,,the ,,altruist ,,in ,,politics  ,by   
,benjamin ,cardozo    ,transcriber's    
,note3 ,the ,altruist in ,politics was  
delivered by ,cardozo as his            
commencement oration at ,columbia       
,college in #ahhi4 ,it was never        
copyrighted4 ,columbia ,university1     
which administers ,cardozo's literary   
estate1 has explicitly                  
9999999999   ,there comes not seldom a  
crisis in the life of men1 of nations1  
and of worlds1 when the old forms seem  
ready to decay1 and the old rules of    
action have lost their binding force4   
,the evils of existing systems obscure  
the blessings that attend them2 and1    
where reform is needed1 the cry is      
raised for subversion4 ,the cause of    
such phenomena is not far to seek4 ,it  
used to appear to me1 writes ,count     
,tolstoi1 in a significant passage1 it  
used to appear to me that the small     
number of cultivated1 rich and idle men1
 of whom ,i was one1 composed the whole 
of humanity1 and that the millions and  

millions of other men who had lived and 
are still living were not in reality men
 at all4 ,it is this spirit-the spirit  
that sees the whole of humanity in the  
few1 and throws into the background the 
millions and millions of other men-it is
 this spirit that has aroused the       
antagonism of reformers1 and made the   
decay of the old forms1 the rupture of  
the old restrictions1 the ideal of them 
and of their followers4 ,when wealth and
 poverty meet each other face to face1  
the one the master and the other the    
dependent1 the one exalted and the other
 debased1 it is perhaps hardly matter   
for surprise that the dependent and     
debased and powerless faction1 in envy  
of their opponents' supremacy1 should   
demand1 not simple reform1 but absolute 
community and equality of wealth4 ,that 
cry for communism is no new one in the  
history of mankind4 ,thousands of years 
ago it was heard and acted on2 and1 in  
the lapse of centuries1 its             
reverberations have but swelled in      

volume4 ,again and again1 the altruist  
has arisen in politics1 has bidden us   
share with others the product of our    
toil1 and has proclaimed the communistic
 dogma as the panacea for our social    
ills4 ,so today1 amid the buried hopes  
and buried projects of the past1 the    
doctrine of communism still lives in the
 minds of men4 ,under stress of         
misfortune1 or in dread of tyranny1 it  
is still preached in modern times as    
,plato preached it in the world of the  
,greeks4  ,yet it is indeed doubtful    
whether1 in the history of mankind1 a   
doctrine was ever taught more           
impracticable or more false to the      
principles it professes than this very  
doctrine of communism4 ,in a world where
 self-interest is avowedly the ruling   
motive1 it seeks to establish at once an
 all-reaching and all-controlling       
altruism4 ,in a world where every man is
 pushing and fighting to outstrip his   
fellows1 it would make him toil with    
like vigor for their common welfare4 ,in

 a world where a man's activity is      
measured by the nearness of reward1 it  
would hold up a prospective recompense  
as an equal stimulant to labor4 ,the    
more bitterly we feel1 writes ,george   
,eliot1 the more bitterly we feel the   
folly1 ignorance1 neglect1 or           
self-seeking of those who at different  
times have wielded power1 the stronger  
is the obligation we lay on ourselves to
 beware lest we also1 by a too hasty    
wresting of measures which seem to      
promise immediate relief1 make a worse  
time of it for our own generation1 and  
leave a bad inheritance for our         
children4 ,in the future1 when the      
remoteness of his reward shall have     
weakened the laborer's zeal1 we shall be
 able to judge more fairly of the       
blessings that the communist offers4    
,instead of the present world1 where    
some at least are well-to-do and happy1 
the communist holds before us a world   
where all alike are poor4 ,for the      
activity1 the push1 the vigor of our    

modern life1 his substitute is a life   
aimless and unbroken4 ,and so we have to
 say to communists what ,george ,eliot  
might have said3 ,be not blinded by the 
passions of the moment1 but when you    
prate about your own wrongs and the     
sufferings of your offspring1 take heed 
lest in the long run you make a worse   
time of it for your own generation1 and 
leave a bad inheritance for your        
children4  ,little thought has been     
taken by these altruistic reformers for 
the application of the doctrines they   
uphold4 ,to the question how one kind of
 labor can be measured against another1 
how the labor of the artisan can be     
measured against the labor of the       
artist1 how the labor of the strong can 
be measured against the labor of the    
weak1 the communists can give no answer4
 ,absorbed1 as they are1 in the         
principle of equality1 they have still  
forgotten the equality of work in the   
equality of pay2 they have forgotten    
that reward1 to be really equal1 must be

 proportionate to effort2 and they and  
all socialists have forgotten that we   
cannot make an arithmetic of human      
thought and feeling2 and that for all   
our crude attempts to balance recompense
 against toil1 for all our crude        
attempts to determine the relative      
severity of different kinds of toil1 for
 all our crude attempts to determine the
 relative strain on different persons of
 the same kind of toil1 yet not only    
will the ratio1 dealing1 as it does1    
with our subjective feelings1 be a      
blundering one1 but a system based upon 
it will involve inequalities greater1   
because more insidious1 than those of   
the present system it would discard4    
,instances1 indeed1 are not wanting to  
substantiate the claim that communism1  
by unduly exalting our altruistic       
impulses1 proceeds upon a false         
psychological basis4 ,yet if an instance
 is to be chosen1 it would be hard to   
find one more suggestive than that      
afforded by the efforts of ,robert      

