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Page 50
These big men were very likable. They were engrossed in big projects,
and they were doing necessary work in the development of the country.
They naturally took the easiest and most direct methods to get at
results. They would not go out of the way to corrupt a legislature any
more than they would go out of the way to find a range of mountains. But
if the mountain stood in the way of the railroad, they would go through
it regardless of expense. If the legislature was in their way, they
would deal with it as best they could. They were willing to pay what it
cost to accomplish a purpose which they believed was good.
Their attitude toward the Public was one which you did not criticize,
for it seemed to you to be reasonable. The Public was an abstraction,
like Nature. We are all under the laws of Nature. But Nature doesn't
mind whether we consciously obey or not. She goes her way, and we go
ours. We get all she will let us have. So with the Public. The Public
was not regarded as a person or as an aggregate of persons, it was the
potentiality of wealth. They never thought of the Public as being
starved or stunted, or even as being seriously inconvenienced because of
what they took from it, any more than they thought of Nature being the
poorer because of the electricity which they induced to run along their
wires. A public franchise was a plum growing on a convenient tree. A
wise man would wait till it was ripe and then, when no one was looking,
would pick it for himself The whole transaction was a trial of wits
between rival pickers. A special privilege, according to this view,
involved no special obligations; it was a reward for special abilities.
Once given, it was property to be enjoyed in perpetuity.
This was the code of ethics which you, in common with multitudes of
American citizens, accepted. You have yourself prospered. Indeed, things
had gone so well with you in this best of all countries that any
fundamental change seemed unthinkable.
But that a change has come seems evident from your conversation last
night. All that fine optimism which your friends have admired seemed to
have deserted you. There was a querulous note which was strangely out of
keeping with your usual disposition. It was what you have been
accustomed to stigmatize as un-American. When you discussed the present
state of the country, you talked--you will pardon me for saying it--for
all the world like a calamity-howler.
The country, you said, is in a bad way, and it must be awakened from its
lethargy. After a period of unexampled prosperity and marvelous
development, something has happened. Just what it is you don't really
know, but it's very alarming. Instead of working together for
Prosperity, the people are listening to demagogues, and trying all sorts
of experiments, half of which you are sure are unconstitutional. The
captains of industry who have made this the biggest country in the world
are thwarted in their plans for further expansion.
There are people who are criticizing the courts, and there are courts
which are criticizing business enterprises that they don't understand.
There are so-called experts--mere college professors--who are tinkering
the tariff. There are over-zealous executives who are currying favor
with the crowd by enforcing laws which are well enough on the statute
books, but which were never meant to go further. As if matters were not
bad enough already, there are demagogues who are stirring up class
feeling by proposing new laws. Party loyalty is being undermined, and
the new generation doesn't half understand the great issues which have
been settled for all time. It is rashly interested in new issues. For
the life of you, you say, you can't understand what these issues are.
New and divisive questions which lead only to faction are propounded so
that the voters are confused. The great principle of Representative
Government, on which the Republic was founded, is being attacked.
Instead of choosing experienced men to direct public policy, there is an
appeal to the passions of the mob. The result of all this agitation is
an unsettlement that paralyzes business. The United States is in danger
of losing the race for commercial supremacy. Germany will forge ahead of
us. Japan will catch us. Socialism and the Yellow Peril will be upon us.
The Man on Horseback will appear, and what shall we do then?
I did not understand whether you looked for these perils to come
together, or whether they were to appear in orderly succession. But I
came to the conclusion that either the country is in a bad way, or you
are. You will pardon me if I choose the latter alternative, for I too am
an optimistic American, and I like to choose the lesser of two evils. If
there is an attack of "hysteria," I should like to think of it as
somewhat localized, rather than having suddenly attacked the whole
country.
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