Imperial Valley press., 1940-03-11
Democracy sofe than IS centuries oeo
PIoo witnessed the foil Of democracy in Greece.
BY HENDRICK WIILEM

thousands of slaves who had as
much share in the government of
the country which they helped to
support as do our dogs and cats in
the United States of America today.
Came the Middle Ages and the
establishment of a large number of
small city-republicS like Genoa. We
nice. Sienna, and Florence in Italy
and NovgOrod in Russia, and Geneva
in Switzerland. Indeed. they were all
over the place, like "co-opcrativeS"
in our modern world
Because these cities called them
selves a res publica or common
wealth or republic. we have usually
drawn the easy conclusion that they
must therefore also have been de-
mocracieS. Nothing is further re-
moved from the truth.
For democracy. according to
Daniel Webster. is "a form of pov-
ernment IN which the supreme DOW
er Is retained by the people and is
exercised either directly or Indirect
ly through a system of representa-
ton and delegated authority. per-
iodically renewed"
But even the cautious Webster
hastens to add that even in the
most primitive forms. such as the
Athenlan democracy, where the
governing powers were directly eX-
erclsed by the assembled people. all
women, children and slaves were
excluded"
And he might have added that it
has been that way ever since and
in practically every part of the
world where the people had the cou-
rage to experiment with that most
difficult and periShable form of gov
ernment which Abraham Lincoln,
the great prophet of our own Sys-
tenn OF democracy, summed up in
the words of "a government of the
the people, by the people and for
the people"
Here and there in very small and
preponderantly rustic communities,
such As the old Iceland, a few of
the cantOns of Switzerland and in
several Of our own New England
townships, where everybody knew
everybody else, this sort of govern
ment of and by and for all the
people was able to maintain itself
Tor considerable number of years
and even for considerable num-
Der of centuries.
But the moment the essentially
rustic elements disappeared and
trade and commerce made their en-
trance, allowing the development of
q small group of rich people and a
large class of citizens without any
there was an end to this
ideal state OF affairs. For the mo-
ment economic inequality enters the
house of Democracy by the front
door, the expression equal rights"
becomes meaningless phrase.
Quite frequently the rich. fearing
the wrath of the disenfranchised
insisted upon maintaining
at least an outer Scmblance of
that might still vaguely
be recognized as democracy
But that inner spirit" of pride
in common destiny and a common
was apt to Wither and to
die when the poor man no longer
felt that he was a living factor in
the political scheme of things. In
every other way he knew that he.
with his little half-acre of land and
his dozen sheep, was no match for
his neighbOr who owned half a
county and who counted his flocks
by the tens of thousands.
If driven to desperation he might
take his trusted sword and defy the
power of the wealthy But if treated
fairly decently, he was usually more
than willing to let we'll enough
alone and to choose the easier path
of compromise and resignation.
For money means power and it
will continue to do SO until we shall
have found a moral substitute" for
this brutal material fact. And the
history of democracy is in reality the
eternal quest for that moral substi-
tute."
NEXT: The Cave Men Lived in
Tribes and Got the Idea for Demo.
cracy.