THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES GIFT OF THE COMPLETE REVOLUTION JOHN VANDERCOOK The papen here fiat Mo permanent form under the Ml* of ' ' The Complete Revolution, " are the latt work of John V undertook- Much of the matter had already been used at various time* in hit writ' tngt, but he had finally brought them together and this nork had scarcely been concluded hen life ended. THE TIME IS RIPE HE Republic is bursting from its Eighteenth Century clothes. A sys- tem designed for loosely federated states no longer serves. The Twen- tieth Century brings a new dawn and a new deal. The day for patching, tinkering and compromises has gone. The time for revolution has arrived. People are not satisfied with their government. Upon one thing both great parties agree, that only under leadership of radi- cals can they have chance for success. The law of progress is change, and without progress there can be no stability. When there has been a long time without change, revolution must come to set stabil- ity up again. The system of government in the United States has not changed in one hundred years, although in this period there have been more changes in the manner of living and in the organi- zation of society, than there were in the previous thousand years. Government has become out of plumb with the times. Change needed amounts to a revolution; not a revolution of blood, but revolution of method, such as that of 1688 in England, which peacefully established the supremacy of Parliament over the King. Today it comes to establish the su- premacy of the people in their government. The first American Revolution abolished monar- chy and proclaimed the equal right ot every citixen in his government. The time was not ripe, how- ever, for the complete working out of the demo- cratic idea. For government by king was substi- tuted government by machinery. The machine set up was with checks and balances, reserved rights and parchment restrictions. At the base were thir- teen states of semi-sovereign power. At the top were Congress and an executive as nearly independ- ent as they could be. Supreme above all was a bench of nine judges appointed for life, and in no way answerable to the people. Democracy, through suspicion and inexperience, forged its own chains. They were chains neverthe- less. It is fair to believe, that in a period when Europe was all ablaze with revolution, and again ablaze with reaction, these chains were necessary to hold the young republic in its course. Today, how- ever, every essential of the first revolution is su- preme and un contested. The chains, which served their purpose, have now, for twenty years held us back, so that the younger democracies, in Australia and Europe, have ceased to look to us for guidance. The modern world has found new principles of popular rule, which we long for but are powerless to seize. While democracies in other lands are find- ing that the machine of government may be made less intricate and the part of the people in their affairs can be made more direct, our machine grows more intricate, and our part in our government be- comes less direct. Some public men ask for one thing and some for another, but all men ask for change complete and satisfying change. The time is ripe. The change must be scientific, progressive, safe. It must be so great as to be called a revolution. What shall it be? II. BASIS OF DEMOCRACY OVERNMENT by a single family or by a small group of families has always, sooner or later, ended in a failure. Civilization has advanced chiefly by moving into new territory, instead of by success in any one place. Behind its westward progress, civilization has left its failures, the dead and dying empires of the past. With the occupation of Western Europe and the American Continent, civilization has no new territory to which it can migrate. Society must do what it has never yet done grow and suc- ceed in one place. The place pre-eminently for the final test is the North American Continent. Not only our own destiny, but that of the human race may hinge upon our efforts. Society, roughly, is divided into two classes, 5 per cent, of the rich and governing and the 95 per cent, of common people. By being able to point to the fact that man for man, they of the 5 per cent, were more fit to govern than those of the 95 per cent., they have up to this time deceived themselves and the world. The revolution must immediately and emphatic- ally recognize the fallacy of this claim. Great men, able men, are essential to the carrying on of the country's business. The country which pro- duces the largest number of great men is the coun- try which is most successful. The chances are that family for family, the 5 per cent, at the top will produce the larger number of competent men for each family than will be produced per family by the 95 per cent, at the bottom. From the fact, however, that the 95 per cent, are nineteen times more nu- merous than the 5 per cent., the chances in the long run are infinitely great, that the mass of people will supply the greatest number of