,illustration3 ,,fifth ,,avenue1 ,,new  
,,york       ,,the   ,,future ,,in      
,,america    ,a ,,search ,,after        
,,realities    ,,by   ,h4,g4 ,,wells    
,,author ,,of   ,,anticipations ,,the   
,,war ,,of ,,the ,,worlds   ,,thirty    
,,strange ,,stories ,,etc4              
,,illustrated    ,illustration          
,,harper  ,,brothers ,,publishers       
,,new ,,york ,,and ,,london   #aijf     
,copyright1 #aijf1 by ,harper           
,brothers4    ,all rights reserved4     
,published ,november1 #aijf4            
,,contents     ,,chap4                  
,,page       ,i4 ,the ,prophetic ,habit 
of ,mind                              #a
      ,,ii4 ,material ,progress         
#ba     ,,iii4 ,new ,york               
#ce      ,,iv4 ,growth ,invincible      
#di       ,v4 ,the ,economic ,process   
#fh      ,,vi4 ,some ,aspects of        
,american ,wealth                       
#hh     ,,vii4 ,certain ,workers        
#ajd    ,,viii4 ,corruption             
#aaf      ,,ix4 ,the ,immigrant         

#acc       ,x4 ,state-,blindness        
#aeb      ,,xi4 ,two ,studies in        
,disappointment                         
#afg     ,,xii4 ,the ,tragedy of ,color 
#ahe    ,,xiii4 ,the ,mind of a ,modern 
,state                             #bjc 
,,xiv4 ,culture                         
#bbc      ,,xv4 ,at ,washington         
#bcf          ,the ,envoy               
#bed     ,,illustrations     ,,fifth    
,,avenue1 ,,new ,,york                  
,frontispiece    ,,entrance ,,to        
,,brooklyn ,,bridge                     
,facing p4 #ch    ,,state ,,street1     
,,chicago                               
#fb    ,,western ,,farmers ,,still ,,own
 ,,their ,,farms                        
#hb    ,,plump ,,and ,,pretty ,,pupils  
,,of ,,extravagance                     
#ij    ,,new ,,york',s ,,crowded1       
,,littered ,,east ,,side                
#ajf    ,,breaker ,,boys ,,at ,a        
,,pennsylvania ,,colliery               
#aab    ,,interior ,,of ,a ,,new ,,york 
,,office ,,building                     

#abd    ,,where ,,immigrant ,,children  
,,are ,,americanized                    
#adh    ,,harvard ,,hall ,,and ,,the    
,,johnson ,,gate1 ,,cambridge           
#bad    ,a ,,bit ,,of ,,princeton       
,,university                            
#baf    ,,in ,,the ,,congressional      
,,library                               
#bch     ,,the ,,future ,,in ,,america  
,,the ,,future ,,in ,,america           
,,chapter ,i  ,,the ,,prophetic ,,habit 
,,of ,,mind  7,at a writing-desk in     
,sandgate7   ,i  ,the ,question  ,are   
you a ,polygamist8  ,are you an         
,anarchist8  ,the questions seem        
impertinent4 ,they are part of a long   
paper of interrogations ,i must answer  
satisfactorily if ,i am to be regarded  
as a desirable alien to enter the       
,united ,states of ,america4 ,i want    
very much to pass that great statue of  
,liberty illuminating the ,world 7from a
 central position in ,new ,york         
,harbor71 in order to see things in its 
light1 to talk to certain people1 to    

appreciate certain atmospheres1 and so  
,i resist the provocation to answer     
impertinently4 ,i do not even volunteer 
that ,i do not smoke and am a total     
abstainer2 on which points it would seem
 the ,states as a whole still keep an   
open mind4 ,i am full of curiosity about
 ,america1 ,i am possessed by a problem 
,i feel ,i cannot adequately discuss    
even with myself except over there1 and 
,i must go even at the price of coming  
to a decision upon the theoretically    
open questions these two inquiries      
raise4  ,my problem ,i know will seem   
ridiculous and monstrous when ,i give it
 in all its stark                       
disproportions--attacked by me with my  
equipment it will call up an image of an
 elephant assailed by an ant who has not
 even mastered ,jiu-jitsu--but at any   
rate ,i've come to it in a natural sort 
of way and it is one ,i must1 for my own
 peace of mind1 make some kind of       
attempt upon1 even if at last it means  
no more than the ant crawling in an     

exploratory way hither and thither over 
that vast unconscious carcass and       
finally getting down and going away4    
,that may be rather good for the ant1   
and the experience may be of interest to
 other ants1 however infinitesimal from 
the point of view of the elephant1 the  
final value of his investigation may be4
 ,and this tremendous problem in my case
 and now in this--simply2 ,what is going
 to happen to the ,united ,states of    
,america in the next thirty years or so8
  ,i do not know if the reader has ever 
happened upon any books or writings of  
mine before1 but if1 what is highly     
probable1 he has not1 he may be curious 
to know how it is that any human being  
should be running about in so colossally
 an interrogative state of mind4 7,for  
even the present inquiry is by no means 
my maximum limit74 ,and the explanation 
is to be found a little in a mental     
idiosyncrasy perhaps1 but much more in  
the development of a special way of     
thinking1 of a habit of mind4  ,that    

habit of mind may be indicated by a     
proposition that1 with a fine air of    
discovery1 ,i threw out some years ago1 
in a happy ignorance that ,i had been   
anticipated by no less a person than    
,heraclitus4 ,there is no ,being but    
,becoming1 that was what appeared to my 
unscholarly mind to be almost           
triumphantly new4 ,i have since then    
informed myself more fully about        
,heraclitus1 there are moments now when 
,i more than half suspect that all the  
thinking ,i shall ever do will simply   
serve to illuminate my understanding of 
him1 but at any rate that apothegm of   
his does exactly convey the intellectual
 attitude into which ,i fall4 ,i am     
curiously not interested in things1 and 
curiously interested in the consequences
 of things4 ,i wouldn't for the world go
 to see the ,united ,states for what    
they are--if ,i had sound reason for    
supposing that the entire western       
hemisphere was to be destroyed next     
,christmas1 ,i should not1 ,i think1 be 

among the multitude that would rush for 
one last look at that great             
spectacle1--from which it follows       
naturally that ,i don't propose to see  
,niagara4 ,i should much more probably  
turn an inquiring visage eastward1 with 
the west so certainly provided for4 ,i  
have come to be1 ,i am afraid1 even a   
little insensitive to fine immediate    
things through this anticipatory habit4 
,this habit of mind confronts and       
perplexes my sense of things that simply
 are1 with my brooding preoccupation    
with how they will shape presently1 what
 they will lead to1 what seed they will 
sow and how they will wear4 ,at times1  
,i can assure the reader1 this quality  
approaches otherworldliness1 in its     
constant reference to an all-important  
here-after4 ,there are times indeed when
 it makes life seem so transparent and  
flimsy1 seem so dissolving1 so passing  
on to an equally transitory series of   
consequences1 that the enhanced sense of
 instability becomes restlessness and   

distress2 but on the other hand nothing 
that exists1 nothing whatever1 remains  
altogether vulgar or dull and dead or   
hopeless in its light4 ,but the interest
 is shifted4 ,the pomp and splendor of  
established order1 the braying triumphs1
 ceremonies1 consummations1 one sees    
these glittering shows for what they    
are--through their threadbare grandeur  
shine the little significant things that
 will make the future4444  ,and now that
 ,i am associating myself with great    
names1 let me discover that ,i find this
 characteristic turn of mind of mine1   
not only in ,heraclitus1 the most       
fragmentary of philosophers1 but for one
 fine passage at any rate1 in ,mr4      
,henry ,james1 the least fragmentary of 
novelists4 ,in his recent impressions of
 ,america ,i find him apostrophizing the
 great mansions of ,fifth ,avenue1 in   
words quite after my heart2--  ,it's all
 very well1 he writes1 for you to look  
as if1 since you've had no past1 you're 
going in1 as the next best thing1 for a 

magnificent compensatory future4 ,what  
are you going to make your future of1   
for all your airs1 we want to know8     
,what elements of a future1 as futures  
have gone in the great world1 are at all
 assured to you8  ,i had already when ,i
 read that1 figured myself as addressing
 if not these particular last triumphs  
of the fine ,transatlantic art of       
architecture1 then at least ,america in 
general in some such words4 ,it is not  
unpleasant to be anticipated by the     
chief ,master of one's craft1 it is     
indeed1 when one reflects upon his      
peculiar intimacy with this problem1    
enormously reassuring1 and so ,i have   
very gladly annexed his phrasing and put
 it here to honor and adorn and in a    
manner to explain my own enterprise4 ,i 
have already studied some of these fine 
buildings through the mediation of an   
illustrated magazine--they appear solid1
 they appear wonderful and well done to 
the highest pitch--and before many days 
now ,i shall1 ,i hope1 reconstruct that 

particular moment1 stand--the latest    
admirer from ,england--regarding these  
portentous magnificences1 from the same 
sidewalk--will they call it8--as my     
illustrious predecessor1 and with his   
question ringing in my mind all the     
louder for their proximity1 and the     
universally acknowledged invigoration of
 the ,american atmosphere4 ,what are you
 going to make your future of1 for all  
your airs8  ,and then ,i suppose ,i     
shall return to crane my neck at the    
,flat-,iron ,building or the ,times     
sky-scraper1 and ask all that too1 an   
identical question4   ,,ii              
,philosophical  ,certain phases in the  
development of these prophetic exercises
 one may perhaps be permitted to trace4 
,to begin with1 ,i remember that to me  
in my boyhood speculation about the     
,future was a monstrous joke4 ,like most
 people of my generation ,i was launched
 into life with millennial assumptions4 
,this present sort of thing1 ,i         
believed1 was going on for a time1      

interesting personally perhaps but as a 
whole inconsecutive1 and then--it might 
be in my lifetime or a little after     
it--there would be trumpets and         
shoutings and celestial phenomena1 a    
battle of ,armageddon and the ,judgment4
 ,as ,i saw it1 it was to be a strictly 
protestant and individualistic judgment1
 each soul upon its personal merits4 ,to
 talk about the ,man of the ,year       
,million was of course in the face of   
this great conviction1 a whimsical play 
of fancy4 ,the ,year ,million was just  
as impossible1 just as gayly nonsensical
 as fairy-land4444  ,i was a student of 
biology before ,i realized that this1 my
 finite and conclusive ,end1 at least in
 the material and chronological form1   
had somehow vanished from the scheme of 
things4 ,in the place of it had come a  
blackness and a vagueness about the     
endless vista of years ahead1 that was  
tremendous--that terrified4 ,that is a  
phase in which lots of educated people  
remain to this day4 ,all this scheme of 

things1 life1 force1 destiny which began
 not six thousand years1 mark you1 but  
an infinity ago1 that has developed out 
of such strange weird shapes and        
incredible first intentions1 out of     
gaseous nebul1 carboniferous swamps1    
saurian giantry and arboreal apes1 is by
 the same tokens to continue1           
developing--into what8 ,that was the    
overwhelming riddle that came to me1    
with that realization of an ,end        
averted1 that has come now to most of   
our world4  ,the phase that followed the
 first helpless stare of the mind was a 
wild effort to express one's sudden     
apprehension of unlimited possibility4  
,one made fantastic exaggerations1      
fantastic inversions of all recognized  
things4 ,anything of this sort might    
come1 anything of any sort4 ,the books  
about the future that followed the first
 stimulus of the world's realization of 
the implications of ,darwinian science1 
have all something of the monstrous     
experimental imaginings of children4 ,i 

myself1 in my microcosmic way1          
duplicated the times4 ,almost the first 
thing ,i ever wrote--it survives in an  
altered form as one of a bookful of     
essays1--was of this type2 ,the ,man of 
the ,year ,million1 was presented as a  
sort of pantomime head and a shrivelled 
body1 and years after that1 the ,time   
,machine1 my first published book1 ran  
in the same vein4 ,at that point1 at a  
brief astonished stare down the vistas  
of time-to-come1 at something between   
wonder and amazed1 incredulous1 defeated
 laughter1 most people1 ,i think1 stop4 
,but those who are doomed to the        
prophetic habit of mind go on4  ,the    
next phase1 the third phase1 is to      
shorten the range of the outlook1 to    
attempt something a little more         
proximate than the final destiny of man4
 ,one becomes more systematic1 one sets 
to work to trace the great changes of   
the last century or so1 and one produces
 these in a straight line and according 
to the rule of three4 ,if the maximum   

velocity of land travel in #ahjj was    
twelve miles an hour and in #aijj 7let  
us say7 sixty miles an hour1 then one   
concludes that in #bjjj ,a4,d4 it will  
be three hundred miles an hour4 ,if the 
population of ,america in #ahjj--;but ,i
 refrain from this second instance4 ,in 
that fashion one got out a sort of      
gigantesque caricature of the existing  
world1 everything swollen to vast       
proportions and massive beyond measure4 
,in my case that phase produced a book1 
,when the ,sleeper ,wakes1 in which1 ,i 
am told1 by competent ,new-,yorkers1    
that ,i1 starting with ,london1 an      
unbiassed mind1 this rule-of-three      
method and my otherwise unaided         
imagination1 produced something more    
like ,chicago than any other place      
wherein righteous men are likely to be  
found4 ,that ,i shall verify in due     
course1 but my present point is merely  
that to write such a book is to discover
 how thoroughly wrong this all too      
obvious method of enlarging the present 

is4  ,one goes on therefore--if one is  
to succumb altogether to the prophetic  
habit--to a really scientific attack    
upon the future4 ,the scientific phase  
is not final1 but it is far more        
abundantly fruitful than its            
predecessors4 ,one attempts a rude wide 
analysis of contemporary history1 one   
seeks to clear and detach operating     
causes and to work them out1 and so1    
combining this necessary set of         
consequences with that1 to achieve a    
synthetic forecast in terms just as     
broad and general and vague as the      
causes considered are few4 ,i made1 it  
happens1 an experiment in this          
scientific sort of prophecy in a book   
called ,anticipations1 and ,i gave an   
altogether excessive exposition and     
defence of it1 ,i went altogether too   
far in this direction1 in a lecture to  
the ,royal ,institution1 ,the ,discovery
 of the ,future1 that survives in odd   
corners as a pamphlet1 and is to be     
found1 like a scrap of old newspaper in 

the roof gutter of a museum1 in ,nature 
7vol4 ,,lxv41 p4 #cbf7 and in the       
,smithsonian ,report 7for #aijb74       
,within certain limits1 however1 ,i     
still believe this scientific method is 
sound4 ,it gives sound results in many  
cases1 results at any rate as sound as  
those one gets from the laws of         
political economy2 one can claim it     
really does effect a sort of prophecy on
 the material side of life4  ,for       
example1 it was quite obvious about     
#ahii that invention and enterprise were
 very busy with the means of locomotion1
 and one could deduce from that certain 
practically inevitable consequences in  
the distribution of urban populations4  
,with easier1 quicker means of getting  
about there were endless reasons1       
hygienic1 social1 economic1 why people  
should move from the town centres       
towards their peripheries1 and very few 
why they should not4 ,the towns one     
inferred therefore1 would get slacker1  
more diffused1 the countryside more     

urban4 ,from that1 from the spatial     
widening of personal interests that     
ensued1 one could infer certain changes 
in the spirits of local politics1 and so
 one went on to a number of fairly valid
 adumbrations4 ,then again starting from
 the practical supersession in the long 
run of all unskilled labor by machinery 
one can work out with a pretty fair     
certainty many coming social            
developments1 and the broad trend of one
 group of influences at least from the  
moral attitude of the mass of common    
people4 ,in industry1 in domestic life  
again1 one foresees a steady development
 of complex appliances1 demanding1 and  
indeed in an epoch of frequently        
changing methods forcing1 a flexible    
understanding1 versatility of effort1 a 
universal rising standard of education4 
,so too a study of military methods and 
apparatus convinces one of the necessary
 transfer of power in the coming century
 from the ignorant and enthusiastic     
masses who made the revolutions of the  

eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and 
won ,napoleon his wars1 to any more     
deliberate1 more intelligent and more   
disciplined class that may possess an   
organized purpose4 ,but where will one  
find that class8 ,there comes a question
 that goes outside science1 that takes  
one at once into a field beyond the     
range of the scientific method          
altogether4  ,so long as one adopts the 
assumptions of the old political        
economist and assumes men without       
idiosyncrasy1 without prejudices1       
without1 as people say1 wills of their  
own1 so long as one imagines a perfectly
 acquiescent humanity that will always  
in the long run under pressure liquefy  
and stream along the line of least      
resistance to its own material          
advantage1 the business of prophecy is  
easy4 ,but from the first ,i felt       
distrust for that facility in           
prophesying1 ,i perceived that always   
there lurked something1 an incalculable 
opposition to these mechanically        

conceived forces1 in law1 in usage and  
prejudice1 in the poitic power of       
exceptional individual men4 ,i          
discovered for myself over again1 the   
inseparable nature of the two functions 
of the prophet4 ,in my ,anticipations1  
for example1 ,i had intended simply to  
work out and foretell1 and before ,i had
 finished ,i was in a fine full blast of
 exhortation4444  ,that by an easy      
transition brought me to the last stage 
in the life history of the prophetic    
mind1 as it is at present known to me4  
,one comes out on the other side of the 
scientific method1 into the large       
temperance1 the valiant                 
inconclusiveness1 the released          
creativeness of philosophy4 ,much may be
 foretold as certain1 much more as      
possible1 but the last decisions and the
 greatest decisions1 lie in the hearts  
and wills of unique incalculable men4   
,with them we have to deal as our       
ultimate reality in all these matters1  
and our methods have to be not          

scientific at all for all the greater   
issues1 the humanly important issues1   
but critical1 literary1 even if you     
will--artistic4 ,here insight is of more
 account than induction and the         
perception of fine tones than the       
counting of heads4 ,science deals with  
necessity and necessity is here but the 
firm ground on which our freedom goes4  
,one passes from affairs of             
predestination to affairs of free will4 
,this discovery spread at once beyond   
the field of prophesying4 ,the end1 the 
aim1 the test of science1 as a model man
 understands the word1 is foretelling by
 means of laws1 and my error in         
attempting a complete scientific        
forecast of human affairs arose in too  
careless an assent to the ideas about   
me1 and from accepting uncritically such
 claims as that history should be       
scientific1 and that economics and      
sociology 7for example7 are sciences4   
,directly one gauges the fuller         
implications of that uniqueness of      

individuals ,darwin's work has so       
permanently illuminated1 one passes     
beyond that4 ,the ripened prophet       
realizes ,schopenhauer--as indeed ,i    
find ,professor ,mnsterberg saying4 ,the
 deepest sense of human affairs is      
reached1 he writes1 when we consider    
them not as appearances but as          
decisions4 ,there one has the same thing
 coming to meet one from the            
psychological side4444  ,but my present 
business isn't to go into this shadowy1 
metaphysical foundation world on which  
our thinking rests1 but to the brightly 
lit overworld of ,america4 ,this        
philosophical excursion is set here just
 to prepare the reader quite frankly for
 speculations and to disabuse his mind  
of the idea that in writing of the      
,future in ,america ,i'm going to write 
of houses a hundred stories high and    
flying-machines in warfare and things   
like that4 ,i am not going to ,america  
to work a pretentious horoscope1 to     
discover a ,destiny1 but to find out    

what ,i can of what must needs make that
 ,destiny1--a great nation's ,will4     
,,iii  ,the ,will of ,america  ,the     
material factors in a nation's future   
are subordinate factors1 they present   
advantages1 such as the easy access of  
the ,english to coal and the sea1 or    
disadvantages1 such as the ice-bound    
seaboard of the ,russians1 but these are
 the circumstances and not necessarily  
the rulers of its fate4 ,the essential  
factor in the destiny of a nation1 as of
 a man and of mankind1 lies in the form 
of its will and in the quality and      
quantity of its will4 ,the drama of a   
nation's future1 as of a man's1 lies in 
this conflict of its will with what     
would else be scientifically            
predictable1 materially inevitable4 ,if 
the man1 if the nation was an automaton 
fitted with good average motives1 so and
 so1 one could say exactly1 would be    
done4 ,it's just where the thing isn't  
automatic that our present interest     
comes in4  ,i might perhaps reverse the 

order of the three aspects of will ,i   
have named1 for manifestly where the    
quantity of will is small1 it matters   
nothing what the form or quality4 ,the  
man or the people that wills feebly is  
the sport of every circumstance1 and    
there if anywhere the scientific method 
holds truest or even altogether true4   
,do geographical positions or mineral   
resources make for riches8 ,then such a 
people will grow insecurely and         
disastrously rich4 ,is an abundant      
prolific life at a low level indicated8 
,they will pullulate and suffer4 ,if    
circumstances make for a choice between 
comfort and reproduction1 your feeble   
people will dwindle and pass2 if war1 if
 conquest tempt them then they will turn
 from all preoccupations and follow the 
drums4 ,little things provoke their     
unstable equilibrium1 to hostility1 to  
forgiveness4444  ,and be it noted that  
the quantity of will in a nation is not 
necessarily determined by adding up the 
wills of all its people4 ,i am told1 and

 ,i am disposed to believe it1 that the 
,americans of the ,united ,states are a 
people of great individual force of     
will1 the clear strong faces of many    
young ,americans1 something almost      
,roman in the faces of their statesmen  
and politicians1 a distinctive quality  
,i detect in such ,americans as ,i have 
met1 a quality of sharply cut           
determination even though it be only    
about details and secondary things1 that
 one must rouse one's self to meet1     
inclines me to give a provisional credit
 to that1 but how far does all this     
possible will-force aggregate to a great
 national purpose8--what algebraically  
does it add up to when this and that    
have cancelled each other8 ,that may be 
a different thing altogether4  ,and next
 to this net quantity of will a nation  
or people may possess1 come the         
questions of its quality1 its           
flexibility1 its consciousness and      
intellectuality4 ,a nation may be full  
of will and yet inflexibly and          

disastrously stupid in the expression of
 that will4 ,there was probably more    
will-power1 mere haughty and determined 
self-assertion in the young bull that   
charged the railway engine than in      
several regiments of men1 but it was    
after all a low quality of will with no 
method but a violent and injudicious    
directness1 and in the end it was       
suicidal and futile4 ,there again is the
 substance for ramifying ,enquiries4    
,how subtle1 how collected and patient1 
how far capable of a long plan1 is this 
,american nation8 ,suppose it has a will
 so powerful and with such resources    
that whatever simple end may be attained
 by rushing upon it is ,america's for   
the asking1 there still remains the far 
more important question of the ends that
 are not obvious1 that are intricate and
 complex and not to be won by booms and 
cataclysms of effort4  ,an ,englishman  
comes to think that most of the         
permanent and precious things for which 
a nation's effort goes are like that1   

and here too ,i have an open mind and   
unsatisfied curiosities4  ,and lastly   
there is the form of the nation's       
purpose4 ,i have been reading what ,i   
can find about that in books for some   
time1 and now ,i want to cross over the 
,atlantic1 more particularly for that1  
to question more or less openly certain 
,americans1 not only men and women1 but 
the mute expressive presences of house  
and appliance1 of statue1 flag and      
public building1 and the large          
collective visages of crowds1 what it is
 all up to1 what it thinks it is all    
after1 how far it means to escape or    
improve upon its purely material        
destinies8 ,i want over there to find   
whatever consciousness or vague         
consciousness of a common purpose there 
may be1 what is their ,vision1 their    
,american ,utopia1 how much will there  
is shaping to attain it1 how much       
capacity goes with the will--what1 in   
short1 there is in ,america1 over and   
above the mere mechanical consequences  

of scattering multitudes of energetic   
,europeans athwart a vast healthy1      
productive and practically empty        
continent in the temperate zone4 ,there 
you have the terms of reference of an   
enquiry1 that is ,i admit 7as ,mr4      
,morgan ,richards the eminent           
advertisement agent would say71 mammoth 
in character4  ,the ,american reader may
 very reasonably inquire at this point  
why an ,englishman does not begin with  
the future of his own country4 ,the     
answer is that this particular one has  
done so1 and that in many ways he has   
found his intimacy and proximity a      
disadvantage4 ,one knows too much of the
 things that seem to matter and that    
ultimately don't1 one is full of        
misleading individual instances         
intensely seen1 one can't see the wood  
for the trees4 ,one comes to ,america at
 last1 not only with the idea of seeing 
,america1 but with something more than  
an incidental hope of getting one's own 
,england there in the distance and as a 

whole1 for the first time in one's life4
 ,and the problem of ,america1 from this
 side anyhow1 has an air of being       
simpler4 ,for all the ,philippine       
adventure her future still seems to lie 
on the whole compactly in one continent1
 and not as ours is1 dispersed round and
 about the habitable globe1 strangely   
entangled with ,india1 with ,japan1 with
 ,africa and with the great antagonism  
the ,germans force upon us at our doors4
 ,moreover one cannot look ten years    
ahead in ,england1 without glancing     
across the ,atlantic4 ,there they are1  
we say to one another1 those ,americans6
 ,they speak our language1 read our     
books1 give us books1 share our mind4   
,what we think still goes into their    
heads in a measure1 and their thoughts  
run through our brains4 ,what will they 
be up to8  ,our future is               
extraordinarily bound up in ,america's  
and in a sense dependent upon it4 ,it is
 not that we dream very much of         
political reunions of ,anglo ,saxondom  

and the like4 ,so long as we ,british   
retain our wide and accidental sprawl of
 empire about the earth we cannot expect
 or desire the ,americans to share our  
stresses and entanglements4 ,our ,empire
 has its own adventurous and perilous   
outlook4 ,but our civilization is a     
different thing from our ,empire1 a     
thing that reaches out further into the 
future1 that will be going on changed   
beyond recognition4 ,because of our     
common language1 of our common          
traditions1 ,americans are a part of our
 community1 are becoming indeed the     
larger part of our community of thought 
and feeling and outlook--in a sense far 
more intimate than any link we have with
 ,hindoo or ,copt or ,cingalese4 ,a     
common ,englishman has an almost        
pathetic pride and sense of             
proprietorship in the ,states2 he is    
fatally ready to fall in with the idea  
that two nations that share their past1 
that still1 a little restively1 share   
one language1 may even contrive to share

 an infinitely more interesting future4 
,even if he does not chance to be an    
,american now1 his grandson may be4     
,america is his inheritance1 his        
reserved accumulating investment4 ,in   
that sense indeed ,america belongs to   
the whole western world2 all ,europe    
owns her promise1 but to the ,englishman
 the sense of participation is intense4 
,we did it1 he will tell of the most    
,american of achievements1 of the       
settlement of the middle west for       
example1 and this is so far justifiable 
that numberless men1 myself included1   
are ,englishmen1 ,australian1           
,new-,zealanders1 ,canadians1 instead of
 being ,americans1 by the merest        
accidents of life4 ,my father still     
possesses the stout oak box he had had  
made to emigrate withal1 everything was 
arranged that would have got me and my  
brothers born across the ocean1 and only
 the coincidence of a business          
opportunity and an illness of my        
mother's1 arrested that4 ,it was so near

 a thing as that with me1 which prevents
 my blood from boiling with patriotic   
indignation instead of patriotic        
solicitude at the frequent sight of     
red-coats as ,i see them from my study  
window going to and fro to ,shorncliffe 
camp4  ,well ,i learn from ,professor   
,mnsterberg how vain my sense of        
proprietorship is1 but still this much  
of it obstinately remains1 that ,i will 
at any rate look at the ,american       
future4  ,by the accidents that delayed 
that box it comes about that if ,i want 
to see what ,america is up to1 ,i have  
among other things to buy a ,baedeker   
and a steamer ticket and fill up the    
inquiring blanks in this remarkable     
document before me1 the long string of  
questions that begins3--  ,are you a    
,polygamist8  ,are you an ,anarchist8   
,here ,i gather is one little indication
 of the great will ,i am going to study4
 ,it would seem that the ,united ,states
 of ,america regard ,anarchy and        
,polygamy with aversion1 regard indeed  

,anarchists and ,polygamists as         
creatures unfit to mingle with the      
already very various eighty million of  
citizens who constitute their sovereign 
powers1 and on the other hand hold these
 creatures so inflexibly honorable as   
certainly to tell these damning truths  
about themselves in this matter4444     
,it's a little odd4 ,one has a second or
 so of doubt about the quality of that  
particular manifestation of will4       
,,chapter ,,ii  ,,material ,,progress   
7,on the ,carmania going ,americanward7 
,i  ,american ,certitudes  ,when one    
talks to an ,american of his national   
purpose he seems a little at a loss2 if 
one speaks of his national destiny1 he  
responds with alacrity4 ,i make this    
generalization on the usual narrow      
foundations1 but so the impression comes
 to me4  ,until this present generation1
 indeed until within a couple of        
decades1 it is not very evident that    
,americans did envisage any national    
purpose at all1 except in so far as     

there was a certain solicitude not to be
 cheated out of an assured destiny4 ,a  
sort of optimistic fatalism possessed   
them4 ,they had1 and mostly it seems    
they still have1 a tremendous sense of  
sustained and assured growth1 and it is 
not altogether untrue that one is       
told--,i have been told--such things as 
that ,america is a great country1 sir1  
that its future is gigantic and that it 
is already 7and going to be more and    
more so7 the greatest country on earth4 
,i am not the sort of ,englishman who   
questions that4 ,i do so regard that    
much as obvious and true that it seems  
to me even a little undignified1 as well
 as a little overbearing1 for ,americans
 to insist upon it so2 ,i try to go on  
as soon as possible to the question just
 how my interlocutor shapes that        
gigantic future and what that world     
predominance is finally to do for us in 
,england and all about the world4 ,so   
far1 ,i must insist1 ,i haven't found   
anything like an idea4 ,i have looked   

for it in books1 in papers1 in speeches 
and now ,i am going to look for it in   
,america4 ,at the most ,i have found    
vague imaginings that correspond to that
 first or monstrous stage in the scheme 
of prophetic development ,i sketched in 
my opening4  ,there is often no more    
than a volley of rhetorical             
blank-cartridge4 ,so empty is it of all 
but sound that ,i have usually been     
constrained by civility from going on to
 a third enquiry2--  ,and what are you1 
sir1 doing in particular1 to assist and 
enrich this magnificent and quite       
indefinable ,destiny of which you so    
evidently feel yourself a part8444      
,that seems to be really no unjust      
rendering of the conscious element of   
the ,american outlook as one finds it1  
for example1 in these nice-looking and  
pleasant-mannered fellow-passengers upon
 the ,carmania upon whom ,i fasten with 
leading questions and experimental      
remarks4 ,one exception ,i discover--a  
pleasant ,new ,york clubman who has     

doubts of this and that4 ,the discipline
 and sense of purpose in ,germany has   
laid hold upon him4 ,he seems to be1 in 
contrast with his fellow-countrymen1    
almost pessimistically aware that the   
,american ship of state is after all a  
mortal ship and liable to leakages4     
,there are certain problems and dangers 
he seems to think that may delay1       
perhaps even prevent1 an undamaged      
arrival in that predestined port1 that  
port too resplendent for the eye to rest
 upon2 a ,chinese peril1 he thinks has  
not been finally dealt with1 race       
suicide is not arrested for all that it 
is scolded in a most valiant and virile 
manner1 and there are adverse           
possibilities in the immigrant1 in the  
black1 the socialist1 against which he  
sees no guarantee4 ,he sees huge danger 
in the development and organization of  
the new finance and no clear promise of 
a remedy4 ,he finds the closest parallel
 between the ,american ,republic and    
,rome before the coming of ,imperialism4

 ,but these other ,americans have no    
share in his pessimisms4 ,they may      
confess to as much as he does in the way
 of dangers1 admit there are occasions  
for calking1 a need of stopping quite a 
number of possibilities if the ,american
 ,idea is to make its triumphant entry  
at last into that port of blinding      
accomplishment1 but1 apart from a few   
necessary preventive proposals1 ,i do   
not perceive any extensive sense of     
anything whatever to be done1 anything  
to be shaped and thought out and made in
 the sense of a national determination  
to a designed and specified end4   ,,ii 
,a ,symbol of ,progress  ,there are1 one
 must admit1 tremendous justifications  
for the belief in a sort of automatic   
ascent of ,american things to           
unprecedented magnificences1 an ascent  
so automatic that indeed one needn't    
bother in the slightest to keep the     
whole thing going4 ,for example1        
consider this1 last year's last-word in 
ocean travel in which ,i am crossing1   

the ,carmania with its unparalleled     
steadfastness1 its racing1 tireless     
great turbines1 its vast population of  
#cbdd souls6 ,it has on the whole a     
tremendous effect of having come by fate
 and its own forces4 ,one forgets that  
any one planned it1 much of it indeed   
has so much the quality of moving1 as   
the planets move1 in the very nature of 
things4 ,you go aft and see the wake    
tailing away across the blue ridges1 you
 go forward and see the cleft water1    
lift protestingly1 roll back in an      
indignant crest1 own itself beaten and  
go pouring by in great foaming waves on 
either hand1 you see nothing1 you hear  
nothing of the toiling engines1 the     
reeking stokers1 the effort and the     
stress below2 you beat west and west1 as
 the sun does and it might seem with    
nearly the same independence of any     
living man's help or opposition4        
,equally so does it seem this great1    
gleaming1 confident thing of power and  
metal came inevitably out of the past   

and will lead on to still more shining1 
still swifter and securer monsters in   
the future4  ,one sees in the           
perspective of history1 first the little
 cockle-shells of ,columbus1 the comings
 and goings of the precarious ,tudor    
adventurers1 the slow uncertain shipping
 of colonial days4 ,says ,sir ,george   
,trevelyan in the opening of his        
,american ,revolution1 that then--it is 
still not a century and a half ago6--   
a man bound for ,new ,york1 as he sent  
his luggage on board at ,bristol1  would
 willingly have compounded for a voyage 
lasting as many weeks as  it now lasts  
days4444 ,adams1 during the height of   
the war1 hurrying to  ,france in the    
finest frigate ,congress could place at 
his disposal 444  could make not better 
speed than five and forty days between  
,boston  and ,bordeaux4 ,lord ,carlisle 
444 was six weeks between port and port2
  tossed by gales which inflicted on his
 brother ,commissioners agonies  such as
 he forbore to make a matter of joke    

even to ,george ,selwyn4444  ,how       
humbler individuals fared4444 ,they     
would be kept waiting weeks on  the     
wrong side of the water for a full      
complement of passengers and  weeks more
 for a fair wind1 and then beating      
across in a badly found  tub with a     
cargo of millstones and old iron rolling
 about below1 they  thought themselves  
lucky if they came into harbor a month  
after their  private store of provisions
 had run out and carrying a budget of   
news  as stale as the ship's provisions4
  ,even in the time of ,dickens things  
were by no measure more than half-way   
better4 ,i have with me to enhance my   
comfort by this aided retrospect1 his   
,american ,notes4 ,his crossing lasted  
eighteen days and his boat was that     
far-famed ,american steamer1 the        
,britannia 7the first of the long       
succession of ,cunarders1 of which this 
,carmania is the latest72 his return    
took fifty days1 and was a jovial       
home-coming under sail4 ,it's the       

journey out gives us our contrast4 ,he  
had the state-room of the period and    
very unhappy he was in it1 as he        
testifies in a characteristically       
mounting passage4   ,that this          
state-room had been specially engaged   
for ',charles ,dickens1  ,esquire1 and  
,lady1' was rendered sufficiently clear 
even to my scared  intellect by a very  
small manuscript1 announcing the fact1  
which was  pinned on a very flat quilt1 
covering a very thin mattress1 spread   
like a surgical plaster on a most       
inaccessible shelf4 ,but that this  was 
the state-room1 concerning which        
,charles ,dickens1 ,esquire1 and  ,lady1
 had held daily and nightly conferences 
for at least four months  preceding2    
that this could by any possibility be   
that small snug  chamber of the         
imagination1 which ,charles ,dickens1   
,esquire1 with the  spirit of prophecy  
strong upon him1 had always foretold    
would contain  at least one little sofa1
 and which his ,lady1 with a modest and 

yet  most magnificent sense of its      
limited dimensions1 had from the first  
opined would not hold more than two     
enormous portmanteaus in some odd       
corner out of sight 7portmanteaus which 
could now no more be got in at  the     
door1 not to say stowed away1 than a    
giraffe could be persuaded or  forced   
into a flower-pot73 that this utterly   
impracticable1 thoroughly  preposterous 
box1 had the remotest reference to1 or  
connection with1  those chaste and      
pretty bowers1 sketched in a masterly   
hand1 in  the highly varnished1         
lithographic plan1 hanging up in the    
agent's  counting-house in the ,city of 
,london3 that this room of state1 in    
short1 could be anything but a pleasant 
fiction and cheerful jest of  the       
,captain's1 invented and put in practice
 for the better relish and  enjoyment of
 the real state-room presently to be    
disclosed3 these were  truths which ,i  
really could not bring my mind at all to
 bear upon or  comprehend4  ,so he      

precludes his two weeks and a half of   
vile weather in this paddle boat of the 
middle ages 7she carried a formidable   
multitude of no less than eighty-six    
saloon passengers7 and goes on to       
describe such experiences as this2      
,about midnight we shipped a sea1 which 
forced its way through the  skylights1  
burst open the doors above1 and came    
raging and roaring  down into the       
ladies' cabin1 to the unspeakable       
consternation of  my wife and a little  
,scotch lady4444 ,they1 and the handmaid
 before  mentioned1 being in such       
ecstacies of fear that ,i scarcely knew 
what  to do with them1 ,i naturally     
bethought myself of some restorative  or
 comfortable cordial2 and nothing better
 occurring to me1 at the  moment1 than  
hot brandy-and-water1 ,i procured a     
tumblerful without  delay4 ,it being    
impossible to stand or sit without      
holding on1 they  were all heaped       
together in one corner of a long sofa--a
 fixture  extending entirely across the 

cabin--where they clung to each other in
  momentary expectation of being        
drowned4 ,when ,i approached this place 
with my specific1 and was about to      
administer it with many consolatory     
expressions1 to the nearest sufferer1   
what was my dismay to see  them all roll
 slowly down to the other end6 and when 
,i staggered to  that end1 and held out 
the glass once more1 how immensely      
baffled  were my good intentions by the 
ship giving another lurch1 and their    
rolling back again6 ,i suppose ,i dodged
 them up and down this sofa1  for at    
least a quarter of an hour1 without     
reaching them once2 and  by the time ,i 
did catch them1 the brandy-and-water was
 diminished1  by constant spilling1 to a
 teaspoonful4 ,to complete the group1 it
 is  necessary to recognize in this     
disconcerted dodger1 an individual  very
 pale from sea-sickness1 who had shaved 
his beard and brushed his  hair last at 
,liverpool2 and whose only articles of  
dress 7linen not  included7 were a pair 

of dreadnought trousers2 a blue jacket1 
formerly  admired upon the ,thames at   
,richmond2 no stockings2 and one        
slipper4  ,it gives one a momentary     
sense of superiority to the great master
 to read that4 ,one surveys one's       
immediate surroundings and compares them
 with his4 ,one says almost             
patronizingly3 ,poor old ,dickens1 you  
know1 really did have too awful a time6 
,the waves are high now1 and getting    
higher1 dark-blue waves foam-crested2   
the waves haven't altered--except       
relatively--but one isn't even sea-sick4
 ,at the most there are squeamish       
moments for the weaker brethren4 ,one   
looks down on these long white-crested  
undulations thirty feet or so of rise   
and fall1 as we look down the side of a 
sky-scraper into a tumult in the street4
  ,we displace thirty thousand tons of  
water instead of twelve hundred1 we can 
carry #eba first and second class       
passengers1 a crew of #dfc1 and #bbfj   
emigrants below4444  ,we're a city      

rather than a ship1 our funnels go up   
over the height of any reasonable church
 spire1 and you need walk the main-deck 
from end to end and back only four times
 to do a mile4 ,any one who has been to 
,london and seen ,trafalgar ,square will
 get our dimensions perfectly1 when he  
realizes that we should only squeeze    
into that finest site in ,europe1       
diagonally1 dwarfing the ,national      
,gallery1 ,st4 ,martin's ,church1 hotels
 and every other building there out of  
existence1 our funnels towering five    
feet higher than ,nelson on his column4 
,as one looks down on it all from the   
boat-deck one has a social microcosm1 we
 could set up as a small modern country 
and renew civilization even if the rest 
of the world was destroyed4 ,we've the  
plutocracy up here1 there is a middle   
class on the second-class deck and      
forward a proletariat--the proles much  
in evidence--complete4 ,it's possible to
 go slumming aboard4444 ,we have our    
daily paper1 too1 printed aboard1 and   

all the latest news by marconigram4444  
,never was anything of this sort before1
 never4 ,caligula's shipping it is true 
7unless it was ,constantine's7 did1 as  
,mr4 ,cecil ,torr testifies1 hold a     
world record until the nineteenth       
century and he quotes ,pliny for        
thirteen hundred tons--outdoing the     
,britannia--and ,moschion for cabins and
 baths and covered vine-shaded walks and
 plants in pots4 ,but from #ahdj onward1
 we have broken away into a new scale   
for life4 ,this ,carmania isn't the     
largest ship nor the finest1 nor is it  
to be the last4 ,greater ships are to   
follow and greater4 ,the scale of size1 
the scale of power1 the speed and       
dimensions of things about us alter     
remorselessly--to some limit we cannot  
at present descry4   ,,iii  ,is         
,progress ,inevitable8  ,it is the      
development of such things as this1 it  
is this dramatically abbreviated        
perspective from those pre-,reformation 
caravels to the larger1 larger1 larger  

of the present vessels1 one must blame  
for one's illusions4 ,one is led        
unawares to believe that this something 
called ,progress is a natural and       
necessary and secular process1 going on 
without the definite will of man1       
carrying us on quite independently of   
us2 one is led unawares to forget that  
it is after all from the historical     
point of view only a sudden universal   
jolting forward in history1 an affair of
 two centuries at most1 a process for   
the continuance of which we have no sort
 of guarantee4 ,most western ,europeans 
have this delusion of automatic progress
 in things badly enough1 but with       
,americans it seems to be almost        
fundamental4 ,it is their theory of the 
,cosmos and they no more think of       
inquiring into the sustaining causes of 
the progressive movement than they would
 into the character of the stokers      
hidden away from us in this great thing 
somewhere--the officers alone know      
where4  ,i am happy to find this blind  

confidence very well expressed for      
example in an illustrated magazine      
article by ,mr4 ,edgar ,saltus1 ,new    
,york from the ,flat-iron1 that a friend
 has put in my hand to prepare me for   
the wonders to come4 ,mr4 ,saltus writes
 with an eloquent joy of his vision of  
,broadway below1 ,broadway that is now  
barring trade-routes1 the largest       
commercial stretch on this planet4 ,so  
late as ,dickens's visit it was         
scavenged by roving untended herds of   
gaunt1 brown1 black-blotched pigs4 ,he  
writes of lower ,fifth ,avenue and upper
 ,fifth ,avenue1 of ,madison ,square and
 its tower1 of sky-scrapers and         
sky-scrapers and sky-scrapers round and 
about the horizon4 7,i am to have a     
tremendous view of them to-morrow as we 
steam up from the ,narrows47 ,and thus  
,mr4 ,saltus proceeds1--   ,as you lean 
and gaze from the toppest floors on     
houses below1 which  from those floors  
seem huts1 it may occur to you that     
precisely as  these huts were once      

regarded as supreme achievements1 so1   
one of  these days1 from other and      
higher floors1 the ,flat-iron may seem a
 hut  itself4 ,evolution has not halted4
 ,undiscernibly but indefatigably1      
always it is progressing4 ,its final    
term is not existing buildings1  nor in 
existing man4 ,if humanity sprang from  
gorillas1 from humanity  gods shall     
proceed4  ,the rule of three in         
excelsis6   ,the story of ,olympus is   
merely a tale of what might have been4  
,that  which might have been may yet    
come to pass4 ,even now could the old   
divinities1 hushed forevermore1 awake1  
they would be perplexed enough  to see  
how mortals have exceeded them4444 ,in  
,fifth ,avenue inns they  could get     
fairer fare than ambrosia1 and behold   
women beside whom  ,venus herself would 
look provincial and ,juno a frump4 ,the 
spectacle of  electricity tamed and     
domesticated would surprise them not a  
little1  the elevated quite as much1 the
 ,flat-iron still more4 ,at sight of the

