Koshland, Rule of Law, Global Warming, All Men are Equal, LMNOP, Democracy, DexterPanzaiad, Brownlashers, Mobolobocrazy, Plague, N. Angell on War, Free Trade, Hudibras, The Elephant on the Moon, Blue Laws, Eco-battiness, William Graham Sumner , Truth, Education, Fable of Bees, Government, Brann, Tocqueville, Directory
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Editor's Note and Footnotes:
The editor has no compunction about publishing these extracts, though it may be objected that they can be at most of historical or personal interest. Perhaps, in the light of the antics of the Bolsheviki, even such a parody as the forgoing may seem less wide of the potentialities of the socialistic system. In any case, if modern socialism has renounced some of the wild dreams of its past, that is largely owing to the criticism and ridicule poured upon them by vigorous opponents of the Sumner type. Says a prominent American, writing to the editor subsequently to the publication of one of the foregoing volumes of this series: "I have for many years publicly and privately urged socialists to read - really read - Sumner - as the most doughty and competent foe with whom they have to reckon."
With the present collection the publication of Sumner's Essays comes to an end. The original project of publishers and editor contemplated but a single volume - "War and Other Essays" - and they accordingly equipped that volume with a bibliography which was as complete as they then could make it. But when, later on, other materials came to be known about, and especially after the discovery of a number of unpublished manuscripts, the encouraging reception accorded to the first venture led us to publish a second, and then a third collection: "Earth Hunger and other Essays" and "The Challenge of Facts and Other Essays." It was during the preparation of the latter of these, now some five years ago, that the late Professor Callender deplored to the editor the omission of certain of Sumner's essays in political economy - in particular those dealing with free trade and sound money. And the reviewers of preceding collections had reminded us, rightly enough, that there should be a fuller bibliography and also an index covering all the essays.
In this last volume we have striven to meet these several suggestions and criticisms. And it is now the purpose of the publishers to form of these singly issued volumes a set of four, numbered in the order of their issue. Since the series could not have been planned as such at the outset, this purpose is in the nature of an after-thought; and there is therefore no general organization or systematic classification by volumes. In so far as classification is possible, under the circumstances, it is made by way of the index. This and the bibliography are the work of Dr. M. R. Davie; and are but a part of the service he has performed in the interest of an intellectual master whom he could know only through the printed word and the medium of another man.
Sumner's dominant interest in political economy, as revealed in his teaching and writing, issued in a doughty advocacy of "free trade and hard money," and involved the relentless exposure of protectionism and of schemes of currency-debasement. As conveying his estimate of protectionism, it is only fitting that his little book on "The -Ism which teaches that Waste makes Wealth" should be recalled from an obscurity that it does not deserve; it is typical of the author's most vigorous period and witnesses to the acerbity of a former issue that may recur. Th default of a single, comprehensive companion-piece in the field of finance, and one making as interesting reading, it has been necessary to confine selection to several rather brief articles, most of them dating from the campaign of 1890. In the choice of all economic essays I have been guided by the advice of my colleague, Professor F.R. Fairchild, a fellow-student under Sumner and a fellow-admirer of his character and career. Professor S.L. Mims also has been generous in his aid. I do not need to thank either of these men, for what they did was a labor of gratitude and love.
The title essay will be found at the end of the volume. It is the once famous lecture on "The Forgotten Man," and is here printed for the first time. When "War and Other Essays" was being prepared, we had no knowledge of the existence of this manuscript lecture; and, in order to bring into what we supposed was to be a one- volume collection this character creation of Sumner's, one often alluded to in modern writings, we reprinted two chapters from "What Social Classes Owe to Each other." It has been found impracticable in later reprintings of Vol.1 to replace those chapters with the more complete essay; and we have therefore decided to reproduce the latter, despite the certain degree of repetition involved, rather than leave it out of the series. In view of the fact that Sumner has been more widely known, perhaps, as the creator and advocate of the "Forgotten Man," than as the author of any other of his works, we entitle this volume "The Forgotten Man and Other Essays."
Several essays not of an economic order have been included because they have come to my knowledge within the last few years and have seemed to me to call for preservation. It is almost impossible to fix the dates of such manuscript essays, for I have not been able in all cases to secure information from persons who might be able to identify times and occasions. And there remain a good number of articles and manuscripts, published or unpublished, which can receive no more than mention, with a word of characterization, in the bibliography.
Some mention ought to be made here of a large body of hand-written manuscript left by Sumner and representing the work of several years - 1899 to 1905 or thereabouts -upon a systematic treatise on "The Science of Society." Printed as it was left, partially and unevenly completed and with many small and some wide hiatuses, this manuscript would make several substantial volumes. It is a monument of industry, involving, as it did, the collection over many years of thousands of notes and memoranda, and the extraction from the same, by a sort of tour de force, of generalizations intended to be set forth, with the support of copious evidence, in the form of a survey of the evolution and life of human society. These manuscripts, as left, represent no more than a preliminary survey of a wide field, together with more elaborately worked out chartings of sections of that field. The author planned to re-write the whole in the light of "Folkways." The continuation, modification, and completion of this enterprise, in something approaching the form contemplated by its author, must needs be, if at all possible, a long task.
As one surveys, through these volumes of essays, the various phases of scholarly and literary activity of their author, and then recalls the teaching, both extensive and intensive, done by him with such unremitting devotion to what he regarded as his first duty - and when one thinks, yet again, of his labors in connection with college and university administration, with the Connecticut State Board of Education, and in other lines - it is hard to understand where one man got the time, with all his ability and energy, to accomplish all this. In the presence of evidence of such incessant and unswerving industry, scarcely interrupted by the ill-health that overtook Sumner at about the age of fifty, an ordinary person feels a sense of oppression and of bewilderment, and is almost willing to subscribe to the old, hopeless tradition that "there were giants in those days."
