{"1": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3740", "width": "2203", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0001.jp2"}, "2": {"fulltext": "O.. i7^\u00c2\u00ab- .O\\n-:l\\nc ^.*i i^.^\\n^0\\n.4 o^\\n^0", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0002.jp2"}, "3": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0003.jp2"}, "4": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0004.jp2"}, "5": {"fulltext": "PRACTICAL AGITATION", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0005.jp2"}, "6": {"fulltext": "By the Same Author\\nEmerson and Other Essays. ^1.25.\\nCauses and Consequences. $1.25.", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0006.jp2"}, "7": {"fulltext": "PRACTICAL\\nAGITATION\\nJOHN JAY CHAPMAN\\nNEW YORK\\nCHARLES SCRIBNER S SONS\\n1900", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0007.jp2"}, "8": {"fulltext": "TWO COPIES RECEIVED,\\nijferarjf of CoRg-res^\\nOffice of the\\nRegister of CopyrightSt\\n.-T\u00c2\u00bb /5 -T*\\nCopyright, 1900,\\nBy Charles Scribner s Sons.\\n8g(K)J^D OOPY.\\nUNIVERSITY PRESS JOHN WILSON\\nAND SON CAMBRIDGE, U. S. A.\\nVwev^ A(y. V^ 0.0,", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0008.jp2"}, "9": {"fulltext": "DEDICATED\\nTO\\nOF\\nTHEODORE BACON", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0009.jp2"}, "10": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0010.jp2"}, "11": {"fulltext": "PREFACE\\nThis book is an attempt to follow the track\\nof personal influence across society. The\\nfirst three chapters are taken up with discus-\\nsions of political reform, the fourth chapter\\nwith contemporary journalism. The results\\nof these discussions are then summarized in\\nthe chapters called Principles.\\nI know that there are as many ways of\\nstating the main idea of the book as there\\nare minds in the world. That idea is, that\\nwe can always do more for mankind by fol-\\nlowing the good in a straight line than\\nwe can by making concessions to evil. The\\nillusion that it is wise or necessary to sup-\\npress our instinctive love of truth comes\\nfrom an imperfect understanding of what that\\ninstinctive love of truth represents, and of\\nwhat damage happens both to ourselves and\\nvii", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0011.jp2"}, "12": {"fulltext": "PREFACE\\nto others when we suppress it. The more\\nclosely we look at the facts, the more serious\\ndoes this damage appear. And on the other\\nhand, the more closely we look at the facts,\\nthe more trifling, inconsequent, and absurd\\ndo all those reasons appear which strive to\\nmake us accept, and thereby sanctify and\\npreserve, some portion of the conceded evil\\nin the world.\\nJ.J.C.\\nNew York, February 5, 1900.\\nviu", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0012.jp2"}, "13": {"fulltext": "CONTENTS\\nPage\\nI. Election Time i\\nII. Between Elections 34\\nIII. The Masses 67\\nIV. Literature ^3\\nV. Principles 104\\nVI. Principles {continued^ 126\\nVII. Conclusion ^35", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0013.jp2"}, "14": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0014.jp2"}, "15": {"fulltext": "PRACTICAL AGITATION\\nELECTION TIME\\nIt is the ambition of the agitator to use the\\nmachinery of government to make men more\\nunselfish. In so far as he succeeds in this,\\nhe is creating a living church, the only sort\\nof State church that would be entirely at one\\nwith our system, because it would be merely\\na representation in the formal government of\\na spirit abroad among the people.\\nCampaign platforms are merely creeds. I\\nbelieve in Civil Service Reform is a way of\\nsaying I do not believe in theft, and the\\nphrase was a fragmentary and incomplete\\nformulation of the greater truth. It was the\\nsign that a movement was beginning among\\nthe people due to reawakening instinct, re-\\nawakening sensibility. It was the forerunner\\nof all those changes for the better that have\\nbeen spreading over our administrative gov-\\nernment during the last thirty years. A quiet\\nrevolution has been going forward under our", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0015.jp2"}, "16": {"fulltext": "PRACTICAL AGITATION\\neyes, recorded step by step. It is only be-\\ncause our standards have been going up faster\\nthan the reforms came in that we beHeve the\\nevils are growing worse. Such changes go\\non all the time all over the world, but the\\nvalue and rarity of this one come from its\\nunity and coherence. Such a thing might\\nhappen in Germany or in England, but you\\ncould not disentangle the forces.\\nThirty years ago politics was thought to\\nbe no occupation for a gentleman. It was a\\nmatter of bar-rooms, ballot-box-stuffing, rolls\\nof dirty bills. You had as little to do with it\\nas possible. You voted your party ticket,\\nyou paid your taxes. You bribed the ash-\\nman and the policeman at your uptown\\nhouse, and the clerk of the court, the inspec-\\ntor, the custom-house agent, and the commis-\\nsioner of jurors at your office.\\nThat subtle change of attitude in the\\ncitizen towards his public duty which is now\\nin progress, has in it something of the\\nreligious. The whole matter becomes com-\\nprehensible the moment we cease to think\\nof it as politics, and see in it a widespread\\nand perfectly natural reaction against an era\\nof wickedness. Had our framework of gov-\\nernment afforded no outlet to the force, had\\nour ills been irremediably crystallized into", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0016.jp2"}, "17": {"fulltext": "ELECTION TIME\\nformal tyranny, we should perhaps have wit-\\nnessed great revivalist upheavals, sacra-\\nments, saints, prophets, prostrations, and\\nadoration. As it is, we have seen deadly\\npamphlets, schedules, enactments, docu-\\nments which it required our whole attention\\nand our whole time to understand; and\\nbehind each of them a remorseless inter-\\nrogator with a white cravat and a face of\\niron. What motive drives them on What\\noil fills their lamps.? Who feeds them.?\\nThese horrid things they bring, these in-\\nstruments forged by unremitting toil, tech-\\nnical, insufferable, they are the cure.\\nWith such levers, and with them only, can\\nthe stones be lifted off the hearts of men.\\nThey are the alternatives of revolution.\\nReform may have a thousand meanings,\\nand be used to cover a thousand projects of\\ndoubtful utility. But with us it has a\\ndefinite meaning. When the foreigner says,\\nAh, but is your reform the right remedy\\nhe thinks it is a question of policy, or of\\nthe incidence of a tax. He supposes there\\nis an intellectual question. But with us the\\nproblem is how to protect an attorney against\\na dishonest judge; how to stop the sheriff\\nfrom stealing a fund, pending the litigation.\\nWhat we want to do, what we are doing,\\n3", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0017.jp2"}, "18": {"fulltext": "PRACTICAL AGITATION\\nis to get rid of gross malpractices, gross\\ntheft, gross abuse of public trust. It is\\nwaste of time to expend learned argument\\non a judge who has been bought. The\\nlitigants must join forces and get rid of\\nthat judge before they can talk. Of course\\nwe know that the real trouble with our poli-\\ntics is that these attorneys have themselves\\nbribed the judge and share in the division\\nof their clients property. It is to ques-\\ntions of this kind that the conscience of the\\ncountry has been drawn.\\nThere is nothing peculiarly sacred about\\npolitics, but the history of reform move-\\nments during the last few years furnishes\\nsuch striking and wonderful illustrations of\\nhuman nature that it is worth study.\\nA few men have a desire, a hope of im-\\nproving some evil. They stagger towards it\\nand fall. The impulse is always good.\\nThe mistakes made are progressive. They\\nrecord the past; they outline the future. If\\nyou draw an arrow through them, it will\\npoint north.\\nIf you arrange the reform movements\\nagainst Tammany Hall in a series, and con-\\nsider them minutely, you will find that the\\nearlier ones are comparatively corrupt, spo-\\nradic, disorganized, ignorant, and short-\\n4", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0018.jp2"}, "19": {"fulltext": "ELECTION TIME\\nsighted in purpose. They have steadily\\nbecome more honest, more frequent, more\\ncoherent, more intelligent and ambitious.\\nIf you examine any one of them, it would be\\nimpossible to misplace it in the series.\\nLooking more closely, you see the reason.\\nThe earlier the movement, the more zeal-\\nously do its leaders imitate the methods of\\ncurrent politics. Each movement represents\\nthe philosophy of its era. We have had\\nI. The frankly corrupt era (fighting the devil\\nwith fire). 2. The compromise era (buying\\nreform). 3. The educational era, which be-\\ngan two years ago, after Low was defeated,\\nwhen people said they were glad of the move-\\nment, in spite of the defeat. Note this, that\\nLow did not lead a lost cause, nor was any\\nbelief in lost causes at the bottom of his\\nmovement. But in making the best of his\\ndefeat, many minds stumbled into philoso-\\nphy. And this illustrates the progress of an\\nidea. People will accept it as an explanation\\nof the past before they will take it as a guide\\nto the future. It glimmers before them at a\\nmoment when they need comfort, and van-\\nishes in the light of a comfortable habit or\\nprejudice. This apparition of the educa-\\ntional idea flitted across New York and took\\nroot in many minds.\\n5", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0019.jp2"}, "20": {"fulltext": "PRACTICAL AGITATION\\nNow the smoky torch of reform has passed\\nfrom hand to hand, and is beginning to\\nburn brighter. How could the original\\ndarkness give forth more than a gleam?\\nAll progress is experimental. The archi-\\ntects discovered by practice that the arch\\nwould support itself. Their earlier efforts\\nwere tentative. You can see what notion\\nthey had in mind, as they very gradually\\nlearned how to subserve the laws of gravity\\nand tension. Each improvement is qualified\\nby its author s limitations, but shows a gain\\nas toward the immediate past. You are fol-\\nlowing the steps of the groping and fumbling\\nmind of man, fettered at every point by his\\nown conceptions, moving each time towards\\na bolder generalization, each stride forward\\nexactly proportionate to the breadth of\\nthought on which it is calculated.\\nWhat other method is there.? The men\\nwho fought the Tweed Ring did what passed\\nfor politics in their day. Votes must\\nbe paid for, of course; but let the people\\nvote right.\\nThe philosophy of the Strong movement\\nin 1894 showed an advance. The plunder\\nmust be divided, of course; but let ^/j have\\nit because we are virtuous.\\nThe Low movement in 1897 appealed to\\n6", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0020.jp2"}, "21": {"fulltext": "ELECTION TIME\\nvoters on the ground of self-interest. Labor\\nhad to be conciliated, local politicians of\\nthe worst sort subsidized; ^150,000 was\\nspent, four-fifths of it in ways that did more\\nharm than good. But the methods were\\ndelicate.\\nThe battle of the standards goes forward\\nceaselessly; but all standards are going up.\\nWhat the half-way reformer calls politics,\\nthe idealist calls chicanery; what the ideal-\\nist calls politics, the half-way reformer calls\\nUtopia. But in 1871 they are discussing\\nwhether or not the reformers shall falsify the\\nreturns; in 1894 they are discussing whether\\nor not they shall expose fraud in their own\\ncamp.\\nThe men engaged in all these struggles\\nare in perfect ignorance that they are really\\nleading a religious reaction. They think\\nthat since they are in politics the doctrines\\nof compromise apply. They are drawn into\\npolitics by conscience, but once there, they\\nhave only their business training to guide\\nthem, a training in the art of subserving\\nmaterial interests. Now if a piece of your\\nland has an uncertain boundary, you have a\\nright to compromise on any theory you like,\\nbecause you own the land. But if you start\\nout with the sole and avowed purpose of\\n7", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0021.jp2"}, "22": {"fulltext": "PRACTICAL AGITATION\\nupholding honesty in politics, and you up-\\nhold anything else or subserve any other\\ninterest whatever, you are a deceiver. When\\nyou began you did not say I stand for a\\nreadjustment of political interests. There\\nwill be a continuation of many abuses under\\nmy administration, to be sure; but I hope\\nthey will not be quite so bad as heretofore.\\nI shall not insist on the absolutely unselfish\\nconduct of my office. It is not practical.\\nIf you had said this, you might have got the\\nfriendly support of a few doctrinaires. But\\nyou would never have got the support and\\napproval of the great public. You would\\nnot have been elected. And therefore you\\ndid not say it. Qn the contrary, what our\\nreformers do is this: They begin, before\\nelection, by promising an absolutely pure\\nadministration. They make proclamations\\nof a new era, and after they have secured a\\ncertain following they proceed to chaffer over\\nhow much honesty they will demand and\\nhow much take, as if they were rescuing\\nproperty.\\nThese men are, then, in their desires a\\npart of the future, and in their practices of\\nthe past. Their desires move society for-\\nward, their practices set it back and so we\\nhave moved forward by jolts, until, like a\\n8", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0022.jp2"}, "23": {"fulltext": "ELECTION TIME\\npeople emerging from the deep sea, the\\nwater looks clearer above our heads and we\\ncan almost see the sky.\\nEvery advance has cost great effort. It\\ntook as much courage for a Mugwump to\\nrenounce his party allegiance in 1884 as it\\ndoes now for a man to denounce both national\\nparties as dens of thieves. It took as much\\nhard thinking some years ago for the leaders\\nof the Reform Democrats to cut loose from\\nTammany Hall as it does now for the Inde-\\npendent to see that there is in all our poli-\\ntics only one machine, held together by all\\nthe bosses and their heelers, and that the\\nwhole thing must be attacked at once.\\nHow gradual has been the process of\\nemancipation from intellectual bondage\\nHow inevitably people are limited by the\\nterms in which they think A generation\\nof men has been consumed by the shibboleth\\nreform within the party, a generation\\nof educated and right-minded men, who\\naccomplished in their day much good, and\\nleft the country better than they found it,\\nbut are floating to-day like hulks in the\\ntrough of the sea of politics, because all\\ntheir mind and all their energy were ex-\\nhausted in discovering certain superficial\\nevils and in fighting them. Their analysis\\n9", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0023.jp2"}, "24": {"fulltext": "PRACTICAL AGITATION\\nof political elements left the deeper causes\\nmysterious. They did not see mere human\\nnature. They still treated Republicanism\\nand Democracy empty superstitions as\\nideas, and they handled with reverence the\\nbones of bogus saints, and the whole appa-\\nratus of clap-trap by which they had been\\ngoverned.\\nAnd yet it is owing to the activity of\\nthese men that the deeper political condi-\\ntions became visible. Men cannot transcend\\ntheir own analysis and see themselves under\\nthe microscope. The work we do trans-\\nforms us into social factors. We are a part\\nof the changes we bring in. Before we\\nknow it, we ourselves are the problem.\\nThe Mugwumps revolt and defeat Blaine.\\nThey strengthen the Democratic party.\\nThey again revolt and defeat Bryan, and\\nstrengthen the Republican party. So in\\nthe little towns all over the country, on\\nlocal issues the Democrats are put out for\\nbeing dishonest, or the Republicans are put\\nout for being dishonest. Through this pro-\\ncess the younger generation has been led to\\nnote one fact both parties are dishonest.\\nAh! but, says the parent, I am a good\\nDemocrat. My party is not dishonest all\\nthe time. It needs discipline. It is too\\nlO", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0024.jp2"}, "25": {"fulltext": "ELECTION TIME\\nlate: the young man hates both parties\\nequally. He now looks at his father, and\\nsees in him a sample of corrupted intelli-\\ngence, a man able to repeat meaningless\\nphrases, and he draws hope from the con-\\nclusion. It was natural that the father\\nshould have been boss-ridden all his life,\\nbecause he could be whistled back to sup-\\nport iniquity by an appeal to party loyalty.\\nHe belonged to a race that had lost the\\npower of political initiative. They could\\nnot act alone. They must daub themselves\\nwith party names or they would catch cold.\\nThey had not the stomach to be merely\\nmen.\\nThirty years ago one-half of society\\nthought that every Democrat was a rebel\\nand a scoundrel. The world to that society\\nwas composed of two classes, Republi-\\ncans (righteous men). Democrats (villains).\\nTwenty years of an almost steady growth\\nin the power of self-government or of what\\nthe Germans would call civic consciousness,\\nhas barely sufficed to strike off the adjec-\\ntives, but it has left mankind still divided,\\nas before.\\nMeanwhile there has emerged a group of\\nmen who see the whole problem in a much\\nsimpler light. These men have carried\\nII", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0025.jp2"}, "26": {"fulltext": "PRACTICAL AGITATION\\nforward the analysis which their fathers, or\\nlet us say their elder brothers, had begun,\\nto such a point that there are no words in it\\nwhich are meaningless, no factors which are\\nnot reduced to terms of human nature.\\nThey did nothing but add the last link to a\\nchain of logic. Their predecessors discov-\\nered The Machine, and spent their lives in\\ntrying to belong to a party without strength-\\nening its Machine. These latter men dis-\\ncovered that both parties were ruled by the\\nsame Machine. They see one issue, and\\nonly one issue in American politics, namely,\\nthe attack on that Machine.\\nMoreover, these men have political initia-\\ntive; that is to say, they contemplate creat-\\ning conditions, and not merely making\\ntransient use of visible conditions. Their\\nidea is so simple that any one whose mind is\\nnot warped by the cant of party politics\\nunderstands it at once.\\nAll this political corruption is a unity.\\nVote against it and you will beat it. Vote\\nfor any part of it and you strengthen it.\\nThis sounds simple. But in practice the\\nprejudices, the interests, the passions and\\npolitical temperament of the whole popula-\\ntion are against it. Every argument that\\nthe people understand is against this course.\\n12", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0026.jp2"}, "27": {"fulltext": "ELECTION TIME\\nEverything that either party fears or hates in\\nthe other party is passionately pointed out\\nas a reason against independent voting. Ac-\\ncording to RepubHcans, independent vot-\\ning involves allowing Croker to extend his\\nrule over the entire State, and enabling\\nTammany Hall to control the judiciary, and\\nendangering the cause of sound money.\\nAccording to Democrats, it involves the\\nencouraging of Trusts, Tariffs, Pensions, Ex-\\npansion and foreign conquest. According to\\nboth Democrats and Republicans, independ-\\nent voting is voting in the air, and is at odds\\nwith the spirit of our institutions, which con-\\ntemplate two parties and no more. And,\\nfinally, every one condemns the independent\\nbecause he violates that thumb rule which\\nslovenly thinkers regard as a summary of\\nall political philosophy, Between two evils\\nchoose the least.\\nNow the answer to all these arguments is\\nthat they are the merest mirage. It makes\\nno difference which of the two evils, Piatt or\\nCroker, has the name of ruling the State. At\\npresent they divide the rule between them.\\nThey can do no more. There is no argu-\\nment that can be used against Tammany\\nHall which is powerful enough to make the\\nRepublican Ring trustworthy. There is no\\n13", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0027.jp2"}, "28": {"fulltext": "PRACTICAL AGITATION\\nargument against Expansion so excessively\\nconvincing that it changes the moral charac-\\nter of the Democratic Party. These learned\\narguments are useless, ludicrous, pathetic,\\nirrational, impotent, contemptible. They\\ndo but distract us from the real issue\\nwhich is personal corruption. Where shall\\na man cast his vote against it.? If I turn out\\nMcKinley because he bleeds the natives, I\\nput in a Democrat to bleed the natives. If\\nthe whitewashing of Alger arouses public\\nindignation, Tammany Hall feeds at the\\ntrough. If Croker s control of the judiciary\\narouses popular indignation, Piatt s pigs\\nfeed at the trough. As for sound money, we\\nhave already elected one Congress on the\\nissue in 1895, just as in 1892 we elected a\\nCongress on the tariff issue. What was\\ndone.? Why, in each case that was done\\nwhich the ring wanted done, nothing.\\nWhich national party stands for an idea\\nto-day.? The only shadow of reason for\\nbelieving that either does, is that the Re-\\npublicans cried sound money and won.\\nThey have done nothing. Had Bryan won,\\nhe would have done nothing, could have\\ndone nothing.\\nThere are no issues in American politics\\nsave this one issue of common honesty.\\n14", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0028.jp2"}, "29": {"fulltext": "ELECTION TIME\\nYou cannot throw an issue into this whirl-\\npool of vice, for your issue turns to cash by\\nthe contact. We need not waste our time\\nreading the platforms drawn by Piatt and\\nCroker. We must not vote for any man who\\ndoes not go into public life as their enemy,\\nbecause we know that in so far as he is not\\ntheir enemy he is ours. As for these dread-\\nful consequences that are always about to\\nfollow from a refusal to support one end of\\nthe iniquity, they do not follow. We have\\nthe evils now. We are at the worst. The\\npowers of darkness may conspire and heap all\\nin ruins, but they must not prevent us from\\nbeginning upon a constructive line to draw\\ntogether and build up the powers of light.\\nNor is there the smallest distinction\\neither in the evil or its cure, between the\\ncase of a village, of a State, or of the whole\\nnation. Say you live in a town; you can\\nonly get a clean school-board by running\\nmen against both the regular parties. There\\nis no other way of getting rid of Hanna and\\nthe Presidential Syndicate than by running\\nan independent candidate for the Presidency.\\nNo form of Bryanism will oust it, no rump\\nDemocracy nor any kind of Democracy.\\nDemocracy is finished. Republicanism is\\nfinished.\\n15", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0029.jp2"}, "30": {"fulltext": "PRACTICAL AGITATION\\nThis is the zero point of party loyalty.\\nIt has been reached very slowly. It means\\nopen war. The citizen is now confronted\\nwith a third ticket, which is a deliberate\\ninsult to both the others. No matter what\\nthe conditions, it is an appeal which disin-\\ntegrates the emotions of the voter. This is\\nthe very elixir of reform. People are forced\\nto think. It hurts them. They cry out\\nagainst those who create the dilemma, but\\nthey cannot escape it. The vote you poll\\nwill vary. If the party war-cries are in-\\ntense and the party candidates promise\\nfairly, very few men will see the point of\\nyour movement. But no one escapes its\\ninfluence. Let us say that five thousand\\nvote your ticket. These are the only men\\nwhose response is scheduled. But the polit-\\nical vision of five hundred thousand has been\\nquickened. No atom of this influence is lost.\\nThe work was done when the vote was cast.\\nEven if it be not counted at all, it will show\\nin every political camp in the near future.\\nBut do you ever have outward, success.\\nDoes the time ever come when the standards\\nof every one are so high that the parties\\nthemselves present candidates as good as\\nyour own, and there is no excuse for your\\nexistence That depends upon the trend of\\ni6", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0030.jp2"}, "31": {"fulltext": "ELECTION TIME\\nthe age. One thing only is certain, that by\\npursuing this course you are doing all that\\nyou can do. You are wasting no power. No\\npart of your force is helping the enemy.\\nAfter all, the great discovery is a very\\nsimple thing. We have found, after many\\nexperiments, that what we really want is,\\nnot the turning out of officials, not the enact-\\nment of laws, but the raising of the general\\nstandards. The way to do this is to set up\\na standard. Of course nobody likes to find\\na foot rule laid against his shortage. Even\\nthe vocabulary of the average man is attacked\\nby such a system. Words like courage,\\nhonesty, independence, pledge, loy-\\nalty pass current like clipped coin in the\\nlanguage of politics; and the keying up of\\nwords to their biblical value brings out one\\nman a thief and the next a hypocrite.\\nAll these civic commotions, great and\\nsmall, that surge up and are scatttered, that\\nform and reform, the People s Leagues and\\nCitizens Unions, are the altruism of the\\ncommunity fighting its way to the surface\\nthrough the obstructions, the snares, and\\nthe oppressions of the organized world. No\\ndiscouragement sets it back. No betrayal\\ndestroys it. The people come forward with\\never new faith.\\n2 17", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0031.jp2"}, "32": {"fulltext": "PRACTICAL AGITATION\\nWhat ceaseless endeavor! What patient\\ntrial of various forms of organization We\\nlive in a society where egoism is so thor-\\noughly organized that there is hardly a\\nflicker of faith that cannot be made to heat\\nthe devil s pot. The dragon stands ready to\\neat up the child as soon as it shall be born.\\nYou cannot hitch your horse to anything\\nvi^ithout helping drag the juggernaut. Be-\\nfore you know it, virtue is pocketed. Take\\nthe most obvious case. The reformers\\nimagine they are in politics and must win\\nat all costs. One enthusiast calls twenty\\nfriends into a room and organizes a club\\nand the club ties his hands and sells out to\\nthe nearest bidder. Before he knows it he\\nhas been organized back into Tammany Hall.