Conditions of progress in democratic government

Presented to the

University of
British Columbia

by the

Yale University Press

in recognition of the sacrifices

made by Canada
for the cause of Liberty and
Civilization in the World War
and to commemorate the part
played in the struggle by the
eight thousand Yale gradu-
ates in the service of the
Allied Governments
19141918

1-)ir(^^

JK /7^^^- H^

YALE LECTURES ON THE
RESPONSIBILITIES OF CITIZENSHIP

CONDITIONS OF PROGRESS IN
DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT

YALE LECTURES ON THE RESPONSIBILITIES
OF CITIZENSHIP

AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP. By the late David J. Brewer, Associate
Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. 131 -pages.

THE CITIZEN IN HIS RELATION TO THE INDUSTRIAL SITU-
ATION. By the late Henry Codtnan Potter. D.D., LL.D., Bishop of
New York. 2Jt8 pages.

THE RELATIONS BETWEEN FREEDOM AND RESPONSIBILITY
IN THE EVOLUTION OF DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT.
By Arthur Twining Hadley, Ph.D., LL.D., President of Yale Univer-
sity. 175 pages.

FOUR ASPECTS OF CIVIC DUTY. By William Howard Taft, President

of the United States. Ill pages.

THE CITIZEN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT. By Elihu Root. 133

pages.

THE HINDRANCES TO GOOD CITIZENSHIP. By James Bryce,

British Ambassador to the United States. 138 pages.

CONDITIONS OF PROGRESS IN DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT.

By Charles Evans Hughes, now Associate Justice of the Supreme Court

of the United States. 123 pages.

AMERICA IN THE MAKING. By Rev. Lyman Abbott, D.D., LL.D.,

Editor of "The Outlook." 23k. pages.

THE RELATIONS OF EDUCATION TO CITIZENSHIP. % Simeon

E. Baldwin, Governor of Connecticut. 173 pages.

THE POTVER OF IDE.ALS IN AMERICAN HISTORY. By Ephraim
Douglas Adams, Ph.D., Professor of History, Leland Stanford, Jr.,
University. 159 pages.

MU'NICIPAL CITIZENSHIP. By George McAneny, President of the
Board of Aldermen of the City of New York. (In preparation.)

THE LIBERTY OF CITIZENSHIP. By Samuel Walker McCall, LL.D.

13k pages.

Uniform 12m0. cloth hound volumes. Price $1.15 net each, postpaid.

SOCIETY AND PRISONS. By Thomas Mott Osborne, L.H.D.
8vo. Cloth binding. Price, $1.35 net, postpaid.

CONDITIONS OF PROGRESS IN
DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT

BT

CHARLES EVANS HUGHES

NEW haven: tale university press

LONDON: HUMPHREY MILFORD

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

MCMX

Copyright, 1910

BY

Yale University Press

First printed, June, 1910
Reprinted, August, 1916

Printed in the United States

CONDITIONS OF PROGRESS IN
DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT

Digitized by the Internet Arciiive

in 2010 witii funding from

University of Britisii Columbia Library

http://www.archive.org/details/conditionsofproOOhugh

LECTURE I

INTRODUCTION

Mr. President and Gentlemen of Yale Uni-
versity :

To you who are enjoying academic advantages
and especially to those of you who are devoting
yourselves to the study of history and political
science, it must seem presumptuous for one who is
under the pressure of the exacting duties of execu-
tive office to attempt to meet the requirements
of a university lectureship. The invitation, with
which I have been honoured, and my acceptance of
it, can be justified only upon the ground that the
chief intention of the founder of this course of lec-
tures was not to invite scholastic disquisition, but
rather to quicken in young men the sense of civic
responsibility, and that this object might to some
degree be attained if one in the midst of public
work should seek to draw, though only in outline,
a sketch of the field of endeavour, or privilege, of
obligation.

I shall make, therefore, no effort to discuss the-

2 CONDITIONS OF PROGRESS

ories of governmental systems, or to present an
essay in constitutional history. In speaking of
the responsibilities of citizenship, under the title
of " Conditions of Progress in Democratic Gov-
ernment," I can give you only a point of view.
I shall first speak on "The Attitude of the Indi-
vidual," and later on "Administrative EflSciency,"
and "Political Parties."

IN DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT 3

THE ATTITUDE OF THE INDIVIDUAL

The responsibilities of citizenship must not be
regarded as limited to voting, to the use of elec-
toral machinery, or to participation in political
campaigns. These are simply methods to secure
the expression of public opinion which is the final
authority. Opportunity and the responsibility
which it measures, with respect to citizenship, are
to be determined not merely by particular polit-
ical rights, but by one's relation to the ultimate
power which upholds or changes constitutions,
makes laws, fixes the quality of administration and
assures or prevents progress.

Many are disturbed by the thought of the mul-
titude of the unlettered and the regrettable number
of besotted or debased who enjoy the equal privi-
lege of the suffrage; and their own privilege and
obligation are thus cast into disesteem. But this
reflection should rather quicken the sense of re-
sponsibility and heighten the appreciation of oppor-
tunity. It is not merely that if one is dismayed
by the number of others who count, he should be
sure to count. This is a sobering thought, but
there is much more. Equality of civil right secures
necessary freedom of expression; but back of the

4 CONDITIONS OF PROGRESS

votes are the influences which determine the votes,
— the varied forces which produce conviction and
create pubhc sentiment. It is the extent to which
one contributes, or may contribute, to these influ-
ences that measures political power.

The responsibilities of citizenship, then, embrace
all those acts or possible acts, all those habits or
attitudes, which express the totality of one's pos-
sible contributions to the formation of public
opinion and to the maintenance of proper stand-
ards of civic conduct. Power and responsibility
are to be judged not by the single vote, but by
the indefinable influence radiating from person-
ality, varying with moral perception, knowledge,
acumen, experience, and environment, and capable
of being lessened or increased, as one shrinks his
individuality or expands his life and throws his
full weight as a growing man of noble purpose
into the civic scale.

When one is about to loose the ties of delightful
association in college and to face a world of com-
petitive efforts, he naturally asks himself, "What
is to be my lot in life?" "Where shall I find a
chance to prove what I can do?" "How shall I
win for myself a place of security protected by my
energy or ingenuity or thrift from the possible

IN DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT 5

assaults of misfortune?" "How can I achieve a
competence or a fortune, or distinction?" For
many, perhaps most, young men, the pressure of
necessity is so strong, or ambition is so keen or
the vision of opportunity is so alluring that these
questions seem to transcend all others and too
frequently suggest the dominant motive.

But there is another question, too rarely defined
in conscious self-discipline, yet urged by a m;yTiad
of voices whose appeal dimly heard in the medley
and confusion of the market-place sounds the deep
tone of democracy, — "What shall be my attitude
toward the community?" "How shall I relate
myself to that struggling, achieving mass of
humanity, — the people of this great country?"
"What part shall I play, not as a unit fighting
other units for individual advantage, but as a
citizen of a Republic?"

Probably every one of you has been impressed
with the forces of progress. I do not refer merely
to those represented in production and exchange,
significant as are these activities of an energetic
and talented people. The large success and expan-
sion of industry, the increase of wants and the abil-
ity to supply them, the extraordinary development
in facilities of communication, are a sufficient

6 CONDITIONS OF PROGRESS

answer to any who would speak of decadence in
energy or will. But even more significant are the
multiplying indications of earnest desire for the
betterment of community life. I refer to the fine
endeavours that are being made to extend and per-
fect the means of education; to improve conditions
of labour; to secure better housing and sanitation;
to stay the ravages of communicable disease; to
provide proper care for the afflicted and defective
in body and mind; to increase reformatory agencies
and to improve penal methods to the end that
society may protect itself without the travesty of
making its prisons schools of crime; to secure
higher standards of public service and a higher
sense of loyalty to the common weal.

Slight consideration of the course of these en-
deavours emphasizes the lesson that progress is
not a blessing conferred from without. It merely
expresses the gains of individual efforts in counter-
acting the sinister and corrupting influences which,
if successful, would make democratic institutions
impossible. Gratifying as is the vast extent and
variety of our accomplishment, one cannot be
insensible to the dangers to which we are exposed.
No greater mistake can be made than to think
that our institutions are fixed or may not be changed

IN DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT 7

for the worse. We are a young nation and nothing
can be taken for granted. If our institutions are
maintained in their integrity, and if change shall
mean improvement, it will be because the intelli-
gent and the worthy constantly generate the motive
power which, distributed over a thousand lines of
communication, develops that appreciation of the
standards of decency and justice which we have
delighted to call the common sense of the Amer-
ican people.

Increasing prosperity tends to breed indifference
and to corrupt moral soundness. Glaring inequal-
ities in condition create discontent and strain the
democratic relation. The vicious are the willing,
and the ignorant are the unconscious instruments
of political artifice. Selfishness and demagoguery
take advantage of liberty. The selfish hand con-
stantly seeks to control government, and every
increase of governmental pov/er, even to meet just
needs, furnishes opportunity for abuse and stimu-
lates the effort to bend it to improper uses. Free
speech voices the appeals of hate and envy as well
as those of justice and charity. A free press is
made the instrument of cunning, greed, and ambi-
tion, as well as the agency of enlightened and
independent opinion. How shall we preserve the

8 CONDITIONS OF PROGRESS

supremacy of virtue and the soundness of the
common judgment? How shall we buttress De-
mocracy? The peril of this Nation is not in any
foreign foe! We, the people, are its power, its
peril, and its hope!

The causes of indifference to the obligations of
citizenship may be traced in part to the optimistic
feeling that nothing can go seriously wrong with
us. This may indeed spring from belief in the intel-
ligence and moral worth of the people, but that
belief has ground only as there are predominant
evidences of a growing sense of the duties imposed
by democratic government, of an appreciation of
responsibility enlarging apace with the seductions
that are incident to material advancement. There
is also the difficulty of realizing that government
is not something apart from us, or above us, that
it is we ourselves organized in a grand co-operative
effort to protect mutual rights and to secure com-
mon opportunity and improvement. More potent
still is the feeling of helplessness in the presence
of organized agencies which, with their effective
combinations based upon mutual interest, seem to
make of slight consequence the efforts of citizens
who are not members of inner circles of power.
But no organized agency and no combination.

IN DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT 9

however strong, can outrage the rights of any com-
munity, if the community sees fit to assert them.
The character of the agencies of the community,
its instrimients of expression, the forms of its
organized effort are simply what it may desire or
tolerate. Whatever evil may exist in society or
politics, simply points the question to the individual
citizen, "What are you doing about it?"

Before we deal Tvith particular problems and
relations, I desire to consider the fundamental
question of attitude and the principles of action
which must be regarded as essential to the faith-
ful discharge of the civic duties.

It is of first importance that there should be
sympathy with democratic ideals. I do not refer
to the conventional attitude commonly assumed
in American utterances and always taken on
patriotic occasions. I mean the sincere love of
Democracy. As Montesquieu says: "A love of the
republic in a democracy is a love of the democ-
racy; as the latter is that of equality."

It would be difficult to find an association in
which wealth, or family, or station are of less con-
sequence, and in which a young man is appraised
more nearly at his actual worth, than in an Amer-
ican college. Despite the increase of luxury in

10 CONDITIONS OF PROGRESS

college living, the number of rich men's sons who
frequent these institutions, and the amount of
money lavishly and foolishly expended, our col-
leges are still wholesomely democratic. A young
man who is decent, candid, and honourable in his
dealings, will not suffer because he is poor, or his
parents are obscure, and the fact that he may earn
his living in humble employment in order to pay
for his education will not cost him the esteem of
his fellows. He will be rated, as the rich man's
son will be rated, at the worth of his character,
judged by the standards of youth which maintain
truth and fair dealing and will not tolerate cant or
sham. This is so largely true that it may be treated
as the rule, and regrettable departures from it as
the exception.

But a larger sympathy and appreciation are
needed. The young man who goes out into life
favourably disposed toward those who have had
much the same environment and opportunity may
still be lacking in the broader sympathy which
should embrace all his fellow-countrymen. He may
be tolerant and democratic with respect to those
who, despite differences in birth and fortune, he
may regard as kindred spirits, and yet in his
relation to men at large, to the great majority of

IN DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT 11

his fellow beings, be little better than a snob. Or
despite the camaraderie of college intercourse he
may have developed a cynical disposition or an
intellectual aloofness which, while not marked
enough to interfere with success in many vocations,
or to disturb his conventional relations, largely
disqualifies him from aiding his community as a
public-spirited citizen. The primary object of
education is to emancipate; to free from supersti-
tion, from the tyranny of worn-out notions, from
the prejudices, large and small, which enslave the
judgment. His study of history and of the insti-
tutions of his country has been to Uttle purpose
if the college man has not caught the vision of
Democracy and has not been joined by the troth
of heart and conscience to the great human brother-
hood which is working out its destiny in this land
of opportunity.

The true citizen will endeavour to understand
the different racial viewpoints of the various ele-
ments which enter into our population. He will
seek to divest himself of antipathy or prejudice
toward any of those who have come to us from
foreign lands, and he will try, by happy illustration
in his own conduct, to hasten appreciation of the
American ideal. For him "American" will ever be

12 CONDITIONS OF PROGRESS

a word of the spirit and not of the flesh. Differ-
ence in custom or religion will not be permitted to
obscure the common human worth, nor will bigotry
of creed or relation prevent a just appraisement.
The pitiful revelations of ignorance and squalor,
of waste and folly, will not sap his faith. He will
patiently seek truly to know himself and others,
and with fraternal insight to enter into the world's
work, to share the joys of accomplishment, and to
help in the bearing of the burdens of misery. He
will be free from the prejudice of occupation or of
residence. He will not look askance either at city
or at country. For him any honest work will be
honourable, and those who are toiling with their
hands will not be merely economic factors of work,
but human beings of like passions and possessed
of the "certain unalienable rights." Neither birth
nor station, neither circumstance nor vocation, will
win or prevent the esteem to which fidelity, hon-
esty, and sincerity are alone entitled. He will
look neither up nor down, but with even eye will
seek to read the hearts of men.

This sense of sympathetic relation should in-
crease respect both for individual interests and
for community interests and should give a better
understanding of what is involved in each. They

IN DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT 13

are not in opposition; properly speaking they cannot
be divorced. By individual interests I mean those
interests which concern the normal development of
the individual life, which relate to freedom in choice
of work and individual pursuits, to the conservation
of opportunities for the play of individual talent
and initiative, to the enjoyment of property hon-
estly acquired. The liberty of the individual in
communities must of course be restrained by the
mutual requirements imposed upon each by the equal
rights of others, and by the demands of the com-
mon welfare. It may be difficult to define the
precise limitations of such restrictions, but the guid-
ing principle must be that the common interest
cannot be preserved if individual incentive is para-
lyzed, and that to preserve individual incentive
there must be scope for individual effort freely
expended along lines freely chosen and crowned
by advantages individually acquired and held.
There is no alchemy which can transmute the pov-
erty of individual hope into communal riches.
Restrictions, to be justified, must be such as are
essential to the maintenance of wholesome life
and to prevent the liberty of some from accomplish-
ing the enthraldom of all.

