Popular misgovernment in the United States

by Alfred Byron Cruikshank

Part of the success of the woman suffrage agitation is due to the use of money. Just as the accumulations of the rich are often poured by their sons into channels of profligate folly, so by their widows and daughters they are often turned into ditches of political folly. In countries like England and the United States, where large and small fortunes are constantly being accumulated by hard-working men, and large portions thereof bequeathed to female relatives, there will always be found a certain proportion of the latter who lack the wisdom to properly use their surplus cash; some waste it shamefully; some lose it to sharpers; some bestow it upon worthless and sham benevolences; some squander it to gain notoriety. One can scarcely imagine any “cause” or “movement” so absurd that, people cannot be found to believe in it, or to pretend to do so, and to subscribe to it if properly approached and tempted by visions of celebrity. For the woman suffrage agitation sums aggregating very considerable have been thus secured in England and America. With this cash a number of poorer women can be employed to do propaganda work and to perpetrate acts of lawlessness. In England they assaulted cabinet officials and others; they used dynamite, they smashed windows, they broke up public meetings by violence, they practised rowdyism and blackguardism, they attempted even murder. Here, they have allied themselves with anarchists and socialists, enemies of the republic; they have lawlessly interrupted public meetings; they publicly affronted the President at the Arlington Hotel on April 15th, 1910, a thing never before done in the history of the country; and they subsequently insulted another President, by picketing the White House in an offensive manner for weeks together. They justify this by saying that they were in earnest, and ready to suffer for the cause; and the same has been said by other fanatical criminals. Their course has been such as would have discredited even a good cause in any field but that of politics, where vile and dastardly methods are customary and considered appropriate.

Up to a few years ago the politicians were accustomed to ridicule the woman suffrage agitation, and for years made it a standing joke at the various state capitols; thus it was formerly the well known practice of the New York state legislators to deceive and humbug the woman suffrage managers by passing one of their measures in one house, with the understanding that it would be defeated in the other. But as soon as the movement began to make real headway, the politicians began to favor it, seeing the chance of advantage to themselves from that course. The only opinion those gentry fear or respect is that backed by organized force or easy money. The suffragists organized and raised immense amounts of cash; their opponents failed to do either and almost ignored the movement. Now, reasoned the politicians, should the suffrage proposals fail nothing will be lost by having supported them; and should they succeed we will have a still more credulous, corrupt and easily managed constituency than before, and may hope for the gratitude and friendship of the suffrage leaders. And now that in sixteen states women have the vote, the politicians on both sides strongly favor woman suffrage, and are one and all ready to swear everlasting devotion to the cause of woman. The presidential aspirants dare no longer oppose it. So that judging the future by the past, the cause of woman suffrage has a fair chance of winning in all or most of the states of the Union. It certainly will do so unless there be a strong organized effort to defeat its progress, of which at present no signs are visible. In the political world the most powerful forces are money and fanaticism. The effect of money is familiar to us all every day. The effect of fanaticism is equally familiar to readers of history. It produced the Mohammedan Empire, the Crusades, and the Spanish Inquisition, and assisted in the downfall of Spain; it furthered the Mormon political sway; the violent abolition of slavery; the prohibition movement; the woman suffrage agitation and Bolshevism. That female suffrage is the last important step in the downward march of the American democracy is the belief of the writer of this book. If at this point the reaction does not begin, the democratic régime in this country is doomed to final failure, and even to possible overthrow at the hands of red radicalism.

CHAPTER XXX

A PROPERLY QUALIFIED ELECTORATE WILL REMOVE THE CAUSES OF THE PREVALENT POPULAR DISSATISFACTION AND SERVE AS A DEFENSE AGAINST THE PRESENT MENACE OF BOLSHEVISM.

