As A Chinaman Saw Us Part 5

held out, and where I was introduced as a "white Chinee," or as a "white c.h.i.n.k," and "my friend." I wish I had kept a list of the drinks the "Boss" took and the cigars he smoked _per diem_. Perhaps it is as well I did not; you would not believe me. I was always "John" to this crowd, that was made up of laboring people in the main, of whom Irish and Germans predominated. The "Boss" was what they called a "bulldozer." If a man differed with him he tried to talk or drink him down; if it was an enemy and he became too disputatious, he would knock him out with his fist. In this way he had acquired a reputation as a "slugger," that counted for much in such an a.s.semblage, and he confided to me one evening that it was the easiest way to "stop talk," and that if he "laid down," the opposition would walk off with all his "people." He was "Boss" because he was the boss slugger, the best executive, the best drinker and smoker, the best "persuader," and the best public speaker in his ward. So you see he had a variety of talents. In China I can imagine such a man being beheaded as a pirate in a few weeks; this would be as good an excuse as any; yet men like this have grown and developed into respectable persons in New York and other cities.

"For ways that are dark and tricks that are vain, the Heathen Chinee is peculiar," but I doubt if he is more so than the political system of the United States, where every man is supposed to be free, but where a few men in each town own everything and everybody politically. The American thinks he is free, but he has in reality no more freedom than the Englishman; in fact, I am inclined to think that the latter is the freest of them all, and I doubt if too much freedom is good for man.

Politics in America is a profession, a trade, a science, a perfect system by which one or two men run or control millions. Politics means the attainment of political power and influence, which mean office. Some men are in politics for the love of power, some for spoils ("graft" they call it in slang), and some for the high offices. In America there are two large parties, the Republican and the Democratic. Then there are the Labor, Prohibition (non-drinking), and various other parties, which, in the language of politics, "cut no ice." The real issues of a party are often lost sight of. The Republicans may be said to favor a high tariff; the Democrats a low tariff or free trade; and when there is not sufficient to amuse the people in these, then other reasons for being a Democrat or a Republican are raised, and a platform is issued. Lately the Democrats have espoused "free silver," and the Republicans have "buried" them. The Democrats are now trying to invent some new "platform"; but the Republicans appear to have included about all the desirable things in their platform, and hence they win.

In a small town one or two men are known as "bosses." They control the situation at the primaries; they manage to get elected and keep before the people. Generally they are natural leaders, and fill some office.

When the senator comes to town they "escort" him about and advise him as to the votes he may expect. Sometimes the ward man is the postmaster, sometimes a national congressman, again a State senator; but he is always in evidence, and before the people, a good speaker and talker and the "boss." Every town has its Republican and Democratic "boss," always striving to increase the vote, always striving for something. The larger the city, the larger the "boss," until we come to a city like New York, where we find, or did find, Boss Tweed, who absolutely controlled the political situation for years.

This means that he was in politics, and manipulated all the offices in order to steal for himself and his friends; this is of public record. He was overthrown or exposed by the citizens, but was followed by others, who manipulated the affairs of the city for money. Offices were sold; any one who had a position either bought it or paid a percentage for it.

Gambling-dens and other "resorts" paid large sums to "sub-bosses," who become rich, and if the full history of some of the "bosses" of New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, or any great American city could be exposed, it would show a state of affairs that would display the American politician in a dark light. Repeatedly the machinations of the politicians have been exposed, yet they doubtless go on in some form.

And this is true to some extent of the Government. The honor of no President has been impugned; they are men of integrity, but the enormous appointing power which they have is a mere form; they do not and could not appoint many men. The little "boss" in some town desires a position.

He has been a spy for the congressman or senator for years, and now aspires to office. He obtains the influence of the senator and the congressman, and is supported by a pet.i.tion of his friends, and the President names him for the office, taking the senator for his sponsor.

If the man becomes a grafter or thief, the President is attacked by the opposition.

