“And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout the land unto all the inhabitants thereof.”—Leviticus 25:10.
“Debt is the fatal disease of republics, the first thing and the mightiest to undermine government and corrupt the people.”—Wendell Phillips.
FROM the earliest dawn of history debt has ever borne a close relationship to slavery and servitude. “It is worthy of remark,” says Grote (History of Greece, vol. III., p. 144), “that the first borrowers must have been for the most part driven to this necessity by the pressure of want, contracting debt as a desperate resource without any fair prospect of ability to pay. Debt and famine run together in the mind of the poet Hesiod. The borrower is in this unhappy state rather a distressed man soliciting aid than a solvent man capable of making and fulfilling a contract; and if he cannot find a friend to make a free gift to him in the former character he would not under the latter character obtain a loan from a stranger except by the promise of exorbitant interest and by the fullest eventual power over his person which he is in a position to grant.”
“This remark,” says Professor Nicholson in the Encyclopedia Britannica, “suggested by the state of society in ancient Greece, is largely applicable throughout the world until the close of the early Middle Ages.” The conditions of ancient usury find a graphic illustration in the account of the building of the second temple at Jerusalem (Nehemiah 5:1-12). Some said: “We have mortgaged our lands, vineyards and houses that we might buy corn, because of the dearth.” Others said: “We have borrowed money for the king’s tribute, and that upon our lands and vineyards, ... and lo, we bring into bondage our sons and our daughters to be servants, ... neither is it in our power to redeem them, for other men have our lands and vineyards.”
In ancient Greece we find a law of bankruptcy resting on slavery. In Athens, about the time of Solon’s legislation (594 B. C.), the bulk of the population who had originally been small proprietors became gradually indebted to the rich to such an extent that they were practically slaves; those who nominally owned their property owed more than they could pay, and stone pillars erected on their land showed the amount of the debts and the names of the lenders. Solon’s remedy for this state of affairs was to cancel all debts made on the security of the land or the person of the debtor, and at the same time he enacted that henceforth no loans could be made on the bodily security of the debtor, and the creditor was confined to a share of the property.
In Rome’s early history practically the same conditions prevailed as in Greece. About 500 B. C. an attempt was made to remedy the evil by providing a maximum rate of interest, no alteration being made, however, in the law of debt. In the course of a few centuries the free farmers were utterly destroyed. The pressure of war and taxes and usury drove all into debt and into practical, if not technical, slavery. The old law of debt was not really abolished until the dictatorship of Julius CÆsar, who then practically adopted Solon’s legislation of more than five centuries before, but too late to save the middle class.
In the course of centuries and the evolution of civilization chattel slavery has been abolished; but the slavery of debt still remains, and usury is now, as it was in all the history of mankind, the tool with which debt forges the chains of nations. It is not the province of this work to examine into the conditions of other countries than our own, but the facts now to be presented will convince the thoughtful reader that the American people are bound by chains of debt which it will require the wisest statesmanship to break.
Representative Warner of Massachusetts (Republican), in a speech delivered in Congress in 1894, stated that the interest-bearing debts of the United States, public and private, aggregated a grand total of $32,000,000,000 (thirty-two billions of dollars). This would be bad enough, but careful estimates by conservative students of political economy show that the amount is very much larger.
W. H. Harvey, author of “Coin’s Financial School,” makes the following itemized estimate of the interest-bearing debts of this country, public and private. Most of the figures are derived from recognized official sources:
| The national debt, according to the official census of 1890, was | $ 891,960,104 |
| State and municipal debts (census 1890). | 1,135,210,442 |
| Railroad bonds, 1892 (“Poor’s Manual,” 1893) | 5,463,611,204 |
| Debt on farms and homes occupied by owner (R. R. Porter, Supt. Eleventh Census, in North American Review, vol. 153, p. 618) | 2,500,000,000 |
| Mortgaged indebtedness of business realty, street railways, manufactories and business enterprises (estimated from partial reports of 11th census) | 5,000,000,000 |
| Loans from 3,773 national banks (Statistical Abstract of the United States) | 2,153,769,806 |
| Loans from 5,579 State savings, stock and private banks and trust companies (Statistical Abstract of the United States) | 2,201,764,292 |
| These are figures on which something definite has been obtained; also the ratio of increase from 1880 to 1890, which was from $6,750,000,000 in 1880 to $19,000,000,000 in 1890. By computing the same ratio of increase we should now add | 8,000,000,000 |
| Mortgage debts on homes not occupied by owner (estimated) | 1,000,000,000 |
| Overdue accounts due merchants, wholesale and retail, drawing from 6 to 10 per cent. interest (estimated) | 5,000,000,000 |
| Debts due pawnbrokers, drawing from 60 to 120 per cent. per annum or 5 to 10 per cent. a month (estimated) | 1,000,000,000 |
| Private debts due from individuals to individuals and of which there is no public record or other data for census officers to obtain information (estimated) | 1,000,000,000 |
| Maritime debts (estimated) | 1,000,000,000 |
| Overdrafts, judgments, overdue taxes and miscellaneous items not included in the foregoing (estimated) | 4,000,000,000 |
| ———————- |
| Horrible total | $40,346,315,848 |
In commenting on his figures, Mr. Harvey says: "Debts, a non-producing industry, growing to such a magnitude that the profits derived from all the producing industries of the country will not more than pay the interest on these debts, make the producers thereafter work for the benefit of the money-lending or non-producing class. When such a condition as to debts arises as we now have, all money nearly gravitates into the hands of the money-lenders and piles up in the money centers. The effect of debts upon civilization has never been understood generally. A prosperous country can carry about a certain proportion of debt among its people without apparent injury, but when it reaches the present proportion—a proportion only reached three times before in the known history of the world—it produces commercial paralysis and the financial enslavement of the people. All the people make goes to pay the money-lenders their interest.