  latter they would recall the ,titans  
with whom once they warred1 and  sink to
 their sun-red seas outfaced4   ,in this
 same measure we have succeeded in      
exceeding them1 so will  posterity      
surpass what we have done4 ,evolution   
may be slow1 it  achieved an            
unrecognized advance when it devised    
buildings such as  this4 ,it is         
demonstrable that small rooms breed     
small thoughts4 ,it  will be            
demonstrable that1 as buildings ascend1 
so do ideas4 ,it is  mental progress    
that sky-scrapers engender4 ,from these 
parturitions  gods may really           
proceed--beings1 that is1 who1 could we 
remain long  enough to see them1 would  
regard us as we regard the apes4444     
,mr4 ,saltus writes1 ,i think1 with a   
very typical ,american accent4 ,most    
,americans think like that and all of   
them ,i fancy feel like it4 ,just in    
that spirit a later-empire ,roman might 
have written apropos the gigantic new   
basilica of ,constantine the ,great 7who

 was also1 one recalls1 a record-breaker
 in ship-building7 and have compared it 
with the straitened proportions of      
,csar's ,forum and the meagre relics of 
republican ,rome4 ,so too 7absit omen7  
he might have swelled into prophecy and 
sounded the true modern note4  ,one     
hears that modern note everywhere       
nowadays where print spreads1 but from  
,america with fewer undertones than     
anywhere4 ,even ,i find it1 ringing     
clear1 as a thing beyond disputing1 as a
 thing as self-evident as sunrise again 
and again in the expressed thought of   
,mr4 ,henry ,james4  ,but you know this 
progress isn't guaranteed4 ,we have all 
indeed been carried away completely by  
the up-rush of it all4 ,to me now this  
,carmania seems to typify the whole     
thing4 ,what matter it if there are     
moments when one reflects on the        
mysterious smallness and it would seem  
the ungrowing quality of the human      
content of it all8 ,we are1 after all1  
astonishingly like flies on a machine   

that has got loose4 ,no matter4 ,those  
people on the main-deck are the oddest  
crowd1 strange ,oriental-looking figures
 with ,astrakhan caps1 hook-noses1      
shifty eyes1 and indisputably dirty     
habits1 bold-eyed1 red-capped1          
expectorating women1 quaint and         
amazingly dirty children2 ,tartars there
 are too1 and ,cossacks1 queer wraps1   
queer head-dresses1 a sort of greasy    
picturesqueness over them all4 ,they use
 the handkerchief solely as a head      
covering4 ,their deck is disgusting with
 fragments of food1 with egg-shells they
 haven't had the decency to throw       
over-board4 ,collectively they have--an 
atmosphere4 ,they're going where we're  
going1 wherever that is4 ,what matters  
it8 ,what matters it1 too1 if these     
people about me in the artistic         
apartment talk nothing but trivialities 
derived from the ,daily ,bulletin1 think
 nothing but trivialities1 are1 except  
in the capacity of paying passengers1   
the most ineffectual gathering of human 

beings conceivable8 ,what matters it    
that there is no connection1 no         
understanding whatever between them and 
that large and ominous crowd a plank or 
so and a yard or so under our feet8 ,or 
between themselves for the matter of    
that8 ,what matters it if nobody seems  
to be struck by the fact that we are    
all1 the three thousand two hundred of  
us so extraordinarily got together into 
this tremendous machine1 and that not   
only does nobody inquire what it is has 
got us together in this astonishing     
fashion and why1 but that nobody seems  
to feel that we are together in any sort
 of way at all8 ,one looks up at the    
smoke-pouring funnels and back at the   
foaming wake4 ,it will be all right4    
,aren't we driving ahead westward at a  
pace of four hundred and fifty miles a  
day8  ,and twenty or thirty thousand    
other souls1 mixed and stratified1 on   
great steamers ahead of us1 or behind1  
are driving westward too4 ,that there's 
no collective mind apparent in it at    

all1 worth speaking about is so much the
 better4 ,that only shows its ,destiny1 
its ,progress as inevitable as          
gravitation4 ,i could almost believe it1
 as ,i sit quietly writing here by a    
softly shaded light in this elegantly   
appointed drawing-room1 as steady as    
though ,i was in my native habitat on   
dry land instead of hurrying almost     
fearfully1 at twenty knots an hour1 over
 a tumbling empty desert of blue waves  
under a windy sky4 ,but1 only a little  
while ago1 ,i was out forward alone1    
looking at that4 ,everything was still  
except for the remote throbbing of the  
engines and the nearly effaced sound of 
a man1 singing in a strange tongue1 that
 came from the third-class gangway far  
below4 ,the sky was clear1 save for a   
few black streamers of clouds1 ,orion   
hung very light and large above the     
waters1 and a great new moon1 still     
visibly holding its dead predecessor in 
its crescent1 sank near him4 ,between   
the sparse great stars were deep blue   

spaces1 unfathomed distances4  ,out     
there ,i had been reminded of space and 
time4 ,out there the ship was just a    
hastening ephemeral fire-fly that had   
chanced to happen across the eternal    
tumult of the winds and sea4            
,,chapter ,,iii  ,,new ,,york  7,in a   
room on the ninth floor in the          
sky-scraper hotel ,new ,york7   ,i      
,first ,impressions  ,my first          
impressions of ,new ,york are enormously
 to enhance the effect of this          
,progress1 this material progress1 that 
is to say1 as something inevitable and  
inhuman1 as a blindly furious energy of 
growth that must go on4 ,against the    
broad and level gray contours of        
,liverpool one found the ocean liner    
portentously tall1 but here one steams  
into the middle of a town that dwarfs   
the ocean liner4 ,the sky-scrapers that 
are the ,new-,yorker's perpetual boast  
and pride rise up to greet one as one   
comes through the ,narrows into the     
,upper ,bay1 stand out1 in a clustering 

group of tall irregular crenellations1  
the strangest crown that ever a city    
wore4 ,they have an effect of immense   
incompleteness2 each one seems to await 
some needed terminal1--to be1 by virtue 
of its woolly jets of steam1 still as it
 were in process of eruption4 ,one      
thinks of ,st4 ,peter's great blue dome1
 finished and done as one saw it from a 
vine-shaded wine-booth above the        
,milvian ,bridge1 one thinks of the     
sudden ascendency of ,st4 ,paul's dark  
grace1 as it soars out over any one who 
comes up by the ,thames towards it4     
,these are efforts that have            
accomplished their ends1 and even ,paris
 illuminated under the tall stem of the 
,eiffel ,tower looked completed and     
defined4 ,but ,new ,york's achievement  
is a threatening promise1 growth going  
on under a pressure that increases1 and 
amidst a hungry uproar of effort4  ,one 
gets a measure of the quality of this   
force of mechanical1 of inhuman1 growth 
as one marks the great statue of        

,liberty on our larboard1 which is meant
 to dominate and fails absolutely to    
dominate the scene4 ,it gets to three   
hundred feet about1 by standing on a    
pedestal of a hundred and fifty2 and the
 uplifted torch1 seen against the sky1  
suggests an arm straining upward1       
straining in hopeless competition with  
the fierce commercial altitudes ahead4  
,poor liberating ,lady of the ,american 
ideal6 ,one passes her and forgets4     
,happy returning natives greet the great
 pillars of business by name1 the ,st4  
,paul ,building1 the ,world1 the        
,manhattan tower2 the ,english new-comer
 notes the clear emphasis of the detail1
 the freedom from smoke and atmospheric 
mystery that ,new ,york gains from      
burning anthracite1 the jetting white   
steam clouds that emphasize that        
freedom4 ,across the broad harbor plies 
an unfamiliar traffic of grotesque broad
 ferry-boats1 black with people1 glutted
 to the lips with vans and carts1 each  
hooting and yelping its own distinctive 

note1 and there is a wild hurrying up   
and down and to and fro of piping and   
bellowing tugs and barges2 and a great  
floating platform1 bearing a railway    
train1 gets athwart our course as we    
ascend and evokes megatherial           
bellowings4 ,everything is moving at a  
great speed1 and whistling and howling1 
it seems1 and presently far ahead we    
make out our own pier1 black with       
expectant people1 and set up our own    
distinctive whoop1 and with the help of 
half a dozen furiously noisy tugs are   
finally lugged and butted into dock4    
,the tugs converse by yells and         
whistles1 it is an affair of            
short-tempered mechanical monsters1     
amidst which one watches for one's      
opportunity to get ashore4  ,noise and  
human hurry and a vastness of means and 
collective result1 rather than any      
vastness of achievement1 is the         
pervading quality of ,new ,york4 ,the   
great thing is the mechanical thing1 the
 unintentional thing which is speeding  

up all these people1 driving them in    
headlong hurry this way and that1       
exhorting them by the voice of every car
 conductor to step lively1 aggregating  
them into shoving and elbowing masses1  
making them stand clinging to straps1   
jerking them up elevator shafts and     
pouring them on to the ferry-boats4 ,but
 this accidental great thing is at times
 a very great thing4 ,much more         
impressive than the sky-scrapers to my  
mind is the large ,brooklyn             
suspension-bridge4 ,i have never        
troubled to ask who built that2 its     
greatness is not in its design1 but in  
the quality of necessity one perceives  
in its inanimate immensity4 ,it tells1  
as one goes under it up the ,east       
,river1 but it is far more impressive to
 the stranger to come upon it by        
glimpses1 wandering down to it through  
the ill-paved van-infested streets from 
,chatham ,square4 ,one sees parts of    
,cyclopean stone arches1 one gets       
suggestive glimpses through the jungle  

growth of business now of the back1 now 
of the flanks1 of the monster2 then1 as 
one comes out on the river1 one         
discovers far up in one's sky the long  
sweep of the bridge itself1             
foreshortened and with a maximum of     
perspective effect2 the streams of      
pedestrians and the long line of carts  
and vans1 quaintly microscopic against  
the blue1 the creeping progress of the  
little cars on the lower edge of the    
long chain of netting2 all these things 
dwindling indistinguishably before      
,brooklyn is reached4 ,thence1 if it is 
late afternoon1 one may walk back to    
,city ,hall ,park and encounter and     
experience the convergent stream of     
clerks and workers making for the       
bridge1 mark it grow denser and denser1 
until at last they come near choking    
even the broad approaches of the giant  
duct1 until the congested multitudes    
jostle and fight for a way4 ,they arrive
 marching afoot by every street in      
endless procession2 crammed trolley-cars

 disgorge them2 the ,subway pours them  
out4444 ,the individuals count for      
nothing1 they are clerks and            
stenographers1 shop-men1 shop-girls1    
workers of innumerable types1           
black-coated men1 hat-and-blouse girls1 
shabby and cheaply clad persons1 such as
 one sees in ,london1 in ,berlin1       
anywhere4 ,perhaps they hurry more1     
perhaps they seem more eager4 ,but the  
distinctive effect is the mass1 the     
black torrent1 rippled with unmeaning   
faces1 the great1 the unprecedented     
multitudinousness of the thing1 the     
inhuman force of it all4  ,illustration3
 ,,entrance ,,to ,,brooklyn ,,bridge  ,i
 made no efforts to present any of my   
letters1 or to find any one to talk to  
on my first day in ,new ,york4 ,i       
landed1 got a casual lunch1 and wandered
 alone until ,new ,york's peculiar      
effect of inhuman noise and pressure and
 growth became overwhelming1 touched me 
with a sense of solitude1 and drove me  
into the hospitable companionship of the

 ,century ,club4 ,oh1 no doubt of ,new  
,york's immensity6 ,the sense of        
soulless gigantic forces1 that took no  
heed of men1 became stronger and        
stronger all that day4 ,the pavements   
were often almost incredibly out of     
repair1 when ,i became footweary the    
street-cars would not wait for me1 and  
,i had to learn their stopping-points as
 best ,i might4 ,i wandered1 just at the
 right pitch of fatigue to get the full 
force of it into the eastward region    
between ,third and ,fourth ,avenue1 came
 upon the ,elevated railway at its      
worst1 the darkened streets of          
disordered paving below1                
trolley-car-congested1 the ugly clumsy  
lattice1 sonorously busy overhead1 a    
clatter of vans and draught-horses1 and 
great crowds of cheap1 base-looking     
people hurrying uncivilly by4444   ,,ii 
,the ,coming of ,white ,marble  ,i      
corrected that first crowded impression 
of ,new ,york with a clearer1 brighter  
vision of expansiveness when next day ,i

 began to realize the social quality of 
,new ,york's central backbone1 between  
,fourth ,avenue and ,sixth4 ,the effect 
remained still that of an immeasurably  
powerful forward movement of rapid eager
 advance1 a process of enlargement and  
increment in every material sense1 but  
it may be because ,i was no longer      
fatigued1 was now a little initiated1   
the human being seemed less of a fly    
upon the wheels4 ,i visited immense and 
magnificent clubs--,london has no such  
splendors as the ,union1 the            
,university1 the new hall of the        
,harvard--,i witnessed the great torrent
 of spending and glittering prosperity  
in carriage and motor-car pour along    
,fifth ,avenue4 ,i became aware of      
effects that were not only vast and     
opulent but fine4 ,it grew upon me that 
the ,twentieth ,century1 which found    
,new ,york brown-stone of the color of  
desiccated chocolate1 meant to leave it 
a city of white and colored marble4 ,i  
found myself agape1 admiring a          

sky-scraper--the prow of the ,flat-iron 
,building1 to be particular1 ploughing  
up through the traffic of ,broadway and 
,fifth ,avenue in the afternoon light4  
,the ,new ,york sundown and twilight    
seemed to me quite glorious things4     
,down the western streets one gets the  
sky hung in long cloud-barred strips1   
like ,japanese paintings1 celestial     
tranquil yellows and greens and pink    
luminosity toning down to the reeking   
blue-brown edge of the distant ,new     
,jersey atmosphere1 and the clear1      
black1 hard activity of crowd and       
trolley-car and ,elevated railroad4     
,against this deepening color came the  
innumerable little lights of the house  
cliffs and the street tier above tier4  
,new ,york is lavish of light1 it is    
lavish of everything1 it is full of the 
sense of spending from an inexhaustible 
supply4 ,for a time one is drawn        
irresistibly into the universal belief  
in that inexhaustible supply4  ,at a    
bright table in ,delmonico's to-day at  

lunch-time1 my host told me the first   
news of the destruction of the great    
part of ,san ,francisco by earthquake   
and fire4 ,it had just come through to  
him1 it wasn't yet being shouted by the 
newsboys4 ,he told me compactly of      
dislocated water-mains1 of the ill-luck 
of the unusual eastward wind that was   
blowing the fire up-town1 of a thousand 
reported dead1 of the manifest doom of  
the greater portion of the city1 and    
presently the shouting voices in the    
street outside arose to chorus him4 ,he 
was a newspaper man and a little        
preoccupied because his ,san ,francisco 
offices were burning1 and that no       
further news was arriving after these   
first intimations4 ,naturally the       
catastrophe was our topic4 ,but this    
disaster did not affect him1 it does not
 seem to have affected any one with a   
sense of final destruction1 with any    
foreboding of irreparable disaster4     
,every one is talking of it this        
afternoon1 and no one is in the least   

degree dismayed4 ,i have talked and     
listened in two clubs1 watched people in
 cars and in the street1 and one man is 
glad that ,chinatown will be cleared out
 for good2 another's chief solicitude is
 for ,millet's ,man with the ,hoe4      
,they'll cut it out of the frame1 he    
says1 a little anxiously4 ,sure4 ,but   
there is no doubt anywhere that ,san    
,francisco can be rebuilt1 larger1      
better1 and soon4 ,just as there would  
be none at all if all this ,new ,york   
that has so obsessed me with its        
limitless bigness was itself a blazing  
ruin4 ,i believe these people would more
 than half like the situation4 ,it would
 give them scope1 it would facilitate   
that conversion into white marble in    
progress everywhere1 it would settle the
 difficulties of the ,elevated railroad 
and clear out the tangles of lower ,new 
,york4 ,there is no sense of            
accomplishment and finality in any of   
these things1 the largest1 the finest1  
the tallest1 are so obviously no more   

than symptoms and promises of ,material 
,progress1 of inhuman material progress 
that is so in the nature of things that 
no one would regret their passing4      
,that1 ,i say again1 is at the first    
encounter the peculiar ,american effect 
that began directly ,i stepped aboard   
the liner1 and that rises here to a     
towering1 shining1 clamorous climax4    
,the sense of inexhaustible supply1 of  
an ultra-human force behind it all1 is1 
for a time1 invincible4  ,one assumes1  
with ,mr4 ,saltus1 that all ,america is 
in this vein1 and that this is the way  
the future must inevitably go4 ,one has 
a vision of bright electrical subways1  
replacing the filth-diffusing railways  
of to-day1 of clean1 clear pavements    
free altogether from the fly-prolific   
filth of horses coming almost1 as it    
were1 of their own accord beneath the   
feet of a population that no longer     
expectorates at all2 of grimy stone and 
peeling paint giving way everywhere to  
white marble and spotless surfaces1 and 

a shining order1 of everything wider1   
taller1 cleaner1 better4444  ,so that1  
in the meanwhile1 a certain amount of   
jostling and hurry and untidiness1 and  
even--to put it mildly--forcefulness may
 be forgiven4   ,,iii  ,ellis ,island   
,i visited ,ellis ,island yesterday4 ,it
 chanced to be a good day for my        
purpose4 ,for the first time in its     
history this filter of immigrant        
humanity has this week proved inadequate
 to the demand upon it4 ,it was choked1 
and half a score of gravid liners were  
lying uncomfortably up the harbor1      
replete with twenty thousand or so of   
crude ,americans from ,ireland and      
,poland and ,italy and ,syria and       
,finland and ,albania2 men1 women1      
children1 dirt1 and bags together4  ,of 
immigration ,i shall have to write      
later2 what concerns me now is chiefly  
the wholesale and multitudinous quality 
of that place and its work4 ,i made my  
way with my introduction along white    
passages and through traps and a maze of

 metal lattices that did for a while    
succeed in catching and imprisoning me1 
to ,commissioner ,wachorn1 in his quiet1
 green-toned office4 ,there1 for a time1
 ,i sat judicially and heard him deal   
methodically1 swiftly1 sympathetically1 
with case after case1 a string of       
appeals against the sentences of        
deportation pronounced in the busy      
little courts below4 ,first would come  
one dingy and strangely garbed group of 
wild-eyed aliens1 and then another3     
,roumanian gypsies1 ,south ,italians1   
,ruthenians1 ,swedes1 each under the    
intelligent guidance of a uniformed     
interpreter1 and a case would be        
started1 a report made to ,washington1  
and they would drop out again1 hopeful  
or sullen or fearful as the evidence    
might trend4444  ,down-stairs we find   
the courts1 and these seen1 we traverse 
long refectories1 long aisles of tables1
 and close-packed dormitories with banks
 of steel mattresses1 tier above tier1  
and galleries and passages innumerable1 

perplexing intricacy that slowly grows  
systematic with the ,commissioner's     
explanations4  ,here is a huge1 gray1   
untidy waiting-room1 like a big         
railway-depot room1 full of a sinister  
crowd of miserable people1 loafing about
 or sitting dejectedly1 whom ,america   
refuses1 and here a second and a third  
such chamber each with its tragic and   
evil-looking crowd that hates us1 and   
that even ventures to groan and hiss at 
us a little for our glimpse of its large
 dirty spectacle of hopeless failure1   
and here1 squalid enough indeed1 but    
still to some degree hopeful1 are the   
appeal cases as yet undecided4 ,in one  
place1 at a bank of ranges1 works an    
army of men cooks1 in another spins the 
big machinery of the ,ellis ,island     
laundry1 washing blankets1 drying       
blankets1 day in and day out1 a big     
clean steamy space of hurry and         
rotation4 ,then1 ,i recall a neat       
apartment lined to the ceiling with     
little drawers1 a card-index of the     

names and nationalities and significant 
circumstances of upward of a million and
 a half of people who have gone on and  
who are yet liable to recall4  ,the     
central hall is the key of this         
impression4 ,all day long1 through an   
intricate series of metal pens1 the long
 procession files1 step by step1 bearing
 bundles and trunks and boxes1 past this
 examiner and that1 past the quick1     
alert medical officers1 the tallymen and
 the clerks4 ,at every point immigrants 
are being picked out and set aside for  
further medical examination1 for further
 questions1 for the busy little courts2 
but the main procession satisfies       
conditions1 passes on4 ,it is a daily   
procession that1 with a yard of space to
 each1 would stretch over three miles1  
that any week in the year would more    
than equal in numbers that daily        
procession of the unemployed that is    
becoming a regular feature of the       
,london winter1 that in a year could put
 a cordon round ,london or ,new ,york of

 close-marching people1 could populate a
 new ,boston1 that in a century--,what  
in a century will it all amount to8444  
,on they go1 from this pen to that1 pen 
by pen1 towards a desk at a little metal
 wicket--the gate of ,america4 ,through 
this metal wicket drips the immigration 
stream--all day long1 every two or three
 seconds an immigrant1 with a valise or 
a bundle1 passes the little desk and    
goes on past the well-managed           
money-changing place1 past the carefully
 organized separating ways that go to   
this railway or that1 past the guiding1 
protecting officials--into a new world4 
,the great majority are young men and   
young women1 between seventeen and      
thirty1 good1 youthful1 hopeful1 peasant
 stock4 ,they stand in a long string1   
waiting to go through that wicket1 with 
bundles1 with little tin boxes1 with    
cheap portmanteaus1 with odd packages1  
in pairs1 in families1 alone1 women with
 children1 men with strings of          
dependents1 young couples4 ,all day that

 string of human beads waits there1     
jerks forward1 waits again2 all day and 
every day1 constantly replenished1      
constantly dropping the end beads       
through the wicket1 till the units mount
 to hundreds and the hundreds to        
thousands4444  ,yes1 ,ellis ,island is  
quietly immense4 ,it gives one a visible
 image of one aspect at least of this   
world-large process of filling and      
growing and synthesis1 which is         
,america4  ,look there6 said the        
,commissioner1 taking me by the arm and 
pointing1 and ,i saw a monster steamship
 far away1 and already a big bulk       
looming up the ,narrows4 ,it's the      
,kaiser ,wilhelm der ,grosse4 ,she's    
got--,i forget the exact figures1 but   
let us say--eight hundred and           
fifty-three more for us4 ,she'll have to
 keep them until ,friday at the         
earliest4 ,and there's more behind her1 
and more strung out all across the      
,atlantic4  ,in one record day this     
month #ba1jjj immigrants came into the  

port of ,new ,york alone2 in one week   
over #ej1jjj4 ,this year the total will 
be #a1bjj1jjj souls1 pouring in1 finding
 work at once1 producing no fall in     
wages4 ,they start digging and building 
and making4 ,just think of the          
dimensions of it6   ,,iv  ,to ,fall     
,river  ,one must get away from ,new    
,york to see the place in its proper    
relations4 ,i visited ,staten ,island   
and ,jersey ,city1 motored up to ,sleepy
 ,hollow 7where once the ,headless      
,horseman rode71 saw suburbs and        
intimations of suburbs without end1 and 
finished with the long and crowded      
spectacle of the ,east ,river as one    
sees it from the ,fall ,river boat4 ,it 
was ,friday night1 and the ,fall ,river 
boat was in a state of fine congestion  
with ,jews1 ,italians1 and week-enders1 
and one stood crowded and surveyed the  
crowded shore1 the sky-scrapers and     
tenement-houses1 the huge grain         
elevators1 big warehouses1 the great    
,brooklyn ,bridge1 the still greater    

,williamsburgh ,bridge1 the great       
promise of yet another monstrous bridge1
 overwhelmingly monstrous by any        
,european example ,i know1 and so past  
long miles of city to the left and to   
the right past the wide ,brooklyn       
navy-yard 7where three clean white      
war-ships lay moored71 past the         
clustering castellated asylums1         
hospitals1 almshouses and reformatories 
of ,blackwell's long shore and ,ward's  
,island1 and then through a long        
reluctant diminuendo on each receding   
bank1 until1 indeed1 ,new ,york1 though 
it seemed incredible1 had done4  ,and at
 one point a grave-voiced man in a      
peaked cap1 with guide-books to sell1   
pleased me greatly by ending all idle   
talk suddenly with the stentorian       
announcement3 ,we are now in ,hell      
,gate4 ,we are now passing through ,hell
 ,gate6  ,but they've blown ,hell ,gate 
open with dynamite1 and it wasn't at all
 the ,hell ,gate that ,i read about in  
my boyhood in the delightful chronicle  

of ,knickerbocker4  ,so through an      
elbowing evening 7to the tune of        
,cavalleria ,rusticana on an            
irrepressible string band7 and a night  
of unmitigated fog-horn to ,boston1     
which ,i had been given to understand   
was a cultured and uneventful city      
offering great opportunities for        
reflection and intellectual digestion4  
,and1 indeed1 the large quiet of ,beacon
 ,street1 in the early morning sunshine1
 seemed to more than justify that       
expectation4444     ,,chapter ,,iv      
,,growth ,,invincible   ,i  ,boston's   
,way of ,growing  ,but ,boston did not  
propose that its less-assertive key     
should be misunderstood1 and in a       
singularly short space of time ,i found 
myself climbing into a tremulous        
impatient motor-car in company with     
three enthusiastic exponents of the work
 of the ,metropolitan ,park ,commission1
 and provided with a neatly tinted map1 
large and framed and glazed1 to explore 
a fresh and more deliberate phase in    

this great ,american symphony1 this     
symphony of ,growth4  ,if possible it is
 more impressive1 even1 than the crowded
 largeness of ,new ,york1 to trace the  
serene preparation ,boston has made     
through this ,commission to be widely   
and easily vast4 ,new ,york's humanity  
has a curious air of being carried along
 upon a wave of irresistible prosperity1
 but ,boston confesses design4 ,i       
suppose no city in all the world 7unless
 it be ,washington7 has ever produced so
 complete and ample a forecast of its   
own future as this ,commission's plan of
 ,boston4 ,an area with a radius of     
between fifteen and twenty miles from   
the ,state ,house has been planned out  
and prepared for ,growth4 ,great        
reservations of woodland and hill have  
been made1 the banks of nearly all the  
streams and rivers and meres have been  
secured for public park and garden1 for 
boating and other water sports2 big     
avenues of vigorous young trees2 a      
hundred and fifty yards or so wide1 with

 drive-ways and ridingways and a central
 grassy band for electric tramways1 have
 been prepared1 and1 indeed1 the fair   
and ample and shady new ,boston1 the    
,boston of #aiej1 grows visibly before  
one's eyes4 ,i found myself comparing   
the disciplined confidence of these     
proposals to the blind enlargement of   
,london2 ,london1 that like a bowl of   
viscid human fluid1 boils sullenly over 
the rim of its encircling hills and     
slops messily and uglily into the home  
counties4 ,i could not but contrast     
their large intelligence with the       
confused hesitations and waste and      
muddle of our ,english suburban         
developments4444  ,there were moments1  
indeed1 when it seemed too good to be   
true1 and ,mr4 ,sylvester ,baxter1 who  
was with me and whose faith has done so 
much to secure this mapping out of a    
city's growth beyond all precedent1     
became the victim of my doubts4 ,will   
this enormous space of sunlit woodland  
and marsh and meadow really be filled at

 any time8 ,i urged4 ,all cities do not 
grow4 ,cities have shrunken4  ,i        
recalled ,bruges4 ,i recalled the empty1
 goat-sustaining1 flower-rich meadows of
 ,rome within the wall4 ,what made him  
so sure of this progressive magnificence
 of ,boston's growth8 ,my doubts fell on
 stony soil4 ,my companions seemed to   
think these scepticisms inopportune1 a  
forced eccentricity1 like doubting the  
coming of to-morrow4 ,of course ,growth 
will go on4444  ,the subject was changed
 by the sight of the fine marble        
buildings of the ,harvard medical       
school1 a shining faade partially       
eclipsed by several dingy and unsightly 
wooden houses4  ,these shanties will go1
 of course1 says one of my companions4  
,it's proposed to take the avenue right 
across this space straight to the       
schools4  ,you'll have to fill the      
marsh1 then1 and buy the houses4        
,sure4444  ,i find myself comparing this
 huge growth process of ,america with   
the things in my own land4 ,after all1  

this growth is no distinctive ,american 
thing2 it is the same process           
anywhere--only in ,america there are no 
disguises1 no complications4 ,come to   
think of it1 ,birmingham and ,manchester
 are as new as ,boston--newer2 and      
,london1 south and east of the ,thames1 
is1 save for a little nucleus1 more     
recent than ,chicago--is in places1 ,i  
am told1 with its smoky disorder1 its   
clattering ways1 its brutality of       
industrial conflict1 very like ,chicago4
 ,but nowhere now is growth still so    
certainly and confidently going on as   
here4 ,nowhere is it upon so great a    
scale as here1 and with so confident an 
outlook towards the things to come4 ,and
 nowhere is it passing more certainly   
from the first phase of a mob-like rush 
of individualistic undertakings into a  
planned and ordered progress4   ,,ii    
,the ,end of ,niagara  ,everywhere in   
the ,america ,i have seen the same note 
sounds1 the note of a fatal gigantic    
economic development1 of large prevision

 and enormous pressures4  ,i heard it   
clear above the roar of ,niagara--for1  
after all1 ,i stopped off at ,niagara4  
,as a water-fall1 ,niagara's claim to   
distinction is now mainly quantitative2 
its spectacular effect1 its magnificent 
and humbling size and splendor1 were    
long since destroyed beyond recovery by 
the hotels1 the factories1 the          
power-houses1 the bridges and tramways  
and hoardings that arose about it4 ,it  
must have been a fine thing to happen   
upon suddenly after a day of solitary   
travel2 the ,indians1 they say1 gave it 
worship2 but it's no great wonder to    
reach it by trolley-car1 through a      
street hack-infested and full of        
adventurous refreshment-places and      
souvenir-shops and the touting guides4  
,there were great quantities of young   
couples and other sightseers with the   
usual encumbrances of wrap and bag and  
umbrella1 trailing out across the       
bridges and along the neat paths of the 
,reservation ,parks1 asking the way to  

this point and that4 ,notice boards cut 
the eye1 offering extra joys and        
memorable objects for twenty-five and   
fifty cents1 and it was proposed you    
should keep off the grass4  ,after all1 
the gorge of ,niagara is very like any  
good gorge in the ,ardennes1 except that
 it has more water2 it's about as wide  
and about as deep1 and there is no      
effect at all that one has not seen a   
dozen times in other cascades4 ,one gets
 all the water one wants at ,tivoli1 one
 has gone behind half a hundred         
downpours just as impressive in         
,switzerland2 a hundred tons of water is
 really just as stunning as ten million4
 ,a hundred tons of water stuns one     
altogether1 and what more do you want8  
,one recalls ,orridos and ,schluchts    
that are not only magnificent but       
lonely4  ,no doubt the ,falls1 seen from
 the ,canadian side1 have a peculiar    
long majesty of effect2 but the finest  
thing in it all1 to my mind1 was not    
,niagara at all1 but to look up-stream  

from ,goat ,island and see the sea-wide 
crest of the flashing sunlit rapids     
against the gray-blue sky4 ,that was    
like a limitless ocean pouring down a   
sloping world towards one1 and ,i       
lingered1 held by that1 returning to it 
through an indolent afternoon4 ,it      
gripped the imagination as nothing else 
there seemed to do4 ,it was so broad an 
infinitude of splash and hurry4 ,and1   
moreover1 all the enterprising hotels   
and expectant trippers were out of      
sight4  ,that was the best of the       
display4 ,the real interest of ,niagara 
for me1 was not in the water-fall but in
 the human accumulations about it4 ,they
 stood for the future1 threats and      
promises1 and the water-fall was just a 
vast reiteration of falling water4 ,the 
note of growth in human accomplishment  
rose clear and triumphant above the     
elemental thunder4  ,for the most part  
these accumulations of human effort     
about ,niagara are extremely defiling   
and ugly4 ,nothing--not even the hotel  

signs and advertisement boards--could be
 more offensive to the eye and mind than
 the ,schoellkopf ,company's untidy     
confusion of sheds and buildings on the 
,american side1 wastefully squirting out
 long1 tail-race cascades below the     
bridge1 and nothing more disgusting than
 the sewer-pipes and gas-work ooze that 
the town of ,niagara ,falls contributes 
to the scenery4 ,but1 after all1 these  
represent only the first slovenly       
onslaught of mankind's expansion1 the   
pioneers' camp of the human-growth      
process that already changes its quality
 and manner4 ,there are finer things    
than these outrages to be found4  ,the  
dynamos and turbines of the ,niagara    
,falls ,power ,company1 for example1    
impressed me far more profoundly than   
the ,cave of the ,winds2 are1 indeed1 to
 my mind1 greater and more beautiful    
than that accidental eddying of air     
beside a downpour4 ,they are will made  
visible1 thought translated into easy   
and commanding things4 ,they are clean1 

noiseless1 and starkly powerful4 ,all   
the clatter and tumult of the early age 
of machinery is past and gone here2     
there is no smoke1 no coal grit1 no dirt
 at all4 ,the wheel-pit into which one  
descends has an almost cloistered quiet 
about its softly humming turbines4      
,these are altogether noble masses of   
machinery1 huge black slumbering        
monsters1 great sleeping tops that      
engender irresistible forces in their   
sleep4 ,they sprang1 armed like         
,minerva1 from serene and speculative1  
foreseeing and endeavoring brains4      
,first was the word and then these      
powers4 ,a man goes to and fro quietly  
in the long1 clean hall of the dynamos4 
,there is no clangor1 no racket4 ,yet   
the outer rim of the big generators is  
spinning at the pace of a hundred       
thousand miles an hour2 the dazzling    
clean switch-board1 with its little     
handles and levers1 is the seat of      
empire over more power than the strength
 of a million disciplined1 unquestioning

 men4 ,all these great things are as    
silent1 as wonderfully made1 as the     
heart in a living body1 and stouter and 
stronger than that4444  ,when ,i thought
 that these two huge wheel-pits of this 
company are themselves but a little     
intimation of what can be done in this  
way1 what will be done in this way1 my  
imagination towered above me4 ,i fell   
into a day-dream of the coming power of 
men1 and how that power may be used by  
them4444  ,for surely the greatness of  
life is still to come1 it is not in such
 accidents as mountains or the sea4 ,i  
have seen the splendor of the mountains1
 sunrise and sunset among them1 and the 
waste immensity of sky and sea4 ,i am   
not blind because ,i can see beyond     
these glories4 ,to me no other thing is 
credible than that all the natural      
beauty in the world is only so much     
material for the imagination and the    
mind1 so many hints and suggestions for 
art and creation4 ,whatever is1 is but  
the lure and symbol towards what can be 

willed and done4 ,man lives to make--in 
the end he must make1 for there will be 
nothing else left for him to do4  ,and  
the world he will make--after a thousand
 years or so6  ,i1 at least1 can forgive
 the loss of all the accidental1        
unmeaning beauty that is going for the  
sake of the beauty of fine order and    
intention that will come4 ,i            
believe--passionately1 as a doubting    
lover believes in his mistress--in the  
future of mankind4 ,and so to me it     
seems altogether well that all the froth
 and hurry of ,niagara at last1 all of  
it1 dying into hungry canals of intake1 
should rise again in light and power1 in
 ordered and equipped and proud and     
beautiful humanity1 in cities and       
palaces and the emancipated souls and   
hearts of men4444  ,i turned back to    
look at the power-house as ,i walked    
towards the ,falls1 and halted and      
stared4 ,its architecture brought me out
 of my day-dream to the quality of      
contemporary things again4 ,it's a      

well-intentioned building enough1       
extraordinarily well intentioned1 and   
regardless of expense4 ,it's in granite 
and by ,stanford ,white1 and yet--,it   
hasn't caught the note4 ,there's a touch
 of respectability in it1 more than a   
hint of the box of bricks4 ,odd1 but    
,i'd almost as soon have had one of the 
,schoellkopf sheds4  ,a community that  
can produce such things as those        
turbines and dynamos1 and then cover    
them over with this dull exterior1 is   
capable1 one realizes1 of feats of      
bathos4 ,one feels that all the power   
that throbs in the copper cables below  
may end at last in turning ,great       
,wheels for excursionists1 stamping out 
aluminum fancy ware1 and illuminating   
night advertisements for drug shops and 
music halls4 ,i had an afternoon of busy
 doubts4444  ,there is much discussion  
about ,niagara at present4 ,it may be   
some queer compromise1 based on the     
pretence that a voluminous water-fall is
 necessarily a thing of incredible      

beauty1 and a human use is necessarily a
 degrading use1 will save ,niagara and  
the hack-drivers and the souvenir-shops 
for series of years yet1 a magnificent  
monument to the pride of the ,united    
,states in a glory of nature1 as one    
journalistic savior puts it4 ,it is1 as 
public opinion stands1 a quite          
conceivable thing4 ,this electric       
development may be stopped after all1   
and the huge fall of water remain       
surrounded by gravel paths and parapets 
and geranium-beds1 a staring-point for  
dull wonder1 a crown for a day's        
excursion1 a thunderous impressive      
accessory to the vulgar love-making that
 fills the surrounding hotels1 a        
,titanic imbecility of wasted gifts4    
,but ,i don't think so4 ,i think        
somebody will pay something1 and the    
journalistic zeal for scenery abate4 ,i 
think the huge social and industrial    
process of ,america will win in this    
conflict1 and at last capture ,niagara  
altogether4  ,and then--what use will it

 make of its prey8   ,,iii  ,the ,tail  
of ,chicago  ,in smoky1 vast1           
undisciplined ,chicago ,growth forced   
itself upon me again as the dominant    
,american fact1 but this time a dark    
disorder of growth4 ,i went about       
,chicago seeing many things of which ,i 
may say something later4 ,i visited the 
top of the ,masonic ,building and viewed
 a wilderness of sky-scrapers4 ,i       
acquired a felt of memories of swing    
bridges and viaducts and interlacing    
railways and jostling crowds and        
extraordinarily dirty streets1 ,i learnt
 something of the mystery of the        
floating foundations upon which so much 
of ,chicago rests4 ,but ,i got my best  
vision of ,chicago as ,i left it4  ,i   
sat in the open observation-car at the  
end of the ,pennsylvania ,limited       
,express1 and watched the long defile of
 industrialism from the ,union ,station 
in the heart of things to out beyond    
,south ,chicago1 a dozen miles away4 ,i 
had not gone to the bloody spectacle of 

the stock-yards that feed the world1    
because1 to be frank1 ,i have an immense
 repugnance to the killing of fixed and 
helpless animals2 ,i saw nothing of     
those ill-managed1 ill-inspected        
establishments1 though ,i smelt the     
unwholesome reek from them ever and     
again1 and so it was here ,i saw for the
 first time the enormous expanse and    
intricacy of railroads that net this    
great industrial desolation1 and        
something of the going and coming of the
 myriads of polyglot workers4 ,chicago  
burns bituminous coal1 it has a reek    
that outdoes ,london1 and right and left
 of the line rise vast chimneys1 huge   
blackened grain-elevators1 flame-crowned
 furnaces and gauntly ugly and filthy   
factory buildings1 monstrous mounds of  
refuse1 desolate1 empty lots littered   
with rusty cans1 old iron1 and          
indescribable rubbish4 ,interspersed    
with these are groups of dirty1         
disreputable1 insanitary-looking wooden 
houses4  ,we swept along the many-railed

 track1 and the straws and scraps of    
paper danced in our eddy as we passed4  
,we overtook local trains and they      
receded slowly in the great perspective1
 huge freight-trains met us or were     
overtaken2 long trains of doomed cattle 
passed northward2 solitary engines went 
by--every engine tolling a melancholy   
bell2 open trucks crowded with workmen  
went cityward4 ,by the side of the      
track1 and over the level crossings1    
walked great numbers of people4 ,so it  
goes on mile after mile--,chicago4 ,the 
sun was now bright1 now pallid through  
some streaming curtain of smoke2 the    
spring afternoon was lit here and again 
by the gallant struggle of some stunted 
tree with a rare and startling note of  
new green4444  ,it was like a prolonged1
 enlarged mingling of the south side of 
,london with all that is bleak and ugly 
in the ,black ,country4 ,it is the most 
perfect presentation of                 
nineteenth-century individualistic      
industrialism ,i have ever seen--in its 

vast1 its magnificent squalor2 it is    
pure nineteenth century2 it had no past 
at all before that2 in #ahjj it was     
empty prairie1 and one marvels for its  
future4 ,it is indeed a                 
nineteenth-century nightmare that       
culminates beyond ,south ,chicago in the
 monstrous fungoid shapes1 the endless  
smoking chimneys1 the squat retorts1 the
 black smoke pall of the ,standard ,oil 
,company4 ,for a time the sun is veiled 
altogether by that4444  ,and then       
suddenly ,chicago is a dark smear under 
the sky1 and we are in the large        
emptiness of ,america1 the other        
,america--,america in between4   ,,iv   
,intimations of ,order                  
,undisciplined--that is the word for    
,chicago4 ,it is the word for all the   
progress of the ,victorian time1 a      
scrambling1 ill-mannered1 undignified1  
unintelligent development of material   
resources4 ,packingtown1 for example1 is
 a place that feeds the world with meat1
 that concentrates the produce of a     

splendid countryside at a position of   
imperial advantage1 and its owners have 
no more sense1 no better moral quality1 
than to make it stink in the nostrils of
 any one who comes within two miles of  
it2 to make it a centre of distribution 
for disease and decay1 an arena of      
shabby evasions and extra profits2 a    
scene of brutal economic conflict and   
squalid filthiness1 offensive to every  
sense4 7,i wish ,i could catch the soul 
of ,herbert ,spencer and tether it in   
,chicago for awhile to gather fresh     
evidence upon the superiority of        
unfettered individualistic enterprises  
to things managed by the state47  ,want 
of discipline6 ,chicago is one hoarse   
cry for discipline6 ,the reek and       
scandal of the stock-yards is really    
only a gigantic form of that same       
quality in ,american life that1 in a    
minor aspect1 makes the sidewalk filthy4
 ,the key to the peculiar nasty ugliness
 of those ,schoellkopf works that defile
 the ,niagara gorge is the same quality4

 ,the detestableness of the ,elevated   
railroads of ,chicago and ,boston and   
,new ,york have this in common4 ,all    
that is ugly in ,america1 in            
,lancashire1 in ,south and ,east        
,london1 in the ,pas de ,calais1 is due 
to this1 to the shoving unintelligent   
proceedings of underbred and morally    
obtuse men4 ,each man is for himself1   
each enterprise2 there is no order1 no  
prevision1 no common and universal plan4
 ,modern economic organization is still 
as yet only thinking of emerging from   
its first chaotic stage1 the stage of   
lawless enterprise and insanitary       
aggregation1 the stage of the           
prospector's camp4444  ,but it does     
emerge4  ,men are makers--,american men1
 ,i think1 more than most men--and      
amidst even the catastrophic jumble of  
,chicago one finds the same creative    
forces at work that are struggling to   
replan a greater ,boston1 and that      
turned a waste of dumps and swamps and  
cabbage-gardens into ,central ,park1    

