POLITICS AS A FORM OF CIVIL WAR. 593 



sanction in the practice of politics. As long as the greater part of 

 legislation and taxation has nothing whatever to do with government, 

 properly speaking, politics can have no kinship with any pursuit held 

 in esteem by men truly civilized. What it consists of may be reduced 

 to a desperate and disgraceful struggle between powerful organiza- 

 tions, sometimes united, like the Italian condottieri and the Spanish 

 brigands, in the form of " rings," to get control of the annual collec- 

 tion and distribution of one billion dollars, and to reap the benefits 

 that grow out of the concession of privileges. The legislation plac- 

 ing this vast power in the hands of the successful combatants is only 

 an incident of their work. It simply enables them under the form of 

 law to seize the taxpayer, bind him like another Gulliver with 

 rules and regulations, and to take from him whatever they please to 

 promote their political ambition and private interests. From this 

 point of view it is easy to see that politics has no more kinship 

 with science or justice than pillage. Nor is it likely to make people 

 more patriotic, high-minded, and benevolent than the rapacity of 

 Robin Hood or Fra Diavolo. 



However startling or repugnant may be this view, it is the only 

 one that furnishes an adequate explanation of the practice of gov- 

 ernment as carried on in every democratic country in the world. 

 The work of private business and philanthropy, the work in which 

 modern democracies have come to be chiefly engaged, is not in itself 

 productive of the ethics and evils of war. Contrary to the common 

 belief, industrial competition, which is conducted by voluntary co- 

 operation, tends to the supremacy of excellence, moral and material. 

 In societies where civilization has made headway, a merchant or 

 manufacturer does not seek to crush rivals by misrepresenting them 

 or assailing them in other ways. His natural and constant aim is to 

 have his goods so cheap and excellent that the public will patronize 

 him rather than them. To be sure, the ethics of war often prevail 

 in industrialism. They are not, however, one of its products; they 

 are the fruits of militant ages and activities. But in political com- 

 petition, which is coercive, the policy pursued is precisely the re- 

 verse. Not by proof of moral and material excellence does the 

 politician establish his worth. Not by the superiority of his services 

 or by his fidelity to obligations does he gain the esteem and patronage 

 of the public. It is by the infliction of injury upon his rivals. He 

 misrepresents them; he deceives them; he assails them in every way 

 within his reach. When he triumphs over them he uses his power, 

 not primarily for the benefit of the people whom he is supposed to 

 serve, but to maintain his supremacy in order to pillage them. 

 " Those who make war," says Machiavelli, whose famous book is a 

 vade mecum for a modern politician as well as for an unscrupulous 



VOL. LIV. — 43 



