The Forgotten Man; W. G. Sumner

Whatever we inherit of wealth, knowledge, or institutions from the past has been paid for by the labor and sacrifice of preceding generations; and the fact that these gains are carried on, that the race lives and that the race can, at least within some cycle, ac cumulate its gains, is one of the facts on which civilization rests. The law of the conservation of energy is not simply a law of physics; it is a law of the whole moral universe, and the order and truth of all things conceivable by man depends upon it. If there were any such liberty as that of doing as you have a mind to, the human race would be condemned William Graham Sumner was Professor of Political and Social Science in Yale Univer sity when he delivered his memorable speech on "The Forgotten Man" in 1883, portions of which are presented here. 470 to ever lasting anarchy and war as these erratic wills crossed and clashed against each other. True liberty lies in the equilibrium of rights and duties, producing peace, order, and harmony. As I have de fined it, it means that a man's right to take power and wealth out of the social product is meas ured by the energy and wisdom which he has contributed to the social effort.

N ow if I have set this idea be fore you with any distinctness and success, you see that civil liberty consists of a set of civil institu tions and laws which are arranged to act as impersonally as possible. It does not consist in majority rule or in universal suffrage or in elective systems at all. These are devices which are good or better just in the degree in which they secure liberty. The institutions of civil liberty leave each man to run 1969 THE FORGOTTEN MAN 471 his career in life in his own way, only guaranteeing to him that whatever he: does in the way of industry, economy, prudence, sound judgment, and the like, shall redound to his own welfare and shall not be diveTted to some one else's benefit. Of course, it is a necessary corollary that each man shall also bear the. penalty of his own vices and his own mis takes. If I want to be free from any other man's dictation, I must understand that I can have no other man under my control. .

"The Poor and the Weak" Now you know that "the poor and the weak" are. continually put forward as objects of public inter est and public obligation. In the appeals which are made, the terms "the poor" and "the weak" are used as if they were terms of ex act definition. Except the. pauper, that is to say, the man who can not earn his living or pay his way, there is no possible definition of a poor man. Except a man who is incapacitated by vice or by phy sical infirmity, there. is no defini tion of a weak man. The paupers and the physically incapacitated are an inevitable charge on so ciety. About them no more need be said. But the weak who constantly arouse the pity of humanitarians and philanthropists are the shiftless, the imprudent, the negligent, the impractical, and the inefficient, or they are the idle, the intem perate, the extravagant, and the vicious. Now the troubles of these persons are constantly forced upon public attention, as if they and their interests deserved espe cial consideration, and a great portion of all organized and unor ganizedeffort for the common wel fare consists in attempts to re lieve these classes of people. I do not wish to be understood now as saying that nothing ought to be done for these people by those who are stronger and wiser. That is not my point. What I want to do is to point out the thing which is overlooked and the error which is made in aU these charitable ef forts.

The notion is accepted as if it were not open to any question that if you help the inefficient and vi cious you may gain something for society or you may not, but that you lose nothi:q.g. This is a com plete mistake. Whatever capital you divert to the support of a shiftless and good-for-nothing per son is so much diverted from some other employment, and that means from somebody else. I would spend any conceivable. amount of zeal and eloquence if I possessed it to try to make people grasp this idea. Capital is force. If it goes one way it cannot go another. If you 472 THE FREEMAN August give a loaf to a pauper you can not give the same loaf to a laborer. Now this other man who would have got it but for the charitable sentiment which bestowed it on a worthless member of society is the Forgotten Man. The philan thropists and humanitarians have their minds all full of the wretched and miserable whose case appeals to compassion, at tacks the sympathies, takes pos session of the imagination, and excites the emotions. They push on towards the quickest and ·easi est remedies and they forget the real victim.

The Simple, Honest Laborer Now who is the Forgotten Man? He is the simple, honest laborer, ready to earn his living by produc tive work. We pass him by because he is independent, self-supporting, and 'asks no favors. He does not appeal to the emotions or excite the sentiments. He only wants to make a contract and fulfill it, with respect on both sides and favor on neither side. He must get his liv ing out of the capital of the coun try. The larger the capital is, the better living he can get. Every particle of capital which is wasted on the vicious, the idle, and the shiftless is so much taken from the capital available to reward the independent and productive la borer. But we stand with our backs to the independent and productive la borer all the time. We do not re member him because he makes no clamor; but I appeal to you whether he is not the man who ought to be remembered first of all, and whether, on any sound so cial theory, we ought not to pro tect him against the burdens of the good-for-nothing. In these last years I have read hundreds of articles and heard scores of ser mons and speeches which were really glorifications of the good for-nothing, as if these were the charge of society, recommended by right reason to its care and protection. Weare addressed all the time as if those who are re spectable were to blame because some are not so, and as if there were an obligation on the part of those who have done their duty towards those who have not done their duty. Every man is bound to take care of himself and his fam ily and to do his share in the work of society. It is totally false that one· who has done so is bound to bear the care and charge of those who are wretched because they have not done so.

The silly popular notion is that the beggars live at the expense of the rich, but the truth is that those who eat and produce not, live at the expense of those who labor and produce. The next time 1969 THE FORGOTTEN MAN 473 that you are tempted to subscribe a dollar to a charity, I do not tell you not to do it, because after you have fairly considered the matter, you may think it right to do it, but I do ask you to stop and re member the Forgotten Man and understand that if you put your dollar in the savings bank, it will go to swell the capital of the coun try which is available for division amongst those who, while they earn it, will reproduce it with in crease. liThe Working Classes" Let us now go on to another class of cases. There are a great many schemes brought forward for "improving the condition of the working classes." I have shown already that a free man cannot take a favor. One who takes a fa vor or submits to patronage de means himself. He falls under ob ligation. He cannot be free and he cannot assert a station of equality with the man who confers the fa vor on him. The only exception is where there are exceptional bonds of affection or friendship, that is, where the sentimental relation supersedes the free relation.

