Unpopular government in the United States

by Albert Martin Kales

The voting for a large number of the most important offices in the state and municipal government is done during a few hours on election day. In these few hours great masses of voters come face to face with such a ballot as appears opposite [p. 29]. They have no opinion as to any of the candidates except a very few, for the most part at the head of the ticket. They do not, however, because of their ignorance refrain from voting. Neither do they pitch a coin to decide for whom they shall vote. They insist on voting, and they take their voting seriously. It follows that when they are politically ignorant they vote the way they are told to vote by somebody. The important questions are: Who tells them how to vote? and By what means are they told? The small minority, including many of the most intelligent, vote the way they are directed by some newspaper. At one time a prominent newspaper in Chicago was credited with the ability to direct about one-tenth of the voters in a county or city election how to cast their ballots. But this was possible only when the newspaper concentrated its entire influence on the filling of one or two offices. The newspaper gives very little advice to the voter with respect to the filling of a considerable majority of offices for which elections are held. Even as to the few offices with regard to the candidates for which the newspaper makes a great effort to advise voters, its influence is limited. A large proportion of the electorate vote the party circle. Some are moved by sentiment or strong prejudices; others by the fact that men of whom they know something personally are responsible for the nominations or appear as candidates in a prominent place on a particular ticket. In every case a vote in the party circle, which is a blanket vote for a great number of party candidates of whom the voter has no knowledge, is a vote according to the direction of those who promoted or directed the nomination of the men who appear as candidates in that party column. It is believed, however, that a very large body of voters—especially in districts where large numbers are generally ignorant or illiterate—need, and indeed must have, advice as to how to vote from some individual whom they either look up to and trust, or fear. These voters do not ask for political leadership. They do not desire information upon which to found political opinions. All they ask for is advice as to how to mark their ballots. In congested centers of population this advice is sought within a few hours in a single day by tens and even hundreds of thousands of voters. The voter wants information as he approaches the booth. Even those who allow a newspaper to direct them how to vote need advice in voting for offices which the newspaper ignores. So the practice of independent voting and splitting tickets causes the voter to seek advice from those who make it their business to know something about the candidates. If these masses do not obtain instruction and advice as to whom to vote for they must refrain from voting, or pitch a coin, or fall back upon the party circle. They do the last as the most rational, and thus take the directions of those who are able to place the names of candidates under the party circle. In brief, the entire situation is something like this: As to four-fifths of the candidates for office the voters are politically ignorant; yet they insist upon voting and in taking seriously their duty as a citizen to vote. They will not pitch a coin. Hence they must vote the way they are told. Nine-tenths of the voters who cast ballots for four-fifths of the offices are directed to vote by those who have placed the names upon the ballot or by someone who makes a special appeal to the voter at the polls or by a special canvass before election.

Not only, however, does the political ignorance of the voter present an obvious opportunity to someone to direct him how to vote and thus cast his ballot for him, but an overwhelming self-interest on the part of individuals invokes at once the strongest motive to use the opportunity. The man that can control the power of the electorate will secure the power to appoint to office. He who can regularly place the candidate in office will soon control the holder of the office and exercise the governmental power which the officeholder wields. The securing of such governmental power has always been an object in itself to a proportion of the individuals in every community. When seen as a source of personal profit and advancement, the numbers who will strive for it and the efforts which they will make are greatly increased. Indeed, the prize which the successful secure is such as to produce the keenest competition and the most exhaustive effort.

It is important to notice that the necessities of candidates quickly reveal the extent of the political ignorance of the voter and the opportunity which this affords for someone to direct him how to vote. The candidate, of whom the vast majority of voters are politically ignorant because his office is obscure and inconspicuous, finds that his election is not a matter of his policies and efficiency, but of the efforts of workers at the polls and the canvassing of voters before election. Such a candidate needs the support of successful advisers to the politically ignorant voter. He needs the support of that man or combination of men in the community that can cast the largest number of votes of the politically ignorant. A little experience in fulfilling this apparently innocent and legitimate demand for a campaign manager will reveal to the manager the character of the voter’s political ignorance and the fact that someone must always direct him how to vote, and that this is the means by which political power is to be secured. A slight actual experience is all that is necessary to point the real path to the exercise by the few of governmental power.

Such conditions of opportunity revealed and ever-present selfish motives must inevitably produce men who aspire to be successful advisers to the electorate. Active competition for these places naturally ensues. Success, then, means the survival of the fittest. That means that among the professionals those win who take their profession seriously, understand it thoroughly, and practice it assiduously and with judgment, tact, and craft. Here, then, we have the local political boss or professional politician. He is merely the successful local adviser and director to the politically ignorant voter. He is the man who can, more than anyone else, in a local district, direct the largest number of the politically ignorant how to vote. He advises and directs the voter how to vote principally by personal canvasses of the voters and solicitations at the polls and by controlling the machinery of nominations so as to determine who shall appear as a candidate under a given party name. The political ignorance of the voter is one of the necessary conditions to his existence. The fact that most voters cannot make a show of voting intelligently without someone to help them provides the opportunity which calls him into being. The power of the successful adviser and director to the voter is in direct ratio to the political ignorance of the electorate. It makes no difference whether that ignorance be the result of general lack of intelligence or be artificially produced by placing a special educational qualification upon the voter which he cannot or will not fulfil. To the extent that the adviser and director of the politically ignorant voter can direct and advise the voter how to vote, he can fill the offices of the state and local governments with those who are loyal to him, and thus control some part of the power of government.

