But the influence of such an organization will go farther than this. Being in existence and efficient, it will often be a determining factor in nominating and electing a candidate for an office so important, and, viewed by itself, so conspicuous, that in a special election to fill that one office the intelligence of the electorate would be displayed at its maximum. For instance, if we look at the federal government alone, we find that the voter casts his ballot only for president, vice-president, and usually only one congressman. The congressman is selected for the most part from a fairly small district. Taking the federal government by itself, the voter’s function in selecting a congressman is so simple and direct that no professional advice or direction is needed except in the unusual case where the district is filled with an actual illiterate vote. But the moment the vote-directing organization is called into being in the congressional district because of the artificially produced political ignorance of the voter in respect to candidates for various local municipal offices and state offices, such an organization at once exercises an important control over the nomination and election of the congressman. In the same way the organization will gain a very considerable influence over the nomination and election of candidates for local municipal offices where they consist only of the mayor and an alderman from each ward, who are elected at a special election. Such an organization will have at all times a vast influence in the nomination and election of judges, even when they are chosen at a special election. There is no doubt that the nomination for governor of the state and president of the United States may from time to time be greatly influenced by politocrats whose power is based upon the political ignorance of the voter in respect to candidates for all manner of obscure offices in the state and local governments. Speaking generally, if the voter is habitually so ignorant politically that the politocrats have secured, to a considerable extent, the power to direct him how to vote, then the politocrats will exercise a great deal of influence in determining who shall be elected to offices so conspicuous and important that if they were the only ones filled by election the voter would exercise a high degree of independence and intelligence in making his selection and the services of the same politocrats would be wholly dispensed with.
A vote-directing organization which is steadily successful in a given state or local government for eight years will reach a point where it actually places in practically all the state and local offices that are filled by election, and also in the House of Representatives, in Congress, and in the United States Senate, men who are loyal to the organization and its leaders before everything else. The leader of such an organization may even have obtained a controlling influence with the governor of the state and the president of the United States, so far as their power extends to local appointments and affairs. When this occurs, the leaders of the state and local vote-directing organization have become the real though extra-legal government. The real power of government, both state and local, and an important influence in the power of the federal government are in their hands. Local and state executive officers and local and state legislators will take orders from these leaders. Judges in a more subtle way will take account of their wishes.
Thus we have, however imperceptibly, none the less effectively changed the character of our government. The very excess of our precautions to prevent the power of government from coming into the hands of the few has delivered the power of government into the hands of the few. So obviously and completely has the elaborate effort of our constitution-makers failed to keep governmental power out of the hands of the few that we might as well accept it as axiomatic that governmental authority in any highly organized society cannot be prevented from becoming concentrated in the hands of the few. Our form of government has indeed changed from the decentralized democracy of the frontier to the centralized politocracy of a highly organized civilization. We have turned our back upon the autocrat and the aristocrat only to find ourselves in the hands of the politocrat.
Section 6
The Extra-legal Government Uses Its Power Selfishly to Maintain Itself and to Benefit Those Who Have Organized and Supported It
Our extra-legal government is not one of altruists. It may be relied upon to act selfishly in two respects: First, it will use all of its influence and power to maintain itself. Then as its tenure of power becomes more secure it will use that power to reward the leaders who have organized and supported it.
The clear perception of what is necessary for the maintenance of the extra-legal government will provide the wise politocrat with a deep-rooted political philosophy. His creed, if uttered, would sound something like this: “I believe in the disfranchisement of the voter by keeping him too ignorant politically to vote intelligently. I believe that all voters, no matter how intelligent in general, can be made politically ignorant in voting by placing upon them a burden of investigating candidates and attending elections which they can conceivably, but will not in fact, perform. I believe that such a burden upon the voter can be produced most readily by the decentralization of governmental power in every possible way, and the constant application of the elective principle. I therefore believe in fostering the popular fear of kings, the popular prejudice against the centralization of power and the filling of offices by appointment. Above all I believe in more democracy (i.e., more applications of the elective principle) as the cure for the ills of democracy.”
