustry can not succeed without protection, the advantage 
 to be gained from the capital and labor kept at home and 
 
A REASONABLE POLICY 61 
 
 from the added market thus given to other products, 
 offsets the cost to the people. In the end it is a question 
 of " the survival of the fittest " and the best. 
 
 The question of customs duties is a business question, 
 and should be considered from a clear, unbiased, business 
 stand-point ; and not from a partisan, a sectional or a 
 selfish one. 
 
 A permanent tariff commission, composed of business 
 men who thoroughly understand the needs of production 
 and of trade, and who are broad enough to consider each 
 question on its merits and on the principle of promoting 
 the general welfare of all the people, would be the kind 
 of body to decide these questions for us. 
 
 The tariff is not a question to be settled, except as to the 
 manner of treating it. The tariff like " The poor ye 
 have always with you." We shall always be, at least we 
 should always be, " revising the tariff." How to revise 
 the tariff f Whether this or that article shall be taxed ? 
 If taxed whether 10, 20, 40 or 80 per cent ? Whether 
 this or that article shall be added to or taken from the 
 free list ? These questions we will always be obliged to 
 consider. 
 
 Let the American people see the tariff question in its 
 true light, giving it the importance it demands, no more, 
 then there will be no difficulty in properly treating it. 
 But, before that time will come it must be divested 
 of party spirit, of sectional jealousy, of blind prejudice 
 and of selfish interest. 
 
 An objection to all taxes on imports is that they are 
 taxes on what we use and consume; on food, clothing, 
 tools, etc ; largely on the most common necessaries of life, 
 and paid in almost equal proportion by the poor and rich 
 
62 REVISING THE TARIFF 
 
 alike. A law which compels the weak to bear as much 
 burden as the strong, and the poor to pay as much tax 
 as the rich, is not a just measure unless it has advantages 
 for all the people which more than offset this defect. 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 THE TARIFF QUESTION AS A SUPREME ISSUE 
 
 The question of the tariff, protective or non-protective, 
 high or low, is not a question of paramount importance 
 to the American people. It really merits but a small 
 share of time or space. But for the false position it has 
 been made to occupy by the old parties, it would very 
 soon lose place as an issue. 
 
 As questions pertaining to the war could no longer be 
 made to serve, no other question seemed available as the 
 leading issue for the campaign of 1884 but that of tariff. 
 And so it was brought out, aired and brushed, had some 
 new clothes made, was treated by electricity and heavily 
 stimulated until it had enough vitality infused into it to 
 enable it to stand and defy competition. 
 
 And it is now the prime mission of the old time serv- 
 ing parties to stand as its backers and see that it holds 
 the boards against all comers as long as possible. While 
 they succeed in this, their " calling and election is sure." 
 What else can they do ? They seek no new questions : 
 they champion no reforms : they want no farther division 
 of voters : they deprecate new issues : they are content 
 with present conditions. 
 
THE TARIFF QUESTION EXALTED 
 
 63 
 
 As a chief issue, the tariff question has been highly- 
 exalted ; each side trying to make black appear white, 
 or white appear black as the case might be. The one 
 claiming that what we need is a high, practically pro- 
 hibitive tariff, and that that is " protection to American 
 Industry ; " the other that we should have a tariff for 
 revenue with protection as a mere incident. The nation 
 needs neither the one nor the other. It does need such 
 protection as shields industries which need protection, 
 and yields needed revenue, but does not tend to encourage 
 monopolies or trusts, to unduly enrich the manufacturer 
 at the expense of the consumer, or unduly protect the pro- 
 ducer at a greater cost to the manufacturer or the nation. 
 And this is ivhat we would have if the question were non- 
 partisan. 
 
 And so we have two sets of advocates, who, lawyer-like, 
 strive to make the worse appear the better reason, and, as 
 far as possible, to distract the jury. The tariff " has the 
 floor." There is no possible prospect for any other cause 
 while it absorbs attention. So it is not a matter of choice. 
 We must attack it. We must wrestle with it. We must 
 overcome it and hurl it from its unmerited position 
 before we can secure any hearing for other questions which 
 press for solution. We must take it up and examine its 
 fabric to learn of what material it is composed. Most of 
 the tariff discussion is made up of certain statements, 
 comparisons and conclusions in regard to things which 
 have little bearing upon the subject and yet become the 
 stock arguments and are made to do duty on all occasions. 
 I will give the principal ones. 
 
 1. Wages are much higher in 2. Wages are much higher in 
 the United States, which has . England, which has free t rade, 
 
 i (JNIVEBSITY 
 
64 
 
 STOCK TARIFF ARGUMENTS 
 
 protection, than in England, 
 .which has free trade, conse- 
 quently protection makes high 
 wages and free trade makes low 
 wages. 
 
 3. Wages are much higher 
 in the United States now under 
 a high tariff than they were 
 forty years ago under a low 
 tariff. Consequently high tariff 
 causes high wages and low tariff 
 causes low wages. 
 
 5. The '' free trade toilers " 
 of England emigrate to the 
 United States in order to get 
 better wages and a chance to 
 improve their condition , which 
 shows conclusively that free 
 trade depresses and degrades a 
 people while protection lifts 
 them to a higher plane of civil- 
 ization. 
 
 7. Manufactured articles are 
 much cheaper in the United 
 States now under a high tariff 
 than they were forty years ago 
 under a low tariff, which shows 
 that a high tariff gives us cheap 
 goods and a low tariff makes 
 
 than in Germany and France 
 which have protection, there- 
 fore free trade makes high 
 wages and protection makes 
 low wages. 
 
 4. Wages are much higher 
 in England now under free 
 trade than they were fifty years 
 ago under protection, therefore 
 free trade causes high wages 
 and protection causes low 
 wages. 
 
 6. The poor, unpaid, "pro- 
 tected ' ' mill hands of Germany 
 and France emigrate to free 
 trade England in order to get 
 bfttter wages and to find the 
 better conditions where trade 
 is unrestricted, which shows be- 
 yond a doubt that " protection , ' ' 
 so called, hampers and grinds a 
 people while free trade im- 
 proves their condition. 
 
 8. Goods are much cheaper 
 in England now with free trade 
 than they were under protec- 
 tion. Thus we see that protec- 
 tion made high priced goods 
 and free trade gave them cheap- 
 er products, 
 things dear. 
 
 The advocates of protection or non-protection, as the 
 case may be, in using either of the cases here cited as an 
 argument, assume that the kind and rate of tariff in a 
 country determines the rate of wages, the prices of goods, 
 the condition of the laborer, and the "oneral vv^elfare of 
 the people. He is oblivious to all differences of area, of 
 
TARIFF DOES NOT CONTROL WAGES 65 
 
 time, of climate, of agricultural and mineral wealth, of 
 inventions and machinery, of ability and thrift of the 
 people, and of the many conditions which affect the pro- 
 ductive power and material prosperity of a nation. 
 
 Wages are much higher in Germany than in Italy, 
 higher in France than in Germany, and still much higher 
 in free trade England than in those and all other coun- 
 tries of Europe which have protection. And wages are 
 still higher in the United States than in England. And 
 these facts sufficiently show that the tariff of a country 
 does not determine its rate of wages, the prices of its 
 goods, or the condition of its people. It is but one of 
 many factors. 
 
 Besides, the wage is one thing and what a man can buy 
 with his wages is another. A wage of two dollars a day 
 may be no more in purchasing power in one country or 
 period, than one dollar and a half or even one dollar in 
 another. 
 
 And remember that labor is not protected. The man- 
 ufacturer may be, but he employs those who will do his 
 work for the least money. They come to us from Germany, 
 from Italy, from Canada, from the corners of the earth. 
 There are no bars no gates. In labor there is free trade. 
 
 Economists talk of the " iron law of wages." It means 
 nothing. There is no law of prices in anything where 
 there is free trade, except the law of supply and demand. 
 Men buy where they can buy cheapest and sell where they 
 can sell dearest. The employer considers not whether his 
 hireling dines on bread and meat or on mush and pota- 
 toes ; whether he wears denims or tweeds ; whether he 
 dwells in a house or a hovel ; but, how cheaply can he 
 hire him. You say the employer is human and con- 
 
66 
 
 HISTORICAL ARGUMENTS 
 
 siders the comfort of his men. Yes, sometimes. Usually 
 the employer is a corporation, which has a body and a 
 head but no soul. 
 
 Advocates of high and of low tariff also cite us to 
 different periods in our history, claiming that the con- 
 ditions either of prosperity or adversity were owing to 
 the kind of tariff in force for the period. The principal 
 historical facts used as arguments are given below : 
 
 9. Following the protective 10. The reduction of the tariff 
 tariffs of 1824-28 came the in 1888 gave a decided impetus 
 
 "Compromise tariff" of 1833, 
 which provided for a reduction 
 of ten per cent every two years. 
 This reduction produced a de- 
 pression which finally culmin- 
 ated in the great financial dis- 
 aster of 1837, thus showing to 
 the people the dire effects of a 
 low tariff. 
 
 11. The "free trade tariff" 
 of 1846,during a period of eleven 
 years led up to and produced its 
 usual results, by bringing on 
 the great financial panic of 
 1857. 
 
 to all kinds of business through- 
 out the States. The panic of 
 1837 was caused by wild cat 
 money and wild speculation, 
 begun in a time of great pros- 
 perity. Mr. Blaine, the great 
 advocate of protection said : 
 ** The years 1834, 1835 and 1836 
 were distinguished by all man- 
 ner of business hazard, there 
 was a great stimulus to manu- 
 facturing and to trade, which 
 finally assumed the form of 
 dangerous speculation." Henry 
 Clay said it was speculation in 
 land and the expansion of the 
 currency that produced the 
 panic of 1837, and that the re- 
 duction of the tariff had noth- 
 ing to do with it. 
 
 12. The reduction of the 
 tariff in 1846 was followed by 
 ten years of unexampled pros- 
 perity, so much so that the 
 people again went wild with 
 speculation and this caused the 
 great panic of 1857. 
 
HISTORICAL ARGUMENTS 
 
 67 
 
 13. It is true that the tariff 
 of 1846 was followed by ten 
 years of prosperity, but this 
 was not caused by the low tariff 
 but by various * ' adventitious 
 circumstances," namely, the 
 war with Mexico, the Irish 
 famine, the discovery of gold in 
 California, and the Crimean 
 war ; but when these had passed 
 and the people were left with 
 their ordinary resources, then 
 the disaster came. 
 
 15. For the last thirty years 
 the United States has had pro- 
 tection while England has had 
 free trade. During that period 
 of time our advancement in 
 material growth, population 
 and wealth has been remark- 
 able, greatly exceeding that of 
 free trade England, which fur- 
 nishes undeniable proof that 
 our prosperity has been the 
 legitimate outgrowth of our 
 protective system. 
 
 14. In 1846 the represent- 
 atives in Congress from New 
 England, at that time the prin- 
 cipal manufacturing district of 
 the country, almost unanimous- 
 ly opposed the reduction of the 
 tariff. But after this reduction 
 had been in operation eleven 
 years, the same representation 
 voted almost unanimously for 
 a further reduction from an 
 average of twenty-eight per 
 cent to an average of twenty- 
 one per cent, which shows that 
 they thought the reduction had 
 been a benefit and not an injury 
 to the country. 
 
 16. England with free trade 
 has increased more rapidly in 
 population and wealth in the 
 last thirty years than have 
 France, Germany and Italy 
 under protection, which shows 
 conclusively that her prosperity 
 has been caused by free trade. 
 If our prosperity for thirty 
 years has been caused by pro- 
 tection, what caused the great 
 financial and business depres- 
 sion from 1873 to 1879 (the panic 
 of '77, ) and what has caused 
 the great increase in farm mort- 
 gages, and in the proportion of 
 tenant farmers, and the decrease 
 in the value of farm lands? 
 
 Any one of these arguments (?) is sufficient upon 
 which to base a broad and eloquent address, and be a 
 
68 OBLIVIOUSNESS OF ADVOCATES 
 
 final answer to all grounds of controversy I It is a pal- 
 pable instance of blind obliviousness to all the facts in 
 the case but one, and that the one the lawyer magnifies. 
 Especially do the advocates of protection delight to 
 enlarge and amplify upon the boundless resources and the 
 marvelous growth, prosperity and wealth of the great 
 American nation, and to claim it as the result of our 
 protective system. As put by Mr. Blaine : " Can Mr. 
 Gladstone show a parallel ? '^ Any good " Fourth-of- July " 
 speech would serve for an argument in this line. 
 
 As a fine sample of resounding and effulgent eloquence 
 in the halls of Congress on this theme, 1 give the follow- 
 ing from the great protection leader, Mr. Thomas B. Reed, 
 in his speech on the Mills bill. 
 
 " Whoever takes down the map of 1860 and the map of 
 1888 will look upon the most wondrous growth that ever 
 the sun shone on in all its myriad courses around the 
 earth. It is a marvelous spectacle. It is not alone the 
 great cities, born like exhalations, which flash prosperity 
 over the great lakes,over the broad plains, over the mighty 
 fields rich with verdure or teeming with uncounted harv- 
 ests. It is the fact that all this wealth and prosperity has 
 been so shaped that it seeks the comfort not of the rich, 
 not of the lounging owner of fixed income, not of the 
 pampered minion of governmental power, but of the plain 
 people whom Abraham Lincoln loved, and who are of 
 right the chief glory of this Republic." 
 
 And this is all owing to our " protection to American 
 industry.'^ That term has a wonderfully attractive, tak- 
 ing, assuring ring. It shows that protection is the sine 
 qua non. It seems to take the honest son of toil by the 
 hand and lift him clear out of his slough of despond. 
 It shows him that protection seeks first his uplift and 
 betterment. It redounds not to the profit of the rich. 
 
" PROTECTION TO AMERICAN INDUSTRY " 69 
 
 (" Protection has proved a distributer of great sums of 
 money, not an agency for amassing it in the hands of the 
 few." Blaine.) 
 
 Millions of sturdy toilers have been induced by that 
 assuring song of " protection to American industry " to 
 give a vote to help the " protected " millionaire owners of 
 copper mines, and borax trusts, and white lead combines, 
 and pine forests, and glass works, and steel rail mills to 
 add another million to their limited store so that the 
 families of these poor millionaires should not come to 
 want! 
 
 We need not question whether or no our tariff has been 
 a chief cause of our prosperity. We need not search for 
 causes for our prosperity. We see them on every hand. 
 Rather should we ask, why the adversity ? and is the 
 tariff one of the causes of our adversity ? 
 
 With our diverse, our immense, our limitless natural 
 resources of valleys and plains, forests and mines ; our 
 active and enterprising people ; our wonderful inventions ; 
 our multiplied machines by which one man does the work 
 of three, or of ten, or of thirty, and with steam and elec- 
 tricity harnessed to the wheels ; with our ability to pro- 
 duce vastly beyond the capacity of any other people on 
 the globe ; the question which should stare us in the face, 
 which should press, and grind and burn for solution is, 
 " Why, with all these resources do we fail to provide for 
 so many of our people ?" Why does the New York sew- 
 ing woman, to save body and soul from perdition, have to 
 '' wear her fingers to the quick" for seventy cents a day? 
 Why the thousands who would work, but find none ? Why 
 the hunger and want ? Why do farms go under the ham- 
 mer by the thousands ? Why ? 
 
70 TARIFFS THAT ARE TOO HIGH 
 
 The politician cries peace, peace, when there is no peace ; 
 he tells how great, how prosperous, how happy we are 1 
 Great is the Trust, prosperous the Plutocrat, and happy 
 he who gathereth the farms with his mortgage " as a hen 
 gathereth her chickens under her wings I " 
 
 Among the things about this vexed tariff question 
 which it is difficult for a lay-man to understand, is, why, 
 if the country was highly prospered from 1846 to 1857 
 under an average tariff of twenty-eight per cent, we now 
 need tariffs as high as shown in the following list ? 
 Window glass - - 123 to 138 per cent 
 Pocket knives - - - 75 " 
 
 Knit underwear - - 112 to 147 " 
 Blankets, flannels and hats, 110 " 
 
 Ready-made clothing - - 84 *' 
 
 Dress goods - - - 73 to 110 " 
 Woolen yarns - - - 100 " 
 
 It seems to be a sound proposition, that any industry 
 which needs a tariff of one hundred per cent to sustain it, 
 is not worth sustaining. It does not pay us to manufacture 
 an article which costs us two dollars to produce, when we 
 can buy such an article of foreign make equally as good 
 for one dollar. That means that the farmer must pay 
 two bushels of wheat for an article worth but one bushel, 
 in order to " protect American industry." 
 
 Reciprocity, or mutual protection with other countries, 
 is a wise device of the protectionist. By pushing this 
 measure to the front, Mr. Blaine, in 1888, scored a victory 
 for the republican party, while his stalwart, high tariff 
 compeers were doing their " level best " to " pluck defeat 
 from the jaws of victory " by talking of high tariff. 
 Among the most common fallacies used as an argument 
 
71 
 
 by the advocates of free trade (and of which Mr. Roger 
 Q. Mills is a most able advocate and as stalwart on that 
 extreme as Mr. Thomas B. Reed is on the other,) is 
 that the prosperity of a nation is shown by the extent of 
 its foreign commerce, and that the more we huy of foreign 
 nations the more we are able to sell to them. As well say 
 that the prosperity of the farmer is shown by the amount 
 of his trade at the stores that the more he buys of the 
 merchant the more he will be able to sell to him. 
 
 The prosperity of the nation and of the individual 
 depends upon skill, ability and enterprise in production 
 and sale, and upon economy in consumption and purchase. 
 To supply as far as possible the home needs by home 
 production, to produce as much as possible for sale, and 
 to buy as little as may be for home consumption, is the 
 true, plain and only way for the individual or the nation 
 to acquire a surplus. To sell much and to buy little is 
 the highway to wealth. 
 
 Another " free trade fallacy " is, that the reason why 
 articles are produced cheaply in this country with higher 
 wages than rules abroad, is that high priced labor accom- 
 plishes much more than low priced that our mechanics 
 produce enough more to pay for the difference in wages. 
 
 It does not appear that the expert mechanics imported 
 from Germany to set up and run the machinery of the 
 Chino Beet Sugar Factory do any more or better work 
 here than they did at home with less wages. And we 
 found that the carpenters did just as good a day's work 
 in Pasadena in 1889 at two dollars per day as they had 
 done in " boom times " for four dollars a day. A good 
 article is always better than a poor one, but it does not 
 make the article better to increase the price. 
 
72 OPINIONS OF EMINENT EEPUBLICANS 
 
 In our past history, before the tariff question was made 
 the supreme issue, we did not lack for able statesmen to 
 advocate a reasonable, but not prohibitory, protective 
 tariff. Among the ablest of these was James A. Garfield, 
 who expressed himself in Congress as follows : 
 
 "We can find ample grounds for the sufficient pro- 
 tection of American manufacturers without distorting 
 the history of our country. 
 
 " The decade from 1850 to 1860 was one of peace and 
 general prosperity. If the low tariff and insufficient 
 volume of currency of 1860, caused the alleged distress 
 of that year, how will he account for what he admits, the 
 great distress of 1877, with a much higher tariff and three 
 times the volume of currency of 1860 ? 
 
 " Duties should be so high that our manufacturers can 
 fairly compete with the foreign products, but not so high 
 as to enable them to drive out the foreign article and 
 enjoy a monopoly of the trade, and regulate the prices as 
 they please. This is my doctrine of protection." 
 
 John A. Logan said in Congress: "When a gentleman 
 stands upon this floor and tells me this high, this extraor- 
 dinarily high tariff is for protection of laboring men, I 
 tell him that I do not understand how he can substantiate 
 such a theory." 
 
 And President Grant, in a message to Congress, 
 referring to the tariff on wool, said : 
 
 " All duty paid on such articles (raw materials) goes 
 directly to the cost of the article when manufactured here 
 and must be paid by the consumer. These duties not 
 only come from the consumer at home, but act as a pro- 
 tection to foreign manufacturers in our own and distant 
 markets." 
 
 Senator Wilson of Massachusetts said : " Since the 
 reduction of the duties on the raw materials in England, 
 since wool was admitted free, her woolen manufactures 
 
FREE RAW MATERIALS 
 
 73 
 
 have so increased, so prospered, that the production of 
 native wool increased more than one hundred per cent. 
 The experience of England, France and Belgium dem- 
 onstrates the wisdom of that policy which makes the raw 
 material duty free." 
 
 Protection to wool has been the great inducement with 
 many farmers to support the high tariff policy. A farmer 
 with a small flock of sheep would vote for a high tariff 
 which cost him every year more than his flock was worth. 
 
 The case of the wool tariff is a similar one to that of 
 the tariff on hides. The advantage to the leather and 
 shoe industries and to the country has been so great since 
 hides were put on the free list as to vastly overbalance 
 the small gain to the ranch man from the tariff on hides. 
 We get heavy hides for sole leather from South America 
 very cheap, and this enables our manufacturers to make 
 cheap shoes. In 1871, with a tariff on hides, our exports 
 of leather amounted to only $2,000,000 in value, while in 
 1883, with hides on the free list, our exports of leather 
 amounted to $34,000,000. 
 
 Our woolen industries are much hampered by the 
 tariff on wool. If our manufacturers could get the cheap, 
 coarse wools from South America, and other wools which 
 we can not produce but need in our manufactures, as 
 cheaply as their foreign rivals buy them, it would give a 
 great impetus to our woolen industries which are usually 
 not prosperous, and save the American people millions 
 of dollars each year. 
 
 We now tax the raw material, and pay good prices for 
 the finished product of English woolen mills, and also in 
 this way nurse the " shoddy " industry. But our high 
 tariff leaders think it necessary to protect wool in order 
 
74 
 
 WAR TAXES CONTINUED 
 
 to keep the farmers on the high tariff side, and to keep 
 Pennsylvania and Ohio in the Republican column, 
 
 Mr. Blaine, as a historian, said : " The tariff of 1846 
 was yielding abundant revenue, and the business of the 
 country was in a flourishing condition. Money became 
 very abundant after the year 1849. Large enterprises 
 were undertaken, speculation was prevalent, and for a 
 considerable period the prosperity of the country was 
 general and apparently genuine. The principles embodied 
 in the tariff of 1846 seemed for a time to be so entirely 
 vindicated and approved that resistance to it ceased, not 
 only among the people, but among the protective econo- 
 mists. So general was this acquiescence that in 1856 a 
 protective tariff was not suggested or even hinted by any 
 one of the three parties which presented presidential 
 candidates." 
 
 This period of low tariff continued until after the war 
 began. A system of high tariff and high taxes was then 
 instituted as a '^ war measure." Since the war, those 
 engaged in the " protected industries " having found that 
 a high tariff was a good thing for them, have " cried for 
 more." And so far, like a lot of spoiled children, they 
 have been getting nearly all they cried for. 
 
PART III. 
 
 REMEDIES FOR DEFECTIVE GOVERNMENT, 
 FOR FAULTY EDUCATION, FOR SOCIAL 
 EVILS, FOR BURDENS OF OPPRESS- 
 IVE MONOPOLIES AND INEQUIT- 
 ABLE TAXES, AND FOR UN- 
 EQUAL DISTRIBUTION 
 AND WASTE OF 
 WEALTH. 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 MORAL TRAINING IN THE SCHOOLS 
 
 In view of the many dishonest and vicious practices 
 which characterize our politics and government, and our 
 social and business life, we are lead to look for a 
 permanent remedy for these great evils; and in doing so 
 find it necessary to go back to first causes and primary 
 principles. 
 
 " A fountain can rise no higher than its source." A 
 government can be no better than the governing power. 
 A government by the people will be no better than the 
 people who govern. 
 
 The state must again undertake the work of securing 
 a better tone of morality, truth and honor throughout 
 the social fabric, by training the pupils in the schools in 
 such principles. 
 
 In the earlier years of the republic the government 
 was administered by men whose rules of conduct were 
 founded upon the decalogue and the golden rule. Stern 
 and exact justice was the order, and purity and honesty 
 of purpose the criterion in the administration of public 
 affairs. Nor was there lack of ability and statesmanship. 
 The faults were mainly errors of judgment through 
 prejudice or defective knowledge, and were usually in 
 defence of that which was deemed to be a just cause, or 
 in opposition to that which was thought to be subversive 
 of good order and of a righteous government. 
 
 77 
 
78 THE BIBLE AS A TEXT BOOK 
 
 In those times, as now, religious teaching was the 
 main dependence for training the young in principles of 
 purity and honesty of purpose. Then, religious teaching 
 was accepted as the only source of moral instruction, 
 and was upheld by the state. The Bible was a text book 
 of the school. 
 
 In our zeal for maintaining the right of private judg- 
 ment in matters of religious opinion, and in opposing any 
 tendency to the union of church and state, we have 
 omitted religious teaching in the schools. 
 
 But in expunging the Bible from the schools we have 
 made the most serious blunder of not providing anything to 
 take its place as a means of moral training. The whole 
 subject of ethical teaching has been practically relegated 
 to the home and the church. 
 
 Much is done by home training, and much by church, 
 Sunday school and other moral agencies to give instruc- 
 tion to the young in principles of virtue and honor; but 
 there remains a great throng of children and youth 
 growing up to manhood and womanhood with little or no 
 instruction in principles of virtue, and much teaching in 
 vice. The state is but an onlooker or silent partner is 
 neutral or worse. It supplies schools of vice, in saloons 
 and similar agencies, but not schools of virtue. In this, 
 the most vital part of education, that which forms 
 character and determines whether the individual shall 
 become an upright, honorable and useful citizen, or an 
 indifferent or vicious one, the state stands at zero. 
 
 It is amazing that we should have gone on in such 
 sublime indifference to this momentous question, leaving 
 wholly to chance or private beneficence a work which 
 should be among the first duties of the state, knowing 
 
LACK OF MORAL TRAINING 79 
 
 that but a part, and in some localities a small part of 
 the young are reached by these private agencies. 
 
 Some states provide for moral instruction in the schools. 
 Theoretically, perhaps all do. At least they have incor- 
 porated in the school law that instruction in good morals 
 and manners shall be given. But, in most cases the 
 state makes no adequate provision for such teaching. It 
 furnishes no text book, adopts no system, lays out no 
 course of instruction. The matter and method are left 
 wholly to the teacher, who may devote a greater or less 
 time to disquisitions on moral philosophy, on historic 
 religions, or on whatever he or she may fancy, provided 
 no religion is taught. 
 
 Perhaps this indifference of the people in regard to the 
 question of moral instruction in the schools is partly ac- 
 counted for by the somewhat prevalent idea and one 
 which has been sometimes promulgated by Christian 
 teachers, that there is no other source of moral 
 teaching, or guide to upright character except the Bible. 
 The church is the great agency for carrying forward 
 moral reforms throughout the civilized world ; but it is 
 not always first in such reforms or boldest in their de- 
 fense; nor does the Bible contain the only embodiment 
 of a moral code. All the principles which go to make 
 right character are fundamental. They depend upon 
 no theological code or form of belief. Religious teaching 
 inculcates these principles, and the church is a potent 
 agency in molding character to an adherence to them. 
 But such principles may be taught and be made effective 
 in forming right character without other* influence than 
 that of the teachers and associates who are guided by 
 them. 
 
80 FORMATION OF GOOD CHARACTER 
 
 But we are told that we cannot form character in the 
 schools ; that we can only inform the mind as to what is 
 right and what is wrong proper or improper, and that 
 the formation of character depends almost wholly upon 
 home training and example and upon one's choice of 
 action through life. As well say that character is not 
 formed by home training as to say it is not formed by 
 school training. Character is formed by all the teaching 
 and all the influences that surround us. 
 
 Some children have excellent home training, many 
 have not. In many cases the teaching and associations 
 of the schools have an influence as great as those of the 
 home, and it is the duty of the state to see that that 
 teaching and influence shall be potent in forming right 
 character. 
 
 The following marked examples of the formation of 
 good character by proper moral training, and even of such 
 formation from the worst classes of subjects, taken from 
 " Moral Education,'' an excellent work, by Prof. Joseph 
 Rodes Buchanan, show what may be accomplished by 
 such training much better than any argument could 
 possibly do. He says : 
 
 " Moral education takes in criminals and turns them 
 out good citizens, by placing them in a moral atmos- 
 phere, and keeping them in it till their whole nature is 
 changed, just as men are made criminals by placing 
 them in a criminal atmosphere and keeping them there 
 till they are saturated with baseness." 
 
 " One of the most conspicuous examples ever known 
 of the power of moral education in redeeming and elevat- 
 ing criminals was at the Rauhen Hau^, near Hamburg, 
 Germany. The place was a prison when Mr. Wichern 
 took charge of it. He threw down the high walls and 
 took away the bars and bolts. He made the children 
 
EXAMPLES OF MORAL TRAINING 81 
 
 love him, and he converted them into estimable charac- 
 ters. Horace Mann says : " ' The effect attested the al- 
 most omnipotent power of generosity and affection. 
 Children from seven or eight to fifteen or sixteen years 
 of age, in many of whom early and loathsome vices had 
 nearly obliterated the stamp of humanity, were trans- 
 formed not only into useful members of society, but in- 
 to characters that endeared themselves to all within the 
 sphere of their acquaintance.' 
 
 " We have at this time in the State of Ohio a reform- 
 atory institution, the State Reform School, near Lancas- 
 ter, under the management of Mr. G. W. Howe, which 
 is a wonderful example of what moral power can accom- 
 plish. My first knowledge of this institution was 
 obtained by meeting Mr. Howe at the Prison Reform 
 Congress, in St. Louis, in May, 1874. He told a graphic 
 story of his labors in attempting to detain and educate 
 young convicts on an open farm surrounded by the 
 forest, offering every facility for escape. His heart sank 
 in momentary despair and alarm when on a dark night 
 the boys, having just come from the chapel, started off 
 with a sudden impulse into the woods, and left him 
 alone to meditate on disappointments. It was not long, 
 however, after their voices had been lost before he heard 
 them again emerging from the forest, with the cry, 'We've 
 got him I We've got him I ' A rough young convict, 
 recently arrived, thought the dark night offered a fine 
 opportunity to escape, and started off at full speed. His 
 comrades pursued to capture him, and brought him back. 
 Such was the general sentiment of the school that the 
 boys would not favor or tolerate running away." 
 
 '^ In this institution none are received but youths con- 
 victed of crime. The report of the board of commission- 
 ers for 1868 says : ^ 
 
 " ' Of those admitted this year, thirty are under twelve 
 years of age, and ninety are from eleven to sixteen. 
 These juvenile offenders are, most of them, charged with 
 grievous crimes and misdemeanors. A boy of eleven is 
 
82 AN OHIO REFORM SCHOOL 
 
 sent for arson ; another of twelve for burglary and grand 
 larceny; and another of fourteen for robbing the United 
 States Mail. Many of our boys have been the slaves of 
 the vilest habits and violent passions, of low and debas- 
 ing propensities. Among our inmates may be found 
 every shade of character, and every grade of intellect. 
 The unconquered will, the ungoverned passion, the de- 
 praved appetite, with confirmed evil habits, suggest the 
 difficulties and discouragements in regard to their 
 reformation.' 
 
 " Since the establishment of this reform school, in 
 1858, about two thousand of these criminal youths have 
 been received,and all but a very small percentage have been 
 restored to virtue, having earned an honorable discharge 
 by good deportment for a sufficient length of time to 
 Satisfy their teachers that they were really reformed." 
 
