Thorstein Veblen "OPEN COVENANTS OPENLY ARRIVED AT" THE DIAL. A FORTNIGHTLY VOL. LXVII (July 12 to November 29, 1919) July 12, 1919, pp. 25-26. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [25] The Old Order and the New OPEN COVENANTS OPENLY ARRIVED AT was the heroic challenge which the President once, in a moment of exaltation, threw in' the face of the Elder Statesmen. But it is already a matter of common notoriety how the President's proud words have gone whistling down the winds, while the Elder Statesmen have continued to follow their own devious devices. With jealous care the conclave of Elder Statesmen representing the Great Powers have guarded the secrecy of their deliberations while they have been arranging the world's peace on the good old plan. The Elder Statesmen have been at pains to give out no "information which might be useful to the enemy"; that is to say, to the underlying population of these Great Powers. And among these Great Powers of the secret conclave America is neither last nor least; quite the contrary in fact. Nor is information withheld less carefully from the underlying population of democratic America than from the unfree populace of Europe. "Open covenants openly arrived at" has gone into abeyance. This outcome of course marks a defeat of democratic ideals. That it does so may be fortunate or otherwise, but the fact of this defeat should not be overlooked. The fact is to be taken as marking an advance, or at least a conclusive change, in the guiding principles of statesmanship. Democratic methods are no longer safe if they ever have been. They will no longer serve the uses of statesmanship. The underlying population is no longer a party in interest in national policy or in international negotiations, in such fashion as would warrant consulting their notions of what should be done. Circumstances have taken such a turn that each of these civilized nations is now divided within itself, in such a way that the national administration now represents an oligarchy and speaks for a group of interests, rather than for an undivided people at large. This follows unavoidably from the existing economic order, which is built on a division of interests, between the kept classes and the common man. And the events of the past few years have forced this truth upon the conviction of the statesmen, and not least convincingly upon the democratic statesman of America. They have been brought to realize that their avowed ideals of democratic rule and popular discussion are hopelessly out of date, that the situation which faces them can no longer be handled by democratic methods, that an ever-widening cleavage of interest has arisen within each of the nations between the vested interests and the underlying population, and that it is the part of the statesman unreservedly to range himself on the side of law and order that is to say, on the side of the vested interests. This conclusion follows because, in the nature of the case, the party of the vested interests is always the party of law and order. Law and order means that legal order which safeguards the established rights of privilege and property. Such being the situation, the underlying population is plainly not to be trusted with a free run of information on public affairs. In effect, the people at large, in these nominally democratic nations, are falling into the position of a subject population; something in the way of body of alien enemies, to be used, humored, and "kept in hand." There is, for instance, a highly instructive resemblance between the American legislation, late and prospective, designed for the control of American citizens on the one hand, and the notorious Rowlatt Acts by which the gentlemanly British administration is endeavoring to keep their Indian subjects "in hand." Both the Indians and the Americans are to be kept in hand for their own good, no doubt, but more immediately and more obviously for the good of the vested interests of business and office-holding. Therefore, placed in this precarious posture, facing a distrustful underlying population, it has become the first care of these Elder Statesmen in all their deliberations to give out no information which might become useful to the enemy. This strategic secrecy of peacemaking conclave is presumptive evidence that in the apprehension to these Elder Statesmen the interests which have been guiding their deliberations do not at any substantial point coincide with those interests which the underlying population have at heart. The underlying population want peace and industry; the Elder Statesmen have negotiated an arrangement for safeguarding the vested interests of privilege and property by force of arms. These two lines of interests are out of touch; and they may prove to be incompatible. So the shrewd Elder Statesmen have consumed half a year in carrying out a strategic disposition of their forces under cover of night and cloud, with a view to safeguarding the status quo; and so the underlying populations now face a state of fait accompli, whereby the resources of these several nations are already committed to an international enterprise in defense of the vested interests, all and several, at the cost of underlying populations. Behind the smoke-screen of the seven censors and the Associated Prevarication bureaus, that much is visible now. But the question remains, Why has that high-hearted crusade [26] which set out to make the world safe for democracy by open covenant openly arrived at come to this inglorious end behind the smoke-screen? The answer appears to be covered by this golden text: Bolshevism is a menace to the vested interests of privilege and property. There need be no question as to the utter good faith of that crusade for democracy and open covenants; no more than there is a question as to its utter defeat. Nor need there be a question as to the paramount responsibility of America's spokesman for this outcome of the peace-making conclave. No single one of the powers and no coalition of powers has been in a position to make a substantial move at any point in these negotiations without the paramount consent and advice of America's spokesman. Without America's backing the "high contracting parties" are practically bankrupt, all and several; and apart from America's spokesman no two of them could reasonably trust one another out of sight. So that what this conclave of Elder Statesmen has achieved and what it has committed itself to is, in effect, his achievement and his commitment. ------------------------------------------------------------------------