tO-OJrERATION. 25 



compromising, swapping, deceiving. Vale, then, the "setting 

 wyf at tlie Primarv, the imbecile harangue, the "striker", tlie 

 political trick! Vale the saloon influence, the demagogue, the 

 lobbyist and the law maker! Have we not the people, public 

 opinion, social and business organization? to seek expression 

 through the legislature, would not only be slavish but suicidal. 



When the C;hurch is social worth. 

 When the State house is the hearth , 

 Then the perfect state has come. 

 The republican at home. 



The position then, of the co-operator is to rigidly abstain 

 from the j)olls. He cannot possibly use political methods. Ac- 

 cept what the different parties say of each other, as the truth 

 about all, including the last; for it is majority rule that consti- 

 tutes every party's platform. The ballot is the high art of not 

 minding one's o.vn business. Polling booths are approved 

 appliances for herding American cattle. Every voter is,of ne- 

 cessity, not only a slave, but a slave drivei*. The people think 

 they vote, when through the machine, they are only voted Be- 

 cause they are allowed a majority vote, is no sign that they are 

 represented. A majority vote, where noses are counted instead 

 of weighed, is only a government of rats. The great American 

 fallacy is in supposing that, having the form for the substance, 

 such is a government of democrats. 



But, to be practical, the government exists for property in- 

 stead of personal rights, does it not? How then can you escape 

 from the dilemma of buying votes? And are not these substan- 

 tially owned already by being in the clutches of the usury sys- 

 tem? Besides, you have got to get a majority of noses all over 

 the States, if it takes a hundred years, before any locality can 

 call its soul Its own. And supposing you get the requisite 

 number, numbers do not settle a principle, they rest on force, 

 and where great vested interests are to be jeopardized by the 

 mere triumph of numbers, a resort to force is inevitable On 

 the other hand, where there is an inordinate reverence for the 

 governmental Moloch, civil toar ensues! A tie between some 

 future Butler and lilaine, as at Lincoln's election, will precip- 

 itate such a result. The ballot box, then, leads to the cartridge 

 box. They are the rich man's tool and the poor man's ti-ap. 



Then, in the first place, majority rule for labor cannot be ob- 