able men. It is, therefore, essential, even from the selfish point of view of its own success, that a government should do everything in its power to foster the welfare and extend the opportunities of the 95 per cent, of the population. Even the individual of today who is of the rich or governing class, if he consider the period of sev- eral future generations, can more wisely provide for the interests of his descendants by promoting a gov- ernment for the 95 per cent., than he can by trying to keep his wealth in his own family, or by promot- ing the political influence of his own class. In two or three generations, the majority of his descend- ants are certain to be common people. The individ- ual, exactly like the state, provides best for himself and his family, when he seeks the general welfare of all instead of the particular welfare of a few. Democracy is government for the common peo- ple in that it must provide first of all for the 95 per cent. It cannot grant franchise privileges for the bene- fit of a few. To secure the welfare of the mass, the democracy must have tools. The revolution will provide the tools. III. THE REVOLUTION AND THE CONSTITUTION EVOLUTION must, primarily and first of all, effect the constitution of the United States. It was the orig- inal design of the makers of the con- stitution, that it should be amended frequently and kept abreast of popu- lar desires of government. It was only fairly launched, when it was amended by adding to it a Bill of Rights in the form of the first ten consti- tutional amendments. These amendments have be- come more vital and important than the constitution itself. Washington, impressed with the necessity of change, declared in his farewell address "The best of our political systems is the right of the people to make and to alter their constitutions of govern- ment." The process of amendment, however, originally simple, when there were only thirteen states, became more and more complicated as new states were added. It took the crisis of the civil war to affect the last three amendments, and today with 46 states, the difficulty is so tremendous that it has almost ceased to be suggested. But this present crisis in national affairs must be recognized as so insistent as to force amendment despite all obstacles. A really national demand for a constitutional convention could not be resisted, and a convention once assembled would be as sie'- c"> nificant, and its results as far reaching as the meet- ing of the Estates of France under Louis XVI. Such a convention would either, by re-casting the entire constitution or by providing for further amendment by referendum vote of the nation, trans- form our government from a federal into a national republic. Whatever the method, the change would be in the direction of greater simplification, of the modifica- tion of present legislative and judicial theories and of providing for a more direct participation of the people in their affairs. The convention will crown Lincoln's work es- tablish that we are one nation and not many. It will fix within the fundamental law the facts of modern life. It will recognize that the old days, when it took a week to travel from Boston to Wash- ington, are forever gone, and the conditions, when by reason of the telegraph the country is only fifteen minutes big, are profoundly different than they were when the constitution was first written. The old constitution's splendid guarantees of lib- erty will be preserved, but the old dead dust of the past will be swept from it, and there will be breathed into it the modern spirit. The twentieth century is as competent as the eigh- teenth to establish law, and is more competent by the experience of the intervening hundred years. The spirit of patriotism is as high, education is more widespread, and instead of pioneers exploring the dim frontiers of democratic possibility, we can today profit by the lessons learned by democracy in a dozen nations. And the greatest lesson of all is the lesson of the necessity of change. No longer is the law "once for all delivered to the saints," but each generation will move forward to its own destiny, and the erection of barriers to future progress will be no work of the revolution of today. IV. THE RE VOL UTION AND STATE RIGHTS ODAY, out of 46 states, only thirteen of them were originally separate and independent. The other 33 were cre- ated by the national government. National progress requires that some of the power delegated to the states shall be withdrawn. The federal principle of government is, that pow- ers not expressly delegated to the central govern- ment shall be exercised by the states. This prin- ciple must be reversed. Powers not expressly dele- gated to the states must belong to the national gov- ernment. All railroads, telegraph companies and large cor- porations are doing an interstate business, in other words a national business. Logically and consist- ently, they must come under national law. Local administration of civil and criminal law may be left to the state, but the affairs of the nation must be given