“When you pay money to a merchant or a manufacturer that you may owe, the money you pay him is paid by him to others for material and other products of his business, with no charge or embargo upon it; but when you pay back to a money-lender a debt you owe him, the money stops there until it is loaned out again to come back with interest. When this grows to such an extent as to require all or most of the money in the country to pay the interest on debts, then commerce slackens and there is little or no money among the people except as loaned out by the banks and others whose business it is to loan money. They are dealing in the blood of commerce, and when they take it from the arteries of commerce there is commercial sickness and distress.”
The Abstract of the Eleventh Census (page 189) gives the true valuation of all real and personal property in the United States as only $65,037,091,198. Against this we have an interest-bearing debt of forty billions.
But Mr. Harvey’s figures are by no means complete. He says nothing about the capital stock of the great railroad, telegraph, telephone, insurance and other corporations, most of which is “water.” The reader may say that this is not debt. But it is debt, as it represents what the companies owe to their stockholders; it draws interest; it must pay salaries and dividends. To say that we pay interest every year on forty-five billions is a very conservative statement. And the debt is constantly increasing, for the reason that there is not in circulation, of all kinds of money, enough to pay this interest. Let us figure it out. The average rate of interest is 6½ per cent. Let us say 6 per cent. At this rate we pay each year $2,700,000,000—over $40 per capita. Think of it! Forty dollars interest for every man, woman and child! Two hundred dollars for every family! And this exclusive of taxation, which adds still more to the burdens of life. The most blatant gold-bug does not claim that there is $40 of money per capita in circulation. There can be only one result, and that result is abject, hopeless slavery—slavery under the guise of freedom, but still slavery—unless this burden of debt is thrown off before the patient people succumb entirely.
VIII.
THE LAWS OF PROPERTY.
“Property, or the dominion of man over external objects, has its origin from the Creator, as his gift to mankind.”—Blackstone (Dunlap’s Manual of the General Principles of Law).
IT is chiefly the laws of property which have enabled the few to accumulate vast wealth while the masses live in poverty. For many generations our laws have been framed with a view to the claims of property rather than the rights of man. For ages the money power has controlled legislation the world over, and, I am sorry to say, has exercised a controlling influence in our own land for many years. In the language of the Declaration of Independence: “All men are created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” If a man has an inalienable right to life, then he has a right to the means which sustain life, and of which he cannot be justly deprived by laws which permit one man, or set of men, to so absorb the means of life as not to leave sufficient to sustain the lives of all. If man has an inalienable right to liberty, then he cannot be justly deprived of liberty by another who assumes the right at his mere discretion to abridge it. If man has an inalienable right to the pursuit of happiness, then he cannot be justly deprived of that right by laws interposed in the way of its pursuit.
Do such laws exist, and if so, how came they into existence?
In Great Britain, whence we have derived most of our laws of property, the policy is to build up great estates. Hence, by the laws of that country, land descends to the eldest son, to the exclusion of the other children. The effect of this is to limit the ownership of land to a few persons. Thirty-four persons in that country own six million two hundred and eleven thousand acres of land. The Duke of Sutherland is said to own one million three hundred and fifty-eight thousand acres, and a few other dukes and earls own a great proportion of the land of the United Kingdom. What has brought about this wide difference in the ownership of land? Certainly the few who own the millions of acres, from which they derive revenue, in some instances of more than five hundred thousand dollars annually, in rentals, have not earned these vast estates by their own industry, but, on the contrary, it is by force of statutory enactments that these vast estates have been accumulated and perpetuated in few hands.
In this country we have abolished the law of primogeniture, by which the eldest son inherited the landed estate of his ancestor, but here vast estates are being rapidly accumulated in few hands, and this is especially true during and since the War of the Rebellion. In 1860 there were few millionaires and few large fortunes in this country, but since then a rich class has sprung up, so that in 1890, according to reliable statistics, ten per cent. of the people own as much wealth as the other ninety per cent. In 1890 there were 12,690,182 families in the United States, and according to George K. Holmes, in the Political Science Quarterly, 4,047 of these possessed about seven-tenths as much as do 11,593,887 families. Just think of it. One family possessing the wealth of 2,000 families the country over! In the city of New York alone there are said to be five men whose aggregate wealth exceeds $500,000,000. How many hundred millions are held by various wealthy corporations, coal and oil syndicates and other trusts, I am unable to state. In the cities of New York and Chicago hundreds of thousands of men and women, willing to work, were out of employment last winter, many of whom must have perished from want but for charity’s aid. These conditions another winter promise to be no better.