The institution of unlimited suffrage is favorable to the various radical, anti-social movements which for convenience sake may here be conjointly designated as Bolshevism. It is thus favorable in three important particulars, one being a matter of principle and the two others matters of practice. The error in principle is the adoption of the theory of numbers as the sole source of political authority, in direct disregard of the just claims of property and property rights, and resultingly to the detriment of efficiency, justice and civilization. That the scheme of government by mere numbers is Bolshevik in character is plain enough. It had its origin in the French Terror which was a Bolshevik regime. It accords no direct representation or place in government to property or the rights of property; which are left to take their chance in the shuffle of politics. As long as property is deprived of its proper place in the constitution of our government and is denied representation in the electorate, it is an alien, without security for its existence; and only here by sufferance. Bolshevism, which actually deprives private property of all right to exist, goes further than unlimited suffrage which merely ignores it, but both are upon the same track, and move in the same direction. The second particular in which manhood suffrage has favored Bolshevism is by corrupting and degrading the operations of American democracy and bringing into disrepute as has been shown. And third, it has aided Bolshevism by admitting an anti-social element into the electorate and thus decreasing the offensive and defensive power of the democratic régime, as has also been shown.

And now that we are under the menace of Bolshevism, let us for one moment consider the extent and the character of that menace. It has seized a large part of Russia; it has found a lodging in Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the United States, and threatens every democratic nation where democracy is inefficient. It is an organized and widespread attempt at the destruction of property and of all who own property; of society and civilization and of all who support society and civilization. It is not a new or a momentary phenomenon. Though operating under new names it is as old and persistent as ignorance and brutality. Over five centuries ago it appeared in England in Wat Tyler’s insurrection identical in spirit with the French Revolutionary Terror which from 1789 to 1798 ravaged France and has been the source of nearly all her subsequent misfortunes. By its violent actions and reactions it became the indirect yet certain cause of the despotic rule and constant wars of the time of Napoleon I. and of the Franco-Prussian war of 1870, which left France again almost ruined; and it reappeared in the horrors of the Paris commune in 1871. Let not the reader of moderate means and large selfishness solace himself with the thought that, should it obtain here, though our great capitalists may suffer, he will escape. The finish of capitalists is the end of capital; and the end of capital is the finish of us all. And the reader’s interest in this matter measured by the extent of his personal peril is probably nearly equal to that of any of his richer neighbors. In France in 1793 the Terrorists spared no one who was respectable. The only safety was to go in rags or to join the revolutionary army. People were slain because they were clergymen or nuns; because they were prosperous; because their friends were prosperous; because they were conservative in opinion or well dressed; because they were religious; because they were suspected of any of these things. Some of the Reds of that day were planning to butcher half of France, when stopped by Napoleon’s timely usurpation. The Bolsheviki of today are if possible more ignorant, cruel, brutal and murderous than the French radicals of a century ago. It is their declared intention to do away with all but the laboring classes, who they say should alone enjoy the fruits of the earth. They repudiate all private property rights, and consider property owners, great and small, as public enemies. The right to own and hold private property is therefore now openly and fiercely challenged throughout the world, and the challenge must be accepted just as Germany’s challenge was accepted. The entire structure of our civilization is endangered by this attack. Without private property neither the home nor the family can exist; when private property is abolished chaos will come again.

Bolshevism has obtained a lodgment in the United States. We must disabuse our minds of the notion that this is a foreign menace which can be got rid of by deporting a hundred or a few hundred aliens a year. Bolshevism is a theory; a state of mind likely to appear in any race of people under certain circumstances. The so-called Independent Workers of the World (I.W.W.s) are largely native Americans. Under the present or any other social system including the ownership of private property, the capable, saving and industrious will have, and the others will lack; and as those who lack are frequently deficient in morals and judgment as well as in prudence and industry, there will be envy, covetousness and discontent; which being joined to a profound ignorance of economic law, will produce Bolshevism. All these elements are here in America, where the enemies of society have sometimes shown themselves in force, even in the last century; for instance, in Shay’s rebellion in Massachusetts in the year 1790. Heretofore, their numbers have been small, owing to our peculiar circumstances, notably our immense land offerings to all corners; but times have changed, and American Bolshevism is here under conditions which make it a serious menace.

