Dakota farmers' leader. (Canton, S.D.) 1890-19??, 1892-02-12
How Modern Civilization May Decline.
BY HENRY GEORGE.

IS to invoke obstruction. 10 put poll
tical power in the hands Of men embit-
tered and degraded by poverty is to tic
firebrands to foxes and turn them loose
amid the standing corn; it is to put out
The eyes of Samson and to twine his
arms around the pillars of national life.
Even the accidents of hereditary sue
cession or of selection by lot (the plan Of
some of the ancient republics) may some
times place the wise and just in power;
but in corrupt democracy the tendency
is always to give power to the worst. |
Honesty and patriotism arc weighted, |
and unscrupulousness commands sue
cess. The best gravitate to the bottom,
the worst float to the top. and the vile
will only be ousted by the vler. While
as national character must gradually
assimilate to the qualities that win pow
er, and consequently respect, that de-
moralizatioh of opinion goes on which
in the long panorama of history we may
see over and over again transmitting
races of freemen into races Of slaves.
As in England in the last century,
when Parliament was but close cor
poration of the aristocracy, a corrupt
oligarchy clearly fenced off from the
masses may exist without much effect
on national character, because in that
case power is associated in the popular
mind with other things than corruption.
But where there arc no hereditary dis
tinctions, and men are habitually seen
to raise themselves by corrupt qualities
from the lowest places to wealth and
power, tolerance of these qualities final
ly becomes admiration. A corrupt de-
mocratic government must finally cor
rupt the people, and when people be-
come corrupt there is no resurrection.
The life is gone, only the carcass re-
mains; and it is left but for the plow-
shares. of fate to bury 1t out of sight,
Now this transformation of popular
government into despotlsm of the vilest
and most degrading kind, which must
inevitably result from the unequal dis
tribution of wealth, is not Il thing of the
far future. 1t has already begun in the
United States, and is rapidly going on
under our eyes. That our legislative
bodies are steadily deteriorating in stand
ard that men Of the highest ability and
character are compelled to eschew poll
ties, and the arts of the jobber court
! for more than. the reputation of tho
statesmen; that voting is done more
! rcck!css,y and the powe" OF money is
| increasing: !hat it is harder to arouse
the people to the necessity of reforms
and Hl>rr difficult to carry them out
that political differences are ceasing tc
be differences of principal, and abstract
ideas are losing the power; that parties
are passing into the control Of that in
general government would be oligarchies
and dictatorships; are all evidences OF
! political decline.
| The type of modern growth is the
great city. Here are to be the greatest
wealth and the deepest poverty. And
J it is hear that popular government
has most clearly broken down. In all
the great American cities there is to-day
as clearly defined a ruling class as in
the most aristocratic countries Of the
world It's members carry wards in theil
pockets, make up the States for nomin.
aling conventions, distribute offices as
they bargain together, and-though they
toll not. neither do they spin-wcar the
best of raiment and spend money lavish
lv. They ARE men of power, whose
favor the ambitious must court and
whose vengeance he must avoid. who
are these men? The wise, the good.
the IrarnrCl-men who have earned the
confidence Of their fel!ow-citiZenS by The
Durilv of their lives, the splendor OF
their talents, their probity in public
trusts, their deep study Of the problems
of govern mrnt? No; they are gamblers,
saloon keepers. pugilists, or worse, who
have made Il trade of controlling votes
and of buying and selling offices an6
official acts They stand to the govern
meut OF these cities rs rhe Pratoriar
Guards did to that Of declining Rome
He who wo;lld wear the purple, fill tn,
curule chair. Or have the fasces carried
before him, must go or send his mes
scnyers to their camps, give them dona
tions and make them promises. 1t j:
through these men that the rich cor
,orations and powerful pecunlary inter
ests can pack the Senate and the bench
with their creatures. 1t is these mel
who make School Directors, Supervisors
Assessors, Members of the Legislature
Congrcssmen Why, there are many
elect icn district: in the United State:
ir which Il George Washington. Il Benz
ay.in Franklin, or i Thomas Jefferson
c.ulG no more go to the lower housI
o. State Legislature than uLdcr tht
, Ancient Regime a baseborn peasan
could become Marsha! Of France
Their very character would be an ir
superable disqualification.