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Preface
Chapter Organization
Each chapter contains the following elements:
• Chapter Outline: Lists the major concepts covered in each
chapter.
• Learning Objectives: Provide an overview of the key
learning goals that students should achieve after reading the
chapter.
• Chapter-Opening Case: A short case that focuses on a
small or start-up company that is using information systems
to solve a business problem. Cases in introductory informa­
tion systems textbooks typically involve very large organiza­
tions. In contrast, our chapter-opening cases demonstrate
that small and start-up companies also have business prob­
lems that they address using information systems. Students
will see that small firms usually have to be quite creative in
building and implementing IS solutions, because they do not
have MIS departments or large budgets. These small-busi­
ness cases also add an entrepreneurial flavor to each chapter
for students who are planning to start their own businesses.
• Apply the Concept Activities: This book’s unique peda­
gogical structure is designed to keep students actively en­
gaged with the course material. Reading material in each
chapter subsection is immediately followed by an “Apply the
Concept” activity that is directly related to a chapter objec­
tive. These activities include links to online videos and arti­
cles and other hands-on activities that require students to
immediately apply what they have learned. Via WileyPLUS,
instructors can assign a section of text along with an Apply
the Concept activity. Each Apply the Concept has the follow­
ing elements:
• Background (places the activity in the context of relevant
reading material)
• Activity (a hands-on activity that students carry out)
• Deliverable (various tasks for students to complete as they
perform the activity)
• IT’s About Business: Short cases that demonstrate real-
world applications of IT to business. Each case is accompa­
nied by questions relating the case to concepts covered in
the chapter. Icons relate these boxes to the specific function­
al areas.
• IT’s Personal: Sprinkled throughout the chapters, these
short vignettes explain the relevance of MIS concepts to stu­
dents’ daily lives.
• Before You Go On: End-of-section reviews prompt stu­
dents to pause and test their understanding of concepts be­
fore moving on to the next section.
• Examples: Interspersed throughout the text, these high­
light the use (and misuse) of information systems by re­
al-world organizations, thereby illustrating the concepts dis­
cussed in the chapter.
• What’s in IT for Me?: A unique end-of-chapter summary
that demonstrates the relevance of each key chapter topic
to different functional areas, including accounting, finance,
marketing, production/operations management, human
resources management, and management information sys­
tems. This cross-functional focus makes the book accessible
for students from any major.
• Summary: Keyed to the Learning Objectives listed at the
beginning of the chapter, the summary enables students to
review major concepts covered.
• Discussion Questions and Problem-Solving Activities:
Provide practice through active learning. These exercises are
hands-on opportunities to apply the concepts discussed in
the chapter.
• Collaboration Exercises: Team exercises that require stu­
dents to take on different functional roles and collaborate to
solve business problems using Google Drive. These exercises
allow students to get first-hand experience solving business
problems using Cloud-based tools while also experiencing
an authentic business team dynamic.
• Closing Cases: Each chapter concludes with two cases
about business problems faced by actual companies and
how they used IS to solve those issues. The cases are broken
down into three parts: a description of the problem, an over­
view of the IS solution implemented, and a presentation of
the results of the implementation. Each case is followed by
discussion questions, so that students can further explore
the concepts presented in the case.
• Spreadsheet Activity: Every chapter includes a hands-on
spreadsheet project that requires students to practice their
Excel skills within the context of the chapter material. Wiley-
PLUS Learning Space includes an Excel Lab Manual for stu­
dents who need introductory coverage or review.
• Database Activity: Every chapter includes a hands-on da­
tabase project that requires students to practice their Access
skills while using concepts learned in the chapter. WileyPLUS
Learning Space includes an Access Lab Manual for students
who need introductory coverage or review.
• Internship Activity: Every chapter includes an Internship
Activity which presents a business problem found in one of
four recurring industries (healthcare, banking, manufactur­
ing, and retail.) STUDENTS are directed to various software
demos that provide useful tools for addressing the business
problem. Then the students must act as interns and apply
viii P REFACE
the concepts they learned in the chapter to provide a solu­
tion to the business problem.
• Glossary: A study tool that highlights vocabulary within
the chapters and facilitates studying.
Key Features
Student Engagement As discussed in the note addressed
to instructors at the beginning of this preface, one of the chief
goals of this text is to engage students at a level beyond recog­
nition of key terms. We believe the best way to achieve this goal
is through hands-on, active learning that will lead to increased
student engagement with the course and its content.
Accordingly, every section of every chapter provides re­
sources that actively involve students in problem solving, crea­
tive thinking, and capitalizing on opportunities. Every chapter
includes extensive hands-on exercises, activities, and mini-
cases, including exercises that require students to solve busi­
ness problems using Excel and Access.
Cross-Functional Approach We emphasize the importance
of information systems by calling attention in every chapter to
how that chapter’s topic relates to each business major. Icons
guide students to relevant issues for their specific functional
area—accounting (ACC), fi nance (FIN), marketing (MKT), pro­
duction operations management (POM), human resources man­
agement (HRM), and management information systems (MIS).
Chapters conclude with a detailed summary (entitled “What’s in
IT for Me?”) of how key concepts in the chapter relate to each
functional area.
ACCT FIN MKT POM HRM MIS
Diversified and Unique Examples from Different In­
dustries Extensive use of vivid examples from large corpo­
rations, small businesses, and government and not-for-profit
organizations enlivens the concepts from the chapter. Th e ex­
amples illustrate everything from the capabilities of informa­
tion systems, to their cost and justification and the innovative
ways that corporations are using IS in their operations. Small
businesses have been included in recognition of the fact that
many students will work for small-to mid-sized companies, and
some will even start their own small business. In fact, some
students may already be working at local businesses, and the
concepts they are learning in class can be readily observed or
put into practice in their part-time jobs. Each chapter constant­
ly highlights the integral connection between business and IS.
This connection is especially evident in the chapter-opening
and closing cases, the “IT’s About Business” boxes, and the
highlighted examples.
Successes and Failures Many textbooks present examples
of the successful implementation of information systems, and
our book is no exception. However, we go one step beyond by
also providing numerous examples of IS failures, in the context
of lessons that can be learned from such failures. Misuse of in­
formation systems can be very expensive.
Global Focus An understanding of global competition,
partnerships, and trading is essential to success in a modern
business environment. Therefore, we provide a broad selec­
tion of international cases and examples. We discuss the role
of information systems in facilitating export and import, the
management of international companies, and electronic trad­
ing around the globe.
Innovation and Creativity In today’s rapidly changing
business environment, creativity and innovation are necessary
for a business to operate effectively and profitably. Throughout
our book, we demonstrate how information systems facilitate
these processes.
Focus on Ethics With corporate scandals appearing in the
headlines almost daily, ethics and ethical questions have come
to the forefront of business people’s minds. In addition to de­
voting an entire chapter to ethics and privacy (Chapter 6), we
have included examples and cases throughout the text that fo­
cus on business ethics.
A Guide to Icons in This Book
As you read this book, you will notice a variety of icons inter­
spersed throughout the chapters.
These icons highlight material relating to different
functional areas. MIS concepts are relevant to all business ca­
reers, not just careers in IT. The functional area icons help stu­
dents of different majors quickly pick out concepts and exam­
ples of particular relevance to them. Below is a quick reference
of these icons.
ACCT For the Accounting Major highlights content rele­
vant to the functional area of accounting.
FIN For the Finance Major highlights content relevant
to the functional area of finance.
MKT For the Marketing Major highlights content rele­
vant to the functional area of marketing.
POM For the Production/Operations Management
Major highlights content relevant to the functional area of
production/operations management.
HRM For the Human Resources Major highlights con­
tent relevant to the functional area of human resources.
MIS For the MIS Major highlights content relevant to the
functional area of MIS.

