e people
will not need to compel them. Now its main business is to hold them
down while they are being robbed.

But, says Mr. Savage, these advantages would be attended by a
frightful "paradise of officialism"--a helpless subordination--in
which "the individual if not an officer would only count one!" We
cannot appreciate the horror of having more of "a paradise" about
officialism than we have in our present corrupt, inconstant, and
servile system of political Bossism, even if the individual could only
"count one." But Mr. Savage does know, or ought to know, that the very
first step of Nationalism is to nationalize our "politics," so as to
restore the initiative of political action to the people, and render
the abuses to which he refers impossible. He seems to suppose that
Nationalism is to be executed by Tammany Hall! Indeed, his capital as
an opponent of Nationalism consists in loading it up with European
paternalism and American political corruption, both of which it was
invented to render impossible. Suppose the "politics" of New York
were nationalized so that the City should no longer be a mere annex of
Tammany Hall, but so that every citizen might "count one," under legal
provisions for the vote and expression of the people without regard to
party or boss--who would be wronged? Politics must be annexed to our
government by such legal provisions, instead of being left to boss
monopoly or mobocracy. There is no freedom possible without a common
law and order to ensure and protect it. The trouble is now that all of
our politics are _outside_ of any law or order. "Count one!" Even that
is now impossible. We don't count at all, no more than if we lived in
Russia. But how many does Mr. Savage want an individual to count? His
idea of political freedom seems to be that of our old "free" Fire
Department, which was a monopoly entirely "voluntary." It gave us a
fire and _free_ fight nearly every night, developed its "Big Six"
Tweed into a "statesman," and consolidated Tammany Hall into the model
political "combine" of the world--as a monopoly. The custom is to
dispose of the offices of the people as profitably as it can _with
safety_, and to divide the proceeds for the benefit of the combine.
One of our purest and best judges publishes his last contribution as
$10,000, besides his other election expenses. This is the model to
which the State and Nation _must_ conform, for such is the condition
of success. Under that plan Go