,new ,york4 ,chicago also has its ,parks
 ,commission and its green avenues1 its 
bright flower-gardens1 its lakes and    
playing-fields4 ,its ,midway ,plaisance 
is in amazing contrast with the dirt1   
the congestion1 the moral disorder of   
its ,state ,street2 its ,field ,houses  
do visible battle with slum and the     
frantic meanness of commercial folly4   
,field ,houses are peculiar to ,chicago1
 and ,chicago has every reason to be    
proud of them4 ,i visited one that is   
positively within smell of the          
stock-yards and wedged into a district  
of gaunt and dirty slums4 ,it stands in 
the midst of a little park1 and close by
 it are three playing-grounds with      
swings and parallel bars and all manner 
of athletic appliances1 one for little  
children1 one for girls and women1 and  
one for boys and youths4 ,in the        
children's place is a paddling-pond of  
clear1 clean1 running water and a shaded
 area of frequently changed sand1 and in
 the park was a broad asphalted arena   

that can be flooded for skating in      
winter4 ,all this is free to all comers1
 and free too is the ,field ,house      
itself4 ,this is a large1 cool          
,italianate place with two or three     
reading-rooms--one specially arranged   
for children--a big discussion-hall1 a  
big and well-equipped gymnasium1 and    
big1 free baths for men and for women4  
,there is also a clean1 bright          
refreshment-place where wholesome food  
is sold just above cost price4 ,it was  
early on ,friday afternoon when ,i saw  
it all1 but the place was busy with     
children1 reading1 bathing1 playing in a
 hundred different ways4  ,illustration3
 ,,state ,,street1 ,,chicago  ,and this 
,field ,house is not an isolated        
philanthropic enterprise4 ,it is just   
one of a number that are dotted about   
,chicago1 mitigating and civilizing its 
squalor4 ,it was not distilled by       
begging and charity from the stench of  
the stock-yards or the reek of ,standard
 ,oil4 ,it is part of the normal work of

 a special taxing body created by the   
legislature of the ,state of ,illinois4 
,it is just one of the fruits upon one  
of the growths that spring from such    
persistent creative efforts as that of  
the ,chicago ,city ,club4 ,it is        
socialism--even as its enemies          
declare4444  ,even amidst the sombre    
uncleanliness of ,chicago one sees the  
light of a new epoch1 the coming of new 
conceptions1 of foresight1 of large     
collective plans and discipline to      
achieve them1 the fresh green leaves1   
among all the festering manure1 of the  
giant growths of a more orderly and more
 beautiful age4   ,v  ,the ,pennsylvania
 ,limited  ,these growing towns1 these  
giant towns that grow up and out1 that  
grow orderly and splendid out of their  
first chaotic beginnings1 are only      
little patches upon a vast expanse1 upon
 what is still of all habitable         
countries the emptiest country in the   
world4 ,my long express journey from    
,chicago to ,washington lasted a day and

 a night and more1 ,i could get sooner  
from my home in ,kent to ,italy1 and yet
 that was still well under a third of   
the way across the continent4 ,i spent  
most of my daylight time in the fine and
 graceful open loggia at the end of the 
observation-car or in looking out of the
 windows1 looking at hills and valleys1 
townships and quiet places1 sudden busy 
industrial outbreaks about coal-mine or 
metal1 big undisciplined rivers that    
spread into swamp and lake1 new forest  
growths1 very bright and green now1     
foaming up above blackened stumps4      
,there were many cypress-trees and trees
 with white blossom and the ,judas-tree1
 very abundant among the spring-time    
green4 ,i got still more clearly the    
enormous scale of this ,american destiny
 ,i seek to discuss1 through all that   
long and interesting day of transit4 ,i 
measured1 as it seemed to me for the    
first time1 the real scale of the growth
 process that has put a four-track road 
nine hundred miles across this exuberant

 land and scarred every available hill  
with furnace and mine4  ,bigness--that's
 the word6 ,the very fields and         
farm-buildings seem to me to have four  
times the size of our ,english farms4   
,some casual suggestion of the wayside1 
,i forget now what1 set me thinking of  
the former days1 so recent that they are
 yet within the lifetime of living men1 
when this was frontier land1 when even  
the middle west remained to be won4 ,i  
thought of the slow diffusing population
 of the forties1 the pioneer wagon1 the 
men armed with axe and rifle1 knife and 
revolver1 the fear of the ,indians1 the 
weak and casual incidence of law4 ,then 
the high-road was but a prairie track   
and all these hills and hidden minerals 
unconquered fastnesses that might1 it   
seemed1 hold out for centuries before   
they gave their treasure4 ,how quickly  
things had come6 ,progress1 progress1   
murmured the wheels1 and ,i began to    
make this steady1 swift1 and shiningly  
equipped train a figure1 just as ,i had 

made the ,carmania a figure of that big 
onward sweep that is moving us all      
together4 ,it was not a noisy train1    
after the ,english fashion1 nor did the 
cars sway and jump after the habit of   
our lighter coaches1 but the air was    
full of deep1 triumphant rhythms4 ,it   
goes on1 ,i said1 invincibly1 and even  
as the thought was in my head1 the      
brakes set up a droning1 a vibration ran
 through the train and we slowed and    
stopped4 ,a minute passed1 and then we  
rumbled softly back to a little         
trestle-bridge and stood there4  ,i got 
up1 looked from the window1 and then    
went to the platform at the end of the  
train4 ,i found two men1 a passenger and
 a colored parlor-car attendant4 ,the   
former was on the bottom step of the    
car1 the latter was supplying him with  
information4  ,his head's still in the  
water1 he remarked4  ,whose head8 said  
,i4  ,a man we've killed1 said he4 ,we  
caught him in the trestle-bridge4  ,i   
descended a step1 craned over my        

fellow-passenger1 and saw a little group
 standing curiously about the derelict  
thing that had been a living man three  
minutes before4 ,it was now a crumpled1 
dark-stained blue blouse1 a limply      
broken arm with hand askew1 trousered   
legs that sprawled quaintly1 and a pair 
of heavy boots1 lying in the sunlit     
fresh grass by the water below the      
trestle-bridge4444  ,a man on the line  
gave inadequate explanations4 ,he'd have
 been all right if he hadn't come over  
this side1 he said4  ,who was he8 said  
,i4  ,one of these ,eyetalians on the   
line1 he said1 and turned away4 ,the    
train bristled now with a bunch of      
curiosity at every car end1 and even    
windows were opened4444  ,presently it  
was intimated to us by a whistle and the
 hasty return of men to the cars that   
the incident had closed4 ,we began to   
move forward again1 crept up to         
speed4444  ,but ,i could not go on with 
my conception of the train as a symbol  
of human advancement4 ,that crumpled    

blue blouse and queerly careless legs   
would get into the picture and set up   
all sorts of alien speculations4 ,i     
thought of distant north ,italian       
valleys and brown boys among the vines  
and goats1 of the immigrants who had    
sung remotely to me out of the          
,carmania's steerage1 of the hopeful    
bright-eyed procession of the new-comers
 through ,ellis ,island wicket1 of the  
regiments of workers the line had shown 
me1 and ,i told myself a tale of this   
,italian's journey to the land of       
promise1 this land of gigantic          
promises4444  ,for a time the big       
spectacle of ,america about me took on a
 quality of magnificent infidelity4444  
,and by reason of this incident my last 
,image of ,material ,progress thundered 
into ,washington station five minutes   
behind its scheduled time4     ,,chapter
 ,v  ,,the ,,economic ,,process   ,i  ,a
 ,bird's-,eye ,view  ,let me try now and
 make some sort of general picture of   
the ,american nation as it impresses    

itself upon me4 ,it is1 you will        
understand1 the vision of a hurried bird
 of passage1 defective and inaccurate at
 every point of detail1 but perhaps for 
my present purpose not so very much the 
worse for that4 ,the fact that ,i am    
transitory and bring a sort of          
theorizing navet to this review is just 
what gives me the chance to remark these
 obvious things the habituated have     
forgotten4 ,i have already tried to     
render something of the effect of huge  
unrestrained growth and material        
progress that ,america first gives one1 
and ,i have pointed out that so far     
,america seems to me only to refresh an 
old impression1 to give starkly and     
startlingly what is going on everywhere1
 what is indeed as much in evidence in  
,birkenhead or ,milan or ,london or     
,calcutta1 a huge extension of human    
power and the scale of human operations4
 ,this growth was elaborated in the     
physical and chemical laboratories and  
the industrial experiments of the       

eighteenth and early nineteenth century1
 and chiefly in ,europe4 ,the extension 
itself is nothing typically ,american4  
,nevertheless ,america now shows it     
best4 ,america is most under the stress 
and urgency of it1 resonates most       
readily and loudly to its note4  ,the   
long distances of travel1 and the sense 
of isolation between place and place1   
the remoteness verging upon inaudibility
 of ,washington in ,chicago1 of ,chicago
 in ,boston1 the vision ,i have had of  
,america from observation cars and      
railroad windows brings home to me more 
and more that this huge development of  
human appliances and resources is here  
going on in a community that is still1  
for all the dense crowds of ,new ,york1 
the teeming congestion of the ,east     
,side1 extraordinarily scattered4       
,america1 one recalls1 is still an      
unoccupied country1 across which the    
latest developments of civilization are 
rushing4 ,we are dealing here with a    
continuous area of land which is1       

leaving ,alaska out of account          
altogether1 equal to ,great ,britain1   
,france1 the ,german ,empire1 the       
,austro-,hungarian ,empire1 ,italy1     
,belgium1 ,japan1 ,holland1 ,spain and  
,portugal1 ,sweden and ,norway1 ,turkey 
in ,europe1 ,egypt and the whole ,empire
 of ,india1 and the population spread   
out over this vast space is still less  
than the joint population of the first  
two countries named and not a quarter   
that of ,india4 ,moreover1 it is not    
spread at all evenly4 ,much of it is in 
undistributed clots4 ,it is not upon the
 soil1 barely half of it is in holdings 
and homes and authentic communities4 ,it
 is a population of an extremely modern 
type4 ,urban concentration has already  
gone far with it2 fifteen millions of it
 are crowded into and about twenty great
 cities1 other eighteen millions make up
 five hundred towns4 ,between these     
centres of population run railways      
indeed1 telegraph wires1 telephone      
connections1 tracks of various sorts1   

but to the ,european eye these are mere 
scratchings on a virgin surface4 ,an    
empty wilderness manifests itself       
through this thin network of human      
conveniences1 appears in the meshes even
 at the railroad side4 ,essentially     
,america is still an unsettled land1    
with only a few incidental good roads in
 favored places1 with no universal      
police1 with no wayside inns where a    
civilized man may rest1 with still only 
the crudest of rural postal deliveries1 
with long stretches of swamp and forest 
and desert by the track side1 still     
unassailed by industry4 ,this much one  
sees clearly enough eastward of         
,chicago4 ,westward1 ,i am told1 it     
becomes more and more the fact4 ,in     
,idaho at last1 comes the untouched and 
perhaps invincible desert1 plain and    
continuous through the long hours of    
travel4 ,huge areas do not contain one  
human being to the square mile1 still   
vaster portions fall short of two4444   
,and this community1 to which material  

progress is bringing such enormous      
powers1 and that is knotted so densely  
here and there1 and is otherwise so     
attenuated a veil over the huge land    
surface1 is1 as ,professor ,mnsterberg  
points out1 in spite of vast and        
increasing masses of immigrants still a 
curiously homogeneous one1 homogeneous  
in the spirit of its activities and     
speaking a common tongue4 ,it is        
sustained by certain economic           
conventions1 inspired throughout by     
certain habits1 certain trends of       
suggestion1 certain phrases and certain 
interpretations that collectively make  
up what one may call the ,american      
,idea4 ,to the process of enlargement   
and diffusion and increase and          
multiplying resources1 we must now bring
 the consideration of the social and    
economic process that is going on4 ,what
 is the form of that process as one     
finds it in ,america8 ,an ,english ,tory
 will tell you promptly1 a scramble for 
dollars4 ,a good ,american will tell you

 it is self realization under equality  
of opportunity4 ,the ,english ,tory will
 probably allege that that amounts to   
the same thing4  ,let us look into that4
   ,,ii  ,liberty of ,property  ,one    
contrast between ,america and the old   
world ,i had in mind before ever ,i     
crossed the ,atlantic1 and now it comes 
before me very vividly1--returns        
reinforced by a hundred little things   
observed and felt4 ,the contrast        
consists in the almost complete absence 
from the normal ,american scheme1 of    
certain immemorial factors in the social
 structure of our ,european nations4    
,in the first place1 every ,european    
nation except the ,english is rooted to 
the soil by a peasantry1 and even in    
,england one still finds the peasant    
represented1 in most of his features by 
those sons of dispossessed              
serf-peasants1 the agricultural         
laborers4 ,here in ,america1 except in  
the regions where the negro abounds1    
there is no lower stratum1 no soil      

people1 to this community at all2 your  
bottom-most man is a mobile free man who
 can read1 and who has ideas above      
digging and pigs and poultry keeping1   
except incidentally for his own ends4   
,no one owns to subordination4 ,as a    
consequence1 any position which involves
 the acknowledgment of an innate        
inferiority is difficult to fill2 there 
is1 from the ,european point of view1 an
 extraordinary dearth of servants1 and  
this endures in spite of a great peasant
 immigration4 ,the servile tradition    
will not root here now1 it dies in this 
soil4 ,an enormous importation of       
,european serfs and peasants goes on1   
but as they touch this soil their backs 
begin to stiffen with a new assertion4  
,and at the other end of the scale1     
also1 one misses an element4 ,there is  
no territorial aristocracy1 no          
aristocracy at all1 no throne1 no       
legitimate and acknowledged             
representative of that upper social     
structure of leisure1 power1 ,state     

responsibility1 which in the old        
,european theory of society was supposed
 to give significance to the whole4 ,the
 ,american community1 one cannot too    
clearly insist1 does not correspond to  
an entire ,european community at all1   
but only to the middle masses of it1 to 
the trading and manufacturing class     
between the dimensions of the magnate   
and the clerk and skilled artisan4 ,it  
is the central part of the ,european    
organism without either the dreaming    
head or the subjugated feet4 ,even the  
highly feudal slave-holding county      
family traditions of ,virginia and the  
,south pass now out of memory4 ,so that 
in a very real sense the past of this   
,american community is in ,europe1 and  
the settled order of the past is left   
behind there4 ,this community was1 as it
 were1 taken off its roots1 clipped of  
its branches and brought hither4 ,it    
began neither serf nor lord1 but burgher
 and farmer1 it followed the normal     
development of the middle class under   

,progress everywhere and became         
capitalistic4 ,essentially ,america is a
 middle-class become a community and so 
its essential problems are the problems 
of a modern individualistic society1    
stark and clear1 unhampered and         
unilluminated by any feudal traditions  
either at its crest or at its base4  ,it
 would be interesting and at first only 
very slightly misleading to pursue the  
rough contrast of ,american and ,english
 conditions upon these lines4 ,it is not
 difficult to show for example1 that the
 two great political parties in ,america
 represent only one ,english party1 the 
middle-class ,liberal party1 the party  
of industrialism and freedom4 ,there are
 no ,tories to represent the feudal     
system1 and no ,labor party4 ,it is     
history1 it is no mere ingenious gloss  
upon history1 that the ,tories1 the     
party of the crown1 of the high gentry  
and control1 of mitigated property and  
an organic state1 vanished from ,america
 at the ,revolution4 ,they left the new 

world to the ,whigs and ,nonconformists 
and to those less constructive1 less    
logical1 more popular and liberating    
thinkers who became ,radicals in        
,england1 and ,jeffersonians and then   
,democrats in ,america4 ,all ,americans 
are1 from the ,english point of view1   
,liberals of one sort or another4 ,you  
will find a fac-simile of the           
,declaration of ,independence displayed 
conspicuously and triumphantly beside   
,magna ,charter in the ,london ,reform  
,club1 to carry out this suggestion4    
,but these fascinating parallelisms will
 lead away from the chief argument in   
hand1 which is that the ,americans      
started almost clear of the medieval    
heritage1 and developed in the          
utmost--purity if you like--or          
simplicity or crudeness1 whichever you  
will1 the modern type of productive     
social organization4 ,they took the     
economic conventions that were modern   
and progressive at the end of the       
eighteenth century and stamped them into

 the ,constitution as if they meant to  
stamp them there for all time4 ,in      
,england you can still find feudalism1  
medievalism1 the ,renascence1 at every  
turn4 ,america is pure eighteenth       
century--still crystallizing out from a 
turbid and troubled solution4  ,to turn 
from any ,european state to ,america is1
 in these matters anyhow1 to turn from  
complication to a stark simplicity4 ,the
 relationship between employer and      
employed1 between organizer and worker1 
between capital and labor1 which in     
,england is qualified and mellowed and  
disguised and entangled with a thousand 
traditional attitudes and               
subordinations1 stands out sharply in a 
bleak cold rationalism4 ,there is no    
feeling that property1 privilege1 honor1
 and a grave liability to official      
public service ought to go together1    
none that uncritical obedience is a     
virtue in a worker or that subordination
 carries with it not only a sense of    
service but a claim for help4 ,coming   

across the ,atlantic has in these       
matters an effect of coming out of an   
iridescent fog into a clear bright air4 
,this homologization of the whole       
,american social mass1 not with the     
whole ,english social mass1 but with its
 modern classes1 its great middle       
portion1 and of its political sides with
 the two ingredients of ,english        
,liberalism1 goes further than a rough  
parallel4 ,an ,englishman who1 like     
myself1 has been bred and who has lived 
all his life either in ,london1 with its
 predominant ,west-,end1 or the southern
 counties with their fair large estates 
and the great country houses1 is        
constantly being reminded1 when he meets
 manufacturing and business men from    
,birmingham or ,lancashire1 of          
,americans1 and when he meets           
,americans1 of industrial ,north-country
 people4 ,there is more push and less   
tacit assumption1 more definition1 more 
displayed energy and less restraint1    
more action and less subtlety1 more     

enterprise and self-assertion than there
 is in the typical ,englishman of       
,london and the home counties4 ,the     
,american carries on the contrast       
further1 it is true1 and his speech is  
not northernly1 but marked by the accent
 of ,hampshire or ,east ,anglia1 and    
better and clearer than his ,english    
equivalent's2 but one feels the two are 
of the same stuff1 nevertheless1 and    
made by parallel conditions4 ,the       
liberalism of the eighteenth century1   
the material progress of the nineteenth 
have made them both--out of the         
undifferentiated ,stuart ,englishman4   
,and they are the same in their attitude
 towards property and social duty1      
individualists to the marrow4 ,but the  
one grew inside a frame of regal1       
aristocratic1 and feudal institutions1  
and has chafed against it1 struggled    
with it1 modified it1 strained it1 and  
been modified by it1 but has remained   
within it2 the other broke it and       
escaped to complete self-development4   

,the liberalism of the eighteenth       
century was essentially the rebellion of
 the modern industrial organization     
against the monarchial and aristocratic 
,state1--against hereditary privilege1  
against restrictions upon               
bargains--whether they were hard        
bargains or not4 ,its spirit was        
essentially ,anarchistic1--the          
antithesis of ,socialism4 ,it was the   
anti-,state4 ,it aimed not only to      
liberate men but property from ,state   
control4 ,its most typical expressions1 
the ,declaration of ,independence1 and  
the ,french ,declaration of the ,rights 
of ,man1 are zealously emphatic for the 
latter interest--for the sacredness of  
contracts and possessions4 ,post        
,reformation liberalism did to a large  
extent let loose property upon mankind4 
,the ,english ,civil ,war of the        
seventeenth century1 like the ,american 
revolution of the eighteenth1 embodied  
essentially the triumphant refusal of   
private property to submit to taxation  

without consent4 ,in ,england the result
 was tempered and qualified1 security   
for private property was achieved1 but  
not cast-iron security2 each man who had
 property became king of that property1 
but only a constitutional and           
conditional king4 ,in ,america the      
victory of private property was         
complete4 ,let one instance suffice to  
show how decisively it was established  
that individual property and credit and 
money were sacred4 ,ten years ago the   
,supreme ,court1 trying a case arising  
out of the ,general ,revenue tax of     
#ahid1 decided that a graduated         
income-tax1 such as the ,english        
,parliament might pass to-morrow1 can   
never be levied upon the ,united ,states
 nation without a change in the         
,constitution1 which can be effected    
only by a vote of two-thirds of both    
,houses of ,congress as an initiative1  
and this must be ratified either by the 
legislatures of three-fourths of the    
,states1 or by special conventions      

representing three-fourths of the       
,states4 ,the fundamental law of the    
,states forbids any such invasion of the
 individual's ownership4 ,no national   
income-tax is legal1 and there is       
practically no power1 short of          
revolution1 to alter that4444  ,could   
anything be more emphatic8 ,that tall   
,liberty with its spiky crown that      
stands in ,new ,york ,harbor and casts  
an electric flare upon the world1 is1   
indeed1 the liberty of ,property1 and   
there she stands at the ,zenith4444     
,,iii  ,aggregation and ,some ,protests 
,now the middle-class of the ,english   
population and the whole population of  
,america that matters at all when we    
discuss ideas1 is essentially an        
emancipated class1 a class that has     
rebelled against superimposed privilege 
and honor1 and achieved freedom for its 
individuals and their property4 ,without
 property its freedom is a featureless  
and unsubstantial theory1 and so it     
relies for the reality of life upon     

that1 upon the possession and           
acquisition and development of property1
 that is to say upon business4 ,that is 
the quality of its life4  ,everywhere in
 the modern industrial and commercial   
class this deep-lying feeling that the  
,state is something escaped from1 has   
worked out to the same mental habit of  
social irresponsibility1 and in ,america
 it has worked unimpeded4 ,patriotism   
has become a mere national              
self-assertion1 a sentimentality of flag
 cheering1 with no constructive duties4 
,law1 social justice1 the pride and     
preservation of the state as a whole are
 taken as provided for before the game  
began1 and one devotes one-self to      
business4 ,at business all men are held 
to be equal1 and none is his brother's  
keeper4  ,all men are equal at the great
 game of business4 ,you try for the best
 of each bargain and so does your       
opponent2 if you chance to have more in 
your hand than he--well1 that's your    
advantage1 and you use it4 ,presently he

 may have more than you4 ,you take care 
he doesn't if you can1 but you play     
fair--except for the advantage in your  
hand2 you play fair--and hard4  ,now    
this middle-class equality ultimately   
destroys itself4 ,out of this conflict  
of equals1 and by virtue of the fact    
that property1 like all sorts of matter1
 does tend to gravitate towards itself  
whenever it is free1 there emerge the   
modern rich and the modern toiler4  ,one
 can trace the process in two or three  
generations in ,lancashire or the       
,potteries1 or any industrial region of 
,england4 ,one sees first the early     
,lancashire industrialism1 sees a       
district of cotton-spinners more or less
 equal together1 small men all2 then    
come developments1 comes a state of     
ideally free competition with some men  
growing large1 with most men dropping   
into employment1 but still with ample   
chances for an industrious young man to 
end as a prosperous master2 and so      
through a steady growth in the size of  

the organization to the present         
opposition of an employer class in      
possession of everything1 almost        
inaccessibly above1 and an employed     
class below4 ,the railways come1 and the
 wealthy class reaches out to master    
these new enterprises1 capitalistic from
 the outset4444  ,america is simply     
repeating the history of the ,lancashire
 industrialism on a gigantic scale1 and 
under an enormous variety of forms4     
,but in ,england1 as the modern ,rich   
rise up1 they come into a world of      
gentry with a tradition of public       
service and authority2 they learn one by
 one and assimilate themselves to the   
legend of the governing class with a    
sense of proprietorship which is also1  
in its humanly limited way1 a sense of  
duty to the state4 ,they are            
pseudomorphs after aristocrats4 ,they   
receive honors1 they inter-marry1 they  
fall 7and their defeated competitors too
 fall7 into the mellowed relationships  
of an aristocratic system4 ,that is not 

a permanent mutual attitude2 it does1   
however1 mask and soften the ,british   
outline4 ,industrialism becomes         
quasi-feudal4 ,america1 on the other    
hand1 had no effectual governing class1 
there has been no such modification1 no 
clouding of the issue4 ,its ,rich1 to   
one's superficial inspection1 do seem to
 lop out1 swell up into an immense      
consumption and power and inanity1      
develop no sense of public duties1      
remain winners of a strange game they do
 not criticise1 concerned now only to   
hold and intensify their winnings4 ,the 
losers accept no subservience4 ,that    
material progress1 that secular growth  
in scale of all modern enterprises1     
widens the gulf between ,owner and      
,worker daily4 ,more and more do men    
realize that this game of free          
competition and unrestricted property   
does not go on for ever2 it is a game   
that first in this industry and then in 
that1 and at last in all1 can be played 
out and is being played out4 ,property  

becomes organized1 consolidated1        
concentrated1 and secured4 ,this is the 
fact to which ,america is slowly awaking
 at the present time4 ,the ,american    
community is discovering a secular      
extinction of opportunity1 and the      
appearance of powers against which      
individual enterprise and competition   
are hopeless4 ,enormous sections of the 
,american public are losing their faith 
in any personal chance of growing rich  
and truly free1 and are developing the  
consciousness of an expropriated class4 
,this realization has come slowlier in  
,america than in ,europe1 because of the
 enormous undeveloped resources of      
,america4 ,so long as there was an      
unlimited extent of unappropriated and  
unexplored land westward1 so long could 
tension be relieved by so simple an     
injunction as ,horace ,greeley's1 ,go   
,west1 young man2 go ,west4 ,and to-day1
 albeit that is no longer true of the   
land1 and there are already far larger  
concentrations of individual possessions

 in the ,united ,states of ,america than
 anywhere else in the world1 yet so vast
 are their continental resources that it
 still remains true that nowhere in the 
world is property so widely diffused4   
,consider the one fact that ,america can
 take in three-quarters of a million of 
workers in one year without producing a 
perceptible fall in wages1 and you will 
appreciate the scale upon which things  
are measured here1 the scale by which   
even ,mr4 ,j4,d4 ,rockefeller's billion 
dollars becomes no more than a          
respectable but by no means overwhelming
 pile4 ,for all these concentrations1   
the western farmers still own their     
farms1 and it is the rule rather than   
the exception for a family to possess   
the freehold of the house it lives in4  
,but the process of concentration goes  
on nevertheless--is going on now        
perceptibly to the ,american mind4 ,that
 it has not gone so far as in the       
,european instance it is a question of  
size1 just as the gestation of an       

elephant takes longer than that of a    
mouse4 ,if the process is larger and    
slower1 it is1 for the reasons ,i have  
given1 plainer1 and it will be discussed
 and dealt with plainly4 ,that steady   
trend towards concentration under       
individualistic rules1 until individual 
competition becomes disheartened and    
hopeless1 is the essential form of the  
economic and social process in ,america 
as ,i see it now1 and it has become the 
cardinal topic of thought and discussion
 in the ,american mind4  ,illustration3 
,,western ,,farmers ,,still ,,own       
,,their ,,farms  ,this realization has  
been reached after the most curious     
hesitation4 ,there is every reason for  
this2 for it involves the contradiction 
of much that seems fundamental in the   
,american idea4 ,it amounts to a        
national change of attitude4 ,it is a   
conscious change of attitude that is    
being deliberately made4  ,this slow    
reluctant process of disillusionment    
with individualism is interestingly     

traceable through the main political    
innovations of the last twenty years4   
,there was the discovery in the east    
that the supply of land was not         
limitless1 and we had the ,single ,tax  
movement1 and the epoch of the first    
,mr4 ,henry ,george4 ,he explained      
fervently of course1 how                
individualistic1 how profoundly         
,american he was--but land was not to be
 monopolized4 ,then came the discovery  
in the west that there were limits to   
borrowing and that gold appreciated     
against the debtor1 and so we have the  
,populist movement and extraordinary    
schemes for destroying the              
monopolization of gold and credit4 ,mr4 
,bryan led that and nearly captured the 
country1 but only in last ,may's issue  
of the ,century ,magazine ,i found him  
explaining 7expounding meanwhile a      
largely socialistic programme7 that he  
too is an ,individualist of the purest  
water4 ,and then the attack shifted to  
the destruction of free competition by  

the trusts4 ,the small business went on 
sufferance1 'not knowing from week to   
week when its hour to sell out or fight 
might come4 ,the ,trusts have crushed   
competition1 raised prices against the  
consumer1 and served him often quite    
abominably4 ,the curious reader may find
 in ,mr4 ,upton ,sinclair's essentially 
veracious ,jungle the possibilities of  
individualistic enterprise in the matter
 of food and decency4 ,the ,states have 
been agitated by a big disorganized     
,anti-,trust movement for some years1 it
 becomes of the gravest political       
importance at every election1 and the   
sustained study of the affairs and      
methods of that most typical and        
prominent of trust organizations1 the   
,standard ,oil ,company1 by ,miss       
,tarbell and a host of followers1 is    
bringing to light more and more clearly 
the defencelessness of the common       
person1 and his hopelessness1 however   
enterprising1 as a competitor against   
those great business aggregations4 ,his 

faith in all his reliances and          
securities fades in the new light that  
grows about him1 he sees his little     
investments1 his insurance policy1 his  
once open and impartial route to market 
by steamboat and rail1 all passing into 
the grip of the great property          
accumulators4 ,the aggregation of       
property has created powers that are    
stronger than state legislatures and    
more persistent than any public opinion 
can be1 that have no awe and no         
sentiment for legislation1 that are     
prepared to disregard it or evade it    
whenever they can4  ,and these          
aggregations are taking on immortality  
and declining to disintegrate when their
 founders die4 ,the ,astor property1 the
 ,jay ,gould property1 the ,marshall    
,field property1 for example1 do not    
break up1 become undying centres for the
 concentration of wealth1 and it is     
doubtful if there is any power to hinder
 such a development of perpetual        
fortunes4 ,in ,england when ,thelussen  

left his investments to accumulate1 a   
simple little act of ,parliament set his
 will aside4 ,but ,congress is not      
sovereign1 there is no national         
sovereign power in ,america1 and        
,property in ,america1 it would seem1 is
 absolutely free to do these things4 ,so
 you have ,president ,roosevelt in a    
recent oration attacking the man with   
the ,muck ,rake 7who gathered vile dross
 for the love of it71 and threatening   
the limitation of inheritance4 ,but he  
too1 quite as much as ,mr4 ,bryan1      
assures the public that he is a fervent 
individualist4  ,so in this ,american   
community1 whose distinctive conception 
is its emphatic assertion of the freedom
 of individual property1 whose very     
symbol is that spike-crowned ,liberty   
gripping a torch in ,new ,york ,harbor1 
there has been and is going on a        
successive repudiation of that freedom  
in almost every department of ownable   
things by considerable masses of        
thinking people1 a denial of the        

soundness of individual property in     
land1 an organized attempt against the  
accumulation of gold and credit1 by a   
systematic watering of the currency1 a  
revolt against the aggregatory outcome  
of untrammelled business competition1 a 
systematic interference with the freedom
 of railways and carriers to do business
 as they please1 and a protest from the 
most representative of ,americans       
against hereditary wealth4444  ,that1 in
 general terms1 is the economic and     
social process as one sees it in        
,america now1 a process of              
systematically concentrating wealth on  
the part of an energetic minority1 and  
of a great insurgence of alarm1 of waves
 of indignation and protest and threat  
on the part of that vague indefinite    
public that ,mr4 ,roosevelt calls the   
nation4  ,and this goes on side by side 
with a process of material progress that
 partly masks its quality1 that keeps   
the standard of life from falling and   
prevents any sense of impoverishment    

among the mass of the losers in the     
economic struggle4 ,through this        
material progress there is a constant   
substitution of larger1 cleaner1 more   
efficient possibilities1 and more and   
more wholesale and far-sighted methods  
of organization for the dark1 confused1 
untidy individualistic expedients of the
 ,victorian time4 ,an epoch which was   
coaly and mechanical1 commercial and    
adventurous after the earlier fashion is
 giving place1 almost automatically1 to 
one that will be electrical and         
scientific1 artistic and creative4 ,the 
material progress due to a secular      
increase in knowledge1 and the economic 
progress interfere and combine with and 
complicate one another1 the former      
constantly changes the forms and        
appliances of the latter1 changes the   
weapons and conditions1 and may         
ultimately change the spirit and        
conceptions of the struggle4 ,the latter
 now clogs and arrests the former4 ,so  
in its broad features1 as a conflict    

between the birth strength of a splendid
 civilization and a hampering           
commercialism1 ,i see ,america4         
,,chapter ,,vi  ,,some ,,aspects ,,of   
,,american ,,wealth   ,i  ,the ,spenders
  ,it is obvious that in a community    
that has disavowed aristocracy or rule  
and subordination or service1 which has 
granted unparalleled freedoms to        
property and despised and distrusted the
 state1 the chief business of life will 
consist in getting or attempting to get4
 ,but the chief aspect of ,american life
 that impinges first upon the ,european 
is not this1 but the behavior of a      
certain overflow at the top1 of people  
who have largely and triumphantly got1  
and with hand1 pockets1 safe-deposit    
vaults full of dollars1 are proceeding  
to realize victory4 ,before ,i came to  
,america it was in his capacity of      
spender that ,i chiefly knew the        
,american2 as a person who had          
demoralized ,regent ,street and the ,rue
 de ,rivoli1 who had taught the ,london 

cabman to demand arf a dollar for a     
shilling fare1 who bought old books and 
old castles1 and had driven the prices  
of old furniture to incredible          
altitudes1 and was slowly transferring  
our incubus of artistic achievement to  
,american soil4 ,one of my friends in   
,london is ,mr4 ,x1 who owns those two  
houses full of fine pieces near the     
,british ,museum and keeps his honor    
unsullied in the most deleterious of    
trades4 ,they come to me1 he said1 and  
ask me to buy for them4 ,it's just      
buying4 ,one of them wants to beat the  
silver of another1 doesn't care what he 
pays4 ,another clamors for tapestry4    
,they trust me as they trust a doctor4  
,there's no understanding--no feeling4  
,it's hard to treat them well4  ,and    
there is the story of ,y1 who is wise   
about pictures4 ,if you want a          
,botticelli that size1 ,mr4 ,record1 ,i 
can't find it1 he said2 you'll have to  
have it made for you4  ,these ,american 
spenders have got the whole world beat  

at the foolish game of collecting1 and  
in all the peculiar delights of shopping
 they excel4 ,and they are the crown and
 glory of hotel managers throughout the 
world4 ,there is something nave1        
something childishly expectant and      
acquisitive1 about this aspect of       
,american riches4 ,there appears no     
aristocracy in their tradition1 no sense
 of permanence and great responsibility1
 there appears no sense of subordination
 and service2 from the individualistic  
business struggle they have emerged     
triumphant1 and what is there to do now 
but spend and have a good time8  ,they  
swarm in the pleasant places of the     
,riviera1 they pervade ,paris and ,rome1
 they occupy ,scotch castles and        
,english estates1 their motor-cars are  
terrible and wonderful4 ,and the ,london
 ,savoy ,hotel still flaunts its memory 
of one splendid ,american night4 ,the   
court-yard was flooded with water tinted
 an artistic blue--to the great         
discomfort of the practically inevitable

 gold-fish1 and on this floated a dream 
of a gondola4 ,and in the gondola the   
table was spread and served by the      
,savoy staff1 mysteriously disguised in 
appropriate fancy costume4 ,the whole   
thing--there's only two words for       
it--was perfectly lovely4 ,the          
illusion--whatever that was--we are     
assured1 was complete4 ,it wasn't a     
nursery treat1 you know4 ,the guests1 ,i
 am told1 were important grown-up       
people4  ,this sort of childishness1 of 
course1 has nothing distinctively       
,american in it4 ,any people of sluggish
 and uneducated imagination who find    
themselves profusely wealthy1 and are   
too stupid to understand the huge moral 
burden1 the burden of splendid          
possibilities it carries1 may do things 
of this sort4 ,it was not ,americans but
 a party of ,south-,african millionaires
 who achieved the kindred triumph of the
 shirt-and-belt dinner under a tent in a
 ,london hotel dining-room4 ,the        
glittering procession of carriages and  

motor-carriages which ,i watched driving
 down ,fifth ,avenue1 ,new ,york1       
apparently for the pleasure of driving  
up again1 is to be paralleled on the    
,pincio1 in ,naples1 in ,paris1 and     
anywhere where irresponsible            
pleasure-seekers gather together4 ,after
 the nave joy of buying things comes the
 joy of wearing them publicly1 the      
simple pleasure of the promenade4 ,these
 things are universals4 ,but nowhere has
 this spending struck me as being so    
solid and substantial1 so nearly        
twenty-two carats fine1 as here4 ,the   
shops have an air of solid worth1 are in
 the key of butlers1 bishops1           
opera-boxes1 high-class florists1       
powdered footmen1 ,roman beadles1       
motor-broughams1 to an extent that      
altogether outshines either ,paris or   
,london4  ,illustration3 ,,plump ,,and  
,,pretty ,,pupils ,,of ,,extravagance   
,and in such great hotels as the        
,waldorf-,astoria1 one finds the new    
arrivals1 the wives and daughters from  

the ,west and the ,south1 in new1 bright
 hats1 and splendors of costume1 clubbed
 together1 under the discreetest        
management1 for this and that1 learning 
how to spend collectively1 reaching out 
to assemblies1 to dinners4 ,from an     
observant tea-table beneath the fronds  
of a palm1 ,i surveyed a fine array of  
these plump and pretty pupils of        
extravagance4 ,they were for the most   
part quite brilliantly as well as newly 
dressed1 and with an artless and        
pleasing unconsciousness of the living  
from inside4 ,smart innocents6 ,i found 
all that gathering most contagiously    
interested and happy and fresh4  ,and ,i
 watched spending1 too1 as one sees it  
in the various incompatible houses of   
upper ,fifth ,avenue and along the      
border of ,central ,park4 ,that1 too1   
suggests a shop1 a shop where country   
houses are sold and stored2 there is the
 ,tiffany house1 a most                 
expensive-looking article1 on the shelf1
 and the ,carnegie house4 ,there had    

been no pretence on the part of the     
architects that any house belonged in   
any sense to any other1 that any sort of
 community held them together4 ,the link
 is just spending4 ,you come to ,new    
,york and spend2 you go away again4 ,to 
some of these palaces people came and   
went2 others had their blinds down and  
conveyed a curious effect of a sunlit   
child excursionist in a train who falls 
asleep and droops against his neighbor4 
,one of the ,vanderbilt houses was      
frankly and brutally boarded up4        
,newport1 ,i am told1 takes up and      
carries on the same note of magnificent 
irresponsibility1 and there one admires 
the richest forms of simplicity1        
triumphs of villa architecture in       
thatch1 and bathing bungalows in        
marble4444  ,there exists already1 of   
these irresponsible ,american rich1 a   
splendid group of portraits1 done       
without extenuation and without malice1 
in the later work of that great master  
of ,english fiction1 ,mr4 ,henry ,james4