What’s New in the Fourth Edition?
Content changes include:
• Chapter 5: Completely rewritten chapter on Business Analyt­
ics. Chapter provides a visual overview of the Analytics pro­
cess (Figure 5.3), and extensive coverage of descriptive ana­
lytics, predictive analytics, and prescriptive analytics.
• Plug IT In 5: Completely rewritten Plug IT In on Artificial In­
telligence. This Plug In differentiates between weak AI and
strong AI and then addresses AI technologies such as expert
systems, machine learning, deep learning, and neural net­
works. The Plug In continues with a discussion of AI applica­
tions, including machine vision, natural language process­
ing, robotics, speech recognition, and intelligent agents.
• Chapter 3 contains expanded coverage of Big Data.
• Plug IT In 1 provides expanded coverage of business processes.
• All new or updated IT’s About Business, chapter-opening and
closing cases, and examples.
• Pedagogical changes include:
• Revised and streamlined “Apply the Concept” activities
now relate directly to chapter objectives.
• New “Internship Activities” replace the Ruby’s Club ac­
tivities from previous editions. Each Internship Activity
includes a software demo that requires students to apply
new tools to business problems.
• Revised “Collaboration Exercises” now each require use of
Google Drive.
• Revised and streamlined database and spreadsheet ex­
ercises for every chapter. These include references to les­
sons in the WileyPLUS lab manual for students who need
instruction or review.
Online Resources
www.wiley.com/college/rainer
Our book also facilitates the teaching of an Introduction
to Information Systems course by providing extensive support
materials for instructors and students. Visit www.wiley.com/
college/rainer to access the Student and Instructor Companion
Sites.
Instructor’s Manual The Instructor’s Manual includes a
chapter overview, teaching tips and strategies, answers to all
end-of-chapter questions, supplemental mini-cases with essay
questions and answers, and experiential exercises that relate
to particular topics. It also includes answers and solutions to
all spreadsheet and database activities, along with a guide to
teaching these exercises, and links to the separate Excel and Ac­
cess starter and solutions files.
Test Bank The test bank is a comprehensive resource for test
questions. Each chapter contains multiple choice, true/false,
P R EFACE ix
short answer, and essay questions. In addition, each chapter
includes “Apply Your Knowledge” questions that require more
creative thought to answer. Each multiple choice and true/false
question is labeled to indicate its level of difficulty: easy, medi­
um, or hard.
The test bank is available for use in Respondus’ easy-to­
use software. Respondus® is a powerful tool for creating and
managing exams that can be printed or published directly to
Blackboard, WebCT, Desire2Learn, eCollege, ANGEL, and other
learning systems. For more information on Respondus® and the
Respondus Test Bank Network, please visit www.respondus
.com.
Reading Quizzes These multiple choice conceptual ques­
tions can be used by instructors to evaluate a student’s under­
standing of the reading. They are available in Respondus, the
WileyPLUS course, and the Book Companion Site.
PowerPoint Presentations The PowerPoint Presentations
consist of a series of slides for each chapter. The slides are de­
signed around each chapter’s content, incorporating key points
from the chapter and chapter illustrations as appropriate, as
well as real-life examples from the Web.
Image Library All textbook figures are available for down­
load from the Web site. These figures can easily be added to
PowerPoint presentations.
Weekly Updates (http://wileyinformationsystemsupdates
.com)
Weekly updates, harvested from around the Internet by David
Firth of the University of Montana, provide you with the latest
IT news and issues. These are posted every Monday morning
throughout the year at http://wileyinformationsystemsupdates
.com/. They include links to current articles and videos as well as
discussion questions to assign or use in class.
OfficeGrader Office GraderTM is an Access-Based VBA Macro
that enables automatic grading of Office assignments. The
macros compare Office files and grade them against a master
file. OfficeGraderTM is available for Word, Access, Excel, and Pow­
erPoint for Office 2010 and 2013. For more information, contact
your Wiley sales representative or visit http://www.wiley.com
/college/sc/office2013/officegrader.html.
WileyPLUS Learning Space
WileyPLUS Learning Space is an easy way for students to learn,
collaborate, and grow. With WileyPLUS Learning Space, stu­
dents create a personalized study plan, assess progress along
the way, and make deeper connections as they interact with
the course material and each other. Through a combination of
dynamic course materials and visual reports, this collaborative
learning environment gives you and your students immediate
x P REFACE
insight into strengths and problem areas in order to act on
what’s most important.
• This online teaching and learning environment integrates the
entire digital textbook with the most effective instructor and
student resources to accommodate every learning style.
• Students achieve concept mastery in a rich, structured envi­
ronment that is available 24/7.
• Instructors personalize and manage their course more ef­
fectively with assessment, assignments, grade tracking, and
more. You can even add your own materials to your Wiley-
PLUS course
• With WileyPLUS Learning Space you can identify students
who are falling behind and intervene accordingly, without
having to wait for them to come to office hours.
• WileyPLUS Learning Space can complement the textbook or
replace the printed textbook altogether.
WileyPLUS Learning Space for Rainer MIS 3e includes the fol­
lowing resources to support teaching and learning:
• New author lecture videos for every section of every chapter
will facilitate switch to “flipped classrooms” and/or will pro­
vide additional learning support for students.
• Orion, an adaptive, personal learning experience that helps
students highlight their strengths and problems areas and
navigate through their studies to get optimal results in the
most efficient amount of time. (See more information below.).
• Group chat function facilitates student discussion about ac­
tivities and cases.
• Complete eText allows searching across all chapters,
note-taking, highlighting, and the ability to copy and paste or
print key sections.
• Lab Manual for Microsoft Office 2010 and Office 2013.
• Automatically graded practice questions
• Vocabulary flash cards and quizzes
• Library of additional “IT’s About Business” cases.
For more information and a demo, visit here: http://www
.wiley.com/college/sc/wpls/
Acknowledgments
Creating, developing, and producing a text for the introduction to in­
formation systems course is a formidable undertaking. Along the way,
we were fortunate to receive continuous evaluation, criticism, and di­
rection from many colleagues who regularly teach this course.
Special thanks to the following contributors: Ken Corley for designing
the PowerPoint slides, Jennifer Gerow for writing test bank questions,
ORION Included in WileyPLUS Learning Space, ORION helps
gauge students’ strengths and weaknesses so that instructors
can tailor instruction accordingly. Instructor reports track ag­
gregate and individual student proficiency at the objective or
chapter level, to show exactly where students excel as well as
the areas that need reinforcement.
Based on cognitive science, WileyPLUS with ORION is a
personalized, adaptive learning experience that helps students
build proficiency on topics while using their study time most
effectively.
For more information and a demo, visit here: http://www
.wiley.com/college/sc/ oriondemo/.
WILEY Flex
In addition to WileyPLUS Learning Space, Wiley provides a wide
variety of printed and electronic formats that provide many
choices to your students at a wide range of price points. Con­
tact your Wiley sales representative for more details on any of
the below.
Wiley E-Text Powered by VitalSource Wiley E-Texts are
complete digital versions of the text that help students study
more efficiently. Students can access content online and offline
on their desktops, laptops, and mobile devices; search across
the entire book content, take notes and highlight, and copy and
paste or print key sections.
