The Washington herald., 1919-02-17


If the Peace Conference wishes to
promote popular government every
where II must protect patriotic senti-
ment everywhere. In other words. IL
there is one necessity of the case 1t is
that the international settlement
should be a national settlement. 1t
must not be, or attempt to be, mere
ly cosmopolitan settlement
We all claim to be in favor of the
self-determination of peoples, and that
very phrase marks something different
from the mere self-determination of
people.
Underground Autocfacies.
Men can govern themselvess but
mankind is too big to govern itself.
That is why all Of the largest expert
ments Of the past have been empires
and, therefore, autocracies. The
greatest danger Of the future is some
thing much worse-underground au-
tocracies-the hidden rule Of the few
through finance and intrigue. For we
are all ready, hope, TO denounce Sc
cret diplomacy; but the most secret
diplomacy Is never denounced because
it is never detected and 1t is never
detected strangely enough because 1t
is secret
All this the democracy feels. II only
subconsciously. everywhere, and Is
the reason OF the tradition that the
rabble is lingo.
This is true. strangely enough, of a
Bolshevist rabOle, as I hope to show
later in the Russian and German ex
amples.
But there are now so many interna- |
tional intellectuals, who think they
know all nations by knowing none |
and to whom this popular patriotism
seems a mere paradox, that 1 must |
here very roughly sketch. for the
sake of a subsequent argument, why ,
l think this national or local spirit a |
thing both spontaneous and perma-
nent. 1t inheres in certain fundamen- |
tai facts of humanity and in consid-
ering 1t we must once more remem- |
ber what sociologists too often for
get-that the citizen is, among other |
things, man.
Guided By Instinct.
First. the plain man everywhere |
has all instinct that these provinces |
or divisions are the places where de-
mocracy can really be achieved. He !
does not always analyze the reason;
but there always is a reason. 1t is !
the fact that equality exists most !
completely in relation to obvious
things.
tan astronomer does not see the
sun any palmer than an agri- /
cultural laborer sees it; and even a |
white man and a black man are equal |
in seeing the difference between /
black and white. Now, the citizen (!
feels that the simple things about /
which men most feel their equality /
are the things on the spot.
Suppose we are considering the con- /
crete case OF one village living !
largely by grazing and dairy produce !
About the fact that milk comes from /
a COW the villagers are really equal; !
no despot or diplomatist can deceive !
them about such things. They hold !
these truths TO be self-eVident.
When certain people in Eastern !
Europe say they can rule themselves !
and set up some democratic institu- !
tion in their land, they are talking |
sense and saying something rational |
even IL they are doing something yio- |
lent.
Where Psychology RciSns.
But when they offer to set up
democratic diplomacy over all lands, |
an International network of repre- !
sentstives" covering the whole world. |
then they are talking nonsense and |
dealing with they know not what !
They might send out diplomats but
they would certainly not send out
democrats.
The system would be much too dip
lomatic to be democratic. The system
would encourage the worst and most
secretive OF the wealthy to be the
H. ,Fr IHG-
tinction is worth defining. for it cuts
in a contrary direction to such current
talk.
In things like the Russian revolution
it is rather the part that is illegal
which is legitimate because it is local.
1t is the part that is legal. the at
tempt to draw up a cosmopolitan code
for all nations, that Is to be resisted
to the death.
At least, they murdered men they
knew something about: theyare try
ing to rescue or benefit men they
knew something about; they are try
who refuse to be rescued.
There is a great deal more to be
said for Bolshcvist riot than for Boil
shevist rule.
But there Is another fact of practi-
cal psychology which ConvinCes me
that the normal man must always be
the national man. AS the former
fact applies more especially to the
wild Eastern lands this applies more
especially TO the civilized Western
lands, but both laws apply to all
lands
This second truth may roughly be
defined by saying that no normal man
will accept an abstraction as the COM
plete copy of an actuality. His re-
fusal is intellectual as we'll as instinc-
tive.
Locality Makes IA Difference.
An American will be rightly proud
of a unique type of Federal democ-
racy, combining wide local liberties
with a single popular executive. But
transfer this bodily from the Ameri-
can States to the German states and
all Americans will be conscious that
the new experiment is really new.
They may admit it is Federal. They
may admit it is free; they will nat
urally not admit it is American.
They may think it a better Germany.
but they would think 1t much worse
America.
The nations, especially the western
nations, have a high historic COM
plexity and continuity which they
will not have simplified in the sense
OF stultified.
Any Nihilism which moves out of
the east to DESTROY the nations will be