cter, are
vastly greater than with the man of corresponding position in England.
So far from not taking an interest in politics, as Englishmen understand
the phrase, he is commonly a most energetic and valuable supporter of
his party.

But--and here is the nub of the matter--politics in America include
whole strata of political work which are scarcely understood in England.
When the English visitor is told in the United States that "our best
people will not take any interest in politics," it is usually in the
office of a financier, or at a fashionable dinner table, in New York or
some other of the great cities. What is intended to be conveyed to him
is that the "best people" will not take part in the active work in
municipal politics or in that portion of the national politics which
falls within the municipal area. The millionaire, the gentleman of
refinement and leisure, will not "take off his coat" and attend primary
meetings, or make tours of the saloons and meet Tammany or "the City
Hall gang" on its own ground. As a matter of fact it is rather
surprising to see how often he does it; but it is spasmodically and in
occasional fits of enthusiasm for Reform, "with a large R." And,
whatever temporary value these intermittent efforts may have (and they
have great value, if only as a warning to the "gangs" that it is
possible to go too far), they are in the long run of little avail
against the constant daily and nightly work of the members of a
"machine" to whom that work means daily bread.

I have said that it is surprising to see how often these "best people"
do go down into the slums and begin work at the beginning; and the
tendency to do so is growing more and more frequent. The reproach that
they do not do it enough has not the force to-day that once it had.
Meanwhile in England there is little complaint that the same people do
not do that particular work, for the excellent reason that that work
does not exist to be done. It would only be tedious here to go into an
elaborate explanation of why it does not exist. The reason is to be
found in the differences in the political structure of the two
countries--in the much more representative character of the government
(or rather of the methods of election to office) in America--in the
multiplication of Federal, State, county, and municipal
office-holders--in the larger number of offices, including many which
are purely judicial, which are elective, and which are filled