Wiley Binder Version A three-hole-punched, loose-leaf ver­
sion allows students to carry only the content they need, insert
class notes and hand-outs, and keep all materials in one place.
Wiley Custom This group’s services allows you to adapt ex­
isting Wiley content and combine text materials, incorporate
and publish your own materials, and collaborate with Wiley’s
team to ensure your satisfaction.
Wiley Custom Select Wiley Custom Select allows you to
build your own course materials using selected chapters of any
Wiley text and your own material if desired. For more informa­
tion, visit http:// customselect.wiley.com.
Bob Gehling for working on the Instructor’s Manual, and Carole
Hollingsworth for designing Wiley PLUS activities.
Special thanks to contributors Dawna Dewire, Joan Lumpkin, Kevin
Lertwachara, Roy DeJoie, and Kala Seal for working on the original
Apply the Concept activities that appeared in prior editions. Thanks
also to Efrem Mallach for creating the original database activities in

the prior editions. Many thanks also to Alina M. Chircu and Marco Mar­
abelli of Bentley University for developing new material that enhances
our coverage of business processes and ERP. We are grateful for the
dedication and creativity of all these contributors in helping us craft
this new text.
We would like to thank the Wiley team: Darren Lalonde, Executive
Editor; Emma Townsend-Merino, Assistant Development Editor;
Wendy Ashenberg, Associate Product Designer; and Chris DeJohn,
Senior Marketing Manager. We also thank the Content Management
team, including Dorothy Sinclair, Content Manager; Jane Lee Kaddu,
Senior Production Editor; and Abhishek Sarkari of Thomson Digital.
And thanks to Maureen Eide, Senior Designer; and Billy Ray, Senior
Photo Editor. We would also like to thank Robert Weiss for his skillful
and thorough editing of the manuscript.
Finally, we would like to acknowledge the contributions made by the
individuals listed below who participated in focus groups, teleses­
sions, surveys, chapter walkthroughs, class tests, user feedback sur­
veys, and reviews.
KELLY RAINER
BRAD PRINCE
HUGH WATSON
Monica Adya, Marquette University
Lawrence Andrew, Western Illinois University, Macomb
Orakwue (Bay) Arinze, Drexel University
Laura Atkins, James Madison University
Nick Ball, Brigham Young University
Nicholas Barnes, Nicholls College
Susan Barzottini, Manchester Community College
Kristi Berg, Minot State University
Andy Borchers, Lipscomb University
David Bouchard, Metropolitan State University
Dave Bourgeois, Biola University
Mari Buche, Michigan Tech University
Richard Burkhard, San Jose State University
Ashley Bush, Florida State University
Frank Canovatchel, Champlain College
Donald Carpenter, Mesa State College
Teuta Cata, Northern Kentucky University
Wendy Ceccucci, Quinnipiac University
Amita Chin, Virginia Commonwealth University
Susan Chinn, University of Southern ME, Portland
Richard Christensen, Metropolitan State University
Dmitriy Chulkov, Indiana University Kokomo
Phillip Coleman, Western Kentucky University
Emilio Collar, Western CT State University
Daniel Connolly, University of Denver
Lee Cornell, Minnesota State University, Mankato
David Croasdell, University of Nevada, Reno
Jakov Crnkovic, University at Albany, SUNY
Reet Cronk, Harding University
Marcia Daley, Clark, Atlanta
Donald Danner, San Francisco State University
Roy DeJoie, Purdue University
Dawna Dewire, Babson College
Kevin Duffy, Wright State University
Lauren Eder, Rider University
Sean Eom, Southeast Missouri State University
Ahmed Eshra, St. John’s University
P R EFACE xi
Roger Finnegan, Metropolitan State University
Thomas Fischer, Metropolitan State University
Jerry Flatto, University of Indianapolis
Jonathan Frankel, University of Massachusetts, Boston
Judith Gebauer, University of North Carolina, Wilmington
Jennifer Gerow, Virginia Military Institute
Matt Graham, University of Maine
Katie Gray, University of Texas, Austin
Penelope (Sue) Greenberg, Widener University
Naveen Gudigantala, University of Portland
Saurabh Gupta, University of North Florida
Bernard Han, Western Michigan University
Hyo-Joo Han, Georgia Southern College
John Hagle, Texas State Technical College
Peter Haried, University of Wisconsin, LaCrosse
Ranida Harris, Indiana University Southeast
Roslin Hauck, Illinois State University
Bernd Haupt, Penn State University
Jun He, University of Michigan, Dearborn
Richard Herschel, St. Joseph’s University
Bogdan Hoanca, University of Alaska
Mary Carole Hollingsworth, Georgia Perimeter College, Clarkston Campus
Terri Holly, Indian River State College
Derrick Huang, Florida Atlantic University
Maggie Hutchison, Flagler College
Mark Hwang, Central Michigan University
Lynn Isvik, Upper Iowa University, Fayette
Curtis Izen, Baruch College, City University of New York
Radhika Jain, Baruch College, City University of New York
Arpan Jani, University of Wisconsin, River Falls
Jonathan Jelen, St. John’s University
Hong Jiang, Benedict College
Nenad Jukic, Loyola University
Elene Kent, Capital University
Stephen Klein, Ramapo College
Brian Kovar, Kansas State University
Subodha Kumar, Texas A&M
Diane Lending, James Madison University
Kevin Lertwachara, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo
Terry Letsche, Wartburg College
Victor Lipe, Trident Tech
Chuck Litecky, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale
Joan Lumpkin, Wright State University
Nicole Lytle, Cal State, San Bernardino
George Mangalaraj, Western Illinois University
Parand Mansouri-Rad, University of Texas, El Paso
Michael Martel, Ohio University
Nancy Martin, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale
Richard McMahon, University of Houston, Downtown
Tony McRae, Collin College
Vishal Midha, University of Texas, Pan American
Esmail Mohebbi, University West Florida
Luvai Motiwalla, University Mass Online
Mahdi Nasereddin, Penn State, Berks
Sandra K. Newton, Sonoma State University
Ann O’Brien, University of Wisconsin, Madison
Sungjune Park, University of North Carolina, Charlotte
Yang Park, Georgia Southwestern State University
Alan Peace, West Virginia University
Jacqueline Pike, Duquesne University
xii P REFACE
Tony Pittarese, East Tennessee State University
Jennifer Pitts, Columbus State University
Richard Platt, University of West Florida
Larisa Preiser, Cal Poly Pomona
Michelle Ramim, Nova Southeastern University
Alison Rampersad, Lynn University
Ralph Reilly, University of Hartford
Wes Rhea, Kennesaw State University
Julio Rivera, University of Alabama, Birmingham
Thomas Roberts, William Patterson University
Cynthia Ruppel, Nova Southeastern University
James Ryan, Troy University
Russell Sabadosa, Manchester Community College
Jim Samuel, Baruch College, City University of New York
Tom Sandman, Cal State, Sacramento
Kala Seal, Loyola Marymount
Tod Sedbrook, University of Northern Colorado
Elaine Seeman, East Carolina University
Richard Segall, Arkansas State University
Lee Sellers, Eastern Oregon University—Mt. Hood Metro Center
Judy Ann Serwatka, Purdue University, North Central
John Seydel, Arkansas State University
Jollean Sinclaire, Arkansas State University
Vivek Shah, Texas State University, San Marcos
Mehrdad Sharbaf, Loyola Marymount University
Suengjae Shin, Mississippi State University, Meridian
Todd Stabenow, Hawkeye Community College
Jo Lynne Stalnaker, University of Wyoming
Cynthia Stone, Indiana University
Nathan Stout, University of Oklahoma
Yi Sun, Cal State, San Marcos
Winston Tellis, Fairfield University
Doug Francis Tuggle, Chapman University
Wendy Urban, Temple University
Darlene de Vida, Lower Columbia College
James Villars, Metropolitan State University
Padmal Vitharana, Syracuse University
Haibo Wang, Texas A&M International University
Hong Wang, North Carolina A&T State University
June Wei, University of West Florida
Melody White, University of North Texas
Rosemary Wild, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo
Tom Wilder, Cal State, Chico
Karen Williams, University of Texas, San Antonio
Marie Wright, Western Connecticut State University
Yaquan Xu, Virginia State University
Benjamin Yeo, Loyola Marymount University
Bee Yew, Fayetteville State University
Jigish Zaveri, Morgan State University
Grace Zhang, Augusta State University
Wei Zhang, University of Massachusetts, Boston
Zuopeng Zhang, SUNY, Plattsburgh
Fan Zhao, Florida Gulf Coast University
Robert Zwick, Yeshiva University
 Brief Contents
PREFACE vii 13 Supply Chain Management 352