In a large city like New York each ward will have its "boss," who will report to a supreme "boss," and by this system, often pernicious, the latter acquires absolute control of the situation. He names the candidates for office, or most of them, and is all powerful. I have met a number of "bosses," and all, it happened, were Irish; indeed, the Irish dominate American politics. One, a leader of Tammany in New York, was a most preposterous person, well dressed, but not a gentleman from any standpoint; ignorant so far as education goes, yet supremely sharp in politics. Such a man could not have led a fire brigade in China, yet he was the leader of thousands, and controlled Democratic New York for years. He never held office, I was told, yet grew very rich.

The Republican "boss" was a tall, thin, United States senator. I was also introduced to him--a Mephistophelian sort of an individual--to me utterly without any attraction; but I was informed that he carried the vote of the Republican party in his pocket. How? that is the mystery. If you desired office you went to him; without his influence one was impotent. Thousands of office-holders felt his power, hated him, perhaps, but did not dare to say it.

The "boss" controls the situation, gives and "takes," and the other citizens get the satisfaction of thinking they are a free people. In reality, they are political slaves, and the "boss," "sub-boss," and the long line of smaller "bosses" are their masters. Very much the same situation is seen in national politics. The party is controlled by a "boss," and at the present this personage is a millionaire, named Hanna, said to be an honest, upright man, with a genius for political diplomacy, a puller of wires, a maker of Presidents, having virtually placed President McKinley where he is. This man I met. Many of the politicians called him "Uncle Mark." He has a familiar way with reporters. He is a man of good size, with a face of a rather common type, with very large and protruding ears, but two bright, gleaming eyes, that tell of genius, force, intelligence, power, and executive talents of an exalted order. I recall but one other such pair of eyes, and those were in the head of Senator James G. Blaine, whom I saw during my first visit to America. Hanna is famous for his _bonhomie_, and is a fine story-teller. Indeed, unless a man can tell stories he had better remain out of politics, or rather he will never get into politics.

As an outsider I should say that the power of the "boss" was due to the fact that the best cla.s.ses will have none of him, as a rule (I refer to the ordinary "boss"), and as a consequence he and his henchmen control the situation. I think I am not overstating the truth when I say that every city in the United States has been looted by the politicians of various parties. It is of public record that Philadelphia, Chicago, St.

Louis, and New York citizens have repeatedly risen and shown that the city was being robbed in the most bare-handed manner. Bribery and corruption have been found to exist to-day in the entire system, and if the credit of the republic stands on its political _morale_ this vast union of States is a colossal failure, as it is being pillaged by politicians. Every "boss" has what are termed "heelers," one function of whom is to buy votes and do other work in the interest of "reform." A friend told me that he spent election day in the office of a candidate for Congress in a certain Western town, and the candidate had his safe heaped full of silver dollars. All day long men were coming and going, each taking the dollars to buy votes. By night the supply was exhausted, and the man defeated. I expressed satisfaction at this, but my friend laughed; the other fellow who won paid more for votes, he said. I was told that all the great senatorial battles were merely a question of dollars; the man with the largest "sack" won.

On the other hand, there are senators who not only never paid for a vote but never expressed a wish to be elected. The foreign vote--Italians and others--are swayed by cash considerations; the negroes are bought and sold politically. The "bosses" handle the money, and the senators consider it as "expenses," and doubtless do not know that some of it has been used to influence legislators. The Americans have a remarkable network of laws to prevent fraudulent voting. Each candidate in some States is required to swear to an expense account, yet the wary politician, with his "ways that are dark," evades the law. The entire system, the control of the political fortunes of 80,000,000 Americans, is in the hands of a small army of political "bosses," some of whom, had they figured as grafters in "effete" China, would have been beheaded without mercy.

FOOTNOTES:

[9] Slang for citizens.

[10] Slang for information, facts.

[11] Mexican hash in corn-husk.

