"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.