Our democracy, its origins and its tasks

Preface

THIS book is not for the scholar. It is intended for the citizen — and the prospective citizen — who is willing to know better what his country stands for. It has little to say about the machinery of our government ; its main concern is with the principles and ideas which the machinery is meant to serve. In attempting to trace the origins and significance of these principles which America means to us it draws upon materials from history, sociology, and politics which are familiar to scholars, but have not, so far as I am aware, been brought together into a connected view and presented in untechnical fashion for the general reader and the younger reader.

The book is not a product of the war. It was begun before 1914 as a part of a larger study of " The Real Business of Living." But just now the real business of living for all of us is centering more than before in national ideals and national tasks. And although the purpose and plan of the book has been constructive rather than in any sense polemic, the conviction has grown that a juster and finer appreciation of democracy as contrasted with autocracy is certain to result from a study of what we have passed through and left behind in gaining liberty and self-government. Furthermore, most of the problems discussed are not

iii iv PREFACE

war problems. Great and imperious as war problems are at times like this they are yet simpler than the problems that lie back of them. The justification of war must be found in the principles which we seek to preserve.

I desire to express my indebtedness to many colleagues for helpful suggestions, but especially to my wife, who has read the proof, and to Mrs. Anna Bryan Ayres, who has aided in the preparation of the manuscript.

J. H. T.

September, 1917.

Part I The Beginnings Of Cooperation, Order, And Liberty

CHAPTER PASE

I Introduction 3

II Early Life of Man 6

III First Cooperation — The Clan and Its Customs 16

IV The New Groups — Social Classes and the Great

State 36

V The Band of Warriors and the State ... 46

VI The State as Source of Order, a Common Law,

and Private Property in Land .... 55

VII Ideals of the Warrior Class, of Knight and

Gentleman '66

VIII The New Cooperation: Town Life, Trade, Crafts 81

IX Effects of the New Cooperation: Wealth,

Skill, a Middle Class, a New Ideal ... 89

X New Ideals and Standards: Dignity of Labor;

Honesty and Fairness 96

XI First Steps in Liberty 101

XII Progress of Liberty: from Special Privileges to

Equal Rights 117

XIII Influence of Ideas upon the Progress of Lib-

erty and Democracy 129

XIV The New Meaning of Life Brought In by

V vi CONTENTS

Part II Liberty, Union, Democracy In The New World Chapter Paqb

XV New Forces and New Tasks 147

XVI Liberty 168

XVII Development and Present Problems of Liberty 175

XVIII First Steps Toward Union 183

XIX The More Perfect Union: the Constitution . 192

XX Growth in the Idea of Union 202

XXI Present Problems of Union 208

XXII Democracy as Self-Government .... 221

XXIII Three Obstacles to Self-Government Checks

and Balances; Invisible Government; Long

Ballot 230

XXIV Steps Toward Greater Self-Government Parties

and the Presidency 241

XXV Measures Proposed for Greater Self-Government 250

XXVI Democracy and the Courts 255

XXVII Democracy as Equality — Government for the

People 268

XXVIII Progress and Task of Democracy . ' . . . 284

XXIX The United States and Other Nations . . 297

XXX War and Right 316

Index 323

PART I

THE BEGINNINGS OF COOPERATION, ORDER, AND LIBERTY

Chapter I Introduction

THE business of being an American citizen is not Living what it was when our nation was founded. At in !776 that time most men in this country were farmers. There were no factories, no railways, no cities of any considerable size. Practically all the people of the colonies were of one race and language. None were very rich and none very poor. They were separated from Europe by a voyage of months. The great tasks of men and women were those of the pioneer: first, to settle the wilderness, cut the forests, plant and harvest; and second, to establish homes, schools, churches, laws, and government. Their new nation was conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Today the work of getting a living is in many ways Changed less heroic than in the days of the pioneer. It does not conditions call for the same hardships; it does not get us up so se neW early of a winter's morning, it does not compel us to make our journeys mainly on foot or to transport our goods by oxen; it does not compel the housewife to know spinning, weaving, cutting and making garments, soap and candlemaking as well as cooking and housekeeping. But the very fact that all these kinds of work once done by hand and in the household, as well as many other new kinds of manufacturing which could not have been done at all in the old days, have gone into factories ; that railways carry us and our goods ; that inventions have changed our ways of living and produced great wealth; that we now nearly half or quite half of us live in cities ; — all these changes have set new tasks which make living today a real business even more than it was in 1776. These changes have created needs for new laws, for new schools and universities. They have made it necessary for the governments of our cities, state, and nation to care for health and decide many matters that could formerly be left to each person to decide for himself. The great increase in wealth makes it easier for men to mistake what it means to live * * well " and so to decide what the real business of living is.

