RETROGRESSION IN AMERICA.
-THE recent news from the United States is somewhat dis-
heartening. Mr. Blaine has been more successful in his recent electioneering tour than was believed to be possible, and will, it is intimated, be the candidate of his party for the next Presidential contest. That is, of course, a mere guess, for the most experienced cannot predict the action of a Republican " Convention" two years in advance ; and the friends of Civil Service Reform within that party will, when it meets, throw a heavy vote against Mr. Blaine, who is believed to be an ally of all the Rings." It is more certain that his speeches have induced large sections of workmen to believe their interests in danger from Free-trade, and consequently to vote against such Democratic candidates as are openly opposed to Protection. These candidates have fallen on every side in such numbers, that the Democrat majority in the House of heartening. Mr. Blaine has been more successful in his recent electioneering tour than was believed to be possible, and will, it is intimated, be the candidate of his party for the next Presidential contest. That is, of course, a mere guess, for the most experienced cannot predict the action of a Republican " Convention" two years in advance ; and the friends of Civil Service Reform within that party will, when it meets, throw a heavy vote against Mr. Blaine, who is believed to be an ally of all the Rings." It is more certain that his speeches have induced large sections of workmen to believe their interests in danger from Free-trade, and consequently to vote against such Democratic candidates as are openly opposed to Protection. These candidates have fallen on every side in such numbers, that the Democrat majority in the House of
Representatives has sunk from forty-two to less than ten, while it may be reduced, when all the returns come in, to less than five, in which case, it is added, the five or six Labour representatives, who are more or less Socialists, will hold the balance of power. In the Senate, the Republicans still possess a majority of two ; and the total result is declared to be that no question of Tariff Reform can be so much as brought forward in Congress until 1888. The consumers have, it is evident, not yet been educated up to Free-trade ; the free- holders are still indifferent, or at least too indifferent to break party ties ; and the interested classes, who fancy their wages depend on keeping out foreign competition, have bestirred themselves with a vigour which has carried the elections.
That is disheartening, but it is not so disheartening as the power displayed by the " labour " movement in many States,) the success of the Socialists in Chicago—where they polled in one election, it is believed, 18,000 votes, and among other officers elected three Judges—and the heavy vote thrown in New York for Mr. Henry George, who sought the Mayor's chair. Out of 217,000 votes given to all the candidates, Mr. George received 68,000, or nearly one-third ; and though he did not succeed, and his chief competitor, Mr. Hewitt, who received 90,000 votes, avowedly stood on " capitalist " principles, still it is felt that his party is henceforth an im- portant factor in city politics. It can give the victory to either side, and can therefore, it is said, within the limits which would induce the State to interfere and revise the City Constitution, dictate its own terms. That is an alarming prospect ; for although Mr. George is not exactly a Socialist, and, in England at all events, professed to respect the Ten Commandments, he stood forward in New York to advocate the separate claims of the handicraftsmen to advantages not conceded to the rest of the community ; his ideas on land would destroy private property in the soil ; and his definite promise to " make the Elevated Railway free as air to working men," points either to direct plunder, or, which is much more probable, to a scheme for using the city revenues to buy up all means of communi- cation for the benefit of a single class. That is a most dangerous extension of the Poor-Law idea; and without believing implicitly the much wilder threats, about house property in par- ticular, attributed to Mr. George, we may take it as certain that the work people believed him to be Socialist, and that no one not utterly discontented with the organisation of society voted for
him as Mayor. That nearly one-third of all adult males in New York should be so discontented is a serious symptom of social malaise, not much mitigated by the fact that the majority of voters on this side may have been, and probably were, Irish- men, Germans, and men out of work. Neither Irishmen ncr Germans will grow fewer in New York, while spasms of bad trade will recur there, as elsewhere, at stated, intervals, and will, if Socialist ideas should spread, always furnish excuse for anti-social movements. Nothing in the condition of the great city promises that the trouble will be only temporary. The attraction of limitless land, which should draw away all who are at once able-bodied and unsuc- cessful, exists already, and can hardly increase ; the " con- gestion " of the population shows no sign of decreasing ; and the sufferings of a section of the people of New York—arising in part from their lodging, which is worse than that of London —described by the devoted philanthropist, Mr. C. Brace, began in a period of prosperity. The only visible hope is in educa- tion ; and while immigration continues, general education is rather a distant dream of good men than a present source of confidence to politicians.
If the vote for Mr. H. George cannot be explained, the pro- portion of Socialists, or semi-Socialists, in New York is larger than in any other great town in the world ; and though this may not be a source of actual danger, it certainly is a reason for most disheartening perplexity. In the long last, actual power in the United States rests with the freeholders, who cannot be devotees of Mr. Henry George ; and the farmers of New York State could as easily put down any anti-social movement within the city, as the Illinois Militia could put down rioters in Chicago. But to appeal to force against such num- bers is almost to appeal to civil war ; and it is the existence of the evil, not the impossibility of repressing it, which is so saddening to the observer. In Europe, it is possible to say that Socialism is due to repression—a remark often made about Germany—or to overcrowding—though the population of France does not increase—or to the monopoly of land—an argument constantly adduced by English theorists ; but now it breaks out in America, where there is no military repression ; where population, though it increases rapidly, has ample room ;
and where, under the Homestead Law, every man can obtain 160 acres by fulfilling a few simple forms. Every one is free, every one has a vote, every one can obtain education, and every one can enjoy land practically without payment. If, in a country where those conditions of prosperity exist, and where, 'moreover, the immense majority are not only contented with their institutions, but sincerely proud of them, anti-social hatred can be generated on a vast scale, what hope is there for the future Let nations do what they will, they cannot create among their peoples either universal comfort or universal con- tent ; and if discomfort or discontent are to justify anti-social movements after all artificial obstacles to prosperity have been removed, when is civil war, or the fear of civil war, to come to an end ? We seem to be in presence of a kind of mania with which there is no dealing, and about which the wise can only hope that it proceeds from an impulse that one day will wear out. A great many people think in their hearts that it will be cured by despair, by what is, in fact, the dread of irresistible physical force ; but the evidence is not on that side. The physical force in Chicago was visibly irresistible when the anarchists began throwing bombs ; and the first idea of the fanatics of the creed—happily, not yet very numerous—is that they ought to be martyrs for it, ought, that is, to regard physical force just as the early Christians did, as of no account in the battle. Others think that surrender will ultimately satisfy discontent ; but what is to be the surrender which will satisfy men in America ? The people have already all power. The unoccupied land is already divided among them on demand. They can regulate taxation just as they please. They do already by custom, though not by law, distribute property pretty equally among all children at death. What remains, unless we give up the moral law altogether, and under a thin veil of legislative action, plunder those who have earned for the benefit of those who have not, and so announce authorita- tively, in a world where bread is not produced except by hard ploughing, that industry is to be of no account ? The States may establish a Poor-Law, and so prevent hunger ; but we have done that here, and our Socialists say it is nothing but an insult, and of no good at all in the solution of the social problem. We confess we see no secure ground of hope, except in a change of religious feeling deep down among the masses ; and as yet, all that is visible, in Europe at all events, is a deeper and deeper scepticism, leading nowhere except to an intenser belief that the true objects of life are a maximum of comfort and a minimum of toil. That ideal is the very root of the strange passion which, long increasing in Europe, is now menacing America also.
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