TEACHING THE MEANING OF DEMOCRACY
In a country like ours, there is a public opinion of
almost uncontrollable power. The educated and the
intellectual may have a decisive voice in its
formation; or they may live in their own selfish
enjoyments, and suffer the ignorant and depraved to
form that public opinion.--HORACE MANN.
ONE of the most irritating things in the world to a true patriot, is the
visitor at his table, who exalts the superiority of other nations to our
own.
Not that nearly every other nation may not have some one or more points
of superiority, which should be acknowledged and emulated; but your
worshiper of the foreign usually makes a blanket indictment of America.
One such man was a guest at a certain table just before the war. He had
recently returned from a long stay in Europe, where his great wealth and
important commercial and social connections gave him access to many of
the circles which largely control the life over there.
"How are the people abroad thinking of us nowadays?" inquired his
hostess rather lightly. "Do they despise us as much as ever?"
"Yes, indeed," replied the great man emphatically.
"But I hope you stood up for us?"
"I wish I could say that I did," he had the effrontery to reply calmly;
"but how could I? They consider that the corruption of our government is
so bad that it cannot possibly continue very long. I couldn't deny it,
could I? I agreed with them entirely that we were nearly at the end of
our rope."
"Really?" gasped his hostess. "Are you in earnest?"
"I never was more so in my life. Look at the condition of affairs in
Blank and Blank and Blank,"--naming several states in which legislative
scandals had been lately unearthed,--"How long do you think that things
can go on like that and a government survive? I had to admit that a
democratic form of government is a failure. Of course, it was a great
dream of the fathers, but it has proved to be as impracticable as a good
many other rainbow visions. Sometime the world may be ready for it, but
it evidently is not now."
"And what do you think will follow?" asked his hostess, holding on to
her temper with difficulty. "Are you in favor of an autocracy like
Germany, or of a limited monarchy like Great Britain? Or do you think an
oligarchy a better form? And if we decide on a monarchy, where should we
get our royal family? Should we elect one from candidates that present
themselves? Or should we request Europe to send us one?"
"Now you are making fun of me," he commented with some feeling.
"Oh, no, not exactly," she laughed. "But really, if Europe is unanimous
in thinking our republic a failure, there must be 'something in it.' You
have been in many countries and have met the leading people, and you
know what you are talking about. If we are truly on the verge of a
revolution, it is to the men like you, our foremost and ablest men, that
we must turn to save us. Therefore you ought to be thinking of ways and
means. Here is a nation of nearly a hundred million persons. If its
government is so rotten that it cannot last, what should be done?"
But he declined to continue the discussion. He merely laughed rather
weakly and some one just then introduced a new topic.
Strange to say, during the next few months several other men were
encountered, who also bemoaned the "failure" of our institutions.
Our children must be taught how to meet such pessimists. They would
probably, in the light of recent developments, say that they repudiate
the doctrines of Nietzsche, but they are really endorsing one of his
prime tenets, namely, that democracy is bound always to be a failure;
that the "masses" should be kept down; that all attempts to elevate "the
herd" are folly; that they should be made to observe that strict
morality, from whose shackles the "supermen" are free; and should submit
unquestioningly to authority. Women, even in the "super" class, are made
in Nietzsche's opinion, simply, as Milton says, to serve by "standing
and waiting."
One would think that men who hold such views as this traveled guest, had
never studied democracy. They surely do not understand its deep and
splendid meaning. They should be made to see, as our children should be,
by every means that we can devise, the tremendous advance which a
democratic form of government shows beyond any other that the world has
hitherto known. They should have impressed upon them Elihu Root's
definition: "Democracy is organized self-control."
Especially should they be told that universal education and
unselfishness of patriotism are the only conditions under which a
democracy can be perfected; and that no nation has ever yet been
sufficiently educated and unselfish to arrive at perfection, and
probably will not be until the millennium.
