Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-04-03
Dangerous Short Cut in
Government,
BY ER. FRANK CRANE.

Democracy seems clumsy. 1t is an
awkward, indirect way to get things
done.
The business man lifts his hands in
horror at the idea of running his con-
Germ by a vote of the men employed or
by any committee; the only efficient way
to do things, he tells you. is for one
man to do them. There must be head,
and one head, to an enterprise il you
want success.
This is truth The most efficient method
of government is an absolute monarchy.
For accomplishing results quickly and
well the best system is where there is
one unauest.oned boss, who does not have
to consult anybody
1t is dangerous truth. 1t is so
treacherous in it's plausibilty that it has
received the very eject IN economics.
Carlyle shifted at democracy; he was all
for the strong man, the hero.
But here les the trouble-that We can
not find the human being worthy to be
intrusted with this autOcratic power.
There may be such persons, but there
is no way of telling whether given
man is one of them.
We have tried all sorts of methods
heridty, based on the superstition that
if one were born to power there would
be no temptation for him to abuse 1t.
Placed by birth in the position of highest
privilege, he would find nothing more he
could want and so could not be bribed.
This is the English idea-government by
class noble and wealthy enough to
be unbr.b able.
But heredity won't work. Human ma
ture is too weak. The end invariably
is that the favored man or class, instead
of feeding the sheep, shears them. They
are content to live in luxury, upbOrne
by the multitude in poverty.
The church has experimental with
autocracy but has discovered that not
even the ecclesiastic. hedged in by vows
and plighted to a life of asceticism, can
solute power. Perhaps no. government
has been more tyrannical and cruel than
government by the parson in early New
England or by the priest in Europe.
Even in the family many look with
admiration upon the old-style domestic
tyrant. the father who gave word and
a blow and ruled with rod of iron. "Ah.
in those days children were well be-
haved!'
That kind Of father has disappeared.
simply because he was fntolerable. Abb
solute authority will not work in the
family, in the government, anywhere.
Because it is a short cut, aiming to do
by artificial means what can be well
done only by natural means.
The object of government is not to get
things done, the object of the family is
not to secure silence and obedience. the
object of business is not to make money
freedom and justice for the individuals
that compose it. The state exists for
the citizen. All he asks OF it IL to see
that he has free play This is the Anglo
Saxon idea, as opposed to the ancient
theory that the individual exists for the
state.
The family is designed to develop the
children, not to make father comfort
able
The object of business is primarily to
serve the general public with honest and
needed goods and to give employment
under wholesome conditions to workers,
and only secondarily to fatten the owner
with huge profits.
Democracy emphasizes the human end
of affairs. Autocracy insists on the me-
chanical end.
Democracy aims to develop the people;
autocracy to exploit them.
. Hence democracy is slow because Ii is
a principle of growth.
1t is so much easier for a teacher to
give the child a sharp command and en-
force it with stick; but it IS vicious
short cut.
1t is a long way round. for them that
govern, to enlighten. explain and educate
But it is the only way.
The object of all government is to i'm
prove the quality of the governed. In
other words. it is to save the people, not
to rule them.
That IS why democracy is wholly true
and all absolutism only half true, and
hence more evil than o lie.