Download as pdf or txt
Download as pdf or txt
You are on page 1of 49

Marketing Research 7th Edition Burns

Solutions Manual
Go to download the full and correct content document:
https://testbankfan.com/product/marketing-research-7th-edition-burns-solutions-manu
al/
More products digital (pdf, epub, mobi) instant
download maybe you interests ...

Marketing Research 7th Edition Burns Test Bank

https://testbankfan.com/product/marketing-research-7th-edition-
burns-test-bank/

Marketing Research 8th Edition Burns Solutions Manual

https://testbankfan.com/product/marketing-research-8th-edition-
burns-solutions-manual/

Marketing Research 8th Edition Burns Test Bank

https://testbankfan.com/product/marketing-research-8th-edition-
burns-test-bank/

Marketing Research 6th Edition Burns Test Bank

https://testbankfan.com/product/marketing-research-6th-edition-
burns-test-bank/
Basic Marketing Research Using Microsoft Excel Data
Analysis 3rd Edition Burns Solutions Manual

https://testbankfan.com/product/basic-marketing-research-using-
microsoft-excel-data-analysis-3rd-edition-burns-solutions-manual/

Basic Marketing Research Using Microsoft Excel Data


Analysis 3rd Edition Burns Test Bank

https://testbankfan.com/product/basic-marketing-research-using-
microsoft-excel-data-analysis-3rd-edition-burns-test-bank/

Basic Marketing Research Using Microsoft Excel Data


Analysis Canadian 1st Edition Burns Test Bank

https://testbankfan.com/product/basic-marketing-research-using-
microsoft-excel-data-analysis-canadian-1st-edition-burns-test-
bank/

Marketing Research An Applied Orientation 7th Edition


Malhotra Solutions Manual

https://testbankfan.com/product/marketing-research-an-applied-
orientation-7th-edition-malhotra-solutions-manual/

Marketing Research 10th Edition McDaniel Solutions


Manual

https://testbankfan.com/product/marketing-research-10th-edition-
mcdaniel-solutions-manual/
CHAPTER 8

UNDERSTANDING MEASUREMENT, DEVELOPING


QUESTIONS, AND DESIGNING THE QUESTIONNAIRE
LEARNING OBJECTIVES

• To understand the basics of measurement regarding people, places, and things

• To recognize the three types of measures used by marketing researchers

• To examine three scale formats commonly used by marketing researchers

• To see other scale formats commonly used in marketing research

• To appreciate the basic functions of a questionnaire

• To learn the dos and don’ts of question wording

• To learn the basics of questionnaire organization

• To understand the advantages of computer-assisted questionnaire design software

• To comprehend coding of questionnaires

CHAPTER OUTLINE

Basic Concepts in Measurement

Types of Measures

Nominal Measures

Ordinal Measures

Scale Measures

Interval Scales Commonly Used in Marketing Research

The Likert Scale

The Semantic Differential Scale

The Stapel Scale

Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. 103


Reliability and Validity of Measurements

Designing a Questionnaire

The Questionnaire Design Process

Developing Questions

Four Dos of Question Wording

Four Don’ts of Question Wording

Questionnaire Organization

The Introduction

Question Flow

Computer-Assisted Questionnaire Design

Questionnaire Creation

Skip and Display Logic

Data Collection and Creation of Data Files

Data Analysis and Graphs

Coding the Questionnaire

Pretesting the Questionnaire

KEY TERMS

Measurement Properties

Objective properties Subjective properties

Scale development Nominal measures

Ordinal measures Scale measures

Interval scale Ratio scale

Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. 104


Workhorse scales Likert scale

Lifestyle inventory Semantic differential scale

Halo effect Symmetric interval scale

Nonsymmetric interval scale Reliable measure

Valid measure Questionnaire

Questionnaire design Question bias

Question development Question evaluation

Leading question Loaded question

Double-barreled question Overstated question

Face validity Questionnaire organization

Introduction Undisguised survey

Disguised survey Incentives

Anonymity Confidentiality

Screening questions Question flow

Warm-up questions Transitions

Skip question Classification questions

Computer-assisted questionnaire design Skip logic

Display logic Coding

“All that apply” question Pretest

TEACHING SUGGESTIONS

1. Measurement of a construct requires an operational definition. Instructors may want


to review this concept and elaborate on how an operational definition indicates how a
construct’s subjective and/or objective properties are measured on a scale. For
instance, “purchase intention” may be operationally defined as a respondent’s

Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. 105


indication on a 7-point scale where 1 corresponds to “not at all likely” and 7 pertains
to “very likely” to purchase the brand at his/her next purchase.

2. Scale development in an academic context is much more rigorous than in an applied


context. If an instructor desires to bring this difference to students’ attention,
Churchill’s scale development paradigm is a good vehicle. A slightly different
approach would be to relate the scale development steps reported in a recent scale
development article.

3. To help students understand the idea of measurable qualities, have them generate as
many different rating aspects of one or more of the following:

• A convenience store
• A department store
• A new automobile

Use class discussion to point out how customers may harbor positive ratings on some
qualities, but negative ratings on others, and how this information has important
marketing implications.

4. Numerical versus letter grades can be used as an example of how higher-level scaling
assumptions provide more information than lower-level ones. For instance, take
numerical grades. Suppose one student has an 89 average, and another student has an
81 average. Assuming that 80-89 defines the “B” letter grade range, both are B
students, but the 89 student is close to an A, while the 81 student is close to a C. This
closeness is not contained in the ordinal letter grade system, but it is in the numerical
ratio system.

Class discussion can focus on whether it is better to have a ratio scale (1-100 scale) or
an ordinal scale (A-F scale) as a way to measure the goodness of students. How
would students feel about a nominal system of pass-or-fail. Hopefully students will
desire a more sensitive scale rather than a less sensitive one. The point is that with a
low level scale, there is little information about the performance of the individual
student.

5. It is useful to remind students of the inability of observation and most other


qualitative methods to look into the minds of those people being studied. The reason
for scaling stems from a need to standardize respondents’ answers into a consistent
format that can be used to summarize and compare their answers.

An in-class exercise can be used to illustrate the need for and benefits of using
standardized scales. Select some subject with some controversial or emotional aspect
to it. Possible college examples include: dropping football from the athletic program
to save money, requiring freshmen and sophomores to live on campus, creating a
walking campus with no student or faculty vehicles allowed, or not awarding a
diploma unless the graduating student signs an agreement to contribute 1 percent of

Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. 106


his or her income to the alumni fund. Have students write down how they “feel”
about the issue. Gather up the written comments and assign the task of compiling the
reactions to a team of three or four students. Once done, have other students observe
how the team goes about the compilation task.

Class discussion should bring out the fact that the qualitative information required
judgments along the way by the compilation team. Next, have students rate their
feelings on the controversial topic using a 7-point negative-to-positive scale. Have a
student team compile these responses with the rest of the class as observers. It should
be apparent that the use of a rating scale greatly simplifies the judgments and
compilation activities.

6. Life styles and their measurement is a good research topic. Assign the topic to a
student or a student team to perform library research on it and report findings to the
class. You may want to expand the assignment to include VALs which is an Active
Learning Exercise in the chapter. Sending students to the SRI VALS home page is
always a fun experience for students. With a multimedia teaching room, instructors
can visit SRI’s web site and demonstrate VALS in class.

7. It is sometimes possible to demonstrate the halo effect to students by having them


inspect the questionnaires from a survey that used a semantic differential or similar
scale. Sometimes a respondent will place check marks all on one side, the other, or
down the middle of the scale. Alternatively, students can see that a respondent has
used the scale correctly when the check marks are consistent with the reverse
positions of the scale items.

8. Contrasting a telephone questionnaire to one that is self-administered will emphasize


how telephone administration constrains the choice of scales and further requires the
interviewer to describe the scale to the respondent. With self-administered
questionnaires, the format and instructions are facilitated by the visual context.
Divide the class into two teams and have one team design a telephone questionnaire,
while the other designs a mail questionnaire. The topic might be to determine the
satisfaction level of car buyers with the automobile’s style, handling, fuel efficiency,
and passenger compartment roominess. The need to tailor the questions to the form
of data collection can be emphasized by comparing the two questionnaires.

9. The 4 “do’s” and 4 “do not’s” described in the chapter are not easy for students to
remember. A “divide and conquer” strategy is to assign each student (or student
team) one “do” or one “do not” with instructions to formulate a question that
illustrates the error quite well. Students can share the questions they formulate in
class. You might have a contest by class vote as to which one is the best (easiest to
relate to or remember) for each of the 4 do’s and each of the 4 do not’s items.
Prepare a list of the winners for distribution the next time you teach the class.

Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. 107


10. There are other computer-assisted questionnaire design programs on the market.
Many of these companies have web sites, and some allow downloading of evaluation
copies of their products. One approach is to have students or student teams review
and demonstrate different computer-assisted questionnaire design software. Of
course, we are partial to Qualtics, but this approach will reveal alternatives with
particular capabilities or features that apply to special types of questionnaire
situations or question form. If student need help identifying these programs, here is a
list that was supplied on the “SurveyMonkey” web site at one time.

Zoomerang™ SuperSurvey Greenfield Online


Infopoll Perseus PollCat
Inquisite Cool Surveys Survey System
Apian Software Hosted Survey SurveyView
StatPac SurveyGold Survey Select
InstantSurvey EZSurvey Mercator
SurveyCrafter PollPro SurveyHeaven
Surveywire ObjectPlanet SurveySaid
mantaINSIGHT Active Websurvey SumQuest
CustomerSat StatSurvey SurveySite
QuickSense SurveyTrends LiveSurveys
InSite Websurveyor

ACTIVE LEARNING EXERCISES

Construct a College Student Life Style Inventory

Students must develop a life style statement for each dimension using the
recommendations in the Likert scale section – “With this scale, it is best to use “flat” or
plain statements and let the respondent indicate the intensity of his or her feelings by
using the agree-disagree response continuum position.” Representative statements are
provided in the table.

