New-York tribune., 1912-02-10
REFORMATION
Our Political and Economic
Unrest.

NII
THE NEW DEMOCRACY. An ESSAY, on
Certain Political and Economic ZEN
denotes in the United States. BY aIIer
T.. Weyl Pm. y. Emo PIP. NllI' "'V' Inc
Macmillan Company
/ II would be futile to quarrel with Mr..
| Weyl for calling his exhaustive ana Vo-
! luminous disquisition an essay. lie
has abundance of literary precedent for
/ this use of the word. As FOR the SUBJ
stance Of his book, that may be brieny
described as a history of democracy IN
the United States leading to a statement
and analysis Of the causes and aims 81
/ the many movements which he calls the
| new democracy" in his title, and often
| the "socialized democracy in his tex.
The conclusion reached is that our SO
cial and economic unrest is not to lead
to war Of classes. but to national
readiustment," The work gathers to-
gcther and co-ordinates practically sll
the insurgencies, revolts and protests.
the undertaking" disclosures, RENE
dies. facrs and theories that have been
dQNOtdlfil anu dS lAdith Gnu iObb'l' wv
during the last decade and more. As
complete and circumstantial statement
of the whole case the book is therefore
of great service.
Much of what the author has to say Is
Of necessity not new. His very point Of
departure is familiar enough by now,
the fact. namely, that the founders Of
the Republic far from trusting the
common people distrusted them suff1-
ciently TO invent a series of checks upon
/ the exercise of their political power and
to carry on this system of controls from
the House elected by a restricted suf-
frage to the Senate, from the Senate TO
the Presidency, and thence TO the Su-
preme Court. Mr.. Weyl, as was TO be
expected, tersely holds that "the great
est merit-and the greatest defect-of tho
Constitution is that it has survived"
He calls the democracy of the Revolu-
tion shadow democracy" but ii may
be pointed out to him that this democ-
racy of 1116 was none the less in its own
time and generation a new democracy
indeed-as new and radical, indeed, as
that which he advocates in his pages
to-day.
The chief aim Of the young Republic,
Mr.. Weyl goes on TO say, was not the
fostering Of true demOcracy--whic the
early Americans believed they ALREADY
possessed, because they considered it as
something negative, the absence of
kinpc nnNIac
taxation without representaton-but the
conquest Of the continent
1t was not conscious choice few de-
! examinations OF great masses Of men are.
/ 1t was rather a blind inclining to great
yaSG used "a tPa Pind oo Iqlhlment Of the supreme
OF this continent from the Appalachians TO
the American Desert, and beyond and the
search FOR the wealth which was its en-
| bodimcnt, must set it's stamp upon the
acQuisiuvc, imaginative and starkly indi-
Vidualisttc American: II must set It's stamp
upon the feeble falterng, starky individu-
aiistlc state. The nation was compelled to
develop along lines hostile to the highest
political evolution. 1t was compelled to
sacrifice a large measure of immediate
progress in democracy in order that the
material substratum might he provided
upon which eventually a fuller deeper,
nationwide democracy could be reared. It
was perhaps way about-an instructive
detour.
1t was the West, thus the author pro-
ceeds-the West, with its apparently in
eXhaustible resources and the direction
and impetus and opportunity it offered
to American individualism that have
shaped the history of our country, the
character of our people and the social,
political and economic conditions that
confront US to-day, including that spirit
of reckless waste, Of disregard Of the
morrow whose results have begun to
confront us as one of our problems.
When the last frontier was reached. be-
tween 1869 and 1901, the pioneer ceased
to ignore the state, and turned TO it for
protection against the "big interests"
, lie now wished to do collectively what
he no longer could do by his individual
might" but the interests" had gradually
made the state powerless by means OF
the control Of politics. This is but n
bare and incomplete outline Of the argu-
ment which leads the author to his dis
cussion Of what he calls the common
objective to unite the new democracy
American plutocracy
What follows is chiefly recapitulation
OF the numerous charges that have so
often been made, but they are recapitu-
lated with amazing vim and conviction.
Our plutocracy, them says Mr.. Weyl,
seeks indirect but complete control of
our politics. business and finance, of our
press, universities and pulpits-it aims
at control of the intellectual as we'll
as the material market. 1t has organ
lied our industrial and commercial eff
cheney, now it would organize our social
existence as well, for one increasing pur-
pose. We have afirms the author in a
fcotnote,
among US. to-day the craft and subtlety
Of Louis the Eleventh Of France. the
narrow intensity Of a Philip the Second
OF Spain: the RIGHTEOUSNESS of n Henry
the Seventh Of England. the intensely
ambitious Oonhomto OF a Henry Of Navarro:
! the overWeening self-eonsoiousncss OF a
| grand monarch who could boast u Efot
rest moi Finally, before we leave this
comparison, which Is. Of course merely
illustrative. our despotic plutocrscv. after
yanquishing the business leaders inds
itself face 20 face with the broader
! masses of the people. Just as the Bour-
bons having at last made France one,