John Lothrop Motley - "The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1582 84"

Robert Louis Stevenson - "Records of a Family of Engineers"

F. C. Adams - "Manuel Pereira"

Arthur M. Winfield - "The Rover Boys at School"

New Philadelphia Book Publisher Highlights Local Talent
Book and Publishing News from Publishers Newswire(tm)

Looking for Child to be on Cover of a New Book, 'The Model Child'
PHILADELPHIA, Pa. -- The Philadelphia literary world will celebrate the launch of two new players today, April 10th: Kay Square Press, a new publishing company focused on Philadelphia-area artists, their stories, and their art; and Kay Square's first release, 'With the Rich and Mighty: Emlen Etting of Philadelphia' (ISBN: 978-0-9815129-0-7), a critical biography by Kenneth C. Kaleta.

FlatSigned Press Alleges Don Imus Remarks Damage Legacy of President Gerald R. Ford
NEW YORK, N.Y. -- Nathan Yungerberg, an accomplished model scout and professional child photographer is launching a nation-wide casting call to find the cover model for his highly anticipated book release, 'The Model Child: A Parents Guide to the Child Modeling Industry' (ISBN: 978-0-9817018-0-6).

Books: Problems of Conduct

D >> Durant Drake >> Problems of Conduct




(2) Another evil result lies in the subordination of general to local
interests. The scattered and ineffective "pork-barrel" appropriations
of Congress are dictated not by intelligent consideration for the
public weal, but by the desire to throw a sop to this and that section
of the country, and thereby win votes. Costly buildings are authorized
in many towns where they are not needed, river and harbor improvements
proceed at a halting pace in a hundred places at once, unnecessary
navy yards and custom houses are maintained at heavy cost, the army
is scattered at many small and expensive posts. Even the tariff is
largely a deal between various manufacturing interests, rather than
an instrument of the public good. Most officials consider themselves
bound to exert all their influence in favor of their particular
constituency's desires; if they cross those wishes they will probably
not be reelected, while if they sacrifice the interests of the people
as a whole they will be immune from punishment. Most of the state
universities, normal schools, asylums, and other institutions have
been located where they are as the result of a deal between different
sections rather than with a view to the most advantageous site.

(3) To these grave evils we must add the moral harm of selfish and
corrupt politics. Standards of honor are blurred, the spirit of public
service is almost lost sight of, and the cheap materialism to which
our prosperous age is too easily prone flourishes apace. The man who
would succeed in politics-unless he is a man of extraordinary personality
and favored by good fortune-must be disingenuous and a time-server,
must truckle to bosses and do favors for the ring; he must appeal to
prejudice and passion and put his personal advancement before his
ideals. No one can estimate the evil effect that corruption in politics
has had upon the national character. When we add the indirect effects-
the distortion of the public news-service, the protection of vice,
the insecurity of justice-the moral evils of political corruption are
seen to be of gravest importance.

What is the political duty of the citizen?

(1) In the present chaotic state of our machinery of government, where
corruption is so easy and efficiency so difficult to obtain, the burden
must rest upon every conscientious voter to play his part with
intelligence. He must study the situation, keep himself informed as
to candidates and issues, watch the conduct of officials, vote at
primaries and elections, however irksome and fruitless this effort
may seem. Above all, he must use independence of judgment, and not
let himself be duped by disingenuous appeals to "party loyalty"; where
blind party voting is prevalent there is little stimulus to party
managers to nominate able and honorable men or to promote needed
legislation. Public opinion must be kept aroused, the sense of
individual responsibility awakened, and political matters kept in the
glare of publicity. At election times whoever can spare the time
should, after learning the local situation, take some part in the
campaign, by public speaking, personal soliciting of is a shame that
the peaceable home-loving citizen should have to be dragged into this
business of politics, which ought to be
left to experts to manage; but at present there seems no help for it
in most communities.

(2) An important service lies in joining or forming local branches
of the leagues which now exist for the pushing of specific political
measures, for the investigation and publication of impartial records
of candidates, or for the investigation of the expenditures and results
of administrations. Under the first head we may classify, for example,
the National Short Ballot Organization; under the second head the Good
Government Association, that makes it its business to send to each
voter in a community a printed statement of the past history of each
candidate for office, including the record of his vote on important
matters; under the third head there are the Bureaus of Municipal
Research. The New York Bureau, incorporated in 1907, conducts a yearly
budget exhibit that shows graphically what is being done with the money
raised by taxation. Inefficiency and corruption are ferreted out, waste
is demonstrated, suggestions are made for economy, for the improvement
of administration in every detail, and the amelioration of evil social
conditions. By its determined publicity it can do much to energize
and modernize city government. [Footnote: Cf. World's Work, vol. 23,
p. 683. National Municipal Review, vol. 2. p. 48.]