to the nation. Reserving all unspecified powers for the states, as is now done, simply means the right to do nothing. Reversing this process, as it has already been re- versed in all other progressive democracies, is sim- ply the right to do something. The revolution will be a guide to "How to do it'' and will upset for all time the present vast system of local intricacies, whose sole object is "How not to do it." Canada today, except in the person of the Gov- ernor General, is organized on the lines of a national republic. As a result Canadians have in their hands the power to do things. Where communities have desired them, they have promptly secured mu- nicipal street cars, government telephones, and even in one case a municipal opera house. Not having as, their legal corner stone, the principle of reserved powers, or "How not to do it," their administration of laws is direct and speedy. The forty-six states with reserved powers become simply 46 hiding places for individual or incorporated crime. Forty- six states with reserved powers have become 46 obstacles to employer's liability, to humane labor laws, to any and every form of modern progress. Forty-six states with specified and delegated pow- ers, all reserve authority resting with the nation, would become rivals at doing things, competitors with each other in progress and humanity, instead of 46 nests of parasitic lawyers, determined that nothing shall be done. As President Eliot of Harvard says, "We have become a nation." It is no longer possible to defy facts, history and common sense by pretending that we are not a nation. Being a nation, the central government must have national power, which means power with reserved rights to no other powers whatsoever. State rights received their death blow at Gettys- burg, their burial service was read at Appomattox, and it is time that their tomb stone was erected with an appropriate epitaph. The revolution will usher in the National Re- public. V. THE REVOLUTION AND THE COURTS aNDER our present system of judicial veto, by which the Supreme Court may cancel any law passed by Con- gress, when such a law, in the opin- ion of the majority of the judges is unconstitutional, is extraordinary, cumbersome and unsatisfactory. Congress passes an act, which may remain unchallenged for years. Finally, however, in some lower court the law is contested on the ground of unconstitutionality. By slow and painful stages it at last reaches the Supreme Court. Sometimes this process takes as little as two years, sometimes as much as thirteen years. Meanwhile, nobody knows whether the law is constitutional or not and great confusion ensues as a result. Laws passed by Congress are now subject to two vetoes, the executive veto and the judicial veto. Whether or not the executive department of the gov- ernment will approve of the law is quickly deter- mined. The President is given ten days in which to act and in case his action is negative, Congress may pass the bill over his veto by two-thirds vote. It will be a grave question whether all laws of doubt- ful constitutional validity should not be submitted to the Supreme Court before their promulgation, and the court be compelled to pass upon their valid- ity within a reasonable time. The question as to whether Congress should not have the right in case of the judicial veto to establish the law over the veto by two-thirds vote, must also be considered. The term of one Congress might be allowed to elapse before the passage of a law over such a veto. Laws passed over judicial veto would have the force of constitutional amendments. Had such a power resided in Congress the Dred Scott decision might have been overthrown and a principal cause of the civil war avoided. In England, Parliament is as supreme over the courts, as it is over the king, and the wisdom of its supremacy has not been ques- tioned. Above all, however, the work of the revolution will be the overhauling of the entire system of Amer- ican law. Law administration is admittedly intri- cate, slow, costly and wholly unsatisfactory. The prime need is for sweeping re-casting and codifica- tion of the American law, a service similar to that conferred upon France by Napoleon, when, under his direction, the code Napoleon was formulated. Our judicial checks and appeals originally set up to prevent miscarriages of justice, have resulted in the very thing they were intended to avoid. The litigant with the longest purse may prolong an ac- tion for years, even though he may be obviously in the wrong, and wear out his poorer opponent. The legal profession itself has become a sort of antique mystery, one of the least modern, least trusted and most expensive of our institutions. The revolution must provide for a thorough revi- sion of the external laws and of law administration in the direction of simplicity, directness and com- mon sense. This done, it can, when the new system is illuminated by the modern spirit of law, contrib- ute vastly to an approximation of justice in the world. VI. THE REVOLUTION AND THE SPIRIT OF LAW XN ADDITION to the changes