College Life Style Your statement


Dimension
Studying I am a studious person.
Going out I enjoy going out.
Working I work to gain experience in my major.
Exercising I exercise regularly
Shopping Shopping is a large part of my life.
Dating I usually go out on dates as much as the average student.
Spending money I like to make purchases.

Can you identify what is “bad” about a question and correct it?

Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. 108


Bad Version of the What’s the error? Good Version of the
Question Question
How do you feel about car Lacks focus How do you feel about
seats for infants? requiring infants to ride in
car seats?
When your toddler wants to Not grammatically simple Does your toddler usually
ride in the car with you as ride in an infant car seat?
you run errands or pick up
your older children at
school, practice, or some
friend’s home, do you use
an infant
car seat?
If using an infant car seat is Double barrel (not Make into three questions
not convenient for you to convenient; in a hurry; or three question parts: Do
use, or when you are in a toddler is crying) you use an infant car seat
hurry and your toddler is when:
crying, do you still go It is not convenient?
ahead and use the infant You are in a hurry?
car seat? Your toddler is crying?
How much do you think you Not grammatically simple How much do you think
should have to pay for an you should pay for an infant
infant seat that retrains and seat that protects you child
protects your toddler in in a car accident?
case someone runs into
your car or you lose control
of your car and run into a
light post or some other
object?
Shouldn’t concerned Leading question Parents of toddlers should
parents of toddlers use use infant car seats. (agree-
infant car seats? disagree scale)
Since infant car seats are Leading and loaded To what extent to you agree
proven to be exceptionally that infant seats protect
valuable, do you agree that infants in car accidents?
infant car seats should be
used for your loved ones?
Do you think that parents Double barreled Should parents use infant
who are responsible citizens seats with their children?
and who are aware of
driving dangers use infant
car seats?
If you had an accident with Overstated Do you believe that infant
your toddler on board, do car seats are valuable?
you believe an infant car
seat could protect your

Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. 109


child from being maimed?

Decide on Questionnaire Order in a Questionnaire

Research Objective and How to measure? Location on the Questionnaire


Description and Reason(s) for This Location
Will the restaurant be Describe the restaurant Place after the warm-ups as the
successful? concept and asked description takes concentration on
Will a sufficient number intentions to purchase the part of the respondent and
of people patronize the there on a scale. there is an intentions scale used
restaurant?
How should the Determine respondents’ Logically follows the description
restaurant be designed? preferences for each of the of the new restaurant so
What about décor, several possible design respondents can relate these
atmosphere, specialty features on a preference questions to the restaurant concept.
entrées and desserts, wait scale
staff uniforms,
reservations, special
seating, and so on?
What should be the Describe standard entrees Logically follows the preferences
average price of entrées? and example house for new restaurant so respondents
How much are potential specials and obtain how can relate these questions to the
patrons willing to pay for much respondents are expected prices.
the entrées as well as for willingness using price
the house specials? ranges
What is the optimum Determine farthest driving Logically follows the description
location? distance respondents are of the new restaurant and may be
How far from patrons’ willing to drive to the new before or after the preferences so
homes are patrons willing restaurant for each respondents can relate these
to drive, and are there any location feature. questions to the expected prices.
special location features
(such as waterfront, ample
parking, etc.) to take into
consideration?
What is the profile of the Ask for demographics of Demographics are placed at the
target market? the respondents end of the questionnaire

What are the best Determine normal use of These are quick and easy to
promotional media? various local media such answer, so they can be warm-ups
What advertising media as newspaper, radio, or otherwise placed at the
should be used to best television and obtain beginning of the questionnaire.
reach the target market? specifics such as what
newspaper sections are
read, what radio
programming, and what
local television news

Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. 110


times watched

ANSWERS TO END-OF-CHAPTER QUESTIONS

1. What is measurement? In your answer, differentiate an object from its properties,


both objective and subjective.

Review question. This question refers to basic measurement concepts.

Measurement is defined as determining the amount or intensity of some characteristic


of interest to the researcher. A measurable characteristic is called a property.
Objective properties are physically verifiable characteristics such as age, income,
number of bottles purchased, store last visited, and so on. Subjective properties are
those which cannot be directly observed because they are largely influenced by a
person’s judgments or impressions. In this case, the marketing researcher must ask a
respondent to translate his or her feelings onto a continuum of intensity.

2. Distinguish the three measures used in marketing research.

Review question. Students must describe the three types of measures and their
respective characteristics.

The three types of measures are nominal measures, ordinal measures, and scale
measures (which include ratio scale measures and interval scale measures).

Nominal measures are defined as those that use only labels, possessing only the
characteristic of description.

Ordinal measures permit the researcher to rank order the respondents or their
responses.

Scale measures are those in which the distance between each level is known. There
are two types of scale measures, ratio scale measures and interval scale measures.

3. How does an interval scale differ from a ratio scale?

Review question. Students must differentiate between the two types of scales.

Ratio scale measures are ones in which a true zero origin exists—such as an actual
number of purchases in a certain time period, dollars spent, miles traveled, number of
children in the household, or years of college education. Interval scale measures, on
the other hand, are rating scales for subjective properties where, for adjacent levels,
the distance is normally defined as one scale unit.

Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. 111


4. Explain what is meant by a continuum along which a subjective property of an object
can be measured.

Review question. This question will necessitate understanding the measurement of


subjective properties.

Subjective properties are unobservable. When a subjective property such as an


attitude or an opinion has intensity, the person’s position can be located on a scale
ranging from very negative to very positive. This range of intensity is the
measurement continuum.

5. What are the arguments for and against the inclusion of a neutral response position
in a symmetric scale?

Review question. Students will need to refer to the discussion of neutral positions on
symmetric scales.

Those arguing for the inclusion of a neutral option believe that some respondents do
not have opinions formed on that item, and they must be given the opportunity to
indicate their ambivalence. Proponents of not including a neutral position, however,
believe that respondents may use the neutral option as a dodge or a method of hiding
their opinions. Eliminating the neutral position forces these respondents to indicate
their opinions or feelings.

6. Distinguish among a Likert scale, a life-style scale, and a semantic differential scale.

Review question. This question requires students to distinguish these three


workhorse scales from one another.

With the modified Likert scale, respondents are asked to indicate their degree of
agreement or disagreement on a symmetric agree-disagree scale for each of a series of
statements. A special application of the modified Likert question form called the life-
style scale or inventory (or psychographics inventory) takes into account the values
and personality traits of people as reflected in their unique activities, interests, and
opinions (AIOs) toward their work, leisure time, and purchases. It also uses an agree-
disagree continuum format. The semantic differential scale contains a series of
bipolar adjectives for the various properties of the object under study, and
respondents indicate their impressions of each property by indicating locations along
its continuum. The focus of the semantic differential is on the measurement of the
meaning of an object, concept, or person.

7. What is the halo effect, and how does a researcher control for it?

Review question. Students are required to understand the halo effect discussed with
the description of a semantic differential scale.

Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. 112


The halo effect is a general feeling about a store, brand, or whatever stimulus is being
measured with a semantic differential that can prejudice a respondent’s impressions
on its specific properties. Flipping the ends of the bipolar adjectives on the scale to
avoid having all negatives on one side and all positives on the other side is done to
control for the halo effect.

8. Provide questions that would measure each of the following constructs:

Review and application question. Students will need to provide a question that would
measure each construct.

Suggested questions follow each construct.

a. Brand loyalty
How many times out of x have you bought our brand?

b. Intentions to purchase
How likely are you, on a scale of very unlikely to very likely, to purchase this car
battery?

c. Importance of “value for the price”


How important, on a scale of very unimportant to very important, is the price of
this product in relation to your decision to purchase it?

d. Attitude toward a brand


How would you rate this product, on a scale of very poor to excellent?
Or, How do you feel this product, on a scale of dislike very much to like very
much?

e. Recall of an advertisement
Do you remember the advertisement of our product? (yes or no)

f. Past purchases
What brands of dishwasher soap have you purchased in the past year?

9. How does reliability differ from validity? In your answer, define each term.

Review question. Students must relate the definitions and show how these two
concepts differ.

Reliability is the consistency or the tendency in a respondent to respond in the same


or in a very similar manner to an identical or near-identical question. Validity is
defined as the accuracy of the measurement: it is an assessment of the exactness of
the measurement relative to what actually exists. It is possible to have reliability
without validity such as when a respondent lies repeatedly, but validity requires
reliability.

Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. 113


10. What is a questionnaire, and what are the functions of a questionnaire?

Review question. Students will need to find the definition and list the six functions of
a questionnaire.

A questionnaire is a vehicle used to pose the questions that the researcher desires
respondents to answer. A questionnaire serves six key functions. (1) It translates the
research objective/s into specific questions that are asked of the respondents. (2) It
standardizes those questions and the response categories so every participant responds
to identical stimuli. (3) By its wording, question flow, and appearance, it fosters
cooperation and keeps respondents motivated throughout the interview. (4)
Questionnaires serve as permanent records of the research. (5) Depending upon the
type of questionnaire used, a questionnaire can speed up the process of data analysis.

11. What is meant by the statement that questionnaire design is a systematic process?

Review question. To answer this question, students will need to that there are
several considerations in questionnaire design.

Questionnaire design is a systematic process in which the researcher contemplates


various question formats, considers a number of factors characterizing the survey at
hand, ultimately words the various questions very carefully, and organizes the
questionnaire’s layout.
A questionnaire will ordinarily go through a series of drafts before it is in acceptable
final form. In fact, even before the first question is constructed, the researcher
mentally reviews alternative question formats to decide which ones are suited to the
survey’s respondents and circumstances. As the questionnaire begins to take form,
the researcher continually evaluates each question and its response options for face
validity. Changes are made, and the question’s wording is re-evaluated to make sure
that it is asking what the researcher intends. Also, the researcher strives to minimize
question bias, defined as the ability of a question’s wording or format to influence
respondents’ answers.