The richest corporations and persons on earth are probably in the United States. How have they accumulated their vast fortunes? Surely not by their own industry and thrift, but by the aid of statutes regulating the rights of property, generally statutes providing for the transmission of property by descent or by will, or the creation of monopolies.
It is only by virtue of statutory law that man is permitted to make disposition of his property by will, and it is only by virtue of statutory law that one person is permitted to inherit property from another, and it is by virtue of statute law that great corporate monopolies have been built up.
No man has a natural right to dispose of property after death, nor has one person a natural right to inherit property from another. As Blackstone says: “There is no foundation in nature or in natural law why the son should have the right to exclude his fellow creatures from a determinate spot of land because his father did so before him, or why the occupier of a particular field or of a jewel, when lying on his death-bed, and no longer able to maintain possession, should be able to tell the rest of the world which of them should enjoy it after him.”
Under Illinois laws, the owner of real estate is permitted to lease it for an indefinite period, and compel future generations who occupy the premises to pay rent to unborn generations. Leases for ninety-nine years are quite common in Chicago. It is by no divine law that the occupant of land to-day is allowed to compel its occupant one hundred years hence to pay tribute for its use. The statutes of Illinois have given to the owner of property the right to dispose of it by will, not wholly, but to a certain extent. If married, neither the husband nor wife can give away the homestead or dower rights of the other, nor can creditors, heirs or devisees take from the widow her allowance.
The money power has governed legislation in all civilized countries for generations. It matters not what party is in power in the national or State governments of our own country, the money power has exercised a controlling influence in many instances in the shaping and administration of our laws.
If the accumulation of vast fortunes goes on another generation with the same accelerated rapidity as during the present, the wealth of this country will soon be consolidated in the hands of a few corporations and individuals to as great an extent as the landed interests of Great Britain now are.
What is the remedy for this state of things, which, if permitted to continue, will make the masses of the people dependent upon the generosity of the few for the means to live? So far as concerns corporations of a public or quasi-public character—and none others should exist—the remedy is simple. They are completely under the control of the legislatures, whence they derive all their powers.
It is entirely competent for a legislature to provide the manner inin which the business of a corporation shall be conducted. It may provide that the directors shall consist of few or many persons, that a portion of them shall be taken from the employes of the corporation, selected by them, another part from the stockholders who furnish the capital for carrying on its business. It may provide that the employes shall first be paid from the revenues of the company a certain fixed sum, graduated according to the charactercharacter of the work performed by each; that a fair rate of interest shall then be paid upon the capital invested, and the balance be distributed upon some equitable principle between the employes and the stockholders. In case of loss the stockholders would have to suffer, since the employe, having a right to live, must in all cases receive his daily wages when dependent upon them for subsistence. This principle receives judicial sanction from United States Circuit Judge Caldwell, in his order entered in case of the Santa Fe Railroad, as follows:
“Ordered that the men employed by the receivers in the operation of the road and the conduct of its business shall be paid their monthly wages not later than the 15th of the month following their accrual. If the earnings of the road are not sufficient to pay the wages of the men as herein directed, the receivers are hereby authorized and required to borrow from time to time, as occasion may require, a sufficient sum of money for that purpose. The obligations of the receivers for money borrowed for this purpose specified in this order shall constitute a lien on the property of the trust prior and superior to all other liens thereon.”
Under the powers inherent in every sovereignty, government may regulate the conduct of its citizens toward each other, and, when necessarynecessary for the public good, the manner in which each shall use his own property.
Formerly, corporations having special privileges were created by special acts, which the courts construed to be contracts between the granting power and the corporators which, once granted, could not be repealed or varied by the granting power. This granting of charters to favored individuals, conferring upon them privileges not possessed by the general public, became obnoxious to public sentiment, and, as a consequence, general laws have been passed in this and many other States, under which any three persons may become incorporated for any private purpose. This has become a worse evil than the old system of granting special charters. Under the general law enacted in this State twenty years ago. I am informed, 27,200 corporations have been created.
Irresponsible persons are often induced, for a small consideration, to form corporations with a proposed capital of millions; to subscribe for the whole stock except a share or two, and, for a fancied, imaginary or worthless consideration, to issue to themselves fully paid up stock, which is subsequently transferred to the real parties in interest, who expect thereby to escape personal liability if the concern is a failure, and to pocket the profits if a success. Business of all sorts is now to a great extent carried on in the name of corporations, in order that the proprietors may escape personal responsibility. How can the individual, who is personally responsible for his contracts, successfully compete with a corporation run by persons who incur no such responsibility? Doing business in a corporate name not only paralyzes individual effort, but leads to a concentration of capital—the great evil of our time. The remedy for this growing state of things would be to restrict the formation of corporations to such as are formed for public purposes, or such as the public have an interest in. Seventy-eight per cent. of the great fortunes of the United States are said to be derived from permanent monopoly privileges which ought never to have been granted.
As before stated, the power to dispose of property after death by will is conferred by statute, under certain limitations. Why should this privilege be given to dispose of more than a fixed amount of property to any one individual? Say property to the value of not over five hundred thousand dollars to the wife, of not more than one hundred thousand dollars to each child, and of not more than fifty thousand dollars to any other relative, extending to the third or fourth degree, and that the balance of the estate should escheat to the State, to be used by it for the support of schools, charitable institutions, the employment of laborers in making roads, and other good purposes.