Let not the reader fool himself with the prophecy that the spirit of Bolshevism will disappear from Europe with the advent of spelling books and newspapers into the homes of European laborers, artisans and peasants. Quite the contrary. As well expect good family morals to come from reading obscene literature, as expect good business or political principles to issue from most of the rubbish printed by the decadents of today. The Bolshevik leaders are often literary men. It is not the lack of spelling and reading, but the want of sound economic principles that characterizes the assassins of Society; and the only school which provides popular instruction in true economics is the school of business, which Bolshevism is determined utterly to destroy.

Neither must we count on Bolshevism dying out of itself here, for lack of congenial soil or atmosphere. People love to imagine miracles, and we hear a lot of nonsense about America’s wonderful power of assimilating foreigners; as if there was some marvelous quality in our air to change the ideas and disperse the prejudices of immigrants. The fact is, that many of the so-called American qualities are merely such human characteristics as develop everywhere under conditions of well-repaid industry. The acquisition of property operates very quickly in every country, to modify the habits and character of any man previously poor; and the real cause of the personal changes referred to under the phrase “national assimilation” is material prosperity. In this new and open country, just as in Australia and South America, there has been great opportunity to turn energy into cash; and the foreigners whom we readily assimilated were those who made money, and became very like prosperous Americans. They have been educated in the business school, and they will never be Bolshevists. But the class of immigrants who remain paupers will not be so easily converted to a doctrine which offers them nothing; and they will find leaders in the group which, though acquainted with books, is inefficient in business, unsuccessful and discontented. And the pauperized, defeated, shiftless classes of Americans are likely to turn to Bolshevism, for the same reasons as foreigners under the same circumstances. Men who are failures in life, no matter what their nationality, are not to be trusted to do justice to the successful ones, nor to vote to protect property or property rights. Wherever the principles of political economy are not understood, there is a field for Bolshevism; and they are not understood by the working classes in the United States. The propaganda of organized discontent is very active among us; and its activities are not likely to diminish. Thousands of Americans, disappointed in life, are also disappointed at seeing their government in the clutches of an oligarchy of sordid politicians. And these conditions may grow worse with the growth and expansion of industry and commerce, with the increase of legislative meddling with business, and the increasing tendency of business acting in self-protection to endeavor to improperly control legislation and politics. If nothing be done to remedy this state of things who knows how many Americans will be found to be on the side of the Bolsheviki when the time comes for a settlement of the question between us and them?

There is cause for a serious apprehension of an attack by organized Bolshevism upon our democracy if proper measures are not adopted to further protect property rights, and if the present political oligarchical misgovernment is permitted to continue unchecked. In that day it may be that in the large cities the enemies of the social order will be championed by one or two yellow newspapers, and their cause be taken up by one of the political organizations. The result might be such as to make the property classes regret their apathy. The material for an efficient radical political army already exists in the organized controllables who now manage the primaries under direction of the bosses; in the politically unattached hordes of irresponsible city voters; in the village loafers; in the immense number of irresponsible women politically and economically ignorant and easily moved to violent emotion. There are at this moment in every city in the United States hundreds of writers, school teachers, and college educated youths of both sexes, superficial, fluent of speech, ambitious, ready for anything; and as ignorant of economic law as a common laborer. Of such would be the leaders of the Bolsheviki movement. On the other hand the able youth of America, the well-educated, gifted young business men, those of high ideals, patriotic, disinterested, energetic; those of the class upon whom every country should rely for its working leadership in civics, are mostly unavailable to defend society in such an emergency, because they are untrained in public affairs, unknown to the public; have been kept in the rear out of sight; not permitted to seek public employment; the places they ought to fill occupied by the cheap tools of the machine; most of them indifferent to politics; despising its incidents; scarcely willing to vote. From them no quick help could be expected in such a case.