 " The reform school occupies nearly twelve hundred 
 acres of elevated, hilly, healthy but not productive land, 
 six miles south of Lancaster, with buildings capable of 
 accommodating about five hundred boys. 
 
 *' In this healthy and pleasant home they are received 
 and managed with unwearied kindness and love, and 
 carried through a complete course of moral instruction 
 perhaps the most complete and efficient that has ever 
 been successfully applied on so large a scale. 
 
 " So perfect is the system that, although they receive 
 so many young criminals from jails, they have no jail, 
 no prison walls, no bolted gates, but occupy an open farm 
 in the forest, where the boys are as free as in any 
 country academy ; and are often sent to the village or the 
 mill on errands, without any guards ; and yet there are fewer 
 escapes than from other institutions where boys are kept 
 strictly as prisoners within high walls and bolted doors." 
 
 " At Lancaster the boys of the school do all the work 
 on the farm, raising their own food and a large amount 
 for sale. Every hour is occupied in work, study, moral 
 instruction, or recreation, leaving no room for evil influ- 
 !cnces to creep in." 
 
/<^ '^ B H A ^ 
 
 OF ,-;. 
 
 SUCCESS OF MORAL TRAINING 83 
 
 "One of the teachers says : 
 
 " As an evidence that our boys are properly controlled, 
 and that they love and honor their home, words of pro- 
 fanity and vulgarity are never heard from their lips ; 
 quarrels are unknown; not a seat in the school room, not 
 a wall is defaced by cutting or marking, or soiled by 
 words or pictures of impurity. They are loved and 
 trusted, therefore they are contented, and like good boys 
 stay at home and do their duty. Nor are they held by 
 personal restraint and a system of espionage. For eleven 
 years we have sent almost daily one to six boys with 
 teams to Lancaster, a distance of six miles. Not one of 
 these boys ever betrayed our confidence by escaping, and 
 we never heard a single complaint of bad conduct. 
 Indeed the citizens of Lancaster and the surrounding 
 country have always and uniformly commended their 
 good behavior and gentlemanly bearing." 
 
 Such examples, showing what may be accomplished 
 by good moral training in schools, emphasize the de- 
 mand for such training in all the public schools. 
 
 The Kindergarten is an excellent system for training 
 the young. In this way the child is attracted and inter- 
 ested, and the school life begun in a way to produce 
 pleasing and lasting impressions. But a small propor- 
 tion of children now receive the benefit of this training. 
 It should be made a part of the common school system, 
 and lessons in good morals and good manners should be 
 taught to the youngest pupils, who may be easily im- 
 pressed with such lessons. And it would be well to carry 
 the Kindergarten Methods of object and oral teaching 
 still farther in the course. We place too much reliance 
 upon text books and too little upon the teacher. 
 
 This teaching should be systematic. The state should' 
 furnish text books on morals and manners. 
 
84 EARLY TRAINING DESIRABLE 
 
 Kindness; consideration; respect for the rights of 
 others, both, in property, person, sensibility and character; 
 truth, honor, honesty; cleanliness, neatness, purity; 
 kindness to animals; industry and frugality; love of 
 home and friends and country; adherence to right prin- 
 ciples; advantages of an established character for truth 
 and uprightness ; self reliance and self control ; courage 
 and fortitude; politeness; these are texts for lessons in 
 moral training, and many of them may be taught to the 
 youngest pupils. 
 
 Moral education in the schools must come mainly from 
 the teacher. The text book of ethics must be for the 
 teacher's use, and the teacher must be an exemplification 
 of the lessons to be taught. Courtesy, truth, self control 
 and an earnest desire for the pupiPs good, must show 
 forth in the life and the every expression of the teacher 
 to make such teaching effective. And such kindly virtues 
 must come to he, more and more, indispensible qualifications 
 for the teacher; and the formation and cultivation of such 
 character a prominent part of the normal school work. 
 
 Politeness, which is close akin to kindness, also should 
 be taught constantly and systematically in the schools. 
 Politeness is the outward expression of the kindness 
 which should rule the heart. It is the outward expres- 
 sion of kindness which casts a light across the pathway 
 of others and illumines one's own. 
 
 Among Puritans and Quakers we have had examples of 
 an honorable and just character, lacking in outward ex- 
 pressions of kindness; and we still have among their 
 descendants notable examples of this lack of the common 
 courtesies of life, and of the refining influence of such 
 expression. Being of New England parentage, and 
 
PURITANS AND QUAKERS 86 
 
 having felt and observed the need of training in polite- 
 ness, I can say this without prejudice. The people of 
 the South are noted among Americans for politeness, and 
 as well, for the kindly virtues of consideration and 
 hospitality which politeness indicates. 
 
 As oiie result of the benevolent work of the Woman's 
 Christian Temperance Union, we now have a large part 
 of the youth of the nation taught in the schools the evil 
 results of the use of intoxicating drinks, tobacco and 
 other narcotics, and in this way a foundation is being 
 laid for the final eradication of these evils. This is a 
 beginning of a good work in the schools which should be 
 extended to all other lines of moral instruction. By 
 such systematic training of the young, we may rely upon 
 forming such a character for truth and honor in the 
 large majority of those who are to come upon the stage 
 of action, that it will show forth in the future in a more 
 moral, honorable and benevolent condition of society, 
 and in a more honest, intelligent and economical ad- 
 ministration of public affairs. 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 A CLEAN BALLOT. CIVIL SERVICE REFORM 
 
 The Australian ballot system is an effective remedy for 
 some of our corrupt election practices. It insures free- 
 dom, protection and privacy to the voter. It takes away 
 from the rough and vicious element used by dominant 
 parties to carry elections, much of the power they have 
 had over weak, timid, indifferent, ignorant, vacillating 
 and venal voters. 
 
 In most of the states this system has been adopted 
 with little opposition. In those states where politics and 
 government are exceptionally pure, as in Michigan and 
 Massachusetts, excellent ballot laws have been adopted, 
 but in states where party management is in bad hands, 
 and where bossism, venality, bribery and corruption 
 are most flagrant notably in Pennsylvania, New York 
 and California ballot reform has met with most serious 
 opposition, and defective laws, if any, have been adopted. 
 
 As this reform is an effective means for curtailing the 
 power of the party bosses, it has been opposed by the 
 political machines of both old parties. But, notwith- 
 standing this opposition, the general good sense of the 
 people has prevailed and this reform has come to stay. 
 And this fact is one of the most gratifying and hopeful 
 signs of a prospect of improvement in our political life. 
 In the matter of ballot reform it is now only necessary to 
 
 S6 
 
CIVIL SERVICE REFORM 87 
 
 have the law extended to other states, and the present 
 defective laws corrected. So that this question need 
 trouble us but little. It is no longer a problem. 
 
 CIVIL SERVICE REFORM 
 
 Of the progress of this reform we cannot say so much. 
 In this line we are not making much headway. Politi- 
 cians profess devotion to civil service reform, while their 
 hearts are far from it. A small number of leaders of both 
 the old parties are honest advocates of this reform, but 
 the principal managers of both are upholders and defend- 
 ers of the spoils system, and both parties are managed in 
 that way for the spoils and the plunder. Quay and 
 Clarkson, both pronounced spoilsmen, have been chair- 
 men of the republican National committee, and Mr. 
 Clarkson wrote a magazine article in defense of that 
 demoralizing system. 
 
 Civil service reform has been adopted as a principle of 
 our government, and its advantages as a potent means of 
 promoting an honest and efficient administration of the 
 government business has been fully demonstrated. The 
 way has been shown, but the dominant parties have 
 walked not in it not to any alarming extent I Theoret- 
 ically we have adopted the reform, but practically we 
 have the spoils system as the rule of action in most 
 departments of the service. In some departments the 
 civil service rules are fairly well carried out, at least in 
 the lower appointments. While in other departments 
 the reform is ignored or but partly adopted. 
 
 We cannot expect to make much progress in the adop- 
 tion of this reform while the leaders of the dominant 
 parties oppose it. We cannot expect any reform to sue- 
 
00 THE MERIT SYSTEM 
 
 ceed when we place it on trial with those who are not in 
 sympathy with it and do not intend to be controlled by 
 it. That is a bad way to " nurse an infant industry." 
 We can hope for the success of any reform, only when 
 the party in power is fully committed to its principles, 
 and pledged to carry it out. 
 
 We are not left at all in doubt as to the genuine and 
 complete success and benefit of the merit system in the 
 selection of men for carrying on government business. 
 In most European nations, fitness for the positions, as 
 shown by a thorough examination of candidates, is the 
 requisite in the selection of government employes. In 
 the United Kingdom the administration of the govern- 
 ment service is nearly perfect. The candidate m.ust show 
 evidence of good character, must be thoroughly honest 
 and upright, and must be fully qualified and adapted for 
 the position for which he applies. As a result, the British 
 have a model civil service, efficient and painstaking, and 
 mismanagement and peculation are almost unknown. 
 
 Time was when the British civil service was as bad as 
 ours has ever been. The king and the nobles gave gov- 
 ernment places to their favorites, just as our party bosses 
 give government positions to their friends in this country 
 to-day. But the common people in England, to curtail 
 the power of the king and nobility, and to improve the 
 condition of the service, which was bad enough, inaug- 
 urated the merit system. W^hen will the common people 
 in the United States curtail the power of the political 
 boss, the politician and the plutocrat (for they work 
 together) by insisting that our government business shall 
 be conducted in the interest of the whole people, and not 
 in the interest of any party or any set of politicians ? 
 
CIVIL SERVICE REFORM IN EUROPE 89 
 
 The business of the government should be conducted 
 in a business manner. Men should be selected to fill 
 government positions who are in every way fitted and 
 qualified to fill them. We need not hope that any other 
 reform which depends upon government administration 
 can possibly succeed in any full measure until we have a 
 complete reform of our civil service. 
 
 Politicians as they enlarge upon the great blessings of 
 our free institutions often talk to us about the " effete 
 monarchies '' of Europe. If there is anything "effete" 
 about such monarchies as Prussia, Norway and Sweden, 
 and the United Kingdom, it is not to be found in the 
 conduct of their government service. The term would 
 better apply to the corrupt governments of some of our 
 American cities New York, San Francisco and Omaha, 
 for example. 
 
 Between the governments of British and American 
 cities there is a wide difference in favor of the former. 
 Birmingham, England, and Glasgow, Scotland, may be 
 taken as models of well governed cities. The best, ablest 
 and purest of men are elected to fill important offices, 
 and the mayor and aldermen serve faithfully and without 
 pay, devoting a considerable part of their time in endeav- 
 oring to give the best possible government, and to 
 improving the conditions which go to make for the com- 
 fort and well being of the people. 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 EQUAL SUFFRAGE, EQUAL POLITICAL AND 
 CIVIL RIGHTS 
 
 There is no wrong more clearly a wrong ; no imposition 
 more plainly an imposition ; no usurpation of power and 
 authority more decidedly a usurpation, or with less 
 shadow of pretext, than the assumption by man of the 
 sole right to govern ; to make and execute all laws those 
 which affect woman mainly, as well as those which affect 
 man and woman alike without the advice, the knowledge 
 or consent of woman. And the many laws made by man 
 which deny to women some of the most common rights, 
 intensify this injustice. 
 
 " Governments derive their just powers from the consent oj 
 the governed." Since when did woman " consent to be gov- 
 erned ? " Are there any " just powers " of our govern- 
 ment, formed and perpetuated with the consent of but 
 one half its people ? 
 
 *' Taxation without representation " is a political outrage, 
 tamely submitted to only by the subjects of absolute 
 monarchs and by people of subject provinces, and often 
 they cry out against it. It was for this outrage that the 
 founders of our Republic declared themselves to be '^ a 
 free and independent people," and that they would not 
 longer submit to such gross tyranny. Does woman tamely 
 submit to this injustice ? For long years has she solemnly 
 protested against it. 
 
 90 
 
REASONS FOR EQUAL CIVIL RIGHTS 91 
 
 ^^ All men are by nature free and independent^ and have 
 certain inalienable rights,^* among which are life, liberty, 
 and property, and the pursuit of happiness. By the term 
 " men '' the Fathers of the Republic certainly meant man- 
 kind. But if men have these inalienable rights, have 
 not women an equal right to the enjoyment and defence 
 of life, liberty and property ; to the use of all their fac- 
 ulties and endowments ; to the ownership and possession 
 of their labor and the product of their labor and care ; 
 to an equal voice in making and executing the laws and to 
 equal protection under them ? 
 
 Governments are instituted among men, not only to 
 protect all citizens in their equal rights, but '' io promote 
 the general welfare.''^ How can '' the general welfare be 
 promoted " while the most ordinary civil and property 
 rights are abridged and political rights entirely denied to 
 one half the people ? 
 
 Established during periods of despotism, feudalism and 
 serfdom, and now rooted, grounded and upheld by long 
 custom, by blind prejudice, and by man's egotism and 
 selfishness, this relic of barbaric times, this vestige of 
 the once " vested right " of man to rule, the denial of 
 political and civil equality to woman, still stands as a 
 landmark of a bygone, savage state, and as a blot on the 
 pages of our present boasted liberty and enlightenment. 
 
 During the early and middle ages, woman was looked 
 upon, not only as an inferior, but as a drudge and slave. 
 She was forced to do servile work, chastised and beaten, 
 bought and sold according to the pleasure and caprice of 
 her "lord" and " master." Not that every man was a 
 tyrant, but that woman was subject to his dominion 
 whatever that might be. And this was the case not 
 
92 POSITION OF WOMEN AMONG ANCIENTS 
 
 merely in barbarous countries, but in countries considered 
 civilized, as well. Aristotle held that " The relation of 
 man to woman is that of a governor to a subject/^ Plato 
 said : " She has only to manage the house well, keeping 
 what there is in it, and obeying her husband." 
 
 The women of Sparta and Egypt were held in higher 
 esteem than those of most other countries. Lycurgus 
 said : " Female slaves are good enough to sit at home, 
 weaving and spinning, but who can expect a splendid 
 offspring from mothers brought up in such occupations ? " 
 Yet the free born girl of Sparta was often disposed of in 
 marriage by her father without her consent, and the 
 Spartan husband could bequeath a wife as other property 
 by will, at his death. Under the old Roman law, the 
 husband had absolute power over his wife. He was her 
 sole tribunal. 
 
 The Arab bought his wife and treated her as his slave, 
 considering her only as an earthly being. He looked 
 forward to a new wife, resplendent in beauty, in paradise. 
 The Chinaman says a woman has no soul, and the Hin- 
 doo widow was burned upon the funeral pile of her 
 husband. 
 
 In many savage tribes in modern times, the condition 
 of their women is much as it was a thousand years ago, 
 and it is to a large extent, lamentably true, that, in the 
 most enlightened nations of the present age, woman is 
 still looked upon as an inferior, a dependent, and a drudge; 
 that she is denied many civil and property rights, and 
 that political rights are entirely withheld from her. Does 
 not the ancient view of the proper place of woman cor- 
 respond in principle with the idea of many men at the 
 present day, who say that woman's " sphere " is at home, 
 
ENGLISH LAWS RELATING TO WOMEN 93 
 
 washing, mending, cooking, and rearing children ; and 
 that when she seeks other avocations or essays to assist in 
 government, she " loses her womanhood " and " unsexes " 
 herself ? 
 
 The common and statute laws of the various states of 
 the Union are based upon the English common law. Here 
 are some of its provisions: 
 
 By marriage the legal existence of the woman is 
 "merged in that of her husband." He is her " baron " 
 or " lord," bound to supply her with shelter, food and 
 clothing, and is entitled to her earnings, and the use 
 and custody of her person, which he may seize wherever 
 he may find it. 
 
 The husband being bound to provide for his wife, and 
 being responsible for her " morals " and the good order of 
 the household, may choose and govern the domicile, 
 choose her associates, separate her from her relatives, 
 restrain her religious and personal freedom, compel her to 
 cohabit with him, correct her faults by mild means, and 
 if necessary chastise her as though she were his appren- 
 tice or child : this being in respect to " the terms of the 
 marriage contract and the infirmity of the sex." 
 
 The husband is entitled to recover damages for " crim- 
 inal conversation with his wife," or for injury to her 
 person whereby he is deprived of his " marital rights," 
 but the wife has no action for injuries to her husband, as 
 she is not entitled to his services or to any separate inter- 
 est in any thing during her coverture. 
 
 The law takes notice only of the injuries done to the 
 " superior of the parties related," because the *' inferior 
 has no kind of property in the company, care or assist- 
 ance of the superior." 
 
94 STATE LAWS RELATING TO WOMEN 
 
 In most of the states this common law has been much 
 improved in some particulars, while in other respects, it 
 remains with little or no change. We have such laws as 
 the following: 
 
 By marriage the husband acquires the personal prop- 
 erty of the wife, and the rents and profits of her lands, 
 unless otherwise provided for by marriage contract. 
 
 The wife has no share in the property of her husband, 
 or in that which they acquire jointly, while they live 
 together. 
 
 If the husband die intestate, leaving a widow and issue, 
 the widow has one-third of his and their joint personal 
 property, and the use of one-third of the real estate for 
 life. If there are no children she gets one-half. 
 
 If the wife dies without a will, leaving a husband and 
 no children, he gets all her personalty, and the use of all 
 her realty, and all their joint estate. 
 
 When a divorce is decreed by reason of the wife's 
 adultery, she is entitled to a subsistence out of the prop- 
 erty and he gets the balance. 
 
 In case of divorce granted on account of the husband's 
 adultery, the wife is entitled to her " thirds " only, and 
 the husband gets the remainder. 
 
 In but two states has a woman any legal right to her 
 own legitimate child while she lives with her husband. 
 
 A girl at ten years of age (the " age of consent " varies 
 from seven to sixteen years in the different states,) has a 
 legal right to dispose of her virtue and honor to whoever 
 may ensnare her, and the fiend who blasts her young life 
 is held guiltless of offense, but she can not legally dispose 
 of a sheep or an acre of land until she is eighteen. 
 
 These examples are sufficient to show the character of 
 
WOMEN SHOULD NOT BE DEPENDENT 95 
 
 existing laws concerning the civil rights of women. 
 These laws were made by men, without the voice or consent 
 of women, and they show how kind, how generous, how 
 iust, how thoughtful and considerate men have been in 
 guarding and protecting the rights and interests of women ! 
 And yet there are those who think, notwithstanding all 
 this, that women really need to have a voice in protecting 
 their own interests ! 
 
 Most men are much better than their laws ; yet the 
 majority of men are not sufficiently wise, or just, or pure, 
 or unselfish, to make the laws for men and for women also. 
 
 Besides, while the law makes the husband the owner of 
 the property, in whole or in large part ; while itputs/iim 
 in possession and in the management and control of all 
 the joint earnings and accumulations of property and 
 estate, it necessarily makes the wife a dependent, and 
 subordinate, who must look to her superior to give 
 her from his bounty and reward her from his store. 
 
 It is a constant source of humiliation to many women 
 to have to ask their husbands, and often to plead, for 
 provision for the most common necessaries or comforts 
 needed for herself or her household. As the child goes to 
 its parent, so must the wife as a rule go to her husband 
 and ask to be provided for. She must beg for that which 
 of right belongs to her. 
 
 Many husbands think themselves very generous to 
 make " presents " to their wives of things they much need. 
 The wife would usually much prefer to receive the money 
 which rightly belongs to her, and make her own selections 
 of articles she needs. 
 
 The local preacher who has just received a " donation 
 visit " from members of his flock who think themselves 
 
96 THE WIFE SHOULD BE A FULL PARTNER 
 
 very generous to reinforce the preacher's meager salary 
 and thus lay him under lasting obligation to them, can, 
 in a measure, appreciate the feelings of a wife whose 
 dependent position is made ever present by having to 
 receive donations in lieu of an honest share of the com- 
 mon earnings. 
 
 And if this is the case with husbands who are fairly 
 generous and considerate, how will it be with those who 
 are thoughtless, selfish, niggardly ? 
 
 There are comparatively very few men who consider 
 this injustice, and accord to the wife, with or without her 
 request, any fair share in the common possession, or any 
 equal voice in its care, its management, and its disposal. 
 And thus it comes about that the wife, as a rule, is but a 
 pensioner, a servant and a beggar, where she should of 
 right be an equal owner and a full partner, and in every 
 respect be consulted, advised and deferred to as such. 
 Men should not speak of giving women civil rights. They 
 belong to women but have been usurped and withheld by 
 men. 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 OBJECTIONS TO EQUAL SUFFRAGE 
 CONSIDERED. 
 
 1. Suffrage is not a right but a privilege. If so it is a 
 privilege which man grants to himself and denies to 
 woman. 
 
 2. Women are so very different from men. "They 
 neither think, feel, wish, purpose, will nor act alike.'' 
 
 Is that a reason why men should know better what 
 women need for their comfort and happiness than 
 women themselves know ? Let the women judge what 
 they need. 
 
 3. Women as a rule do not want the ballot. How do you 
 know that ? You do not submit the question to a vote 
 of women to ascertain. 
 
 4. They do not ask for it. No other class to whom 
 suffrage has been denied ever asked so much or so per- 
 sistently for it as have women. They have sent deputa- 
 tions to Congress, to the State legislatures, and to the 
 great conventions of the political parties, many, many 
 times asking for suffrage and remonstrating against the 
 unjust laws made by men which discriminate against 
 women. More than 50,000 women in Massachusetts 
 alone have petitioned for the ballot. 
 
 5. Women have not the physical courage or ability to 
 enforce their will and therefore are not entitled to thfl 
 
 97 
 
98 OBJECTIONS TO EQUAL SUFFRAGE 
 
 ballot. Do we select legislators because of physical, or 
 of mental ability ? Is the fact of being defenceless a 
 reason for denying rights to the weak ? 
 
 It is true, that women are usually not as strong as 
 men, but this is more the result of habits than of sex. 
 It is not true that there is naturally a wide difference in 
 strength and endurance between men and women. 
 Women have strength when they are trained to exercise 
 it, and men do not have strong muscles unless they are 
 developed by use. Women who are inured to labor in 
 the fields and mines in some countries of Europe could 
 much better endure the hardships of a campaign than 
 most professional and business men in our cities. Many 
 of our American women endure as much toil and hard- 
 ship as do the majority of working men, and they 
 usually work longer hours. 
 
 6. Women have not sufficient mental capacity and force oj 
 character to fit them for a share in government. We find 
 that girls are as good students as boys, and that more of 
 them are graduated from the high schools. And as for 
 force and ability to manage and control affairs we usually 
 find women as competent as men when the occasion de- 
 mands it. Men do not often show remarkable traits of 
 character until they are called out by force of circum- 
 stances. Ulysses S. Grant, as a wood-hauler or clerk in 
 a leather store was no hero. 
 
 The history of Europe shows at least as many women 
 as men who have ruled great empires with signal ability, 
 justice and good sense. They have made better rulers 
 than men, more careful and considerate. Maria Theresa, 
 Empress of Austria, found her Empire in a weak and 
 chaotic condition, but she brought order out of confusion 
 
MARIA THERESA AND VICTORIA 99 
 
 and strength out of weakness. For forty years she ruled, 
 loved and respected by her subjects, carefully and ener- 
 getically attending to all the details of her duties as a 
 sovereign, and making the Empire a leading power in 
 Europe. And in that time she reared a large family of 
 children, nearly all of whom reached maturity and ably 
 filled positions of trust and honor. Frederick, King of 
 Prussia, said of her " that she exerted a magical power 
 over her soldiers, and that the Austrian army was never 
 before so well disciplined and managed.'^ 
 
 For over half a century Queen Victoria has ruled over 
 the most wealthy,and one of the most populous Empires of 
 the Globe,and no nation has a better or more liberal govern- 
 ment. Victoria recently gave a marked instance of her 
 good judgment, her high sense of duty and her consider- 
 ation of the rights of the common people. When Emperor 
 William of Germany visited England, he is reported to 
 have said to her that he thought it would be necessary 
 for him to declare war upon France, and the Queen re- 
 plied in part : " As long as I live I firmly hope that 
 peace will be maintained. I am now old, but still feel that 
 my last years shall not be saddened by more bloodshed 
 flowing in Europe. The responsibility which rests upon 
 you is a terrible one. It would, in my opinion, be 
 criminal for any sovereign or statesman to precipitate 
 events." And she made it her business to see that war 
 should be averted. 
 
 7. It would take luoman out of her proper ^^ sphere " 
 which is the home ; would demoralize her, " hring dis- 
 credit " upon her ; it would " unsex " her. 
 
 Well, if Queen Victoria, and Maria Theresa, and 
 Queen Elizabeth, and Queen Isabella and hosts of others 
 
100 WHY WOMAN NEEDS THE BALLOT 
 
 could SO ably fill high positions as rulers without any- 
 such dire results, it will be comparatively safe for an in 
 telligent American woman to undertake to cast a ballot 
 or sit in the jury box without fear of such bad con- 
 sequences. 
 
 Should woman have no aspiration but to keep the 
 house well ? Should the farmer's wife more than the 
 farmer be content with a life filled with a never ceasing 
 round of daily toils ? Should kitchen walls bound her 
 horizon more than the barn-yard fence should that of 
 her husband ? 
 
 8. Why does ivoman need the ballot ? She needs it for 
 the same reasons that man does, and because in no other 
 way will equal rights be secured to her. She needs it to 
 protect her rights as a maid, a wife and a mother ; to 
 give her " equal pay for equal work," and that she may 
 own her earnings, and be able to own, sell, devise and 
 bequeath her property and estate as she elects. 
 
 She needs to be " armed with the ballot" that she may 
 wage effective war against the saloon, the brothel, the gam- 
 bling den, the political knave, and against all manner of 
 injustice, vice, uncleanness and crime. 
 
 She needs it to enlarge her scope of duty, responsibility 
 and usefulness. Woman needs the ballot that she may 
 take her place, and do her part, as man's equal, in insti- 
 tuting new ways and reforms in our methods of govern- 
 ment, in devising and shaping legislation, in managing 
 the common interests, in caring for the mutual heritage, 
 and in promoting the general welfare of men and women 
 in our common country. 
 
 There are, on the other hand, special reasons why 
 women should have the ballot. Women are, as a whole, 
 
WORK OF THE W. C. T. U. 101 
 
 better than men; more moral, more honorable, more 
 sensitive to the wrongs, and more considerate of the 
 rights, of others. Sixty per cent of church members are 
 women; ninety per cent of criminals are men. And, 
 while women would be more merciful to the weak, the 
 needy and the oppressed, they would not be as ready, to 
 permit the oppressor and wrong-doer to escape a just 
 punishment. 
 
 Women should largely have the charge and control of 
 the common schools, of reform schools, of almshouses, 
 and of all asylums, charitable institutions, and places 
 of refuge. 
 
 No organization of men in the last decade has, in a 
 political or in any other way, accomplished so much for 
 the moral and social betterment of the people of the 
 United States as has the Woman's Christian Temperance 
 Union. It has, almost single handed, introduced scien- 
 tific temperance instruction in the schools in thirty-seven 
 states. This has been done, mainly through the personal 
 efforts of Mrs. Mary H. Hunt, National Superintendent 
 of Scientific Temperance Instruction of the organization. 
 Mrs. Hunt is one of those remarkable women, who, 
 though hampered by exclusion from political rights, can 
 not be circumscribed in any narrow bounds. We do not 
 know to what extent she has been " unsexed " and " lost 
 her womanhood " by revolving so far from her proper 
 sphere 1 She may have suffered very seriously I But, 
 as the great work she has accomplished for humanity has 
 caused her name to be inscribed high up on the roll of 
 heroes, she can afford to be a martyr in a good cause I 
 
 The W. C. T. U. has secured the enactment of laws 
 prohibiting the sale of tobacco to minors in twenty-four 
 
102 BESULTS OF WOMAN SUFFRAGE 
 
 states, has succeeded in getting the "age of consent" 
 raised in several states, and has accomplished more in 
 advancing the temperance reform and in abolishing the 
 saloon, than any other agency. 
 
 The bare enumeration of these great results attained 
 give little idea of the " toil and endeavor " required to 
 bring about these ends, without political power, or influ- 
 ence. And these facts clearly show that giving political 
 power to women would secure a great moral and social 
 reformation of the people. 
 
 The conclusive argument for woman suffrage is, that 
 arguments are not longer needed, if men will but heed 
 the proof of a demonstration. The results of experience in 
 women exercising political rights prove the force of all 
 the arguments advanced in favor of granting them, 
 and show that all the fears and predictions of bad re- 
 sults are groundless. 
 
 The English women have had municipal suffrage for 
 twenty years, with such good results that the Lord 
 Mayor of London entertained thirty-seven total abstinence 
 Mayors at one time. Fancy the Mayor of Chicago enter- 
 taining thirty-seven temperance Mayors I Municipal 
 Suffrage has been extended to the women of Scotland, 
 Ontario, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Manitoba. 
 The women of Kansas have had the right of Municipal 
 Suffrage for several years, and have served as city 
 officials in many instances with credit to themselves and 
 good results to the people. 
 
 The women of Washington Territory have had full 
 suffrage since 1883, and Chief Justice Greene testifies of 
 the results as follows : " I have now held twelve terms of 
 court in which women have served as grand and petit 
 
EQUAL SUFFRAGE IN WYOMING 103 
 
 jurors, and it is certainly a fact beyond dispute that no 
 other twelve terms so salutary for the restraint of crime 
 have ever been held in this Territory." " As to the man- 
 ner in which the women performed jury duty, I have yet 
 to hear from any one who became qualified to pass an 
 opinion, a single adverse criticism or any word but 
 praise. 
 
 In Wyoming, women have had full suffrage for over 
 twenty years. Governor Hoyt said in 1882 : 
 
 " Under it we have better laws, better officers, better 
 institutions, better morals, and a higher social condition 
 in general than could otherwise exist. Not one of the 
 predicted evils, such as loss of native delicacy and dis- 
 turbance of home relations, has followed in its train. 
 The great body of our women, and the best of them, 
 have accepted the elective franchise as a precious boon, 
 and exercise it as a patriotic duty. In a word, after 
 twelve years of happy experience, woman suffrage is so 
 thoroughly rooted and established in the hearts and 
 minds of this people, that among them all, no voice is 
 ever uplifted in protest against or in question of it." 
 
 He who starts out seeking any reform in government, 
 
 asking for himself further privileges or immunities, 
 
 while utterly ignoring the rights of one-half of the 
 
 people (and that the best half), to a full share with him 
 
 in all such benefits, is not a reformer or statesman in any 
 
 just sense, and does not deserve to succeed. He is but a 
 
 seeker of self-interest, a time-server, or a political and 
 
 moral coward. 
 
 In preparing this chapter I am especially indebted to the 
 work of D. P. Livermore, entitled ** Woman Suffrage Defended." 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 PROHIBITION OF THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC 
 
 The remedies for the drink evil are as patent as the evil 
 itself. In this day and age no search is required to find 
 them. They are published from the housetops. 
 
 For the individual the remedy is to '' Touch not the 
 cup," and for the state, to abolish the saloon. To find 
 and to perfect the legal remedy has required many years 
 of study and trial, but we now have it in its complete- 
 ness and success. 
 
