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JAMES STOKES LECTURESHIP ON POLITICS 
 NEW YORK UNIVERSITY 
 
 REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT 
 IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
REPRESENTATIVE 
 GOVERNMENT 
 
 IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 Being the Opening Lecture of the 'Jamei Stokes 
 Lectureship on Politics, at Nov Tork Uni-versity 
 
 WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT 
 
 THE NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS 
 
 }2 VVAVERLY PLACE, NEW YORK CITY 
 I92I 
 
Of thii Lecture, fivt hundred copies ha-ve been printed, iv hereof four 
 hundred and se-venty are reser-ved for pri-vate distribution. Copyright, 
 igsi, by the Neiu York Uni-versity Press. 
 
 T2.3 
 
 THE NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS 
 
 Committee of Publication 
 
 Arthur Huntington Nason, Ph.D., Chairman 
 Director of the Press 
 
 Harold Dickinson Senior, M.D., Sc.D.. F.R.C.S. 
 
 Theodore Francis Jones, Ph.D. 
 
 KENNEBEC JOURNAL PRESa 
 AUGUSTA, MAINE 
 
PREFATORY NOTE 
 
 MR. JAMES STOKES (A.B., 1863, 
 LL.B., 1865, New York University), 
 who died at Ridgefield, Connecticut, 
 October 4, 1918, made a generous bequest to his 
 alma mater, with the provision that a certain 
 portion of the annual income should be used in 
 maintaining a course of public lectures, under the 
 auspices of the Council and Faculty of the Uni- 
 versity, "which lectures should have as their chief 
 object the inculcation of the obligation and necessity 
 of maintaining a high moral standard in politics and 
 legislation and administration of political affairs 
 of my own country, and upon means by which the 
 same may be obtained." The course of lectures 
 was founded in memory of his father, James Stokes, 
 and of the donor. 
 
 The opening lecture of the James Stokes Lecture- 
 ship on Politics, which forms the content of this 
 volume, was delivered in the Town Hall, New York 
 City, on Saturday evening, April 30, 1921, Chan- 
 cellor Brown presiding. 
 
 477«)(I 
 
REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT 
 IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT 
 IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 T has become the fashion to deplore the f aihngs Complaints against 
 
 ^ Representative 
 
 I of our Representative Government. The hopes ^y^tem 
 and anticipations of enthusiastic patriots of one 
 hundred and fifty years ago are compared with the 
 various defects of the system; and, while some rem- 
 edies are suggested, the objections to them are evi- 
 dent, and we are left in a somevv^hat hopeless state. 
 When we analyze the views of these pessimists, we 
 extract the admission that democracies of consider- 
 able size cannot be governed at all without the repre- 
 sentative system, and, therefore, that we must make 
 the best of it, with such modifications as may 
 strengthen its useful operation and restrain it from 
 being misrepresentative of the people's will. Shall 
 we admit that our government is a failure? Shall 
 we admit that, in the one hundred and thirty-five 
 years of its Hfe, it has not had useful operation? 
 That we must do, if we are to admit the premise that 
 representative government is a failure. 
 3 
 
REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT 
 Our Federal Gov- There is 110 sovernment in the world that is so 
 
 ernment purely ^ 
 
 Representative strictly representative as the government of the 
 United States under the federal Constitution. It 
 vests the ultimate power of government in the peo- 
 ple, but it secures to them the exercise of that power 
 only through representatives. The selection of the 
 President is not put directly in the people, but in an 
 Electoral College, the members of which are to be 
 appointed in the states in any way a state thinks of. 
 The Senate is made up of two representatives from 
 each state, large or small, and originally was elected, 
 not by the people, but by the state legislatures. The 
 House of Representatives is the only branch of the 
 government whose members were to be the direct 
 choice of people. The Judges are appointed by 
 the President and confirmed by the Senate, and so 
 are the chief executive subordinates of the Presi- 
 dent. No single executive or judicial officer in the 
 government is elected directly by the people. It is 
 true that, since the Constitution was adopted, the 
 members of the Electoral College, who were intend- 
 ed to exercise their judgment in selecting the proper 
 man to be President, have by custom and in fact lost 
 this power. They are now only a machine for regis- 
 4 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES 
 terino: the people's votes for previously ascertained ^"^ Federal Gov- 
 
 ^ r L X J ernment purely 
 
 candidates, with weight proportioned to the popula- Representative 
 tion of the states that elected them members of the 
 college. So, too, the members of the Senate are now 
 elected by the people. These two slight changes, 
 however, do not defeat the evident purpose of the 
 constitution-framers to create a new government 
 which should have permanence and safety by avoid- 
 ing the temporary winds of popular passion. The | .^ 
 checks and balances intervening between the direct 
 expression of the popular will and its ultimate con- 
 trol are greater than in most popular governments. 
 The rigid term of four years by which the Execu- 
 tive remains in power, no matter how strongly the 
 people may give their verdict against him in the 
 mid-term Congressional election, the six-year term 
 of each of the senators, arranged in three classes, 
 so that only one-third of the Senate can be changed 
 every two years, and the certain full two years of 
 each House of Representatives, however great the 
 change in popular sentiment in a shorter period, are 
 all adapted to secure the same stability. The same 
 feature is shown in the machinery for the amend- 
 ment of the Constitution. To change it, two-thirds 
 5 
 
REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT 
 
 Our Federal Gov- 
 ernment purely 
 Representative 
 
 Our Government 
 Oldest and Strong- 
 est Popular Gov- 
 ernment in the 
 World 
 
 of each house of Congress and the legislatures of 
 three-fourths of the states must concur. This is not 
 a referendum to the people; it is a referendum to the 
 people's representatives, and enforces delay and de- 
 liberation by the people before a change. We are 
 not a pure democracy governing by direct action, 
 and the great men who framed our Constitution 
 studiously avoided making us so. 
 
 Ours is the oldest popular government in the 
 world, and is to-day the strongest and most con- 
 servative. It is not an oligarchy or an aristocracy 
 under the guise of republican forms, and it never 
 was. The people do rule and have always ruled in 
 the United States. They have their will; but they 
 have it after a wholesome delay and deliberation 
 which they have wisely forced themselves to take 
 under the restrictions of a constitution which, origi- 
 nally adopted by however small a popular vote, they 
 have fully approved by one hundred and thirty years 
 of acquiescence. It is this voluntary self-restraint 
 that has made their government permanent and 
 strong. It is a fundamental error to seek quick ac- 
 tion in making needed changes of policy or in re- 
 dressing wrong. Nations live a long time, and a 
 6 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES 
 year or five years is a short period in their Hfe. 5«r Government 
 