The law now provides for the escheat of estates of persons dying without heirs. The same limitation might be put upon inheritances where there is no will, and in this way the accumulation of vast estates by inheritance or devise would be checked, and property, especially landed estates, which by nature belong to all, would be more equally distributed. It should not be forgotten that the method of transmitting property from the dead to the living is entirely derived from the state. If public policy requires that the state should give to the dying possessor, no longer able to control or take with him his possessions, the privilege of disposing of so much as may be conducive to the comfort and happiness of his surviving kindred, does it require that this privilege should be extended to his disposition of millions to the injury of the rest of mankind?
If it be said that to limit the privilege of disposing of exceeding a million dollars of property by devise or descent would check enterprise and industry, as no man would struggle to acquire property which he could not leave to his surviving kindred, my reply is, that man by his own thrift and industry is seldom able to acquire more than a million dollars’ worth of property. Fortunes exceeding that amount are usually acquired by speculation, trickery, or some device by which one man takes advantage of his fellow-man, and which, if not illegal, is immoral; or by members of privileged monopolies, trusts and syndicates.
I don’t mean to say that all great fortunes exceeding a million have been acquired by immoral means, but such as have not are the exception, and to limit the privilege of disposing of more than a million by devise or descent would not affect one in ten thousand of the people. In short, such limitation would tend to discourage, not honest enterprise and industry, but stock-jobbing, trickery and other questionable methods of acquiring vast fortunes.
We have already abolished primogeniture, by which the eldest son, to the exclusion of all other children, inherits the entire landed estate of his ancestor, and no one in this country at this day would think of restoring that right, although it still obtains in England. If limitations should be put upon the disposition of vast estates by will or descent, future generations would doubtless look upon our present laws, which allow such estates to be perpetuated in certain families, with the same disfavor with which we now look upon the laws of primogeniture.
Evasions of laws limiting the amount of property to be devised or inherited, by conveyance during life, could be prohibited in like manner as conveyances in fraud of creditors are now prohibited.
IX.
DIRECT LEGISLATION.
THE INITIATIVE AND REFERENDUM.
“No people can be self-governing who are denied the right to vote ‘yes’ or ‘no’ on every law by which they are to be governed.”—Eltweed Pomeroy.
THE Initiative gives the people the power to compel the legislature to put in form all such laws as they may initiate or demand by a preliminary vote.
The Referendum gives the people the power to reject or ratify any legislation enacted by the legislature. All legislative enactments to be referred to the people for their ratification by vote before they become laws.
The Imperative Mandate gives the people the right to vote out of office at any time men who fail to serve the public or who are untrue to their pledges.
Proportional Representation secures the representation of all parties in proportion to their numerical strength.
Representative Government means government by representatives elected by the people, but independent of the people after election and empowered to ignore or overrule the people’s will.
Popular Government, or democracy, means government of, for and by the people. It will be possible only when all officeholders are honest or when the people’s representatives are made subject to the people’s will by the adoption of the referendum. History proves that permanent popular government without direct legislation is impossible.
There is a radical difference between a democracy and a representative government. Whenever a people are qualified for self-government no power on earth can prevent them from exercising that right. The American people have been too busy “making money” to study their real economic needs, and the result is that irresponsible demagogues have made laws which have plunged the nation into almost hopeless debt, paralyzed its business and impoverished most of the people. The voters have several times of late risen in their wrath and “turned the rascals out,” but it was only to elect another set of rascals, of different political complexion, perhaps, but equally dishonest and equally irresponsible. The so-called “landslides” in recent elections, while they have resulted in no real reform, indicate that the people have begun to think. Soon they will realize that they can control their own government only by keeping the legislation in their own hands—that they must not delegate their sovereignty to representatives or servants, by whatever name they may be known. It is only by means of the initiative and the referendum that the people can maintain their supremacy. The general adoption of this system is the next step in the world’s progress.
The initiative and referendum will take the element of partisanship out of the settlement of economic questions, and this alone is sufficient reason why it should be adopted. Suppose the question of tariff were submitted to the people to vote on. Members of all parties would vote for it and against it, and the majority would decide. It would become a question of economics, not a partisan issue, and would be settled on its merits. The same with the free coinage of silver, paper money, public ownership of railroads, prohibition, and every other great question which the old political parties have straddled or evaded.
But the principal advantage of the referendum is that it would do away entirely with the lobby—“the third house.” There would be no inducement for any one to bribe the lawmakers. They might sell their individual votes, but these would be worthless, as only the people could “deliver the goods.” The people would be quick to see the value of the franchises and privileges which are now being practically given away, to be used by corporations to still further enslave the masses.