12. What are the four guidelines or “dos” for question wording?

Review question. Students should repeat the four guidelines.


• The Question Should Be Focused on a Single Issue or Topic
• The Question Should Be Brief
• Question Should Use Simple Structure
• The Question Should Be Crystal Clear

13. What are the four “don’ts” for question wording. Describe each.

Review question. Students will find and describe each do not.

Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. 114


The Question Should Not “Lead” the Respondent to a Particular Answer. A leading
question is worded or structured in such a way as to give the respondent a strong cue
or expectation as how to answer.

The Question Should Not Have “Loaded” Wording or Phrasing. A loaded question
has buried in its wording elements that make reference to universal beliefs or rules of
behavior.

The Question Should Not Be “Double-Barreled.” A double-barreled question is really


two different questions posed in one question.

The Question Should Not Use Words That Overstate the Condition. An overstated
question is one that places undue emphasizes on some aspect of the topic. It uses
what might be considered “dramatics” to describe the topic.

14. What is the purpose of a questionnaire introduction, and what things should it
accomplish?

Review question.

The functions are:


• Identifies the surveyor/sponsor.
• Indicates the purpose of the survey.
• Explains how the respondent was selected.
• Requests for/provides incentive for participation.
• Determines if respondent is suitable.

15. Indicate the functions of (a) screening questions, (b) warm-ups, (c) transitions, (d)
“skip” questions, and (e) classification questions.

Review question. This question requires students to relate each type of question’s
purpose.

The functions are listed below each type of question.

a. Screening questions

Screening questions will determine whether or not the potential respondent


qualifies to participate in the survey based on certain selection criteria that the
researcher has deemed essential.

b. Warm-ups

Warm-ups are simple and easy-to-answer questions that may pertain to the
research objectives. These questions really perform the task of heightening the

Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. 115


respondent’s interest while making the person feel that the questions can be
answered easily and quickly.

c. Transitions

Transition questions follow the warm-ups and serve to move the respondent
further along in the responding process. They relate specifically to the research
objectives on a more detailed level than do warm-ups.

d. “Skip” questions

Skip questions direct the interviewer or respondent to jump to or skip over the
following question(s) based on the answer to the present question. For example,
if the response is “no,” it may not make sense to ask the next question(s) which
pertain only to those who answer “yes.”

e. Classification questions

The last section of a questionnaire is reserved for classification questions.


Demographic items are normally placed here. This placement is industry
tradition, and it embodies the strategy of placing questions with break-off
potential at the end of the interview.

16. What is coding and why is it used? Relate the special coding need with “all that
apply” questions.

Review question. This question requires students to show knowledge of the coding
process.

Coding questions is the use of numbers associated with the question responses to
facilitate data entry during data collection and data analysis after the survey has been
conducted. With “all that apply” questions, the standard approach is to have each
response category option coded with a 0 or a 1. The designation “0” will be used if
the category is not checked, whereas a “1” is used if it is checked by a respondent.

17. Mike, the owner of Mike’s Market, which is a convenience store, is concerned about
low sales. He reads in a marketing textbook that the image of a store often has an
impact on its ability to attract its target market. He contacts the All-Right Research
Company and commissions it to conduct a study that will shape his store’s image.
You are charged with the responsibility of developing the store image part of the
questionnaire.

Design a semantic differential scale that will measure the relevant aspects
of Mike’s Market’s image. In your work on this scale, you must do the following: (a)
brainstorm the properties to be measured, (b) determine the appropriate bipolar

Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. 116


adjectives, (c) decide on the number of scale points, and (d) indicate how the scale
controls for the halo effect.

Application question. Students must design a semantic differential scale for a


convenience store.

Properties to be measured. A sample list is: (1) prices, (2) location, (3) variety of
merchandise, (4) friendliness, and (5) value. Students may come up with others
properties.

The semantic differential scale is provided below. A 5-point scale is used, but
students may use 7 points. The midpoint stands for neutral or no opinion. Note that
“merchandise variety” is flipped to obviate the halo effect.

Rate Mike’s Market…

High prices ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ Low Prices

Inconvenient location ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ Convenient location

Much merchandise variety ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ Little merchandise variety

Unfriendly salespeople ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ Friendly salespeople

Poor value for the price ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ Good value for the price

18. Each of the following examples listed below involves a market researcher’s need to
measure some construct. Devise an appropriate scale for each one. Defend the scale
in terms of its scaling assumptions, number of response categories, use or nonuse of a
“no opinion” or neutral response category, and face validity.

Application question. Students will need to identify the appropriate scale and
rationale in each case.

The answer follows each case.

a. Matel wants to know how preschool children react to a sing-along video game
where the child must sing along with an animated character and guess the next
word in the song at various points in the video.

A graphic rating scale with smiley faces would apply here although preschool
children cannot read, nor can they relate to an abstract concept such as a scale. Use a
small number of categories (say three) even though preschoolers think concretely, and
don’t use a neutral category because it is very likely the children will form an
opinion. Having one or two children tell the researcher the difference between the
faces can assess face validity.

Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. 117


b. TCBY is testing five new flavors of yogurt and wants to know how its customers
rate each one on sweetness, flavor strength, and richness of taste.

TCBY needs evaluations on three subjective properties based on taste tests of each
yogurt flavor. Considerations include the following. There is no need for a
symmetric scale as it is very unlikely that the flavors would be sour, weak, or not
rich. It is also doubtful that tasters will have a “no opinion” reaction to the flavors.
Also, how much can a person discriminate in reporting a taste? Not much, so the
scale should be no more than five gradations with labels because people do not judge
flavors with numbers.

Here is an example of the sweetness scale.

Not Somewhat Very


Sweet Sweet Sweet Sweet

The face validity of this scale is obvious.

c. A pharmaceutical company wants to find out how much a new Federal law
eliminating dispensing of free sample prescription drugs by doctors will affect
their intentions to prescribe generic versus branded drugs for their patients.

This is an instance of measuring intentions so a 0% to 100% intentions scale (see


Table 8.5) will fit. Eleven categories (0%, 10%, etc.) can be used as doctors can be
expected to understand likelihoods of acting. Face validity is apparent as the scale
communicates a “chances of doing” rating.

The modified Likert scale is also acceptable, as for example,

Statement (Insert Disagree-Agree labels here.)


I will prescribe generic drugs. 1 2 3 4 5

A no opinion is appropriate because doctors may not have decided on what they will
do yet. Face validity of the statement is apparent.

19. Harley-Davidson is the largest American motorcycle manufacturer, and it has been in
business for several decades. Harley-Davidson has expanded into “signature”
products such as shirts that prominently display the Harley-Davidson logo. Some
people have a negative image of Harley-Davidson because it was the motorcycle
favored by the Hell’s Angels and other motorcycle gangs. There are two research
questions here. First, do consumers have a negative feeling toward Harley-Davidson,
and, second, are they disinclined toward the purchase of Harley-Davidson signature
products such as shirts, belts, boots, jackets, sweatshirts, lighters, and key chains?

Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. 118


Design a Likert measurement scale that can be used in a nationwide telephone study
to address these two issues.

Application question. This question requires students to design a Likert scale.

The task here is for students to design a modified Likert scale amenable to telephone
interview administration. The exercise is intended for students to realize the
requirements of “describing” the scale to respondents over the telephone. Table 8.3
has an example that can be adapted to this exercise.

Here is one approach.

(INTERVIEWER: READ) I have a list of statements that I will read to you. As I


read each one, please indicate whether you agree or disagree with it.

Are the instructions clear? (IF NOT, REPEAT)

INTERVIEWER: READ EACH STATEMENT. WITH EACH RESPONSE,


ASK, “Would you say that you STRONGLY (dis)agree or SOMEWHAT
(dis)agree?

RESPONSE (CIRCLE)
SOME- SOME-
STRONGLY WHAT WHAT STRONGLY
STATEMENT AGREE AGREE NEUTRAL DISAGREE DISAGREE
__________________________________________________________________
a. (Statement goes here.) 1 2 3 4 5

A different approach is to read off all the response alternatives to the respondent.
It would look something like this:

INTERVIEWER, READ. “I have some statements that I will read to you. With
each one, please tell me if you strongly agree, agree, disagree, strongly disagree,
or you may neither agree nor disagree. Are these instructions clear?” (IF NOT,
REPEAT.)

20. Listed here are five different aspects of a questionnaire to be designed for the crafts
guild of Maui, Hawaii. It is to be administered by personal interviewers who will
intercept tourists as they are waiting at the Maui Airport in the seating areas of their
departing flight gates. Indicate a logical question flow on the questionnaire using the
guidelines in Table 8.3.
a. Determine how they selected Maui as a destination.
b. Discover what places they visited in Maui and how much they liked each one.
c. Describe what crafts they purchased, where they purchased them, when they
bought them, how much they paid, who made the selection, and why they bought
those particular items.
d. Specify how long they stayed and where they stayed while on Maui.

Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. 119


e. Provide a demographic profile of each tourist interviewed.

Application question. This question requires students to apply the concepts of


questionnaire organization.

Each item implies a different amount of effort on the part of the respondent, so to
apply the work approach would require placing the “work” questions in the body of
the questionnaire. Here is a logical flow for the work approach.

Question Topic Rationale for Placement


How long and where stayed Easy to answer, warm-up

How they selected Maui Easy to answer, warm-up

What places they visited More difficult, some work involved

Crafts questions Most difficult, placed near end of


questionnaire

Demographics Traditional to place at the end

For the sections approach, the first warm-up (how long and where stayed) and
demographics should be at the beginning and end, respectively, while the other items
would stand as sections in the middle.

