this way, special repertories, well got up, under the title of "campaign books" or "campaign text-books," which contain, along with many statistics, short monographs on the political questions before the public, official documents, declarations of the party, indictments of the policy of the opposite party, defences of their own, etc. There is one category of pamphlets which, being not such dry reading, is more acceptable to the recipients, viz. the biographies of the candidates for the Presidency, and sometimes also for posts of less importance. These biographies are composed in prospectus style for the requirements of the election campaign and are known, in consequence, by the name of "campaign lives"; they form a historical type of their own which has no resemblance whatever to Plutarch. Sometimes, however, the campaign lives of the presidential candidates are penned by real, and even illustrious men of letters, while their heroes are obscure mediocrities; thus the biography of Pierce was written by Hawthorne, the author of "The Scarlet Letter."

The type of "campaign literature" which is the most read, and which produces the most effect, is represented by leaflets, or even little bits of cardboard, with a few dogmatic assertions unaccompanied by argument. The controversy on the currency system, for instance, is settled on them by a few figures stating peremptorily that under the gold standard debts have increased by so and so many millions. That is enough for the elector, he is convinced: "I know it's true, it comes from the national committee." Similarly the superiority of protectionism is demonstrated by a series of small leaflets intended for the farmers, the front page of each leaflet exhibiting a picture of an agricultural product, apples, butter, honey, poultry, sheep, cows, with an explanatory note showing at what rate the article in question paid duty under the McKinley tariff, to what amount the customs-duties were lowered by the Wilson Bill of the Democrats, and how much the American farmer loses on each head of cattle, each pound of butter, each dozen of eggs, etc. On the back of the leaflet are given the three respective figures for a number of other agricultural products, with the conclusion, "Stand by Republican Principles, Protection and Sound Money." The greatest success is obtained by "pictorial literature," that is to say, by illustrated leaflets

and handbills with symbolic pictures, caricatures, etc., representing, for instance, monometallism in the form of a man with only one eye and one leg, and thus furnishing self-evident proof of the absurdity of opposition to bimetallism. As a large proportion of the electors who have more or less recently come into the country do not understand English sufficiently, the "campaign documents" which are considered the most important, big speeches, small cards or leaflets, are brought within their reach by translations into their mother tongue, -in German, in French, in Italian, in Swedish, in Polish, in Czech, in Hebrew, in fact, in almost all the languages of Europe. Throughout the campaign all the polyglot "literature" is distributed unremittingly and with much method, especially in the "doubtful" States. Provided with copies of the electoral register in every part of the country, the committees despatch their "literature" to all the electors; but it is the "doubtful electors," as disclosed by the canvass, who are the special object of their attentions; they overwhelm them with communications, they leave them no peace, and send them at short intervals now a pamphlet, now a newspaper, now illustrated leaflets. As in the case of the other methods of electoral propaganda, the distribution of "documents" occurs only during the presidential campaign; and it is only by way of exception that it takes place on the occasion of other election campaigns.

In particularly grave conjunctures, the party Organization does not monopolize the action intended to influence the public mind. The appeals addressed to public opinion in these circumstances come from independent sources as well. A mobilization of all the living forces of the nation takes place along the whole line. As a matter of course the independent press, that which is not an agent of the parties or which is bound to them by very loose ties only, intervenes with much energy. The Church itself, whose absolute independence of the State makes it indifferent to party strife, the churches of every denomination put themselves in motion when the great problems of the day, or even the person of the candidate, appear to raise moral questions ruled by the Decalogue. The question of the double standard and of the free coinage of silver is an economic one, but the preacher submits to his flock

whether it is honest to pay one's debts in a depreciated metal and to despoil one's creditor with the hypocritical aid of the law. In a similar spirit, ministers of religion stand up in their churches against a corrupt State boss, the cup of whose iniquities is running over, or against the plunderers and receivers, or the accomplices of the gang of Tammany Hall. Taking up the narrower standpoint of church morality, clergymen publish letters in the newspapers to recommend a candidate, for instance, the candidate for the Presidency of the Republic, as a pious, God-fearing man. Individual citizens, more or less eminent representatives of social groups, of professions, come forward in like manner to throw the weight of their opinion or of their prestige into the scale, by means of a public declaration solicited by an interviewer of the press or spontaneously addressed to a newspaper. Often the paper takes little plébiscites among these persons by publishing the views of a group of college presidents, of a group of bankers, of a group of lawyers, of a group of workmen in some trade, etc. Although got up for reporting purposes, to procure copy, these consultations add to the mass of ideas and opinions put into general circulation on the occasion of the election campaign.

FIFTH CHAPTER

THE ELECTION CAMPAIGN (conclusion)

I

THE means of propaganda which have just been reviewed and which aim, or are supposed to aim, at the intelligence of the electors, are very largely supplemented by others intended to act on the imagination. The latter appeal in the first place to the senses, and are meant to "raise enthusiasm." This mode of action is already familiar to us from our English experience; but in America it is applied with an amplitude and a wealth of resources by the side of which the efforts of the English party Associations cut a very poor figure and mark the infancy of the art. The reader need only recall the famous presidential campaign of "Tippecanoe and Tyler too," in 1840, to be aware that the art of stirring up the electors by making a noise was at a very early stage brought to a rare pitch in the United States. The noise is produced by a set of regular devices, to which the American organizers themselves give the collective title of "the Chinese business." Foremost among the usual methods come the mass-meetings, whose principal attraction for the crowd that cares little for political eloquence consists of musical interludes executed by orchestras and choruses. The signal is given, as soon as election time begins, by the "ratification meetings," summoned on the pretext of ratifying the selections of candidates made in the conventions. Another ceremony which affords repeated opportunities for stirring up the crowd is the "banner" or "flag raising" the inauguration of the flag or of the banner of the party, generally adorned with the portraits of the candidates for the Presidency and the Vice-Presidency. Amid the din of speeches and bands, the huge banner is planted in

front of the head-quarters of the committee, and in other parts of the city hung across the street. As the campaign progresses, one mass-meeting is held after another, with no particular pretext. They are organized in large covered buildings or in the open air, and announced by puffs in the newspapers and by handbills in which the speakers and the music are eulogized beforehand. Singing does not fill as important a place in the programme as music, and it by no means consists entirely of political songs.

Far more picturesque are the processions and the big processions called parades, of which we have already had a foretaste at the national convention. Every city and every rural district treats itself to these during the campaign, and they would think themselves almost disgraced if they were deprived of them. We are already familiar with the special organization of "marching clubs," which file through the streets for the glory of their party. Fireworks, torch-light processions, cavalcades on horseback or on bicycles, ridden by hundreds or even thousands of men and women wearing a special uniform, bicycle orchestras, aquatic parades with hundreds of boats in a row, parades in the streets attended by large contingents of the followers of the party, are so many means of testifying to the enthusiasm which animates its members. Some of these demonstrations attain really gigantic proportions, such as the great parades in New York, for instance, when more than a hundred thousand men march past a few leading members of the party, sometimes with the presidential candidate himself at their head, accompanied by bands, flags, and banners, in the midst of a million spectators. It is a general review of the forces of the party held like a military review. The troops are under the orders of a grand-marshal and a number of assistant marshals, adjutants, and captains. The various companies are generally formed by professions or trades: store clerks, merchants, barristers, etc. All classes of the population are represented, from the princes of finance down to the common people; heads of business firms and members of the bar fall in, shouting themselves hoarse, in honour of the candidates of the party, just like ordinary labourers. The ridiculous side of the spectacle they present does not occur to them nor to the spectators of the