 •^ Oldest and Strong- 
 
 Most wron<?s can be endured for a time without ''-^^ Popular Gov- 
 
 ernment in the 
 
 catastrophe. Reforms that are abiding are achieved ^orid 
 step by step. It is better to endure wrongs than to 
 effect disastrous changes in which the proposed 
 remedy may be worse than the evil. Often things 
 denounced as wTongs are not so. It needs attention 
 and deliberation to decide first that wrong exists, 
 and second what is the right remedy. A popular 
 constituency may be misled by a vigorous misrep- 
 resentation and denunciation. The shorter the time 
 the people have to think, the better for the dema- 
 gogue. One of the great difficulties in carrying on 
 a popular government is in getting into the heads 
 of the most intelligent voters what the real facts 
 are, and what reasonable deductions should be made 
 from them. Any reasonable suspension of popular 
 action until calm public consideration of reliable 
 evidence can be secured is in the interest of a wise 
 decision. That at least was what our forefathers 
 thought in making our federal government. It 
 seems to me that the result, in the light of the 
 present dangers to civilization and to popular gov- 
 ernment, has vindicated them. 
 7 
 
REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT 
 
 Our State Govern- 
 ment not so purely 
 Representative as 
 our Federal Gov 
 ernment 
 
 But our federal frame-work is only a part of our 
 ^TT.ffrnrnnL govemment. How as to the states? In them, the 
 people have taken to themselves the power to act 
 more directly. Not only do they elect the two 
 houses of the legislature and the governor directly, 
 and all usually for the same term, but they elect 
 many other state officers, so that the administration 
 of affairs is divided and the responsibility for it 
 can not be fixed on one depository of power but is 
 carried back more completely to the people them- 
 selves. In a third of the states, the power of direct 
 initiation and legislation and of specific veto of the 
 acts of a representative legislature is vested in the 
 people. The constitutions of most of the states 
 are much more easily amended than is the federal 
 Constitution. 
 The Federal Gov- W^hile the Comparison is not just in some respects, 
 
 ernment Has 
 
 Served the People bccausc the fields of jurisdiction and the difficulties 
 
 Better 
 
 presented are different, still we may justly inquire 
 whether the federal government with its purely 
 representative character has not served all the 
 people better, has not responded to their real and 
 deliberate will more satisfactorily in the long run, 
 and has not given them a more efficient adminis- 
 8 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 tration and more even handed justice than the state The Federal Gov- 
 ernment Has 
 SfOVernment. Served the People 
 
 ^ . Better 
 
 Men were wont to say that the federal Constitu- 
 
 Failure to Amend 
 
 tion was a strait jacket and unamendable, and that Federal Constitu- 
 tion Shows People 
 the FederaHsts who made it more than a century Satisfied 
 
 ago, under the influence of a fear of the people, 
 were still holding us in leading strings. But this 
 was untrue. It was not amended for three quarters 
 of a century because all issues were absorbed into 
 that of slavery and, with states enough on each side 
 of that question to prevent any change, amendment 
 became impossible. After the war settled that issue, 
 we have had seven important amendments, and not 
 a few insist that we have gone too fast with those. 
 The people can, therefore, amend our federal Con- 
 stitution if they choose. It is noteworthy that, with 
 the exception of the election of senators, no effort 
 of any kind has been made to vary the checks and 
 balances between the expression of the will of the 
 people and legislative and executive action, or to 
 make the character of our national government less 
 representative and more direct. This would seem 
 to show that our people as a whole are not so dis- 
 appointed in representative government in its most 
 typical form, as to wish to modify it. 
 9 
 
REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT 
 
 Representative 
 Government Ap- 
 parently not so 
 much Respected as 
 Formerly 
 
 It may be conceded that representative govern- 
 ment is not so much respected, anywhere in the 
 world, as it was a century ago. What are the rea- 
 sons for this? Are they such that we should seek 
 to change it to another form? One hundred years 
 ago, a representative form of government was 
 looked upon as a means of escaping from an abso- 
 lute monarchy with all its ills, and from an oligarchy 
 with its defects. It was regarded as the proper 
 instrument to interpret the will of the people into 
 government action. The great goal then was per- 
 sonal liberty and equality before the law, and these, 
 it w^as thought, representative government would 
 secure. Has it not done so with us on the whole? 
 Our machinery does not work perfectly; but, speak- 
 ing generally, it effects these results. Now that 
 they are secure, there has come into the minds of 
 many a desire not for liberty and equality of oppor- 
 tunity, but a demand for equality of condition. It 
 is a protest against the operation and working out 
 of the right of property, against the inequalities in 
 wealth and comfort present in society. The great 
 advance in the average comfort of living for most 
 people has emphasized by contrast the privation and 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES 
 suffering of what is called the submerged tenth. Representative 
 
 Government Ap- 
 
 The usefulness of government is gauged in the parentty not so 
 
 much Respected as 
 
 judgment of many chiefly by the measure of relief Formerly 
 it oft'ers to that part of the population. More than 
 this, the betterment in the condition of all the people, 
 due in part to personal liberty and greater equality 
 of opportunity, has created in the minds of a con- 
 siderable number a desire for wider equality of 
 comfort and living, and prompts the demand that 
 government shall bring about an economic as dis- 
 tinguished from a political reform. 
 
 Neither Congress nor a state legislature has it resmt'otive^^v-^' 
 within its power to work such economic changes, ^^"^^^"^ Unjust 
 even though they were possible. That, however, is 
 not an excuse in the minds of the anarchistic, com- 
 munistic, or socialist assailants of our representa- 
 tive government. And even with those who would 
 refuse to class themselves wdth such groups, there 
 is discontent w^hich finds expression against our 
 representative system, because the representatives 
 do not seem to say and do the things against the 
 existing property system which these discontented 
 feel. All this is dissatisfaction not with govern- 
 ment, representative or otherwise, but with the ex- 
 
REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT 
 
 Criticism of Rep- 
 resentative Gov- 
 ernment Unjust 
 
 Legislators now 
 Represent Geo- 
 graphical Districts 
 — not Communities 
 
 isting social order. Again, and on the other hand, 
 the intelligent, and the well to do, and those who 
 feel that they are the leaders of the best public 
 opinion, look upon those who represent us in Con- 
 gress and the legislatures as having fallen below 
 that degree of character, education, intelligence, 
 ability, experience, disinterestedness, and patriotism 
 which, they think, marked the members of those 
 bodies in early days. They are, therefore, not re- 
 garded with the same respect by all as they were 
 earlier in the history of the Republic. If this esti- 
 mate of our representatives be true, then it is due 
 in part to the fact that the members are more rep- 
 resentative of their constituents than they were. 
 The enlargement of the franchise and the growing 
 consciousness among the less well to do and less 
 educated groups of their political power have led 
 them to select men of their own kind and views, 
 who are glad to serve; while their critics among the 
 well to do and educated will not sacrifice their time 
 and effort to seek to become members of Congress 
 or legislators. 
 