Switzerland is the home of the referendum. It is commonly believed that that republic has existed for six hundred years. The fact, however, is that it is the youngest of republics. The characteristic features of the government, those which make it a republic in fact as well as in name, were instituted by the present generation. It is the only country in the world to-day which has overthrown its plutocracy and which has made it impossible for corrupt politicians to rule the people through the representative system. To the principle of direct legislation, as carried out by the initiative and referendum must be ascribed the happy conditions which surround its politics. Mr. W. D. McCrackan, author of “The Rise of the Swiss Republic,” who has made a special study of the subject, has published in the Arena his observations of Swiss politics. He finds that, as a result of the referendum, jobbery and extravagance are unknown, and that politics, as there is no money in it, has ceased to be a trade. Officeholders are taken from the ranks of citizenship and are invariably chosen because of their fitness for the work. The people take an intelligent interest in the legislation, local and federal, and are fully imbued with a sense of their political responsibilities. The Westminster Review, speaking of the referendum, expresses this opinion:
“The bulk of the people move more slowly than their representatives, are more cautious in adopting new and trying legislative experiments and have a tendency to reject propositions submitted to them for the first time.... The issue which is presented to the sovereign people is invariably and necessarily reduced to its simplest expression and so placed before them as to be capable of an affirmative or negative answer. In practice, therefore, the discussion of details is left to the representative assemblies, while the public express approval or disapproval of the general principle or policy embraced in the proposed measure. Public attention being confined to the issue, leaders are nothing. Collective wisdom judges of merits.”
In some of the cantons of Switzerland the referendum has been in practice since the sixteenth century. As it is now employed it was adopted by the canton of St. Gallen in 1830, and in 1848 it was incorporated in the Swiss federal constitution. It has been so extended since then that it is now in operation in all the Swiss cantons except Freiburg.
According to the Swiss constitution all amendments thereto must be ratified by the Swiss electors before they become effective. Other measures, like ordinary enactments, must be submitted to a popular vote if a demand is made for such submission, written ninety days after their publication. This demand must be made by 30,000 voters or by the government of eight of the nineteen entire and six half cantons. In Switzerland the referendum has proved to be entirely satisfactory as a check upon hasty or class legislation.
In his valuable book, “Direct Legislation,” J. W. Sullivan thus recounts what the Swiss have done by direct legislation:
“They have made it easy at any time to alter their cantonal or federal constitutions—that is, to change, even radically, the organization of society, the social contract, and thus to permit a peaceful revolution at the will of the majority. They have as well cleared from the way of majority rule every obstacle—privilege of ruler, fetter of ancient law, power of legislator. They have simplified the structure of government, held their officials as servants, rendered bureaucracy impossible, converted their representatives to simple committeemen, and shown the parliamentary system not essential to law-making. They have written their laws in language so plain that a layman may be judge in the highest court. They have forestalled monopolies, improved and reduced taxation, avoided incurring heavy public debts, and made a better distribution of their land than any other European country. They have practically given home rule in local affairs to every community. They have calmed disturbing political elements; the press is purified, the politician disarmed, the civil service well regulated. Hurtful partisanship is passing away. Since the people as a whole will never willingly surrender their sovereignty, reactionary movement is possible only in case the nation should go backward. But the way is open forward. Social ideals may be realized in act and institution. Even now the liberty-loving Swiss citizen can discern in the future a freedom in which every individual—independent, possessed of rights in nature’s resources and in command of the fruits of his toil—may, at his will, on the sole condition that he respect the like aim of other men, pursue his happiness.”
Proportional Representation.
The term proportional representation has come to be generally applied to a method of electing representatives whereby the representation shall be in proportion to the votes polled by the several parties, or groups of voters, as against the present method of electing them from single districts by a plurality vote. To effect this end numerous plans have been put forth.
The cumulative vote allows the voter as many votes as there are representatives to be elected and permits him to distribute them as he pleases among the candidates. This method is applied in a limited degree to the choice of members of the lower house of the Illinois legislature. Each district elects three members, and the voter can cast three votes for one candidate, one and a half votes for two, or one vote each for three.
With the limited or restricted vote the voter has a less number of votes than the number of representatives to be elected. Thus in the city of Boston the new law allows the voter to vote for only seven aldermen on one ticket, and declares the twelve candidates receiving the highest vote elected.
The preferential, or, as it is commonly known, the Hare vote, allows the voter to cast one ballot upon which he has named as many candidates as he sees fit, the candidates named being understood to represent the first, second, third, etc., choice. The whole number of ballots cast is divided by the number of representatives to be chosen, and the quotient is the quota, or number of votes required to elect one candidate. In counting the ballots the first choices are read first; the candidate who receives a quota is declared elected, and the remaining votes cast for him are counted for the next name on the ballot who is the second choice of the voter.
The free list, or Swiss vote, allows the voter to vote for a list or ticket, as we do in this country, and to designate preferences on the list. The total vote is divided as in the Hare system to get the quota, and the several parties are apportioned representatives according to the number of quotas they have. The successful candidates are those standing highest on their respective lists. This method is now in use in Switzerland for the election of representatives.
The Gove system is a modified form of the Hare method. Instead of the voter naming the candidates whom he prefers, the candidates themselves before election announce to whom they will give their surplus vote.
The proxy vote is simply an introduction of the corporation vote into legislative bodies. The candidates who are elected in the legislative assembly cast, not their individual votes, as at present, but the number of proxies they hold.