The task of the citizen has also changed. The citizen of today must still think of liberty, union, and democracy, but in new forms. The great changes in the way of carrying on business and the great number of different races who now come to this country and become citizens bring new problems. We may not believe that all men are equal in all respects — and doubtless our fathers did not believe this either — but since we have equal votes we see the need of giving men equal opportunities. Finally the relation of America to other countries is no longer so simple as when it took months for a ship to cross the ocean. Our fathers came away from Europe to find freedom ; they hoped to keep it safe by holding aloof from Europe's affairs. We have learned that we cannot enjoy our freedom alone. Europe is so close a neighbor that freedom is not safe here unless it is safe there. We learned the value of union in our own land; now we see the need of worldwide cooperation to keep peace and promote general welfare. We believe not only that government by the

INTRODUCTION 5

people must not perish from the earth but that " the world must be made safe for democracy."

To begin with a study of the way in which early man lived in clans governed by customs may seem to be a roundabout way of understanding our present problems. But in every field we find it one of the most helpful ways to understand any institution to compare it with earlier stages or with other institutions. Men did not learn cooperation or create liberty and democracy all at once. We can appreciate these more fully if we trace the main steps by which they were worked out. The main types of cooperation and union which men had already tried before the days of our American nation were three:

1. The clan, in which men were controlled by habits and customs.

2. The state, governed by laws, established by a king with a band of warriors. They made order but gave little freedom.

3. The town, made up of traders and craftsmen, brought men together in a new group with more freedom and democracy.

CHAPTER II Our

early

ancestors

The

great

inventions

IN recent years we have come to know much more about our ancestors. The caves in which are found tools, weapons, drawings, and even paintings made by early men in Spain, France, Germany, and Great Britain, the lake dwellings in Switzerland, the piles of kitchen waste in Scandinavia, give a view of how the early dwellers in these countries got their living, what animals they hunted, what inventions they had. The discoveries in Egypt, Assyria, and most recently in Crete, show many of the earlier stages by which the wonderful civilization of those countries was built up. The men of the caves in Spain and France lived with the reindeer, the mammoth, and the bison. We know this because we find in the caves the cut or carved drawings of these animals on bone, and colored pictures of them on the cave walls. Early men used chiefly stone tools instead of metal. In many ways they probably resembled our North American Indians. The mounds in Scandinavia, Greece, and Crete show men later using copper or bronze, and finally iron.

The extraordinary thing is that at a very early time men had made the most important inventions, so far as getting a living was concerned. For they had :

First — Fire. We know this because there are ashes in the caves.

Second — The bow and arrow, which enabled them to get food from animals and birds. We know this for we find the flint arrow heads like those used by the Indians.

Third — Pottery. This also was similar to the pottery made so successfully by our American Indians.

Fourth — Weaving. This gave clothing.

Fifth — Taming of animals such as the ox for plowing, the horse for riding, the dog for hunting.

Sixth — Boats for sailing over rivers and even great lakes or seas, and for aid in catching fish.

Seventh — Among some groups, the use of metals, especially iron. In the very early times of our European ancestors iron was not known, and the American Indians got on without it, though they made some use of copper.

These seven discoveries or inventions were all means for getting a better living. They gave man power over nature. Besides these, men had one other great gift which enabled them to unite and aid each other, namely :

Eighth — Speech. Animals use cries or gestures by which they can warn of danger or call to food, or call to their young or their mates. But human language ^enables men to understand each other and work together far better than animals can.

Ninth — And even in very early times men added Writing, at first with pictures, then with signs. This was useful for sending messages, but especially for keeping records, and so making men able to be sure about contracts and promises and in many ways to keep firmly in mind what had happened in the past.