21. Using the Internet, find a downloadable trial version of a computer-assisted


questionnaire design program such as Qualtrics and become familiar with it. With
each of the following possible features of computer-assisted questionnaire design
programs, briefly relate the specifics on how the program you have chosen provides
the feature.
a. Question type options
b. Question library
c. Font and appearance
d. Web uploading (sometimes called “publishing”)
e. Analysis, including graphics
f. Download file format options

Application question. Students must find companies that market questionnaire design
software, download examination copies or otherwise learn about how the program
works and report on each of the six functions.

22. Panther Martin invents and markets various types of fishing lures. In an effort to
survey the reactions of potential buyers, it hires a research company to intercept
fishermen at boat launches, secure their cooperation to use a Panther Martin lure
under development sometime during their fishing trip that day, meet them when they
return, and verbally administer questions to them. As an incentive, each respondent

Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. 120


will receive three lures to try that day, and five more will be given to each fisherman
who answers the questions at the end of the fishing trip.
What opening comments should be verbalized when approaching fishermen who
are launching their boats? Draft a script to be used when asking these fishermen to
take part in the survey.

Application question.

Function Example
Identifies the “Hello, my name is ___, and I am marketing researcher
surveyor/sponsor. working for Panther Martin, the fishing lure manufacturer.

Indicates the purpose of “We are conducting a “product placement” survey with a
the survey. new fishing lure that we would like you to try today, if you
are willing.
Explains how the “You boat was picked a random number applied to the
respondent was selected. number of fishing boats launched here today.
Requests for/provides I would like to give you samples of the new lure for you to
incentive for participation. try today and report your experiences when you return here.
As an incentive, I will give each of you three lures to try,
and when you return, I will give you five more free lures.

Determines if respondent is “You are going fishing today, aren’t you?”


suitable.

CASE SOLUTIONS

Case 8.1 Extreme Exposure Rock Climbing Center Faces the Krag

Case Objective

This case requires students to identify constructs in research objectives and to create
measurement scales for these constructs.

Answers to Case Questions

1. What is the demographic and rock climbing profile of Extreme Exposure's members?

Construct(s): demographic characteristics of consumers and rock-climbing behavior.

For the demographics, students should apply the commonly used ones such as: age,
education, marital status, income before taxes, dwelling type, and so on.

For rock-climbing behavior, students will need to refer to the four rock-climbing
types: top-roping, lead-climbing, bouldering, and rappelling. This construct can be
measured simply by a nominal scale (What is your favorite type of rock-climbing?) or

Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. 121


more sensitively with a ratio scale (Indicate for each of the four types of rock
climbing what percent of the time you engage in that type.)

2. How satisfied are the members with Extreme Exposure's climbing facilities?

Construct: Satisfaction. Satisfaction is one of the constructs described in Table 8.2.

Although Extreme Exposure has several aspects, satisfaction must be measured for
each aspect. Here is an example scale based on the recommendation in Table 8.2.

Indicate for each feature of Extreme Exposure, how satisfied you are with its
performance by circling the appropriate number.

Feature Not at all Slightly Somewhat Very Completely


Satisfied Satisfied Satisfied Satisfied Satisfied
Location 1 2 3 4 5
Hours of operation 1 2 3 4 5
Prices 1 2 3 4 5
Vertical climbs 1 2 3 4 5
Number of climbing routes 1 2 3 4 5
Difficulty of climbing 1 2 3 4 5
routes
And so on (other) 1 2 3 4 5

3. How interested are its members in (a) day trips to outdoor rock climbing areas, (b)
group overnight and/or extended-stay rock climbing trips to the Canadian Rockies, and
(c) a rock climber certification program?

Construct: Interest level

Interest can be measured on an interest continuum. The following example is a


labeled scale, but students can use a synthetic number scale such as 1=Uninterested,
5=Very interested.

How interested are you in each of the following rock climbing activities. Circle the
number corresponding to your interest level for each one.

Feature No Little Some Moderate Much


interest interest interest interest interest
Day trips to outdoor rock 1 2 3 4 5
climbing areas
Group overnight and/or extended- 1 2 3 4 5
stay rock climbing trips to the
Canadian Rockies
A rock climber certification 1 2 3 4 5

Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. 122


program

4. What are members' opinions of the annual membership fee charged by Extreme
Exposure?

Construct: attitude toward price; opinion of the price

A modified Likert scale would work well here.

Statement Strongly Disagree Neither Agree Strongly


disagree disagree agree
nor agree
The annual membership fee for 1 2 3 4 5
Extreme Exposure is reasonable.

5. Will members consider leaving Extreme Exposure to join a new rock-climbing center
with climbs that are 10 feet higher than the maximum climb at Extreme Exposure?

Construct: intentions to purchase

Intentions to purchase is one of the constructs in Table 8.7, so students can use this
recommendation.

If another rock climbing center opens in Sacramento with climbs that are 10 feet
higher than the highest one at Extreme Exposure, how likely are you to consider
joining the new center?

___ Very Unlikely


___ Somewhat Unlikely
___ Neither Unlikely nor Likely
___ Somewhat Likely
___ Very Likely

6. Will members consider leaving Extreme Exposure to join a new rock climbing center
with climbs and a lower annual membership fee?

Construct: Intentions to purchase

The question could immediately follow the one about 10 feet higher walls.

If you found that this new center with climbs 10 feet higher than the highest one at
Extreme Exposure charged an annual fee 20% lower than Extreme Exposure’s annual
fee, how likely are you to consider joining the new center?

__ Very Unlikely
___ Somewhat Unlikely

Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. 123


___ Neither Unlikely nor Likely
___ Somewhat Likely
___ Very Likely

Case 8.2 Integrated Case: Global Motors

Case Objective

Students must design a questionnaire that addresses the objectives of the integrated case.

Answers to Case Questions

Go over the needed integrated case facts and information imparted to you in previous
chapters and design an online survey questionnaire for Advanced Automotive Concepts.

There are a great many ways that the questionnaire can be designed; however, the
important features are:
• Qualifying question
• Warm-up questions that are related to research objectives
• Transitions
• Use of interval scales wherever possible and appropriate
• Use of sections approach to keep related topics together
• Demographics at the end

Following is a sample questionnaire developed for Advanced Automobile Concepts


integrated case. This set of questions and scales is, in fact, is the one that was used for
the integrated case SPSS data set that will be referred to in the analysis chapters and that
students will use for Advanced Automobile Concepts case questions at the end of the
analysis chapters. Note: alert students may catch the comment in an earlier integrated
case that the online panel company being used has a database of demographic,
possessions, media usage, and other variable on every panel member. So, these questions
may not appear on their questionnaires.

This survey is being conducted for an automobile manufacturer seeking to develop new
models of automobiles using synthetic or alternative fuel sources. It studies your
opinions about global warming and gasoline usage as well as your reactions to some
possible new automobile models.

To begin, tell us a little about yourself.

1. What is your favorite television show type? (Select only one.)


Comedy Drama Movies/Mini-Series
News/Documentary Reality Science-Fiction Sports

2. What is your favorite radio genre? (Select only one.)

Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. 124


Classic Pop & Rock Country Easy listening
Jazz & Blues Pop & Chart Talk

3. What is your favorite magazine type? (Select only one.)


Business & Money Music & Entertainment Family & Parenting
Sports & Outdoors Home & Garden Cooking-Food & Wine
Trucks-Cars & Motorcycles News-Politics & Current Events

4. What is your favorite local newspaper section? (Select only one.)


Editorial Business Local news National news
Sports Entertainment

Next, how do you feel about global warming, gasoline usage, and gasoline prices?

Indicate your degree of agreement or disagreement to each of the following statements.


(Note: the scale for each questions is Very strongly disagree, Strongly disagree, Disagree,
Neither disagree nor agree, Agree, Strongly Agree, Very strongly agree.)

1. I am worried about global warming.


2. Global warming is a real threat.
3. We need to do something to slow global warming.
4. Gasoline emissions contribute to global warming.
5. Americans use too much gasoline.
6. We should be looking for gasoline substitutes.
7. Gasoline prices will remain high in the future.
8. Gasoline prices are too high now.
9. High gasoline prices will impact what type of autos are purchased.
10. Very small autos with very high mpg's will reduce fuel emissions.
11. Very small autos with very high mpg's will keep gas prices stable.
12. Very small autos with very high mpg's will slow down global warming.
13. Small autos with high mpg's will reduce fuel emissions.
14. Small autos with high mpg's will keep gas prices stable.
15. Small autos with high mpg's will slow down global warming.
16. Hybrid autos that use alternative fuels will reduce fuel emissions.
17. Hybrid autos that use alternative fuels will keep gas prices down.
18. Hybrid autos that use alternative fuels will slow down global warming.

Now, indicate on a scale of 0% to 100%, the probability of you making each of the
following automobile purchases in the next three years.
1. Probability of buying a very small (1 seat) hybrid auto
2. Probability of buying a small (2 seat) hybrid auto
3. Probability of buying a standard size hybrid auto
4. Probability of buying a standard size synthetic fuel auto
5. Probability of buying a standard size electric auto

Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. 125


How do you feel about some possible new types of hybrid automobiles?
Indicate the how desirable each of the following hybrid automobile models is to you,
personally. Use this scale: Very undesirable, Undesirable, Somewhat desirable, Neutral,
Somewhat desirable, Desirable, Very desirable

1. Super cycle 1 seater; 120+ mpg city


2. Runabout Sport 2 seater; 90 mpg city, 80 mpg highway
3. Runabout with Luggage 2 seater; 80 mpg city, 70 mpg highway
4. Economy 4 seater; 70 mpg city; 60 mpg highway
5. Standard 4 seater; 60 mpg city; 50 mpg highway

Below are descriptions of various types of people. For each description, indicate on a
scale where 1 = does not describe me at all and 7= describes me perfectly how well it
describes you.
1. Novelist – very early adopter, risk taker, “way out,” “show off,” want to be unique
and extraordinary
2. Innovator – early adopter, less risk taker than novelist, but into new technology; likes
new products, but not “show offs”
3. Trendsetter – opinion leaders, well off financially and educationally, often the first
adopters of new trends that are adopted by most of society.
4. Forerunner – early majority of population, respected and fairly well off; not opinion
leaders, but adopt new products before the “average” person
5. Mainstreamer – late majority of population, “average people,” who are reserved and
deliberate
6. Classic – laggards who cling to “old” ways

Finally, the following questions will be used for classification purposes.