 Almost every church organization in the land has 
 pronounced in unmistakable terms for total abstinence 
 for the individual, and for prohibition for the state 
 and nation. All the temperance organizations of the 
 country are a unit on this question. From no genuine 
 temperance advocate or body of temperance people does 
 there come any proposition or suggestion or hint of any 
 other remedy for removing the terrible incubus of the drink 
 evil excepting to annihilate the accursed rum traffic. 
 
 That a great work has been done and is still carried on 
 in teaching young and old the evils of drink, in inculca- 
 ting principles and habits of virtue and sobriety, and in 
 properly treating the diseased bodies and depraved 
 appetites of the victims of alcoholic poison, all good peo- 
 ple concede. But as a legal remedy, a state and national 
 remedy, it is idle to talk of any other than prohibition of 
 the liquor traffic. 
 
 10-4 
 
RESULTS OF PROHIBITION IN MAINE 105 
 
 No argument is needed in support of the efficacy of 
 prohibitory laws as a final remedy for the evils of the 
 liquor traffic, except to show the results of the enforce- 
 ment of such laws ; and we have ample experience to 
 exemplify their utility, and abundance of testimony to 
 prove the good results of this experience. 
 
 In 1872, Hon. Wm. P. Frye, then a member of Congress 
 from Maine, sent a letter to Gen. Neal Dow which con- 
 tained the following : 
 
 "Your favor of the 26th inst., containing an inquiry 
 as to the effect of the Maine liquor law in restraining 
 the sale of liquors in our state, etc., is before me ; and in 
 reply, while I am unable to state any exact percentage of 
 decrease in the business,I can and do,from my own personal 
 observation, unhesitatingly affirm that the consumption 
 of intoxicating liquors in Maine is not to-day one-fourth 
 so great as it was twenty years ago" ; that in the country 
 portions of the state the sale and use have almost entirely 
 ceased ; that the law of itself under a vigorous enforcement 
 of its provisions, has created a temperance sentiment which 
 is marvelous and to which opposition is powerless. In my 
 opinion our remarkable reform, of to-day is the legitimate 
 child of the law^ [Italics by the author.] 
 
 This letter was endorsed by all the other members of 
 Congress and the two United States Senators from Maine 
 at the time, and by Hon. James G. Blaine, as follows : 
 
 James G. Blaine : " I concur in the foregoing state- 
 ment ; and on the point of the relative amount of the 
 liquors sold at present in Maine and in those states where 
 a system of license prevails. I am sure, from personal 
 knowledge and observation, that the sales are immeasur- 
 ably less in Maine." In 1882 Mr. Blaine said : " Intem- 
 perance has steadily decreased in Maine since the first 
 enactment of the prohibitory law, until now it can be 
 said with truth that there is no equal number of people 
 
106 TESTIMONY OF MAINE CONGRESSMEN 
 
 in the Anglo-Saxon world among whom so small an 
 amount of intoxicating liquors is consumed as among 
 the 650,000 inhabitants of Maine." 
 
 Hannibal Hamlin, United States Senator from Maine, 
 and formerly Vice-President of the United States : " I 
 concur in the statements made by Mr. Frye. In the great 
 good produced by the prohibitory liquor law of Maine 
 no man can doubt who has seen its results. It has been 
 of immense value." 
 
 Lot M. Morrill, United States Senator from Maine : 
 "I have the honor unhesitatingly to concur in the 
 opinions expressed in the foregoing by my colleague, 
 Hon. Mr. Frye." 
 
 John Lynch, member of Congress from Maine : " I 
 fully concur in the statements of my colleague, Mr. Frye, 
 in regard to the effect of the enforcement of the liquor 
 law in the State of Maine." 
 
 John A. Peters and Eugene Hale, members of Congress 
 from Maine : " We are satisfied that there is much less 
 intemperance in Maine than formerly, and that the result 
 is largely produced by what is termed prohibitory legis- 
 lation." 
 
 All the governors of Maine for the last twenty-five 
 years have testified to the good results of the enforcement 
 of the prohibitory laws of the state. Here are specimens 
 of their testimony from the continuous line of governors 
 from 1872 to 1888 : 
 
 Governor Chamberlain (1872) : "The law is as well 
 executed generally in the state as other criminal laws." 
 
 Governor Perham (1872) : "I think it safe to say that 
 it (the volume of the liquor trade) is very much less than 
 before the enactment of the law probably not one-tenth 
 as large." 
 
 Governor Dingley (1874) : " In more than three-fourths 
 
TESTIMONY OF MAINE GOVERNORS 107 
 
 of the state, particularly in the rural sections, open dram- 
 shops are almost unknown and secret sales are compar- 
 atively rare." 
 
 Governor Conner (1876): "Maine has a fixed con- 
 clusion upon this subject. It is that the sale of intox- 
 icating liquors is an evil of such magnitude that the 
 well being of the state demands that the conditions of 
 the social compact warrants its suppression.-' 
 
 Governor Robie (1885) : " Criminal statistics show that 
 the law has been beneficial in restraining crime, and the 
 number of indictments found against the violators of the 
 law in all our courts and the fines and costs or sentences 
 of imprisonment imposed prove the general willingness 
 of the people to assist in its enforcement." 
 
 Governor Bodwell (1887) : "In from three-fourths to 
 four-fifths of the towns of the state the law is well 
 enforced and has practically abolished the sale of spirit- 
 uous and malt liquors as beverages. In the larger cities 
 and towns, on the seaboard and at railway centers, it has 
 been found more difficult to secure perfect compliance 
 with the law, but it can still be said that at very few 
 points in the state is liquor openly sold." 
 
 Governor Marble (1888): "Prohibition has closed 
 every distillery and brewery in Maine. The law has 
 greatly diminished the sale and use of intoxicating 
 liquors and increased sobriety and morality among the 
 people, especially outside of the cities. It is certainly 
 the best law of which 1 have any knowledge, and wherever 
 public sentiment favors its enforcement it works per- 
 fectly." 
 
 \e give below some utterances from some public men 
 of Iowa as to the results of prohibition in that state : 
 
 Governor William Larabee (a sturdy opponent of Pro- 
 hibition before its enactment, but converted into a most 
 ardent supporter after due observation of the workings of 
 
108 RESULTS OF PROHIBITION IN IOWA 
 
 the law), in a letter to Rev. William Fuller, of Aberdeen, 
 S. D., Feb. 16, 1889: "I think more than half of the 
 jails in the state are entirely empty at the present time. 
 There are 98 less convicts in our penitentiaries than 
 there were three years ago,notwithstanding the growth of the 
 population. Expenses in Criminal Courts have decreased 
 very largely during the last few years. Tramps are very 
 scarce in Iowa. There are evidently very few attractions 
 for them here. Probably more than 3,000 of their 
 recruiting stations have been closed in Iowa during the 
 last five years. The wives and mothers of the state, and 
 especially those of small means are almost unanimously 
 in favor of the law. .The families of laboring men now 
 receive the benefits of the earnings that formerly went to 
 the saloons. There is no question in my mind but what 
 the law is doing good for the people. My views hereto- 
 fore advanced in favor of the law are strengthened and 
 confirmed by added experience. Our people are more 
 determined than ever to make no compromise with the 
 saloons. The law has more friends in the state than it 
 ever had before, and I am satisfied that no state can show 
 results more gratifying." 
 
 United States Senator, James F. Wilson, in a letter to 
 the New York Voice for Oct. 9, 1890, said : " It gives me 
 pleasure to be able to say that in every desirable aspect 
 of the case prohibition has been beneficial to Iowa. I 
 have a pretty accurate knowledge of the condition exist- 
 ing in Iowa, as induced by prohibition, and I do not hesi- 
 tate to say that they are all better for its presence than they 
 would have been without it. In the several features of 
 the case as respects business, value of property, moral and 
 educational conditions, diminution of crime and criminal 
 expenses, social and domestic phases of society, Iowa is 
 ready to stand in a row of the states for examination 
 with no fear that any of her sisters will, at the conclu- 
 sion, stand nearer the head of the line than will she." 
 
 J. F. Kennedy, M. D., Secretary of the Iowa State 
 Board of Health, in a letter to the Voice of Oct. 9, 1890 ; 
 
TESTIMONY FROM IOWA 109 
 
 " In all respects our people have been greatly benefited. 
 Crime and immorality have greatly decreased ; social 
 conditions have improved ; homes have become more 
 home-like, and thrift and the angels of hope have gone 
 into many homes where the blight of poverty and the 
 demon of despair had taken their abode." 
 
 W. W. Field, Director of the State Agricultural Society, 
 in a letter to the Voice for Oct. 9, 1890 : " I do not mean 
 to say that no liquor is sold and used in the state, but I 
 do say that the quantity is small compared with saloon 
 times, and that our young men are not tempted as form- 
 erly, and are being taught that to drink is to lower them- 
 selves in the estimation of the best society. It is rare 
 now to see a drunken man upon our streets, and at our 
 recent State Fair, where there were upon our grounds one 
 day 50,000 people, not a man was seen under the influence 
 of liquor." 
 
 The State officers of Kansas, nine in number, in 1889, 
 in co-operation with the officers of the State Temperance 
 Union, issued a formal declaration concerning the results 
 of the prohibitory law, in which the following was said 
 in regard to the consumption of drink, etc. : 
 
 " The law is efficiently and successfully enforced. The 
 direct results of its enforcement are plain and unmis- 
 takable. We believe that not one-tenth of the amount of 
 liquor is now used that was used before the adoption of 
 the prohibition law. 
 
 " Our citizens fully realize the happy results of the 
 prohibition of the manufacture and sale of liquor, as 
 these results are seen in the decrease of poverty and 
 wretchedness and crime, and in the promotion of domes- 
 tic peace and social order in the advancement of general 
 enterprise and thrift. In our opinion the prohibition law 
 is now stronger with the people than it was when adopted. 
 It has more than met the expectations of its warmest 
 friends. It is steadily winning the confidence and support 
 of thousands who were its bitterest enemies." 
 
110 PROHIBITION IN KANSAS 
 
 Senator John J. Ingalls, in an article in the Forum for 
 August, 1889, used the following pithy and forcible lan- 
 guage : " Kansas has abolished the saloon. The open 
 dramshop traffic is as extinct as the sale of indulgences. 
 A drunkard is a phenomenon. The barkeeper has joined 
 the troubadour, the crusader and the mound-builder. 
 The brewery, the distillery and the bonded warehouse 
 are known only to the archaeologist. Temptation being 
 removed from the young and the infirm, they have been 
 fortified and redeemed. The liquor-seller being pro- 
 scribed is an outlaw and his vocation is disreput- 
 able. Drinking being stigmatized is out of fashion 
 and the consumption of intoxicants has enormously 
 decreased. Intelligent and conservative observers est- 
 imate the reduction at 90 per cent. ; it can not be less 
 than 75." 
 
 Governor John A. Martin (a vigorous opponent of the 
 Prohibitory Amendment when it was first agitated, con- 
 verted to the cause of prohibition by the results of the 
 law), in his farewell message to the state legislature, Janu- 
 ary, 1889 : " Fully nine-tenths of the drinking and drunk- 
 enness prevalent in Kansas eight years ago has been 
 abolished. * * * Notwithstanding the fact that the pop- 
 ulation of the state is steadily increasing, the number of 
 criminals confined in our penitentiary is steadily decreas- 
 ing. Many of our jails are empty, and all showed a 
 marked falling off in the number of prisoners confined. 
 The dockets of our courts are no longer burdened with 
 long lists of criminal cases. In the capital district con- 
 taining a population of nearly 60,000, not a single crim- 
 inal case was on the docket when the present term began. 
 The business of the police courts of our larger cities has 
 dwindled to one-fourth of its former proportions, while in 
 cities of the second and third class the occupation of 
 police authorities is practically gone. These suggestions 
 and convincing facts appeal alike to the reason and the 
 conscience of the people. They have reconciled those 
 
TESTIMONY FROM KANSAS 111 
 
 who doubted the success and silenced those who opposed 
 the policy of prohibiting the liquor traffic." 
 
 United States Senator P. B. Plumb (always known as 
 very conservative on the prohibition question) : "That 
 there has been a great diminution in the consumption of 
 liquor and in the consequent drunkenness and crime in 
 the state, as the result of the exclusion of the saloon, is 
 everywhere noted and confessed. In fact, no evidence on 
 this point is more conclusive than that the brewers and 
 distillers are so urgent to have saloons re-established. 
 They are not spending large sums of money in this mat- 
 ter for fun." 
 
 J. W. Hamilton, state treasurer, Nov. 24, 1889 : " It is 
 well known to my friends that when the prohibition 
 question was first agitated I was an an ti- prohibitionist. 
 I did all in my power to defeat the amendment. I was 
 what they called a Glick re-submissionist. But I was 
 mistaken then. The prohibitory law has my endorsement, 
 not alone because it is the doctrine of my party but 
 because I believe it is right. I do not see how any fair- 
 minded man who has lived in Kansas for the past five 
 years can be otherwise than in favor of the law." 
 
 Judge W. C. Webb, April 4, 1890 : "I voted in 1880 
 against the prohibitory amendment. For four or five 
 years afterwards I thought my opinion as to probable 
 results was likely to be vindicated. But it is not so now. 
 Prohibition has driven out of Kansas the open saloon, 
 and has accomplished a vast deal of good a thousand- 
 fold more than any license law ever did or ever could. A 
 return to whisky and saloon rule would not bring an 
 additional dollar to the state, nor grow an additional 
 bushel of corn, nor give a single ounce of bread to the 
 hungry, nor clothe the nakedness of a single beggar." 
 
 During the Eastern Amendment campaigns of 1889 
 Mr. W. P. Tomlinson, editor of the Daily Democrat of 
 Topeka, was induced to make speeches against prohibition. 
 He ventured to assert that prohibition was a failure, and 
 
112 PKOHIBITION IN KANSAS 
 
 was quoted as saying that " dives and joints " flourished 
 in Topeka, and that " all the iniquities of secret selling " 
 were "added to the lesser evils of the open traffic." 
 Upon his return to Topeka, Mr. Tomlinson was put under 
 oath by the county attorney, and the following testimony 
 was taken : 
 
 Q. Do you know of the existence of an open saloon 
 in Shawnee county at the present time ? 
 
 A. I do not. 
 
 Q. Do you know of an open saloon in Shawnee county 
 within the past two years ? 
 
 A. No ; I do not. 
 
 Q. Do you know of any secret place in Shawnee 
 county where liquor can be bought by the drink ? 
 
 A. I do not. 
 
 There is no lack of testimony in favor of prohibition 
 from public men of Maine, Iowa, Kansas and other 
 states, but this will be sufficient in this connection. 
 
 Much of this testimony is taken from " The Encyclo- 
 pedia of Prohibition." 
 
 What more could be added to the force and complete- 
 ness of this evidence ? Such an array of witnesses in 
 support of any cause would be ample to fully establish it in 
 any just court or with any honest people. No candid or well 
 informed man or woman denies the effectiveness of the 
 prohibition remedy for this evil. Only people of the 
 baser sort, those who favor the use of liquors and advocate 
 vice ; or those who are not well informed, being misled 
 by misrepresentations of party papers ; or those who do 
 so for political and party uses, oppose prohibition or 
 advocate any other remedy. 
 
WHERE PROHIBITION DOES NOT SUCCEED 113 
 
 It is true that prohibitory laws will not enforce them- 
 selves any better than other criminal laws. It is also true 
 that where prohibitory laws have not been enforced it has 
 been for the reason that the managers of the party in 
 power, or the officials whose sworn duty it was to execute 
 the laws, either or both, were not in sympathy with the 
 law, and, because of political purposes or of vicious or 
 money interests, connived with and upheld the law 
 breakers. This has been the one and only cause of 
 prohibition proving in any case a failure or of not being 
 an entire success. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 NATIONALIZATION OF THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC 
 
 This is the new remedy for the evil. Whisky at cost. 
 Remove the temptation to sell, by having the government 
 furnish liquors to all who want at cost. 
 
 The contention is that the evil of intemperance is kept 
 up by the incentive of the profits made in the manufacture 
 and sale of the liquors, and that if the incentive to sell 
 liquors is removed the evil will disappear. And there 
 are many good people who have expressed their approval 
 of this new remedy for all the evils of the drink curse. 
 How easy it is to forget the main question in considering 
 one of its incidents. It is a case of trying to cure a dis- 
 ease by treating one of its symptoms. 
 
114 REDUCING THE COST INCREASES CONSUMPTION 
 
 Among the evils of the use of strong drink are the 
 deadly poison instilled in the veins and the terrible 
 appetite engendered in its victims. Furnishing liquors 
 at cost would not neutralize the poison or lessen the 
 appetite or remove the temptation. It surely would not 
 lessen the quantity used. On the contrary it would 
 increase the consumption of liquors. Reducing the cost 
 of beefsteak, or butter, or blankets, or coffee, or coal, or 
 calico, increases the use of these articles. But there is 
 this difference : people need beefsteaks and butter and it 
 would be good for them to have plenty. They do not 
 need whisky and wine, and the less they use of them the 
 better off they are. If beefsteaks and butter could 
 be furnished at ten cents per pound instead of twenty 
 cents it would tend to build up strong men and women. 
 But furnishing whisky and wine at two cents a glass 
 instead of ten cents would not benefit the drinker or the 
 drinker's family. It would be far better to make the 
 stuff two dollars a glass, or twenty dollars a glass. 
 
 We thought we were through with arguments of this 
 kind. This straw has all been threshed over and over 
 again. Must loe flail it some more? 
 
 Whisky at cost ! If that is the remedy we need, what 
 was the matter with us and our fathers fifty years ago ? 
 What was wrong with Massachusetts, when the people had 
 plenty of good, pure New England rum at a very mod- 
 erate cost three cents a glass, and sold at every grocery? 
 AVhy wasn't Maine vastly better off with a good supply 
 of rum, and plenty of jails well filled, and the houses so 
 well ventilated when all they had to do was to just put 
 an old hat or coat into the place where the glass ought to 
 be, when the breeze was too fresh? And now the poor 
 
MAINE AND CONNECTICUT FIFTY YEARS AGO 115 
 
 people can't get good rum or brandy any more so handy 
 and cheap as they once could ! 
 
 And what was the difficulty with old Connecticut, the 
 " Land of Steady Habits,'" with her cider brandy still in 
 every valley and on every hillside ? When a hundred 
 brandy factories could be counted from one hilltop ? iVnd 
 when all the good people, preachers, deacons and all, 
 with but few exceptions, used to drink ? And when 
 drinking was popular and " respectable ? " And when 
 it was not particularly disreputable for gentlemen or 
 ladies to get drunk just occasionally ? And what was 
 the matter with Ohio where the good old farmer used to 
 lay in twenty or thirty barrels of good cider for winter 
 use when it got " hard ? " 
 
 And remember they had 2mre liquors in those times. 
 There was no " incentive " to adulterate them, you know, 
 and besides they didn't know how, and they used it them- 
 selves. 
 
 And then they had all the adjuncts which come along 
 when people use good pure liquor and can get it real 
 cheap, " at cost " as it were. They had red eyes, and red 
 noses and red faces, and they had ragged coats and 
 patched trousers, and they used to get drunk and pound 
 their wives and throw the children out of doors, and they 
 had delirium tremens, the genuine article. They used to 
 have visions of snakes and dragons and imps and devils 
 and fiery furnaces. 
 
 Yes, they had a good supply of all these things and a 
 great many more of a similar character, ear marks, signs 
 and tokens of the reign of " rum and brandy at cost." 
 
 Besides, we have had a class of pretended temperance 
 advocates who urged that the " doggeries " and " low 
 
 ra^iviiBsT^.. 
 
116 MAKE DRINKING RESPECTABLE 
 
 dives " should be suppressed, and liquors sold only in 
 " respectable " saloons and by men of " good moral char- 
 acter,"' and under proper restrictions. This new remedy 
 is in the same line only a good deal more so. The prop- 
 osition is to have the government furnish the liquors to 
 the people, openly and above aboard, and in a respect- 
 able and lawful manner, and under proper restrictions 
 that is, not to minors under a certain age, or to men 
 when drunk, or to those known to habitually abuse their 
 families. The government agent to be of good character 
 and to use due " discretion " in furnishing the liquors. It 
 would seem that a bare statement of the proposition 
 would be sufficient to condemn it in the mind of any 
 true friend of temperance. We must not undertake by 
 law to make vice respectable. 
 
 We are told that " The only safe practicable deterrent is 
 the firm restraint of a responsible public officer charged 
 with the duty of proper limitation." (Hon. Henry Winn, 
 in New Nation, for Oct. 31, 1891.) The " practicable 
 deterrent " is in " proper limitation " " to drinking men 
 in quantities not to permit drunkenness." Contemplate 
 the " duty " and " responsibility " of such a public officer 
 to determine the proper " limit " or capacity for liquor 
 which each drinker might safely indulge in I The officer is 
 empowered to decide for each drinker where virtue ends 
 and vice begins 1 
 
 We have tried licensing and regulating saloons and 
 gambling houses and brothels, but we have not lessened 
 vice in that way. Now we are to have a new remedy for 
 the drink evil, and the social evil, and the gambling evil. 
 We are to have whisky at cost, and prostitution at cost 
 and gambling at cost, and in this way we are very soon to 
 
WHISKEY AT COST I PROSTITUTION AT COST ! 117 
 
 eliminate and blot out these evils I Because by removing 
 the incentive of making money from the vices of men and 
 women, we at once relieve vice of its charms and appetite 
 and passion of its force I 
 
 No. This will never do. If we want to lessen vice, 
 we must not make the government the agency for license, 
 regulation and supply ; and for making it legitimate, 
 respectable and safe ! We must make it an outlaw. 
 Make it unlawful, disreputable and criminal. We must 
 suppress vice and visit crime with the heavy hand of the 
 law. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 NATIONAL HIGHWAYS RAILWAY AND TELE 
 GRAPH LINES 
 
 From ancient times, it has been a first duty of civilized 
 governments, a prime requisite of civilization, to provide 
 roads, bridges and other convenient and adequate means 
 of transit and communication throughout the dominions 
 and from one country to another. The people of one part 
 of a country need the products, the wheat or wool, the 
 cattle or corn, the tools or fabrics, which are produced 
 in other localities, and they need to communicate with 
 the people of other localities, and the problem of how to 
 increase the facilities for interchange of commodities, for 
 
118 ANCIENT HIGHWAYS 
 
 the transmission of intelligence, and the transit of the 
 people, has always been one that has commanded the 
 attention of the people and the statesmen of all enlight- 
 ened nations. At least it has been the case in other 
 countries, and was in our own in early days, but our 
 modern statesman is so profoundly engaged in the con- 
 sideration of three great problems, namely : 1. Which 
 party shall be kept in power, 2. Whether the tariff 
 shall be raised or lowered, and, 3. How to properly pro- 
 mulgate the fact of our unparalleled greatness and pros- 
 perity, that they do not deem it worth while to devote 
 precious time to matters of such trifling import. 
 
 The noted Appian Way of the Romans, called the 
 " Queen of Roads," built over two thousand years ago, 
 and extending from Rome to Brundusium, was probably 
 the finest great roadway ever built by man in any age. 
 The road bed was prepared with great care, rocks were 
 cut through, small valleys filled, ravines bridged and a 
 solid foundation made through swamps. The road was 
 paved with large blocks of basaltic lava carefully cut and 
 laid on a bed of concrete. 
 
 Among the most remarkable highways of any ancient 
 people were those built by the Incasof Peru. They made 
 roads hundreds of miles in extent, substantially built, 
 having uniform grades, and traversing high mountain 
 ranges and wide desert wastes, and with post houses at 
 stated distances. These works have been much noted by 
 historians as indicating a high state of civilization. 
 
 In early times in this country our statesmen were 
 engaged in the work of building canals and post roads, 
 deeming such works to be of great importance to the 
 nation. The Erie and Champlain canals, built and operated 
 
STATE ROADS AND CANALS 119 
 
 by the state of New York, have been a great beneficence, 
 not only to the people of that state, but to the people of 
 many other states. These works have accomplished much 
 in insuring cheap freights from the west to the seaboard. 
 They have made it possible for many a poor man to have 
 a whole loaf when otherwise he would have had but a 
 half loaf or no bread. Post roads were built to a limited 
 extent by the nation through trackless forests from one 
 state to another. Before the war the people of Tennessee 
 and some other states had admirable macadamized roads. 
 These examples show that our people were in times past 
 mindful of ''promoting the general welfare" in this 
 respect. 
 
 Most European nations are very much in advance of 
 our own in the attention given to the public interests in 
 providing good highways for public use and benefit. 
 They usually have much better turnpike roads than we 
 do, and their railways are usually either owned or man- 
 aged by the government or are under strict government 
 control. But the people of Australia lead all other 
 countries in the matter of managing their railways in 
 the interests of the people. 
 
 To provide public highways, convenient and suitable 
 for all, built for"the use and benefit of all the people, and 
 made as nearly free as possible, is a province of govern- 
 ment which demands constant attention and should never 
 be lost sight of. 
 
 Justice Bradley, of the United States Supreme Court 
 states the well recognized principle of national law in 
 regard to highways as follows : 
 
 " When a railroad is chartered it is for the purpose of 
 'perjorming a duty which belongs to the state itself. It is 
 
120 SUPREME COURT DECISIONS 
 
 the duty and prerogative of the state to provide means of 
 intercommunication between one part of its territory and 
 another." Also the court has held : " It has never been 
 considered of any importance that the road was built by 
 the agency of a private corporation. No matter who is 
 the agent, the function performed is that of the state.'^ 
 
 Time was when the turnpike road was the great high- 
 way, but that is all changed. Now the railwav track is the 
 great highway, and the telegraph wire the swift messenger. 
 The " main traveled road " is comparatively a by-way. 
 
 It is true that the railway has been a wonderful means 
 for the advancement of civilization. It has made many 
 things possible and easy which otherwise would be impos- 
 sible or very difficult. From wide distances it brings the 
 ore to the furnace, the wheat to the mill, the fleece to the fac- 
 tory. It climbs mountains, leaps chasms, and glides'over 
 boundless plains and wide rivers with ease and safety. 
 It gives value to the distant mine and valley and forest. 
 
 It is true that the telegraph has been a marvelous 
 power for disseminating intelligence through the length 
 and breadth of the land. It gathers the story of great 
 events,the currents of mighty thought and action,and sends 
 them on the wings of the morning. It makes possible 
 the modern great daily newspaper, telling of the exploits 
 and achievements of men in the far corners of the earth. 
 
 It is also true that the common people do not derive 
 the benefit from these great agencies which they should do 
 or might do if managed for the people and in their inter- 
 est. They are not made public highways in a proper 
 sense, but are monopolies over which the nation has very 
 little control. The people have a right to expect and to 
 demand and receive a full measure of advantage from 
 these agencies. And it is the duty of the government to 
 
RAILWAYS NOT MANAGED FOR PUBLIC GOOD 121 
 
 secure such advantage for them. That this can not be done 
 without government ownership and management is a fact 
 which is slowly but surely dai&ning upon the minds of the 
 American people. 
 
 The unjust and dishonest management of railway prop- 
 erties,the exorbitant charges, the vexatious discriminations 
 and the waste and loss of the present system, forms one 
 of the greatest burdens upon the people of this country. 
 And not this alone, but the fact that the railway interests 
 are becoming more and more powerful in controlling and 
 disturbing financial and business affairs, in dictating 
 legislation and in corrupting the fountains and defeating 
 the ends of justice, that makes them a menace and danger 
 to the usefulness and perpetuity of our free institutions. 
 
 The railways are getting bigger than the government 
 that is, more powerful. They can spend more money in 
 controlling legislation, in employing able and unscrup- 
 ulous lawyers and agents to oppose the people's interests 
 and defeat the ends of justice, than the people have to 
 use in any effort to control and regulate them. 
 
 The Goulds, Vanderbilts, Huntingtons and Dillons, 
 vastly more than the Carnegies, Rockefellers, Spreckles 
 and all the other plutocrats, are the masters we should 
 fear. Their rules of propriety and justice are to " charge 
 what the traffic will bear," and "the public be damned." 
 In modern railway management as in modern politics 
 " the Decalogue and the Golden Rule have no place." In 
 no other field for monopolies or combines is there such room 
 for extensive jobbery and plunder. By their devices and 
 manipulations of great properties and interests they are able 
 to divert the flow of a large part of the nation^ s wealth from 
 its proper channels into their coffers. 
 
CHAPTER XIX 
 
 METHODS OF CONSTRUCTING AND CAPITALIZING 
 RAIL WA YS 
 
 No man on the outside can know all the " ways that 
 are dark and the tricks that are vain " of the railway 
 schemer, but there are some things that a '' wayfaring 
 man " may know. In a general way, here is a history of 
 many ordinary cases of railway construction and capital- 
 ization. 
 
 There appeared to be a demnnd for a new line of rail- 
 road, or room for anotlier liiiG. A company was organized 
 in the interest of a certain corporation, but which was 
 not known in the new company. There were some local 
 directors and the old company was represented by men 
 duly selected who were to manage and control. 
 
 Then the agents and '' hustlers " of the company went 
 along the line and held public meetings. They had good 
 speakers, and the importance of railroads in building up 
 a country was not under-estimated. Town Councils and 
 County Commissioners were urged to bear a hand. The 
 company must have free right of way and depot grounds 
 and must have enough bonds and stock subscribed on the 
 line to at least grade the road. Every " public spirited 
 citizen " was expected to take a good block of stock. 
 Solicitors were employed who would double discount any 
 real estate man, insurance agent or lightning-rod peddler I 
 
 If the line, by a moderate detour, could be made to 
 
 122 
 
THE PEOPLE INDUCED TO CONTRIBUTE 123 
 
 strike either of two rival towns, they were put upon their 
 mettle. The one which " secured the road " was to 
 rapidly become a great city, while that which was " left 
 out in the cold " was soon to be a " howling waste." In 
 like manner opposite sides of each town were put in active 
 competition for the coveted prize ; it being shown that 
 close to the depot would be the chosen place for all the 
 fine dry goods and fancy stores and the banks I Why, a 
 railroad craze is nearly as bad as a boom. 
 
 The road being built was operated for a year or two 
 without paying any dividends. The schemers did not 
 care to have the balance sheet make any showing of 
 profit. The farmers found the stock was poor property. 
 Then the men who were managing the deal watched for a 
 favorable opportunity, when stocks were low and business 
 dull, to buy up the out-lying stock at as low a price as 
 possible. If the game was large enough and the company 
 strong enough they brought to bear all the power at com 
 mand to depress the market and produce a condition 
 favorable for buying at a small price. They then improved 
 the property, perhaps made some new connecting line 
 which enhanced its value, and waiting for the right oppor- 
 tunity, re-organized, incorporating two or more lines in 
 the new company. They " capitalized it " that is placed 
 the total par value of the stock at as high a figure as 
 they thought it would bear, say fifty or one hundred or 
 two hundred per cent above the original cost. The stock 
 and bonds were sold to people who had money to invest 
 in such " railroad securities." The manipulators bought 
 in the stock at say fifty or forty or thirty cents on the 
 dollar of original cost, and they sold at one hundred and 
 fifty or two hundred or three hundred cents on the dollar. 
 
124 HIGH CAPITALIZINQ 
 
 And this is "profits of constructing and capitalizing." 
 And they take occasion to re-organize whenever suitable 
 opportunity offers. 
 
