The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1917-04-12
The PEOPLES FORUM.
.lr. Ralston Contributes His Final
Article on Matters Relative to the
Government of Maryland.

Government of Maryland.
To the Editor of The Republican:
In writing this closing article | can
not do better than quote few SEN
fences from De Tocqueville's Demo
cracy in America. Determined ad-
mirer of democratic government yet he
was entirely alive to its faults and
dangers. Speaking of the people under
democracy, he said. They. console
themselves for being in tutelage by
the reflection that they have chosen
their own guardians. Every man al
/ lows himself to be put in leading strings
because he sees that it is not a person
or class of persons, but the people at
/ large that hold the end of his chain.
By this system thee people shake off
their state of dependence just long
enough to select their master, and then
relapse into it again. A great many
persons at the present day. are quite
content with this sort of compromise
between administrative despotism and
the sovereignty of the people; and they
think they have done. enough for the
protection of individual freedom when
they have surrendered it to the power
of the nation at large.
Again he says: Tt. is in vain to
summon people, which has been rem
dered so dependent on the central pow
er, to choose from time to time the rep
resentatives Of that power; this rare
and brief exercise of their free choice,
! however important it may be, will not
prevent them from gradually losing the
faculties Of thinking, feeling and act
ing for themselves and thus gradually
falling below the level of humanity. |
add that they will soon become incap-
able of exercising the great privilege
which remains to them" He further
believed that it was 'easier to es-
tablish an absolute and despotic gov
eminent amongst people in which
the conditions of society are equal. than
amongst any other; and | think that if
such government weresonce establish
ed amongst such people, it would not
only Cypress man, but would eventually
strip each of them OF several of the
highest qualities of humanity"
In what | have written | have en-
deavored as well as was possible to me
to point out the fact that the people of
the State of Maryland have surrender
ed their liberties. without full con-
seriousness of the fact that they have
allowed corruption to increase among
them; have permitted their rulers to be
the choice not of the people at large
but of narrow olgarchles known as
machines; have allowed their powers
over legislation to rest in the hands of q
few men largely controlled by selfish
interests; have been content, as De
Tocqueville indicated, to consider that
their duties to the Government were
| fulfilled when they had expressed a
choice for certain men for public Of
flee and, as he did not point out, but
Tames Bryce has described, these Sc
lected by machines have multiplied the
powers of machines by indirect and in
efficient government; have perpetuated
systems of taxation oppressive to in
dustry, and not at all proportioned to
the benefits conferred by government
and society at large.
Notwithstanding the serious indict-
ments which may be brought against
our state. government because of It's
departures from true democracy and
because of the many respects in which
it has shackled the political freedom of
our citizens, do not believe, and l
should exceedingly regret to believe,
that conditions in Maryland are in any
| degree hopeless.