 ,there one sees them at their best1    
their refinement1 their large           
wealthiness1 their incredible unreality4
 ,i think of ,the ,ambassadors and that 
mysterious source of the income of the  
,newcomes1 a mystery that1 with infinite
 artistic tact1 was never explained2 but
 more ,i think of ,the ,golden ,bowl1   
most spacious and serene of novels4  ,in
 that splendid and luminous bubble1 the 
,prince ,amerigo and ,maggie ,verver1   
,mr4 ,verver1 that assiduous collector1 
and the adventurous ,charlotte ,stant   
float far above a world of toil and     
anxiety1 spending with a large          
refinement1 with a perfected assurance  
and precision4 ,they spend as flowers   
open4 ,but this is the quintessence1 the
 sublimation1 the idealization of the   
rich ,american4 ,few have the restraint 
for this4 ,for the rest1 when one has   
shopped and shopped1 and collected and  
bought everything1 and promenaded on    
foot1 in motor-car and motor-brougham   
and motor-boat1 in yacht and special    

train2 when one has a fine house here   
and a fine house there1 and photography 
and the special article have exhausted  
admiration1 there remains chiefly that  
one broader and more presumptuous       
pleasure--spending to give4 ,american   
givers give most generously1 and some of
 them1 it must be admitted1 give well4  
,but they give individually1            
incoherently1 each pursuing a personal  
ideal4 ,there are unsuccessful          
givers4444  ,american cities are being  
littered with a disorder of             
unsystematized foundations and          
picturesque legacies1 much as ,i find my
 nursery floor littered with abandoned  
toys and battles and buildings when the 
children are in bed after a long1 wet   
day4 ,yet some of the gifts are very    
splendid things4 ,there is1 for example1
 the ,leland ,stanford ,junior          
,university in ,california1 a vast      
monument of parental affection and      
,richardsonian architecture1 with       
professors1 and teaching going on in its

 interstices2 and there is ,mrs4        
,gardner's delightful ,fenway ,court1 a 
,venetian palace1 brought almost bodily 
from ,italy and full of finely gathered 
treasures4444  ,all this giving is1 in  
its aggregate effect1 as confused as    
industrial ,chicago4 ,it presents no    
clear scheme of the future1 promises no 
growth2 it is due to the impulsive      
generosity of a mob of wealthy persons1 
with no broad common conceptions1 with  
no collective dream1 with little to hold
 them together but imitation and the    
burning possession of money2 the gifts  
overlap1 they lie at any angle1 one with
 another4 ,some are needless1 some      
mischievous4 ,there are great gaps of   
unfulfilled need between4  ,and through 
the multitude of lesser1 though still   
mighty1 givers1 comes that colossus of  
property1 ,mr4 ,andrew ,carnegie1 the   
jubilee plunger of beneficence1 that    
rosy1 gray-haired1 nimble little figure1
 going to and fro between two           
continents1 scattering library buildings

 as if he sowed wild oats1 buildings    
that may or may not have some           
educational value1 if presently they are
 reorganized and properly stocked with  
books4 ,anon he appals the thrifty      
burgesses of ,dunfermline with vast and 
uncongenial responsibilities of         
expenditure2 anon he precipitates the   
library of the late ,lord ,acton upon   
our embarrassed ,mr4 ,morley2 anon he   
pauperizes the students of ,scotland4   
,he diffuses his monument throughout the
 ,english-speaking lands1 amid          
circumstances of the most flagrant      
publicity2 the receptive learned1 the   
philanthropic noble1 bow in expectant   
swaths before him4 ,he is the ,american 
fable come true2 nothing seems too wild 
to believe of him1 and he fills the     
,european imagination with an altogether
 erroneous conception of the            
self-dissipating quality in ,american   
wealth4   ,,ii  ,the ,astor ,fortune    
,because1 now1 as a matter of fact1     
dissipation is by no means the          

characteristic quality of ,american     
getting4 ,the good ,american will indeed
 tell you solemnly that in ,america it  
is three generations from shirt-sleeves 
to shirt-sleeves2 but this has about as 
much truth in it as that remarkable     
absence of any pure-bred ,londoners of  
the third generation1 dear to the       
,british imagination4  ,amid the vast   
yeasty tumult of ,american business1 of 
the getting and losing which are the    
main life of this community1 nothing    
could be clearer than the steady        
accumulation of great masses of property
 that show no signs of disintegrating   
again4 ,the very rich people display an 
indisposition to divide their estates2  
the ,marshall ,field estate in ,chicago1
 for example1 accumulates2 the ,jay     
,gould inheritance survives great       
strains4 ,and when first ,i heard that  
shirt-sleeves to shirt-sleeves proverb1 
,which is so fortifying a consolation to
 the older school of ,americans1 my mind
 flew back to the ,thames ,embankment1  

as one sees it from the steamboat on the
 river4 ,there1 just eastward of the    
tall red ,education offices of the      
,london ,county ,council1 stands a quite
 graceful and decorative little building
 of gray stone1 that jars not at all    
with the fine traditions of the adjacent
 ,temple1 but catches the eye1          
nevertheless1 with its very big1 very   
gilded vane in the form of a ship4 ,this
 is the handsome strong-box to which    
,new ,york pays gigantic yearly tribute1
 the office in which ,mr4 ,w4,w4 ,astor 
conducts his affairs4 ,they are not his 
private and individual affairs1 but the 
affairs of the estate of the late ,j4,j4
 ,astor--still undivided1 and still     
growing year by year4  ,mr4 ,astor seems
 to me to be a much more representative 
figure of ,american wealth than any of  
the conspicuous spenders who strike so  
vividly upon the ,european imagination4 
,his is the most retiring of            
personalities4 ,in this picturesque     
stone casket he works2 his staff works  

under his cognizance1 and administers1  
,i know not to what ends nor to what    
extent1 revenues that exceed those of   
many sovereign states4 ,he himself is   
impressed by it1 and1 without arrogance1
 he makes a visit to his offices1 with a
 view of its storage vaults1 its halls  
of disciplined clerks1 a novel and      
characteristic form of entertainment4   
,for the rest1 ,mr4 ,astor leads a life 
of modest affluence1 and recreates      
himself with the genealogy of his       
family1 short stories about treasure    
lost and found1 and such like literary  
work4  ,now here you have wealth with1  
as it were1 the minimum of ownership1 as
 indeed owning its possessor4 ,nobody   
seems to be spending that huge income   
the crowded enormity of ,new ,york      
squeezes out4 ,the ,estate of the late  
,j4,j4 ,astor must be accumulating more 
wealth and still more2 under careful and
 systematic management must be rolling  
up like a golden snowball under that    
golden weather-vane4 ,in the most       

accidental relation to its              
undistinguished1 harmless1 arithmetical 
proprietor6  ,your anarchist orator or  
your crude socialist is always talking  
of the rich as blood-suckers1 robbers1  
robber-barons1 grafters and so on4 ,it  
really is nonsense to talk like that4   
,in the presence of ,mr4 ,w4,w4 ,astor  
these preposterous accusations answer   
themselves4 ,the thing is a logical     
outcome of the assumptions about private
 property on which our contemporary     
civilization is based1 and ,mr4 ,astor1 
for all that he draws gold from ,new    
,york as effectually as a ferret draws  
blood from a rabbit1 is indeed the most 
innocent of men4 ,he finds himself in a 
certain position1 and he sits down very 
congenially and adds and adds and adds1 
and relieves the tedium of his leisure  
in literary composition4 ,had he been   
born at the level of a dry-goods clerk  
he would probably have done the same    
sort of thing on a smaller scale1 and it
 would have been the little ,poddlecombe

 literary society1 and not the ,pall    
,mall ,magazine1 that would have been   
the richer for his compositions4 ,it is 
just the scale of the circumstances that
 differs4444   ,,iii  ,the ,chief       
,getters  ,the lavish spending of ,fifth
 ,avenue and ,paris and ,rome and       
,mayfair is but the flower1 the often   
brilliant1 the sometimes gaudy flower of
 the ,american economic process2 and    
such slow and patient accumulators as   
,mr4 ,astor the rounding and ripening   
fruit4 ,one need be only a little while 
in ,america to realize this1 and to     
discern the branch and leaf1 and at last
 even the aggressive insatiable         
spreading root of aggregating property1 
that was liberated so effectually when  
,america declared herself free4  ,the   
group of people that attracts the       
largest amount of attention in press and
 talk1 that most obsesses the ,american 
imagination1 and that is indeed the most
 significant at the present time1 is the
 little group--a few score men perhaps  

altogether--who are emerging distinctly 
as winners in that great struggle to    
get1 into which this commercial         
industrialism has naturally resolved    
itself4 ,central among them are the men 
of the ,standard ,oil group1 the octopus
 which spreads its ramifying tentacles  
through the whole system of ,american   
business1 absorbing and absorbing1      
grasping and growing4 ,the              
extraordinarily able investigations of  
such writers as ,miss ,tarbell and ,ray 
,stannard ,baker1 the rhetorical        
exposures of ,mr4 ,t4,w4 ,lawson1 have  
brought out the methods and quality of  
this group of persons with a            
particularity that has been reserved    
heretofore for great statesmen and      
crowned heads1 and with an unflattering 
lucidity altogether unprecedented4 ,not 
only is every hair on their heads       
numbered1 but the number is published4  
,they are known to their pettiest       
weaknesses and to their most accidental 
associations4 ,and in this astonishing  

blaze of illumination they continue     
steadfastly to get4  ,these men1 who are
 creating the greatest system of        
correlated private properties in the    
world1 who are wealthy beyond all       
precedent1 seem for the most part to be 
men with no ulterior dream or aim4 ,they
 are not voluptuaries1 they are neither 
artists nor any sort of creators1 and   
they betray no high political ambitions4
 ,had they anything of the sort they    
would not be what they are1 they would  
be more than that and less4 ,they want  
and they get1 they are inspired by the  
brute will in their wealth to have more 
wealth and more1 to a systematic ardor4 
,they are men of a competing1 patient1  
enterprising1 acquisitive enthusiasm4   
,they have found in ,america the        
perfectly favorable environment for     
their temperaments4 ,in no other country
 and in no other age could they have    
risen to such eminence4 ,america is     
still1 by virtue of its great ,puritan  
tradition and in the older sense of the 

word1 an intensely moral land4 ,most    
lusts here are strongly curbed1 by      
public opinion1 by training and         
tradition4 ,but the lust of acquisition 
has not been curbed but glorified4444   
,these financial leaders are accused by 
the press of every sort of crime in the 
development of their great organizations
 and their fight against competitors1   
but ,i feel impelled myself to acquit   
them of anything so heroic as a general 
scheme of criminality1 as a systematic  
organization of power4 ,they are men    
with a good deal of contempt for        
legislation and state interference1 but 
that is no distinction1 it has unhappily
 been part of the training of the       
average ,american citizen1 and they have
 no doubt exceeded the letter if not the
 spirit of the laws of business         
competition4 ,they have played to win   
and not for style1 and if they          
personally had not done so somebody else
 would2 they fill a position which from 
the nature of things1 somebody is bound 

to fill4 ,they have1 no doubt1 carried  
sharpness to the very edge of           
dishonesty1 but what else was to be     
expected from the ,american conditions8 
,only by doing so and taking risks is   
pre-eminent success in getting to be    
attained4 ,they have developed an       
enormous system of espionage1 but on his
 smaller scale every retail grocer1     
every employer of servants does         
something in that way4 ,they have secret
 agents1 false names1 concealed         
bargains1--what else could one expect8  
,people have committed suicide through  
their operations--but in a game which is
 bound to bring the losers to despair it
 is childish to charge the winners with 
murder4 ,it's the game that is criminal4
 ,it is ridiculous1 ,i say1 to write of 
these men as though they were           
unparalleled villains1 intellectual     
overmen1 conscienceless conquerors of   
the world4 ,mr4 ,j4,d4 ,rockefeller's   
mild1 thin-lipped1 pleasant face gives  
the lie to all such melodramatic        

nonsense4  ,i must confess to a sneaking
 liking for this much-reviled man4 ,one 
thinks of ,miss ,tarbell's description  
of him1 displaying his first boyish     
account-book1 his ledger ,a1 to a       
sympathetic gathering of the ,baptist   
young1 telling how he earned fifty      
dollars in the first three months of his
 clerking in a ,chicago warehouse1 and  
how savingly he dealt with it4 ,hear his
 words3  ,you could not get that book   
from me for all the modern ledgers in   
,new ,york1 nor for all that they would 
bring4 ,it almost brings tears to my    
eyes when ,i read over this little book1
 and it fills me with a sense of        
gratitude ,i cannot express4444  ,i know
 some people1 444 especially some young 
men1 find it difficult to keep a little 
money in their pocket-book4 ,i learned  
to keep money1 and1 as we have a way of 
saying1 it did not burn a hole in my    
pocket4 ,i was taught that it was the   
thing to keep the money and take care of
 it4 ,among the early experiences that  

were helpful to me that ,i recollect    
with pleasure1 was one of working a few 
days for a neighbor digging potatoes--an
 enterprising and thrifty farmer who    
could dig a great many potatoes4 ,i was 
a boy perhaps thirteen or fourteen years
 of age1 and he kept me busy from       
morning until night4 ,it was a ten-hour 
day4444  ,and as ,i was saving these    
little sums1 ,i soon learned ,i could   
get as much interest for fifty dollars  
loaned at seven per cent4--the legal    
rate in the ,state of ,new ,york at that
 time for a year--as ,i could earn by   
digging potatoes ten days4 ,the         
impression was gaining ground with me   
that it was a good thing to let money be
 my slave and not make myself a slave to
 money4 ,i have tried to remember that  
in every sense4  ,this is not the voice 
of any sort of contemptuous trampler of 
his species4 ,this is the voice of an   
industrious1 acquisitive1 commonplace1  
pious man1 as honestly and simply proud 
of his acquisitiveness as a             

stamp-collector might be4 ,at times1 in 
his acquisitions1 the strength of his   
passion may have driven him to lengths  
beyond the severe moral code1 but the   
same has been true of stamp-collectors4 
,he is a man who has taken up with great
 natural aptitude an ignoble tradition  
which links economy and earning with    
piety and honor4 ,his teachers were to  
blame1 that ,baptist community that is  
now so ashamed of its son that it       
refuses his gifts4 ,to a large extent he
 is the creature of opportunity2 he has 
been flung to the topmost pinnacle of   
human envy1 partly by accident1 partly  
by that peculiarity of ,american        
conditions that has subordinated1 in the
 name of liberty1 all the grave and     
ennobling affairs of statecraft to a    
middle-class freedom of commercial      
enterprise4 ,quarrel with that if you   
like4 ,it is unfair and ridiculous to   
quarrel with him4     ,,chapter ,,vii   
,,certain ,,workers   ,i  ,those ,who   
,do ,not ,get  ,let us now look a little

 at another aspect of this process of   
individualistic competition which is the
 economic process in ,america1 and which
 is giving us on its upper side the     
spenders of ,fifth ,avenue1 the slow    
accumulators of the ,astor type1 and the
 great getters of the giant business    
organizations1 the ,trusts and          
acquisitive finance4 ,we have concluded 
that this process of free and open      
competition in business which1 clearly1 
the framers of the ,american            
,constitution imagined to be immortal1  
does as a matter of fact tend to kill   
itself through the advantage property   
gives in the acquisition of more        
property4 ,but before we can go on to   
estimate the further future of this     
process we must experiment with another 
question4 ,what is happening to those   
who have not got and who are not getting
 wealth1 who are1 in fact1 falling back 
in the competition8  ,now there can be  
little doubt to any one who goes to and 
fro in ,america that in spite of the    

huge accumulation of property in a few  
hands that is now in progress1 there is 
still no general effect of              
impoverishment4 ,to me1 coming from     
,london to ,new ,york1 the effect of the
 crowd in the trolley-cars and subways  
and streets was one of exceptional      
prosperity4 ,new ,york has no doubt its 
effects of noise1 disorder1 discomfort1 
and a sort of brutality1 but to begin   
with one sees nothing of the underfed   
people1 the numerous dingily clad and   
grayly housed people who catch the eye  
in ,london4 ,even in the congested      
arteries1 the filthy back streets of the
 ,east ,side ,i found myself saying1 as 
a thing remarkable1 ,these people have  
money to spend4 ,in ,london one travels 
long distances for two cents1 and great 
regiments of people walk2 in ,new ,york 
the universal fare is five cents and    
everybody rides4 ,common people are     
better gloved and better booted in      
,america than in any ,european country  
,i know1 in spite of the higher prices  

for clothing here1 the men wear         
ready-made suits1 it is true1 to a much 
greater extent1 but they are newer and  
brighter than the ,london clerk's       
carefully brushed1 tailor-made garments4
 ,wages translated from dollars into    
shillings seem enormous4  ,and there is 
no perceptible fall in wages going on4  
,on the whole wages tend to rise4 ,for  
almost all sorts of men1 for working    
women who are not refined1 there is a   
limitless field of employment4 ,the fact
 that a growing proportion of the wealth
 of the community is passing into the   
hands of a small minority of successful 
getters1 is masked to superficial       
observation by the enormous increase of 
the total wealth4 ,the growth process   
overrides the economic process and may  
continue to do so for many years4  ,so  
that the great mass of the population is
 not consciously defeated in the        
economic game4 ,it is only failing to   
get a large share in the increment of   
wealth4 ,the ,european reader must      

dismiss from his mind any conception of 
the general ,american population as a   
mass of people undergoing impoverishment
 through the enrichment of the few4 ,he 
must substitute for that figure a mass  
of people1 very busy1 roughly           
prosperous1 generally self-satisfied1   
but ever and again stirred to bouts of  
irascibility and suspicion1 inundated by
 a constantly swelling flood of         
prosperity that pours through it and    
over it and passes by it1 without       
changing or enriching it at all4 ,ever  
and again it is irritated by some rise  
in price1 an advance in coal1 for       
example1 or meat or rent1 that swallows 
up some anticipated gain1 but that is an
 entirely different thing from want or  
distress1 from the fireless hungering   
poverty of ,europe4  ,illustration3     
,,new ,,york',s ,,crowded1 ,,littered   
,,east ,,side  ,nevertheless1 the sense 
of losing develops and spreads in the   
mass of the ,american people4           
,privations are not needed to create a  

sense of economic disadvantage2 thwarted
 hopes suffice4 ,the speed and pressure 
of work here is much greater than in    
,europe1 the impatience for realization 
intenser4 ,the average ,american comes  
into life prepared to get on1 and ready 
to subordinate most things in life to   
that4 ,he encounters a rising standard  
of living4 ,he finds it more difficult  
to get on than his father did before    
him4 ,he is perplexed and irritated by  
the spectacle of lavish spending and the
 report of gigantic accumulations that  
outshine his utmost possibilities of    
enjoyment or success4 ,he is a busy and 
industrious man1 greatly preoccupied by 
the struggle1 but when he stops to think
 and talk at all1 there can be little   
doubt that his outlook is a             
disillusioned one1 more and more tinged 
with a deepening discontent4   ,,ii     
,the ,little ,messenger-boy  ,but the   
state of mind of the average ,american  
we have to consider later4 ,that is the 
central problem of this horoscope we    

contemplate4 ,before we come to that we 
have to sketch out all the broad aspects
 of the situation with which that mind  
has to deal4  ,now in the preceding     
chapter ,i tried to convey my impression
 of the spending and wealth-getting of  
this vast community2 ,i tried to convey 
how irresponsible it was1 how           
unpremeditated4 ,the ,american rich     
have1 as it were1 floated up out of a   
confused struggle of equal individuals4 
,that individualistic commercial        
struggle has not only flung up these    
rich to their own and the world's       
amazement1 it is also1 with an equal    
blindness1 crushing and maiming great   
multitudes of souls4 ,but this is a fact
 that does not smite upon one's         
attention at the outset4 ,the ,english  
visitor to the great towns sees the     
spending1 sees the general prosperity1  
the universal air of confident pride2 he
 must go out of his way to find the     
under side to these things4  ,one little
 thing set me questioning4 ,i had been  

one ,sunday night down-town1 supping and
 talking with ,mr4 ,abraham ,cahan about
 the ,east ,side1 that strange city     
within a city which has a drama of its  
own and a literature and a press1 and   
about ,russia and her problem1 and ,i   
was returning on the subway about two   
o'clock in the morning4 ,i became aware 
of a little lad sitting opposite me1 a  
childish-faced delicate little creature 
of eleven years old or so1 wearing the  
uniform of a messenger-boy4 ,he drooped 
with fatigue1 roused himself with a     
start1 edged off his seat with a sigh1  
stepped off the car1 and was vanishing  
up-stairs into the electric glare of    
,astor ,place as the train ran out of   
the station4  ,what on earth1 said ,i1  
is that baby doing abroad at this time  
of night8  ,for me this weary little    
wretch became the irritant centre of a  
painful region of inquiry4 ,how many    
hours a day may a child work in ,new    
,york1 ,i began to ask people1 and when 
may a boy leave school8  ,i had         

blundered1 ,i found1 upon the weakest   
spot in ,america's fine front of        
national well-being4 ,my eyes were      
opened to the childish newsboys who sold
 me papers1 and the little bootblacks at
 the street corners4 ,nocturnal child   
employment is a social abomination4 ,i  
gathered stories of juvenile vice1 of   
lads of nine and ten suffering from     
terrible diseases1 of the contingent    
sent by these messengers to the         
hospitals and jails4 ,i began to realize
 another aspect of that great theory of 
the liberty of property and the         
subordination of the state to business1 
upon which ,american institutions are   
based4 ,that theory has no regard for   
children4 ,indeed1 it is a theory that  
disregards women and children1 the      
cardinal facts of life altogether4 ,they
 are private things4444  ,it is curious 
how little we1 who live in the dawning  
light of a new time1 question the       
intellectual assumptions of the social  
order about us4 ,we find ourselves in a 

life of huge confusions and many        
cruelties1 we plan this and that to     
remedy and improve1 but very few of us  
go down to the ideas that begot these   
ugly conditions1 the laws1 the usages   
and liberties that are now in their     
detailed expansion so perplexing1       
intricate1 and overwhelming4 ,yet the   
life of man is altogether made up of    
will cast into the mould of ideas1 and  
only by correcting ideas1 changing ideas
 and replacing ideas are any            
ameliorations and advances to be        
achieved in human destiny4 ,all other   
things are subordinate to that4  ,now   
the theory of liberty upon which the    
liberalism of ,great ,britain1 the      
,constitution of the ,united ,states1   
and the bourgeois ,republic of ,france  
rests1 assumes that all men are free and
 equal4 ,they are all tacitly supposed  
to be adult and immortal1 they are      
sovereign over their property and over  
their wives and children1 and everything
 is framed with a view to insuring them 

security in the enjoyment of their      
rights4 ,no doubt this was a better     
theory than that of the divine right of 
kings1 against which it did triumphant  
battle1 but it does1 as one sees it     
to-day1 fall most extraordinarily short 
of the truth1 and only a few logical    
fanatics have ever tried to carry it out
 to its complete consequences4 ,for     
example1 it ignored the facts that more 
than half of the adult people in a      
country are women1 and that all the men 
and women of a country taken together   
are hardly as numerous and far less     
important to the welfare of that country
 than the individuals under age4 ,it    
regarded living as just living1 a stupid
 dead level of egotistical effort and   
enjoyment2 it was blind to the fact that
 living is part growing1 part learning1 
part dying to make way and altogether   
service and sacrifice4 ,it asserted that
 the care and education of children1 and
 business bargains affecting the        
employment and welfare of women and     

children1 are private affairs4 ,it      
resisted the compulsory education of    
children and factory legislation1       
therefore1 with extraordinary           
persistence and bitterness4 ,the        
commonsense of the three great          
progressive nations concerned has been  
stronger than their theory1 but to this 
day enormous social evils are to be     
traced to that passionate jealousy of   
state intervention between a man and his
 wife1 his children1 and other property1
 which is the distinctive unprecedented 
feature of the originally middle-class  
modern organization of society upon     
commercial and industrial conceptions in
 which we are all 7and ,america most    
deeply7 living4  ,i began with a drowsy 
little messenger-boy in the ,new ,york  
,subway4 ,before ,i had done with the   
question ,i had come upon amazing       
things4 ,just think of it6 ,this        
richest1 greatest country the world has 
ever seen has over #a1gjj1jjj children  
under fifteen years of age toiling in   

fields1 factories1 mines1 and workshops4
 ,and ,robert ,hunter--whose ,poverty1  
if ,i were autocrat1 should be          
compulsory reading for every prosperous 
adult in the ,united ,states1 tells me  
of not less than eighty thousand        
children1 most of whom are little girls1
 at present employed in the textile     
mills of this country4 ,in the ,south   
there are now six times as many children
 at work as there were twenty years ago4
 ,child labor is increasing yearly in   
that section of the country4 ,each year 
more little ones are brought in from the
 fields and hills to live in the        
degrading atmosphere of the mill        
towns4444  ,children are deliberately   
imported by the ,italians4 ,i gathered  
from ,commissioner ,watchorn at ,ellis  
,island that the proportion of little   
nephews and nieces1 friends' sons1 and  
so forth1 brought in by them is         
peculiarly high1 and ,i heard him try   
and condemn a doubtful case4 ,it was a  
particularly unattractive ,italian in   

charge of a dull-eyed little boy of no  
ascertainable relationship4444  ,in the 
worst days of cotton-milling in ,england
 the conditions were hardly worse than  
those now existing in the ,south4       
,children1 the tiniest and frailest1 of 
five and six years of age1 rise in the  
morning and1 like old men and women1 go 
to the mills to do their day's labor2   
and when they return home1 wearily fling
 themselves on their beds1 too tired to 
take off their clothes4 ,many children  
work all night--in the maddening racket 
of the machinery1 in an atmosphere      
unsanitary and clouded with humidity and
 lint4  ,it will be long1 adds ,mr4     
,hunter1 in his description1 before ,i  
forget the face of a little boy of six  
years1 with his hands stretched forward 
to rearrange a bit of machinery1 his    
pallid face and spare form already      
showing the physical effects of labor4  
,this child1 six years of age1 was      
working twelve hours a day4  ,from ,mr4 
,spargo's ,bitter ,cry of the ,children 

,i learn this much of the joys of       
certain among the youth of              
,pennsylvania3  ,illustration3 ,,breaker
 ,,boys ,,at ,a ,,pennsylvania          
,,colliery   ,for ten or eleven hours a 
day children of ten and eleven stoop    
over the chute and pick out the slate   
and other impurities from the  coal as  
it moves past them4 ,the air is black   
with coal-dust1 and  the roar of the    
crushers1 screens1 and rushing mill-race
 of coal is  deafening4 ,sometimes one  
of the children falls into the machinery
  and is terribly mangled1 or slips into
 the chute and is smothered to  death4  
,many children are killed in this way4  
,many others1 after a  time1 contract   
coal-miners' asthma and consumption1    
which gradually  undermine their health4
 ,breathing continually day after day   
the clouds  of coal-dust1 their lungs   
become black and choked with small      
particles  of anthracite4444  ,in       
,massachusetts1 at ,fall ,river1 the    
,hon4 ,j4,f4 ,carey tells us how little 

naked boys1 free ,americans1 work for   
,mr4 ,borden1 the ,new ,york            
millionaire1 packing cloth into         
bleaching vats in a bath of chemicals   
that bleaches their little bodies like  
the bodies of lepers4444  ,well1 we     
,english have no right to condemn the   
,americans for these things4 ,the       
history of our own industrial           
development is black with the blood of  
tortured and murdered children4 ,america
 still has the factory serfs4 ,new      
,jersey sends her pauper children south 
to-day into worse than slavery1 but1 as 
,cottle tells in his reminiscences of   
,southey and ,coleridge1 that is        
precisely the same wretched export      
,bristol packed off to feed the mills of
 ,manchester in late ,georgian times4   
,we got ahead with factory legislation  
by no peculiar virtue in our statecraft1
 it was just the revenge the landlords  
took upon the manufacturers for reform  
and free trade in corn and food4 ,in    
,america the manufacturers have had     

things to themselves4  ,and ,america has
 difficulties to encounter of which we  
know nothing4 ,in the matter of labor   
legislation each ,state legislature is  
supreme2 in each separate ,state the    
forces of light and progress must fight 
the battle of the children and the      
future over again against interests1    
lies1 prejudice and stupidity4 ,each    
,state pleads the bad example of another
 ,state1 and there is always the threat 
that capital will withdraw4 ,no national
 minimum is possible under existing     
conditions4 ,and when the laws have     
passed there is still the universal     
contempt for ,state control to reckon   
with1 the impossibilities of            
enforcement4 ,illinois1 for instance1   
scandalized at the spectacle of children
 in those filthy stock-yards1 ankle-deep
 in blood1 cleaning intestines and      
trimming meat1 recently passed a        
child-labor law that raised the minimum 
age for such employment to sixteen1 but 
evasion1 they told me in ,chicago1 was  

simple and easy4 ,new ,york1 too1 can   
show by its statute-books that my drowsy
 nocturnal messenger-boy was illegal and
 impossible4444  ,this is the bottomest 
end of the scale that at the top has all
 the lavish spending of ,fifth ,avenue1 
the joyous wanton giving of ,mr4 ,andrew
 ,carnegie4 ,equally with these things  
it is an unpremeditated consequence of  
an inadequate theory of freedom4 ,the   
foolish extravagances of the rich1 the  
architectural pathos of ,newport1 the   
dingy1 noisy1 economic jumble of central
 and south ,chicago1 the ,standard ,oil 
offices in ,broadway1 the darkened      
streets beneath ,new ,york's elevated   
railroad1 the littered ugliness of      
,niagara's banks1 and the lower-most    
hell of child suffering are all so many 
accordant aspects and inexorable        
consequences of the same undisciplined  
way of living4 ,let each man push for   
himself--it comes to these things4444   
,so far as our purpose of casting a     
horoscope goes we have particularly to  

note this as affecting the future2 these
 working children cannot be learning to 
read--though they will presently be     
having votes--they cannot grow up fit to
 bear arms1 to be in any sense but a    
vile computing sweater's sense1 men4 ,so
 miserably they will avenge themselves  
by supplying the stuff for vice1 for    
crime1 for yet more criminal and        
political manipulations4 ,one million   
seven hundred children1 practically     
uneducated1 are toiling over here1 and  
growing up1 darkened1 marred1 and       
dangerous1 into the ,american future ,i 
am seeking to forecast4     ,,chapter   
,,viii  ,,corruption   ,i  ,the ,problem
 of the ,nation  ,so1 it seems to me1 in
 this new crude continental             
commonwealth1 there is going on the same
 economic process1 on a grander scale1  
indeed1 than has gone so far in our own 
island4 ,there is a great concentration 
of wealth above1 and below1 deep and    
growing is the abyss1 that sunken       
multitude on the margin of subsistence  

which is a characteristic and necessary 
feature of competitive industrialism1   
that teeming abyss where children have  
no chance1 where men and women dream    
neither of leisure nor of self-respect4 
,and between this efflorescence of      
wealth above and spreading degradation  
below1 comes the great mass of the      
population1 perhaps fifty millions and  
more of healthy and active men1 women   
and children 7,i leave out of count     
altogether the colored people and the   
special trouble of the ,south until a   
later chapter7 who are neither          
irresponsibly free nor hopelessly bound1
 who are the living determining         
substance of ,america4  ,collectively   
they constitute what ,mr4 ,roosevelt    
calls the ,nation1 what an older school 
of ,americans used to write of as the   
,people4 ,the ,nation is neither rich   
nor poor1 neither capitalist nor        
laborer1 neither ,republican nor        
,democrat2 it is a great diversified    
multitude including all these things4   

,it is a comprehensive abstraction2 it  
is the ultimate reality4 ,you may seek  
for it in ,america and you cannot find  
it1 as one seeks in vain for the forest 
among the trees4 ,it has no clear voice2
 the confused and local utterances of a 
dispersed innumerable press1 of         
thousands of public speakers1 of books  
and preachers1 evoke fragmentary        
responses or drop rejected into         
oblivion4 ,i have been told by countless
 people where ,i shall find the typical 
,american2 one says in ,maine1 one in   
the ,alleghenies1 one farther west1 one 
in ,kansas1 one in ,cleveland4 ,he is   
indeed nowhere and everywhere4 ,he is an
 ,english-speaking person1 with         
extraordinarily ,english traits still1  
in spite of much good ,german and       
,scandinavian and ,irish blood he has   
assimilated4 ,he has a distrust of lucid
 theories1 and logic1 and he talks      
unwillingly of ideas4 ,he is            
preoccupied1 he is busy with his        
individual affairs1 but he is--,i can   

feel it in the air--thinking4  ,how     
widely and practically he is thinking   
that curious product of the last few    
years1 the ten-cent magazine1 will show4
 ,in ,england our sixpenny magazines    
seem all written for boys and careless  
people2 they are nothing but stories and
 jests and pictures4 ,the weekly ones   
achieve an extraordinarily agreeable    
emptiness4 ,their ,american equivalents 
are full of the studied and remarkably  
well-written discussion of grave public 
questions4 ,i pick up one magazine and  
find a masterly exposition of the public
 aspect of railway rebates1 another and 
a trust is analyzed4 ,then here are some
 titles of books that all across this   
continent are being multitudinously     
read3 ,parson's ,heart of the ,railway  
,problem1 ,steffens's ,shame of the     
,cities1 ,lawson's ,frenzied ,finance1  
,miss ,tarbell's ,story of ,standard    
,oil1 ,abbott's ,industrial ,problem1   
,spargo's ,bitter ,cry of the ,children1
 ,hunter's ,poverty1 and1 pioneer of    

them all1 ,lloyd's ,wealth ,against     
,commonwealth4 ,these are titles quoted 
almost at hap-hazard4 ,within a         
remarkably brief space of time the      
,american nation has turned away from   
all the heady self-satisfaction of the  
nineteenth century and commenced a      
process of heart searching quite        
unparalleled in history4 ,its           
egotistical interest in its own past is 
over and done4 ,while ,mr4 ,upton       
,sinclair1 the youngest1 most           
distinctive of recent ,american         
novelists1 achieved but a secondary     
success with his admirably conceived    
romance of the ,civil ,war1 ,manassas1  
,the ,jungle1 his book about the beef   
trust and the soul of the immigrant1 the
 most unflattering picture of ,america  
that any one has yet dared to draw1 has 
fired the country4  ,the ,american      
nation1 which a few years ago seemed    
invincibly wedded to an extreme         
individualism1 seemed resolved1 as it   
were1 to sit on the safety valves of the

 economic process and go on to the      
ultimate catastrophe1 displays itself   
now alert and questioning4 ,it has      
roused itself to a grave and extensive  
consideration of the intricate economic 
and political problems that close like a
 net about its future4 ,the essential   
question for ,america1 as for ,europe1  
is the rescue of her land1 her public   
service1 and the whole of her great     
economic process from the anarchic and  
irresponsible control of private        
owners--how dangerous and horrible that 
control may become the ,railway and     
,beef ,trust investigations have        
shown--and the organization of her      
social life upon the broad1 clean1      
humane conceptions of modern science4   
,in every country1 however1 this huge   
problem of reconstruction which is the  
alternative to a plutocratic decadence1 
is enormously complicated by irrelevant 
and special difficulties4 ,in ,great    
,britain1 for example1 the ever-pressing
 problem of holding the empire1 and the 

fact that one legislative body is       
composed almost entirely of private     
land-owners1 hampers every step towards 
a better order4 ,upon every country in  
,europe weighs the armor of war4 ,in    
,america the complications are          
distinctive and peculiar4 ,she is free1 
indeed1 now to a large extent from the  
possibility of any grave military       
stresses1 her one overseas investment in
 the ,philippines she is evidently      
resolved to forget and be rid of at as  
early a date as possible4 ,but1 on the  
other hand1 she is confronted by a      
system of legal entanglements of        
extraordinary difficulty and perplexity1
 she has the most powerful tradition of 
individualism in the world1 and a       
degraded political system1 and she has  
in the presence of a vast and increasing
 proportion of unassimilable aliens in  
her substance--negroes1 south ,european 
peasants1 ,russian ,jews and the        
like--an ever-intensifying complication4
   ,,ii  ,graft  ,now what is called    

corruption in ,america is a thing not   
confined to politics2 it is a defect of 
moral method found in every department  
of ,american life4 ,i find in big print 
in every paper ,i open1 ,,graft4 ,all   
through my journey in ,america ,i have  
been trying to gauge the quality of this
 corruption1 ,i have been talking to all
 kinds of people about it1 ,i have had  
long conversations about it with        
,president ,eliot of ,harvard1 with     
,district-,attorney ,jerome1 with one   
leading insurance president1 with a     
number of the ,city ,club people in     
,chicago1 with several ,east-,siders in 
,new ,york1 with men engaged in public  
work in every city ,i have visited1 with
 ,senators at ,washington1 with a       
,chicago saloon-keeper and his friend1 a
 shepherd of votes1 and with a varied   
and casual assortment of ,americans upon
 trains and boats2 ,i read my           
,ostrogorsky1 my ,otnsterberg1 and my   
,roosevelt before ,i came to ,america1  
and ,i find myself going through any    

,american newspaper that comes to hand  
always with an eye to this4 ,it is to me
 a most vital issue in the horoscope ,i 
contemplate4 ,all depends upon the      
answer to this question3 ,is the average
 citizen fundamentally dishonest8 ,is he
 a rascal and humbug in grain8 ,if he   
is1 the future can needs be no more than
 a monstrous social disorganization in  
the face of divine opportunities4 ,or is
 he fundamentally honest1 but a little  
confused ethically8444  ,the latter1 ,i 
think1 is the truer alternative1 but ,i 
will confess ,i have ranged through all 
the scale between a buoyant optimism and
 despair4 ,it is extraordinarily        
difficult to move among the crowded     
contrasts of this perplexing country and
 emerge with any satisfactory           
generalization4 ,but there is one word  
,i find all too frequently in the       
,american papers1 and that is stealing4 
,they come near calling any profitable1 
rather unfair bargain with the public a 
steal4 ,it's the common journalistic    

vice here always to overstate4 ,every   
land has its criminals1 no doubt1 but   
the ,american1 ,i am convinced1 is the  
last man in the world to steal4 ,nor    
does he tell you lies to your face1     
except in the way of business4 ,he's not
 that sort of man4 ,nor does he sneak   
bad money into your confiding hand4 ,nor
 ask a higher price than he means to    
accept4 ,nor cheat on exchange4 ,for all
 the frequency of graft and stealing in 
the press head-lines1 ,i feel the       
,american is pretty distinctly less mean
 than many ,europeans in these respects1
 and much more disposed to be ashamed of
 meanness4  ,but he certainly has an    
ethical system of a highly commercial   
type4 ,if he isn't dishonest he's       
commercialized4 ,he lives to get1 to    
come out of every transaction with more 
than he gave4  ,in the highly           
imaginative theory that underlies the   
realities of an individualistic society 
there is such a thing as honest trading4
 ,in practice ,i don't believe there is4

 ,exchangeable things are supposed to   
have a fixed quality called their value1
 and honest trading is1 ,i am told1 the 
exchange of things of equal value4      
,nobody gains or loses by honest        
trading1 and therefore nobody can grow  
rich by it4 ,and nobody would do        
business except to subsist by a profit  
and attempt to grow rich4 ,the honest   
merchant in the individualist's dream is
 a worthy and urbane person who         
intervenes between the seller here and  
the buyer there1 fetches from one to    
another1 stores a surplus of goods1     
takes risks1 and indemnifies himself by 
charging the seller and the buyer a     
small fee for his waiting and his       
carrying and his speculative hawking    
about4 ,he would be sick and ashamed to 
undervalue a purchase or overcharge a   
customer1 and it scarcely requires a    
competitor to reduce his fee to a       
minimum4 ,he draws a line between       
customers with whom he deals and        
competitors with whom he wouldn't dream 

of dealing4 ,and though it seems a      
little incredible1 he grows rich and    
beautiful in these practices and endows 
,art1 ,science1 and ,literature4 ,such  
is the commercial life in a world of    
economic angels1 magic justice and the  
,individualist's ,utopia4 ,in reality   
flesh and blood cannot resist a bargain1
 and people trade to get4 ,in reality   
value is a dream1 and the commercial    
ideal is to buy from the needy1 sell to 
the urgent need1 and get all that can   
possibly be got out of every            
transaction4 ,to do anything else isn't 
business--it's some other sort of game4 
,let us look squarely into the pretences
 of trading4 ,the plain fact of the case
 is that in trading for profit there is 
no natural line at which legitimate     
bargaining ends and cheating begins4    
,the seller wants to get above the value
 and the buyer below it4 ,the seller    
seeks to appreciate1 the buyer to       
depreciate2 and where is there room for 
truth in that contest8 ,in bargaining1  

overvaluing and undervaluing are not    
only permissible but inevitable1        
attempts to increase the desire to buy  
and willingness to sell4 ,who can invent
 a rule to determine what expedients are
 permissible and what not8 ,you may draw
 an arbitrary boundary--the law does    
here and there1 a little                
discontinuously--but that is all4 ,for  
example1 consider these questions that  
follow3 ,nothing is perfect in this     
world2 all goods are defective4 ,are you
 bound to inform your customer of every 
defect8 ,suppose you are1 then are you  
bound to examine your goods minutely for
 defects8 ,grant that4 ,then if you     
intrust that duty to an employee ought  
you to dismiss him for selling defective
 goods for you8 ,the customer will buy  
your goods anyhow4 ,are you bound to    
spend more upon cleaning and packing    
them than he demands8--to wrap them in  
gold-foil gratuitously1 for example8    
,how are you going to answer these      
questions8 ,let me suppose that your one

 dream in life is to grow rich4 ,suppose
 you want to grow very rich and found a 
noble university1 let us say8  ,you     
answer them in the ,roman spirit1 with  
caveat emptor4 ,then can you decently   
join in the outcry against the ,chicago 
butchers8  ,then turn again to the group
 of problems the ,standard ,oil history 
raises4 ,you want the customer to buy   
your goods and not your competitor's4   
,naturally you do everything to get your
 goods to him1 to make them seem best to
 him1 to reduce the influx of the other 
man's stuff4 ,you don't lend your       
competitor your shop-window anyhow4 ,if 
there's a hoarding you don't restrict   
your advertisements because otherwise   
there won't be room for him4 ,and if you
 happen to have a paramount interest in 
the carrying line that bears your goods 
and his1 why shouldn't you see that your
 own goods arrive first8 ,and at a      
cheaper rate8444  ,illustration3        
,,interior ,,of ,a ,,new ,,york ,,office
 ,,building  ,you see one has to admit  

there is always this element of         
overreaching1 of outwitting1 of         
fore-stalling1 in all systematic trade4 
,it may be refined1 it may be dignified1
 but it is there4 ,it differs in degree 
and not in quality from cheating4 ,a    
very scrupulous man stops at one point1 
a less scrupulous man at another1 an    
eager1 ambitious man may find himself   
carried by his own impetus very far4    
,too often the least scrupulous wins4   
,in all ages1 among all races1 this     
taint in trade has been felt4 ,modern   
western ,europe1 led by ,england1 and   
,america have denied it stoutly1 have   
glorified the trader1 called him a      
merchant prince1 wrapped him in the     
purple of the word financier1 bowed down
 before him4 ,the trader remains a      
trader1 a hand that clutches1 an        
uncreative brain that lays snares4      
,occasionally1 no doubt1 he exceeds his 
function and is better than his         
occupations4 ,but it is not he but the  
maker who must be the power and ruler of

 the great and luminous social order    
that must surely come1 that new order ,i
 have persuaded myself ,i find in       
glimmering evasive promises amid the    
congestions of ,new ,york1 the sheds and
 defilements of ,niagara1 and the       
,chicago reek and grime4444 ,the        
,american1 ,i feel assured1 can be a    
bold and splendid maker4 ,he is not1    
like the uncreative ,parsee or ,jew or  
,armenian1 a trader by blood and nature4
 ,the architecture ,i have seen1 the    
finely planned1 internally beautiful1   
and admirably organized office buildings
 7to step into them from the street is  
to step up fifty years in the scale of  
civilization71 the business             
organizations1 the industrial skill--,i 
visited a trap and chain factory at     
,oneida1 right in the heart of ,new     
,york ,state1 that was like the interior
 of a well-made clock--above all1 the   
plans for reconstructing his cities show
 that4 ,those others make nothing4 ,but 
nevertheless1 since he1 more than any   

man1 has subserved the full development 
of eighteenth and nineteenth century    
conceptions1 he has acquired some of the
 very worst habits of the trader4 ,too  
often he is a gambler4 ,ever and again  
,i have had glimpses of preoccupied     
groups of men at green tables in little 
rooms1 playing that dreary game poker1  
wherein there is no skill1 no variety   
except in the sum at hazard1 no orderly 
development1 only a sort of             
expressionless lying called bluffing4   
,indeed1 poker isn't so much a game as a
 bad habit4 ,yet the ,american sits for 
long hours at it1 dispersing and        
accumulating dollars1 and he carries its
 great conception of bluff and a certain
 experience of kinetic physiognomy back 
with him to his office4444  ,and        
,americans talk dollars to an           
astonishing extent4444  ,now this is the
 reality of ,american corruption1 a huge
 exclusive preoccupation with           
dollar-getting4 ,what is called         
corruption by the press is really no    

more than the acute expression in       
individual cases of this general fault4 
,where everybody is getting it is idle  
to expect a romantic standard of honesty
 between employers and employed4 ,the   
official who buys rails for the big     
railway company that is professedly     
squeezing every penny it can out of the 
public for its shareholders as its      
highest aim1 is not likely to display   
any religious self-abnegation of a share
 for himself in this great work4 ,the   
director finds it hard to distinguish   
between getting for himself and getting 
for his company1 and the duty to        
one-self of a discreet use of           
opportunity taints the whole staff from 
manager to messenger-boy4 ,the          
politicians who protect the interests of
 the same railway in the ,house of      
,commons or the ,senate1 as the case may
 be1 are not going to do it for love    
either4 ,nobody will have any mercy for 
their wives or children if they die     
poor4 ,the policeman who stands between 

the property of the company and the     
irregular enterprise of robbers feels   
his vigilance merits a special          
recognition4 ,a position of trust is a  
position of advantage1 and deserves a   
percentage4 ,everywhere1 as every one   
knows1 in all the modern ,states1 quite 
as much as in ,china1 there are         
commissions1 there are tips1 there are  
extortions and secret profits1 there is1
 in a word1 graft4 ,it's no ,american   
specialty4 ,things are very much the    
same in this matter in ,great ,britain  
as in ,america1 but ,americans talk more
 and louder than we do4 ,and indeed all 
this is no more than an inevitable      
development of the idea of trading in   
the mind1 that every transaction must   
leave something behind for the agent4   
,it's not stealing1 but nevertheless1   
the automatic cash-register becomes more
 and more of a necessity in this        
thickening atmosphere of private        
enterprise4   ,,iii  ,political         
,dishonesty  ,it seems to me that the   

political corruption that still plays so
 large a part in the ,american problem  
is a natural and necessary underside to 
a purely middle-class organization of   
society for business4 ,nobody is left   
over to watch the politician4 ,and the  
evil is enormously aggravated by the    
complexities of the political machinery1
 by the methods of the presidential     
election that practically prescribes a  
ticket method of voting1 and by the     
absence of any second ballots4          
,moreover1 the passion of the simpler   
minded ,americans for aggressive        
legislation controlling private morality
 has made the control of the police a   
main source of party revenue1 and       
dragged the saloon and brothel1         
essentially retiring though these       
institutions are1 into politics4 ,the   
,constitution ties up political reform  
in the most extraordinary way1 it was   
planned by devout ,republicans equally  
afraid of a dictatorship and the people2
 it does not so much distribute power as

 disperse it1 the machinery falls       
readily into the hands of professional  
politicians with no end to secure but   
their immediate profit1 and is almost   
inaccessible to poor men who cannot make
 their incomes in its working4 ,an      
increasing number of wealthy young men  
have followed ,president ,roosevelt into
 political life--one thinks of such     
figures as ,senator ,colby of ,new      
,jersey1 but they are but incidental    
mitigations of a generally vicious      
scheme4 ,before the nation1 so busy with
 its diversified private affairs1 lies  
the devious and difficult problem of a  
great reconstruction of its political   
methods1 as a preliminary to any broad  
change of its social organization4444   
,how vicious things are ,i have had some
 inkling in a dozen whispered stories of
 votes1 of ballot-boxes rifled1 of votes
 destroyed1 of the violent personation  
of cowed and ill-treated men4 ,and in   
,chicago ,i saw a little of the physical
 aspect of the system4  ,i made the     

acquaintance of ,alderman ,kenna1 who is
 better known1 ,i found1 throughout the 
,states as ,hinky-,dink1 saw his two    
saloons and something of the ,chinese   
quarter about him4 ,he is a compact1    
upright little man1 with iron-gray hair1
 a clear blue eye1 and a dry manner4 ,he
 wore a bowler hat through all our      
experiences in common1 and kept his     
hands in his jacket-pockets4 ,he filled 
me with a ridiculous idea1 for which ,i 
apologize1 that had it fallen to the lot
 of ,mr4 ,j4,m4 ,barrie to miss a       
university education1 and keep a saloon 
in ,chicago and organize voters1 he     
would have looked own brother to ,mr4   
,kenna4 ,we commenced in the first      
saloon1 a fine1 handsome place1 with    
mirrors and tables and decorations and a
 consumption of mitigated mineral waters
 and beer in bottles2 then ,i was taken 
over to see the other saloon1 the one   
across the way4 ,we went behind the     
counter1 and while ,i professed a       
comparative interest in ,english and    

