Review of
Mass Rule Government
by Thomas L. Brunk
Joseph Dana Miller
[Reprinted from Land and Freedom,
January-February 1929]
Our readers know Dr. Brunk. They know how indefatigably he has
investigated the little known facts regarding land ownership in
America, and with what effectiveness he has marshalled the often
disgraceful revelations affecting the Fathers of the American
Revolution. So, knowing his temper and his skill as well as his
courage, they will be glad to welcome this new volume from his pen, a
forcibly written book instinct with passionate hatred of injustice.
Some of his sentences are arresting, such as "Property in land
has been the source of five sixths of our law and nearly all our law
suits." " Feudal ownership of fertile or valuable lands has
been at the root of all War and War preparation."
Under the heading, "The World a Single Economic Organism"
the author tells us of the natural forces of justice, and he exults: "Take
courage, brother. Nature is on your side. It is the foe of all the
bubbles and frailties of man." And when he musters his array of
facts that are to determine the final struggle whether there shall be
a Wealth or Labor domination he does it in a way singularly
impressive. It is a note of hope he sounds in these 260 pages.
It is nothing less than a new constitution that Dr. Brunk proposes.
He has worked on the details with great care, dividing the United
States into 12 provinces in place of 48 states, which would admit of
the abolition of a multiplicity of laws as well as the laws that
conflict. What he says of the Precinct Unit, which he calls the "basis
of Mass Government," would take more space for its consideration
than can be given to it here.
There is perhaps too great a tendency to provide for too many things,
a fault of nearly every writer who has hitherto attempted to create a
Utopia. Dr. Brunk. however, does not belong to this school; he would
reduce government to the minimum, and whatever is necessary to be done
by the community in its corporate capacity he would bring close to the
people.
We would not without further consideration reject all the
multiplicity of suggestions Dr. Brunk has set down. No blanket verdict
is possible with reference to a book such as this. It is something to
be studied and argued about not to be dismissed in a column book
review.
Dr. Brunk is a thinker. He knows his economics and he has made some
important contributions, as we have indicated, to the history of land
ownership. When he sets himself to establish a new political
commonwealth he is not to be disregarded as attempting too colossal a
task.
Nevertheless, it may be permitted us to say that the mistake, it
seems to us, is that our author gives to government an importance it
does not merit. Laws and constitutions become innocuous as soon as
popular tendencies assert themselves strongly; either they are
modified or lapse into disuse. And economic conditions act upon
political forms, so that their character seems after all of minor
consequence.
But it is because of the difficulty of dealing adequately with a work
of this kind in the space permitted us that we urge our readers to
send to Dr. Brunk, Alton, 111., or to his publishers, for a copy of
the work.
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