 Another objection to modern representative gov- 
 ernment, recently voiced in one of our magazines. 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES 
 is that the representatives are now chosen by sfeo- Legislators now 
 
 •^ ^ Represent Geo- 
 
 £rraphical districts determined bv numbers, and with graphical Districts 
 
 ^ — not Communities 
 
 all sorts and conditions of people with no unity of 
 opinion; whereas, in the past, when the system 
 worked well, they were chosen by unit communities 
 which had and manifested community opinion to 
 which their representatives could give certain and 
 definite voice in the legislative body. That there 
 has been a change of this kind is probably true; 
 but it may be doubted how much it has interfered 
 with the true representative character of the mem- 
 bers. The modern legislator, assuming he is not 
 controlled by sinister motives or machine politics, 
 does his best to find out what public opinion is in 
 his constituency as indicating the wish of the major- 
 ity. Indeed, his effort is often more responsive to 
 what his constituents seem to desire than it should 
 be. It is this failing which has led to the intro- 
 ducing of so many millions of bills to accomplish ^^ 
 
 all sorts of impossible good things and to the enact- 
 ment of tons of ineffective laws of which there is 
 no end. 
 
 The member is too frequently more of a delegate I'^ki'^LegLZr a 
 than he is a representative. The oath he takes ^^^^///^-^^gf/ 
 13 
 
REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT 
 
 Tendency is to 
 Make Legislator a 
 Delegate—not a 
 Representative 
 
 Corruption of 
 Representative 
 System 
 
 pledges him to observe in his conduct the best inter- 
 ests of his state and country, and he has a higher 
 duty than that of slavishly follov^ing the will of his 
 constituency when their selfish or misguided views 
 lead them to call on him to vote for measures he 
 believes to be injurious to the common weal. Of 
 course, he must conform to the pledges of policy 
 on the faith of which he was elected, or else resign ; 
 but, when it comes to the new issues, or methods 
 which were not part of the platform on which he 
 was elected, he should follow his best judgment. 
 The merit of representative government, in its best 
 example, is in securing executive and legislative 
 action through men of experience and ability chosen 
 to carry out the general purposes for which they 
 were elected by the people of their respective con- 
 stituencies, in ways conforming to their best judg- 
 ment, having regard to the welfare of the whole 
 state and all the people. 
 
 But the questions are pressed: 
 
 (a) Has not the power of money enabled cor- 
 porations and others to corrupt Congress and legis- 
 latures? 
 
 (b) Has not our system of political parties with 
 
 14 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES 
 the boss and the machine, its natural outgrowth, Corruption of 
 
 Representative 
 
 defeated the will of the people in legislatures and System 
 Congress ? 
 
 (c) Has not the representative system produced 
 waste and corruption in the form of local expendi- 
 ture to gratify localities by the system of log-rolling? 
 
 (d) Do not truthful answers to these queries in- 
 dicate that we must, by giving more direct control 
 of matters to the people by the initiative, the refer- 
 endum, and the general primary, or by some other 
 method, maintain the rule of the people over our 
 representative bodies ? 
 
 The influence of money, exerted in various ways 
 in our legislative bodies, has undoubtedly at times 
 made representative government misrepresentative 
 of the people. But is that a reason why we should 
 give up the system and look for some other? One 
 form of government is better than another undoubt- 
 edly. One form of government is better adapted 
 to a particular people than another form. It suits 
 their customs, their idiosyncrasies, their tendencies 
 better; and that is the reason why it is better to 
 grow into a government gradually as we have in 
 three centuries, than to have it thrust upon us. Too 
 15 
 
REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT 
 Corruption of often, the fault ascribed to a form of government 
 
 Representative 
 
 System is not due to the particular machinery it employs 
 
 to interpret the will of the people and to give them 
 the protection and the other things a government 
 should furnish. It is due to the fault of the people 
 themselves in not living up to their own ideals and 
 in not performing the duties in a government that 
 they must perform, if any government is to work 
 at all. 
 
 Popular Tolerance prom 1880 Until iQOO, the people of the United 
 
 of Abuses -^ r r 
 
 States, having recovered largely from the setback 
 of the Civil War, were so absorbed in material 
 expansion and the accumulation of wealth that they 
 gave little time to supervision and care of the work 
 of their agents engaged in government. Abuses 
 were thus able to grow. Indeed it would almost 
 seem, from the people's lack of action, as if they 
 looked with a tolerant eye upon the acquisition by 
 corporations of valuable and discriminating privi- 
 lege which they now strongly condemn. All enter- 
 prise took corporate form. It was development, 
 expansion, enlargement of production, construction 
 for the facilities of transportation, which occupied 
 the mind and the heart of the public. The means 
 16 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES 
 by which the corporations brought them about were Popular Tolerance 
 
 of Abuses 
 
 not closely scrutinized. Most people were engaged 
 in a mad rush for wealth; and the material side 
 of everything was exalted as the more important. 
 Business and professional men were too much en- 
 gaged to take part in politics. They could not 
 afford to become candidates for the legislature or 
 for Congress. The public conscience was stilled 
 and dulled until, as a natural result, through the 
 debauchery of legislatures and the creation of cor- 
 rupt machines and bosses, the political power in this 
 country was largely passing into corporate control. 
 
 It is a curious anomaly in our political history Campaign of 1896 
 
 Demoralising 
 
 that the campaign against free silver, which was 
 fought and won in the preservation of our national 
 honesty and honor, had the effect to create a cam- 
 paign fund in behalf of the right cause, so large as 
 to make that campaign the most demoralizing in 
 the history of the country in the use of money to 
 influence elections. 
 
 While the people had begun to realize the neces- People Startled 
 
 into Reform 
 
 sity for restraining the machmations of corporate 
 
 wealth before the end of the last century, it was 
 
 during the first decade of this century that they 
 
 17 
 
REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT 
 People Startled were Startled into the consciousness of the imminent 
 
 into Reform 
 
 danger of the estabhshment of a plutocracy. Then 
 began a reform, which manifested itself in many 
 specific ways, to curb the corrupting influence of 
 corporate wealth. It had its real effective and per- 
 manent expression in the action of the people them- 
 selves and in the sensitiveness of public opinion, 
 which brought about a radical and purifying change. 
 Present Conditions It is too much to say that the influence of money 
 in politics has been eliminated; but certainly in this 
 respect great improvement is evident. Corpora- 
 tions that have been the chief offenders have been 
 driven out of political activity not only by laws 
 forbidding contributions to campaign funds, but 
 more effectively by public opinion and w^atchfulness. 
 Nothing now so surely defeats one with political 
 aspirations as to be known as having corporate sup- 
 port. The petitions of corporations for legislative 
 action are scrutinized with a suspicion and hostility 
 which frequently do injustice. An important fea- 
 ture of the reform has been the dissolution of the 
 bond between corporations and the political boss. 
 He was created as a power by the supposed needs 
 of corporations which wished to avoid "strikes" 
 i8 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES 
 and "blackmail" by councilmen and legislators on Present Conditions 
 
 improved 
 
 the one hand, and wished to secure special and sin- 
 ister privilege from them on the other. The posi- 
 tion of boss was made lucrative by this corporate 
 association. We hear but little real evidence of the 
 prevalence of the old time boss system in our politics 
 now. The term is often used to characterize and 
 disparage political opponents; and some old bosses 
 do survive, but they do not flourish. Their power 
 for corporate evil in legislation has largely de- 
 parted; and one of the chief reasons for this is the 
 fear w^hich has been put into the heart of corporate 
 managers of expending money in political manipu- 
 lation. They have found it far wiser to appeal to 
 the public on the justice of their case, and to spend 
 money in securing publicity for their arguments. 
 
