THE WAY OPEN TO PEACEFUL REVOLUTION.


What I set out in the first chapter to do seems to me done. I essayed to
show how the political "machine," its "ring," "boss," and "heeler,"
might be abolished, and how, consequently, the American plutocracy might
be destroyed, and government simplified and contracted to the field of
its natural operations. These ends achieved, a social revolution would
be accomplished--a revolution without loss of a single life or
destruction of a dollar's worth of property.

Whoever has read the foregoing chapters has seen these facts
established:

(1) That much in proportion as the whole body of citizens take upon
themselves the direction of public affairs, the possibilities for
political and social parasitism disappear. The "machine" becomes without
effective uses, the trade of the politician is rendered undesirable, and
the privileges of the monopolist are withdrawn.

(2) That through the fundamental principles of democracy in
practice--the Initiative and the Referendum--great bodies of people,
with the agency of central committees, may formulate all necessary law
and direct its execution.

(3) That the difference between a representative government and a