Obedient Caitiff; Whitelaw Reid, another one, so long as his patron is powerful, though he would turn and betray him as he did Horace Greeley when the star of his patron wanes; Senator Davis a rabid trade-eating expansionist; and so on. One of the administration newspaper fraternity at Washington summed up the executive perplexities in getting obedient men :

There appears to be a great deal of delay in appointing peace commissioners. There is purpose in the delay, and it is purpose of a pretty sensible sort. President McKinley's commissioners must be men who will obey orders. That is all that will be needed. No latitude will be allowed them. They will be told what to do, and they must do it. Therefore, it is necessary, before naming these commissioners, to decide upon what is to be done, and then pick the men who will do it. Two commissioners are already chosen. Secretary Day and Senator Davis will obey the orders of the President, no matter what policy he may decide upon.-Aug. 20, '98.

The people, occupied with their chocolate caramels and tea, thought that the policy of demanding all the Philippines grew up spontaneously in the hearts of the commissioners from the stress of the occasion; whereas it was an old seed which Hanna had placed in McKinley's pocket months before, and which McKinley sowed and watered by cablegram in the commissioners' breasts from Washington.

We see now the power of an American president to make Congress and the nation do his will, and even to make them think that his will is their will. He compels Congress with the rawhide of administration patronage, he compels the people through executive acts which commit the nation, through acts of congress which he inspires, and through that public deception, the press. Through his agents-the cabinet ministers and congressmen-he instructs press correspondents what to say to the people next, to bring them on a stage further along the dazzling road he has staked out. He never forgets to say that real decision is in the people's hands, through their instrument Congress, and with each new move he declares that he has means of conviction-like means of grace--that the peo

ple are with him. But the so-called people's decision through Congress is the decision of his rawhide nine times in ten, and the conviction that the people want what he orders is a readymade formula stamped on every document like a notary's seal. In such language as the following-a Washington dispatch of March 10, '99-he moulds the public, and anyone who chooses may see the relentless blade within the velvet scabbard.

Upon authority so high that it is beyond question, the positive statement is made of President McKinley's fixed intention permanently to retain the Philippines. He believes that not only has destiny forced this course upon the United States, but that selfadvantage, as well as duty, [note this !] demand it. But President McKinley has not reached this position at one bound. [Oh no, the people must not think that!] . . Assertions made prior to the adjournment of Congress that the President had formulated no Philippine policy may have been true then; they are certainly not true now. The administration fully understands, of course, that the whole question of the future of the islands must be settled by Congress and not by the Chief Executive. [Sic!] But the President has not reached his present position without consultation with the members of his official family, and he and they also understand the powerful influences which the_national_administration can bring to bear upon the formulation of national legislation. [Note this, also.] · President believes he has the support of the great preponderance of American sentiment when he contends for the permanent retention of the whole archipelago.

The

When Congress convenes and under the executive club confirms what the executive has done, will that be the decision of the people? The administration has everything in its hands unless the people rise in their indignation and cow the executive and congress into real listening and real obedience. The nothingness of the people is illustrated by the statement of Charles A. Gardiner in an address before the N. Y. State Bar Association at Albany, early this year: "During the last year the American people have resolved upon a most momentous policy—to expand their continental bounds, acquire foreign territory, and take their place among nations as a dominant world power. Expansion is no longer a theory, but a fact. To the press of this country, more than to any other aggregate intellectual force, must be ascribed the development

of this national policy and for services thus rendered no tribute of praise can be unmerited." I have sought everywhere in vain to know when they resolved it, and now I abandon the search. 'Oh to be nothing, nothing, only to lie at His feet; a broken and empty vessel, for the Master's use made meet!' is religious song which this whole nation can humbly sing to McKinley. That incomparable scoundrel has played his cards and so far won. As a dissembler the arch-fiend is not his peer. He sanded the eyes of a senator or two as well as of the nation. Foraker said "that when he (Foraker) spoke of the actions or possible actions of the President, he spoke as one judging from the public utterances of the President, and some knowledge of his feelings and desires with respect to the question in hand. He then quoted from his speech the statement that he did not know anybody from the President down to his humble self who had any intention or desire to retain permanent control of the Philippine Islands." As for the rest of us, who have not the honor of being on terms with the Consort of Destiny, our sole question is, can a Runnymede be prepared for King John McKinley?