,american beer-engines1 and the         
,alderman exchanged commonplaces with   
two or three of the shirt-sleeved       
barmen1 ,i was able to survey the       
assembled customers4  ,it struck me as a
 pretty tough gathering4  ,the first    
thing that met the eye were the         
schooners of beer4 ,there is nothing    
quite like the ,american beer-schooner  
in ,england4 ,it would appeal strongly  
to an unstinted appetite for beer1 and  
,i should be curious to try it upon a   
,british agricultural laborer and see   
how many he could hold4 ,he would1 ,i am
 convinced1 have to be entirely hollowed
 out to hold two4 ,those ,i saw         
impressed me as being about the size of 
small fish-globes set upon stems1 and   
each was filled with a very             
substantial-looking beer indeed4 ,they  
stood in a careless row all along the   
length of the saloon counter4 ,below    
them1 in attitudes of negligent         
proprietorship1 lounged the crowd in a  
haze of smoke and conversation4 ,for the

 most part ,i should think they were    
,americanized immigrants4 ,i looked     
across the counter at them1 met their   
eyes1 got the quality of their          
faces--and it seemed to me ,i was a very
 flimsy and unsubstantial intellectual  
thing indeed4 ,it struck me that ,i     
would as soon go to live in a pen in a  
stock-yard as into ,american politics4  
,that was my momentary impression4 ,but 
that line of base and coarse faces seen 
through the reek was only one sample of 
the great saloon stratum of the         
,american population in which resides   
political power4 ,they have no ideas and
 they have votes2 they are capable1 if  
need be1 of meeting violence by         
violence1 and that is the sort of thing 
,american methods demand4444  ,now      
,alderman ,kenna is a straight man1 the 
sort of man one likes and trusts at     
sight1 and he did not invent his        
profession4 ,he follows his own ideas of
 right and wrong1 and compared with my  
ideas of right and wrong1 they seem     

tough1 compact1 decided things4 ,he is  
very kind to all his crowd4 ,he helps   
them when they are in trouble1 even if  
it is trouble with the police2 he helps 
them find employment when they are down 
on their luck2 he stands between them   
and the impacts of an unsympathetic and 
altogether too-careless social structure
 in a sturdy and almost parental way4 ,i
 can quite believe what ,i was told1    
that in the lives of many of these rough
 undesirables he's almost the only      
decent influence4 ,he gets wives well   
treated1 and he has an open heart for   
children4 ,and he tells them how to     
vote1 a duty of citizenship they might  
otherwise neglect1 and sees that they do
 it properly4 ,and whenever you want to 
do things in ,chicago you must reckon   
carefully with him4444  ,there you have 
a chip1 a hand specimen1 from the       
basement structure upon which ,american 
politics rest4 ,that is the remarkable  
alternative to private enterprise as    
things are at present4 ,it is ,america's

 only other way4 ,if public services are
 to be taken out of the hands of such   
associations of financiers as the       
,standard ,oil group they have to be put
 into the hands of politicians resting  
at last upon this sort of basis4        
,therein resides the impossibility of   
socialism in ,america--as the case for  
socialism is put at present4 ,the third 
course is the far more complex1         
difficult and heroic one of creating    
imaginatively and bringing into being a 
new state--a feat no people in the world
 has yet achieved1 but a feat that any  
people which aspires to lead the future 
is bound1 ,i think1 to attempt4         
,,chapter ,,ix  ,,the ,,immigrant   ,i  
,the ,flood  ,my picture of ,america    
assumes now a certain definite form4 ,i 
have tried to convey the effect of a    
great and energetic ,english-speaking   
population strewn across a continent so 
vast as to make it seem small and thin2 
,i have tried to show this population   
caught by the upward sweep of that great

 increase in knowledge that is          
everywhere enlarging the power and scope
 of human effort1 exhilarated by it1 and
 active and hopeful beyond any          
population the world has ever seen1 and 
,i have tried to show how the members of
 this population struggle and           
differentiate among themselves in a     
universal commercial competition that   
must1 in the end1 if it is not modified1
 divide them into two permanent classes 
of rich and poor4 ,i have ventured to   
hint at a certain emptiness in the      
resulting wealthy1 and to note some of  
the uglinesses and miseries inseparable 
from this competition4 ,i have tried to 
give my impressions of the vague1 yet   
widely diffused1 will in the nation to  
resist this differentiation1 and of a   
dim1 large movement of thought towards a
 change of national method4 ,i have     
glanced at the debasement of politics   
that bars any immediate hope of such    
reconstruction4 ,and now it is time to  
introduce a new element of obstruction  

and difficulty into this complicating   
problem--the immigrants4  ,into the     
lower levels of the ,american community 
there pours perpetually a vast torrent  
of strangers1 speaking alien tongues1   
inspired by alien traditions1 for the   
most part illiterate peasants and       
working-people4 ,they come in at the    
bottom3 that must be insisted upon4 ,an 
enormous and ever-increasing proportion 
of the laboring classes1 of all the     
lower class in ,america1 is of recent   
,european origin1 is either of foreign  
birth or foreign parentage4 ,the older  
,american population is being floated up
 on the top of this influx1 a sterile   
aristocracy above a racially different  
and astonishingly fecund proletariat4   
7,for it grows rankly in this new soil4 
,one section of immigrants1 the         
,hungarians1 have here a birth-rate of  
forty-six in the thousand1 the highest  
of any civilized people in the world47  
,few people grasp the true dimensions of
 this invasion4 ,figures carry so       

little4 ,the influx has clambered from  
half a million to #gjj1jjj1 to #hjj1jjj2
 this year the swelling figures roll up 
as if they mean to go far over the      
million mark4 ,the flood swells to      
overtake the total birth-rate2 it has   
already over-topped the total of births 
of children to native-,american parents4
  ,i have already told something of the 
effect of ,ellis ,island4 ,i have told  
how ,i watched the long procession of   
simple-looking1 hopeful1 sunburned      
country folk from ,russia1 from the     
,carpathians1 from southern ,italy and  
,turkey and ,syria1 filing through the  
wickets1 bringing their young wives for 
the mills of ,paterson and ,fall ,river1
 their children for the ,pennsylvania   
coal-breakers and the cotton-mills of   
the ,south4  ,yet there are moments when
 ,i could have imagined there were no   
immigrants at all4 ,all the time1 except
 for one distinctive evening1 ,i seem to
 have been talking to ,english-speaking 
men1 now and then to the ,irishman1 now 

and then1 but less frequently1 to an    
,americanized ,german4 ,in the clubs    
there are no immigrants4 ,there are not 
even ,jews1 as there are in ,london     
clubs4 ,one goes about the wide streets 
of ,boston1 one meets all sorts of      
,boston people1 one visits the          
,state-,house2 it's all the authentic   
,english-speaking ,america4 ,fifth      
,avenue1 too1 is ,america without a     
touch of foreign-born2 and ,washington4 
,you go a hundred yards south of the    
pretty ,boston ,common and1 behold6 you 
are in a polyglot slum6 ,you go a block 
or so east of ,fifth ,avenue and you are
 in a vaster1 more ,yiddish             
,whitechapel4 ,you cross from ,new ,york
 to ,staten ,island1 attracted by its   
distant picturesque suggestion of       
scattered homes among the trees1 and you
 discover black-tressed1 bold-eyed women
 on those pleasant verandas1 half-clad  
brats1 and ambiguous washing1 where once
 the native ,american held his simple   
state4 ,you ask the way of a young man  

who has just emerged from a ramshackle  
factory1 and you are answered in some   
totally incomprehensible tongue4 ,you   
come up again after such a dive below1  
to dine with the original ,americans    
again1 talk ,with them1 go about with   
them and forget4444  ,in ,boston1 one   
,sunday afternoon1 this fact of         
immigration struck upon ,mr4 ,henry     
,james3  ,there went forward across the 
cop of the hill a continuous passage of 
men and women1 in couples and talkative 
companies1 who struck me as laboring    
wage-earners of the simpler sort arrayed
 in their ,sunday best and decently     
enjoying their leisure 444 no sound of  
,english in a single instance escaped   
their lips2 the greater number spoke a  
rude form of ,italian1 the others some  
outland dialect unknown to me--though ,i
 waited and waited to catch an echo of  
antique refrains4  ,that's one of a     
series of recurrent1 uneasy observations
 of this great replacement ,i find in   
,mr4 ,james's book4  ,the immigrant does

 not clamor for attention4 ,he is1      
indeed1 almost entirely inaudible1      
inarticulate1 and underneath4 ,he is in 
origin a peasant1 inarticulate1 and     
underneath by habit and tradition4 ,mr4 
,james has1 as it were1 to put his ear  
to earth1 to catch the murmuring of     
strange tongues4 ,the incomer is of     
diverse nationality and diverse tongues1
 and that breaks him up politically and 
socially4 ,he drops into ,american      
clothes1 and then he does not catch the 
careless eye4 ,he goes into special     
regions and works there4 ,where         
,americans talk or think or have leisure
 to observe1 he does not intrude4 ,the  
bulk of the ,americans don't get as yet 
any real sense of his portentous        
multitude at all4 ,he does not read very
 much1 and so he produces no effect upon
 the book trade or magazines4 ,you can  
go through such a periodical as         
,harper's ,magazine1 for example1 from  
cover to cover1 and unless there is some
 article or story bearing specifically  

upon the subject you might doubt if     
there was an immigrant in the country4  
,on the liner coming over1 at ,ellis    
,island1 and sometimes on the railroads 
one saw him--him and his womankind1--in 
some picturesque east-,european garb1   
very respectful1 very polite1           
adventurous1 and a little scared4 ,then 
he became less visible4 ,he had got into
 cheap ,american clothes1 resorted to   
what naturalists call protective        
mimicry1 even perhaps acquired a collar4
 ,also his bearing had changed1 become  
charged with a certain aggression4 ,he  
had got a pocket-handkerchief1 and had  
learned to move fast and work fast1 and 
to chew and spit with the proper        
meditative expression4 ,one detected him
 by his diminishing accent1 and by a few
 persistent traits--rings in his ears1  
perhaps1 or the like adornment4 ,in the 
next stage these also had gone2 he had  
become ashamed of the music of his      
native tongue1 and talked even to his   
wife1 on the trolley-car and other      

public places1 at least1 in brief       
remarkable ,american4 ,before that he   
had become ripe for a vote4  ,the next  
stage of ,americanization1 ,i suppose1  
is this dingy quick-eyed citizen with   
his schooner of beer in my ,chicago     
saloon--if it is not that crumpled thing
 ,i saw lying so still in the sunlight  
under the trestle bridge on my way to   
,washington4444   ,,ii  ,in ,defence of 
,immigration  ,every ,american above    
forty1 and most of those below that     
limit1 seem to be enthusiastic advocates
 of unrestricted immigration4 ,i could  
not make them understand the            
apprehension with which this huge       
dilution of the ,american people with   
profoundly ignorant foreign peasants    
filled me4 ,i rode out on an automobile 
into the pretty ,new ,york country      
beyond ,yonkers with that finely typical
 ,american1 ,mr4 ,z4--he wanted to show 
me the pleasantness of the land1--and he
 sang the song of ,american confidence1 
,i think1 more clearly and loudly than  

any4 ,he told me how everybody had hope1
 how everybody had incentive1 how       
magnificently it was all going on4 ,he  
told me--what is1 ,i am afraid1 a widely
 spread delusion--that elementary       
education stands on a higher level of   
efficiency in the ,states than in       
,england4 ,he had no doubt whatever of  
the national powers of assimilation4    
,let them all come1 he said1 cheerfully4
  ,the ,chinese8 said ,i4  ,we can do   
with them all4444  ,he was exceptional  
in that extension4 ,most ,americans stop
 at the ,ural ,mountains1 and refuse the
 ,asiatic4 ,it was not a matter for     
discussion with him1 but a question of  
belief4 ,he had ceased to reason about  
immigration long ago4 ,he was a man in  
the fine autumn of life1 abounding in   
honors1 wrapped in furs1 and we drove   
swiftly in his automobile1 through the  
spring sunshine4 7,by ,jove6 thought ,i1
 you talk like ,pippa's rich uncle47 ,by
 some half-brother of a coincidence we  
happened first upon this monument       

commemorating a memorable incident of   
the ,war of ,independence1 and then upon
 that4 ,he recalled details of that     
great campaign as ,washington was fought
 out of ,manhattan northward4 ,i        
remember one stone among the shooting   
trees that indicated where in the       
,hudson ,river near by a ,british sloop 
had fired the first salute in honor of  
the ,american flag4 ,that salute was    
vividly present still to him2 it echoed 
among the woods1 it filled him with a   
sense of personal triumph2 it seemed    
half-way back to ,agincourt to me4 ,all 
that bright morning the stars and       
stripes made an almost luminous visible 
presence about us4 ,open-handed         
hospitality and confidence in ,god so   
swayed me that it is indeed only now1 as
 ,i put this book together1 ,i see this 
shining buoyancy1 this bunting          
patriotism1 in its direct relation to   
the ,italian babies in the cotton-mills1
 to the sinister crowd that stands in   
the saloon smoking and drinking beer1 an

 accumulating reserve of unintelligent  
force behind the manoeuvres of the      
professional politicians4444  ,i tried  
my views upon ,commissioner ,watchorn as
 we leaned together over the gallery    
railing and surveyed that               
bundle-carrying crowd creeping step by  
step through the wire filter of the     
central hall of ,ellis ,island--into    
,america4  ,you don't think they'll     
swamp you8 ,i said4  ,now look here1    
said the ,commissioner1 ,i'm ,english   
born--,derbyshire4 ,i came into ,america
 when ,i was a lad4 ,i had fifteen      
dollars4 ,and here ,i am6 ,well1 do you 
expect me1 now ,i'm here1 to shut the   
door on any other poor chaps who want a 
start--a start with hope in it1 in the  
,new ,world8  ,a pleasant-mannered1 a   
fair-haired young man1 speaking         
excellent ,english1 had joined us as we 
went round1 and nodded approval4  ,i    
asked him for his opinion1 and gathered 
he was from ,milwaukee1 and the son of a
 ,scandinavian immigrant4 ,he1 too1 was 

for fair-play and an open door for every
 one4 ,except1 he added1 ,asiatics4 ,so 
also1 ,i remember1 was a very ,new      
,england lady ,i met at ,hull ,house1   
who wasn't1 as a matter of fact1 a      
,new-,englander at all1 but the daughter
 of a ,german settler in the ,middle    
,west4 ,they all seemed to think that ,i
 was inspired by hostility to the       
immigrant in breathing any doubt about  
the desirability of this immense        
process4444  ,i tried in each case to   
point out that this idea of not being   
churlishly exclusive did not exhaust the
 subject1 that the present immigration  
is a different thing entirely from the  
immigration of half a century ago1 that 
in the interest of the immigrant and his
 offspring more than any one1 is the    
protest to be made4 ,fifty years ago    
more than half of the torrent was       
,english speaking1 and the rest mostly  
from the ,teutonic and ,scandinavian    
northwest of ,europe1 an influx of      
people closely akin to the native       

,americans in temperament and social    
tradition4 ,they were able to hold their
 own and mix perfectly4 ,even then the  
quantity of illiterate ,irish produced a
 marked degradation of political life4  
,the earlier immigration was an influx  
of energetic people who wanted to come1 
and who had to put themselves to        
considerable exertion to get here2 it   
was higher in character and in social   
quality than the present flood4 ,the    
immigration of to-day is largely the    
result of energetic canvassing by the   
steamship companies2 it is1 in the main1
 an importation of laborers and not of  
economically independent settlers1 and  
it is increasingly alien to the native  
tradition4 ,the bulk of it is now       
,italian1 ,russian ,jewish1 ,russian1   
,hungarian1 ,croatian1 ,roumanian1 and  
eastern ,european generally4  ,the      
children learn ,english1 and become more
 ,american and better patriots than the 
,americans1 ,commissioner               
,watchorn--echoing everybody in         

that--told me4444  7,in ,boston one     
optimistic lady looked to the ,calabrian
 and ,sicilian peasants to introduce an 
artistic element into the population--no
 doubt because they come from the same  
peninsula that produced the             
,florentines47   ,,iii  ,assimilation   
,will the reader please remember that   
,i've been just a few weeks in the      
,states altogether1 and value my        
impressions at that6 ,and will he1      
nevertheless1 read of doubts that won't 
diminish4 ,i doubt very much if ,america
 is going to assimilate all that she is 
taking in now2 much more do ,i doubt    
that she will assimilate the still      
greater inflow of the coming years4 ,i  
believe she is going to find infinite   
difficulties in that task4 ,by          
assimilate ,i mean make intelligently   
co-operative citizens of these people4  
,she will1 ,i have no doubt whatever1   
impose upon them a bare use of the      
,english language1 and give them votes  
and certain patriotic persuasions1 but  

,i believe that if things go on as they 
are going the great mass of them will   
remain a very low lower class--will     
remain largely illiterate industrialized
 peasants4 ,they are decent-minded      
peasant people1 orderly1 industrious    
people1 rather dirty in their habits1   
and with a low standard of life4        
,wherever they accumulate in numbers    
they present to my eye a social phase   
far below the level of either ,england1 
,france1 north ,italy1 or ,switzerland4 
,and1 frankly1 ,i do not find the       
,american nation has either in its      
schools--which are as backward in some  
,states as they are forward in          
others--in its press1 in its religious  
bodies or its general tone1 any         
organized means or effectual influences 
for raising these huge masses of        
humanity to the requirements of an ideal
 modern civilization4 ,they are1 to my  
mind1 biting off more than they can chaw
 in this matter4  ,i got some very      
interesting figures from ,dr4 ,hart1 of 

the ,children's ,home and ,aid ,society1
 ,chicago1 in this matter4 ,he was      
pleading for the immigrant against my   
scepticisms4 ,he pointed out to me that 
the generally received opinion that the 
,european immigrants are exceptionally  
criminal is quite wrong4  ,the #aijj    
census report collapsed after a         
magnificent beginning1 and its figures  
are not available1 but from the earlier 
records there can be no doubt that the  
percentage of criminals among the       
foreign-born is higher than that among  
the native-born4 ,this1 however1 is     
entirely due to the high criminal record
 of the ,french ,canadians in the       
,northeast1 and the ,mexicans in        
,arizona1 who are not overseas          
immigrants at all4 ,the criminal        
statistics of the ,french ,canadians in 
the ,states should furnish useful matter
 for the educational controversy in     
,great ,britain4 ,allowing for their    
activities--which appear to be based on 
an education of peculiar religious      

virtue--the figures bring the criminal  
percentage among the foreigners far     
below that of the native-born4 ,but ,dr4
 ,hart's figures also showed very       
clearly something further3 as between   
the offspring of native and foreign     
parents the preponderance of crime is   
enormously on the side of the latter4   
,that1 at any rate1 falls in with my own
 preconceptions and roving observations4
 ,bear in mind always that this is just 
one questioning individual's impression4
 ,it seems to me that the immigrant     
arrives an artless1 rather uncivilized1 
pious1 good-hearted peasant1 with a     
disposition towards submissive industry 
and rude effectual moral habits4        
,america1 it is alleged1 makes a man of 
him4 ,it seems to me that all too often 
she makes an infuriated toiler of him1  
tempts him with dollars and speeds him  
up with competition1 hardens him1       
coarsens his manners1 and1 worst crime  
of all1 lures and forces him to sell his
 children into toil4 ,the home of the   

immigrant in ,america looks to me worse 
than the home he came from in ,italy4   
,it is just as dirty1 it is far less    
simple and beautiful1 the food is no    
more wholesome1 the moral atmosphere far
 less wholesome2 and1 as a consequence1 
the child of the immigrant is a worse   
man than his father4  ,i am fully aware 
of the generosity1 the nobility of      
sentiment which underlies the ,american 
objection to any hindrance to           
immigration4 ,but either that general   
sentiment should be carried out to a    
logical completeness and a gigantic and 
costly machinery organized to educate   
and civilize these people as they come  
in1 or it should be chastened to        
restrict the inflow to numbers          
assimilable under existing conditions4  
,at present1 if we disregard sentiment1 
if we deny the alleged need of gross    
flattery whenever one writes of ,america
 for ,americans1 and state the bare     
facts of the case1 they amount to this3 
that ,america1 in the urgent process of 

individualistic industrial development1 
in its feverish haste to get through    
with its material possibilities1 is     
importing a large portion of the        
peasantry of central and eastern        
,europe1 and converting it into a       
practically illiterate industrial       
proletariat4 ,in doing this it is doing 
a something that1 however different in  
spirit1 differs from the slave trade of 
its early history only in the narrower  
gap between employer and laborer4 ,in   
the colored population ,america has     
already ten million descendants of      
unassimilated and perhaps unassimilable 
labor immigrants4 ,these people are not 
only half civilized and ignorant1 but   
they have infected the white population 
about them with a kindred ignorance4    
,for there can be no doubt that if an   
,englishman or ,scotchman of the year   
#aejj were to return to earth and seek  
his most retrograde and decivilized     
descendants1 he would find them at last 
among the white and colored population  

south of ,washington4 ,and ,i have a    
foreboding that in this mixed flood of  
workers that pours into ,america by the 
million to-day1 in this torrent of      
ignorance1 against which that heroic    
being1 the schoolmarm1 battles at       
present all unaided by men1 there is to 
be found the possibility of another     
dreadful separation of class and kind1 a
 separation perhaps not so profound but 
far more universal4 ,one sees the       
possibility of a rich industrial and    
mercantile aristocracy of western       
,european origin1 dominating a          
darker-haired1 darker-eyed1 uneducated  
proletariat from central and eastern    
,europe4 ,the immigrants are being given
 votes1 ,i know1 but that does not free 
them1 it only enslaves the country4 ,the
 negroes were given votes4  ,that is the
 quality of the danger as ,i see it4    
,but before this indigestion of         
immigrants becomes an incurable sickness
 of the ,states many things may happen4 
,there is every sign1 as ,i have said1  

that a great awakening1 a great         
disillusionment1 is going on in the     
,american mind4 ,the ,americans have    
become suddenly self-critical1 are hot  
with an unwonted fever for reform and   
constructive effort4 ,this swamping of  
the country may yet be checked4 ,they   
may make a strenuous effort to          
emancipate children below fifteen from  
labor1 and so destroy one of the chief  
inducements of immigration4 ,once       
convince them that their belief in the  
superiority of their public schools to  
those of ,england and ,germany is an    
illusion1 or at least that their schools
 are inadequate to the task before them1
 and it may be they will perform some   
swift ,american miracle of educational  
organization and finance4 ,for all the  
very heavy special educational charges  
that are needed if the immigrant is     
really to be assimilated1 it seems a    
reasonable proposal that immigration    
should pay4 ,suppose the new-comer were 
presently to be taxed on arrival for his

 own training and that of any children  
he had with him1 that again would check 
the inrush very greatly4 ,or the        
steamship company might be taxed1 and   
left to settle the trouble with the     
immigrant by raising his fare4 ,and     
finally1 it may be that if the line is  
drawn1 as it seems highly probable it   
will be1 at ,asiatics1 then there may   
even be a drying up of the torrent at   
its source4 ,the ,european countries are
 not unlimited reservoirs of offspring4 
,as they pass from their old conditions 
into more and more completely organized 
modern industrial states1 they develop a
 new internal equilibrium and cease to  
secrete an excess of population4        
,england no longer supplies any great   
quantity of ,americans2 ,scotland barely
 any2 ,france is exhausted2 ,ireland1   
,germany1 ,scandinavia have1 it seems1  
disgorged nearly all their surplus load1
 and now run dry4444  ,these are all    
mitigations of the outlook1 but still   
the dark shadow of disastrous           

possibility remains4 ,the immigrant     
comes in to weaken and confuse the      
counsels of labor1 to serve the purposes
 of corruption1 to complicate any       
economic and social development1 above  
all to retard enormously the development
 of that national consciousness and will
 on which the hope of the future        
depends4   ,,iv  ,the ,educational      
,alliance  ,i told these doubts of mine 
to a pleasant young lady of ,new ,york1 
who seems to find much health and a     
sustaining happiness in settlement work 
on the ,east ,side4 ,she scorned my     
doubts4 ,children make better citizens  
than the old ,americans1 she said1 like 
one who quotes a classic1 and took me   
with her forthwith to see the central   
school of the ,educational ,alliance1   
that fine imposing building in ,east    
,broadway4  ,it's a thing ,i'm glad not 
to have missed4 ,i recall a large cool  
room with a sloping floor1 tier rising  
above tier of seats and desks1 and a big
 class of bright-eyed ,jewish children1 

boys and girls1 each waving two little  
,american flags to the measure of the   
song they sang1 singing to the          
accompaniment of the piano on the       
platform beside us4  ,god bless our     
native land1 they sang--with a          
considerable variety of accent and      
distinctness1 but with a very real      
emotion4  ,some of them had been in     
,america a month1 some much longer1 but 
here they were--under the auspices of   
the wealthy ,hebrews of ,new ,york and  
,mr4 ,blaustein's enthusiastic          
direction--being ,americanized4 ,they   
sang of ,america--sweet land of liberty2
 they stood up and drilled with the     
little bright pretty flags2 swish they  
crossed and swish they waved back1 a    
waving froth of flags and flushed       
children's faces2 and they stood up and 
repeated the oath of allegiance1 and at 
the end filed tramping by me and out of 
the hall4 ,the oath they take is finely 
worded4 ,it runs3  ,illustration3       
,,where ,,immigrant ,,children ,,are    

,,americanized  ,flag our great         
,republic1 inspirer in battle1 guardian 
of our homes1 whose stars and stripes   
stand for bravery1 purity1 truth1 and   
union1 we salute thee6 ,we1 the natives 
of distant lands1 who find rest under   
thy folds1 do pledge our hearts1 our    
lives1 and our sacred honor to love and 
protect thee1 our country1 and the      
liberty of the ,american people forever4
  ,i may have been fanciful1 but as ,i  
stood aside and watched them going      
proudly past1 it seemed to me that eyes 
met mine1 triumphant and victorious     
eyes--for was ,i not one of these       
,british from whom freedom was won8 ,but
 that was an ignoble suspicion4 ,they   
had been but a few weeks in ,america1   
and that light in their eyes was just a 
brotherly challenge to one they supposed
 a fellow-citizen who stood unduly      
thoughtful amid their rhythmic          
exaltation4 ,they tramped out and past  
with their flags and guidons4  ,it is   
touching6 whispered my guide1 and ,i saw

 she had caught a faint reflection of   
that glow that lit the children4  ,i    
told her it was the most touching thing 
,i had seen in ,america4  ,and so it    
remains4  ,think of the immense promise 
in it6 ,think of the flower of belief   
and effort that may spring from this    
warm sowing6 ,we passed out of this     
fluttering multiplication of the most   
beautiful flag in the world1 into       
streets abominable with offal and       
indescribable filth1 and dark and       
horrible under the thunderous girders of
 the ,elevated railroad1 to our other   
quest for that morning1 a typical ,new  
,york tenement4 ,for ,i wanted to see   
one1 with practically windowless        
bedrooms4444  ,the ,educational         
,alliance is of course not a public     
institution2 it was organized by        
,hebrews1 and conducted for ,hebrews1   
chiefly for the benefit of the ,hebrew  
immigrant4 ,it is practically the only  
organized attempt to ,americanize the   
immigrant child4 ,after the children    

have mastered sufficient ,english and   
acquired the simpler elements of        
patriotism--which is practically no more
 than an emotional attitude towards the 
flag--they pass on into the ordinary    
public schools4  ,yes1 ,i told my       
friend1 ,i know how these children feel4
 ,that1 less articulate perhaps1 but no 
less sincere1 is the thing--something   
between pride and a passionate          
desire--that fills three-quarters of the
 people at ,ellis ,island now4 ,they    
come ready to love and worship1 ready to
 bow down and kiss the folds of your    
flag4 ,they give themselves--they want  
to give4 ,do you know ,i1 too1 have come
 near feeling that at times for         
,america4444  ,we were separated for a  
while by a long hole in the middle of   
the street and a heap of builder's      
refuse4 ,before we came within talking  
distance again ,i was in reaction       
against the gleam of satisfaction my    
last confession had evoked4  ,in the    
end1 ,i said1 you ,americans won't be   

able to resist it4  ,resist what8       
,you'll respect your country1 ,i said4  
,what do you mean8  ,in those crowded   
noisy ,east ,side streets one has to    
shout1 and shout compact things4 ,this6 
,i said to the barbaric disorder about  
us4 ,lynching6 ,child ,labor6 ,graft6   
,then we were separated by a heap of    
decaying fish that some hawker had      
dumped in the gutter4  ,my companion    
shouted something ,i did not catch4     
,we'll tackle it6 she repeated4  ,i     
looked at her1 bright and courageous and
 youthful1 a little overconfident1 ,i   
thought1 but extremely reassuring1 going
 valiantly through a disorderly world of
 obstacles1 and for the moment--,i      
suppose that waving bunting and the     
children's voices had got into my head a
 little--,i forgot all sorts of         
things4444  ,i could have imagined her  
the spirit of ,america incarnate rather 
than a philanthropic young lady of ,new 
,york4     ,,chapter ,x                 
,,state-,,blindness   ,i  ,sense of the 

,state  ,in what ,i have written so far1
 ,i have tried to get the effect of the 
,american outlook1 the ,american task1  
the ,american problem as a whole1 as it 
has presented itself to me4 ,clearly1 as
 ,i see it1 it is a mental and moral    
issue4 ,there seems to me an economic   
process going on that tends to          
concentrate first wealth and then power 
in the hands of a small number of       
adventurous individuals of no very high 
intellectual type1 a huge importation of
 alien and unassimilable workers1 and a 
sustained disorder of local and         
political administration4 ,correlated   
with this is a great increase in        
personal luxury and need4 ,in all these 
respects there is a strong parallelism  
between the present condition of the    
,united ,states and the ,roman ,republic
 in the time of the early ,csars2 and   
arguing from these alone one might      
venture to forecast the steady          
development of an exploiting and        
devastating plutocracy1 leading perhaps 

to ,csarism1 and a progressive decline  
in civilization and social solidarity4  
,but there are forces of recuperation   
and construction in ,america such as the
 earlier instance did not display4      
,there is infinitely more original and  
originating thought in the state1 there 
are the organized forces of science1 a  
habit of progress1 clearer and wider    
knowledge among the general mass of the 
people4 ,these promise1 and must1       
indeed1 inevitably make1 some synthetic 
effort of greater or less homogeneity   
and force4 ,it is upon that synthetic   
effort that the distinctive destiny of  
,america depends4  ,i propose to go on  
now to discuss the mental quality of    
,america as ,i have been able to focus  
it4 7,remember always that ,i am an     
undiplomatic tourist of no special      
knowledge or authority1 who came1       
moreover1 to ,america with certain      
prepossessions47 ,and first1 and        
chiefly1 ,i have to convey what seems to
 me the most significant and pregnant   

thing of all4 ,it is a matter of        
something wanting1 that the ,american   
shares with the great mass of prosperous
 middle-class people in ,england4 ,i    
think it is best indicated by saying    
that the typical ,american has no sense 
of the state4 ,i do not mean that he is 
not passionately and vigorously         
patriotic4 ,but ,i mean that he has no  
perception that his business activities1
 his private employments1 are           
constituents in a large collective      
process2 that they affect other people  
and the world forever1 and cannot1 as he
 imagines1 begin and end with him4 ,he  
sees the world in fragments2 it is to   
him a multitudinous collection of       
individual stories--as the newspapers   
put it4 ,if one studies an ,american    
newspaper1 one discovers it is all      
individuality1 all a matter of personal 
doings1 of what so and so said and how  
so and so felt4 ,and all these          
individualities are unfused4 ,not a     
touch of abstraction or generalization1 

no thinnest atmosphere of reflection1   
mitigates these harsh1 emphatic1        
isolated happenings4 ,the ,american1 it 
seems to me1 has yet to achieve what is1
 after all1 the product of education and
 thought1 the conception of a whole to  
which all individual acts and happenings
 are subordinate and contributory4      
,when ,i say this much1 ,i do not mean  
to insinuate that any other nation in   
the world has any superiority in this   
matter4 ,but ,i do want to urge that the
 ,american problem is pre-eminently one 
that must be met by broad ways of       
thinking1 by creative1 synthetic1 and   
merging ideas1 and that a great number  
of ,americans seem to lack these        
altogether4   ,,ii  ,a ,sample ,american
  ,let me by way of illustration give a 
specimen ,american mind4 ,it is not the 
mind of a writer or philosopher1 it is  
just a plain successful business-man who
 exposes himself1 and makes it clear    
that this want of any sense of the state
 of any large duty of constructive      

loyalty1 is not an idiosyncrasy1 but the
 quality of all his circle1 his friends1
 his religious teacher4444  ,i found my 
specimen in a book called ,with ,john   
,bull and ,jonathan4 ,it contains the   
rather rambling reminiscences of ,mr4   
,j4 ,morgan ,richards1 the wealthy and  
successful ,london agent of a great     
number of well-advertised ,american     
proprietary articles1 and ,i read it    
first1 ,i will confess1 chiefly in      
search of such delightful phrases as the
 one mammoth in character ,i have       
already quoted4 ,but there were few to  
equal that first moment's bright        
discovery4 ,what ,i got from it finally 
wasn't so much that sort of thing as    
this realization of ,mr4 ,richards's    
peculiar quality1 this acute sense of   
all that he hadn't got4 ,mr4 ,richards  
told of advertising enterprises1 of     
contracts and journeyings1 of his great 
friendship with the late ,dr4 ,parker1  
of his domestic affairs1 and all the    
changes in the world that had struck    

him1 and of a remarkable dining club1   
called 7paradoxically7 the ,sphinx1 in  
which the giants 7or are they the       
mammoths87 of the world of advertisement
 foregather4 ,he gave his portrait1 and 
the end-paper presented him playfully as
 the jolly president of the ,sphinx     
,club1 champagne-bottle crowned1 but    
else an ,egyptian monarch2 and on the   
cover are two gilt hands clasped across 
a gilt ripple of sea 7hands across the  
sea71 under intertwining ,english and   
,american flags4 ,from the book one got 
an effect1 garrulous perhaps1 but on the
 whole not unpleasing1 of an elderly but
 still active business personality quite
 satisfied by his achievements1 and     
representative of ,i know not what      
proportion1 but at any rate a           
considerable proportion1 of his         
fellow-countrymen4 ,and one got an      
effect of a being not simply indifferent
 to the health and vigor and growth of  
the community of which he was a part1   
but unaware of its existence4  ,he      

displays this irresponsibility of the   
commercial mind so illuminatingly       
because he does in a way attempt to tell
 something more than his personal story4
 ,he notes the changes in the world     
about him1 how this has improved and    
that progressed1 which contrasts between
 ,england and ,america struck upon his  
mind4 ,that he himself is responsible   
amid these changes never seems to dawn  
upon him4 ,his freedom from any sense of
 duty to the world as a whole1 of any   
subordination of trading to great ideas1
 is nave and fundamental4 ,he tells of  
how he arranged with the authorities in 
charge of the ,independence ,day        
celebrations on ,boston ,common to      
display three large pieces containing   
the name of a certain bitters1 which    
they did1 and how this no doubt very    
desirable commodity was first largely   
advertised throughout the ,united       
,states in the fall of #ahfa1 and       
rapidly became the success of the day1  
because of the enormous amount of       

placarding given to the cabalistic      
characters ',s-,t-#ahfj-,x4' ,those     
strange letters and figures stared upon 
people from wall and fence and tree1 in 
every leading town throughout the       
,united ,states4 ,they were painted on  
the rocks of the ,hudson ,river to such 
an extent that the attention of the     
,legislature was drawn to the fact1 and 
a law was passed to prevent the further 
disfigurement of river scenery4  ,he    
calls this cute4 ,he tells1 too1 of his 
educational work upon the ,english      
press1 how he won it over to display    
advertisements1 and devised the first   
sixteen-sheet double-demy poster ever   
seen in ,england in connection with a   
proprietary article4 ,he introduced the 
smoking of cigarettes into ,england     
against great opposition4 ,mr4 ,richards
 finds no incongruity1 but apparently a 
very delightful association1 in the fact
 that this great victory for the        
adolescent's cigarette was won on the   
site of ,strudwick's house1 wherein     

,john ,bunyan died1 and hard by the path
 of the ,smithfield martyrs to their    
fiery sacrifice4 ,both they and ,mr4    
,richards lit such a candle in          
,england--  ,well1 my business is not to
 tell of the feats by which ,mr4        
,richards grew wealthy and important as 
a tree may grow and flourish amid the   
masonry it helps to disintegrate4 ,my   
business is purely with his             
insensibility to the state as an aspect 
of his personal life4 ,it is            
insensibility--not disregard or         
hostility4 ,one gets an impression from 
this book that if ,mr4 ,richards had    
lived in a different culture1 he would  
have been a generous giver of himself4  
,in spite of his curious incapacity to  
appreciate any issues larger than large 
enterprises in selling1 he is very      
evidently a religious man4 ,he sat under
 the late ,dr4 ,parker of the rich and  
prosperous ,city ,temple1 and that      
reverend gentleman's leonine visage     
adorns the book4 ,its really the light  

one gets on ,dr4 ,parker and his        
teaching that appeals to me most in this
 volume4 ,for this gentleman ,mr4       
,richards seems to have entertained a   
feeling approaching reverence4 ,he notes
 such details as3  ,at the conclusion of
 an invocation or prayer1 his habit     
always was to make a pause of a few     
seconds before pronouncing ',amen4'     
,this was most impressive4444  ,he spoke
 such words as ',god1' ',jesus ,christ1'
 ',no1' ',yes1' ',nothing1' in a way to 
give more value to each word than any   
speaker ,i have ever heard4  ,they      
became great friends1 rarely a week     
passed without their meeting1 and1 says 
,mr4 ,richards1 he was pleased1 in the  
course of time1 to honor me with his    
confidence in a marked degree1 as though
 he recognized in me some quality which 
satisfied his judgment1 that ,i could be
 trusted in business questions quite    
apart from those relating to his church4
 ,he was not only a born preacher1 but  
possessed a marvellous grasp of sound1  

practical knowledge upon the affairs of 
the day4 ,i often consulted with him    
regarding my own affairs1 always getting
 the most practical help4  ,when ,dr4   
,parker came to ,america1 the two       
friends corresponded warmly1 and several
 of the letters are quoted4 ,even #ejjj 
a year easily made could not tempt him  
from ,london and the modest opulence of 
the ,city ,temple4444  ,but my business 
now is not to dwell on these            
characteristic details1 but to point out
 that ,mr4 ,richards does not stand     
alone in the entire detachment1 not only
 of his worldly achievements1 but of his
 spiritual life1 from any creative      
solicitude for the state4 ,if he was    
merely an isolated character ,i should  
have no concern with him4 ,his          
association with ,dr4 ,parker shows most
 luminously that he presents a whole    
cult of ,english and ,american rich     
traders1 who in ,america sat under such 
men as the ,rev4 ,henry ,ward ,beecher1 
for example1 who evidently stand for    

much more in ,america than in ,england1 
and who1 so far as the state and        
political and social work go1 are       
scarcely of more use1 are probably more 
hindrance1 than any organization of     
selfish voluptuaries of equal wealth and
 numbers4 ,it is a cult1 it has its     
teachers and its books4 ,i have had a   
glimpse of one of its manuals4 ,i find  
,mr4 ,richards quoting with approval    
,dr4 ,parker's ,ten ,general            
,commandments for ,men of ,business1    
commandments which strike me as not only
 ,state-blind1 but utterly ,god-blind1  
which are1 indeed1 no more than shrewd  
counsels for getting on4 ,it is really  
quite horrible stuff morally4 ,thou     
shalt not hobnob with idle persons1     
parodies ,dr4 ,parker in commandment    
,v41 so glossing richly upon the        
teachings of ,him who ate with publicans
 and sinners1 and 7no doubt to instil   
the advisability of keeping one's more  
delicate business procedure in one's own
 hands71 ,thou shalt not forget that a  

servant who can tell lies for thee1 may 
one day tell lies to thee4444  ,i am not
 throwing any doubt upon the sincerity  
of ,dr4 ,parker and ,mr4 ,richards4 ,i  
believe that nothing could exceed the   
transparent honesty that ends this      
record which tells of a certain bitters 
pushed at the sacrifice of beautiful    
scenery1 of a successful propaganda of  
cigarette-smoking1 and of all sorts of  
proprietary articles landed well home in
 their gastric target of a whole life   
lost1 indeed1 in commercial             
self-seeking1 with ,what shall ,i render
 unto the ,lord for all his benefits8   
,the ,now is an atom of ,sand1     ,and 
the ,near is a perishing ,clod1   ,but  
,afar is a fairyland1     ,and ,beyond  
is the ,bosom of ,god4  ,what ,i have to
 insist upon now is that this is a      
sample1 and1 so far as ,i can tell1 a   
fair sample1 of the quality and trend of
 the mind-stuff and the breadth and     
height of the tradition of a large and  
,i know not how influential mass of     

prosperous middle-class ,english1 and of
 a much more prosperous and influential 
and important section of ,americans4    
,they represent much energy1 they       
represent much property1 they are a     
factor to reckon with4 ,they present a  
powerful opposing force to anything that
 will suppress their disgusting         
notice-boards or analyze their ambiguous
 proprietary articles1 or tax their     
gettings for any decent public purpose4 
,and here ,i find them selling poisons  
as pain-killers1 and alcohol as tonics1 
and fighting ably and boldly to silence 
adverse discussion4 ,in the face of the 
great needs that lie before ,america    
their active trivality of soul1 their   
energy and often unscrupulous activity1 
and their quantitative importance       
become1 to my mind1 adverse and         
threatening1 a stumbling-block for hope4
 ,for the impression ,i have got by     
going to and fro in ,america is that    
,mr4 ,richards is a fair sample of at   
least the older type of ,american4 ,so  

far as ,i can learn1 ,mr4 ,j4,d4        
,rockefeller is just another product of 
the same cult4 ,you meet these older    
types everywhere1 they range from       
fervent piety and temperance to a hearty
 drinking1 story-telling1 poker-playing 
type1 but they have in common a sharp1  
shrewd1 narrow1 business habit of mind  
that ignores the future and the state   
altogether4 ,but ,i do not find the     
younger men are following in their      
lines4 ,some are4 ,but just how many and
 to what extent1 ,i do not know4 ,it is 
very hard for a literary man to estimate
 the quantity and importance of ideas in
 a community4 ,the people he meets      
naturally all entertain ideas1 or they  
would not come in his way4 ,the people  
who have new ideas talk2 those who have 
not1 go about their business4 ,but ,i   
hazard an opinion that ,young ,america  
now presents an altogether different    
type from the young men of enterprise   
and sound ,baptist and business         
principles who were the backbone of the 

irresponsible commercial ,america of    
yesterday1 the ,america that rebuilt    
,chicago on floating foundations1       
covered the world with advertisement    
boards1 gave the great cities the       
elevated railroads1 and organized the   
trusts4   ,,iii  ,oneida  ,i spent a    
curious day amid the memories of that   
strangely interesting social experiment1
 the ,oneida ,community1 and met a most 
significant contemporary1 live ,american
 of the newer school1 in the son of the 
founder and the present head of ,oneida 
,limited4  ,there are moments when that 
visit ,i paid to ,oneida seems to me to 
stand for all ,america4 ,the place1 you 
know1 was once the seat of a            
perfectionist community2 the large red  
community buildings stand now among     
green lawns and ripening trees1 and ,i  
dined in the communal dining-room1 and  
visited the library1 and saw the chain  
and trap factory1 and the silk-spinning 
factory and something of all its        
industries4 ,i talked to old and        

middle-aged people who told me all sorts
 of interesting things of community     
days1 looked through curious            
old-fashioned albums of photographs1    
showing the women in their bloomers and 
cropped hair1 and the men in the        
ill-fitting frock-coats of the          
respectable mediocre person in early    
,victorian times4 ,i think that some of 
the reminiscences ,i awakened had been  
voiceless for some time4 ,at moments it 
was like hearing the story of a         
flattened1 dry1 and colorless flower    
between the pages of a book1 of a verse 
written in faded ink1 or of some        
daguerreotype spotted and faint beyond  
recognition4 ,it was extraordinarily    
,new ,england in its quality as ,i      
looked back at it all4 ,they claimed a  
quiet perfection of soul1 they searched 
one another marvellously for spiritual  
chastening1 they defied custom and      
opinion1 they followed their reasoning  
and their theology to the inmost amazing
 abnegations--and they kept themselves  

solvent by the manufacture of steel     
traps that catch the legs of beasts in  
their strong and pitiless jaws4444  ,but
 this book is not about the things that 
concerned ,oneida in community days1 and
 ,i mention them here only because of   
the curious developments of the present 
time4 ,years ago1 when the founder1     
,john ,humphrey ,noyes1 grew old and    
unable to control the new dissensions   
that arose out of the sceptical attitude
 of the younger generation towards his  
ingenious theology1 and such-like       
stresses1 communism was abandoned1 the  
religious life and services             
discontinued1 the concern turned into a 
joint-stock company1 and the members    
made shareholders on strictly commercial
 lines4 ,for some years its prosperity  
declined4 ,many of the members went     
away4 ,but a nucleus remained as        
residents in the old buildings1 and     
after a time there were returns4 ,i was 
told that in the early days of the new  
period there was a violent reaction     

against communistic methods1 a jealous  
inexperienced insistence upon property4 
,it was difficult to borrow a hammer1   
said one of my informants4  ,then1 as   
the new generation began to feel its    
feet1 came a fresh development of       
vitality4 ,the ,oneida company began to 
set up new machinery1 to seek wider     
markets1 to advertise and fight         
competitors4  ,this ,mr4 ,p4,b4 ,noyes  
was the leader into the new paths4 ,he  
possesses all the force of character1   
the constructive passion1 the           
imaginative power of his progenitor1 and
 it has all gone into business          
competition4 ,i have heard much talk of 
the romance of business1 chiefly from   
people ,i heartily despised1 but in ,mr4
 ,noyes ,i found business indeed        
romantic4 ,it had get hold of him1 it   
possessed him like a passion4 ,he has   
inspired all his half-brothers and      
cousins and younger fellow-members of   
the community with his own imaginative  
motive4 ,they1 too1 are enthusiasts for 

business4  ,mr4 ,noyes is a tall man1   
who looks down when he talks to one4 ,he
 showed me over the associated          
factories1 told me how the trap trade of
 all ,north ,america is in ,oneida's    
hands1 told me of how they fight and win
 against the ,british traps in ,south   
,america and ,burmah4 ,he showed me     
photographs of panthers in traps1 tigers
 in traps1 bears snarling at death1     
unfortunate deer1 foxes caught by the   
paws4444  ,i did my best to forget those
 photographs at once in the interest of 
his admirable machinery1 which busied   
itself with chain-making as though it   
had eyes and hands4 ,i went beside him1 
full of that respect that a literary man
 must needs feel when a creative        
business controller displays his        
quality4  ,but the old religion of      
,oneida8 ,i would interpolate4  ,each   
one of us is free to follow his own     
religion4 ,here is a new sort of chain  
we are making for hanging-lamps4        
,hitherto--  ,presently ,i would try    

again4 ,are the workers here in any way 
members of the community8  ,oh no6 ,many
 of them are ,italian immigrants4 ,we   
think of building a school for them4444 
,no1 we get no labor troubles4 ,we pay  
always above the trade-union rates1 and 
so we get the pick of the workmen4 ,our 
class of work can't be sweated4444      
,yes1 he was an astonishing personality1
 so immensely concentrated on these     
efficient manufacturing and trading     
developments1 so evidently careless of  
theology1 philosophy1 social            
speculation1 beauty4  ,your father was a
 philosopher1 ,i said4  ,i think in ten 
years' time ,i may give up the control  
here1 he threw out1 and write something4
  ,i've thought of the publishing trade 
myself1 ,i said1 when my wits are old   
and stiff4444  ,i never met a man before
 so firmly gripped by the romantic      
constructive and adventurous element of 
business1 so little concerned about     
personal riches or the accumulation of  
wealth4 ,he illuminated much that had   

been dark to me in the ,american        
character4 ,i think better of business  
by reason of him4 ,and time after time  
,i tried him upon politics4 ,it came to 
nothing4 ,making a new world was1 he    
thought1 a rhetorical flourish about    
futile and troublesome activities1 and  
politicians merely a disreputable sort  
of parasite upon honorable people who   
made chains and plated spoons4 ,all his 
constructive instincts1 all his         
devotion1 were for ,oneida and its      
enterprises4 ,america was just the      
impartial space1 the large liberty1 in  
which ,oneida grew1 the ,stars and      
,stripes a wide sanction akin to the    
impartial irresponsible harboring sky   
overhead4 ,sense of the ,state had never
 grown in him--can now1 ,i felt         
convinced1 never grow4444  ,but some    
day1 ,i like to imagine1 the ,world     
,state1 and not ,oneida corporations1   
and a nobler trade than traps1 will     
command such services as his4           
,,chapter ,,xi  ,,two ,,studies ,,in    