 This brings me to the question how far party ^ffe<:t of Party on 
 
 ^ ^ -^ the Representative 
 
 politics have weakened our representative system. System 
 Under the rule of the corrupt boss, when he used 
 the party organization as a mere machine to put his 
 tools in the legislature and to use them for purposes 
 which filled his pockets with corporation money, the 
 result was a disgrace not only to the legislatures 
 but to our people. It was natural for the people to 
 19 
 
REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT 
 
 fiw^Relie^entathe charge it to the representative system and to insist 
 ^'■^'^"^ that all men had their price and that we must make 
 
 a change in which we could get along without trust- 
 ing anyone. In some states, they acted on this view. 
 But in the end, the progress toward better things 
 was effected in other states and quite as effectively, 
 without much legislation, by a radical change of 
 the attitude of the people themselves. 
 Condemnation of ^hc influence of party and party spirit upon 
 
 Parties a Fashion r j l j i i 
 
 our representative system of government has been 
 thought by many in the past to have little to com- 
 mend it. Its evils have been emphasized; and its 
 utility, if any has been conceded, has been only 
 grudgingly recognized. The term "non-partisan" 
 has been regarded as synonymous with "virtuous," 
 "patriotic," and "disinterested." A party man has, 
 in the teachings in the class-room and in commence- 
 ment addresses, not infrequently been held up as in 
 contrast with the patriot and the reformer, recalling 
 Goldsmith's lines on Burke: 
 
 Who, born for the universe, narrow'd his mind, 
 And to party gave up what was meant for mankind. 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES 
 But parties are necessary in carrying on govern- Parties Necessary 
 
 in Popular Gov- 
 
 ment by the people. The problem of self-govern- emment 
 ment is not so easy as it seems. It is necessarily 
 the rule of the majority, and we must have some 
 means of interpreting into governmental action 
 what the will of that majority is. If the members 
 of the electorate in this country who actually vote 
 in an election number twenty millions, how are a 
 majority of that number, say eleven millions, going 
 to agree on any governmental policy at all? They 
 can not reach an agreement without organization. 
 Left alone, there would be almost as many differing 
 views in detail as there are individuals; and govern- 
 mental action would be impossible. The only way 
 in which they can act together is to agree on general 
 principles, waive minor differences, and combine in 
 what we call a party. They must themselves put 
 into operation machinery to declare a platform of 
 principles and to select candidates who, if elected, 
 will carry them out. 
 
 Our two great parties divided originally on the We have had Two 
 
 Great Parties since 
 
 question whether this country should be a nation our Beginning 
 or only be a league of states retaining their sov- 
 ereign powers. The controversy was made more 
 
 21 
 
REPRESENTy\TIVE GOVERNMENT 
 We have had Tivo acutc bv the gTowtli of the supDosed economic value 
 
 Great Parties since 
 
 our Beginning of slavery and the importance to the slave owners 
 and the slave-holding states of the maintenance of 
 the states rights doctrine. The issue between the 
 parties continued from the beginning of the last 
 century until the Civil War, when the responsibility 
 for the carrying on of the war was assumed by the 
 Republican party. The necessity for supplying the 
 government with the sinews of war fitted in with 
 the doctrine of protection, first advocated by Alex- 
 ander Hamilton for the promotion of manufactures 
 and continued as the American policy under the 
 Whigs and Clay. The Republican party, as suc- 
 cessor of the Whigs, thus became a protection party, 
 while the Democratic party adopted the principle of 
 free trade or a tarifif for revenue only. This has 
 been a continuing issue of sufficient importance to 
 maintain the party alignment. We have thus had 
 in the country two great parties, and only two, and 
 they continue to-day. 
 
 Why the Great While their influence over their respective mem- 
 
 Parties Live 
 
 bers varies from campaign to campaign, and men 
 change from one to another on issues newly arising, 
 these two parties have acquired a persistence of life 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES 
 which shows no siern of abatement. The interest ^jfhy the Great 
 
 Parties Live 
 
 that some people take in them is stimulated of course 
 by their personal hope that, when their party wins, 
 they will be rewarded by official position; but the 
 rewards are not sufficiently numerous or great to 
 explain the party interest of the great body of each 
 party. Party members retain their party loyalty, 
 perhaps because they have inherited the attachment, 
 often because of what may be called sporting inter- 
 est in it, but usually because their minds have been 
 trained to acquiesce in the party judgment and the 
 party platform, and to associate party success with 
 the best interests of the people and the country. 
 
 The rank and file of each of the great parties. Non-party Men 
 
 Useful 
 
 its thick and thin supporters, constitute perhaps a 
 majority. Then there are others upon whom the 
 party tie rests lightly and is easily severed. Then 
 there are many of the most intelligent voters who 
 recognize no party allegiance but who vote at each 
 election as their judgment of men and policies ap- 
 proves. These last two classes change from one 
 side to the other and decide elections. They are a 
 valuable element in the body politic. Their influ- 
 ence is felt not in the party councils, but in the final 
 23 
 
REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT 
 Non-party Men result. It is the regulars, however, who are most 
 
 Useful ^ 
 
 influential in guiding the party's poHcy and in select- 
 ing the party's candidates. But the regulars with 
 a sense of responsibility should and often do have 
 a healthy fear of the independent voters whose 
 judgment will be weighty in determining party suc- 
 cess or defeat. 
 Party Evils j^ legislation, the party whip is sometimes 
 
 cracked, and the better and conscientious judgment 
 of the minority of a party is made to yield to the 
 caucus majority in order to pass a bad measure. 
 In administration, the tendency of party regulars 
 is to oust from office as many of the other party 
 as possible and to substitute the victors in offices 
 regarded as legitimate spoil, no matter how efficient 
 the incumbents. This building up of party strength 
 and organization out of patronage at the expense 
 of the public has long been an evil due to parties, 
 though its extent has been greatly curtailed by the 
 civil service law and regulations. Conditions in 
 this regard have been much improved in half a 
 century. I have already alluded to the opportunity 
 for corruption that the party machine conducted 
 by a boss offers, and have pointed out that in that 
 24 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 respect, too, conditions have bettered. Still these Party Evils 
 debits to the party system must be conceded. 
 
 The striking advantage on the other hand, which f^f cZfMrt'iTs 
 our democracy and representative system gain by 
 reason of these two large parties, is in the fact that 
 they are each made up of all classes and conditions. 
 Their cleavage is vertical and not horizontal. Each 
 includes the well to do, the moderate circumstanced, 
 and the poor. Each includes the capitalist and the 
 working man, the educated and the ignorant. Each 
 views questions and politics from the standpoint of 
 all the people. In order that each may command 
 support from each class and group of people, each 
 must shape its policies to be fair to each class, and 
 not to exclude consideration of other classes. They 
 can not be selfish in seeking the welfare of one 
 group, because their constituent elements, if they 
 would hold them together, forbid. Party success 
 thus bids them to take an obviously patriotic course, 
 having the interests of all in view. 
 