\\nYou begin with a call to arms and a plan of\\norganization. The men come to you in a\\nmoment of hope, showing every shade of\\nintelligence, every stage of opinion, one\\nbecause he believes in your candidate; one\\nbecause he hates Tammany Hall; one be-\\ncause he wants prominence; all because\\nthey do not expect to be alone. The men\\nwho volunteer have not a clear notion of\\nwhat they are in for. They thought it was\\na movement to clean the streets. In the\\ncourse of their campaign it develops into\\ni8", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0032.jp2"}, "33": {"fulltext": "ELECTION TIME\\nan attack on a bank. They thought it was\\na town movement. Some stage of it affects\\nnational politics. They thought it was a\\nRoosevelt movement. It turns out to in-\\nvolve hostility to Roosevelt. Your muster\\nshows the vague hope of a lot of men who\\nare utterly incompetent, undisciplined,\\nignorant. They are merchants, lawyers,\\ndoctors, professors, clergymen, the respecta-\\nbility and intelligence of the town and so\\nfar as self-government goes they are the tat-\\ntered children of tyranny. Good God, what\\nan army! At the first trumpet they scatter.\\nOne sells out, one recants, one disappears.\\nThey are anywhere and nowhere, a ship of\\nfools, a barnyard. The execution of the one\\nidea for which they were brought together\\nhas scattered them like sheep.\\nLet us take another case. You think that\\nwhat is needed is to raise a standard. You\\ncall your twenty friends about you. They\\nare not corrupt. Nevertheless, let us see\\nwho they will be. We are not dealing with\\nan imaginary community, but with American\\ncitizens as they exist, with men every one\\nof whom trusts his instincts to a different\\nextent. Each man believes in principle in\\nthe abstract, but thinks it is sometimes\\nhopeless to be severely virtuous in politics.\\n19", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0033.jp2"}, "34": {"fulltext": "PRACTICAL AGITATION\\nThis sometimes is the crtcx. Is it the\\ntime? Is this the year? Can you do it this\\nway Now, of course, it is always the year.\\nIt is never hopeless. Absolute honesty is\\nalways the way. But an age of corruption\\ndestroys faith. This is the essential injury.\\nThis is the disease. You yourself have a\\nlittle stronger belief, a little more political\\nenterprise than your twenty friends. Other-\\nwise it would be they who were summoning\\nyou to a conference. It is certain that their\\njoint wisdom will result in action less radi-\\ncal than you believe in. They outvote you\\nin council. The standard they set up is not\\nabsolute. But this outcome will prevent\\nyou from making your point at all. If you\\nare to back your friends up publicly and are\\nhonest yourself, all you can say will be,\\nHere s a makeshift. Now, the public\\ninstinct understands this very well already.\\nTen per cent of your own faith you have\\ncompromised. It has cost you ninety per\\ncent of your educational power; for the\\nheart of man will respond only to a true\\nthing.\\nWhat is it that has led you to compro-\\nmise? Why, the age you live in. You your-\\nself, being afraid to stand alone, have dipped\\nyour flag, with the best intentions, because\\n20", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0034.jp2"}, "35": {"fulltext": "ELECTION TIME\\nyou cannot see that any other course is prac-\\nticable. Yet you yourself can keep your own\\nintellectual integrity only at the price of\\ndestroying your own handiwork. If you do\\nnot destroy it, you are a hypocrite. Here\\nin the room with you were twenty men, the\\nvery flower of the idealism of the town, not\\nchosen by accident, but coming together by\\nnatural selection. Twenty more like them\\ndo not exist in the community, for their\\nactivity would have revealed them. And\\nyet there was not found faith enough among\\nthese to set up an absolute standard. Nay,\\nthey hang on your arms and prevent you\\nfrom raising one. If you are to do it, you\\nmust do it alone. Then these men will be\\nthe first to denounce you for your act damns\\nthem. You can only be true to the public\\nconscience by rebuking your friends. If\\nyou fail to do this, your banner is submerged.\\nLet us consider the cause of this weakness\\nin Reform organizations. You wish to\\nappeal to the people with as good a show of\\nnames as you can. And so you get a lot of\\nwell-known men to indorse you. This is\\nconsidered practical. Let us see if it is.\\nWe are fighting Tammany Hall. But no\\none will for an instant admit that every\\nTammany man is dishonest. The corrup-\\n21", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0035.jp2"}, "36": {"fulltext": "PRACTICAL AGITATION\\ntion we started out to correct was a cor-\\nruption of the intelligence, a bad habit, a\\ndefect of vision. The same defect keeps\\nRepublicans in line for Piatt, because he is\\nthe Party, a recognized agent of the com-\\nmunity. The same defect prevents a just\\nman from joining a new movement unless\\nBanker Jones is leading it. The habit of\\nthe community is to rely on some one else\\nto govern them. No man trusts himself.\\nThe Machine, upon analysis, turns out to\\nbe a lack of self-reliance. Wherever you\\nsee a man who gives some one else s corrup-\\ntion, some one else s prejudice as a reason\\nfor not taking action himself, you see a\\ncog in The Machine that governs us. The\\nproof of it is that he will dissuade you from\\nstriking the iniquity. He will explain that\\nyou can t try it without doing more harm\\nthan good. You will find that at every point\\nof defence, from the arguments of Mr.\\nCroker himself to the arguments of some\\nsainted college president, the reasons given\\nare identical. I cannot find any one who\\ndefends stealing. They only deprecate\\naction as being inexpedient. Now, then, if\\nI ask a voter to join my organization, and\\nuse as a bait an appeal to this very weakness\\nhis reliance upon other men s opinion\\n22", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0036.jp2"}, "37": {"fulltext": "ELECTION TIME\\ncan I hope to make much headway? I am\\ntaking in just so much of Tammany Hall.\\nMy whole body becomes an adjunct of\\nTammany, in the same sense that Mr.\\nPiatt s machine is an adjunct. I am Croker s\\nlast outpost. I stand there calling myself\\nreform, and yet I do not act. Some one\\nelse must now come forward and try his\\nhand.\\nThis process of ebullition, and thereupon\\nstagnation, has happened again and again. I\\nsuppose there are a dozen extant wrecks of\\nreform political organizations in the city.\\nMany people have despaired altogether.\\nThey think it is a law of God that political\\norganizations become corrupt in the second\\nyear. The experience is entirely due to the\\npersistent putting of new wine into old\\nbottles. In their names and hopes these\\nbodies have stood for purity, but in their\\nmembership they have, even in their incep-\\ntion, stood for prejudice. Then, too, the\\nbottles bore good labels, and bad wine was\\nsoon poured into them. A political organi-\\nzation is a transferable commodity. You\\ncould not find a better way of killing virtue\\nthan by packing it into one of these contrap-\\ntions which some gang of thieves is sure to\\nfind useful.\\n23", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0037.jp2"}, "38": {"fulltext": "PRACTICAL AGITATION\\nThe short lesson that comes out of long\\nexperience in political agitation is some-\\nthing like this all the motive power in all\\nof these movements is the instinct of reli-\\ngious feeling. All the obstruction comes\\nfrom attempting to rely on anything else.\\nConciliation is the enemy. It is just as\\nimpossible to help reform by conciliating\\nprejudice as it is by buying votes. Preju-\\ndice is the enemy. Whoever is not for you\\nis against you.\\nWhat, then, must the enthusiast do in\\nthe way of organization.-^ Let him go ahead\\nand do some particular thing, and ask the\\npublic to help him do it. He will thus get\\nbehind him whatever force exists at that\\nespecial time for that especial purpose. It\\nmay not be much but no amount of letter-\\nheads and great seals will increase it. Let\\nhim abandon written constitutions. Let\\nhim not be bound by a vote nor seek to bind\\nothers by a vote. If you have formal pro-\\ncedure, you are tied up, for you will then\\nhave to convert six tailors into apostles be-\\nfore you can get at the public. Content\\nyourself more modestly. See a friend or two\\nand tell them what you intend to do. If they\\nwon t help you, do it alone. Do not think\\nyou are wasting your time, even if no one\\n24", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0038.jp2"}, "39": {"fulltext": "ELECTION TIME\\njoins you. The prejudice against the indi-\\nvidual is part of the evil you are fighting.\\nIf you keep on in a consistent line of action,\\npeople will come to you one by one, and\\nyour group will grow into a sort of centre of\\ninfluence. There will result a unity of\\nmethod as well as of aim, which, as your\\npurposes become understood, will enable\\nyou to act with the speed of thought and\\nthe force of an avalanche. One great merit\\nof this method will be that your whole\\npolicy will remain an enigma to every one\\nexcept those who really want what you want,\\nnamely, to raise the general standards.\\nOnly such men will seek you out. Any one\\nelse is a danger. Thus your organization\\nwill grow slowly, but will remain uncap-\\nturable, un-get-at-able, an influence, a\\nmenace, a standard. As fast as adherents\\nappear, you can set up centre after centre of\\nenlightenment, preparatory to your cam-\\npaigns debates, pamphlets, correspondence,\\nthe battery of agitation. And in the mean\\ntime the benefit done to the workers them-\\nselves is worth all the pains.\\nBy adopting formal machinery you would\\nnot only organize the wrong people in, but\\nyou would organize the right people out.\\nNew York City is full of men whose passion\\n25", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0039.jp2"}, "40": {"fulltext": "PRACTICAL AGITATION\\nfor educating can find no vent in politics,\\nbecause politics are corrupt, and who run\\ncivic leagues, night-schools, lyceums, and\\npeople s institutes. They are at work in\\nyour cause although they call it by different\\nnames. All this zeal is at your disposal if\\nyou will only leave your office doors open\\nand do something to deserve its support.\\nDo not adopt a scheme that excludes these\\nmen. You cannot impress them into your\\narmy, but you do not need to impress them,\\nonly to know them personally. You cannot\\nmake them district captains, but they are\\ndistrict captains already.\\nBut, you say, are not the votes of\\nyour twenty friends as valuable as your\\nown Whence this egoism It is not\\negoism. I am ready to follow any one who\\nwants to do this particular thing, that is,\\nmake an appeal to absolute unselfishness, at\\nno point to conciliate any one. But this\\nis anarchy: every man his own party. On\\nthe contrary, it is consolidation for should\\ntwo men arise, proposing this course, they\\nwould coalesce at once.\\nBut, you say, who is to do all the\\nwork.-^ How are you to get men to come\\nforward unless you give them tangible,\\nformulated doctrines, papers to sign, and\\n26", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0040.jp2"}, "41": {"fulltext": "ELECTION TIME\\nwords to mumble? The answer is that the\\nmen who do the work in reform campaigns\\ndo not need these things. Literature and\\ndoctrines you will undoubtedly produce. It\\nis not necessary for the effective distribution\\nof them, that you should adopt the parade of\\nAmerican party discipline.\\nOrganization, head-quarters, and a distri-\\nbution of labor you must develop. But\\nyou must not have them on paper faster\\nthan they exist in reality. But, you say,\\nthis is not representative government.\\nWhere are your convention, your argument,\\nyour vote, your majority, your loyalty.-*\\nOur people must have these things.\\nThe answer is that, in spite of their views\\non representative government, our people\\nstill remain human beings. As fast as they\\nfind themselves spiritually represented by\\nsome person or body, they follow that influ-\\nence. It is representative government, but\\nit represents only the positive and aspiring\\npart of the community, the part which\\nnever gets represented under your system,\\nbecause that system insists upon alloying it\\nwith other elements and ruining its power.\\nIt is educational activity in the purest form.\\nBy what other means can you speak to the\\nwhole people at once in the language of\\n27", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0041.jp2"}, "42": {"fulltext": "PRACTICAL AGITATION\\naction By what other means can you\\nreach the conscience of the unknown man,\\nwho has not touched politics for twenty\\nyears because he could take no part in it,\\nbecause he did not understand it, the dis-\\nfranchised, scattered, and dumb men on\\nwhose voice the future waits?\\nConsider what you are trying to do. A\\nparty under control of a machine is held\\ntogether by an appeal to self-interest. Its\\ncaucuses, affiliations, resources, methods are\\nconstructed on that principle. Your body,\\nwhose aim is to increase the unselfishness and\\nintellect of your fellow-citizens, must be held\\ntogether at every point by self-sacrifice.\\nIf the reform body shall blindly do just\\nthe opposite of what a party does, it will\\npursue practical politics. The regular party\\nis in theory representative of enrolled\\nvoters. You represent the sentiment of\\nundiscovered people. The party appeals to\\nold forces and extant conditions. You\\nappeal to new feelings and new voters. The\\nparty offers a gift to every adherent. You\\nmust offer him nothing but labor. That is\\nyour protection against traitors. The party\\naccords every man the weight of his vote in\\nits counsels. You must give him nothing\\nbut the influence of his mind.\\n28", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0042.jp2"}, "43": {"fulltext": "ELECTION TIME\\nBut, you shout, this is not politics.\\nYou can never hold men together without\\nbonds. The fact is otherwise. There is\\nsome force at work in this town which, year\\nafter year, brings forward groups of men who\\nproclaim a new dispensation. They are, in\\nso far as they have any cohesion, held to-\\ngether without bonds now. All formal\\nbonds will chain them to the past. For\\nelectrical force you must adopt electrical\\nmachinery; for moral force, moral bonds.\\nAll this political system is the harness for\\nthe wrong passion. Every scrap of it im-\\nprisons your power. The average American\\ncitizen is slow to see that you can exercise\\npolitical influence without the current\\nmachinery. This is a part of The Machine\\nin his brain. He cannot see the operation\\nof law by which virtue always tells. But\\nhis ignorance does not affect the operation\\nof that law, even upon himself.\\nThis elaborate analysis of just how the\\nforce of feeling in yourself can best be used\\npolitically, is, after all, only an instance of\\na general law. The shortest path between\\ntwo points always turns out to be a straight\\nline. People who believe in the complexity\\nof life, and have theories about crooked\\nlines, want something else beside moral\\n29", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0043.jp2"}, "44": {"fulltext": "PRACTICAL AGITATION\\ninfluence. They want influence through\\noffice, or influence toward special ends, or\\ninfluence with particular persons. Can t\\nyou see you are destroying your influence?\\nthey cry, while every stroke is telling.\\nA thinks you are a lunatic. Praise God.\\nB has withdrawn his subscription. I\\nhad not hoped for this so soon. But he\\nhas joined Piatt. You misstate the case.\\nHe was always with Piatt, but now he has\\nrevealed it. These refractory molecules are\\nbreaking up. See the lines of force begin\\nto show a clean cleavage. Ten thousand\\nintelligences now see the man for what\\nhe is.\\nAt what point in the progress of this\\nmovement will people begin to see that it is\\npractical politics of the most effective kind.?\\nSome people see it now. The first people\\nto feel the strain are the men whose liveli-\\nhood depends on the outcome. The last\\nillustration of this was given in Roosevelt s\\ncampaign against Van Wyck in New York\\nState. In this case, as generally happens,\\nthe real battle was fought in committee\\nrooms before the forces were in the field.\\nIt was the struggle for position. Roosevelt\\nwas to be Republican candidate for gover-\\nnor, and was sure of election. The fight\\n30", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0044.jp2"}, "45": {"fulltext": "ELECTION TIME\\ncame over the minor offices. Our New\\nYork form of ballot practically forces a man\\nto vote for a straight ticket, and half a\\ndozen independents put up a complete ticket\\nwith Roosevelt at the head of it. Their\\npurpose was to prevent the Republicans\\nfrom using Roosevelt s military popularity\\nto sweep into office a lot of henchmen.\\nWithin ten days the Republican hench-\\nmen all over the State were taken with\\nconvulsions. Every crank of the Machine\\ntrembled. It turned its awful power upon\\nRoosevelt and ordered him to get off the\\nIndependent ticket. He obeyed and pro-\\ntected the henchmen. The episode illus-\\ntrates the practical power of a few\\nindependents who can act quickly. The\\npanic in the Republican camp was entirely\\njustified. If three tickets had remained in\\nthe field with Roosevelt at the head of two\\nof them, thousands of Democrats and thou-\\nsands of Republicans would have voted for\\nthe Reform ticket. The Republican ticket\\nwould have polled merely the dyed-in-the-\\nwool machine Republicans,\\nThe rumpus among the Republican heelers\\nfollowing so slight a cause as the action\\nof five or six citizens who took the field\\nwith a ticket of their own resembled the\\n31", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0045.jp2"}, "46": {"fulltext": "PRACTICAL AGITATION\\naction of a geyser when a cake of soap is\\nthrown into it rumbling followed by\\nterrific vomiting.\\nA little practical discipline among the re-\\nformers is all that is required to make them\\nformidable, the discipline of experience,\\nof acting together, of personal trust. This\\nis to be acquired only in the field of action.\\nIt is encouraging to find how small a body\\nof men it takes even at the present\\nmoment to upset the calculations of the\\npoliticians. The force that made the Re-\\npublicans afraid did not lie in the parcel of\\nmen who threw in the soap. It came from\\nthe great public. The episode showed that\\nthe Republicans were afraid to appeal to the\\ncountry. They knew that their cabal was\\nalmost as much hated as Tammany Hall.\\nThere is always great difficulty in this\\nworld as to who shall bell the cat; but con-\\nventions of mice do not further the matter.\\nThe way to do it is for a parcel of mice to\\ntake their political lives in their hands and\\nproceed to do it.\\nThe real meaning of all these movements\\nwill not be perceived till their work has\\nbeen done. As history, the cause and course\\nof them will be so plain that a word will\\n32", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0046.jp2"}, "47": {"fulltext": "ELECTION TIME\\nsuffice to explain them. In the light of\\nhistory it will be clear that the improvement\\nin the personnel of our public life was due\\nto the demands of the public expressed in\\ncitizen s movements. We have already\\nreached a point where neither party dares\\nappeal to the public as they did ten years\\nago on purely party grounds. Roosevelt\\nand Van Wyck both claimed to be men supe-\\nrior to the average partisan. The advance\\nof political thought has already made the\\ndullest man perceive the Machine within his\\nown party, and every day spreads the news\\nthat there is only a single machine in all\\nour politics. The destruction of this machine\\nwill not be like the destruction of the mon-\\nasteries by Henry VIII. but it will consist\\nin the substitution of new timber for old in\\nthe parties themselves.\\nAny one who looks for an expulsion of\\nTammany Hall like the expulsion of the\\nMoors from Spain, will be disappointed.\\nThere will always be a Tammany Hall.\\nBut it will be run by respectable men, who\\nwill look back with wonder and disgust upon\\nthis period, and who will give the public an\\nhonest administration because the public\\nhas demanded it.\\n33", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0047.jp2"}, "48": {"fulltext": "II\\nBETWEEN ELECTIONS\\nAn election is like a flash of lightning at\\nmidnight. You get an instantaneous pho-\\ntograph of what every man is doing. You\\nsee his real relation toward his government.\\nBut an election happens only once a year.\\nGovernment goes on day and night.\\nIt is hard breaking down the popular fal-\\nlacy that there is such a thing as politics,\\ngoverned by peculiar conditions, which must\\nbe understood and respected that the whole\\nthing is a mystic avocation, run as a trade\\nby high priests and low priests, and is remote\\nfrom our daily life. Our system of party\\ngovernment has been developed with the\\naim of keeping the control in the hands of\\nprofessionals. Technicalities have been\\nmultiplied, and the rules of the game have\\nbecome more and more complex. There\\nexists, consequently, an unformulated belief\\nthat the corruption of politics is something\\nby itself. Yet there probably never was a\\n34", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0048.jp2"}, "49": {"fulltext": "BETWEEN ELECTIONS\\ncivilization where the mesh of all powers and\\ninterests was so close. It is like the inter-\\nlocking of roots in a swamp. Such density\\nand cohesion were never seen in any epoch,\\nsuch a mat and tangle of personalities, where\\nevery man is tied up with the fibres of every\\nother. If you take an axe or a saw, and cut\\na clean piece out of it anywhere, you will\\nmaim every member of society. How idle,\\nthen, even to think of politics as a subject\\nby itself, or of the corruptions of the times\\nas localized\\nPolitics gives what the chemists call a\\nmirror, and shows the ingredients in the\\naverage man s composition. But you must\\ntake your mind off politics if you want to\\nunderstand America. You must take up\\nthe lives of individuals and follow them out,\\nas they play against each other in counter-\\npoint. As soon as you do this you will not\\nbe able to determine where politics begins\\nand where it stops. It is all politics: it is\\nall social intercourse: it is all business.\\nAny square foot of this soil will give you\\nthe whole fauna and flora of the land.\\nWhere will you put in your wedge of reform\\nThere is not a cranny anywhere. The\\nmass is like crude copper ore that cannot be\\nblasted. It blows out the charge.\\n35", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0049.jp2"}, "50": {"fulltext": "PRACTICAL AGITATION\\nWe think that political agitation must\\nshow political results. This is like trying\\nto alter the shape of a shadow without touch-\\ning its object. The hope is not only mis-\\ntaken, it is absurd. The results to be\\nobtained from reform movements cannot\\nshow in the political field till they have\\npassed through the social world.\\nBut, after all, what you want is votes, is\\nit not.? It would be so encouraging to\\nsee virtue win, that everybody would vote\\nfor you thereafter. Why don t you manage\\nit somehow.? This sort of talk is the best\\nrecord of incompetence which corruption\\nhas imprinted. Enlighten this class and\\nyou have saved the Republic. Why, my\\nfriend, you are so lost, you are so much a\\nmere product of tyranny that you do not\\nknow what a vote is. True, we want votes,\\nbut the votes we want must be cast sponta-\\nneously. We do not want them so badly as\\nto buy them. A vote is only important\\nbecause it is an opinion. Even a dictator\\ncannot force opinions upon his subjects by\\nsix months of rule; and yet the complaint\\nis that decency gets few votes after a year\\nof effort by a handful of radicals who are\\ndespised by the community. We only enter\\nthe field of politics because we can there get\\n36", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0050.jp2"}, "51": {"fulltext": "BETWEEN ELECTIONS\\na hearing. The candidates in reform move-\\nments are tools. They are like crowbars\\nthat break open the mind of the age. They\\ncannot be dodged, concealed, or laughed\\naway. Every one is aroused from his\\nlethargy by seeing a real man walk on the\\nscene, amid all the stage properties and\\nmarionettes of conventional politics. No\\nfair the people cry. They do not vote for\\nhim, of course, but they talk about the por-\\ntent with a vigor no mere doctrine could call\\nforth, and the discussion blossoms at a later\\ndate into a new public spirit, a new and\\ngenuine demand for better things.\\nIt is apparent that between the initial\\npolitical activity of reformers and their ulti-\\nmate political accomplishments, there must\\nintervene the real agitation, the part that\\ndoes the work, which goes on in the brains\\nand souls of individual men, and which can\\nonly be observed in social life, in manners\\nand conversation.\\nNow let us take up the steps by which, in\\npractical life, the reaction is set going.\\nEnter the nearest coterie of radicals and\\nlisten to the quarrel. Reformers pro-\\nverbially disagree, and their sects mince\\nthemselves almost to atoms. With us the\\nquarrel always arises over the same point.\\n37", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0051.jp2"}, "52": {"fulltext": "PRACTICAL AGITATION\\nCan we afford, under these particular cir-\\ncumstances, to tell the exact truth I\\nhave never known a reform movement in\\nwhich this discussion did not rage from\\nstart to finish, nor have I known one where\\nany other point was involved. You are a\\ncitizens committee. The parties offer to\\ngive you half a loaf. Well and good. But\\nthis is not their main object. They want\\nyou to call it a whole loaf. They want to\\ndissipate your agitation by getting you to\\ntell the public that you are satisfied. What\\nthey hate is the standard. The war between\\nyou and them is a spiritual game of chess.\\nThey must get you to say they are right.\\nIt is their only means of retaining their\\npower.\\nThus the apple of discord falls into the\\nReform camp. Half its members take the\\nbait. In New York City our politics have\\nbeen so picturesque, the pleas of the politi-\\ncian so shallow, the lies demanded from the\\nreformers so obvious, that the eternal prin-\\nciples of the situation have been revealed in\\ntheir elemental simplicity. It is just be-\\ncause the impulse towards better things\\ncarries no material content we do not want\\nany particular thing, but we want an im-\\nprovement in everything it is just because\\n3S", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0052.jp2"}, "53": {"fulltext": "BETWEEN ELECTIONS\\nthe whole movement is purely moral, that\\nthe same questions always arise.