(3) The outlook for clean and public-spirited young men, with expert
knowledge and ideals, who wish to enter a political career, is
gradually becoming more encouraging. The reformer in politics must
be not merely an idealist, but a man who can do things. He must show
his constituents that reform government serves them better than the
ringsters. Reform tactics have too often been negative; stopped, but
no positive measures for social welfare have been passed. To be
successful, a politician must show the people that he understands and
is able to satisfy their needs. More effective than any moral house-
cleaning in securing the tenure of an administration is its efficiency
in promoting better living and working conditions, improving
opportunities for recreation and education, or loosening the clutch
of the predatory "interests." Moreover, the politician must be a good
mixer, willing to work with those who do not share his idealism, good-
natured and conciliatory, ready to postpone the accomplishment of much
that he has at heart in order to get something done. As organization
is in most matters necessary for effectiveness, he must usually work
with a party, do a lot of distasteful detail work, and make compromises
for the sake of agreements. Happily, the Progressive party has made
an out- and-out stand for the application of morals to politics; and
the growing movement in the cities toward seeking experts to manage
their affairs gives hope that the way will soon be generally open for
men of scientific training and high ideals in political life.

What legislative checks to corruption are possible?

It is, of course, an unnatural situation when the ordinary citizen
has to spend a lot of time and effort if he would guard against being
misgoverned. He ought to be able to tend to his own affairs and leave
the machinery of government to those who have been trained to it and
whose business it is. And while no political mechanism will ever wholly
run itself, without watchfulness on the part of the people, experience
shows clearly that it is possible by a wise system to make corruption
much more difficult and more easily checked. We Americans are beginning
to awake from our complacent self-gratulation and realize that our
political machinery is clumsy and antiquated and a standing invitation
to inefficiency. The discussion of the relative advantages of
legislative schemes belongs to the science of government rather than
to ethics; but their bearing upon public morality is so important that
certain typical movements must be explained. The stages by which the
advanced form of popular government which we have now attained has
been reached need not, for our purposes, be considered-the extension
of suffrage to the masses, government by representatives, registration
laws, the secret ballot, and the like. We need only discuss several
reforms now being agitated and tried, whose aim is to make government
more responsive to the real wishes and needs of the people, and more
difficult of usurpation by selfish interests.

I. We may first speak of several reforms whose aim is to improve our
mechanism of election, in order that merit, rather than "pull," shall
lead to office, and that officials shall represent the people rather
than the political rings. It is not generally true that good and able
men are unwilling to accept public office; what they are unwilling
to do is to truckle to bosses, to do all the questionable things that
will keep them in with the ring, or to spend large sums of money in
advertising their claims to the public. So thoroughly have political
machines entrenched themselves that it is often practically useless
for any one to oppose the machine candidate. Appointees receive their
positions for "political services" rendered, or in return for a
"campaign contribution" for which they may hope to recoup themselves
when in office. To destroy utterly this political "graft" will be
impossible until human nature becomes more generally moralized; but
to render it more difficult and less common is the purpose of a number
of measures, of which we may mention the following:

(1) CIVIL SERVICE LAWS. These require appointments to
office, made by officials, to be made on the basis of competitive
examinations which shall test the ability and knowledge of the
applicants. By this means, within a generation, tens of thousands of
positions have been put beyond the reach of spoilsmen, and men of worth
have replaced political henchmen. Instead of a great overturn with
every new political regime, the man who has now fairly won his position
retains it for life, except in case of proved inefficiency. The quality
of the public service has been immeasurably improved, the subservience
of office-holders to political chiefs abolished. [Footnote: See
Atlantic Monthly, vol. 113, p. 270. National Municipal Review, vol.
1, p. 654; vol. 3, p. 316.] But there are still many thousands of offices
that have not been brought within the civil service, and there are
continual attempts on the part of politicians to withdraw from it this
or that class of appointments, that they may have "plums" to offer
their constituents. To the most important positions the civil service
method is, however, inapplicable; imagine a President having to appoint
as his Secretary of State the man who passed the best examination in
diplomacy! So many other considerations affect the availability of
a man for such posts that the elected officials must be given a free
hand in their choice and held responsible therefore to the people.
These important appointees will be enough in the public eye to make
it usually expedient for the career of the appointers that they pick
reasonably honest and able men-especially if the recall (of which we
shall presently speak) is in operation.

