East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1915-10-30
College Democracy
lBy Benjamin Idle Wheeler, presi.

tby Benjamin Ide Wheeler, Presi.
dent University of California,
No region of our country holds a
monopoly on democracy There are
snobs good and plenty in Kansas.
and there are democrats with a real
small d living abundantly in the most
proper streets of New York and Phil
delphia. Tammany Hail uses the
title democratic to label a govern
ment as oligarehic as that Of the
Dodges, and that most democratic
piece of mechanism. the New Eng
land town meeting, served for many
GLORIOUS generations the purpose Of
government by respectability. The
. Tine aristocraey of the south calls it.
self democratic, and the valiant de-
mocracy of Iowa and Wisconsin reg
listers republican.
We are evidently dealing here with
a considerable confusion both of I'll
ties and attributes, and it is a confu-
sion In which these resides no hope
of Qualification unless from the be-
ginning we omit all consideration of
the cases with capital d. Even then
the hope is small enough. Does any
body know just what it is to be al
democrat and be demoeratic-and
will he tell? Is not each man more
humanity inclined to think it means
being more or less like himself?
There is an enormous amount of
self-deception about this business Of
being democratic.
All the demagogues claim they are
democrats, and most OF them have
said it so many times that they prob
ably believe it. But the man who
stirs other men to act for false rea-
sons, as the demagogue does is in
reality an autocrat; he sets up the ar
bitrary rule of the lie as power
from without, instead of the self-vin-
dicatins truth as the power from
within.
I have known men who based saith
in their own democracy on their
preference for broad-brimmed,
black slouch hat: and there was once
Texas senator whose sturdy adjur-
alton of dress coat convinced him
that he was a democrat and made
him try to convince other people
thereof, though he afterwarded turn
ed out, Prince Albert and all, to be
a reactionary. A narrow black string
tie has aso repeatedly failed to make
a man a democrat Neither is dis
heveled hair nor muddy boots nor
yet neglect of the tub, an unerring
mark of faith in the people such
things are not democracy; they rep
resent at the most a spurious sort Of
laissez faire, better known as laziness. /
There is a great deal said these
days about college democracy, and
it seems to be a commodity much I
sought after, but one which it IS not
altogether easy to identify by out. |
ward tokens. 1t does not follow un-
erringly upon the wearing of the
sombrero or the sweater, nor upon
the extending of the gladstone hand.
nor upon any practice like addressing
Henry in a confident and throaty
tone by the appeilation Hank"
On the other hand. the possession
Of superfluous goods is not in itself
a sure preventive of the democratic
quality though the command Of al
dog car or automobile represents a
disparity Of equipment which will dol
its best to tear up democracy root
and branch and make, for the stu
dent so equipped, his college course
in all its bearings vain and void a
college is a community, and it exer-
cises its chief influence in the train
ing Of its students.
When a man goes to college he had
better make himself as quickly as
possible a thoroughgoing member Of |
the body polite, and see to it that no
accidents Of birth or bank account
put him out of touch with the mass. /
Here may be a mans one chance
in all his life to submit his mcnta
mechanism his notions, and his man
ners to a breezy tribunal of public |
opinion, which takes him just as he /.