\\nWe ought not to grieve over the discus-\\nsion, over the heart-burn and heated argu-\\nment that start from a knot of radicals and\\nrun through the community, setting men\\nagainst each other. The quarrel in the\\nexecutive committee of this reform body is\\nthe initiative of much wholesome life. They\\nare no more responsible for it, they can no\\nmore avoid it, the community can no more\\nadvance to higher standards before they have\\nhad it, than a child can skate before it can\\nwalk.\\nThe executive committee is discussing\\nthe schools. In consequence of a recent\\nagitation, the politicians have put up a can-\\ndidate who will give new plumbing, even if\\nhe does steal the books, and the question is\\nwhether the School Association shall indorse\\nthis candidate. If it does, he wins. If it\\ndoes not, both plumbing and books are\\nlikely to remain the prey of the other party,\\nand the Lord knows how bad that is. The\\nfight rages in the committee, and some sin-\\ncere old gentleman is prophesying typhoid.\\nThe practical question is Do you want\\ngood plumbing, or do you want the truth\\nYou cannot have both this year. If the\\n39", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0053.jp2"}, "54": {"fulltext": "PRACTICAL AGITATION\\nassociation goes out and tells the public\\nexactly what it knows, it will get itself\\nlaughed at, insult the candidate, and elect\\nhis opponent. If it tells the truth, it might\\nas well run a candidate of its own as a pro-\\ntest and an advertisement of that truth. It\\ncan buy good plumbing with a lie, and the\\nold gentleman thinks it ought to do so.\\nThe reformers are going to endorse the can-\\ndidate, and upon their heads will be visited\\nhis theft of the books. They have sold out\\nthe little public confidence they held. Had\\nthey stood out for another year, under the\\npractical regime which they had already\\nendured for twenty, and had they devoted\\nthemselves to augmenting the public inter-\\nest in the school question, both parties\\nwould have offered them plumbing and\\nbooks to allay the excitement. The parties\\nmight, perhaps, have relaxed their grip on\\nthe whole school system rather than meet the\\nissue.\\nBut the Association does not understand\\nthis. It does not, as yet, clearly know its\\nown mind. All this procedure, this going\\nforward and back, is necessary. The com-\\nmunity must pass through these experiences\\nbefore it discovers that the shortest road\\nto good schools is truth. A few men learn\\n40", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0054.jp2"}, "55": {"fulltext": "BETWEEN ELECTIONS\\nby each turn of the wheel, and these men\\ntend to consolidate. They become a sort of\\nschool of political thought. They see that\\nthey do not care a whit more about the\\nschools than they do about the parks that\\nthe school agitation is a handy way to make\\nthe citizens take notice of maladministration\\nin all departments; that the parties may be\\nleft to reform themselves, and to choose the\\nmost telling bid for popular favor; that the\\nparties must do this and will do this, in so\\nfar as the public demands it, and will not\\ndo it under any other circumstances.\\nIt is the very greatest folly in the world\\nfor an agitator to be content with a partial\\nsuccess. It destroys his cause. He fades\\ninstantly. You cannot see him. He is\\nbecome part of the corrupt and contented\\npublic. His business is to make others\\ndemand good administration. He must\\nnever reap, but always sow. Let him leave\\nthe reaping to others. There will be many\\nof them, and their material accomplishments\\nwill be the same whether he endorses them\\nor not. If by chance some party, some\\nadministration gives him one hundred per\\ncent of what he demands, let him acknowl-\\nedge it handsomely but he need not thank\\nthem. They did it because they had to, or\\n41", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0055.jp2"}, "56": {"fulltext": "PRACTICAL AGITATION\\nbecause their conscience compelled them.\\nIn neither case was it done for him.\\nIn other words, reform is an idea that\\nmust be taken up as a whole. You do not\\nwant any specific thing. You use every\\nissue as a symbol. Let us give up the hope\\nof finding any simpler way out of it. Let\\nus take up the burden at its heaviest end,\\nand acknowledge that nothing but an in-\\ncrease of personal force in every American\\ncan change our politics. It is curious that\\nthis course, which is the shortest cut to the\\nmillennium, should be met with the reproach\\nthat it puts off victory. This is entirely\\ndue to a defect in the imagination of people\\nwho are dealing with an unfamiliar subject.\\nWe have to learn its principles. We know\\nthat what we really want is all of virtue; but\\nit seems so unreasonable to claim this, that\\nwe try to buy it piecemeal, item, a school-\\nhouse, item, four parks and with each gain\\ncomes a sacrifice of principle, disintegra-\\ntion, discouragement. Fools, if you had\\nasked for all, you would have had this and\\nmore. We are defeated by compromise\\nbecause, no matter how much we may de-\\nceive ourselves into thinking that good gov-\\nernment is an aggregate of laws and parks,\\nit is not true. Good government is the\\n42", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0056.jp2"}, "57": {"fulltext": "BETWEEN ELECTIONS\\noutcome of private virtue, and virtue is one\\nthing, a unit, a force, a mode of motion.\\nIt cannot pass through a non-conductor of\\ncasuistry at any point. Compromise is loss:\\nfirst, because it stops the movement, and\\nkills energy; second, because it encourages\\nthe illusion that the wooden schoolhouse is\\ngood government. As against this, you\\nhave the fact that some hundreds of school\\nchildren do get housed six months before\\nthey would have been housed otherwise.\\nBut this is like cashing a draft for a thousand\\npounds with a dish of oatmeal..\\nWe have, perhaps, followed in the wake of\\nsome little Reform movement, and it has\\nleft us with an insight into the relation\\nbetween private opinion and public occur-\\nrences. We have really found out two\\nthings first, that in order to have better\\ngovernment, the talk and private intelligence\\nupon which it rests must be going forward\\nall the time; and second, that the individual\\nconscience, intelligence, or private will is\\nalways set free by the same process, to v/it,\\nby the telling of truth. The identity be-\\ntween public and private life reveals itself the\\ninstant a man adopts the plan of indiscrimi-\\nnate truthtelling. He unmasks batteries and\\ndiscloses wires at every dinner-party; he sees\\n43", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0057.jp2"}, "58": {"fulltext": "PRACTICAL AGITATION\\npractical politics in every law office, and\\nsocial influence in every convention; and\\nwherever he is, he suddenly finds himself,\\nby his own will or against it, a centre of\\nforces. Let him blurt out his opinion. In-\\nstantly there follows a little flash of reality.\\nThe shams drop, and the lines of human\\ninfluence, the vital currents of energy, are\\ndisclosed. The only difference between a\\nreform movement, so-called, and the private\\nact of any man who desires to better condi-\\ntions, is that the private man sets one draw-\\ning-room in a ferment by speaking his mind\\nor by cutting his friend, and the agitator sets\\nten thousand in a ferment by attacking the\\nage.\\nAs a practical matter, the conduct of\\npolitics depends upon the dinner-table talk\\nof men who are not in politics at all. Gov-\\nernment is carried on from moment to mo-\\nment by the people. The executive is a\\nmere hand and arm. For instance, there is a\\npublic excitement about Civil Service Re-\\nform. A law is passed and is being evaded.\\nIf the governor is to set it up again, he\\nmust be sustained by the public. They\\nmust follow and understand the situation\\nor the official is helpless. But do we sustain\\nhim.? We do not. We are half-hearted.\\n44", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0058.jp2"}, "59": {"fulltext": "BETWEEN ELECTIONS\\nTo lend power to his hand we shall have to\\nbe strong men. If we now stood ready to\\ndenounce him for himself falling short by\\nthe breadth of a hair of his whole duty, our\\nsupport, when we gave it, would be worth\\nhaving. But we are starchless, and deserve\\na starchless service.\\nWhat did you find out at the last meeting\\nof the Library Committee. You found out\\nthat Commissioner Hopkins s nephew was\\nin the piano business; hence the commis-\\nsioner s views on the music question. Re-\\npeat it to the first man you meet in the\\nstreet, and bring it up at the next meeting\\nof the committee. You did not think you\\nhad much influence in town politics, and\\nhardly knew how to step in. Yet the town\\nseems to have no time for any other subject\\nthan your attack on the commissioner. From\\nthis point on you begin to understand con-\\nditions. Every man in town reveals his real\\ncharacter, and his real relation to the town\\nwickedness and to the universe by the way\\nhe treats you. You are beginning to get\\nnear to something real and something inter-\\nesting. There is no one in the United\\nStates, no matter how small a town he lives\\nin, or how inconspicuous he or she is, who\\ndoes not have three invitations a week to\\n45", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0059.jp2"}, "60": {"fulltext": "PRACTICAL AGITATION\\nenter practical politics by such a door as\\nthis. It makes no difference whether he\\nregard himself as a scientific man studying\\nphenomena, or a saint purifying society; he\\nwill become both. There is no way to study\\nsociology but this. The books give no hint\\nof what the science is like. They are written\\nby men who do not know the world, but who\\ngo about gleaning information instead of\\ntrying experiments.\\nThe first discovery we make is that the\\nworst enemy of good government is not our\\nignorant foreign voter, but our educated\\ndomestic railroad president, our prominent\\nbusiness man, our leading lawyer. If there\\nis any truth in the optimistic belief that our\\nstandards are now going up, we shall soon\\nsee proofs of it in our homes. We shall not\\nnote our increase of virtue so much by see-\\ning more crooks in Sing Sing, as by seeing\\nfewer of them in the drawing-rooms. You\\ncan acquire more knowledge of American\\npolitics by attacking, in open talk, a political\\nlawyer of social standing, than you can in a\\nyear of study. These backstair men are in\\nevery Bar Association and every Reform\\nClub. They are the agents who supervise\\nthe details of corruption. They run between\\nthe capitalist, the boss, and the public ofB-\\n46", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0060.jp2"}, "61": {"fulltext": "BETWEEN ELECTIONS\\ncial. They know as fact what every one\\nelse knows as inference. They are the\\npriestly class of commerce, and correspond\\nto the intriguing ecclesiastics in periods of\\nchurch ascendency. Some want money,\\nsome office, some mere power, others want\\nsocial prominence; and their art is to play\\noff interest against interest and advance\\nthemselves.\\nAs the president of a social club I have\\na power that I can use against my party\\nboss or for him. If he can count upon me\\nto serve him at need, it is a gain to him to\\nhave me establish myself as a reformer.\\nThe most dependable of these confidence\\nmen (for they betray nobody, and are uni-\\nversally used and trusted) can amass money\\nand stand in the forefront of social life; and\\nnow and then one of them is made an arch-\\nbishop or a foreign minister. They are,\\nindeed, the figure-heads of the age, the\\nessence of all the wickedness and degrada-\\ntion of our times. So long as such men\\nenjoy public confidence we shall remain as\\nwe are. They must be deposed in the public\\nmind.\\nAnd yet these gentlemen are the weakest\\npoint in the serried ranks of iniquity. They\\nare weak because they have social ambition,\\n47", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0061.jp2"}, "62": {"fulltext": "PRACTICAL AGITATION\\nand the place to reach them is in their clubs.\\nThey are the best possible object lessons,\\nbecause everybody knows them. Social\\npunishment is the one cruel reality, the one\\nterrible weapon, the one judgment against\\nwhich lawyers cannot protect a man. It is\\nas silent as theft, and it raises the cry of\\nStop thief! like a burglar alarm.\\nThe general cowardice of this age covers\\nitself with the illusion of charity, and asks,\\nin the name of Christ, that no one s feelings\\nbe hurt. But there is not in the New Tes-\\ntament any hint that hypocrites are to be\\ntreated with charity. This class is so in-\\ntrenched on all sides that the enthusiasts\\ncannot touch them. Their elbows are inter-\\nlocked they sit cheek by jowl with virtue.\\nThey are rich they possess the earth. Hov/\\nshall we strike them Very easily. They\\nare so soft with feeding on politic lies that\\nthey drop dead if you give them a dose of\\nridicule in a drawing-room. Denunciation\\nis well enough, but laughter is the true\\nratsbane for hypocrites. If you set off a\\nfew jests, the air is changed. The men\\nthemselves cannot laugh or be laughed at\\nfor nature s revenge has given them masks\\nfor faces. You may see a whole room full\\nof them crack with pain because they can-\\n48", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0062.jp2"}, "63": {"fulltext": "BETWEEN ELECTIONS\\nnot laugh. They are angry, and do not\\nspeak.\\nEverybody in America is soft, and hates\\nconflict. The cure for this, both in politics\\nand social life, is the same, hardihood.\\nGive them raw truth. They think they will\\ndie. Their friends call you a murderer.\\nFour thousand ladies and eighty bank direc-\\ntors brought vinegar and brown paper to\\nLow when he was attacked, and Roosevelt\\nposed as a martyr because it was said, up\\nand down, that he acted the part of a selfish\\npolitician. What humbug! How is it that\\nall these things grow on the same root,\\nfraud, cowardice, formality, sentimentalism,\\nand a lack of humor. Why do people\\nbecome so solemn when they are making a\\ndeal, and so angry when they are defending\\nit? The righteous indignation expended in\\nprotecting Roosevelt would have founded a\\nchurch.\\nThe whole problem of better government\\nis a question of how to get people to stop\\nsimpering and saying After you to cant.\\nA is an aristocrat. B is a boss. C is a\\ncandidate. D is a distiller. E is an ex-\\ncellent citizen. They dine. Gloomy silence\\nwould be more respectable than this chipper\\nconcern that all shall go well. Is not this\\n4 49", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0063.jp2"}, "64": {"fulltext": "PRACTICAL AGITATION\\npolitics? Yes, and the very essence of it.\\nIs not the exposure of it practical reform\\nHow easily the arrow goes in A does not\\nthink you should confound him with B, nor\\nE with C. Each is a reformer when he\\nlooks to the right, and a scamp as seen from\\nthe left. What is their fault.? Collusion.\\nBut A means so well. They all mean\\nwell. Let us not confound the gradations\\nof their virtue but can we call any one an\\nhonest man who knowingly consorts with\\nthieves.-* This they all do. Let us declare\\nit. Their resentment at finding themselves\\nclassed together drives the wedge into the\\nclique.\\nRemember, too, that there is no such\\nthing as abstract truth. You must talk\\nfacts, you must name names, you must im-\\npute motives. You must say what is in\\nyour mind. It is the only means you have\\nof cutting yourself free from the body of this\\ndeath. Innuendo will not do. Nobody\\nminds innuendo. We live and breathe\\nnothing else. If you are not strong enough\\nto face the issue in private life, do not\\ndream that you can do anything for public\\naffairs. This, of course, means fight, not\\nto-morrow, but now. It is only in the course\\nof conflict that any one can come to under-", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0064.jp2"}, "65": {"fulltext": "BETWEEN ELECTIONS\\nstand the system, the habit of thought,\\nthe mental condition, out of which all our\\nevils arise. The first difficulty is to see the\\nevils clearly; and when we do see them it\\nis like fighting an atmosphere to contend\\nagainst them. They are so universal and\\nomnipresent that you have no terms to name\\nthem by. You must burn a disinfectant.\\nWe have observed, thus far, that no ques-\\ntion is ever involved in practical agitation\\nexcept truth-telling. So long as a man is\\ntrying to tell the truth, his remarks will\\ncontain a margin which other people will\\nregard as mystifying and irritating exagger-\\nation. It is this very margin of controversy\\nthat does the work The more accurate he\\nis, the less he exaggerates, the more he will\\nexcite people. It is only by the true part\\nof what is said that the interest is roused.\\nNo explosion follows a lie.\\nThe awaking of the better feelings of the\\nindividual man is not only the immediate\\nbut the ultimate end of all politics. Nor\\nneed we be alarmed at any collateral results.\\nNo one has ever succeeded in drawing any\\nvalid distinction between positive and nega-\\ntive educational work, except this: that in\\nso far as a man is positive himself, he does\\npositive work. It is necessary to destroy\\n51", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0065.jp2"}, "66": {"fulltext": "PRACTICAL AGITATION\\nreputations when they are lies. Peace be\\nto their ashes. But war and fire until they\\nbe ashes. This is positive and constructive\\nwork. You cannot state your case without\\nusing popular illustrations, and in clearing\\nthe ground for justice and mercy, some little\\ngreat man gets shown up as a make-believe.\\nThis is constructive work.\\nIt is impossible to do harm to reform,\\nunless you are taking some course that\\ntends to put people to sleep. Strangely\\nenough, the great outcry is made upon occa-\\nsions when men are refusing to take such a\\ncourse. This is due to the hypnotism of\\nself-interest. Don t wake us up! they\\ncry, We cannot stand the agony of it\\nand the rising energy with which they speak\\nwakes other sleepers. In the early stages\\nof any new idea the only advertising it gets\\nis denunciation. This is so much better\\nthan silence, that one may hail it as the\\ndawn. You must speak till you draw blood.\\nThe agitators have always understood this.\\nSuch men as Wendell Phillips were not\\nextravagant. They were practical men.\\nTheir business was to get heard. They\\nused vitriol, but they were dealing with the\\nhide of the rhinoceros.\\nIf you look at the work of the anti-slavery\\n52", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0066.jp2"}, "67": {"fulltext": "BETWEEN ELECTIONS\\npeople by the light of what they were trying\\nto do, you will find that they had a very\\nclear understanding of their task. The\\nreason of some of them canted a little from\\nthe strain and stress but they were so much\\nnearer being right-minded than their con-\\ntemporaries that we may claim them as\\nrespectable human beings. They were the\\nrock on which the old politics split. They\\nwere a new force. As soon as they had\\ngathered head enough to affect political\\nissues, they broke every public man at the\\nNorth by forcing him to take sides. There\\nis not a man of the era whom they did not\\nshatter. Finally their own leaders got into\\npublic life, and it was not till then that the\\nnew era began. The same thing is happen-\\ning to-day. It is the function of the re-\\nformer to crack up any public man who\\ndodges the issue of corruption, or who tries\\nto ride two horses by remaining a straight\\nparty man and shouting reform. This is\\nno one s fault. It is a natural process. It\\nis fate. Some fail on one side of the line,\\nand some on the other. One gets the office,\\nand the next loses it; but oblivion yawns for\\nall of them. There is no cassia that can\\nembalm their deeds they can do nothing\\ninteresting, nothing that it lies in the power\\n53", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0067.jp2"}, "68": {"fulltext": "PRACTICAL AGITATION\\nof the human mind to remember. Why is\\nit that Calhoun s Speeches are unreadable?\\nHe had the earnestness of a prophet and the\\nstrength almost of a Titan but he was en-\\ngaged in framing a philosophy to protect an\\ninterest. He was maintaining something\\nthat was not true. It was a fallacy. It was\\na pretence. It was a house built on the\\nsands of temporary conditions. Such are\\nthe ideas of those middling good men, who\\nprofess honesty in just that degree which\\nwill keep them in office. Honesty beyond\\nthis point is, in their philosophy, incom-\\npatible with earthly conditions. These\\nmen must exist at present. They are an\\norganic product of the times; they are\\nsamples of mediocrity. But they have noth-\\ning to offer to the curiosity of the next gen-\\neration. No, not though their talent was\\nemployed in protecting an Empire as it is\\nnow employed in eking out the supremacy\\nof a disease in a country whose deeper\\nhealth is beginning to throw the poison off.\\nOur public men are confronted with two\\nsystems of politics. They cannot hedge.\\nIf the question were suddenly to be lost in\\na riot, no doubt a good administrator might\\nwin applause, even a Tammany chief. But\\nwe have no riots. We have finished the war\\n54", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0068.jp2"}, "69": {"fulltext": "BETWEEN ELECTIONS\\nwith Spain, and, unless foreign complica-\\ntions shall set in, we are about to sit down\\nwith the politicians over our domestic issue\\ntheft. Are you for theft or against it?\\nYou can t be both; and your conversation,\\nthe views you hold and express to your\\nfriends, are the test. It is only because\\npolitics affect or reflect these views that\\npolitics have any importance at all. Your\\nagents Croker, Hanna are serving you\\nfaithfully now. Nothing else is to be heard\\nat the clubs but the sound of little hammers\\nriveting abuse.\\nThere is another side to this shield that\\ncalls not for scorn but for pity. Have you\\never been in need of money? Almost every\\nman who enters our society joins it as a\\nyoung man in need of money. His instincts\\nare unsullied, his intellect is fresh and\\nstrong, but he must live. How comes it\\nthat the country is full of maimed human\\nbeings, of cynics and feeble good men, and\\noutside of this no form of life except the\\ndiabolical intelligence of pure business?\\nHow to make yourself needed, it is the\\nsycophant s problem; and why should we\\nexpect a young American to act differently\\nfrom a young Spaniard at the Court of\\n55", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0069.jp2"}, "70": {"fulltext": "PRACTICAL AGITATIOIS]\\nPhilip the Second? He must get on. He\\ngoes into a law office, and if he is offended\\nat its dishonest practices he cannot speak.\\nHe soon accepts them. Thereafter he can-\\nnot see them. He goes into a newspaper\\noffice, the same; a banker s, a merchant s, a\\ndry-goods shop. What has happened to\\nthese fellows at the end of three years, that\\ntheir minds seem to be drying up? I have\\nseen many men I knew in college grow more\\nand more uninteresting from year to year.\\nIs there something in trade that desiccates\\nand flattens out, that turns men into dried\\nleaves at the age of forty? Certainly there\\nis. It is not due to trade, but to intensity\\nof self-seeking, combined with narrowness\\nof occupation. If I had to make my way at\\nthe court of Queen Elizabeth, I should\\nneed more kinds of wits and more knowl-\\nedge of human nature than in the New York\\nbutton trade. No doubt I should be a pre-\\noccupied, cringing, and odious sort of person\\nat a feudal festivity but I should be a fasci-\\nnating man of genius compared to John H.\\nPainter, who at the age of thirty is making\\n^15,000 a year by keeping his mouth shut\\nand attending to business. Put a pressure\\ngauge into Painter, and measure the busi-\\nness tension at New York in 1900. He is\\n56", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0070.jp2"}, "71": {"fulltext": "BETWEEN ELECTIONS\\npassing his youth in a trance over a game of\\nskill, and thereby earning the respect and\\nadmiration of all men. Do not blame him.\\nThe great current of business force that\\npasses through the port of New York has\\ntouched him, and he is rigid. There are\\nhundreds of these fellows, and they make us\\nthink of the well-meaning young man who\\nhas to support his family, and who must\\ncompete against them for the confidence of\\nhis business patrons. Our standard of com-\\nmercial honesty is set by that current. It\\nis entirely the result of the competition that\\ncomes from everybody s wanting to do the\\nsame thing.\\nBut, you say, we are here dealing\\nwith a natural force. If you like, it withers\\ncharacter, and preoccupies one part of a man\\nfor so long that the rest of him becomes\\nnumb. He is hard and queer. He cannot\\nwrite because he cannot think; he cannot\\ndraw because he cannot think; he can-\\nnot enter real politics because he cannot\\nthink. He is all the wretch you depict him,\\nbut we must have him. Such are men.\\nThis is the biggest folly in the world, and\\nshows as deep an intellectual injury in the\\nmind that thinks it as self-seeking can\\ninflict. Business has destroyed the very\\n57", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0071.jp2"}, "72": {"fulltext": "PRACTICAL AGITATION\\nknowledge in us of all other natural forces\\nexcept business.\\nWhat shall we do to diminish this awful\\npressure that makes politics a hell, and\\nwrings out our manhood, till (you will find)\\nthe Americans condone the death of their\\nbrothers and fathers who perished in home\\ncamps during the Spanish war, because it\\nall happened in the cause of trade, it was\\nbusiness thrift, done by smart men in pur-\\nsuance of self-interest? You ask what you\\ncan do to diminish the tension of selfish-\\nness, which is as cruel as superstition, and\\nwhich is not in one place, but everywhere in\\nthe United States. It runs a hot iron over\\nyoung intellect, and crushes character in the\\nbud. It is blindness, palsy, and hip disease.\\nYou can hardly find a man who has not got\\nsome form of it. There is no newspaper\\nwhich does not show signs of it. You can\\nhardly find a man who does not proclaim it\\nto be the elixir of life, the vade-mecum of\\ncivilization. What can you do.? Why, you\\ncan oppose it with other natural forces.