The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1919-09-19
M'CAULEY BELIEVED
u. s. WOULD CRASH;
DOUBTED DEMOCRACY
(Kansas City Starr

the house of lords shorn Of its one
time autocratic power and the labor
element in the saddle-as witness the
recent vote for the naturalization Of
the coal mines-England may be said
to have a government which broadly
approximates a pure democracy.
Great states are being broken up
after centuries Of historic identity in
order that workingmen may buy small
tracts and join the hitherto limited
army of land owners. There has been
a revolution, none the less remarkable
because 1t has been wrought through
an evolution.
There have been strikes and labor
troubles, generally settled by granting
the workingman's demands. There
has even been some rioting. although
resort to violence has been the excep-
ton and not the rule. But in effect
John Bull, while heavily taxing the
owners of great fortunes on one hand,
has been stuffing labor's pay envelope
On the other hand. Glass still exists
in England, but the once clearly de-
fined line between the classes is
wavering.
Would Be Shocked.
So If Lord Macaulay could return to
his native land today, sixty years after
his death in his siXtieth year, it would
be to receive a shock that would upset
his nineteenth century system OF eco
ponies.
For Macaulay believed that govern
ment should be by and for the minor
ity without consent of the majority.
The rule of democracy meant the rule
of ruin, for under it you could not
have liberty without civilization per
ishing, he held, and while he may have
confused liberty with license he was
very positive that civilization meant
God bless the rich; the poor can
beg"
Naturally Macaulay viewed with
alarm" the extension of the principles
of democracy in the United States. He
placed the blame, almost in so many
words, on Jefferson, writing of the
situation early in 1857:
There can, l apprehend, be no
doubt that your (American) institu
lions have during the whole of the
nineteenth century been constantly be-
coming more Jeffersonian and less
Washingtonian."
Didn't Like jefferson
"You are surprised to learn that
have not a high opinion of Mr.. JET
lSISOu, uS WIOlS NIL pduudll lulu
his home, Holly Lodge, Kensington
May %, 1857. Then he proceeded to
explain why he doubted democracy
and to picture the future as follows:
II am certain that l never wrote a
line, and that l never, in parliament
in conversation, or even on the hust
! ings-a place where It is the fashion
to court the populace-uttered word
| indicating an opinion that the SUI
| preme authority in a state ought tc
| be intrusted to the majority of citi
zens told by the head in other words
to the poorest and most ignorant part
of society.
Il have long been convinced that in
situations purely democratic must
sooner or later, destroy liberty or civ
| iliZation or both.
Il have not the smallest doubt that
| if we had a purely democratic gov
eminent here the effect would be the
same. Either the poor would plumber
the rich, and civilization would per
ish; or order and prosperity would be
saved by strong military government
and liberty would perish.
/ you may think that your country
enjoys an exemption from these evils
! will frankly own to you that l am Of
!
believe to be certain, though it is de
| ferred by physical cause. AS long a:
you have a boundless extent of fertile
and unoccupied land, your laboring
population will be far more at ease
! than the laboring population of the
lod world, and while that is the case
, the jefferson politics may continue
to exist without causing any fatal cal
amity.
But the time will come when New
England will be as thickly peopled a:
old England. Wages will be as low
and will f1uctuate as much with you
as with us. You will have your Man
Chesters and Birminghams, and il
those Manchesters and Birmingham
hundreds of thousands of artisans will
asuredly be sometimes out Of work
Then your institutions will be fair
ly brought to the test. Distress every
where makes the laborer mutinous ant
discontinued, and inclines him to list
en- with eagerness to the agitators whC
tell him that it is a monstrous I'M
guilty that one man should havt
S1,00O,O0O while another can not ge
full meal.
In bad years there is plenty o
grumbln here, and sometimes a littl
rioting But it matters little. For her
the sufferers are not the rulers. I'll
supreme power is in the hands of
class. numerous indeed, but select: o
an educated class: of a class which i
and knows itself to be deeply interest
ed in the security of property and tn
maintenance OF order"