¶ As between the inevitable contest between the Crowd and the Crown, springing from the inflammatory ideas of French Constitutionalism, Bismarck did not shrink; but fought it out in his own way. Our Man of Blood and Iron desired the blessings of liberty for Germany with all the strength of his powerful being; but he could not stultify his common sense by meekly conceding no essential distinction between men, in their capacity for leadership. He was, then, intent on bringing out of the German political chaos a type of democracy that may be termed Imperial as well as representative, in which the people are accorded their share, as he saw it, but always under the guidance of a strong central authority.
¶ And after all said in glorification of any special type of government, the stubborn fact remains that absolute equality, from a representative point of view, is a fiction unsupported by fact. The notorious incapacity and apathy of the masses is always, in the end, directed by central powers, exercised insidiously or openly as you please, but exercised nevertheless. In every political party we find a coterie, men of little wisdom it may be but leaders of the crowd; in every city commission is always one masterful man to whom the other members defer; in every banking house, one deciding voice; every religious organization must have a head, regardless of the number of counsellors; every ship a captain; every army a general; and, finally, in every family there should be the guidance and direction of a strong father.
¶ Is there not a ring of sincerity in Bismarck’s manly acknowledgment of the inevitable equalities in the human stuff of which governments are composed? He saw only common sense in openly protesting that in any German government big enough and enduring enough to satisfy the German conception of responsibility, in a word German thoroughness, there must be, somewhere, a master-mind.
¶ For many years, and even today, Bismarck is in some quarters regarded as the arch-enemy of the common people, but his great work has stood the acid test of time. The German Empire, builded under Bismarck’s broad ideas may be likened unto a wonderful watch, in which each part does its peculiar work without even a gambler’s chance of going wrong.
BOOK THE SIXTH
Once a Man and Twice a Child
CHAPTER XVII
The Downfall
63
The secret discontent of the man who believed himself sole founder of the German Empire.