\\nYou yourself cannot turn Niagara; but\\nthere is not a town in America where one\\nsingle man cannot make his force felt against\\nthe whole torrent. He takes a stand on a\\npractical matter. He takes action against\\n58", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0072.jp2"}, "73": {"fulltext": "BETWEEN ELECTIONS\\nsome abuse. What does this accomplish?\\nEverything. How many people are there in\\nyour town Well, every one of them gets a\\nthrill that strikes deeper than any sermon he\\never heard. He may howl, but he hears.\\nThe grocer s boy, for the first time in his\\nlife, believes that the whole outfit of morality\\nhas any place in the practical world. Every\\nclass contributes its comment. Next year a\\nnew element comes forward in politics, as if\\nthe franchise had been extended. Remem-\\nber this you cannot, though you owned the\\nworld, do any good in it except by devising\\nnew ways of manifesting the fact that you\\nfelt in a particular way. It is the personal in-\\nfluence of example that is the power. Noth-\\ning else counts. You can do harm by other\\nmethods, but not good. This influence is a\\nnatural force, and works like steam power.\\nWhy all this commotion over your protest?\\nIf you accuse the mayor of being a thief,\\nwhy does he not reply, in the words of\\nmodern philosophy, Of course I *m a thief,\\nI m made that way Instead of that he\\nresents it, and there ensues a discussion that\\ntakes people s attention off of trade, and\\nqualifies the atmosphere of the place. You\\nhave appreciably relieved the tension and\\nchecked the plague.\\n59", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0073.jp2"}, "74": {"fulltext": "PRACTICAL AGITATION\\nThis whole subject must be looked at as a\\ncrusade in the cause of humanity. You are\\nmaking it easier for every young man in town\\nto earn his livelihood without paying out his\\nsoul and conscience. You cannot help any\\none man. You are forced into helping them\\nall at once. Every time a man asserts himself\\nhe cuts a cord that is strangling somebody.\\nThe first time that independent candidates\\nfor local office were run in New York City,\\nstrong men cried in the street for rage. The\\nsupremacy of commerce had been affronted.\\nNew York, in all that makes life worth living,\\nis a new city since the reform movements\\nbegan to break up the torpor of serfdom.\\nYou asked how to fight force. It must be\\nfought with force, and not with arguments.\\nIndeed, it is easier to start a reform and carry\\nit through, than it is to explain either why or\\nhow it is done. You can only understand\\nthis after you have been three times ridi-\\nculed as a reformer and then you will begin\\nto see that throughout the community, run-\\nning through every one, there are currents of\\nbeneficent power that accomplish changes,\\nsometimes visible, sometimes hard to see;\\nthat this power is in its nature quite as\\nstrong, quite as real and reliable, as that\\nWall Street current, terrible forces both\\n60", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0074.jp2"}, "75": {"fulltext": "BETWEEN ELECTIONS\\nof them, forever operative and struggling\\nand contending together as they surge and\\nswell through the people. It is the sight\\nof that power for good that you need. I\\ncannot give it to you. You must sink your\\nown shaft for it. It is this beneficent cur-\\nrent passing from man to man that makes\\nthe unity of all efforts for public better-\\nment. You have a movement and an ex-\\ncitement over bad water, and it leaves you\\nwith kindergartens in your schools. It is\\nthis current that turns your remark at the\\nclub (which every one repeated in order to\\ninjure you) into a piece of encouragement to\\nthe banker s clerk, who could not have made\\nit himself except at the cost of his livelihood.\\nIt is this current not only the fear of it, but\\nthe presence of it in the heart of your mer-\\nchants that leaves them at your mercy. Cast\\nanything into this current and it goes every-\\nwhere, like aniline dye put into a reservoir\\nit tinges the whole local life in twenty-four\\nhours. It is to this current that all appeals\\nare made. All party platforms, all resolu-\\ntions, all lies are dedicated to it all literature\\nlives by it. The head of power is near and\\neasy if you strike directly for it.\\nThere is an opinion abroad that good poli-\\ntics requires that every man should give his\\n6i", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0075.jp2"}, "76": {"fulltext": "PRACTICAL AGITATION\\nwhole time to politics. This is another of\\nthe superstitions disseminated by the politi-\\ncians who want us to go to their primaries,\\nand accepted by people so ignorant of life\\nthat they believe that the temperature de-\\npends upon the thermometer.\\nWhy, you are running those primaries now.\\nIf you were different, they would become dif-\\nferent. You need never go near them. Go\\ninto that camp where your instinct leads you.\\nThe improvement in politics will not be marked\\nby any cyclonic overturn. There will always\\nbe two parties competing for your vote. It\\ntakes no more time to vote for a good man\\nthan for a bad man. There will be no more\\nmen in public life then than now. There\\nwill be no overt change in conditions. A few\\nleaders will stand for the new forces. It is\\ntrue that it requires a general increase of in-\\nterest on the part of every one, in order that\\nthese men shall be found. Your personal\\nduty is to support them in private and pub-\\nlic. That is all. The extent to which you\\nyourself become involved in public affairs de-\\npends upon chances with which you need not\\nconcern yourself. Only try to understand\\nwhat is happening under your eyes. Every\\ntime you see a group of men advancing some\\ncause that seems sensible, and being de-\\n62", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0076.jp2"}, "77": {"fulltext": "BETWEEN ELECTIONS\\nnounced on all hands as self-appointed,\\nsee if it was not something in yourself, after\\nall, that appointed those men.\\nAs we grow old, what have we to rely on\\nas a touchstone for the times? You once\\nhad your own causes and enthusiasms, but\\nyou cannot understand these new ones. You\\nhad your certificate from the Almighty, but\\nthese fellows are self-appointed. What\\nyou wanted was clear, but these men want\\nsomething unattainable, something that soci-\\nety, as you know it, cannot supply. Calm\\nyourself, my friend perhaps they bring it.\\nHas the great Philosophy of Evolution\\ndone nothing for the mind of man, that new\\ndevelopments, as they arrive, are received with\\nthe same stony solemnity, are greeted with\\nthe same phrases as ever? How can you\\nhave the ingenuousness to argue soberly\\nagainst me, supplying me, by every word you\\nsay, with new illustrations, new hope, new\\nfuel? Until I heard you repeat word by word\\nthe prayer-book of crumbling conservatism, I\\nwas not sure I was right. You have placed\\nthe great seal of the world upon new truth.\\nThus should it be received.\\nThe radicals are really always saying the\\nsame thing. They do not change everybody\\nelse changes. They are accused of the most\\n63", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0077.jp2"}, "78": {"fulltext": "PRACTICAL AGITATION\\nincompatible crimes, of egoism and a mania\\nfor power, indifference to the fate of their\\nown cause, fanaticism, triviaHty, want of\\nhumor, buffoonery and irreverence. But\\nthey sound a certain note. Hence the great\\npractical power of consistent radicals. To all\\nappearance nobody follows them, yet every\\none believes them. They hold a tuning-fork\\nand sound A, and everybody knows it really\\nis A, though the time-honored pitch is G flat.\\nThe community cannot get that A out of its\\nhead. Nothing can prevent an upward ten-\\ndency in the popular tone so long as the real\\nA is kept sounding. Every now and then the\\nwhole town strikes it for a week, and all the\\nbells ring, and then all sinks to suppressed\\ndiscord and denial.\\nThe reason why we have not, of late years,\\nhad strong consistent centres of influence,\\nfocuses of steady political power, has been\\nthat the community has not developed men\\nwho could hold the note. It was only when\\nthe note made a temporary concord with\\nsome heavy political scheme that the reform\\nleaders could hear it themselves. For the rest\\nof the time it threw the whole civilization\\nout of tune. The terrible clash of interests\\ndrowned it. The reformers themselves lost\\nit, and wandered up and down, guessing.\\n64", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0078.jp2"}, "79": {"fulltext": "BETWEEN ELECTIONS\\nIt is imagined that nature goes by jumps,\\nand that a whole community can suddenly\\nsing in tune, after it has been caterwauling\\nand murdering the scale for twenty years.\\nThe truth is, we ought to thank God when\\nany man or body of men make the discovery\\nthat there is such a thing as absolute pitch,\\nor absolute honesty, or absolute personal and\\nintellectual integrity. A few years of this\\nspirit will identify certain men with the funda-\\nmental idea that truth is stronger than conse-\\nquences, and these men will become the most\\nserious force and the only truly political force\\nin their community. Their ambition is illimi-\\ntable, for you cannot set bounds to personal\\ninfluence. But it is an ambition that cannot\\nbe abused. A departure from their own\\ncourse will ruin any one of them in a night,\\nand undo twenty years of service.\\nIt would be natural that such sets of men\\nshould arise all over the country, men who\\nwanted nothing, and should reveal the in-\\nverse position of the Boss System a set of\\nmoral bosses with no organizations, no poli-\\ntics men thrown into prominence by the op-\\neration of all the forces of human nature now\\nsuppressed, and the suppression of those now\\noperative. It is obvious that one such man\\nwill suffice for a town. In the competition of\\nS 65", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0079.jp2"}, "80": {"fulltext": "PRACTICAL AGITATION\\ncharacter, one man will be naturally fixed\\nupon, whom his competitors will be the first\\nto honor; and upon him will be condensed\\nthe public feeling, the confidence of the com-\\nmunity. If the extreme case do not arise,\\nnevertheless it is certain that the tendencies\\ntoward a destruction of the present system,\\nwill reveal themselves as a tendency making\\nfor the weight of personal character in prac-\\ntical politics.\\nReform politics is, after all, a simple thing.\\nIt demands no great attainments. You can\\nplay the game in the dark. A child can\\nunderstand it. There are no subtleties nor\\nobscurities, no higher analysis or mystery of\\nany sort. If you want a compass at any mo-\\nment in the midst of some difficult situation,\\nyou have only to say to yourself, Life is\\nlarger than this little imbroglio. I shall follow\\nmy instinct. As you say this, your compass\\nswings true. You may be surprised to find\\nwhat course it points to. But what it tells\\nyou to do will be practical agitation.\\n66", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0080.jp2"}, "81": {"fulltext": "Ill\\nTHE MASSES\\nLet us examine current beliefs on popular\\neducation, and then thereafter let us look very\\nclosely at the work done among the poor,\\nand see upon what lines it has been found\\npossible to establish influence.\\nWhy is it that if you go down to the Bow-\\nery and set up a kindergarten or give a course\\nof lectures on the Duties of Citizenship,\\nevery one commends you whereas if you go\\ninto some abandoned district where a Tam-\\nmany thug is running for the State Assembly\\nagainst a Repubhcan heeler, and if you put\\nan honest man in the field against them both,\\nyour friends call you a fool, and say that\\nyour reform consists of mere negation?\\nWho asks to see the results upon the pub-\\nlic welfare of a night school in astronomy?\\nYet, if you get ten mechanics to labor for six\\nmonths with the fire of enthusiasm in them,\\nbuilding up a radical club, and as a result,\\none hundred and fifty men cast for the first\\n67", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0081.jp2"}, "82": {"fulltext": "PRACTICAL AGITATION\\ntime in their lives a vote that represents the\\nheart and conscience of each, your intelligent\\nfriends ask, What have you done? You are\\nhowling against the moon.\\nWhy is it that if you are a grocer and\\nrefuse to sand your sugar, you are called\\nhonest? Yet, if a young politician takes this\\ncourse, it is supposed that life is not long\\nenough for the world to discover his value\\nhe is a visionary. In the sugar trade, the man\\ninsisted upon deaHng with the community as\\na whole. He was not trying to sell sugar to\\na club, or to benefit some district. He dealt\\nwith the public. Now, if a politician deals\\ndirectly with the public, we condemn him\\nbecause we cannot see the empire of confi-\\ndence he is building up. The reason we do\\nnot see it is entirely due to historical causes.\\nWe have had little experience recently in the\\nutility of large appeals. We forget their\\npower. Yet we are not without examples.\\nGrover Cleveland dealt directly with the peo-\\nple on a great scale. He established a per-\\nsonal relation that was stronger than party\\nbonds. This made him President, preserved\\nhis character and gave reality to politics. It\\nwas a bit of education to every man in the\\nUnited States to see what riff-raff our politi-\\ncal arks were made of: a man laid his hand\\n68", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0082.jp2"}, "83": {"fulltext": "THE MASSES\\non the end of one of them and tore off the\\nroof.\\nWe are rather more familiar with the power\\nof pubHc confidence as seen in times of revo-\\nlution. In the year of the Lexow investigation\\nthe people of New York City believed that\\nDr. Parkhurst and John Goff were in earnest.\\nThere was a period of a few weeks when Goff\\nexercised the powers of a dictator. The Police\\nCommissioners had threatened to discipline a\\nsubordinate who had testified before Goff s\\ncommittee. He subpoenaed them all the\\nnext morning, and he browbeat them like\\nschool-boys. They went back humbled.\\nThe revelations of the summer had awakened\\nthe spirit of revolt in the masses of the people,\\nand it expressed itself directly as power. The\\nmachinery of government was not in abey-\\nance, but it was seen to be a mere vehicle.\\nIt could be made to work justice. Here were\\ntwo men, Goff and Parkhurst, rendered all-\\npowerful by the existence of popular confi-\\ndence. The state of mind of the community\\nwas unusual, and the indignation soon sub-\\nsided but it subsided to a new level, and the\\nabuses and inhumanity of Boss tyranny have\\nnever since been so severe in New York.\\nOur people have seen several volcanic\\neruptions of this sort, and therefore they\\n69", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0083.jp2"}, "84": {"fulltext": "PRACTICAL AGITATION\\nbelieve in them. They believe in the moral\\npower of the community, but are afraid it\\ncan only act by convulsion. They think that\\nsome new principle comes into play at such\\ntimes, something which is not a constant\\nfactor in daily government. On the other\\nhand, we have all been trained to respect\\nplodding methods in common education, and\\nwe know that much can be done by kinder-\\ngartens, boys clubs, and propaganda to\\nchange the standards of the community and\\nmake men trust virtue. We believe in the\\nboys club, and we believe in the earthquake\\nwe forget that the same principle underlies\\nthem both. When some one applies this\\nprinciple to the field of political education\\nthat lies between them, we are cynical be-\\ncause we have no experience.\\nApart from the lack of experience that\\nprevents people from seeing the use of this\\npractical activity, there are two distressing\\nelements that make men not want to see it.\\nIn the first place, even if you work in the\\nBowery and a friend votes in Harlem, you\\nare apt to be hitting his interests and preju-\\ndices. And in the second place your conduct\\nis a horrid appeal. If this work is useful, he\\nought to be doing it. He had hoped that\\nnothing could be done.\\n70", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0084.jp2"}, "85": {"fulltext": "THE MASSES\\nThe real distinction between this particular\\nsort of work and other philanthropy is, that\\nother philanthropy is preparatory drill this\\nis war. The other is feeding, training, and\\npreaching; this is practice. Now, you may\\nhave your license to preach all you please\\nin the vineyard, but if you touch the soil\\nwith the spade, you find the ground is pre-\\nempted you are fighting a railroad. And\\nthis condition is openly recognized in cities\\nwhere the evil forces are completely dominant.\\nIn lecturing before the University Exten-\\nsion in Pennsylvania, you are not allowed to\\ntalk politics. It is against the policy of the\\nphilanthropists who run the institution, and\\nwho are run by the railroad. The situation\\nin Philadelphia is merely illustrative of the\\ndistinction between philanthropy and political\\nreform, which is always ready to become\\napparent. Of course, so long as the railroad\\ndistributes the philanthropy, there will result\\nnothing but tyranny. The Roman Emperors\\ngave shows to amuse the people, and we\\ngive them talks on Botticelli and magic-lan-\\ntern pictures of the Nile. There are, then,\\nreal reasons why our people are slow to ac-\\nknowledge the utility of militant political\\nreform, and why they clutch at any handle\\nagamst it.\\n71", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0085.jp2"}, "86": {"fulltext": "PRACTICAL AGITATION\\nBut we have much more to learn from the\\nphilanthropists by a study of what they have\\ndone than by dwelling on their shortcom-\\nings. They have labored while the political\\nreformers have slept and after many trials\\nand many failures they have found certain\\nworking principles.\\nIt was they who discovered that we cannot,\\nas human nature is constituted, give strength\\nto any one except by helping the whole man\\nto develop at once. We must give him a\\nchance to grow. The workers among the\\npoor have long ago seen the futility of any\\neffort except that of raising the general stand-\\nards of living. They have established Settle-\\nments, where the relation between the settlers\\nand the surrounding population is as natural\\nas family life and as perennial as Tammany\\nHall. After ten years of experiment this has\\nbeen done in many places. If you will go to\\none of these places and study exactly what\\nhas happened in the line of benefit to the\\npeople, you will see that it has resulted\\nwholly from personal influence, that is to\\nsay, from the effect of character upon char-\\nacter. Two years ago we established a boys\\nclub, and soon afterwards a kindergarten. The\\nboys returned one day, and out of jealousy\\nsmashed everything belonging to the kinder-\\n72", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0086.jp2"}, "87": {"fulltext": "THE MASSES\\ngarten, and piled the rubbish in the middle\\nof the room. Last week a barrel of fruit was\\nsent here for the sick and weakly, and we\\nleft the barrel open with a card on the out-\\nside to that effect. You could not get the\\nboys to touch the fruit. Now, if you ask me\\nwhat system or what part of the system has\\ncaused the change in these boys, I don t\\nknow.\\nThis is reform politics, but unless you and\\nI go there and make a place for these boys\\nin practical politics, they will find waiting for\\nthem nothing but the caucus and the job.\\nThey will relapse and forget. It is throwing\\neffort into the sea to train the young if you\\nstop there. The test comes when the scaffold-\\nings of early life are taken down. Each man\\nmeets the world alone. The tragedies of char-\\nacter occur at this period. We must make a\\ncamp and standing ground for grown men.\\nSo far as the hope of political purity goes,\\nthere are acres of this city that are in a worse\\ncondition than health was in before the era of\\nhospitals. Fly over them as the crow flies,\\nand you cannot find a centre of downright\\nantagonism to evil. The population does\\nnot know that such a thing exists and yet,\\nif you propose to go there and set up a fight\\nagainst both parties, that is to say, a fight\\n73", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0087.jp2"}, "88": {"fulltext": "PRACTICAL AGITATION\\nagainst wickedness, you are told by patriots\\nand doctors of divinity, Don t do it unless\\nyou can win. You will disgust people with\\nreform.\\nIt is awful and at the same time ludicrous\\nto hear an educated person maintain this\\ndoctrine and in the same breath mourn over\\nthe corruption of the masses. The man\\nthrows his own dark shadow over them and\\nbewails their want of light. He doubts the\\npower of personal influence and yet there\\nis absolutely no other force for good in the\\nworld, and never has been. Let us stick to\\nfacts. Take individual cases of improvement\\nand see what power has been at work. You\\nwill find that you disclose behind any per-\\nsonal improvement, not a ballot law or an\\norganization, but a human being.\\nThe movement for political reform goes\\ninto the Bowery in the wake of the philan-\\nthropists. We go there knowing something\\nabout practical politics. We know, for in-\\nstance, that the Bowery is the geographical\\nname for a district which is really governed\\nby the same forces as Fifth Avenue. To\\nthink that the politics of the Bowery are con-\\ntrolled by the Bowery is about as sensible as\\nto believe that the politics of Irkutsk are con-\\ntrolled at Irkutsk. We have got, first, to dis-\\n74", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0088.jp2"}, "89": {"fulltext": "THE MASSES\\nclose the machinery of evil and then to fight\\nit wherever we find it, even though it lead us\\ninto churches. Nothing is needed in any\\nTammany club on the Bowery that is not\\nneeded ten times as much in the Union\\nLeague Club on Fifth Avenue personal\\nself-sacrifice for principle in a cause which\\nis apparently hopeless. Unless you go there\\ndisplaying that, you are not needed.\\nOur intercourse with the laboring man is\\na great teacher to ourselves. That is its\\nmain use. It brings out, as nothing else\\ncan, the magnitude and perfection of the\\nsystem, whose visible top and little flag we\\ncan always see, but whose dimensions and\\nramifications nothing but experiment can\\nreveal; philosophy could not guess it.\\nHere is a laborer on the street railroad.\\nIn order to get work he must show a ticket\\nfrom the party boss. It is his passport from\\nthe Czar, countersigned by the proper offi-\\ncial; otherwise he gets no job. Here is a\\nyoung notary whom you employ to carry\\nabout the certificate that puts an independent\\ncandidate in nomination. You try to get him\\nto sign the thing himself and join your club.\\nIt is no use asking. His brother did it once\\nand lost his place so close is the scrutiny, so\\nrapid the punishment. Examine the retail\\n75", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0089.jp2"}, "90": {"fulltext": "PRACTICAL AGITATION\\ngrocer, or the tobacconist, or the cobbler go\\ninto particulars with him, and you will find\\nthat his unwillingness to join your movement\\ndoes not spring so directly from his inability\\nto see the point of it, as from fear of the direct\\nand Immediate consequences to himself.\\nWe wanted to elevate the masses, but it\\nturns out, as the philanthropists discerned\\nlong ago, that there are no masses in Amer-\\nica, there are no masses in New York City.\\nWe can discover only individuals, who are\\neach controlled by individual interests, by\\nvarious and subtle considerations. These\\nmen are in chains to other men, who often\\nHve in other parts of the city.\\nThe attorneys and merchants, the business\\nworld in fact, is found to be In league with\\nabuse. The man who signs the laborer s\\nlicense to work reports twice a day to a big\\ncontractor who is director in a bank whose\\npresident owns the opera house and en-\\ndowed the sailors home. He built the yacht\\nclub, Is vestryman in the biggest church, and\\nIs revered by all men. The title-deeds and\\nregistry books of all visible wealth, show the\\nnames of his Intimate friends. All we can do\\nin the way of weakening the chains is to ex-\\npose them this cruelty is largely ignorance.\\nThe beneficiaries must be made to see the\\n76", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0090.jp2"}, "91": {"fulltext": "THE MASSES\\nsources of their wealth. It is pre-occupation\\nwith business, not coldness of heart, that con-\\nceals the conditions. The American business\\nman is a warm-hearted being. He does not\\neven care for money, but for the game of\\nbusiness.\\nAs matters now stand in America, we see\\nthis condition, that it is for the immediate\\ninterest of the dominant class, namely, the\\npolitico-financial class, to keep the people as\\nselfish as possible. We have examined the\\nsubtle strains of influence and prejudice by\\nwhich this commercial interest has been ex-\\ntended, until, as a practical matter, it is almost\\nimpossible for a man to get word to the labor-\\ning classes that there exists such a thing as\\npolitical morality. Some professional philan-\\nthropist always stands ready to prevent the\\nsignal of honesty from being raised some\\nset of Sunday citizens interposes to stop the\\nunwise, inexpedient, foolhardy attempt to be\\nindependent of rascality.\\nAnd when you do succeed in reaching the\\nmechanic, what can you do for him? Tell\\nhim to be a man, and strike off the shackles\\nthat bind him.\\nHere we are, as helpless before the poor as\\nbefore the rich, facing both of them with the\\nsame query, Can you not see that your own\\n77", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0091.jp2"}, "92": {"fulltext": "PRACTICAL AGITATION\\nconcession, call it poverty, or call It poverty\\nof will, is one element of this oppression?\\nThe difference between the poor and the\\nfinancial classes is one of spiritual complexity.\\nThe promoters are well-to-do because their\\nminds have been able to grasp and utilize the\\ncomplex forces made up of the minds of their\\nsimpler fellow-beings. And this astuteness\\nleaves them less open to unselfish emotions\\nthan the laboring man. His nature Is more\\nIntact. He Is a more emotional and instinc-\\ntive being. It Is for this reason that moral\\nreforms have come from the lower strata of\\nsociety. The people have as much to lose\\nas the bankers, but they are more ready to\\nlose It.