 Sometimes roads are capitalized at five times the orig- 
 inal cost. Mr. C. Wood Davis, in his excellent article 
 entitled " Should the Nation Own the Railways," in the 
 Arena for July and August, 18<91, states that the Kansas 
 Midland, costing but $10,200 per mile is capitalized at 
 $53,000, and that Mr. Gould has managed to float the 
 securities of the St. Louis and Iron Mountain Railway, 
 costing about $11,000 at $65,000 per mile. 
 
 It is in such ways that the railway " manipulator " is 
 able to pocket a sum equal to or greater than the entire 
 value of a railway line, in making one big deal. And by 
 such means they become multi-millionaires, money kings, 
 and financial rulers of the nation. Of course, it is all 
 wrong to speak of this, because Mr. Dillon says that " a 
 citizen, simply as a citizen, commits an impertinence 
 when he questions the right of a corporation to capitalize 
 its properties at any sum whatever." 
 
 The manipulators having made a " ten strike " in con- 
 structing and capitalizing at high values, endeavor to 
 make the roads pay dividends on the watered stock. If 
 the property is poor, the big operator, looking for a favor- 
 able opportunity, unloads his stock which is no longer a 
 source of revenue, and seeks new fields for investment and 
 profit. He turns off his lean stock at as good a price as 
 y )0ssible, and hunts some fat stock that can be bought low 
 and multiplied. 
 
 There are also in the ordinary field of the great opera- 
 tor other ways whereby he is able to take care of himself 
 before providing interest to bondholders or dividends on 
 
REASONS FOR NATIONAL OWNERSHIP OF RAILWAYS 125 
 
 stock. There are high salaries for the chief and his friends ; 
 big commissions to brokers and soliciting agents which 
 will bear a " divide ; " low rates of freight given to per- 
 sonal agents or friends and profits of the short rate 
 divided between the official and shipper, and other ways, 
 some of which will be considered 
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 
 FOUR REASONS FOR NATIONAL OWNERSHIP OF 
 RAILWAYS 
 
 Some of the many reasons why the nation should own 
 the railways ; the corrupting influences and practices 
 under our present system upon legislation and the action 
 of the courts ; the dangers to our financial and business 
 interests from the railway money power ; the many unjust 
 discriminations under present management : the savings 
 which can be made in many ways in managing and 
 operating the roads and the increased safety and security 
 to life and property which may be obtained by national 
 ownership, are enumerated under twenty-four heads, as 
 follows, in this and two following chapters. 
 
 1. The corrupting influences of present railway manage- 
 ment upon elections^ legislation and the courts. 
 
 Under this head we have the use of stocks, bonds, 
 money and passes to influence legislators, commissioners, 
 
126 CREDIT MOBILIER. ERIE MANAGEMENT 
 
 judges and jurymen. This has been done in state and 
 national legislation, and in cases in the courts where the 
 railway companies have sought to defeat the ends of jus- 
 tice. One of the best known cases is the notorious 
 '"' Credit-Mobilier " scandal, in which the stock of the 
 Union Pacific Railroad was used in Congress to secure 
 legislation favorable to the company in constructing and 
 obtaining subsidies and also to secure the acceptance of 
 sections of the road which were not built according to 
 the requirements of government. 
 
 Mr. F. B. Thurber, in an article entitled " The Railroads 
 and the People," in Scribner^s Magazine of December, 
 1880, gives instances in this line as follows : Mr. Jay 
 Grould, in giving his evidence before a committee of the 
 New York legislature, which was examining the affairs of 
 the Erie Railroad in 1873, stated as follows : 
 
 "I do not know how much I paid toward helping 
 friendly men. We had four states to look after, and we 
 had to suit our politics to circumstances. In a demo- 
 cratic district I was a democrat ; in a republican district 
 I was a republican, and in a doubtful district I was 
 doubtful ; but in every district and at all times I have 
 been an Erie man." 
 
 The committee stated in their report as follows : " It 
 is further in evidence that it has been the custom of the 
 managers of the Erie Railway, from year to year in the 
 past, to spend large sums to control elections and to 
 influence legislation. Mr. Gould admitted the payment 
 of large sums to influence legislation. The memory of 
 this witness was very defective as to details, and he could 
 only remember large transactions ; but could distinctly 
 recall that he had been in the habit of sending money 
 into the numerous districts all over the state, either to 
 control nominations or elections for senators and members 
 
JAY GOULD AS A FACTOR IN LEGISLATION 127 
 
 uf Assembly. He considered that, as a rule, such invest- 
 inents paid better than to wait till the men got to Albany, 
 and added the significant remark, when asked a question, 
 that ' it would be as impossible to specify the numerous 
 instances as it would to recall to mind the numerous 
 freight cars sent over the Erie road from day to day.' 
 It is not reasonable to suppose that the Erie railway has 
 been alone in the corrupt use of money for the purposes 
 named ; but the sudden revolution in the direction of this 
 company has laid bare a chapter in the secret history of 
 railroad management such as has not been permitted 
 before. It exposes the reckless and prodigal use of money 
 wrung from the people to purchase the election of the 
 people's representatives, and to bribe them when in 
 office." 
 
 Mr. James Parton stated in a lecture : " Men who 
 bribe and are bribed nowadays talk about the matter 
 without a blush. An officer of the New Jersey Legisla- 
 ture told me how the bribing was done, and how he did 
 it himself. The railroad man said to him, ' Come to my 
 room at eight o'clock this evening,' and when the farmer- 
 legislator got there the railroad man said : ' By the way, 
 Mr. Smith, you did not call upon us to subscribe toward 
 the expenses of your election. I know it must have cost 
 you a great deal, and, better late than never, here is 
 something toward it,' and the railroad man passed over a 
 pile of money much more than the farmer's election 
 expenses. ' I know^', added the corruptionist, by way of 
 casual remark, ' that you would not vote for any bill that 
 would not he good and honest, but there is a bill of ours 
 now before your house that, you will take my word for it, 
 is for the best interests of the community; examine it, 
 and if you conscientiously think so, too, of course you 
 will vote for it.'" 
 
 In 1880 the New York Board of Trade and Transporta- 
 tion published a report in which they most forcibly stated 
 the case as follows : 
 
128 OPINIONS OF NEW YORK CHAMBER OF COMMERCE 
 
 " Honestly and equitably managed railroads are 
 the most beneficent discovery of the century, but 
 perverted by irresponsible and uncontrolled corporate 
 management, in which stock-watering and kindred 
 swindles are tolerated, and favoritism in charges is per- 
 mitted, they become simply great engines to accomplish 
 unequal taxation, and to arbitrarily redistribute the wealth 
 of the country. When this state of things is sought to be 
 perpetuated by acquiring political -power and shaping legis- 
 lation through corrupt use of money, the situation grows more 
 serious^ 
 
 A committee of the New York Chamber of Commerce 
 made a report to that body in 1880 in which they used 
 language as follows : 
 
 " We cannot uphold a system of operating public high- 
 ways which is honey-combed with abuses and which is 
 controlled absolutely by a few individuals who tax pro- 
 duction and commerce at will, and who practically dictate 
 what reward the producer, manufacturer, and merchant 
 shall secure for his labor." 
 
 Messrs. Gould and Dillon now ask of Congress a farther 
 extension of the mortgage indebtedness of the Union and 
 Central Pacific roads, of which debts they propose to pay 
 no part, either principal or interest, but ask for an exten- 
 sion of a hundred years at a rate of one and one-half per 
 cent interest. It does not seem possible that any man in 
 Congress could labor for such a proposition with very 
 much zeal unless he were " influenced " to do so by some 
 potent incentive. 
 
 2. National ownership of railroads loould bring to an end 
 the power which the great railroad managers have over the 
 financial and business affairs of the country. They could no 
 longer wreck railways, plunder shareholders and precip- 
 itate financial disasters, 
 
rp:port of committee of united states senate 129 
 
 * " In 1874, the Senate of the United States, in response 
 to a general demand, appointed a special committee on 
 transportation, composed of Senators AVilliam Windom, 
 of Minnesota ; John Sherman, of Ohio ; RoscoeConkling, 
 of New York ; H. G. Davis, of West Virginia ; T. M. 
 Norwood, of Georgia ; J. W. Johnson, of Virginia ; John 
 H. Michell, of Oregon, and S. B. Conover, of Florida. 
 The committee occupied the entire summer of 1874 in 
 making an exhaustive examination of the subject, and in 
 their report we find the following : 
 
 " In the matter of taxation, there are to-day four men 
 representing the four great trunk lines between Chicago 
 and New York, who possess, and who not infrequently 
 exercise, powers which the Congress of the United States 
 would not venture-to exert. They may at any time, and 
 for any reason satisfactory to themselves, by a single 
 stroke of the pen, reduce the value of the property in this 
 country by hundreds of millions of dollars. An additional 
 charge of five cents per bushel on the transjDortation of 
 cereals would have been equivalent to a tax of forty-five 
 millions of dollars on the crop of 1873. No Congress 
 would dare to exercise so vast a power except upon a 
 necessity of the most imperative nature ; and yet these 
 gentlemen exercise it whenever it suits their supreme will 
 and pleasure, without explanation or apology. With the 
 rapid and inevitable progress of combination and consol- 
 idation, these colossal organizations are daily becoming 
 stronger and more imperious. The day is not distant, if it 
 has not already arrived, ivhen it loill he the duty of the 
 statesman to inquire whether there is less danger in leaving 
 the property and industrial interests of the people thus 
 wholly at the mercy of a few men, who recognize no respon- 
 sibility but to their stockholders, and no principle of action 
 
 This is copied from a valuable article, entitled "The Railroads and the 
 People" by F. B. Thurber, in Scribner's Magazine for December, 1880. (Tht 
 italics are the author '.) 
 
180 DANGEROUS POWER OF RAILWAY KINGS 
 
 but personal and corporate aggrandizement, thanin adding 
 somewhat to the power and patronage of a governwent 
 directly responsible to the people and entirely under their 
 control. Report f the United States Senate Committee 
 on Transportation Routes, page 158." 
 
 The dangerous power which could be wielded by a com- 
 bination of two or more unscrupulous railway kings, to 
 depress values and jeopardize the financial interests of the 
 country in order to get control of coveted properties, can 
 not be contemplated by any patriotic citizen without 
 fearing the most disastrous consequences. There are 
 times of depression in business, when we have short crops 
 and foreign nations have plenty and the balance of trade 
 is against us ; when we have had floods and frosts and 
 drouths ; when Chinch bugs and armj worms have 
 devoured ; when the farmer has little ready money and 
 the hum from the factory is silenced ; when the merchant's 
 goods remain useless on his shelves and when men feel 
 that but one more straw is needed to break the camel's 
 back. Then is the favored opportunity of the railroad 
 wrecker. In order to gain his selfish ends and add still more 
 to his illgotten and useless wealth, he stops at no calamity 
 which might befall the people as a result of his inordinate 
 greed. Though tens of thousands go supperless or home- 
 less or unsheltered from the storm, matters not to him. 
 
 3. National Ownership ivould stop the ^^pass^' evil. People 
 who rode on railways would all have to buy tickets. 
 There would be no " dead heads." The rich would have 
 to pay as well as the poor. Notwithstanding laws to the 
 contrary, it is estimated that fully ten percent of railway 
 travel goes without pay. Passes are given whenever it 
 seems to the interest of the companies, for the purpose of 
 
HIGH CAPITALIZING 131 
 
 influencing government officials who have any power to 
 favor the companies, to newspaper men, to railway men 
 and officials and their relatives and friends, to large 
 shippers, to those who seem to have political power and 
 influence, and often for no good purpose. 
 
 From whatever cause granted they are a tax upon the 
 roads which in the end must be paid by the people who 
 use the roads. 
 
 4. There ivould be no high capitalizing, and opportu- 
 nities for multi-millionaires to scoop in the wealth of the 
 people by millions in one big deal would not be so plen- 
 tiful as now. In no other way possible can the million- 
 aire amass wealth so rapidly as by this scheme of manip- 
 ulating railway securities. If the Goulds and Dillons 
 the " dangerous wealthy classes " are a danger and a 
 menace to the welfare and stability of popular govern- 
 ment and a drain upon the wealth of the people, (and 
 what well informed man does not know that they are,) 
 then here is the place, more than any other place, to begin 
 to buttress, to build breakwaters and seawalls to oppose 
 this dangerous power and protect the interests of the 
 American people. 
 
 Mr. Sidney Dillon, President of the Union Pacific 
 Railway, in his article on " The West and the Railroads " 
 in the North American Revieio for April, 1891, in which 
 he speaks at length of the advantages which the railways 
 have been to the country, goes on to say: 
 
 " Grave charges are made : as, for instance, that the 
 roads have in numerous instances been fraudulently over- 
 capitalized and excessively loaded with bonded debt ; 
 that they monopolize traffic ; that they charge unjust 
 rates of freight in order to pay dividends on fictitious 
 
132 SIDNEY DILLON ON CAPITALIZATION 
 
 values of stock ; that they favor one class of shippers at 
 the expense of another class ; that they permit the 
 accumulation of unreasonably large fortunes, and, to use 
 a favorite phrase of demagogic orators, constantly ' tend 
 to make the rich richer and the poor poorer.' 
 
 " Legislation has been called in to give force to the 
 theories involved in these declarations, particularly in 
 the states west of the Mississippi, which happen to be 
 the communities that owe their birth, existence, and 
 prosperity to these very railways. Statutory enact- 
 ments interfere with the business of the railway, 
 even to the minute details, and always to its detriment. 
 This sort of legislation proceeds on the theory that the 
 railroad is a public enemy ; that it has its origin in the 
 selfish desire of a company of men to make money out of 
 the public ; that it will destroy the public unless it 
 is kept within bounds ; and that it is impossible to 
 enact too many laws tending to restrain the monster. 
 The advocates of these statutes may not state their 
 theory in these exact words ; but these words certainly 
 embody their theory, if they have any theory at all beyond 
 such prejudices as are born of the marriage between ignor- 
 ance and demagogism. 
 
 " Many of the grievances that are urged against rail- 
 ways are too puerile to be seriously noticed, but the 
 reader will pardon a few words as to 'over-capitalization.' 
 Now it is impossible to estimate in advance the product- 
 ive power of this useful and untiring servant. Sometimes 
 a railway is capitalized too largely and then it pays 
 smaller dividends ; sometimes not largely enough, and 
 then the dividends are much in excess of the usual interest 
 of money.'' 
 
 (That is to say, that the aim is to capitalize them at 
 such a figure that the stock will pay only a fair interest 
 on the investment. If capitalized at actual cost the 
 present charges would show too large gains. Appearances 
 must be considered. Author.) 
 
MR. DILLON ON THE RIGHT OF FREE SPEECH 133 
 
 " In the former case stockholders are willing to reduce 
 the face of their shares, or wait until increase of popula- 
 tion increases revenue ; in the latter they accept an 
 enlarged issue. But, as a matter of reason and principle, 
 the question of capitalization concerns the stockholders 
 and the stockholders only. A citizen, simply as a citizen, 
 commits an impertinence when he questions the right of any 
 corporation to capitalize its properties at any sum whatever. 
 That any railway anyivhere in a republic , should be a mon 
 opoly, is not a supposahle case" 
 
 CHAPTER XXI 
 
 FIFTEEN REASONS FOR NATIONAL OWNERSHIP 
 OF RAIL WA YS. 
 
 5. Government Oivnership would stop unjust discrimin- 
 ations, by the use of which, like the pass evil, one class 
 of people or one locality is favored at the expense of 
 others. There are many ways of discriminating, some of 
 which will be considered in another place. The most 
 common discrimination is against points where there is 
 no opportunity for competition, shippers being charged 
 higher rates at such points than over the same roads for 
 longer distances where there is a competing line. This is 
 one of the most common complaints against the roads. 
 To endeavor to remedy such evils as this we have state 
 legislation, the interstate commerce law of congress, and 
 state and national commissions. But all such efforts are, 
 in the main, futile. These laws are constantly evaded in 
 one way and another, and without national ownership of 
 the roads this evil will continue. 
 
134 REBATES TO STANDARD OIL COMPANY 
 
 "The testimony in the Pennsylvania investigation 
 showed that the trunk lines of railroads paid in rebates 
 to the Standard Oil Company, within the period of eighteen 
 months $10,151,218. In a report to the New York Chamber 
 of Commerce, the Committee on Railroad Transportation 
 of that body alludes to this subject as follows : 
 
 " How oblivious of their obligations as common carriers, 
 and how regardless of public rights, are the great trunk 
 lines, is illustrated by their making an agreement with 
 the Standard Oil Company (Article 4) to protect them 
 ' against loss or injury from competition.' What has 
 happened in the case of the Standard Oil Company may 
 happen in other lines of business. With the favor of the 
 managers of the trunk lines, what is to prevent commerce 
 in the rest of the great staples from being monopolized 
 in a similar manner ? Already, indeed, it is taking this 
 course. One or two firms in Baltimore, Philadelphia, 
 New York and Boston, with their branch houses in the 
 W^est, are, by the favor of the railroads, fast monopolizing 
 the export trade in wheat, corn, cattle, and provisions, 
 driving their competitors to the wall with absolute cer- 
 tainty, breaking down and crushing out the energy and 
 enterprise of the many for the benefit of the favored few."* 
 
 We now come to consider some of the savings which 
 might be effected by national ownership in the ordinary 
 operating expenses of the roads. 
 
 6. Most of the cost of advertising would he saved. A 
 large amount of money is constantly being expended by 
 the various companies in advertising the advantages of 
 their lines. This is done in newspapers and periodicals, 
 and by books, pamphlets, circulars, maps, chromos, etc. 
 All of these expenses except such as is necessary in 
 advertising the running of trains, probably ninety per 
 
 (From article of Mr. F. B. Thurber, in Smftner's of December, 1880.) 
 
COST OF SOLICITORS TRAFFIC ASSOCIATIONS 135 
 
 cent of the whole amount, would be unnecessary under 
 national ownership. There would be no more occasion 
 for advertising any advantage of particular lines of rail- 
 way, than there now is of advertising the advantages of 
 any particular mail route by the government. Traffic 
 and travel would then seek the shortest or most conve- 
 nient route, without expending large sums of money in 
 trying to send it some other way. 
 
 7. The entire cost of soliciting traffic and travel would 
 he saved. Each company now employs soliciting agents, 
 gives commissions to the local agents of other roads for 
 sale of tickets, pays commissions to brokers for securing 
 freights, maintains expensive special ticket and freight 
 offices off its lines, and in many other ways spends money 
 to secure business. This would all be saved and would 
 mean cheaper railroad rates. 
 
 8. It would relieve the railroad business of the burden of 
 the sixty-eight Traffic Associations. This institution is 
 the " Combine " and regulator between several companies. 
 They employ a high-priced manager with a full corps of 
 assistants, and they require a central location in a large 
 city with commodious and well appointed offices. The 
 manager is the umpire who regulates the proportion and 
 direction of traffic going over the different lines. It is a 
 combine to keep up rates, to send the farmer's products over 
 the longest lines, to get as much money as possible out of 
 the public, and to endeavor to fairly distribute the spoils 
 between the combining companies. 
 
 9. All legal expenses would be saved. Under this head 
 are salaries of attorneys and their assistants, and sums 
 paid to legislators, judges and other officials to " influence" 
 legislation and corrupt the sources of justice. The ablest 
 
136 SAVING IN LEGAL EXPENSES 
 
 attorneys are employed, and higher salaries paid than are 
 received by any judges upon the bench. They also have 
 use for a company of lobbyists, bribers and attorneys and 
 others "to do the dirty work." The companies have 
 many uses for able attorneys ; to secure nominations by 
 the political parties of men who are favorable to the rail- 
 way interests and to work for their election ; to have an 
 oversight of legislation ; to secure the passage or repeal of 
 laws in the railway interest ; to assist judges and com- 
 missioners in properly " construing " laws which they 
 cannot otherwise abrogate ; to see that the interests of 
 the corporation are not infringed upon by other com- 
 panies ; to make the most of the " law's delays " and to 
 make all the use possible of the many tricks and devices 
 which may be resorted to to wear out the patience and 
 exhaust the resources of those who have the hardihood to 
 contend with one of these giant corporations. They have 
 political influence ; they have long purses ; they are fully 
 armed and equipped for any legal contest ; they never 
 get tired, never grow old, never die, never lose their 
 grip, and they are in business for what is in it for them- 
 selves. 
 
 It is true, that under present conditions there is a 
 legitimate use for railway attorneys, but in the main the 
 money expended under the head of " legal expenses " 
 and what Mr. Gould called the " India rubber account," is 
 used to corrupt the fountains and defeat the ends of 
 justice. The Australian railways, which are built, owned 
 and managed by the state, are operated directly in the 
 interests of the people and without the expenditure of a 
 single dollar for legal expenses. 
 
 During the war the national government, under the sys- 
 
SAVING IN COST OF OFFICIALS 137 
 
 tern of war taxes, collected from the New York Central 
 Railroad company a half million dollars. The company 
 claimed that the tax was not authorized and employed 
 Mr. Roscoe Conkling to bring suit to compel the govern- 
 ment to refund the money. Mr. Conkling was at that 
 time United States Senator, and political boss of the 
 republican party of the State of New' York, and he 
 appeared as counsel for the company in the court at 
 Canandaugua to try the case, opposed by a District Attor- 
 ney who was counsel for the government and before a 
 judge who made the charge to the jury, both of whom 
 owed their official existence to Mr. Conkling. The com- 
 pany recovered the half million dollars. 
 
 10. It would save about ninety-jive per cent of the present 
 cost of high salaried officials and expensive offices. There 
 are about five hundred railway companies, each of which 
 has its president, vice-president, general manager, general 
 freight agent, general passenger agent, auditor, treasurer, 
 and other officials, with assistants, and a full corps of 
 secretaries, clerks, book-keepers, etc. And this calls for 
 expensive general headquarters, which are often off the 
 main line in some large city, and so placed as to assist 
 in advertising the road and where proper attention can be 
 given to exercising an influence on the value of stocks, 
 either in raising or depressing them. The total of this vast 
 expenditure of money is a very large sum compared with 
 what it would cost to oversee the operating of the roads 
 under economic national ownership. 
 
 11. It would save a large expenditure in hooJc-heeping. 
 There are accounts of freights and fares sent over different 
 lines on pro rata charges which must be credited up to 
 the separate roads, accounts of all the officials and com- 
 
138 FEWEK OFFICES UNIFORM RATES 
 
 plex machinery of management under the present system, 
 none of which would be required under national owner- 
 ship. 
 
 12. There would be a large reduction in local offices and 
 officials. Now each company has its local ticket and 
 freight office, its yards and switches, with the necessary 
 complement of officers and men at each station. Under 
 national ownership, all trains would run to central depots 
 and in most cities but one complement of offices and 
 officials and yards would be required. The railway 
 business would be simplified just as the mail business is 
 now. And there would be no hack transfers from one 
 depot to another to vex the tired traveler. 
 
 13. It woidd give us uniform rates, on all lines and 
 everywhere, instead of the vexatious, irregular, uncertain, 
 discriminating rates of freights and fares under present 
 management. 
 
 14. It would give us a reduction of freight rates and 
 fares to a legitimate business basis. This would be made 
 possible by cutting off the many leaks caused by extra- 
 vagance, jobbery, loss and waste under the present system, 
 and by giving to the people a large part of the stealings 
 and profits which now go to the railway officials or to 
 the shareholders. Passenger fares on the Austrian rail- 
 ways are about forty per cent of what they are with us. 
 Where the Hungarian railways formerly carried two 
 passengers at one and a half cents per mile, they now 
 carry five at three-fourths of a cent per mile. They have 
 uniform rates under what they term the " zone system," 
 which makes a unit rate for every te. .niles or fraction of 
 ten. The large reduction in rates which would be made 
 possible by national ownership would be a vast saving 
 
PROF. HADLEY ON RAILWAY RATES 139 
 
 to the people of this country, and travel would be greatly 
 increased. There are no exceptions to a rule of this kind 
 that use increases as price decreases. Under national 
 management when properly organized we may reasonably 
 expect a reduction of fifty per cent in the cost of trans- 
 portation. 
 
 Prof. Arthur L. Hadley in his article in the Forum for 
 April, 1891, on " Railway Passenger Rates," in which he 
 argues that we already have good and cheap passenger 
 service and that rates can not be much reduced without 
 working a hardship to the companies, says : "The assump- 
 tion so frequently made, that a reduction in rates would 
 cause an enormous increase in travel in this country, is 
 for the most part a pure assumption, not borne out by 
 the facts." That is poor special pleading. That a reduc- 
 tion in the cost of anything which the people need and 
 can not well afford to buy, is followed by a corresponding 
 increase in the amount used, is a fact so well known that 
 it is useless for anyone to deny it. And the use of such 
 an argument in trying to defend the present monopolies 
 shows the dearth of reasons for maintaining the present 
 plundering and wasteful railway regime. 
 
 15. There would he a large saving in the cost of our 
 mail service. The nation now pays the railway corpora- 
 tions large sums for transporting the mails, and with the 
 railways owned by the government the people would gain 
 what profits there is to the companies in this trans- 
 portation. 
 
 16. It would absorb the express business. The nation 
 now does a parcel delivery business in connection with 
 the mail service, which is very much cheaper, for articles 
 which may be admitted in the mails, than express 
 
140 THE EXPRESS MONOPOLY WOULD END 
 
 charges. The government could readily undertake to do 
 all kinds of express business as a part of the postal sys- 
 tem and to do it with celerity and security, and vastly 
 cheaper than it is now done by express. 
 
 The express business is a vast monopoly added to the 
 railway monopoly. The express companies pay the rail- 
 way companies a profit on the cost of hauling express 
 cars and then make immense profits out of their business. 
 The United States Express Company, the Adams Express 
 Company and Wells, Fargo & Co. are cormorants whose 
 heads would be cut off by national ownership of the rail- 
 ways. 
 
 17. There would no longer he a scarcity of cars to do 
 the business of the country. There are railways which 
 have been wrecked or plundered by the managers, which 
 are very poorly equipped, and others where high salaries 
 and good dividends to shareholders have been paid at the 
 expense of providing a proper supply of rolling stock. 
 Again, when cars are scarce it gives an excuse to officials 
 to favor their own business agents, or shippers with whom 
 they are interested, being short when others need cars. 
 And a great saving would be effected in this connection 
 by using cars on lines where for the time or season 
 there was the most business, as in handling the wheat, 
 corn, cattle, hogs, oranges, etc., at times when those 
 commodities needed to be moved, and when on other 
 lines there was not as much demand for cars. 
 
 18. It would save the expense of useless parallel lines. 
 In many cases roads have been built for considerable 
 distances paralelling other lines. Each company must 
 have its complete through line, and so we have thousands 
 of miles of railways running through the same territory 
 
ECONOMY OF SHORT ROUTES 141 
 
 and competing for the same trade. The constructing and 
 operating of these roads has been an added expense to the 
 cost of transport. While localities have been benefited 
 by such competition, in the end the cost comes out of the 
 people. The nation would not need some of these lines 
 unless to form double track routes. 
 
 19. Traffic would go hy the shortest route. Now pass- 
 engers and freight are often sent by a round-about way, 
 either to secure business by competing roads or under the 
 regulation of traffic associations. This shows that if one 
 line can afford to haul a car of freight 800 miles for a 
 certain price, the line which gets the same money for 
 hauling the same freight but 600 miles is making an 
 exorbitant charge. Also in the same line there are 
 unnecessary long hauls dictated by companies to whose 
 interest it is to haul as far as possible over their own 
 lines, or by traffic managers to secure as much business 
 as possible for their associations. 
 
CHAPTER XXII 
 
 FIVE REASONS FOR NATIONAL OWNERSHIP OF 
 RAIL WA YS 
 
 20. There would he more safeguards for the security of 
 life and property, more guards at street crossings, more 
 interlocking plants at crossings of railway lines, better 
 appliances for heating and lighting, and in short more 
 consideration for the health, comfort and convenience of 
 the traveling public. Because the roads would be run 
 for the benefit of the people, and their interest would be 
 paramount to all others. These facts are demonstrated 
 by experience in the Australian railways, which are 
 managed by the government, where there is a much less 
 proportion of casualties than in the United States. 
 
 21. Besides the more common or better known ways 
 and schemes of the railway corporations or their managers 
 for gaining power and wealth, there are other fields 
 which they enter, and other lines of business in which 
 they engage. Wherever the railway takes up a line of 
 business those with whom they compete may as well 
 give it up at once, for they will find it a losing game. 
 Nobody can compete with a railway corporation while it 
 uses its power to build up its own business by destroying 
 that of its rivals. In these outside lines of business the 
 companies often become very oppressive and aggravating. 
 
 Sometimes the companies carry on these added lines of 
 
 142 
 
RAILWAYS MONOPOLIZE THE COAL TRADE 143 
 
 business directly, but more commonly under some other 
 firm or corporate name. Often officials of the companies 
 undertake outside lines of business, either employing 
 agents, or sharing profits with some man or firm already 
 in business, or organizing companies for the purpose. 
 Here are some of the kinds of business in which they 
 engage : they build towns and cities, using lands that are 
 given them or buying lands for the purpose, and using 
 the power of the company to build them up by discrim- 
 inating against other localities so as to throw as much 
 business as possible to the new town. This comes in as a 
 part of the profits of the railway construction, and large 
 sums are made in this way. 
 
 22. They buy coal fields and to a large extent monopolize 
 the coal trade. Most of the valuable coal fields of the 
 country are owned by the railways or railway officials. 
 Their exactions from consumers of coal, and their dis- 
 criminations against other mine owners and shippers, 
 have often been very oppressive and burdensome. Mr. 
 C. Wood Davis, in his excellent article in the Arena for 
 July and August, 1891, gives instances of this as follows : 
 
 *' Under corporate control, railways and their officials 
 have taken possession of the majority of the mines which 
 furnish the fuel so necessary to domestic and industrial 
 life, and there are but few coal fields where they do not 
 fix the price at which so essential an article shall be sold, 
 and the whole nation is thus forced to pay undue tribute. 
 
 '' Controlling rates and the distribution of cars, rail- 
 way officials have driven nearly all the mine owners who 
 have not railways or railway officials for partners, to the 
 wall. For instance in Eastern Kansas, on the line of the 
 St. Louis and San Francisco Railway Company, were two 
 coal companies, whose plants were of about equal capacity, 
 and several individual shippers. The railway company 
 
144 EXAMPLES OF OUTRAGEOUS DISCRIMINATIONS 
 
 and its officials became interested in one of the coal com- 
 panies, and such company was, by the rebate and other 
 processes, given rates which averaged but forty per cent 
 of the rates charged other shippers, the result being that 
 all the other shippers were driven out of the business, a 
 part of them being hopelessly ruined before giving up the 
 struggle. In addition to gross discriminations in rates 
 this railway company practised worse discriminations in 
 the distribution of cars ; for instance, during one period 
 of five hundred and sixty-four days, as was proven in 
 court, they delivered to the Pittsburg Coal Company, 
 2,371 empty cars to be loaded with coal, although such 
 company had sale for, and capacity to produce and load, 
 during the same period, more than 15,000 cars. During 
 the same time this railway company delivered to the 
 Rogers Coal Company, in which the railway company 
 and C. W. Rogers, its vice-president and general man- 
 ager, were interested, no less than 15,483 coal cars, while 
 456 were delivered to individual shippers. In other 
 words, the coal company owned in large part by the 
 railway and its officials was given eighty-two per cent of 
 all the facilities to get coal to market, although the 
 other shippers had much greater combined capacity than 
 had the Rogers Coal Company. 
 
