purpose. Thus always it is a means, never an end: its value lies in
serving its purpose--the end of human life. So the whole existing order
must justify itself. Where it rests on forms of injustice, it must be
broken or destroyed, and there is no reason to fear the breaking.
Thus there is no "divine right" of kings. They represent a vested
interest, surviving from the past. They must justify themselves by the
service of those under them, or pass.
Similarly, there is no divine right of a class or caste, enjoying
supremacy or special privilege. It also is a surviving vested interest,
that must justify itself, or be swept aside as an incubus.
The same test applies to an empire. It, too, is a vested interest,
developed out of conditions prevailing in the past. If it does not
justify itself by the largest service of all within it, then it, too, is
an anachronistic survival, no longer to be tolerated.
The principle is universal: the institution of private property, the
controlling power of captains of industry, the capitalistic system,
finally, the state itself, in every form: all are vested interests that
may be permitted to continue in the exercise of power only as they prove
their superiority to any other form of organization in serving the good
of all.
This does not mean that, under democracy, the individual shall fail of
sacrifice and the dedication to something higher than himself. That is
the glory of life, transfiguring human nature, and without it, life
sinks to sordid selfishness. Your life is worth, not what you have, but
what you are, and what you are is determined by that to which you
dedicate yourself. Is it creature comforts, pleasure, selfish
privilege, or the largest life and the fullest service of humanity? What
you have is merely the condition, the important question is, what do you
do with it? Is it wealth, prosperity: do you sit down comfortably on
the fact of it, to secure all the selfish pleasures possible; or do you
regard your fortunate circumstances as so much more opportunity and
obligation of leadership and service? Is it poverty, even starvation:
do you whine and grovel, or stand erect, with shut teeth, andwring
heroic manhood from the breast of suffering?
That is why peace can never be an end: it, too, is merely a condition or
means. The question is, what do you do with your peace, for peace may
mean merely sloth and cowardly ease, where war may mean unselfish
heroism. That is what the peace promoters forget. War has its
brutalities, and terrible indeed they are: unleashed hate, lust, cruelty
and revenge; but war has its heroisms. It calls out the devotion to
something higher than the individual from even the commonest of men.
To-day all over the earth, ordinary men are quietly going out to
probable death or mutilation in its most horrible forms, and going for
the sake of an ideal larger than themselves. Women are doing even more
than that. For it is not so hard to die, but to send out those you love,
dearer than life itself, to almost certain death--that, indeed, is
difficult, and women are doing it everywhere with a smile on their lips
and choked-back tears.
Peace, on the other hand, has its virtues: the softening and refining of
life, gradual development of sympathy, achievement of comfort and
beauty; but peace has its vices. In times of peace and prosperity there
seems to be no great cause at stake. Of course, always it is there, but
we do not see it. We become increasingly absorbed in selfish interests,
in the good of our immediate family. Thus petty, time-serving
selfishness is the vice peculiarly characteristic of times of peace and
prosperity. Consider, for instance, the spirit of France during the
closing years of the nineteenth century, and at the present dark, but
pregnant, hour of destiny.
Thus the question is not whether you have peace or war, but what you do
with your peace or war. It is not whether you are rich or poor, but
what you do with your riches or poverty.
Suppose we were able to reconstruct our entire social and industrial
world, so that every human being would have plenty to eat, plenty to
wear and a comfortable house to live in: would we have the kingdom of
heaven? Not necessarily: we might have merely a comfortable,
well-decorated pig-sty, if men lived to nothing higher than pigs. "Man
cannot live by bread alone," important as bread is, but by dedication to
the things of the spirit.
Thus there must ever be the capacity for self-forgetfulness,
self-sacrifice, the dedication of life to supreme aims, but that does
not mean the dedication of man to the institution. Rather it is the
consecration to the welfare of humanity. Man for the State means
autocracy and imperialism; Man for Mankind is the soul of democracy.
That is the ideal to which we must rise, if democracy is to prove itself
worthy to be the form of human society for the great future.
This ideal is realized through many lesser forms and instruments, but
always with the same final test. The family, for instance, is one of
these lesser forms, and the subordination of the individual to the
family unit is just. Thus there is a measure of right in seeking first
the interest of the family group; but when this is sought to the end of
special privilege and debauching luxury, against the welfare of all, it
becomes, as we have seen, an evil.
There is, similarly, a certain justice in the subordination of the
individual to the social class or group interest. It is right that
artisans should unite in trade unions, that employers should get
together in associations for common benefit. One need only contrast the
conditions where each workman had to bid in competition against all
others, and each manufacturer, the same, to realize the advance made
through group union and cooperation. When either group, however, seeks
to further its own interest at the expense of the welfare of the whole
society, as in securing class legislation, achieving monopolies, holding
efficient workers to the level of production of the slowest and least
capable of the group, then the class or group spirit becomes an evil
that must be fought for the good of all.
It is exactly the same with the nation. Its interest is justly served
only in harmony with the welfare of humanity. Any current problem will
illustrate the principle, as, for instance, that of immigration.