here- tofore noted, the revolution will con- sider the present spirit of the courts and will kindly and with loving- care turn it upside down. It will apply nationally and truly the principles now being successfully applied by that apostle of true law, Judge Ben Lindsay of Denver. The first business of the court is to save an indi- vidual for the state. It is the shortest and most direct method of protecting both persons and prop- erty. Judge Lindsay gave the world an example, simple in itself, but universal in its application. A gang of seven boys, everyone of whom had served jail sen- tences, had stolen five bicycles. The leader of the gang was caught and because he refused to tell any- thing the police gave him the third degree, beat him and strapped him to a bed. The other boys were not found at once, but their records were looked up, and it was found that every one of them had been in jail. Lindsay went to see tin boy who was strapped to the bed. The first thing the boy said to him was, "You can't make me tell on the gang." ''That's right," said Lindsay, "I'm glad you won't." With insight into human nature the judge saw the finest quality in the boy was his sense of loyalty. Instead of trying to destroy this one good quality he tried to strengthen it. By this means he gained the boy's confidence. He told the judge all about himself and brought the boys in one at a time to tell about them- selves. This is called "snitching on the square." Incidentally the bicycles were recovered. Some of the police officials, however, thought the judge was entirely wrong. His business was to protect property and get back the bicycles. "Which would you rather do," asked Lindsay, "save five bi- cycles or save seven boys ? You have sent all of the boys to jail at least once and you haven't saved them, so your plan is a failure. I think it is more impor- tant to save the boys, the bicycles will be saved any- how." Because of Judge Lindsay, six of the boys are to- day upright and successful citizens. Only one of them was a backslider. Judge Lindsay put his healing touch upon the sore spot of nearly all of our law administration. The judges in trying to save property overlook the best method to save property, which is to save hu- man beings. Lindsay's policy is not sentimental. It locks up the man or boy in jail who is not strong enough to resist temptation. But it locks him up not to punish him, but to help make him strong. It aims to sup- press the causes of crime, gambling, the unnatural fostering of vice for commercial profit, such as sweating and child labor, and to stimulate the social and humane forces in their warfare upon the anti- social and crime making- forces. It takes full stock of human nature, its passion and weakness and seeks correction, not by brutal pressure, but by fos- tering the equally human elements of love and strength. It associates the physician with the judge, and recognizes that abnormality and disease are not sin. Justice will take the bandage from her eyes and wake up. VII. THE REVOL UTION AND DIRECT LEGISLATION EPUBLICS of the ancient world failed for a lack of the representative principle in government. In Rome all citizens were expected to meet in one place and to vote on questions put to them orally. A plan possible in a vil- lage, broke down with the increase of the number of citizens, and the result was mob rule tempered by despotism. The German peoples were the first to apply the principle of representation. The founders of the American Government based their whole structure upon it, to the exclusion of other ideas. The Nineteenth Century will be remarkable in later history because it demonstrated that represen- tative government could be modified by direct popu- lar government, thereby retaining the benefits of both systems, and at the same time minimizing their dangers. In a more homely way Americans worked out this idea in their commercial affairs. They created cor- porations, in which the stockholders delegated their powers to a board of directors, but reserved in all cases the right of the stockholders by special action to compel the directors, either to take a course de- manded or to retire. A civic community or state has an advantage over a stock company, because each stockholder in the state is a citizen with an equal interest and only one vote like all other citizens. There is no possibility in a community, as there is in a stock company, of one man having the majority of the voting power. The city of Galveston, Texas, has applied the stock company theory to the city government, plac- ing all power in the hands of a commission, subject to the votes of the citizen stockholders. By the initiative as practised in progressive dem- ocracies, citizens may compel a measure to be put to popular vote. By the referendum they may review the work of their representatives. By the recall they may expel an unfaithful servant from his office. One of the greatest evils of the unmodified repre- sentative system is, that a man by false pretenses may secure office for a fixed term, and relying upon the