Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-10-28
HIS VIEWS.
WHAT HERBERT SPENCER THINKS OF
AMERICA,
Our Great Material Progress Some Bitter
Truths for American Citizens
Paper Constitutions


Hearing that Herbert Spencer had re.
turned to New York in q somewhat i'm.
proved condition Of .salth, an intimate
American friend obtained his consent to be
questioned regarding his Impressions of
this country, to the following effect:
Has what you have seen answered your
expecsations!"
1t has far exceeded them. Such books
about America as / had looked into had
given me no adequate idea of the immense
developmentsof material civilization which,
have everywhere found. The extent, wealth
and magnifcence of your cities. and espe-
cially the splendor of New York. have
altogether astonished me. Though have
not visited the wonder OF the West, Chi
cago, yet come of your minor modern
places, such as Cleveland, have sufficiently
amazed me by the marvellous results OF one
generations activity. Occasionally. when
l have been in places OF some 10, 600 inhab-
itants, where the telephone is in general
use, have felt somewhat ashamed of our
own unenterprising towns, many of which
of 80, 600 Inhabitants and more make no
use of it.
81 suppose you recognize in these results
the great benefit of free institutions
"Ah, now comes one of the inconve-
niences of interviewing. have been in
the country less than two months, have
seen but relatively small part of it, and
but comparatively few people, and yet you
wish from me definite opinion on diff
cult question"
Perhaps you will answer, subject to
the qualification that you are but giving
your first impressions
"Well, with that understanding l may
reply that, though free institutions have
been partly the cause, / think they have
not been the chief cause. In the first
place, the American people have come into
possession of an unparalleled fortune-the
mineral wealth and the vast tracts of virgin
soil producing abundantly with small cost
of culture. Manifestly that alone goes a
long way toward producing this enormous
prosperity. Then they have profited by
inheriting all the arts, appliances, methods
| developed by older societies, while leaving
| behind the distractions existing IN them.
They have been able to pick and choose
from the products of all past experience,
appropriating the good aud rejecting the
bad. Then, besides these favors OF fortune,
| there are factors proper to themselves. L
perceive in American faces generally a
great amount Of Determination kind of
do or die expression and this trait OF
character, Joined with power of work
exceeding that of any other people, of
course produces an unparalleled rapidity
of progress. Once more, there is the in
ventiveness which, stimulated by the need
for economizlng labor, has been so wisely
fostered. Among us in England there
are many foolish people who, while
thir king that a man who tolls with his
hands has an equitable claim to the product,
and if he has special skill may rightly have
the advantage of it, also hold that If a
nan tells with his brain, perhaps for years,
and, uniting genius with perseverance,
evolves some valuable invention, the pull
lie may rightly claim the benefit. The
Americans have been more far-seeing. The
er ormous museum of patents which l saw
at Washington is significant OF the stten-
ton paid to inventors claims, and the ma.
tion profits immensely from having in this
direction Though not In all others) recog.
nized property in mental products. Beyond
question, IN respect of mechanical appli-
ances, the Americans are ahead of all ma
tions. If along with your material prog
ress there went equal progress of higher
kind, there would remain nothing to be
wished"
"That ID an ambiguous qualification.
What do you mean by it"
''You will understand when l tell you
what l was thinking of the other day.
After bordering over what l have seen of
your vast manufacturing and trading es.
Establishments, the rush OF traffic in your
street cars and elevated railways, your gil
gantic hotels and Fifth avenue palaces, l
was suddenly reminded of the Italian re.
publics of the Middle Ages, and recalled
the fact that while there was growing up
in them great commercial activity, a de-
velopment of the arts which made them
the envy of Europe, and a building OF
princely mansions which continue to be the
admiration of travellers, their people were
gradually losing their freedom"
"Do you mean this as suggestion that
we are doing the like?"
1t seems to me that you are. You re.
tains the forms of freedom, but, so far IS /
can gather, there has been considerable
loss of the substance. It is true that those
who rule you do not do it by means of re-
tanners armed with swords but they do it
through regiments of men armed with vot-
ing. papers, who obey the word of com.
mand as Loyalty as did the dependents of
the feudal mobiles, and who thus enable
their leaders to override the general will
and make the community submit to their
exactions ss effectually as the prototypes
of old. II is doubtless true that each OF
your citizens votes for the candidates he
chooses for this OF that Office from President
downward, but his hand is guided by a
power behind, which leaves him scarcely
any choice. Use your political power as
we tell you, or else throw it away is the
alternative offered to the citizens. The
political machinery as it is now worked has
little resemblance to that contemplated at
the outset OF your political life. Mani.
testify those who framed your Constitution
never dreamed that 10000 citizens would
go 10 the polls led by boss America
exemplifies, at the other end of the social
scale, a change analogous to that which has
taken place under supdry despotisms. You
know that in Japan. before the recent rev.
olution, the divine ruler, the Mikado, nom.
inally supreme, was practically puppet in
the hands of his chief Minister, the Sho.
gun. Here it seems to me that the SOW
efeign people is fast becoming puppet
which moves and speaks as wire-p ullers
determine.
"Then you think that republican insti-
tullOne are q failure
"By no means imply no such con-
clusion. Thirty years ago, when often
discussing politics with an English friend,
and defending republican institutions, as |
always have done and do still and when
he urged against me the ill-working of
such institutions over here, l habitually
replied that the Americans got their form
of government by happy accident, not by
normal progress, and that they would have
to go hack before they could go forward.
What has since happened seems to me to
have justified that view, and what l see
now confirms me in it. America is show
ing on larger scale than ever before that
paper constitutions will not work as they
are intended to work. The truth, frat recog-
nized by Macintosh, that constitutions
are not made, but grow which is part OF
the larger truth that societies throughout
their whole organizations are not made, but
grow at once when accepted, disposes of
the notion that you can work, as You hope,
any arti6cially devised system of govern
ment. 1t becomes an inference that if your
political structure has been manufactured,
and not grown, it will forthwith begin to
grow into something different from that in.
tended something in harmony with the
natures of citizens and the conditions under
which the society exists. And it evidently
has been SO with you. Within the forms
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