It is unfortunate that the claim of individual

14 CONDITIONS OF PROGRESS

rights has so frequently been asserted in the effort
to protect unlawful gains and systematic pillaging
of the community through abuse of public privi-
leges. The wolf appears in sheep's clothing. The
influence of just conservatism has often been lost,
because so many wrongs parade in its livery. If no one
were endeavouring to defend extortion and inade-
quate public service by the pretence of individual
rights, if it were not sought to add to normal
opportunities, abnormal and improper advantages
obtained through special privilege, there would be
far less disposition to press restrictions in the
interest of the general community. But abuses
should not blind us to good uses. And in prescrib-
ing the area of individual opportunity we must
remember ever to prize as the essential condition
of progress and human happiness the differentia-
tion of effort based upon aptitude and the incentive
to endeavour supplied by the enjoyment of the
recompense won under honourable conditions.

Almost every man is solicitous for individual
rights when he is thinking of his own. The true
concern is for the interests of the individual as
such, for that of another as well as for my own;
that in the individual life of each member of soci-
ety there should be zest and aspiration, and to all

IN DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT 15

opportunity. Now, to maintain conditions which
assure a fair field to all and protect each one from
exploitation in the interest of those who may be
entrusted with the operations of government, the
people must have a keen sense of their collective
interests. No one can properly discharge his
duties as a citizen who simply has a good-natured
feeling toward all, and merely wishes in a general
way that every man shall prosper. This desire
must be sharpened by a consideration of particular
evils, and one must understand the necessity of
co-operative vigilance. He must learn to make
his personal decisions, as well as to define his public
attitude, in the light of the interests of the commun-
ity and not simply with respect to the opportu-
nities for his individual gain. No allurement of
high salary or of social advantage, no promise of
assistance to obtain public office, should he permit
to obscure his duty of absolute loyalty to the pubUc
interest. Trying to cheat the public is a game that
is constantly being played, and if there is anything
that is more dishonourable that can be thought of
in one who has had the advantages of the higher
institutions of learning, I do not know what it is.
Sometimes it takes gross forms and falls clearly
within the provisions of the penal law. But the

16 CONDITIONS OF PROGRESS

citizen should have a higher notion of pubUc duty
than simply to keep out of jail. It is the less
obvious and more subtle forms of treachery to the
common interest against which the community
must be constantly on its guard and from which
the high-minded citizen will seek to keep his own
life free. It is well to advise young men to vote
and to take an active part in political affairs, but
it is just as important, indeed more important,
that they should understand that their first duty
is so to conduct themselves in pursuing the aims
of their individual careers that they will never
prove false to their allegiance to the community.
An intense consciousness of public relation should
restrain the lawyer when he is tempted to go beyond
his professional duty of presenting clearly and
cogently the facts and arguments in favour of his
client and to seek by trick or device to delay or
defeat justice. It should make it impossible for
managers of corporations to defend what they
may believe to be their interests, either by paying
blackmail or by endeavouring improperly to solicit
the representatives of the people. It should stay
the hand which would write surreptitious clauses
in legislative bills or seek to secure privilege at
public expense by indirection. It should give rise

\ IN DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT 17

to the same sense of honour in deaUngs which may
affect the public as animates the true gentleman
in his private relations. With respect to every
governmental relation there is need to stimulate the
sentiment which appreciates the common interest,
demands its recognition, and prompts one to yield
to it ungrudgingly, though it come in conflict with
individual ambition.

There will be sincere debate as to where the line
of demarcation between proper private enterprise
and public duty should be drawTi. But the field
is so large in which the supremacy of public inter-
est is theoretically admitted, that it is of the utmost
practical importance to cultivate the sense of re-
sponsibility as to these recognized collective rights,
and to make it no less keen than that which is
felt with regard to the rights of the individual.

The increase of population has revealed the neces-
sity for many protective measures. In the early
days the hardy pioneer penetrated the forests and
was compelled to make a clearing in order that he
might establish a settlement. The sound of the
axe was the first note of approaching civilization.
The woods were a barrier to be destroyed. But
when settlements multiplied and population in-
creased and the forests had largely disappeared.

18 CONDITIONS OF PROGRESS

we awoke to a realization that in the wooded hills
was nature's choicest gift, with the preservation
of which is linked our future prosperity. The
interests of all demand that we should acquire and
cherish a collective right, and that individual oppor-
tunity so far as it may threaten the maintenance
of our forests should be taken away. Until recently
little thought has been paid to our water-courses.
They have been regarded as the natural conduits
for human and industrial wastes; but as our growth
threatens to make them mere sewers, the necessity
for the assertion of collective rights, in order that
our streams may remain wholesome, has become
apparent. We are giving attention to the safe-
guarding of public health by segregating disease
and limiting the opportunities of contagion. The
great white plague takes toll of the energy and
economic efficiency of this country with an appalling
death-rate which may be largely reduced by insist-
ence on suitable precautions. The public is entitled
to protection from the adulteration of foods, from
impurities in water, milk, meat, and other essential
supplies. In our large communities no one can live
unto himself. The condition of the tenement is a
matter of consequence not simply to those who
live in it, and sanitary safeguards are essential to

IN DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT 19

the interest of all. We are learning to appreciate
our interdependence with respect to industrial effi-
ciency. If we are to progress as a nation we
must take care of childhood. We must not only
protect it against disease and secure child life
from injurious or too early occupation, but we
must also provide, in breathing space and play-
grounds, for a wholesome youth fitted to enter
into the activities of our expanding life. The
maintenance of decent conditions of labour and of
safeguards against loss of life and limb are in the
interest of industrial progress and the achievement
of a larger general prosperity. Schemes of public
education are being modified by the introduction
of trade schools and increased opportunity for
vocational training. There has also arisen an
irresistible demand that better means should be
provided for the enforcement of public rights;
that the creatures of the State receiving privileges
from the public should be compelled to obey the
laws of their being. Protest against inadequate
service, the scandals that have arisen from the
laying of excessive burdens upon the public, in
order to pay dividends upon inflated issues of secu-
rities, have resulted in the conviction that there
must be suitable machinery for scrutinizing and

20 CONDITIONS OF PROGRESS

determining the propriety of issues of stocks and
bonds, for the prompt examination of complaints
as to the performance of public duty, for suitable
investigation of complicated facts relating to rates,
charges, and service, to the end that through com-
petent means the public right should be enforced.
These are important illustrations of the movement
in the direction of better protection of the interests
of the community.

The lover of democracy will have no desire to
see the tyranny of despots replaced by the tyranny
of a majority taking imto itself the conduct of
individual life and the destruction of its hope.
He knows that no community can be free if its
members are deprived of liberty. But he also
knows that he will utterly fail to find the sure basis
for his liberty, under our social conditions, in his
independent action, and that this foundation must
be secured by intelligent co-operation. To save
society from overreaching and impoverishing itself
by arbitrary interference and at the same time to
uphold the public right as supreme, to secure the
benefits of collective effort while wisely safeguarding
individual opportunity and initiative, is the patri-
otic and difficult task which should enlist the best
thought and unselfish endeavour of every citizen

IN DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT 21

who appreciates the advantages and the dangers
of the Republic.

In all its efforts, democracy will make progress in
the degree that the people cultivate the patience
and steadiness of justice. The obligations of
citizenship are not to be met by spasmodic out-
bursts or by feverish demonstrations of public
interest. It is true that we make our most impor-
tant choices of the representatives of the people
amid the tumult of exaggerated and interested
appeals. To a superficial observer the excitements
of a political campaign would seem to imply the
dethronement of reason. But it is to the credit
of our people that they are so largely deliberative
and have proved themselves so well able to sift
the chaff from the wheat in political arguments,
and are so skilful in following the thread of truth
through the maze of prejudiced assertion and cun-
ning perversion. If we were governed by gusts
of passion and lost our heads in the turmoil of
political strife, our freedom would be a travesty.

The desire to know the truth and to deal fairly
with men and measures is of the essence of good
citizenship. The most dangerous foes of democratic
government are those who seek through special
privilege to pervert it to selfish uses, and those

22 CONDITIONS OF PROGRESS

who, by reckless, untruthful, and inflammatory
utterances, corrupt the public sentiment. The more
dangerous is the latter. For the motive power
of any remedial effort must be found in public
opinion, and to achieve good results it must be
just. There are those who take a poor view of
our prospects because of the recklessness of the
sensational press. It is difficult for them to con-
ceive that the community can steady itself against
these constant and insidious assaults upon its
judgment and sense of proportion. If indeed the
people believed all they read and their mental
attitude and emphasis were accurately reflected
in headlines and type, it would seem cause for
despair. But those who are pessimistic with regard
to the influence of certain portions of the press
fail to take account of the many forces that deter-
mine public sentiment. The habit of exaggera-
tion furnishes to a large degree its own corrective,
and its sensational exhibitions are taken seriously
by few. The average man is very curious, and the
fact that his curiosity will tempt him to buy and
read does not necessarily indicate that what he
has read has made much of an impression. Men
are in constant communication with each other,
in the shop, in the office, in going to and from their

IN DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT 23

work, in the family, in their varied social relations,
and in this intercourse information and opinions
derived from many sources are freely interchanged.
Their experience of life largely determines their
point of view. What is read with regard to men
and measures is generally accepted or rejected not
upon mere assertion, but as it may or may not accord
with the general opinions which experience has
produced. This fact points the lesson that the
most serious consequences of breaches of public
trust and of corruption in high places are not to
be found in the particular injuries inflicted, but
in the undermining of the public confidence and
in the creating of a disposition to give credit to
charges of similar offending. But, as has been said,
much of reckless and disproportionate statement,
much of malicious insinuation, much of frenzied
and demagogical appeal, fails of its mark.

While we may be grateful for this, and fully
appreciate that with the spread of education this
capacity of the people to resist such assaults will
tend to increase, we cannot but be sensible of the
evil influence that is actually exerted. To com-
bat this and to maintain in the community stand-
ards of candour and justice should be the aim of
every citizen.

24 CONDITIONS OF PROGRESS

If it be asked how an individual can accomplish
aught in this direction, it may be answered that it
lies with the individual to accomplish everything.
The man who demands the facts, who is willing
to stand or fall by the facts, who forms his convic-
tions deliberately and adheres to them tenaciously,
who courts patient inquiry and "plays fair," is
a tower of strength in any group to which he may
be related. We have no greater advantage than
a free press and the freedom of public utterance.
We would not lose its benefits because of its abuses.
Demagoguery will always have a certain influence,
and the remedy is to be found not in repression or
impatient denunciation, but in the multiplication
of men of intelligence who love justice and cannot
be stampeded.

The citizen should contribute something more
than sympathy with democracy, something more
than respect for individual and community inter-
ests, something more than adherence to the stand-
ards of fair dealing. Sympathy and sentiment
will fail of practical effect without independence
of character. A man owes it to himself so to
conduct his life that it be recognized that his assent
cannot be expected until he has been convinced.
He should exhibit that spirit of self-reliance, that

IN DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT 25

sense of individual responsibility in forming and
stating opinion, which proclaims that he is a man
and not a marionette. This of course is a matter
of degree varying with personality and depends for
its beneficial effect upon intelligence and tact.
None the less, the emphasis is needed. There are
so many who with respect to public affairs lead a
life largely of self-negation! They are constantly
registering far below their capacity and never show
anything like the accomplishment for which they
were constructed and equipped. We have too many
high-power vessels whose power is never used.

It is constantly urged that men must act in
groups and through organizations to accomplish
anything. This is obviously true and describes
such a marked tendency that it is hardly necessary
to point the lesson. The difficulty is not to get
men to act in groups and through organization,
but to have groups and organizations act properly
and wisely by reason of the individual force and
independent strength of their members. Groups
and organizations constantly tend to represent the
influence and power of one man or a few men,
who are followed not because they are right, but
because they lead, and who maintain themselves
not so much by the propriety and worth of leader-

26 CONDITIONS OF PROGRESS

ship as by their skill and acumen in availing them-
selves of the indifference of others and by use of
solicitations, blandishments, and patronage. This
is illustrated in all forms of association, and to the
extent that it exists, the association loses its strength
and capacity to accomplish the results for which
it is intended. Groups and organizations within
democracy depend upon the same conditions as
those which underlie the larger society. If they
come into the strong control of a few by reason of
the indifference and subservience of the many, the
form is retained without the substance and the
benefits of co-operative action are lost.

It is of course a counsel of wisdom that men
should be tactful and desirous of co-operating,
and not in a constant state of rebellion against
every effort at group action. But men who are
eccentric and impossible are proof against counsel;
and their peculiarities simply illustrate the excep-
tional and abnormal in society. The normal man
naturally tends to work with others; to him the
sentiment of loyalty makes a powerful appeal.
And the counsel that is most needed is that men in
the necessary action of groups should not lose their
individual power for good by blind following.
The man who would meet the responsibilities of

IN DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT 27

citizenship must determine that he will endeavour
justly, after availing himself of all the privileges
which contact and study afford, to reach a conclu-
sion which for him is a true conclusion, and that
the action of his group shall if possible not be taken
until, according to his opportunity and his range
of influence, his point of view has been presented
and considered. This does not imply sheer obsti-
nacy or opinionated stubbornness. Progress con-
sists of a series of approximations. But it does
imply self-respect, conscientious effort to be sound
in opinion, respect for similar efforts on the part
of others, and accommodations in the sincere
desire for co-operative achievement which shall
be rational and shall be sensibly determined in
the light of all facts and of all proposals. It also
implies that there shall be no surrender that will
compromise personal integrity or honour, or barter
for gain or success one's fidelity to the oath of
office or to the obligation of public trust.

A consideration of the obstacles which are found
to be successfully interposed to this course is not
flattering to those of our citizens who have had
the greatest advantages. There is, in the first
place, the base feeling of fear. Lawyers are afraid
that they will lose clients; bankers, that they wall

28 CONDITIONS OF PROGRESS

lose deposits; ministers, that important pew-holders
will withdraw their support; those who manage
public service corporations, that they will suffer
retaliation. Throughout the community is this
benumbing dread of personal loss which keeps men
quiet and servile.

The first lesson for a young man who faces the
world with his career in his own hands is that he
paust be willing to do without. The question for
him at the start and ever after must be not simply
what he wants to get, but what he is willing to
lose. "Whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve
it," is the profoundest lesson of philosophy. No
one can fight as a good soldier the battles of
democracy who is constantly seeking cover.

