HEREDITARY INEFFICIENCY. 3O9 



is always purchasable. The co-ordination and sale of 



this vote and of the allied criminal vote are the work of 



the most dangerous of the dirty brood of political bosses. 



It is the stock in trade of every king of the slums. This 



vote can be bought with the money of candidates. It 



can be bought with the spoils of office. It can be bought 



with public funds set aside for purposes called charity. 



The various forms of outdoor relief constitute, as 



McCulloch has shown, "a corruption fund of the worst 



kind." The United States has virtually 



Corruption failed in the management of her cities. 



un o p This failure is most complete where the 



chanty. . , • • , 



manipulators of paupers and cnmmals 



are boldest and most effective; moreover, the effluvium 

 of municipal corruption flows out and poisons the poli- 

 tics of the state and the nation. 



Every venal, cowardly, or ignorant voter is a menace 

 to the safety of republican institutions. The essential 

 purpose of popular suffrage is not to secure good gov- 

 ernment, but to produce an interest in civil affairs that 

 will sooner or later bring about good government. This 

 growth in civic knowledge is impossible without a foun- 

 dation of intelligence. The choice of negro suffrage 

 was the wisest choice among the many evils having 

 their rise in negro slavery. It was the least of the 

 evils, no doubt, but an evil nevertheless. Every evil 

 is likely sooner or later to become a festering sore in 

 the body politic. 



The dangers of foreign immigration lie in the over- 

 flow to our shores of hereditary unfitness. The causes 

 that lead to degeneration have long 



. °''^|S^" been at work among the poor of Europe. 



immigration. _,, , . • • , A, j, 



The slums of every city in the Old 



World are full of the results. Apparently few cases of 



hereditary inefficiency exist in America that could not 

 22 