1. What is the size of your home town or city?


1 million and more 500,000 to 1 million 100,000 to 500,000
10,000 to 100,000 Under 10,000

2. What is your gender?


Male Female

3. What is your marital status?


Unmarried Married

4. What is the number of people in household? ___

5. What is your age category?


Less than 18 18 to 24 25 to 34 35 to 49
50 to 64 65 and older No response

6. What is your highest level of education?


Less than High School High School diploma Some college

Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. 126


College Degree Post graduate degree

7. Which of the follow job category best describes you?


Management Sales Service Agriculture Craft General labor Retired

8. What is your household income level?


Under $25,000 $25,000 to 49,000 $50,000 to 74,000
75,000 to 125,000 $125,000 and more

9. What is your primary dwelling type?


Single family Multiple family Condominium/Townhouse Mobile home

10. What is your primary vehicle price type?


No vehicle Economy Standard Luxury

11. What is your primary vehicle type?


No vehicle Car Pick-up truck SUV or van

12. Which of the following best your typical type of commuting to work?
Single occupancy Multiple occupancy Public transportation
Non-motorized Telecommute

Thank you for participating in this survey.

Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. 127


Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
acts as drinking wine at meals, smoking cigarettes on the street,
teaching the elements of biology, wearing a red necktie on the street,
and reading “Das Kapital” and “The Inestimable Life of the Great
Gargantua.” They could, with equal facility, make it criminal to refuse
to do these things. Finally, they could, if they would, abandon the
republican form of government altogether, and set up a monarchy in
place of it; during the late war they actually did so in fact, though
refraining from saying so frankly. They could do all of these things
freely and even legally, without departing in the slightest from the
principles of their fundamental compact, and no exterior agency
could make them do any of them unwillingly.
It is thus idle to amass proofs, as Hans Delbrück does with great
diligence, that the result of this or that election was not a
manifestation of a concrete popular wish. The answer, nine times out
of ten, is that there was no popular wish. The populace simply
passed over the matters principally at issue as incomprehensible or
unimportant, and voted irrelevantly or wantonly. Or, in large part, it
kept away from the polls. Both actions might be defended plausibly
by democratic theorists. The people, if they are actually sovereign,
have a clear right to be wanton when the spirit moves them, and
indifference to an issue is an expression of opinion about it. Thus
there is little appositeness in the saying of another German, the
philosopher Hegel, that the masses are that part of the state which
doesn’t know what it wants. They know what they want when they
actually want it, and if they want it badly enough they get it. What
they want principally are safety and security. They want to be
delivered from the bugaboos that ride them. They want to be
soothed with mellifluous words. They want heroes to worship. They
want the rough entertainment suitable to their simple minds. All of
these things they want so badly that they are willing to sacrifice
everything else in order to get them. The science of politics under
democracy consists in trading with them, i. e., in hoodwinking and
swindling them. In return for what they want, or for the mere
appearance of what they want, they yield up what the politician
wants, and what the enterprising minorities behind him want. The
bargaining is conducted to the tune of affecting rhetoric, with music
by the choir, but it is as simple and sordid at bottom as the sale of a
mule. It lies quite outside the bounds of honour, and even of
common decency. It is a combat between jackals and jackasses. It is
the master transaction of democratic states.