(2) The short ballot. As our government has grown more and more
complex, the number of officials for whom the citizen must vote has
increased, with the result that he has to decide in many cases among
rival candidates about none of whom he knows anything definitely. For
four or five offices he can be fairly expected the merits of the
candidates in the field; but to investigate or remember the relative
merits and demerits of a score or more is more than the average voter
will do. So he may "scratch" his party's candidate for governor or
mayor, but usually votes the "straight ticket" for the minor officials.
This works too well into the hands of the political machines. The
obvious remedy is to give him only a few officers to vote for and to
require the remaining offices to be filled by appointment instead of
election.

By this method, not only is the voter saved from needless confusion
and enabled to concentrate his attention upon the few big offices,
but the responsibility for misgovernment is far more clearly fixed,
and the possibility of remedying it made much easier. If a dozen state
officials are elected, the average citizen is uncertain who is to blame
for inefficiency; each official shoves the responsibility on to the
others' shoulders, and it is not plain what can be done except to
depose them all, one by one. If a governor only is elected, and is
required to appoint his subordinates, the entire blame rests upon his
shoulders. If dishonesty or misadministration is discovered, he must
take the shame; he may be recalled from office if he is not quick
enough in removing the guilty man and remedying the evil.

Further, the right to choose his own subordinates makes the work of
the chief much easier, brings a unity of purpose into an administration
which is likely to be absent when a number of different men,
simultaneously elected, perhaps representing different parties, have
to work together. The increased power and responsibility of the chief
offices attract able men, men of ideals and training, who do not care
for an office whose power is limited by that of various machine
politicians who, they know, will hamper them on every side in their
efforts for efficient administration. And, apart from this
consideration, a man able enough to win election as governor is a far
better judge of the men best fitted for the various technical duties
that fall to his subordinates than is the general public. Experience
shows that the men chosen by chiefs who are elected and held
responsible to the people are generally abler than those elected to
the same positions by popular vote.

The present movement toward a short ballot, with responsibility clearly
denned and concentrated, will doubtless do away ultimately with the
clumsy systems by which both States and cities in this country are
now governed-the two-chambered legislatures, with their inevitable
friction betwixt themselves and with the executive. This method of
checks and counter-checks was thought necessary as a safeguard against
tyranny, the bugbear of our forefathers, but is now the enemy of
efficiency and the haunt of corruption. The much simpler commission
form of government, which, originating in Galveston and Des Moines
a few years ago, has already, at date of writing, been adopted by over
three hundred cities, substitutes for the usual executive and legislative
branches a small group of elected officials - commonly five-who, with
the aid of appointed subordinates, carry on the whole business of the
city. Some such plan may eventually be adopted for states, and even
for the national government. [Footnote: R. S. Childs, Short Ballot
Principles, Story of the Short Ballot Cities. C. A. Beard, Loose Leaf
Digest of Short Ballot Charters. Free literature of the National Short
Ballot Organization (383 Fourth Avenue, New York City). C. R. Woodruff,
City Government by Commission. E. S. Bradford, Com- mission Government
in American Cities. National Municipal Review, vol. 1, pp. 40, 170, 372,
562; vol. 2, p. 661. The American City, vol. 9, p. 236. Outlook, vol. 92,
pp. 635, 829; vol. 99, p. 362. Forum, vol. 51, p. 354.]

