Another good effect will be the elevation of the political tone of the country. This can never be done while the electorate remains degraded. It is inspiring to think of the healthful stimulus which the politics of the nation will receive when our men come to realize more and more the honor and responsibility attached to the office of active citizen of the republic. To be enrolled on the list of voters will be a distinction which will be valued by those who possess it, and coveted by those who do not; by the youth just entering his career; by the man born poor who is saving to establish a home; by the reformed spendthrift; by every American who turns from a career of folly to the path of wisdom and prudence. Men of substance, education and judgment, who have not visited the polls for years will find it worth their while to vote. And every voter will attend with a feeling that his vote is intended to be effective for good; and will act with a sense of responsibility entirely inappropriate now, when the only real responsibility for an election rests with the boss and the machine.
And yet, beneficial as the above specified effects of the proposed measure seem likely to be, still in the mind of the writer its greatest, its transcendent value lies not in any of them nor in their totality so much as in the expectation that it will be a decided step towards the solution of the world’s problem of the creation of a wise, politic and progressive democracy. The elevation of the electorate; the purification of elections; the destruction of the machines and the rings; the abolition of the political oligarchies; the better government of cities; the heightening of the political tone; an increased efficiency in public affairs; all these are of immense consequence; but beyond and over all is the importance to America and to the world of putting the democratic movement firm on its feet; on the right road; facing the better day and prepared to do its part in carrying on the world’s politics. This it is at present quite unable to do because it has failed to widen its conceptions with the enlargement of its power and opportunities. The ultimate, the supreme power in the state, should possess capacity and understanding. Democracy has undertaken to make of the electorate that supreme power. To do this successfully it had to see to it that the electorate is suffused with intelligence, and it has failed so to do. Its duty in that regard was partially admitted and attempted by means of school education of the young, but the recognition of the principle has not been full or satisfying; nor have the means adopted been adequate. The world is unable to give its full confidence to the democracy of to-day, because of its failure to fulfil its implied undertaking to produce a competent electorate. The great objection to democracy in the minds of modern thinkers is, that originally created and idealized as the champion of individual rights, it has gone no further; it has failed to provide for capacity and efficiency, or to recognize its duty in that direction. On the contrary, its declared policy for the last century has been in the direction of degrading the quality of the voting mass by the process of increasing its volume from below. If democracy is to be the future governing force, it must absolutely and unreservedly commit itself to the principle of a thoroughly competent electorate; to be established not merely by preparation of the fit, but by rigorous exclusion of the unfit. The chief value therefore of the proposed electoral reform consists in its inaugurating a complete change of policy in this vital matter; and in the fact that it will signify that the American democracy has awakened to the understanding of this necessity, and has in good faith undertaken the duty of carrying out the task of making its foundation sure and eternal.
Politics is a progressive science and it may be that the doctrine of a qualified, that is to say, a competent electorate once accepted for general purposes, will receive hereafter extended application. We cannot put a limit to the possibilities of democratic efficiency to be attained through the further selection and elevation of the voters. While the plan of property qualification is apparently the only one at present practicable and efficacious, it would be foolish to suppose that our successors may not extend the application of the principle in directions now unthought of. For instance, in addition to the establishment of means for furnishing the electorate with reliable information as Mr. Lippman has so sagaciously suggested, measures may in time be adopted for recourse to an instructed opinion on proposals for official action, by submitting them to that part of the electorate whose tastes and occupations have given them special light on the subject to be passed upon. Just as there is an instructed minority in musical matters, so there are always minorities with special knowledge of educational affairs, charities, sanitation, public schools, transportation, finances, etc. In the great cities these groups may each amount to tens of thousands of individuals, each group constituting a true and enlightened democracy of opinion on the special subjects in which its members have interested themselves. In a great city like New York, for instance: one can imagine a set of voters qualified on banking and currency; another on constitutional questions; another on public health, and so on; each of them containing perhaps ten thousand highly qualified persons, experts on the subject referred to; whose opinions or decisions might be given as called for, and each carry with it a certain weight, or have a certain political or merely informative effect, as might be provided; and so as new circumstances or situations arise, as changes occur, as experiences accumulate, the principle of qualified voting, of an appeal to a competent and responsible array of selected public opinion may be applied in many new ways, to the advantage of the community.
