Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1913-05-30

tlons, especially the English-speak-
ing nations, have unreservedly com
mitted ourselves to the theory of
democracy. We are more and more
accepting democracy as the natural
order Of things. We have very
dreadful problems to work out
through the instrument of the bal
lot. The ballot rests on equality of
rights, of more or less common
views and common interests among
the people. Voting is species Of
conference. Minds meet and settle
questions in elections no less than in
town meetings.
A democracy is a people who rea-
son together and express their de-
cisions by their votes. If they do
not speak the same language, if
exists a great body of matters on
which they can not come to a mutual
understanding, if the mental gap be-
tween great factions among them is
too great to be bridged, if for any
reason there exists any irreconcil-
able antagonism among them, if
great bodies of them are in eco
nomic warfare, the democracy can
not exist.
That is why we are already in such
deep difficulties with our democracy.
We have many antagonistic classes.
We have trying times ahead 1t is
sure to be hard for us to weather the
storms which these problems will
generate. The labor question, the
trust question, the growing problem
Of farm tenantry, the amalgamation
Of the millions of European immi-
grants, the redemption of our back
war population in the Appalachian
mountains all these are hard things
to solve.
But the people of our own antag-
onistic classes look alike and feel
alike toward each other under like
circumstances. They .can and do mix
Remove the reasons for enmity, and
the enmity yanishes. Nobody can
tell Northerner from a Southerner,
or a Bohemian from Scotchman, or
the progeny of an old New York anti
renter from the descendant of a
PATRON, or a whiskey insurrection-
lists progeny from the descendant of
a soldier sent to put down the insur-
rection, so far as looks are con-
cerned. After all, our contending
forces. except for the negro, belong
TO the same basic race, and are un-
able to tell each other apart in few
years after any struggle takes place.
They have more intellectual and
spiritual similarities than they have
of any sort of differences. They mix
1t is different with the oriental.
His color sets him off from the rest
Of us so far as to make of him a
marked man. 1t may be urged that
this ought not to make any difference,
that a man is a man, no matter what
the tint of his skin. Granted-but
this is a democracy, and people must
be taken as they are. We can not
fraternize with colored peoples as
we do with each other They feel
lust as we do about it. We can not
do the business of a democracy with
people so strongly set off from us
in racial character Their presence
among us in great numbers raises
the most explosive questions-ques-
lions of sex, marriage, school life,
church life. business life, travelling
problems, questions of all sorts Of
mingling. Perhaps these questions
ought not to come up, but to urge
that is silly-they will come up.
The nation-every nation-must
keep out peoples whose presence
will complicate this matter of demo-
cratic solidarity. They must be Kept
out. not because they are Inferior
but in many cases because they are
so different. For these reasons Cali