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YALE LECTURES ON THE 
 RESPONSIBILITIES OF CITIZENSHIP 
 
 CONDITIONS OF PROGRESS IN 
 DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT 
 
YALE LECTURES ON THE 
 RESPONSIBILITIES OF CITIZENSHIP 
 
 (XTiaFOBM WITH THIS TOLUMB) 
 
 THE HINDRANCES TO GOOD CITIZENSHIP 
 
 Bt the Right Hon. JAMES BRYCE 
 
 BBITIBH AMBASBADOB TO THE tTNITED STATES 
 
 A 8GHOLARLT AND SUGGESTIVE VOLUME ON THE 
 IMFEDI&fENTS TO GOOD CITIZENSHIP 
 
 " The book should have a place by the side of ' The American 
 Commonwealth ' — no higher place were possible." 
 
 — Worcester Evening Gazette, 
 
 (Second printing.) 138 pages, index, 12mo. $1.15 net. 
 Postage 10 cents. 
 
CONDITIONS OF PROGRESS IN 
 DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT 
 
 BY 
 
 CHARLES EVANS HUGHES 
 
 NEW haven: tale tTNIVBRSITT PRESS 
 
 LONDON: HENKY FROWDE 
 
 OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 
 
 MCMX 
 
COPTBIGHT, 1910 
 BY 
 
 Yale Univebsitt Press 
 
 /[UHt^^Cn 
 
 I 
 
 Printed in the United States 
 
 J J H 11 Ji u ;> 
 
 ■S"\ ' . M ^VIHU 
 
 ;^ 
 
CONDITIONS OF PEOGEESS IN 
 DEMOCEATIC GOVEENMENT 
 
LECTURE I 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 Mb. President and Gentlemen op Yale Uni- 
 
 veksity: 
 
 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 Efficiency," 
 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 nge^of elec- 
 t oral machine ry, or to participation in political 
 caiagaigns. These are simply methods to secm'e 
 the expression of public opinion which is the final 
 authority. Opportimity 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 j)f the 
 
i CONDITIONS OF PROGRESS 
 
 votes are the influences which determine the votes, 
 — the vmed forces which produce conviction and 
 create public 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 a nd respon gjbihty 
 are to be judged not by the si ngle vot e, but by 
 the indefina ble infl uence radiating from person- 
 ality, varying with moral perception, knowledge, 
 acumen, experience, and environment, and capable 
 of being lessened oF increased, as one shrinks his 
 individuality or expands his life and throws , Jiis 
 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 mjTiad 
 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 xmit 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 jefer jmerely 
 to those represente d in pro duction and exchange, 
 sigrdfi.canL-a&.._ar e these activities of an en ergetic 
 andtal ented peopl e. The large success and expan- 
 sio n of industr y, the increasg^of wants andtihe abil- 
 ity to supply them,.J;he extraordinary development 
 ■in facilities of coramunication, are a suQicient 
 
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 
 betternient of "conmnmity life. I refer to the fine 
 endeavoiirs 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 improye 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- 
 acti:^ 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__gjeatgj:„flaistakft_ can be made than to t binV 
 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 t 
 power which, distributed over a thousand lines of 
 commimication, develops that appreciation of the;' 
 standards of decency and justice which we have ; 
 delighted to call the common sense of the Amer-1^ 
 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, 
 aiiH 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 power, even to meet just 
 needs, furnishes opportimity 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 cuiming, 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 
 m&,ke of slight consequence the efforts of citizen^ 
 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 instruments 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 with 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." 
 J It would be difficult to find an association in 
 I which wealth, or family, or station are of less con- 
 j sequence, and in which a yovmg man is appraised 
 I more nearly at his actual worth, than in an Amer- 
 1 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 honoiu-able 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 
 I education is to emancipate; to free from supersti- 
 tion, from the tyranny of worn-out notions, from 
 I the prejudices, large and small, which enslave the 
 , judgment. His study of history and of the insti- 
 tutions of his country has been to little 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 ^^ squalor, 
 of wa|te aiid folly, will not sap h^Jajth. 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 
 imderstanding 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 
 commimities must of course be restrained by the I 
 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 '^'^ " H* * , 
 there~must be scope for individual effort freely y-; t" ^ f' 
 exDgttdfid. along Jines 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 unfortxmate 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 commxmity 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 pubhc 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 supphed 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 imderstand the necessity of ' 
 co-operative vigilance. He must learn to make I i' ' 
 his personal decisions, as well as to define his public I :,! [[ 
 attitude, in the light of the interests of the commun- i ' 
 ity and not simply with respect to the opportu- | y'. 
 nities for his individual gain. No allurement of 
 high salary or of social advantage, no promise of 
 assistance to obtain public oflace, should he permit 
 to obscure his duty of absolute loyalty to the public 
 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 public 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 dealings 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 drawn. 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 oiu* 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 
 
 fe 
 
 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 unto itself the conduct of 
 
 indi_vi.du§,l 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 jfche 
 
 r, benefits of collective effort while wisely safeguarding 
 
 'Jindiyidual opportunity and initiative, is the patri- 
 
 'otic and difficult task which should enlist the best 
 
 I thought and unselfish endeavour of every citizen 
 
IN DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT 21 
 
 who appreciates the advantages and the dangers 
 of the RepubUc. 
 
