Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1911-11-03
AMERICAN DEMOCRACY
(Cotinued From Page Three.)

entrusted to them, responsible Onl
TO their own cOnsciences for VIVA
they decree, for what they doth
temporary independence being re
uuisite in order that they think ant
act in due leisure and with due fear
lessness of outward control. Where
however. fragrant unfitness develops
the remedy is at neutrality-suspicious.
at the bar Of legally constituted courts
All this is popular sovereignty so or
yanized that liberty and order wall
hand in hand, that liberty there j!
without license or anarchy, and ordel
without loss of liberty to the people
without a reign of despotism OUTSIDE
of and above the people.
Did the trainers Of organized dem
ocracy in America give us form O
government so supremely perfect, 81
supremely unassailable to the shafts
of human ignorance and passion
that always and ever it must Wo-s
out in absolute righteousness, FOL
the truest and best interests OF the
peOple-this it were too much to say
too much TO expect. Nothing is per
feet, nothing is sure to give sought
Tor results where men are the work
e:s. Eo-American democracy in
tn form it received from the fran
ers of our constitutions, federal or
state, will not be, in all that proceeds
from it, always and ever, what we
should wish it to be-absolutely
free from fault or mistake. But
neither will this be the case of Amer
lean democracy under any form that
possibly might be given to it: as it
will not be the case, with any other
conceivable government established
for the guardianship Of human inter-
ests. What We must hope for is tho
nearest practicable approach to the
ideal: this approach, conditions OF
country and of people held in mind
] fear not to say, we possess today in
America.
CIamor for Change.
And now the clamor is heard
through the land. that the organiza
ton of American democracy, such as
the trainers of our constitutions
willed it, such as the Republic has
known it for a century and a quarter
must be altered, torn asunder, un
der the pretense that with it the peo-
pie do not govern with sufficient dl
rectness. Let us hope that this
clamor is but passing ebullition OF
feeling, such as, on given occasions,
rises over the surface of the life OF
nations. famed for the time being
by the breezes of passing or social
unrest, soon to sink back into the
tranquil seriousness of thought US
ually underlying the movements OF
he masses of the people, to be there
buried in the silence of oblivion.
Democracy-yes: mObocracy, new
or. And towards mobocracy we are
now hidden to wend our way The
shibboleth of the clamor, you know
the initiative, the referendum, the
recall. Put into general practice,
as the evangelists of the new social
gospel would fain have them, the in
tative, the referendum, the recall,
are nothing more nor less than mad.
ness of democracy. The highest and
purest moral virtues run into ex
tremes become evil: so with democ-
cracy.
Danger Of Temporary Excitement.
May We not, it is asked. trust the
people? Yes--we trust the people
as the trainers of our constitutions
trusted them. We trust the people
as the people usually trust them
selves when interests other than pc
litical are at stake-remitting thOs
interests to men, expert in such mat.
tiers, who take time to gather and d.
gest information, who situate the
questions under debate, as the multi.
tude cannot do, in the general frame !
work of circumstances and conse
quences, outside of which solution
is necessarily incomplete and unsat-
isfactory. WE trust the people. |
when they treat matters with which !
they are conversant. be these polit |
ical or other, when they bend them !
selves to those matters with freedom |
from passion and excitement. The |
wise aphorism, the legend attributes
to the political sense Of Abraham
Lincoln, sums up the degree o. trust
we put in the people: A part of the !!
people may be wrong the whole time;
the whole of the people may be wrong
a part of the time; the whole people |
will not be wrong the whole time In |
the long run, American public opinion |
will be sure to right itself; the mis-
fortune is, as We know too we'll from
our studies of human nature, and
no less. from the lessons taught us
by our own American history, tho
people Or the great number of
them. in city, state or nation, may
suffer from temporary excitement
sufficient to exclude calm. far-seeing
thought and prudent decision. From |
the consequences of such temporary !
excitement we should strive to say
the Republic.
Switzerland Not a Good Example
But there is a republic it is said,
from which We may learn. in which
the initiative. the referendum. the
recall, work to the greater public !
good. There is Switzerland As.S
the universally of the satisfaction
given by the initiative, the referen
dunn and the recall in Switzerland,
there is there more than one opinion
But. whateve" of this. Switzerland is
not the United States of America
Small commemorative. composed
mostly Of quiet, conservative tillers
of the soil. agitated by no large so
cial or economic problems. are no
models TO be cODied into the nOlitica |