 " During the last four months of the period named, 
 and when the Pittsburg Coal Company had the plant, 
 force, and capacity to load thirty cars per day, they 
 received an average of one and a fourth cars per day, 
 resulting, as was intended, in the utter ruin of a pros- 
 perous business and the involuntary sale of the property, 
 while the railway coal company, the railway officials, and 
 the accommodating friends who operated the Rogers Coal 
 Company, made vast sums of money ; and when all the 
 other shippers had thus been driven off the line the price 
 of coal was advanced to the consumer. 
 
 " On another railway, traversing the same coal-field, 
 the railway or its officials became interested in the Keith 
 and Perry Coal Company the largest coal company 
 
J..SJ "~ 
 
 RAILWAYS OPPRESSING COAL COMPANIES J^^. ::=r=- 
 
 doing business on the line and here the plan seems to 
 have been in addition to the manipulation of rates, to 
 starve other mine operators out, and force them to sell 
 their coal to the Keith and Perry Company, by failing to 
 furnish the needed cars to those who did not sell their 
 coal to the Keith and Perry Company at a very low 
 price. 
 
 " When the Keith and Perry Company had a great 
 demand for coal, such parties as sold the product of their 
 mines to that company were furnished with cars, but for 
 the other operators cars were not to be had, such cars as 
 were brought to the field being assigned to such parties as 
 were loading to the Keith and Perry Company, because 
 that company furnished the coal consumed by the loco- 
 motives of the railway. 
 
 " One operator, after being for years forced in this way 
 to sell his product to the Keith and Perry Company, or 
 see his several plants stand idle, has, in recent months, 
 been obliged to build some seven miles of railway in 
 order to reach four different roads, and thus have a fight- 
 ing chance for cars, although all these railways were 
 provided with coal mines owned by the corporations or 
 their officials. 
 
 " In Arkansas, Jay Gould, or his railway company, 
 own coal mines, and the coal is transported to the 
 neighboring town at low rates, and there is an ample 
 supply of cars for such mines ; but the owners of an 
 adjoining mine are forced to haul their coal some eighteen 
 miles to the same town in wagons, as the rates charged 
 them over Mr. Gould's railway are so high as to absorb 
 the value of the coal at destination. 
 
 " The Colorado Coal and Iron Company produce all the 
 anthracite coal sold in Colorado. It is mined at Crested 
 Butte, which is 150 miles nearer Leadville than Denver, 
 yet this coal is sold in Leadville for $9.00 to the individual 
 consumer, while the same coal is hauled 150 miles farther, 
 and sold to the individual consumer for an advance of 
 but twenty-five cents per ton over the Leadville price. 
 
146 RAILWAY go's AS LUMBER DEALERS AND SHIPPERS 
 
 23. Railroad companies also secure timber lands, erect saw 
 mills and do a large lumber business. And also Tinite with 
 some of the " protected " lumber producers in the exaction 
 of exorbitant prices for lumber. 
 
 24. They employ agents or become interested with men- 
 engaged in business and become shippers over their own 
 lines, in this way handling grain, livestock or other com- 
 modities. This forms a wide field for their operations, 
 especially for unscrupulous railway managers, who, by 
 giving their agents especial advantages in lower rates or 
 rebates, and a better supply of cars, make their road a 
 hard one for competing shippers to use and enable them 
 to use the railroad power to enrich themselves. 
 
 '' The only answer thus far made by the apologists for 
 these practices has been to denounce those who opposed 
 them as ' communists ' or ^ socialists.' So bare of facts 
 and so hard pushed for arguments favorable to their case 
 are they, that Messrs. Vanderbilt and Jewett must fairi 
 adopt this policy, and conjure up the phantom of social- 
 ism to shield their practices 1 In their joint letter to the 
 Hepbarn Committee they suggest that the staid and con- 
 servative merchants of the ISew York Chamber of Com- 
 merce are fast tending in that direction, their words 
 being : 
 
 " The growth of a disregard of property in this country 
 is very marked, and railroad corporations offer favorable 
 forms of attack. The encouragement by such a body as 
 the Chamber of Commerce to such ideas will not stop at 
 railroad corporations, but will reach all kinds of asso- 
 ciated capital, and will not stop before it reaches all 
 property. This growing tendency to socialistic principles 
 is one of the dangerous signs of the times, and, if not 
 checked, will produce scenes of disaster that would appall 
 the country. 
 
 ^' Some months after this, when the Legislative com- 
 
OPINIONS OF NEW YORK CHAMBER OF COMMERCE 147 
 
 mittee had pronounced the principal charges made by 
 the Chamber of Commerce ' fully proven,' the committee 
 of that body having the matter in charge alluded to this 
 subject, in their report to the Chamber, as follows : 
 
 " ' Your committee beg that the members of the Cham- 
 ber of Commerce, will carefully compare these utterances 
 of Messrs. Vanderbilt and Jewett with the findings of the 
 Legislative committee. The assertion that the action of 
 this Chamber tends to the encouragement of socialistic 
 or communistic principles, is on a parity with much of 
 the other reasoning of the presidents of the great trunk 
 lines. They seem to be entirely oblivious of the fact that 
 it is their disregard of public rights, and not the efforts 
 which this Chamber has made to compel their observation, 
 which is chiefly responsible for the growth of commun- 
 istic sentiment in this state. If railroads were not public 
 highways, upon which all shippers, as well as passengers, 
 are entitled to equal rights ; if the discovery of steam, and 
 its application to the purposes of transportation, and all its 
 attendant benefits, could be esteemed alone the private prop- 
 erty of these gentlemen, then the argument of Messrs. Van- 
 derbilt and Jewett might be considered valid, and the efforts 
 of our committee seditious, socialistic, and worthy of con- 
 demnation. 
 
 " It is hardly necessary to say that your committee 
 have no sympathy with socialists or communists who 
 want something for nothing ; this class of persons might 
 perhaps find fault with your committee for being capital- 
 ists ; but, on the other hand, we can not uphold a system 
 of operating public highways ' which is honey-combed 
 with abuses, and which is controlled absolutely by a few 
 individuals who tax production and commerce at will, 
 and who practically dictate what reward the producer, 
 manufacturer, and merchant shall receive for his labor.'' 
 (From article of Mr. Thurber in Scribner of December, 
 1880.) 
 
 The big railway corporation is many sided. It is 
 
148 ANNUAL LOSS FKOM PRESENT RAILWAY SYSTEM 
 
 always reaching out for other fields from which to gather 
 a harvest. Its mills are big and it exacts heavy tolls. It 
 is insatiable. It has a powerful grasp and wonderful 
 capacity for the absorption of wealth. 
 
 It is difficult to estimate the annual loss to the nation 
 and the people from the present railway management. 
 We know that there is a large number of railway mil- 
 lionaires with wealth ranging from $5,000,000 to $100- 
 000,000, and that this wealth has been mostly accumulated 
 in the past twenty to thirty years, and it is still rapidly 
 increasing. We know that there is a vast amount annu- 
 ally wasted by present methods. Mr. Davis estimates 
 the amount that could be saved under national owner- 
 ship by correcting and simplifying the management to be 
 about $160,000,000 a year. But this takes into account 
 only the saving of present expense which would be 
 unnecessary under the national ownership. It does not 
 include the loss to the people from discriminations, exor- 
 bitant charges, profits of construction and over-capital- 
 izing, exactions on account of coal and lumber and 
 shipping, and other sources of profit to the railway man- 
 agers or loss and waste to the people. 
 
 We may fairly assume that the amount of wealth annually 
 lost to the people, and which either goes to the railway cajj- 
 italists and railway men, or to loss and wastejis about f500- 
 000)000 and jperhaps much more. 
 
CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 MH. C. p. HUNTINGTON ON RAILWAY CONSOLIDATION 
 
 Mr. C. P. Huntington, President of the Union Pacific 
 Railway Company, in his article entitled " A plea for 
 Railway Consolidation," in the North American Review 
 for September, 1891, has given such excellent arguments 
 for national ownership of the railways that I make 
 an extended extract from it. Do not understand 
 that he advocates national ownership, but his argument 
 fits our case admirably. He says : (The italics are the 
 author's.) 
 
 " What possible remedy is there for such a state of 
 things except joint ownership ? As a simple business 
 proposition it seems to me unanswerable, for, by its 
 application, it can be readily seen that much of the expense 
 of maintaining separate organization and separate offices 
 loill he cut off and a great multitude of agents and agencies 
 'will he dispensed with. On the side of the people quite as 
 much good will be the outcome. The complaint of charg- 
 ing more for a short than a long haul, which comes from 
 the shipper located between instead of at the important 
 centers, will cease to be heard, because the pernicious system 
 of giving rebates and commissions, or whatever they may 
 be called, that cost the road so much money and really do 
 their patrons as a whole, so much harm, will no longer he 
 practised^ the excuse or necessity therefor no longer 
 existing. 
 
 '' While the uniting of small roads has been productive 
 of great benefits to the owners and to the public who use 
 them, yet / am 6atisfied that the best results will not be 
 
 149 
 
150 C. p. HUNTINGTON ON RAILWAY CONSOLIDATION 
 
 reached until suhstantially all the transportation business of 
 this country is done by one company. The accomplishment 
 of this would reduce the cost of transportation to the mini- 
 mum ivhich would admit of the lowest possible rates to 
 shippers and passengers^' (That is correct, but we, the 
 people, must see that the whole transportation question 
 is put under a control which will not only '^ admit of the 
 lowest possible rates, but which will secure and insure 
 tliem to us and to our posterity. Author.) " There would 
 be no longer any necessity of charging more for a short 
 than a long haul, except where water competition existed 
 as the crossing of railroads at various points would have 
 no further effect upon the rate schedules. 
 
 " The raising of rates at non-competing points is one of 
 the things done by railroads which it is hard to explain 
 to the satisfaction of those who buy transportation ; but 
 it will continue to be done as long as railroads are con- 
 trolled by scattered interests, and neither arguments nor 
 laws will entirely prevent it. If, on the contrary, all the 
 railroads of the country were held in joint ownership, 
 they would need much less rolling stock than is now required, 
 as the great staple crops of the country are moved at 
 different seasons of the year, and cars and locomotives 
 could be transferred from one section to another as needed, 
 thus saving a large~ amount of capital which otherwise, 
 for a considerable portion of the year, would be idle. 
 
 '' There is another feature of this question, that is per- 
 haps hardly taken into account in the public mind, because 
 its bearing upon it appears, at first glance, to be remote ; 
 but we are dealing with a problem of the future, and the 
 time is coming when its close relation to it will be appre- 
 ciated. The existence of an undoubted security for 
 institutions and for the great mass of conservative 
 investors of limited means, who demand above all other 
 qualifications a security that shall be safe, and who rely 
 upon their investments for the incomes which are to sup- 
 port themselves and their families, is soon to become a 
 
C. p. HUIsTINGTON ON RAILWAY CONSOLIDATION 151 
 
 necessity in America. Our government bonds are con- 
 stantly being called in and cancelled, whilst the surplus 
 capital of the country is continually increasing. Unless 
 a stable and safe security for the multitude is forthcoming, 
 it does not need the astuteness of a financier to compre- 
 hend the possible situation of the future when the investor 
 who seeks an assured income from his savings will have 
 to place his reliance upon the wisdom of his own selection 
 among a list of many hundreds of railway stocks and 
 bonds, subject to all the serious fluctuations that follow in 
 the wake of selfish ccm.peiition and inefficient management. 
 
 " The writer has never regarded the existence of a large 
 national debt as an evil in a prosperous and growing 
 country like the United States, whose obligations do not 
 affect the credit of the government and are not significant 
 of any financial embarassment ; but our people have 
 decided otherwise, perhaps not unwisely ; nevertheless 
 there must be a substitute for the people to invest their 
 savings in a security that shall possess the confidence of 
 the entire public. What shall it be ? It seems to the 
 writer that nothing will be safer than shares or bonds of 
 the united railroads of this country, and few, if any, 
 other securities will be so easy to negotiate or raise money 
 on. If this is true, why should not a very large number of 
 the people who use these roads invest their money in 
 such an organization, and thus become, to a large extent, 
 the owners and controllers of the railroads that they use? " 
 (The people would have very little to say about the con- 
 trol with the controlling interest in the hands of the 
 present managers, but, with the control in the govern- 
 ment their voice would be the end of the law. The 
 above argument for the necessity of a safe security in 
 which the people may invest their savings is an additional 
 argument for national ownership, for no security is safer 
 than United States bonds. Author.) 
 
 " All are interested in having the enormous tonnage of 
 
152 C. p. HUNTINGTON ON RAILWAY CONSOLIDATION 
 
 food gathered and distributed at the lowest possible cost. 
 It can not be done by little fragmentary companies, for 
 they cannot practice the economies of wealth, as their 
 poor road-beds, crippled rolling stock, and lean manage- 
 ment will testify. What is wanted is not more than two 
 or three and one would be better great carrying com- 
 panies, with their steel tracks and road-beds as nearly 
 perfect as they can be, with all their machinery of the 
 best quality, with their capacious warehouses at inter- 
 mediate points and their almost unlimited terminal facil- 
 ities. (Note that about the big warehouses. The big com- 
 bine would do the entire shipping business of the country. 
 It would handle by its own agents every product of field, 
 forest, mill and mine. Author.) With the best talent 
 in the country to manage and control such an organization 
 many millions could be saved to those who use the railroads 
 of this country, and millions also to those who own them 
 over what is now being received by the fragmentary, badly 
 equipped and inefficiently managed roads that, with but few 
 exceptions, now exist. 
 
 " To be sure there are demagogues who cry ' Monopoly ! ' 
 and assert that the great corporations are about to over- 
 ride the liberties of the people ; but solicitude fof the 
 people is not the real reason of their outcry. It is because 
 they hope to climb upon the noise they make into higher 
 places, and into seats that they are not worthy of and 
 have not the ability to fill." 
 
CHAPTKR XXIV 
 THE TELEGRAPH 
 
 The people of the United States are much behind those 
 of most other countries in allowing the great railway 
 highways to be controlled by private corporations, but 
 we are jar behind the age in still leaving the telegraph, 
 which is properly a part of the mail service, in the con- 
 trol of a greedy monopoly. The United States is the only 
 enlightened nation of any importance on the Globe in which 
 the telegraph is not under government control. 
 
 The charge for telegraphic service in the United States 
 is so exorbitant that people of moderate means usually 
 do not resort to its use except in cases of great emergency ; 
 and the cost of press dispatches is so heavy that only 
 leading city dailies can afford to pay for them. The 
 telegraph service costs much more here than in other 
 countries, and we do not reap the benefit from this great 
 means of diffusing knowledge throughout the country 
 that we should do. The telegraph should go wherever 
 the mails go, and the price of a telegram should be so low 
 that the humblest citizen might avail himself of its 
 advantages. And the cost of press dispatches should be 
 brought within the reach of the thousands of smaller 
 dailies in country towns which now can not afford them. 
 Indeed the very existence of a daily press often depends 
 upon its ability to obtain press dispatches, and if these 
 
 153 
 
154 STATE OWNERSHIP OF THE TELEGRAPH IN ENGLAND 
 
 were furnished at as low prices as they are in most other 
 countries, the price of daily papers could be brought 
 within the reach of thousands who now cannot afford to 
 take them. 
 
 The people of the United States should no longer per- 
 mit this great institution for the transmission of intelli- 
 gence and the diffusion of knowledge, to be used as a 
 means for diverting a stream of wealth from the people's 
 necessities to a millionaire's pocket, or to fall so far short 
 of being to the fullest extent a means for disseminating 
 knowledge among the common people. 
 
 The mail service is extended to the remotest points in 
 the nation, and with the telegraph under government 
 management, it would be extended to most points where 
 mail is now delivered. 
 
 In England the telegraph has been owned and man- 
 aged by the government for over twenty years. The 
 telegraph service is a part of the mail service. The 
 service has been largely extended, the cost of messages 
 much reduced, and the number increased about one 
 thousand per cent. Mr. W. H. Preece, F. R. S., Vice- 
 President of the Society of Arts of London, read a paper 
 before the Society in May, 1887, entitled " Fifty Years 
 Progress in Telegraphy," in which he speaks of the 
 results of government ownership of the telegraph lines 
 in the United Kingdom as follows : 
 
 " One of the great objections raised against the absorp- 
 tion of the telegraph by the state was the difficulty which 
 the government would have in transmitting news. In 
 no country is there now such a complete system of 
 telegraphy for news purposes as there is in the United 
 Kingdom. Whenever any great political event arises, 
 such as the delivery of a great speech, all the important 
 
COST OF TELEGRAMS IN ENGLAND 155 
 
 towns throughout the kingdom receive simultaneously a 
 Tcrhatim report of the speech. There is not a town in 
 the country where a daily paper is printed which is not 
 placed after 6 p. M.,in direct communication with London 
 and where there is not deposited on every subscriber's 
 breakfast table a nearly verbatim report of the previous 
 night's debate in Parliament. 
 
 " It is amusing after this length of time, to read the 
 arguments that were adduced against the absorption of the 
 telegraphs by the state. Every reason has been proved 
 wrong, every prophecy has remained unfulfilled. I can 
 say this with a good grace for I was one of the prophets. 
 
 "The advantages of a state controlled telegraph system 
 have been amply shown. There has been established a 
 cheaper, more widely extended, and more expeditious 
 system of telegraphy ; the wires have been erected in 
 districts that private companies could not reach ; the cost 
 of telegrams has been reduced, not only in their trans- 
 mission but in their delivery ; the number of offices 
 opened has been trebled ; a provincial and an evening 
 press have been virtually created." 
 
 The charge for the transmission of a telegram between 
 any two points in the United Kingdom is twelve cents 
 for the first twelve words and one cent for each additional 
 word, including the address and signature, and the aver- 
 age charge for press messages is about five cents for each 
 one hundred words. Any one familiar with the charges 
 for messages and press dispatches in this country will 
 note the wide difference in cost between the two countries. 
 
 I have quoted from the able article of Mr. Shelby M. 
 CuUom in the Forum for February, 1888, entitled " The 
 Goverment and the Telegraph," as authority for some of 
 the statements given in regard to the success of national 
 owned telegraphs in the United Kingdom, including the 
 extract from the address of Mr. Preece. 
 
CHAPTER XXV 
 
 OBJECTIONS TO NATIONAL OWNERSHIP OF RATL- 
 WA Y AND TELEGRAPH LINES CONSIDERED 
 
 1. Thai it would give wide room for political power and. 
 for corruption and peculation. This is the most common 
 objection. It has already been answered in the article on 
 civil service reform. 
 
 We have no such difficulty with the naval or military 
 service, the treasury, mint, or life saving service, very 
 little in the mail service, and we have very little any 
 where except as the legitimate and inevitable result of 
 the abominable spoils system. On the other hand the 
 present unscrupulous railroad management is one of the 
 most corrupting influences on our modern politics, which, 
 if removed, would carry with it one of the chief sources 
 of corruption. 
 
 The short answer to this objection and to those which 
 grow out of it, is that the men who inaugurate national 
 ownership of railroads in this country should at the same 
 time and with the same spirit put a final end to the dis- 
 graceful spoils system in the management of our national 
 affairs, and should see to it that in fact, as well as in name, 
 *' a public office " shall be " a public trust," and that all 
 our public servants be selected for the one purpose of 
 rightly serving the people. 
 
 2. That it would create a heavy and burdensome debt, and 
 that the people would have to be taxed to pay it. This is an 
 
 156 
 
RAILWAY DEBT COST OF THE WAR 157 
 
 objection and the only real one. But it is not by any 
 means as serious as it at first appears. It is not an 
 obstacle, and not a very serious difficulty. 
 
 It would not be necessary for the nation to acquire 
 all of the roads at once, ^or to acquire any which 
 are not needed for the public service. The present 
 bond and shareholders would readily take govern- 
 ment bonds in lieu of their present holdings. United 
 States bonds are better securities than railway bonds or 
 shares. In buying, the nation should pay for actual 
 values only should buy railways and not water. There 
 is no reason why the people should pay any more than 
 actual values, what it would cost to duplicate the property, 
 less wear and tear. The people would owe the railway 
 companies nothing for "good will" or established busi- 
 ness. Franchises and privileges granted would cover ail 
 that. 
 
 The civil war, including the pension debt, cost the 
 nation a sum untold probably over $10,000,000,000. 
 We are now paying about $140,000,000 annually for pen- 
 sions, and the pension debt, under present laws, is now 
 something like $3,000,000,000. Yet the bulk of this 
 immense war debt has been actually paid by the 
 people. 
 
 The railroads would cost the nation to buy or condemn 
 about $5,000,000,000, or possibly $6,000,000,000. But 
 they need not and would not cost a single citizen a single 
 dollar, because the railroads would he a source jof profit and 
 not of loss. They would pay for themselves. 
 
 Our war debt represented a loss. There was nothing 
 to show as an offset (except a united country.) It had 
 to be paid by the toil of the people. But the debt 
 
158 WAR DEBT AND RAILWAY DEBT COMPARED 
 
 incurred by the nation in buying the railways will 
 represent an investment, and a 'paying investment. The 
 bonds issued in the purchase of the roads need not, 
 necessarily, be paid by the people. The roads will stand 
 as an offset to the bonds, and will always be worth what they 
 cost. The productive value of the roads will be constantly 
 increasing as population and wealth increase, and the oper- 
 ating expenses will proportionately decrease, as road 
 beds, rolling stock, motive power and appliances are 
 improved. 
 
 It would be a paying investment in a triple sense, first 
 in the increased comfort, security and satisfaction, and 
 decreased cost to the people ; second by paying all cost 
 of operating expenses and fixed charges, including inter- 
 est on the bonds and a moderate sinking fund for the 
 payment of the bonds if thought best ; and third (and 
 on this point I shall have more to say in another place) 
 should be in a measure a source of revenue to the govern- 
 ment, for how could we more easily secure a revenue or 
 with less burden to ourselves? 
 
 A debt which represents a paying investment in pro 
 ductive property, especially where it is a source of 
 revenue besides paying for care of the property, for cost 
 of doing the business and interest on the investment, 
 and where ample time is allowed for final payment, 
 is not a burden either to an individual or a nation. 
 
 Besides, the people, not bankers and capitalists only, 
 but those who have smaller savings and need a safe 
 investment need a security that can be relied on, and 
 the nation should increase rather than decrease its bonded 
 debt, provided the debt is represented by its value in 
 productive property. 
 
INDIVIDUALISM 159 
 
 If we grant the force of this objection, we would 
 still insist that the burden of such a debt would be 
 small compared with the burden of the present railway 
 system. 
 
 3. That it would be another step toward a centralized, 
 paternal and tyrannical government. 
 
 This objection corresponds to a theory of govern- 
 ment which has been expounded if not originated by a 
 school of political economists of the Herbert Spencer 
 type. Their contention is, that the government should 
 protect each citizen in his or her equal rights against any 
 encroachments from other citizens, and that in properly 
 doing this the whole duty and prerogative of the govern- 
 ment ends so far as individuals are concerned ; that when 
 the government undertakes to establish and maintain 
 schools, alms-houses and asylums ; a life-saving service, 
 a weather signal service, a health service ; to build roads, 
 bridges, canals, breakwaters, lighthouses, dykes, water 
 works ; to carry mails and establish banks of exchange, 
 it goes beyond its legitimate powers, and is paternal, 
 dictatorial and tyrannical. 
 
 A plain statement of this theory and what it would 
 lead to is its sufficient refutation in this day and age. 
 And yet we have able and scholarly men who advocate 
 such a theory. It is individualism run mad. It would 
 lead to almost no government at all. It means to turn 
 back the wheels of progress for a thousand years and 
 leave us in a state of barbarism. 
 
 4. That it is in the line of socialism and nationalism, 
 and is wild, impractical and visionary. 
 
 It would seem that the " paternal " and the " socialistic " 
 objections were contradictory and would answer each 
 
160 SOCIALISM WISE AND UNWISE 
 
 other. Those who object to what they term socialism in 
 managing state affairs appear to be satisfied with what 
 is already being done in that direction. The things that 
 we have undertaken to do as a whole people by the gov- 
 ernment have proven beneficial. National co-operation 
 in managing some of our business affairs has been to 
 our advantage. The state makes a success of the schools, 
 the nation, of the mail service, and so on. But, if we do 
 this it would be socialism, and if we do that it would be 
 nationalism, and those would be very bad things to 
 introduce 1 Such alarms have been sounded without 
 showing wherein the danger lies, without pointing out 
 what might or might not properly be done by the nation, 
 or what would and what would not be conservative 
 business methods. 
 
 We must differentiate. We must show what we should 
 do, and what we should not do as a nation. We need to 
 draw the line between the legitimate powers and prerog- 
 atives of government on the one hand, and the unwise, 
 and unsafe socialistic tendencies and practices on the 
 other. And we need to do this, not only in view of what 
 we may do, but of what we are already doing. For we 
 have now in some instances gone beyond the bounds of 
 conservative business methods, have superseded any 
 legitimate powers of government, and have yielded to a 
 tendency toward unwise socialism. 
 
CHAPTER XXVI 
 
 THE TRUE PROVINCE OF GOVERNMENT, DUTY OF 
 
 THE STATE, CONSERVATIVE METHODS AND UNSAFE 
 
 TENDENCIES. 
 
 The 'powers and duties of government are : To protect 
 and care for the citizen in life, liberty, property and 
 happiness ; to protect him from thefts, slander, assault, 
 nuisance, annoyance, contagion, and from temptations of 
 the saloon, lottery, gaming table and other snares; to 
 establish schools, asylums, hospitals, reformatories, pest- 
 houses, quarantines ; to maintain highways, harbors, 
 mail service, to provide a currency, and to carry on any 
 other public business or enterprise which will promote 
 the best interests of the people and strengthen the state, 
 and which the people can not as well, as safely, as 
 economically, as efficiently do for themselves. 
 
 It is the duty of the state to do these things, to the end 
 that the health, the morals, the intelligence, the safety, 
 the sobriety, the good order, the comfort, the usefulness 
 and happiness of the people shall be conserved. 
 
 The state, in carrying on its business and affairs, should 
 be guided by the same principles of sound policy and 
 substantial business methods which should control the 
 individual in like circumstances. When the state, in the 
 conduct of any beneficent institution, as the public 
 schools, goes beyond the required object for which the 
 institution was founded, it exceeds its legitimate province 
 
 161 
 
162 UNWISE SOCIALISTIC FEATURES OF OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS 
 
 and is unwise. When, in the management of any busi- 
 ness, as the mail service, the nation fails to conduct the 
 business on a strictly business basis, it passes the line of 
 conservative government, and, to that extent, is unsafe. 
 That we have passed the line in some instances is a fact 
 to which our attention should be directed, to the end that 
 we should retrace our steps where we have gone too 
 far, and should guard against such tendencies in the 
 future. 
 
 The state maintains public schools in order to give the 
 young such training as will make them moral, patriotic, 
 intelligent and useful citizens. Referring to a city high 
 school curriculum, we find that over one -half the time of 
 the four years' course is taken up with higher mathe- 
 matics and foreign languages. Without questioning the 
 advantage or utility of such studies to certain professions, 
 and conceding the prerogative of the state to fit young 
 men and women for special vocations in life, it is safe to 
 say that these studies are not necessary or especially use- 
 ful or desirable to the ordinary student, and not requisite 
 to fit the boy for intelligent and useful citizenship or to 
 become a competent legislator, and that the state, in tax- 
 ing all the people in order to teach studies which can 
 never be applied, supersedes its legitimate powers, and is 
 in that line unwise and socialistic. 
 
 Studies which are not useful in themselves and only 
 applicable as a means of acquiring knowledge, should 
 not be taught except as a preparation for other studies. 
 Nor should the time of the student be so curtailed 
 while it is far too limited in which to acquire a satisfac- 
 tory knowledge of the many branches which should be 
 taught in the schools. 
 
UNSAFE TENDENCY IN CONDUCTING OUR MAIL SERVICE 168 
 
 To the student who is being fitted for a vocation as 
 engineering or pedagogy requiring special mathematic 
 or linguistic attainment, such branches become a nec- 
 essary part of the special course. But, in the general 
 course of study, only branches which have some appli- 
 cation in the course or in after life, should be taught. 
 (We have in this, however, an instance of moss-back 
 conservatism, which has led to extreme socialism.) 
 
 The mail service is now conducted at a loss to the 
 department. There have been times when it was on a 
 paying basis, that is, not counting any fixed charges, 
 such as interest on cost of buildings, etc., owned by the 
 government. Every business enterprise of an individual 
 or nation should stand on its own footing. Those who 
 send letters and papers through the mails should pay for 
 the sending. It is wrong in principle for the nation in a 
 business matter to tax all the people for the benefit of a 
 part. And it is unsafe for the nation to do any business 
 at a loss. And yet we are liable to hear some statesman (?) 
 propose a reduction of postal rates and a still greater loss 
 to the nation. With the nation owning the railways we 
 could readily put the mail service on a paying basis at 
 present rates, as the deficit is not large. The charges for 
 mail service should be close to cost in order to encourage 
 the dissemination of intelligence, but there should be no 
 deficit. Let us retrace our steps and hereafter keep on 
 the solid road. 
 
 It is proper and just that those who have served the 
 nation in the army or navy, in the life saving or other 
 service, and who have suffered in health or usefulness 
 thereby should be suitably compensated by the nation 
 for their loss. But it is not wise or just that all who 
 
164 UNWISE AND UNJUST TENDENCY IN GRANTING PENSIONS 
 
 serve the state in such capacity should be made pen- 
 sioners of the state, regardless of needs, or time, or ser- 
 vice, or loss. I speak as a veteran soldier of the civil war 
 and from what I deem patriotic motives toward my old 
 comrades and to all the people alike, in saying that, in 
 my judgment, we have gone fully far enough in this line, 
 and that for the government to grant a service pension 
 to all old soldiers, simply because they served in the 
 army or navy would be unwise and unjust. It would be 
 a heavy tax and an unnecessary one upon the people, and 
 would be a bad precedent. There is no good reason why a 
 (3itizen simply because he has served in the army, should 
 become a pensioner and a burden upon the nation, while 
 he is well able to take care of himself. All tendencies in 
 this direction are toward a socialism which is not wise, 
 or just, or prudent. To grant a life pension to a man 
 who is ailing because he served ninety days in the home 
 guards is not wise. To grant a life pension to all who 
 served in the army, including those of such short term 
 service, would be folly. And yet we have statesmen (?) 
 who advocate such a measure, and appeal to the nation 
 ' to do justice to the old soldiers." No patriotic soldier 
 will ask of the nation any such "justice." 
 
 When the nation owns the railways, we may expect to 
 hear a clamor from a class or party to give us " trans- 
 portation at cost," and with a tendency to make it less 
 than cost. And we will surely have demagogues who 
 will advocate the lowest possible rates, and that the gov- 
 ernment can pay the deficit. Such a policy would be in 
 a high degree unbusiness-like, and would tend to financial 
 loss, discredit and disaster. A socialism which demands 
 something for nothing, which asks to betaken in and cared 
 
SOCIALISM WISE AND UNWISE 165 
 
 for without money and without price, which wants some 
 one else to do the work and some one else to " pay the piper, ^^ 
 is of the kind that we should avoid. Labor must be 
 paid. Capital must be paid. When we as ar nation em- 
 ploy labor and capital we should pay just the same as 
 individuals would in like circumstances, and we should 
 require every member of the company, who is able, to 
 pay his part. 
 