Nothing so important for getting a living as these nine was afterward discovered or invented until the steam engine added a new and great servant to man. This invention had its beginnings in a crude pumping engine about two hundred years ago, but it was not

Progress from

savage life to 19th century was chiefly in social life

Four stages up to 19th century

The two events :

(1) The Industrial Revolution

(2) Founding of the American nation until improved by James Watt that it became really efficient, and then combined with the inventions for spinning and weaving to effect an industrial revolution about the beginning of the nineteenth century.

In the thousands of years between the early uses of stone tools or first discovery of iron and the industrial revolution of a century ago men had made progress chiefly by discovering how to unite. They united mainly for two purposes : either for war in armies, or for trade and protection in cities. They learned how to govern and keep order. In cities they built beautiful buildings and gained skill in various crafts. They began to struggle for liberty. They found ways to make law protect them against rulers as well as against burglars and thieves.

The main stages in man's progress in the real business of living down to about the beginning of the nineteenth century will then be:

I. Early society in tribes or clans with its inventions, mode of getting a living, and customs for regulating life.

II. Society in military groups when men had learned how to cultivate land and to unite into states.

III. Society in towns where trade grew, and arts and crafts could be practised, and

IV. First steps toward Liberty and Justice.

This will bring us to the great inventions of about a hundred years ago. A new order begins then in the way of getting a living and this has brought our present problems as to what is the right way to do business. This brings us also to the foundation of our nation by the Revolution of 1775 and the adoption of the Constitution in 1789 which decided what sort of country we should have. The life of American citizens today and the tasks which confront them are largely determined by those great events.

Beginning now our survey with a look at savage Savage life, we note that we do not have to go back so life very far into the past. It is not many centuries since most of our forefathers, if they were British, or German, or Scandinavian, or Slav, lived as savages or at least as barbarians. A little longer ago Greeks and Italians, and still longer ago Jews, lived likewise a savage or roaming life. Some had no iron tools, but used stone for axes as well as for arrow heads. In this they were like the American Indians. Like the Indians, most of them hunted and fished; like the Indians, too, they lived in clans or tribes and had customs of blood revenge. We can use many features from Indian life to help us imagine how our own ancestors lived and what their customs were.

One point we do well to keep in mind. When we speak of savages or indeed of people who lived long ago we are likely to think that they were very different from ourselves and perhaps quite inferior. But we must remember that our own ancestors lived as savages ; so we cannot assume that the savage is necessarily inferior to the civilized man in his ability. And as regards the actual fact, to discover fire and how to use it, to make a bow and arrow, to make the first pottery, to weave the first cloth, and to make the first iron tools were as great achievements as man has since performed.

The great difference between early men and civilized men today is not in their brains. The reason why the American or European today is able to make so much better a showing is because he has inherited so great a stock of ideas and ways of doing things. These

inherited ideas come to us not only through books and

The great through the teaching of our parents, and of skilled

difference workmen, but also in our tools, our grains, plants,

e ween an( j f ru ft s our wr itten language, our knowledge of savage and. civilized numbers, and in fact the copies or patterns for all

men kinds of arts which are all about us. These stimulate

the mind of the little child as soon as he opens his eyes, and a large part of the life of all of us consists in just walking up the stairs which our forefathers have built ready for us. Many of us never build a single new stair. The best of us build only a few stairs. Getting a In studying the life of early man it is natural to

living in begin by asking how he got his living. We may conear y lmes ven £ en tly approach the answer by repeating the question in a more personal form and contrasting early with present life: What would a young man in early times expect to do for a living? What occupation would he follow ?

The boy of today who leaves school, especially if he lives in a city, or goes to the city to seek his fortune, sees a great many kinds of factories, shops, and offices. But very likely he has to look a good while before he finds a place. A clever artist has sketched in a series of cartoons the history of a young high school graduate, going from office to office, and keeping up a plucky search for work for week after week. The difference between this condition and that of the boy in early society is that now there are many occupations but no sure place for any particular boy; then, there was only one occupation, but every boy or girl was sure of a place.