,,disappointment   ,i  ,the ,riddle of  
,intolerance  ,in considering the       
quality of the ,american mind 7upon     
which1 as ,i believe1 the ultimate      
destiny of ,america entirely depends71  
it has been necessary to point out that1
 considered as one whole1 it still seems
 lacking in any of that living sense of 
the state out of which constructive     
effort must arise1 and that1            
consequently1 enormous amounts of energy
 go to waste in anarchistic and         
chaotically competitive private         
enterprise4 ,i believe there are        
powerful forces at work in the trend of 
modern thought1 science1 and method1 in 
the direction of bringing order1        
control1 and design into this confused  
gigantic conflict1 and the discussion of
 these constructive forces must         
necessarily form the crown of my        
forecast of ,america's future4 ,but     
before ,i come to that ,i must deal with
 certain ,american traits that puzzle   
me1 that ,i cannot completely explain to

 myself1 that dash my large expectations
 with an obstinate shadow of foreboding4
 ,essentially these are disintegrating  
influences1 in the nature of a fierce   
intolerance1 that lead to conflicts and 
destroy co-operation4 ,one makes one's  
criticism with compunction4 ,one moves  
through the ,american world1 meeting    
constantly with kindness and            
hospitality1 with a familiar helpfulness
 that is delightful1 with sympathetic   
enterprise and energetic imagination1   
and then suddenly there flashes out a   
quality of harshness4444  ,i will       
explain in a few minutes what ,i mean by
 this flash of harshness4 ,let me       
confess here that ,i cannot determine   
whether it is a necessary consequence of
 ,american conditions1 the scar upon the
 soul of too strenuous business         
competition1 or whether it is something 
deeper1 some subtle1 unavoidable        
infection perhaps in this soil that was 
once the ,red ,indian's battle-ground1  
some poison1 it may be1 mingled with    

this clear exhilarating air4 ,and going 
with this harshness there seems also    
something else1 a contempt for abstract 
justice that one does not find in any   
,european intelligence--not even among  
the ,english4 ,this contempt may be a   
correlative of the intense practicality 
begotten by a scruple-destroying        
commercial training4 ,that1 at any rate1
 is my own prepossession4 ,conceivably  
,i am over-disposed to make that tall   
lady in ,new ,york ,harbor stand as a   
symbol for the liberty of property1 and 
to trace the indisputable hastiness of  
life here--it is haste sometimes rather 
than speed1--its scorn of sthetic and   
abstract issues1 this frequent quality  
of harshness1 and a certain public      
disorder1 whatever indeed mars the      
splendid promise and youth of ,america1 
to that4 ,i think it is an accident of  
the commercial phase that presses men   
beyond dignity1 patience1 and           
magnanimity4 ,i am loath to believe it  
is something fundamentally ,american4   

,i have very clearly in my memory the   
figure of young ,mac,queen1 in his gray 
prison clothes in ,trenton jail1 and how
 ,i talked with him4 ,he and ,mr4       
,booker ,t4 ,washington and ,maxim      
,gorky stand for me as figures in the   
shadow--symbolical men4 ,i think of     
,america as pride and promise1 as large 
growth and large courage1 all set with  
beautiful fluttering bunting1 and then  
my vision of these three men comes back 
to me2 they return presences inseparable
 from my ,american effect1 unlit and    
uncomplaining on the sunless side of    
her1 implying rather than voicing       
certain accusations4 ,america can be    
hasty1 can be obstinately thoughtless   
and unjust4444  ,well1 let me set down  
as shortly as ,i can how ,i saw them1   
and then go on again with my main       
thesis4   ,,ii  ,mac,queen  ,mac,queen  
is one of those young men ,england is   
now making by the thousand in her       
elementary schools--a man of that       
active1 intelligent1 mentally hungry1   

self-educating sort that is giving us   
our elementary teachers1 our labor      
members1 able journalists1 authors1     
civil servants1 and some of the most    
public-spirited and efficient of our    
municipal administrators4 ,he is the    
sort of man an ,englishman grows prouder
 of as he sees ,america and something of
 her politicians and labor leaders4     
,after his board-school days ,mac,queen 
went to work as a painter and grainer1  
and gave his spare energy to            
self-education4 ,he mastered ,german1   
and read widely and freely4 ,he         
corresponded with ,william ,morris1     
devoured ,tolstoy and ,bernard ,shaw1   
followed the ,clarion week by week1     
discussed social questions1 wrote to the
 newspapers1 debated1 made speeches4    
,the ,english reader will begin to      
recognize the type4 ,jail had worn him  
when ,i saw him1 but ,i should think he 
was always physically delicate2 he wears
 spectacles1 he warms emotionally as he 
talks4 ,and he decided1 after much      

excogitation1 that the ideal state is   
one of so fine a quality of moral       
training that people will not need      
coercion and repressive laws4 ,he calls 
himself an anarchist--of the early      
,christian1 ,tolstoyan1 non-resisting   
school4 ,such an anarchist was ,emerson1
 among other dead ,americans whose names
 are better treasured than their        
thoughts4 ,that sort of anarchist has as
 much connection with embittered        
bomb-throwers and assassins as ,miss    
,florence ,nightingale has with the     
woman ,hartmann1 who put on a nurse's   
uniform to poison and rob4444  ,well1   
,mac,queen led an active life in        
,england1 married1 made a decent living1
 and took an honorable part in the local
 affairs of ,leeds until he was         
twenty-six4 ,then he conceived a desire 
for wider opportunity than ,england     
offers men of his class4  ,in ,january1 
#aijb1 he crossed the ,atlantic1 and1 no
 doubt1 he came very much aglow with the
 ,american idea4 ,he felt that he was   

exchanging a decadent country of        
dwarfing social and political traditions
 for a land of limitless outlook4 ,he   
became a proof-reader in ,new ,york1 and
 began to seek around him for           
opportunities of speaking and forwarding
 social progress4 ,he tried to float a  
newspaper4 ,the ,new ,york labor-unions 
found him a useful speaker1 and1 among  
others1 the ,german silk-workers of ,new
 ,york became aware of him4 ,in ,june   
they asked him to go to ,paterson to    
speak in ,german to the weavers in that 
place4  ,the silk-dyers were on strike  
in ,paterson1 but the weavers were      
weaving scab-silk1 dyed by dyers        
elsewhere1 and it was believed that the 
dyers' strike would fail unless they    
struck also4 ,they had to be called out4
 ,they were chiefly ,italians1 some     
,hungarians4 ,it was felt by the ,new   
,york ,german silk-workers that perhaps 
,mac,queen's ,german learned in ,england
 might meet the linguistic difficulties 
of the case4  ,he went4 ,i hope he will 

forgive me if ,i say that his was an    
extremely futile expedition4 ,he did    
very little4 ,he wrote an entirely      
harmless article or so in ,english for  
,la ,questione ,sociale1 and he declined
 with horror and publicity to appear    
upon the same platform with a           
mischievous and violent lady anarchist  
called ,emma ,goldman4 ,on ,june #ag1   
#aijb1 he went to ,paterson again1 and  
spoke to his own undoing4 ,there is no  
evidence that he said anything illegal  
or inflammatory1 there is clear evidence
 that he bored his audience4 ,they      
shouted him down1 and called for a      
prominent local speaker named ,galiano4 
,mac,queen subsided into the background1
 and ,galiano spoke for an hour in      
,italian4 ,he aroused great enthusiasm1 
and the proceedings terminated with a   
destructive riot4  ,eight witnesses     
testify to the ineffectual efforts on   
the part of ,mac,queen to combat the    
violence in progress4444  ,that finishes
 the story of ,mac,queen's activities in

 ,america1 for which he is now in       
durance at ,trenton4 ,he1 in common with
 a large crowd and in common1 too1 with 
nearly all the witnesses against him1   
did commit one offence against the      
law--he did not go home when destruction
 began4 ,he was arrested next day4 ,from
 that time forth his fate was out of his
 hands1 and in the control of a number  
of people who wanted to make an example 
of the ,paterson strikers4 ,the press   
took up ,mac,queen4 ,they began to      
clothe the bare bones of this simple    
little history ,i have told in fluent1  
unmitigated lying4 ,they blackened him1 
one might think1 out of sheer artistic  
pleasure in the operation4 ,they called 
this rather nervous1 educated1 nobly    
meaning if ill-advised young man a      
notorious anarchist2 his head-line title
 became ,anarchistic ,mac,queen2 they   
wrote his story in a vein of imaginative
 fervor2 they invented an unsavory      
police record for him in ,england2 and  
enlarged upon the marvellous secret     

organization for crime of which he was  
representative and leader4 ,in a little 
while ,mac,queen had ceased to be a     
credible human being2 he might have been
 invented by ,mr4 ,william le ,queux4   
,he was arrested--,galiano went         
scot-free--and released on bail4 ,it was
 discovered that his pleasant1 decent   
,yorkshire wife and three children were 
coming out to ,america to him1 and she  
became the woman ,nellie ,barton--her   
maiden name--and a socialist of the     
,emma ,goldman stripe4 ,this1 one       
gathers1 is the most horrible stripe    
known to ,american journalism4 ,had     
there been a worse one1 ,mrs4 ,mac,queen
 would have been the ex officio4 ,and   
now here is an extraordinary            
thing--public officials began to join in
 the process4 ,this is what perplexes me
 most in this affair4 ,i am told that   
,assistant-,secretary-of-the-,treasury  
,h4,a4 ,taylor1 without a fact to go    
upon1 subscribed to the unsavory record 
legend and ,assistant-,secretary ,c4,h4 

,keep fell in with it4 ,they must have  
seen what it was they were indorsing4   
,in a letter from ,mr4 ,keep to the     
,reverend ,a4,w4 ,wishart1 of ,trenton  
7who throughout has fought most         
gallantly for justice in this case71 ,i 
find ,mr4 ,keep distinguishes himself by
 the artistic device of putting ,william
 ,mac,queen's name in inverted commas4  
,so1 very delicately1 he conveys out of 
the void the insinuation that the name  
is an alias4 ,meanwhile the             
,commissioner of ,immigration prepared  
to take a hand in the game of breaking  
up ,mac,queen4 ,he stopped ,mrs4        
,mac,queen at the threshold of liberty1 
imprisoned her in ,ellis ,island1 and   
sent her back to ,europe4 ,mac,queen1   
still on bail1 was not informed of this 
action1 and waited on the pier for some 
hours before he understood4 ,his wife   
had come second class to ,america1 but  
she was returned first class1 and the   
steamship company seized her goods for  
the return fare4444  ,that was more than

 ,mac,queen could stand4 ,he had been   
tried1 convicted1 sentenced to five     
years' imprisonment1 and he was now out 
on bail pending an appeal4 ,anxiety     
about his wife and children was too much
 for him4 ,he slipped off to ,england   
after them 7,escape of the ,anarchist   
,mac,queen71 made what provision and    
arrangements he could for them1 and     
returned in time to save his bondsman's 
money 7,capture of the ,escaped         
,anarchist ,mac,queen74 ,several members
 of the ,leeds ,city ,council 7,criminal
 ,associates in ,europe7 saw him off4   
,that was in #aijc4 ,his appeal had been
 refused on a technical point4 ,he went 
into ,trenton jail1 and there he is to  
this day4 ,there ,i saw him4 ,trenton   
,jail did not impress me as an agreeable
 place4 ,the building is fairly old1 and
 there is no nonsense about the food4   
,the cells hold1 some of them1 four     
criminals1 some of them two1 but        
latterly ,mac,queen has had spells in   
the infirmary1 and has managed to get a 

cell to himself4 ,many of the criminals 
are negroes and half-breeds1 imprisoned 
for unspeakable offences4 ,in the       
exercising-yard ,mac,queen likes to keep
 apart4 ,when ,i first came ,i used to  
get in a corner1 he said4444  ,now this 
case of ,mac,queen has exercised my mind
 enormously4 ,it was painful to go out  
of the gray jail again after ,i had     
talked to him--of ,shaw and ,morris1 of 
the ,fabian ,society and the ,british   
labor members--into sunlight and        
freedom1 and ever and again1 as ,i went 
about ,new ,york having the best of     
times among the most agreeable people1  
the figure of him would come back to me 
quite vividly1 in his gray dress1       
sitting on the edge of an unaccustomed  
chair1 hands on his knees1 speaking a   
little nervously and jerkily1 and very  
glad indeed to see me4 ,he is younger   
than myself1 but much my sort of man1   
and we talked of books and education and
 his case like brothers4 ,there can be  
no doubt to any sensible person who will

 look into the story of his conviction1 
who will even go and see him1 that there
 has been a serious miscarriage of      
justice4  ,there has been a serious     
miscarriage of justice1 such as         
7unhappily7 might happen in any country4
 ,that is nothing distinctive of        
,america4 ,but what does impress me as  
remarkable and perplexing is the immense
 difficulty--the perhaps unsurmountable 
difficulty--of getting this man         
released4 ,the ,governor of the ,state  
of ,new ,jersey knows he is innocent1   
the judges of the ,court of ,pardons    
know he is innocent4 ,three of them ,i  
was able to button-hole at ,trenton1 and
 hear their point of ,view4 ,two are of 
the minority and for release1 one was   
doubtful in attitude but hostile in     
spirit4 ,they hold1 the man1 he thinks1 
on the score of public policy4 ,they put
 it that ,paterson is a hotbed of crime 
and violence2 that once ,mac,queen is   
released every anarchist in the country 
will be emboldened to crime1 and so on  

and so on4 ,i admit ,paterson festers1  
but if we are to punish anybody instead 
of reforming the system1 it's the       
masters who ought to be in jail for     
that4  ,what will the property-owners in
 ,paterson say to us if this man is     
released8 one of the judges admitted    
frankly4  ,but he hadn't anything to do 
with the violence1 ,i said1 and argued  
the case over again--quite missing the  
point of that objection4  ,whenever ,i  
had a chance in ,new ,york1 in ,boston1 
in ,washington1 even amid the           
conversation of a ,washington           
dinner-table1 ,i dragged up the case of 
,mac,queen4 ,nobody seemed indignant4   
,one lady admitted the sentence was     
heavy1 he might have been given six     
months to cool off in1 she said4 ,i     
protested he ought not to have been     
given a day4 ,why did he go there8 said 
a ,supreme ,court judge in ,washington1 
a lawyer in ,new ,york1 and several     
other people4 ,wasn't he making trouble8
 ,i was asked4  ,at last that reached my

 sluggish intelligence4  ,yet ,i still  
hesitate to accept the new              
interpretations4 ,galiano1 who preached 
blind violence and made the riot1 got   
off scot-free2 ,mac,queen1 who wanted a 
legitimate strike on ,british lines1    
went to jail4 ,so long as the social    
injustice1 the sweated disorder of      
,paterson's industrialism1 vents its    
cries in ,italian in ,la ,questione     
,sociale1 so long as it remains an      
inaudible misery so far as the great    
public is concerned1 making vehement yet
 impotent appeals to mere force1 and so 
losing its last chances of popular      
sympathy1 ,american property1 ,i gather1
 is content4 ,the masters and the       
immigrants can deal with one another on 
those lines4 ,but to have outsiders     
coming in6  ,there is an active press   
campaign against the release of the     
,anarchist ,mac,queen1 and ,i do not    
believe that ,mr4 ,wishart will succeed 
in his endeavors4 ,i think ,mac,queen   
will serve out his five years4  ,the    

plain truth is that no one pretends he  
is in jail on his merits2 he is in jail 
as an example and lesson to any one who 
proposes to come between master and     
immigrant worker in ,paterson4 ,he has  
attacked the system4 ,the people who    
profit by the system1 the people who    
think things are all right as they are1 
have hit back in the most effectual way 
they can1 according to their lights4    
,that1 ,i think1 accounts for the       
sustained quality of the lying in this  
case1 and1 indeed1 for the whole        
situation4 ,he is in jail on principle  
and without personal animus1 just as    
they used to tar and feather the stray  
abolitionist on principle in ,carolina4 
,the policy of stringent discouragement 
is a reasonable one--scoundrelly1 no    
doubt1 but understandable4 ,and ,i think
 ,i can put myself sufficiently into the
 place of the ,paterson masters1 of the 
,trenton judges1 of those journalists1  
of those subordinate officials at       
,washington even1 to understand their   

motives and inducements4 ,i indulge in  
no self-righteous pride4 ,simply1 ,i    
thank ,heaven ,i have not had their     
peculiar temptations4  ,but my riddle   
lies in the attitude of the public--of  
the ,american nation1 which hasn't1 it  
seems1 a spark of moral indignation for 
this sort of thing1 which indeed joins  
in quite cheerfully against the victim4 
,it is ill served by its press1 no      
doubt1 but surely it understands4444    
,,iii  ,maxim ,gorky  ,then ,i assisted 
at the coming of ,maxim ,gorky1 and     
witnessed many intimate details of what 
,professor ,giddings1 that courageous   
publicist1 has called his lynching4     
,here1 again1 is a case ,i fail         
altogether to understand4 ,the surface  
values of that affair have a touch of   
the preposterous4 ,i set them down in   
infinite perplexity4  ,my first week in 
,new ,york was in the period of ,gorky's
 advent4 ,expectation was at a high     
pitch1 and one might have foretold a    
stupendous1 a history-making campaign4  

,the ,american nation seemed            
concentrated upon one great and         
ennobling idea1 the freedom of ,russia1 
and upon ,gorky as the embodiment of    
that idea4 ,a protest was to be made    
against cruelty and violence and        
massacre4 ,that great figure of ,liberty
 with the torch was to make it flare    
visibly half-way round the world1       
reproving tyranny4  ,gorky arrived1 and 
the clat was immense4 ,we dined him1 we 
lunched him1 we were photographed in his
 company by flash-light4 ,i very gladly 
shared that honor1 for ,gorky is not    
only a great master of the art ,i       
practise1 but a splendid personality4   
,he is one of those people to whom the  
camera does no justice1 whose work1 as  
,i know it in an ,english translation1  
forceful as it is1 fails very largely to
 convey his peculiar quality4 ,his is a 
big1 quiet figure2 there is a curious   
power of appeal in his face1 a large    
simplicity in his voice and gesture4 ,he
 was dressed1 when ,i met him1 in       

peasant clothing1 in a belted blue      
shirt1 trousers of some shiny black     
material1 and boots2 and save for a few 
common greetings he has no other        
language than ,russian4 ,so it was      
necessary that he should bring with him 
some one he could trust to interpret him
 to the world4 ,and having1 too1 much of
 the practical helplessness of his type 
of genius1 he could not come without his
 right hand1 that brave and honorable   
lady1 ,madame ,andreieva1 who has been  
now for years in everything but the     
severest legal sense his wife4 ,russia  
has no ,dakota2 and although his legal  
wife has long since found another       
companion1 the ,orthodox ,church in     
,russia has no divorce facilities for   
men in the revolutionary camp4 ,so      
,madame ,andreieva stands to him as     
,george ,eliot stood to ,george ,lewes1 
and ,i suppose the two of them had      
almost forgotten the technical          
illegality of their tie1 until it burst 
upon them and the ,american public in a 

monstrous storm of exposure4  ,it was   
like a summer thunder-storm4 ,at one    
moment ,gorky was in an immense         
sunshine1 a plenipotentiary from        
oppression to liberty1 at the next he   
was being almost literally pelted       
through the streets4  ,i do not know    
what motive actuated a certain section  
of the ,american press to initiate this 
pelting of ,maxim ,gorky4 ,a passion for
 moral purity may perhaps have prompted 
it1 but certainly no passion for purity 
ever before begot so brazen and abundant
 a torrent of lies4 ,it was precisely   
the sort of campaign that damned poor   
,mac,queen1 but this time on an         
altogether imperial scale4 ,the         
irregularity of ,madame ,andreieva's    
position was a mere point of departure4 
,the journalists went on to invent a    
deserted wife and children1 they        
declared ,madame ,andreieva was an      
actress1 and loaded her with all the    
unpleasant implications of that         
unfortunate word2 they spoke of her     

generally as the woman ,andreieva2 they 
called upon the ,commissioner of        
,immigration to deport her as a female  
of bad character2 quite influential     
people wrote to him to that effect2 they
 published the name of the hotel that   
sheltered her1 and organized a boycott4 
,whoever dared to countenance the       
victims was denounced4 ,professor ,dewar
 of ,columbia had given them a          
reception2 ,dewar must go1 said the     
head-lines4 ,mark ,twain1 who had       
assisted in the great welcome1 was      
invited to recant and contribute        
unfriendly comments4 ,the ,gorkys were  
pursued with insult from hotel to hotel4
 ,hotel after hotel turned them out4    
,they found themselves at last1 after   
midnight1 in the streets of ,new ,york  
city with every door closed against     
them4 ,infected persons could not have  
been treated more abominably in a town  
smitten with a panic of plague4  ,this  
change happened in the course of        
twenty-four hours4 ,on one day ,gorky   

was at the zenith1 on the next he had   
been swept from the world4 ,to me it was
 astounding--it was terrifying4 ,i      
wanted to talk to ,gorky about it1 to   
find out the hidden springs of this     
amazing change4 ,i spent a ,sunday      
evening looking for him with an         
ever-deepening respect for the power of 
the ,american press4 ,i had a quaint    
conversation with the clerk of the hotel
 in ,fifth ,avenue from which he had    
first been driven4 ,europeans can       
scarcely hope to imagine the moral      
altitudes at which ,american hotels are 
conducted4444 ,i went thence to seek    
,mr4 ,abraham ,cahan in the ,east ,side1
 and thence to other people ,i knew1 but
 in vain4 ,gorky was obliterated4  ,i   
thought this affair was a whirlwind of  
foolish misunderstanding1 such as may   
happen in any capital1 and that         
presently his entirely tolerable        
relationship would be explained4 ,but   
for all the rest of my time in ,new     
,york this insensate campaign went on4  

,there was no attempt of any importance 
to stem the tide1 and to this day large 
sections of the ,american public must be
 under the impression that this great   
writer is a depraved man of pleasure    
accompanied by a favorite cocotte4 ,the 
writers of paragraphs racked their      
brains to invent new and smart ways of  
insulting ,madame ,andreieva4 ,the      
chaste entertainers of the music-halls  
of the ,tenderloin district introduced  
allusions4 ,and amid this riot of       
personalities ,russia was forgotten4    
,the massacres1 the chaos of cruelty and
 blundering1 the tyranny1 the women     
outraged1 the children tortured and     
slain--all that was forgotten4 ,in      
,boston1 in ,chicago1 it was the same4  
,at the bare suggestion of ,gorky's     
coming the same outbreak occurred1 the  
same display of imbecile gross lying1   
the same absolute disregard of the      
tragic cause he had come to plead4  ,one
 gleam of comedy in this remarkable     
outbreak ,i recall4 ,some one in        

ineffectual protest had asked what      
,americans would have said if ,benjamin 
,franklin had encountered such          
ignominies on his similar mission of    
appeal to ,paris before the ,war of     
,independence4 ,benjamin ,franklin1     
retorted one bright young ,chicago      
journalist1 was a man of very different 
moral character from ,gorky1 and        
proceeded to explain how ,chicago was   
prepared to defend the purity of her    
homes against the invader4 ,benjamin    
,franklin1 it is true1 was a person of  
very different morals from ,gorky--but  
,i don't think that bright young man in 
,chicago had a very sound idea of where 
the difference lay4  ,i spent my last   
evening on ,american soil in the        
hospitable home in ,staten ,island that 
sheltered ,gorky and ,madame ,andreieva4
 ,after dinner we sat together in the   
deepening twilight upon a broad veranda 
that looks out upon one of the most     
beautiful views in the world1 upon      
serene large spaces of land and sea1    

upon slopes of pleasant1 window-lit1    
tree-set wooden houses1 upon the        
glittering clusters of lights1 and the  
black and luminous shipping that comes  
and goes about the ,narrows and the     
,upper ,bay4 ,half masked by a hill     
contour to the left was the light of the
 torch of ,liberty4444 ,gorky's big form
 fell into shadow1 ,madame ,andreieva   
sat at his feet1 translating            
methodically1 sentence by sentence1 into
 clear ,french whatever he said1        
translating our speeches into ,russian4 
,he told us stories--of the soul of the 
,russian1 of ,russian religious sects1  
of kindnesses and cruelties1 of his     
great despair4  ,ever and again1 in the 
pauses1 my eyes would go to where ,new  
,york far away glittered like a brighter
 and more numerous ,pleiades4  ,i gauged
 something of the real magnitude of this
 one man's disappointment1 the immense  
expectation of his arrival1 the         
impossible dream of his mission4 ,he had
 come--the ,russian peasant in person1  

out of a terrific confusion of          
bloodshed1 squalor1 injustice--to tell  
,america1 the land of light and achieved
 freedom1 of all these evil things4 ,she
 would receive him1 help him1 understand
 truly what he meant with his ,rossia4  
,i could imagine how he had felt as he  
came in the big steamer to her1 up that 
large converging display of space and   
teeming energy4 ,there she glowed       
to-night across the water1 a queen among
 cities1 as if indeed she was the light 
of the world4 ,nothing1 ,i think1 can   
ever rob that splendid harbor approach  
of its invincible quality of promise4444
 ,and to him she had shown herself no   
more than the luminous hive of          
multitudes of base and busy1 greedy and 
childish little men4  ,mac,queen in     
jail1 ,gorky with his reputation        
wantonly bludgeoned and flung aside2    
they are just two chance specimens of   
the myriads who have come up this great 
waterway bearing hope and gifts4        
,,chapter ,,xii  ,,the ,,tragedy ,,of   

,,color   ,i  ,harsh ,judgments  ,i seem
 to find the same hastiness and         
something of the same note of harshness 
that strike me in the cases of          
,mac,queen and ,gorky in ,america's     
treatment of her colored population4 ,i 
am aware how intricate1 how             
multitudinous1 the aspects of this      
enormous question have become1 but      
looking at it in the broad and          
transitory manner ,i have proposed for  
myself in these papers1 it does seem to 
present many parallel elements4 ,there  
is the same disposition towards an      
indiscriminating verdict1 the same      
disregard of proportion as between small
 evils and great ones1 the same         
indifference to the fact that the       
question does not stand alone1 but is a 
part1 and this time a by no means small 
part1 in the working out of ,america's  
destinies4  ,in regard to the colored   
population1 just as in regard to the    
great and growing accumulations of      
unassimilated and increasingly unpopular

 ,jews1 and to the great and growing    
multitudes of ,roman ,catholics whose   
special education contradicts at so many
 points those conceptions of individual 
judgment and responsibility upon which  
,america relies1 ,i have attempted time 
after time to get some answer from the  
,americans ,i have met to what is to me 
the most obvious of questions4 ,your    
grandchildren and the grandchildren of  
these people will have to live in this  
country side by side2 do you propose1 do
 you believe it possible1 that under the
 increasing pressure of population and  
competition they should be living then  
in just the same relations that you and 
these people are living now2 if you do  
not1 then what relations do you propose 
shall exist between them8  ,it is not   
too much to say that ,i have never once 
had the beginnings of an answer to this 
question4 ,usually one is told with     
great gravity that the problem of color 
is one of the most difficult that we    
have to consider1 and the conversation  

then breaks up into discursive anecdotes
 and statements about black people4 ,one
 man will dwell upon the uncontrollable 
violence of a black man's evil passions 
7in ,jamaica and ,barbadoes colored     
people form an overwhelming proportion  
of the population1 and they have behaved
 in an exemplary fashion for the last   
thirty years72 another will dilate upon 
the incredible stupidity of the         
full-blooded negro 7during my stay in   
,new ,york the prize for oratory at     
,columbia ,university1 oratory which was
 the one redeeming charm of ,daniel     
,webster1 was awarded to a ,zulu of     
unmitigated blackness72 a third will    
speak of his physical offensiveness1 his
 peculiar smell which necessitates his  
social isolation 7most well-to-do       
,southerners are brought up by negro    
mammies72 others1 again1 will enter upon
 the painful history of the years that  
followed the war1 though it seems a     
foolish thing to let those wrongs of the
 past dominate the outlook for the      

future4 ,and one charming ,southern lady
 expressed the attitude of mind of a    
whole class very completely1 ,i think1  
when she said1 ,you have to be one of us
 to feel this question at all as it     
ought to be felt4  ,there1 ,i think1 ,i 
got something tangible4 ,these emotions 
are a cult4  ,my globe-trotting         
impudence will seem1 no doubt1 to mount 
to its zenith when ,i declare that      
hardly any ,americans at all seem to be 
in possession of the elementary facts in
 relation to this question4 ,these broad
 facts are not taught1 as of course they
 ought to be taught1 in school2 and what
 each man knows is picked up by the     
accidents of his own untrained          
observation1 by conversation always     
tinctured by personal prejudice1 by     
hastily read newspapers and magazine    
articles and the like4 ,the quality of  
this discussion is very variable1 but on
 the whole pretty low4 ,while ,i was in 
,new ,york opinion was greatly swayed by
 an article in1 if ,i remember rightly1 

the ,century ,magazine1 by a gentleman  
who had deduced from a few weeks'       
observation in the slums of ,khartoum   
the entire incapacity of the negro to   
establish a civilization of his own4 ,he
 never had1 therefore he never could2 a 
discouraging ratiocination4 ,we         
,english1 a century or so ago1 said all 
these things of the native ,irish4 ,if  
there is any trend of opinion at all in 
this matter at present1 it lies in the  
direction of a generous decision on the 
part of the ,north and ,west to leave   
the black more and more to the judgment 
and mercy of the white people with whom 
he is locally associated4 ,this judgment
 and mercy points1 on the whole1 to an  
accentuation of the colored man's       
natural inferiority1 to the cessation of
 any other educational attempts than    
those that increase his industrial      
usefulness 7it is already illegal in    
,louisiana to educate him above a       
contemptible level71 to his industrial  
exploitation through usury and legal    

chicanery1 and to a systematic          
strengthening of the social barriers    
between colored people of whatever shade
 and the whites4  ,meanwhile1 in this   
state of general confusion1 in the      
absence of any determining rules or     
assumptions1 all sorts of things are    
happening--according to the accidents of
 local feeling4 ,in ,massachusetts you  
have people with1 ,i am afraid1 an      
increasing sense of sacrifice to        
principle1 lunching and dining with     
people of color4 ,they do it less than  
they did1 ,i was told4 ,massachusetts   
stands1 ,i believe1 at the top of the   
scale of tolerant humanity4 ,one seems  
to reach the bottom at ,springfield1    
,missouri1 which is a county seat with a
 college1 an academy1 a high school1 and
 a zoological garden4 ,there the        
exemplary method reaches the nadir4     
,last ,april three unfortunate negroes  
were burned to death1 apparently because
 they were negroes1 and as a general    
corrective of impertinence4 ,they seem  

to have been innocent of any particular 
offence4 ,it was a sort of racial       
sacrament4 ,the edified ,sunday-school  
children hurried from their             
gospel-teaching to search for souvenirs 
among the ashes1 and competed with great
 spirit for a fragment of charred skull4
  ,it is true that in this latter case  
,governor ,folk acted with vigor and    
justice1 and that the better element of 
,springfield society was evidently      
shocked when it was found that quite    
innocent negroes had been used in these 
instructive pyrotechnics2 but the fact  
remains that a large and numerically    
important section of the ,american      
public does think that fierce and cruel 
reprisals are a necessary part of the   
system of relationships between white   
and colored man4 ,in our dispersed      
,british community we have almost       
exactly the same range between our      
better attitudes and our worse--,i'm    
making no claim of national superiority4
 ,in ,london1 perhaps1 we out-do        

,massachusetts in liberality2 in the    
,national ,liberal ,club or the ,reform 
a black man meets all the courtesies of 
humanity--as though there was no such   
thing as color4 ,but1 on the other hand1
 the ,cape won't bear looking into for a
 moment4 ,the same conditions give the  
same results2 a half-educated white     
population of ,british or ,dutch or     
,german ingredients greedy for gain1 ill
 controlled and feebly influenced1 in   
contact with a black population1 is     
bound to reproduce the same brutal and  
stupid aggressions1 the same half-honest
 prejudices to justify those            
aggressions1 the same ugly1 mean        
excuses4 ,things are better in ,jamaica 
and ,barbadoes1 said ,i1 in a moment of 
patriotic weakness1 to ,mr4 ,booker ,t4 
,washington4  ,eh6 said he1 and thought 
in that long silent way he has4444      
,they're worse in ,south ,africa--much4 
,here we've got a sort of light4 ,we    
know generally what we've got to stand4 
,there--  ,his words sent my memory back

 to some conversations ,i had quite     
recently with a man from a dry-goods    
store in ,johannesburg4 ,he gave me     
clearly enough the attitude of the      
common white out there2 the dull        
prejudice2 the readiness to take        
advantage of the boy2 the utter         
disrespect for colored womankind2 the   
savage1 intolerant resentment1 dashed   
dangerously with fear1 which the native 
arouses in him4 7,think of all that must
 have happened in wrongful practice and 
wrongful law and neglected educational  
possibilities before our ,zulus in      
,natal were goaded to face massacre1    
spear against rifle67 ,the rare and     
culminating result of education and     
experience is to enable men to grasp    
facts1 to balance justly among their    
fluctuating and innumerable aspects1 and
 only a small minority in our world is  
educated to that pitch4 ,ignorant people
 can think only in types and            
abstractions1 can achieve only emphatic 
absolute decisions1 and when the        

commonplace ,american or the commonplace
 colonial ,briton sets to work to think 
over the negro problem1 he instantly    
banishes most of the material evidence  
from his mind--clears for action1 as it 
were4 ,he forgets the genial carriage of
 the ordinary colored man1 his beaming  
face1 his kindly eye1 his rich1 jolly   
voice1 his touching and trusted         
friendliness1 his amiable1 unprejudiced 
readiness to serve and follow a white   
man who seems to know what he is doing4 
,he forgets--perhaps he has never       
seen--the dear humanity of these people1
 their slightly exaggerated vanity1     
their innocent and delightful love of   
color and song1 their immense capacity  
for affection1 the warm romantic touch  
in their imaginations4 ,he ignores the  
real fineness of the indolence that     
despises servile toil1 of the           
carelessness that disdains the watchful 
aggressive economies1 day by day1 now a 
wretched little gain here and now a     
wretched little gain there1 that make   

the dirty fortune of the ,russian ,jews 
who prey upon color in the ,carolinas4  
,no2 in the place of all these tolerable
 every-day experiences he lets his      
imagination go to work upon a monster1  
the real nigger4  ,ah6 ,you don't know  
the real nigger1 said one ,american to  
me when ,i praised the colored people ,i
 had seen4 ,you should see the buck     
nigger down ,south1 ,congo brand4 ,then 
you'd understand1 sir4  ,his voice1 his 
face had a gleam of passionate          
animosity4  ,one could see he had been  
brooding himself out of all relations to
 reality in this matter4 ,he was a man  
beyond reason or pity4 ,he was obsessed4
 ,hatred of that imaginary diabolical   
buck nigger blackened his soul4 ,it was 
no good to talk to him of the buck      
,american1 ,packingtown brand1 or the   
buck ,englishman1 suburban race-meeting 
type1 and to ask him if these intensely 
disagreeable persons justified outrages 
on ,senator ,lodge1 let us say1 or ,mrs4
 ,longworth4 ,no reply would have come  

from him4 ,you don't understand the     
question1 he would have answered4 ,you  
don't know how we ,southerners feel4    
,well1 one can make a tolerable guess4  
,,ii  ,the ,white ,strain  ,i certainly 
did not begin to realize one most       
important aspect of this question until 
,i reached ,america4 ,i thought of those
 eight millions as of men1 black as ink4
 ,but when ,i met ,mr4 ,booker ,t4      
,washington1 for example1 ,i met a man  
certainly as white in appearance as our 
,admiral ,fisher1 who is1 as a matter of
 fact1 quite white4 ,a very large       
proportion of these colored people1     
indeed1 is more than half white4 ,one   
hears a good deal about the high social 
origins of the ,southern planters1 very 
many derive indisputably from the first 
families of ,england4 ,it is the same   
blood flows in these mixed colored      
people's veins4 ,just think of the      
sublime absurdity1 therefore1 of the    
ban4 ,there are gentlemen of education  
and refinement1 qualified lawyers and   

doctors1 whose ancestors assisted in the
 ,norman ,conquest1 and they dare not   
enter a car marked white and intrude    
upon the dignity of the rising          
loan-monger from ,esthonia4 ,for them   
the ,jim ,crow car4444  ,one tries to   
put that aspect to the ,american in     
vain4 ,these people1 you say1 are nearer
 your blood1 nearer your temper1 than   
any of those bright-eyed1 ringleted     
immigrants on the ,east ,side4 ,are you 
ashamed of your poor relations8 ,even if
 you don't like the half1 or the quarter
 of negro blood1 you might deal civilly 
with the three-quarters white4 ,it      
doesn't say much for your faith in your 
own racial prepotency1 anyhow4444  ,the 
answer to that is usually in terms of   
mania4  ,let me tell you a little story 
just to illustrate1 said one deponent to
 me in an impressive undertone--just to 
illustrate1 you know4444 ,a few years   
ago a young fellow came to ,boston from 
,new ,orleans4 ,looked all right4       
,dark--but he explained that by an      

,italian grandmother4 ,touch of ,french 
in him1 too4 ,popular4 ,well1 he made   
advances to a ,boston girl--good family4
 ,gave a fairly straight account of     
himself4 ,married4  ,he paused4 ,course 
of time--offspring4 ,little son4  ,his  
eye made me feel what was coming4  ,was 
it by any chance very1 very black8 ,i   
whispered4  ,yes1 sir4 ,black6 ,black as
 your hat4 ,absolutely negroid4         
,projecting jaw1 thick lips1 frizzy     
hair1 flat nose--everything4444  ,but   
consider the mother's feelings1 sir1    
consider that6 ,a pure-minded1 pure     
white woman6  ,what can one say to a    
story of this sort1 when the taint in   
the blood surges up so powerfully as to 
blacken the child at birth beyond even  
the habit of the pure-blooded negro8    
,what can you do with a public opinion  
made of this class of ingredient8 ,and  
this story of the lamentable results of 
intermarriage was used1 not as an       
argument against intermarriage1 but as  
an argument against the extension of    

quite rudimentary civilities to the men 
of color4 ,if you eat with them1 you've 
got to marry them1 he said1 an entirely 
fabulous post-prandial responsibility4  
,it is to the tainted whites my         
sympathies go out4 ,the black or mainly 
black people seem to be fairly content  
with their inferiority2 one sees them   
all about the ,states as waiters1       
cab-drivers1 railway porters1 car       
attendants1 laborers of various sorts1 a
 pleasant1 smiling1 acquiescent folk4   
,but consider the case of a man with a  
broader brain than such small uses need1
 conscious1 perhaps1 of exceptional     
gifts1 capable of wide interests and    
sustained attempts1 who is perhaps as   
,english as you or ,i1 with just a touch
 of color in his eyes1 in his lips1 in  
his fingernails1 and in his imagination4
 ,think of the accumulating sense of    
injustice he must bear with him through 
life1 the perpetual slight and insult he
 must undergo from all that is vulgar   
and brutal among the whites6 ,something 

of that one may read in the sorrowful   
pages of ,du ,bois's ,the ,souls of     
,black ,folk4 ,they would have made     
,alexandre ,dumas travel in the ,jim    
,crow car if he had come to ,virginia4  
,but ,i can imagine some sort of protest
 on the part of that admirable but      
extravagant man4444 ,they even talk of  
,jim ,crow elevators now in ,southern   
hotels4  ,at ,hull ,house1 in ,chicago1 
,i was present at a conference of       
colored people--,miss ,jane ,addams     
efficiently in control--to consider the 
coming of a vexatious play1 ,the        
,clansman1 which seems to have been     
written and produced entirely to        
exacerbate racial feeling4 ,both men and
 women were present1 business people1   
professional men1 and their wives2 the  
speaking was clear1 temperate1 and      
wonderfully to the point1 high above the
 level of any ,british town council ,i  
have ever attended4 ,one lady would have
 stood out as capable and charming in   
any sort of public discussion in        