(3) Direct primaries. Experience has conclusively shown
that the caucus system of making nominations for office plays directly
into the hands of the machine; its practical result has been that the
voter is usually restricted in his nominees of the bosses and the
"interests." The direct primary gives the independent candidate his
opportunity, and makes it more practicable for honest citizens to
determine between what candidates the final choice shall lie. It
implies effort on the part of the candidate to make himself known to
the voters; but such effort there must always be, unless the candidate
is already a conspicuous figure, in order that the citizen may have
grounds for his decision. It has in some places led to an exorbitant
expenditure for self-advertisement; but this expenditure can be pretty
well controlled by legislation. The argument that it does away with
the deliberation possible in a caucus wears the aspect of a joke, in
view of the sort of deliberation the caucus has in practice encouraged;
and discussion does, of course, take place in the public press, which
is the modern forum. It is possible, however, that some modified form
of the direct primary plan may be better still, such as the Hughes
plan, which provided for the election at each primary of a party
committee to present carefully discussed nominations for the following
year's primary to approve or reject.[Footnote: See Outlook, vol. 90,
p. 382; vol. 95, p: 507. North American Review, vol. 190, p. 1] Arena,
vol. 35, p. 587; vol. 36, p. 52; vol. 41, p. 550. Forum, vol. 42, p.
493. Atlantic Monthly, vol. 110, p. 41.

(4) PREFERENTIAL VOTING. A more radical movement would abolish
primaries altogether and settle elections upon one day by preferential
voting. The voter indicates his second choices, and any further choices
he may care to indicate. If no candidate receives a majority of first
choices, the first and second choices are added together; if necessary,
the third choices. In this way the danger, so often realized, of a
split vote and the election of a minority candidate, will be banished;
it will no longer be possible for a machine candidate, actually the
least majority of the people, to win a plurality over the divided
forces of opposition. The real wishes of the voter can be discovered
and obeyed more readily than with our present troublesome and expensive
system of double elections. [Footnote: National Municipal Review, vol.
1, p. 386; vol. 3, pp. 49, 83.]

(5) PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION. By means of preferential voting it
is possible to make representative bodies a mirror not of the majority
party, but of the real divisions of opinion in a community. One of
the great evils in our present system of majority rule is the suppression
of the wishes of the minority-which may amount to nearly half the
community. [Footnote: Cf. Unpopular Review, vol. 1, p. 22.] Strong
parties may go for many years without any representation, or with
representation quite disproportionate to their numbers. By the method
of proportional representation, every man's vote counts, and every
considerable body of opinion can send its representative to council.
Men of marked personality, who have aroused too great hostility to
make them safe candidates as we vote today, because they would be
unlikely to win a majority, can get a constituency sufficient to elect
them, while the harmless nobody, elected today only to avoid a feared
rival, will have less chance. The evil gerrymander will be abolished,
and representative bodies will be divided along party lines in the
very proportions in which the people are divided.

Moreover, since on this plan every vote counts, the greatest source
of political apathy will be removed-that sense of hopelessness which
paralyzes the efforts of the members of a minority party. Corruption
will hardly pay; for whereas at present the boss has but to win the
comparatively few votes necessary to swing the balance toward a bare
majority, in order to have complete control, he will upon this plan
secure control only in actual proportion to the number of votes he
can secure.

Another advantage of the system lies in the stabler policy it will
ensure. Our present system results in frequent sharp overturns,
according as this party or that may get a temporary majority. But this
battledore and shuttlecock of legislation does not represent the far
more gradual changes in public opinion. A system whereby the number
of representatives of each party is always directly proportioned to
the number of votes cast for that party would make it possible to evolve
a careful machinery of government, as is not possible with our periodic
upheavals and reversals of personnel and policy.[Footnote: See
publications of the American Proportional Representation League
(Secretary C. G. Hoag, Haverford, Pennsylvania). National Municipal
Review, vol. 3, p. 92. American City, vol. 10, p. 319. Thomas Hare,
Representation. J. S. Mill, Representative Government, chap. VII.
Political Science Quarterly, vol. 29, p. 111. Atlantic Monthly, vol.
112, p. 610.]

(6) THE SEPARATION OF NATIONAL, STATE, AND LOCAL ISSUES. The obtrusion
of national party lines into state and municipal affairs has
continually confused issues and blocked reforms in the narrower
spheres. Masses of voters will support a candidate for governor or
mayor simply because he is a Republican or Democrat, although the
national party issues in no way enter into the campaign. Bosses
skillfully play on this blind party allegiance, and many a scoundrel
or incompetent has ridden into office under the party banner. The
separation of local from national elections has proved itself a
necessity; in the most advanced communities they are now put in
different years, that the loyalties evoked by one campaign may not
carry over blindly into another. The direct election of United States
Senators has this great advantage, among others, of separating issues;
in former days the alternative was often forced upon the citizen of
voting for a state legislator who stood for measures of which he
disapproved, or of voting for a better legislator who would not vote
for the United States Senator he wished to see elected.