impossibility of his constituents removing him, may, for profit to himself, betray their interests and work all manner of mischief. This has been done repeatedly, not only by indi- vidual legislators, and congressmen, but by whole legislatures and whole congresses, as well as by men elected to executive offices. These democratic devices, by which direct legis- lation by the people is possible, are seldom, in prac- tice, called into action. The fact that they exist and may be used at any time is sufficient in the ma- jority of cases, to make elected officials do their duty as a mere matter of self interest. Without these de- vices the unfaithful official may get greater rewards by betrayal than by duty, and may even expect re- election, through the aid of a boss and in the confu- sion of a general election. The cure for the evils of democracy is more dem- ocracy. VIII. THE REVOLUTION AND NATURAL MONOPOLY HE democratic revolution, if not by direct action, will at least provide the people with legislative tools, by which they will provide that the govern- mental dog shall wag its own tail. I once called on a Governor of New Jersey. We spoke of corporation control by the different states. He at once took the position that corporations were maligned. In illustrating his point he asked me if I were familiar with some of the activities of the Pennsylvania Railroad, such as the benefit funds they had for their workmen. Opening a drawer of his desk he took out several pamphlets, such as are issued by the Pennsylvania Railroad to their employes, and handed me two of them. I do not think this governor was corrupt. He merely had a natural, though perhaps undigni- fied respect for a higher power. The State of Pennsylvania has fewer and poorer paid employes, less ready cash in bank, and less ac- tual if not less potential power than the railway of the same name. Since ancient times, governments regarded two things as natural monopolies to be held strictly un- der governmental control. These were coinage and highways. One of the first signs of the emergence of a tribe from barbarism into national existence, was when it minted its own coins. Its further ad- vance was indicated when it began to build roads. That the matter of coinage or currency has become more complicated, including as it does today, bank credits and all mediums of exchange, has not made it any the less a natural monopoly. That railroads have become more important than the old roads does not make them any the less highways. For a long time with us, the control of money and exchange has been given over practically to private companies. In France at a time of crisis, the state bank assumes control. With us in time of a money panic, the money power is so wholly removed from the seat of government and from governmental con- trol, that the Treasurer of the United States must leave Washington and go to New York to place him- self in the hands of the real masters of the situation. Through the creation of a true national credit bank and by post-office savings banks, the revolution will help the government to resume control of its own currency. The National Bank, if designed democratically, will follow, in a measure, the exam- ple of the bank of France, whose widespread useful- ness is indicated by the fact that its average loans are only $125. Once in control of its own currency and credit, with vast deposits in the national and postal banks, the government will be in a position to finance with caution and success, plans for the re- sumption of highway control. Today our government may, without opposition, finance such unprofitable undertakings as the dredg- ing of harbors and the deepening of rivers. Oppo- sition to government investment in highways has only appeared when such highways might be profit- able. There is no real distinction, and if there be any, it is in favor of the more profitable undertaking. Forty per cent, of the revenue of the Russian Em- pire is derived from government railroads. In the Kingdom of Saxony, the greater part of the govern- ment revenue is derived from this source. In Ger- many, government railways have been in every re- spect a success. France and Italy have arranged to purchase the railways in their territories. The British Government is taking up the subject with this idea in mind. Of the great nations, only the United States has lagged behind the spirit of the age. IX. THE REVOLUTION AND SOCIALISM HILE the revolution will restore public property now privately owned to public ownership, where it belongs, it will not seek the public ownership of private property as advocated by the socialist philosophy. The revolu- tion will be scientific and will recognize the facts of nature and of history. It will approach the organization of human society in the spirit that the scientist approaches an engineering problem. One of the first lessons learned in mechanics and engineering is that the same force may either be destructive or useful, according to the man- ner in which it is employed. The river torrent, once dangerous and destructive, may be harnessed