The Kennewick courier-reporter. [volume] (Kennewick, Wash.) 1939-1949, 1940-09-19

poSlClon OF our population, the we'll
known melting pot: marvel of the
world the high average in the STAN
dard of living among our laboring
people, the absence of a ruling
caste, and certainly the absolutely
unparalleled history of our land: it's
revolutionary birth, it frontiers, it's
records of an untrammelled and in
dependent people: their soil and
sunshine, their hardships and
trlumphs, their songs, prayers and
dreams. These are the very real
factors and elements which enliven
the administrative mechanics of our
democracy and make of it a living
organism with distinctive tradi-.
ton and way of functioning. Let
this he emphasized, that the spirit
and way of doing things is of ut
most Importance in our democratic
processes-of such essential i'm
portance that without them the me-
chanics of our politics would be
democratic only in form, or to para
phrase an ancient writer, they would
have the form of democracy, but
would deny the power thereof.
It is a fundamental law of biology
that a living organism can survive
only as long as it functions true to
its distinctive purpose and charact-
er. A political organism is subject
to the same law. Our democracy will
live and prosper so long as it func-
tons strictly as something unique.
We have affinities and common in
terests with other nations-indeed,
we strive toward the high ideals of
a brotherhood of nations-yet
nevertheless, we are separate and
different, the only democracy of its
kind in the world. We will survive
and fulfil our historic destiny so
long as we continue to be the Am
erican Democracy that we have
been and still are-not only in
method, but also of spirit!
A genuine American patriot is,
therefore, alert against external
trends which might easily spoil the
national scene. Such trends might
take the form of attitudes, among
them the common mistake that a
democracy is rule of the majority.
That is only half-truth at best.
Naziism raised itself on the support
of majority votes, and is rule of
the majority. Obviously, some
thing more than a quantity of
votes constitutes democracy. On the
other hand, our American Democ-
racy cannot be the monopoly of any
party, organization or group. There
may be organizations which devote
themselves especially to the task of
cultivating patriotism, but only the
nation as an undivided whole can
embrace all the patriots in its
realm. '...< 49,. 81.
BY the same token, no individual
can be or can be labelled as the sym
Dol or incarnation of American
Democracy. If we are to have an
embodiment of Americanism we
should have to contrive composite
body of Benjamin Franklin, George
Washington, Andrew Jackson, Abra-
ham Lincoln, Grover Cleveland,
| Theodore Rooseve1t-.to mention
only the names of political leaders
and merge with their features
those of characteristic poets, philos-
ophers, preachers, farmers, mechan-
ics-in short a cross-section OF all
| types of people who have been
rooted in American soil. Neither in
the past nor in the present can be
found the man who can. be placed
by himself and said to be the stand
ard of Americanism. American De-
mocracy abhors the cult OF any per-
1 son however great he may have
been. 4"
The intelligent patriot will be
careful not to allow his conception
of democracy to be over-simplified,
for example, to reduce it to mere
politics. Democracy is an attitude
of mind, a condition of soul. The
corpuscles in the blood of American
Democracy are politics, but also
religion, economics, sociology, art.
Our exceedingly lively and varigated
historical epic shows Americanlsm
to be nothing static. 1t could not
be, for it is a living organism. 1t
grows, goes through various stages,
| moves, but through it all it remains
true to itself. This remarkable his
torical phenomenon is due to one
thing, namely, that our American
Democracy is not government OF
persons or parties, but of laws. In
the earliest political documents OF
our history the theory of government
as a contractual relationship found
expression. Contracts are made by
men, but then supersede them. This