1 Introduction to Information Systems 1 14 Acquiring Information Systems and

Applications 370
2 Organizational Strategy, Competitive
Advantage, and Information Systems 33 P LUG IT IN 1 Business Processes
and Business Process
3 Data and Knowledge Management 56 Management 398
4 Telecommunications and Networking 91 P LUG IT IN 2 Hardware and Software 411
5 Business Analytics 127 P LUG IT IN 3 Fundamentals of Relational
6 Ethics and Privacy 155 Database Operations 431

7 Information Security 176 P LUG IT IN 4 Cloud Computing 441

8 Social Computing 209 P LUG IT IN 5 Artificial Intelligence 464

9 E-Business and E-Commerce 244 P LUG IT IN 6 Project Management 477

10 Wireless, Mobile Computing, and Mobile P LUG IT IN 7 Protecting Your Information

Commerce 274 Assets 488

11 Information Systems within the INDE X 507

Organization 306

12 Customer Relationship Management 331

xiii
Contents
PREFACE vii Discussion Questions 87
Problem-Solving Activities 87
1 Introduction to Information Closing Case 1 88
Closing Case 2 89
Systems 1

Opening Case 1 4 Telecommunications

Introduction 2 and Networking 91
1.1 Why Should I Study Information Systems? 3
1.2 Overview of Computer-Based Information Opening Case 91
Systems 9 Introduction 93
1.3 How Does IT Impact Organizations? 17 4.1 What Is a Computer Network? 94
1.4 Importance of Information Systems to Society 23 4.2 Network Fundamentals 97
Summary 27 4.3 The Internet and the World Wide Web 102
Chapter Glossary 28 4.4 Network Applications: Discovery 107
Discussion Questions 29 4.5 Network Applications: Communication 110
Problem-Solving Activities 29 4.6 Network Applications: Collaboration 113
Closing Case 1 30 4.7 Network Applications: Educational 117
Closing Case 2 31 Summary 120
Chapter Glossary 121
2 Organizational Strategy, Discussion Questions 123
Problem-Solving Activities 123
Competitive Advantage, and Closing Case 1 124
Information Systems 33 Closing Case 2 125

Opening Case 33
Introduction 34
5 Business Analytics 127

2.1 Business Pressures, Organizational Responses, and Opening Case 127

Information Technology Support 35 Introduction 128
2.2 Competitive Advantage and Strategic Information
5.1 Managers and Decision Making 129
Systems 44
5.2 The Business Analytics Process 133
Summary 51
5.3 Business Analytics Tools 137
Chapter Glossary 52
5.4 Business Analytics Models: Descriptive
Discussion Questions 52 Analytics, Predictive Analytics, and Prescriptive
Problem-Solving Activities 53 Analytics 141
Closing Case 1 53 Summary 150
Closing Case 2 54 Chapter Glossary 150
Discussion Questions 151
3 Data and Knowledge Closing Case 1 151
Management 56 Closing Case 2 153

Opening Case 56 6 Ethics and Privacy 155

Introduction 57
3.1 Managing Data 60 Opening Case 155
3.2 The Database Approach 62 Introduction 156
3.3 Big Data 66 6.1 Ethical Issues 157
3.4 Data Warehouses and Data Marts 75 6.2 Privacy 163
3.5 Knowledge Management 81 Summary 171
Summary 86 Chapter Glossary 171
Chapter Glossary 86 Discussion Questions 172
 Contents xv

Problem-Solving Activities 172 Summary 268

Closing Case 1 173 Chapter Glossary 268
Closing Case 2 174 Discussion Questions 269
Problem-Solving Activities 270
7 Information Security 176 Closing Case 1 271
Closing Case 2 272
Opening Case 176
Introduction 177 10 Wireless, Mobile Computing, and
7.1 Introduction to Information Security 178 Mobile Commerce 274
7.2 Unintentional Threats to Information
Systems 180 Opening Case 274
7.3 Deliberate Threats to Information Systems 183 Introduction 275
7.4 What Organizations Are Doing to Protect 10.1 Wireless Technologies 276
Information Resources 189
10.2 Wireless Computer Networks and Internet
7.5 Information Security Controls 191 Access 284
Summary 201
10.3 Mobile Computing and Mobile Commerce 291
Chapter Glossary 202
10.4 The Internet of Things 296
Discussion Questions 204 Summary 301
Problem-Solving Activities 204 Chapter Glossary 302
Closing Case 1 205 Discussion Questions 302
Closing Case 2 207 Problem-Solving Activities 303
Closing Case 1 303
8 Social Computing 209 Closing Case 2 304

Opening Case 209

Introduction 211
11 Information Systems within the
8.1 Web 2.0 212
Organization 306
8.2 Fundamentals of Social Computing
Opening Case 306
in Business 219
Introduction 307
8.3 Social Computing in Business: Shopping 225
11.1 Transaction Processing Systems 308
8.4 Social Computing in Business: Marketing 229
11.2 Functional Area Information Systems 309
8.5 Social Computing in Business: Customer
Relationship Management 232 11.3 Enterprise Resource Planning Systems 316
11.4 ERP Support for Business Processes 322
8.6 Social Computing in Business: Human Resource
Summary 327
Management 235
Chapter Glossary 327
Summary 238
Discussion Questions 328
Chapter Glossary 239
Problem-Solving Activities 328
Discussion Questions 240
Closing Case 1 329
Problem-Solving Activities 240
Closing Case 2 329
Closing Case 1 240
Closing Case 2 242
12 Customer Relationship
9 E-Business and E-Commerce 244 Management 331

Opening Case 244 Opening Case 331

Introduction 245 Introduction 332
9.1 Overview of E-Business and E-Commerce 247 12.1 Defining Customer Relationship Management 333
9.2 Business-to-Consumer (B2C) Electronic 12.2 Operational Customer Relationship Management
Commerce 254 Systems 338
9.3 Business-to-Business (B2B) Electronic 12.3 Other Types of Customer Relationship Management
Commerce 261 Systems 343
9.4 Ethical and Legal Issues in E-Business 264 Summary 347
Chapter Glossary 347
xvi CONTEN TS