and made to supply light and heat to thousands of homes. Such a torrent is the struggle of each atom and creature in nature, including man, to survive and flourish. The success of the whole struggle from the protoplasm to civilization, is due to this torren- tial force. The engineer who noted the destructiveness of a swift river and tried to solve the problem by stop- ping the river in its course would fail. The social- ist who looks on the destruction wrought by selfish- ness and individualism and tries to solve the prob- lem by abolishing the force itself, will fail. He has failed in every single socialistic experiment he has ever tried. Like scientists, the men of the new revolution will try to utilize and not to eradicate all the forces of human nature. As the engineer keeps a river with- in its banks, they will seek to keep selfishness within bounds, and as the engineer makes rushing water turn a wheel, they will study to make selfishness promote civilization. We shall make railways and currency national, because they are natural monopolies and the public business cannot be well conducted by private par- ties. There remain other industries, where the line between public and private business is more obscure. For the evils inherent in most of the monopolies, public competition, where necessary, will be found better than public ownership. When Richard Seddon was Prime Minister of New Zealand, a body of capitalists secured all the coal mines and took advantage of their monopoly by raising prices to an exorbitant point. New Zealand had already acquired railways and Seddon was urged to buy all the coal mines for the government. He said he knew an easier and a cheaper way. The state bought one coal mine, and began to sell coal at the old price. He met monopoly with a form of competition which could not be stifled and soon all the mines were selling their coal at a reasonable fig- ure. Later the New Zealand fishing industry united and tried to put up prices. When fish were plenty, quantities were thrown back into the sea, rather than to let them be sold at a reasonable price. Sed- don said the state would send out fishing vessels of its own. This time only the threat was necessary. The monopoly surrendered. Science knows no bogies. It deals only with facts. That a fact upsets some preconceived theory, makes it none the less a fact. Neither ghosts or bo- gies will frighten the government of the future. It will deal with facts as they are, soundly, clearly and with common sense. X. THE RE VOL UTION AND CHRISTIANITY HE new revolution cannot but fail to draw inspiration from the Supreme Revolutionist of history, the Christian Messiah. The corner stone of the Christian philosophy, as it effects governments and human society is the principle of the protection of the weak by the strong. Unrecognized by politicians, often denied by the priests of Christianity, this principle of the protection of the weak is scientific. Today an object lesson is supplied to any traveller who will cross the frontier from a Mohammedan country like Turkey into a Balkan state like Servia, where the Christian philosophy, though most imper- fectly applied, is still in operation. In Turkey the weak have no protectors. The government itself leads in despoiling all \vho cannot resist. As a re- sult, one of the most fertile lands in the world is al- most a desert ; houses, where they occur, are huddled together for mutual protection; the isolated farm- house is unknown. In Servia, though it is poor and barbarous, you begin to see isolated vine-clad farm-houses. They are protected in their weakness by the idea which is now so common in all western nations, that many have forgotten where it came from. As the engineer employs every available force, so the Christian state imperfectly seeks to utilize every available man. The weak and inefficient may not, openly at least, be robbed by the strong and efficient. The weakest man can add something to the wealth and power of his nation and the strong man more than any other gains by the weak man's security. The revolution will seek to protect the weak more fully and effectually than now. They will be guard- ed against crimes of greed and cunning, as carefully as they are now from open robbery and violence. In society the forces of individuality and of evolu- tion are more effective when they are controlled. Unchained selfishness wastes itself like a river out of its bank. The more the Christian theory of equality and the protection of the weak is employed, the better are the fruits of the earth gathered, the more prosperity there is for all, and the faster do the forces of evolution carry the human race for- ward to its high destiny. You can march faster with the procession than you can alone. Enlight- ened selfishness is social, not anti-social. In human brotherhood, the human unit secures its greatest in- dividual success. L EFFECT OF THE REVO LUTION HE principles of the new revolution given in the preceding chapters, will a PPty equally to the government of the cities, of the states and of the nation as a whole. Direct