The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1939-09-28
The Cherry Tree
Where We Hutchet Out
The Truth
q DICTATORS AGAIN
@ EVOLUTION RAPID
q DEMOCRACIES SLOW
Q FEAR MAKES WAR
More about dictators.

The total of human happiness is the
sum of our ability to preserve our
own individuality while making wise
concessions necessary in relations with
others. The substitution of mutual
ity for unrestricted freedom.
The primeval savage had no restric-
tions whatever on his freedom. But
he did not have much of anything
else.
The first time two families tried the
experiment of living together in the
same cave, concessions and arrange
ments and reservations became neces-
sary. And this continued as the COM
munities grew from groups to tribes
and tribes to nations.
In our democracy, the evolution has
been startlingly rapid. The pioneer
shot his meat and planted his crops
without restraint. When restraint
irked, he just packed up and went
elsewhere. On a road that he made
himself. Daniel Boone moved from
his beloved Kentucky to Missouri be-
cause the congestion of population had
arisen to the smothering figure of five
to the square mile.
X X X
Now, for our own comfort and pro-
lection, we cannot cross street ex-
cept under rules established by those
to whom we have delegated the man.
agement of the necessary part of our
| liberties.
And right there, in the wisdom with
which we delegate control and to
whom, is the problem of the best gov
ernment.
Democracy is the best government.
For the simple fact is that the hu
man race has tried every other form
from absolute depotism to anarchy,
and found them all wanting in the
final test. This test is how the peo-
pie fare under them.
Democracies are slow. They are
just as wise or stupid as are the mass
minds of their citizens. But, in the
long run, they do give to the people
what they want. And not what some
one else decides they want or should
want.
And if we blunder, we can "cuss
out" each other and do better next
time.
If the executives we hire as man.
ayers blunder, we can change them
for some one else. Maybe better.
Maybe worse. But the one we col
lectively decide upon.
And, in the ability to blunder and
learn, in the old process of trial and
error, lies the hope Of human prog
| reSS.
On the contrary, delegation of too
much power, it's surrender so COM
pletely that we cannot take it back,
means that we have lost our power of
thinking, of decision, of racially grow
ing wisdom. Until generation or
two are on the road to become col
lective ''yes-men," syncophants and
robots.
One man may decide one question
better than 120,0O0,0OO may.
On the other hand, he will blunder
more completely and disasterously.
And when the people blunder, all
the people suffer-
But, when the dictator blunders, the
people do the suffering.
And they have no redress. Unless
some one shoots the dictator or he
dies. Ours is the best government in
the history of the world because we
hire the managers of our public busi-
ness for stated terms. And, when
these contracts expire, they have to
renew their contract, if they and we
want to, on the basis Of performance.
Just like your church. Or your vii
lage, or any firm of business you may
be so fortunate as to have an interest
in.
Because democracies are slow, they
must delegate more power in emer-
gencies, which need quick action.
X x 4
But we are safe as long as we
know what we are doing. That we
are dealing with temporary conditions
by temporary eXpedients.
And that we must retain the pow
er and the agencies through which we
can take back our rights of self-man-
agement when the emergency has
passed.
And wise ones have said that the
enslavement of people who hold fast
to the free ballot is impossible. 1t
looks that way, doesn't it?
And right there is the difference
between a democracy and a dictator
ship. In the first, the people have re-
tanned the say-so. They have the
power to give or to withhold And
they give or withhold as conditions
dictate.
A dictatorship is a democracy gone
wild. By force or persuasion, the
people have been fooled into giving up
their power, even the machinery for
regaining that power
And so they are marching up to the
machine guns in Europe, in the hands
of other puzzled and frightened fel-
low beings, because they are more
afraid of the machine guns that their
master has than they are of those of
the enemy he has selected. And they
will only be free again when the fears
are reversed