4.
The Politician Under Democracy
I find myself quoting yet a third German: he is Professor Robert
Michels, the economist. The politician, he says, is the courtier of
democracy. A profound saying—perhaps more profound than the
professor, himself a democrat, realizes. For it was of the essence of
the courtier’s art and mystery that he flattered his employer in order
to victimize him, yielded to him in order to rule him. The politician
under democracy does precisely the same thing. His business is
never what it pretends to be. Ostensibly he is an altruist devoted
whole-heartedly to the service of his fellow-men, and so abjectly
public-spirited that his private interest is nothing to him. Actually he is
a sturdy rogue whose principal, and often sole aim in life is to butter
his parsnips. His technical equipment consists simply of an
armamentarium of deceits. It is his business to get and hold his job
at all costs. If he can hold it by lying he will hold it by lying; if lying
peters out he will try to hold it by embracing new truths. His ear is
ever close to the ground. If he is an adept he can hear the first
murmurs of popular clamour before even the people themselves are
conscious of them. If he is a master he detects and whoops up to-
day the delusions that the mob will cherish next year. There is in him,
in his professional aspect, no shadow of principle or honour. It is
moral by his code to get into office by false pretences, as the late Dr.
Wilson did in 1916. It is moral to change convictions overnight, as
multitudes of American politicians did when the Prohibition
avalanche came down upon them. Anything is moral that furthers the
main concern of his soul, which is to keep a place at the public
trough. That place is one of public honour, and public honour is the
thing that caresses him and makes him happy. It is also one of
power, and power is the commodity that he has for sale.
I speak here, of course, of the democratic politician in his rôle of
statesman—that is, in his best and noblest aspect. He flourishes also
on lower levels, partly subterranean. Down there public honour
would be an inconvenience, so he hawks it to lesser men, and
contents himself with power. What are the sources of that power?
They lie, obviously, in the gross weaknesses and knaveries of the
common people—in their inability to grasp any issues save the
simplest and most banal, in their incurable tendency to fly into
preposterous alarms, in their petty self-seeking and venality, in their
instinctive envy and hatred of their superiors—in brief, in their
congenital incapacity for the elemental duties of citizens in a civilized
state. The boss owns them simply because they can be bought for a
job on the street or a load of coal. He holds them, even when they
pass beyond any need of jobs or coal, by his shrewd understanding
of their immemorial sentimentalities. Looking at Thersites, they see
Ulysses. He is the state as they apprehend it; around him clusters all
the romance that used to hang about a king. He is the fount of
honour and the mould of form. His barbaric code, framed to fit their
gullibility, becomes an example to their young. The boss is the
eternal reductio ad absurdum of the whole democratic process. He
exemplifies its reduction of all ideas to a few elemental wants. And
he reflects and makes manifest the inferior man’s congenital fear of
liberty—his incapacity for even the most trivial sort of independent
action. Life on the lower levels is life in a series of interlocking
despotisms. The inferior man cannot imagine himself save as taking
orders—if not from the boss, then from the priest, and if not from the
priest, then from some fantastic drill-sergeant of his own creation.
For years the reformers who flourished in the United States
concentrated their whole animus upon the boss: it was apparently
their notion that he had imposed himself upon his victims from
without, and that they could be delivered by destroying him. But time
threw a brilliant light upon that error. When, as and if he was
overthrown there appeared in his place the prehensile Methodist
parson, bawling for Prohibition and its easy jobs, and behind the
parson loomed the grand goblin, natural heir to a long line of imperial
worthy potentates of the Sons of Azrael and sublime chancellors of
the Order of Patriarchs Militant. The winds of the world are bitter to
Homo vulgaris. He likes the warmth and safety of the herd, and he
likes a bell-wether with a clarion bell.
The art of politics, under democracy, is simply the art of ringing it.
Two branches reveal themselves. There is the art of the demagogue,
and there is the art of what may be called, by a shot-gun marriage of
Latin and Greek, the demaslave. They are complementary, and both
of them are degrading to their practitioners. The demagogue is one
who preaches doctrines he knows to be untrue to men he knows to
be idiots. The demaslave is one who listens to what these idiots
have to say and then pretends that he believes it himself. Every man
who seeks elective office under democracy has to be either the one
thing or the other, and most men have to be both. The whole process
is one of false pretences and ignoble concealments. No educated
man, stating plainly the elementary notions that every educated man
holds about the matters that principally concern government, could
be elected to office in a democratic state, save perhaps by a miracle.
His frankness would arouse fears, and those fears would run against
him; it is his business to arouse fears that will run in favour of him.
Worse, he must not only consider the weaknesses of the mob, but
also the prejudices of the minorities that prey upon it. Some of these
minorities have developed a highly efficient technique of intimidation.
They not only know how to arouse the fears of the mob; they also
know how to awaken its envy, its dislike of privilege, its hatred of its
betters. How formidable they may become is shown by the example
of the Anti-Saloon League in the United States—a minority body in
the strictest sense, however skillful its mustering of popular support,
for it nowhere includes a majority of the voters among its subscribing
members, and its leaders are nowhere chosen by democratic
methods. And how such minorities may intimidate the whole class of
place-seeking politicians has been demonstrated brilliantly and
obscenely by the same corrupt and unconscionable organization. It
has filled all the law-making bodies of the nation with men who have
got into office by submitting cravenly to its dictation, and it has filled
thousands of administrative posts, and not a few judicial posts, with
vermin of the same sort.
Such men, indeed, enjoy vast advantages under democracy. The
mob, insensitive to their dishonour, is edified and exhilarated by their
success. The competition they offer to men of a decenter habit is too
powerful to be met, so they tend, gradually, to monopolize all the
public offices. Out of the muck of their swinishness the typical
American law-maker emerges. He is a man who has lied and
dissembled, and a man who has crawled. He knows the taste of
boot-polish. He has suffered kicks in the tonneau of his pantaloons.
He has taken orders from his superiors in knavery and he has wooed
and flattered his inferiors in sense. His public life is an endless series
of evasions and false pretences. He is willing to embrace any issue,
however idiotic, that will get him votes, and he is willing to sacrifice
any principle, however sound, that will lose them for him. I do not
describe the democratic politician at his inordinate worst; I describe
him as he is encountered in the full sunshine of normalcy. He may
be, on the one hand, a cross-roads idler striving to get into the State
Legislature by grace of the local mortgage-sharks and evangelical
clergy, or he may be, on the other, the President of the United
States. It is almost an axiom that no man may make a career in
politics in the Republic without stooping to such ignobility: it is as
necessary as a loud voice. Now and then, to be sure, a man of
sounder self-respect may make a beginning, but he seldom gets
very far. Those who survive are nearly all tarred, soon or late, with
the same stick. They are men who, at some time or other, have
compromised with their honour, either by swallowing their
convictions or by whooping for what they believe to be untrue. They
are in the position of the chorus girl who, in order to get her humble
job, has had to admit the manager to her person. And the old birds
among them, like chorus girls of long experience, come to regard the
business resignedly and even complacently. It is the price that a man
who loves the clapper-clawing of the vulgar must pay for it under the
democratic system. He becomes a coward and a trimmer ex officio.
Where his dignity was in the days of his innocence there is now only
a vacuum in the wastes of his subconscious. Vanity remains to him,
but not pride.
5.
Utopia
Thus the ideal of democracy is reached at last: it has become a
psychic impossibility for a gentleman to hold office under the Federal
Union, save by a combination of miracles that must tax the
resourcefulness even of God. The fact has been rammed home by a
constitutional amendment: every office-holder, when he takes oath to
support the Constitution, must swear on his honour that, summoned
to the death-bed of his grandmother, he will not take the old lady a
bottle of wine. He may say so and do it, which makes him a liar, or
he may say so and not do it, which makes him a pig. But despite that
grim dilemma there are still idealists, chiefly professional Liberals,
who argue that it is the duty of a gentleman to go into politics—that
there is a way out of the quagmire in that direction. The remedy, it
seems to me, is quite as absurd as all the other sure cures that
Liberals advocate. When they argue for it, they simply argue, in
words but little changed, that the remedy for prostitution is to fill the
bawdy-houses with virgins. My impression is that this last device
would accomplish very little: either the virgins would leap out of the
windows, or they would cease to be virgins. The same alternatives
confront the political aspirant who is what is regarded in America as
a gentleman—that is, who is one not susceptible to open bribery in
cash. The moment his leg goes over the political fence, he finds the
mob confronting him, and if he would stay within he must adapt
himself to its tastes and prejudices. In other words, he must learn all
the tricks of the regular mountebanks. When the mob pricks up its
ears and begins to whinny, he must soothe it with balderdash. He
must allay its resentment of the fact that he is washed behind the
ears. He must anticipate its crazes, and join in them vociferously. He
must regard its sensitiveness on points of morals, and get what
advantage he can out of his anæsthesia on points of honour. More,
he must make terms with the mob-masters already performing upon
its spines, chiefly agents of prehensile minorities. If he neglects
these devices he is swiftly heaved over the fence, and his career in
statecraft is at an end.
Here I do not theorize; there are examples innumerable. It is an
axiom of practical politics, indeed, that the worst enemies of political
decency are the tired reformers—and the worst of the worst are
those whose primary thirst to make the corruptible put on
incorruption was accompanied by a somewhat sniffish class
consciousness. Has the United States ever seen a more violent and
shameless demagogue than Theodore Roosevelt? Yet Roosevelt
came into politics as a sword drawn against demagogy. The list of
such recusants might be run to great lengths: I point to the late
Mitchel of New York and the late Lodge of Massachusetts and pass
on. Lodge lived long enough to become a magnificent reductio ad
absurdum of the gentleman turned democratic messiah. It was a
sheer impossibility, during the last ten years of his life, to disentangle
his private convictions from the fabric of his political dodges. He was
the perfect model of the party hack, and if he performed before the
actual mob less unchastely than Roosevelt it was only because his
somewhat absurd façade unfitted him for that science. He dealt in
jobs in a wholesale manner, and with the hearty devotion of a
Penrose or a Henry Lincoln Johnson. Popularly regarded as an
unflinching and even adamantine fellow, he was actually as limber as
an eel. He knew how to jump. He knew when to whisper and when to
yell. As I say, I could print a long roster of similar apostates; the
name of Penrose himself should not be forgotten. I do not say that a
gentleman may not thrust himself into politics under democracy; I
simply say that it is almost impossible for him to stay there and
remain a gentleman. The haughty amateur, at the start, may actually
make what seems to be a brilliant success, for he is commonly full of
indignation, and so strikes out valiantly, and the mob crowds up
because it likes a brutal show. But that first battle is almost always
his last. If he retains his rectitude he loses his office, and if he retains
his office he has to dilute his rectitude with the cologne spirits of the
trade.
Such is the pride that we pay for the great boon of democracy:
the man of native integrity is either barred from the public service
altogether, or subjected to almost irresistible temptations after he
gets in. The competition of less honourable man is more than he can
bear. He must stand against them before the mob, and the
sempiternal prejudices of the mob run their way. In most other
countries of a democratic tendency—for example, England—this
outlawry and corruption of the best is checked by an aristocratic
tradition—an anachronism, true enough, but still extremely powerful,
and yielding to the times only under immense pressure. The English
aristocracy (aided, in part, by the plutocracy, which admires and
envies it) not only keeps a large share of the principal offices in its
own hands, regardless of popular rages and party fortunes; it also
preserves an influence, and hence a function, for its non-
officeholding members. The scholarship of Oxford and Cambridge,
for example, can still make itself felt at Westminster, despite the fact
that the vast majority of the actual members of the Commons are
ignoramuses. But in the United States there is no aristocracy,
whether intellectual or otherwise, and so the scholarship of Harvard,
such as it is, is felt no more on Capitol Hill than it is at Westerville,
Ohio. The class of politicians, indeed, tends to separate itself sharply
from all other classes. There is none of that interpenetration on the
higher levels which marks older and more secure societies.
Roosevelt, an imitation aristocrat, was the first and only American
President since Washington to make any effort to break down the
barriers. A man of saucy and even impertinent curiosities, and very
eager to appear to the vulgar as an Admirable Crichton, he made his
table the resort of all sorts and conditions of men. Among them were
some who actually knew something about this or that, and from them
he probably got useful news and advice. Beethoven, if he had been
alive, would have been invited to the White House, and Goethe
would have come with him. But that eagerness for contacts outside
the bounds of professional politics is certainly not a common mark of
American Presidents, nor, of American public officials of any sort.
When the lamented Harding sat in Lincoln’s chair his hours of ease
were spent with bootleggers, not with metaphysicians; his notion of a
good time was to refresh himself in the manner of a small-town Elk,
at golf, poker, and guzzling. The tastes of his successor are even
narrower: the loftiest guests he entertains upon the Mayflower are
the editors of party newspapers, and there is no evidence that he is
acquainted with a single intelligent man. The average American
Governor is of the same kidney. He comes into contact with the local
Gelehrte only when a bill is up to prohibit the teaching of the
elements of biology in the State university.
The judiciary, under the American system, sinks quite as low.
Save when, by some miscarriage of politics, a Brandeis, a Holmes, a
Cardozo or a George W. Anderson is elevated to the bench, it
carries on its dull and preposterous duties quite outside the stream
of civilized thought, and even outside the stream of enlightened
juridic thought. Very few American judges ever contribute anything of
value to legal theory. One seldom hears of them protesting, either ex
cathedra or as citizens, against the extravagances and absurdities
that fast reduce the whole legal system of the country to imbecility;
they seem to be quite content to enforce any sort of law that is
provided for their use by ignorant and corrupt legislators, regardless
of its conflict with fundamental human rights. The Constitution
apparently has no more meaning to them than it has to a Prohibition
agent. They have acquiesced almost unanimously in the destruction
of the First, Second, Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Amendments, and
supinely connived at the invasion of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth.
The reason is not far to seek. The average American judge, in his
days at the bar, was not a leader but a trailer. The judicial office is
not attractive, as a rule, to the better sort of lawyers. We have such a
multiplicity of courts that it has become common, and judges are so
often chosen for purely political reasons, even for the Supreme Court
of the United States, that the lawyer of professional dignity and self-
respect hesitates to enter into the competition. Thus the bench tends
to be filled with duffers, and many of them are also scoundrels, as
the frequent complaints against their extortions and tyrannies testify.
The English bench, as everyone knows, is immensely better: the fact
is often noted with lamentation by American lawyers. And why?
Simply because the governing oligarchy in England, lingering on in
spite of the democratic upheaval, keeps jealous guard over the
judiciary in the interest of its own class, and thereby prevents the
elevation of the preposterous shysters who so frequently attain to the
ermine in America. Even when, under the pressure of parlous times,
it admits an F. E. Smith to the bench, it at least makes sure that he is
a competent lawyer. The way is thus blocked to downright
ignoramuses, and English jurisprudence, so much more fluent and
reasonable than our own, is protected against their dull stupidities.
Genuine talent, however humble its origin, may get in, but not
imbecility, however pretentious. In the United States the thing runs
the other way. In the States, where judges are commonly elected by
popular vote, the shyster has every advantage over the reputable
lawyer, including that of yearning for the judicial salary with a vast
and undivided passion. And when it comes to the Federal courts,
once so honourable, he has every advantage again, including the
formidable one of knowing how to crook his knee gracefully to the
local dispenser of Federal patronage (in the South, often a worthless
Negro) and to the Methodist wowsers of the Anti-Saloon League.

