The Alaska citizen., 1912-04-08

1 orators cry II. insults the memory of man who did more than any other American to crush partisan ship and seCtarianism. It is the effort of little minds to cut down a
 Big Idea to fit their small defni
 tions As somebody once remark ed, it is the fate of all original and creative characters to be travestied by their disciples.
 Democracy. as Jefferson preached
 it. was not a party, but a condition. a state of mind It was not a pol itical theory in itself but an ap- peal from theories--a demand that the world quit it's constitutions and ruts. and return to the nature of man and the nature of things" If he fought for one thing more than another. it was to smash the legal and conventional obstacles that held the masses of men in sub jection, and made the Many the l victims of the Few
 Jefferson, in a word. had the ! DEMOCRATIC mind. and the req son why he was hated in his life. and is now misunderstood, is due to the fact that the average person has the ARISTOCRATIC mind Right here is the distinction that bears l importantly upon Americans prob lens and Americas future Most l people with aristocratic minds. for instance, are perfectly certain that they have democratic minds Many of us imagine that if we speak gen We could ride, or sit in a plain seat when We c0uld afford a theater box. that We are Democrats.
 Speaking of the democratic mind" here is a definition by J. H. billiard | He is not known to the writer, either personally or by reputation, but his article in Louis F. Posts Public, from which these excerpts are taken, stamp him as a great and good thinker.
 What. then, is the test. what ! the touchstone of the democratic mind? If it is not necessarily found i in our works or in our manners. or our political professions, if it is not to be found in intellectual keen ness, not in religious requirements, not in the practical efforts and ben efactions of humanitarianism and philanthrophy, where shall We find l it? The test after all is a simple one. It depends upon our attitude ! toward men, depends upon where We lay the emphasis in dealing with and thinking of the men that are about us, rich and poor. high and low, clever and stupid, thrifty and lazy. respectable and of no repute pious and criminal It depends upon whether we lay the emphasis upon man as man, upon the value of man as man, or upon the distinc- tions between man and man.
 If We lay the emphasis upon the value of man as man. we under stand the meaning of the word equality, which is wisdom to the democratic mind, but to the aris- tocratic mind stumbling block and foolishness. If we lay the em- phasis upon the value of man as man, we understand the sentence that all men are born equal, a sen tence, which is of course perfect stiffness to the mind which empha- sizes the distinctions between man and man. It is not that the aris- tocratic mind may not value man as man, it is not that the democratic mind does not see the mountains of differences among men; the point is, which idea is put first?"
 "* * In all who have the dem ocratic mind towards others there must be the recognition of, and de- sire for, the right of each to his best development, and the recog- ntion of the further essential fact that this best development can only be attained in freedom. Here again