St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-11-03
SOCIAL C

When the Republican party had COM
pleted its great wolk Of removing the
blot of slavery from the e%scutcheon of
the republic, and turned to address
itself to the administration of the gov
eminent under conditions presenting
questions which were purely economic,
it revealed its incapaeity to deal
with them. 1t was then inevitable that
there should come on a political ferment
in which new schemes of governmental
activity should come to the surface,
gain adherents, rise possibly to the dig
nifty of political organizations, perplex
and confuse mems minds. and give &C.
casion again for reformers, dreamers,
Missionaries to exploit their panaceas.
This period was deferred by the ami
mosities and %prejudices engendered by
the war, but is now On the country in
full blast.
1t is in such times that the declaration
of Solomon that there is nothing new
under the sun is deemed the platItude
of an old fogy, and men invent new
schemes of government and new
uses for its powers, as If the old
had never existed; as If men had
gained nothing of value from cent
uries of bitter experiences, and as if
everything human can be regulated slap
dash by an act of congress or the decree
of a state legislature. We are not de-
crying such efforts, even if we can give
them scant sympathy. 1t is only in this
way that the world makes Roadway,
and to get an inch of progress it has
been ever needed that there be wasted
an immense quantity of energy. Out of
all the nonsense will remain a modicum
of sense, sifted out in the process of de-
bate, the friction Of mind on mind;
and humanity will be bettered by all
the trouble 1t will have been put to.
One phase OF this ferment assumes
the title of Social Democracy. 1t has in
Germany a large following, and has
in this country an u%norganized neb-
ula which has not as yet found
shape in political organization, save as
the Populists represent some of its va
carries. The Twentieth Century is one
| of it's organs, and it is outspoken in its
| advocacy of what it calls social democ-
racy. Practically, this is Bellamyism,
an attempt to seriously adopt the
dreams of Looking Backward into
the practical affairs of life. And to this
is given the name of Democracy. A
| scheme starts out badly, surely, that so
misapplies a word. 1t raises at the out
set more than a doubt Of the efficacy Of
plans proposed by men who are so In
| capable of selecting a fitting name for
their movement.
Socialism and Democracy stand at OPP
posIte poles of government. They are
as repugnant to each other as the mag
netic poles. What n attracts the other
repels. Socialism means everything
that Democracy does not. Socialism
| sinks the man in the state; Democracy
sinks the state in the man. Socialism
looks on the state as the machine for
accomplishing all reforms; Democracy
recognizes no reform as possible that
does not root back in the convictions of
| the Individual. Socialism treats men as
| children, the state as a wise and in
dulgent par ent; Democracy assumes
that men are capable of caring for
themselves: that each should be left to
| himself, with full freedom of action and
full responsibility for it. The one would
have the state regulate everything; the
| other would have the state regulate only
those things in which each d is III