\\nThe head of moral feeling in the community\\nhas got to grow strong enough to force the\\nfinancier to take his clutch off the laboring\\nman, before you can reach the laboring man.\\nAnd yet labor Itself will contribute more than\\nits share towards this head of moral feeling\\nand therefore you must go among the labor-\\nmg classes with your ideas and your propa-\\nganda. But beware lest you give him a\\nstone for bread. You can do no more for\\na man because you call yourself a politi-\\ncian than if yoU were a mere philanthropist.\\nA man s standards of political thought are but\\n78", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0092.jp2"}, "93": {"fulltext": "THE MASSES\\na small fraction of his general standards, and\\nunless your sense of truth is as sharp as a\\nsword you had better not come near the\\nlaboring man.\\nThe point here made is and it is of great\\nimportance that we candidly acknowledge\\nat every instant the nature of our undertak-\\ning and the nature of our power, for in so far\\nas we mistake them we weaken our practical\\nutility.\\nIt is not as the agent of any institution\\nthat you are here, but as the agent of con-\\nscience at the dictation of personal feeling.\\nDo you need proof that you yourself draw\\nall your power from sheer moral influence?\\nNote what you do when you start your club.\\nYou go to the nearest well-to-do person and\\nask for money for rent. He gives it to you\\nout of his fund of general benevolence. To\\nwhom do you really want to distribute this\\nbenevolence? To every one. You feel that\\nby passing it on through a group and series\\nof boys and young men you can benefit the\\nwhole country. You use them as a mere\\nvehicle. You know that you can only help\\nthem by getting them to help others. Your\\nappeal for clients then goes out to the whole\\ndistrict. Your club puts you in communica-\\ntion with every man in it. In teaching your\\n79", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0093.jp2"}, "94": {"fulltext": "PRACTICAL AGITATION\\nclub or in exhorting any mortal to good be-\\nhavior, what method, what stimulus, do you\\nuse Whether you know it or not, you are\\nreally drawing support from every one who\\nis following the same principle, all over the\\ncity, all over the country, all over the world.\\nDo you not ceaselessly appeal to the ex-\\namples of Washington and Lincoln, to the\\nbooks and conduct of men whose aims were\\nyour aims? Or take your own case. Why\\ndo you occupy yourself with this thing?\\nThis activity satisfies your demands upon\\nlife; nothing else does. You are the crea-\\nture of a thousand influences, and if you begin\\nto trace them you find that you are fulfilling\\nthe will of Toynbee, of John Stuart Mill, of\\nKant. You are a disciple of Tolstoi. You\\nwere inspired by William Lloyd Garrison.\\nIt is they, as much as you, who are doing this\\nwork. It is they who formulated the ideas\\nand impressed them upon you. Your great\\nfriends are the founders of religions. Ex-\\namine the actual persons who give you prac-\\ntical help. You will find Moses, you wi ll\\nfind Christ behind them. What you are\\nusing is the world s fund of unselfishness.\\nIt is necessary to employ the whole of it in\\norder to accomplish anything, however small.\\nAs a practical matter, every one does employ\\n80", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0094.jp2"}, "95": {"fulltext": "THE MASSES\\nthe whole of it every time he even thinks of\\nreform.\\nNow, just as we can trace the sources of\\nour power in the great currents of human\\nfeehng that flow down to us out of the past;\\nso we can foresee the accomplishments of\\nthat power in enlarging the lives of men who\\ncome after us. We are sinking the founda-\\ntions of a new politics. You cannot always\\nsee every stone, but it has gone to its place.\\nIt is impossible to take a stand for what you\\nthink is a true theory without thereby be-\\ncoming an integral factor for good in every\\nman who hears of it. It is impossible to be\\nthat factor without taking that stand.\\nWhat is the nature of the good you can\\ndo to the laboring man His mind analyzes\\nyou in a flash. If he is influenced by you,\\nyou may be sure that it is by something in\\nyou that you had not intended to give him.\\nAfter the man has seen you, he has been\\nmoved by you but how? Consult your own\\nremembrance. What incident of character\\nimpressed you most when you were a child\\nDo you remember any act, any expression\\nor gesture or anecdote or speech, that had a\\nlasting influence upon you? Now I ask you\\nthis Was it done for you Were you the\\ndesigned beneficiary of it? Was it not rather\\n6 8i", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0095.jp2"}, "96": {"fulltext": "PRACTICAL AGITATION\\nthe silent part of some one else s conduct, a\\nthing you were perhaps not meant to see at\\nall? And this was no accident. This is the\\nnatural history of influence it passes uncon-\\nsciously from life to life.\\nWe must take the world as we find it. We\\nmust deal with human nature according to\\nthe laws of human nature. Our politics are\\nat present so artificial that the average man\\nthinks that the name politics prevents the\\nwell established and familiar principles of\\nhuman nature from being operative. But he\\nis wrong. Man has never yet succeeded in\\ninventing any system that could evade them\\nor affect them in the least. All the political\\norganization of reform is already in exist-\\nence, and needs only strengthening and de-\\nveloping. It is all in use, and every one\\nunderstands its use and knows its headquar-\\nters and its agencies. It is all individual\\ncharacter and courage, and with the growth\\nof character and courage it will become more\\ndefined and visible every day.\\n82", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0096.jp2"}, "97": {"fulltext": "IV\\nLITERATURE\\nThere are feelings and views about life,\\nthere are conviction and insight, which come\\nfrom thinking at a high rate of speed, and\\nvanish when the machinery moves slowly\\nand the blood ebbs. The world not only\\naccepts the intensity of the writer, but de-\\nmands it. Nevertheless, the world has an\\nimperfect knowledge as to where this inten-\\nsity comes from, how it is produced, or what\\nrelation it bears to ugliness and falsehood.\\nWhat a pleasure it must be to you, said\\nRothschild to Heine, to be able to turn off\\nthose little songs\\nIn our ordinary moods we regard the con-\\nclusions of the poets as both true and un-\\ntrue, true to feeling, untrue to fact true as\\nintimations of the next world or of some lost\\nworld; untrue here, because detached from\\nthose portions of society that are peren-\\nnially visible. Most men have a duplicate\\nphilosophy which enables them to love the\\n83", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0097.jp2"}, "98": {"fulltext": "PRACTICAL AGITATION\\narts and the wit of mankind, at the same\\ntime that they conveniently despise them.\\nLife is ugly and necessary art is beautiful\\nand impossible. The farther you go from\\nthe facts of life, the nearer you get to poetry.\\nThe practical problem is to keep them in\\nseparate spheres, and to enjoy both. The\\nhypothesis of a duplicity in the universe\\nexplains everything, and staves off all claims\\nand questionings.\\nSuch are the convictions of the average\\ncultivated man. His back is broken, but\\nhe lives in the two halves comfortably\\nenough. He has to be protected at his weak\\nspot, of course, and that spot is the present\\nten years from now, to-morrow, yesterday,\\nthe day of judgment, the State of Penn-\\nsylvania, all these you are welcome to.\\nEvery form of idealism appeals to him, so\\nlong as it does not ask him to budge out of\\nhis armchair. Aha, he says, I under-\\nstand this. It takes its place in the realm\\nof the Imagination.\\nThis man does not know, and has no means\\nof knowing, that good books are only written\\nby men whose backs are not broken, and\\nwhose vital energy circulates through their\\nentire system in one sweep. They have a\\nunitary and not a duplicate philosophy.\\n84", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0098.jp2"}, "99": {"fulltext": "LITERATURE\\nThe present is their strong point. The\\nactualities of life are their passion. They\\nlay a bold hand upon everything within their\\nreach, for they see it with new sight.\\nThe glitter of the past makes us think of\\nliterature as embodied in books; but to\\nunderstand literature we must fix our minds\\non authors, not on books. The men who\\nwrite what makes them write well or ill?\\nWhat are the conditions that breed poetry,\\nor music, or architecture.? The current be-\\nliefs about art and letters are fatalistic.\\nIt is supposed that poets and artists crop\\nup now and then, and that nothing can stop\\nthem; they need no aid, they conquer cir-\\ncumstances. I do not believe it. We see\\nno analogy to it in nature. Among the\\nplants and the fishes we see nothing but\\na wholesale and incredible destruction of\\ngerms on all sides. It seems a miracle that\\nany seed should fall upon good ground, and\\nbe sheltered till it come to the flower. Why\\nshould the percentage of germs that come to\\nmaturity be greater with genius than it is\\nwith the eggs of the sturgeon? The ene-\\nmies of each are numerous. If it were not\\nfor the fecundity of nature, we should have\\nnone of either of them. And how is it that\\nthe great man always happens to be young\\n85", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0099.jp2"}, "100": {"fulltext": "PRACTICAL AGITATION\\nat the very moment when some events are\\ngoing forward that ripen his powers so that\\nhe grows up with his time, and does some-\\nthing that is comprehensible to all time?\\nThe answer is, that all eras are sown thick\\nwith the seeds of genius, which for the most\\npart die, but in a favoring age mature to\\ngreatness. Must we resort to a theory of\\nspecial creation to explain the great talents\\nof the world? And even this would not\\nexplain our own welcome and our own com-\\nprehension of them when they come. If it\\nwere not for the undeveloped powers, the\\nseeds of genius, in ourselves, Plato and Bach\\nwould be meaningless, and Christ would\\nhave died in vain.\\nIt must be that thousands of good intel-\\nlects perish annually. The men do not die,\\nbut their powers wither, or rather never\\nmature. Art, like everything else, repre-\\nsents an escape, a survival. In any age that\\nlacks it, or is weak in it, we may look about\\nfor the enginery by which it is crushed. In\\nlooking into a past age we are put to infer-\\nence and conjecture. We see the mark of\\nfetters upon the Byzantine soul, and we\\nbegin dredging the dark waters of history\\nfor a metaphysical cause. We cannot walk\\ninto a Byzantine shop and watch the appren-\\n86", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0100.jp2"}, "101": {"fulltext": "LITERATURE\\ntice at work. But in our own time we can\\nsee the whole process in action. We can\\nstudy our modern Inquisitions at leisure,\\nand note every mark that is made upon a\\nsoul that is passing through them.\\nIt does not involve any indignity to the\\npretensions of literature if we walk into\\nthat great bazaar, modern journalism, and\\nsee what is going on there behind the\\ncounters. Here is a factory of popular art.\\nIt is not the whole of letters; but it has\\nan influence on the whole of letters. The\\npress fills the consciousness of the people.\\nA modern community breathes through its\\npress. Journalism, to be sure, is a region\\nof letters, where all the factors for truth are\\nat a special and peculiar discount. Its atten-\\ntion is given to near and ugly things, to\\nmean quarrels, business interests, and spe-\\ncial ends. Every country shows up badly\\nhere. The hypocrisy of the press is the\\nworst thing in England. It is the worst\\nexhibition of England s worst fault. The\\npress of France gives you France at her\\nweakest. The press of America gives you\\nAmerica at her cheapest. Perhaps the study\\nof journalism in any country would illus-\\ntrate the peculiar vices of that country; and\\nit is fair to remember this in examining our\\n87", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0101.jp2"}, "102": {"fulltext": "PRACTICAL AGITx^TION\\nown press. But examine it we must, for it\\nis important.\\nThe subject includes more than the daily\\nnewspapers. Those ephemeral sheets that\\nflutter from the table into the waste-paper\\nbasket, which are something more than mere\\nnewspapers and less than magazines, and\\nthe magazines themselves, which are more\\nthan budgets of gossip and less than books,\\nmake up a perpetual rain of paper and ink.\\nThousands of people are engaged in writing\\nthem, and millions in reading them. This\\nwhole species of literature is typical of the\\nage; let us see how it is conducted.\\nA journal is a meeting-place between the\\nforces of intellect and of commerce. The\\nmen who become editors always bear some\\nrelation to the intellectual interests of the\\ncountry. They make money, but they make\\nit by understanding the minds of people\\nwho are not taking money, but thought,\\nfrom the exchanges that the editors set up.\\nA magazine or a newspaper is a shop. Each\\nis an experiment and represents a new focus,\\na new ratio between commerce and intellect.\\nEven trade journals have columns devoted\\nto general information and jokes. The one\\nthing a journal must have in order to be a\\njournal is circulation. It must be carried\\nSB", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0102.jp2"}, "103": {"fulltext": "LITERATURE\\ninto people s houses, and this is brought\\nabout by an impulse in the buyer. The\\nbuyer has many opinions and modes of\\nthought that he does not draw from the\\njournal, and he is always ready to drop a\\njournal that offends him. An editor is thus\\nconstantly forced to choose between affront-\\ning his public and placating his public.\\nNow, whatever arguments may be given for\\nhis taking one course or the other, it re-\\nmains clear that in so far as an editor is not\\npublishing what he himself thinks of inter-\\nest for its own sake, he is encouraging in the\\npublic something else besides intellect. He\\nis subserving financial, political, or reli-\\ngious bias, or, it may be, popular whim.\\nHe is, to this extent at least, the custodian\\nand protector of prejudice.\\nThe thrift of an editor-owner, who is\\nbuilding up the circulation of a paper, tends\\nto keep him conservative. Repetition is\\nsafer than innovation. An especially strong\\ntemptation is spread before the American\\neditor in the shape of an enormous reading\\npublic, made up of people who have a com-\\nmon-school education, and who resemble\\neach other very closely in their traits of\\nmind. There is money to be made by\\nany one who discerns a new way of re-\\n89", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0103.jp2"}, "104": {"fulltext": "PRACTICAL AGITATION\\ninforcing any prejudice of the American\\npeople.\\nIt has come about very naturally during\\nthe last thirty years, that journalism has\\nbeen developed in America as one of the\\nbranches in the science of catering to the\\nmasses on a gigantic scale. The different\\nkinds of conservatism have been banked,\\nconsolidated, and, as it were, marshalled\\nunder the banners of as many journals.\\nMoney and energy have been expended in\\ncollecting these vast audiences, and sleepless\\nvigilance is needed to keep them together.\\nThe great investments in the good will\\nof millions are nursed by editors who live\\nby their talents, and who in another age\\nwould have been intellectual men. The\\nhighest type of editor now extant in America\\nwill as frankly regret his own obligation to\\ncater to mediocrity, as the business man will\\nregret his obligation to pay blackmail, or as\\nthe citizen will regret his obligation to vote\\nfor one of the parties. There is nothing\\nelse to do. I am dealing with the money of\\nothers. There are not enough intelligent\\npeople to count. He serves the times.\\nThe influence thus exerted by the public\\n(through the editor) upon the writer tends to\\nmodify the writer and make him resemble\\n90", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0104.jp2"}, "105": {"fulltext": "LITERATURE\\nthe public. It is a spiritual pressure exerted\\nby the majority in favor of conformity. This\\nexists in all countries, but is peculiarly\\nsevere in countries and ages where the\\nmajority is made up of individuals very\\nsimilar to each other. The tyranny of\\na uniform population always makes itself\\nfelt.\\nIf any man doubt the hide-bound char-\\nacter of our journals to-day, let him try this\\nexperiment. Let him write down what he\\nthinks upon any matter, write a story of\\nany length, a poem, a prayer, a speech.\\nLet him assume, as he writes it, that it can-\\nnot be published, and let him satisfy his\\nindividual taste in the subject, size, mood,\\nand tenor of the whole composition. Then\\nlet him begin his peregrinations to find in\\nwhich one of the ten thousand journals of\\nAmerica there is a place for his ideas as\\nthey stand. We have more journals than\\nany other country. The whole field of ideas\\nhas been covered; every vehicle of opinion\\nhas its policy, its methods, its precedents.\\nA hundred will receive him if he shaves\\nthis, pads that, cuts it in half; but not one\\nof them will trust him as he stands, Good,\\nbut eccentric, Good, but too long, Good,\\nbut new.\\n91", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0105.jp2"}, "106": {"fulltext": "PRACTICAL AGITATION\\nLet us folldw the steps of this withering\\ninfluence. A young illustrator does an etch-\\ning that he likes. He is told to reduce it\\nto the conventional standard. This is easy,\\nbut what is happening in the process.? He\\nblurs the fine edges of vision, not only on\\nthe plate, but in his own mind. The real\\ninjury to intellect is not done in the edito-\\nrial sanctum. It is done in the mind of the\\nwriter who himself attempts to cater to the\\nprejudice of others. A man rewrites a scene\\nin a story to please a public. In order to\\ndo this he is obliged to forget what his story\\nwas about. He is talking by rote; he is\\nmaking an imitation. Does this seem a\\nsmall thing? Let any one do it once and\\nsee where it leads him. The attitude of the\\nwhole human being towards his whole life\\nis changed by the experience. Do it twice,\\nand you can hardly shake off the practice.\\nWrite and publish six editorials for the\\nUniversalist, and then sit down to write\\none not in the style of the Universalist.\\nYou will find it, practically, an impossibility.\\nThe notable lack in our literature is this:\\nthe prickles and irregularities of personal\\nfeeling have been pumice-stoned away. It\\nis too smooth. There is an absence of\\nindividuality, of private opinion. This is\\n92", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0106.jp2"}, "107": {"fulltext": "LITERATURE\\nthe same lack that curses our politics,\\nthe absence of private opinion.\\nThe sacrifice in political life is honesty,\\nin literary life is intellect; but the closer\\nyou examine honesty and intellect the more\\nclearly they appear to be the same thing.\\nSuppose that a judge, in order to please a\\nboss, awards Parson Jones cow to Deacon\\nBrown; does he boldly admit this even to\\nhimself.? Never. Rewrites an able opin-\\nion in which he befogs his intelligence, and\\nconvinces himself that he has arrived at his\\naward by logical steps. In like manner,\\nthe revising editor who reads with the eyes\\nof the farmer s daughter begins to lose his\\nown. He is extinguishing some sparks of\\ninstructive reality which would offend and\\nbenefit the farmer s daughter; and he is\\nobliterating a part of his own mind with\\nevery stroke of his blue pencil. He is de-\\nvitalizing literature by erasing personality.\\nHe does this in the money interests of a\\nsyndicate but the debasing effect upon char-\\nacter is the same as if it were done at the\\ndictate of the German Emperor. The harm\\ndone in either case is intellectual.\\nTake another example. A reporter writes\\nup a public meeting, but colors it with the\\ncreed of his journal. Can he do this accept-\\n93", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0107.jp2"}, "108": {"fulltext": "PRACTICAL AGITATION\\nably without abjuring his own senses? He\\nis competing with men whose every energy\\nis bent on seeing the occasion as the news-\\npaper wishes it seen. Consider the immense\\ndifficulty of telling the truth on the witness\\nstand, and judge whether good reporting is\\neasy. The newspaper trade, as now con-\\nducted, is prostitution. It mows down the\\nboys as they come from the colleges. It\\ndefaces the very desire for truth, and leaves\\nthem without a principle to set a clock\\nby. They grow to disbelieve in the reality\\nof ideas. But these are our future literati,\\nour poets and essayists, our historians and\\npublicists.\\nThe experts who sit in the offices of the\\njournals of the country have so long used\\ntheir minds as commercial instruments, that\\nit never occurs to them to publish or not\\npublish anything, according to their personal\\nviews. They do not know that every time\\nthey subserve prejudice they are ruining\\nintellect. If there were an editor who had\\nany suspicion of the way the world is put\\ntogether, he would respect talent as he\\nrespects honor. It would be impossible for\\nhim to make his living by this traffic. If\\nhe knew what he was doing, he would prefer\\npenury.\\n94", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0108.jp2"}, "109": {"fulltext": "LITERATURE\\nThese men, then, have not the least idea\\nof the function they fulfil. No more has\\nthe agent of the Insurance Company who\\ncorrupts a legislature. The difference in\\ndegree between the two iniquities is enor-\\nmous, because one belongs to that region in\\nthe scale of morality which is completely\\nunderstood, and the other does not. We do\\nnot excuse the insurance agent; we will not\\nallow him to plead ignorance. He commits\\na penal offence. We will not allow selfish-\\nness to trade upon selfishness and steal from\\nthe public in this form. But what law can\\nprotect the public interest in the higher\\nfaculties? What statute can enforce artistic\\ntruth\\nWe actually forbid a man by statute to\\nsell his vote, because a vote is understood\\nto be an opinion, a thing dependent on\\nrational and moral considerations. You\\ncannot buy and sell it without turning it\\ninto something else. The exercise of that\\ninfinitesimal fraction of public power repre-\\nsented by one man s vote is hedged about\\nwith penalties because the logic of practi-\\ncal government has forced us to see its im-\\nportance. But the harm done to a community\\nby the sale of a vote does not follow by\\nvirtue of the statute, but by virtue of a law\\n95", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0109.jp2"}, "110": {"fulltext": "PRACTICAL AGITATION\\nof influence of which the statute is the\\nrecognition. The same law governs the\\nsale of any opinion, whether it be conveyed\\nin a book review or in a political speech,\\nin a picture of life and manners, a poem, a\\nnovel, or an etching. There is no depart-\\nment of life in which you can lie for private\\ngain without doing harm. The grosser\\nforms of it give us the key to the subtler\\nones, and the jail becomes the symbol of\\nthat condition into which the violation of\\ntruth will shut any mind.\\nSo far as any man comes directly in con-\\ntact with the agencies of organized litera-\\nture, let him remember that his mind is at\\nstake. They can change you, but you cannot\\nchange them, except by changing the pub-\\nlic they reflect. The faculties of man are\\nas strong as steel if properly used, but they\\nare like the down on a peach if improperly\\nused. What shall a man take in exchange\\nfor his soul.? No man has the privilege\\nupon this earth of being more than one\\nperson. In this matter of expression, it is\\nthe last ten per cent of accuracy that saves\\nor sells you. Talent evaporates as easily as\\na delegate holds his tongue or a lawyer\\nsmiles to a rich man; and the injury is\\nirremediable. Let a man not alter a line or\\n96", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0110.jp2"}, "111": {"fulltext": "LITERATURE\\ncut a paragraph at the suggestion of an\\neditor. Those are the very words that are\\nvaluable. Ah, you say, but I need\\ncriticism. Then go to a critic. Consult\\nthe man who is farthest away from this\\ninfluence, some one who cannot read the\\nmagazines, some one who does not have to\\nread them. Your public, when you get one,\\nwill qualify the general public; but you\\nmust reach it as a whole man. The writer s\\ncourse is easy compared to that of the\\nreform politician, because printing is cheap.\\nHe will get heard immediately. He covers\\nthe whole of the United States while the\\nother is canvassing a ward. Literary self-\\nassertion is as much needed as any of the\\nvirtue we pray for in politics. A resonant\\nand unvexed independence makes a man s\\nwords stir the fibres in other men and it\\nmatters little whether you label his words\\nliterature or politics.\\nThe difficulty in any revolt against cus-\\ntom, the struggle a man has in getting his\\nmind free from the cobwebs of restraint,\\nalways turns out to involve financial dis-\\ntress; and this holds true of the writer s\\nattempt to override the senseless restrictions\\nof the press. The magazines pay hand-\\nsomely, and pay at once. A writer must\\n7 97", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0111.jp2"}, "112": {"fulltext": "PRACTICAL AGITATION\\nearn his bread; a man must support his\\nfamily. We accept this necessity with such\\na hearty concurrence, and the necessity\\nitself becomes so sacred, that it seems to\\nimply an answer to all ethical and artistic\\nquestions. We almost think that nature\\nwill connive at malpractice done in so good\\na cause as the support of a family. The\\nsubject must be looked at more narrowly.\\nThe spur of poverty is popularly regarded\\nnot only as an excuse for all bad work, but\\nas a prerequisite to all good work. There\\nis a misconception in this wholesale appro-\\npriation of a partial truth. The economic\\nlaws are valuable and suggestive, but they\\nare founded on the belief that a man will\\npursue his own business interests exclu-\\nsively. This is never entirely true even in\\ntrade, and the doctrines of the economists\\nbecome more and more misleading when\\napplied to fields of life where the money\\nmotive becomes incidental. The law of\\nsupply and demand does not govern the pro-\\nduction of sonnets.