CHAPTER XII

EDUCATION IN AMERICA

A fundamental idea with the American is to educate children. This is carried to the extent of making it an offense not to send those above a certain age to school, while State or town officers, called "truant police," are on the alert to arrest all such children who are not in school. The following was told me by a Government official in Was.h.i.+ngton, who had obtained it from a well-known literary man who witnessed the incident. The literary man was invited to visit a Boston school of the lower grade, where he found the teacher, an attractive woman, engaged in teaching a cla.s.s of "youngsters," the progeny of the working cla.s.s. After the visitor had listened to the recitations for some time, he remarked to the teacher, "How do you account for the neatness and cleanliness of these children?" "Oh, I insist upon it," was the reply. "The Board of Education does not antic.i.p.ate all the desiderata, but I make them come clean and make it a part of the course;" then rising and tapping on the table, she said, "Prepare for the sixth exercise." All the children stood up. "One," said the teacher, whereupon each pupil took out a clean cloth handkerchief. "Two," counted the teacher, and with one concerted blast every pupil blew his or her nose in clarion notes. "Three," came again after a few seconds, and the handkerchiefs were replaced. At "four" the student body sank back to their seats without even smiling, or without having "cracked a smile."

You could search the world over and not find a prototype. It goes without saying that the teacher was a wit and wag, but the lesson of handkerchiefs and their use was inculcated.

Education is a part of the scheme to make all Americans equal. A more splendid _system_ it is impossible to conceive. Every possible facility is afforded the poorest family to educate their children. Public schools loom up everywhere, and are increased as rapidly as the children, so there is no excuse for ignorance. The schools are graded, and there is no expense or fee. The parents pay a tax, a small sum, those who have no children being taxed as well as those who have many. There are schools to train boys to any trade; normal free schools to make teachers; night schools for working boys; commercial schools to educate clerks; s.h.i.+p schools to train sailors and engineers. Then come the great universities, in part free, with all the splendid paraphernalia, some being State inst.i.tutions and others memorials of dead millionaires.

Then there are the great technical schools, as well as universities (where one can study Chinese, if desired). There are schools of art, law, medicine, nature, forestry, sculpture; schools to teach one how to write, how to dress, how to eat, and how to keep well; schools to teach one how to write advertis.e.m.e.nts, to cultivate the memory, to grow strong; schools for shooting, boxing, fencing; schools for nurses and cooks; summer schools; winter schools.

And yet the American is not profoundly educated. He has too much within his reach. I have been distinctly surprised at crude specimens I have met who were graduates of great universities. The well-educated Englishman, German, and American are different things. The American is far behind in the best sense, which I am inclined to think is due to the teachers. Any one can get through a normal school and become a teacher who can pa.s.s the examination, and I have seen some singular instances. If all the teachers were obliged to pa.s.s examinations in culture, refinement, and the art of _conveying_ knowledge, there would be a falling of pedagogic heads. The free and over education of the poor places them at once above their parents. They are free, and the daughter of a ditch laborer, whose wife is a floor scrubber, upon being educated is ashamed of her parents, learns to play the piano, apes the rich, and is at least unhappy.

The result is, there remains no peasant cla.s.s. The effect of education on the country boy is to make him despise the farm and go to the city, to become a clerk and ape the fas.h.i.+ons of the wealthy at six or eight dollars a week. He has been educated up to the standard of his "boss"

and to be his equal. The overeducation of the poor is a heartless thing.

The women vie with the men, and as a result women graduates, taking positions at half the price that men demand, crowd them out of the fields of skilled labor, whereas the man, not crowded out, should, normally, marry the girl. In power, strength, and progress the American nation stands first in the world, and all this may be due to splendid educational facilities. But this is not everything. There result strife, unhappiness, envy, and a craze for riches. I do not think the Americans as a race are as happy as the Chinese. Religious denominations try to have their own schools, so that children shall not be captured by other denominations. Thus the Roman Catholics have parochial schools, under priests and sisters, and colleges of various grades. They oppose the use of the Bible in the public school, and in some States their influence has helped to suppress its use. The Quakers, with a following of only eighty thousand, have colleges and schools. The Methodists have universities, as have the Presbyterians, Episcopalians, and others. All denominations have inst.i.tutions of learning. These schools are in the hands of clergymen, and are often endowed or supported by wealthy members of the denomination.

A remarkable feature of American life is the college of correspondence.

A man or firm advertises to teach by correspondence at so much a month.