But still more influential is the desire to avoid
^' controversy and to let things go. The average
American is good-hearted, genial, and indisposed
not simply to provoke a quarrel, but even to enter
into a discussion. By the constant play of his
humour he seeks to avoid sharp contacts or expres-
sion of differences. But independence of convic-
tion and the exercise of one's proper influence do
not imply either ill-nature or constant collisions
with opposing forces. The power of the man who
is calm and temperate, just and deliberate, who

IN DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT 29

seeks to know the truth and to act according to
his honest convictions, is after all not best figured
by the force of arms, but by the gracious influence
of sunshine and of rain and the quiet play of the
beneficent forces of nature. In suitably expressing
his individuality, in presenting his point of view,
he need not sacrifice his geniality or the pleasures
of companionship which are always enhanced by
mutual respect.

Then there are the fetters of accumulated obli-
gations. The strongest appeal that can be made to
an American is to his generous sense of obligation
because of favours received. Men whom no
wealth could bribe and no promise could seduce
will fall in public life victims to a chivalrous
regard for those who have helped them climb to
public place. This is because of a strange inver-
sion of values. The supposed private debt is
counted more important than the public duty.
But there are no obligations which friendship or
kindly action can impose at the expense of public
service. It is simply a perverted sentiment which
suggests such a demand or the necessity of meeting
it. It is a strange notion, which courses in ethics
and the benefits of higher education so frequently
find it difficult, if not impossible, to dislodge.

30 CONDITIONS OF PROGRESS

Whether you like it or not, the majority will
rule. Accept loyally the democratic principle.
The voice of the majority is that neither of God
nor of devil, but of men. Do not be abashed to
be found with the minority, but on the other
hand do not affect superiority or make the absurd
mistake of thinking you are right or entitled to
special credit merely because you do not agree
with the common judgment. Your experience of
life cannot fail to impress you \\dth the soundness
of that judgment in the long run, and I believe
you will come to put your trust, as I do, in the com-
mon sense of the people of this country, and in
the verdicts they give after the discussions of press,
of platform and of ordinary intercourse. The
dangers of the overthrow of reason and of the reign
of passion and prejudice become serious only as
resentment is kindled by abuses for which those
who have no sympathy with popular government
and constantly decry what they call "mob rule"
are largely responsible. But whether the common
judgment shall exhibit that intelligence and self-
restraint which have given to our system of gov-
ernment so large a degree of success, will depend
upon your attitude and that of the young men
of the country who will determine the measure

IN DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT 31

of capacity for self-government and progress in
the coming years.

Prize your birthright and let your attitude
toward all public questions be characterized by
such sincere democratic sjrmpathy, such enthusi-
asm for the common weal, such genuine love of
justice, and such force of character, that your life
to the full extent of your talent and opportunity
shall contribute to the reality, the security, and
the beneficence of government by the people.

32 CONDITIONS OF PROGRESS

LECTURE II

ADMINISTRATIVE EFFICIENCY

When we cease to regard government as an
abstraction and endeavour to understand its actual
working, we cannot fail to be impressed with the
rapidly increasing extent of its activities. The
trouble with most of our study of civic government
in our schools is that the mere endeavour to
memorize names of oflfices and departments and to
be prompt with definitions of powers and official
relations, is so great a task that the ordinary stu-
dent largely fails to get the impression of a vital
and responsible relation to his government. Know-
ing the leading facts and divisions of administration
is of course essential to the larger understanding
of the matter; but it is this larger understanding
and sense of vital relation that is the important
thing.

To make profitable the study of detail, there
should first be the comprehensive view to quicken
interest in every part. Just as the traveller will
climb a height to command an entire sweep of

IN DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT 33

range and valley and to secure a vivid impression
of the configuration of the whole to guide him in
his more minute local observations, so the intelli-
gent citizen should have a vision of governmental
activity, its course and tendency, and thus find
greater zest and profit in local surveys.

A vast amount of work is being carried on by
representatives of the people having defined func-
tions. To have this work well done is nine-tenths
of our task as citizens. The actual conduct of
government, as distinguished from its theoretical
scheme, is the severest test of democracy. The
surest ground of criticism has always been that a
single individual "performs the duties which he
undertakes much better than the government of
the community;" and democratic government has
been unfavourably compared with monarchy be-
cause it is said that the government of an indi-
vidual "is more consistent, more persevering, more
accurate than that of a multitude, and it is much
better qualified judiciously to discriminate the
characters of the men it employs." We might
well afford to suffer some disadvantage as to this
for the sake of certain conspicuous benefits, but
our thought and energies should be devoted to the
task of reducing the disadvantage to the mini-

34 CONDITIONS OF PROGRESS

mum. The larger part of our political discussion
centres in legislative proposal and pertains to the
amendment of the law. But important as improve-
ment of the law may be, it must not be forgotten
that the matter of chief consequence at all times
is the conduct of government under the laws that
we have.

The recent increase in the activities of govern-
ment is not only notable in itself, but by reason of
the prospect that is afforded of still further increases.
I have already given some illustrations of the pro-
tective measures which have been adopted by the
community, and what I wash now to emphasize is
the transcendent importance of efficiency in view
of the extent of the governmental work that is
required. We are undertaking new tasks, and even
with respect to old categories governmental activ-
ities are assuming an unparalleled scope.

The conservation of natural resources involves
the creation of great preserves, the conduct of
scientific forestry on a large scale, and the control
and development of water-powers. Public works of
emormous proportions are undertaken by Nation,
State, and City. At this moment the Nation is
digging a canal through the Isthmus of Panama;
the State of New York is expending without federal

IN DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT 35

assistance a hundred million dollars in a canal
project which rivals that of the Isthmus in extent
and difficulty; and the city of New York is estab-
lishing a system of water-supply, based upon reser-
voirs in the Catskill mountains, at a cost of upwards
of one hundred and sixty million dollars. Plans
for extensive development in highway construction,
in irrigation and reclamation, and in the improve-
ment of water-ways are either in progress or are
submitted for serious consideration. The protec-
tion of the public health in connection with sani-
tation, purification of streams, and supervision of
food supplies requires not simply the passage of
laws, but elaborate provision for engineering work,
for inspection, and for the varied duties of state
and local health officers.

The equipment of governmental departments or
bureaus to aid in the enforcement of the laws has
been a marked feature of recent legislation. The
modest provision at first made is generally found to
be inadequate, and in order that the bureau may
accomplish the purpose of its creation the necessity
of an enlarged force becomes apparent. The expan-
sion of business closely related to the public interest
and the general appreciation of the importance of
supervision, increase the demands upon government

36 CONDITIONS OF PROGRESS

and the multiplication of agents. The growth of
supervisory departments such as those relating to
banks and insurance companies, and the creation
and the enlargement of the powers of departments
and commissions dealing with public service cor-
porations are especially noteworthy. Experience
has shown that if public supervision and regulation
are to be adequate they must be made adequate
by suitable administrative machinery, and this
implies a proper complement of public officers.
The promotion of agriculture has led to the estab-
lishment of special departments, federal and state.
Agricultural colleges have been provided; govern-
ment stations prosecute research and conduct
experimental farms; the effort is made to dissem-
inate among farmers the results of a wdde experience;
and special bureaus of inspection and prosecution
are maintained. Similarly labour departments have
been established in order to make sure that the
provisions of law for the protection of labour do
not become a dead letter; and these have special
bureaus for the collection of statistics, for the
inspection of factory and mercantile establishment,
and for mediation and arbitration.

Public charities, in the technical sense of the
term, have always made heavy demands upon

IN DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT 37

government, but there has been a remarkable
increase of these demands in the past few years.
It is agreeable to note the rapidly growing number
of men and women who are interested in philan-
thropy, and they are constantly studying means
of improvement. The old custodial methods, under
which the unfortunate were herded together with
slight regard for anything beyond segregation, are
in course of abandonment. Modem philanthropy
demands suitable provision for treatment, for occu-
pation, for recreation. Youthful offenders are now
being placed on large tracts of agricultural land,
and are being provided for in groups of cottages
where reformatory measures may be more success-
ful. These improvements imply more extensive
plants and additional employees. New lines of
effort have been entered upon, as for example in
the State of New York, in the Craig Colony for
Epileptics at Sonyea, in the hospital at Raybrook
for those suffering from incipient tuberculosis, in
the cancer laboratory at Buffalo. The charitable
and reformatory work of government is being revo-
lutionized by new ideas, or by old ideas aided through
the discoveries of science and enforced by more
intense love of humanity.

Relatively the increased burden of governmental

38 CONDITIONS OF PROGRESS

work is heaviest at the weakest point of our system;
that is, in our municipaUties, particularly in our
large cities. Municipal administration has had to
cope with the demands due to the rapid growth
and congestion of population.

Now if the citizen will realize this, and, not
content with merely knowing the names of offices
and divisions, will try to understand the import
of this vast governmental activity in a democracy,
he must be convinced that efficiency is no longer
to be thought of as simply a theoretical obligation,
defaults in which entail only negligible losses, but
that it is a practical matter of first consequence,
and that with respect to the maintenance of its
proper standards each individual in the community
should feel his responsibility.

The execution of the laws is commonly associated
with prosecutions for criminal offences, for the
sanction of laws defining public duties is generally
found in the penalties enforced in the criminal
courts. But the execution of the laws involves
much more than punishment of criminal guilt. It
embraces the execution of a host of measures
demanding executive competence, careful manage-
ment, the intelligent use of power, the just settle-
ment of a myriad of administrative problems and

IN DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT 39

the infusion of the pubhc service with the spirit
of faithful work. The head of a department should
not be, as too frequently has been the case, a merely
titular functionary who holds the oJBfice for the sake
of the salary and is content with the irreducible
minimum of routine work. Rather should he be
one who, fitted by aptitude and training for his
work, understands it, devotes his best energies to
it, is able to evoke pride and zeal in deputies and
subordinates, who constantly seeks to avoid unneces-
sary outlays, to introduce talent into the service,
to ascertain flaws in the governmental machinery,
and by faithful stewardship to make a good showing
to his employers, the people. Public enterprise
requires managerial capacity of a high order.

If there were no other reason for insisting upon
efficiency, it should be sufficient to point out that
the cost of government is increasing at a tremendous
rate. Inefficiency is simply waste of public money;
taxation to supply waste is nothing but extortion.
This not only causes loss with respect to particular
outlays; it prevents progress. Economy is not a
popular watchword with the people at large. Cam-
paign talk about the extravagance of government
has, in large communities, a very limited effect,
because people generally fail to appreciate that

40 CONDITIONS OF PROGRESS

they are paying the bills, and that the real tax-
payer is not necessarily the land-owner or the one
who makes return to the assessor. But when they
are denied public improvements to which they
think they are entitled, they know it. Waste
which loads down a budget with unnecessary appro-
priations and stands in the way of needed public
improvements, provokes discontent, none the less
a serious menace because the true obstacle to prog-
ress is so little understood. And if we are to have
contented communities and be free from disorder,
we must stop extravagance and careless expendi-
ture and have the public business properly trans-
acted. Thrift in communities is just as essential
to happiness as thrift in the home. A community
well governed in the sense that reasonable amounts
derived by taxation are faithfully and intelligently
expended will almost inevitably be a community
of order and peace.

Efficient administration is also necessary to reveal
defects in government, and to point the proper
direction of remedial efforts. We cannot tell what
is needed until what we have has been well tried.
We are frequently in a state of confusion as to
results because the experiments in the public labo-
ratory are so carelessly conducted. The best plans

IN DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT 41

of progress will be shattered if administration is
faulty. And it is hardly worth while to consider
improvements unless at the same time we insist
upon having public work attended to with absolute
fidelity and with the highest degree of ability that
we can command.

When we consider the obstacles to efficiency in
administration we find that the fundamental diffi-
culty is the lax view that is taken of public obliga-
tion. The people are willing to tolerate in public
employment what they will not tolerate in their
own enterprises. If a man is rated as a good fellow,
if he cannot be proved guilty of stealing, if he is a
good father and a kindly neighbour, then there are
many who consider it a great injustice that he
should be adjudged guilty of gross waste and inex-
cusable inefiiciency in the public work committed
to him. When upon these grounds he becomes the
subject of criticism, his friends — excellent persons
— will assure you that he has not grown rich at public
expense, as though that were an answer. Very
likely his pastor will most sincerely plead for him
because his private life is believed to be without
reproach. It seems to be so difficult for many to
Realize that no one is entitled to be paid from the
public treasury simply for being sober and honest,

42 CONDITIONS OF PROGRESS

and that while honesty and sobriety are essential,
the public officer is paid for work and the people
are entitled to have it well and economically done.
Fortunately the idea is gaining ground, and with
higher standards we may hope to reach the point
where we can assume that officers will not steal or
use their positions for the sake of personal gain,
and we can centre our attention upon the quali-
fications which ensure thoroughness and expertness.

Apart from the indulgence with which adminis-
tration has been viewed, there are several hindrances
to efficiency which demand special consideration on
the part of the citizen if he is intelligently to exer-
cise his influence.

One is the inadequacy of laws. I have already
referred to the obvious fact that legislation is not
a substitute for administration, and that it is a
frequent mistake to suppose that law is needed
instead of the enforcement of law. Still, imperfect
legislation frequently prevents the securing of bene-
fits to which the people are entitled and which they
have endeavoured to secure. When proposals are
made for amendment of the law the familiar objec-
tion is that we have too much law. Certainly the
activity of our legislators has appalling results
when we consider the number of statutes which

IN DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT 43

each legislative session produces, and the extent
of unnecessary legislation is deplorable. But the
thoughtful citizen will not turn a deaf ear to sug-
gestions for improvement because he is told that there
is too much law. He will understand that the
real trouble is that there is too much ill-considered
legislation. He will also appreciate the fact that
careless law-making makes corrective legislation
necessary. In addition, the impossibility of fore-
seeing all the cases that may arise in varied expe-
rience, makes it necessary to amend the law to
meet the unexpected situation. Instead of impa-
tiently disposing of all suggestions upon the ground
that there is "too much law," he will be anxious
to consider where the difficulty resides in the par-
ticular case, how it should be met, and the merits
of the proposal made. Then he will be able delib-
erately to judge whether legislation is needed, and
if so he will approve it. There is just as much
folly in conservative epigram as in radical watch-
words. In every case we must endeavour to find
where the truth lies and to decide wisely accord-
ing to the facts. While insisting, therefore, upon
proper administration of existing laws, we should
constantly be keen to ascertain what embarrass-
ments are occasioned by imperfect laws.

44 CONDITIONS OF PROGRESS

There has also been a tendency to cripple admin-
istrative officers by laws that are too minute. One
of the chief causes for prolific legislation is the
constant necessity for adjusting laws to the expand-
ing need of municipalities that are living under
special acts. Usually we meet the situation by
altering a link in the chain, or by changing a clasp,
which must be changed again in another year
because of some other exigency. In the desire to
maintain liberty and to protect themselves from
the abuse of administrative discretion, legislatures
bind communities and officers with unnecessary
bonds. This is true also with respect to constitu-
tional limitations upon legislative power. Instead
of providing a general charter of powers and broad
limitations securing the essentials of republican
government, the tendency is noticeable to multiply
detailed restrictions so that our constitutions ex-
pand significantly with each convention.