,england--though we are not wanting in  
good women speakers--and she was at     
least three-quarters black4444  ,and    
while ,i was in ,chicago1 too1 ,i went  
to the ,peking ,theatre--a coon         
music-hall--and saw something of a lower
 level of colored life4 ,the common     
white1 ,i must explain1 delights in     
calling colored people coons1 and the   
negro1 so far as ,i could learn1 uses no
 retaliatory word4 ,it was a variety    
entertainment1 with one turn1 at least1 
of quite distinguished merit1           
good-humored and brisk throughout4 ,i   
watched keenly1 and ,i could detect     
nothing of that trail of base suggestion
 one would find as a matter of course in
 a music-hall in such ,english towns as 
,brighton and ,portsmouth4 ,what one    
heard of kissing and love-making was    
quite artless and simple indeed4 ,the   
negro1 it seemed to me1 did this sort of
 thing with a better grace and a better 
temper than a ,londoner1 and shows1 ,i  
think1 a finer self-respect4 ,he thinks 

more of deportment1 he bears himself    
more elegantly by far than the white at 
the same social level4 ,the audience    
reminded me of the sort of gathering one
 would find in a theatre in ,camden     
,town or ,hoxton4 ,there were a number  
of family groups1 the girls brightly    
dressed1 and young couples quite of the 
,london music-hall type4 ,clothing ran  
smart1 but not smarter than it would be 
among fairly prosperous north ,london   
,jews4 ,there was no                    
gallery--socially--no collection of     
orange-eating1 interrupting hooligans at
 all4 ,nobody seemed cross1 nobody      
seemed present for vicious purposes1 and
 everybody was sober4 ,indeed1 there and
 elsewhere ,i took and confirmed a      
mighty liking to these gentle1 human1   
dark-skinned people4   ,,iii  ,mr4      
,booker ,t4 ,washington  ,but whatever  
aspect ,i recall of this great taboo    
that shows no signs of lifting1 of this 
great problem of the future that        
,america in her haste1 her              

indiscriminating prejudice1 her lack of 
any sustained study and teaching of the 
broad issues she must decide1           
complicates and intensifies1 and makes  
threatening1 there presently comes back 
to mind the browned face of ,mr4 ,booker
 ,t4 ,washington1 as he talked to me    
over our lunch in ,boston4  ,he has a   
face rather ,irish in type1 and the soft
 slow negro voice4 ,he met my regard    
with the brown sorrowful eyes of his    
race4 ,he wanted very much that ,i      
should hear him make a speech1 because  
then his words came better2 he talked1  
he implied1 with a certain difficulty4  
,but ,i preferred to have his talking1  
and get not the orator--every one tells 
me he is an altogether great orator in  
this country where oratory is still     
esteemed--but the man4  ,he answered my 
questions meditatively4 ,i wanted to    
know with an active pertinacity4 ,what  
struck me most was the way in which his 
sense of the overpowering forces of race
 prejudice weighs upon him4 ,it is a    

thing he accepts2 in our time and       
conditions it is not to be fought about4
 ,he makes one feel with an exaggerated 
intensity 7though ,i could not even draw
 him to admit7 its monstrous injustice4 
,he makes no accusations4 ,he is for    
taking it as a part of the present fate 
of his people1 and for doing all that   
can be done for them within the limit it
 sets4  ,therein he differs from ,du    
,bois1 the other great spokesman color  
has found in our time4 ,du ,bois1 is    
more of the artist1 less of the         
statesman2 he conceals his passionate   
resentment all too thinly4 ,he batters  
himself into rhetoric against these     
walls4 ,he will not repudiate the clear 
right of the black man to every         
educational facility1 to equal          
citizenship1 and equal respect4 ,but    
,mr4 ,washington has statecraft4 ,he    
looks before and after1 and plans and   
keeps his counsel with the scope and    
range of a statesman4 ,i use statesman  
in its highest sense2 his is a mind that

 can grasp the situation and destinies  
of a people4 ,after ,i had talked to him
 ,i went back to my club1 and found     
there an ,english newspaper with a      
report of the opening debate upon ,mr4  
,birrell's ,education ,bill4 ,it was    
like turning from the discussion of life
 and death to a dispute about the dregs 
in the bottom of a tea-cup somebody had 
neglected to wash up in ,victorian      
times4  ,i argued strongly against the  
view he seems to hold that black and    
white might live without mingling and   
without injustice1 side by side4 ,that  
,i do not believe4 ,racial differences  
seem to me always to exasperate         
intercourse unless people have been     
elaborately trained to ignore them4     
,uneducated men are as bad as cattle in 
persecuting all that is different among 
themselves4 ,the most miserable and     
disorderly countries of the world are   
the countries where two races1 two      
inadequate cultures1 keep a jarring1    
continuous separation4 ,you must        

repudiate separation1 ,i said4 ,no      
peoples have ever yet endured the       
tension of intermingled distinctness4   
,may we not become a peculiar           
people--like the ,jews8 he suggested4   
,isn't that possible8  ,but there ,i    
could not agree with him4 ,i thought of 
the dreadful history of the ,jews and   
,armenians4 ,and the negro cannot do    
what the ,jews and ,armenians have done4
 ,the colored people of ,america are of 
a different quality from the ,jew       
altogether1 more genial1 more careless1 
more sympathetic1 franker1 less         
intellectual1 less acquisitive1 less    
wary and restrained--in a word1 more    
,occidental4 ,they have no common       
religion and culture1 no conceit of race
 to hold them together4 ,the ,jews make 
a ghetto for themselves wherever they   
go2 no law but their own solidarity has 
given ,america the ,east ,side4 ,the    
colored people are ready to disperse and
 inter-breed1 are not a community at all
 in the ,jewish sense1 but outcasts from

 a community4 ,they are the victims of a
 prejudice that has to be destroyed4    
,these things ,i urged1 but it was1 ,i  
think1 empty speech to my hearer4 ,i    
could talk lightly of destroying that   
prejudice1 but he knew better4 ,it is   
the central fact of his life1 a law of  
his being4 ,he has shaped all his       
projects and policy upon that4          
,exclusion is inevitable4 ,so he dreams 
of a colored race of decent and         
inaggressive men silently giving the lie
 to all the legend of their degradation4
 ,they will have their own doctors1     
their own lawyers1 their own            
capitalists1 their own banks--because   
the whites desire it so4 ,but will the  
uneducated whites endure even so        
submissive a vindication as that8 ,will 
they suffer the horrid spectacle of free
 and self-satisfied negroes in decent   
clothing on any terms without           
resentment8  ,he explained how at the   
,tuskegee ,institute they make useful   
men1 skilled engineers1 skilled         

agriculturalists1 men to live down the  
charge of practical incompetence1 of    
ignorant and slovenly farming and house 
management4444  ,i wish you would tell  
me1 ,i said1 abruptly1 just what you    
think of the attitude of white ,america 
towards you4 ,do you think it is        
generous8  ,he regarded me for a moment4
 ,no end of people help us1 he said4    
,yes1 ,i said2 but the ordinary man4 ,is
 he fair8  ,some things are not fair1 he
 said1 leaving the general question     
alone4 ,it isn't fair to refuse a       
colored man a berth on a sleeping-car4  
,i8--,i happen to be a privileged       
person1 they make an exception for me2  
but the ordinary educated colored man   
isn't admitted to a sleeping-car at all4
 ,if he has to go a long journey1 he has
 to sit up all night4 ,his white        
competitor sleeps4 ,then in some places1
 in the hotels and restaurants--,it's   
all right here in ,boston--but          
southwardly he can't get proper         
refreshments4 ,all that's a handicap4444

  ,the remedy lies in education1 he     
said2 ours--and theirs4  ,the real      
thing1 he told me1 isn't to be done by  
talking and agitation4 ,it's a matter of
 lives4 ,the only answer to it all is   
for colored men to be patient1 to make  
themselves competent1 to do good work1  
to live well1 to give no occasion       
against us4 ,we feel that4 ,in a way    
it's an inspiration4444  ,there is a man
 here in ,boston1 a negro1 who owns and 
runs some big stores1 employs all sorts 
of people1 deals justly4 ,that man has  
done more good for our people than all  
the eloquence or argument in the        
world4444 ,that is what we have to      
do--it is all we can do4444  ,whatever  
,america has to show in heroic living   
to-day1 ,i doubt if she can show        
anything finer than the quality of the  
resolve1 the steadfast effort hundreds  
of black and colored men are making     
to-day to live blamelessly1 honorably1  
and patiently1 getting for themselves   
what scraps of refinement1 learning1 and

 beauty they may1 keeping their hold on 
a civilization they are grudged and     
denied4 ,they do it not for themselves  
only1 but for all their race4 ,each     
educated colored man is an ambassador to
 civilization4 ,they know they have a   
handicap1 that they are not             
exceptionally brilliant nor clever      
people4 ,yet every such man stands1 one 
likes to think1 aware of his            
representative and vicarious character1 
fighting against foul imaginations1     
misrepresentations1 injustice1 insult1  
and the nave unspeakable meannesses of  
base antagonists4 ,every one of them who
 keeps decent and honorable does a      
little to beat that opposition down4    
,but the patience the negro needs6 ,he  
may not even look contempt4 ,he must    
admit superiority in those whose daily  
conduct to him is the clearest evidence 
of moral inferiority4 ,we sympathetic   
whites1 indeed1 may claim honor for him2
 if he is wise he will be silent under  
our advocacy4 ,he must go to and fro    

self-controlled1 bereft of all the      
equalities that the great flag of       
,america proclaims--that flag for whose 
united empire his people fought and     
died1 giving place and precedence to the
 strangers who pour in to share its     
beneficence1 strangers ignorant even of 
its tongue4 ,that he must do--and wait4 
,the ,welsh1 the ,irish1 the ,poles1 the
 white ,south1 the indefatigable ,jews  
may cherish grievances and rail aloud4  
,he must keep still4 ,they may be       
hysterical1 revengeful1 threatening1 and
 perverse2 their wrongs excuse them4    
,for him there is no excuse4 ,and of all
 the races upon earth1 which has        
suffered such wrongs as this negro blood
 that is still imputed to him as a sin8 
,these people who disdain him1 who have 
no sense of reparation towards him1 have
 sinned against him beyond all          
measure4444  ,no1 ,i can't help         
idealizing the dark submissive figure of
 the negro in this spectacle of         
,america4 ,he1 too1 seems to me to sit  

waiting--and waiting with a marvellous  
and simple-minded patience--for finer   
understandings and a nobler time4       
,,chapter ,,xiii  ,,the ,,mind ,,of ,a  
,,modern ,,state   ,i  ,recapitulatory  
,i do not know if ,i am conveying to any
 extent the picture of ,america as ,i   
see it1 the vast rich various continent1
 the gigantic energetic process of      
development1 the acquisitive successes1 
the striving failures1 the multitudes of
 those rising and falling who come      
between1 all set in a texture of        
spacious countryside1 animate with      
pleasant timber homes1 of clangorous    
towns that bristle to the skies1 of     
great exploitation districts and crowded
 factories1 of wide deserts and         
mine-torn mountains1 and huge half-tamed
 rivers4 ,i have tried to make the note 
of immigration grow slowly to a         
dominating significance in this         
panorama1 and with that1 to make more   
and more evident my sense of the need of
 a creative assimilation1 the cry for   

synthetic effort1 lest all this great   
being1 this splendid promise of a new   
world1 should decay into a vast         
unprogressive stagnation of unhappiness 
and disorder4 ,i have hinted at failures
 and cruelties1 ,i have put into the    
accumulating details of my vision1      
children ,america blights1 men she      
crushes1 fine hopes she disappoints and 
destroys4 ,i have found a place for the 
questioning figure of the ,south1 the   
sorrowful interrogation of the outcast  
colored people4 ,these are but the      
marginal shadows of a process in its    
totality magnificent1 but they exist1   
they go on to mingle in her destinies4  
,then ,i have tried to show1 too1 the   
conception ,i have formed of the great  
skein of industrial competition that has
 been tightening and becoming more and  
more involved through all this          
century-long age1 the age of blind      
growth1 that draws now towards its end2 
until the process threatens to throttle 
individual freedom and individual       

enterprise altogether4 ,and of a great  
mental uneasiness and discontent1       
unprecedented in the history of the     
,american mind1 that promises in the    
near future some general and conscious  
endeavor to arrest this unanticipated   
strangulation of freedom and free       
living1 some widespread struggle1 of ,i 
know not what constructive power1 with  
the stains and disorders and indignities
 that oppress and grow larger in the    
national consciousness4 ,i perceive more
 and more that in coming to ,america ,i 
have chanced upon a time of peculiar    
significance4 ,the note of              
disillusionment sounds everywhere4      
,america1 for the first time in her     
history1 is taking thought about        
herself1 and ridding herself of         
long-cherished illusions4 ,i have       
already mentioned 7in ,chapter ,,viii47 
the memorable literature of             
self-examination that has come into     
being during the last decade4 ,hitherto 
,american thought has been              

extraordinarily localized2 there has    
been no national press1 in the sense    
that the press of ,london or ,paris is  
national4 ,americans knew of ,america as
 a whole1 mainly as the flag4 ,beneath  
the flag ,america is lost among         
constituent ,states and cities4 ,all her
 newspapers have been1 by ,english      
standards1 local papers1 preoccupied by 
local affairs1 and taking an intensely  
localized point of view4 ,a national    
newspaper for ,america would be         
altogether too immense an enterprise4   
,only since #ahif1 and in the form of   
weekly and monthly ten-cent magazines1  
have the rudiments of a national medium 
of expression appeared1 and appeared to 
voice strange pregnant doubts4 ,i had an
 interesting talk with ,mr4 ,brisben    
,walker upon this new development4 ,to  
him the first ten-cent magazine1 ,the   
,cosmopolitan1 was due1 and he was      
naturally glad to tell me of the growth 
of this vehicle4 ,to-day there is an    
aggregate circulation of ten millions of

 these magazines2 they supply fiction1  
no doubt1 and much of light interesting 
ephemeral matter1 but not one of them is
 without its element of grave public    
discussion4 ,i do not wish to make too  
much of this particular development1 but
 regard it as a sign of new interests1  
of keen curiosities4  ,now ,i must      
confess when ,i consider this ocean of  
readers ,i find the fears ,i have       
expressed of some analogical development
 of ,american affairs towards the       
stagnant commercialism of ,china1 or    
towards a plutocratic imperialism and   
decadence of the ,roman type1 look      
singularly flimsy4 ,upon its present    
lines1 and supposing there were no new  
sources of mental supply and energy1 ,i 
do firmly believe that ,america might   
conceivably come more and more under the
 control of a tacitly organized and     
exhausting plutocracy1 be swamped by a  
swelling tide of ignorant and           
unassimilable labor immigrants1 decline 
towards violence and social misery1 fall

 behind ,europe in education and        
intelligence1 and cease to lead         
civilization4 ,in such a decay ,csarism 
would be a most probable and natural    
phase1 ,csarism and a splitting into    
contending ,csarisms4 ,come but a little
 sinking from intelligence towards      
coarseness and passion1 and the ,south  
will yet endeavor to impose servitude   
anew upon its colored people1 or        
secede--that trouble is not yet over4 ,a
 little darkening and impoverishment of 
outlook and ,new ,york would split from 
,new ,england1 and ,colorado from the   
,east4 ,an illiterate1 short-sighted    
,america would be ,america doomed4 ,but 
,america is not illiterate2 there are   
these great unprecedented reservoirs of 
intelligence and understanding1 these   
millions of people who follow the       
process with an increasing              
comprehension4 ,it is these millions of 
readers who make the ,american problem1 
and the problem of ,europe and the world
 to-day1 unique and incalculable1 who   

provide a cohesive and reasonable and   
pacifying medium the ,old ,world did not
 know4   ,,ii  ,birth ,struggles of a   
,common ,mind  ,you see1 my hero in the 
confused drama of human life is         
intelligence2 intelligence inspired by  
constructive passion4 ,there is a       
demi-god imprisoned in mankind4 ,all    
human history presents itself to me as  
the unconscious or half-unconscious     
struggle of human thought to emerge from
 the sightless interplay of instinct1   
individual passion1 prejudice1 and      
ignorance4 ,one sees this diviner       
element groping after law and order and 
fine arrangement1 like a thing blind and
 half-buried1 in ancient ,egypt1 in     
ancient ,juda1 in ancient ,greece4 ,it  
embodies its purpose in religions1      
invents the disciplines of morality1 the
 reminders of ritual4 ,it loses itself  
and becomes confused4 ,it wearies and   
rests4 ,in ,plato1 for the first time1  
one discovers it conscious and          
open-eyed1 trying1 indeed1 to take hold 

of life and control it4 ,then it goes   
under1 and becomes again a convulsive   
struggle1 an inco-ordinated gripping and
 leaving1 a muttering of literature and 
art1 until the coming of our own times4 
,most painful and blundering of         
demi-gods it seems through all that     
space of years1 with closed eyes and    
feverish effort4 ,and now again it is   
clear to the minds of many men that they
 may lay hold upon and control the      
destiny of their kind4444  ,it is       
strange1 it is often grotesque to mark  
how the reviving racial consciousness   
finds expression to-day4 ,now it        
startles itself into a new phase of     
self-knowledge by striking a note from  
this art1 and now by striking one from  
that4 ,it breaks out in fiction that is 
ostensibly written only to amuse1 it    
creeps into after-dinner discussions1   
and invades a press which is            
economically no more than a system of   
advertisement sheets proclaiming the    
price of the thing that is4 ,presently  

it is on the stage2 the music-hall even 
is not safe from it4 ,youths walk in the
 streets to-day1 talking together of    
things that were once the ultimate      
speculation of philosophy4 ,i am no     
contemner of the present4 ,to me it     
appears a time of immense and wonderful 
beginnings4 ,new ideas are organizing   
themselves out of the little limited    
efforts of innumerable men4 ,never was  
there an age so intellectually prolific 
and abundant as this in the aggregate   
is4 ,it is true1 indeed1 that we who    
write and think and investigate to-day1 
present nothing to compare with the     
magnificent reputations and intensely   
individualized achievements of the      
impressive personalities of the past4   
,none the less is it true that taken all
 together we signify infinitely more4   
,we no longer pose ourselves for        
admiration1 high priests and princes of 
letters in a world of finite            
achievement2 we admit ourselves no more 
than pages bearing the train of a       

,queen--but a ,queen of limitless power4
 ,the knowledge we co-ordinate1 the     
ideas we build together1 the growing    
blaze in which we are willingly         
consumed1 are wider and higher and      
richer in promise than anything the     
world has had before4444  ,when one     
takes count of the forces of            
intelligence upon which we may rely in  
the great conflict against matter1 brute
 instinct1 and individualistic disorder1
 to make the new social state1 when we  
consider the organizing forms that      
emerge already from the general vague   
confusion1 we find apparent in every    
modern state three chief series of      
developments4 ,there is first the       
thinking and investigatory elements that
 grow constantly more important in our  
university life1 the enlarging          
recognition of the need of a systematic 
issue of university publications1 books1
 periodicals1 and of sustained and      
fertilizing discussion4 ,then there is  
the greater1 cruder1 and bolder sea of  

mental activities outside academic      
limits1 the amateurs1 the free lances of
 thought and inquiry1 the writers and   
artists1 the innumerable                
ill-disciplined1 untrained1 but         
interested and well-meaning people who  
write and talk4 ,they find their medium 
in contemporary literature1 in          
journalism1 in organizations for the    
propaganda of opinion4 ,and1 thirdly1   
there is the immense1 nearly universally
 diffused system of education which1    
inadequately enough1 serves to spread   
the new ideas as they are elaborated1   
which does1 at any rate by its          
preparatory work1 render them           
accessible4 ,all these new              
manifestations of mind embody themselves
 in material forms1 in class-rooms and  
laboratories1 in libraries1 and a vast  
machinery of book and newspaper         
production and distribution4  ,consider 
the new universities that spring up all 
over ,america4 ,almost imperceptibly    
throughout the past century1 little by  

little1 the conception of a university  
has changed1 until now it is nearly     
altogether changed4 ,the old-time       
university was a collection of learned  
men2 it believed that all the           
generalizations had been made1 all the  
fundamental things said2 it had no      
vistas towards the future2 it existed   
for teaching and exercises1 and more    
than half implied what ,dr4 ,johnson1   
for example1 believed1 that secular     
degeneration was the rule of human life4
 ,all that1 you know1 has gone2 every   
university1 even ,oxford 7though1 poor  
pretentious dear1 she still professes to
 read and think metaphysics in the      
original ,greek7 admits the conception  
of a philosophy that progresses1 that   
broadens and intensifies1 age by age4   
,but to come to ,america is to come to a
 country far more alive to the thinking 
and knowledge-making function of        
universities than ,great ,britain4 ,one 
splendidly endowed foundation1 the      
,johns ,hopkins ,university1 ,baltimore1

 exists only for research1 and that was 
the first intention of ,chicago         
,university also4 ,in sociology1 in     
pedagogics1 in social psychology1 these 
vital sciences for the modern state1    
,america is producing an amount of work 
which1 however trivial in proportion to 
the task before her1 is at any rate     
immense in comparison with our own      
,british output4444   ,,iii  ,columbia  
,university  ,i did my amateurish and   
transitory best to see something of the 
,american universities4 ,there was      
,columbia4 ,thither ,i went with a      
letter to ,professor ,giddings1 whose   
sociological writings are world famous4 
,i found him busy with a secretary in a 
businesslike little room1 stowed away   
somewhere under the dome of the         
magnificent building of the university  
library4 ,he took me round the opulent  
spaces1 the fine buildings of           
,columbia4444 ,i suppose it is          
inevitable that a visitor should see the
 constituents of a university out of    

proportion1 but ,i came away with an    
impression overwhelmingly architectural4
 ,the library dome1 ,i confess1 was     
fine1 and the desks below well filled   
with students1 the books were abundant1 
well arranged1 and well tended4 ,but ,i 
recall marble staircases1 ,i recall     
great wastes of marble steps1 ,i recall1
 in particular1 students' baths of      
extraordinary splendor1 and ,i do not   
recall anything like an equivalent      
effect of large leisure and dignity for 
intellectual men4 ,professor ,giddings  
seemed driven and busy1 the few men ,i  
met there appeared all to have a lot of 
immediate work to do4 ,it occurred to me
 in ,columbia1 as it occurred to me     
later in the ,university of ,chicago1   
that the disposition of the university  
founder is altogether too much towards  
buildings and memorial inscriptions1 and
 all too little towards the more        
difficult and far more valuable end of  
putting men of pre-eminent ability into 
positions of stimulated leisure4 ,this  

is not a distinctly ,american effect4   
,in ,oxford1 just as much as in         
,columbia1 nay1 far more6 you find stone
 and student lording it over the        
creative mental thing2 the dons go about
 like some sort of little short-coated  
parasite1 pointing respectfully to tower
 and faade1 which have1 in truth1 no    
reason for existing except to shelter   
them4 ,columbia is almost as badly off  
for means of publication as ,oxford1 and
 quite as poor in inducements towards   
creative work4 ,professors talk in an   
altogether ,british way of getting work 
done in the vacation4  ,moreover1 there 
was an effect of remoteness about       
,columbia4 ,it may have been the quality
 of a blue still morning of sunshine    
that invaded my impression4 ,i came up  
out of the crowded tumult of ,new ,york 
to it1 with a sense of the hooting1     
hurrying traffics of the wide harbor1   
the teeming ,east ,side1 the glitter of 
spending1 the rush of finance1 the whole
 headlong process of ,america1 behind   

me4 ,i came out of the subway station   
into wide still streets4 ,it was very   
spacious1 very dignified1 very quiet4   
,well1 ,i want the universities of the  
modern state to be more aggressive4 ,i  
want to think of a ,columbia ,university
 of a less detached appearance1 even if 
she is less splendidly clad4 ,i want to 
think of her as sitting up there1 cheek 
on hand1 with knitted brows1 brooding   
upon the millions below4 ,i want to     
think of all the best minds conceivable 
going to and fro--thoughts and purposes 
in her organized mind4 ,and when she    
speaks that busy world should listen4444
  ,as a matter of fact1 much of that    
busy world still regards a professor as 
something between a dealer in scientific
 magic and a crank1 and a university as 
an institution every good ,american     
should be honestly proud of and avoid4  
,,iv  ,harvard  ,harvard1 too1 is       
detached1 though not quite with the same
 immediacy of contrast4 ,harvard        
reminded me very much of my first       

impressions of ,oxford4 ,one was taken  
about in the same way to see this or    
that point of view4 ,much of ,harvard is
 ,georgian red brick1 that must have    
seemed very ripe and venerable until a  
year or so ago one bitter winter killed 
all the ,english ivy4 ,there are        
students' clubs1 after the fashion of   
the ,oxford ,union1 but finer and better
 equipped2 there is an amazing ,germanic
 museum1 the gift of the present        
,emperor1 that does1 in a concentrated  
form1 present all that is flamboyant of 
,germany2 there are noble museums and   
libraries1 and very many fine and       
dignified aspects and spaces1 and an    
abundant intellectual life4 ,harvard is 
happily free from the collegiate        
politics that absorb most of the surplus
 mental energy of ,oxford and           
,cambridge1 and the professors can and  
do meet and talk4 ,at ,harvard men      
count4 ,i was condoled with on all hands
 in my disappointment that ,i could not 
meet ,professor ,william ,james--he was 

still in ,california--and ,i had the    
good fortune to meet and talk to        
,president ,eliot1 who is1 indeed1 a    
very considerable voice in ,american    
affairs4 ,to me he talked quite readily 
and frankly of a very living subject1   
the integrity of the press in relation  
to the systematic and successful efforts
 of the advertising chemists and        
druggists to stifle exposures of noxious
 proprietary articles4 ,he saw the      
problem as the subtle play of group     
psychology it is2 there was none of that
 feeble horror of these troubles as     
modern and vulgar that one would expect 
in an ,english university leader4 ,i    
fell into a great respect for his lean  
fine face and figure1 his deliberate    
voice1 his open1 balanced1 and          
constructive mind4 ,he was the first man
 ,i had met who had any suggestion of a 
force and quality that might stand up to
 and prevail against the forces of      
acquisition and brute trading4 ,he bore 
himself as though some sure power were  

behind him1 unlike many other men ,i met
 who criticised abuses abusively1 or in 
the key of facetious despair4 ,he had   
very much of that fine aristocratic     
quality one finds cropping up so        
frequently among ,americans of old      
tradition1 an aristocratic quality that 
is free from either privilege or        
pretension4444  ,illustrations3         
,,harvard ,,hall ,,and ,,the ,,johnson  
,,gate1 ,,cambridge  ,at ,harvard1 too1 
,i met ,professor ,mnsterberg1 one of   
the few writers of standing who have    
attempted a general review of the       
,american situation4 ,he is a tall fair 
,german1 but newly annexed to ,america1 
with a certain diplomatic quality in his
 personality1 standing almost           
consciously1 as it were1 for ,germany in
 ,america1 and for ,america in ,germany4
 ,he has written a book for either      
people1 because hitherto they have seen 
each other too much through ,english    
media 7von ,englischen linseln          
retouchiert71 and he has done much to   

spread the conception of a common       
quality and sympathy between ,germany   
and ,america4 ,blood1 he says in this   
connection1 is thicker than water1 but  
444 printer's ink is thicker than blood4
 ,england is too aristocratic1 ,france  
too shockingly immoral1 ,russia too     
absolutist to be the sympathetic and    
similar friend of ,america1 and so1 by a
 process of exhaustion1 ,germany remains
 the one power on earth capable of an   
inner understanding4 7,also he has drawn
 an alluring parallel between ,president
 ,roosevelt and the ,emperor ,william to
 complete the approximation of die      
beiden ,edelnationen74 ,i had read all  
this1 and was interested to encounter   
him therefore at a ,harvard table in a  
circle of his colleagues1 agreeable and 
courteous1 and still scarcely more      
assimilated than the brightly new white 
,germanic museum among the red brick    
traditions of ,kirkland and ,cambridge  
streets4444  ,harvard impresses me      
altogether as a very living factor in   

the present ,american outlook1 not only 
when ,i was in ,cambridge1 but in the   
way the place tells in ,new ,york1 in   
,chicago1 in ,washington4 ,it has a     
living and contemporary attitude1 and it
 is becoming more and more audible4     
,harvard opinion influences the         
magazines and affects the press1 at     
least in the ,east1 to an increasing    
extent4 ,it may1 in the near future1    
become still more rapidly audible4      
,professor ,eliot is now full of years  
and honor1 and ,i found in ,new ,york1  
in ,boston1 in ,washington1 that his    
successor was being discussed4 ,in all  
these cities ,i met people disposed to  
believe that if ,president ,roosevelt   
does not become ,president of the       
,united ,states for a further term1 he  
may succeed ,president ,eliot4 ,now that
 ,i have seen ,president ,roosevelt it  
seems to me that this might have a most 
extraordinary effect in accelerating the
 reaction upon the people of ,america of
 the best and least mercenary of their  

national thought4 ,already he is        
exerting an immense influence in the    
advertisement of new ideas and ideals4  
,but of ,president ,roosevelt ,i shall  
write more fully later4444   ,v         
,chicago ,university  ,chicago          
,university1 too1 is a splendid place of
 fine buildings and green spaces and    
trees1 with a great going to and fro of 
students1 a wonderful contrast to the   
dark congestions of the mercantile city 
to the north4 ,to all the               
disorganization of that it is even      
physically antagonistic1 and ,i could   
think as ,i went about it that already  
this new organization has produced such 
writing as ,veblen's admirable ironies  
7,the ,theory of ,business ,enterprise1 
for example71 and such sociological work
 as that of ,zueblin and ,albion ,small4
 ,i went through the vigorous and       
admirably equipped pedagogic department1
 which is evidently a centre of thought 
and stimulus for the whole teaching     
profession of ,illinois2 ,i saw a       

library of sociology and economics      
beyond anything that ,london can boast2 
,i came upon little groups of students  
working amid piles of books in a        
businesslike manner1 and if at times in 
other sections this suggestion was still
 insistent that thought was as yet only 
moving in and1 as it were1 getting the  
carpets down1 it was equally clear that 
thought was going to live freely and    
spaciously1 to an unprecedented extent1 
so soon as things were in order4        
,illustration3 ,a ,,bit ,,of ,,princeton
 ,,university  ,i visited only these    
three great foundations1 each in its    
materially embodiment already larger1   
wealthier1 and more hopeful than any    
contemporary ,british institution1 and  
it required an effort to realize that   
they were but a portion of the embattled
 universities of ,america1 that ,i had  
not seen ,yale nor ,princeton nor       
,cornell nor ,leland ,stanford nor any  
,western ,state university1 not a tithe1
 indeed1 of ,america's drilling levies  

in the coming war of thought against    
chaos4 ,i am in no way equipped to      
estimate the value of the drilling2 ,i  
have been unable to get any conception  
how far these tens of thousands of      
students in these institutions are      
really alive intellectually1 are really 
inquiring1 discussing1 reading1 and     
criticising2 ,i have no doubt the great 
numbers of them spend many hours after  
the fashion of one roomful ,i saw intent
 upon a blackboard covered with ,greek2 
but allowing the utmost for indolence1  
games1 distractions1 and waste of time  
and energy upon unfruitful and obsolete 
studies1 the fact of this great         
increasing proportion of minds at least 
a little trained in things immaterial1 a
 little exercised in the critical habit1
 remains a fact to put over against that
 million and a half child workers who   
can barely have learned to read--the    
other side1 the redeeming side of the   
,american prospect4   ,,vi  ,a ,voice   
from ,cornell  ,i am impressed by the   

evident consciousness of the ,american  
universities of the rle they have to    
play in ,america's future4 ,they seem to
 me pervaded by the constructive spirit4
 ,they are intelligently antagonistic to
 lethargic and self-indulgent           
traditions1 to disorder1 and disorderly 
institutions4 ,it is from the           
universities that the deliberate        
invasion of the political machine by    
independent men of honor and            
position--of whom ,president ,roosevelt 
is the type and chief--proceeds4 ,mr4   
,george ,iles has called my attention to
 a remarkable address made so long ago  
as the year #ahhc before the ,yale      
,alumni1 by ,president ,andrew ,d4      
,white 7the first president71 of        
,cornell1 who was afterwards ,american  
,ambassador at ,st4 ,petersburg and     
,berlin4 ,president ,white was a member 
of the class of '#ec1 and he addressed  
himself particularly to the men of that 
year4 ,his title was ,the ,message of   
the ,nineteenth ,century to the         

,twentieth1 and it is full of a spirit  
that grows and spreads throughout       
,american life1 that may ultimately     
spread throughout the life of the whole 
nation1 a spirit of criticism and       
constructive effort1 of a scope and     
quality the world has never seen before4
 ,the new class of '#hc are the         
messengers4  ,to a few tottering old men
 of our dear class of '#ec it will be   
granted to look with straining eyes over
 the boundary into the twentieth        
century2 but even these can do little to
 make themselves heard then4 ,most of us
 shall not see it4 ,but before us and   
around us2 nay1 in our own families are 
the men who shall see it4 ,the men who  
go forth from these dear shades         
to-morrow are girding themselves for it4
 ,often as ,i have stood in the presence
 of such bands of youthful messengers ,i
 have never been able to resist a       
feeling of awe1 as in my boyhood when ,i
 stood before men who were soon to see  
,palestine and the ,far ,east1 or the   

,golden ,gates of the ,west1 and the    
islands of the ,pacific4 ,the old story 
of ,st4 ,fillipo ,neri at ,rome comes   
back to me1 who1 in the days of the     
,elizabethan persecutions1 made men     
bring him out into the open air and set 
him opposite the door of the ,papal     
,college of ,rome1 that he might look   
into the faces of the ,english students1
 destined to go forth to triumph or to  
martyrdom for the faith in far-off1     
heretic ,england4  ,i cannot forbear    
from quoting further from this address2 
it is all so congenial to my own        
beliefs4 ,indeed1 ,i like to think of   
that gathering of young men and old as  
if it were still existing1 as though the
 old fellows of '#ec were still sitting1
 listening and looking up responsive to 
this appeal that comes down to us4 ,i   
fancy ,president ,white on the platform 
before them1 a little figure in the     
perspective of a quarter of a century1  
but still quite clearly audible1        
delivering his periods to that now      

indistinguishable audience3  ,what1     
then1 is to be done8 ,mercantilism1     
necessitated at first by our            
circumstances and position1 has been in 
the main a great blessing4 ,it has been 
so under a simple law of history4 ,how  
shall it be prevented from becoming in  
obedience to a similar inexorable law1 a
 curse8  ,here1 in the answer to this   
question1 it seems to me1 is the most   
important message from this century to  
the next4  ,for the great thing to be   
done is neither more nor less than to   
develop other great elements of         
civilization now held in check1 which   
shall take their rightful place in the  
,united ,states1 which shall modify the 
mercantile spirit1 444 which shall make 
the history of our country something    
greater and broader than anything we    
have reached1 or ever can reach1 under  
the sway of mercantilism alone4  ,what  
shall be those counter elements of      
civilization8 ,monarchy1 aristocracy1   
militarism we could not have if we      

would1 we would not have if we could4   
,what shall we have8  ,i answer simply  
that we must do all that we can to rear 
greater fabrics of religious1           
philosophic thought1 literary thought1  
scientific1 artistic1 political thought 
to summon young men more and more into  
these fields1 not as a matter of taste  
or social opportunity1 but as a         
patriotic duty2 to hold before them not 
the incentive of mere gain or of mere   
pleasure or of mere reputation1 but the 
ideal of a new and higher civilization4 
,the greatest work which the coming     
century has to do in this country is to 
build up an aristocracy of thought and  
feeling which shall hold its own against
 the aristocracy of mercantilism4 ,i    
would have more and more the appeal made
 to every young man who feels within him
 the ability to do good or great things 
in any of these higher fields1 to devote
 his powers to them as a sacred duty1 no
 matter how strongly the mercantile or  
business spirit may draw him4 ,i would  

have the idea preached early and        
late4444  ,and as the guardian of such a
 movement1 444 ,i would strengthen at   
every point this venerable university1  
and others like it throughout the       
country4 ,remiss1 indeed1 have the      
graduates and friends of our own honored
 ,yale been in their treatment of her4  
,she has never had the means to do a    
tithe of what she might do4 ,she ought  
to be made strong enough1 with more     
departments1 more professors1 more      
fellowships1 to become one of a series  
of great rallying points or fortresses1 
and to hold always concentrated here a  
strong army1 ever active against        
mercantilism1 materialism1 and          
,philistinism4444  ,but1 after all1 the 
effort to create these new              
counterpoising1 modifying elements of a 
greater civilization must be begun in   
the individual man1 and especially in   
the youth who feels within himself the  
power to think1 the power to write1 the 
power to carve the marble1 to paint1 to 

leave something behind him better than  
dollars4 ,in the individual minds and   
hearts and souls of the messengers who  
are preparing for the next century is a 
source of regeneration4 ,they must form 
an ideal of religion higher than that of
 a life devoted to grasping and grinding
 and griping1 with a whine for mercy at 
the end of it4 ,they must form an ideal 
of science higher than that of          
increasing the production of iron or    
cotton4 ,they must form an ideal of     
literature and of art higher than that  
of pandering to the latest prejudice or 
whimsey4 ,and they must form an ideal of
 man himself worthy of that century into
 which are to be poured the             
accumulations of this4 ,so shall        
material elements be brought to their   
proper place1 made stronger for good1   
made harmless for evil4 ,so shall we    
have that development of new and greater
 elements1 that balance of principles   
which shall make this republic greater  
than anything of which we now can dream4

     ,,chapter ,,xiv  ,,culture   ,i    
,the ,boston ,enchantment  ,yet even as 
,i write of the universities as the     
central intellectual organ of a modern  
state1 as ,i sit implying salvation by  
schools1 there comes into my mind a mass
 of qualification4 ,the devil in the    
,american world drama may be            
mercantilism1 ensnaring1 tempting1      
battling against my hero1 the creative  
mind of man1 but mercantilism is not the
 only antagonist4 ,in ,fifth ,avenue or 
,paterson one may find nothing but the  
zenith and nadir of the dollar hunt1 at 
a ,harvard table one may encounter      
nothing but living minds1 but in        
,boston--,i mean not only ,beacon       
,street and ,commonwealth ,avenue1 but  
that ,boston of the mind and heart that 
pervades ,american refinement and goes  
about the world--one finds the human    
mind not base1 nor brutal1 nor stupid1  
nor ignorant1 but mysteriously          
enchanting and ineffectual1 so that     
having eyes it yet does not see1 having 

powers it achieves nothing4444  ,i      
remember ,boston as a quiet effect1 as  
something a little withdrawn1 as a place
 standing aside from the throbbing      
interchange of ,east and ,west4 ,when ,i
 hear the word ,boston now it is that   
quality returns4 ,i do not think of the 
spreading parkways of ,mr4 ,woodbury and
 ,mr4 ,olmstead nor of the crowded      
harbor2 the congested tenement-house    
regions1 full of those aliens whose     
tongues struck so strangely on the ears 
of ,mr4 ,henry ,james1 come not to mind4
 ,but ,i think of rows of well-built1   
brown and ruddy homes1 each with a      
certain sound architectural distinction1
 each with its two squares of neatly    
trimmed grass between itself and the    
broad1 quiet street1 and each with its  
family of cultured people within4 ,i am 
reminded of deferential but             
unostentatious servants1 and of being   
ushered into large1 dignified           
entrance-halls4 ,i think of spacious    
stairways1 curtained archways1 and rooms

 of agreeable1 receptive persons4 ,i    
recall the finished informality of the  
high tea4 ,all the people of my         
impression have been taught to speak    
,english with a quite admirable         
intonation2 some of the men and most of 
the women are proficient in two or three
 languages2 they have travelled in      
,italy1 they have all the recognized    
classics of ,european literature in     
their minds1 and apt quotations at      
command4 ,and ,i think of the constant  
presence of treasured associations with 
the titanic and now mellowing literary  
reputations of ,victorian times1 with   
,emerson 7who called ,poe that jingle   
man71 and with ,longfellow1 whose house 
is now sacred1 its view towards the     
,charles ,river and the stadium--it is a
 real1 correct stadium--secured by the  
purchase of the sward before it         
forever4444  ,at the mention of ,boston 
,i think1 too1 of autotypes and then of 
plaster casts4 ,i do not think ,i shall 
ever see an autotype again without      

thinking of ,boston4 ,i think of        
autotypes of the supreme masterpieces of
 sculpture and painting1 and            
particularly of the fluttering garments 
of the ,nike of ,samothrace4 7,that ,i  
saw1 also1 in little casts and big1 and 
photographed from every conceivable     
point of view47 ,it is incredible how   
many people in ,boston have selected her
 for their sthetic symbol and           
expression4 ,always that lady was in    
evidence about me1 unobtrusively        
persistent1 until at last her frozen    
stride pursued me into my dreams4 ,that 
frozen stride became the visible spirit 
of ,boston in my imagination1 a sort of 
blind1 headless1 and unprogressive fine 
resolution that took no heed of any     
contemporary thing4 ,next to that ,i    
recall1 as inseparably ,bostonian1 the  
dreaming grace of ,botticelli's ,prima  
vera4 ,all ,bostonians admire           
,botticelli1 and have a feeling for the 
roof of the ,sistine chapel--to so      
casual and adventurous a person as      

myself1 indeed1 ,boston presents a      
terrible1 a terrifying unanimity of     
sthetic discriminations4 ,i was nearly  
brought back to my childhood's          
persuasion that1 after all1 there is a  
right and wrong in these things4 ,and   
,boston clearly thought the less of ,mr4
 ,bernard ,shaw when ,i told her he had 
induced me to buy a pianola1 not that   
,boston ever did set much store by so   
contemporary a person as ,mr4 ,bernard  
,shaw4 ,the books she reads are toned   
and seasoned books--preferably in the   
old or else in limited editions1 and by 
authors who may be lectured upon without
 decorum4444  ,boston has in her        
symphony concerts the best music in     
,america1 and here her tastes are       
severely orthodox and classic4 ,i heard 
,beethoven's ,fifth ,symphony           
extraordinarily well done1 the familiar 
pinnacled ,fifth ,symphony1 and now1    
whenever ,i grind that out upon the     
convenient mechanism beside my desk at  
home1 mentally ,i shall be transferred  

to ,boston again1 shall hear its        
magnificent aggressive thumpings        
transfigured into exquisite             
orchestration1 and sit again among that 
audience of pleased and pleasant ladies 
in chaste1 high-necked1 expensive       
dresses1 and refined1 attentive1        
appreciative1 bald1 or iron-gray men4444
   ,,ii  ,boston's ,antiquity  ,then    
,boston has historical associations that
 impressed me like iron-moulded1        
leather-bound1 eighteenth-century books4
 ,the ,war of ,independence1 that to us 
in ,england seems half-way back to the  
days of ,elizabeth1 is a thing of       
yesterday in ,boston4 ,here1 your host  
will say and pause1 came marching       
so-and-so1 with his troops to relieve   
so-and-so4 ,and you will find he is the 
great-grandson of so-and-so1 and still  
keeps that ancient colonial's sword4    
,and these things happened before they  
dug the ,hythe military canal1 before   
,sandgate1 except for a decrepit castle1
 existed2 before the days when          

,bonaparte gathered his army at         
,boulogne--in the days of muskets and   
pigtails--and erected that column my    
telescope at home can reach for me on a 
clear day4 ,all that is ancient history 
in ,england and in ,boston the decade   
before those distant alarums and        
excursions is yesterday4 ,a year or so  
ago they restored the ,british arms to  
the old ,state-,house4 ,feeling1 my     
informant witnessed1 was dying down4    
,but there were protests1               
nevertheless4444  ,if there is one note 
of incongruity in ,boston1 it is in the 
gilt dome of the ,massachusetts         
,state-,house at night4 ,they illuminate
 it with electric light4 ,that shocked  
me as an anachronism4 ,it shocked       
me--much as it would have shocked me to 
see one of the colonial portraits1 or   
even one of the endless autotypes of the
 ,belvidere ,apollo replaced1 let us    
say1 by one of ,mr4 ,alvin ,coburn's    
wonderfully beautiful photographs of    
modern ,new ,york4 ,that electric       

glitter breaks the spell2 it is the     
admission of the present1 of the        
twentieth century4 ,it is just as if the
 ,quirinal and ,vatican took to an      
exchange of badinage with search-lights1
 or the ,king mounted an illuminated    
,e4,r4 on the ,round ,tower at ,windsor4
  ,save for that one discord there      
broods over the real ,boston an immense 
effect of finality4 ,one feels in       
,boston1 as one feels in no other part  
of the ,states1 that the intellectual   
movement has ceased4 ,boston is now     
producing no literature except a little 
criticism4 ,contemporary ,boston art is 
imitative art1 its writers are correct  
and imitative writers the central figure
 of its literary world is that charming 
old lady of eighty-eight1 ,mrs4 ,julia  
,ward ,howe4 ,one meets her and ,colonel
 ,higginson in the midst of an authors' 
society that is not so much composed of 
minor stars as a chorus of              
indistinguishable culture4 ,there are an
 admirable library and a museum in      