 The dansfer to the body politic in these days is Danger from 
 
 ° Class Parties and 
 
 the attempt of a class to use the government for Groups 
 itself and to ignore altogether the rights and benefits 
 of the rest of society. The Socialist party is en- 
 
 25 
 
REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT 
 Danger from gaged in seeking to arouse discontent against the 
 
 Class Parties and ^ ^ ^ ^ 
 
 Groups well to do, and to create a class war. A great many 
 
 laborers and extremists in the labor unions would 
 constitute, if they could, a class party, having the 
 interests of no others in mind except the laborers. 
 Witness the bitter fight waged by organized labor 
 against the creation of state constabularies to main- 
 tain law and order in the sparsely settled communi- 
 ties of our states. Rural crime and lynchings are 
 shocking, and show the absolute necessity for such 
 state protection; but, for fear that state constables 
 may be used to enforce the law in case of lawless 
 violence due to strikes, labor unions oppose this 
 much needed reform. 
 
 No Labor Party. Within receut years, a dangerous disposition has 
 
 Prevented by . . . 
 
 Great Parties been manifested in organized labor to threaten a 
 general strike in a field of activity like transpor- 
 tation, or coal mining, the continuity of which is 
 essential to the life of the country, in order to choke 
 the country and Congress into a compliance with 
 the economic demands of this particular class of 
 labor. This is the selfish and Bolshevistic use of a 
 combination of a minority to compel a majority to 
 \ yield to its demands. Were a party to be based on 
 
 26 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES 
 such a plan, it would threaten the public safety, ^'o Labor Party. 
 
 Prevented by 
 
 But the two great parties we may count on as an Great Parties 
 obstacle to this. It is the great body of laborers 
 whose fealty to one or the other of the great parties 
 prevents the successful organization of such a labor 
 class party in this country. No man is able to de- 
 liver the labor vote in an election; and the labor 
 leaders have been wise enough, therefore, not to 
 encourage the organization of a labor party. They 
 know too well that an effort of that sort would 
 disclose in the ballot only a comparatively small 
 number of working men who wish to subordinate 
 their political activity as Americans to the narrow ' ~~ 
 
 class policy of a labor party. 
 
 There has also been a combination of farmers, Non-Partisan 
 
 League 
 
 called the Non-Partisan League, originating in 
 North Dakota, and spreading to neighboring states. 
 That is not a patriotic American party. It has been 
 made possible by the insistence of a number of un- 
 successful and in many instances of foreign born 
 farmers in North Dakota, who w^ere aroused by a 
 real grievance, as to grain classification and rates, 
 and who conceived the idea that through a political 
 combination they could exclude every other class 
 27 
 
REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT 
 
 Non-Partisan and cvcry Other interest and run the state for the 
 
 ^"^"^ farmers alone. They adopted state sociahsm and 
 
 proceeded to do state banking and state warehous- 
 ing, and to perform all the other functions essential 
 to the marketing of their crops by the state agencies. 
 They organized the legislature, and ran it by a cau- 
 cus of the Non-Partisan League. They excluded 
 lawyers and all but farmers from the legislature. 
 For a time they were able to exercise absolute au- 
 thority. They sought to control both the old par- 
 ties through the general primaries, and for a time 
 succeeded in this. They have made a lamentable 
 economic failure. They can not maintain them- 
 selves. Their leaders are real socialists and seek, 
 in disguised ways, to have the state acquire all the 
 land, while this is the last thing which farmers who 
 constitute the party favor. So, too, their attempted 
 union with the I. W. W. and extreme laborites is 
 mixing oil and water. Their power is waning; the 
 old parties are returning to control. They have 
 been a tyrannical class party whom it is greatly in 
 the public interest to have disappear. 
 
 Objection is made to party discipline in the great 
 parties; but there is no such discipline in the great 
 28 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES 
 parties as occurs in the class parties. The Sociahsts, Non-Partisan 
 
 League 
 
 the Non-Partisan League, the extreme laborites, 
 rule their followers with a rod of iron. 
 
 In our representative system, we must, however. One Weakness in 
 
 our Representative 
 
 recosnize a weakness that has proved at times to System— Undue 
 
 influence of Mi- 
 he serious and that the existence of both parties has "orities as to 
 
 bound Legislation 
 
 not enabled us to avoid. A faction, a minority, a 
 class group, seeks legislation. It is in respect to 
 some social or economic phase of conditions upon 
 which public opinion has not been aroused and upon 
 which the great parties have not expressed them- 
 selves. The group is a minority in every district, 
 but it has votes enough in each district or in many 
 districts to convince the members of the legislative 
 body that it can wield a balance of power as between 
 the two evenly matched parties and elect or defeat 
 a candidate. In this way, in times past, first the 
 liquor men and then the Prohibitionists wielded an 
 undue weight of influence. This was true also of 
 the Woman Suffragists. So now the labor unions 
 are able to further or defeat measures, not on their 
 merits, but by such a threat. The defect can only 
 be remedied by persistent publicity and by holding 
 the trimmers up to public condemnation. It is 
 29 
 
REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT 
 
 Undue Influence 
 of Minorities 
 
 Foreign Factions 
 and. Classes 
 
 Tivo Great Parlies 
 a Conservative 
 Influence 
 
 another instance where the whole pubUc must "get 
 busy." 
 
 Then there are groups whose interest in other 
 countries than this is so intense and exclusive that 
 they would ignore the welfare of the United States 
 by dragging us into conduct forcing war with a 
 friendly country. Such is the purpose of Irish ex- 
 tremists in respect to Great Britain. Similarly the 
 pro-Germans would involve us with France. But, 
 as against any serious yielding to such purpose 
 inconsistent with the general welfare of the whole 
 country, our two great parties offer a complete 
 defense. These great parties do at times by in- 
 effective resolutions seek to propitiate one or an- 
 other of these groups; but, when the issue becomes 
 really serious, when we are brought face to face 
 with the danger into which such groups would lead 
 us, then each party declines to serve their purpose. 
 
 The two great parties represent the conservative 
 attitude of the body politic of the United States. 
 They hold us to the principle that we are Americans 
 first and that our class preferences, if we have any, 
 are second. Their continued existence keeps us in 
 that condition of mind. To know how useful our 
 30 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES 
 ereat parties are in this regard, we should look at T"-^'o Great Parties 
 
 ^ ^ a Conservative 
 
 Other countries. The labor party in Great Britain, influence 
 which with socialistic tendencies threatens at times 
 to sweep the country, and is insistent on determin- 
 ing its foreign policy; the ten or more different 
 parties and groups in France, making every min- 
 istry nothing but a compromise in legislation which 
 must necessarily defeat broad and useful measures; 
 the development of class hatred and its triumph for 
 the time being in Russia, and its threat against the 
 stability of other European countries: all these re- 
 veal to us, as we never knew it before, the defensive 
 advantage of our party system; and, while it should 
 not blind us to the evils of excessive partisanship, 
 it certainly furnishes no reason why we should give 
 up representative government. 
 
