d clubbers" was "a stream of victims of police brutality who
testified before the Committee. The eye of one man, punched out by a
patrolman's club, hung on his cheek. Others were brought before the
Committee, fresh from their punishment, covered with blood and bruises,
and in some cases battered out of recognition." The whole city seemed
the prey of a panic terror. One day "a man rushed into the session,
fresh from an assault made upon him by a notorious politician and two
policemen, and with fear depicted upon his countenance threw himself
upon the mercy of the Committee and asked its protection, insisting
that he knew of no court and of no place where he could in safety go and
obtain protection from his persecutors." From all which it is plain that
too high a price may be paid for the philanthropy of Tammany Hall, and
that a self-governing democracy cannot always keep an efficient watch
upon its guardians.

What is it in the life and atmosphere of America which thus encourages
crime, or rather elevates crime to a level of excellence unknown
elsewhere? In the first place, the citizens of New York are the
disciples of Hobbes. To them life is a state of war. The ceaseless
competition for money is a direct incentive to the combat. Nature seems
to have armed every man's hand against his fellow. And then the American
is always happiest when he believes himself supreme in his own walk.
The man who inhabits the greatest country on earth likes to think of his
talent as commensurate with his country's. If he be a thief, he must be
the most skilful of his kind; if he be a blackmailing policeman, he must
be a perfect adept at the game. In brief, restlessness and the desire
of superiority have produced a strange result, and there is little
doubt that the vulgar American is insensitive to moral shocks. This
insensitiveness is easily communicated to the curious visitor. A
traveller of keen observation and quick intelligence, who has recently
spent "a year amongst Americans," accepts the cynicism of the native
without a murmur. After yielding to that spirit of enthusiastic hope
which is breathed by the Statue of Liberty, he thus discusses the
newly-arrived alien:

Even the stars in their courses [thus he writes] fight for America, if
not always for the immigrant when he lands. The politicians would
fain prevent his assimilation in order that his vote might be easily
manipulated by them; but first of all he must have a vote to be han