PRESENT POLITICS 183 



AN ECONOMIC INTERPRETATION OF PRESENT POLITICS 



Bx Professor C. C. ARBUTHNOT 



WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY 



ONE hesitates in taking the reader's time to call his attention to 

 the fact that the present is an exceptional period of political un- 

 rest and anxiety over governmental policies touching certain public 

 economic relationships. " Conservation," " graft," " the tariff," and 

 " special privileges " have been talked about and about until the honest 

 citizen who is trying to get a decent living for his family would be 

 utterly weary if he were not so vitally interested in the results of the 

 agitation. His interest in insurgency has become a demand for pro- 

 gression. There is determination in it. 



The conservatives have felt that the whole hubbub is the result of 

 unreasonable clamor, cheap reformers and low-priced magazines; tbat 

 the people do not know when to leave well-enough alone, and that the 

 wise policy is to adhere to the time-honored practises of the fathers 

 until the storm blows by. On the other hand, great masses of the 

 people are smarting under a sense of wrong and burdened by a feeling 

 of oppression too great to be borne. They suspect they are playing the 

 game of life with the cards stacked so that neither skill nor luck can be 

 hoped to yield results favorable to themselves. The popular demand is 

 for " fairness," " a square deal," and " equality of opportunity." The 

 uneasy feeling prevails that the general public is losing something as 

 well as the sense of personal injury. An exploitation of the many, col- 

 lectively and individually, for the benefit of a few seems to be the evil 

 of the day. Passionate reproaches, fierce denunciations, and tempestu- 

 ous outbursts of feeling accompanied by determined action are aimed 

 at the abuses. And yet no one can point to any fresh overt acts, or new 

 public policies, or unusual legislation against which to protest. The 

 subjects of the complaints are not the uncommon features, but the com- 

 plaints themselves are. The economic and political phenomena assailed 

 are time-honored, well-established heritages from the country's past 

 that have come down to us from far enough back to be esteemed almost 

 institutions characteristic of the republic. They do not need to be ex- 

 plained. It is the outcry against them that is to be accounted for, and 

 the understanding is not far to seek. It is evident in view of our 

 economic history. 



Careful readers of history and students of social movements have 



