CHAP. XI the real masters keep in the background while the dominated people imagine that they are still governed by hereditary rulers. of their own race.

Spiritual Power Is Used to Hold People in Subjection

In eighteen-century England George III built up in Parliament by the lavish distribution of offices, sinecures and pensions a party known as "the King's Friends," which could be relied on to stand by the king's ministry thru thick and thin. The system, of course, could not have been maintained without a large number of "rotten boroughs," whose representatives in Parliament had no constituents to answer to. When organized labor began to be a force in the United States it was long kept politically null by the device of giving certain Federal offices to its leaders. For instance, the post of U. S. Commissioner of Immigration went to "labor," no matter which party was in power. By this cheap device the labor vote was kept subservi

It is fear of thus being put off with a sop that has made the Socialist party in many countries refuse to allow any of their leaders to accept office under another party.

5. The political use of spiritual power. The early sultans at Constantinople perceived that the keen wit of the Greeks might be made an instrument of their designs, so they contrived to turn the Eastern Church into an instrument of Turkish dominion. The lower clergy, throughout the Christian lands conquered by the Turk, generally remained patriotic leaders, but the bishops and other higher clergy became slaves and tools of the Turk. Greek bishops ruled Slavonic churches and so formed another fetter in the chain by which the conquered were held down.

In a Briton's description of a Greek archbishop in Cyprus we see what arrows fill the ecclesiastical quiver.

"Geronymo held many weapons in his hands. First, as head of the church, he was the chief owner of land in this island, and could therefore raise the rent on hundreds of farms at any moment and on any pretext. Second, as head of the church, he was the biggest trader in the island, and could therefore raise the price of articles in the bazaars of every market-town. Third, as head of the church, he was one of the chief exporters of wine, salt, and brandy, and could therefore easily derange the shipping trade and annoy the ports. These temporal means of mischief could be strengthened and inflamed by spiritual allies. He could stop the Sacrament and suspend the rites of marriage and sepul

ture. He could shut up church and cloister, put the altars un- CHAP. XI der mourning, and deny a suffering people all the solaces of religion, from the act of baptism to the final offices of grace." 2 Under the old regime in Russia, the Tsar through the Oberprocuror of the Holy Synod held the Church captive and by means of twenty thousand village priests was able to disseminate among his credulous subjects any lie which suited his purpose as, e.g., that the massacre of 1500 on "Red Sunday" in 1905 was caused by English and Japanese spies who incited the Petrograd workmen to march upon the palace simply in order to have them. killed!

It is sacrcely necessary to recall how characteristic has been alliance between throne and altar during the struggle of the European peoples against absolutism, how centralized churches have preached the Divine Right of kings, urged unquestioning obedience to constituted authorities as God's will, and opened their bosoms to the greatest dynastic tyrants and mass murderers, while hurling their heaviest thunders upon nearly all the heroic self-sacrificing lovers of their fellowmen, who have contributed to bring in the new day.

6. Ignorance. The spread of secular knowledge unsettles dominion in so far as it rests on ideas. The Romanoffs generally cherished the brutish ignorance of their subjects as the brightest jewel of their crown. They did what they could to make difficulties for the zemstvos in their policy of planting schools among the common people. Tsarism feared all teaching it did not control and no association or individual might open a school without express authorization. Gymnasium and university were subject to the most high-handed interferences in order that the young scholars they turned out might be "reliable" and "safe."

Both the
State

Absclutist

and the

Absolutist

Church

Keep the

Lamp

Down

In South America neither the ruling proprietary class nor the Church desire to dispel the darkness which reigns in the minds of the masses. The hacendados fear lest schooling make the children of the agricultural laborer- the peon or inquilino-grow Turned up demanding, or restless, and migrant. They want the son to stay on in his father's mud hut content with the old hard rough life, attached to the hacienda and its master and deaf to the call of opportunity elsewhere. As one put it to me, "We don't want the children of our inquilinos disturbed in their minds."

Hepworth Dixon, "British Cyprus," p. 47.

