480 



The Review of Reviews. 



June I, 1906. 



THE GROWTH OF PLUTOCRACY IN 

 AMERICA. 



The Arena for March publishes an interview with 

 Mr. D. G. Phillips, a popular American novelist, who 

 takes the gloomiest views concerning the immediate 

 future of the United States. He has some quaint 

 notions concerning England, the influence of whose 

 aristocracy is, he believes, corrupting American 

 Societ}-, but his opinions about the United States 

 are not second-hand: — 



Tie well-known Sepublican organ, the Daili/ Eagle of 

 Wichita. Kansas, recently published the following as com- 

 ina from a member of the Standard Oil Company: — 



"We are bigger than the Government. Standard Oil is 

 stronger than the United States. We own tlie Senate and 

 the House. If you pursue your investigations beyond the 

 point necessary t» fool tlie public we will have you re- 

 moved. We can secure the instant deposition of the secre- 

 tary of commerce and labour. Mr. Metcalf, and the com- 

 missioner of corporations, Mr. Garfield. It you persecute 

 ns in the slightest degree you will be out of your job. and. 

 U you keep at the business you will find what we say is ab- 

 solutely true. Eockefeller is a bigger man than Eoosevelt." 



There is enough truth in this to give point to Mr. 

 Phillips's picture of the growth of plutocracy in the 

 American Republic. He says : — 



Prom the White House, where nothing short of a re- 

 actionary revolution has taken place, where we find a demo- 

 cratio President with the ceremonial of a king — " a cere- 

 monial more rigid than that of the Court of the Tsar.' 

 according to the wife of one of the ambassadors — down 

 through the servants' world of the plutocracy, a new social 

 order a.s insidious as it is progressive in character and 

 as congenial to monarchal rule as it is fatal to democratic 

 government. Privileged wealtli has become the dominating 

 power in official America: that is to say. its servants are 

 the masters of the people and privileged wealth has set its 

 heart on an aristocratic instead of a democratic govern- 

 ment. 



Who can deubt the presence of a powerful, determined, 

 autocratic plutocracy that is steadily growing more and 

 more arrogant and arbitrary? Look at the courts ; notice 

 the steady encroachments of the judiciary— a judiciary 

 mads up chiefly of corporation attorneys; note that the 

 extension of the injunction power is now being comple- 

 mented bv a new engine of despotism — so-called " construc- 

 tive contempt": look at the steady and rapid centralisa- 

 tion of government, the assumptions of new and undreamed 

 of powers by the President, the usurpation of legislative 

 aud judicial functions by the bureaux or departments: 

 look at the present autocratic character of the once great 

 educational forum and popular legislative department of 

 government, the House of Bepresentatives. It is to-day the 

 creature of the Speaker and the Committee on Rules. And 

 a glance at the personnel of the Senate will reveal to the 

 most cursory optimist t.he real power behind the throne. 

 The Senate is t.o-d.ay the creature of plutocracy and per- 

 haps the most powerful engine in the nation for defeating 

 the true interests of the people on all vital measures that 

 affect corporate wealth. Unpleasant as the fact may he. 

 it is nevertheless true that the real power in government 

 te-day is privileged wealth acting systematically and often 

 corruptly through the agencies of the pjarty-boss, the con* 

 trolled machine and its minions in official life. 



Things will be worse before they are better, because the 

 plutocracy to-day controls in a large degree the articulate 

 class of the republic. The leaders axe theirs. Not all. of 

 course, but the great majority, and more will be bought 

 over : some by money bribes : more by the lust for power 

 and still more effective social bribe. This last is the mo.st 

 subtle, insidious and, I think, powerful weapon in the hands 

 of plutocracy. The Lawyers are largely its hirelings, and 

 they become judges, secretaries, and senators. 



The colleges in most European lands are the hotbeds of 

 freedom and democracy: with us their voice is being quietlv 

 but effectively silenced b.y bribes and the hope of briber. 

 The patronage of plutocracy i^ corrupting and morally 

 and mentally degrading. And what is true of the college 

 and university is equally true of the church. 