There was only one occupation — rather there were two main sets of occupations, one for men and one for women. The man in general had to protect the women and children, and to capture the game. As an Australian put it, " A man hunts, spears fish, fights, and sits about." The women gathered roots or seeds, ground them, cooked, wove, made baskets or pottery, carried water, cared for the children. And both men and women had to make the weapons or tools they needed. In many cases men and women were very careful not to have anything to do with the tools or weapons of the other sex. These were " taboo " ; it was regarded as dangerous for the other sex to touch them. A man might become weak if he meddled with woman's things. But practically all men in the same tribe did the same kind of work.

The other interesting fact was that every boy was sure of a place. This was because the family or clan or tribe all hung together. As the children grew up they stayed with their family or clan. They did not go off to the city to seek their fortune. They might stray away in search of food but they seldom dared to get far from the main group, for fear of their enemies. This might sometimes make it hard for the family or tribe to find enough food for all. But if so they shared their plenty or their want. As Dr. Eastman, himself a Sioux, says, " A whole tribe might starve; a single Indian never." One reason why this sharing was more possible than it is in civilized countries was that land was not all divided up and owned by individuals as it is now. The tribes of Indians had their range of forest or plain, and knew that if they went beyond certain bounds they would get into the territory of other tribes who would very likely attack them. But within the tribe the separate Indians did not have their own private land, So when a boy grew up he simply went with the rest to hunt or fish, or ranged about for small game by himself.

The day's A workman of today expects to work eight, nine, or work ten hours a day. A few years ago his day would have

been much longer. The farmer began work about five and kept at it until after dark. The stores and factories had similar hours. The writer was told the other day by an acquaintance that as a boy he worked in a woolen mill where he went to work at five in the morning and stayed until seven in the evening, stopping a half hour each for breakfast and dinner. Indeed, even schools kept early hours. At the academy where the writer's father prepared for college, the students rose for morning prayers at half past four in summer and at five the rest of the year. Now in savage life our ancestors kept no such regular hours. The men, especially, seemed to " sit about " a good deal, as the Australian said. And if you think of it, the work of the men was largely what civilized people call sport. It was hunting or fishing. There was a good deal of excitement about it and it necessarily came at irregular times, depending on the habits of game, or the sudden outbreak of war. When they did such steady work as rowing or carrying burdens, or hammering, men were very likely to sing and so relieve the monotony. The women, on the other hand, had much less exciting tasks. Most of what we call drudgery was done by them. For such work as grinding seeds or grain, kneading, weaving, washing clothes, they too had songs, and the rhythm helped them to keep steadily at their task.

This does not necessarily mean that savages were lazy, or cruel to women, as it is often charged. Some savages were no doubt both, But the chief reason for the division of labor was that the man had to do the fighting and hunting because he was the quicker and stronger. If he was to do this he must keep ready for it. On the march he must be able to repel attack. Hence he carried his weapons and the woman the other belongings.

The materials out of which the savage made his tools Tools and utensils varied considerably, but the beginning seems to have been with stone, bone, shell, and wood. Think for a moment what this meant in cost of time and energy. On my table lies a stone axe with which I suppose Indians may have worked in the very spot where a sawmill is now whirring. Think what it would mean to cut trees with such a tool. To be sure, a savage did not attempt to cut down an entire tree. He burned the base of the tree and used the axe to help the work of the fire. So in hollowing out a log for a canoe, fire did the main work; the edges were kept wet to confine the fire to the mid part, and the axes or knives finished the task. But even so, it was a slow process. Or think of grinding in a stone mortar or with a hand mill all the grain to be used.

