The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1933-09-27

" 49, 5000
university. He believed in the omnipotence
Of the sovereign state and held that it should
act in a positive fashion for the betterment
Of mankind.
In his views on democracy he held that the
fundamental test is economic, rather than
political. A genuine democracy must go farther
than universal suffrage. 1t must bring about
an equitable distribution Of wealth. There is
no proof that Mr.. Roosevelt ever read a line
written by DR.. Burgess, but his policy and pro-
gram represent an adoption of Burgess doc
trines to a degree which the latter could
scarcely have foreseen.
1t was a favorite dogma Of the early Demo-
Gratis that if the people are not all equal in
ability, at least the masses can he trusted to
recognize superior men and put them into
Office. Such was the underlying doctrine of
Jef~fersonianism. Strikingly enough, however,
during the last century, the one in which
universal male suffrage has been in existence
not a single outstanding man has gone into
our White House as a result Of a clear popu-
lar majority under normal circumstances The
few able men who have reached the White
House in the last century have entered as a
result of some 1uke. party split. or special
crisis.
Mr.. Agar has rendered a very great service
in writing a book, The Peoples Choice" de-
voted specifically to this theme, namely, the
proof in actual experience that the people thus
far have been incapable of choosing able Presi-
dents of the United States.
Some may quarrel with particular esti-
mates, and he certainly rates Buchanan and
Taft too low and Tyler and Taylor too high.
But few informed historians will quarrel with
his general thesis and the interesting manner
in which he has sustained it. If democracy
can not do better in the future in assuring
competent leaders, some other method will
be devised to produce them.
Discussions of the success or failure of
democracy all are limited too often to con-
siderations of federal and state government.
After all, local government touches the masses
more frequently and directly than the policies
and DEGREES of larger governmental units.
OF all the examples of the ox-cart in the
airplane age, so far as politics is concerned,
nothing is more striking or absurd than the
perpetuation of the ancient county units and
activities from the colonial and early national
period into our urban and industrial age.
The county complexities and duplicates the
machinery of government in relation both to
the state and the new municipality. If demo-
cracy is TO succeed in the United States, we
shall need something more than able Presi-
dante apd Sl,ocaecerI faderoI DoIiciec
Local government will have to be adapted
to existing realities. Local units must be
consolidated, brought into proper unifcation
within the state and rendered subordinate
where desirable to the new municipal inSti-
buttons which have grown up since the county
system originated. The county incubus in
New York City is only the most striking ex-
ample of this anachronism in modern political
life. The facts are presented admirably by
Professor Bromage.
MI. Finnegan gives us a thoroughly up-to-
date analysis OF Tammany Hall and its opera
tons in state and city politics in "Tammany
at Bay" 1t is a very valuable supplement to-
the histories Of Tammany Hall by Myers and
others. 1t Is valuable especially in destroying
the myth of the New Tammany" discovered
by AL Smith, Walter Lippmann and others.
1t certainly is permissible for one who feels
that way to defend Tammany Hall as a po-
litical institution. But it hardly is defensible
for one to base such a justification upon the
allegation that the Tammany of Curry is ut
terly different in kind from the Tammany of
Tweed and Croker.
Incidentally, Mr.. Finnegan completely wipes
the ground with the once pleasant fiction
that Mr.. Mckee might serve as the great
white hope" of the a~nti-Tammany cause. Mr..
Mckee apparently has obtained just about the
sort of position for which his talents fitted
him.
An important phase of the reconstruction
of city government may be the growth of the
municipal home rule movement. just now
this tendency has suffered a marked decline
in exuberance and popularity. What It's tu-
ture will be only time can tell. DR.. McGold-
rick has brought out a scholarly supplement-
to the standard work on the subject by Pro-
fessor McBain of Columbia university, Law
and Practice of Municipal Home Rule" 1t
measures up thoroughly to the high stand
ards set by the original volume, and has the
additional advantage Of having been written
by a man technically trained in law and with
thorough practical knowledge of the problems
of municipal government.
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