It will be seen that there are three principles involved in these several methods, the election by cumulation of votes, the election by quotas, and the vote by proxies. The cumulative vote was the first to be put into actual service, being used in England for the election of members of school boards, etc., and in this country in the so-called three-cornered districts for the election of members of the legislature. It still has the support of quite a number of persons, but its limitations are now coming to be recognized. John Stuart Mill, who was an advocate of the cumulative vote, declared it to be merely a makeshift in comparison with the quota system of Hare. The objection to the cumulative vote lies in the fact that if the districts are small only two parties can obtain representation, and these in an arbitrary way, while if the districts be larger, that is, if the number of representatives in the district be made greater, the waste and uncertainty is apparent. A party may decide to vote for four candidates when it has votes enough to elect six; or it may try for six when it has votes for only four. In either case it is deprived of a part of its just share in the representation. The proxy system contains some theoretical merits, but it is feared that in practice it would not work well at present. The tendency to hero-worship would prompt so many voters to give their proxies to a few favorites that the real voting strength of the assembly would be in the hands of two or three men, thus destroying its value as a deliberative body.
The real strength of proportional representation lies in some form of the quota principle, and the tendency in this countrycountry, as in Switzerland and Belgium, is toward the free list.
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By Samuel Leavitt. Cloth, $1.25: paper, 50 cents.
This is without doubt one of the most important of recent publications. It is the most complete and comprehensive history of American finance ever published. The book is the result of a lifetime of study and work, and will be indispensable to all who wish to keep posted on the money question.
Henry Carey Baird, of Philadelphia, a prominent citizen and still running the publishing house run by his grandfather and uncle since 1785, is generally considered by reformers the most accurate and reliable writer upon money reform in the world. He has read the work and says: “It is a source of amazement to me how you have gotten together so much information. It is just the book we have been wanting for twenty-five years, and should have an immense sale.”
The Battle of the Standards.
By Henry M. Teller and James H. Teller. Large 12mo Paper, 25 cents. (English or German.)
This is, without a doubt, the book on the Silver side of the greatest question which is now before the American people. It is a masterly presentation, and answers systematically and effectively all the arguments of the gold standard advocates. “The latest and the best.”
The Condition of the American Farmer.
Large 12mo, 64 pages, 10 cents.
In this compact and convincing work the author reviews the farmer’s income, the depreciation of farm property, increase of tenant farmers, decadence of home ownership, etc., and shows that owing to the demonetization of silver and the contraction of our currency the average farmer of the United States is compelled to live on an income below that provided for paupers by public charity and receives less for his labor than the State of Illinois receives for the labor of convicts.
George E. Bowen, Assistant Secretary American Bimetallic Union writes: “Although we are handling a great many books, I may safely say that this one, for the farmer or country merchant, is the best vote-maker we have seen.”
The Science of Legal Robbery.
Miscalled the Science of Finance. By Percy Kinnaird. 12mo, 150 pages. Paper, 25 cents.
This book reviews the innovations upon the financial system inaugurated by the Constitutional fathers—some of them vicious innovations, and others unavoidable through the legacy of economical errors left by the financial pioneers of the infant republic. It shows logically and conclusively that the legal-tender greenback money which took the place of banished silver and gold money during the civil war (and of which some $346,000,000 are still in existence) was not a “debt,” but a privileged circulating medium, as much money as the metals which preceded, and not any more essentially to be redeemed in anything than gold itself. With the laborious research and close analysis of the trained lawyer, the author has followed the financial legislation of America from the Colonial fathers down. The subject of money is discussed in the cold, calm light of pure science. Congressmen, irrespective of party, may study its pages with profit. There is in it a world of enlightenment to our lawmakers who are unbought and conscientious. To the people of the United States, whether borrowers or lenders of money, it is instructive; to the high school lad, studying political economy and currency, it is a liberal education. No more timely or useful contribution to the financial literature of the times has yet appeared.
Ten Men of Money Island.
A Primer of Finance. By S. F. Norton. 12mo, 142 pages, enameled paper cover, 25 cents.
Over half a million copies of this wonderful book have been sold.
“It gives the principles of money in the form of a story so interesting and in such simple language that even a child can read it with understanding. This is undoubtedly the simplest book that has ever been written on the principles of money.”—John B. Gill, Secretary American Economic Reform Society.
“No man or woman born will, after reading ‘Ten Men of Money Island,’ deny that the money it cost was well invested.”—New York World.
The Voter’s X-Rays.
By Clarence T. Atkinson. 12mo, 132 pages. Cloth, 75 cents; paper, 25 cents.
“This book intelligently sets forth the condition of national affairs as they exist to-day, and its whole tendency is toward the instruction of the great mass of voters who have not the time to personally study the many intricate details of American politics.”—Burlington Gazette.
A Tramp in Society.
By Robert H. Cowdrey. 12mo, 242 pages; paper cover, 25 cents.
“Thrilling and fascinating. No one who reads it can restrain admiration for the man who can write a story that contains in its warp and woof so much that is helpful and bettering to humanity.”—Opie Read.
“We have had many novels of late with new economic schemes for a basis, but mostly advertising state socialism. At last we have the individualistic novel, and it ought to win widespread favor. Mr. Cowdrey has strong conviction, a good command of English and strong imagination.”—St. Louis Republic.
An Indiana Man.
