To educate the people, the first essential is that the educators know exactly what they wish to teach and the ultimate purpose of such teaching.
In the previous chapters are outlined methods of reaching and persuading people. More important, however, than any manner of speaking, traveling, advertising or gaining an audience is it that our speakers never lose sight of the few great basic principles of our movement, and that they keep these central truths steadily before the eyes and minds of the people.
The principal danger to be overcome in every popular movement is that in the adaptation of the central truth of the movement to local and temporary requirements, the truth itself may be lost in a multitude of petty intricacies.
In the beginnings of the great religions when they spread irresistibly over the world, their teachers held firmly to a few great salient truths. But the influence of every religion waned when its ministers, forgetting its real object, gave themselves up to details of worship and church government. This is also the history of nearly every Christian denomination. In their vigor and youth, they dwelt principally upon the great primary themes. When these were forgotten or neglected, the movements themselves lost their power.
The weakness of the people's movement to-day is that our leaders abandon too often the center of the stream, drawn away by the side currents and little eddies. The intricacies of finance, statistics and details of administration, often absorb their whole attention. Those who would guide the crowd to a higher civilization forget the object of their endeavors, the crowd forgets; then medley and Babel. Instead of marching toward the goal, the multitude halt by the wayside, and go to arguing over the incidents of the journey. The compass, governed by fixed and universal laws, that acts regardless of the turns in the road, no longer directs them. They are at the mercy of the local, the incidental and temporary. When they give up the main road to wander off in bypaths, unity and progress cease; division, disorder and disintegration begin.
The silver question, the question as to the power of the Supreme Court Justices, the railway question, are all merely incidental to the one great fundamental conflict that has been waged for centuries, the conflict of the general welfare resting on right against the special interests that thrive by wrong, of liberty against tyranny; the people against plutocracy. This conflict should be kept in the forefront by every Volunteer, who should urge continuously and repeatedly upon his hearers the few great simple truths of Democracy, holding these out in bold relief, like mountains above the rolling slopes and projecting crags that lead up to them, keeping the popular mind centered on the goal of their efforts, the North Star, as it were, of progress.
Revolutions and special evolutions are brought about in human affairs, NOT SO MUCH BY THE DISSEMINATION OF A GREAT MULTITUDE OF IDEAS, AS BY THE CONCENTRATION OF A MULTITUDE OF MINDS UPON A SINGLE IDEA. This single idea, however, cannot be of a local or temporary nature. It must, on the other hand, be comprehensive and of sufficient import to stir the very souls of the masses. A mere question of currency, transportation or judicial powers, however important, even if absolutely requisite to further progress, is not capable of producing the universal enthusiasm required to institute any fundamental innovation. The truths on which the popular mind is to be focused, must be self-evident, general, and their application not limited to a short time or a special locality. With the people's attention fixed upon a great moral truth universally applicable, their faces all turned toward, their eyes fixed on one star of deliverance, it is easy to convince them that to realize their goal no sacrifice can be too great. Men are prepared to act intelligently concerning currency, transportation or other incidental reforms when their enthusiasm and purpose are fully aroused and their attention is fixed upon universal laws about which there can be no doubt, hesitancy or confusion. Absorbed in great things, the petty causes of strife and dissension disappear. We can gain unity only when, leaving details to tried leaders, the people concentrate their attention on those simple realities, self-evident and capable of being understood by all, the attainment of which forces the righteous settlement of details and of all questions dependent and incidental.
THE WORLD BIG; GOD GOOD; MAN ALONE RESPONSIBLE.
The first such central truth, self-evident to every man, to be proclaimed tirelessly by the Volunteers, is that the earth is large enough and rich enough to supply all the good things of life to every human being born on it. Urge that especially since the triumphs of modern science is it possible for man to satisfy every natural craving, every healthy desire, every reasonable hope and dream, without any man being compelled to sacrifice another human being to his purpose.
The great and the humblest mind alike can see this truth. It stands out an impregnable tower of strength above all minor and subsidiary questions. It is unanswerable, incontravertible and DYNAMICALLY IRRESISTIBLE. The earth is large enough and rich enough and human energy sufficient to produce in abundance everything required to supply every natural, healthful human desire. This means that the world, now made hell by human greed abetted by ignorance and prejudice, might just as well be heaven. The misery caused by poverty, tyranny and neglect, can be displaced by happiness, plenty and liberty for all.