 The people of Australia made the mistake of making 
 railway rates so low that the roads were operated at a loss. 
 Of course the people got a large benefit from the low 
 rates. They started out with the idea of getting " trans- 
 portation at cost," and as a result got it at less than 
 cost. 
 
 The receipts and expenditures of any business, change 
 with the times and seasons. The only safe way to dc 
 any business, is to do it on a margin which will cover all 
 possible expense and loss. Hundreds of grange and 
 co-operative stores in this country went to the wall, 
 because the people undertook to get their goods at cost, 
 that is without making a profit, and as a result, though 
 for a while they got their goods at less than cost, the 
 prices not covering the expense of handling, the stores 
 necessarily became bankrupt. 
 
 The people of Australia saw their mistake and have 
 sturdily set themselves to rectify it. They have lost 
 nothing so far, but they started in a way to lose every- 
 thing, and they do not propose to follow that road any 
 longer. Let us profit by their example. 
 
 In the principle of government ownership and manage- 
 ment of our railway and other great monopolies, lies the 
 remedy for much of the privation among our laboring 
 
166 
 
 masses. This principle should be the ''cloud by day and 
 the fire by night" to lead us out of the wilderness of 
 monopoly with which we are environed. It is the prin- 
 ciple that the people themselves, by their chosen servants, 
 should carry on their own business, and do it for their own 
 profit and benefit, and that the conduct and management 
 of their most important and most profitable business 
 affairs should not be any longer /an?ied out placed in the 
 hands of private corporations, to use these opportunities 
 for their own enrichment and aggrandizement. 
 
 And the reasons and principles which will lead us to 
 undertake the conduct of all our means of transportation 
 and communication will also ultimately lead us to under- 
 take government management of many of our financial, 
 industrial and commercial monopolies, as well. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII 
 
 TNE CURRENCY. EVILS OF OUR FINANCIAL 
 
 SYSTEM. COIN AND PAPER MONEY, THE 
 
 NATIONAL BANKS. 
 
 The question of money does not demand a leading 
 place in a consideration of causes and remedies of pov- 
 erty. It does not merit the almost exclusive attention 
 that is given it as a political question by some of the 
 American people. The financial question is a somewhat 
 complicated one, and no other political question, except 
 that of tariff, is so beclouded in the minds of many of 
 
FINANCIAL REFORMS DEMANDED 167 
 
 our people. In relation to no other national question are 
 so many fallacious ideas advanced, or so many mischiev- 
 ous measures advocated. There are several plans for 
 "financial relief" proposed, which, if adopted, would 
 inevitably tend to increase rather than diminish the 
 burdens of the laboring classes. 
 
 It is true that there are serious evils and defects in our 
 present financial system, and that several reforms are 
 justly demanded. There have been financial measures 
 adopted by our government which wereunjust^-favoring 
 the monied class and burdensome to the masses of the 
 people, and there are several reforms which should be 
 inaugurated which would be a relief and a benefit to the 
 people. While the evils of our present financial system 
 have been by some overrated, still there is much room for 
 reform. 
 
 The government should furnish and maintain a suffi- 
 cient and stable currency, and this should be done without 
 the intervention of private corporations ; it should furnish 
 to the people a safe depository for their money, and should 
 pay interest upon their deposits ; it should loan money 
 to the people in such manner as the banks now do, and 
 should reduce interest charges. The nation should be 
 the chief banker ; should control and regulate the money 
 supply ; should retain for the whole people the profits 
 accruing from the money business. The government 
 should no longer give special privileges and immu- 
 nities to a banking class ; should no longer sub- 
 sidize national banks ; should cease to make donations 
 to banks by furnishing banking capital in the way 
 of deposits without security or interest ; should not 
 pay bounty and tribute to the money power. And the 
 
168 MONEY, GOLD AND SILVER AS STANDARDS OF VALUE 
 
 people should no longer be obliged to pay tribute to this 
 power and be subject to its exactions. The national banks 
 should go. 
 
 Money is primarily coin, a precious metal or other 
 highly valuable commodity, stamped by public authority 
 for use as a standard measure of values and a convenient 
 medium of exchange and means of storing wealth. The 
 best money is that which may be used in any civilized 
 country with little or no discount from its face value. In 
 all ages, gold and silver have been the precious metals 
 most used as money by civilized nations> Nickel, copper, 
 brass, spelter, ivory, beads, etc., are also used as money, 
 secondary to gold and silver or by uncivilized people. 
 
 Gold is the standard of value in nearly all civilized 
 nations, because it fluctuates in value less than other 
 metals and is more convenient for use in all large trans- 
 actions. Gold has had a recognized intrinsic value in all 
 ages and among all civilized peoples, more fixed, more 
 unchangeable than that of any other material thing, and 
 its value as a standard measure of values has never been 
 overrated. Silver had, during long periods of time, a 
 value nearly as fixed as that of gold, but during the last 
 four decades it has been depreciating in value, and can no 
 longer be counted upon as a standard of money equal 
 to gold. This depreciation has been brought about, 
 not by edicts or decrees of nations, but by the fact of a 
 production of silver beyond the demand for it, either for 
 money or art uses, to an extent which could but act to 
 reduce its relative value. 
 
 It has not been found practicable to use two metals as 
 standards of value. Any fluctuation in the value of 
 either metal disturbs the relative value, and parity can- 
 
PAPER MONEY. VALUE OF " PROMISES TO PAY " 169 
 
 not be maintained. Attempts by the United States or 
 by any other nation to use both gold and silver as stand- 
 ard money have always resulted in one or other being 
 withdrawn from circulation, the most valuable being 
 hoarded or sold. Silver is therefore used by our own and by 
 most other nations as a " subsidiary " or tributary coin to 
 gold, and made a legal tender for a small fixed sum. Gold 
 is almost universally used for coin payments of five 
 dollars and over, and silver, nickel and copper for 
 smaller amounts. 
 
 Secondarily, we have paper money, any '' promise to 
 pay " which may be used instead of coin, its value 
 depending wholly upon the ability and readiness to pay 
 of the power which issues it, and upon the confidence 
 which people have in that ability and integrity. A plain 
 bank check is " good as gold " with those who have con- 
 fidence in the ability and integrity of the maker, other- 
 wise it must be " certified " by an official of the bank on 
 which it is drawn in order to be readily received. United 
 States notes and national bank notes are " as good as the 
 gold " while the people have confidence in the ability and 
 integrity of the nation to pay them in gold. But we have 
 had such unhappy and disastrous experiences with 
 depreciated bank notes and with depreciated United States 
 notes as well with the promises and obligations of 
 individuals and of states and nations that we know 
 that promises to pay are not quite as good as the pay. It 
 is something like the case of the baker we read of who 
 held out the loaf through his window with one hand 
 while he took the coin in the other. The promise may 
 be good in a week or a month ; it may be good in ten 
 years or in twenty years, and it may not be. 
 
170 GOVERNMENT SUBSIDIES TO THE MONIED CLASS 
 
 The future is unknown. No man or company of men 
 can foresee the results of the many forces acting to-day, 
 and of the many new forces which may be in the coming 
 years. We should therefore make only such promises as 
 we may reasonably hope to fulfill. 
 
 United States notes are now practically as good as gold 
 and will probably continue to be so. But their value 
 depends upon the wisdom of the nation in conducting its 
 financial affairs. While wise counsels obtain, our paper 
 will retain its present value, but should unwise and unsafe 
 counsels prevail, our paper money would certainly become 
 depreciated. With confidence in the good business sense 
 of a large majority of the American people, we do not 
 apprehend any serious danger of the latter result. 
 
 The evils of our National hank system. It is an error 
 and a wrong that we subsidize the national banks. 
 While this is true, it is also true that our government 
 now offers less inducement than formerly for the organiza- 
 tion of national banks. The crying evil of this system 
 as a means of subsidizing the monied class is largely a 
 thing of the past. When a national bank could buy six 
 per cent bonds, draw the interest on them, and also receive 
 from the government ninety per cent of bank notes on 
 the amount of bonds purchased, and loan this amount at 
 ten to fifteen per cent, at the same time securing the name, 
 the prestige and the supervision of the national govern- 
 ment for the one per cent, tax paid, that was a crying 
 evil and an unwarranted favor and bounty given to the 
 banking class. But now, any new national banks, or 
 those old ones wishing to extend their issue after the 
 bonds they now hold are called in, must buy government 
 two per cent bonds, so that there is but small profit to a 
 
THE CHIEF DEFECT IN OUR FINANCIAL SYSTEM 171 
 
 bank in an issue of currency on those terms. Still it is 
 an evil and should be abated. 
 
 The capital of banks consists of their capital stock, 
 accrued profits, issue of notes, and money of depositors, 
 and their income is derived mostly from loans. Usually 
 the larger part of their^capital is the money of depositors, 
 upon which, as a rule, they pay no interest, and from 
 which they make most of their profits. The people fur- 
 nish this money to the banks without remuneration, 
 and pay the banks large sums in the aggregate for 
 interest charges upon loans. The banks obtain this money 
 without cost and without giving security, and they loan 
 it at high rates of interest and upon good security, and 
 herein lies the principal cost and loss to the people from our 
 present banking system, national and state. 
 
 The question of banking which is of first importance 
 to the American people, is that the people should themselves 
 have the profits accruing to the banking business; the nation 
 should be the banker and the whole people should receive 
 the benefit. This is the chief and almost the only question 
 which should demand our attention in regard to this ques- 
 tion of financial reform. The people, by their national 
 representatives, should do their own banking business 
 and receive all the benefits to be derived from it, instead 
 of " farming it out " to money corporations ; subsidizing 
 them, and allowing them to lay a heavy burden of tax 
 upon us by exorbitant interest charges. Let us in this 
 matter do our own business, and not put ourselves in a 
 position to be subject to the exaction of a set of men 
 whom we allow to control our financial interests and to 
 a considerable extent our commercial interests, as well. 
 Let us in this matter " keep shop " for ourselves, 
 
 '' \ B R A A? p%. 
 
 OF THK 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
172 GOVERNMENT MONEY. GOVERNMENT BANKS 
 
 The demand that the government shall issue money 
 to the people without the intervention of banks, and 
 without profit to any corporation, is a just demand. No 
 more national banks should be chartered, no more bank 
 issues extended, and as fast as the bank notes are called 
 in and cancelled, treasury notes should be issued to take 
 their place. The government now has large sums of money 
 deposited with certain national banks without security 
 and without interest. This practice should cease. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII 
 
 POSTAL SA VINGS BANKS. IMPRO VEMENTS IN 
 POSTAL EXCHANGE 
 
 The principal reform needed in our financial system is 
 the inauguration of banks of deposit in connection with 
 the postoffice department or otherwise, in order that the 
 government may deal directly with the people in money 
 matters. The postal savings bank would afford the 
 credit of the nation as security for the safety of deposits, 
 and would furnish bank facilities in localities where a 
 private bank would not be supported. Our present banks, 
 national and state, do not always furnish a safe depository. 
 We need national banks which furnish to depositors the 
 security of the nation, and the postal savings banks 
 would have this advantage over all others. 
 
 The money so deposited should be loaned to the people 
 
CONSERVATIVE GOVERNMENT BANKING 173 
 
 on the security of bonds, stocks, mortgages, warehouse 
 receipts, standing crops or other convertible property as 
 collateral to personal security, or on personal security 
 alone, always provided that the security he ample such as 
 would be satisfactory with any other reputable bank. 
 
 The government bank should do business in such a 
 manner as not to become liable in a business transaction 
 of having to make any donations to individuals. For the 
 government, in a benevolent way, to care for the sick or 
 infirm is laudable,'but it should not undertake to provide 
 for those who are able to care for themselves. 
 
 But money should not be loaned by these banks upon 
 land security except upon mortgages used as a secondary 
 !?ecurity, and in such manner as not to call for the sale of 
 the land, but of the mortgage, to secure payment of the 
 loan. Nor should the money be loaned upon long time, 
 usually not longer than three to six months. 
 
 The legitimate province of banking is to furnish a safe 
 depository for the savings of the people, to pay interest 
 on deposits, and to loan money to those who need it to 
 assist them temporarily in carrying on their business, at 
 certain times or seasons when they require additional 
 capital ; it is not to furnish a capital with which to do a 
 business or to buy land. 
 
 The government should probably pay from two to four 
 })er cent interest to depositors, and loan the money at 
 from four to six per cent, in either case depending upon 
 locality, demand, amount and time. The rates must 
 necessarily correspond to some extent with those pre- 
 vailing in the localities. The government should not 
 undertake any sudden or extreme bull or bear movement 
 in the money market or in any other line of business. 
 
174 POSTAL CARD MONEY ORDERS 
 
 There is no reason why officials of the postoffice. in 
 localities where sufficient business might be done to 
 afford the employment of skilled men. should not carry 
 on a legitimate and safe banking business for the people. 
 Such offices are now usually kept by men who are 
 thoroughly competent and reliable. Another advantage 
 of the national savings bank system would be, that 
 money which accumulates as a surplus in some localities 
 at certain seasons, could be loaned in other localities, 
 where for the time, the needs of business, as in harvesting, 
 or handling stock or crops, made a stronger demand for 
 money. Thus, money need not be lying idle in one state 
 or locality while much needed in another. 
 
 Improvements in Postal Exchange. Our present system 
 of postal exchange by postoffice order is unnecessarily 
 complicated, expensive and cumbersome, and is insuffi- 
 cient. It should be simplified, cheapened and extended. 
 Small sums (perhaps up to five dollars) might be sent 
 readily by a postal card device, at a nominal price of two to 
 three cents, the security of the remittance depending 
 upon the identification of the payee. Such a device 
 would be a great convenience and saving tO those sending 
 small sums, as for paying subscriptions to newspapers 
 and magazines, purchase of books, etc.. and would greatly 
 facilitate the circulation of periodicals, and be a pro- 
 nounced means for the diffusion of inlel-igence among 
 the people. For larger sums postal drafts should be 
 used. 
 
CHAPTER XXIX 
 
 MONEY MONOPOL Y? IS THERE A GREA T SCARCITY 
 OF 31 ONE Yf no fVE NEED FIFTY DOL LARS PER 
 CAPITA? MONEY SUPPLY OF DIFFERENT 
 
 NA TIONS. SCARCITY OF MONE Y NOT THE CA USE 
 OF THE FARMER'S DEPRESSION 
 
 It is not strange that there should be a prevailing idea 
 that much of the depression among the industrial classes 
 is caused by a scarcity of money, by a monopoly of money 
 by the wealthy classes, and by legislation in the interest of 
 bankers and capitalists. Many of us greatly need more 
 money, or at least more wealth, and if we had plenty of 
 money we could get everything we need, and it seems a 
 logical conclusion that there must be a great scarcity of 
 money and that this is a chief cause of financial depression. 
 We have been often told that there has been a great con- 
 traction of the currency, that there is not nearly enough 
 money in circulation to do the business of the country on 
 a cash basis, and that the bankers and brokers have a 
 monopoly of money, and try to keep it scarce in order to 
 get a good price for it. And we are told that to remedy 
 these evils we should have forty or fifty or one hundred 
 dollars per capita in circulation in order to facilitate the 
 transaction of the business of the country and make 
 times good ; that the volume of the currency should be 
 increased by the issue of treasury notes and by the " free 
 and unlimited coinage of silver," and that this money 
 
 175 
 
176 MONEV SCARCITY AND CAUSES FOR IT 
 
 should be loaned to the people on the security of land or 
 of non-perishable farm products, until the demand was 
 supplied and '''good times" restored. 
 
 Is there a great scarcity of money? Has any man wheat 
 or cattle, corn or cotton, or other articles for which there is 
 a demand, which he cannot sell for what they are worth 
 in general markets, considering cost of transport and 
 other charges and expense under our present methods 
 of business and which we can account for aside from any 
 scarcity of money? Has a man labor to sell for which 
 there is a demand, for which he may not receive pay in 
 coin? Is there a locality in the Union in Massachusetts, 
 Ohio, Iowa or other state, where there is not enough money, 
 as a rule, to do the legitimate business of the community? 
 At times, in some localities there may l)e a scarcity, but, 
 as a rule, in any city or in the country at large there is 
 not. 
 
 When there is a scarcity of money in any locality it is 
 because the " balance of trade " is against it, the people 
 of the locality failing to have enough commodities for 
 sale to pay for articles needed for consumption. 
 
 In Pasadena during boom times we had a large supply 
 of town lots for sale for which there was a strong demand 
 at high prices, and we had plenty of money, but, after 
 the boom, there being no demand for our lots, and as we 
 had neglected our other industries, we had few products 
 to sell and money became scarce. In Denver, Spokane, 
 and many other places such conditions have prevailed. 
 But, in Southern California the ranch man who has a 
 good crop of oranges or alfalfa or walnuts or other salable 
 products, has no difficulty in exchanging them for coin. 
 And the same is true of the Mississippi cotton planter, 
 
IS SCARCITY OF MONEY A CAUSE OF POVERTY ? 177 
 
 the Illinois corn grower, or any other successful producer. 
 An Iowa farmer says that in his locality there is an 
 abundance of money in the banks, and that farms and 
 farm products sell readily for cash. 
 
 A failure of crops causes a scarcity of money among 
 the farmers, and this reacts upon the towns. But all 
 this depends upon lack of wealth or production in a 
 locality and not upon lack of money in the country at 
 large. Poverty and hard times depend mainly, not upon 
 lack of wealth, or production, or money in the country as a 
 whole, hut upon unequal production and distribution and 
 upon waste of wealth. 
 
 Wealth is the product of labor accumulations from 
 gathering, producing, building, saving. Money is supplied 
 as a convenient medium in exchanging labor^s products. 
 It constitutes but a small per cent of the total of wealth. 
 
 Poverty is lack of wealth. A poor man is one who 
 from one or many causes does not have his proportion of 
 the sum of labor's products. 
 
 It is a very superficial view of the case to conclude 
 that it is more money that the poor man needs. He 
 needs the material things which go to make for his com- 
 fort and happiness, and money is but a tool, sometimes 
 used, in transferring these things from one to another 
 a means to an end. 
 
 It is a more superficial view to consider that it is a lack 
 of money supply in the country at large that has caused 
 depression among laboring classes. We have abund- 
 ance of wealth in the country, but the laborer has not 
 received his part of his own products. There is plenty 
 for all, but the men and women who produce the wealth 
 are robbed of their rightful share. 
 
178 MONOPOLY OF WEALTH 
 
 It is not a monopoly of money but rather a monopoly 
 of wealth the unequal distribution of labor's products 
 which is a chief cause of privation. And the question of 
 money supply has very little to do as a factor in produc- 
 ing this inequality. 1 do not undertake to say whether 
 there is or is not a sufficient volume of currency in the 
 country, but I do undertake io say that any scarcity of 
 money which now exists in the country is not a consider- 
 able cause of depression among laboring classes. 
 
 Besides, money is apparently scarce when there is a 
 general lack of confidence in the ability or disposition of 
 people to pay. No matter how much money there may 
 be in any locality, or by whom held whether by bankers, 
 farmers or others if there is lack of confidence in busi- 
 ness conditions, men who have money are very cautious, 
 as they should be, about loaning or investing it. When 
 confidence in the integrity and success of business con- 
 ditions is restored, money again freely circulates. 
 
 Do we need fifty dollars per capita? It has been 
 assumed that we must require as large an amount 
 of money in proportion to wealth and population as we 
 ever did. This is not correct. In early days a large 
 part of the business was done by the direct use of money. 
 Now about ninety-five per cent of the business of 
 the country is done by bank exchanges without the 
 use of money. As business methods and facilities 
 improve, and as business is done more and more upon a 
 large scale, a smaller proportion of currency is required 
 to transact the business. The largest volume of the 
 country's business manufacturing, mining, real estate, 
 transportation, the wholesale trade is done almost 
 entirely by bank exchange. We probably do not use and 
 
VOLUME OB^ CURRENCY OF DIFFERENT NATIONS 179 
 
 do not need the amount of money per capita that we did 
 forty years ago. 
 
 The most sagacious and enterprising business men use 
 the smallest proportion of money in transacting business. 
 Intelligent and prudent people keep but little money 
 about their persons or homes. Their ready money, 
 except what is barely sufficient for daily use, is 
 deposited in bank, and bills are usually paid by check. 
 As a rule, only those who are either stupid, ignorant, 
 miserly, or who love display, do otherwise. 
 
 A burglar recently entered the residence of a Pasadena 
 capitalist and secured one hundred and twenty-five dollars 
 from the coachman's room. The coachman should have 
 had better sense than to keep such an amount of money 
 in his room. The man who habitually carries in his 
 pocket more money than he needs for use an amount of 
 fifty dollars, for instance is not wise ; in a business 
 sense he is a fool. 
 
 Mechanics and others employed are usually paid by 
 check at the end of the week or month, and do not usu- 
 ally carry much money. People who live farthest from 
 a bank must needs keep on hand more money for use 
 than those who have better bank facilities. The bank is 
 a convenience and a money saver, and postal savings 
 banks would be especially convenient in sparsely settled 
 communities. 
 
 The amount of money, coin and paper, in the United 
 States, is stated to be about twenty-five dollars per capita. 
 We have those who advocate increasing the amount to 
 forty or fifty or even one hundred dollars per capita. 
 Most nations have a smaller amount of money per hecA 
 than ours ; the United Kingdom about twenty dollars. 
 
180 PEOPORTION OF MONEY, ETC. 
 
 Germany, fourteen dollars ; Sweden and Norway, five 
 dollars. A very few have more ; France, forty-two dollars; 
 Netherlands, twenty-six dollars. 
 
 The proportion of money to population of a nation 
 does not show the proportion of wealth or the condition 
 of its people. It but shows the relative amount of money 
 they are accustomed to use in the transaction of business. 
 The wealth of a man can no more be told by the amount 
 of coin in his pocket than by the style of his clothes ; 
 and the same is true of a nation. J. J. Astor perhaps 
 carries less money in his pocket than does his coachman. 
 Some men like to carry as much of their wealth as pos- 
 sible in their pockets or on their backs, but sensible 
 people usually carry as little as will answer their needs. 
 The people of France, with a volume of currency of forty- 
 two dollars per capita, are not more prosperous financially 
 than are the people of England with only twenty dollars 
 per capita. 
 
 It is a mistake to attribute the depression among agri- 
 cultural and other laboring classes in some localities to a 
 scarcity of money in the country at large. If that were 
 a cause, it would affect manufacturing, mercantile and 
 mining classes as well, but these have been usually 
 prosperous and have accumulated wealth. As a whole 
 the country has increased greatly in wealth, while, in 
 many localities, farm lands have decreased in value in 
 the past twenty-five years. We can account for the 
 depression among agricultural classes while others have 
 prospered, and scarcity of currency is not among the 
 causes. Besides, the purchasing power of a dollar in 
 buying the necessaries of life, is much greater than it 
 was thirty years ago, and, consequently, much less cur- 
 
DEMAND REGULATES SUPPLY 181 
 
 rency is required to handle the same amount of goods. 
 
 Money should be issued by the national government in 
 such quantity as may be required for the legitimate 
 demands of business. We need not trouble ourselves 
 with discussion of how much money we now have, in 
 circulation or otherwise, or with the question of how 
 much money we require per capita for the transaction of 
 our business. No one knows or can know how much is 
 needed per capita. That matter will take care of itself 
 when we have accomplished the important feature of 
 financial reform. Then the unfailing law of supply and 
 demand will regulate that. 
 
 When the nation is the chief banker, with its branches 
 throughout the country, the amount of currency will be 
 easily adjusted by the legitimate requirements of business 
 and trade. 
 
 CHAPTER XXX 
 
 LOANS UPON LANDS AND UPON FARM PRODUCTS. 
 FREE COINAGE OF SILVER. 
 
 Let us see how it is proposed to increase the volume of 
 currency, and how the money is to be placed in the 
 hands of the people who need it. It is proposed to issue 
 paper money and loan it upon the security of land and 
 of non-perishable farm products. 
 
 Have we found that going in debt is a good way to 
 secure financial betterment ? Is borrowing money, with 
 
182 PUTTING A MORTGAGE ON THE FARM NOT THE WAY OUT 
 
 or without security, the proper remedy to commend to 
 poor people as a cure for poverty? Shall we advise them 
 to put a mortgage on the farm? No ! Borrowing money 
 is one of the chief causes of the farmer's financial 
 troubles, and borrowing more money is not his way out. 
 Buying land on credit, and tools and machinery on 
 credit, and horses, buggies, good clothes, groceries, pianos 
 on credit, has been the bane of the farmer and of many 
 other people. (Please read articles on "Speculation in 
 Land," and " The Credit System.") And buying on credit, 
 buying what one cannot pay for, putting a mortgage on 
 the farm, are 7iot the remedies for our poverty. Buying 
 on credit and borrowing money produce an inflation of 
 supposed wealth and values to the extent of the propor- 
 tion of debt, and this leads us to think we are rich while 
 we are poor. And we go on buying, using, consuming, 
 expanding, wading more and more into the unknown 
 waters of debt, speculation and expansion, until we lose 
 our financial footing and see our goods and effects carried 
 beyond our reach and we left without property and often 
 without friends. No, keep on the solid ground of having 
 something you can call your own, and owe no man or 
 company of men for it. 
 
 Our past experience has also shown us that our finan- 
 cial disasters as a people have not been caused by con- 
 traction more than by expansion of the volume of 
 currency. When it is easy for men to get money they 
 spend it freely, and this is the case with communities as 
 well as with individuals. Expansion of the volume of 
 currency, in the judgment of some of our best statesmen, 
 has, at several periods of our history, led to speculation, 
 to increased business hazards and to financial ruin. 
 
SILVER COIN IN CIRCULATION. A SEVENTY CENT DOLLAR 183 
 
 Another proposed plan for expanding the currency is 
 by "/ree and unlimited coinage of silver, ^^ Silver is a very 
 useful metal for coins of the denominations for which it 
 is used. We need silver dollars, and should have as many 
 as are needed for use. We now have over $300,000,000 
 silver dollars. Of these we use about $60,000,000. If we can 
 use only one-fifth of the silver dollars we now have, why 
 coin more ? We are told, in order to use them as a basis 
 for notes or certificates. If for that purpose we would do 
 better to use it as bullion than as coin. 
 
 Silver is properly used as a subsidiary coin, second to 
 gold. No argument, "no theory, no effort by the govern- 
 ment or the people can make it otherwise. We use silver 
 for money in amounts less than five dollars simply 
 because the gold coin of less than five dollars is too small 
 for use, just as we use nickel for a five-cent piece because 
 the silver half dime is too small for use. The vast 
 majority of people prefer to carry as little weight of coin 
 as will answer their needs. Usually two or three dollars in 
 silver is as much as any one takes from choice, and a man 
 who would prefer to carry ten dollars in silver in his 
 pocket unless it was needed directly for change would be 
 a phenomenon. We do not need another silver dollar, 
 and should not coin another until we can use those we 
 have. 
 
 Besides, our standard silver dollar is not a dollar in 
 fact. It is worth but seventy cents, and silver is still 
 depreciating. It is because of the depreciation in the 
 value of silver, owing to a large increase in the production 
 of silver mines beyond the demand for their product, 
 during the last three to four decades, that caused the 
 demonetization of silver as a standard money in this and 
 
184 GOVERNMENT APPRAISEMENT 
 
 other countries, and which renders it impossible to fix a 
 proportion of value between gold and silver. Silver is 
 no longer coined in any country of Europe except as 
 secondary coin. 
 
 Governments can not make values. They can but 
 accept values as they find them. The value of gold, 
 and silver, and iron; of wheat, cotton and corn and every 
 other commodity produced by men, depends wholly upon 
 supply and demand, and no power upon earth, except 
 that of monopoly, can evade this inexorable law. A 
 government puts its stamp upon a coin and says " this is a 
 dollar," because the coin is, or should be, made of metal 
 which is worth the amount, or nearly the amount stamped. 
 
 The stamp is the sign of government appraisement ; 
 it has nothing to do with creating or fixing value to the 
 metal used, except as the demand is increased by this use. 
 Establishing a " legal tender " quality to the coin is 
 entirely distinct from the actual value. Treasury notes 
 are made legal - tender by government fiatj but coined 
 money is used as a standard of value because it is, or 
 should be, intrinsically worth what the stamp calls for, 
 or very nearly as much. There is no good reason for 
 making it otherwise except to cover the cost of coinage 
 and handling. The lesser coins are very properly made 
 less valuable. 
 
 For the United States io make a coin worth only seventy 
 cents and call it a standard dollar is unwise is a " false 
 pretense " and unworthy our reputation as a nation com- 
 posed of enlightened, substantial people, and having 
 stable institutions. It is true that these silver dollars 
 pass as well as gold, except for inconvenience of bulk and 
 weight. Yes, they do for the same reason that our bank 
 
SUBSIDIZING SILVER MINE OWNERS 186 
 
 notes and treasury notes pass as readily as gold, simply 
 because all our money which is not gold is exchangeable for 
 gold. Our " coin of the realm " should be actually worth 
 its face. Treasury notes are but " promises to pay." To 
 coin a dollar which is seven-tenths value and three- tenths 
 " promise to pay" is a nondescript money which should 
 not be continued. 
 
 Besides, as it is true that the silver dollar is largely the 
 money of the laboring classes of those who work for a 
 dollar or a dollar and a half a day, and buy the neces- 
 saries of life in corresponding amounts that is the more 
 reason, if any were needed, why the dollar coin should be 
 actually worth a dollar. For labor is the producer of all 
 wealth and should be paid in the very best money. 
 
 But, while these are grave objections, they are not the 
 most serious ones to this proposed free coinage of silver, 
 but it is the fact that this proposition is a scheme to sub- 
 sidize silver mine owners by a direct bounty of of^er forty 
 per cent on all the silver they can produce, which is the 
 gravest objection. It is not so understood by the large 
 number of farmers and others who advocate it as a means 
 of relief from their present burdened condition. But the 
 mine owners who meet in convention and resolve unani- 
 mously to insist upon free coinage of their product, very 
 well understand v;hat it means to them. 
 
 It is proposed that the nation shall buy all the silver 
 which may be offered, paying for it in coined silver 
 dollars or in silver certificates, on a basis of one 
 dollar for an amount of silver equal to that in our 
 silver dollar. That is to say, to pay one dollar for an 
 amount of silver which is now worth less than seventy 
 cents. And to buy all that is offered, on this basis. 
 
186 SUBSIDIZIl^G SILVER MINE OWNERS 
 
 But advocates of free coinage tell us that we do not 
 propose to buy silver at all, but only to coin it for the 
 mine owners. That is a quibble, li is proposed io receive 
 silver in exchange for silver dollars. If that is not buying, 
 pray tell how we do when we buy? And we would, of 
 course, continue to exchange our gold for silver dollars 
 with those who wished to exchange. 
 