 Another ground for attack on the representative Log-Roiiing_ in our 
 
 Representative 
 
 system is the disposition of legislatures and of Con- System 
 gress to waste public moneys by an effort to capture 
 the favor of localities through excessive expendi- 
 ture, for local purposes or for alleged state or na- 
 tional purposes in localities, which no privately 
 managed concern would think of spending for gen- 
 eral governmental purposes. This is a just criti- 
 31 
 
REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT 
 Log-RoUiiui in our cism. The injurious result is brought about by 
 
 Representative 
 
 System "log-rolHng," as it is called. Each member is in- 
 
 terested in promoting an expenditure in his own 
 district, and is moved, partly at least, by the thought 
 that in the expenditure his constituents will secure 
 a personal benefit. The rivers and harbors bill and 
 the public buildings bill are examples in national 
 legislation. They have long been called the "pork 
 barrel" out of which each of many members is sup- 
 posed to get part of the pork. The wasteful char- 
 acter of these bills has, however, been greatly exag- 
 gerated, though they are bad enough as they are, 
 and the field for the abuse is enlarging itself, now 
 that under the general welfare provision of the tax- 
 ation clause of the Constitution we are venturing, 
 perhaps necessarily, into assistance to the states in 
 the construction of roads and in the betterment of 
 their education facilities. Still this evil does not 
 arise from any attempt of the representatives to 
 misrepresent their home districts. The districts 
 themselves force upon their representatives the obli- 
 gation to seek such distribution of pork. There is 
 nothing quite so selfish as a community seeking to 
 share a general fund for local purposes; and the 
 32 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES 
 evil, if it be an evil, is one arising from the glaring Log-Roiimg in our 
 
 Representative 
 
 cupidity of the people of a locality, as distinguished System 
 from the fairer and juster attitude of individuals 
 making up that community. Such an evil, there- 
 fore, can hardly be charged to the representative 
 system of government, as distinguished from one 
 of direct voting; for the origin of the evil is in the 
 people at home. 
 
 And now what of the remedies proposed for what influence of Presi- 
 dent as Party 
 
 is called the failure of the representative system? Leader m Depar- 
 ture from Repre- 
 
 Certainly there is no desire to recur to the monarch- tentative System 
 
 ical system or one-man power. It has been said 
 that the representative system is gradually chang- 
 ing, so that power is vesting itself in the President 
 or in the governor. With the necessity for parties 
 in order to secure effective action according to the 
 will of the people, the President, who is the titular 
 head of the party that elected him, should work in 
 unison with the majority of his party in each House. 
 This is essential not only to party success but to 
 real efficiency in the public interest. If he has suc- 
 cessful elements of leadership, the people look to 
 him as responsible for legislation. That is depend- 
 ent on the personal characteristics of the President. 
 33 
 
REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT 
 
 Influence of Prcsi- The President is himself a representative of the 
 
 dent as Party 
 
 Leader no Dcpar- people and Selected by all of them, as distinguished 
 
 ture from Repre- 
 sentative System from Congressmen and senators, who are repre- 
 sentatives of states and districts. It is thus natural 
 that the President should not infrequently have the 
 sympathy and support of all the people as against 
 the representative, legislative bodies. But this is 
 not a departure from representative government: 
 it is only a phase of it. Certainly neither House 
 is going to give up its constitutional rights; but 
 when the majority in each follows the leadership 
 of the President, and that leadership is w^orthy, it 
 is a result to be commended and one which makes 
 no ground for criticism of the representative sys- 
 tem. The same thing is true of a governor and the 
 state legislature. 
 
 In the days when there was a popular revulsion 
 of feeling because of the revelations of corruption 
 and of corporate control of politics, the people in 
 many Western states especially, felt that American 
 impulse to find in a mechanical device some remedy 
 for an evil, no matter how^ deep it may lie in the 
 origin of things. This corruption had grown out 
 of a certain form of democracy, and the cure for 
 34 
 
 Initiative and 
 Referendum 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES 
 it was to be found in greater democracy. The rep- initiative and 
 
 Referendum 
 
 resentatives had shown themselves unworthy of 
 trust and therefore the work which they had been 
 appointed to do must be done by the people them- 
 selves. Thus came the initiative, the referendum, 
 and the general primary. The initiative and refer- 
 endum have been adopted in perhaps one-third of 
 the states, as a result of the wave of feeling to which 
 I have referred. To the extent to which they have 
 been adopted, they do show a lack of confidence of 
 the people in the purely representative system, but 
 there has evidently been a halt in the movement, 
 and one may hazard the opinion that it is not likely 
 to spread. 
 
 For thirty years after the organization of the 
 government, even the constitutions of the states 
 were adopted only by representative bodies. After 
 that, the custom grew to submit the finished con- 
 stitution to a vote of the people before it could have 
 sanction. As the constitution was to be funda- 
 mental law, this addition to its sanction was a nat- 
 ural and proper one; and, while in many instances 
 the people who voted for it or against it may not 
 have understood it, a vote in its behalf tended to 
 35 
 
REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT 
 Initiative and confirm the view that it was really the voice of all 
 
 Referendum 
 
 the people. Such votes were rare and coming only 
 at intervals of several decades were accepted as the 
 natural requirement for the fixing of reasonably 
 permanent fundamental principles. But the move- 
 ment to which I refer is an institution requiring 
 that all laws be subject to popular approval, and 
 that even without the intervention of the legislature, 
 upon the petition of a certain percentage of the 
 voters, a law prepared by that percentage must be 
 accepted or rejected by the people without further 
 consideration or amendment. 
 Objections to Ref- The objection to the initiative and referendum 
 
 erendum and 
 
 Initiative for all laws is, that, while they seem to give the 
 
 public an opportunity to supervise and revise the 
 action of the legislature, as a matter of fact they 
 involve the electorate in such a complicated and 
 oppressive task in considering the details of legis- 
 lation, that the voters will not respond to the duty, 
 and the settlement of the issues presented is left to 
 ' a comparatively small percentage of the electorate, 
 so that the vote recorded is not really a satisfactory 
 evidence of the popular will. It is no reflection on 
 the most intelligent voters to say that they can not 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 exercise a useful judgment with reference to stat- Objections to Ref- 
 erendum and 
 utes which they have not heard debated, and which initiative 
 
 they are unable to give the necessary time fully to 
 understand. Still less satisfactory is the judgment 
 of voters who are not intelligent. The initiative is 
 the compelling, at the dictation of a small percent- 
 age of the electorate, the rest of that electorate to 
 consider the proposed bills which have not been 
 through the mill of legislative discussion and which 
 have been drawn by enthusiasts often without a 
 knowledge of existing law and generally with very 
 little conception of the practical operation of that 
 which they present. Of course, there are certain 
 issues, like that of prohibition or license, upon which 
 all have an opinion ; and, upon such an issue, a refer- 
 endum is illuminating upon the question of public 
 opinion. But to give the initiative and referendum 
 universal application is merely to clog the wheels of 
 government, to invite people to the performance of 
 duties which they will not perform. In the refer- 
 endum a refuge is given those members of the legis- 
 lature who are not willing to take responsibility, to 
 escape it. It is not likely to improve the tone of 
 legislators. I don't suppose that the grant of such 
 2>7 
 
REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT 
 
 Objections to Ref- 
 erendum and 
 Initiative 
 
 The General 
 Primary 
 
 power will be withdrawn in the states where it now 
 exists; but I do look for the surrounding of its exer- 
 cise by limitations and exceptions, so as to make it 
 operative in fewer and fewer cases, until it ceases 
 to be a matter of much importance. 
 