,owen4 ,the year #ahbd saw the rise of  
,owen's little community of ,new        
,harmony1 and the year of #ahbh saw the 
community's final disruption4           
,individuals had appropriated to        
themselves the property designed for    
all2 and even ,owen1 who had given to   
the enterprise his money and his life1  
was obliged to admit that men were not  
yet fitted for the communistic stage1   
and that the moment of transition from  
individualism to communism had not yet  
arrived4 ,men trained under the old     
system1 with its eager rivalry1 its     
selfish interests1 could not quite yet  
enter into the spirit of                
self-renunciation that communism        
demands4 ,and ,owen1 therefore1 was led 
to put his trust in education as the    
great moulder of the minds of men4      
,through this agency1 he hoped1 the     
eager rivalry1 the selfish interests1   
the sordid love of gain1 might be lost  
in higher1 purer1 more disinterested    
ends2 and1 animated by that hope-the    

hope that in the fullness of time       
another ,new ,harmony1 free from        
contention and the disappointments of   
the old one1 might serve to immortalize 
his name-animated by that hope1 ,owen   
passed the last thirty years of his     
life2 and with that hope still before   
his eyes he died4  ,but years now have  
passed since ,owen lived2 the second    
,new ,harmony has not yet been seen2 the
 so-called rational system of education 
has not yet transformed the impulses or 
the aims of men2 and the communist of   
today1 with a history of two thousand   
years of failure behind him1 in the same
 pathetic confidence still looks for the
 realization of his dreams to the       
communism of the future4  ,and yet1     
granting that communism were            
practicable1 granting that ,owen's hopes
 had some prospect of fulfillment1 the  
doctrine still embodies evils that must 
make it forever inexpedient4 ,the       
readers of ,mr4 ,matthew ,arnold's works
 must have noticed the emphasis with    

which he dwells on the instinct of      
expansion as a factor in human progress4
 ,it is the refutation alike of         
communism and socialism that they thwart
 the instinct of expansion2 that they   
substitute for individual energy the    
energy of the government2 that they     
substitute for human personality the    
blind1 mechanical power of the ,state4  
,the one system1 as the other1 marks the
 end of individualism4 ,the one system1 
as the other1 would make each man the   
image of his neighbor4 ,the one system1 
as the other1 would hold back the       
progressive1 and1 by uniformity of      
reward1 gain uniformity of type4  ,i can
 look forward to no blissful prospect   
for a race of men that1 under the       
dominion of the ,state1 at the cost of  
all freedom of action1 at the cost1     
indeed1 of their own true selves1 shall 
enjoy1 if one will1 a fair abundance of 
the material blessings of life4 ,some   
,matthew ,arnold of the future would    
inevitably say of them in phase like    

that applied to the ,puritans of old3   
,they entered the prison of socialism   
and had the key turned upon their spirit
 there for hundreds of years4 ,into that
 prison of socialism1 with broken       
enterprise and broken energy1 as serfs  
under the mastery of the ,state1 while  
human personality is preferred to       
unreasoning mechanism1 mankind must     
hesitate to step4 ,when they shall once 
have entered within it1 when the key    
shall have been turned upon their spirit
 and have confined them in narrower     
straits than even ,puritanism could have
 done1 it will be left for them to find1
 in their blind obedience and passive   
submission1 the recompense for the      
singleness of character1 the foresight1 
and the energy1 that they have left     
behind them4  ,in almost every phase of 
life1 this doctrine of political        
altruists is equally impracticable and  
pernicious4 ,in its social results1 it  
involves the substitution of the        
community in the family's present       

position4 ,in its political aspects1 it 
involves the absolute dominion of the   
,state over the actions and property of 
its subjects4 ,thus1 though claiming to 
be an exaltation of the so-called       
natural rights of liberty and equality1 
it is in reality their emphatic         
debasement4 ,it teaches that thoughtless
 docility is a recompense for stunted   
enterprise4 ,it magnifies material good 
at the cost of every rational endowment4
 ,it inculcates a self-denial that must 
result in dwarfing the individual to a  
mere instrument in the hands of the     
,state for the benefit of his fellows4  
,no such organization of society-no     
organization that fails to take note of 
the fact that man must have scope for   
the exercise and development of his     
faculties-no such organization of       
society can ever reach a permanent      
success4 ,however beneficent its        
motives1 the hypothesis with which it   
starts can never be realized4 ,the      
aphorism of ,emerson1 ,churches have    

been built1 not upon principles1 but    
upon tropes1 is as true in the field of 
politics as it is in the field of       
religion4 ,in a like figurative spirit1 
the followers of communism have reared  
their edifice2 and1 looking back upon   
the finished structure1 seeking to      
discern the base on which it rests1 the 
critic finds1 not principles1 but       
tropes4 ,the builders have appealed to a
 future that has no warrant in the past2
 and fixing their gaze upon the distant 
dreamland1 captivated by the vision     
there beheld1 entranced by its ideal    
effulgence1 their eyes were blinded to  
the real conditions of the human problem
 they had set before them4 ,their       
enemies have not been slow to note such 
weakness and mistake2 and perhaps it may
 serve to clear up misconceptions1      
perhaps it may serve to lessen cant and 
open the way for fresh and vigorous     
thought1 if we shall once convince      
ourselves that altruism cannot be the   
rule of life2 that its logical result is

 the dwarfing of the individual man2 and
 that not by the death of human         
personality can we hope to banish the   
evils of our day1 and to realize the    
ideal of all existence1 a nobler or     
purer life4