 We have been subsidizing copper mine owners, and 
 steel rail makers, and white lead trusts, and' in one way 
 and another a great many other monopolists, but this is 
 the boldest proposal yet, to pay a direct subsidy to a lot 
 of millionaires as a means of relief for the distress of the 
 toiling millions, and the proposal advocated by some of 
 the toilers 1 This would be decidedly a case of protection 
 to an " infant" millionaire industry I 
 
 When the government needs silver for coin or for 
 bullion it should continue to buy it in the market at the 
 market price. There is no good reason and there can be 
 none why the nation should pay silver producers or any 
 body else a price for their product greater than such 
 articles are worth in the markets. We should have 
 national coinage of silver and of gold. The nation should 
 make and should issue all money and should have all 
 the profit accruing therefrom, and all the people not 
 silver mine owners more than bankers should receive 
 the benefit. 
 
CHAPTER XXXI 
 
 THE SUB-TREASURY PLAN. FIVE OBJECTIONS SET 
 FORTH. LOANS UPON LAND SECURITY. 
 
 The proposed sub-treasury scheme has merits and demerits. 
 The objections to it are, not that the government may not 
 do a legitimate banking business, may not loan money to 
 the people under proper conditions, but are, 1. That 
 money should not be loaned on any property security in 
 as large proportion as eighty per cent of its value; 2. 
 Nor upon any farm product for a longer time than from 
 three to six months; 3. Nor at as low a rate of interest 
 as 2 per cent ; 4- Nor should the government make an 
 issue of treasury notes for the sole purpose of loaning it 
 to the people ; 5. Nor should such issue be made at one 
 season of the year to be cancelled at another. The 
 proposition that the government loan money to the peo- 
 ple on land security is also unwise. 
 
 1. Loans should not be made upon any kind of property 
 for more than one-half its value. A loan of eighty per 
 cent of the value upon farm products would in many 
 cases be equivalent to purchasing the product. Such 
 products are subject to frequent fluctuations in value. 
 The price is liable to either increase or decrease at any 
 time or season. Sometimes the price drops materially 
 soon after a harvest. California dried peaches sold 
 readily at twenty cents per pound from the ranches in 
 October, 1890, and within sixty days could not be sold at 
 
 187 
 
188 DURATION OF LOANS 
 
 fifteen cents per pound. Errors are liable in appraisinc 
 values. The cost of holding constantly adds to the 
 amount of the loan. As usual, the amount of the mort- 
 gage surely and constantly grows, while the value of the 
 property may not. The legitimate province of loaning 
 money does not include the probability of having to take 
 the property in exchange for the money loaned. What- 
 ever business the nation undertakes to do, it should do in 
 a business way, and the business of loaning money does 
 not contemplate loaning such an amount upon property as 
 would be liable to result in a purchase of the goods in 
 payment of the loan. 
 
 2. Loans upon farm products should not he for a longer 
 time than six months^ and better be for not over three 
 months. 
 
 It is not usually good policy to hold farm products 
 longer than a few weeks after they are ready for market, 
 for an advance in price. The cost of extra handling, 
 storage, insurance, interest, shrinkage, and other losses, 
 will usually more than offset any probable advance in 
 price, if longer held. While it frequently pays to hold 
 for a short time for an advance, it is certainly not often 
 wise to hold crops for six or nine months for a higher 
 price. Such holding tends to a cumulation of crops by 
 piling one upon another, and would also, from the cost of 
 holding, almost invariably result in loss. 
 
 Besides, the holding of property which one does not 
 need, and which is not in itself growing in value, for an 
 advance in price, is done upon speculation gambling in 
 futures which is always delusive and dangerous, and 
 the risk is greater in articles which are perishable (and 
 most farm products are more or less so), and still more 
 
MONEY AT TWO PER CENT 189 
 
 so^where one owes for the property. And it would be 
 very unwise on the part of the government to undertake, 
 systematically, to encourage such speculative holdings by 
 furnishing to an entire body of producers in several 
 states the money with which to carry on such specu- 
 lation. 
 
 3. Money should not he loaned to the people at as low a 
 rate as two per cent per annum. 
 
 It is true that our government has issued sorrie two per 
 cent bonds, but they are not readily salable except to the 
 national banks as a basis for their issue of notes. British 
 Consols pay two and a half per cent, and that is the low- 
 est rate at which any nation or corporate power can 
 regularly obtain money. It is very evident that our 
 government should not loan money at the lowest rate at 
 which it can possibly borrow. The business of loaning 
 money cannot be done without a profit any more readily 
 than can the business of selling calico or potatoes be done 
 without a profit. The rate of interest upon money, 
 whether loaned by the nation, by a bank or by any one 
 else, must depend upon supply and demand, and upon 
 locality, amount, conditions, security and time. 
 
 The demand that the government shall loan money to 
 the people at two per cent savors entirely too much of 
 that socialism which demands something for nothing and 
 which is not socialism but communism. 
 
 4. The government shoidd not make an issue of treasury 
 notes for the sole purpose of loaning to the people. 
 
 The first effect of such a general loan would be to make 
 a sudden expansion of currency, to increase indebtedness, 
 to increase business hazards, to encourage speculation, to 
 inflate values, to induce lavish expenditures and extrav- 
 
190 LOANS ON LAND SECURITY 
 
 agant living, and to decrease farm production by decreas- 
 ing the necessity for labor and increasing the proportion 
 of middlemen, speculators and gentlemen of leisure. The 
 secondary effect of such a loan would be a depreciation 
 of currency which would inevitably result in financial 
 disaster to the nation and in widespread loss and ruin 
 to many people. Temporary loans in moderate amounts 
 might be safely made, but not such loans by wholesale. 
 
 5. The government should not issue treasury notes at one 
 season of the year to he cancelled at another, unless new 
 issues were made to replace those cancelled, for the result 
 of periodic issues and cancellations would be to produce 
 frequent expansions and contractions of the currency 
 which could not be foreseen, and would operate to 
 unsettle financial and business affairs. 
 
 Loans on land security. The proposition to issue 
 treasury notes to be loaned to the people on land security 
 is open to all the objections of an issue to be loaned upon 
 farm products, and to other objections which do not 
 exist in the latter case. 
 
 The farmer's products are for sale. For him to obtain 
 a loan upon his products for a limited time in order 
 to enable him to effect an advantageous sale is not 
 open to serious objection. It is better for him to manage 
 without borrowing if he can, but it is at times excusable 
 or even desirable for him to borrow on his products. 
 
 But the Jarmer^s land is not for sale if he intends to con- 
 tinue to work the farm. A mortgage is a sale. When the 
 farmer borrows money upon his land he sells his land to 
 secure payment of the loan, and then undertakes to 
 redeem it by paying the loan with interest. It is the 
 mortgages on the farms that we need to get rid of. The 
 
THE BURDEN OF A MORTGAGE 191 
 
 farm mortgage burden should be lifted, and the hazard- 
 ous, disastrous practice of mortgaging farms should be, 
 as far as possible, abolished. 
 
 It is far better for a man to be a tenant farmer than to 
 bear the burden of a heavily mortgaged farm. The man 
 in the former condition is " as free as a bird " as com- 
 pared with him who struggles under the load of a large 
 mortgage. The care, the worry, the anxiety, the never 
 ending toil, the scrimping and saving, the want and hard- 
 ship of those who contend with the often almost hopeless 
 task of paying a mortgage on the farm, will hurry a man 
 or woman to an untimely grave faster than almost any 
 other financial evil which could possibly beset them. 
 
 There are times when, as a result of adverse circum- 
 stances a man has got behind and is unable to carry on 
 his business without a loan, it is best to make a loan on 
 the farm. But a man should not begin with a mortgage, 
 should not start out in that way, should not incur debt 
 when it can possibly be avoided, should avoid expendi- 
 tures which may lead to a mortgage, should avoid a heavy 
 mortgage as he would a pestilence. 
 
 Should the government offer to loan money on lands to 
 the amount of one-half their value, at four or five per 
 cent on long time, the temptation to borrow would be too 
 strong for very many people to resist, and there would be 
 a large demand for the money. And an issue of the 
 amount of money which would be called for would result 
 in such an expansion of the currency as would inevitably, 
 beyond the possibility of doubt, lead to much extrava- 
 gance and speculation, and would end in a general finan- 
 cial panic, in widespread business disaster, and in 
 poverty and want. 
 
192 MORTGAGING THE HOME, KOT THE WAY OUT 
 
 Going into debt, borrowing money upon land, specula- 
 tion in land, needless expenditure and extravagant living, 
 are evils which should not be encouraged. Permanent 
 relief for the burdened laboring classes does not lie in the 
 direction of putting mortgages on their homes. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXII 
 
 taxatioX'-various ways of raising revenues 
 some general principles for taxation. 
 
 The methods of raising revenues in our country, are, 
 to a considerable extent, primitive, cumbersome and 
 unwise ; in many respects they are vicious favoring the 
 rich and oppressing the poor. In the matter of taxation 
 we have much to learn, and much room for improvement, 
 and in this direction we must look for ways and means 
 of lightening some of the present heavy burdens of our 
 industrial classes. 
 
 In order to raise money to defray the expenses of 
 government various means have been employed. Taxes 
 have been levied upon imports and exports ; upon prop- 
 erty of all kinds and upon persons ; upon luxuries and 
 vices ; upon business, incomes and legacies. Nations 
 raise revenues from the ownership and conduct of mines, 
 fisheries, forests and other great natural opportunities ; 
 by the sale, lease or improvement of public lands j by 
 
THE BEST PLAN FOR RAISING REVENUES 193 
 
 the granting of franchises and other privileges ; by- 
 coining money and by banking ; by the construction and 
 operation of canals, railways, bridges and other public 
 works ; by conducting a mail service, telegraph service, 
 and in various other ways. Municipalities raise revenues 
 by owning and operating gas, electric and water works, 
 street car lines, and by constructing and operating 
 other municipal improvements for public uses. 
 
 The most desirable, least burdensome, and least objec- 
 tionable method of raising revenue for the support of 
 government, is for the government to own and manage 
 all public means of transportation and communication 
 and other great public monopolies, and to derive a 
 profit from carrying on such business. This would be 
 a decided improvement over any method of taxation. This 
 is a part of the advantages which should result from gov- 
 ernment ownership of railway and telegraph lines, of coal 
 fields and of other mines and great natural opportunities 
 for acquiring wealth. Australia is leading the countries 
 of the world in this as in some other great reforms, and 
 is now deriving a part of the income needed for the 
 support of its government by such means. The German 
 government derives an income from its railways and its 
 coal mines. 
 
 Some general principles of taxation. Until we become 
 sufficiently enlightened and practical to raise the needed 
 revenues for government support by wiser methods, we 
 shall still be compelled to tax ourselves for that purpose, 
 and we should adopt some wiser methods than now pre- 
 vail in the nation and in many states of the Union. 
 
 1. Taxes should be so levied as to be paid by the people 
 in proportion to their ability to pay them. Taxes are 
 
194 OBJECTIONS TO SOME OF OUR METHODS 
 
 usually levied at a uniform rate upon all property, 
 regardless of its productiveness, of its utility or of the 
 ability of the owners to pay. The farmer, the laborer, 
 the common people, who are taxed upon all they 
 possess and upon much of what they consume, pay 
 a greater proportion of tax than do the rich, whose 
 property is usually not as fully assessed and which to a 
 much larger extent escapes taxation altogether. A tax 
 upon articles consumed upon the necessaries of life 
 bears especially heavy upon the poor, for a tax upon con- 
 sumption, in the case of the poor w^ho need to use all or 
 nearly all their earnings to provide the necessaries of life, 
 means a heavy tax upon nearly every dollar earned, while 
 in the case of the rich it is a tax on only a very small part 
 of their income. 
 
 Besides, in the case of taxes upon imports, higher 
 rates are often charged upon articles of the most common 
 necessity than upon those used as luxuries. Our tariff 
 rates are higher upon common fabrics of cotton and wool, 
 than upon finer ones of wool, fur and silk, and this is a 
 serious objection to our present tariff. 
 
 There is a class of people who are either morally, 
 intellectually or physically incompetent for respectable 
 self support. Of this class are the dependents, paupers, 
 criminals and others who are partly or wholly supported 
 by state or private charity. Above this class this " sub- 
 merged tenth" is a large number who are endeavoring, 
 struggling now succeeding and now failing to provide 
 for themselves and to be respectable, self-supporting citi- 
 zens. Among these are the poor, the ignorant, the weak, 
 the infirm, those who are not well employed or are poorly 
 paid, those who have met with reverses or mishaps, those 
 
LAY NO BURDENS, ETC. 195 
 
 who have but little, and either have no homes of their own 
 or very humble ones. To tax such people for any purpose 
 is barbarous. Such should be assisted rather than ham- 
 pered in their struggle for life. 
 
 It is a first duty of governments to protect and help 
 tlie weak, to make it as easy as possible for men to be 
 honest, upright, respectable, self-supporting, and to lay 
 no burdens upon those who are unable to bear them. 
 They should not be taxed. To tax such is oppression 
 like unto the exactions of an absolute monarch of a por- 
 tion of the substance of his toiling serfs. 
 
 An amount covering the value of an humble home 
 should be exempt from the taxation of property used for 
 a home, and an amount covering the value of the most nec- 
 essary articles of household effects should also be exempt 
 from tax. An exemption (of perhaps $800 to $1,200), vary- 
 ing indifferent states, should be made in the assessment of 
 the home and its belongings, to the end that those who have 
 so little shall not be taxed. Some states have such 
 exemptions, but many have not. To exempt those who 
 are unable to pay, or upon whom such payment would 
 be a hardship not easily borne should be the first princi- 
 ple of taxation. 
 
 2. Taxes upon property should be mainly upon the nat- 
 ural opportunities for acquiring wealth, and not upon the 
 products of labor upon lands, mines, franchises ; not 
 upon tools, machinery, improvements. 
 
 Land derives its value from the community, from the 
 whole people, because of the presence, the labors, the 
 needs of the whole. As the community gives value to 
 the land, society as a whole, the state, should exact a large 
 part of its revenues from the land. Every good citizen, 
 
196 A REMEDY FOR LAND SPECULATION 
 
 by his residence, whether he have much or little property, 
 adds value to the land in the locality where he resides. 
 The town lots of the city and the lands in the country 
 are valuable in proportion to the number of resident 
 population and the general wealth of the people. 
 
 Aside from other reasons why land is and should be 
 the chief subject of property taxation, this principle, that 
 that which is made valuable by the whole people should 
 pay tribute to the whole, is a suflQcient reason why land 
 should bear the principal burden of the property tax. 
 And by a similar process of reasoning, that which the 
 individual has made for himself, has accumulated by his 
 labor and care, should be favored in the matter of taxation; 
 should, as far as may be found practicable and equitable, 
 be relieved from taxation. 
 
 Another and more important reason why lands and 
 other natural opportunities should be made to bear the 
 large share of property tax, and a reason based more upon 
 practical and less upon ethical grounds, is, that a heavy 
 tax upon lands, and especially upon unused lands, acts 
 as a remedy for one of the great causes of poverty, waste 
 and loss, speculation in land. This evil is so great, so 
 widespread, so far reaching, so disastrous, so beyond all 
 control from good momls or any other ordinary means, that 
 we may well apply this as the only possible remedy for 
 the evil. By making lands and city lots and mines and 
 franchises pay a large part of the burden of taxation we 
 shall certainly lessen the evils of land speculation. It 
 would tend to the holding of land for use only. 
 
 It would also be a check upon land monopoly, upon 
 the holding of land in large bodies by wealthy men and 
 speculators to the injury of those who need land for nee. 
 
A KEMEDY FOR LAND MONOPOLY AND LAND POVERTY 197 
 
 It would open the way for many people of small means 
 who need a piece of land or a town lot for a home but 
 cannot now obtain it, to secure what they need. And it 
 would induce the holding of only so much land as one 
 could well improve and bring to a high state of cultiva- 
 tion. 
 
 It is an evil in this country of much land, that many 
 men hold more of it than they can profitably cultivate 
 or otherwise care for. Fifty acres of land well tilled will 
 usually bring a larger income than will one hundred 
 acres poorly tilled, while saving the cost of fencing, cul- 
 tivating and payiiig taxes on the larger tract. As a rule, 
 in our country men try to hold and improve more land 
 than they have the capital or labor to make profitable; 
 and anything that could be done equitably to discourage 
 the holding of unused or poorly used land, and to 
 encourage a high state of cultivation, would make for the 
 farmers comfort and independence. 
 
 The farmer is liable to think that the value of a town 
 lot is small as compared with land for a farm. This is 
 not the case. Desirable town lots cost about as much as 
 desirable pieces of vacant land for farms, and it is about 
 as diflicult for a poor man in the city to obtain a good 
 lot for a home as for the farmer to secure a good piece of 
 ground for a farm ; perhaps more so, as city lots are 
 more often held upon speculation and above their value 
 than is farming land. While the land of the farmer and of 
 the city resident should be fully taxed, the tools, orchards, 
 stock and fences of the farmer, the tools and machinery 
 of the mechanic, and the goods and fixtures of the mer- 
 chant and shop-keeper should be exempt from taxation. 
 The direct product of labor, and especially the appli- 
 
198 A SINGLE PROPERTY TAX 
 
 ances for use by the laborer, should be relieved from 
 taxation as far as practicable, while the burden of tax so 
 far as it is necessary to raise it from property may well 
 be borne by the land man's natural heritage, a part of 
 which should be within the reach of every man that he 
 may provide himself with a home. 
 
 3. Taxes upon property should he only on such property 
 as is tangible and may not easily escape assessment, and 
 should be upon the thing itself, and not upon rhortgages, 
 stocks, bonds or other divided or separate ownership or token 
 of ownership. 
 
 Land and fixed improvements upon the land buildings, 
 railway tracks, telegraph lines, and other stationary 
 property best answer this description, and are really 
 the only kinds of property which need be taxed. Such 
 property is readily found and must inevitably pay the 
 taxes levied, while personal property is often not so 
 easily found and much of it escapes taxation, so that 
 where personal property is taxed the burden is not uni- 
 form. Again, the value of real property for assessment 
 is fixed by the officials whose duty it is to place a value 
 upon it and these assessed values are uniform, while 
 personal property is usually valued for taxation by the 
 owners, and the assessed values vary with the varying 
 judgment and conscience of the different owners. 
 
 Again, the greater the number of articles taxed the 
 greater the cost of assessment and levy. And as a whole 
 the people are benefited by simplicity in the methods of 
 taxation. 
 
 In view of these and other reasons, most enlightened 
 nations no longer tax personal property. In this as in 
 many other things the people of this great republic are 
 
DISADVANTAGES OF MORTGAGE TAXES 199 
 
 behind the age. We have a very productive farm, but we 
 have not, in many respects, learned how to properly till 
 the farm, care for our estate or manage our household. 
 
 The government should not be concerned about the 
 ownership of property assessed. It should look to the 
 property and the property alone to pay the tax. No kind 
 of property should pay more than one tax, and the person 
 in possession should be held for that tax. There can be 
 no possible advantage to any one from an assessment of 
 stocks, bonds, mortgages and credits, and such a system 
 adds to the cost, the annoyance, the vexation, the bur- 
 den of the collection of taxes. The property must pay 
 the tax. It is no relief to the owner to have his debt 
 upon the property assessed to his creditor. The owner 
 must foot all the bills. 
 
 We should tax a railway company and a farmer in the 
 same manner. Tax the property of the company, not its 
 stocks and bonds. The road is the source of all wealth 
 of the company and must pay everything taxes, interest 
 on bonds, dividends on stock, etc. And there is no 
 advantage to the farmer in taxing the mortgage on his 
 farm. The farmer or the farm must ultimately pay all 
 the charges taxes, interest, insurance, assessments and 
 costs of whatever kind, and the government cannot 
 assist him by assuming to elect that his creditor shall 
 help to pay his taxes. 
 
 A tax upon realties upon land and fixed improvements 
 upon the land, comes nearest to answering all the requi- 
 sites for the basis of a simple, uniform, impartial, 
 economic, sufficient property tax. It is true that objections 
 may be raised to such a basis of taxation, but greater 
 objections exist to any other system of property taxation. 
 
CHAPTER XXXIII 
 
 NECESSITY FOR AN INCOME TAX. EXPERIENCE 
 OF OTHER COUNTRIES. OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED. 
 
 Taxes should be laid upon incomes as well as upon 
 property. No tax upon property alone, of few or many 
 kinds, is sufficient as a basis for a uniform, complete, 
 impartial system of taxation. 
 
 There is a large proportion of people who have little 
 property but have good incomes, and are well able to pay 
 and should pay their full share of tax burdens, and yet 
 who, under our present system, are almost or entirely 
 exempt from taxation. Among this class are those 
 working upon salaries in the employment of government, 
 of railway, telegraph, manufacturing or other corporations; 
 men engaged in real estate, insurance, and many other 
 kinds of business, and who have good incomes, who live 
 well, spend money freely and take the world easy, but 
 who acquire little property, and under our system do not 
 at all, in proportion to ability,, bear their share of the 
 cost of government support. In this respect " They toil 
 not, neither do they spin." They receive the full benefit 
 of the social compact and bear no part of the expense of 
 maintaining it. It does not require the ability of a great 
 statesman to see that in this regard our system is defect- 
 ive. Here is a young man in railway employ receiving 
 
 200 
 
THE INCOME TAX THE MOST EQUITABLE ONE 201 
 
 $1,200 a year and spending it all and paying no taxes. 
 And here a mechanic working for $2 a day who is 
 assessed $1,000 upon his property and pays $25 yearly 
 taxes. 
 
 Then there are many rich people who have large 
 incomes, derived from mining, banking, manufacturing, 
 transportation or other lucrative business, and whose pay- 
 ment of taxes from property assessments is not at all 
 commensurate with their ability to pay. 
 
 A tax upon incomes is in fact the most equitable sys- 
 tem of taxation which can possibly be devised, because 
 the amount of income received by each individual is the 
 best measure of his ability to bear a share of the expense 
 of government. And a tax upon incomes alone forms a 
 much better system of taxation than that upon property 
 only. 
 
 For half a century the revenues of the United Kingdom 
 have been raised mostly by a tax upon incomes and with 
 no property tax. Switzerland and Prussia also have 
 income taxes. And these taxes are uniformly approved 
 by the people of these countries and are fully established 
 as a settled principle of government. 
 
 The question arises, ^' Why then do we not adopt a sys- 
 tem of income taxes?" There are several reasons. The 
 leading one is that an income tax would compel capital- 
 ists to pay their proportion of taxes, consequently they 
 do not favor such a tax, and, as usual, the interests of 
 the rich rather than of the poor are considered by many 
 of our modern politicians. Again there is our honored 
 system of prohibitory tariff taxes, and the prohibitory 
 party, especially, denounces any proposed plan of raising 
 revenues which might perchance interfere with the benign 
 
202 OBJECTIONS TO AN INCOME TAX CONSIDERED 
 
 operations of our high tariffs. And from these premises 
 it follows that the political papers and leaders workinc; 
 for party success and in the interest of corporations and 
 capitalists find ready arguments in opposition to this as 
 to other proposed reforms. 
 
 The objections usually raised to an income tax are that 
 it is " inquisitorial," would make the assessor a spy upon 
 every man's business, accounts and affairs ; that it acts 
 as a premium upon dishonesty and perjury,and bears hard- 
 est upon the honest man; and that our high spirited, free, 
 independent American citizens will never submit to such 
 a law 1 
 
 Those who make such objections do not see, or at least 
 do not call attention to the fact, that these objections 
 hold in a greater degree against all taxes upon personal 
 property. The citizen is catechised as to the value of his 
 household goods, his beds, bedding, kitchen utensils, his 
 money, notes, credits, pigs, poultry, watches and every 
 earthly thing which he possesses. And is this not 
 *' inquisitorial ? " And do not the dishonest, in assessing 
 such property, cover up as much as possible the extent 
 and value of their possessions? And does this not act as 
 a premium upon perjury ? 
 
 All such objections against an income tax may be made 
 with greater force against a tax upon personal property. 
 And how about tariff taxes? Are not they " inquisitorial? " 
 No other tax system calls for such rigid question and 
 search of one's baggage, clothing, personal effects and 
 even of one's person. How is that for inquisitorial ? 
 
 These objections would not be valid or admissible in 
 the case of those employed upon salary, nor would it in 
 most other cases be as difficult to determine the one item 
 
THERE SHOULD BE NO DOUBLE TAX 203 
 
 of income as it would to find the ownership and fix the 
 value of a long list of goods, wares, chattels and effects. 
 
 In all of these particulars it is easier, more simple, 
 more practicable to arrive at a just and uniform assess- 
 ment of the value of incomes, taking the people as a 
 whole, than to equitably assess their personal propert3\ 
 And the most of those who object to an income tax do 
 not object to the personal tax. 
 
 However, granting that there would be difficulty in 
 rightly assessing the value of incomes in a certain pro- 
 portion of cases, just as there is in an assessment of per- 
 sonalties, the fact will still remain that there is a large 
 proportion of people who are abundantly able to pay a 
 full share of the cost of government maintenance, but 
 who now escape bearing their part of this burden and 
 will continue to do so until we adopt an income tax, and 
 the fact remains that there can be no equitable system of 
 taxation which does not include the income tax. 
 
 The income tax should not be made a double tax. The 
 individual should not be taxed on his income and equally 
 on property from which the income is partly or wholly 
 derived. The amount of tax upon the farm, the mill, the 
 store, the shop or other property from which income is 
 derived should be deducted from the amount of tax upon 
 income. 
 
 Some writers upon this subject contend that there 
 should be no deductions from the amount of income tax 
 on account of any tax upon property from which the in- 
 come is derived. They reason that a tax upon incomes 
 is a measure of relief to those who are taxed upon prop- 
 erty, because it compels many to pay taxes who have no 
 property, or to pay in excess of their property tax, and, 
 
204 INCOME TAX EXEMPTIONS 
 
 consequently, that those who are benefited by this tax 
 should not object if under the new system they are 
 required to pay their proportion of the income tax, as 
 well. It is clear that an income tax acts as a measure of 
 relief to those taxed upon property, but we cannot see 
 that this is a reason why those who have property should 
 be doubly taxed in order to reach those who have none. 
 Such taxation would tend to make the holding of property 
 unprofitable, and would discourage the owning of property. 
 
 One advantage of an income tax is, that it favors the 
 holding of property by placing a share of tax burdens 
 on those who have no property and thus lessens the bur- 
 dens of those who have homes of their own. 
 
 The tax on incomes should be only on the surplus over 
 an amount required for a comfortable living of a family 
 in humble circumstances. A reasonable exemption, in 
 most states, would probably be $500, of income, not sub- 
 ject to tax. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIV 
 
 A TAX ON INHERITANCES. ADVANTAGES OF SUCH 
 A TAX. 
 
 Wealth is omnipotent. It dominates all interests. It 
 rules in social, in business and in state affairs. The will 
 of the man who counts his wealth by millions is often 
 more potent in deciding affairs of the community and of 
 the state than is the voice of a thousand men who are 
 dependent on their daily toil for support. 
 
THE ARISTOCRACY OF WEALTH 205 
 
 The aggressive power of the men of great wealth, who, 
 to a large extent, control transportation, manufacturing, 
 mining and other great industries ; who form oil, sugar, 
 beef and other trusts and dictate the prices of the neces- 
 saries of life ; and who so largely dominate in the enact- 
 ment and administration of the laws, has come to be a 
 great tax upon the industries, a drain upon the wealth, 
 and a bar to the progress of the laboring classes, and is a 
 menace to the success of popular government. 
 
 This grave evil, the accumulation of vast wealth in 
 the hands of a few men, is being constantly augmented 
 by the transmission of these accumulations from gene- 
 ration to generation, thus perpetuating a monied class, an 
 aristocracy of wealth, which is not in harmony with 
 American character or with our Republican institutions. 
 
 The founders of this great Republic set out to establish 
 a true Democracy, a nation ruled by its common people, 
 where the laws should be in the interest of all, where no 
 class should have special favors and where aristocrats 
 should be unknown. 
 
 They sought to found a nation where the common peo- 
 ple should not be ruled and oppressed by a king and 
 nobility who assumed entire ownership of the land and 
 full power to rule over their fellow men, and whose power 
 was perpetuated by the entail of assumed ownership and 
 authority from the father to the oldest son. And they 
 thought to insure the people from the domination of an 
 aristocracy by abrogation of the law of primogeniture. 
 But, in these latter days, a new aristocracy has arisen 
 an aristocracy of wealth, which, like the landed and titled 
 aristocracies of Europe, is dominant and oppressive, and 
 measures are demanded to abate this aggressive power. 
 
206 LIMITING THE TRANSMISSION OF GREAT FORTUNES 
 
 This is one of the problems with which we are con- 
 fronted. We may enact laws, institute reforms and in- 
 augurate enterprises by the state, tending to produce 
 more nearly an equilibrium of wealth production and 
 distribution. But what shall we do to curtail the power 
 of the aristocracy which now exists, and which, under 
 our laws, is being perpetuated and increased in numbers 
 and in power? How shall we place limits upon enor- 
 mous aggregations of wealth in few hands? There should 
 be some method of putting limitations upon the power of 
 the " dangerous wealthy classes," and though we may not 
 restrict legitimate acquisitions, we can at least limit the 
 transmission of large accumulations, and this may be done 
 properly and effectively by a graduated tax upon estates. 
 
 Besides, as elsewhere shown, much of the wealth of 
 millionaires is not the result of legitimate earning and 
 saving. It has been drawn from its rightful sources by 
 exorbitant charges for public service, by exactions from 
 labor, by abstractions from the public domain, by mon- 
 opoly, jobbery and plunder. Much of this wealth be- 
 longs of right, to the people who produced it, and a tax 
 upon estates would be a measure of compensation. 
 
 The rights, the property, the liberty of the individual 
 are always subject to the interests of the community. 
 The interests of society are paramount to those of the 
 individual. The city or state confiscates or prohibits the 
 use of the property of the brewer, the tanner, the soap 
 maker, the butcher, when such use is deemed prejudicial 
 to the interests of the community. The state prescribes 
 rules for the possession and right use of property.. At 
 every step in life, in endeavoring to carry out our own 
 desires are we met by the requirements of the state. 
 
OBJECTS TO BE GAINED BY A TAX UPON ESTATES 207 
 
 If the state prescribes conditions under which a man 
 may acquire and transfer property during his life, it 
 more narrowly specifies what may be done with his 
 property after his death. Testamentary rights are often 
 much limited. The state may well prescribe what may 
 be done with a man's estate after his death, and from 
 no other source may it look for a provision for a consid- 
 erable part of its revenues with less probability of hard- 
 ship to any one, or with as much benefit to the commun- 
 ity, as from a scaled tax upon estates, and especially by 
 a heavy tax upon estates of millionaires. And in this 
 way may we place some restriction upon the perpetuation 
 of our aristocracy of wealth. 
 
 This could be done without hardship or burden to any 
 one, and by a just, wise and beneficent use of the powers 
 and prerogatives of the state. In this way could be 
 effected an ample provision of funds for schools, libraries, 
 hospitals, reformatories and for many other benevolent 
 state purposes and beneficial public improvements. It 
 would also act as a relief to the poor from the burden of 
 taxation, and to reduce taxes upon realties. It would 
 lessen the incentive to the acquisition of great fortunes 
 and be an incentive to men of wealth to devote much of 
 their means and energies to humanitarian labors and to 
 make benevolent bequests during life. It would tend to 
 improve the financial conditions of the poor and middle 
 classes by a partial redistribution of accumulated wealth. 
 And it would act as a restriction upon the aggressive and 
 dangerous power of the very wealthy classes, and to lessen 
 the extent of our aristocracy of wealth by reducing the 
 amount transmitted from parent to child. 
 
