POLITICS AS A FORM OF CIVIL WAR. 603 



to keep his children at home for any purpose, no truant officer is in- 

 discreet enough to trouble him; if, however, a poor woman, just 

 made a widow, wishes to have her oldest son work in disregard of the 

 statute, in order to keep her and her younger children out of the poor- 

 house, his official zeal is above criticism. Politics poisons even the 

 fountains of justice. Criminals that have sufficient political influ- 

 ence can escape prosecution or obtain pardon after conviction. Prose- 

 cuting officers are importuned incessantly, even by " leading citizens," 

 to abandon prosecution of them or to " let them off easily." In the 

 appointment of receivers and referees, judges are much more inclined 

 to give preference to political friends than to political enemies. 

 Finally, if political exigencies require it, there is no hesitation to 

 invoke the latent savagery of a nation. In proof, recall the Vene- 

 zuelan message of Mr. Cleveland, which " dished " the Republican 

 jingoes, and the German emperor's assault upon Hayti and China to 

 secure the adoption of his naval bill. To make the record complete, 

 I ought to add that for a purpose more odious — namely, the in- 

 crease of sales — newspapers, always the ready recipients of political 

 patronage, commit the same atrocious crime against civilization. 



Since politics is a form of civil war, involving aggressions upon 

 person and property, any extension of its field of operation must be 

 attended by precisely the same moral and economic effects that 

 attend the pursuit of civil war itself. No concession of suffrage to 

 women, nor any legal machinery, however ingenious, that may be 

 invented, will alter that fact. Already we are confronted with 

 alarming manifestations of the decadence of society that have always 

 accompanied civil strife. The public burdens are becoming so great, 

 equaling the per capita rate prevailing at the outbreak of the French 

 Revolution, that people in cities as well as in the country are being 

 driven from their homes by the sale of their property for unpaid 

 taxes. Both classes are joining the ranks of " the disinherited," just 

 as similar classes joined the brigands in France and Italy, and are 

 clamoring for the trial of the thousand absurd schemes for social 

 ills known as populism and socialism, all meaning an increase of the 

 functions of government, still further aggressions upon persons and 

 property, and an aggravation of the evils already complained of. At 

 the same time the moral tone of society is rapidly sinking to a 

 low level. " It is a melancholy reflection," says the report of the 

 New York State tax commission, dwelling upon the desperate efforts 

 of people to escape the aggressions committed on them and disclosing 

 the observance of a code of ethics committed in every walk in life, 

 "that in this Christian age neither the memory of early moral training, 

 nor present religious profession, hopes or fears for the hereafter, the 

 penalties of the law, nor any other possible considerations are suf- 