We all realize that our government has many defects; but most of our
critics stupidly fail to recognize that our public officials, instead of
being our masters, are regarded by us, and in no Pickwickian sense, as
our servants. We are all so criminally busy with our personal affairs
that we allow our government to run along almost anyway, often knowing
that grafters are in charge of it; but feeling that it is cheaper to let
matters go until they become unendurable, than to take the trouble to
keep close track of them. After awhile, we say to ourselves, we will
have a regular cleaning-up, turn the rascals out, and put in a new set
of officials, who, we hope, will do better.
Our children must be taught that this is a wicked way to do. They must
devote some of their time to following public affairs. They must
understand also that, while low salaries must usually be paid to public
officials, in order that offices may not be too eagerly sought, yet that
patriots must be willing, when they can possibly afford it, to accept
these low salaries, if their country is to be well and honestly served.
In this war, we have seen many noble men resign large incomes in order
to serve the nation. We must learn to do that in peace as well as in
war.
And we must all understand too, that these officials do not really
represent the governing power of our country, which is undoubtedly that
intangible thing called Public Opinion. It is as subtly invisible as
electricity or gravity, but in this nation as powerful.
In China, in India, and in most of the other oriental countries; in
Russia also, as the recent upheavals there have proved, there is nothing
which can properly be called organized Public Opinion. In France and in
Great Britain, there is much. In our country, it is everything. It
dominates our whole social and political system. Our press is sometimes
said to create it. Oftener the press says that it follows Public
Opinion,--while a considerable section of our population declare that
the press and Public Opinion are the same thing.
In any case, the child should be made to understand that in a truly and
nobly democratic form of government, no czar, no kaiser, no caste nor
clique controls, but the people themselves, who, as Lincoln said, can be
fooled by their leaders part of the time, but whose sober second thought
usually sets them ultimately on the right side. The child should be made
to feel that since he is one unit in this controlling mass, he should
form his opinions with care.
One of the most frequent accusations against us among foreigners, is
that we are wholly and ineradicably sordid. As outsiders often put it,
"All that Americans care for is the dollar."
Most of us, when we hear this, share the sentiment of a bright High
School girl, who took part in a debate in 1913 on the comparative
excellence of foreign and domestic manners.
"I have just come back from a summer in Europe," she said, "and I found
there, on the whole, much worse manners than we have here. For instance,
in nearly every country where we went, we had relatives and friends, and
they were constantly saying, and very rudely, I thought, 'Oh, yes, we
understand your America. All you care for over there is the dollar.' But
I don't care for the dollar and my father and my mother, and my uncles
and my aunts, and our friends,--hardly anybody I know, in fact,--none of
them care for the dollar,--not half so much as they do over there,--and
I told them so!"
Her passionate plea brought forth equally passionate applause from her
young hearers,--for it was true. Human nature is inherently selfish and
grasping. We have only to read the book of Proverbs to see that it was
so in ancient times and it will probably always retain something of that
meanness; but Americans are the most generous people in the world, and,
as a whole, are the freest from miserliness and avarice. Look over the
marriage notices of a century or more ago in any English periodical, and
you will probably find mentioned there the amount of the bride's dowry.
We all know how invariably it has to be ascertained nowadays before a
foreign nobleman takes an American bride. Among ourselves, there is
almost nothing of this sort.
One reason, perhaps the principal one, for this universal accusation, is
not far to seek. All foreign nations have their leisure classes. The
great nobles and gentry often do not even manage their own estates. Some
"factor" or "agent" does it for them. As for working for money, the very
idea would shock them unspeakably. A woman who works for money is
especially scorned over there. It is seldom that such a woman has any
social standing whatever.
Utterly different is the American estimation of merit. Here we have a
leisure class, but it is so small as to be negligible, and it is
commonly despised. All of our men are expected to work for money, or, as
we put it,--to earn their living, though many of our rich men often
contribute freely much time and labor to public affairs and to
philanthropy. A woman who earns her living over here is quite as likely
as not to rank among our most respected citizens.
As a well-known snob once said, "Even in our first circles, you once in
a while meet one of these writers or painters, who expects to be treated
as if he were one of _us_."
Thus Public Opinion controls our social as well as our political life.