Objection that the requirement of a qualification may be evaded. One of the criticisms of the property qualification rule when it was the law of the land, was that it was frequently evaded by sham property transfers. Every statute or regulation is likely to be the subject of schemes of evasion which have to be encountered as they develop. It is hardly worth while at this point to discuss imaginary difficulties which may occur in exceptional cases in carrying out the reform. It will certainly never be adopted until it has conquered public opinion; in which case means will readily be found to enforce it. Sham transfers are not unknown in the business world; but though sometimes troublesome, they do not practically interfere with the volume of business transactions.
Objections founded on certain standards of qualification. The writer has omitted to discuss the exact amount, character or measure of property to be named in the qualification standard. It is said that the enforcement of a rate-paying qualification in the City of London, by excluding from the polls paupers, dependents on others, idle and inefficient working men, and the semi-criminal and criminal classes, effects a reduction of about twenty-five per cent from a full manhood suffrage poll list. An equivalent purging here, would completely purify our voting system. But here in this country, the standard would have to vary according to local conditions, and to the judgment of the different legislative bodies having jurisdiction.
As to the possibility of the success of a movement to obtain the enactment of a proper qualification for voters, there can be no doubt. The proposition is new and it will have to be carefully explained and earnestly advocated; but it will be adopted and put in force just as soon as the people become convinced of its justice and expediency; and not before. This means a lot of preparatory and educational work, and therein lies perhaps a chief value of the project. Before it can be adopted, it will have to be thoroughly understood and believed in; the electorate will have to be made to know its own present weakness and corruption, and its own great possibilities, in future power and purity. In short, the proper consideration of a proposal for an elevation of the electorate, will of itself involve such self-examination and bracing up of standards, as will purify the political atmosphere even before its acceptance by the legislatures and the people.
There is no legal difficulty to be overcome, no Federal constitutional provision in the way; and the reform can go into effect in any state, upon a vote of its people changing its constitution. This vote can be obtained. The majority of the voters in every state are property holders; it is in their power to assume control at their pleasure. If this project is right, it will be possible to convince them of that fact. There is no reason why the working classes should oppose it; it is in their interest; most of them are family men, property owners and intelligent. It is they who have suffered most by the depredations of politicians. They would be dull and stupid beyond all that has ever been supposed, to fail to see that misgovernment and want of efficiency are their greatest enemies; that excessive taxation eats up year by year a large part of their surplus product; and when convinced of the justice and expediency of the measure, these serious workers will find means to silence the senseless clamor for the vote, should there be such on the part of the inferior and worthless in the ranks of labor. Among the politicians themselves, no doubt there are men who will break away from machine tyranny and favor the reform; men of real ability, who realize that working in a purer atmosphere they would achieve more real distinction than they now obtain; men who inwardly despise the things they are compelled to countenance and perform. Much formless prejudice there will be also to be overcome no doubt; but that will yield to explanation and to reason.
Thoughtful men everywhere are beginning to realize the humbug and menace of manhood suffrage. Writing in the North American Review for March, 1920, Hanford Henderson says of universal suffrage that “it harms even those whom it is supposed to benefit. To give every man and woman a vote and to declare these votes equally important and significant is both unsound and mischievous.... Universal suffrage is a characteristic example of the democratic failure in discrimination.... An electorate not properly qualified is an ever present public danger.” There is such a prevalent disgust for present political methods that any well-planned scheme of relief will be welcomed. We need only consider whether the measure is right; that once made clear it can be carried. To doubt that is to doubt the possibility of a reasonable democracy.
Just how far the American public is mentally prepared to seriously consider the dominant theories of this work; just how soon, if ever, these theories will become familiar and popular among us, it is impossible to judge. It may be that some proofs of their acceptance will speedily follow the publication of this volume; it may be that years or even generations will pass before the principles herein advocated will get a hearing. But to those of his readers be they ever so few, who believe that the things here written down are true, the author would say in the words with which this volume is begun, written by Washington on the eve of a great and doubtful enterprise: “Let us raise a standard to which the wise and the honest can repair; the event is in the hand of God.”