2. "Trust The President."

How was the nation kept quiet all this time? By the shibboleths 'Present a united front to the world,' and, Trust the president.' It was the president himself who strenuously sought to float these rafts for bearing his revolutionary policy through the breakers of popular scrutiny. The tyrant always says 'Trust me,' until he is supreme, when he does not need to say it. We cannot fail to see in the follies of the American people at this time a reproduction of the extravagances of the Florentines during the last days of their liberty. It was in the autumn of 1515 and the new pope, Leo, "for the first time after his

*Associated Press, Jan. 19, '99.

elevation, re-entered his native city, whose citizens, in raptures at his arrival, pulled down the walls to build a new gate. Leo's entrance into Florence set the seal to the transformation of their love of liberty into servitude. Twelve triumphal arches awaited the Pope in the streets of Florence; there were temples, columns, statues, flags, flowers, tapestries, the city appeared like one entire decorated palace; and the citizens, in exquisitely magnificent attire, seemed like a band of happy children welcoming their father."* But it was the end of liberty. Their father said, Trust me, I will do everything that is good

for you.

In McKinley's triumphal marches across America there have been flags and flatteries, arches and tapestries, and the father has said to his children, Let us all unite on the policy I have marked out until it is finished, let us have no questions and no divided counsels, place entire confidence in me and do not deliberate or legislate, let brotherly love and elevated patriotism prevail until I have completed the tomb of your liberties, then you may think again and have your little differences among yourselves.

At Clinton, (Ia.), the father said amid raptures and cheers: "We want no differences at home until we have settled our differences abroad; when that is all done, we can have our little differences among ourselves."-At Boone he said: "This is no time for divided counsels; this is the solemn hour demanding the highest wisdom and the best statesmanship of every section of our glorious country. If I would have you remember anything I have said in these desultory remarks, it would be to remember that at this critical hour in the nation's history, we must not be divided. The triumphs of the war are yet to be written in the articles of peace." He said at Red Oak: “But our patriotism must be continued. We must not permit it to abate, but we must stand unitedly until every settlement of the recent contest shall be written in enduring

*Grimm, Life of Michael Angelo, vol. i, pp. 436, 437.

form and shall record a triumph for civilization and humanity."-At Kokomo it was: "And we must continue to stand together. When we have no differences with another nation, then it will be time for us to resume our old disputes at home."—At Indianapolis, this: “We meet in nc party name. We meet in the name of our country, of patriotism, and of peace."-At Omaha he was wafted away in a panegyric of the army and navy,—a form of poetry which all tyrants write, and made it the text of a solemn adjuration to follow him like a little child until Hanna's will was done. "Who will dim the splendor of their achievements? Who will withhold from them their earned distinction? Who will intrude detraction at this time to belittle the manly spirit of American youth, or impair the usefulness of the American navy? Who will embarrass the government by sowing seeds of dissatisfaction among the brave men who stand ready to serve and die if need be for their country? Who will darken the counsels of the republic in this hour requiring the united wisdom of all?”

Imagine if you can a deputation of Florentine merchants, wearing the insignia of trade, reverently approaching him whose entrance into their city set the seal to the transformation of their love of liberty into servitude, and, divesting yourselves of time and place, produce in mind the effluent praise of the spokesman of the company as he addressed the benignant father. The words would perhaps be these, in which the postmaster of Los Angeles (appointed by the president) at a feast of a hundred business men of the Merchants' and Manufacturers' Association, responded to the toast, "The President of the United States":

"I will liken the President to that mythological god holding up the heavens and commonly pictured to us as Atlas supporting the world, for, in fact, the greatness of our country has become such that today it would not be inappropriate to substitute for Atlas the President of the United States with the world upon his shoulders. If this be a country 'of the people and for the people,' then truly it is the people