Reading the future in the light of the past, we may safely maintain that
a fuller application of the democratic principle in our own republic can
be fraught with nothing but blessings to our people. Democracy does not
mean merely the election of officials by popular franchise, nor is it
synonymous with unlimited majority rule. Starting from the premise of
the equal rights of all men and women, it necessarily signifies the
paramount importance of the individual, and next to the individual, the
rights of the collective community. It must protect the individual
to the fullest possible extent in his "inalienable rights" of "life,
liberty and the pursuit of happiness." It is only when he alleges the
pursuit of these rights as a pretext for meddling with the equally
fundamental rights of his fellows that the community, as the
representative of the total rights of all its members, finds warrant for
interference, and for restraining the invader. There can be no question
as to this general principle. The difficulties in application arise
only from the facts that the relative rights of individuals are not
mathematically determinable and that human judgment is not infallible.
Lawmaking is an attempt, more or less successful, to reach a workable
approximation of absolute justice, based on the general democratic
principle.
The antithesis of democracy is special privilege. This is the extension
of certain powers to one or more individuals, at the expense of one or
more other individuals, without proper compensation and in violation of
equal justice. Whatever interferes with equality of initial opportunity
falls under this head. Democracy abhors all forms of favoritism. There
is no injustice in unequal remuneration for differing degrees of social
service; but there is grave wrong in rewarding equal services unequally
or unequal services equally. All theories of social reform are based on
a more or less clear realization of this truth, and on the supposition,
whether correct or incorrect, that conditions exist at present which
confer undue advantage on a favored class or on favored classes.