Many branches are taught, and if the student is in earnest a certain amount of information can thus be acc.u.mulated. Among the people I have met I have observed a lack of what I term full, broad education, producing a well-rounded mind, which is rare except among the cla.s.s that stands first in America--the refined, cultured, educated man of an old family, who is the product of many generations. The curriculum of the high school in America would in China seem sufficient to equip a student for any position in diplomatic life; but I have found that a majority of graduates become clerks in a grocery or in other shops, car conductors, or commercial travelers, where Latin, Greek, and other higher studies are absolutely useless. The brightest educational sign I see in America is the attention given to manual training. In schools boys are taught some trade or are allowed to experiment in the trades in order to find out their natural bent, so that the boy can be educated with his future in view. As a result of education, women appear in nearly every field except that of manual labor on farms, which is performed in America only by alien women.

The richest men in America to-day, the multi-millionaires, are not the product of the universities, but mainly of the public schools. Carnegie, Rockefeller, Schwab, men of the great steel combine, the oil magnates, the great railway magnates, the great mine owners, were all men of limited education at the beginning. Among great merchants, however, the university man is found, and among the Harvard and Yale graduates, for example, may be found some of America's most distinguished men. But Lincoln, the martyred President, had the most limited education, and among public men the majority have been the product of the public school, which suggests that great men are natural geniuses, who will attain prominence despite the lack of education. The best-educated men in America to my mind are the graduates of West Point and Annapolis, the military and naval academies. These two inst.i.tutions are extremely rigorous, and are open to the most humble citizens. They so transform men in four years that people would hardly recognize them. The result is a highly educated, refined, cultivated, practical man, with a high sense of honor and patriotism. If America would have a school of this kind in every State there would be no limit to her power in two decades.

Despite education, the great ma.s.s of the people are superficial; they have a smattering of this and that. An employer of several thousand men told the Superintendent of Education of the District of Columbia that he had selected the brightest boy graduate of a high school for a position which required only a knowledge of simple arithmetic. The graduate proved to be totally unfit for the position and was discharged. Later he became the driver of a team of horses. America abounds in thousands of educational inst.i.tutions, yet there is not one so well endowed that it can say to the world we wish no more money. It is singular that some multi-millionaire does not grasp this opportunity to donate one hundred millions to a great national school or university, to be placed at Was.h.i.+ngton, where the buildings would all be lessons in architecture of marble after the plans of a world's fair. Instead they leave a few thousands here and a few there. Carnegie, the leading millionaire, gives libraries to cities all over the States, each of which bears the name of the giver. The object is too obvious, and is cheap in conception. In San Francisco some years ago a citizen tried the same experiment. He proposed to give the city a large number of fountains. When they were finished _each_ one was seen to be surmounted by his own statue. A few were put up, how many I do not recall, but one night some citizens waited on a statue, fastened a rope to its neck, and hauled it down. So peculiar are the Americans that I believe if Mr. Carnegie should place his name on ten thousand libraries, with the object of attaining undying fame, the people, by a concerted effort, would forget all about him in a few decades. Such an attempt does not appeal to any side of the American character. I have known the best Americans, but Mr. Carnegie has not known the best of his own countrymen or he would not attempt to perpetuate his memory in this way.

CHAPTER XIII

THE ARMY AND NAVY

Among the most delightful people I have met in America are the army and navy officers, graduates of West Point and Annapolis, well-bred, cultivated men, patriotic, open-hearted, and chivalrous. They are like our own cla.s.s of men who answer to the American term of gentlemen. I am not going to tell you of their splendid s.h.i.+ps, their training or uniform, but of a few of their idiosyncrasies. There is no dueling in the army. If two men have trouble at the academies they fight it out with bare fists, and in the army settle it in some other way, dueling being forbidden. Owing to the fact that all men are equal in America, the att.i.tude of the officer to the civilian is entirely different. If a civilian strikes an officer in Germany the latter will cut him down with his saber and be protected in it, but here the man would be arrested and treated as any other criminal; in a word, the officer is a servant of the people, and stands with them. He has been trained to treat his men well, and they respect him. But while the officer is the people's servant and his salary in some part is paid by the humblest grocer's clerk, laborer, or artisan, the officer has a social position which, in the eyes of himself and the Government, makes him the social equal of kings and emperors; and here we see a strange fact in American life.