Now it is true that in the unchecked discretion
of legislatures and administrative officers lie the
opportunities of tyranny. But on the other hand
there is no greater mistake than to withhold the
power to do well in the fear of ill. There is no
adequate power that cannot be abused. But we
must endeavour to find a remedy against abuse

IN DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT 45

short of making official and administrative power
inadequate. Communities should not be hampered
with respect to matters that exclusively concern
them. Instead of filling charters with minute
restrictions as to local administration, there should
be left to local authorities suitable opportunity to
administer local affairs. This stimulates the public
spirit of the locality and quickens the sense of
public duty which is the mainspring of good govern-
ment.

It probably is the opinion of the average citizen
that the greatest obstacle to administrative effi-
ciency is official corruption. There is undoubtedly
sufficient reason why the vigilance of the people
should be heightened and not relaxed. The pur-
chase of public officers, the sale of indulgences to
law-breakers to enhance the fortunes of those who
control appointments to office, systematic levies
for official favours, — these are crimes of the first
magnitude, with respect to which every citizen
should be swift to turn informer and every effort
should be made to punish the guilty. But I believe
that the grosser forms of corruption are happily
more rare. There is less direct bribery and stealing.
Corrupting influences have become more insidious,
and for this reason are perhaps more dangerous.

46 CONDITIONS OF PROGRESS

They are rarely susceptible of proof; they leave
few traces and largely defy investigation. These
are the influences which are shown in the play of
favouritism, in the payment of private obligations
through official discretion, in permitting informa-
tion to be given in advance of official action to
those who may profit by the knowledge, in making
administrative offices centres of solicitations which
imply official promises. Larceny and embezzle-
ment have largely given place to conspiracies and
shrewd agreements for mutual protection and en-
richment. Akin to these evils is the blighting
influence of efforts to support partisan workers at
the public expense, to which I shall refer later in
connection with the matter of party organization.
This practice not only affords the means through
which administrative action is perverted in order
to hold and to pay for political support, but it also
forms the avenue for the introduction of incom-
petents into the public service and leads to the
multiplication of unnecessary places. Partisan in-
cumbrances to a great extent account for administra-
tive palsy.

There is also the disposition to regard public
employment as a refuge for those who caimot
otherwise support themselves. Now public service

IN DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT 47

is not an almshouse, although the management of
almshouses is an important branch of administra-
tion. It is no recommendation to an applicant for
a place on the public payroll that he can get no
other employment. Appointing officers do not
receive their power to disburse the public moneys
in order that they may dispense them in charity
outside of institutions duly provided. The needy
and the unfortunate should be cared for otherwise.
This of course should not be taken to mean that
men do not sometimes become available for public
service through personal hardships and the vicissi-
tudes of fortune. But the appointment must rest
upon the ground of fitness, and need of the money
is not a sufficient reason for selection.

The mere statement of some of these causes of
defects in administration has involved suggestions
as to the remedies that may be applied. But there
are certain means of improving conditions which I
desire to emphasize.

Every effort should be made to dignify public
office. Instead of carping at the employee of the
State as one who feeds at the public crib, there
should be a keener realization of the necessity and
importance of the work that is to be done and of
the credit that attaches to the proper doing of it.

48 CONDITIONS OF PROGRESS

It has been thought that public office might be digni-
fied by increasing its emoluments. Certainly many
public officers are underpaid and work of an extent
and quality is expected of them which private
enterprise would not think of attempting to com-
mand upon like terms. The scale of compensation
in many cases frequently reflects the standards of
earlier days when the cost of living was less and
the opportunities of receiving greater rewards were
not so many. The public can afford to pay its
servants decently, and, in the main, must do so
if it is to maintain proper standards of public
work.

In the great majority of places in the public
service, particularly in those concerned with rou-
tine or technical work, the employment should be
permanent. There is little chance of promotion,
and the ordinary opportunities afforded in private
business are largely lacking. This is a reason why
employees of this description should be paid accord-
ing to a scale certainly not below that governing
payments for private work of the same sort. The
efficiency of a force in a great department cannot
be secured if men are recruited for it who are not
qualified for, and hence cannot obtain, similar work
elsewhere, who rankle under injustice and to whom

IN DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT 49

the head of the department must apply his spur
in vain. Good treatment and reasonable compen-
sation are essential to good results.

But when we come to the higher offices I am
not one of those who think that mere increases
of salary will prove an adequate solution of the
problem. I also share the feeling that we should
be cautious about increasing the chance of drawing
men to the public service who seek it for the sake
of the compensation. It is idle to suppose that
emoluments can be given which can rival those
obtainable by men of first rate ability in their
lines of chosen effort. Attorneys-general cannot
be paid what is received by leaders of the bar;
heads of banking and insurance departments can-
not expect the compensation paid to the presidents
of banks and insurance companies; judges must
be content to serve for annual pay less in amount
than may be received in a single case by the law-
yers arguing before them. Men of eminent ability
must be found to conduct the delicate work of super-
vising our great public service companies for rewards
which are slight in comparison with those of the
managers and officers of such corporations.

The difficulty is not insurmountable. The public
should pay fair compensation and should not demand

50 CONDITIONS OF PROGRESS

unreasonable sacrifices from those who serve it, but
to attract good men and to secure efficiency, the
honour and independence of the office are of far
greater account than the emoluments that attach
to it. If it be understood that the administrative
head has proper freedom, that he will not be con-
trolled by political organizations, that he will not
be required to parcel out places that he is free to
fill in order to satisfy the henchmen of political
leaders, that he can organize his department on
the basis of efficiency and receive credit from a
public that is anxious to do honour to a public officer
of conspicuous merit, there will be much less diffi-
culty in attracting men of distinguished ability, as
well as of the highest character, to the service of
the State. While we recognize the fact that very
large rewards are won in business enterprise and
in professional employment by the exceptional few,
we also know that there are many of first-class
ability who, for reasons not to their disparagement,
do not receive them. There are also public-spirited
men of independent means, who are anxious to
serve the State if the service can be rendered under
honourable conditions. I know the difficulty of find-
ing men who are available, who possess the requisite
ability without being embarrassed by such relations

IN DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT 51

as impair the public confidence in the single-minded-
ness of their work, and who at the same time are
wilhng to assume heavy official burdens. And I
believe that the most important contribution that
can be made to administrative efficiency is to pro-
mote the independence of officers and to attach to
the office the degree of honour, which is commen-
surate with the importance of the work to be per-
formed. The placing of inferior men in public
office not only causes immediate loss, but cheapens
the office itself; and every efficient officer who meets
the requirements of his place not only accom-
plishes much in his immediate service, but power-
fully aids in elevating his office to its true rank
in the public estimate.

In considering this question, the obligation of
fairness in the criticism of public officials becomes
manifest. Criticism is the safeguard of the public;
no intelligent officer would dispense with it if he
could. It is the life current of democracy. But
everyone who wields the critical pen or indulges
in critical utterances should keenly feel his responsi-
bility. We have a government of laws and not of
men, but a government after all is nothing but
men. To create a disinclination for public life, to
make men feel that its conditions with regard to

52 CONDITIONS OF PROGRESS

self-respect and decent reputation are intolerable,
to drive men of sensibility away from its oppor-
tunities in sheer disgust, and to leave public employ-
ment the more accessible to adventurers, to soldiers
of fortune, and to political hangers-on, is to fetter
progress and to put a premium upon inefficiency.

I do not defend the supersensitive. A public
officer should not wear his heart upon his sleeve,
and should not take too seriously the flings of his
opponents. If he is right he can afford to ignore
them, and if he is wrong, he has little reason to
complain. But when we have in mind the attract-
ing of men to the public service and the securing
of the proper conduct of public business, we cannot
fail to recognize the great importance of candour
and fairness in public comment. Giving credit
where credit is due, establishing public office in
honourable estimation is to a large degree to assure
fidelity and to minimize the temptations of the
public officer to seek other rewards.

Some of you probably will go into journalism
and you will justly rejoice in the opportunities it
affords. You will recognize the great advantage
of the impersonal character of most of its work,
and I hope you will also realize the obligations of
decency and honour, and that you will no more

IN DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT 53

circulate an untruthful statement or a reckless
statement with regard to a public officer than you
would be guilty of treachery to the flag in time of
war. A man who seeks profit in the sale of calum-
nies is the most despicable of human creatures.
On the other hand, accurate accounts of public
affairs with just praise or blame, or at least with a
sincere desire to be just in praise or blame, the
careful pointing out of what has been done and
what should be done, the effort to understand the
situation and to depict it truthfully, to give fidelity
its due reward of public credit and faithlessness
the severe censure it deserves, — this is work of a
high order. Every citizen has it in his power to
contribute to the maintenance of proper standards
of criticism, and to swell the rebuke of those who
abuse their privileges.

I have often been asked whether a young man
should seek a public career and should make public
office an object of ambition. Readiness to take
office on the part of those who are qualified for it
and are so circumstanced that they can take it,
is one of the requisites of increased efficiency.
There is no higher ambition than to be of public
service; and to hold public office in order to be of
service is an aim to be honourably cherished. The

54 CONDITIONS OF PROGRESS

first consideration is that no one should take office,
or pursue it, where his taking or pursuit will involve
any obligations detrimental to the faithful execu-
tion of his duties. If one has the ambition to
follow a public career he should distinctly perceive
that it must not be allowed to dominate self-respect
or to supplant the ideals of citizenship. Every
young man should aim at independence and should
prepare himself for a vocation; above all, he should
so manage his life that the steps of his progress
are taken without improper aids, that he calls no
one master, that he does not win or deserve the
reputation of being a tool of others, and that if
called to public office he may assume its duties
with the satisfaction of knowing that he is free
to rise to the full height of his opportunity. If
he can seek office without solicitations and prom-
ises, expressed or implied, which will interfere with
the doing of his full duty, then he may seek with
zest, and possibly he may find delight in the seeking.
But I should rather say: Work in your chosen
field to the best of your ability, enter into political
activities without thought or demand of reward,
do your duty as a citizen because it is your duty
and not because you expect office, keep yourself
free from embarrassing obligations, be ready to

IN DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT 55

take office if it comes your way and you can take
it; but never let the thought of your selection stay
your efforts in aiding the community to better
things.

The chief safeguard against inefficiency is account-
ability to the people. It is the fact of such account-
ability, under a proper system, which makes it
possible to give adequate power to public officers.
It is gratifying that there are so many evidences
of a greater interest in administration and of in-
creased determination to hold officers responsible
for good work. The fact of accountability exists,
but constant emphasis is needed as to what the
people have a right to demand and for what they
should hold their officers to account.

One fundamental difficulty in enforcing this
accountability is found in the number of offices
which are filled by election. As it has been thought
necessary to protect the community against despot-
ism by minute restrictions upon official authority,
and by charters prolix with prohibitions, so it has
also been thought necessary to multiply elective
offices. In this the people have overshot the mark
and defeated their own purpose. Accountability
exists only in form if the attention of the people
cannot be concentrated and their action pointed

56 CONDITIONS OF PROGRESS

to the desired result. The distribution of official
powers among a number of co-ordinate adminis-
trative officers, each elective, has the result that
there is confusion as to the incidence of responsi-
bility and frequently in popular understanding it
is unjustly placed. In many of our States officers
corresponding in their functions to members of the
federal cabinet are elected by the people. Still,
the governor as the executive head of the state
is popularly regarded as charged with executive
administration. It may be, however, that he has
no real authority over the auditing department,
as that may be in the hands of an elected comp-
troller. He may have no authority over the legal
department, as that may be in the hands of
an elected attorney-general. Frequently important
public works are carried on under the supervision
of elected boards, to which the executive head of
the State may have slight relation or none at all.
Thus executive responsibility is divided, and at
the state elections a number of officers are chosen
who in their separate spheres are quite as impor-
tant as the chief executive in his sphere, while it
is usually found that the attention of the people
is concentrated upon the election of the latter, and
comparatively slight attention is paid to the others.

IN DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT 57

A similar difl&culty is found in municipalities. In
many of our cities we have had almost a hopeless
division of responsibility, so that it is difficult to
lay defaults at any door. Such a system does not
safeguard proper accountability and proceeds upon
a mistaken theory.

The mistake is to suppose that the only method
of enforcing accountability is to make an office
elective. The centre of responsibility, of course,
must be found in an elective office. But when
such offices are made very numerous the result is
that the people cling so tenaciously to a particular
form that they lose the substance of their rights.
They make it easy for cabals and machines to
accomplish their purposes. These thrive on a mul-
tiplicity of elective offices which give them oppor-
tunities for combinations and manipulations which
would otherwise be impossible. The remedy may
be sought in a concentration of responsibility; in
few offices and short ballots. The people will give
their attention to the filling of an office in propor-
tion to their conception of its dignity, of the impor-
tance of its work, of the extent of its responsibilities.
The supposed danger from executive power and the
range of executive discretion has its check in en-
lightened sentiment and short terms. A permanent

58 CONDITIONS OF PROGRESS

service recruited on the basis of merit and fitness
and so far as practicable through competitive ex-
amination; the grouping of administrative powers,
with the necessary divisions or departments, under
a chief administrative head; the enforcement of
responsibility of the administrative head through
an election upon which the attention of the people
can be centred and with respect to the importance
of which they are fully convinced, — in these, I
believe, will be found important securities of effi-
cient administration.

IN DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT 59

LECTURE III

POLITICAL PARTIES

"Popular government," says one of the keenest
students of political institutions/ "especially as
it approaches the democratic form, will tax to the
utmost all the political sagacity and statesmanship
of the world to keep it from misfortune." The able
and sagacious men who laid the foundations of our
institutions were as keenly alive to the dangers
as to the advantages of popular rule, and they de-
voted their utmost effort to securing the expression
of the will of the people through means which
would aid the supremacy of wisdom and of virtue,
and would guard against impatience and rash im-
pulse. They chose the republican form of govern-
ment with its representative feature, and confided
administration "to a small number of citizens elected
by the rest." In this they not only sought to pro-
vide a plan which would be workable over a vast
extent of country, with a large population, but they
were particularly anxious to furnish security against
the mischiefs of party ambition and strife.

' Sir Henry S. Maine in "Popular Government."

60 CONDITIONS OF PROGRESS

Of these evils they were deeply sensible. And
among the most important advantages of "a well
constructed Union" they emphasize "its tendency
to break and control the violence of faction." As
Madison said: "The friend of popular governments
never finds himself so much alarmed for their
character and fate as when he contemplates their
propensity to this dangerous vice." The words
of Washington in his farewell address express a
deep-seated conviction. The spirit of party, said
he, "unfortunately is inseparable from our nature,
having its root in the strongest passions of the human
mind. It exists under different shapes in all gov-
eriunents, more or less stifled, controlled or repressed;
but, in those of the popular form, it is seen in its
greatest rankness, and is truly their worst enemy.
The alternate domination of one faction over an-
other, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural
to party dissension, which in different ages and
countries has perpetrated the most horrid enor-
mities, is itself a frightful despotism."