CHAP. XI

The
Dominated
Admitted

to Partner-
ship with
Their
Masters

Continued
Domina-

The Church loves popular enlightenment as little as the master, but for reasons of her own. The priest wants the peons ignorant in order that he may hold them submissive to his authority, keep their feet from straying from the path of eternal salvation, and be relieved from the necessity of defending his doctrines, combating heresies and meeting the competition of the Protestant missionary. If, however, popular education must come, by all means keep it out of the hands of secular authorities, let the Church provide it herself in her own parish school where, as I was assured, "Religion saturates the entire course of study.'

7. The sharing of the benefits from domination. When an empire has a superior culture to impart, its domination may be profitable to both parties. To the peoples she brought under her sway Rome offered peace, internal order, security of industry and property, Roman law, public works and the classical culture. Her rule was iron but broadly just and provinces like Spain and Gaul, which had resisted her yoke with desperation, later flourished wonderfully and became intensely loyal. Spain brought into the Americas many elements of advancement and might have retained her colonies had she been less avaricious and cruel in her policy respecting them. The British raj in India and still more in the Malay States has brought great benefits to the subject peoples. The American rule in the Philippines still more resembles a partnership between dominators and dominated.

RESULTS OF DOMINATION

Subjection to a foreign yoke is one of the most potent causes tion Spoils of the decay of national character. Take, for example, the Hin

the Char

acter of

the Dominated

A Greek writer, Arrian, declares that "they are remarkably brave, superior in war to all Asiatics; they are remarkable for simplicity and integrity; so reasonable as never to have recourse to law suit and so honest as neither to require locks to their doors nor writings to bind their agreements. No Indian was ever known to tell an untruth." This portrays the precise opposite of modern Hindoo character and the change can be accounted for only by the long subjection of the race to the rule of the foreigner.

The character of the Greeks a century ago at the time of their struggle of liberation from the Turks was in glaring contrast to that of the classical Greeks. The generations which have come

on the scene since then show in growing measure the virtues of CHAP. XI freemen. The Syrians and Armenians are undoubtedly fine people but life under oppression has tainted them with the vices of lying and trickery. Not until the second generation after the breaking of the Turkish yoke will they recover the normal character of the race. The East-European Hebrews also show much moral deformity from subjection to the will of aliens. The effect of male domination upon the character of women is well known. Just as the Turks regard Armenian trickiness as a race trait instead of the result of their own violence, so the deceit and cajolery by which women gain their ends under the masculine yoke are looked upon as sex characters instead of natural products of domination. The Saracenic civilization was intensely male and hence it is not surprising that the tales of the "Thousand and One Nights" harp continually on the "malice and craft" of women.

Even a domination which is just and benevolent may stunt the spiritual growth of a people. The British domination of Egypt makes for the material prosperity of the people but does not advance them appreciably toward the plane of self-government. The élite of the Hindoos feel that the alien dominion has a blighting effect upon the higher life of the people of India. The defnitive removal from the sphere of activity of a people of most of the matters calling for collective thought or will depresses and effeminates. A share in government, and finally self-government should be held out to a dominated people as an in lucement to "make good." The American diffusion of education among the Filipinos taken in conjunction with the promise of eventual autonomy stimulates them with hope and causes them to progress rapidly.

tion Is

in Some

Cases

No large simple maxim like " No man is good enough to govern another without that other's consent " or its opposite, "The back- Justiñed ward races are the white man's burden," gives trustworthy guidance in the question of domination. The people of Turkestan were immensely benefited by being brought under the Tsar's scepter. It is fair question whether the people of Venezuela or Ecuador would not be better off under European domination than under the government they actually get. On the other hand, the Japanese have certainly developed farther than if, like the Indians or the Burmese, they had fallen under alien rule. The

CHAP. XI subjection of the Chinese to foreign domination would be in the end an incalculable misfortune for them. No doubt it is important that all men everywhere be put quickly in possession of civilization; but the case of Japan shows that appropriation of a higher culture does not call for the surrender of political independence. Nothing is more poisonous than the doctrine that some one people has been "chosen" to disseminate the true faith or the true civilization among the rest of mankind without heed to the wishes of these dwellers in darkness.