 A graduated tax upon estates should be premised by 
 
208 OBJECTS TO BE GAINED BY A TAX UPON ESTATES 
 
 certain exemptions. All estates of those dying possessed 
 of but a moderate amount of wealth, such an amount as 
 would be required as a reasonable provision for the family 
 and dependent friends of the decedent, should be exempt 
 from tax. In making allowance for exemption, the con- 
 ditions and needs of those dependent upon the estate 
 should be considered. 
 
 As a sugi,'estion to illustrate the principle here advo- 
 cated, the following scale is presented: 
 
 Estates valued at less than $20,000, to be exempt from 
 taxation. 
 
 Estates valued at 
 
 $20,000 to $1 00,000 to pay a 10 per cent tax 
 100,000 to 500,000 " 15 " 
 
 600,000 to 5,000,000 " 20 " 
 
 Over 5,000,000 " 25 " " 
 
 In each case the lesser rates to apply on the lesser 
 amounts, and in each case liberal provision for dependent 
 persons to be made, precedent to the tax. 
 
 Such a tax on estates, like a tax on incomes will not, 
 as a rule, be advocated by the wealthy classes. Nor can 
 we expect the ordinary politician or party leader to advo- 
 cate such a measure, but rather to denounce it as a 
 measure of state confiscation, and as being in the direction 
 of communism. Nevertheless, the principle is correct 
 and will find plenty of able advocates. 
 
PART IV. 
 
 AFTERMATH. RESULTS AND LESSONS OF 
 
 THE CAMPAIGN OF 1892. THE POLIT- 
 
 ICAL OUTLOOK 
 
CHAPTER XXXV 
 
 A TIME FOR COUNCIL AND A TIME FOR WAR, SOME 
 
 QUESTIONS SETTLED. AN OBSTACLE REMOVED. 
 
 A REFORM THAT LANGUISHES 
 
 I intended to have had this work published before the 
 opening of the political campaign of this year, but, not 
 having sufficient time to give to the matter, was dis- 
 appointed in this. I hoped that my labors might, in a 
 small way, help in the canvas to further the progress of 
 some needed reforms. 
 
 But it is perhaps as well for the success of my work 
 that the publication was delayed. During a political 
 campaign, the ordinary citizen is a partisan. He" belongs 
 to " one of the contending armies. He stands for the 
 platform and the candidates of his party. He does not 
 allow himself to admit that there are weaknesses in the 
 position of his party, or that other parties have merits 
 which his has not. He is not, for the time, an inde- 
 pendent thinker, or an unbiased advocate. He does not, 
 for the time, permit himself to assist any cause which is 
 not in harmony with the aims of his party, or which may 
 jeopardize its success. 
 
 There is a small contingent of independent thinkers 
 and voters who are at all times ready to help a good 
 
 211 
 
212 THE INDEPENDENT THINKER. AUSTRALIAN BALLOT 
 
 cause. During a campaign this number is reduced to a 
 minimum, but when the campaign is over, the proportion 
 of partisans decreases, and the ordinary citizen is much 
 more ready to listen to the advocates of measures which 
 have been opposed or not adopted by his party. During 
 the late campaign the proportion of independent thinkers 
 was much larger than in the previous ones, and since the 
 dimensions of the political landslide have become known 
 there are great accessions to the ranks of those who are 
 seekers after the true and the right way in political 
 affairs. So that my opinions upon political problems 
 will doubtless be better received by a majority of those 
 who give them a consideration than they would have 
 been during the campaign. 
 
 Besides, it affords opportunity to note the lessons, the 
 results and the probable consequences of the campaign ; 
 the work already accomplished ; the obstacles in the way 
 of progress practically removed ; and to consider the 
 prospects of questions and of parties in the future. 
 
 Sovie icorl accomplished. One legislative reform, the 
 benign effects of which have been apparent in nearly 
 every state of the Union, is now an accomplished fact. 
 The Australian ballot has come to stay. In most cases 
 the reform is complete ; in some cases correction is 
 needed. The adoption of this reform, against the oppo- 
 sition of many leading politicians, marks an era in the 
 progress of popular government. It puts us a long way 
 on the road toward reaching a clean ballot, and an honest, 
 economic and efficient conduct of public affairs. 
 
 No party is entitled to any special credit for inaug- 
 urating this reform. It was quite generally opposed by 
 the politicians and the bosses, but was upheld by the 
 
EDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATIONS FOR VOTERS 213 
 
 intelligent, thinking masses The American nation should 
 doff its hat to the Australian government for this pro- 
 nounced reform which it has given us without charge for 
 copyright. 
 
 Another legislative reform which is of even greater 
 importance than ballot reform, and which is now fairly 
 before the American people, and which is coming rapidly 
 and coming to stay, is the decree that intelligence shall 
 rule throughout the land and that ignorance shall take a 
 back seat. The people of California voted almost unan- 
 imously at the late election in favor of an educational 
 qualification for voters ; requiring that each voter shall 
 be able to read and write in the English language. 
 
 This reform will relieve us of much of the incubus of 
 ignorance and vice with which the body politic is weighted, 
 and will make it much easier to carry needed reforms by 
 appeals to the judgment and conscience of intelligent 
 voters. The ignorant, bigoted, superstitious, depraved 
 foreign or native born black, brown or white, will not 
 much longer hold a balance of power which is largely 
 wielded in the interest of a corrupt management of public 
 affairs. . The Australian ballot and the educational qual- 
 ification for voters, together, will do much to lift us out 
 of the "slough of despond" in which we have been held 
 by the degrading influence and power of ignorant and 
 venal voters. They will to a great extent counteract the 
 vicious influence of the slum vote. 
 
 And still another legislative reform which has been 
 advocated for several years by a handful of reformers, 
 the election of United States Senators (and Presidents, 
 as well,) by direct vote of the people, in the late campaign 
 for the first time received substantial endorsement. 
 
214 EEMOVAL OF THE TARIFF ISSUE 
 
 California pronounced for this reform. It, too, is comin<; 
 and with little opposition. And then millonaires will 
 no longer buy places in our upper house. 
 
 Also, during the late canvas the question of restricting 
 undesirable immigration received more attention than 
 ever before. Jt is now fairly before the people and will 
 be considered without much delay. 
 
 Not only have we made progress toward the adoption 
 of some of these minor reforms, but that greatest obsta- 
 cle in the way of success of the greater political reforms 
 (unless we except party prejudice) the tariff question, 
 which has been the dominant issue in American politics 
 for the past two to three decades, monopolizing the 
 attention of the people almost to the total exclusion of all 
 other questions, has at last received its death blow as an 
 issue. The campaign of 1892 will relieve the nation of 
 the incubus of monopoly tariffs and of the incubus of 
 the tariff question as a monopoly issue in politics, as 
 well. 
 
 This issue has been as a solid wall, blocking the way 
 of progress. For many years have the advocates of 
 moral and economic reforms been hoping for the extinc- 
 tion of this question as an issue, and there is great 
 rejoicing all along the line of reformers at the good 
 prospect of its final demolition. Questions that are of 
 the utmost importance to us will now receive attention. 
 We will have new issues. Those who have been blind 
 will be made to see the light. 
 
 Oh 1 The skies are brightening. Dawn is near. And 
 the day will see many workers in the fields of human 
 progress, and our labors will be crowned with a goodly 
 measure of success. 
 
LITTLE PROGRESS IN CIVIL SERVICE REFORM 215 
 
 But there is an administrative reform that long- 
 looked -for, much-hoped-for, but almost-despaired-of 
 reform of the civil service, in which we have made but 
 little progress. The great parties have declared for it, 
 but their administrations have failed in practice to give 
 it substantial recognition. They have encouraged us 
 much, but disappointed us grievously. This reform lan- 
 guishes in the house of those who claim to be its friends, 
 and it remains in a feeble and drooping condition. 
 Reforms dependent upon administration appear to be 
 much more difficult of consummation than are those 
 which are mostly legislative. 
 
 Perhaps the incoming administration will gather some 
 inspiration from 'the oncoming host of reformers, and 
 will seek to merit commendation from the people by 
 giving us a much better civil service than we have before 
 seen. We may reasonably expect to see an improvement 
 in this respect during the next four years. But, whether 
 we be gratified by such an advance or not, we shall look 
 with confidence to the new party which is soon to be 
 marshaled in the cause of reform, and is to assume the 
 management of our public affairs, to give us a genuine 
 and complete reform of our government service, and to 
 entirely abolish the demoralizing spoils system and 
 relieve us of the evil effects produced by it upon our 
 government and upon our political life. 
 
 The campaign of 1892 was conducted in much better 
 form than previous ones. It was more wholesome, decent 
 and respectable. It was more a campaign of education. 
 There was more of genuine reason and argument ; more 
 readiness to listen to speakers of the opposite parties ; 
 more deference paid to the political opinions of others. 
 
216 A CLEAN CAMPAIGN 
 
 There was less of personal mud slinging ; less of noise 
 and parade ; less of cannon, banners and torches. So 
 that, in many respects, the late campaign was a decided 
 improvement over previous ones, and marked an era of 
 better things in politics. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVI 
 
 THE POLITICAL PARTIES. THEIR POLICY IN THE 
 
 CAMPAIGN OF 1892. REPUBLICAN. DEMOCRATIC. 
 
 PROHIBITION. PEOPLES. 
 
 The Republican Party has now had almost continuous 
 control in the councils of the nation for nearly a genera- 
 tion. It came into power as the champion of the cause of the 
 oppressed. It was formed for a great purpose, and it was 
 the leader and chief factor in accomplishing a great work. 
 It stood for human liberty and equality, and for the 
 preservation of the Union of States. It has been truly 
 a grand party, and a party of reform. Its principles 
 have been advocated by a long line of illustrious patriots 
 and statesmen. 
 
 Since the completion of the special work for which the 
 Republican Party was organized, it has come to be, more 
 than any other party, the advocate and champion of 
 monopoly, especially in manufacturing, mining and 
 banking. In the outset this was done for what appeared 
 to be for the best interests of the country and the masses 
 of the people, and its policy was very generally approved. 
 But a majority of the American people have discovered 
 
THE SUBSIDY PARTY 217 
 
 that subsidizing one class of people at the expense of 
 another class, and especially that subsidizing capitalists 
 at the expense of the common people, is not a good policy 
 in this or in any other country. And the party which 
 has come to be the subsidy party is no longer at the front 
 in American politics. 
 
 The old party has been staggering under a load of 
 legislation in the interest of monopoly, and in conse- 
 quence of this load it suffered from serious disasters in 
 1890 and has met its Waterloo in 1892. It must go down 
 along with the collapse of extremely high tariffs and 
 other monopolistic agencies which it has fostered. And 
 no party will again be so foolhardy as to take up the 
 load which has broken the back of the grand old party. 
 
 Democratic Party. The Democratic Party had been 
 for many years the conservative party in American 
 politics, uniformly opposing innovations and reforms. 
 Its character in this respect had been well established. 
 But when the Republican Party changed its attitude, 
 from having been the exponent of true democracy, to 
 being the champion of monopoly and plutocracy, the 
 Democratic party, as opposing high tariffs and other 
 methods of subsidy, came to be, for the time, a reform 
 party the champion of a much needed reform of the 
 tariff. And the Democratic Party has in the main been 
 gaining the ground and the prestige which has been lost 
 by the Republican Party. 
 
 And so the Democratic Party in 1892 has swept the 
 field and gone into power with a strong majority over all, 
 and will have full sway in the national and in the majority 
 of state governments. This Democratic avalanche does 
 not mean that the party has undertaken to champion 
 
218 WHAT ABOUT THE AVALANCHE ? 
 
 any new reforms, or that its policy, excepting upon the 
 one issue along which the great mass of forces was aligned 
 in the campaign of 1892, is approved by a majority of 
 the American people. 
 
 The great Democratic victory of 1892 means that there 
 was wide dissatisfaction with the existing monopolistic 
 order of things, for which the Republican Party was held 
 largely responsible, and that the Democratic Party was 
 used, for the time, as presumably the most available 
 agency for expressing that dissatisfaction. It stands as 
 the verdict of the American people against extremely 
 high tariffs, and against a force bill, extreme pension 
 measures, and a " federal brigade " in politics, as well. 
 
 It does not mean that a majority of the people have 
 joined their political fortunes with the Democratic Party 
 simply because they are dissatisfied with the Republican 
 regime, and agree, in the main, with Democratic ideas of 
 tariff reform. Happily, the tariff question has been 
 " fought to a finish,'' and will not again be an issue in 
 American politics. And the great body of intelligent 
 voters who have heretofore been held in Republican or 
 Democratic camps by this minor question as a forced 
 issue, will now be ready to undertake the cause of more 
 important reforms. 
 
 The Democratic Party has been and still is the con- 
 servative party of this country, but, as opposing the 
 extremely high tariffs enacted by the Republican Party, 
 it is in that respect the reform party. The reform ele- 
 ments are unitedly opposed to a high tariff policy, and 
 very many of these voted a Democratic ticket in 1892 to 
 help give that policy its deathblow. But, this issue aside, 
 the Democratic Party will again assume its normal posi- 
 
THE ANTI-SUMPTUARY PARTY 219 
 
 tion as the great conservative party, and in a new organ- 
 ization of political forces, all opponents of reforms will 
 there find a congenial political home. 
 
 The Democratic Party being also the pronounced 
 opponent of all " sumptuary " laws, and the tried friend 
 of the saloon, in a new political alignment prohibition- 
 ists from both old parties must join the party of reform, 
 and the saloon forces will go to the Democratic Party. 
 And so we may expect to see this old conservative and 
 anti-sumptuary party remain in the field and gather in 
 all the opponents of economic and of moral reforms. 
 
 The Prohibition Party. The force of the Prohibition 
 Party as a factor in politics is not to be measured by its 
 numbers. Prohibitionists are, as a rule, more zealous 
 and active in propagating their principles than are the 
 members of the old parties. The number of those who favor 
 prohibition far exceeds the number of those who adhere to 
 the party, and there is a large number outside the party 
 who wish it success. Many thousands of Democrats and 
 Republicans would have joined the Prohibition Party 
 but for the strength ot old party prejudice and affiliation. 
 
 Members of the Prohibition Party in all states where 
 it is well organized are the principal advocates of pro- 
 hibition, and are leaders in all prohibition contests and 
 in all other moral contests, as well. In the intelligence, 
 sobriety and moral standing of its membership, the Pro- 
 hibition Party holds first place. 
 
 As a moral force in politics the Prohibition Party has no 
 competitor ; it is tJu only party with a moral issue. It is the 
 only party which openly opposes that great political crime 
 license of the liquor traffic, and the only party which 
 stands unequivocally for equal political rights for women. 
 
220 DEFECTS OF THE PROHIBITION PARTY 
 
 The Prohibition Party, as now constituted, has two 
 serious defects ; 1. Its platform is too narrow on its main 
 question, and, 2. It assumes a religious character. This 
 party is the special champion of prohibition of the 
 liquor traffic, yet, according to its platform, it is only 
 ready to work for this when it can be done by states or 
 by the nation. And many advocates of the principles of 
 the party contend that " local option '^ is a sirare and a 
 device of the enemy, that it is not effective or satisfactory, 
 that it " relieves the consciences of voters " and keeps 
 them from working for the larger measure of reform, 
 and that to work for such a half-way measure is to com- 
 promise with evil. 
 
 We have a large area of territory under absolute and 
 well enforced prohibition through local laws. True 
 prohibitionists, everywhere, are ready to work for pro- 
 hibition in any contest that is on, whether in a town, a 
 county or a state. In California, since Pasadena has 
 established the right of local prohibition under the state 
 constitution, members of the Prohibition Party have 
 been active in many localities of the state in working 
 for prohibition by towns and by counties, and a large 
 area has been brought under prohibition, and no one 
 would think of undertaking a contest for state prohibition 
 until a much larger proportion of the people have declared 
 for the principle in a local way. Several of the states, 
 as Massachusetts and Mississippi, have adopted a policy 
 of local prohibition, with a steadily increasing area 
 voting ^' dry." Several cities of Massachusetts made a 
 decided advance for the prohibition cause in the late 
 election, even Boston coming within a few hundred 
 votes of pronouncing for prohibition. 
 
. -"^ \_ \ B K A y: 
 
 OF TRR 
 
 THE DIVIDING LINE ON THE SALOON ISSUE IN POLITICS 2?j^^VT'^^ 
 
 The dividing line beiiveen the contending forces on the 
 liquor traffic question falls between license and prohibition^ 
 and a political party which opposes license should stand 
 for prohibition, anywhere and everywhere, and always 
 be ready for a contest where there is a reasonable pros- 
 pect of success. The platform of a Prohibition Party 
 should be in accord with the action of the great body of 
 Prohibitionists throughout the country, on the question 
 of prohibition. The old parties, as a rule, declare for 
 license. The Prohibition Party should have room for all 
 who oppose license : it should stand for prohibition by 
 towns and by counties, by states whenever it can be com- 
 passed, and by the nation wherever it holds jurisdiction 
 in local affairs. 
 
 Most of the work for temperance, as for other moral 
 reforms in this country has been led by religious bodies 
 or under religious auspices. Probably a majority of 
 prohibition workers are church members. It is therefore 
 not strange that prohibition meetings have been usually 
 conducted with religious exercises. 
 
 But we should remember that we are proud to claim 
 our land as the home of religious as well as of civil 
 liberty, and we should remember that our nation does 
 not guarantee religious liberty to Christians only. The 
 Puritans sought " the wild New England shores " to 
 secure for themselves the blessing of religious liberty, 
 yet denied that privilege to others, and we have many 
 good people to-day who, in their zeal for what they deem 
 proper religious observance, ignore the rights of those 
 who hold other religious views. 
 
 Temperance or other moral reform work in a social 
 way may be properly and laudably carried on with an 
 
222 MUST BE ROOM FOR PAGANS AND JEWS 
 
 observance of religious forms or ceremonies. But a 
 political party in this country in order to be in harmony 
 with our free institutions, and to deserve success, must 
 have room on its platform and in its councils for Jews, 
 Infidels, Pagans and Christians. 
 
 The National Prohibition Convention of 1892 made a 
 serious mistake in declaring for a pronounced free trade 
 policy. A sudden change of policy on the tariff question 
 from our present extremely high tariffs to the other 
 extreme of free trade would be a very unwise course for 
 the nation to adopt. Happily, we are not at all likely to 
 have such a wide change in tariff legislation in the imme- 
 diate future. 
 
 The PeopWs Party. The People's Party is the leader of 
 the new sociological movement in American politics. In 
 some states it has shattered the monopolistic forces, and 
 is in a fair way to go in and possess the land. It 
 has achieved a phenomenal success for a new party. It 
 has sent its representatives to state capitals and to the 
 Halls of Congress. The " voice of the people " is to be 
 heard in the councils of the nation. It stands as the 
 avowed exponent and champion of economic reforms. 
 In the late campaign it was the only party which stood, 
 unequivocally, for the great principle of national owner- 
 ship of railway and telegraph lines, and it has accom- 
 plished much in educating the people on this question. 
 As the maker of the reform party of the future it holds a 
 leading place. 
 
 Still, the People's Party is but a forerunner but a 
 " John the Baptist," of the reform party that is to be. 
 In some respects it is unwise and extreme, and in some 
 it is, unwittingly, untrue to its position as the avowed 
 
MISTAKES OF THE PEOPLES PARTY ZZd 
 
 opponent of monopoly. The demands expressed by some 
 of its leaders for "transportation at cost'' and " money 
 at cost," sounds communistic. But it is common for 
 leaders of reform to take radical grounds, and we should 
 probably take such expressions as meaning that the 
 people want, and intend to have, transportation, and 
 money, and clothing, and tools, and the necessaries 
 of life, at living rates, and that the era of exorbitant 
 charges is near its end. 
 
 The People's Party in the campaign of 1892 made two 
 rather serious mistakes, 1, it did not give the great ques- 
 tion of economic reform government ownership the 
 leading place in its platform or in its canvas, and, 2, it 
 made its fight mainly on a demand for cheaper money, to 
 be secured by loans from the government at two per cent, 
 and by the free and unlimited coinage of silver. 
 
 Nearly all things that are worthy of consideration in 
 questions of financial reform are embodied in the great 
 principle of national ownership of all great monopolies 
 of money as well as of transportation. Money cannot 
 be loaned at two per cent, and free coinage of silver is a 
 device of the enemy a scheme of monopolists. Questions 
 of methods and rates of loans, and of plans for an increase 
 of currency, are but questions of ways and means in 
 carrying on a great service, and these do not involve the 
 main principle which is, or should be, the ground of our 
 contention. 
 
 And, while it is probably true that these financial 
 questions, as presented, were drawing cards for the People's 
 Party in the late campaign, yet they are comparatively 
 secondary and transitory, and the silver question is very 
 largely one of local self-interest. The inducement which 
 
224 SILVER BARONS AND IRON KINGS 
 
 carried Colorado for the People's Party in 1892, was the 
 same in character as that which has been the chief induce- 
 ment to keep Pennsylvania in the Republican column 
 the self-interest of silver producers in the one case, and of 
 iron producers in the other. And the American people 
 can no more be depended on to stand for the financial 
 aggrandizement of silver barons, than of iron kings, at 
 their own cost. Not when they know it. 
 
 Notwithstanding, the People's Party contains a large 
 part of the leaven which shall leaven the whole lump, 
 and form the great, new party of the future. 
 
CHAPTER XXXVII 
 
 A NEW POLITICAL PARTY, NECESSITY FOR IT. 
 
 WHA T IT SHOULD STAND FOR. QUESTIONS 
 
 THAT ARE URGENT. 
 
 The coming party should be built mainly on the great 
 coming issue State co-operation national, state and 
 municipal ownership of the great monopolies. The 
 reforms demanded in transportation, communication 
 currency, land, are all comprehended under this princi- 
 ple. It comprises the sum and substance of the sociolog- 
 ical movement in politics. It is the economic question 
 of the day, and it can almost be said that there is no 
 other. This is the distinctive feature of the new politics 
 as contrasted with the old. 
 
 State ownership is the remedy for burdensome taxes, 
 for exorbitant charges, for labor troubles, for strikes and 
 lockouts, for monopolies and trusts. It would bring 
 work to idle hands and food to hungry mouths. The 
 great upheaval in our political life, the great cry for 
 economic reform, means just this. Nothing less will 
 satisfy the demand. Nothing else will bring the relief. 
 It is to be the issue, and it is to remain as such until this 
 reform becomes an established principle of our national 
 life. 
 
 The one other great question is the moral one pro- 
 hibition of saloons, lotteries, gambling dens, brothels. 
 The success and perpetuity of modern civilization depends 
 
 225 
 
226 AN ECONOMIC AND A MORAL ISSUE 
 
 upon the promotion of intelligence and virtue and upon 
 the suppression of vice; and it is a chief duty of the 
 state to foster the one and to suppress the other. For 
 the state to sanction and legalize schools of vice, and thus 
 to be itself the promoter of crime, is a paradox in gov- 
 ernment and a perversion of every right principle of 
 law. There can be no darker political crime than for 
 the state to license vice and thus to encourage and foster 
 crime. Not many decades can pass until our people will 
 look back upon this dark age in wonderment that it was 
 possible for good, well meaning people, to uphold such a 
 crime by voice or by vote. 
 
 The moral reform is of no less importance than the 
 economic one, nor does it hold any second place 
 in the minds and hearts of a majority of our people. 
 But there are potent reasons why, as a political issue, 
 the economic question will come to the front. It will do 
 so as a part of the inevitable logic of political events. 
 
 The moral reform is not new, nor untried. The prin- 
 ciple of prohibition as the only adequate remedy for vice, 
 is fully established in the minds of h very large number 
 of our people. The reform has become in many instances 
 a part of our statute or organic code, and the results of 
 these laws as promotive of good order and good citizen- 
 ship are among the things of our written history. 
 
 In Maine, Iowa, Kansas, Vermont, Massachusetts, 
 Mississippi, the Carolinas and Dakotas, and in other 
 states, the principle of prohibition is established as the 
 law of the land and is growing in favor with the people. 
 This reform is steadily advancing and will not go back- 
 ward. For a generation have philanthropists been zeal- 
 ously laboring to establish this reform. Every argument 
 
AN OLD AND A NEW QUESTION 227 
 
 has been used. The people are familiar with every phase 
 of the question. And now that these efforts have been 
 crowned with so large a measure of success, we may- 
 well afford to give a considerable part of our time to the 
 establishing of the principles of economic reform. This 
 harvest, too, is great, and the laborers are few. Nor need 
 we lessen our zeal for the one while we undertake the 
 other. 
 
 The great economic question is of first importance 
 because it also vitally concerns the comfort, the well 
 being, the happiness, the health and the life of millions 
 of our people ; because it more directly appeals to the 
 masses, who are in sore need through no fault of their 
 own, than does any other question ; because it is for these 
 masses more directly a question of bread and of meat, 
 of clothing and of shelter, than is any other ; and because, 
 tvhile it is a reform most urgently demanded, it has as yet 
 received but a very small comparative measure of attention 
 from our people. 
 
 While we have been contending over tariffs, high or 
 low ; while we have been fostering corporate monopolies 
 and most graciously submitting to their exactions ; while 
 we have been nursing sectional prejudice, and submitting 
 to boss rule ; we have been blind, deaf and dumb ; we 
 have been densely ignorant and foolishly oblivious of the 
 importance of these great economic reforms. We had 
 but to look to England, and to Austria, and to Germany 
 those " effete monarchies " to have learned lessons in 
 state co-oper.ation, and to see the advantages of state 
 railways and state telegraphs. 
 
 Regarding the expediency of a national party espous- 
 ing the prohibition cause, there are two principal factors 
 
228 EXTENT OF PROHIBITION SENTIMENT 
 
 to be considered : 1. There is a large proportion, perhaps 
 a majority, of our people, who favor the principle of pro- 
 hibition and are committed to the reform, and this pro- 
 portion is constantly growing. Reforms do not go 
 backward. And to stand for the 'princiijle of prohibition, 
 would be an element of strength and not of weakness to 
 a new party which was sound on other questions. 
 
 2. The church people are almost a unit for the prin- 
 ciple of prohibition. Nearly all of the conventions of 
 the religious bodies have pronounced unequivocally in 
 opposition to license and in favor of prohibition. It is 
 true that thus far but a minority of church membership 
 have shaped their political course in accordance with 
 church edicts. But we must make large allowance for 
 the alleged importance of that most wonderful tariff 
 question, and for the strength of party prejudice. We 
 may reasonably hope that the political revolution of 1892 
 will release some millions of church members from the 
 strong bonds of the tariff issue and of party prejudice, 
 and that the great body of church members will be able 
 in the near future to clearly see the plain duty which 
 lies before them as Christian citizens in regard to the 
 saloon evil. 
 
 The statesman, in considering the future of political 
 parties, should understand that church people are bound, 
 sooner or later, to stand as a solid body with the political 
 party which openly opposes the saloon and its kindred 
 evils. There can be no mistake about this. The church 
 and the saloon are deadly enemies, and no man or woman 
 can long hold a place in the ranks of the one while giv- 
 ing aid and comfort to the other. It cannot possibly be 
 otherwise. The church is the leading agency in promot- 
 
THE MORAL FORCE IN POLITICS 229 
 
 ing moral reforms; and its members can occupy no 
 equivocal or double position toward this greatest of all 
 evils, this chief promoter of vice. And the politician 
 who plans a new political party which has no ground 
 upon which a Christian or Jew can consistently stand, 
 surely " reckons without his host." 
 
 The Democratic Party will stand as it has stood as the 
 friend and protector of the saloon and the brothel, as 
 " opposed to all sumptuary laws which vex the citizen," 
 and as in favor of the fullest license for the gratification 
 of appetite and passion. And the new party must stand, 
 not only for state monopoly as opposed to private or cor- 
 porate monopoly, but also for the suppression of saloons, 
 brothels and gambling dens. 
 
 There is but one other great question. It is a question 
 of human equality of human rights and privileges. It 
 is the question whether one-half of the people one-half 
 of the thinkers and toilers shall continue to enact the 
 laws and conduct the government, regardless of the 
 voice, the needs, the rights, of the other half. It is the 
 question whether woman shall have those political and 
 civil privileges which of right belong to her and have 
 been so long withheld. It is a matter of simple justice, 
 and also a necessity for the promotion of good morals 
 and of good government. 
 
 The People's Party, in some states, has declared for 
 equal suffrage, and as a national party it can illy afford 
 to deny the right of woman to an equal voice in state 
 affairs, inasmuch as the party very largely owes its suc- 
 cess to the labors and the influence of women. The 
 Prohibition Party, and nearly all prohibitionists, are in 
 full accord with this reform. The Knights of Labor, and 
 
230 THE QUESTION OF HUMAN EQUALITY 
 
 most other industrial organizations, are in favor of polit- 
 ical equality without regard to sex. The best citizens of 
 all parties are coming to recognize the importance of 
 woman as a factor in politics, and the injustice of deny- 
 ing political rights to her. 
 
 The sentiment in favor of granting political equality 
 to woman is constantly growing among the people, sev- 
 eral states have, in whole or in part, extended to her the 
 right of franchise, and a reform party which ignores this 
 reform, is behind the age. It is not " keeping up with 
 the procession." 
 
 There are three great political problems ; the economic, 
 the moral, and that of human equality. All other ques- 
 tions are secondary, and follow, in principle, as the inev- 
 itable sequence of these. The most of them are already 
 either endorsed by a large proportion of the people, or 
 are being advocated with a steadily growing sentiment in 
 their favor, and with little opposition. 
 
 The three are the ones ivhich need the attention, the thought, 
 the zeal, the labors, the force, of a combined army of intelli- 
 gent, earnest patriots. 
 
 THE END. 
 
^ 
 
 THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE 
 STAMPED BELOW 
 
 AN INITIAL FINE OF 25 CENTS 
 
 WILL BE ASSESSED FOR FAILURE TO RETURN 
 THIS BOOK ON THE DATE DUE. THE PENALTY 
 WILL INCREASE TO 50 CENTS ON THE FOURTH 
 DAY AND TO $1.00 ON THE SEVENTH DAY 
 OVERDUE. 
 
 .:*^ 
 
 FEB 13 1935 
 
 ^" MW 16 10 4/ 1 
 
 REC'D LD 
 
 OCT ZZ i^^ 
 
 *^ 
 
 ^^ 
 
 ttla* 
 
 ^m^ 
 
 r: 
 
 270ec'SLU 
 
 m 
 
 V (^ 
 
 ts 
 
 mi 
 
 ?f; Mar'53KF 
 
 24feb-^53CG 
 
 wU 
 
 J96S7 
 
 9 
 
 REC'O 1-" 
 
 ^^ '66- 3RCIJ 
 
 
 ^acm. Stf25~ 
 
 ^aHw 
 
 25^ 
 
 Tr ' 
 
 IN STACKS 
 
 ^ OCT 221959 
 
 LD 21-100m-8,'34 
 
^^ 
 
 / 
 
 :ill^ 
 
 ^m;3. 
 
 J 
 
 
 
 1^: 
 
 ^W%^iM 
 
 
 
 
 v^^s*^.:^./^v?%