It was the hope of the framers of the Constitu-
tion that they had constructed a system which
would be unfavourable to party control and through
which men would be selected to discharge the func-
tions of government who would represent the

IN DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT 61

larger interests of the Nation, unbiased by partisan
animosities or by narrow considerations of party
expediency. They expected "to refine and en-
large the public views, by passing them through
the medium of a chosen body of citizens, whose
wisdom may best discern the true interest of their
country, and whose patriotism and love of justice
will be least likely to sacrifice it to temporary or
partial considerations." ^ They believed that as
the sphere of government was extended they would
enhance the protection against factious combina-
tions, and that in a large republic such as the Union,
they would find security by reason of the greater
variety of parties and interests and of the difla-
culty of. obtaining a majority of the same party.

But unwittingly they constructed a system, to
the successful working of which parties were essen-
tial. That part of the system which, as Hamilton
said, was almost the only part which escaped with-
out severe censure from its opponents,^ was the
method of selecting the President. It was designed
to have the immediate election made by a small
number of men selected for the purpose who would
be "most likely to possess the information and dis-
cernment" necessary for such a task. This plan

» The Federalist, No. 10. « The Federalist. No. 68.

62 CONDITIONS OF PROGRESS

proved futile. The selection of the most important
ofl&cer in the Nation could not be so far removed
from popular choice. In the course of events it
became manifest that the people were unwilling
to confide to a body of electors chosen in the con-
stitutional manner, the selection of a Chief Magis-
trate, and the electoral college has come to be
simply a device for apportioning the popular vote
for President and Vice-President according to
States. But if the people were not content to
turn over to a small number of men chosen within
the respective States, the selection of a President,
it was absolutely necessary that they should com-
bine in groups to express their wishes with respect
to candidates and policy. Not only is the spirit
of party "inseparable from our nature," but the
function of party has been found to be inseparable
from our actual system of government. As Presi-
dent Lowell puts it: "The framers of the Consti-
tution of the United States did not foresee the role
that party was to play in popular government, and
they made no provision for it in their plan; yet
they established a system to which parties were a
necessity. ... If the electoral college was not
really to select the President, it must become a
mere machine for registering the results of a popu-

IN DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT 63

lar vote throughout the nation, and the candidates
for the presidency must be designated beforehand
in some way." *

The fact of main significance, however, is not
that we have parties, not that they must be regarded
as essential to the working of our government
instead of being considered as evils, but that the
tendency has been so marked to the establishment
and continuance of two great parties which for
the most part dominate the field of partisan activ-
ity. It was natural to suppose that the large
variety of interests would be represented in numer-
ous and changing groups or parties, and that no
great party could maintain the solidarity requisite
for long-continued effectiveness. Not only was
the party coherence to which we are accustomed
contrary to the expectations of the founders, but
it has been a surprise to the modem critics of our
institutions.

A great party must have its birth and grow its
strength through poUtical conviction. Where there
is serious division among the people with respect
to some fundamental question of national policy,
or as to various related matters deemed to be of
first importance, two great parties will reflect the

' In " The Government of England."

64 CONDITIONS OF PROGRESS

opposing views. The marvel is that when condi-
ditions change and major issues have been deter-
mined or cease to impress the popular imagination,
when new conditions arise and unforeseen questions
relating to new interests are presented, the former
party divisions should continue to so great a degree
unaltered.

The conflicting views with respect to the proper
scope of national power, and the relation of the
Nation to the States, which antedated the adoption
of the Constitution, naturally furnished a line of
division in the subsequent struggle between the
Federalists and the Anti-Federalists. When the
RepubUcan party of Jefferson achieved supremacy,
and the party of the Federalists bereft of leader-
ship disappeared, there was for a time an absence
of parties, properly speaking, and their place was
taken by the rivalries of leaders and their personal
followers. Great parties again developed in the
Whigs and Democrats, which contested the field
until the slavery issue forced a new alignment
and the Republican party came into existence.
Since, then, for upwards of fifty years, the two
parties, Republican and Democratic, have main-
tained themselves as the great parties of the coun-
try, so far distancing all rivals in the extent of their

IN DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT 65

popular support as to make other parties relatively
insignificant.

This has been accomplished notwithstanding
changes of extraordinary importance in our inter-
national position and in our internal conditions,
and despite the rise of many new issues unforeseen
fifty years ago. It exists despite the fact that in
both the great parties there are views extremely
divergent, and in one it may be said that there
are antagonistic groups, each of which is further
removed from the other in political theory than it
is from the position of the great opposing party.
Upon most of the great questions of the day,
whether we have regard to the tariff, or to our finan-
cial system, or to the future of our insular posses-
sions, or to foreign policy, or to the extension of
the army and navy, or to the regulation of railroads
and other public service corporations, or to the sup-
pression of monopolistic combinations, it may fairly
be supposed that were opinion freely expressed,
the line of division would run across the great
parties and not between them. The continued
effectiveness of the great parties marks the recog-
nition of the undesirability of the breaking up of
p5rty activities into those of small and ineffective
groups, and a practical tendency to exercise the

66 CONDITIONS OF PROGRESS

party function essential to the working of our
government in a manner consistent with the con-
centration of controversy and the achievement
substantially of majority rule.

While this demands suitable appreciation, it
should not be over-emphasized. The absence of
the unifying force of a paramount issue with re-
spect to which the members of a great party are
in accord, always threatens disintegration. There
is danger in such case that in the course of events
irreconcilable differences of opinion will achieve
such importance that they will lead to the destruc-
tion of party unity and to the emergence of new
groups or parties with their own candidates and
policy. The counteracting influences, however,
are very strong. There are the exigencies of oppo-
sition which require combination. There is an
inherent disposition to oppose and to rally the forces
of opposition under one banner upon the best
available standing ground. Habit, tradition, and
the sentiment of loyalty make their strong demands.
There are, and probably always will be, small
parties which are in effect parties of protest, con-
tent to adhere tenaciously to some principle without
hope of temporary success, but with confidence
in the unknown future. It is enormously diflScult,

IN DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT 67

however, to organize a great party. It must
elicit a strong and widely diffused support and its
birth must spring from a common conviction and
from a general belief in its necessity. These condi-
tions favour the subordination even of serious dif-
ferences, and the maintenance of a fair degree of
party solidarity. Disintegration might follow a
success of one party so overwhelming as virtually
to destroy all opposition, as was the case in the early
part of the last century. And this would probably
be followed, as then, by factional strife within the
successful party and the formation of new parties.
Or it might be that, as in the case of slavery, some
great issue might arise, the force of which would
destroy existing party lines and create new ones.
Not improbably such an issue might be of a char-
acter which would tend to unite in opposition to
each other the members of existing parties who are
of conservative or radical tendencies respectively.
But very likely we should still continue to have
two great parties, even if names were different
and constituencies were changed.

This concentration of political activity in two
great parties has its obvious disadvantages. It
would seem unfortunate to divide the people of a
democracy into two hostile camps; to encourage

68 CONDITIONS OF PROGRESS

habits of thought which engender prejudice and
bitterness on the part of one-half of our citizens
toward the other half; to accustom the people to
regard public questions largely from the standpoint
of partisan considerations rather than upon their
individual merits; to make it difficult for those
who belong to opposite parties to forward in an
effective way some particular measure on which
they are agreed; to divide the support of public
officers who seek to secure the impartial adminis-
tration of the public business; to make it difficult
to present an issue to the people save through the
devious methods of party politics and through the
utterances of party platforms whose purposes so
frequently are to conceal and to evade, in the inter-
est of party expediency; to develop opportunities
for chicanery and corruption, and to foster the
designs of dishonourable and selfish political leaders
who trade upon party loyalty.

But we cannot have the advantages of a situa-
tion without its disadvantages; and the former in
this case greatly outweigh the latter. Division of
political opinion is inevitable, and it will exist with
regard to all public questions of importance. It
is essential that there should be some means of
focusing controversy and of providing a main line

IN DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT 69

of division. If instead of two great parties we
had a large number of little groups, each intent
upon its own shibboleth and pressing its own
candidates and pohcies, we should have a series
of triumphant minorities, little or nothing would
be settled, and the progress and prosperity which
depend upon stability of government would be
impossible. It should also be remembered that
novel party proposals may be the fruit of long-
forgotten seed, and that party action under changed
conditions may simply reveal a tendency which
earlier conditions with their dominant issues ob-
scured. While the people are divided mainly
into two parties, it is also true that in their general
intercourse and through the organs of public opin-
ion, particularly when there is no dominant issue,
views are freely promulgated and a general senti-
ment is created which does not recognize the limi-
tations of party boundaries. Such sentiment has
its weight in party councils and much is accom-
plished through its existence, although it may not
present an issue to be definitely passed upon in a
political campaign. Through the instrumentali-
ties of great parties the people generally do express
what is uppermost in their minds. If there is
some supreme issue actually engaging the thoughts

70 CONDITIONS OF PROGRESS

of the people, in some way it will emerge and prove
a decisive factor. The issue may not be that of
the party platform; it may be more fundamental
than that proposed by any particular propaganda.
It may indeed merely involve a general attitude
toward public questions and the sense of national
security or insecurity under proposed leadership,
or the desirability of continuity or change in admin-
istration with respect to its effect upon the prosper-
ity of the country. Such judgments are really a
popular synthesis of many public measures and pro-
posals. The widening scope of national adminis-
tration and the growing importance of the ofl&ce
of Chief Magistrate which represents the entire
people and not simply a State or district, makes it
of first consequence that candidacies should be
limited, and that the President should rest his
title upon a suffrage closely corresponding to an
actual majority of the electorate. This can be
accomplished only through great parties. It is
not consonant with human nature that such parties
should be expected suddenly to emerge and as
quickly to disappear. Their tendency to continue
reflects the conservatism of the people and the
practicality in the conduct of government which
gives assurance of permanence.

IN DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT 71

Parties, like the human society of which they
fonn a part, resemble the flowing stream, contin-
ually changing, yet for long periods presenting
the same appearance. The first voters at each
presidential election are sufficient in numbers to
alter the result in fairly close contests. Large
numbers of voters hold their party ties very loosely
and now vote with one party and now with another;
and others, though originally they may have been
strongly attached to one party, may find themselves
for some time out of sympathy with its predomi-
nant sentiment, and hence gradually transfer their
allegiance to the other. These adjustments are
made without losing the advantage of maintaining
two great parties in the field.

The realization of the desirability of having two
great parties to focus our discussions in national
affairs, and to make it possible to secure substan-
tial majority rule, cannot but have an important
effect on our individual party relations. I do not
propose to discuss the history of the great parties,
or their tenets or tendencies. It is the relation
to party and not to the standards or the future of
a particular party to which I desire to direct your
attention.

In my judgment participation in the work of

72 CONDITIONS OF PROGRESS

one of the great parties offers an opportunity
for service to the community, greater than that
afforded by political activity outside them. In
saying this I do not underestimate the public
benefit derived from the action of those who are
members of small parties or are entirely indepen-
dent. Small parties by directing attention to
matters of principle, sometimes by holding the
)alance of power in particular communities, exert
an influence upon the action of great parties, even
though they may not achieve directly any im-
portant success. They provide centres for the
discussion upon their merits of topics of public
interest, and their opportunites to bring forward
candidates and policies and thus to test the state
of public sentiment provide the community with
important safety valves.

The influence exerted by men who are inde-
pendent of party and vote solely with the purpose
of supporting what they believe to be the best at
the time, is of great value to the community. Un-
influenced by party tradition or ambition, they are
a constant warning to party leaders and to faithless
oflacials, and a stimulus to improved party methods.
To a very important extent they furnish a natural
corrective for unreasonable partisanship, and with

IN DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT 73

unrestrained freedom of public expression they
point with more or less impartiality to party fail-
ures and misdeeds, to the blunders or vices of
leaders, and to the essentials of party success.
Unmoved by mere considerations of party expedi-
ency, they almost unfailingly support administra-
tive efforts which are for the general public interest,
and they provide a basis for appeal over the heads
of short-sighted party managers. Independence
is of value in proportion to its militancy. This is
achieved through the, independent press, and its
endeavours may be treated as representative; for it
voices the sentiment of a constituency which is in
sympathy with its general attitude and readily
responds to its expressed opinions. And in so far
as this constituency is earnest and measurably
continuous it constitutes in effect a party with the
principle of non-partisanship.

The regrettable feature of this non-relation to
the great parties is that it withdraws from their
active work men of weight and character who would
be strongly influential in the determination of
party action, and their withdrawal helps to create
the conditions which they criticise. Not infre-
quently individual independence is a cover for
disinclination to disagreeable and necessary work

74 CONDITIONS OF PROGRESS

and shows a preference to stand aloof from the
contests of democracy in which every citizen should
take a vigorous part. This cannot be commended
from any point of view. But the advantages
flowing from the influence of conscientious inde-
pendents, who seek nothing for themselves and
strive earnestly to further what they believe to
be for the best at the time should be recognized by
every citizen, however strong his belief in the larger
opportunity for service which affliation with a great
party affords.

What party a man shall join, or whether he shall
join any party, is a question for his own conscience,
and if he is upright and honourable in his conduct,
and seeks justice in his decisions, he will be of
public service. But the paradox is that the influ-
ence of the non-partisan who abhors party, must
in the main be exercised through party. With
respect to the choice of a President he must, if
he counts at all, count with one of the great par-
ties, and for the candidate of one or the other his
vote must in effect be cast. Whatever his influ-
ence, it is likely to be the more potent because
the more direct, if it is exercised within a party,
as a recognized party member. However strong
may be the sympathies of the individual, however

IN DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT 75

intense his desire for capable and efficient govern-
ment and for progress toward the attainment of
democratic ideals, he must reaUze that this progress
must be effected through the instrumentalities at
our conmaand. This does not imply that anyone
of you should join a party contrary to your con-
scientious convictions; but in making up j^our mind
as to what you should do, you should have a proper
understanding of the means through which your
influence as a citizen must be exercised, of the ac-
tual conduct of our affairs, and of the value of party
relation. Independence has thrived on the stupid-
ity, despotism, and corruption of party managers.
It has performed notable services in voicing pro-
test and in inflicting punishment. But we must
still remember the actual necessities of the success-
ful working of our system of government, and
endeavour to put ourselves in such relation to the
extraconstitutional machinery of the government,
as to exercise to the fullest extent possible the privi-
leges of our citizenship.