(7) Space forbids the further discussion of reforms that aim at
improving the machinery of election. The value of anti-bribery laws
is obvious, as of the laws that require publicity of campaign accounts,
forbid campaign contributions by corporations, and limit the legal
expenditures of individuals. [Footnote: Cf. Outlook, vol. 81, p. 549.]
The publication at public expense and sending to every voter of a
pamphlet giving in his own words the arguments on the strength of which
each candidate seeks election has recently been tried in the West.
But this is sure, that in one way or other the American people will
evolve a mechanism which will make it easier for able and honest men
to attain office than for the rogues and their incompetent henchmen.

II. A second set of reforms bears rather upon the quality of
legislation than upon the selection of men for office. It is not enough
that the way be made easy for good men to attain office; they must,
when elected, be freed from needless temptations and given every
inducement to work for the interests of the community they represent.
Every possible pressure is valuable that can counteract the pull of
sectional interests, party interests, or the interests of the great
corporations, away from the general welfare. For even the best
intentioned officials may yield to the insistence of local or partisan
wishes, to the arguments of "big business," or to the lure of personal
advantage.

(1) REPRESENTATION AT LARGE. The method of legislation by
representatives of local districts leads inevitably to laws that are
a compromise or bargain between the interests of the several districts,
rather than the result of a desire to further the best interests of
the entire community. Congressmen are continually beset by their
constituents to secure special favors for them, aldermen are expected
to push the interests of their respective wards. Each representative
stands in danger of political suicide if he refuses to use his
influence for these often improper ends; and legislation takes the
form of a quid pro quo:-"You vote for this bill which my section desires,
and I'll vote for the bill yours demands." This evil is so great that
it may be necessary eventually to do away entirely with district
representation.[Footnote: See Outlook, vol. 95, p. 759.]

(2) DELEGATED GOVERNMENT. Another plan, which evades the
pressure of local interests while allowing district representation, also
avoids the friction and deadlocks which result from government by a
group of representatives of sharply opposed parties or principles. By
this plan, a representative body is elected, by districts, or at large,
by proportional representation; but this body, instead of itself deciding
or executing the state or municipal policy, serves merely to select
and watch experts, who carry on the various phases of government.
These experts remain responsible to the representatives, who in turn
are responsible to the people. This method promises to combine
concentration of responsibility, efficiency, and business-like
government, with democracy, that is, responsiveness to popular control.
The national Congress may, for example, appoint a commission of experts
on the tariff, agreeing to consider no tariff legislation except such
as they recommend; in this way they are freed from all requests to
propose this or that alteration in the interests of their State or
one of its industries, while the commissioners, not being responsible
to any localities, are under no pressure to yield to such requests.
Similarly, the right to recommend-or even to enact-legislation on
pensions, on river and harbor appropriations, or what not, may be
delegated to an appointed body responsible only to the Congress at
large; and all the "pork-barrel" legislation, which the better class
of legislators hate, but which is forced upon them by the threat of
political ruin, may be obviated. [Footnote: Cf. the new (1914) Public
Health Council of six members, in New York State, to whom has been
delegated all power to make and enforce laws bearing upon the public
health throughout the State (except in New York City). See World's
Work, vol. 27, p. 495.] The plan of delegating power to appointed
experts has very recently been winning approval in municipal
government, where it is commonly called the "City Manager " plan.
A small body of commissioners are elected and held responsible for
the city government; these men may remain in their private vocations,
and draw a comparatively small salary from the city. Their duty is
to select an expert city manager who will receive a high salary, and
conduct personally and through his appointees the whole business of
the city. The commissioners may dismiss him if his work is not
satisfactory and engage another to take his place. Responsibility is
concentrated; mismanagement can be stopped at once, more readily even
than by the recall; unity and continuity of policy become possible;
in short, the same successful methods that have made American business
the admiration of the world can be applied to politics. If this plan
becomes widely adopted, as it bids fair to be, politics can become
a trained profession, and we can be governed by experts instead of
by politicians. [Footnote: See The City Manager Plan of Municipal
Government (printed by the National Short Ballot Organization)
National Municipal Review, vol. 1, pp. 33, 549; vol. 2, pp. 76, 639;
vol. 3, p. 44. Outlook, vol. 104, p. 887.]