Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1905-02-13
"A DEMOCRATIC idea
The SATURDAY EVENING POST
INDICATES A TENDENCY.
Governments are Made for Nan, Not
Man for Governments. This Must
be the Basis of All DemOCraCieS,
and is Totally Opposed to I'M
perialiSm.

The Saturday Evening Post is the
latest recruit to democracy. 1t Is not a
partisan sheet of the "thick and thin"
variety, but it occasionally has an edi-
torial which indicates its democratic
tendency. The following, for instance
| "German newspapers are always sigh
ing because the Monroe doctrine prevents
Germany from acquiring the South
American lands settled by German i'm.
migrants and so from becoming world
power
"What pitiful and perverted notion
OF the object of government this involves.
Yet it is one that has not few adher.
ents in our own country, where there is
no excuse for such ignorance. For we
ought all to know that government is
made for man, not man for government.
According to our theory, and let US hope,
practice. government is not power but
a servant, an instrument 10 enable the
common man to develop his faculties to
their fullest. And the conditions under
which those faculties can best develop
are freedom and peace-neither OF them
consistent with the imperial notion.
"How slowly the world develops How
hard it is for man to grasp the great,
broad, high truths of democracy, mere
common'sense though they are! How
many men who ought to know better
secretly share the benighted patriotism
OF the peasant who glories in the spend
thrift spendor Of the aristocracy that
grinds him in the DUST
The above does not present an argu.
ment in favor of any surface policy, but
it touches fundamental principle. The
democratic idea is that the government
is thing made by the people for them
selves, or rather it is the people acting
together for the protection OF their own
rights and tor the advancement of their
own interests. The imperialistic idea of
government-and it is also the monarch.
ical and aristocratic idea-is that a gov
ernment is thing entirely separate and
apart from the people. According to the
imperialistic idea the people may have
nothing whatever to do with their own
government except to obey it under fear
Of death and to support it by taxation
levied upon them without representa-.
ton. According to this theory govern.
ment can be carrie in ship and thrown
like net over helpless people. Accord.
ing to this theory a few men can land
upon shore, before unknown to them,
coerce the natives into submission and
do with them as they see fit, II the in.
vaders gather up all the property in sight
and then sail away leaving the people
free, it is usually called piracy, but if the
invaders remain, set up government"
and extend their pillage over period of
years it is sometimes called benevolent
assimilation" but a colonial system
rests upon the same foundation as piracy,
namely, force. Piracy is condensed
colonialism; colonialism is piracy ex.
tended and reduced to a system. The
democratic theory Of self-government is
and must be eternally at war with the
doctrine Of imperialism. The Post is
right; the government is not the master
but the servant of the people. This is
the rock upon which democracy is built,
and democracy can not rest securely on
any other foundation.