Belief in party, identification with one of the
great parties, an intense desire to have it true to
its best traditions and to enhance its public use-
fulness is not inconsistent with independence of
character. Free expression of sentiment within

76 CONDITIONS OF PROGRESS

the party, and forceful expression of conviction,
whether or not it coincides with the wishes of the
party managers, is essential to keep the party
vigorous and wholesome. The spirit of faction,
to advance personal interests, is hostile to party
soundness and success; but so also is that sort of
party harmony which is expressive of low ideals
and the sway of repressive and despotic measures.
The sincere party man will be as anxious to promote
discussion, to foster the intelligent interest which
springs from freedom of participation in party
affairs, as he will be to end the unseemly clashes of
personal ambitions. Party loyalty and patriot-
ism should coincide, but if they are antagonistic,
patriotism must ever be supreme. Important as
it may be, the party is not the Nation or the
State. He serves his party best who loves his
country most. When, therefore, the temporary
attitude of party threatens the interests of the
community, when an ill-chosen policy invites
general disaster, when party success means the de-
basement of the standards of honour and decency,
the party man should recognize the superior obli-
gation of his citizenship. We have no finer illus-
tration of patriotic devotion than has been afforded
by party men who at critical periods have deserted

IN DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT 77

their party in order that they might serve the
higher interests of their country and maintain
the principles of administration which were essen-
tial to the common security. At times, not
simply the interests of the people at large, but
of the party itself, may justify the party man in
acting independently of it. It is often the only
available means of rebuke and of party discipline
through which opportunity may be provided for
a more healthful party life. The earnest party
man will not find these occasions in personal dis-
appointment or in slight dissatisfactions, nor will
he be actuated by the spirit of revenge or lose
sight of the need of party continuity and effective-
ness. If intelligent and patriotic, he will endeavour
to maintain a proper sense of proportion and to
have his view of immediate duty conform to a
true perspective, and his loyalty will be first to his
country and next to his party's permanent inter-
ests.

I have thus far been speaking of national parties
in their relation to national affairs. But the mem-
bers of a national party, within their respective
States, are citizens of the States. They not only
vote every four years for President, but every two
years within their congressional districts they vote

78 CONDITIONS OF PROGRESS

for representatives in Congress. In these elec-
tions the issues are properly national. United
States senators under the Constitution are elected
by state legislatures, and where this function is
discharged in fact and not merely as a matter of
form pursuant to a popular vote for senators, the
election of the members of the state legislature fre-
quently has direct relation to national affairs.
Moreover, the election of the administrative officers
of the State, such as governor, lieutenant-governor,
and attorney-general, is by the electorate of the
entire State, and especially in the more populous
States there is presented an exigency similar to
that which we find in the Nation at large. To
limit candidacies and to focus discussion, party
action is advisable, and state issues separately
considered have not been so sharply defined as
generally to call into existence, much less to main-
tain, great state parties as distinguished from those
in the national field. In these conditions, it is
inevitable that national parties should take part
in state elections, and they have served to per-
form the party function with respect to the affairs
of the States. The moral influence of party suc-
cesses in state elections cannot be overlooked, for
the disposition of the people to act in state mat-

IN DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT 79

ters according to their affiliations with national
parties is deemed to give to the result of their
action a national significance.

The actual administration of state affairs, how-
ever, rarely has any close connection with ques-
tions of national concern. A state governor may
perform his duties for years without being called
upon to deal in his official capacity with any ques-
tion that may fairly be called national. And as
the people become interested in state affairs, and
local questions achieve prominence in their minds,
independence tends to increase. They show a
growing disposition to refuse to be influenced by
the appeals of the national party to which they
belong, and for local reasons to choose to state
offices men of opposite national faith. The elec-
tion, three times in succession, of Governor John-
son, a Democrat, in a state strongly Republican,
is an illustration, and others are not lacking where
the support of state governors to a considerable
extent has been composed of men of all parties
whose action with respect to state issues does not
imply surrender of their party convictions or their
national party relations. It cannot be doubted
that this tendency to break away from national
parties in state elections is deplored by the leaders

80 CONDITIONS OF PROGRESS

of the national parties, or rather by those of the
party which suffers the loss, as it is deemed to im-
peril the party integrity. These fears are often
exaggerated as the voters show increasing capacity
to discriminate between those elections in which
really they are dealing with national issues, and
those in which they are not. However, the
national parties are in the field and it is not
likely that permanent parties of a separate charac-
ter will be formed to discharge the party function
in the State. More probable is it that the national
parties will seek to meet the exigencies of state
issues by presenting candidates selected with due
regard to such issues, and that the immediate
demands which may not be satisfied in this way will
be met by independent voting or by independent
nominations.

Divisions according to national party lines ex-
tend beyond the state elections to the local elec-
tions in counties and cities. Here we are removed
from considerations which are germane to national
controversies, and questions are presented which
require an examination of the nature and tenden-
cies of party organization.

Every party to be effective must be organized.
Whether loose or systematic in its internal arrange-

IN DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT 81

ment, it must in some way provide its comicils,
its representatives, its organs of expression. Con-
demnation of party organization, as such, is ab-
surd. If it be deemed important that we should
have great national parties, in order to concentrate
political discussions, and to make political contro-
versies suitably serve their purpose by having
decisions made, so near as may be, by a majority
of a vast electorate, it is likewise important that
these parties be properly organized and man-
aged. It is true that the need of precise and
detailed organization is in inverse ratio to the
intensity of party conviction. When national
party feeling is intense with regard to some
great issue, campaigns almost manage themselves.
Every voter, alive with interest, is in some degree
a campaign manager; discussions are spontaneous;
the public feeling is manifested in frequent demon-
strations; every gathering is a political meeting.
Great as may be the value even in such cases of
orderly management, the need of prearrangement
is slight compared with that in listless campaigns.
The vote comes without coaxing.

This is well illustrated in the description which
Carl Schurz gives of Lincoln's first campaign for
the presidency. He says: "The campaign was

82 CONDITIONS OF PROGRESS

hardly opened when the whole North seemed to
get into commotion. It looked as if people, espe-
cially in the smaller cities and towns and the coun-
try districts, had little else to do than to attend
meetings, listen to speeches, march in processions,
and carry torches after nightfall. 'Wide- Awake'
companies with their glazed capes and caps, the
prototypes of the modern marching clubs of party
organizations, sprang up all over the land as by
magic. Brass bands, some of them very trying
to musical ears, seemed to grow out of the earth.
And all this was done without any ofl5cial machin-
ery, for the postmasters and revenue oflBcers, and
district attorneys and United States marshals
with their retinues were on the Democratic side.
The Republicans held only a few State and muni-
cipal offices, hardly worth mentioning as political
agencies. Nor was there much money used in
stirring and keeping up the agitation. The funds
at the disposal of the Republican National Com-
mittee were beggarly compared with the immense
sums that nowadays flow into the war chests of
such bodies. The State and local committees
were generally in the same condition. In a large
measure the campaign seemed to run itself. It was
not necessary to drum up audiences for meetings

IN DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT 83

by extraordinary tricks of advertising or of allur-
ing attractions. The simplest notice sufficed to
draw a crowd. Not seldom large gatherings were
altogether extemporized."

But when party spirit languishes, when many are
indifferent, when the importance of the nature of
the issues may not be apprehended, then the most
careful management is required and less reliance
can be placed upon the spontaneity of the party
members. It is also natural that national parties
should reflect, as they do reflect, the talent for
organization of the American people. It is a
common sajdng with us that political activities do
not engage men of the highest order of ability;
that citizens of conspicuous attainments are not
foimd in the work of political management. It
is customary to decry politicians generally, not
simply because of supposed motive, but as being
men of inferior talent. While it is doubtless true
that many men of distinguished eminence in vari-
ous lines of effort abstain from participation in
political affairs, it is idle to ignore the fact that a
large part of the ability of the country is devoted
to political activity. In national affairs and in
our States the record of men of eminent talent
would be conspicuously deficient if it did not

84 CONDITIONS OF PROGRESS

include the names of those who had largely made
political effort the field for display of their skill
and astuteness. In the State of New York, for
example, a large number of the greatest names of
history are those of political leaders who were
none the less politicians because now, being dead,
they are styled statesmen. It is true that the
growth of cities and of the relative importance of
local organizations, and the conditions in which
they work, has tended seriously to impair the
quality and ability of political leadership. But
although exercised to so large an extent on a low
plane, conspicuous ability in organization and man-
agement is continually manifested. It must be
recognized that the development of political ma-
chinery during recent decades is a striking illus-
tration of the tendency to thorough organization
with respect to matters in which a deep interest
is taken and which provide opportunities for the
play of individual talent.

We find party organization to be essential, and
in its main purpose desirable. If to-day the purest-
minded men in the country were to combine in a
political party to further the noblest cause, they
would proceed to effect the best organization which
they could devise, with leaders of tens and cap-

IN DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT 85

tains of hundreds, wdth companies, battalions,
and regiments, whom they would seek to inspire
with loyalty to the common purpose, and upon
whose efficient and united work they would rely
for its accomplishment. This would simply be
an effort at effective co-operation. It would be
favoured by our modern facilities of intercourse
and the rapidity of communication. It would be
justified by its motive, and many who had been
loudest in the condemnation of " machines " would
be conspicuous within its ranks. Sometimes the
extreme of personal domination is found in organ-
izations most severe in denunciation of machine
methods.

I shall not undertake to describe the form of
party organization. It varies with respect to
certain details in different States and in different
communities in the same State. But the differ-
ences are inconsequential. The essence of the
matter is that there shall be party representa-
tives, committees, and executive heads, according
to appropriate political units, and that these shall
work in harmony as a part of a general scheme of
organization. And so far as it is truly represen-
tative, so far as through it the wishes of the mem-
bers of the party find genuine expression and the

86 CONDITIONS OF PROGRESS

organization performs its proper function within
its legitimate field, there is no ground for just
criticism. There must be methods by which party
candidates may be selected, policies announced
campaigns managed, and proper efforts directed
to the bringing out of the full party strength at
the polls.

In these activities it is important that the
standards of true political leadership should be
clearly perceived and constantly maintained. Party
leaders in the higher sense must be distinguished
from those party managers who are confined to
the narrow range of the activities of small districts,
and hence seldom get a wide horizon or a true per-
spective. But management on a large scale, with
regard to the exigencies of extended communities,
should develop political leadership of a high order;
and whether the field be great or small, party
management should be infused with the spirit and
devoted to the aims of such leadership within its
sphere.

The true political leader must be a man of
sympathy and quick perception. He should have
political insight and foresight. He must be swift
to detect the movement of public opinion and the
exigencies of conditions. He should understand

IN DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT 87

how to relate the prior action of his party to the
next appropriate step in the line of its general
policy which will commend the party to public
approval and justify continued confidence. He
should not wait to be driven by public indignation.
In the forwarding of measures or the shaping of
issues he should never forget that the final test
will be the public interest, and that while he may
move within the broad limits assigned to him by
the traditions of his party, public service must ever
be the highest party expediency and that public
injury is an ineffaceable stain upon the party record.
He must be a good judge of men so that those whom
he favours as the candidates of his party for public
place shall exhibit integrity and eminent qualifica-
tions. Able administration is a party asset of
high value. With respect to the management of
campaigns he must have not only executive skill
and capacity for the mastery of detail, but he must
also be able to inspire zeal, to exact fidelity, and to
win confidence in his leadership. He must have
precise information as to conditions within his
sphere of work and exhibit the industry and perti-
nacity which are essential to success in every effort.
It may be rare that any one man should display all
these characteristics. The field is wide and the

88 CONDITIONS OF PROGRESS

labourers are many, but the ideals of leadership
should always be kept in view.

Whatever his astuteness, his knowledge, or his
political sagacity, it is essential to the proper rep-
resentation of his party that he should be a man of
honour, of integrity, and should be unselfish in his
work. The moment he puts the maintenance of
his personal power ahead of the party interests,
or endeavours, through his activities as a party
leader, to fill his own pocket, he is a traitor to his
cause and deserves not only the scorn of all honest
men, but particularly contemptuous repudiation
by the party which he has betrayed.

Above all, the true party leader should recognize
that he is a leader and not the master of his party.
He should always be content to abide by the unco-
erced, unintimidated, and unbought suffrage of
the party members, and should seek to support
himself by candour with respect to issues and candi-
dates and by honourable management, and when
his appeal to his constituency fails he should be
willing and desirous to step down.

Now it may be said that this is a counsel of per-
fection. Certainly it is too much to expect that
we shall have angels or archangels in political work
when they are found nowhere else. But as we

IN DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT 89

have party organization, as it is not to be abolished
but springs from manifest necessities, the proper
conditions and qualities of leadership should be
recognized. As in our colleges to-day are doubt-
less many of the political leaders of the future,
here we should expect, if anywhere, the standards
of public morality and honour to be set up, and those
who enter political life should understand that they
do not thereby receive indulgences to commit
iniquity, but assume obligations of the highest
importance to the public which the advantages
of training, of broad outlook, and of inspirational
associations should in an eminent degree qualify
them to discharge.

90 CONDITIONS OF PROGRESS

LECTURE IV

POLITICAL PARTIES (Continued)

As self-discipline draws the line in individual
conduct between use and abuse, and the wise man
is the one who knows where to draw it, so in the
self-discipline of democracy we must be alive to
the abuses of party organization. These abuses
tend to corrupt the very core of government and
the intelligent citizen should not only be severe in
denouncing them, but most solicitous to appre-
hend their causes and the most practicable methods
by which, in any important degree, they may be
corrected.

Party organization for the benefit of party is one
thing; party organization for the benefit of party
managers and party workers is quite another.
The degeneracy of the former into the latter is
most natural and is due to the working of self-
interest in circumstances of peculiar opportunity.
It is natural that those whose main business is to
maintain party solidarity should concern them-
selves chiefly with the interests of a phalanx of

IN DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT 91

voters upon whose fidelity they can absolutely
depend. The constant association of the members
of these groups with their exclusively partisan
outlook tends to deaden the sensibility to those
political tendencies which are more largely reflected
in independent opinion. The bUndness of those
who make a business of politics is frequently amaz-
ing. They learn too late and the lessons even of
condign punishment are soon forgotten. They
rarely appreciate their own standing in public
estimate. This is not due to lack of native ability
or of skill in certain methods of management, but
is largely the result of their own close occupation
with the baser and more sordid motives of polit-
ical action. The conditions of his work are such
as largely to hinder the political manager from
taking broad and statesmanlike views. He is
constantly subject to most seductive influences
and to interested importunities; he is handicapped
by faulty traditions and not infrequently he regards
himself as constrained by supposed political neces-
sities and by the like or worse conduct of rivals.