\\nLet us lay aside theory and observe the\\neffects of want upon the artist and his work.\\nAs a stimulus to the whole man, a prod to\\nget him into action and keep him active,\\nthe spur of poverty is a blessing. But if it\\n98", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0112.jp2"}, "113": {"fulltext": "LITERATURE\\nenter into the detail of his attention, while\\nhe is at work, it is damnation.\\nA man at work is like a string that is\\nvibrating. Touch it with a feather and it is\\nnumb. A singer will sing fiat if he sees a\\nfriend in the audience. Even a trained and\\ncold-blooded lawyer who is trying a case,\\nwill not be at his best if he is watched by\\nsome one whom he wants to impress.\\nThe artist is the easiest of all men to\\nupset. He is dealing with subtle and fluid\\nthings, memories, allusions, associations.\\nIt is all gossamer and sunlight when he\\nbegins. It is to be gossamer and sunlight\\nwhen he is finished. But in the interim it\\nis bricks and mortar, rubble and white lead.\\nAnd the writer I do not say that he must\\nbe more free from cares than the next man\\nbut he must not let into the mint and\\nforge of his thought some immaterial and\\npetty fact about himself, for this will make\\nhim self-conscious. Consider how ingenuous,\\nhow unexpected, how natural is good con-\\nversation. At one moment you have nothing\\nto say, at the next a vista of ideas has\\nopened. They come crowding in, and the\\ntelling of them reveals new vistas. It is\\nthe same with the writer. In the process\\nof writing the story is made. There is\\n99", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0113.jp2"}, "114": {"fulltext": "PRACTICAL AGITATION\\nreally nothing to say or do in the world\\nuntil you make your start, and then the sig-\\nnificance begins to steam out of the mate-\\nrials. And here, in the act and heat of\\ncreation, to have the cold fear thrust in, I\\ncannot use that phrase because the editor\\nwill think it too strong, is enough to chill\\nthe brain of Rabelais. Human nature can-\\nnot stand such handling. Do this to a man\\nand you break his spirit. He becomes\\ntame, calculating, and ingenious. His\\npowers are frozen.\\nIt is impossible not to see in contem-\\nporary journalism a slaughter-house for\\nmind. Here we have a great whale that\\nbrowses on the young and eats them by thou-\\nsands. This is the seamy side of popular\\neducation. The low level of the class at\\nthe dame s school keeps the bright boys\\nback and makes dunces of them.\\nWe have been dealing in all this matter\\nwith one of the deepest facts of life, to wit,\\nthe influence that society at large has in\\ncutting down and narrowing the develop-\\nment of the individual. The newspaper\\nbusiness displays the whole operation very\\nvividly; but we may see the same thing\\nhappening in the other walks of life. There\\narrives a time in the career of most men\\nlOO", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0114.jp2"}, "115": {"fulltext": "LITERATURE\\nwhen their powers become fixed. Men seem\\nto expand to definite shapes, like those\\nJapanese cuttings that open out into flowers\\nand plants when you drop them into warm\\nwater. After reaching his saturation point\\neach man fills his niche in society and\\nchanges little. He goes on doing whatever\\nhe was engaged upon at the time he touched\\nhis limit.\\nWe almost believe that every man has\\nhis predestinate size and shape, and that\\nsome obscure law of growth arrests one man\\nat thirty and the next at forty years of age.\\nThis is partly true; but the law is not\\nobscure. It is not because the men stop\\ngrowing that they repeat themselves, but\\nthey stop growing because they repeat them-\\nselves. They cease to experiment; they\\ncease to search. The lawyer adopts routine\\nmethods; the painter follows up his suc-\\ncess with an imitation of his success; the\\nwriter finds a recipe for style or plot. Every\\none saves himself the trouble of re-examin-\\ning the contents of his own mind. He has\\nthe best possible reason for doing this.\\nThe public will not pay for his experiments\\nas well as it will for his routine work. But\\nthe laws of nature are deaf to his reasons.\\nResearch is the price of intellectual growth.\\nlOI", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0115.jp2"}, "116": {"fulltext": "PRACTICAL AGITATION\\nIf you face the problems of life freshly and\\nsquarely each morning, you march. If you\\naccept any solution as good enough, you\\ndrop.\\nFor there is no finality and ending place\\nto intellect. Examine any bit of politics,\\nany law-case, or domestic complication,\\nuntil you understand your own reasons for\\nfeeling as you do about it. Then write the\\nmatter down carefully and conclusively, and\\nyou will find that you have done no more\\nthan restate the problem in a new form.\\nThe more complete your exposition, the\\nmore loudly it calls for new solution. The\\nmasterly analysis of Tolstoi, his accurate\\nexplanations, his diagnosis and dissection of\\nhuman life, leave us with a picture of soci-\\nety that for unsolved mystery competes with\\nthe original. But the point lies here. You\\nmust lay bare your whole soul in the state-\\nment you make. You must resolutely set\\ndown everything that touches the matter.\\nUntil you do this, the question refuses to\\nassume its next shape. You cannot flinch\\nand qualify in your first book, and speak\\nplainly in your second.\\nIt is the act of utterance that draws out\\nthe powers in a man and makes him a master\\nof his own mind. Without the actual experi-\\nI02", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0116.jp2"}, "117": {"fulltext": "LITERATURE\\nence of writing Lohengrin, Wagner could\\nnot have discovered Parsifal. The works of\\nmen who are great enough to get their whole\\nthought uttered at each deliverance, form a\\nprogression like the deductions of a mathe-\\nmatician. These men are never satisfied\\nwith a past accomplishment. Their eyes\\nare on questions that beckon to them from\\nthe horizon. Their faculties are replenished\\nwith new energy because they seek. They\\nare driving their ploughs through a sea of\\nthought, intent, unresting, resourceful, cre-\\native. They are discoverers, and just to the\\nextent that lesser men are worth anything\\nthey are discoverers too.\\nBeauty and elevation flash from the cur-\\nrents set up by intense speculation. Beauty\\nis not the aim of the writer. His aim must\\nbe truth. But beauty and elevation shine\\nout of him while he is on the quest. His\\nmind is on the problem and as he unravels\\nit and displays it, he communicates his own\\nspirit, as it were incidentally, as it were\\nunwittingly, and this is the part that goes\\nout from him and does his work in the\\nworld.\\n103", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0117.jp2"}, "118": {"fulltext": "V\\nPRINCIPLES\\nSpeech is a very small part of human inter-\\ncourse. Indeed speech is often not con-\\nnected with the real currents of intercourse.\\nA comic actor has made you happy before\\nhe has uttered a word. This is by the\\nresponsive vibration of your apparatus to\\nhis. The external speech and gesture help\\nthe transfer of power, and that is all they\\ndo. The communion, upon whatever plane\\nof being it takes place, is a contagion, and\\ngoes forward by leaps and darts, like the\\naction of frost on a window-pane. An angry\\nfriend comes into my room, and before he\\nhas uttered a word I am in a blaze of\\nanger. A baby too young to speak docs\\nsome naughty thing. I remonstrate with\\nhim in a rational way. Pcrliaps I repeat to\\nhim Kant s maxim from the Critique of Prac-\\ntical Reason. The child understands at once\\nand is grateful for the treatment. Now, ob-\\nserve this, that if I said the same thing to a\\n104", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0118.jp2"}, "119": {"fulltext": "PRINCIPLES\\ngrown man in the same tone, it would be to\\nthe tone and not to the argument that he\\nwould respond.\\nThe exchange of energy between man and\\nman is so rapid that language becomes a\\nbystander. It is like the passage of the\\nelectrical current, we receive an impres-\\nsion or a message, or twenty messages at\\nonce. All this is the result of suggestion\\nand inference. No strange phenomenon is\\nhere alluded to. The situation is the nor-\\nmal and constant situation whenever two\\nhuman beings meet. The only mystery\\nabout it is that our senses should be so\\nmuch more acute than we knew. Ask a\\nman to dinner and talk to him about the\\nSuez Canal, and the next morning your wife\\nwill be apt to give a truer account of him\\nthan you can give. She has been knitting\\nin the corner and thinking about the best\\nplace to buy children s shoes, but she knows\\nwhich coils in her brain have been played\\nupon by the brain of the stranger. The\\nreason your wife knows that your Suez friend\\nis no saint, is that she feels that certain\\nstrings of the benevolent harp that is sound-\\ning in herself are not being reinforced.\\nThere are dead notes in him.\\nThe sensitiveness of children is so com-", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0119.jp2"}, "120": {"fulltext": "PRACTICAL AGITATION\\nmon a thing that we forget its explanation.\\nIt is just because the child cannot follow\\nthe argument, that he is free from the illu-\\nsion that the argument is the main point.\\nThe lobes of his brain get a shock and re-\\nspond to it ingenuously.\\nThese facts have been neglected by phi-\\nlosophers, because the facts defy formula-\\ntion. You cannot get them into a statement.\\nThey are life. But in the practical, worka-\\nday world, they have always been understood.\\nMen of action owe their success to the habit\\nof using their minds and bodies in a direct\\nway. Men in every profession rely upon the\\naccuracy of direct impressions. The great\\ndoctor, or the great general, or the great\\nbusiness man uses the whole of his sensi-\\nbilities in each act of reading a man. There\\nis no other way to read him correctly. Peo-\\nple whose brains are preoccupied with for-\\nmulated knowledge are not apt to be as good\\njudges of character as spontaneous persons.\\nTheir thoughts are on logic. They follow\\nwhat is said. A very small fraction of them\\nis alive. They are like chess-players who\\nare not listening to the opera.\\nThe answer to any question in psychology\\nalways lies under our hand. We have only\\nto ask what the normal man does. It will\\nio6", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0120.jp2"}, "121": {"fulltext": "PRINCIPLES\\nbe found that he uses his faculties according\\nto their nature, though it may be, he is\\nembryonic and inarticulate. We speak of\\ngreat men as simple, because they retain\\na sensitiveness to immediate impressions\\nvery common in uneducated persons and in\\nchildren. Their thought subserves the direct\\ncurrents of suggestion. Their instincts rule\\nthem. Their minds serve them. They are\\ngreat because of this power to read the\\nthoughts of others through the pores of their\\nskin, and answer blindfold to unuttered ap-\\npeals, whether of weakness or of strength.\\nTo do this means intellect, whether in\\nNapoleon or Gladstone. Every pianist and\\npublic speaker, every actor and singer knows\\nthat his whole art consists in getting his\\nintellectual apparatus into focus, so that the\\nvibrations of his formulated thought shall\\ncorrespond and fall in with the direct and\\nspontaneous vibrations of his audience.\\nThis is truth, this is the discovery of law,\\nthis is art.\\nMen are profound and complicated crea-\\ntures, and when any one of them expresses\\nthe laws of his construction and reveals his\\nown natural history, he is called a genius.\\nBut he is a genius solely because he is\\ncomprehensible, and others say of him, I\\n107", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0121.jp2"}, "122": {"fulltext": "PRACTICAL AGITATION\\nam like that. His suggestions carry. Their\\nextreme subtlety baffles analysis, just as the\\nsuggestions of real life baffle analysis. The\\nmiracle of reality in art is due to refine-\\nment of suggestion. We cannot follow its\\nsteps or say how it is done. We see only\\nthe idea. Shakespeare gives you all the\\nmeaning, and none of the means. This is\\nfirst-class artificial communication. It al-\\nmost competes with the every-day, common-\\nplace, familiar transfer of the incommunicable\\nessence of life from man to man.\\nOur present problem is, how to influence\\npeople for their good. It is clear that when\\nyou and another man meet, the personal\\nequation is the controlling thing. If you\\nare more high-minded than he, the way to\\ninfluence him is to stick to your own beliefs;\\nfor they alone can keep you high-minded.\\nThey alone can make you vibrate. It is\\nthey and not you that will do the work.\\nThere you stand, and there he stands; and\\nyou can only qualify him by the ideas that\\ncontrol you. It makes no difference whether\\nyou are an emperor and he a peasant, or you\\na Good Government Club man and he a mer-\\nchant, the same forces are at work. Shift\\nyour ground, and he feels the shift; you are\\nencouraging him to be shifty, like yourself.\\nio8", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0122.jp2"}, "123": {"fulltext": "PRINCIPLES\\nWhat can you do for him except to follow\\nyour conscience? But this is equally true\\nof every meeting of all men everywhere.\\nYou address a labor meeting and talk about\\nthe Philippines. You meet the Turkish\\nAmbassador and talk about Kipling s poems.\\nYou talk to your son about kite-flying. To\\neach of these contacts with another s mind\\nyou bring the same power. If you start with\\nthe psychical value of 6, no matter what you\\ndo, a cross-section of your whole activity in\\nthe world will at any instant of time read 6.\\nIt may be that a page of ciphering cannot\\nexpress the formula, but it will mean 6.\\nThe immense amount of thought that\\nman has given, during the last few thousand\\nyears, to his social arrangements and his\\ndestiny, has filled our minds with tangled\\nformulas, and has attached our affection to\\nparticular matters. The pomp of preambles\\nand the stress of language stun us. There\\nis so much of organized society. There are\\nso many good ends. If there were only one\\nman in the world, we know that it would be\\nimpossible to do good to him by suggesting\\nevil. We know that if we gave him a hint\\nthat contained both good and evil, the good\\nwould do him good, and the evil, evil. If we\\nwere bent on nothing but benefit, we should\\n109", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0123.jp2"}, "124": {"fulltext": "PRACTICAL AGITATION\\nhave to confine ourselves to suggestions of\\nunalloyed virtue. But the world is such a\\ntangle of personalities, that we do not hesi-\\ntate to mix a little evil in the good we do,\\nhoping that the evil will not be operative.\\nWe half believe that there may, somewhere\\nin the community, be a hitch in the multipH-\\ncation table that brings out good for evil.\\nLiberty and democracy are thought to be\\nsuch worthy ends, that we must obtain them\\nby any means and all means, even by hiring\\nmercenaries. Can we wonder that in the\\npast, men s minds were staggered by the im-\\nportance of a papacy or of some dynastic suc-\\ncession. To-day ever3^body jumps to shield\\nvice because it is called republicanism or\\ndemocracy. The irony of history could go\\nno further.\\nLet us consider our local reforms by the\\nlight of these views. Civil service laws,\\nballot-reform, elections, taxation, dissolve\\nall these into acts and impulses, and see\\nwhether the laws of human influence do not\\nmake a short cut through them all, like\\nX-rays. No matter what I talk about to the\\nEmperor, I am really conveying to him by\\nsuggestion a tendency to become as good or\\nas bad a man as I myself. Chinese Gordon\\nturned a dynamo of personal force upon the\\nno", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0124.jp2"}, "125": {"fulltext": "PRINCIPLES\\nOrientals, and they understood him. He\\nwas talking religion, and he gave it to them\\nstraight. Now all religion, as everybody\\nknows, is purely a matter of suggestion.\\nBut so is all other intercourse. We want\\nhonesty. Well, what makes people honest\\nHonesty. Does anything else spread the\\ninfluence of honesty, except honesty. Are\\nwe here facing a scientific fact? Is this a\\nlaw of the transference of human energy, or\\nis it not If it is, you cannot beat it. You\\ncannot imagine any situation where your\\nown total force, in favor of honesty, will\\nconsist of anything else than honesty. Of\\ncourse you may put a case where honesty\\nwill result in somebody s death. If in that\\ncase, you want his life, why, lie. But what\\nyou will get will be his life, not the spread\\nof honesty. If the event is chronicled, you\\nwill find it used as a means of justifying\\ndishonesty forever afterwards.\\nWe do not want any of these reforms\\nexcept as a means of stimulating character,\\nand it is a law of nature that character can\\nonly be stimulated directly. Sincerity is the\\nonly need, courage the all-sufficing virtue.\\nWe can dump them into every occasion, and\\nsleep sound at night. What interest can\\nany rational man have in our municipal\\nIII", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0125.jp2"}, "126": {"fulltext": "PRACTICAL AGITATION\\nissues except as a grindstone on which to\\nwhet the people s moral sense? How is it\\npossible to deceive ourselves into looking\\nat our own political activity from any other\\nstandpoint than this You are to make a\\nspeech at Cooper Union on ballot reform.\\nSomebody says, Do not mention the liquor\\nquestion or you will lose votes. But some\\nphase of that question seems to you perti-\\nnent and important. Shall you omit and\\nsubmit That would be an odd way of\\nstimulating character. The need of the\\ntimes is not ballot laws but sincerity. The\\nmaximum that any man can do toward\\nthe spread of sincerity is to display it him-\\nself.\\nAll the virtues spread themselves by\\ndirect propagation and the vices likewise.\\nOur people are deficient in righteous indig-\\nnation. When you see a man righteously\\nindignant, rejoice; this is the seed, this\\nthe force. Nothing else will arouse courage\\nbut courage, faith but faith. You see, for\\ninstance, a knot of men who are really indig-\\nnant at the injustice of the times. But\\ntheir indignation seems to you a danger;\\nbecause it is likely to defeat some candi-\\ndate, some pet measure of yours. You wish\\nto allay it. You wish yourself well rid of\\n112", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0126.jp2"}, "127": {"fulltext": "PRINCIPLES\\nthis sacred indignation it is inconvenient.\\nOpen your eyes to the light of science.\\nHere is a spark of that fire with which\\neverybody ought to be filled. All your\\nscheming was only for the purpose of get-\\nting this fire. Then foment it.\\nVirtue then, is a mode of motion, or it is\\nan attitude of mind in a human organism,\\nwhich enables that organism to transmit\\nvirtue to others. But vice is also a mere\\nattitude of mind by which vice is trans-\\nmitted. We know less about the natural\\nhistory of vice than we do of dipsomania\\nand consumption but we know this much,\\nthat the vices are co-related, and breed one\\nanother in transitu; the tendency being\\ntowards lighter forms in the later catchers.\\nAvoid another s guilty side, and you rein-\\nforce it sympathize with it, and you catch\\nhis disease, or some disease. I have held\\nhands with my friend (who is in the wrong)\\nover his family troubles, and it has given\\nme the distemper for a week. The German\\nactor, Devrient, went mad while studying\\nthe inmates of asylums, as a preparation to\\nplaying King Lear. It was not the liv-\\ning in asylums that drove him mad, but\\nhis sympathetic attitude toward the disease.\\nThis exposed him. Why is it we commend\\n8 113", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0127.jp2"}, "128": {"fulltext": "PRACTICAL AGITATION\\nthe man whose antagonism to crooked work\\nis so great that he shows a tempter the door\\nbefore he has finished his proposition Par-\\nleying is not only a danger; it is the begin-\\nning of the trouble itself.\\nIt is very difficult and very odious offend-\\ning people, by forcing them to see in which\\ndirection our wheels really go round; and\\nyet the alternative is to have our machinery\\nforced back to a standstill. We are inter-\\nlocked with other people and cannot break\\nfree. We are held in place by fate, and\\nplayed upon against our will. When you\\nsee cruelty going on before you, you are put\\nto the alternative of interposing to stop it, or\\nof losing your sensibility. There is a law\\nof growth here involved. It is inexorable.\\nYou are at the mercy of it. You wish your-\\nself elsewhere, but you are here; you are sl\\nmere illustration of pitiless and undying\\nforce. The part you take, may run through\\na fit of bad temper or malice. It m\u00e2\u0080\u009eay turn\\nto covetousness or conceit, who can tell?\\nSome poison has entered your eye because\\nyou looked negligently upon corruption. It\\nwill cost you some part of your sense of\\nsmell. Use or lose, says Nature when\\nshe gives us capacities. What you condone,\\nyou support what you neglect, you confirm.\\n114", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0128.jp2"}, "129": {"fulltext": "PRINCIPLES\\nIt is true that your confirmation and sup-\\nport are managed through the mechanism of\\nblindness. All the evil in the world re-\\nceives its chief support from the people\\nwhose only connection with it is that they\\ndo not fight it, nor see it. Where politics is\\ninvolved scarcely a man in America knows\\nthe difference between right and wrong.\\nOur mayoralty contest five years ago would\\nhave left Lot searching for a man who could\\ntell black from white. It was a clear moral\\nissue. But it arose in politics: we could\\nnot see it. That we have intellectual\\ncataract is entirely due to the habit of con-\\ndoning embezzlement. It is a secondary\\nform of the endemic theft, caught by the\\nby-standers. The best people in town had\\nit. If they had been lifting their hands\\nagainst theft during the preceding years,\\nthey never would have caught it.\\nOf course we support all the good in the\\nworld, as well as all the evil and the ratio\\nin which we do both changes at every\\nmoment. It radiates forth from us, and is\\nread correctly by every baby as he passes in\\nhis perambulator. Close thinking, and fresh\\nobservation of things too familiar to be\\nnoticed, bring us to this point.\\nNow, just as no complexity of institutions\\n115", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0129.jp2"}, "130": {"fulltext": "PRACTICAL AGITATION\\naffects the transfer of virtue, so none affects\\nthe transfer and propagation of vice. Yes-\\nterday you were all for virtue. You were\\nfor leading a revolution against the bosses,\\nand were ready to work and subscribe and\\nvote. You were a man with the heart of a\\nman. But to-day you are chop-fallen. The\\nthing cannot be done. It is not the year.\\nThe degradation of your character is seen in\\nyour low spirits, and in the jaded and sophis-\\ntical commonplaces you pour forth. I know\\nthe academical reasons for this change in\\nyou. I can express it in terms of ballot-law\\nand civil -service. But what is it that really\\nhas happened\\nThe power that has struck you was focal-\\nized the day before yesterday in the office\\nof some law-broking politicians; and the\\ndirect rays of base passion have struck\\nstraight through stone walls and constitu-\\ntions, and, falling upon you, have stopped\\nyour wheels. In them it was avarice and\\nambition. In you it is doubt. A drowsy\\ninertia overcomes you, a blindness of the\\nwill. That is what has really happened.\\nThe rest is illusion and metaphysical talk.\\nSee, now, the real curse of injustice; it\\ntakes away the sight from the eyes, and\\nthat in a night.\\nii6", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0130.jp2"}, "131": {"fulltext": "PRINCIPLES\\nIs it not perfectly natural that Tammany\\nHall should be everywhere, at all tables, in\\nall churches, in all consciences, when these\\nelectrical currents run between man and\\nman and connect them so easily?\\nI read in the newspaper that a well-known\\nman is at Albany in the interests of a gas\\ndeal. He cannot get his way in the city, and\\nis putting up a job with the legislature. I\\nsee the thing going through, a thing\\nutterly cynical, utterly corrupt. No paper\\nwill explain it because it cannot be ex-\\nplained without names; besides, the names\\nown the papers. Everybody understands it\\nnobody minds it. Is any statute here at\\nfault.-* Will any legislation cure this.^ If\\nthe moral sensibility of our people should\\nbecome tensified by twenty per cent in\\ntwenty-four hours, twenty per cent of all our\\niniquities in every department would cease\\nin forty-eight hours. Government is carried\\non by the lightning of personal suggestion\\nwhich flashes through the community from\\nday to day and from moment to moment.\\nThose things are done which are demanded\\nor are tolerated at the instant they are done.\\nI read in a newspaper that a syndicate has\\nbeen formed to light the city. It is backed\\nby the men who control the city administra-\\n117", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0131.jp2"}, "132": {"fulltext": "PRACTICAL AGITATION\\ntion, and they are now blackmailing the\\nexisting company to its ruin. Can I escape\\nthe knowledge of this thing? Alas, too\\neasily I own stock in it.\\nAt first we think the legislature makes the\\nlaws, then we see it is done by a cabal, then\\nby people behind the cabal, finally by the\\nmillion bonds of popular prejudice which tie\\neach man up with the times.\\nLook closely, take some particular man,\\nand consider why it is that he does not spend\\nhis whole time in fighting for virtue. It\\nwill turn out, that in some form or other, he\\nis a beneficiary of these evils, and has not\\nthe energy to fight them. One man depends\\nupon the status quo for his living, the next\\nis held by affection for his friends, by the\\nties of old prejudice, by inertia, by hope-\\nlessness. Which of them is the more deeply\\ninjured victim of tyranny, the active self-\\nseeker or the listless man, the Tammany boy\\nor the American gentleman t\\nEvery man bears a direct and discoverable\\nshare in the responsibility. A janitor keeps\\nhis place through Tammany influence, a\\nyoung lawyer gets business by keeping his\\nmouth shut. Follow out the lines leading\\nfrom any man, no matter how obscure he is,\\nand they will lead you to the ante-chamber\\nii8", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0132.jp2"}, "133": {"fulltext": "PRINCIPLES\\nwhere gigantic business has its offices, where\\nthe highest functionaries of commerce and\\npolitics meet. The business world is all\\none organization. It is a sort of secret\\nsociety, a great web. No matter where you\\ntouch it, the same spiders come out.