 One of the evidences of popular distrust in the 
 representative system has been the adoption of the 
 General Primary, and it has had a much wider 
 acceptance than either the initiative or the referen- 
 dum. In the organization of parties, it was natural 
 and logical to use a representative system in the 
 determination of party policy and the selection of 
 party candidates; and so delegates to a convention 
 were selected by small party units for the city, the 
 county, the state, and the nation; and the delegates 
 sitting in convention selected the party candidates 
 for the city, for the county, for the state, and for 
 the nation. A party was treated in the old time 
 as a voluntary association which was usually out- 
 side the law and not to be regulated by it. This 
 condition was seized upon by the bosses and corrupt 
 machines as a means of fastening their power upon 
 the party. 
 
 The meetings or caucuses in which the delegates 
 38 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES 
 were selected were taken control of, the conventions Conventions 
 
 Corrupt 
 
 were filled with the creatures of the boss, and many 
 who are not his creatures were suborned, so that 
 the corrupt rule of party organization was estab- 
 lished, and maintined for sinister corporate and 
 other purposes. 
 
 In the awakening, which I have described, at the Conventions 
 
 Abolished 
 
 beginning of this century, a hue and cry was raised 
 for the abolition of the convention as the cause and 
 means of corruption. Legislatures forbade con- 
 ventions, and passed elaborate laws for the selection 
 of officials by a general party primary, that have 
 been in operation now for nearly twenty years. The 
 national convention still remains; but the selection 
 of delegates to that convention is regulated in many 
 of the districts and states by the general primary 
 law. We have had a fairly good opportunity to 
 judge of its operation. It did destroy corruption 
 in conventions, because it abolished them. 
 
 Did it destroy the machine nomination of can- Primary Did Not 
 
 Destroy Machine 
 
 didates? I think not. One objectionable assump- Nominations 
 tion in the primary law is that no man can be a 
 candidate for office who does not seek it. He must 
 make himself an applicant in a formal method. The 
 39 
 
REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT 
 
 Primary Did Not 
 Destroy Machine 
 N ominations 
 
 No Responsibility 
 for Fitness of 
 Candidates 
 
 door is Open to all who seek. Their names are 
 placed upon a ticket, and the choice is made of him 
 who has a plurality of the votes as the candidate of 
 the party. The number of candidates and the small 
 vote at a general primary as compared with the 
 total electorate, enables the organization, which al- 
 ways has at its command more active workers, to 
 secure in any ordinary primary a plurality for the 
 organization candidate, unless there is some active 
 candidate who has himself created an organization 
 to call out the vote. But such an organization re- 
 quires money legitimately spent and a great deal 
 of it. The result therefore usually is that the can- 
 didate is either the candidate of the organization 
 or a wealthy man who has spent a large amount of 
 money to beat the organization candidate. All other 
 candidates usually fail. The boss is not dethroned. 
 There is no responsibility upon the party or a 
 party organization for the selection of a candidate. 
 The result is supposed to be the people's choice, and 
 neither the boss nor the machine is responsible. In 
 a primary that covers an extensive district, it is 
 impossible for the great bulk of the voters to know 
 the candidates or to discriminate between them; 
 40 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES 
 and all sorts of fortuitous circumstances determine ^^o Responsibility 
 
 for Fitness of 
 
 the choice, rather than a knowledge of the fitness Candidates 
 of the person selected. The man whose name be- 
 gins with "A" and is therefore first in the list, has 
 a much greater chance of selection than he whose 
 name begins with a letter far down the alphabet. 
 Any sort of notoriety, whether based on commend- 
 able qualities or not, secures support. The choices 
 are made without discrimination, therefore, and the 
 average fitness of the candidates for office has been 
 distinctly lowered throughout the region where the 
 general primary has been in operation. 
 
 It is asked, "Would you restore the old corrupt Convention Sys- _ 
 
 . -„ „ . , , , , tern under Practi- 
 
 convention t Ui course one would not have the cai Restrictions 
 
 . . . , , , , never Given a 
 
 old corrupt convention, although one must say that. Trial 
 even under that boss-ridden and corrupt system, 
 there was some sense of responsibility in the choice 
 of candidates, now absent, growing out of the fear 
 of an adverse verdict at the polls if some competent 
 men were not put upon the ticket. There was a 
 chance under that system for the ofifice to seek the 
 man; but, under the primary system, that is impos- 
 sible. It is enough to say that the convention sys- 
 tem was never given any opportunity to demonstrate 
 41 
 
REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT 
 Convention System its uscfulncss bv mcasures to Safeguard it against 
 
 under Practical 
 
 Restrictions never corruption. The legislature can make as precise 
 
 Given a Trial 
 
 and careful provisions for the selection of delegates 
 to a county or a state convention as it does to the 
 election of candidates in a general primary. It can 
 surround the certificate of election and the seating 
 of the lawfully selected delegate in the convention 
 with the same protection as it now gives to the title 
 of a candidate elected in a primary. An honestly 
 elected set of honest delegates to a convention make 
 up a deliberative body far better able, because with 
 more knowledge, to select competent candidates for 
 the offices to be filled. Bribery in such a convention 
 can be made a crime as any other violation of the 
 safeguarding law may be. The general primary 
 does not avoid corruption where wealthy men are 
 candidates, and it greatly increases the amount of 
 money used by candidates. 
 'DepHvis^Part'^^f ^ great abusc under the general primary system 
 Legitimate Self- j^^s been that the loyal members of the party have 
 
 control •' r J 
 
 often been prevented from making their own selec- 
 tions, by the intervention of men who claim the 
 right to vote, as members of the party, but who are 
 really not so, and who intend to vote the other party 
 42 
 
TN THE UNITED STATES 
 ticket. A convention will be easily able to see to it General Primary 
 
 Deprives Party of 
 
 that no delegate is admitted who is not a loyal mem- Legitimate Seif- 
 
 conirol 
 
 ber of the party. It should be made a sine qua non 
 of admission to the convention. A party has a 
 right to determine for itself its policies and its can- 
 didates ; and it has a right to exclude from its coun- 
 cils and the selection of its candidates the partici- 
 pation of non-members. 
 
