The Altruist in Politics | Page 3

on request at no additional
cost, fee or expense, a copy of the etext in its original plain ASCII form
(or in EBCDIC or other equivalent proprietary form).
[2] Honor the etext refund and replacement provisions of this "Small
Print!" statement.
[3] Pay a trademark license fee to the Project of 20% of the net profits
you derive calculated using the method you already use to calculate

your applicable taxes. If you don't derive profits, no royalty is due.
Royalties are payable to "Project Gutenberg
Association/Carnegie-Mellon University" within the 60 days following
each date you prepare (or were legally required to prepare) your annual
(or equivalent periodic) tax return.
WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU
DON'T HAVE TO?
The Project gratefully accepts contributions in money, time, scanning
machines, OCR software, public domain etexts, royalty free copyright
licenses, and every other sort of contribution you can think of. Money
should be paid to "Project Gutenberg Association / Carnegie-Mellon
University".
*END*THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN
ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END*

This etext was prepared by Tom Weiss ([email protected])

"The Altruist in Politics" was delivered by Cardozo as his
commencement oration at Columbia College in 1889. It was never
copyrighted. Columbia University, which administers Cardozo's
literary estate, has explicitly granted permission to Project Gutenberg to
publish it.

"The Altruist in Politics" by Benjamin Cardozo

There comes not seldom a crisis in the life of men, of nations, and of
worlds, when the old forms seem ready to decay, and the old rules of
action have lost their binding force. The evils of existing systems
obscure the blessings that attend them; and, where reform is needed, the
cry is raised for subversion. The cause of such phenomena is not far to
seek. "It used to appear to me," writes Count Tolstoi, in a significant
passage, "it used to appear to me that the small number of cultivated,
rich and idle men, of whom I was one, composed the whole of

humanity, and that the millions and millions of other men who had
lived and are still living were not in reality men at all." It is this spirit-
the spirit that sees the whole of humanity in the few, and throws into
the background the millions and millions of other men-it is this spirit
that has aroused the antagonism of reformers, and made the decay of
the old forms, the rupture of the old restrictions, the ideal of them and
of their followers. When wealth and poverty meet each other face to
face, the one the master and the other the dependent, the one exalted
and the other debased, it is perhaps hardly matter for surprise that the
dependent and debased and powerless faction, in envy of their
opponents' supremacy, should demand, not simple reform, but absolute
community and equality of wealth. That cry for communism is no new
one in the history of mankind. Thousands of years ago it was heard and
acted on; and, in the lapse of centuries, its reverberations have but
swelled in volume. Again and again, the altruist has arisen in politics,
has bidden us share with others the product of our toil, and has
proclaimed the communistic dogma as the panacea for our social ills.
So today, amid the buried hopes and buried projects of the past, the
doctrine of communism still lives in the minds of men. Under stress of
misfortune, or in dread of tyranny, it is still preached in modern times
as Plato preached it in the world of the Greeks.
Yet it is indeed doubtful whether, in the history of mankind, a doctrine
was ever taught more impracticable or more false to the principles it
professes than this very doctrine of communism. In a world where
self-interest is avowedly the ruling motive, it seeks to establish at once
an all-reaching and all-controlling altruism. In a world where every
man is pushing and fighting to outstrip his fellows, it would make him
toil with like vigor for their common welfare. In a world where a man's
activity is measured by the nearness of reward, it would hold up a
prospective recompense as an equal stimulant to labor. "The more
bitterly we feel," writes George Eliot, "the more bitterly we feel the
folly, ignorance, neglect, or self-seeking of those who at different times
have wielded power, the stronger is the obligation we lay on ourselves
to beware lest we also, by a too hasty wresting of measures which seem
to promise immediate relief, make a worse time of it for our own
generation, and leave a bad inheritance for our children." In the future,
when the remoteness of his reward shall have weakened the laborer's

zeal, we shall be able to judge more fairly of the blessings that the
communist offers. Instead of the