 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 pohtical arguments, 
 and are so skilful in following the thread of truth 
 through the maze of prejudiced assertion and cim- 
 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, corrapt 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 vmdermining 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. 
 fThe 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 intelhgence 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 inteUigence 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 pecuUarities 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 avaihng 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 will 
 
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 
 retaUation. 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 
 must be wiUing 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 priuciple. 
 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 caimot fail to impress you with 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 cotmtry, 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 sympathy, 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 oiu* study of civic government 
 in our schools is that the mere endeavour to 
 memorize names of offices 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 groimd of criticism has always been that a 
 single individual "performs the duties which he 
 imdertakes 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 wish 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 fanners the results of a wide 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 mmiber 
 of men and women who are interested in philan- 
 thropy, and they are constantly studying means 
 of improvement. The old custodial methods, imder 
 which the unfortunate were herded together with 
 slight regard for anything beyond segregation, are 
 in course of abandonment. Modern 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 municipalities, 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 commimity 
 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 pimishment 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 public 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 office 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. Pubhc 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 goverrmient 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 inefficiency 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 secm-e. 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 vmexpected 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 eveiy 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. 
 
4A 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 uimecessary 
 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 imchecked 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 pubhc 
 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 infiuences have become more insidious, 
 and for this reason are perhaps more dangerous. 
 
46 CONDITIONS OP 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 
 multipHcation of imnecessary 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 cannot 
 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 oflSice might be digni- 
 fied by increasing its emolmnents. 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 
 I 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 PROGEESS 
 
 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 xmdec 
 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 
 willing 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 requirenaents 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 premiiun upon inefl&ciency. 
 
 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 pubHc service and the securing 
 of the proper conduct of public business, we carmot 
 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 opportimities 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 
 j 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 pubhc 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 thef 
 reputation of beuig 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 
 pubhc 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 difficulty 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 chng 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 PAETIES 
 
 "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 repubhcan 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 hmnan 
 mind. It exists under different shapes in all gov- 
 ernments, 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. 
 Th£ 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 Hkely 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 diffi- 
 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 desigjied 
 to have the immediate election made by a smali" 
 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 
 officer in the Nation could not be so far removed 
 from popular choice. In the course of events it 
 became manifest that the people were imwilling 
 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-i 
 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 siu"prise to the modem critics of our 
 institutions. 
 
 A great party must have its birth and grow its 
 strength through political 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 
 imaltered. 
 
 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 
 Republican 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 
 party 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 oiu- 
 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 paramoimt 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 groimd. 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 difficult, 
 
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 imfortunate 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 pubUc 
 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 pohtical 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 policies, 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 
 intercoiu'se 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 office 
 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 
 form 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 seciu-e 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 
 balance 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 
 officials, 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 vmfailingly 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 affiliation 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 
 pubhc 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, coimt 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 sjmapathies 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 realize that this progress 
 must be effected through the instrumentahties at 
 our command. This does not imply that anyone 
 of you should join a party contrary to your con- 
 scientious convictions; but in making up your 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 oiu- 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 sUght 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 aifiliations 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 coimection 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 canjiot 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 councils, 
 its representatives, its organs of expression. Con- 
 demnation of party organization, as such, is ab- 
 surd. If it be deemed important tiiat we sliould 
 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 shght 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 PROGEESS 
 
 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 official machin- 
 ery, for the postmasters and revenue officers, and 
 district attorneys and United States marshals 
 with their retinues were on the Democratic side. 
 The Republicans held only a few State and mimi- 
 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 rehance 
 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 saying with us that political activities do 
 not engage men of the highest order of ability; 
 that citizens of conspicuous attainments are not 
 found 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, with 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 
 commimities 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 conamunities, 
 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 DEMOCKATIG GOVERNMENT 87 
 
 how to relate the prior action of his party to the 
 next appropriate step in the Hne 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 pubhc 
 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 covmsel 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 blindness 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 hke 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 
 $25,000. In educational campaigns the limit of the 
 
94 f 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 
 imder the supervision of departments, do not wish 
 by refusal to incur enmity; or they may desire to 
 purchase irmnunity 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, pubhc 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 
 
 officer, 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 imless the party manager or man- 
 agers were for some reason especially interested 
 in a particular apphcant 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 beheved 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 oflBce, 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 imgrate- 
 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 officers 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 ofl&cers act 
 under the dictation of those who have not been 
 chosen to exercise official responsibilities. Excep- 
 tions undoubtedly may be found in commmiities 
 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 party, 
 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 difficult to depose him, not only because 
 of the abimdant means at his command, but fre- 
 quently also by reason of the comphcated 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 public 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 
 ahke vmknown 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 OF 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 officers. The political machine, 
 especially the personal machine, fiu*nishes 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 pubhc 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 piu-pose 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 om* 
 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 
 loy&lty 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 hfe, 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 victories. 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 om- 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 nature 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 hfe 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 impiu-chased 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 yoiu* 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.