legislation is pe- culiarly applicable to cities. One hundred years ago, we had no cities as we know them today. It was recognized vaguely that a city was a miniature state, and most of them were fitted up with administrative, executive and judicial departments on the national model. The modern idea that a city government is a corporation for the conducting of common business was not in the least appreciated. A city needs a legislature about as much as a cat does two tails. An elaborate system of checks and balances in a government, which has practically nothing to do with law-making, is aii ab- surdity. To provide direct legislation and a commission plan of government would give each city its own revolution. Up to this time municipal government has been the supreme American failure. With the modern form of government, cities will be the great American success. Municipal ownership of street railways and of gas, water and electric supply, will be essential. With the disappearance of the fran- chise hunter will go the greatest corrupting influ- ence in the present city administration, and with the larger responsibilities the local government assumes, will disappear another evil, the political spoils sys- tem, under which efficiency would be impossible. Municipal employes will recognize that appoint- ment by merit and security of tenure in office are absolutely essential. Cities in Europe have found that the introduction of municipal ownership has done away with franchise hunting and the political spoils system, and the same result would follow in the United States. The revolution will extend the scope of education A great national university will set a new standard in research and in the arts and sciences, and will provide a meeting ground for all that is best from the universities of the states. Particularly in the cities it will be recognized to a greater degree that education does not stop with the child, but is impor- tant to all the people, and that music and art are as important a part of education as the rule of three. Municipal theatres and municipal opera houses will be undertaken in many cities. The importance of the revolution, however, next to a great quickening of democratic sentiment, will be, that it will provide the people with convenient governmental tools. Democracy without tools must fail in much of its building. Most of our failures up to this time can be attributed to a lack of tools. With adequate tools, we may press forward with the hope of solving all the problems which may plague a people. Questions of local and national taxation, of income and inheritance tax, as advo- cated by President Roosevelt and others, which, without tools are hopeless to secure, may, if they be thought desirable, be undertaken with tools in hand. Trust in the people, which has inspired all the world's patriots, will have a new meaning and a new justification. The revolution is for liberty, the revolution is for progress, the revolution is for brotherhood and for democratic success. JOHN VANDERCOOK AND HIS WORK HE "Complete Revolution" is a per- f ect expression of the character and ideals of its author, John Vandercook. He was an idealist of the highest type, but not a dreamer. He believed in the power of moral ideas, practised his belief and succeeded. There is an added touch of solemnity as well as pathos in the message which they bear a voice from the dead, as it were for the chapters were drafted but a few days before his unexpected death in Chicago last April, and were designed for edi- torial publication. It was the writer's privilege to know John Van- dercook in his boyhood days, and later to share inti- mately in his mature ideas. With no touch of eu- logy or flattery I may say that I never knew a nature more gentle and dignified, or more devoted to the public welfare. Not only was he gifted with philo- sophic understanding of the needs of modern life possessed by few men, but he had a rare power to suggest practical remedies. Trained in the activities of newspaper enterprise, surrounded as he was by opportunities for merchan- dising his talents, lie ever kept before him the noblest ideals of professional success and scorned utilitarian advantage which conflicted with his conceptions of duty. The breadth and scope of the views contained in this Complete Revolution touch upon basic ques- tions, and present, in epitome, observations concern- ing our form of government, its theory and practice, which are demanding the profound study of the statesman and scholar. Many of these views will meet with criticism, and opposition ; men of wisdom may doubt the value of some of the remedies there suggested; but the existence of the wrongs to be righted, and the need of a form of government more plastic and responsive to the expression of our civic tendencies, state and national, will be conceded by all. At the time of his death John Vandercook was the editorial supervisor of the United Press Asso- ciations. He also contributed largely to the edi- torials of three-score associated newspapers and was a large factor in shaping