In early society no one could plan to be a merchant Gifts as a or trader, because there was no such vocation. No mode of one made a business of purchasing wares in order to sell tracle them again at a profit. The early method of exchanging something that one man had for something that some one else had was by making a present, and then getting a present in return. Notice, however, that in savage life a man would not need to exchange presents with some one in the same tribe or household. For as regards food, all would share. " It is looked upon as a theft (or at least as a mean act) if a herd of cattle is slaughtered and not shared with one's neighbor, or if one is eating and neglects to invite a passer-by. Any one can enter a hut at will and demand food; and he is never refused." And if it was a tool that was wanted, it could be borrowed if there was one in the tribe. The only exceptions in which presents would be needed would be " when purchasing a wife and making presents to the medicine-man, the singer, the dancer, and the minstrel, who are the only persons carrying on a species of separate occupations." * Between two different tribes hospitality even now is a common occasion for presents : " The stranger on arriving receives a present, which after a certain interval he reciprocates ; and at his departure still another present is handed him." And of course the exchange of wares through presents is not limited to savage tribes, nor to hospitality. We read in the Old Testament of gifts to a conqueror, or to a fellow ruler. The Moabites and the Syrians brought gifts to David. Many princes brought gifts to Solomon, and notably the Queen of Sheba, who brought gold and spices and precious stones. Indeed the spices were long remembered, for the author of the book of Kings says, " there came no more such abundance of spices as those which the Queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon." And we have an interesting example of how presents did not always correspond to expectations. For Hiram, King of Tyre, furnished Solomon with cedar trees and fir wood and gold, with which Solomon built a temple and a palace. At the end of twenty years when these were finished Solomon gave Hiram in return twenty cities. " And Hiram came out from Tyre to see the cities which Solomon had given him; and they pleased him * Biicher, Industrial Evolution, pp. 60 ff.

not." It need not be pointed out how awkward a way this is of really getting just the thing that is wanted and at a fair exchange. Nowadays we do not like to receive really valuable presents except from members of the family or from very close friends.

Chapter III First Cooperation— The Clan And Its Customs

HOW much had early peoples learned about living together? How far had they learned to couperate? Today we belong to a family group, to a city or township, to a state, and finally to the nation. In this country it is the city or town that has most to do with our health and education. It is the state which makes the laws that make our lives and property secure. It is the nation which protects from any foreign enemy, which safeguards many of our liberties, and which is more and more coming to regulate our railroads and larger activities of business. These groups — family, city or township, state or nation — are ways of uniting and cooperating which men have gradually worked out. How much of this had the savage discovered?

The great group in early life was not the nation or state or city — for there were no such organizations — but the clan or tribe or kinship group. It decided where a man should live, whom he should marry, who his friends and foes would be, and by its customs regulated his education, his religion, and in fact nearly all that he did. It is then very important to understand this early clan which we may think of as the first plan of cooperation for union and government.

What is a clan? Perhaps the simplest way to get at this is to think of it as a group of relatives living together or near one another, mother, brothers, uncles, aunts, cousins. It is not just the same as a large The family, for the belief early grew up that a man should clan not marry a woman of his own clan. A family would have in it members of two different clans, that is, a husband and wife; the clan, on the other hand, would have in it blood relatives only, except as it included adopted members. Sometimes when a man took a wife she would be adopted into his clan. In this case she had to give up her own clan and would not be regarded by it as any longer a fellow kinswoman. But sometimes the woman stayed at home among her own kin. In this case the husband was not adopted into the wife's family, but was received as a visitor and kept his kinship with his own clan. Then if a quarrel arose between his clan and his wife's clan he would have to side with his clan and she with hers. Early society was built on the idea that blood was the strongest tie.

We do not mean to imply that all savage peoples have clan groups such as we have described. What we wish to say is that the clan was the typical group of early life. It came before there was anything like a nation, or a city, or a business group, or a labor union, or any other kind of union. The ancestors of all European peoples and of the Jews once lived in such clans or tribes. Walter Scott in the " Lady of the Lake " tells how a clan was roused by the signal of a fiery cross carried and passed on by swift runners : —

" When flits this Cross from man to man, Vich- Alpine's summons to his clan, Burst be the ear that fails to heed ! Palsied the foot that shuns to speed ! "

And in response to this message Clan Alpine gathered : —

" Each trained to arms since life began, Owning no tie but to his clan, No oath, but by his Chieftain's hand, No law, but Roderick Dhu's command."

Many of Scott's novels also suggest the strong ties of the clan which brought all the members to the help of any one member who was in trouble. A Scotch Macgregor or Macpherson is still proud of his clan even if he does not show it by fighting against other clans. Caesar says that among the Germans of his day, " No one possesses privately a definite extent of land ; no one has limited fields of his own; but every year the magistrates and chiefs distribute the land to the clans and the kindred groups and to those (other groups) who live together."