The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1913-08-18

|
g1a&l B 1t is very easy a scheme
| for perfect society; Plato did it,
More. Fourier, Leblanc, Owen, their fine
plans ended in abortion the simple
in such hurry they tried wind it all up
and introduce the New Jerusalem a blow. All such
brilliant experiments doomed failure We cant
get there ahead of ourselves. What dent
really possess o construct society ar-
fcially and impose it from without people
ude them into thinking they have possession when real
ly they have only mirage. Social progress must be
achieved and wrought out Of actual experience other
wise it can't be retained. And all
Gordian knot cut, society
artfcialy. are vain and vicious The Paris Commune
may be used in ceratin example of this
There scheme planned by clever fast
ened wlynilly the community but worked more
harm than good and brought reaction simply
it was ahead of the people. They prepared
| it.
| A society cannot move any faster than it's
sources, its inner and genuine progress the
character of its citizenship will permit Vermont
hibitionists" have this. They a
hurry rid of the saloons didn't
very careful Investigations into the and
the saloon business consequently they found &C
cordng to the last official reports they merely
switched drinkers onto the habits
and thus have made opium
erstwhie acohoiss BY they expected
reform the state but they couldn't On con-
trary they have only succeeded In throwing
reactonary obstacle the path of certain
Another conspicuous example Of the futily haste
interesting story of the English Labor
laws. Bright Mill, Golden, and those other splendid
men and leaders fought like heroes wipe cry
ing shame of child which for long
made parts of England comparable only to the BLACK
Hole" Of
ceeded in getting passed few laws which put stop to
1t. But what is the result? Professor Karl
working in his Eugenics laboratory Oxford
traced the increase of crime insanity degenerave maa
dies and imbecilty straight to those laws. To
lief to the suffering victims factory own
odp nirohJo
oars after the laws passed thinking the task was
accomplished. Social reconstruction be wrought by
no such cheap and speedy methods passing law.
But the most fatal and dangerous Of all this
passion for short cuts out in the theories of
benevolent paternalsm which being pentfully
ended about heads. Benevolent paternasm the
theory that the people unfit to rule themselves there
fore able and benevolent be permitted
rule for them Carye's theory prosperity pro-
gress can alone come when we find hero who is
strong and kind take charge us. ar example.
Benevolent paternalism means of or
later class rule and that sapp
ing out Of the blood Of liberty and independently from
the veins Of the people Nothing could therefore
number of good people, sincerely democratic in feeling
who advocate it! Why is this? Simply because these
good folks impatient with the slow development
of the they can't resist the temptation hurry
the How stupid and hardheaded people
are, they exclaim how much better could 1t
them. Come let persuade them to give up the at
tempt selfgovernment permit to do it in their
stead"
1t is in this way that the very men and women
have often stood the path Of real democratic
growth and served brake progress it is
plain that nothing be subversve actual
democracy than this very theory. teach
er should How slow this boy is learning to
spell! shall boost him along getting lesson for
him Or as If mother should say, My child
In learning to walk that I shall walk it
sees me walking maybe it will to walk"
at but
merely the it. The only educative
force in the world Professor Dewey partcpa
ton in the realities life" only possible way to
learn but unearn actually unfit ourselves for
learning ALL
And this holds true selfgovernment The masses
can learn to govern themselves in only way and
that is by governing themselves They will make mis-
takes and stupid plumbers that is the only way
they learn. To quote English Waling, The es
sence of democracy is not that the people will
lily rule WELL but that 1t is indispensable they rule
themselves, in order that they learn rule" And
in the excellent pages of Henry w Nevinson's The
Growth of Freedom" splendid paragraph
which all that needs to be said this subject IS
racy, the plutocrat who endangers
liberty. Bureaucratic interference with
long plague European capitals from Lisbon
to st. Petersburg, threatens to infest the world.
called upon accept expert our controlling
guide and efficiency" the final government
Many of the pers OF monarchy other form
eminent from above lurk in such advice Even under
the most efficient officaldo, the
tain order, however mechanically perfect to organize
virtue and comfort however judicously proportionate
personality and variety government bet
ter than good government and self implies
the right to 1t is nobler nation as for
a man. to struggle towards excellence with its own
natural force and vitality, however bndy and vanly
guidance from without"