their editorial policies. Thus his daily audience was composed of millions of people in every part of the country and of every station in life. Those of us who knew him well realize what projects were left unfinished; but to the world at large he had already accomplished a life's work. Although of a quiet and unassuming manner, his control of men was wonderful. He had marked de- gree of power to carry his plans into execution with- out apparent struggle, simply by the pervading force of his personality. He was modest in all his achievements and believed in doing things, not talk- ing about them. As he lived so he died, a man of faith, and this Complete Revolution is of the fruit of his mental and moral labor. WALTER DECAMP. Cincinnati, December, 1908. AN APPRECIATION The following appreciation was written by Judge Rufui B. Smith, of Cincinnati, at the testimony of one who had felt and tested the strength and of John Vandercook- OHN VANDERCOOK, President and General Manager of the United Press Associations, died Saturday at Chicago. He had been stricken with appen- dicitis while en route from New York to Chicago, and was unable to withstand the sur- gical operation which followed. After a brave struggle against death he succumbed. Thus passed away one of nature's noblemen. Born in 1873, and at the time of his death but 35 years old, he occupied one of the most prominent and responsible positions in the American newspa- per field. I leave those more competent to speak than my- self the estimate of his work outside of Cincinnati in Cleveland, New York, Paris and London, and the other places to which he was called. But, having known his work as editor of The Cin- cinnati Post in the memorable year of 1905, and hav- ing had opportunity to judge him as a man, I wish to pay my personal tribute to his genius and to his admirable and loving qualities as a man. Of a slight and delicate physique, with a diffident and somewhat hesitating manner, the first impres- sion of him was not one of power. The brilliant eyes that looked at you, however, and the wonderful sanity of judgment and speech soon carried convic- tion that you were dealing with a man of great men- tal force and one with that finer balance of judgment that characterizes the man pre-eminent in affairs. The intellect was not the whole man. It was sup- ported by great strength of moral character. He loved honor, he loved the truth and he loved justice, and he loved to fight for them. The timid and politic could never convince John Vandercook that the fight should be postponed to a more propitious date. With him the time had always come. It was now and at hand. The porcine element in a community always char- acterizes such a man as an idealist. Whoever loves honor, truth and justice better than power and self they pronounce impractical. But he was not an idealist in the sense that he was ignorant of the most practical method of accom- plishing his ideals. He was pre-eminent also on the practical side. When this man, called from Paris and London in 1904 to take the editorship of The Cincinnati Post, alighted from the train it was an event in the history of the city. He found a city the entire administration of whose public affairs was in the hands of an oligar- chy of corrupt politicians, headed by a political boss whose dictatorial and impudent arrogance had as- sumed national proportions. The city had become the laughing stock of the country. The idealist, seated in an editor's chair, deter- mined to overthrow this huge machine. The first shot fired by him was regarded with mingled feel- ings of fear, amazement and incredulity by the great number in the community, of high and low degree, that were fed on the crumbs that fell from the Dives' boss. The triumph of an idea was beyond their comprehension. While other causes contributed to the reform vic- tory of 1905, it was The Cincinnati Post that inau- gurated the contest, and that was the principal cause of the victory, and at the head of The Cincinnati Post was John Vandercook. This management of The Post in the campaign of 1905 was as brilliant a piece of newspaper work as this country has ever seen. He remarked on one occasion that "You cannot always reach the people with a violin ; sometimes you must beat a bass drum." Vandercook was a full orchestra in himself. He played every instrument. This brilliant work, recognized in his profession, led to higher honors, and he left Cincinnati to as- sume greater possibilities. In his personal relations this militant reformer was one of the most agreeable and loving of men. With a mind broadened by travel, with a loving heart and affectionate ways, he bound his friends to him with bands of steel. I do not profess to know where the good, the brave, the true, the gentle and the loving go when they die, but I do know that wherever they go John Vandercook has gone. UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY Los Angeles This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. Form L9-50m-4,'61(B8994s4)444 AC 8 Vandercook - V2oc Complete revolution AC 8 A A 000044656