Since the business of directing the politically ignorant voter how to vote has fallen into the hands of a professional class and since the prize to be won is the control of governmental power, it is not to be wondered at that the profession has become highly organized for the purpose of achieving its object; that men of extraordinary power and ability have arisen as its leaders, and that to a very great extent the object of the organization has been achieved.

The political boss or adviser to the politically ignorant voter first appears in the smaller election districts. His advent is coincident with a certain degree of political ignorance on the part of the electorate. At first that ignorance was the result of the actual illiteracy which appeared in the majority of the voters of a particular district, usually in a large city. Thus we first hear of the ward boss in our larger cities. His ward usually contains a large foreign population living in the densest political ignorance, easily terrified, easily cajoled, and easily corrupted. The steady increase in the length of ballots and the burden placed upon the electorate soon, however, began to produce artificially a state of political ignorance on the part of the most intelligent electorate. This at once produced the political boss for districts where the electorate was possessed of a high average of character and intelligence. This boss was of a different type from a river-ward boss. It took longer to make him. He was of a somewhat finer grain. He had some inkling of the fact that he really bore a fiduciary relation to the politically ignorant electorate whom he advised and directed and whose vote he cast. He had to possess himself of the confidence and the trust of his constituents. His success was obtained only by close attention to his profession and by qualities of tact and leadership. His supremacy was retained only by care and subtlety. The moment each one of any considerable number of local election districts developed such a professional political boss it was inevitable that they should begin to act together to direct and advise the politically ignorant voters of the larger districts how to vote when it came to the filling of a more important office in a larger election district. Thus the bosses of the city wards and the country districts combined to agree on who should be presented to the voter for election and to direct the voter how to vote. Naturally out of the combination some men emerged capable of leading the combination of bosses. Thus arose the city or county machine. In extraordinary instances a single man became a city or county boss for a particular party organization. In the same way, when the districts of a state were well provided with permanent political bosses, there was a movement among the leaders to combine into a state machine. Again, in extraordinary cases a single man was great enough to be the supreme political leader of a political party organization in a state and to lead it regularly to victory at the polls.

Thus almost imperceptibly, but with astonishing rapidity, there have been developed state-wide feudal organizations for the purpose—in form at least—of advising the politically ignorant voter how to vote, but in reality for the purpose of casting his vote for him, and thus securing the political power of the electorate. In each smallest election precinct there is a regular band of workers under a precinct captain. In each collection of precincts which make the smallest electoral district, like a ward in a city or a township in the country, there must be a mesne lord whom the captains obey. In larger election districts, such as a city or a county, or a combination of counties, there must be tenants in chief over the mesne lords. Finally, there is the great lord paramount for the whole state. No precinct captain is permitted to have any idea of principles or policies. It is his duty, with his aids, to produce delegates for conventions who will vote as the organization chiefs direct, canvass the precinct before election and buy, command, instruct, persuade, or coerce, as the exigencies of the case may require, votes for the candidates named by the organization chiefs. When the precinct captain and his workers fail to perform these services successfully, out they must go, and others, waiting eagerly for promotion, will take their places. When they show ability they will make progress in the organization. The district boss must equally keep his captains in obedience and effectiveness. For him also there is promotion or reduction to the ranks in prospect. It is the law of life and the source of the organization’s power that its officers render implicit obedience to their immediate chiefs and that a mighty personality direct the whole.

Thus does the power of the electorate pass to those who take advantage of the political ignorance of the electorate to direct it how to vote.

Section 5
The Power of Government Passes into the Hands of Those Who Are Able to Direct the Majority of the Politically Ignorant How to Vote. They Constitute an Extra-legal but None the Less Real Government

The professional adviser and director to the politically ignorant voter aims to secure control of as much of the power of government as possible. His means to that end consist in becoming the most important single factor in the filling of the offices of the legal government. Success in advising and directing a majority of the politically ignorant voters how to vote places in his hands the power to fill by appointment all offices for which candidates are presented who are unknown to the electorate generally. Our political boss naturally tends to appoint men who are loyal to him and to his power, and by this means he naturally secures a certain control over part of the local governmental power. In the same way, the prize of a combination of successful local bosses is the power to appoint the majority of the officeholders of some more extensive and important local municipal government and thus obtain control of a part of its governmental power. When the state-wide organization of the feudal army of directors and advisers to the politically ignorant voter has been thoroughly perfected, with a man of great ability at its head, the prize to be obtained is the principal part of the entire governmental power, whether state or local. More and more such an organization will fill with men loyal to its leaders the local and state legislative bodies, the local and state executive offices, and even places upon the bench. Such an organization, when continuously successful for any length of time, will have actually filled all of the less conspicuous and less important offices in the executive, legislative, and judicial departments of the state and local governments.