.A.gain. men that are' useful are paid— well paid— by the 

 triumphant, dollar-worshipping class, but they must be sub- 

 servient. For some years to come the buying tip of the 

 articulate class will continue. The war against democracy 

 will be steadily and aggressively waged: despotic and un 



democratic preoeJeuts will be everywhere established. But 

 thoigh the king is on the throne: though plutocracy is- 

 rampant in politics, in business, in society; though its 

 ascendancy is undeniable in the republic to-day: and 

 though I believe it is so firmly entrenched that it will in- 

 crease in power and arrogance for a few years to come, 

 there are forces at work that will ultimately bring about 

 its inevitable overthow. 



THE DESTINY OF THE WEST IiNDIES. 



When a special commissioner of the Times feels- 

 it his duty to write an article to the yorth American 

 Review to proclaim that it is the inevitable destiny 

 of the British West Indian islands to be absorbed 

 bv the American Republic, it must be admitted that 

 the end seems to be in sight. This is what Mr. 

 W, P, Livingstone has done in the March Xorih 

 American Review. He says : — 



The truth of the matter is that, despite all tendencies 

 to the contrary, the West Indies are slowly but irresistiWy 

 drifting towards the United States, and will inevitably be 

 drawn into organic connection with that country. The pro- 

 cess is in line with natural law and economic necessity. 

 Physically, they are part of the United States, and their 

 trade flows thither, because in the United states they find, 

 for the majority of their products, their nearest and most 

 profitable market. If we take Jamaica, we find that over 

 63 per cent of its export goes to the United btates. while 

 over 40 per cent, of its imports is credited to the s.ame 

 country. It is relying more and more upon delicate and 

 perishable produce", which comprises 60 per cent, of its 

 total exports, and of this the greater proportion finds its 

 way to the United St.ates. the value of fruit alone being 

 nearly six million dollars. The other colonies are very 

 much" in the same position. Yet. while thus commercially 

 dependent on the United States, the relation subsisting 

 between them is of the most precarious nature. 



It is in \iew of such facts that very many West-Indians 

 believe that the only possible hope for the islands lies in 

 the'r cession to the United States, and m their securing. 

 like Puerto Eico, a free entry for their produce into Us 

 natural market. There has never been any serious public 

 consideration of the question, but one finds it pnvatelv 

 advocated by planters and merchants everywhere. The 

 chief reason tor the absence of a responsible movement is 

 the fact that the idea is thought to be unpopular among 

 the mass of the people, who might boycott the individuals 

 that supported it. The negroes are well aware of the in- 

 ferior position occupied bv the coloured population in the 

 United States, and it is believed that they would resist 

 American domination, though there has never been any 

 opportunity of testing their real sentiment in the matter. 



The only alternative, that of absorption by 

 Canada, seems remote. It is a curious situation. 

 Who would have thought that the lynching of 

 negroes in the Southern States would be a more 

 effective temporan- guarantee of the integrity- of the 

 British Empire in the West Indies than the whole 

 British fleet! 



THE DOOM OF THE BURMESE. 



The Indian World of February quotes from the 

 Times of India a melancholy article upon the doom 

 of the Burmese. The result of the annexation of 

 Burmah, according to the writer, is that wealth 

 accumulates and the Burmese decay. He says : — 



The material prosperity of Burmah must, grow, for its 

 foundations are built on a solid rock of agricultural and 

 mineral wealth that h,a3 scarce begun to be quarried, ^es: 

 but whnt is to be the place of the Burman lu the new 

 State? There is no room for him in Eaneoon. 



The process of displacement, however, does not end there. 

 ^^,andllay is commonly regarded as a purel.y Burmese city. 

 In Mandalar the Burman is jostled bv Sikh policemen 

 nnd India, "soldiers. In the great bu«ing market he is 

 Elbowed aside by Chinese, Mussulman, and Hindu traders^ 

 If he embarks on any enterprise yon may be sure that the 