Discussion Questions 348

Problem-Solving Activities 348
Plug IT In 2 Hardware and
Closing Case 1 349 Software 411
Closing Case 2 350
Introduction 411
PI2.1 Introduction to Hardware 411
13 Supply Chain Management 352
PI2.2 Introduction to Software 422
Summary 428
Chapter Opening Case 352
Glossary 428
Introduction 353
Discussion Questions 430
13.1 Supply Chains 354 Problem-Solving Activities 430
13.2 Supply Chain Management 356
13.3 Information Technology Support for Supply Chain
Management 361 Plug IT In 3 Fundamentals
Summary 365 of Relational Database
Chapter Glossary 366 Operations 431
Discussion Questions 366
Problem-Solving Activities 366 Introduction 431
Closing Case 1 367
PI3.1 Query Languages 431
Closing Case 2 368
PI3.2 Entity–Relationship Modeling 432
PI3.3 Normalization and Joins 435
14 Acquiring Information Systems and Summary 440
Applications 370 Glossary 440
Discussion Questions 440
Opening Case 370
Introduction 371 Plug IT In 4 Cloud
14.1 Planning for and Justifying IT Applications 372 Computing 441
14.2 Strategies for Acquiring IT Applications 376
14.3 Traditional Systems Development Life Cycle 381 PI4.1 Introduction 441
14.4 Alternative Methods and Tools for Systems PI4.2 What Is Cloud Computing? 443
Development 387 Different Types of Clouds 447
PI4.3
Summary 392 Cloud Computing Services 449
PI4.4
Chapter Glossary 393 The Benefits of Cloud Computing 453
PI4.5
Discussion Questions 394 Concerns and Risks with Cloud Computing 455
PI4.6
Problem-Solving Activities 394 Web Services and Service-Oriented
PI4.7
Closing Case 1 395 Architecture 459
Closing Case 2 396 Summary 462
Glossary 463
Plug IT In 1 Business Discussion Questions 463
Processes and Business Process Problem-Solving Activities 463
Management 398
Plug IT In 5 Artificial
PI1.1 Business Processes 398 Intelligence 464
PI1.2 Business Process Improvement, Business
Process Reengineering, and Business Process PI5.1 Introduction to Artificial Intelligence 464
Management 404 PI5.2 Artificial Intelligence Technologies 466
Summary 409 PI5.3 Artificial Intelligence Applications 470
Chapter Glossary 410 Summary 475
Discussion Questions 410 Chapter Glossary 476
Discussion Questions 476
Problem-Solving Activities 476
 CON TEN TS xvii

Plug IT In 6 Project Plug IT In 7 Protecting Your

Management 477 Information Assets 488
PI6.1 Project Management for Information Systems PI7.1 How to Protect Your Assets: The Basics 488
Projects 477 PI7.2 Behavioral Actions to Protect Your Information
PI6.2 The Project Management Process 479 Assets 489
PI6.3 The Project Management Body PI7.3 Computer-Based Actions to Protect Your
of Knowledge 482 Information Assets 492
Summary 485 Summary 504
Glossary 485 Discussion Questions 505
Discussion Questions 485 Problem-Solving Activities 506
Collaboration Exercise PI6.1 486
Problem-Solving Activities 486 INDE X 507
Management
Information Systems
Fourth Edition
 CHAPTER 1

STOCK4B-RF/Getty Images

Introduction to Information
Systems
CHAPTER OUTLINE L E ARNI NG O BJ E CTI VE S

1.1 Why Should I Study Information

1.1 Identify the reasons why being an informed user of information systems is important
Systems?
in today’s world.
1.2 Overview of Computer-Based Infor­
1.2 Describe the various types of computer-based information systems in an organization.
mation Systems
1.3 Discuss ways in which information technology can affect managers and nonmanage­
1.3 How Does IT Impact Organizations?
rial workers.
1.4 Importance of Information Systems
1.4 Identify positive and negative societal effects of the increased use of information
to Society
technology.

Opening Case
MKT FanDuel
POM Founded in 2009, FanDuel (www.fanduel.com) operates a
Web-based fantasy sports game. It is the largest company in
the daily fantasy sports business. In May 2016, FanDuel was legal in 39
states, taking advantage of an exclusion in the 2006 Unlawful Internet
Gambling Enforcement Act. This statute bans credit card issuers and
banks from working with poker and sports-betting Web sites, effec­
tively preventing U.S. customers from participating in those industries.
The law, however, exempts fantasy sports because they are con­
sidered a game of skill, not luck. To maintain legal status, the
operator of a fantasy sports business must follow four rules: (1)
publish prize amounts before the games begin, (2) make prize
amounts independent of the number of players in the game,
(3) level the playing field by allowing anyone in a league to draft
any player they want, and (4) disregard point spreads and game
scores.
FanDuel delivers simple and fast fantasy betting. After pay­
ing an entry fee, players become eligible to win daily cash payouts
based on the statistical performance of athletes in games played

1
2 CH A PTER 1 Introduction to Information Systems

that day. Traditional fantasy sports often frustrate players because the
experience lasts for an entire season. If a player drafts a bad team, then
he or she is stuck with that team for several months. In addition, seri­
ous fantasy league players analyze large amounts of statistics, roster
changes, and injury reports. Many casual players do not have time for
such analyses. In contrast to these leagues, FanDuel allows customers
to play for just a day, a weekend, or a week.
FanDuel lets players participate for free or bet up to $5000 to draft
a team of players in the National Football League (NFL), the National
Basketball Association (NBA), Major League Baseball (MLB), and the
National Hockey League (NHL), plus college football and basketball.
Players can compete head-to-head against another individual or in a
league with up to 125,000 teams. The winner is the one with the best
player statistics, which translate into fantasy points. FanDuel takes an
average of 9 percent of each prize.
MIS By May 2016, FanDuel claimed more than 1 million customers
and operated in 39 states. However, the company was not yet
profitable. It has to spend millions of dollars on computing power from
Amazon Web Services to manage, as only one example, the increase in
Web traffic just before Sunday’s NFL kickoff. At that time, FanDuel must
manage 150,000 simultaneous users, who make 250,000 roster changes
per hour. The company also provides 15 million live scoring updates per
minute during games, meaning that it must manage 6 terabytes of net­
work traffic during game day. (A terabyte equals 1 trillion bytes.)
Professional sports have noted that FanDuel, with its easy-to-use
app, appeals to young and mobile sports fans. Further, these fans have
money at stake, so they are more inclined to watch games on televi­
sion than they otherwise would be. An increase in viewers leads to an
increase in advertising rates for the teams. In fact, in 2015 FanDuel
signed multiyear sponsorship agreements with 15 NFL teams. These
deals generally include stadium signage, radio and digital advertising,
and other promotions. Interestingly, the NBA owns an equity stake in
FanDuel.
Despite continued success, daily fantasy sports companies face a
substantive problem. They can operate only as long as the federal gov­
ernment allows them to do so. The government could close the fantasy
loophole in the 2006 statute at any time.
Significantly, the federal law does not give daily fantasy sports
businesses immunity from state laws. In October 2015, New York Attor­
ney General Eric Schneiderman launched an inquiry into FanDuel and
its chief rival DraftKings. Shortly thereafter, he ruled that the two com­
panies were operating illegally and issued a cease and desist order,
ordering the two companies to stop taking bets in New York State.
FanDuel, which is based in New York, said that it would check the
locations of its users to ensure that they submitted entries from states
where it is permitted to do so. Users who attempt to circumvent this
decision could see their accounts terminated and FanDuel refuse to
pay out any winnings.
On the other hand, DraftKings, which is based in Massachusetts,
sent an e-mail to its New York customers assuring them that they could
continue submitting entries. DraftKings told its New York customer
that their right to play in New York will remain unchanged unless a New
York court decides otherwise.
Interestingly, in the spring of 2016, FanDuel suspended contests
on college sports in all states as part of a negotiation with the National
Collegiate Athletic Association.
And the bottom line? The legal battle continues.
Sources: Compiled from D. Purdum, “DraftKings, FanDuel to Stop Offering
College Fantasy Games,” ESPN.com, March 31, 2016; M. Brown, “FanDuel
Lays Off Workers as Legal Pressure Mounts,” Forbes, January 20, 2016;
R. Axon, “Facing Threat from N.Y. Attorney General, FanDuel Suspends
Entries in State,” USA Today, November 17, 2015; L. Baker, “FanDuel,
DraftKings Vow to Fight New York’s Halt on Bets,” Reuters, November
12, 2015; D. Alba, “DraftKings and FanDuel Scandal Is a Cautionary
Startup Tale,” Wired, October 9, 2015; D. Roberts, “Are DraftKings and
FanDuel Legal?” Fortune, September 24, 2015; K. Wagner, “DraftKings
and FanDuel Are Battling over Your Favorite Teams,” www.recode.net,
July 17, 2015; R. Sandomir, “FanDuel and DraftKings, Leaders in Daily
Fantasy Sports, Are Quickly Gaining Clout,” The New York Times, July 13,
2015; S. Rodriguez, “Yahoo Enters World of Daily Fantasy Sports, Takes
on DraftKings and FanDuel,” International Business Times, July 8, 2015; B.
Schrotenboer, “FanDuel Signs Deals with 15 NFL Teams, Escalating Daily
Fantasy Integration,” USA Today, April 21, 2015; D. Primack, “DraftKings
and FanDuel Close in on Massive New Investments,” Fortune, April 6,
2015; S. Ramachandran and Am Sharma, “Disney to Invest $250 Million in
Fantasy Site DraftKings,” The Wall Street Journal, April 3, 2015; M. Kosoff,
“Fantasy Sports Startup FanDuel May Soon Be Worth $1 Billion,” Business
Insider, February 18, 2015; D. Heitner, “DraftKings Reports $304 Million on
Entry Fees in 2014,” Forbes, January 22, 2015; S. Bertoni, “Fantasy Sports,
Real Money,” Forbes, January 19, 2015; B. Schrotenboer, “Fantasy Sports
Debate: Gambling or Not Gambling?” USA Today, January 12, 2015; “The
FanDuel Scam,” The Daily Roto, December 19, 2014; D. Heitner, “Fantasy
Sports Service, FanDuel, Secures $11 Million Investment; Includes Money
from Comcast Ventures,” Forbes, January 30, 2013; www.fanduel.com,
www.draftkings.com, accessed July 17, 2015.
Questions
1. Describe how information technology is essential to FanDuel’s op­
erations.
2. Discuss the nontechnological problems that FanDuel faces.
3. Describe FanDuel’s information technology infrastructure. Now
discuss possible technological problems that FanDuel might face.