6.
The Occasional Exception
I do not argue, of course, that the shyster invariably prevails. As I
have said, a man of unquestionable integrity and ability occasionally
gets to the bench, even of the State courts. In the same way a man
of unquestionable integrity and ability sometimes finds himself in
high executive or legislative office; there are even a few cases of
such men getting into the White House. But the thing doesn’t happen
often, and when it does happen it is only by a failure of the rule. The
self-respecting candidate obviously cannot count on that failure: the
odds are heavily against him from the start, and every effort he
makes to diminish them involves some compromise with complete
candour. He may take refuge in cynicism, and pursue the cozening
of the populace as a sort of intellectual exercise, cruel but not
unamusing, or he may accept the conditions of the game resignedly,
and charge up the necessary dodges and false pretences to spiritual
profit and loss, as a chorus girl charges up her favours to the
manager and his backer; but in either case he has parted with
something that must be tremendously valuable to a self-respecting
man, and is even more valuable to the country he serves than it is to
himself. Contemplating such a body as the national House of
Representatives one sees only a group of men who have
compromised with honour—in brief, a group of male Magdalens.
They have been broken to the goose-step. They have learned how
to leap through the hoops of professional job-mongers and
Prohibitionist blackmailers. They have kept silent about good
causes, and spoken in causes that they knew to be evil. The higher
they rise, the further they fall. The occasional mavericks, thrown in
by miracle, last a session, and then disappear. The old
Congressman, the veteran of genuine influence and power, is either
one who is so stupid that the ideas of the mob are his own ideas, or
one so far gone in charlatanry that he is unconscious of his shame.
Our laws are made, in the main, by men who have sold their honour
for their jobs, and they are executed by men who put their jobs
above justice and common sense. The occasional cynics leaven the
mass. We are dependent for whatever good flows out of democracy
upon men who do not believe in democracy.
Here, perhaps, it will be urged that my argument goes beyond
the democratic scheme and lodges against government itself. There
is, I believe, some cogency in the caveat. All government, whatever
its form, is carried on chiefly by men whose first concern is for their
offices, not for their obligations. It is, in its essence, a conspiracy of a
small group against the masses of men, and especially against the
masses of diligent and useful men. Its primary aim is to keep this
group in jobs that are measurably more comfortable and exhilarating
than the jobs its members could get in free competition. They are
thus always willing to make certain sacrifices of integrity and self-
respect in order to hold those jobs, and the fact is just as plain under
a despot as it is under the mob. The mob has its flatterers and bosh-
mongers; the king has his courtiers. But there is yet a difference, and
I think it is important. The courtier, at his worst, at least performs his
genuflections before one who is theoretically his superior, and is
surely not less than his equal. He does not have to abase himself
before swine with whom, ordinarily, he would disdain to have any
traffic. He is not compelled to pretend that he is a worse man than he
really is. He needn’t hold his nose in order to approach his
benefactor. Thus he may go into office without having dealt his
honour a fatal wound, and once he is in, he is under no pressure to
sacrifice it further, and may nurse it back to health and vigour. His
sovereign, at worst, has a certain respect for it, and hesitates to
strain it unduly; the mob has no sensitiveness on that point, and,
indeed, no knowledge that it exists. The courtier’s sovereign, in other
words, is apt to be a man of honour himself. When, in 1848 or
thereabout, the late Wilhelm I of Prussia was offered the imperial
crown by a so-called parliament of his subjects, he refused it on the
ground that he could take it only from his equals, i. e., from the
sovereign princes of the Reich. To the democrats of the world this
attitude was puzzling, and on reflection it began to seem
contemptible and offensive. But that was not to be marveled at. To a
democrat any attitude based upon a concept of honour, dignity and
integrity seems contemptible and offensive. Once Frederick the
Great was asked why he gave commissions in his army only to
Junker. Because, he answered, they will not lie and they cannot be
bought. That answer explains sufficiently the general democratic
theory that the Junker are not only scoundrels, but also half-wits.
The democratic politician, facing such plain facts, tries to save
his amour propre in a characteristically human way; that is to say, he
denies them. We all do that. We convert our degradations into
renunciations, our self-seeking into public spirit, our swinishness into
heroism. No man, I suppose, ever admits to himself candidly that he
gets his living in a dishonourable way, not even a Prohibition agent
or a biter off of puppies’ tails. The democratic politician, confronted
by the dishonesty and stupidity of his master, the mob, tries to
convince himself and all the rest of us that it is really full of rectitude
and wisdom. This is the origin of the doctrine that, whatever its
transient errors, it always comes to right decisions in the long run.
Perhaps—but on what evidence, by what reasoning, and for what
motives! Go examine the long history of the anti-slavery agitation in
America: it is a truly magnificent record of buncombe, false
pretences, and imbecility. This notion that the mob is wise, I fear, is
not to be taken seriously: it was invented by mob-masters to save
their faces: there was a lot of chatter about it by Roosevelt, but none
by Washington, and very little by Jefferson. Whenever democracy,
by an accident, produces a genuine statesman, he is found to be
proceeding on the assumption that it is not true. And on the
assumption that it is difficult, if not impossible to go to the mob for
support, and still retain the ordinary decencies. The best democratic
statesmanship, like the best non-democratic statesmanship, tends to
safeguard the honour of the higher officers of state by relieving them
of that degrading necessity. As every schoolboy knows, such was
the intent of the Fathers, as expressed in Article II, Sections 1 and 2,
of the Constitution. To this day it is a common device, when this or
that office becomes steeped in intolerable corruption, to take it out of
the gift of the mob, and make it appointive. The aspirant, of course,
still has to seek it, for under democracy it is very rare that office
seeks the man, but seeking it of the President, or even of the
Governor of a State, is felt to be appreciably less humiliating and
debasing than seeking it of the mob. The President may be a
Coolidge, and the Governor may be a Blease or a Ma Ferguson, but
he (or she) is at least able to understand plain English, and need not
be put into good humour by the arts of the circus clown or Baptist
evangelist.
To sum up: the essential objection to feudalism (the perfect
antithesis to democracy) was that it imposed degrading acts and
attitudes upon the vassal; the essential objection to democracy is
that, with few exceptions, it imposes degrading acts and attitudes
upon the men responsible for the welfare and dignity of the state.
The former was compelled to do homage to his suzerain, who was
very apt to be a brute and an ignoramus. The latter are compelled to
do homage to their constituents, who in overwhelming majority are
certain to be both.

7.
The Maker of Laws
In the United States, the general democratic tendency to crowd
competent and self-respecting men out of the public service is
exaggerated by a curious constitutional rule, unknown in any other
country. This is the rule, embodied in Article I, Sections 2 and 3, of
the Constitution and carried over into most of the State constitutions,
that a legislator must be an actual resident of the district he
represents. Its obvious aim is to preserve for every electoral unit a
direct and continuous voice in the government; its actual effect is to
fill all the legislative bodies of the land with puerile local politicians,
many of them so stupid that they are quite unable to grasp the
problems with which government has to deal. In England it is
perfectly possible for the remotest division to choose a Morley to
represent it, and this, in fact, until the recent rise of the mob, was not
infrequently done. But in the United States every congressional
district must find its representative within its own borders, and only
too often there is no competent man available. Even if one happens
to live there—which in large areas of the South and many whole
States of the newer West, is extremely improbable—he is usually so
enmeshed in operations against the resident imbeciles and their
leaders, and hence so unpopular, that his candidacy is out of the
question. This is manifestly the case in such States as Tennessee
and Mississippi. Neither is without civilized inhabitants, but in neither
is it possible to find a civilized inhabitant who is not under the ban of
the local Fundamentalist clergy, and per corollary, of the local
politicians. Thus both States, save for occasional accidents, are
represented in Congress by delegations of pliant and
unconscionable jackasses, and their influence upon national
legislation is extremely evil. It was the votes of such ignoble fellows,
piling in from all the more backward States, that forced the
Eighteenth Amendment through both Houses of Congress, and it
was the votes of even more degraded noodles, assembled from the
backwoods in the State Legislatures, that put the amendment into
the Constitution.
If it were possible for a congressional district to choose any man
to represent it, as is the case in all other civilized countries, there
would be more breaks in the monotony of legislative venality and
stupidity, for even the rustic mob, in the absence of strong local
antipathies, well fanned by demagogues, might succumb
occasionally to the magic of a great name. Thus a Roscoe Pound
might be sent to Congress from North Dakota or Nevada, though it is
obvious that he could not be sent from the Massachusetts district in
which he lives, wherein his independence and intelligence are
familiar and hence offensive to his neighbours. But this is forbidden
by the constitutional rule, and so North Dakota and Nevada, with few
if any first-rate men in them, must turn to such men as they have.
The result everywhere is the election of a depressing gang of
incompetents, mainly petty lawyers and small-town bankers. The
second result is a House of Representatives that, in intelligence,
information and integrity, is comparable to a gang of bootleggers—a
House so deficient in competent leaders that it can scarcely carry on
its business. The third result is the immense power of such corrupt
and sinister agencies as the Anti-Saloon League: a Morley would
disdain its mandates, but Congressman John J. Balderdash is only
too eager to earn its support at home. A glance through the
Congressional Directory, which prints autobiographies (often full of
voluptuous self-praise) of all Congressmen, is enough to show what
scrub stock is in the Lower House. The average Southern member,
for example, runs true to a standard type. He got his early education
in a hedge school, he proceeded to some preposterous Methodist or
Baptist college, and then he served for a time as a schoolteacher in
his native swamps, finally reaching the dignity of county
superintendent of schools and meanwhile reading law. Admitted to
the bar, and having got a taste of county politics as superintendent,
he became district attorney, and perhaps, after a while, county judge.
Then he began running for Congress, and after three or four vain
attempts, finally won a seat. The unfitness of such a man for the
responsibilities of a law-maker must be obvious. He is an ignoramus,
and he is quite without the common decencies. Having to choose
between sense and nonsense, he chooses nonsense almost
instinctively. Until he got to Washington, and began to meet
lobbyists, bootleggers and the correspondents of the newspapers,
he had perhaps never met a single intelligent human being. As a
Congressman, he remains below the salt. Officialdom disdains him;
he is kept waiting in anterooms by all the fourth assistant secretaries.
When he is invited to a party, it is a sign that police sergeants are
also invited. He must be in his second or third term before the ushers
at the White House so much as remember his face. His dream is to
be chosen to go on a congressional junket, i. e., on a drunken
holiday at government expense. His daily toil is getting jobs for
relatives and retainers. Sometimes he puts a dummy on the pay-roll
and collects the dummy’s salary himself. In brief, a knavish and
preposterous nonentity, half way between a kleagle of the Ku Klux
and a grand worthy bow-wow of the Knights of Zoroaster. It is such
vermin who make the laws of the United States.
The gentlemen of the Upper House are measurably better, if only
because they serve for longer terms. A Congressman, with his two-
year term, is constantly running for re-election. Scarcely has he got
to Washington before he must hurry home and resume his
bootlicking of the local bosses. But a Senator, once sworn in, may
safely forget them for two or three years, and so, if there is no
insuperable impediment in his character, he may show a certain
independence, and yet survive. Moreover, he is usually safer than a
Congressman, even as his term ends, for his possession of a higher
office shows that he is no inconsiderable boss himself. Thus there
are Senators who attain to a laudable mastery of the public
business, particularly such as lies within the range of their private
interests, and even Senators who show the intellectual dignity and
vigour of genuine statesmen. But they are surely not numerous. The
average Senator, like the average Congressman, is simply a party
hack, without ideas and without anything rationally describable as
self-respect. His backbone has a sweet resiliency; he knows how to
clap on false whiskers; it is quite impossible to forecast his action,
even on a matter of the highest principle, without knowing what
rewards are offered by the rival sides. Two of the most pretentious
Senators, during the Sixty-Ninth Congress, were the gentlemen from
Pennsylvania: one of them, indeed, was the successor to the
lamented Henry Cabot Lodge as the intellectual snob of the Upper
House. Yet both, under pressure, performed such dizzy flops that
even the Senate gasped. It was amusing, but there was also a touch
of pathos in it. Here were men who plainly preferred their jobs to
their dignity. Here, in brief, were men whose private rectitude had
yielded to political necessity—the eternal tragedy of democracy. I
turn to the testimony of a Senator who stands out clearly from the
rest: the able and uncompromisingly independent Reed of Missouri.
This is what he said of his colleagues, to their faces, on June 2,
1924:
[The pending measure] will be voted for by cowards who
would rather hang on to their present offices than serve their
country or defend its Constitution. It would not receive a vote in
this body were there not many individuals looking over their
shoulders toward the ballot-boxes of November, their poltroon
souls aquiver with apprehension lest they may pay the price of
courageous duty by the loss of the votes of some bloc, clique, or
coterie backing this infamous proposal. My language may seem
brutal. If so, it is because it lays on the blistering truth.