In the preparation of this set of books the editor has been constantly sustained and encouraged by the interest and sympathy of the woman who stood by the author's side through life, and to whom anything that had to do with the preservation of his memory was thereby just, perfect, and altogether praiseworthy. The completion of this editorial task would be the more satisfying if she were still among us to receive the final offering.
Albert Galloway Keller ed
.
WEST BOOTHBAY HARBOR, ME.,
September 1, 1918
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Footnotes added in 2001.
(a) AMONG Professor Sumner's papers there turned up a curiosity which I do not like to pass over altogether, although it is more appropriate, perhaps, to the purposes of the biographer. Apparently Sumner amused himself, along in the seventies or early eighties, in figuring to himself the state of the world under a socialistic regime of the sort which he was always ridiculing and opposing. He did this by imagining the contents of a socialist newspaper, the New Era, of the date July 4, 2050(b), consisting of editorials, news notes, public announcements, criminal cases, and even a book review. The whole caricatures in high colors the phenomena attending such a regime in its period of exuberance.
A. G. Keller
(b) Dr. William Graham Sumner's date1950 has been updated to a time more in keeping with the tone of the paper.
(c) Paper production lapsed into a period of decline following the banning of chemical pulping in favor of mechanical pulping. While the quality of the paper was greatly diminished, the environment benefitted. Few books or other printed works survive.
(d) Societies decision to abandon the use of electronic means of communication placed the computer which was known to most citizens at the turn of the century in the position as being unacceptable other than as an entertainment media. Those companies that provided programs for word processing, data management and communications were forced into bankruptcy. One, Microsin, converted its mission statement to one of pleasure rather than information and survives and is the only source of programs for those computers still in existence."
(e) These initials as will be Seen below, mean Grand Passed Master Cooperator, while G. C. indicates the lower grade of Grand Cooperator.
(f) Steamboats have replaced those other burdensome (on the environment) means of travel. With the banning of oil and nuclear energy the use of "natural" resources has returned. Thus the steamboat is powered by burning wood and garbage. Difficulty has been encountered in obtaining adequate supplies of these precious resources as some citizens have taken it upon themselves to retain their garbage for their own use (for heating).
(g) Indians that had previously been confined to reservations in South Dakota and Nebraska as well as a few other states have been maintained in a state of animated suspension for over two centuries. The fact that the "New World" as we know it was theirs has no meaning or justification in their taking back that which was rightfully theirs
(h) The Governmental post office passed into bankruptcy as it continued to raise the price of postage until only governmental agencies, politicians and non-profit organizations used the service. In 2020, the organizational bodies of government decided they could no longer afford the subsidies to the Post Office in bankruptcy and the organization was adsorbed into the society for the preservation of antiquities.
(i) A meeting is planned which will involve all those of responsibility. Payment of expenses will be borne by the Board. Reimbursement is expected from all those in attendance with a surcharge of 30 percent to be added in recognition of the cost to the Board in managing these affairs.
(j) The value of a cooperative unit has as yet to be determined. The value of speculative stock on the exchange has fluctuated more than 600 percent (down) causing some investors to claim that they were unfairly deprived of the returns that had been assured them by brokers. Those brokers that can still be found claim poverty as their assets were lost as well in the plunge. The Pension Board that had invested all the Social Security assets in stock no longer can give an estimate of cooperative unit value. Accordingly, the Exchange Board has set an arbitrary value of one thousand cooperative unit equal to one ounce of gold. No one with gold to sell has offered it to the Exchange Board. It may be necessary to confiscate the hoards of gold known to be in the hands of malcontents, scoundrels, intellectuals, scientist and the like to stabilize the system.
(k) An experiment in Afghanistan where locally supplied bread from bakeries was discontinued by the Governmental Aid Agencies lead to great distress on the part of those who were accustomed to free bread. It is reported in our books of history that while riots occurred, most of those who had been recipients, actually found work and with the wages paid were able to purchase more suitable foodstuffs (This from the Wall Street Journal of June, 2001).
(l) Carriages, otherwise known as motor cars or Societies Unapproved Vehicles (SUVs) are powered by the latest technology. A winding mechanism which propels the vehicle at speeds up to five miles per hour for distances of as much as five miles on improved roads that are perfectly level has been approved by the Environmental Council. The elaborate gear system necessary to coil the spring tight is being installed in service centers that are maintained by the Council. Rumors of great loss of limbs and life due to the spontaneous release of the spring are just that, rumors!
(m) The heavy hand of death continues to plague our society. Since the eruption of the AIDS epidemic in Africa in the 1980's, it has spread quickly throughout the world. Some liken it to Black Death which was brought about by an infestation of fleas and consumption in the time of Samuel Pepys and Daniel Defoe. As drugs lengthened survival time of those infected, it according to some scientist, lead to resistance of the common tuberculosis bacteria. We now have the troika of AIDS, TB and Poverty causing great loss of life in not only lesser developed countries in Africa and Asia but in our Culture as well. The following table from the Wall Street Journal, August 29, 2002 reports the Grim Outlook for AIDS in Africa. (The epidemic continues to spread, mostly through heterosexual activities and affects women more than men.)
Country Percent HIV/AIDS in adults (2000)
Botswana 35.8%
Swaziland 25.3
Zimbabwe 25.1
Lesotho 23.6
Zambia 20.0
South Africa 19.9
Namibia 19.5
Malawi 16.0
Kenya 14.0
Central African Republic 13.8
NB The article in the WSJ is real as are the numbers reported. jsw/08-29-2002.
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Here ends part IV (Editor's Notes and Footnotes) of the Cooperative Commonwealth by Dr. William Graham Sumner.
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