Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-01-11
GOVERNMENT BY GUILD
By DR.. Frank Crane

Government by guilds has from time to
time been vigorously cracked up. The defi-
ciencies of democracy are gl&ring But the
deficiencies of the minds who criticise it are
more glazing.
Almost all of the faults OF democracy arise
from the fact that it a growth and the very
idea of growth implies constant imperfections
to be overcome with time. Many do ~dS an
derstand that you cannot have sweet, ripe
pear without first you have sour, green one.
The Lessimists and the cynics are the spoilt
children who stand under the tree OF life, bite
into the green fruit untimely dropped, and
curse the tree because all its fruit Is not ripe
the day it is formed.
Government by guilds is OF the many
fantastic efforts to achieve perfection by
bound.
1t is easy to form guild, labor union, or
a secret society. And because 1t is so easy
the unbaked mind leaps at once to the con-
cusion that it would be a simple matter TO
compose a nation of such units.
Oswald Garrison Willard in 1919 said:
Changing the basis Of our representation to
the soviet form would not only give us a
different government, but would give us a dif.
ferent feeling toward our government. we
have lost all respect for our legislative bodies.
L nave IOuuu Cudl the SON1cC III NhOoSO"' "Ah~A
is composed of proletarians only, compares
most favorably with the Albany and Harris
burg legislatures"
I The Bolshevik Government In Russia is in
effect a government by guilds. At least IL
radically differs from democracy in America
by the fact that it's unit OF representation Is
not the individual human being but the clan
engaged in some sort Of labor.
The guild idea is that the real component
| ho orr
and that the legislature would be better com
| posed of men representing plumbers brick
| layers lawyers, physicians, teamsters, ana So
on. than by a man representing Illinois, Cook
County or some other geographical unit.
The root trouble withs the guild idea is that
it assumes the fixity OF classes. IL II does
not assume it, it makes for It,
The root idea of democracy Is tnaC Glasses
are temporary and fluctuating. The very
! fundamental idea of every American Is tnat ne
| does not have to remain in his class, and quite
! often that he does not intend to DO so. Demoe'
racy keeps all the doors and corridors open
/ between the classes. The soviet or guild IDEA
| bolts them. 49,
Democracy Is fluid, as life is fluid. 1t is
living growing thing. The guild idea is
| fixed boxed and artificial, as all mans. hand
| work is artificial.
, Both the soviet system and democracy aim
at the millennium. But democracy would
grow the millennium. The soTiets and the
guilds and the Socialists would construct the
millennium with their clever saws and ham,
mers after the specifications Of Karl Marx or
somebody else.
labor movement which shall educate the
common man as to his rights and duties, and
| shall equip him to take his place in the nor"
NAL working out of democracy, is a good thing
| and is in line with evolution. But labor
movement whose end is found only in the
organizing of iron-clad bodies of men after
the manner of the Chinese secret societies,
| who act only for the motive Of better pay and
| less work and only by the means OF violence
or the Gripping Of business, is undemocratic
I and un-American.