When a garrison is ordered to a town or city, people call to pay their respects. The grocer, who in being taxed aids in paying the officer's salary, is _persona non grata_. The grocer, milk dealer, shoe dealer, and retail dealers in general might call, but would not be received on cordial terms. The wife of the colonel might return the call of the grocer's wife if she made a good appearance, but the latter would under no circ.u.mstances be invited to a function at the camp or post. The undertaker, the dentist, the ice-man, the retail shoe man are under the ban. Certain kinds of business appear to have certain social rights.

Thus a dentist would not be received, but the man who manufactures dentists' tools may be a leader among the "Four Hundred."

Strange complications arise. A young officer fell in love with a sergeant's daughter, and married her, as I learned from a well-known officer at the Army and Navy Club. This was serious enough, as there could be no intimacy between a commissioned and non-commissioned officer. The young man and his bride were ordered to a distant post, where the story of course followed them. All went well for a time. The bride sank her social inferiority in the rank of her husband, and the ladies of the post called on her, not as the sergeant's daughter but as the officer's wife. The mother of the bride finally decided to visit her, and thus became the guest of the officer, who was a lieutenant.

Under ordinary circ.u.mstances it was the duty of all the ladies to call on the mother of the lieutenant's wife; but it so happened that she was the wife of a sergeant, and hence to call was impossible. No one did so.

The young wife felt herself insulted, and the ubiquitous reporter seized upon the situation, until it was taken up by every paper in the country.

The pictures of mother, daughter, and sergeant were shown, and columns were written on the subject. Almost to a man the editors denounced what they termed the sn.o.bbishness of the army, and denounced West Point for producing sn.o.bs, claiming that the ladies of the post, had they been real ladies, would have called on a respectable laundress even if she had been the sergeant's wife. I refer to this to show the intricacies of American etiquette. The point is that nearly all the editors who knew anything, believed that the ladies were right, but did not dare to say so on account of the fact that the majority of their readers felt themselves the equals of the army officer; hence the cry of sn.o.bbery that went whistling over the land. The lieutenant committed a gross mistake in marrying the girl; he married out of his cla.s.s. But in America I am told there are no cla.s.ses, and I am constantly forgetting this.

In the army there are several black regiments (negroes). They have black chaplains, and attempts have been made to find black officers, but the social difficulties make this impossible, though the blacks are free and independent citizens and help pay the salaries of the white men. It would be impossible to force white soldiers to admit to their regiment black soldiers. No white man would permit a black officer to be placed over him, even by inference.

In the navy we see an entirely different situation. On every s.h.i.+p are negroes in the crew, sleeping on the same gun-decks with the white men, and no fault is found; but a negro officer would be an impossibility.

Though several have been sent to the Naval Academy, none have "gone through." Even in these almost perfect inst.i.tutions favoritism exists.

To ill.u.s.trate: the son of a prominent man was about to fail in his examinations, when the powers that be pa.s.sed the word that he must pa.s.s, _nolens volens_. The professor in whose cla.s.s he was and who had found him deficient resented this, and when he learned that it was the intention to pa.s.s the boy over his head he resigned and was ordered to his regiment. The young man was graduated, entered the army and, aided by influence, jumped many of his cla.s.s men and finally acquired rank at the request of the wife of one of the Presidents. This was a very exceptional case, the result of strong national sentiment that favored the father.

The management of the army does not seem rational to a foreigner. To preserve the idea of republican simplicity and equality, army men are not rewarded with orders, as in other countries, which is a great injustice. Few officers, though veterans of many wars, wear medals, and when they do they were not given as rewards for bravery, but are merely corps badges, showing that the officer belongs to this or that army corps. But if an officer does a brave deed he may be promoted several points over his fellows, as brave as he, but who did not have the same opportunity to show bravery. Ill feeling may be the result. Every man is expected to be brave, and extraordinary examples of bravery are recognized in other nations by the presentation of medals, the possession of which creates no ill feeling. The actual head of the army is the Secretary of War, a political appointment, an adviser selected by the President, who, usually, has no military knowledge. This officer gives all the orders to the general of the army, and, as in a recent instance, a vast amount of friction has been the result. Intense feeling was occasioned by the elevation of certain officers, who were supposed to possess remarkable executive ability.

