The age-herald., 1901-12-15
1\12

~ OEW books on the political and hNI social conditions of a people UNI have been written of equal ex 1 cellence to De Tocqueyille's Democracy in America; and the impres-
 sions and observations of the distin- guished French writer are today of greater interest perhaps, than when he
 wrote them fifty years ago. His spec ulations, viewed in the light of the great
 development that has been wrought dur
 ing this period, are profoundly interest {. ing; and none, more than those, which {. relate to the aristocratic sentiment.
 De Tocqueville viewed America through the eyes of a man inbued with the spirit
 of monarchial institutions and the con
 ditions he discoverA in the new and
 growing republic appealed to him all the more intensely as he in common with
 the Frenchmen of his day associated !, the idea of republican institutions with
 those of ancient Rome Still more strik-
 ing was the contrast of social conditions as afforded by countries dominated by ar
 istocratic institutions on one hand as ]. against the United States dominated by |
 Bearing in mind the limitation of the
 manufacturing interests of the United
 States in 1S40, his survey of that field
 of industry, which was in it's infancy
 and the possible outcome and influence of its development on the people,, is pe-
 culiarly interesting. He says: "I have shown that democracy Is favorable to the
 growth of manufactures, and that 1t in creases without limit the numbers of the manufacturing classes; we shall now ! see by what side road manufacturers may possibly in their turn bring men { back to aristocracy." De Tocqueyille then carefully, step by step, shows how equality between factory operative and employer is destroyed and class distinc- , tions arise, becoming the more marked as the business assumes larger propor- $ tions, "The master and the workman" fl he continues have then heres no simi- q larity, and their differences increase every day. They are only connected as the two rings at the extremities of a x long chain. Each of them fills the sta
 tion that was made for him, and out of which he does not get. The one is con-
 tlnually, closely and necessarily depend y ent upon the other. and seems as much q born to obey as the other is to com ! mand. What is this but aristocracy?"
 Dc Tcquevillc had no cue to the rail- a~ road situation at that tlme. lie cOulu nOt ,s foresee the iron roads that were to cross
 the continent. the development of the 5 vast interior, the enormous traffic that E would result Indeed much that seems $ so commonplace today has sprung into q existence within the past fifty years. No ( living mind contemplated the mighty in- fiuence of steam or with prophetic illum-
 ming saw visions of electricity harnessed
 to the service of man. Mineral wealth,
 coal oil manufacturers as we now know
 them, railroading as we see it, commerce
 and agriculture as we experience it, all were undreamed of by men of most op-
 timistic temperaments Had DeTocque- E vile foreseen all this, what would he 8have said of aristocracy?
 % But he saw far from his point of van- Ntage. H. argues from the standpoint of
 maniIacturers. He says. "The small saristocratic societies which are formed by some manufacturers in the midst of
 the immense democracy of our age, con
 tain, like the great aristocratic societies of former ages, some men who are very &opulent. and a multitude who are wretch aedly poor" Not anticipating the colos- asal fortunes which measure the wealth eSof our industrial barons, yet seeing more Eclearly the condition of the laboring Eclasses, De Tocqueville observes ''the
 poor have few means from escaping from