Certainly the nation has the right to prohibit immigration which
produces unassimilated plague-spots and threatens to cause racial
deterioration, as in phases of Oriental immigration to the Pacific
coast. Similarly, it is right to restrict immigration that would
further economic prosperity, at the expense of the manhood of the
nation. We must answer the question, whether we want factories or men.
It is desirable to have some of both, of course, but when one is to be
obtained at the expense of the other, it is manhood that must be the
deciding end.
On the other hand, when it comes to refusing a refuge to the poor and
oppressed, who are physically and morally acceptable, but lack a small
amount of money, or are unable to respond to a literary test, then the
welfare of humanity demands the opposite decision. Better give them the
fifty dollars--a healthy slave was worth more than that in the old days.
So teach them to read and write. The nation, can readily pay the small
economic price and accept the incidental difficulties for the sake of
the larger end.
Thus the deciding principle must always be the welfare, happiness,
growth, intelligence, helpfulness of each individual in harmony with all
others. Humanity is incarnatein each man. While, therefore, the
individual must dedicate and, at times, sacrifice himself, it is for the
sake, not of the state, church or other institution, but for the welfare
of all--_Man for Mankind_.
From so many sources the view finds expression that modern life has been
"weakened by humanitarianism." If there is truth in the view, we would
better take account of it and radically revise our ethical philosophy.
If it is false, it is a damning error, the reiteration of which tends to
undermine all that has been achieved for the spirit.
An interesting comment on the view is the fact that, in spite of all its
horrors, this War has given _no attested instance of arrant cowardice on
any front_. Cruelty, lust, brutality, hate: these have appeared in
unspeakable guise, but apparently no cowardice or weak timidity; yet the
mail clad heroes of ancient wars, who met their adversaries face to
face, were subjected to no such strain as the men standing in trenches
waiting momentarily death or mutilation from an unseen foe. No, modern
life has not lost strong fiber and is capable of supreme heroism.
The old society secured its leadership through _noblesse oblige_--the
obligation of nobility. Men of aristocratic family and rank felt that,
because they stood above the people, they owed a certain leadership and
service, and they gave it, often in abundant measure, but always
condescendingly from above.
We have lost "noblesse oblige": we may even be glad it is gone, if we
can substitute for it something larger and better. It is not the
obligation of nobility, but the obligation of humanity that is the need:
to realize that all power is obligation. As you can, you owe; and as
you know, you owe. If you have money, it is so much obligation of
leadership and service. If you have talent, education, social or
political influence, it is all so much obligation of leadership and
service. If, as individuals, we can generally realize that and act upon
it, then indeed we may hope to carry to successful completion the
experiment of democracy and see our beloved country fulfill the measure
of moral leadership to which we believe she is called among the nations
of the earth, but fulfilling it not as master over slave, nor as one
empire among others, but as a more experienced brother toward others
following the same open path.
XXII
THE HOUR OF SACRIFICE
The supreme world crisis is on. We have entered the War in the purest
spirit of democracy. We state frankly in advance that we want no
indemnity, no extension of territory. We war with no people, except as
that people identifies itself with aggressive autocracy and imperialism,
imperilling our safety, as of all democracies, and seeking to ride
tyrannically and unjustly over the rights and liberties of other
peoples. Thus we enter the War solely for the cause of democracy and
humanity.
The hour of sacrifice has struck for the American people: will it rise
to the test? When one considers the characteristics of our surface life
for recent decades--the devotion to money-getting, the rapid increase of
senseless and debauching luxury, the reckless frivolity, the unthinking
haste and selfish pleasure-seeking--one questions. Underneath, however,
is a tremendous latent idealism. We are young, enthusiastic, capable of
glorious consecration. Cynical disillusionment is all upon the surface
--the cult of the clique of cleverness, uprooted from the soil of common
life and the deeps of the eternal verities. Beneath in the great mass
of the people is profound faith in life, deep trust in the ideal, belief
in the great future of humanity. Democracy will justify itself. We
shall rise to the test; but how we need to hear and heed the call!
"Awake America" means Americans awake! For in democracy the individual
is the soul. On each person rests the responsibility. Let us accept
the bitter burden and meet the supreme test, giving time, money,
service, life and those we love better than life, for the sake of the
safer, freer, nobler world that is to be. Since we stood apart so long
and entered the horrible devastation so late, it is our privilege to do
all we can to save the spiritual heritage of humanity, to keep our
hearts clean from the corrosive acid of national and racial hatred, to
do all in our power to remove it from the breasts of others. Injustice
in high places is possible only because there is injustice in the hearts
of men. To overthrow tyranny is but the initial step of emancipation:
unless the tyrant hate in the heart is dethroned, the external tyrant,
in some form of social injustice will surely return. He who conquers
hate and the lust for revenge in his own breast is spiritually free and
master of the tyrant that wrongs him. Thus it is our privilege and duty
to hate no one; but to hate injustice, greed, tyranny, aggressive
selfishness, the wicked ambitions of autocratic imperialism, to resist
and help to overthrow them, and so do our part in bringing in the free
brotherhood of the nations and peoples in one humanity, that will be the
dawn of the longed-for era of universal and permanent peace for mankind.
End of Project Gutenberg's The Soul of Democracy, by Edward Howard Griggs