The party is supposed to exist for the sake of
principles, and in our national campaigns these
principles, so far as there are such, are bound to
come to the front. Party managers, in theory,

92 CONDITIONS OF PROGRESS

are supposed to devote themselves to the party
in order that its principles may be advanced and
thereby the community be served. But party
organization demands work and a corps of workers.
The effective political machine consists not of
inanimate parts, but of men variously related to
the common effort, giving largely of their time and
in many cases of their money in political work.
The conduct of campaigns entails an immense
amount of labour, and between campaigns the organ-
ization must be kept up, party questions discussed,
and the interest and alignment of voters main-
tained. The average American of aptitude is
busy. He supports himself by his own labour.
The demands upon his energies in the maintenance
of his family or in the advancement of his business
or professional interests are insistent. The Amer-
ican slogan is "hustle." The prizes of life go to
those who put their whole soul into their chosen
pursuit. The political leader is faced with the neces-
sity of procuring workers. He must have men at
his call; the better the class of work he wants,
the harder it is to get it without paying for it in
some way. This is particularly true when there
is no deep feeling with regard to issues and assist-
ance is not freely offered. In order to make a

IN DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT 93

man of much use in the practical affairs of politics,
he must know the men with whom he deals. Con-
tinuity in political work is important political
capital, because of the intimate knowledge of men
and relations which it brings. The party manager
desires constantly to maintain an effective force
of men of political experience who have been through
former contests. How is such a force to be kept
in the field? For its support the manager naturally
comes to look to the public treasury. It is little
short of inevitable that he should seek to quarter
his army upon the people at large. If rewards
are to be given, from what source shall they so
easily come as through the opportunities of public
place? But the party manager needs more than
men. He must have money in order that men
may work effectively. The more thoroughly cam-
paigns are managed, the more expensive they
become. The cost of mere spectacular demon-
stration is itself large, but that of holding meetings
for public discussion, of providing speakers, of
circulating political "literature," and of publish-
ing advertisements is enormous. The expense of
placing one circular in the hands of every voter
in the State of New York is probably upwards of
S25,000. In educational campaigns the limit of the

94 CONDITIONS OF PROGRESS

outlay would seem to be only in the amount that
can be raised. In order to provide this money,
subscriptions are freely asked, but the manager
naturally desires as many large contributions as he
can possibly obtain. His best source of supply
under former laws was from the treasury of large
corporations, in whose accounts the payments
could easily be buried in unmarked graves. Cor-
porations holding enormous accumulations for the
benefit of numerous persons, such as insurance
companies for example, found it very easy to make
political contributions to advance the political
opinions of those in charge. This practice has been
the means of blackmail and corruption. Interests
which may be the subject of legislation, or are
under the supervision of departments, do not wish
by refusal to incur enmity; or they may desire to
purchase immunity or favour. The necessity of
raising the necessary moneys for legitimate cam-
paign expenditures at once puts the political man-
ager in an equivocal position and makes him the
instrument of solicitation and of promise. But
the worst is yet to be said, for he finds himself in
a condition where, to justify his leadership, he feels
that he must control the vote of the venal and
corrupt. His conscience tends to become honey-

IN DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT 95

combed by the traditions of his work; he sees so
many votes which he thinks can be had only by
buying them, and which, if he does not buy them,
will be bought by his opponents. To him polit-
ical morality is a dream of those who know nothing
of the necessity of "getting out the vote" on elec-
tion day and thus swelling the total to which states-
men may point with pride. So he buys votes or
winks at bribery, either lamenting the necessity,
or too often devoting his skill to the enlargement of
the nefarious traffic.

The creed of the party manager is ordinarily
very simple. To him, as a rule, public office is an
organization trust. According to this view no
one should be put forward as a candidate of the
party who will not "recognize" the party organiza-
tion; that is, who will not, in making his appoint-
ments, select the men whom the organization
desires to be selected. A candidate for nomination
who it is feared will be independent in his selec-
tions will not be permitted to succeed if the party
managers can compass his defeat without a danger-
ous irritation of public feeling. In an ideal condi-
tion from the organization standpoint, the party
managers, or in a single district the local manager,
would select all the appointees of the elected

96 CONDITIONS OF PROGRESS

oflBcer, and the latter would simply carry out his
instructions. The condition would be deemed
tolerable if the elected officer, desirous of some
latitude of choice, were willing to make the selec-
tions from a list furnished to him by the managers.
It would frequently answer the purpose if in case
the elected officer had decided objections to the
persons recommended, he were to request other
recommendations and finally make a selection
which would be mutually satisfactory. This would
probably suffice unless the party manager or man-
agers were for some reason especially interested
in a particular applicant and determined that he
should have the place; in that case the refusal of
the elected officer to make the desired appointment
upon the ground that he wished to make his own
selection, would be regarded in diplomatic language
as "unfriendly," or if it were supposed to indicate
a line of policy would not improbably be considered
as an unpardonable affront. If the purpose of
the officer were believed to be to displace the party
manager or to increase his own power within the
party machine, his course would be vigorously
antagonized; yet, as being more consistent with
time-honoured practice in contests for political
control, it would more likely be condoned than if

IN DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT 97

he were simply to assert his independence of the
organization in order that he might by free selec-
tion according to his own judgment better discharge
his constitutional functions. In the latter case
even his party standing might be called in question.
It should not be understood that the purpose of
the organization in controlling appointments is to
put bad men in office, or men who are incapable
of performing its duties. It is generally sought to
supply a man who, although he is not conspicuously
fit, is deemed by the organization to be good enough
for the place. The primary purpose is to provide
an office for a party worker either simply as a
reward for what he may have done in party ser-
vice, or to furnish a base of supply which will
support him in further party activity. Excep-
tional conditions may from time to time arise in
which either by reason of the special demands of
the places to be filled or of the state of public sen-
timent, it may be recognized by the party managers
as advisable that the selection should be made
outside the lines generally laid down. But such
an exigency is most unwelcome. In the view of
the organization the successful candidate owes
his success to its efforts; party work cannot be effec-
tively done unless public places to a large extent

98 CONDITIONS OF PROGRESS

are provided for those who do the work; promises,
express or implied, made in the course of the cam-
paign must be redeemed; the party organization
must be recognized as the supreme party author-
ity, carrying with it the control of patronage, and
hence the elected officer who refuses to act within
these limitations is regarded not only as ungrate-
ful, but as acting in hostility to his party's interests.
The injury to the public service that is inflicted
by the subordination of public oflBcers to such
control is obvious. Administrative efficiency is
made difficult if not impossible. However strongly
it may be claimed that it is only desired to put men
in office who have decent qualifications, the tendency
manifestly is to a low level of public work. The
standards of efficiency are bent to the demands of
favour. The aim is not to get the best, but to pay
for party work and support the party worker.
The party manager is under the pressure of constant
solicitation; he is burdened with the obligations
of campaigns; and however good his general inten-
tion he cannot be expected to resist the temptation
to put inferior men upon the public pay-roll. In-
cumbents regard their places as held not by virtue
of the public service they give, but by the grace of
the managers they have served and continue to

IN DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT 99

serve. It cannot be supposed that as a rule public
work can be performed in the manner in which it
ought to be performed if places are parcelled out
to meet the exigencies of political management, or
through a system by which elected officers act
under the dictation of those who have not been
chosen to exercise official responsibilities. Excep-
tions undoubtedly may be found in communities
where political managers are astute enough to
require a fair degree of efficiency and at the same
time (which is the most important) are strong
enough to resist the appeals of the unworthy; but
these exceptions are so rare as to prove the general
tendency.

Even as I write these words, confirmation comes
in the report which has been made to Congress
by the Secretary of the Treasury. Speaking of
the scandal recently disclosed in the customs
service, one of the worst scandals of this genera-
tion, Mr. MacVeagh says: "The study of the
causes of the demoralization which has been re-
vealed is still incomplete, but the main causes
are evident. It is clear, for instance, that the
influence of local politics and politicians upon
the customs service has been most deleterious, and
has promoted that laxity and low tone which pre-

100 CONDITIONS OF PROGRESS

pare and furnish an inviting soil for dishonesty
and fraud. Unless the customs service can be
released from the payment of political debts and
exactions, and from meeting the supposed exigencies
of political organization, big and little, it will be
impossible to have an honest service for any length
of time. Any considerable share of the present
cost of this demoralization to the public revenues,
to the efficiency of the service, and to public and
private morality, is a tremendous amount to pay
in mere liquidation of the small debts of political
leaders."

We have not simply to consider the demands
of organization working for the benefit of party.
Commingled with these demands are the personal
requirements of party managers eager to maintain
their own power. They must have not only an
army of party adherents, but each party manager
requires personal adherents pledged to his individ-
ual fortunes, who realize that they stand or fall,
not simply with the success or defeat of the partj'^,
but with the continuance or loss by the party man-
ager of the control of his district. Thus we have
not only party machines, but personal machines,
using party names and appealing to party loyalty,
although the party interest may be a secondary

IN DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT 101

consideration. The feudal system again appears
with its lord, his vassals and retainers, and the
common tillers of the political soil. Within his
district the manager needs the offices to enforce
his personal authority and distribute his personal
rewards; he dictates nominations; elections are
won through the organized support that he fur-
nishes; the elected officers obey his will in making
appointments; and the administration of govern-
ment is within his control. He maintains himself
in a citadel fortified by the public purse. It is
extremely difl&cult to depose him, not only because
of the abundant means at his command, but fre-
quently also by reason of the complicated system
of organization and of the methods of selecting
candidates which favour the perpetuation of power.
The city affords the greatest opportunities for the
development of such autocracy, because of the ex-
tent of available patronage, the compactness of the
population, and the elements of which it is com-
posed. In the full play of his influence, when
commanding those whom he has placed in official
position, he becomes mayor, common council, com-
missioner of public works, head of the police de-
partment, as well as sheriff and district attorney.
When challenged he calls himself "the organizar

102 CONDITIONS OF PROGRESS

tion." If astute to avoid an uprising through out-
raged pubUc sentiment, he will endeavour to give a
semblance of efficient government and may indeed
provide it with respect to many functions of
administration. He will not, if skilful, interfere
unnecessarily with the ordinary processes of gov-
ernment; he will be content to hold his army
together and only upon occasion to impose his
commands. But when he interferes his word is
law. Generally in the city he will regard the con-
trol of the police as most important. For the
granting of indulgences to law-breakers and the
tempering of police authority by his discretion are
among the main, though secret, sources of his
strength.

Thus is created an irresponsible personal govern-
ment not only unknown to the Constitution, but
alike unknown to any admissible theory of govern-
ment by party. This is the government of the so-
called "boss." Men of this type differ in respect
of ability and intelligence. Some may have a
large outlook upon public affairs and seek the
support of disinterested and public-spirited citi-
zens by frequent use of their power to public advan-
tage. Others may be cynical or even brutal. They
invariably invoke the party tradition and appeal

IN DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT 103

to party "regularity." But the "boss" displays
the same characteristics in whatever party we find
him. One party flag may fly in one community,
and another in another; but they cover the same
sinister designs. If they are threatened by public
measures, or legislation is aimed at evils which
thrive under their protection, they unite and the
divisions of party are forgotten in the defence of
the common cause. They soon aspire to influence
beyond the limits of their districts. They con-
trol the nomination of members of the Legislature
and dictate their votes upon legislative measures.
If the latter disobey they are left at home; their
humiliation gives no concern; it is the just punish-
ment of treason. The presence in a State of a
number of local managers enjoying power in com-
munities of large population, leads to the effort to
create definite spheres of admitted influence and a
division of state patronage for the purpose of assign-
ing to one or more control over state functions
similar to that which is exercised locally in a city
or county. Between them, these managers may
largely or altogether, according to the measure of
success they attain, dominate a state legislature
and state officers.

I trust I have made it plain that not every party

104 CONDITIONS OP PROGRESS

manager becomes a "boss." On the contrary, in
many communities party managers have neither
the opportunity, the aptitude, nor the purpose to
achieve such distinction. They are content with
a more restricted sphere of party activity and exer-
cise their influence along lines which, while true
to the ideals of party organization, do not aim at
the domination of government through personal
machines.

But the abuses of party organization are fraught
with other dangers than those which involve the
impairment of public service and the maintenance
of the personal rule of the "boss." There is a con-
stant effort by special interests to shape or to defeat
legislation, to seek privileges, and to obtain favours
in the administration of departments. So close is
the relation of government to many large enter-
prises, particularly to public service corporations,
that there is the strongest incentive to control
the government in their interest. For this purpose
they are willing to supply the sinews of political
campaigns and desire in return to name legislators
and administrative oJBBcers. The political machine,
especially the personal machine, furnishes the
most ready instrument to their purpose. The
result is the making of corrupt alliances between

IN DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT 105

party managers and special interests, the former
eager for power and money, the latter seeking pro-
tection and governmental favouritism. In these
alliances we have the most dangerous conspiracy
against the government of the Nation, the State,
and the local community.

Apology is sometimes made for these methods
as necessary for the protection of enterprises against
reckless and blackmailing assault. But is it not
better to rely upon open argument and fair dis-
cussion of the requirements of legitimate enterprise
than to seek protection in the corruption of govern-
ment and thus to arouse public indignation and
widespread resentment? The security of business
in this country cannot depend upon the debauching
of legislators and the perverting of administration.
The final foundation of successful enterprise must
be found in integrity and respect for law, and can-
not securely rest upon the dishonour of our institu-
tions. The more important the undertakings of
business, the more essential is it that they should
find support in the just appreciation of a contented
people. Shall not our intelligent men of business
learn the lesson, "Whatsoever ye sow, that shall
ye also reap"?

The importance of party organization is too

106 CONDITIONS OF PROGRESS

great, and its perversion is too serious a menace to
permit us to be content with mere adjuration to
political managers or to those who seek protection
or profit in their power. But what remedies are
available? Certainly human nature will not
change. The political field offers the widest oppor-
tunity for the exhibition of its infirmities, and we
shall continue to see the play of avarice and am-
bition, the schemes of selfishness and the machina-
tions of unscrupulous cunning seeking to convert
to their purpose institutions however essential,
and methods of co-operation however well designed.
The course of progress lies between the fanciful
schemes of those who ignore the actual components
of society and its mixed qualities, and the let-alone
policy supported alike by the indifferent, the cyni-
cal, and those who despair of improvement. That
we cannot accomplish everything is no reason why
we should not attempt anything; and with patience
and a firm determination that cannot be shaken by
ridicule, rebuff, or temporary defeat, we should
seek that immediate gain and the next practicable
advance which our judgment may approve. This is
to play our part according to our light and oppor-
tunity in the long struggle which has brought us
the advantages of this favoured day and the issue of

IN DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT 107

which in our time will make for the happiness or
the misfortune of the coming generations.

No remedy is possible which does not have its
roots in general sentiment, and in large degree the
remedial agencies must be those exclusively of
public opinion. Here and there, of course, opinion
may best accomplish its purpose through legal
enactment. But tradition and common convic-
tion are frequently better than law and accomplish
results which by reason of its necessary limitations
the law cannot reach. We have already noted the
advantages of having two great parties in the national
field. Whatever is attempted must be consistent
with party activity and the maintenance of national
party organizations. They are none the less
inevitable, and none the less desirable, because
they may be characterized as machines. The
loosening of party ties and the separation of men
of public spirit from party activities withdraws
the beneficial efforts of those who would aid in
maintaining proper standards of party work, and
tends to make easier the control of those who
profit by its abuse. What then is admissible
which will not improperly cripple efficiency of
national parties?

