Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1899-04-03
Chicago, April Following is an

Van Dyke, ID. d., LII. D., on Demo-
crazy and Culture" at the University
of Chicago, Saturday evening:
by democracy we mean not fixed
theory of the state nor a particular
form of government. We mean a ten
dency, a spirit, a current of ideas and
aspirations. 1t is a sense not Of the
actual equality of all men as a fact,
but of their potential equality as a
hope. 1t is the endeavor to realize
this hope, not by the concentration of
power in the hands of few, but by the
diffusion of power in the hands Of the
many. These, it seems to me, are
some of the notes of true democracy
as we see it working out its salvation
with fear and trembling in our own
country. Now as regards this fear and
trembling, let us acknowledge frankly
that they are not without reason,
while at the same time we maintain
that trey are perfectly consistent with
the most firm and loyal faith. We be-
lieve that democracy is right, that it
will triumph in the end, that
THE MAGNIFICENT EXPERIMENT
which is now in progress in our coun-
try will result in splendid success.
But we are not unconscious of certain
inconvenience which attend the exper-
mental stage; nor ought We to be care
81 dangers which threatened to delay
our national advance, and possibly to
divert it from its true course so wide
ly that we may be forced into one of
those periods of reaction, by which a
nation that has too hastily followed a
false lead returns upon it's course in
order to get fresh start.
But in our material prosperity, our
rapid advance in mechanical inventions
and the arts of life, the wide diffusion
Of what the old divines called creature
comforts and in the consequent good
humor and self-complacency which pre-
vail among the different classes of
society, Lies one of our greatest perils.
We are in danger of making too much
of these things, and imagining that
there is something permanent and
stable about them. We are inclined to
introduce
Il BELIEVE IN MACHINERY
as an article of our creed, and to sup
pose that an American has only to pre-
sent himself before the Judge of the
Universe with new kind of sewing
machine, or an improved telephone, or
rapid-tire gun, TO be crowned at once
with glory and received into the king
dom of Heaven. We are tempted to
rely upon our physical prosperity, our
wealth, our industrial advance, as a
pledge of security, and to adopt policy
Of letting the more important things
take care OF themselves.
Thus it comes to pass that tone
of airy carelessness pervadeS our po-
litical life. Large powers are suffered
to fall into the hands of small and in
competent men, our city governments
speak with various brogues. We re-
ceive without discrimination, and al
most without thought, the miscellane-
Gus hordes of immigrants who are
poured upon our shores. Our national
digestion is powerful, but there is a
point at which it may break down, and
it is a serious question whether the
sign of
POLITICAL AND SOCIAL DYSPEP-
STA
are not already apparent A 'democ-
racy' falling into the hands of those
who do not understand what it means,
nor at heart believe in it, swiftly trans
forms itself into tyranny, or into an
anarchy. A republic must have moral
and Intellectual foundations. The
cornerstone OF democracy is culture.
Culture must begin and continue with
a fine disregard of pecuniary returns.
1t must be catholic, genial, disinterest-
ed. Its object is to make the shoe
maker go beyond his last, and the clerk
beyond his desk, and the surveyor be-
yond his chain, and the lawyer beyond
his brief, and the doctor beyond his
prescription, and the preacher beyond
his sermon.
What we need at present is not new
colleges with a power of comforting de-
grees, but more power in the existing
colleges TO make men. To this end
1El l4tlu nave q ItCu6I t.,
fuller equipment, but above all a re-
vival of the creative ideal. And let
everything be done to bring together
the high-school, the normal-school, the
rammar-school, the primary-school,
and the Observation-Disclosures in
the harmony Of this ideal. The uni
versity shall still stand in the place OF
honor, if you will, but only because it
bears the clearest and most steadfast
witness that the end of culture is to
create men who can see clearly, i'm
agine nobly and think steadily.
.tThe salvation of democracy lies in
the possession of such men.
POPULAR Discomfort
comes chiefly from want Of power to
see the beauty and interest OF life, of
the world, of the simplest things in
their natural charm. Nature-lovers are
seldom mob-leaders. Glass hatred, the
arrogance of the newly rich, the stupid,
laundering cruelties of those who grind
the faces of the poor arise where the
faculty of imaginative ~ mpathy has
been smothered in the class atmosphere
OF commerciaiisE. Political maniacs
and financial lunatics and social hydro
probias are thS result OF a popular