\\nThe boss system, then, appears as the\\nvisible part of all the private selfishness in\\nAmerica. It is a great religion of self-\\ninterest, with its hierarchy, its chapels, its\\npropaganda, and its confessors in every home.\\nYou yourself support it. I saw last week, at\\nyour table, a magnate whose business conduct\\nyou deplore, and to-day I heard a young\\nman make the comment, that there was no\\nuse fighting the current so long as social\\ninfluence could be bought. Do not accuse\\nTammany Hall you yourself have corrupted\\nthat young man. So long as you think you\\ncan circumvent the laws of force, you will\\nremain a pillar in the temple of iniquity.\\nBut look closer still at each of those indi-\\nviduals, and see just what it is he is giving\\nas the purchase money. One man gives\\n^25,000 to pay a president s private debts,\\nand goes as minister to England; another\\ngives merely his name to indorse a doubtful\\ncandidate for the assembly, and receives\\nprospective good will from the organization.\\n119", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0133.jp2"}, "134": {"fulltext": "PRACTICAL AGITATION\\nWhat is this great market overt where every\\none can get what he wants The syndicate\\ncan get the franchises, and the aldermen\\nthe cash. No one is too small to be served,\\nor so great as to require nothing. Upon\\nwhat principle is this monstrous bazaar,\\nthis clearing-house for self-interest, con-\\nducted It is as large as the United States\\nthe transcontinental railroads use it and so\\nwell managed that I can get my friend a job\\nas the secretary of a reform movement.\\nWhat is it that makes this universal shop\\nrun so smoothly? It is hooked together\\nsimply on business principles. The price\\nyou pay is always the rubbing of somebody\\nthe right way; the thing you get is advance-\\nment or personal comfort of some sort. It\\nhas happened, that by the operation of com-\\nmercial forces, the whole of America s\\nseventy million people have been polarized\\ninto self-seekers; and our total condition is\\nvisibly Vanity Fair. You can actually fol-\\nlow the rays of power from the individual to\\nthe boss. All the evil in the world is seen\\nto be in league. Embezzlement and lazi-\\nness, selfish ambition and prejudice, cruelty\\nand timidity here openly play into each\\nother s hands, support and console each\\nother. Nay, every atom of vice, every im-\\nI20", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0134.jp2"}, "135": {"fulltext": "PRINCIPLES\\npulse of malice or cupidity, can be shown up\\nas a tendon or a sinew of the great organiza-\\ntion of selfish forces. It is as if a magic\\nglass had been superposed upon the conti-\\nnent, and, looking down through it, upon\\nthe motives of men, all complexity vanished,\\nand we saw all the evil forces pulling one\\nway.\\nThe same thing has always been true in\\nevery society; but the names, powers, super-\\nstitions have been so extremely complicated\\nthat no one could follow the laws of inter-\\nlocking motive, except by inference and\\nprophetic insight. Take the case of a very\\nselfish man fighting his way up through\\nsociety in the reign of Louis XVIII. He\\nmeets a Bourbon influence, an ecclesiastical\\ninfluence, a Napoleonic influence, a republi-\\ncan influence. He grapples with every man\\nhe meets, using the hooks of self-interest in\\nthat man. The forces at work under Louis\\nXVIII. were as simple as with us. Only\\nthe nomenclature is different, and more com-\\nplex. It is easy in America to see the work-\\ning of one man s selfishness upon another s.\\nLet alone the market overt, it is easy to\\ntrace the subtle social relations, when they\\nare for the bad. It was easy to follow the\\neffect of your conduct in asking the dis-\\n121", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0135.jp2"}, "136": {"fulltext": "PRACTICAL AGITATION\\nhonest business magnate to dinner, because\\nthe young man spoke of it. He was shocked\\nand injured. But we also found out by the\\nepisode that before you did the thing, you\\nwere really a factor for good in his life,\\nholding up his conscience and his ideals.\\nThe inexpressible subtlety in the mecha-\\nnism of man makes the transmission of the\\nforce for good as easy as that of the force\\nfor evil. They are of the same character,\\nand very often flow through the same chan-\\nnels. There is no more mystery in the one\\ncase than in the other.\\nConsider what is done in the course of\\nany practical movement for reform. A\\nbad bill is pending at Albany. In order\\nto beat it, a party of men whose char-\\nacters are trusted, get on a train, and the\\nwhole State watches them proceed to Albany.\\nThis is often enough to defeat a measure.\\nThe good their pilgrimage does, is done then\\nand there instantly, by example, by sugges-\\ntion. If, when they get to Albany, they sell\\nout their cause, the harm they do is done\\nthen and there by example, by suggestion.\\nThey make some concession which lessens\\nfriction but suggests Tammany Hall. This\\nis the only part of the transaction that\\nreaches the great public. Ask the laboring\\n122", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0136.jp2"}, "137": {"fulltext": "PRINCIPLES\\nman and he will give you a digest of the\\nwhole episode in a shrug. If a reform can-\\ndidate is running on the platform Thou\\nshalt not steal, and the boss desires to cor-^\\nrupt him, the boss asks him to drop in for a\\nchat. If he goes, every one hears of it the\\nnext day, and every one is a little corrupted\\nhimself. A thousand well-meaning men say\\nhe did right. Had he resisted, these same\\nmen would have cried Bravo and there-\\nafter taken a higher view of human nature.\\nIt is by a succession of such minute shocks\\nof good or bad example that communities are\\naffected. The truth seems to be that our\\nlives are ruled by laws of influence which\\nare in themselves exceedingly direct. But\\nthe operation of them is concealed from us\\nby our preoccupation over details.\\nIt is impossible to regard these matters in\\ntoo simple a light. Nothing is ever in-\\nvolved except the contagious impulse that\\nmakes one man yawn when he sees another\\nman yawn. Both the good and the evil in\\nthe world run upon the winds. Moses\\nhabit of falling upon his face before the\\ncongregation, and calling God to witness\\nthat he could lead them no longer, was not\\na political trick done to frighten the people\\ninto submission by the threat of abandoning\\n123", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0137.jp2"}, "138": {"fulltext": "PRACTICAL AGITATION\\nthem. It was a sincere act of devotion but\\nit was also the most powerful form of appeal.\\nHe did the act; they followed in it, and thus\\nmade him absolute. Lincoln s anecdotes\\nand fables consisted of nothing but sugges-\\ntion. They were one source of his power.\\nThe first thing a tyrant does is to suppress\\ncartoons. Here we have something that is\\noften sheer pantomime, and yet it is one of\\nthe most effective vehicles in the world. It\\nwas the only thing Piatt could not stand.\\nWithin two years he has tried to stop it by\\nlegislation.\\nIf you are to reach masses of people in\\nthis world, you must do it by a sign language.\\nWhether your vehicle be commerce, litera-\\nture, or politics, you can do nothing but\\nraise signals, and make motions to the\\npeople. In literature this is obvious. The\\nmore far-reaching any truth is, the shorter\\ngrow its hieroglyphics. The great truths\\ncan only be given in hints, phrases, and\\nparables. They lie in universal experience,\\nand any comment belittles them. They are\\nlike the magnetic poles that can only be\\npointed out with a needle. Take any pro-\\nfound saying about life, and see if it does\\nnot imply short-hand, a sort of telegraphy\\nas the ordinary means of communication be-\\n124", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0138.jp2"}, "139": {"fulltext": "PRINCIPLES\\ntween men. He that loseth his Hfe shall\\nsave it. Here we have a poem, a system of\\nethics and a psychology. Or take any bit\\nof worldly wisdom, Money talks. Here we\\nhave the whole philosophy of materialism.\\nDoes any one imagine that political bar-\\ngains are reduced to writing. It would be\\ninjurious to the conscience. They are made\\nby the merest hints on all sides. Every one\\nis left free.\\nThe extreme case of the power of sugges-\\ntion is seen in the stock-market, where a\\nrumor that Banker A has dined with Rail-\\nroad President B drives values up or down.\\nCleveland s Venezuela message makes a\\npanic. The different parts of the financial\\nworld live, from day to day, in instantaneous\\nand throbbing communication. This is one\\nside of the popular life. Its thermometer\\nis sensitive, and records one thousandth of\\na degree as readily as the political ther-\\nmometer records a single degree. But the\\nprinciple is the same. All the people run\\nthe stock-market, and all the people run\\npolitics. There has never been any diffi-\\nculty in reaching the whole people with\\nideas. Even a private man can do it. But\\nhe must act them out.\\n125", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0139.jp2"}, "140": {"fulltext": "VI\\nPRINCIPLES {continued).\\nSuppose a small child steals jam in the\\npantry. So long as he pretends that he did\\nnot do it, or did not know it was wrong, he\\nsuffers a certain oppression.\\nYou can explain to an intelligent child\\nthat if he tells the whole truth about the\\nthing, the telling will cost him pain and\\nleave him happy. But you cannot save him\\nthe pain. So long as he persists in lying,\\nsome of his faculties lie under an inhibition;\\nthe vital energies flow past them instead of\\nthrough them. The first shock of a through\\npassage gives a spasm of pain, and then the\\nchild is happy. It is one of the facts of the\\nworld that moral awakening is accompanied\\nby pain.\\nThe quarrel that the world has with its\\nagitators is that they do really agitate.\\nPeople express this by saying that the men\\nare dangerous or have bad taste. The epi-\\nthets vary with the age. They are intended\\n126", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0140.jp2"}, "141": {"fulltext": "PRINCIPLES\\nto excite public contempt, and they embody\\nthe aversions of society. In a martial age\\nthe reformer is called a molly-coddle; in a\\ncommercial age an incompetent, a disturber\\nof values in a fanatical age, a heretic. If\\nan agitator is not reviled, he is a quack.\\nThese epithets are mere figures of speech.\\nWhat they really express is suffering caused\\nby the workings of conscience. And so\\nin any educational movement that runs\\nacross the country, there is always a track\\nof pain turning to happiness. When we\\nget in the path of one of these things,\\nwe find that the division between con-\\ntending ideas passes through the individual\\nman. It does not fall between men. The\\nstruggle is always the struggle of forces\\nwithin an individual. A is trying to con-\\nvince B. The struggle in A s mind is to\\nmake the matter clear, in B s m.ind to make\\nthe opposite clear. In the course of time\\none view prevails but the struggle continues,\\nfor B occupies A s position and is now strug-\\ngling to convince C. It is in this way that\\na movement runs through a community.\\nThe firing line passes through a series of in-\\ndividuals, and as they succumb, through them\\nto the next.\\nIf you take any particular case of conflict,\\n127", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0141.jp2"}, "142": {"fulltext": "PRACTICAL AGITATION\\nyou will find that the man is divided be-\\ntween two courses, one of which is dis-\\nagreeable because it involves effort and\\nsacrifice and offence. The other is agree-\\nable because it involves personal ease or\\npersonal advancement. The two motives in\\nman result from the structure of his brain,\\nwhose operations we are obliged to accept\\nwe cannot amend them; they are the facts\\nof psychology.\\nIt would seem as if the brain of man were\\nso constituted that at the moment of its\\nfull operation the man himself disappears.\\nHis consciousness becomes wholly occupied\\nwith impersonal interests. Thus, in the\\nprocess of thought, a man begins to see his\\nown personal interests threatened. If he\\ncontinues to think, they must vanish. This\\nis the struggle between right and wrong. It\\nis really a struggle between two attitudes of\\nmind. It is the experience we suffer when\\nthe mind is passing from the self-regardant\\nto the non-self-regardant attitude.\\nPerhaps the discomfort of doing one s duty\\nis an inseparable incident of the storage of\\nenergy, and the pleasure of neglecting one s\\nduty, an incident of the leakage of energy.\\nWhen I get up and poke the fire, because I\\nsee it will go out if I don t, I return to my\\n128", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0142.jp2"}, "143": {"fulltext": "PRINCIPLES\\nchair a more energetic being than I was the\\nmoment before. At any rate, our oscilla-\\ntion between two states of consciousness has\\npreoccupied mankind from the earliest times,\\nand has given rise to all the dualistic phi-\\nlosophies. The great fact as to the reality\\nof the struggle is proved to us, not merely\\nby our own consciousness, but because we\\ncan see the logical results of it everywhere\\nin society.\\nA community is a collection of palpitating\\nanimals. Each of us is one of them, and\\neach of us receives and transmits millions\\nof impressions hourly. We get heard. We\\nhave our exact weight and force. There is\\nno difficulty about our power of intercourse.\\nIndeed it is the thing we cannot get away\\nfrom. No man walks by himself. Between\\nhis feet and the ground are invisible pedals\\nthat play upon, and are played upon by other\\nmen. You cannot live or move except by\\ntransmitting influence. The whole of prac-\\ntical life is made up of contact with the pas-\\nsions of others. A lawyer or a broker is\\nlike an engineer who sits behind his ma-\\nchine, managing its levers and its stopcocks.\\nA trader, a writer, or a philanthropist, a\\nlaborer or a clergyman, does nothing but\\nopen and shut valves in other people. There\\n9 129", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0143.jp2"}, "144": {"fulltext": "PRACTICAL AGITATION\\nis no other way of serving your fellows;\\nthere is no other way of earning your living\\nor of wasting your substance.\\nWe saw that in politics it was impossible\\nto draw a dividing line anywhere in that\\nseries of men whose joint activity and in-\\nactivity held up what we call the evils of\\npolitics. Money interest shaded off into\\nprejudice, and that into mistaken loyalty,\\nand that into indifference. The striking\\ntruth about the whole series was that it\\nshowed different shades of selfishness, lack\\nof energy, and inability to use the mind\\naccurately. So also any unselfish or accu-\\nrate use of his mind by the laborer or by the\\njournalist was, as we saw, apt to throw him\\nout of employment.\\nIn politics and in morals, all that we con-\\ndemn, turns out on inspection to be mere\\nselfishness. But anything in the world that\\nwe dislike, turns out, on inspection, to be\\nself-regardant effort or avoidance of effort.\\nBad art may show the gross selfishness of the\\npot-boiler, or the refined laziness of preju-\\ndice, or the mere weakness that was unable\\nto see the world for itself, and has been\\nforced to see it with some one else s eyes.\\nIt is a makeshift. So of bad carpentry or\\nbad cooking. There is no such special prov-\\n130", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0144.jp2"}, "145": {"fulltext": "PRINCIPLES\\nince in life as morality. Each man regards\\nthat thing as immoral which he sees to be\\nselfish. A proofreader will show the same\\nindignation over a careless job, that a musi-\\ncian shows over a weak phrasing.\\nThe unimaginable subtlety of our compre-\\nhension enables us to detect selfishness in\\narts of whose methods we know nothing;\\nwe read it like large print. To speak accu-\\nrately, all we get from any communication\\nis a transcript, an image, a picture of the\\nauthor s thought, the jar of intellect and\\ncharacter. Is it supposed that communica-\\ntion between men goes forward by ratiocina-\\ntion, or that education is a thing taken in\\nby linear measurement.? Thought cannot\\ncreep, but only fly. It proceeds by the magic\\nof stimulation. A good judge can read a\\ngood brief almost as fast as he can turn the\\npages. If a thing is well put, it is almost\\nour own before it is said. Ideas pass into\\nus so quickly that Plato thought we knew\\nthem in a former existence. This is due to\\nthe subtlety of our apprehension. We are\\nnot satisfied except by an appeal so refined\\nthat our only sensation is one of being made\\nmore alive. Rien ne me choque was\\nChopin s highest praise. What wonder,\\nthen, that we resent the self-sufficiency of\\n131", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0145.jp2"}, "146": {"fulltext": "PRACTICAL AGITATION\\nany inferior mind The whole of life is no\\nmore than a series of pulsations, and all the\\nbooks and Bibles, sign-boards, music-boxes,\\nand telegraph wires are the machinery by\\nwhich in one way or another the mind of\\nman touches the mind of man. The world\\nhas been going on for so long that we have\\nmany such devices, and out of the millions\\nthat have been made, all but the very best get\\ndiscarded as old lumber. These things are\\nthe language of the unselfish force upon the\\nglobe. It is much nearer truth to think of\\nthem as a single influence than as multi-\\nfarious. Their origin and tendency, their\\npractical utility, the veneration in which\\nthey are held, bind them together and make\\nthem one. For the world values the seer\\nabove all men, and has always done so.\\nNay, it values all men in proportion as they\\npartake of the character of seers. The Elgin\\nMarbles and a decision of John Marshall are\\nvalued for the same reason. What we feel\\nin them is a painstaking submission to facts\\nbeyond the author s control, and to ideas\\nimposed upon him by his vision. So\\nwith Beethoven s Symphonies, with Adam\\nSmith s Wealth of Nations, with any\\nconceivable output of the human mind of\\nwhich you approve. You love them because\\n132", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0146.jp2"}, "147": {"fulltext": "PRINCIPLES\\nyou say, These things were not made, they\\nwere seen.\\nThus the forces of an unselfish sort upon\\nthe globe are cumulative. The dead heroes\\nfight on forever, and the dead mathemati-\\ncians expound forever. It is true that the\\norganization of the selfish forces is over-\\nwhelmingly visible, and that of the unselfish\\nones invisible. Napoleon is seen by his\\ncontemporaries; Spinoza is not seen. The\\nreason is simple. The man who wants\\nsomething must have an office address. But\\nthe man who wants nothing for himself, but\\nspends his whole time in so using his mind\\nthat he himself disappears, lives only as an\\ninfluence in the minds of others. He is a\\nsong, a theory, a proposition in algebra.\\nThese two conflicting forms of force are then\\nflashed up and down, forward and back\\nceaselessly, through and across every social\\nmeeting, through and across society. The\\nnovelists and playwrights deal with this\\ninstantaneous interplay of motive; and the\\ntime-honored analysis of self for self on the\\nvillain s side, and sacrifice for principle on\\nthe hero s side is a true thing. It is a fair\\nabstract of the world.\\nYou can illustrate in an instant the imme-\\ndiacy of these two hierarchies of power under\\n133", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0147.jp2"}, "148": {"fulltext": "PRACTICAL AGITATION\\nwhich we live and from which we cannot\\nescape. The selfish ones need not be named\\nthey oppress us. But the unselfish ones are\\nequally near. If you take any bit of poetry\\nor speech or writing that you consider great,\\nand examine it, you will find that it illus-\\ntrates the logical coherence of all the ideas\\nand feelings that make you happy; it is a\\ndigest of a law of influence. Or conversely,\\nif you set about to illustrate some experi-\\nence, and if you can get it profoundly and\\naccurately stated as what you believe to be\\nthe bottom truth, it will turn under your\\nhands into something familiar. If you are\\nsuccessful, it will be a kind of poetry.\\n134", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0148.jp2"}, "149": {"fulltext": "VII\\nCONCLUSION\\nThere is force enough in ordinary sunshine\\nto turn all the mills in the world; and there\\nis beneficent energy enough in any com-\\nmunity to make the people perfectly happy.\\nBut it is cramped and deflected, poisoned\\nby misuse, and turned to hateful ends. The\\nquestion is how to liberate energy.\\nPeople are fond of thinking the millennium\\nis impossible; but so long as happiness is\\ndependent on a right use of the faculties,\\nthere is no reason why the millennium should\\nnot be reached, and that soon or unexpect-\\nedly. We all know individuals so harmoni-\\nously framed that we say, If theirs were\\nthe common temper of mankind, we should\\nbe happy. None of the externals of life,\\nabout which there is so much buffeting, con-\\ntrol the question. Happiness is in a nut-\\nshell. Anybody can have it. You are\\nhappy if you get out of bed on the right side.\\nI can never stop wondering at the awful\\n135", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0149.jp2"}, "150": {"fulltext": "PRACTICAL AGITATION\\nsimplicity of the principle on which mankind\\nis constructed. Little Alice in the Looking-\\nGlass could not reach the porch till she\\nturned her back on it and walked straight\\ninto the door. Renounce the search for\\nhappiness and you find the substance. There\\nis nothing else in the law and the prophets.\\nWe see most men like tee-totums spinning\\nto the left and leading a dismal life. How\\nshall we get their motive power to spin them\\nto the right, and make them happy The\\npractical question is how to use the power\\nof sunlight to turn our mills. How can we\\nhold up a prism to the times that shall dis-\\nintegrate these rays of complex force, and\\nthen adjust a lens that shall focus the powers\\nof good and make them turn the wheels of\\nsociety.? The elements are before us, cease-\\nlessly in motion. iravra pet The most\\nadamantine institutions are cloud palaces.\\nThere is no stability anywhere and if you\\nhave a steady eye you will see that the whole\\nfabric is in a flux. Nor are the changes\\narbitrary. The formations and re-forma-\\ntions are governed by laws as certain as\\nthose of astronomy. Study the changes and\\nyou will find the laws. Subserve the laws\\nand you can affect the formations. Julius\\nCsesar did no more.\\n136", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0150.jp2"}, "151": {"fulltext": "CONCLUSION\\nThe strands of prejudice and passion that\\nbind people together pulsate with life. All\\nthese fellow-citizens are human beings, and\\nthere is no one of them whom we cannot\\nunderstand, reach, influence. The ordinary\\nmodes of intercourse are at hand. Chief\\namong them you find the great machinery of\\ngovernment. It dwarfs every other agency,\\nwhether for good or ill. In America this\\nmachinery was designed to be at the service\\nof anybody. It is an advertising agency for\\nideas, and it is very much more than this;\\nsince the fact that a man is to vote forces\\nhim to think. You may preach to a congre-\\ngation by the year and not affect its thought\\nbecause it is not called upon for definite\\naction. But throw your subject into a cam-\\npaign and it becomes a challenge. You can\\nget assent to almost any proposition so long\\nas you are not going to do anything about it.\\nAnd on the other hand, no amount of verbal\\nproof will justify a new thought until it has\\nbeen put in practice.\\nAlas for ink and paper There is in all\\nspeech and writing a conventional presump-\\ntion that human beings shall be logical, or\\nfixed quantities, or at least coherent crea-\\ntures. For the purposes of an essay or a\\nspeech, you prove your case, and carry weight\\n137", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0151.jp2"}, "152": {"fulltext": "PRACTICAL AGITATION\\naccordingly. If you are very cogent and\\nconclusive, why, you win. Hurrah the\\nworld is saved. But in real life there are no\\nfixed quantities; all the terms are variables.\\nFor example, everybody understands what\\nis meant by the Moral Law. People\\ndiffer only as to the application of that law.\\nNot long ago I heard a sermon on this law,\\nin which great stress was laid on the fact that\\nit was a discovered law whereby the truth\\nprevailed. Any truce with evil meant defeat\\nfor the cause of righteousness. This was\\nthe law of God, tested by experience, and in\\nconstant operation like the law of gravity, a\\nthing you could not escape. The preacher\\npictured the solitary struggle of the great\\nman seeking truth, his proclamation of the\\ntruth, the refusal of the world to receive it,\\nand the prophet s isolation and apparent\\nfailure. Nevertheless what the prophet said\\nhad always the same content. It was an\\nappeal to the instincts of man upon the ques-\\ntion of right and wrong, and in the end it\\nwas accepted.\\nNow the man who made this exposition,\\nand it was admirable, is in regard to politics\\na believer in compromise. I think I have\\nnever known him support the idealist cause\\nin a campaign and upon most occasions of\\n138", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0152.jp2"}, "153": {"fulltext": "CONCLUSION\\ncrisis he is found heartily throwing stones\\nat the crusaders.\\nWhat words in any language can make\\nthis man understand that his law which he\\nreally does profoundly understand as a law\\napplies to reform movements? Why, no\\nwords will do it, only example. New state-\\nments about morality, however eloquent, add\\nnothing to our knowledge. Everything is\\nknown about the moral law, except how\\nyou yourself will act under given circum-\\nstances. You have nothing but example to\\ncontribute.\\nPeople interrogate force. They are un-\\nconvinced, and are carried, still protesting,\\nthrough the air and deposited in a new place.