Civil war veterans at the Army and Navy Club complained to an acquaintance of mine that when they arrived at the seat of war in Cuba they found their superior officers to be, first, General Wheeler, an ex-Confederate, against whom they had fought in the civil war; second, Colonel Wood, who had been a contract army surgeon under nearly all of them; and finally, Lieutenant-Colonel Roosevelt, who was a babe in arms when they were fighting the battles of the civil war. This story serves to ill.u.s.trate the point that political "pulls" and favoritism are rampant in the service, and are the cause of much disgust among officers. General Funston affords an ill.u.s.tration that has incensed many officers. Funston was an unknown man, who captured Aguinaldo by a clever ruse, a valuable and courageous piece of work, which should have been rewarded with a decoration and _some_ promotion; but he was jumped over the heads of hundreds, landing at the top of the army in one "fell swoop." I judge the policy of the Government to be to promote officers so soon as they show evidence of extraordinary capability.

It would be an easy matter for any one to obtain photographs of plans and sketches of American fortifications. One of my friends hired a photographer to get up what he called a sc.r.a.p-book of pictures to take home to his family in Tokio in order to "entertain his people." The photographer sent him a wonderful series, showing the forts overlooking New York harbor, interiors and exteriors; and those in Boston, Portland, Baltimore, Fort Monroe, Key West, and San Francisco were also obtained.

Photographs of guns and charts, which can be purchased everywhere, were included, as well as Government reports. If j.a.pan ever goes to war with the Yankees my friend's sc.r.a.p-book will be in demand. I do not believe the American War Department makes any secret of the forts. They are open to the public. Even if a kodak were not permitted, pictures could be secured. My friend said his photographer had a kodak which he wore inside his vest, the opening protruding from a b.u.t.ton-hole. All he had to do was to stand in front of an object and pull a cord. Such a kodak is known as a "detective camera." There are several designs, all very clever. I once saw my face reproduced in a paper, and until I heard about this camera it was a mystery how the original was obtained, as I had not "posed" for any one.

The possibility of America going to war with another nation is remote.

From what I see of the people and their tremendous activity they could not be defeated by any nation or combination of nations. They are like Senator ----'s Malay game-c.o.c.k, of which the senator has said that there is only one trouble with him--the bird never knows when he is licked, and if he does he does not stay licked. America could raise an army of ten or twelve millions of the finest fighters in the world for defense against any combination, and she would win. The senator told me a story, which ill.u.s.trates the situation. One of the American men-of-war in a Malay port had an old American eagle aboard as a mascot and pet. When the men got liberty they went ash.o.r.e with the eagle, and showed it as an "American game-c.o.c.k." The natives wanted to arrange a match, and finally one was planned, the eagle c.o.c.k against a black Malay. When the fight began, the black c.o.c.k put its spur into the eagle several times, the latter doing nothing but eye the c.o.c.k, first with one eye, and then with the other. Once more the black c.o.c.k stabbed the eagle, bringing blood, whereupon the eagle leaned forward, and as the c.o.c.k thrust out its head, seized it with one claw, pressed it to the ground, and with the other tore off its head and began to eat it. This is what would happen if almost any nation really and seriously went to war with the United States. But the country was ill prepared for the war with Spain. If Cervera had reached the New England coast he could have sh.e.l.led Boston and then New York.

Service in America is not compulsory. It is merely made popular, and as a result, every part of the country has State militia of splendidly drilled men, ready to be called on at a moment's notice. They receive no pay, considering it an honor to be in the militia service. In the regular army old names are perpetuated. The great generals and admirals have sent sons into the service. Our Government would do well to send young men to West Point and Annapolis. The j.a.panese did this for years, and received the best of their ideas from those sources. There is but one thing in the way. Chinamen are _tabooed_ in America, and doubtless would reach no farther than the port of entry. The only way to get in now would be for a new minister or diplomat to bring over ten or a dozen young men as members of the suite and then distribute them among the schools and universities--a humiliation that China will probably resent.

Our trade with America is extremely valuable to her. The cotton, flour, and other commodities we import represent a vast sum, and I believe if we refused at once to buy anything from America we could make our own terms in less than two years. This could be accomplished very gradually.

The Americans would find it out first through their consuls, who are all instructed to report on every possible point of vantage that can be taken in China by their merchants. They would report a decreased demand.