With these deep-seated convictions, the course of action of the wise politocrat in many respects is not difficult to predict and not difficult to understand when it is observed. The chief executive of the state or of the United States who, in response to any popular demand, attempts to influence or coerce the legislature must be publicly rebuked. It must be pointed out that he is overstepping the bounds of his constitutional power. He must confine himself to the limited constitutional sphere of the executive. When a man becomes governor or president he must cease to be a citizen. The promotion of decentralization of governmental power through the creation of several new municipal corporations operating in the same district is a step which should always receive the favorable attention of the politocrats. The constant application of the elective principle to each newly created office must be maintained. The election district furthermore should always be kept as large as possible and always larger than the personal reputation of anyone who would be likely to seek a given office which the voters of the district select. Methods of redistricting can be devised and carried out so as to yield the maximum amount of power for the extra-legal government for the time being in power. Election laws must be so shaped and administrative acts so directed as to enable the organization to marshal its votes in the most effective way. New parties and independent movements must be discouraged. One of the neatest devices to effect such discouragement is to retain the party circle and at the same time provide that no candidate shall appear on more than one ticket on the ballot. That will force all candidates who can secure the extra-legal government’s party nomination to take it as against an independent nomination. The fact that the extra-legal government puts up some men who are satisfactory and who cannot also be placed upon an independent ticket will discourage the putting in the field of any independent ticket. No harm will be done to the extra-legal government by politocrats if the network of governmental bodies becomes very complex, or if the details of carrying out provisions of election laws become so difficult to understand that the whole machinery of elections must be directed by a few experts.
But the chief care of the wise politocrat will not be to acquire a selfish political philosophy or a selfish program for governmental legislation. Of paramount importance is the organizing, recruiting, training, feeding, and caring for the feudal army of directors and advisers to the politically ignorant voter and the rewarding of the officers and lesser leaders of that army according to their position. So far as possible, of course, the district and precinct workers will be given places upon the public pay-rolls and so fed and clothed from the public treasury. In return for what they receive from the public they will do the minimum amount of work for the public and the maximum amount for the organization. Places on the pay-rolls of private corporations may also be at the disposal of the leaders among the politocrats. In a city of any size much small graft connected with the issuing of licenses of all sorts, the selling of liquor, the business of vice, and the activities of the underworld may be picked up by the privates and captains in the organization. The lesser politocrats will take the higher salaried positions and fee offices. It will not interfere with their obtaining these places that they must submit to an election. The work of the office will be done by a chief deputy paid out of the public treasury. The holder of the office will, therefore, be enabled to spend his entire time conducting the business of advising and directing the politically ignorant voter whom to vote for. The larger graft connected with the protection of the business of vice and the activities of the underworld will go to those who are still higher up among the politocrats. This, however, is a dirty and risky mode of reward and the protection which can be given has its limits. Many politocrats, and among them the most powerful, will not touch it personally. In certain districts men of excellent social standing and mental attainments can be used to advantage by the extra-legal government. In most instances material of this sort can be drawn from among lawyers. The reward for those who are constant and effective in their service will be a place in the corporation counsel’s office or the state’s attorney’s office, and finally a place upon the bench. The larger graft of public contracts is reserved for the overlords of the feudal organization. But even this the great leaders will not touch.
The great prize which is reserved for the lord paramount and his tenants in chief is the privilege of entering into an alliance, offensive and defensive, with special business and property interests which need the aid of the local or state governmental power to exploit to the best advantage the many, or the protection from governmental interference at the demand of the many who are being exploited. Indeed, so close may the relations become between the great captains of such special business and property interests and the extra-legal government by politocrats, that the real power of government may to some extent actually reside in the former rather than the latter. It will indeed be difficult in many instances to tell which group commands and which obeys. Where the leaders of both are equally able there will be a complete partnership.