By Le Roy Armstrong. 12mo, 218 pages. Paper, 25 cents.
“A powerful novel, charmingly written. So true to the real life of modern politics as to seem more like history and biography than romance.”—Inter Ocean.
“It bears the same relation to the fight against the saloon that ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin’ did to the fight against slavery.”—John P. St. John.
Beneath the Dome.
By Arnold Clark. Large 12mo, 361 pages. Cloth extra, gilt top, stamped in black and silver, $1.25. Paper, 50c.
“An attractive novel, in which the best thoughts on economic reform are entwined with fiction, making a book that will captivate and please the reader, yet turn his thoughts to the great needs of humanity.”—Arena.
“No one can read this book without being made a better man or woman.”—Progressive Farmer.
CÆsar’s Column.
By Ignatius Donnelly. 12mo, 367 pages. Cloth, 1.25; paper, 50 cents.
A story of the twentieth century and the downfall of plutocratic civilization. Thirtieth edition.
“As an example of the highest literary form it deserves unstinted praise.”—Cardinal Gibbons.
“A very extraordinary production.”—Rt. Rev. Henry C. Potter.
“The book is a plea, and a striking one. Its plot is bold, its language is forceful, and the great uprising is given with terrible vividness.”—Public Opinion.
Hell Up To Date.
The Journey of R. Palasco Drant, Newspaper Correspondent, through the Infernal Regions, as reported by himself. Illustrated by Art Young. Popular edition, extra cloth binding, $1.00; paper, 50 cents.
The Humorous Hit of the Age.
“Fifty years ago this book would have been viewed with alarm by the pious community. A century ago its author would have been ostracised for profanity: two centuries ago he would have been imprisoned as a heretic, and when Columbus lived he would have been burned at the stake for his risible attack on the old belief.”—Kansas City Star.
Old ’Kaskia Days.
An American Historical Novel. By Elizabeth Holbrook. Large 12mo, cloth, gilt top, $1.50. Paper, 25 cents.
“A delightful picture of one of the oldest settlements west of the Alleghenies. There is a pleasant quaintness in the style of this novel, which is interesting as a story and as a record, and the local illustrations are important.”—Review of Reviews.
In Sunflower Land.
Stories of God’s Own Country. By Roswell Martin Field. 12mo, cloth, gilt top, $1.25.
“A delightful volume. The title of the book refers to the typical flower of Missouri and Kansas, of which two States Mr. Field is the prose laureate.”—Chicago Tribune.
Francis Bacon and His Secret Society.
An Attempt to Collect and Unite the Lost Links of a Long and Strong Chain. By Mrs. Henry Pott, editor of “Bacon’s Promus.” Illustrated with twenty-seven full-page plates. Post 8vo, 421 pages, cloth extra, gilt top. Price, $2.00.
“Perhaps the most exhaustive study of Bacon and his works possible to any writer of the present, or, indeed, any future age.”—Minneapolis Times.
Memoirs of the International Congress of Anthropology.
Edited by C. Staniland Wake. Illustrated. Imperial 8vo, deckled edges, gilt top. Price, $10 net. Edition limited, and only a few copies still unsold.
“No public or private library which is designed to present to its readers the attainments of our age, at the highwater mark of its development, should be without this remarkable series of reports.”—Critic.
“One of the most substantial contributions to knowledge that have resulted from the Chicago Congresses of 1893 is this magnificent volume.”—Dial.
The White Ribbon Cook Book.
Economy and Wealth, Temperance and Health in the Household. A Collection of Original and Revised Recipes in Cookery and Housekeeping. Edited by Kathryn Armstrong. 16mo, 275 pages, cloth extra, 75 cents.
A first-class book, prepared by a practical housekeeper. While it is not claimed that it is in all respects superior to all other books, we do claim that any housekeeper, even if she have a dozen other cook books, will find this one worth to her more than the price, and that the author has fully carried out her purpose: “To prove that wine, brandy and spirituous liquors of any kind may be dispensed with, and that no culinary requirement necessitates the introduction of these poisons into any household.”
Sex and Life.
The Physiology and Hygiene of the Sexual Organization. By Eli F. Brown, M. S., M. D. Illustrated. 16mo, cloth extra, $1.00.
“A very sensible book. After describing the common sex principle in plants and animals the author enters upon the discussion of conjugal love, heredity, the use and abuse of the sexual passion, and other topics which seldom find a place in a volume of general reading.”—San Francisco Chronicle.
“A modest, compact, scientific exposition.”—Chicago Times.
“How to teach such truths has been the study of many a teacher and many a parent. There is but one proper way, and that is by plain facts which, while teaching the truths of science, impress upon the mind the grandeur of right living. Dr. Brown strikes these chords admirably.”—Inter Ocean.
The Little Giant Cyclopedia
And Treasury of Ready Reference. By K. L. Armstrong. 16mo, 512 pages. Flexible morocco, red edges, $1.00. A million and one facts and figures. 84 colored maps and charts. 2,500 useful tables, recipes, trade secrets, etc. Over 300,000 copies sold. Each new edition revised up to date. Sold by subscription.
“One of the marvels of the day. It should be on every writer’s table, and the familiar book in every household.”—Chicago Leader.