Introduction
Before we proceed, we need to define information technology and information systems. Infor­
mation technology (IT) refers to any computer-based tool that people use to work with infor­
mation and to support the information and information-processing needs of an organization.
An information system (IS) collects, processes, stores, analyzes, and disseminates informa­
tion for a specific purpose.
IT has far-reaching effects on individuals, organizations, and our planet. Although this text
is largely devoted to the many ways in which IT has transformed modern organizations, you
will also learn about the significant impacts of IT on individuals and societies, the global econ­
omy, and our physical environment. In addition, IT is making our world smaller, enabling more
 W h y Sh o u l d I Stu d y I nfo r m at io n S yste m s? 3

and more people to communicate, collaborate, and compete, thereby leveling the competitive
playing field.
When you graduate, you either will start your own business or you will work for an organi­
zation, whether it is public sector, private sector, for-profit, or not-for-profit. Your organization
will have to survive and compete in an environment that has been radically transformed by
information technology. This environment is global, massively interconnected, intensely com­
petitive, 24/7/365, real-time, rapidly changing, and information-intensive. To compete success­
fully, your organization must use IT effectively.
As you read this chapter and this text, keep in mind that the information technologies you
will learn about are important to businesses of all sizes. No matter what area of business you
major in, what industry you work for, or the size of your company, you will benefit from learning
about IT. Who knows? Maybe you will use the tools you learn about in this class to make your
great idea a reality by becoming an entrepreneur and starting your own business! In fact, as
you see in the chapter opening case and in chapter closing case 2, you can use information
technology to help you start your own business.
The modern environment is intensely competitive not only for your organization, but for
you as well. You must compete with human talent from around the world. Therefore, you will
also have to make effective use of IT.
Accordingly, this chapter begins with a discussion of why you should become knowledge­
able about IT. It also distinguishes among data, information, and knowledge, and it differenti­
ates computer-based information systems from application programs. Finally, it considers the
impacts of information systems on organizations and on society in general.

1.1 Why Should I Study Information Systems?

You are part of the most connected generation in history: You have grown up online; you are,
quite literally, never out of touch; you use more information technologies (in the form of digital
devices), for more tasks, and are bombarded with more information, than any generation in
history. The MIT Technology Review refers to you as Homo conexus. Information technologies
are so deeply embedded in your lives that your daily routines would be almost unrecognizable
to a college student just 20 years ago.
Essentially, you practice continuous computing, surrounded by a movable information
network. This network is created by constant cooperation between the digital devices you
carry (for example, laptops, tablets, and smartphones); the wired and wireless networks that
you access as you move about; and Web-based tools for finding information and communicat­
ing and collaborating with other people. Your network enables you to pull information about
virtually anything from anywhere, at any time, and to push your own ideas back to the Web,
from wherever you are, via a mobile device. Think of everything you do online, often with your
smart phone: register for classes; take classes (and not just at your university); access class syl­
labi, information, PowerPoints, and lectures; research class papers and presentations; conduct
banking; pay your bills; research, shop, and buy products from companies or other people; sell
your “stuff”; search for, and apply for, jobs; make your travel reservations (hotel, airline, rental
car); create your own blog and post your own podcasts and videocasts to it; design your own
page on Facebook; make and upload videos to YouTube; take, edit, and print your own digital
photographs; “burn” your own custom-music CDs and DVDs; use RSS feeds to create your per­
sonal electronic newspaper; text and tweet your friends and family throughout your day; send
Snaps; and many other activities. (Note: If any of these terms are unfamiliar to you, don’t worry.
You will learn about everything mentioned here in detail later in this text.)

The Informed User—You!

So, the question is: Why you should learn about information systems and information technol­
ogies? After all, you can comfortably use a computer (or other electronic devices) to perform
4 CH A PTER 1 Introduction to Information Systems

many activities, you have been surfing the Web for years, and you feel confident that you can
manage any IT application that your organization’s MIS department installs.
The answer lies in you becoming an informed user; that is, a person knowledgeable about
information systems and information technology. There are several reasons why you should be
an informed user.
MIS In general, informed users tend to get more value from whatever technologies they use.
You will enjoy many benefits from being an informed user of IT, including:

• You will benefit more from your organization’s IT applications because you will understand
what is “behind” those applications (see Figure 1.1). That is, what you see on your computer
screen is brought to you by your MIS department, who are operating “behind” your screen.
• You will be in a position to enhance the quality of your organization’s IT applications with
your input.
• Even as a new graduate, you will quickly be in a position to recommend—and perhaps help
select—the IT applications that your organization will use.
• Being an informed user will keep you abreast of both new information technologies and
rapid developments in existing technologies. Remaining “on top of things” will help you to
anticipate the impacts that “new and improved” technologies will have on your organiza­
tion and to make recommendations on the adoption and use of these technologies.
• You will understand how using IT can improve your organization’s performance and team­
work as well as your own productivity.
• If you have ideas of becoming an entrepreneur, then being an informed user will help you
use IT when you start your own business.

Going further, managing the IS function within an organization is no longer the exclusive
responsibility of the IS department. Rather, users now play key roles in every step of this pro­
cess. The overall objective in this text is to provide you with the necessary information to con­
tribute immediately to managing the IS function in your organization. In short, the goal is to
help you become a very informed user!

IT Offers Career Opportunities

MIS Because IT is vital to the operation of modern businesses, it offers many employment oppor­
tunities. The demand for traditional IT staff—programmers, business analysts, systems ana­
lysts, and designers—is substantial. In addition, many well-paid jobs exist in areas such as the
Internet and electronic commerce (e-commerce), mobile commerce (m-commerce), network
security, telecommunications, and multimedia design.

FIGURE 1.1 IT skills open many

doors because IT is so widely used.
 W h y Sh o u l d I Stu d y I nfo r m at io n S yste m s? 5

The IS field includes the people in various organizations who design and build information
systems, the people who use those systems, and the people responsible for managing those
systems. At the top of the list is the chief information officer (CIO).
The CIO is the executive who is in charge of the IS function. In most modern organizations,
the CIO works with the chief executive officer (CEO), the chief financial officer (CFO), and other
senior executives. Therefore, he or she actively participates in the organization’s strategic plan­
ning process. In today’s digital environment, the IS function has become increasingly strategic
within organizations. As a result, although most CIOs still rise from the IS department, a grow­
ing number are coming up through the ranks in the business units (e.g., marketing, finance).
Regardless of your major, you could become the CIO of your organization one day. This is
another reason to be an informed user of information systems!
Table 1.1 provides a list of IT jobs, along with a description of each one. For further details
about careers in IT, see www.computerworld.com/careertopics/careers and www.monster.com.
Career opportunities in IS are strong and are projected to remain strong over the next ten
years. In fact, the U.S. News & World Report listed its “25 best jobs of 2015,” Money listed its “best
jobs in America for 2015,” and Forbes listed its “10 best jobs” for 2015. Let’s take a look at these
rankings. (Note that the rankings differ because the magazines used different criteria in their

TA B LE 1 .1 Information Technology Jobs

Position Job Description

Chief Information Officer Highest-ranking IS manager; responsible for all strategic

planning in the organization
IS Director Manages all systems throughout the organization and the
day-to-day operations of the entire IS organization
Information Center Manager Manages IS services such as help desks, hot lines, train­
ing, and consulting
Applications Development Manager Coordinates and manages new systems development
projects
Project Manager Manages a particular new systems development project
Systems Manager Manages a particular existing system
Operations Manager Supervises the day-to-day operations of the data and/or
computer center
Programming Manager Coordinates all applications programming efforts
Systems Analyst Interfaces between users and programmers; determines
information requirements and technical specifications
for new applications
Business Analyst Focuses on designing solutions for business problems;
interfaces closely with users to demonstrate how IT can
be used innovatively
Systems Programmer Creates the computer code for developing new systems
software or maintaining existing systems software
Applications Programmer Creates the computer code for developing new applica­
tions or maintaining existing applications
Emerging Technologies Manager Forecasts technology trends; evaluates and experiments
with new technologies
Network Manager Coordinates and manages the organization’s voice and
data networks
Database Administrator Manages the organization’s databases and oversees the
use of database-management software
Auditing or Computer Security Manager Oversees the ethical and legal use of information systems
Webmaster Manages the organization’sWeb site
Web Designer Creates Web sites and pages
6 CH A PTER 1 Introduction to Information Systems

research.) As you can see, jobs suited for MIS majors rank extremely high in all three lists. The
magazines with their job rankings are as follows:

U.S. News & World Report (out of 25)

#3 Software Developer
#7 Computer System Analyst
#8 Information Security Analyst
#11 Web Developer
#21 IT Manager

Money
#1 Software Architect
#2 Video Game Designer
#8 Database Developer
#9 Information Assurance (Security) Analyst
#11 Clinical Applications Specialist (IT in healthcare)
#14 User Experience Designer
#17 IT Program Manager

Forbes (out of 10)

#8 Software Engineer
#10 Computer Systems Analyst

Not only do IS careers offer strong job growth, but the pay is excellent as well. The Bureau of
Labor Statistics, an agency within the Department of Labor that is responsible for tracking and
analyzing trends relating to the labor market, notes that the median salary in 2015 for “com­
puter and information systems managers” was approximately $130,000, and predicted that the
profession would grow by an average of 15 percent per year through 2022.

Managing Information Resources

Managing information systems in modern organizations is a difficult, complex task. Several fac­
tors contribute to this complexity. First, information systems have enormous strategic value
to organizations. Firms rely on them so heavily that, in some cases, when these systems are
not working (even for a short time), the firm cannot function. (This situation is called “being
hostage to information systems.”) Second, information systems are very expensive to acquire,
operate, and maintain.
A third factor contributing to the difficulty in managing information systems is the evo­
lution of the management information systems (MIS) function within the organization. When
businesses first began to use computers in the early 1950s, the MIS department “owned” the
only computing resource in the organization, the mainframe. At that time, end users did not
interact directly with the mainframe.
In contrast, in the modern organization, computers are located in all departments, and
almost all employees use computers in their work. This situation, known as end user com­
puting, has led to a partnership between the MIS department and the end users. The MIS
department now acts as more of a consultant to end users, viewing them as customers.
In fact, the main function of the MIS department is to use IT to solve end users’ business
problems.
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
century ago and exercise at least a limited discretion in casting their
votes. In a State like Nebraska, for instance, it looks as though it
would be possible that the electoral ticket on the anti-Republican
side would be composed of four Bryan and Watson men and four
Bryan and Sewall men. Now in the event of Bryan having more votes
than McKinley—that is, in the event of the country showing strong
Bedlamite tendencies next November—it might be that a split
between Sewall and Watson would give a plurality to Hobart, and in
such event it is hardly conceivable that some of the electors would
not exercise their discretion by changing their votes. If they did not,
we might then again see a return to the early and profoundly
interesting practice of our fathers and witness a President chosen by
one party and a Vice-President by the other.
I wish it to be distinctly understood, however, that these are merely
interesting speculations as to what might occur in a hopelessly
improbable contingency. I am a good American, with a profound
belief in my countrymen, and I have no idea that they will deliberately
lower themselves to a level beneath that of a South American
Republic, by voting for the farrago of sinister nonsense which the
Populistic-Democratic politicians at Chicago chose to set up as
embodying the principles of their party, and for the amiable and
windy demagogue who stands upon that platform. Many entirely
honest and intelligent men have been misled by the silver talk, and
have for the moment joined the ranks of the ignorant, the vicious and
the wrong-headed. These men of character and capacity are blinded
by their own misfortunes, or their own needs, or else they have
never fairly looked into the matter for themselves, being, like most
men, whether in “gold” or “silver” communities, content to follow the
opinion of those they are accustomed to trust. After full and fair
inquiry these men, I am sure, whether they live in Maine, in
Tennessee, or in Oregon, will come out on the side of honest money.
The shiftless and vicious and the honest but hopelessly ignorant and
puzzle-headed voters cannot be reached; but the average farmer,
the average business man, the average workman—in short, the
average American—will always stand up for honesty and decency
when he can once satisfy himself as to the side on which they are to
be found.
 FOOTNOTES:
[17] Review of Reviews, September, 1896.
 X
HOW NOT TO HELP OUR POORER BROTHER[18]

