The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1911-10-21
Continued from Page y
AMERICAN DEMOCRACY.

any OCuGr LOTn InaL POSSIBLY might DC
given to it: as it will not be the case,
with any other conceivable govern
ment established for the guardianship
of human interests What we must
hope for is the nearest practicable ap-
proach 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 organization
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 al
tered, torn asunder, under the pre-
tence that with it the people do not
govern with sufficient directness. Let
us hope that this clamor is but a
passing ebullition of feeling, such as,
on given occasions, rises over the sur
face of the life of nations, famed for
the time being by the breezes of pas
into the tranquil seriousness of
thought usually underlying the move
ments of the masses of the people, to
be there buried in the silence of
oblivion
Democracy-yes: mobocracy, never.
And towards mobocracy we are now
hidden to Wend our way The shib-
boleths of the c1amor, you know-the
initiative, the referendum, the recall.
Put into general practice, as the evan
gelists of the new, social gospel would
fain have them, the initiative, the
referendum, the recall are nothing
more nor less than the madness of
democracy. The highest and purest
moral virtues run into extremes be-
come evil: so with democracy.
Danger of Temporary Excitement.
May we not, it is asked, trust the
people? Yes-We trust the people as
the trainers of our constitutions trust
ed them. We trust the people as the
people usually trust themselves when
interests other than political are at
stake RENTING those interests to
men, expert in such matters, who take
time to gather and digest informa-
ton, who situate the questions under
debate, as the multitude cannot do, in
the general framework of circum-
stances and consequences, outside of
which solution is necessarily incom-
plete and unsatisfactory. We trust
the people, when they treat matters
with which they are conversant, be
these political or other, when they
bend themselves to those matters with
freedom from passion or excitement.
The wise aphorism, the legend attrib-
utes to the political sense of Abraham
Lincoln, sums up the degree of 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 well from
our studies of human nature, and, no
less, from the lessons taught us by
our own American history, the people
or the great number of them, in
city, state or nation, may suffer from a
temporary excitement sufficient to ex-
clude calm, far-seeing thought and
prudent decision. From the conse-
quences of such temporary excitement
we should strive to save the Republic.
Switzerland Not Good Example.
But there is Republic, it is said,
from which we may learn, in which
the initiative, the referendum, the re-
CALL work to the greater public good.
There is Switzerland AS to the uni
versatility of the satisfaction given by
the initiative, the referendum and the
recall in Switzerland, there is there
more than one opinion But, whatever
of this, Switzerland is not the United
States of America. Small common
wealths, composed mostly of quiet,
conservative tillers of the soil, agita-
ted by no large social or economic
problems, are no models to be copied
into the political life of a continent
embracing republic, made up Of popu-
lations Heterogeneous of race and char
acter, with few traditional habits or
policies, upon which devolves the mis-
sion of calming the troubled seas of
modern industrialism and new socio1o-
gical conditions America in whatever
it holds or attempts must draw wis
dom from it's own peculiar life and
situation.
With the initiative and the referen-
dunn legislative bodies become mere
bureaus of registration and exchange
for disparate popular views and opin-
ions. All definite, conclusive authority
is lost to them. A small fraction of
the population sets the machinery OF
Legislation in motion, retards or an
nuls its DEGREES. And this, for all sub
jects, the most abstruse and the most
complicated. The ultimate verdict, it
is true, rests with the whole people:
f%r1% !. "a - IN.