 The general primary has tended to break up the Primary Tends to 
 
 ^ ^ -^ ^ Destroy Useful 
 
 great parties, to destroy their organization, to create Parties 
 factions in them prompted by selfish motives. It 
 has given an opportunity to hostile groups, like 
 the Non-Partisan League, for instance, in North 
 Dakota and Minnesota, to capture the party ma- 
 chinery, although it was well known that their 
 action was for the purpose of destroying the party. 
 This, as I have attempted to shov/, is not in the 
 public interest. 
 
 These new devices and the fact that they have Suceess of Ret>re- 
 
 sentative System 
 
 been given wide use, are evidence of a dissatis- Depends wholly on 
 
 People 
 
 faction with the representative system where they 
 prevail. But I think the careful observer will note 
 that there has been a reaction from further adoption 
 of them, and that this has been brought about by 
 43 
 
REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT 
 Success of Repre- the perception of most people that the best way to 
 
 sentative System 
 
 Depends wholly on jret rid of 8:overnmental abuses under the repre- 
 
 People ^ ^ 
 
 sentative system is for the people themselves to 
 "get busy" and manifest in their votes a discour- 
 aging hostility to those who stand for such abuses. 
 This change in the people's attitude has worked a 
 great reform; and the questionable mechanical de- 
 vices like the initiative, the referendum, and the 
 general primary, have been seen to be unnecessary. 
 The representative system is the only system by 
 which we can maintain and carry on successful 
 popular government in a democracy like ours. It 
 is a failure when the people fail in their duty; and 
 its success will be maintained as long as the people 
 maintain their sense of obligation as citizens. Cer- 
 tainly the people of the United States have no reason 
 to give it up; for, in this welter of war and destruc- 
 tion and destructive reconstruction, there is no other 
 country whose government has seemed so strong 
 and so useful to its people. 
 Difficulties of In the consideration of the faults disclosed by our 
 
 Government ivith . ^ .... 
 
 Immigration representative system of government and m makmg 
 
 allowance for those faults, we can not omit the 
 burden that our form of government has had to 
 
 44 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES 
 carry in our attempt to assimilate so many millions Difficulties of 
 
 . Covernment with 
 
 of foreign born who have come to this country as immigration 
 a refuge and as a place where they can enjoy our 
 equaUty of opportunity. We were more successful 
 in the beginning in making these immigrants part 
 of our body politic than we have been of later years. 
 Then the immigrants were of a better class. When 
 they came here, they were distributed in such a way 
 among the native born that they breathed in the 
 spirit of our institutions and became Americanized 
 very much more quickly and more thoroughly than 
 the immigrants who come to-day. Millions of them 
 do not speak our language; many of them have a 
 prejudice against all government, and do not have 
 the sympathy with our institutions which makes for 
 real assimilation. They are crowded in communi- 
 ties where they are able to keep up their old country 
 relations and customs and language, and they use 
 this country only as a means of earning a livelihood, 
 and not with any idea of supporting the government 
 and becoming a part of it, but rather with the hope 
 of some day overcoming it in the interest of a vague 
 socialist or anarchistic state in which they are to 
 share in the wealth they see and envy. It is they 
 45 
 
REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT 
 Difficulties of who form the nucleus of the sociaHst party. It is 
 
 Government zvith '■ -^ 
 
 Immigration they who Strengthen the anarchistic group. It is 
 
 ; they who are with us but not of us; and it is they 
 who are easily made the instrument of demagogues 
 or the tools of corruptionists. They present a great 
 I difficulty. Still, in the next generation, with edu- 
 cation for their children, with the accumulation of 
 property enough to create conservative tendencies 
 in them, we may hope for better things. While we 
 all deplore the war, the searching investigation and 
 test of the loyalty of these men and the analysis of 
 their tendency and purpose were most useful in the 
 solving of the problem they presented. We may 
 hope that the present serious movement for the 
 Americanization of these elements of our population 
 will lessen the danger of their presence in our com- 
 munity and remedy the failings of the representa- 
 I tive system for which their presence has in some 
 degree been responsible. 
 
 Lord Bryce's Lord Bryce wrote a book fifty years ago, in which 
 
 Conclusions 
 
 he described the working of our government and 
 its faults, called The American Commonwealth. He 
 has just published a second work on Modern Democ- 
 racies, in which he discusses the strength and weak- 
 46 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES 
 ness of the various forms of Democracies which he f^^^'-d Bryce's 
 
 Conclusions 
 
 regards as types. He has taken France and Switzer- 
 land in the old world, Canada and the United States 
 in this, and Australia and New Zealand in the far 
 Southern seas. After a re-examination of condi- 
 tions with us, and a reference to particular dangers 
 in Democracies, including, in our case, labor trou- 
 bles, and over immigration, he says: 
 
 "America is better fitted than are European coun- 
 tries to face any industrial strife that may arise, 
 for no other people, except the Swiss, values so 
 highly its institutions and the principles of ordered 
 liberty embodied therein. In America, Democracy 
 has the best guarantee against Revolution, 
 
 "The history of the Republic furnishes an in- 
 structive example of the perpetual conflict between 
 the forces of Idealism and the forces of Selfishness. 
 The first generation set out with an idealistic faith 
 in Liberty, in Equality, and in the wisdom of the 
 People. The second and third generations, absorbed 
 by the passion for the development of their country's 
 resources and distracted by the struggle over negro 
 slavery, allowed abuses and corruptions to grow up, 
 
 47 
 
REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT 
 Lord Bryce's left practical politics to be dominated by a self- 
 
 Coiuiusions 
 
 constituted oligarchy of professionals, and, without 
 losing their theoretical devotion to liberty, forgot 
 that monarchs are not its only enemies and that it 
 may be threatened by money as well as by arms. 
 Then in the fourth and fifth generations there 
 came an awakening. The recuperative forces in 
 the nation asserted themselves. Both the old par- 
 ties (so far as their organizations went) failed to 
 give the guidance needed, and there was much grop- 
 ing and stumbling in search for remedies to cure 
 the evils which all had begun to perceive. But the 
 forces that were making for good have continued 
 to gain strength. The old ideals of a government 
 which shall be pure as well as popular, and shall 
 unite the whole people in a disinterested patriotism 
 that values national righteousness as well as na- 
 tional greatness, have again become beacon lights 
 of inspiration. 
 
 "No Englishman who remembers American poli- 
 tics as they were half a century ago, and who, 
 having lived in the United States, has formed an 
 affection as well as an admiration for its people — 
 What Englishman who lives there can do other- 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES 
 wise? — will fail to rejoice at the many signs that Lord Bryce's 
 
 Conchisions 
 
 the sense of public duty has grown stronger, that 
 the standards of public life are steadily rising, that 
 democracy is more and more showing itself a force 
 making for ordered progress, true to the principles 
 of liberty and equality from which it sprang." 
 
 49 
 
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