Therefore, in a. country which is a free democracy, all propositions to do something for the working classes have an air of patronage and superiority which is imper tinent and out of place. Noone can do anything for any body else unless he has a surplus of energy to dispose of after tak ing care of himself. In the United States, the working classes, tech nically so called, are the strongest classes. It is they who have a sur plus to dispose of if anybody has. Why should anybody else offer to take care of them or to serve them? They can get whatever they think worth having and, at any rate, if they are free men in a free state, it is ignominious and unbecoming to introduce fashions of patronage and favoritism here. A man who, by superior education and experience of business, is in a position to advise a struggling man of the wages class, is cer tainly held to do so and will, I be lieve, always be willing and glad to do so; but this sort of activity lies in the range of private and personal relations.

I now, however, desire to direct attention to the public, general, and impersonal schemes, and I point out the fact that, if you un dertake to lift anybody, you must have a fulcrum or point of resist ance. All the elevation you give to one must be gained by an equiva lent depression on someone else. The question of gain to society depends upon the balance of the account, as regards the position of the persons who undergo the respective operations. But nearly 474 THE FREEMAN August all the schemes for "improving the condition of the working man" in volve an elevation of some work ing men at the expense of other working men. When you expend capital or la bor to elevate some persons who come within the sphere of your in fluence, you interfere in the con ditions of competition. The advan tage of some is won by an equiva lent loss of others. The difference is not brought about by the energy and effort of the persons them selves. If it were, there would be nothing to be said about it, for we constantly see people surpass others in the rivalry of life and carry off the prizes which the others must do without. In the cases I am discussing, the differ ence is brought about by an inter ference which must be partial, ar bitrary, accidental, controlled by favoritism and personal prefer ence.

I do not say, in this case, either, that we ought to do no work of this kind. On the contrary, I be lieve that the arguments for it quite outweigh, in many cases, the arguments against it. What I de sire, again, is to bring out the forgotten element which we al ways need to remember in order to make a wise decision as to any scheme of this kind. I want to call to mind the Forgotten Man, because, in this case also, if we recall him and go to look for him, we shall find him patiently and perseveringly, manfully and inde' pendently struggling· against ad verse circumstances without com plaining or begging. If, then, we are led to heed the groaning and complaining of others and to take measures for helping these others, we shall, before we know it, push down this man who is trying to help himself. The Abuse of Legislation Let us take another class of cases. So far we have said nothing about the abuse of legislation. We all seem to be under the delusion that the rich pay the taxes. Taxes are not thrown upon the con sumers with any such directness and completeness as is sometimes assumed; but that, in ordinary states of the market, taxes on houses fall, for the most part, on the tenants and that taxes on com modities fall, for the most part, on the consumers, is beyond ques tion. Now the state and munici pality go to great expense to sup port policemen and sheriffs and judicial officers, to protect people against themselves, that is, against the results of their own folly, vice, and recklessness. Who pays for it?

Undoubtedly the people who have not been guilty of folly, vice, or recklessness. Out of nothing comes nothing. We cannot collect taxes 1969 THE FORGOTTEN MAN 475 from people who produce nothing and save nothing. The people who have something to tax must be those who have produced and saved. When you see a drunkard in the gutter, you are disgusted, but you pity him. When a policeman comes and picks him up you are satis fied. You say that "society" has interfered to save the drunkard from perishing. Society is a fine word, and it saves us the trouble of thinking to say that society acts. The truth is that the police man is paid by somebody, and when we talk about society we for get who it is that pays. It is the Forgotten •Man again. It is the industrious workman going home from a hard day's work, whom you pass without noticing, who is mulcted of a. percentage of his day's earnings to hire a police man to save the drunkard from himself.

All the public expenditure to prevent vice has the same etfect. Vic-e is its own. curse. If we· let nature alone, she cures vice by the most frightful penalties. It may shock you to hear me say it, but when you get over the shock, it will do you good to think of it: a drunkard in the gutter is just where he ought to be. Nature is working away at him to get him out of the way, just as she sets up her processes of dissolution to remove whatever is a failure in its line. Gambling and less men tionable vices all cure themselves by the ruin and dissolution of their victims. Nine-tenths of our measures for preventing vice are really protective towards it, be cause they ward off the penalty. "Ward off," I say, and that is the usual way of looking at it; but is the penalty really annihilated? By no means. It is turned into police and court expenses and spread over those who have resisted vice.

It is the Forgotten Man again who has been subjected to the penalty while our minds were full of the drunkards, spendthrifts, gamblers, and other victims of dis sipation. Who is, then, the For gotten Man? He is the clean, quiet, virtuous, domestic citizen, who pays his debts and his taxe-s and is never heard of out of his little circle. Yet, who is there in the society of a civilized state who deserves to be remembered and considered by the legislator and statesman before this man? State Regulation and Control Another class of cases is closely connected with this last. There is an apparently invincible prejudice in people's minds in favor of state regulation. All experience is against state regulation and in fa vor of liberty. The freer the civil institutions are, the more weak or 476 THE FREEMAN August mischievous state regulation is. The Prussian bureaucracy can do a score of things for the citizen which no governmental organ in the United States can do; and, conversely, if we want to be taken care of as Prussians and French men are, we must give up some thing of our personal liberty.