“This wonderful book will add a year to any man’s lifetime, if it may be said that time saved is time snatched from the grave. The merchant, the mechanic, the lawyer, the doctor, the teacher and the scholar will all find, in this compact volume, much information pertaining to all the various interests of life.”—Tribune.
“I have added ‘The Little Giant’ to my library, where it has a most desirable front seat.”—John A. Cockerill, late Editor-in-chief New York World.
Armstrong’s Giant Cyclopedia
And Treasury of Practical Knowledge. By K. L. Armstrong. Quarto, 512 double-column pages, cloth, red edges, $2.50; half morocco, marbled edges, $3.50; full morocco, gilt edges, $4.50. Illustrated with colored charts and diagrams.
This book answers more of the questions of everyday life than all the cyclopedias combined, whether published in one or twenty-six volumes. Sold by subscription.
Memorial to Brian Boroimhe.
A Genealogical History of the Milesian Families of Ireland, with a Chart of their Armorial Bearings. Price, $5.00. Sold by subscription.
Betsy Gaskins (Dimicrat).
By W. I. Hood. With 120 illustrations by C. B. Falls, and an appendix edited by K. L. Armstrong. Post 8vo, over 400 pages.
This wonderful book is the sensation of the last decade of the nineteenth century, and is exerting a powerful influence in the battle of the people against the money power. It is the most timely and most original book which has ever come from the pen and brain of an American author. It will make you laugh. It will make you cry. It will make you think. It will sweep the cobwebs out of your brain.
IT is an easy matter to “float with the tide,” but it takes courage, ability and unceasing industry to pull against the stream. In these degenerate times, when the book-stands and the publishing-houses are jammed with a class of literature that can only be characterized as abominable “rot,” it is refreshing to find one man who has the courage to publish reform works. The man thus alluded to is F. J. Schulte, of the Schulte Publishing Company, Chicago. At the risk of being ostracised by the aristocrats of the business world (for there is an aristocracy in business as well as in society) he has made a specialty of publishing what are known as reform works. Contrary, however, to the general rule in such cases, Mr. Schulte has made a remarkable success of his business venture. He has published some of the best-selling books ever put upon the market. We congratulate him and congratulate the reform movement on his good work, and hope it will continue.—S. F. Norton (1891).
Any book on this list will be sent postpaid, or delivered by our representatives, to any address on receipt of price.... Special discounts in quantities to Agents, Speakers, Campaign Committees and Reform Workers generally....
THE SCHULTE PUBLISHING COMPANY
323-325 Dearborn StreetCHICAGO
Errors deemed most likely to be the printer’s have been corrected, and are noted here. Inconsistencies in the punctuation in the list of illustration captions have been resolved, without any annotation here. In that sequentially numbered list, number 126 had been misprinted as 216, and has been corrected.
On p. 368, the paragraph derived from William Jocob refers to William Jacob’s An historical inquiry into the production and consumption of precious metals, Vol. I., 1831. The statistics given are extracted from multiple pages, which makes the mis-matched closing quotation mark misleading at best.
Lapses in punctuation in the advertising pages have also been silently addressed.
Hyphenation is not always consistent. Where the hyphen appeared at the end of a line, it was retained or removed based on the usage elsewhere in the text.
The references are to the page and line in the original. The following issues should be noted, along with the resolutions.
| 66.20 | In this he dident do his dooty[,/.] | Replaced. |
| 75.30 | Tur[n]in to the lot of high-toned cattle | Inserted. |
| 86.22 | “Why, Jobe,” says[,] I, | Added. |
| 118.17 | and as a differe[u/n]ce of $400 | Transposed. |
| 288.7 | Since the world-wide demonetization of silver[,] gold only | Inserted. |
| 294.1 | gold and silver are ho[a]rded or exported | Inserted. |
| 309.5 | which resulted in clearing Massachu[s]etts of debt | Inserted. |
| 313.2 | so [plenty] here. | sic plentiful? |
| 320.25 | or duties on imports, supp[p]osing that | Removed. |
| 324.32 | The Dem[o]crats | Added. |
| 325.18 | The Act of December 17, 1860 (Statutes [11/12]) | Wrong volume. |
| 330.36 | whose motto was[/,] “Act in the living present.” | Replaced. |
| 331.32 | the amount of indem[n]ity due Germany | Inserted. |
| 342.26 | such money to[ to] be kept | Removed. |
| 346.4 | when c[a/o]mpared with gold | Replaced. |
| 348.16 | put public obligatio[n/u]s into stocks | Inverted. |
| 348.23 | is villainy unnamed and unnam[e]able. | Inserted. |
| 349.24 | s[i/u]bmit to the gold standard | Replaced. |
| 357.7 | and of Threadneedle St[r]eet in London | Inserted. |
| 368.8 | William J[o/a]cob, F. R. S. | Replaced. |
| 384.28 | 1[9/8]90 to more than all the assessed value | Replaced. |
| 396.32 | manner i[u/n] which the business | Replaced. |
| 397.5 | according to the chara[c]ter | Inserted. |
| 397.30 | when nece[c/s]sary for the public good | Replaced. |
| 497.33 | count[r]y>, as in Switzerland and Belgium, | Inserted. |