The fact that the great parties are national,

108 CONDITIONS OF PROGRESS

suggests at once their appropriate field, and the evils
that exist point clearly to the conclusion that very
largely they are due to the extension of the work
of these parties into spheres to which they have no
legitimate relation. We may therefore accomplish
much by seeking to limit their activity to what
properly belongs to them, and thus to narrow the
range of appeals to party loyalty where party
concerns are not involved, and of opportunities
to convert party loyalty inspired by national
ideals to the personal advantage of party workers.
For example, there is the matter of judicial
elections. There is a growing demand that our
judges should be taken out of party politics. This
is reflected in the tendency to demand that a judge
who has served faithfully should be renominated
by both the great parties without regard to his
party affiliations. The non-partisan quality of
judicial work should be recognized in original
nominations as well as in renominations. It is
evident that this is in process of accomplishment.
Where judges are appointed, this tendency is shown
from time to time in the appointment of men of
the minority party, or in a balancing of appoint-
ments so as to achieve something like non-partisan-
ship through bi-partisanship. Judges should be

IN DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT 109

chosen by reason of their fitness for the judicial
office in point of ability, integrity, and professional
qualifications. This office is the last place that
should be used for the purpose of party rewards.
In communities where judges are elected, tradition
has long accustomed us to the nomination of judges
by political parties, and wherever the sentiment
is such that party nominations are likely to meet
with favour, undoubtedly they will continue to
be made. But all efforts to submerge party con-
siderations in the choice of candidates, to facili-
tate independent choices, to rebuke the use of
judgeships as a part of party patronage, should
be encouraged by the public-spirited citizen. No
one should be expected as a faithful party man
to support the candidate of his party for a judge-
ship merely because he is the candidate of his
party. The sentiment should be encouraged that
loyalty to 'national parties demands no such sup-
port, and that without loss of party standing men
may vote for judges according to their views of
personal fitness. As this sentiment develops, party
nominations, where they are made, will become
more and more a formal method of expressing a
sentiment which is not confined to party lines.
Ultimately we may be able entirely to dissociate

110 CONDITIONS OF PROGRESS

judicial elections from national party considera-
tions, and any practicable measure to this end should
be adopted. But meanwhile the most forceful
influence will be the extending conviction that
national party obligations are released when judges
are to be chosen.

I trust the same will be true of prosecuting
attorneys. The prosecution of offenders on behalf
of the State and the quasi-judicial functions of
the office should be removed from the field of party
politics. This in time may also come to be recog-
nized in the case of the administrative officers of
counties. Sheriffs, county clerks, boards of super-
visors, and district attorneys have no legitimate
relation to national concerns. Public sentiment in
most of our communities is yet far short of this
view. But we may look forward with some degree
of confidence to the time when citizens of counties
will select their administrative representatives and
their prosecuting officer without any sense of con-
trol or duty by reason of their relation to national
parties. Those who think that this will impair
the efficiency of national parties are intent upon
maintaining sources of patronage despite all the
evils that flow from its use for party purposes.
They conceive that national party organization,

IN DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT 111

with its local divisions, requires an alignment with
regard to matters of purely local concern. But
this misconception of the field of national parties,
while persistent, may yet yield to a truer apprecia-
tion of civic relations. For while the present
methods may tend to provide sustenance for party
organization, they also over-develop it by giving it
opportunities which it has no right to demand,
thereby entailing abuses which could largely be
removed if local sentiment enforced a proper re-
striction.

Of even greater importance is the limitation of
the influence of national parties with respect to
the election of officers of cities. Municipal gov-
ernment has put democracy to the blush and we
have been disgraced by the inefficiency and corrup-
tion displayed in its administration. It would seem
that capacity for self-government would be best
shown in local affairs, particularly in those of great
communities, because of the close relation of admin-
istration to the daily concerns of the people. It
would be expected that these interests, together
with the pride of local citizenship, would elicit
the most active efforts for economy and intelli-
gent management. Instead, we find the greatest
waste, the most inexcusable shiftlessness, and the

112 CONDITIONS OF PROGRESS

most corrupting agencies in connection with muni-
cipal enterprise.

It cannot be doubted that the intrusion of national
party politics, with the divisions and cohesions
caused by national party loyalties, into the affairs
of cities is largely responsible for this. Their
exigencies have furnished the basis for local organ-
ization with the control of the city government
as its primary object. Such are the opportunities
of local administration that these associations
come to be mere combinations for the enrichment
of their more powerful members. Concern for
the national interests of the party are subordinated
to the greed of municipal parasites. Whenever
such a combination exists for the dominating, not
to say looting, of a city, the first duty of the citi-
zens is to demolish it, whatever party name it
bears. The movement in this direction is making
gratifying progress throughout the country.

That municipal elections have nothing to do with
national politics was recognized in effect by the
amendment to the Constitution of the State of
New York in 1894, which provided for separate
municipal elections to be had in odd-numbered
years. In the constitutional convention its presi-
dent, Joseph H. Choate, tersely expressed the sen-

IN DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT 113

timent which underlay the proposal, when he said:
"There is no reason why a man should be mayor
of New York simply because he is a Republican
or because he is a Democrat, or that any other
municipal office should be filled by this man or
the other because he belongs to one national party
or the other. The questions of national and state
politics have nothing to do with the honest, expe-
dient, and prudent administration of municipal
affairs."

The problems of municipal administration have
long engaged the attention of thoughtful students
of our political life, and this study is bearing fruit
in recent experiments. The adoption here and there
of new methods of city government and for the
nomination of city officers, the tendency of citizens
to combine irrespective of national parties in choos-
ing city officers, and the growing emphasis placed
upon the importance of concentration of adminis-
trative responsibility, attest the rising demand
that organizations of national parties shall not
be permitted to control city politics. We cannot
tell what may be the result of the experiments
now being tried and it is not possible here to dis-
cuss their individual merits. But it would seem
that national party nominations for municipal

114 CONDITIONS OF PROGRESS

offices will be held in growing disfavour, and that in
time party nominations as such will be denied
a place upon official ballots. Other means will be
devised for expressing the will of the citizens
with respect to their local interests, quite apart
from their views upon national matters. Where
the sentiment supporting the activity in local
affairs of national party organizations continues
to be strong, their tickets will be placed in the field,
and proposals to eliminate them altogether will
not be successful. But the criticism of this activ-
ity will probably increase, and the disposition to
join with others in so-called non-partisan or inde-
pendent movements and thus to cloak the unwar-
rantable intrusion of a national party into civic
affairs will become stronger. The aim should be
to cultivate such an appreciation of civic obligation,
and of the proper sphere of the efforts of national
parties, that an independent attitude with respect
to the selection of city officers will come to be
recognized as the normal and fitting attitude, and
that the nominations by national parties as such
for city offices will no longer find place in the polit-
ical scheme.

Freeing our cities from the control of national
party organizations, and the development of a

IN DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT 115

system of local government which will aid in con-
centrating administrative responsibility, will re-
move many of the most pernicious abuses. This
will not interfere with the proper function of these
organizations. They will still exist for national
purposes; and all the legitimate exigencies of
national parties may still be met. The local
"boss," however, will largely lose his patronage,
and the conditions will tend to favour organization
for the benefit of party under suitable leadership,
rather than personal machines constructed and
equipped to prey upon local enterprise. So long
as national party tickets are presented in any com-
munity, and in whatever field its efforts may be
exerted, it is of the highest importance that the
organization should be as representative as possible.
With respect to candidates, members of party
committees, and campaign managers, it should
represent the will of the party voters. Where
methods exist through which nominations made on
behalf of party members are virtually dictated by
party managers, and party committees and managers
are thus aided in perpetuating their control, they
should be changed so as to improve the opportu-
nities and thus safeguard the rights of the party
voters. I believe that the selection of party candi-

116 CONDITIONS OF PROGRESS

dates directly by a secret official ballot cast by
properly enrolled members of the party, and the
direct election in a similar manner of members of
party committees, will be an important protection
against the abuses arising from those defects in
machinery which prove the obstacles to the effect-
ive expression of the wishes of the party voters and
make it easy for managers to entrench themselves
in power. There is no reason why this should
not be accomplished through provisions which will
not fail to recognize the value of the advice and
suggestions of party representatives elected by the
party members to positions of responsibility. To
place the ultimate right of choice both of party
officers and of candidates for office with the party
voters themselves, thus giving the ordinary men
who cannot make politics a business an oppor-
tunity to participate effectively in the affairs of
his party, will, I believe, prove a valuable obstacle
to the development of despotic power and to the
misuse of party organization in the interest of cor-
rupt alliances.

The further extension of the practice of filling
subordinate places through competitive examina-
tions is another important means of remedying
the abuses that have existed. It is easy to ridi-

IN DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT 117

cule this sort of test, but it affords a far better
method of selection than is employed in the use of
patronage as rewards for party services. The
shaping of examinations so as to develop the quali-
fications of the candidate, or his lack of them, with
reference to the particular office is a matter requir-
ing close attention and the utmost care in admin-
istration. In the course of experience we find
abundant reason for extending the use of civil
service examinations; their propriety becomes ap-
parent with respect to positions which formerly
it was thought best to exempt; and the tendency
is to limit the opportunities of those who would
use offices as the spoils of party \dctories. This
tendency should be encouraged, and it is gratifying
to find that officers who desire to equip their depart-
ments on the basis of efficiency, although at first
somewhat restive under the restraints of civil
service rules, learn to appreciate their advantage
and to give the merit system their cordial support.
The chief administrative places, which remain
exempt from competitive examination, will con-
tinue to be the object of the pursuit of those who
wish to use them for party advantage. Against this
effort we must rely upon intelligent public opinion
forcing upon the appointing officer the conviction

118 CONDITIONS OF PROGRESS

that he will be held strictly accountable for the use
of the appointing power so as to secure the best
available service for the State.

I have already spoken to you upon the paramount
importance of administrative efficiency in view of
the expanding operations of government. The ap-
preciation of this by the people inevitably will
lead to the selection of public officers who will feel
their responsibility and will resist in greater degree
improper importunities. There can be no doubt
that the people desire to see public officers perform
their constitutional duties of administration accord-
ing to their conscience and best judgment. Divided
as the people are, for the most part, into two great
parties, still there is abundant evidence that they
do not desire that the officers they elect should be
controlled by party machines in the administra-
tion of the public business. Their support of efforts
which they believe to be in the public interest is a
lesson to those who would make party organization
a vehicle of public mischief. And the people have
too much common sense not to recognize that in-
sistence upon impartial and capable administration
is not incompatible with earnest devotion to the
interests of the national parties, but should be, as
indeed they profess it to be, the ideal of both.

IN DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT 119

There has been much legislation of late for the
purpose of restricting some of the evils we have
noted. In some jurisdictions corporations have
been prohibited from making contributions to
campaign funds. Such contributions are utterly-
indefensible. If they are made to secure immunity
or to gain favour for special interests, they are an
offence to public morals. If they are made simply
to reflect the political opinions of executive officers,
they are a violation of trust. Provision has also
been made to secure publicity of campaign contri-
butions and to guard against corrupt practices.
Political committees are required to file reports
of their receipts and expenditures. The working
of these statutes in practice must constantly be
observed in order that they may be perfected to
prevent evasion. And experience will doubtless
show the way to additional precautions in the pro-
tection of the purity of the ballot. Of great im-
portance also will be the movement to which I
have already alluded in the direction of reducing
the number of elective offices and providing simple
and short ballots. The advantage of many other
proposals of improved methods will turn largely
upon the facility with which public opinion can
be concentrated and the wishes of the voters ex-

120 CONDITIONS OF PROGRESS

pressed. So long as we have national party tickets
in local elections it is most desirable that straight
party voting should not be favoured, and that
ballots should be so arranged as to require a
statement of the voter's preference for each office.

The perversion of party organization prospers
through ignorance, indifference, and cupidity.
Against the first we must rally the forces of edu-
cation; not simply instruction in the elementary
branches, in science, general history, language, and
literature, but in the actual operations of our
government. Nor is ignorance to be looked for
exclusively among the poor and lowly, or in the
congested settlements of great cities. The knowl-
edge of those who have been deprived of the higher
advantages of education, with respect to the actual
working of government, often puts to the blush
many favoured sons of our higher schools. We
need constantly to deal with the facts of our gov-
ernmental system and these should be estimated
at a higher degree of importance than the mere
learning of dates of battles, or of the birth and suc-
cession of kings. The first object of the citizen
of a free community should be to understand
its life intimately, its varied social and polit-
ical aspects, the course of its activity, the charac-

IN DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT 121

ter of the men who are prominent in its affairs,
and the natm-e and aims of its influential organiza-
tions. We delight our leisure hours with the
reading of romance and of the dramatic situations
of imaginary life. Not less interesting, not less
dramatic, is the actual life of our own communi-
ties if only we will understand it. To understand
it, if a man be healthy-minded and well-dis-
posed, is to appreciate responsibility. It is most
unworthy to take advantage, in self-enrichment,
of the opportunities of our democratic life and to
refuse to bear our share of its burdens. Against
cupidity we must ever set up the standards of honour,
and the more sincerely devoted one is to the cause
of his party, the more steadfast should be his
opposition to every effort to use party place for
private gain. True loyalty to party is not loy-
alty to selfish manipulators. True devotion to
the interests of party is not fealty to faction or to
the personal ambitions of party managers. True
party spirit is opposed to all the baneful practices
which emasculate the public service and thus,
dishonouring party, lose principles and statesman-
ship in low intrigue.

My advice would be: Join a party, one of the
great parties, according to your general agreement

122 CONDITIONS OF PROGRESS

with its record, policy, and tendency; appreciate
the necessity and power of political organization
and lend your effort to make it wholesome and
effective; stand firmly, regardless of your per-
sonal fortunes, against every effort to corrupt it
or to use it for selfish purpose; support managers
who are faithful to the party and serve it for its
interests and not their own; stand for honourable
candidacies unpurchased and representative of
the wisdom and best purpose of the party; in local
matters be independent and keep distinct your
duty as a member of a national party for the fur-
therance of national interests, and your duty as a
citizen of a local community to aid in having it
well governed; stand against "bossism" and all
that the word implies, and aim to make your party
organization within its proper field representative
and its leadership responsible and accountable to
the party members.

If you achieve a place of prominence with re-
spect to party management, set yourself against
corrupt practices, expose them when you can, and
recognize that your highest duty is to the insti-
tutions of your country; believe that there is suf-
ficient love of truth and justice to win support for
what is well conceived and faithfully declared;

IN DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT 123

and be content, while making those necessary
accommodations of personal opinion, which are
essential to co-operative action, to put your faith
in the indisputable principles of right conduct
which would not be compromised in the open,
and in secret purpose and in the undisclosed trans-
saction should be held equally inviolable. To the
extent that these ideals are held sacred, our essen-
tial party activities will be a benefit to the Nation.

University of British Columbia Library

DUE

DATE

?10V2 1969

fjov 3-Heni

FORM 310

311 vV^

UNIVERSITY OF B.C. LIBRARY

3 9424 01228 3062