After the publication of my article in the September Review of

Reviews on the vice-presidential candidates, I received the following
very manly, and very courteous, letter from the Honorable Thomas
Watson, then the candidate with Mr. Bryan on the Populist ticket for
Vice-President. I publish it with his permission:
Hon. Theodore Roosevelt:
It pains me to be misunderstood by those whose good
opinion I respect, and upon reading your trenchant article in
the September number of the Review of Reviews the impulse
was strong to write to you.
When you take your stand for honester government and for
juster laws in New York, as you have so courageously done,
your motives must be the same as mine—for you do not need
the money your office gives you. I can understand,
instinctively, what you feel—what your motives are. You
merely obey a law of your nature which puts you into mortal
combat with what you think is wrong. You fight because your
own sense of self-respect and self-loyalty compels you to
fight. Is not this so?
If in Georgia and throughout the South we have conditions
as intolerable as those that surround you in New York, can
you not realize why I make war upon them?
 Tammany itself has grown great because mistaken leaders
of the southern Democracy catered to its Kellys and Crokers
and feared to defy them.
The first “roast” I ever got from the Democratic press of this
State followed a speech I had made denouncing Tammany,
and denouncing the craven leaders who obeyed Tammany.
It is astonishing how one honest man may honestly
misjudge another.
My creed does not lead me to dislike the men who run a
bank, a factory, a railroad or a foundry. I do not hate a man for
owning a bond, and having a bank account, or having cash
loaned at interest.
Upon the other hand, I think each should make all the profit
in business he fairly can; but I do believe that the banks
should not exercise the sovereign power of issuing money,
and I do believe that all special privileges granted, and all
exemption from taxation, work infinite harm. I do believe that
the wealth of the Republic is practically free from federal
taxation, and that the burdens of government fall upon the
shoulders of those least able to bear them.
If you could spend an evening with me among my books
and amid my family, I feel quite sure you would not again
class me with those who make war upon the “decencies and
elegancies of civilized life.” And if you could attend one of my
great political meetings in Georgia, and see the good men
and good women who believe in Populism, you would not
continue to class them with those who vote for candidates
upon the “no undershirt” platform.
In other words, if you understood me and mine your
judgment of us would be different.
The “cracker” of the South is simply the man who did not
buy slaves to do his work. He did it all himself—like a man.
Some of our best generals in war, and magistrates in peace,
have come from the “cracker” class. As a matter of fact,
 however, my own people, from my father back to
Revolutionary times, were slave owners and land owners. In
the first meeting held in Georgia to express sympathy with the
Boston patriots my great-great-grandfather bore a prominent
part, and in the first State legislature ever convened in
Georgia one of my ancestors was the representative of his
county.
My grandfather was wealthy, and so was my father. My
boyhood was spent in the idleness of a rich man’s son. It was
not till I was in my teens that misfortune overtook us, sent us
homeless into the world, and deprived me of the thorough
collegiate training my father intended for me.
At sixteen years of age I thus had to commence life
moneyless, and the weary years I spent among the poor, the
kindness I received in their homes, and the acquaintance I
made with the hardship of their lives, gave me that profound
sympathy for them which I yet retain—though I am no longer
poor myself.
Pardon the liberty I take in intruding this letter upon you. I
have followed your work in New York with admiring sympathy,
and have frequently written of it in my paper. While hundreds
of miles separate us, and our tasks and methods have been
widely different, I must still believe that we have much in
common, and that the ruling force which actuates us both is to
challenge wrong and to fight the battles of good government.
Very respectfully yours,
(Signed) Thos. E. Watson.
Thompson, Ga., August, 30, 1896.
I intended to draw a very sharp line between Mr. Watson and
many of those associated with him in the same movement; and
certain of the sentences which he quotes as if they were meant to
apply to him were, on the contrary, meant to apply generally to the
agitators who proclaimed both him and Mr. Bryan as their
champions, and especially to many of the men who were running on
the Populist tickets in different States. To Mr. Watson’s own sincerity
and courage I thought I had paid full tribute, and if I failed in any way
I wish to make good that failure. I was in Washington when Mr.
Watson was in Congress, and I know how highly he was esteemed
personally by his colleagues, even by those differing very widely
from him in matters of principle. The staunchest friends of order and
decent government fully and cordially recognized Mr. Watson’s
honesty and good faith—men, for instance, like Senator Lodge of
Massachusetts, and Representative Bellamy Storer of Ohio.
Moreover, I sympathize as little as Mr. Watson with denunciation of
the “cracker,” and I may mention that one of my forefathers was the
first Revolutionary Governor of Georgia at the time that Mr. Watson’s
ancestor sat in the first Revolutionary legislature of the State. Mr.
Watson himself embodies not a few of the very attributes the lack of
which we feel so keenly in many of our public men. He is brave, he is
earnest, he is honest, he is disinterested. For many of the wrongs
which he wishes to remedy, I, too, believe that a remedy can be
found, and for this purpose I would gladly strike hands with him. All
this makes it a matter of the keenest regret that he should advocate
certain remedies that we deem even worse than the wrongs
complained of, and should strive in darkling ways to correct other
wrongs, or rather inequalities and sufferings, which exist, not
because of the shortcomings of society, but because of the existence
of human nature itself.
There are plenty of ugly things about wealth and its possessors in
the present age, and I suppose there have been in all ages. There
are many rich people who so utterly lack patriotism, or show such
sordid and selfish traits of character, or lead such mean and vacuous
lives, that all right-minded men must look upon them with angry
contempt; but, on the whole, the thrifty are apt to be better citizens
than the thriftless; and the worst capitalist cannot harm laboring men
as they are harmed by demagogues. As the people of a State grow
more and more intelligent the State itself may be able to play a larger
and larger part in the life of the community, while at the same time
individual effort may be given freer and less restricted movement
along certain lines; but it is utterly unsafe to give the State more than
the minimum of power just so long as it contains masses of men who
can be moved by the pleas and denunciations of the average
Socialist leader of to-day. There may be better schemes of taxation
than those at present employed; it may be wise to devise inheritance
taxes, and to impose regulations on the kinds of business which can
be carried on only under the especial protection of the State; and
where there is a real abuse by wealth it needs to be, and in this
country generally has been, promptly done away with; but the first
lesson to teach the poor man is that, as a whole, the wealth in the
community is distinctly beneficial to him; that he is better off in the
long run because other men are well off; and that the surest way to
destroy what measure of prosperity he may have is to paralyze
industry and the well-being of those men who have achieved
success.
I am not an empiricist; I would no more deny that sometimes
human affairs can be much bettered by legislation than I would affirm
that they can always be so bettered. I would no more make a fetish
of unrestricted individualism than I would admit the power of the
State offhand and radically to reconstruct society. It may become
necessary to interfere even more than we have done with the right of
private contract, and to shackle cunning as we have shackled force.
All I insist upon is that we must be sure of our ground before trying to
get any legislation at all, and that we must not expect too much from
this legislation, nor refuse to better ourselves a little because we
cannot accomplish everything at a jump. Above all, it is criminal to
excite anger and discontent without proposing a remedy, or only
proposing a false remedy. The worst foe of the poor man is the labor
leader, whether philanthropist or politician, who tries to teach him
that he is a victim of conspiracy and injustice, when in reality he is
merely working out his fate with blood and sweat as the immense
majority of men who are worthy of the name always have done and
always will have to do.
The difference between what can and what cannot be done by law
is well exemplified by our experience with the negro problem, an
experience of which Mr. Watson must have ample practical
knowledge. The negroes were formerly held in slavery. This was a
wrong which legislation could remedy, and which could not be
remedied except by legislation. Accordingly they were set free by
law. This having been done, many of their friends believed that in
some way, by additional legislation, we could at once put them on an
intellectual, social, and business equality with the whites. The effort
has failed completely. In large sections of the country the negroes
are not treated as they should be treated, and politically in particular
the frauds upon them have been so gross and shameful as to
awaken not merely indignation but bitter wrath; yet the best friends of
the negro admit that his hope lies, not in legislation, but in the
constant working of those often unseen forces of the national life
which are greater than all legislation.
It is but rarely that great advances in general social well-being can
be made by the adoption of some far-reaching scheme, legislative or
otherwise; normally they come only by gradual growth, and by
incessant effort to do first one thing, then another, and then another.
Quack remedies of the universal cure-all type are generally as
noxious to the body politic as to the body corporal.
Often the head-in-the-air social reformers, because people of sane
and wholesome minds will not favor their wild schemes, themselves
decline to favor schemes for practical reform. For the last two years
there has been an honest effort in New York to give the city good
government, and to work intelligently for better social conditions,
especially in the poorest quarters. We have cleaned the streets; we
have broken the power of the ward boss and the saloon-keeper to
work injustice; we have destroyed the most hideous of the tenement
houses in which poor people are huddled like swine in a sty; we
have made parks and play-grounds for the children in the crowded
quarters; in every possible way we have striven to make life easier
and healthier, and to give man and woman a chance to do their best
work; while at the same time we have warred steadily against the
pauper-producing, maudlin philanthropy of the free soup-kitchen and
tramp lodging-house kind. In all this we have had practically no help
from either the parlor socialists or the scarcely more noxious beer-
room socialists who are always howling about the selfishness of the
rich and their unwillingness to do anything for those who are less
well off.
 There are certain labor unions, certain bodies of organized labor—
notably those admirable organizations which include the railway
conductors, the locomotive engineers and the firemen—which to my
mind embody almost the best hope that there is for healthy national
growth in the future; but bitter experience has taught men who work
for reform in New York that the average labor leader, the average
demagogue who shouts for a depreciated currency, or for the
overthrow of the rich, will not do anything to help those who honestly
strive to make better our civic conditions. There are immense
numbers of workingmen to whom we can appeal with perfect
confidence; but too often we find that a large proportion of the men
who style themselves leaders of organized labor are influenced only
by sullen short-sighted hatred of what they do not understand, and
are deaf to all appeals, whether to their national or to their civic
patriotism.
What I most grudge in all this is the fact that sincere and zealous
men of high character and honest purpose, men like Mr. Watson,
men and women such as those he describes as attending his
Populist meetings, or such as are to be found in all strata of our
society, from the employer to the hardest-worked day laborer, go
astray in their methods, and are thereby prevented from doing the
full work for good they ought to. When a man goes on the wrong
road himself he can do very little to guide others aright, even though
these others are also on the wrong road. There are many wrongs to
be righted; there are many measures of relief to be pushed; and it is
a pity that when we are fighting what is bad and championing what is
good, the men who ought to be our most effective allies should
deprive themselves of usefulness by the wrong-headedness of their
position. Rich men and poor men both do wrong on occasions, and
whenever a specific instance of this can be pointed out all citizens
alike should join in punishing the wrong-doer. Honesty and right-
mindedness should be the tests; not wealth or poverty.
In our municipal administration here in New York we have acted
with an equal hand toward wrong-doers of high and low degree. The
Board of Health condemns the tenement-house property of the rich
landowner, whether this landowner be priest or layman, banker or
railroad president, lawyer or manager of a real estate business; and
it pays no heed to the intercession of any politician, whether this
politician be Catholic or Protestant, Jew or Gentile. At the same time
the Police Department promptly suppresses, not only the criminal,
but the rioter. In other words, we do strict justice. We feel we are
defrauded of help to which we are entitled when men who ought to
assist in any work to better the condition of the people decline to aid
us because their brains are turned by dreams only worthy of a
European revolutionist.
Many workingmen look with distrust upon laws which really would
help them; laws for the intelligent restriction of immigration, for
instance. I have no sympathy with mere dislike of immigrants; there
are classes and even nationalities of them which stand at least on an
equality with the citizens of native birth, as the last election showed.
But in the interest of our workingmen we must in the end keep out
laborers who are ignorant, vicious, and with low standards of life and
comfort, just as we have shut out the Chinese.
Often labor leaders and the like denounce the present conditions
of society, and especially of our political life, for shortcomings which
they themselves have been instrumental in causing. In our cities the
misgovernment is due, not to the misdeeds of the rich, but to the low
standard of honesty and morality among citizens generally; and
nothing helps the corrupt politician more than substituting either
wealth or poverty for honesty as the standard by which to try a
candidate. A few months ago a socialistic reformer in New York was
denouncing the corruption caused by rich men because a certain
judge was suspected of giving information in advance as to a
decision in a case involving the interests of a great corporation. Now
this judge had been elected some years previously, mainly because
he was supposed to be a representative of the “poor man”; and the
socialistic reformer himself, a year ago, was opposing the election of
Mr. Beaman as judge because he was one of the firm of Evarts &
Choate, who were friends of various millionaires and were counsel
for various corporations. But if Mr. Beaman had been elected judge
no human being, rich or poor, would have dared so much as hint at
his doing anything improper.
 Something can be done by good laws; more can be done by
honest administration of the laws; but most of all can be done by
frowning resolutely upon the preachers of vague discontent; and by
upholding the true doctrine of self-reliance, self-help, and self-
mastery. This doctrine sets forth many things. Among them is the
fact that though a man can occasionally be helped when he
stumbles, yet that it is useless to try to carry him when he will not or
cannot walk; and worse than useless to try to bring down the work
and reward of the thrifty and intelligent to the level of the capacity of
the weak, the shiftless, and the idle. It further shows that the maudlin
philanthropist and the maudlin sentimentalist are almost as noxious
as the demagogue, and that it is even more necessary to temper
mercy with justice than justice with mercy.
The worst lesson that can be taught a man is to rely upon others
and to whine over his sufferings. If an American is to amount to
anything he must rely upon himself, and not upon the State; he must
take pride in his own work, instead of sitting idle to envy the luck of
others; he must face life with resolute courage, win victory if he can,
and accept defeat if he must, without seeking to place on his fellow-
men a responsibility which is not theirs.
Let me say in conclusion, that I do not write in the least from the
standpoint of those whose association is purely with what are called
the wealthy classes. The men with whom I have worked and
associated most closely during the last couple of years here in New
York, with whom I have shared what is at least an earnest desire to
better social and civic conditions (neither blinking what is evil nor
being misled by the apostles of a false remedy), and with whose
opinions as to what is right and practical my own in the main agree,
are not capitalists, save as all men who by toil earn, and with
prudence save, money are capitalists. They include reporters on the
daily papers, editors of magazines, as well as of newspapers,
principals in the public schools, young lawyers, young architects,
young doctors, young men of business, who are struggling to rise in
their profession by dint of faithful work, but who give some of their
time to doing what they can for the city, and a number of priests and
clergymen; but as it happens the list does not include any man of
great wealth, or any of those men whose names are in the public
mind identified with great business corporations. Most of them have
at one time or another in their lives faced poverty and know what it
is; none of them are more than well-to-do. They include Catholics
and Protestants, Jews, and men who would be regarded as
heterodox by professors of most recognized creeds; some of them
were born on this side, others are of foreign birth; but they are all
Americans, heart and soul, who fight out for themselves the battles
of their own lives, meeting sometimes defeat and sometimes victory.
They neither forget that man does owe a duty to his fellows, and
should strive to do what he can to increase the well-being of the
community; nor yet do they forget that in the long run the only way to
help people is to make them help themselves. They are prepared to
try any properly guarded legislative remedy for ills which they believe
can be remedied; but they perceive clearly that it is both foolish and
wicked to teach the average man who is not well off that some wrong
or injustice has been done him, and that he should hope for redress
elsewhere than in his own industry, honesty, and intelligence.

