The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-11-13
4 Strong Combinations
By DIR. FRANK CRANE

ITHERE are all sorts of schemes proposed as remedies for sociaF wrongs. Of these
 wrongs there are plenty. For instance the social evil, the drink evil, the trust evil, the evils of poverty, child labor, race prejudice, evils of this and of that. Now and again some new programme IS announced' such as socialism, philosophical anarchy Ca term used to distinguish altruistic from crim- iinal anarchy), single tax, progressivism, and so forth.
 | Why not try democracy, and Christianity?
 For what we need to keep in mind Is that we have not tried Christianity and found 1t wanting and; discarded it, but WE HAVE NEVER TRIED IT AT ALL. |, We have studied it, have looked hard at it, and have given it up as impossible. The thing to be remembered is that there never has been country upon earth where tne people have intelligeaSly set. about to act to- ward one another and toward the other coun. tries according to the simple princ1pies or Jesus. .;-H s|
 The theories of Jesus are plain as a pike staff They imply an absolute reliance upon the cosmic forces of goodness and an absolute refusal to attempt to aid these forces by any other force, physical moral. No com munity or organization ever dared do that. Men have always believed that the forces ot evil were too strong, and that unless resisted by rules, arms, and policemen they would de- stroy society.
 do not say men are not right, nor that Jesus was not mistaken; all l say IS we have no right to claim that Christianity has been given trial when we have never once made a common-sense effort to put It into effect.
 The same is true of democracy. Tnere never has been a democracy, though they called it so: it was feudalism with a ballot.
 Democracy is not universal voting. That is but a minor fragment. Democracy impiles simply one thing-absolute equality or op- portunity for every human being Untu you TRY this, what business have you in calling democracy . failure? And do you call it a domocracy where tne law is an intricate mesh of medieval prlVl- leges where the fright" of tnherltanee damns one baby to the slums and entities another to the possession of a million dollars "here Il,o production and distribution ot the eartn goods is controlled by irresponsible strong men or companies; where organized bands or interested noliticians manipulate elections, fill offices and dispose of public patronage while the great body of citizens, being entirely un- organized. look on, helpless and bewildered {; where children are put in schools that are | little monarchies to train them for self-gov- ernment in adulthood; where the workingmen l cannot
 inc of being human creatures but must or qanize into pugnacious union and get what they want only by private war; and where the ! whole fool populace are breaking their necks to get some kind of PRIVILEGE over their neighbors, the women to get into the exclusive set. the men to get into some organization where they can have the power and prestige not by earning them, but by belonging to something.
 I do not say that democracy will work, that it is not Utopian, wild-eyed, and revo.
 lutionary, also that it would not plunge uA into anarchy and ruin but do say that you
 are a trifle previous when you assert that
 democracy is played out. IT HAS NEVER
 BEEN TRIED.
 Mark Twain told the interviewer that tho report of his death was Slightly exaggerated"
 The like may be said of the statement that
 democracy and Christianity have been tested
 and found wanting. And can you blame some of us for not wishing to experiment with some new ism while we feel that the old plans
 would do five would apply thsnl