\\nAnd then, thereafter, they agree with you\\nabout the whole matter. Mere intellec-\\ntual assent to your proposition is, even when\\nyou can get it, worth nothing. Your object\\nis not to confute, but to stimulate. What\\nyou really want is that every man you meet\\nshall drop his business and devote his entire\\nlife and energy to your cause. You will\\naccept nothing less than this. Is it not clear\\nthat people are not moved by logic Your\\nconduct must ultimately square with reason\\nand be justified by the laws of the universe\\nand the constitution of other people s minds;\\n^39", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0153.jp2"}, "154": {"fulltext": "PRACTICAL AGITATION\\nbut you must value only that approval which\\ncomes from the deeper fibres in men. You\\nneed not be concerned about the bickerings\\nof contemporary misunderstanding. Leave\\nthese for the historical society. Act first\\nexplain afterwards. That is the way to\\nget heard. Must you show your passport\\nand certificate of birth and legitimacy to\\nevery editor and every lackey They 11 find\\nout who you are by and by. It is easier to\\nknock a man down than to say why you do\\nit. The act is sometimes needed, and wis-\\ndom then approves it after the event. Peo-\\nple who love soft methods and hate iniquity\\nforget this, that reform consists in taking\\na bone from a dog. Philosophy will not\\ndo it.\\nSuch are the practical dictates of agitation.\\nTheir justification lies always with events.\\nIt may be that you must wait seven centuries\\nfor an audience, or it may be that in two\\nyears your voice will be heeded. If you are\\nreally a forerunner of better times, the times\\nwill appear and explain you. It will then\\nturn out that your movement was the key-\\nnote of the national life. You really differed\\nfrom your neighbors only in this, that\\nyour mind had gone faster than theirs along\\nthe road all were travelling.\\n140", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0154.jp2"}, "155": {"fulltext": "CONCLUSION\\nWe are all slaves of the age we can only\\nsee such principles as society reveals. The\\nphilosophy of other ages does us little good.\\nWe repeat the old formulas and cry up the\\nprophets; but we see no connection between\\nthe truth we know so well in print and its\\ncounterpart in real life. The moral com-\\nmonplaces, as, for instance, Honesty is the\\nbest policy, A single just man can influ-\\nence an entire community, Never compro-\\nmise a principle, are social truths. They\\nare always true, but they are only obviously\\ntrue in very virtuous communities. In a\\nvile community the influence of a just man\\nis potent but not visible. In a perfectly\\nvirtuous era it is clear that a cheat could not\\ndrive a fraudulent trade.\\nA seer is a man with such sharp eyes for\\ncause and effect that he sees social truth,\\neven under unfavorable conditions. And\\nyet even the seers generally had auspicious\\nweather, that is to say, storms of moral\\npassion. The whole race of Jews lived in\\nfervent exaltation for generations, and re-\\nvealed to their sharp-sighted prophets deep\\nglimpses of social truth. Hence the Bible.\\nA prophet is not without honor save in\\nhis own country. What happy precision!\\nWhat sound generalization But every town-\\n141", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0155.jp2"}, "156": {"fulltext": "PRACTICAL AGITATION\\nship in Israel had its prophet, and the truth\\nwas a commonplace.\\nAll the world s moral wisdom would turn\\ninto literal truth upon the regeneration of\\nsociety. It tends to become obvious in\\nregenerative eras. In dark ages it becomes\\nparadox. Standards are multiplied, and\\nmakeshift theories come in, one rule for\\nsocial conduct, another for business, another\\nfor politics. Expedient supplants principle.\\nIndeed you may gauge the degradation of an\\nage by the multiplicity of its standards. It\\nis the same with the fine arts. To the men\\nthat made the statues and the pictures,\\nthese things were the shortest symbols of\\ntruth, and required no explanation. In the\\ndark ages that followed they became a mys-\\ntery and a paradox. But the traditions and\\nobjects survived and had to be accounted for.\\nAn age that cannot produce them requires a\\nphilosophy of aesthetics. Thus a thousand\\nreasons are given to explain their existence,\\nand finally it is agreed that they are some-\\nthing superfluous and fictitious, conven-\\ntional lies, like poetry, like loving your\\nneighbor.\\nNothing but a general increase of interest\\nin the aspect of common things would ex-\\nplain to us the great masters. A revival of\\n142", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0156.jp2"}, "157": {"fulltext": "CONCLUSION\\ninterest in the way the world looks is the\\nprecursor of painting: the perceptions of\\nevery one are quickening. And so we may\\nbe sure that we are upon the edge of a\\nbetter era when the old moral commonplaces\\nbegin to glow like jewels and the stones to\\ntestify.\\nYou cannot expect any one but a scientist\\nto be startled at the movement of a glacier.\\nBut if you distribute a few micrometric in-\\nstruments upon that gloomy ice-field, the\\nAmerican civic consciousness, and if you\\ntake observations not oftener than once in\\nthree years, you will be startled. The direc-\\ntion of the general movement is absolutely\\nright. But it all moves together. Special\\nsigns of progress imply general progress,\\nand hence comes the extraordinary and sci-\\nentific interest in the awakening of this com-\\nmunity. It is like a man lapsed into the\\ndeepest coma who is beginning to stir.\\nWatch him, take his pulse, surround him\\nwith every apparatus of experimental physi-\\nology, and you will find the laws of health,\\nthe norm of progress.\\nArt and literature, and that moral atmos-\\nphere which makes a society worth moving\\nin, lie on the other side of the great reac-\\ntion, the spiritual revival which we see\\n143", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0157.jp2"}, "158": {"fulltext": "PRACTICAL AGITATION\\nnow faintly beginning; and it is because\\nthese things can be got at only by stimu-\\nlating American character that these re-\\nform movements are of value. Here at\\nleast the circulation throbs. Political re-\\nform that is to say, a political life in\\nwhich men who are personally honest pre-\\ndominate, a politics run by ideas will\\ncome in as fast as the public develops ideas,\\nand not before. But an idea is something\\nvery different from what you who read this\\nthink it is. An idea is a thing that governs\\nyour conduct all the time. For instance,\\nyou assent to the notion of independence\\nin politics; you understand the lost-cause\\ntheory, but you won t vote the ticket.\\nWhy.? You don t want to get out of your\\nclass. The relations between thought and\\naction in you are not normal. Half of your\\nbrain has never functioned, and the paralysis\\nshows in your politics. You have no idea.\\nIt is not this sort of idea that expels rascals\\nor makes books or music. What passes for\\npolitical thought in your vocabulary is like\\nthe phantasma in the brain of the Indian\\npriest who is buried with the corn growing\\nabove him. The average educated man in\\nAmerica has about as much knowledge of\\nwhat a political idea is as he has of the\\n144", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0158.jp2"}, "159": {"fulltext": "CONCLUSION\\nprinciples of counterpoint. Each is a thing\\nused in politics or music which those fellows\\nwho practise politics or music manipulate\\nsomehow. Show him one and he will deny\\nthat it is politics at all. It must be corrupt\\nor he will not recognize it. He has only\\nseen dried figs. He has only thought dried\\nthoughts. A live thought or a real idea is\\nagainst the rules of his mind.\\nImagine a tea-party of pre-Raphaelites\\ndiscussing Dante; they dote on his style,\\nhis passion, his force, his quality. In walks\\nDante, grim, remorseless, harsh, powerful.\\nThe man represents everything they hate.\\nHe is a horror and an outrage. The whole\\nregion of literature that these men live in\\nis not more fictitious than the region of\\npolitical thought in which the effete Amer-\\nican I mean your banker, your college\\npresident, your writer of editorial leaders\\nlives. Exclude for the moment those who\\nare financially corrupt and consider only the\\nmen of intellect, and in all that concerns\\npolitics they are as removed from real ideas\\nas Rossetti was removed from the real Dante.\\nImagine a company of people on a voyage.\\nThey play whist with one another for dimes,\\nand they spend all their money on the stew-\\nard and continue to play with counters, and\\n145", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0159.jp2"}, "160": {"fulltext": "PRACTICAL AGITATION\\nthe ship goes to wreck, and they sit on the\\nbeach and continue to play with pebbles.\\nThat is American politics. The whole\\nthing is one gigantic sham, one transcendent\\nfraud.\\nIt makes no difference which man is made\\npresident; it makes no difference which is\\ngovernor. There is no choice between\\nMcKinley and Bryan, between Republican-\\nism and Democracy. There is no difference\\nbetween them. They are one thing. They\\nboth and all of them are part of the machinery\\nby which the government of a most dishonest\\nnation is carried on, for the financial benefit\\nof certain parties, certain thousands of\\nmen who have bank accounts and eat and\\ndrink and bring up their families on the\\nproceeds of this complicated swindle.\\nThere is no reality in a single phrase\\nuttered in politics, no meaning in one single\\nword of any of it. There is no man in public\\nlife who stands for anything. They are\\nshadows they are phantasmagoria. At best\\nthey cater to the better elements at worst\\nthey frankly subserve the worst. There is\\nno one who stands for his own ideas himself,\\nby himself, a man. If American politics\\ndoes not look to you like a joke, a tragic\\ndance; if you have enough blindness left in\\n146", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0160.jp2"}, "161": {"fulltext": "CONCLUSION\\nyou, on any plea, on any excuse, to vote for\\nthe Democratic party or the Republican\\nparty (for at present machine and party are\\none), or for any candidate^ who does not stand\\nfor a new era, then you yourself pass into\\nthe slide of the magic-lantern; you are an\\nexhibit, a quaint product, a curiosity of the\\nAmerican soil. You are part of the problem,\\nand you must be educated and drawn for-\\nward towards real life. This process is\\ngoing on. As the community returns to\\nlife, it sees the natural world for a moment\\nand then forgets it. The blood flushes the\\nbrain and then recedes You yourself voted\\nonce against both parties, when you thought\\nyou could win, and when you were excited.\\nYou quoted Isaiah and I know not what\\npoetry, and were out and out committed to\\nprinciple but to-day you are cold and hope-\\nless. At present, hope is a mystery to you.\\nNevertheless the utility of those early reform\\nmovements survives. They heated the imag-\\nination of the people till the people had a\\nmomentary vision of truths which not all of\\nthem forgot and so each year the tempera-\\nture has been higher, the mind of the com-\\nmunity clearer.\\nWe must not regard those broken reeds,\\nthe renegade leaders of reform movements,\\n147", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0161.jp2"}, "162": {"fulltext": "PRACTICAL AGITATION\\nas villains; though the mere record of their\\nwords and conduct might prove them such.\\nThey have been men emerging from a mist.\\nThey see clearly for a moment, and then\\nclouds sweep before them. Vanity, selfish-\\nness, ambition, tradition, habit, intervene\\nlike a fog. They have been betrayed, too,\\nby the fickle public, that would not stand by\\nthem when in trouble. In the recapture of\\nany institution by the forces of honesty there\\nare trenches that get filled by slaughtered\\nhonor.\\nThis whole revolution means the invasion\\nof politics by new men. At first they are\\ntyros, unstable, untried, well-meaning fel-\\nlows. Half of them crack in the baking.\\nBut there are more coming, and the fibre is\\ngrowing tougher and the eyes clearer; soon\\nwe shall have men. A great passion is soon\\nto replace the feeble conscientious motive\\nthat has hitherto brought the new men for-\\nward ambition, the ambition to stand for\\nideas, for ideas only, and to get heard. We\\nhave almost forgotten that public life is the\\nnatural ambition of every young man. Con-\\nditions have made it contemptible. But\\nthese struggles signify that a change in\\nthose conditions has already begun. Your\\nwork and mine may be summed up in one\\n148", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0162.jp2"}, "163": {"fulltext": "CONCLUSION\\nword. Make it possible for a young man to\\ngo into public life untarnished, and as an\\nenemy to every extant evil. You must have\\nmen who will not go except on these terms.\\nThe times herald such men. They will\\nappear. We must prepare for them.\\nThe reason for the slow progress of the\\nworld seems to lie in a single fact. Every\\nman is born under the yoke, and grows up\\nbeneath the oppressions of his age. He can\\nonly get a vision of the unselfish forces in\\nthe world by appealing to them, and every\\nappeal is a call to arms. If he fights he\\nmust fight, not one man, but a conspiracy.\\nHe is always at war with a civilization. On\\nhis side is proverbial philosophy, a galaxy\\nof invisible saints and sages, and the half-\\ndeveloped consciousness and professions of\\neverybody. Against him is the world, and\\nevery selfish passion in his own heart. The\\ninstant he declares war, every inducement is\\noffered to make him stop. Toil, envy,\\nwant, the patron, and the jail intervene.\\nThe instant he stops fighting he is allied\\nwith the enemy he is bought up by preju-\\ndice or by fatigue. He begins to realize\\nthe importance of particular visible institu-\\ntions, as if their sole value did not come\\n149", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0163.jp2"}, "164": {"fulltext": "PRACTICAL AGITATION\\nfrom the fraction of unselfishness they repre-\\nsent. He rushes headlong into trade, and\\nthenceforth can see his country only as a\\nseries of trade interests. He gets into some\\nchurch and begins to value its organization,\\nor into some party and begins to value its\\npast, or into some club and begins to value\\nhis friends feelings. The consequence is\\nthat you may search Christendom and hardly\\nfind a man who is free. The advance of the\\nworld, like the improvement of our local\\npolitics, has always been the work of young\\nmen. It is done by men before their minds\\nhave been worn into ruts by particular busi-\\nnesses, or their sight shortened by the study\\nof near things. What we love in the young\\nis not their youth, but their force. The\\nenergy that runs through them makes them\\nsensitive. They feel the importance of\\nremote things, and infer the relations of the\\npresent to the future more truly than their\\nelders. They are touched by hints. The\\ndirect language of humanity is plain and\\nnative to them. The invisible waves of\\nforce which do as a matter of fact rule the\\nworld, using its fictions and its phrases as\\nmere transmitting-plates, strike keenly upon\\nthe heart of the youth, and the vibrations\\nof instinctive passion that shake his frame\\n150", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0164.jp2"}, "165": {"fulltext": "CONCLUSION\\nare the response of a strong creature to the\\nlaws of its universe. This unlearned knowl-\\nedge of good and evil is like the response of\\nthe eyes to light or of the tongue to the\\ntaste of a fruit. It was not indoctrinated\\nit is a reaction to a stimulus.\\nSo long as the world shall last, men will\\nbe writing books in order to explain and\\njustify the instincts; inventing theologies\\nand ethical codes, and projecting political\\nprograms to advance and confirm them.\\nIf you take up some particular matter\\nand begin to trace out its consequences\\nupon mankind, you find yourself forced\\nboldly to embrace the sum of all human\\ndestiny. We cannot follow out this course\\nin detail. We see only tendency; we see\\nonly influence. Enlarge our horizon as we\\nwill, we cannot live out the lives of all\\nfuture generations, and thus furnish an\\nanswer to the first caviller who interrupts\\nour argument with a cui bono. The\\ngenerous impulses of youth represent a\\nvision of consequences. They take in more\\nof the future at one glance than a philosopher\\ncan state in a year.\\nCertainly, so far as we can follow out the\\nthreads of influence, the lines seem to con-\\nverge. They make a figure and point to a\\n151", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0165.jp2"}, "166": {"fulltext": "PRACTICAL AGITATION\\nconclusion exactly upon that spot in the fir-\\nmament where instinct would place it. If\\nphilosophy gives us a diagram, the rest of\\nlife fills it up, and embellishes it with infi-\\nnite illustration. The proofs multiply, and\\nare hurled in upon us from all quarters of\\nlife and all provinces of endeavor. The\\nanecdotes and fables of the world, its drama,\\nits poetry and fiction, its religion and piety,\\nits domestic teaching and its monuments\\nsupport this instinct, and describe the same\\nfigure. Further still, there is not a man\\nwho does not reveal it in his soul s anatomy:\\nso much so that upon every occasion except\\nwhere his interests are touched, he is for\\nvirtue, and even where they are touched, it\\nis only a question of a few degrees more heat\\nto dissolve the habits and prejudices of a\\nlifetime, and make him take off his coat and\\ngo into a war or a political campaign.\\nA single man, as we see him in one of the\\ngreat modern civilizations, looks like a bit\\nof machinery, a cog or a crank or an air-\\nbrake. The business man is especially me-\\nchanical, his functions are so accurate, so\\ndelimited and specialized. And yet any\\ntheory that dwells upon these limitations is\\nput to shame in five minutes, for the crea-\\nture eats and sheds tears before your eyes.\\n152", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0166.jp2"}, "167": {"fulltext": "CONCLUSION\\nAll of the reasons for not doing some par-\\nticular act that you think wise to be done,\\nturn out to be founded on the idea that this\\nman is a driving-wheel, and nothing but a\\ndriving-wheel. You cannot change him,\\nthey say, you must take him as he is. I have\\nnever heard any argument given against the\\nwisdom of righteousness, except the exist-\\nence of evil. It exists, therefore subserve\\nit. Is it not clear that evil exists only be-\\ncause people subserve it? It has no fixity.\\nWithdraw your support and it begins to\\nperish. One man says, Oh, let the world go.\\nAll the wickedness and unhappiness in it are\\ninevitable. Another says, Some little con-\\ncession to present conditions must be made.\\nNothing can be said to justify the second\\nman that is not moral support to the first.\\nYour concession is always the acknowledg-\\nment of somebody s weakness. Now you\\nmay make allowances for a man who has\\nnot come up to the mark; but if you\\nmake allowances for him beforehand, and\\nassume that he is not going to do right,\\nyou corrupt him. If these things are true,\\nthen we are absolved from all complicity\\nwith vice. We need never take a course\\nthat requires to be explained. We thus get\\nrid of a great oppression and can breathe\\n153", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0167.jp2"}, "168": {"fulltext": "PRACTICAL AGITATION\\nfreely. In the language of the old piety,\\nChristian s pack falls from his back. That\\npack has, in all ages, been a perversion of\\nthe conscience, a mistake as to the size of\\nthe universe.\\nWe have seen all these ranks and armies\\nof humanity pass in review before us, each\\nman with his eyes fixed in mesmeric inten-\\nsity upon some set of opinions, until he\\ngrew to be the thing he looked on. These\\nopinions of his are all we know of him.\\nThey are not our own opinions. They often\\nappear to us misguided and illusory; yet\\nthere is always to be found in them the light\\nof some benevolence. They are like broken\\nmirrors and give back fractions of a larger\\nidea. The hope and courage in each of\\nthese men bless and advance the world but\\nnot in the way that the men themselves\\nexpect. They seem all to be bent over a\\ngame of chess, where every move has its\\nreal significance upon another board which\\nthey do not see. Each man seems to be\\nfollowing some will-o -the-wisp across a\\nlandscape at night. No cannon can waken\\nthese insensate sleepers. And yet they are\\ntracing out patterns and geometrical dia-\\ngrams upon the sward they are weaving a\\nmagical dance that, for all its intricacy, has\\n154", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0168.jp2"}, "169": {"fulltext": "CONCLUSION\\na planetary rhythm, and the sober motion\\nof a pendulum. Each individual in this\\nunthinkable host gives an instance of the\\nsame fatality first, that he becomes the\\nthing he looks on, and second, that he\\naccomplishes something that he does not\\nunderstand.\\nAnd both parts of this fatality must hold\\ntrue of ourselves. Certainly, our subjection\\nto the thing we look on is almost pitiable.\\nWe cannot even remember a righteous hatred\\nwithout beginning to take color from the\\nthing we hate. Our goodness comes solely\\nfrom thinking on goodness our wickedness\\nfrom thinking on wickedness. We too are\\nthe victims of our own contemplation.\\nAs for the last half of that fatality, that\\nkeeps us forever ignorant of the true mean-\\ning of our lives, it is not an absolute igno-\\nrance, like our ignorance of how we came to\\nexist. It is a qualified ignorance, like our\\nignorance that we have hurt some one s feel-\\nings. The elements of understanding are\\nwithin us to-morrow the whole matter may\\nbecome clear. The borders of our under-\\nstanding extend, as we push outward our\\nfrontier of inquiry. This is both a frontier\\nof scepticism, and of faith. It is a bulwark\\nof doubt as to the value of our last new\\n^S5", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0169.jp2"}, "170": {"fulltext": "PRACTICAL AGITATION\\nformula, and of faith as to the reality behind\\nthat formula. As we go forward, bringing\\nour lives down to date, holding our expe-\\nrience at arm s length and examining it\\nwith a merciless endeavor to wring the truth\\nout of it, we do, from day to day, get a\\nclearer notion of the actual world, a truer\\nidea of our own place in it. This quali-\\nfied and modest understanding of life, that\\ncomes from putting things together that\\nseem to go together, is within the power of\\nany one.\\nAnd we find this: the more unselfish men\\nbecome, the more sensitive do they become\\nin understanding human relations. The\\ngambler cannot see that he is giving pain\\nto his family his self-indulgence has blunted\\nhis sensibilities. The faith healer knows that\\nhe is curing a man in a neighboring State\\nhis love for mankind has refined his sensibili-\\nties. Most of us stand somewhere between\\nthese two extremes in the scale of under-\\nstanding, and are moving towards one or the\\nother. Education, then, is the process by\\nwhich we gradually discover both the real\\nnature of the human life about us, and our\\nown relation to the whole of it. The process\\nis never complete. Even poets and great\\nmen are in the dark about their own func-\\n156", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0170.jp2"}, "171": {"fulltext": "CONCLUSION\\ntion but they are less in the dark than the\\nrest of us. They speak from a knowledge\\nthat is greater than ours. They have a won-\\nderful power over us; for they help us in\\nour struggle to see the world as it is.\\n157", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0171.jp2"}, "172": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0172.jp2"}, "173": {"fulltext": "OTHER BOOKS BY JOHN JAY CHAPMAN\\nEMERSON\\nESSAYS\\n12mo. $1.25.\\nEmerson. Walt Whitman. A Study\\nof Romeo. Michael Angelo s Son-\\nnets. Robert Browning. R. L.\\nStevenson. The Fourth\\nCanto of the Inferno.\\nMR, CHAPMAN brings to bear on his task a rare\\nstore of critical perception and literary knowl-\\nedge, while in his own style there is nothing to be\\nfound of the obscure or the inflated. The interesting\\npart of Mr. Chapman s work is that he has some-\\nthing new to say about everything he touches. The\\nSpectator.\\nThis Essay (Emerson) is the most effective critical\\nattempt made in the United States, or I should suppose\\nanywhere, to get near the sage of Concord. Henry\\nJames.\\nWe shall hope to come across Mr. Chapman again.\\nFew living critics go so straight to the heart of their\\nproblem, or waste so little time in writing about it\\nand about. The Academy.", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0173.jp2"}, "174": {"fulltext": "OTHER BOOKS BY JOHN JAY CHAPMAN\\nCauses and Consequences\\n12mo. $1.25.\\nPolitics. Society. Education.\\nDemocracy. Government.\\nNO one can read Mr. Chapman s book without\\nfinding in it something instructive and sugges-\\ntive. The author is an enthusiast for humanity con-\\nverted by stress of circumstances into a preacher\\nagainst corruption. His book is a manly appeal to\\nthe rising generation, for whom it has a message of\\ncourage and hope sadly wanting nowadays. The\\nNation.\\nThis is a brilliant little book. Mr. Chapman wields\\na razor edge of forcible statement, and he is inspired\\nby a moral passion that makes his utterance a breath-\\ning, vital thing. The Academy.\\nThe author is essentially a critic, clear and incisive, at\\ntimes rather sweeping in his generalities, yet always\\nfresh and stimulating. His attack on the corruption of\\nAmerican politics is as vigorous a piece of writing as\\none could desire. The Outlook.\\nCHARLES SCRIBNER S SONS, Publishers\\n153.157 Fifth Ave., New York", "height": "3544", "width": "2095", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0174.jp2"}, "175": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0175.jp2"}, "176": {"fulltext": "9\\n*9^ 4*^\\n./.:iikr. .v\\\\.--.V il^..V\\nft", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0176.jp2"}, "177": {"fulltext": "o\\nBOO BINDING\\n0CT8S", "height": "3539", "width": "2182", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0177.jp2"}, "178": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3832", "width": "2296", "jp2-path": "practicalagitati01chap_0178.jp2"}}