FOOTNOTES:
[18] Review of Reviews, January, 1897.
 XI
THE MONROE DOCTRINE[19]

The Monroe Doctrine should not be considered from any purely

academic standpoint, but as a broad, general principle of living
policy. It is to be justified not by precedent merely, but by the needs
of the nation and the true interests of Western civilization. It, of
course, adds strength to our position at this moment to show that the
action of the national authorities is warranted by the actions of their
predecessors on like occasions in time past, and that the line of
policy we are now pursuing is that which has been pursued by all our
statesmen of note since the republic grew sufficiently powerful to
make what it said of weight in foreign affairs. But even if in time past
we had been as blind to the national honor and welfare as are the
men who at the present day champion the anti-American side of the
Venezuelan question, it would now be necessary for statesmen who
were both far-sighted and patriotic to enunciate the principles for
which the Monroe Doctrine stands. In other words, if the Monroe
Doctrine did not already exist it would be necessary forthwith to
create it.
Let us first of all clear the question at issue by brushing away one
or two false objections. Lord Salisbury at first put in emphatic words
his refusal in any way to recognize the Monroe Doctrine as part of
the law of nations or as binding upon Great Britain. Most British
statesmen and publicists followed his lead; but recently a goodly
number have shown an inclination to acquiesce in the views of Lord
Salisbury’s colleague, Mr. Chamberlain, who announces, with bland
indifference to the expressed opinion of his nominal chief, that
England does recognize the existence of the Monroe Doctrine and
never thought of ignoring it. Lord Salisbury himself has recently
shown symptoms of changing ground and taking this position; while
Mr. Balfour has gone still farther in the right direction, and the Liberal
leaders farther yet. It is not very important to us how far Lord
Salisbury and Mr. Chamberlain may diverge in their views, although,
of course, in the interests of the English-speaking peoples and of
peace between England and the United States, we trust that Mr.
Chamberlain’s position will be sustained by Great Britain. But the
attitude of our own people is important, and it would be amusing,
were it not unpleasant, to see that many Americans, whose
Americanism is of the timid and flabby type, have been inclined
eagerly to agree with Lord Salisbury. A very able member of the New
York bar remarked the other day that he had not yet met the lawyer
who agreed with Secretary Olney as to the legal interpretation of the
Monroe Doctrine. This remark was chiefly interesting as showing the
lawyer’s own limitations. It would not have been made if he had met
the Justices of the Supreme Court, for instance; but even on the
unfounded supposition that his remark was well grounded, it would
have had little more significance than if he had said that he had not
yet met a dentist who agreed with Mr. Olney. The Monroe Doctrine is
not a question of law at all. It is a question of policy. It is a question
to be considered not only by statesmen, but by all good citizens.
Lawyers, as lawyers, have absolutely nothing whatever to say about
it. To argue that it cannot be recognized as a principle of international
law, is a mere waste of breath. Nobody cares whether it is or is not
so recognized, any more than any one cares whether the
Declaration of Independence and Washington’s farewell address are
so recognized.
The Monroe Doctrine may be briefly defined as forbidding
European encroachment on American soil. It is not desirable to
define it so rigidly as to prevent our taking into account the varying
degrees of national interest in varying cases. The United States has
not the slightest wish to establish a universal protectorate over other
American States, or to become responsible for their misdeeds. If one
of them becomes involved in an ordinary quarrel with a European
power, such quarrel must be settled between them by any one of the
usual methods. But no European State is to be allowed to
aggrandize itself on American soil at the expense of any American
State. Furthermore, no transfer of an American colony from one
European State to another is to be permitted, if, in the judgment of
the United States, such transfer would be hostile to its own interests.
John Quincy Adams, who, during the presidency of Monroe, first
clearly enunciated the doctrine which bears his chief’s name,
asserted it as against both Spain and Russia. In the clearest and
most emphatic terms he stated that the United States could not
acquiesce in the acquisition of new territory within the limits of any
independent American State, whether in the Northern or Southern
Hemisphere, by any European power. He took this position against
Russia when Russia threatened to take possession of what is now
Oregon. He took this position as against Spain when, backed by
other powers of Continental Europe, she threatened to reconquer
certain of the Spanish-American States.
This is precisely and exactly the position the United States has
now taken in reference to England and Venezuela. It is idle to
contend that there is any serious difference in the application of the
doctrine to the two sets of questions. An American may, of course,
announce his opposition to the Monroe Doctrine, although by so
doing he forfeits all title to far-seeing and patriotic devotion to the
interests of his country. But he cannot argue that the Monroe
Doctrine does not apply to the present case, unless he argues that
the Monroe Doctrine has no existence whatsoever. In fact, such
arguments are, on their face, so absurd that they need no refutation,
and can be relegated where they belong—to the realm of the hair-
splitting schoolmen. They have no concern either for practical
politicians or for historians with true historic insight.
We have asserted the principles which underlie the Monroe
Doctrine, not only against Russia and Spain, but also against
France, on at least two different occasions. The last and most
important was when the French conquered Mexico and made it into
an Empire. It is not necessary to recall to any one the action of our
Government in the matter as soon as the Civil War came to an end.
Suffice it to say that, under threat of our interposition, the French
promptly abandoned Maximilian, and the latter’s Empire fell. Long
before this, however, and a score of years before the Doctrine was
christened by the name Monroe even the timid statesmen of the
Jeffersonian era embodied its principle in their protest against the
acquisition of Louisiana, by France, from Spain. Spain at that time
held all of what is now the Great West. France wished to acquire it.
Our statesmen at once announced that they would regard as hostile
to America the transfer of the territory in question from a weak to a
strong European power. Under the American pressure the matter
was finally settled by the sale of the territory in question to the United
States. The principle which our statesmen then announced was in
kind precisely the same as that upon which we should now act if
Germany sought to acquire Cuba from Spain, or St. Thomas from
the Danes. In either of these events it is hardly conceivable that the
United States would hesitate to interfere, if necessary, by force of
arms; and in so doing the national authorities would undoubtedly be
supported by the immense majority of the American people, and,
indeed, by all save the men of abnormal timidity or abnormal political
short-sightedness.
Historically, therefore, the position of our representatives in the
Venezuelan question is completely justified. It cannot be attacked on
academic grounds. The propriety of their position is even more easily
defensible.
Primarily, our action is based on national self-interest. In other
words, it is patriotic. A certain limited number of persons are fond of
decrying patriotism as a selfish virtue, and strive with all their feeble
might to inculcate in its place a kind of milk-and-water
cosmopolitanism. These good people are never men of robust
character or of imposing personality, and the plea itself is not worth
considering. Some reformers may urge that in the ages’ distant
future patriotism, like the habit of monogamous marriage, will
become a needless and obsolete virtue; but just at present the man
who loves other countries as much as he does his own is quite as
noxious a member of society as the man who loves other women as
much as he loves his wife. Love of country is an elemental virtue,
like love of home, or like honesty or courage. No country will
accomplish very much for the world at large unless it elevates itself.
The useful member of a community is the man who first and
foremost attends to his own rights and his own duties, and who
therefore becomes better fitted to do his share in the common duties
of all. The useful member of the brotherhood of nations is that nation
which is most thoroughly saturated with the national idea, and which
realizes most fully its rights as a nation and its duties to its own
citizens. This is in no way incompatible with a scrupulous regard for
the rights of other nations, or a desire to remedy the wrongs of
suffering peoples.
The United States ought not to permit any great military powers,
which have no foothold on this continent, to establish such foothold;
nor should they permit any aggrandizement of those who already
have possessions on the continent. We do not wish to bring
ourselves to a position where we shall have to emulate the European
system of enormous armies. Every true patriot, every man of
statesman-like habit, should look forward to the day when not a
single European power will hold a foot of American soil. At present it
is not necessary to take the position that no European power shall
hold American territory; but it certainly will become necessary, if the
timid and selfish “peace at any price” men have their way, and if the
United States fails to check at the outset European aggrandizement
on this continent.
Primarily, therefore, it is to the interest of the citizens of the United
States to prevent the further colonial growth of European powers in
the Western Hemisphere. But this is also to the interest of all the
people of the Western Hemisphere. At best, the inhabitants of a
colony are in a cramped and unnatural state. At the worst, the
establishment of a colony prevents any healthy popular growth.
Some time in the dim future it may be that all the English-speaking
peoples will be able to unite in some kind of confederacy. However
desirable this would be, it is, under existing conditions, only a dream.
At present the only hope for a colony that wishes to attain full moral
and mental growth, is to become an independent State, or part of an
independent State. No English colony now stands on a footing of
genuine equality with the parent State. As long as the Canadian
remains a colonist, he remains in a position which is distinctly inferior
to that of his cousins, both in England and in the United States. The
Englishman at bottom looks down on the Canadian, as he does on
any one who admits his inferiority, and quite properly, too. The
American, on the other hand, with equal propriety, regards the
Canadian with the good-natured condescension always felt by the
freeman for the man who is not free. A funny instance of the English
attitude toward Canada was shown after Lord Dunraven’s inglorious
fiasco last September, when the Canadian yachtsman, Rose,
challenged for the America cup. The English journals repudiated him
on the express ground that a Canadian was not an Englishman and
not entitled to the privileges of an Englishman. In their comments,
many of them showed a dislike for Americans which almost rose to
hatred. The feeling they displayed for the Canadians was not one of
dislike. It was one of contempt.
Under the best of circumstances, therefore, a colony is in a false
position. But if the colony is in a region where the colonizing race
has to do its work by means of other inferior races the condition is
much worse. From the standpoint of the race little or nothing has
been gained by the English conquest and colonization of Jamaica.
Jamaica has merely been turned into a negro island, with a future,
seemingly, much like that of San Domingo. British Guiana, however
well administered, is nothing but a colony where a few hundred or
few thousand white men hold the superior positions, while the bulk of
the population is composed of Indians, Negroes, and Asiatics.
Looked at through the vista of the centuries, such a colony contains
less promise of true growth than does a State like Venezuela or
Ecuador. The history of most of the South American republics has
been both mean and bloody; but there is at least a chance that they
may develop, after infinite tribulations and suffering, into a civilization
quite as high and stable as that of such a European power as
Portugal. But there is no such chance for any tropical American
colony owned by a Northern European race. It is distinctly in the
interest of civilization that the present States in the two Americas
should develop along their own lines, and however desirable it is that
many of them should receive European immigration, it is highly
undesirable that any of them should be under European control.
So much for the general principles, and the justification, historically
and morally, of the Monroe Doctrine. Now take the specific case at
issue. Great Britain has a boundary dispute with Venezuela. She
claims as her own a territory which Venezuela asserts to be hers, a
territory which in point of size very nearly equals the Kingdom of
Italy. Our government, of course, cannot, if it wishes to remain true to
the traditions of the Monroe Doctrine submit to the acquisition by
England of such an enormous tract of territory, and it must therefore
find out whether the English claims are or are not well founded. It
would, of course, be preposterous to lay down the rule that no
European power should seize American territory which was not its
own, and yet to permit the power itself to decide the question of the
ownership of such territory. Great Britain refused to settle the
question either by amicable agreement with Venezuela or by
arbitration. All that remained for the United States, was to do what it
actually did; that is, to try to find out the facts for itself, by its own
commission. If the facts show England to be in the right, well and
good. If they show England to be in the wrong, we most certainly
ought not to permit her to profit, at Venezuela’s expense, by her own
wrong-doing.
We are doing exactly what England would very properly do in a
like case. Recently, when the German Emperor started to interfere in
the Transvaal, England promptly declared her own “Monroe
Doctrine” for South Africa. We do not propose to see English
filibusters try at the expense of Venezuela the same policy which
recently came to such an ignominious end in the Transvaal, in a
piece of weak, would-be buccaneering, which, it is perhaps not unfair
to say was fittingly commemorated in the verse of the new poet-
laureate.
It would be difficult to overestimate the good done in this country
by the vigorous course already taken by the national executive and
legislature in this matter. The lesson taught Lord Salisbury is one
which will not soon be forgotten by English statesmen. His position is
false, and is recognized as false by the best English statesmen and
publicists. If he does not consent to arrange the matter with
Venezuela, it will have to be arranged in some way by arbitration. In
either case, the United States gains its point. The only possible
danger of war comes from the action of the selfish and timid men on
this side of the water, who clamorously strive to misrepresent
American, and to mislead English, public opinion. If they succeed in
persuading Lord Salisbury that the American people will back down if
he presses them, they will do the greatest damage possible to both
countries, for they will render war, at some time in the future, almost
inevitable.
Such a war we would deplore; but it must be distinctly understood
that we would deplore it very much more for England’s sake than for
our own; for whatever might be the initial fortunes of the struggle, or
the temporary damage and loss to the United States, the mere fact
that Canada would inevitably be rent from England in the end would
make the outcome an English disaster.
We do not in any way seek to become the sponsor of the South
American States. England has the same right to protect her own
subjects, or even in exceptional cases to interfere to stop outrages in
South America, that we have to interfere in Armenia—and it is to be
regretted that our representatives do not see their way clear to
interfere for Armenia. But England should not acquire territory at the
expense of Venezuela any more than we should acquire it at the
expense of Turkey.
The mention of Armenia brings up a peculiarly hypocritical plea
which has been advanced against us in this controversy. It has been
solemnly alleged that our action in Venezuela has hampered
England in the East and has prevented her interfering on behalf of
Armenia. We do not wish to indulge in recriminations, but when such
a plea is advanced, the truth, however unpleasant, must be told. The
great crime of this century against civilization has been the upholding
of the Turk by certain Christian powers. To England’s attitude in the
Crimean War, and after the Russo-Turkish War of 1877, the present
Armenian horror is primarily due. Moreover, for six months before the
Venezuelan question arose England had looked on motionless while