,boston1 and the library is ,italianate1
 and decorated within like an ancient   
missal4 ,in the less ornamental spaces  
of this place there are books and       
readers4 ,there is particularly a       
charming large room for children1 full  
of pigmy chairs and tables1 in which    
quite little tots sit reading4 ,i regret
 now ,i did not ascertain precisely what
 they were reading1 but ,i have no doubt
 it was classical matter4  ,i do not    
know why the full sensing of what is    
ripe and good in the past should carry  
with it this quality of discriminating  
against the present and the future4 ,the
 fact remains that it does so almost    
oppressively4 ,i found myself by some   
accident of hospitality one evening in  
the company of a number of ,boston      
gentlemen who constituted a             
book-collecting club4 ,they had dined1  
and they were listening to a paper on   
,bibles printed in ,america4 ,it was a  
scholarly1 valuable1 and exhaustive     
piece of research4 ,the surviving copies

 of each edition were traced1 and when  
some rare specimen was mentioned as the 
property of any member of the club there
 was decorously warm applause4 ,i had   
been seeing ,boston1 drinking in the    
,boston atmosphere all day4444 ,i know  
it will seem an ungracious and          
ungrateful thing to confess 7yet the    
necessities of my picture of ,america   
compel me71 but as ,i sat at the large  
and beautifully ordered table1 with     
these fine1 rich men about me1 and      
listened to the steady progress of the  
reader's ever unrhetorical sentences1   
and the little bursts of approval1 it   
came to me with a horrible quality of   
conviction that the mind of the world   
was dead1 and that this was a           
distribution of souvenirs4  ,indeed1 so 
strongly did this grip me that          
presently1 upon some slight occasion1 ,i
 excused myself and went out into the   
night4 ,i wandered about ,boston for    
some hours1 trying to shake off this    
unfortunate idea4 ,i felt that all the  

books had been written1 all the pictures
 painted1 all the thoughts said--or at  
least that nobody would ever believe    
this wasn't so4 ,i felt it was dreadful 
nonsense to go on writing books4        
,nothing remained but to collect them in
 the richest1 finest manner one could4  
,somewhere about midnight ,i came to a  
publisher's window1 and stood in the dim
 moonlight peering enviously at piled   
copies of ,izaak ,walton and ,omar      
,khayyam1 and all the happy immortals   
who got in before the gates were shut4  
,and then in the corner ,i discovered a 
thin1 small book4 ,for a time ,i could  
scarcely believe my eyes4 ,i lit a match
 to be the surer4 ,and it was ,a ,modern
 ,symposium1 by ,lowes ,dickinson1      
beyond all disputing4 ,it was strangely 
comforting to see it there--a leaf of   
olive from the world of thought ,i had  
imagined drowned forever4  ,that was    
just one night's mood4 ,i do not wish to
 accuse ,boston of any wilful1          
deliberate repudiation of the present   

and the future4 ,but ,i think that      
,boston--when ,i say ,boston let the    
reader always understand ,i mean that   
intellectual and spiritual ,boston that 
goes about the world1 that traffics in  
book-shops in ,rome and ,piccadilly1    
that ,i have dined with and wrangled    
with in my friend ,w4's house in        
,blackheath1 dear ,w41 who1 ,i believe1 
has never seen ,america--,i think1 ,i   
say1 that ,boston commits the scholastic
 error and tries to remember too much1  
to treasure too much1 and has refined   
and studied and collected herself into a
 state of hopeless intellectual and     
sthetic repletion in consequence4 ,in   
these matters there are limits4 ,the    
finality of ,boston is a quantitive     
consequence4 ,the capacity of ,boston1  
it would seem1 was just sufficient but  
no more than sufficient1 to comprehend  
the whole achievement of the human      
intellect up1 let us say1 to the year   
#ahge ,a4,d4 ,then an equilibrium was   
established4 ,at or about that year     

,boston filled up4   ,,iii  ,about      
,wellesley  ,it is the peculiarity of   
,boston's intellectual quality that she 
cannot unload again4 ,she treasures     
,longfellow in quantity4 ,she treasures 
his works1 she treasures associations1  
she treasures his ,cambridge home4 ,now1
 really1 to be perfectly frank about    
him1 ,longfellow is not good enough for 
that amount of intellectual house room4 
,he cumbers ,boston4 ,and when ,i went  
out to ,wellesley to see that delightful
 girls' college everybody told me ,i    
should be reminded of the ,princess4    
,for the life of me ,i could not        
remember what ,princess4 ,much of my    
time in ,boston was darkened by the     
constant strain of concealing the       
frightful gaps in my intellectual       
baggage1 this absence of things ,i might
 reasonably be supposed1 as a cultivated
 person1 to have1 but which1 as a matter
 of fact1 ,i'd either left behind1 never
 possessed1 or deliberately thrown away4
 ,i felt instinctively that ,boston     

could never possibly understand the     
light travelling of a philosophical     
carpet-bagger4 ,but ,i hid--in full view
 of the tree-set ,wellesley lake1 ay1   
with the skiffs of sweet girl           
graduates--own up4 ,i say1 ,i said1 ,i  
wish you wouldn't all be so allusive4   
,what ,princess8  ,it was1 of course1   
that thing of ,tennyson's4 ,it is a     
long1 frequently happy and elegant1 and 
always meritorious narrative poem1 in   
which a chaste ,victorian amorousness   
struggles with the early formul of the  
feminist movement4 ,i had read it when  
,i was a boy1 ,i was delighted to be    
able to claim1 and had honorably        
forgotten the incident4 ,but in ,boston 
they treat it as a living classic1 and  
expect you to remember constantly and   
with appreciation this passage and that4
 ,i think that quite typical of the     
,bostonian weakness4 ,it is the error of
 the clever high-school girl1 it is the 
mistake of the scholastic mind all the  
world over1 to learn too thoroughly and 

to carry too much4 ,they want to know   
and remember ,longfellow and            
,tennyson--just as in art they want to  
know and remember ,raphael and all the  
elegant inanity of the sacrifice at     
,lystra1 or the miraculous draught of   
,fishes2 just as in history they keep   
all the picturesque legends of the ,war 
of ,independence--looking up the dates  
and minor names1 one imagines1 ever and 
again4 ,some years ago ,i met two       
,boston ladies in ,rome4 ,each day they 
sallied forth from our hotel to see and 
appreciate2 each evening1 after dinner1 
they revised and underlined in ,baedeker
 what they had seen4 ,they meant to miss
 nothing in ,rome4 ,it's fine in its    
way--this receptive eagerness1 this     
learners' avidity4 ,only people who can 
go about in this spirit need1 if their  
minds are to remain mobile1 not so much 
heads as cephalic pantechnicon vans4444 
,,iv  ,the ,wellesley ,cabinets  ,i find
 this appetite to have all the mellow   
and refined and beautiful things in life

 to the exclusion of all thought for the
 present and the future even in the     
sweet1 free air of ,wellesley's broad   
park1 that most delightful1 that almost 
incredible girls' university1 with its  
class-rooms1 its halls of residence1 its
 club-houses and gathering-places among 
the glades and trees4 ,i have very vivid
 in my mind a sunlit room in which girls
 were copying the detail in the         
photographs of masterpieces1 and all    
around this room were cabinets of       
drawers1 and in each drawer photographs4
 ,there must be in that room photographs
 of every picture of the slightest      
importance in ,italy1 and detailed      
studies of many4 ,i suppose1 too1 there 
are photographs of all the sculpture and
 buildings in ,italy that are by any    
standard considerable4 ,there is1       
indeed1 a great civilization1 stretching
 over centuries and embodying the       
thought and devotion1 the scepticism and
 levities1 the ambition1 the            
pretensions1 the passions1 and desires  

of innumerable sinful and world-used    
men--canned1 as it were1 in this one    
room1 and freed from any deleterious    
ingredients4 ,the young ladies1 under   
the direction of competent instructors1 
go through it1 no doubt1 industriously1 
and emerge--capable of ,browning4  ,i   
was taken into two or three charming    
club-houses that dot this beautiful     
domain4 ,there was a ,shakespeare       
club-house1 with a delightful theatre1  
,elizabethan in style1 and all set about
 with ,shakespearean things2 there was  
the club-house of the girls who are     
fitting themselves for their share in   
the great ,american problem by the study
 of ,greek4 ,groups of pleasant girls in
 each1 grave with the fine gravity of   
youth1 entertained the reluctantly      
critical visitor1 and were unmistakably 
delighted and relaxed when one made it  
clear that one was not in the ,great    
,teacher line of business1 when one     
confided that one was there on false    
pretences1 and insisting on seeing the  

pantry4 ,they have jolly little         
pantries1 and they make excellent tea4  
,i returned to ,boston at last in a     
state of mighty doubting1 provided with 
a ,wellesley ,college calendar to study 
at my leisure4  ,i cannot1 for the life 
of me1 determine how far ,wellesley is  
an aspect of what ,i have called        
,boston2 how far it is a part of that   
wide forward movement of the            
universities upon which ,i lavish hope  
and blessings4 ,those drawings of       
photographed ,madonnas and ,holy        
,families and ,annunciations1 the       
sustained study of ,greek1 the class in 
the ,french drama of the seventeenth    
century1 the study of the topography of 
,rome fill me with misgivings1 seeing   
the world is in torment for the want of 
living thought about its present        
affairs4 ,but1 on the other hand1 there 
are courses upon socialism--though the  
text-book is still ,das ,kapital of     
,marx--and upon the industrial history  
of ,england and ,america4 ,i didn't     

discover a debating society1 but there  
is a large accessible library4  ,how    
far1 ,i wonder still1 are these girls   
thinking and feeding mentally for       
themselves8 ,what do they discuss one   
with another8 ,how far do they suffer   
under that plight of feminine           
education--notetaking from lectures8444 
,but1 after all1 this about ,wellesley  
is a digression into which ,i fell by   
way of ,boston's autotypes4 ,my main    
thesis was that culture1 as it is       
conceived in ,boston1 is no contribution
 to the future of ,america1 that        
cultivated people may be1 in effect1 as 
state-blind as--,mr4 ,morgan ,richards4 
,it matters little in the mind of the   
world whether any one is concentrated   
upon medival poetry1 ,florentine        
pictures1 or the propagation of pills4  
,the common1 significant fact in all    
these cases is this1 a blindness to the 
crude splendor of the possibilities of  
,america now1 to the tragic greatness of
 the unheeded issues that blunder       

towards solution4 ,frankly1 ,i grieve   
over ,boston--,boston throughout the    
world--as a great waste of leisure and  
energy1 as a frittering away of moral   
and intellectual possibilities4 ,we give
 too much to the past4 ,new ,york is not
 simply more interesting than ,rome1 but
 more significant1 more stimulating1 and
 far more beautiful1 and the idea that  
to be concerned about the latter in     
preference to the former is a mark of a 
finer mental quality is one of the most 
mischievous and foolish ideas that ever 
invaded the mind of man4 ,we are        
obsessed by the scholastic prestige of  
mere knowledge and genteel remoteness4  
,over against unthinking ignorance is   
scholarly refinement1 the spirit of     
,boston2 between that ,scylla and this  
,charybdis the creative mind of man     
steers its precarious way4     ,,chapter
 ,,xv  ,,at ,,washington   ,i           
,washington as ,anti-climax  ,i came to 
,washington full of expectations and    
curiosities4 ,here1 ,i felt1 so far as  

it could exist visibly and palpably     
anywhere1 was the head and mind of this 
colossal ,america over which my         
observant curiosities had wandered4 ,in 
this place ,i should find1 among other  
things1 perhaps as many as ten thousand 
men who would not be concerned in trade4
 ,there would be all the ,senators and  
representatives1 their secretaries and  
officials1 and four thousand and more   
scientific and literary men of          
,washington's institutions and          
libraries1 the diplomatic corps1 the    
educational centres1 the civil service1 
the writers and thinking men who must   
inevitably be drawn to this predestined 
centre4 ,i promised myself arduous      
intercourse with a teeming intellectual 
life4 ,here ,i should find questions    
answered1 discover missing clues1 get   
hold of the last connections in my      
inquiry4 ,i should complete at          
,washington my vision of ,america2 my   
forecast would follow4  ,i don't        
precisely remember how this vision      

departed4 ,i know only that after a day 
or so in ,washington an entirely        
different conception was established1 a 
conception of ,washington as            
architecture and avenues1 as a place of 
picture post-cards and excursions1 with 
sightseers instead of thoughts going to 
and fro4 ,i had imagined that in        
,washington ,i should find such mentally
 vigorous discussion-centres as the ,new
 ,york ,x ,club on a quite magnificent  
scale4 ,instead1 ,i found the chief     
scientific gathering-place has1 like so 
many messes in the ,british army before 
the ,boer war1 a rule against talking   
shop4 ,in all ,washington there is no   
clearing-house of thought at all2       
,washington has no literary journals1 no
 magazines1 no publications other than  
those of the official specialist--there 
does not seem to be a living for a      
single firm of publishers in this       
magnificent empty city4  ,i went about  
the place in a state of ridiculous and  
deepening concern4 ,i went through the  

splendid ,botanical ,gardens1 through   
the spacious and beautiful ,capitol1 and
 so to the magnificently equipped       
,library of ,congress4 ,there in an     
upper chamber that commands an          
altogether beautiful view of long vistas
 of avenue and garden to that stupendous
 unmeaning obelisk 7the work of the     
women of ,america7 that dominates all   
,washington1 ,i found at last a little  
group of men who could talk4 ,it was    
like a small raft upon a limitless empty
 sea4 ,i lunched with them at their     
,round ,table1 and afterwards ,mr4      
,putnam showed me the ,rotunda1 quite   
the most gracious reading-room dome the 
world possesses1 and explained the      
wonderful mechanical organization that  
brings almost every volume in that      
immense collection within a minute of   
one's hand4 ,with all this1 ,i asked    
him1 why doesn't the place think8 ,he   
seemed1 discreetly1 to consider it did4 
,illustration3 ,,in ,,the               
,,congressional ,,library  ,it was in   

the vein of ,washington's detached      
deadness that ,i should find ,professor 
,langley 7whose flying experiments ,i   
have followed for some years with close 
interest7 was dead1 and ,i went through 
the long galleries of archological      
specimens and stuffed animals in the    
,smithsonian ,institution to inflict my 
questions upon his temporary successor1 
,dr4 ,cyrus ,adler4 ,he had no adequate 
excuses4 ,he found a kind of explanation
 in the want of enterprise of ,american 
publishers1 so that none of them come to
 ,washington to tap its latent resources
 of knowledge and intellectual capacity2
 but that does not account for the      
absence of any traffic in ideas4 ,it is 
perhaps near the truth to say that this 
dearth of any general and comprehensive 
intellectual activity is due to         
intellectual specialization4 ,the four  
thousand scientific men in ,washington  
are all too energetically busy with     
ethnographic details1 electrical        
computations1 or herbaria to talk about 

common and universal things4 ,they ought
 not to be so busy1 and a science so    
specialized sinks half-way down the     
scale of sciences4 ,science is one of   
those things that cannot hustle2 if it  
does1 it loses its connections4 ,in     
,washington some men1 ,i gathered1      
hustle1 others play bridge1 and general 
questions are left1 a little            
contemptuously1 as being of the nature  
of gas1 to the newspapers and magazines4
 ,philosophy1 which correlates the      
sciences and keeps them subservient to  
the universals of life1 has no seat     
there4 ,my anticipated synthesis of ten 
thousand minds refused1 under           
examination1 to synthesize at all2 it   
remained disintegrated1 a mob1          
individually active and collectively    
futile1 of specialists and politicians4 
,,ii  ,the ,city of ,conversation  ,but 
that is only one side of ,washington    
life1 the side east and south of the    
,white ,house4 ,northwestward ,i found1 
,i confess1 the most agreeable social   

atmosphere in ,america4 ,it is a region 
of large fine houses1 of dignified and  
ample-minded people1 people not given   
over to smartness nor redolent of       
dollars1 unhurried and reflective1 not  
altogether lost to the wider aspects of 
life4 ,in ,washington ,i met again that 
peculiarly aristocratic quality ,i had  
found in ,harvard--in the person of     
,president ,eliot1 for example--an      
aristocratic quality that is all the    
finer for the absence of rank1 that has 
integral in it--books1 thought1 and     
responsibility4 ,and yet ,i could have  
wished these fine people more alive to  
present and future things1 a little less
 established upon completed and         
mellowing foundations1 a little less    
final in their admirable finish4444     
,there was1 ,i found1 a little breeze of
 satisfaction fluttering the ,washington
 atmosphere in this region4 ,mr4 ,henry 
,james came through the ,states last    
year distributing epithets among their  
cities with the justest aptitude4       

,washington was the ,city of            
,conversation2 and she was pleasantly   
conscious that she merited this friendly
 coronation4  ,washington1 indeed1      
converses well1 without awkwardness1    
without chatterings1 kindly1 watchful1  
agreeably witty4 ,she lulled and tamed  
my purpose to ask about primary things1 
to discuss large questions4 ,only once1 
and that was in an after-dinner         
duologue1 did ,i get at all into a      
question in ,washington4 ,for the rest1 
,washington remarked and alluded and    
made her point and got away4   ,,iii    
,mount ,vernon  ,and ,washington1 with a
 remarkable unanimity and in the most   
charming manner1 assured me that if ,i  
came to see and understand ,america ,i  
must on no account miss ,mount ,vernon4 
,to have passed indifferently by        
,concord was bad enough1 ,i was told1   
but to ignore the home of the first     
president1 to turn my back upon that    
ripe monument of colonial simplicity1   
would be quite criminal neglect4 ,to me 

it was a revelation how sincerely       
insistent they were upon this4 ,it      
reminded me of an effect ,i had already 
appreciated very keenly in ,boston--and 
even before ,boston1 when ,mr4 ,z took  
me across ,spuyten ,duyvil into the     
country of ,sleepy ,hollow1 and spoke of
 ,cornwallis as though he had died      
yesterday--and that is the longer       
historical perspectives of ,america4    
,america is an older country than any   
,european one1 for she has not          
rejuvenesced for a hundred and thirty   
years4 ,in endless ways ,america fails  
to be contemporary4 ,in many respects1  
no doubt1 she is decades in front of    
,europe1 in mechanism1 for example1 and 
productive organization1 but in very    
many other and more fundamental ones she
 is decades behind4 ,go but a little way
 back and you will find the ,european's 
perspectives close up2 they close at    
'#ga1 at '#dh1 down a vista of reform   
bills1 at ,waterloo and the treaty of   
,paris1 at the ,irish ,union1 at the    

coming of ,victor ,emanuel2 ,great      
,britain1 for example1 in the last      
hundred years has reconstructed         
politically and socially1 created half  
her present peerage1 evolved the ,empire
 of ,india1 developed ,australia1 ,new  
,zealand1 ,south ,africa1 fought fifty  
considerable wars4 ,mount ,vernon1 on   
the other hand1 goes back with unbroken 
continuity1 a broad band of mellow      
tradition1 to the ,war of ,independence4
  ,well1 ,i got all that in conversation
 at ,washington1 and so ,i didn't need  
to go to ,mount ,vernon1 after all4 ,i  
got all that about #aggg1 and ,i failed 
altogether to get anything of any value 
whatever about #aigg--which is the year 
of greater interest to me4 ,about the   
direction and destinies of that great   
,american process that echoes so        
remotely through ,washington's cool     
gracefulness of architecture and her    
umbrageous parks1 this cultivated       
society seemed to me to be terribly     
incurious and indifferent4 ,it was alive

 to political personalities1 no doubt1  
its sons and husbands were ,senators1   
judges1 ambassadors1 and the like2 it   
was concerned with their speeches and   
prospects1 but as to the trend of the   
whole thing ,washington does not picture
 it1 does not want to picture it4 ,i    
found myself presently excusing myself  
for ,mount ,vernon on the ground that ,i
 was not a retrospective ,american1 but 
a go-ahead ,englishman1 and so          
apologizing for my want of reverence for
 venerable things4 ,we are a young      
people1 ,i maintained4 ,we are a new    
generation4   ,,iv  ,in the             
,senate-,house  ,i went to see the      
,senate debating the railway-rate bill1 
and from the ,senatorial gallery ,i had 
pointed out to me ,tillman and ,platt1  
,foraker and ,lodge1 and all the varied 
personalities of the assembly4 ,the     
chamber is a circular one1 with         
enormously capacious galleries4 ,the    
members speak from their desks1 other   
members write letters1 read 7and rustle7

 newspapers1 sit among accumulations of 
torn paper1 or stand round the apartment
 in audibly conversational groups4 ,a   
number of messenger-boys--they wear no  
uniform--share the floor of the ,house  
with the representatives1 and are called
 by clapping the hands4 ,they go to and 
fro1 or sit at the feet of the          
,vice-,president4 ,behind and above the 
,vice-,president the newspaper men sit  
in a state of partial attention1        
occasionally making notes for the vivid 
descriptions that have long since       
superseded verbatim reports in ,america4
 ,the public galleries contain hundreds 
of intermittently talkative spectators4 
,for the most part these did not seem to
 me to represent1 as the little         
strangers' gallery in the ,house of     
,commons represents1 interests affected4
 ,they were rather spectators seeing    
,washington1 taking the ,senate en route
 for the obelisk top and ,mount ,vernon4
 ,they made little attempt to hear the  
speeches4  ,in a large distinguished    

emptiness among these galleries is the  
space devoted to diplomatic             
representatives1 and there ,i saw1      
sitting in a meritorious solitude1 the  
,british charge d'affaires and his wife 
following the debate below4 ,i found it 
altogether too submerged for me to      
follow4 ,the countless spectators1 the  
,senators1 the boy messengers1 the      
comings and goings kept up a perpetual  
confusing babblement4 ,one saw men      
walking carelessly between the ,speaker 
and the ,vice-,president1 and at one    
time two gentlemen with their backs to  
the member in possession of the ,house  
engaged the ,vice-,president in an      
earnest conversation4 ,the messengers   
circulated at a brisk trot1 or sat on   
the edge of the dais exchanging subdued 
badinage4 ,i have never seen a more     
distracted ,legislature4  ,the whole    
effect of ,washington is a want of      
concentration1 of something unprehensile
 and apart4 ,it is on1 not in1 the      
,american process4 ,the place seems to  

me to reflect1 even in its sounds and   
physical forms1 that dispersal of power1
 that evasion of a simple               
conclusiveness1 which is the peculiar   
effect of that ancient compromise1 the  
,american ,constitution4 ,the framers of
 that treaty were haunted by two        
terrible bogies1 a military dictatorship
 and what they called mob rule1 they    
were obsessed by the need of safeguards 
against these dangers1 they were        
controlled by the mutual distrust of    
constituent ,states far more alien to   
one another than they are now1 and they 
failed to foresee both the enormous     
assimilation of interests and character 
presently to be wrought by the railways 
and telegraphs1 and the huge            
possibilities of corruption1 elaborate  
electrical arrangements offer to clever 
unscrupulous men4 ,and here in          
,washington is the result1 a            
,legislature that fails to legislate1 a 
government that cannot govern1 a        
pseudo-responsible administration that  

offers enormous scope for corruption1   
and that is perhaps invincibly          
intrenched behind the two-party system  
from any insurgence of the popular will4
 ,the plain fact of the case is that    
,congress1 as it is constituted at      
present1 is the feeblest1 least         
accessible1 and most inefficient central
 government of any civilized nation in  
the worst west of ,russia4 ,congress is 
entirely inadequate to the tasks of the 
present time4  ,i came away from        
,washington with my pre-conception      
enormously reinforced that the supreme  
need of ,america1 the preliminary thing 
to any social or economic               
reconstruction1 is political reform4 ,it
 seems to me to lie upon the surface    
that ,america has to be democratized4   
,it is necessary to make the ,senate and
 the ,house of ,representatives more    
interdependent1 and to abolish the      
possibilities of deadlocks between them1
 to make election to the ,senate direct 
from the people1 and to qualify and     

weaken the power of the two-party system
 by the introduction of second ballots  
and the referendum4444  ,but how such   
drastic changes are to be achieved      
constitutionally in ,america ,i cannot  
imagine4 ,only a great educated1        
trained1 and sustained agitation can    
bring about so fundamental a political  
revolution1 and at present ,i can find  
nowhere even the beginnings of a        
realization of this need4   ,v          
,president ,roosevelt  ,in the ,white   
,house1 set midway between the          
,washington of the sightseers and the   
,washington of brilliant conversation1  
,i met ,president ,roosevelt4 ,i was    
mightily pleased by the ,white ,house2  
it is dignified and simple--once again  
am ,i tempted to use the phrase         
aristocratic in the best sense of things
 ,american2 and an entire absence of    
uniforms or liveries creates an         
atmosphere of ,republican equality that 
is reinforced by ,mr4 ,president's      
friendly grasp of one's                 

undistinguishable hand4 ,and after lunch
 ,i walked about the grounds with him1  
and so achieved my ambition to get him  
placed1 as it were1 in my vision of     
,america4  ,in the rare chances ,i have 
had of meeting statesmen1 there has     
always been one common effect1 an effect
 of their being smaller1 less audible1  
and less saliently featured than one had
 expected4 ,a common man builds up his  
picture of the men prominent in the     
great game of life very largely out of  
caricature1 out of head-lines1 out of   
posed and characteristic portraits4 ,one
 associates them with actresses and     
actors1 literary poseurs and such-like  
public performers1 anticipates the same 
vivid self-consciousness as these       
display in common intercourse1 keys     
one's self up for the paint on their    
faces1 and for voices and manners       
altogether too accentuated for the      
gray-toned lives of common men4 ,i've   
met politicians who remained at that4   
,but so soon as ,mr4 ,roosevelt entered 

the room1 ,teddy1 the ,teddy of the     
slouch hat1 the glasses1 the teeth1 and 
the sword1 that strenuous vehement      
,teddy 7who had1 let me admit1 survived 
a full course of reading in the         
,president's earlier writings7 vanished1
 and gave place to an entirely          
negotiable individuality4 ,to-day1 at   
any rate1 the ,teddy legend is untrue4  
,perhaps it wasn't always quite untrue4 
,there was a time during the world      
predominance of ,mr4 ,kipling1 when ,i  
think the caricature must have come     
close to certain of ,mr4 ,roosevelt's   
acceptances and attitudes4 ,but that was
 ten years and more ago1 and ,mr4       
,roosevelt to this day goes on thinking 
and changing and growing4444  ,for me1  
anyhow1 that strenuousness has vanished 
beyond recalling1 and there has emerged 
a figure in gray of a quite reasonable  
size1 with a face far more thoughtful   
and perplexed than strenuous1 with a    
clinched hand that does indeed          
gesticulate1 though it is by no means a 

gigantic fist--and with quick movements1
 a voice strained indeed1 a little      
forced for oratory1 but not raised or   
aggressive in any fashion1 and friendly 
screwed-up eyes behind the glasses4  ,it
 isn't my purpose at all to report a    
conversation that went from point to    
point4 ,i wasn't interviewing the       
,president1 and ,i made no note at the  
time of the things said4 ,my impression 
was of a mind--for the situation--quite 
extraordinarily open4 ,that is the value
 of ,president ,roosevelt for me1 and   
why ,i can't for the life of my book    
leave him out4 ,he is the seeking mind  
of ,america displayed4 ,the ordinary    
politician goes through his career like 
a charging bull1 with his eyes shut to  
any changes in the premises4 ,he locks  
up his mind like a powder magazine4 ,but
 any spark may fire the mind of         
,president ,roosevelt4 ,his range of    
reading is amazing2 he seems to be      
echoing with all the thought of the     
time1 he has receptivity to the pitch of

 genius4 ,and he does not merely        
receive1 he digests and reconstructs2 he
 thinks4 ,it is his political misfortune
 that at times he thinks aloud4 ,his    
mind is active with projects of solution
 for the teeming problems around him4   
,traditions have no hold upon him--nor1 
his enemies say1 have any but quite     
formal pledges4 ,it is hard to tie him4 
,in all these things he is to a single  
completeness1 to mind and will of       
contemporary ,america4 ,and by an       
unparalleled conspiracy of political    
accidents1 as all the world knows1 he   
has got to the ,white ,house4 ,he is not
 a part of the regular ,american        
political system at all--he has1 it     
happens1 stuck through4  ,now my picture
 of ,america is1 as ,i have tried to    
make clear1 one of a gigantic process of
 growth1 of economic coming and going1  
spaced out over vast distances and      
involving millions of hastening men2 ,i 
see ,america as towns and urgency and   
greatnesses beyond1 ,i suppose1 any     

precedent that has ever been in the     
world4 ,and like a little island of     
order amid that ocean of enormous       
opportunity and business turmoil and    
striving individualities1 is this       
,district of ,columbia1 with ,washington
 and its ,capitol and obelisk4 ,it is a 
mere pin-point in the unlimited1 on     
which1 in peace times1 the national     
government lies marooned1 twisted up    
into knots1 bound with safeguards1 and  
altogether impotently stranded4 ,and    
peering closely1 and looking from the   
,capitol down the vista of ,pennsylvania
 ,avenue1 ,i see the ,white ,house1     
minute and clear1 with a fountain       
playing before it1 and behind it a      
railed garden set with fine trees4 ,the 
trees are not so thick1 nor the railings
 so high but that the people on the big 
seeing ,washington cannot crane to look 
into it and watch whoever walk about it4
 ,and in this garden goes a living      
speck1 as it were1 in gray1 talking1    
swinging a white clinched hand1 and     

trying vigorously and resolutely to get 
a hold upon the significance of the     
whole vast process in which he and his  
island of government are set4  ,always  
before him there have been political    
resultants1 irrelevancies and futilities
 of the ,white ,house2 and after him1 it
 would seem1 they may come again4 ,i do 
not know anything of the quality of ,mr4
 ,bryan1 who may perhaps succeed him4   
,he1 too1 is something of an exception1 
it seems1 and keeps a still developing  
and inquiring mind4 ,beyond is a vista  
of figures of questionable value so far 
as ,i am concerned4 ,they have this in  
common that they don't stand for        
thought4 ,for the present1 at any rate1 
a personality1 extraordinarily          
representative1 occupies the ,white     
,house4 ,and what he chooses to say     
publicly 7and some things he says       
privately7 are1 by an exceptional law of
 acoustics1 heard in ,san ,francisco1 in
 ,chicago1 in ,new ,orleans1 in ,new    
,york and ,boston1 in ,kansas1 and      

,maine1 throughout the whole breadth of 
the ,united ,states of ,america4 ,he    
assimilates contemporary thought1       
delocalizes and reverberates it4 ,he is 
,america for the first time vocal to    
itself4  ,what is ,america saying to    
itself8  ,i've read most of the         
,president's recent speeches1 and they  
fall in oddly with that quality in his  
face that so many photographs even      
convey1 a complex mingling of will and a
 critical perplexity4 ,taken all        
together they amount to a mass of not   
always consistent suggestions1 that and 
conflict overlap4 ,things crowd upon    
him1 rebate scandals1 insurance         
scandals1 the meat scandals1 this       
insecurity and that4 ,the conditions of 
his position press upon him4 ,it is no  
wonder he gives out no single1 simple   
note4444  ,the plain fact is that in the
 face of the teeming situations of      
to-day ,america does not know what to   
do4 ,nobody1 except those happily gifted
 individuals who can see but one aspect 

of an intricate infinitude1 imagines any
 simple solution4 ,for the rest the time
 is one of ample1 vigorous1 and at times
 impatient inquiry1 and of intense      
disillusionment with old assumptions and
 methods4 ,and never did a ,president   
before so reflect the quality of his    
time4 ,the trend is altogether away from
 the anarchistic individualism of the   
nineteenth century1 that much is sure1  
and towards some constructive scheme    
which1 if not exactly socialism1 as     
socialism is defined1 will be1 at any   
rate1 closely analogous to socialism4   
,this is the immense change of thought  
and attitude in which ,president        
,roosevelt participates1 and to which he
 gives a unique expression4 ,day by day 
he changes with the big world about     
him--contradicts himself4444  ,i came   
away with the clear impression that     
neither ,president ,roosevelt nor       
,america will ever1 as some people      
prophesy1 declare for socialism1 but my 
impression is equally clear1 that he and

 all the world of men he stands for1    
have done forever with the threadbare   
formul that have served ,america such an
 unconscionable time4 ,we talked of the 
press and books and of the question of  
color1 and then for a while about the   
rle of the universities in the life of  
the coming time4  ,now it is a curious  
thing that as ,i talked with ,president 
,roosevelt in the garden of the ,white  
,house there came back to me quite      
forcibly that undertone of doubt that   
has haunted me throughout this journey4 
,after all1 does this magnificent       
appearance of beginnings which is       
,america1 convey any clear and certain  
promise of permanence and fulfilment    
whatever8 ,much makes for construction1 
a great wave of reform is going on1 but 
will it drive on to anything more than a
 breaking impact upon even more gigantic
 uncertainties and dangers4 ,is ,america
 a giant childhood or a gigantic        
futility1 a mere latest phase of that   
long succession of experiments which has

 been and may be for interminable       
years--may be indeed altogether until   
the end--man's social history8 ,i can't 
now recall how our discursive talk      
settled towards that1 but it is clear to
 me that ,i struck upon a familiar vein 
of thought in the ,president's mind4 ,he
 hadn't1 he said1 an effectual disproof 
of any pessimistic interpretation of the
 future4 ,if one chose to say ,america  
must presently lose the impetus of her  
ascent1 that she and all mankind must   
culminate and pass1 he could not        
conclusively deny that possibility4     
,only he chose to live as if this were  
not so4  ,that remained in his mind4    
,presently he reverted to it4 ,he made a
 sort of apology for his life against   
the doubts and scepticisms that1 ,i     
fear1 must be in the background of the  
thoughts of every modern man who is     
intellectually alive4 ,he mentioned a   
little book of mine1 an early book full 
of the deliberate pessimism of youth1 in
 which ,i drew a picture of a future of 

decadence1 of a time when constructive  
effort had fought its fight and failed1 
when the inevitable segregations of an  
individualistic system had worked       
themselves out and all the hope and     
vigor of humanity had gone forever4 ,the
 descendants of the workers had become  
etiolated1 sinister1 and subterranean   
monsters1 the property-owners had       
degenerated into a hectic and feebly    
self-indulgent race1 living fitfully    
amid the ruins of the present time4 ,he 
became gesticulatory1 and his straining 
voice a note higher in denying this as a
 credible interpretation of destiny4    
,with one of those sudden movements of  
his1 he knelt forward in a garden       
chair--we were standing before our      
parting beneath the colonnade--and      
addressed me very earnestly over the    
back1 clutching it1 and then thrusting  
out his familiar gesture1 a hand first  
partly open and then closed4  ,suppose  
after all1 he said1 slowly1 that should 
prove to be right1 and it all ends in   

your butterflies and morlocks4 ,that    
doesn't matter now4 ,the effort's real4 
,it's worth going on with4 ,it's worth  
it4 ,it's worth it--even then4444  ,i   
can see him now and hear his unmusical  
voice saying ,the effort--the effort's  
worth it1 and see the gesture of his    
clinched hand and the--how can ,i       
describe it8 the friendly peering snarl 
of his face1 like a man with the sun in 
his eyes4 ,he sticks in my mind as that1
 as a very symbol of the creative will  
in man1 in its limitations1 its doubtful
 adequacy1 its valiant persistence amid 
perplexities and confusions4 ,he kneels 
out1 assertive against his setting--and 
his setting is the ,white ,house with a 
background of all ,america4  ,i could   
almost write1 with a background of all  
the world--for ,i know of no other a    
tithe so representative of the creative 
purpose1 the good-will in men as he4 ,in
 his undisciplined hastiness1 his       
limitations1 his prejudices1 his        
unfairness1 his frequent errors1 just as

 much as in his force1 his sustained    
courage1 his integrity1 his open        
intelligence1 he stands for his people  
and his kind4     ,,the ,,envoy   ,and  
at last ,i am back in my study by the   
sea4 ,it is high ,june4 ,when ,i said   
good-bye to things it was ,march1 a     
,march warm and eager to begin with1 and
 then dashed with sleet and wind2 but   
the daffodils were out1 and the primulas
 and primroses shone brown and yellow in
 the unseasonable snow4 ,the spring     
display that was just beginning is over4
 ,the iris rules4 ,outside the window is
 a long level line of black fleur-de-lys
 rising from a serried rank of          
leaf-blades4 ,their silhouettes stand   
out against the brightness of the       
twilight sea4 ,they mark1 so opened1 two
 months of absence4 ,and in the interval
 ,i have seen a great world4  ,i have   
tried to render it as ,i saw it4 ,i have
 tried to present the first exhilaration
 produced by the sheer growth of it1 the
 morning-time hopefulness of spacious   

and magnificent opportunity1 the        
optimism of successful1 swift1          
progressive effort in material things4  
,and from that ,i have passed to my     
sense of the chaotic condition of the   
,american will1 and that first          
confidence has darkened more and more   
towards doubt again4 ,i came to ,america
 questioning the certitudes of progress4
 ,for a time ,i forgot my questionings2 
,i sincerely believed1 ,these people can
 do anything1 and1 now ,i have it all in
 perspective1 ,i have to confess that   
doubt has taken me again4 ,these people1
 ,i say1 might do anything4 ,they are   
the finest people upon earth--the most  
hopeful4 ,but they are vain and hasty2  
they are thoughtless1 harsh1 and        
undisciplined4 ,in the end1 it may be1  
they will accomplish nothing4 ,i see1 ,i
 have noted in its place1 the great     
forces of construction1 the buoyant1    
creative spirit of ,america4 ,but ,i    
have marked1 too1 the intricacy of      
snares and obstacles in its path4 ,the  

problem of ,america1 save in its scale  
and freedom1 is no different from the   
problem of ,great ,britain1 of ,europe1 
of all humanity2 it is one chiefly moral
 and intellectual2 it is to resolve a   
confusion of purposes1 traditions1      
habits1 into a common ordered intention4
 ,everywhere one finds what seem to me  
the beginnings of that--and1 for this   
epoch it is all too possible1 they may  
get no further than beginnings4 ,yet    
another ,decline and ,fall may remain to
 be written1 another and another1 and it
 may be another1 before the ,world      
,state comes and ,peace4  ,yet against  
this prospect of a dispersal of will1 of
 a secular decline in honor1 education1 
public spirit1 and confidence1 of a     
secular intensification of corruption1  
lawlessness1 and disorder1 ,i do1 with a
 confidence that waxes and wanes1       
balance the creative spirit in ,america1
 and that kindred spirit that for me    
finds its best symbol in the            
,president's kneeling1 gesticulating    

figure1 and his urgent ,the effort's    
worth it6 ,who can gauge the            
far-reaching influence of even the      
science we have1 in ordering and        
quickening the imagination of man1 in   
enhancing and assuring their powers8    
,common men feel secure to-day in       
enterprises it needed men of genius to  
conceive in former times4 ,and there is 
a literature--for all our faults we do  
write more widely1 deeply1              
disinterestedly1 more freely and frankly
 than any set of writers ever did       
before--reaching incalculable masses of 
readers1 and embodying an amount of     
common consciousness and purpose beyond 
all precedent4 ,consider only how       
nowadays the problems that were once the
 inaccessible thoughts of statesmen may 
be envisaged by common men6 ,here am ,i 
really able1 in a few weeks of observant
 work1 to get a picture of ,america4 ,i 
publish it4 ,if it bears a likeness1 it 
will live and be of use2 if not it will 
die1 and be no irreparable loss4 ,some  

fragment1 some suggestion may survive4  
,my friend ,mr4 ,f4 ,madox ,hueffer was 
here a day or so ago to say good-bye2 he
 starts for ,america as ,i write here1  
to get his vision4 ,as ,i have been     
writing these papers ,i have also been  
reading1 instalment by instalment1 the  
subtle1 fine renderings of ,america     
revisited by ,mr4 ,henry ,james4 ,we    
work in shoals1 great and small         
together1 one trial thought following   
another4 ,we are getting the world      
presented4 ,it is not simply ,america   
that we swarm over and build up into a  
conceivable process1 into something     
understandable and negotiable by the    
mind4 ,i find on my desk here waiting   
for me a most illuminating ,vision of   
,india1 in which ,mr4 ,sidney ,low1 with
 a marvellous aptitude1 has interpreted 
east to west4 ,besides my poor          
superficialities in ,the ,tribune       
appears ,sir ,william ,butler1 with a   
livid frankness expounding the most     
intimate aspects of the ,south ,african 

situation4 ,a friend who called to-day  
spoke of ,nevinson's raid upon the slave
 trade of ,portuguese ,east ,africa1 and
 of two irrepressible writers upon the  
,congo crimes4 ,i have already mentioned
 the economic and social literature1 the
 so-called literature of exposure in    
,america4 ,this altogether represents   
collectively a tremendous illumination4 
,no social development was ever so lit  
and seen before4 ,collectively1 this    
literature of facts and theories and    
impressions is of immense importance4   
,things are done in the light1 more and 
more are they done in the light4 ,the   
world perceives and thinks4444  ,after  
all is said and done1 ,i do find the    
balance of my mind tilts steadily to a  
belief in a continuing and accelerated  
progress now in human affairs4 ,and in  
spite of my patriotic inclinations1 in  
spite1 too1 of the present high         
intelligence and efficiency of ,germany1
 it seems to me that in ,america1 by    
sheer virtue of its size1 its free      

traditions1 and the habit of initiative 
in its people1 the leadership of        
progress must ultimately rest4 ,things  
like the ,chicago scandals1 the         
insurance scandals1 and all the manifest
 crudities of the ,american spectacle1  
don't seem to me to be more than        
relatively trivial after all4 ,there are
 the universities1 the turbines of      
,niagara1 the ,new ,york architecture1  
and the quality of the mediocre people  
to set against these4444  ,within a week
 after ,i saw the ,president ,i was on  
the ,umbria and steaming slowly through 
the long spectacle of that harbor which 
was my first impression of ,america1    
which still1 to my imagination1 stands  
so largely for ,america4 ,the crowded   
ferry-boats hooted past2 athwart the    
shining water1 tugs clamored to and fro4
 ,the sky-scrapers raised their slender 
masses heavenward--,america's gay       
bunting lit the scene4 ,as we dropped   
down ,i had a last glimpse of the       
,brooklyn ,bridge4 ,there to the right  

was ,ellis ,island1 where the           
immigrants1 minute by minute1 drip and  
drip into ,america1 and beyond that the 
tall spike-headed ,liberty with the     
reluctant torch1 which ,i have sought to
 make the centre of all this writing4   
,and suddenly as ,i looked back at the  
sky-scrapers of lower ,new ,york a queer
 fancy sprang into my head4 ,they       
reminded me quite irresistibly of       
piled-up packing cases outside a        
warehouse4 ,i was amazed ,i had not seen
 the resemblance before4 ,i could really
 have believed for a moment that that   
was what they were1 and that presently  
out of these would come the real thing1 
palaces and noble places1 free1 high    
circumstances1 and space and leisure1   
light and fine living for the sons of   
men4444  ,ocean1 cities1 multitudes1    
long journeys1 mountains1 lakes as large
 as seas1 and the riddle of a nation's  
destiny2 ,i've done my impertinent best 
now with this monstrous insoluble       
problem4 ,i finish4  ,the air is very   

warm and pleasant in my garden to-night1
 the sunset has left a rim of           
greenish-gold about the northward sky1  
shading up a blue that is1 as yet1      
scarce pierced by any star4 ,i write    
down these last words here1 and then ,i 
shall step through the window and sit   
out there in the kindly twilight1 now   
quiet1 now gossiping idly of what       
so-and-so has done while ,i have been   
away1 of personal motives and of little 
incidents and entertaining intimate     
things4   ,,the ,,end