Senator Reed, in this startling characterization of his fellow


Senators, plainly violated the rules of the Senate, which forbid one
member to question the motives of another. But there was no
Senator present that day who cared to invoke those rules. They all
knew that Reed told the truth. Their answer to him was to slink into
the cloak-rooms, and leave him to roar at the Vice-President and the
clerks. He not only described the Senate accurately; he also
described the whole process of law-making under democracy. Our
laws are invented, in the main, by frauds and fanatics, and put upon
the statute books by poltroons and scoundrels.

8.
The Rewards of Virtue
I have spoken of the difficulties confronting an intelligent and
honourable man who aspires to public office under this system. If he
succeeds, it is only by a suspension of natural laws, and his success
is seldom more than transient: his first term is commonly his last.
And if, favoured by luck again, he goes on, it is only in the face of
opposition of an almost incredible bitterness. The case of the
Senator I have just mentioned is aptly in point. He is a man of
obvious ability and integrity, but in his last campaign in Missouri he
was opposed by a combination of all the parties and all their factions,
with the waspish ghost of the late Dr. Wilson hanging over the
battlefield. It was only his own amazing talents as a popular orator,
aided by the post-war Katzenjammer and a local delight in vigorous,
rough-and-ready-fighters, that overcame the tremendous odds
against him. In most other American States he would have been
defeated easily; in many of them his defeat would have been
overwhelming. Only in the newer States and in the border States
have such men any chance at all. Where party fidelity has run strong
for years they are barred from public life completely. No Senator of
any genuine dignity and ability could come out of the Georgia of to-
day, and none could come out of the Vermont. Such States must be
content with party hacks, and the country as a whole must submit to
their depressing imbecilities and ignoble contortions. All of them are
men who have trimmed and fawned. All of them are forbidden a
frank and competent discussion of most of the principal issues facing
the nation.
But there is something yet worse, and that is the assumption of
his cowardice and venality that lies upon even the most honourable
man, brought into public office by a miracle. The mob is quite unable
to grasp the concept of honour, and that incapacity is naturally
shared by the vast majority of politicians. Thus the acts of a public
man of genuine rectitude are almost always ascribed, under
democracy, to sordid and degrading motives, i. e., to the sort of
motives that would animate his more orthodox colleagues if they
were capable of his acts. I believe that the fact is more potent in
keeping decent men out of public life in the United States than even
the practical difficulties that I have rehearsed, and that it is mainly
responsible for the astounding timorousness of our politics. Its
effects were brilliantly displayed during the final stages of the battle
over the Eighteenth Amendment. The Prohibitionist leaders, being
mainly men of wide experience in playing upon the prejudices and
emotions of the mob, developed a technique of terrorization that was
almost irresistible. The moment a politician ventured to speak
against them he was accused of the grossest baseness. It was
whispered that he was a secret drunkard and eager to safeguard his
tipple; it was covertly hinted that he was in the pay of the Whiskey
Ring, the Beer Trust, or some other such bugaboo. The event
showed that the shoe was actually on the other foot—that many of
the principal supporters of Prohibition were on the pay-roll of the
Anti-Saloon League, and that judges, attorneys-general and other
high officers of justice afterward joined them there. But the
accusations served their purpose. The plain people, unable to
imagine a man entering public life with any other motive than that
which would have moved them themselves if they had been in his
boots—that is to say, unable to imagine any other motive save a
yearning for private advantage—reacted to the charges as if they
had been proved, and so more than one man of relatively high
decency, as decency goes in American life, was driven out of office.
Upon those who escaped the lesson was not lost. It was five or six
years before any considerable faction of politicians mustered up
courage enough to defy the Prohibitionists, and even then what
animated them was not any positive access of resolution but simply
the fact that the Anti-Saloon League was obviously far gone in
corruption, with some of its chief agents in revolt against its methods,
and others in prison for grave crimes and misdemeanours.
I am, myself, not cursed with the itch for public office, but I have
been engaged for years in the discussion of public questions, and so
I may be forgiven, I hope, for intruding my own experience here.
That experience may be described briefly: there has never been a
time when, attacking this or that current theory, I have not been
accused of being in the pay of its interested opponents, and I believe
that there has never been a time when this accusation was not
generally believed. Years ago, when the Prohibitionists were first
coming to power, they charged me with taking money from the
brewers and distillers, and to-day they charge me with some sort of
corrupt arrangement with the bootleggers, despite the plain fact that
the latter are not their opponents at all, but their allies. The former
accusation seemed so plausible to most Americans that even the
brewers finally gave it credit: they actually offered to put me on their
pay-roll, and were vastly surprised when I declined. It was simply
impossible for them, as low-caste Americans, to imagine a man
attempting to discharge a public duty disinterestedly; they believed
that I had to be paid, as their rapidly dwindling bloc of Congressmen
had to be paid. So in all other directions. When, fifteen or twenty
years ago, I began exposing the quackeries of osteopaths,
chiropractors and other such frauds, they resorted instantly to the
device of accusing me of taking a retainer from the mythical Medical
Trust, i. e., from such men as the Mayo brothers, Dr. George Crile,
and the faculty of the Johns Hopkins. Later on, venturing to
denounce the nefarious political activity of the Methodist Church, and
of its ally, the Ku Klux Klan, I was accused by spokesmen for the
former of receiving bribes from the Vatican. The comstocks went
even further. When I protested against their sinister and dishonest
censorship of literature, they charged me publicly with being
engaged in the circulation of pornography, and actually made a vain
and ill-starred attempt to railroad me to jail on that charge.
The point is that such accusations are generally believed,
especially when they are leveled at a candidate for office. The
average American knows what he would do in like case, and he
believes quite naturally that every other man is willing and eager to
do the same. At the start of my bout with the comstocks, just
mentioned, many American newspapers assumed as a matter of
course that I was guilty as charged, and some of them, having said
so, were forced into elaborate explanations afterward to purge
themselves of libel. Of the rest, most concluded that the whole
combat was a sham battle, provoked on my own motion to give me
what they regarded as profitable publicity. When I speak of
newspapers, of course, I speak of concrete men, their editors. These
editors, under democracy, constitute an extremely powerful class.
Their very lack of sound knowledge and genuine intelligence gives
them a special fitness for influencing the mob, and it is augmented
by their happy obtuseness to notions of honour. Their daily toil
consists in part of praising men and ideas that are obviously
fraudulent, and in part of denouncing men and ideas that are
respected by their betters. The typical American editor, save in a few
of the larger towns, may be described succinctly as one who has
written a million words in favour of Coolidge and half a million
against Darwin. He is, like the politician, an adept trimmer and
flatterer. His job is far more to him than his self-respect. It must be
plain that the influence of such men upon public affairs is generally
evil—that their weight is almost always thrown against the public
man of dignity and courage—that such a public man cannot hope to
be understood by them, or to get any useful support from them. Even
when they are friendly they are apt to be so for preposterous and

You might also like