Popular misgovernment in the United States

by Alfred Byron Cruikshank

THE EFFECT OF MANHOOD SUFFRAGE IS TO ENSURE INEFFICIENCY IN DOMESTIC LEGISLATION AND ADMINISTRATION.

It is expressing oneself very mildly to say that manhood suffrage produces inefficiency; rather one may say that inefficiency is of its very essence. Preparedness is a major essential of the management of our successful business enterprises, while unpreparedness is a characteristic feature of our government administration. To take a concrete and conceded instance. The Spanish war of 1898 found us totally unprepared for war; without guns, powder, artillery, transports or officers trained for high command. (Alger, Spanish-American War, p. 455.) Our troops in that war were not properly equipped, rationed or cared for. The cause, says Stickney, was “the wholesale fraud and corruption which then permeated the entire administrative force in Washington. That fraud and corruption still continue in full force.” In the New York Sun of February 7th, 1920, the leading editorial was on American want of preparedness. The writer said, “We are a people who will not practice preparedness. We did not prepare for war, we did not prepare for peace. We have never prepared for anything. But sooner or later the man that will not prepare must be damned.” This well-recognized want of foresight in national matters is not an American failing; it is entirely due to the manhood suffrage habit of voting into responsible positions men of intrigue and oratory instead of men of business. Says Reemelin, “There is not a bank, a factory, a store or a farm, which if managed on the basis of American government would not impoverish its owner.” (American Politics, 1881, p. 324.)

In every department of human activity, including government, the chief desideratum is efficiency. In the primary struggle for a bare existence, it is efficiency that wins. The first and principal enemy of man is Nature; her wildness and inclemency must first be overcome, and food, shelter and clothing be forced from her bosom at the price of an endless and ceaseless vigilance. As human society grows older the efficiency which comes of systematic training becomes more essential to its maintenance. People may doubt whether the world improves or whether human existence becomes more precious and enjoyable with the passing of time, but no one can doubt that life is growing more complicated every year. The increase of population, the achievements of invention, the growth of knowledge of our environment, and the cultivation of new tastes and desires have all tended and are tending with accumulated force to make life more difficult for the uninstructed and to increase the necessity for scientific thinking and acting in dealing with new problems. As stated by Mr. Lowell the specialization of occupations is brought about by complexity of civilization, growth of accurate knowledge, progress of invention and the keenness of competition. A few years ago a private citizen could take up a new business without prior preparation; he can no longer safely do so. The use of experts is increasing in business concerns and industrial enterprises. Universities are erecting new specialized departments. Sixty years ago there was scarcely a school of engineers in the country; to-day there are many of them. The inexorable rule of the tendency of the fittest to survive is still an active force in the world, and the recent struggle with Germany gave terrible warning that efficiency is more than ever the price of existence.

Next to the struggle with wild Nature comes the contest with human disorder and the necessity for government, in order that men may best secure and enjoy the spoils and fruits achieved from Nature; and again efficiency is the essential quality. We hear much these days about moral force; but there is no force but material force; what is usually meant by moral force is the influence of moral ideas directing action, for without efficient action, moral ideas will be fruitless. They will not make crops grow nor cause a machine to operate, nor check the deadly velocity of a volley of musketry, nor save a sinking ship, nor check a conflagration; moral force will not win a battle, a campaign or a war, nor save a nation. Combe in his Constitution of Man, long ago pointed out that a pirate in a good sea-going ship was safer than a missionary in an unseaworthy one. Moral ideas may serve to give action a right direction; but training and force are necessary to make it effective; without training in action and a proper supply of material force, the moral ideas will never be manifested at all to our senses, and therefore efficiency in action is the final object of all practical teaching, and the true test of good government. Governmental efficiency means good order; wise legislation; foresight in public affairs; the proper selection of work to be done; the doing it well and expeditiously; speedy and impartial justice; good home administration generally and wisdom and firmness in foreign relations. It is difficult to see how a government which is efficient can be bad, or one which is inefficient can be good. In fact, efficiency makes more for human happiness than any other governmental quality. The ultimate object of the creation of the Federal Union was to secure increased efficiency in government. The old Confederation had been inefficient and was justly condemned and abolished; and the present Federal government was therefore established with powers as stated in the Constitution to levy and carry on war, to control and promote commerce, to establish and sustain postal facilities and a national coinage and to secure peace with foreign nations; all of which purposes might be included in the phrase “national efficiency.”

In an address delivered at Chicago, January 12th, 1918, by Otto H. Kahn, a patriotic and far-sighted New York business man familiar with German methods, he truly said:

“One of the main reasons for Germany’s remarkable development in peace and amazing power of resistance in war, is the way she has dealt with the complex and difficult problems of economic, commercial and fiscal policy. She recognized, long since, that such problems cannot be successfully handled haphazardly or in town-meeting fashion, or emotionally; still less can they be made the football of politics. The German way has been to turn such matters over for study and report to those best qualified by experience and training, and thus having obtained expert advice to respect it and in its large outlines to follow it. And appointments to office are made not on a basis of political affiliations or personal friendship or social sympathies, but for experience and tested fitness.”

He is right, and it is a well-recognized fact that German efficiency in the late war enabled her to make head for over three years against the most powerful combination of modern times.

Consider the vast importance of the work of our own Congress and of our state legislatures. Think of what is committed to the charge of these bodies; reflect for a moment on the importance of our state affairs; our harbors, canals, railroads, highways, schools, colleges, courts of justice, penal and charitable institutions, public utilities, all the manifold commercial, political and criminal legislation of the State; and then glance at the immense fields of Congressional authority: the power of declaring war and making treaties; the maintenance and support of the army and navy; foreign affairs, tariffs; interstate railroads; the post-office; the federal courts of justice. The human mind is appalled at the magnitude of the task of properly governing the enormous population and of safeguarding the immense wealth and interests of the United States. The future political existence of the country and its status as a nation may and very probably will depend on the capacity and ability of its legislators and administrators. Yet but few voters realize the necessity of business experience and of technical knowledge to members of the state or national legislatures. It is not sufficiently considered that by far the greater part of legislative work is made up of strictly business matters requiring special knowledge. Take for instance one item of Federal legislation, namely, that relating to the administration of 200,000 square miles of timbered land owned by the United States government—an area equal to France—where the people dwelling or operating in the lower regions derive their water from wooded uplands: and also relating to another area of 100,000,000 acres or 150,000 square miles containing petroleum, coal and other minerals. In these two tracts “The government will henceforth be selling standing timber to lumbermen, water power for electrical transmission, water for irrigation rights, and oil, coal, and mineral privileges, on an ever-increasing scale of magnitude; while it will rent grazing lands equal in extent to the greater part of the country east of the Mississippi River.” (Shaw on Political Problems, p. 114.)

This case is not exceptional in Congress as may be seen by the following list, which includes all the important general Federal legislation for the year 1917, which happens to be the latest at hand:

1. Increasing the membership of the Interstate Commerce Commission, and increasing the powers of the Commission.