The Will of The People BY FRANCIS SULLIVAN LOS ANGELES THE RAY PUBLISHING CO. 1919 Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924031446432 TheWill of The People BY FRANCIS SULLIVAN LOS ANGELES THE RAY PUBLISHING CO. 1919 Copyright,1919,byTheRayPublishingCo. The Will of the People Reflections on an Unfinished Task CONTENTS Chap. Page I A Strong Castle Without Windows 3 II The Penalty of a Low, or No Standard 12 III Superiorities and Inferiorities 19 IV Nationalism and Internationalism 25 V The State and Education 33 VI An Injurious Conception of the Func- tions of the State 46 VII Other Things We Forgot 55 VIII Patrons of Art and Letters 62 IX The Eternal in Time 70 X The State and Religion 78 " 'Un livre est une lettre ecrite a tous les amis inconmis que l'on a dana le monde. The Will of the People CHAPTER I A STRONG CASTLE WITHOUT WINDOWS The world at large seems now more disposed than ever before to enter into an examination of the democratic form of government with a view to practice. Manyofthe advantages of democracyare quite obvious. It is agreeable to the mind of man to conceive that he is governing himself. It adds a good deal of dignity to the part he plays in the world. He is, in truth, at length conceded to be a rational animal who may be entrusted with his own control. Surely there can be no disputing that democracy is the most flattering to the in- dividual intelligence of any of the systems de- vised for the regulation ofman in society. Then again, democracy is plainly in harmony with a pronounced material well-being for a great many. This is apparent if one contrasts the dis- tribution of riches created or acquired in the development of the north and south halves of the American continent. In the case of South Amer- ica, under monarchy, great riches were accumu- lated, but their distribution was highly restricted, while in the peopling of North America, a repub- lic, so very many have been admitted to share in its wealth that a common notion seems to pre- vail in Europe that every American is a nabob. Abstractly considered, the prevalence of the will of the majority seems to be the most philo- sophic principle which can obtain in civil govern- ment. With so much that is attractive about it one must always approach the side of defect with a sympathetic interest. 4 THE WILL OF THE PEOPLE And perhaps the chief failing of popular gov- ernment, as we find it at present, will be a want of vitality. This will proceed not so much from the common faults which have been imputed to it, such as a tendency to dishonesty in public of- ficials, a want of coherency in times of stress, or a childish fondness for change and novelty, but rather, chiefly, from an incapacity for distinction. It sounds fanciful that a fault so apparently wiredrawn, so far removed from the actualities of sufficient food to eat, and clothes to wear, and houses—to live in, and security at home and peace abroad i—n a word, an objection so apparently effeminate could be the greatest menace which threatens the richest and in many respects the most envied civilization in the world. Yet, such is our conviction and in what follows an endeavor has been made both to account for the presence in modern democracy of this peril and to lay be- fore the reader proposed avenues of escape from a universal dominion of the commonplace and inferior. People who concede the reality of the evil might say, "You have an easy solution. Substi- tute a monarchy." But there are doubtless many millions of us, who, granting the efficacy of such a remedy (which we are by no means prepared to do), will not listen to the advice. And if we should ever be brought to so fell a condition it would be only by the working of some deep, in- exorable law of human nature, but not with our individual consents. For we are tainted with a passion for the democratic ideal, defective and partial as it may at present be. We have no de- sire to go back into the—house of bondage. We are at bottom idealists a republican is, in the very nature of things, the greatest idealist alive. THE WILL OF THE PEOPLE 5 We cherish the n—otion in the abstract, we love it in the particular of a man governing himself, being his own king and magistrate through the intellectualism of a ballot. To our minds, never did the philosophers of Greece, in that flowering time of the human spirit, nor never will the philo- sopherin any conceivable future be able to evolve any political notion which shall have attached to it so much dignity and intelligence as the demo- cratic ideal. We—would not consent to do away with democracy we desire to further perfect We democracy. are persuaded that there are certain imperative demands of human nature which the democracy we possess does not appear capable of satisfying. But this is not to say that a reconstructed and perfected democracy would not satisfy them . We believe it would. And some of us, at least, are desirous of experimenting inorderto see if such a result cannot be achieved. While the philosophic principle of democracy, as we have said, appears to us forever beautiful, forever attractive, we are at the same time per- suaded that the practical tendency of the rule of themany in modern societies has been toward the A illiberal and commonplace. calamity thus identified, we think, arises from such democracy having too much followed its line of least resist- ance. To this line of least resistance, the most definite characteristic of which is inactivity of the intellect, we would oppose as the sufficient rem- edy, mental culture. Not mental culture as furtively nibbled at by bewildered solitaries, but mental culture as the serious concern of the state. We do not claim everything for culture. We do not affirm thatitwill heal the body or save the soul, but we do believe that culture is the chief source and fountain in human life of the inter- 6 THE WILL OF THE PEOPLE esting. The unrest, dissatisfaction, ennui, which one nowsees so largely on every hand, and which is apt to be attributed to so many random agen- cies, we believe to be but an indication that in our present scheme of political and social well-being something has been left undone. And that that something is the provision by the state of the means for satisfying fundamental cravings—in the human soul for beauty, order, distinction in a word, the interesting. To those who do not sympathize with our en- thusiasm for what is rare, fine, elevated or dis- tinguished, but who yet would like to preserve democracy, we would say that in following some such notion as is adumbrated in these pages, they may at last be but obeying the instinct of self- preservation. One might remind those who wish to see this present democracy in North America persist, that in time, if they do not take suitable action, the mere accumulation of wealth will mechanically settle the matter. Not wealth while in the hands of the original possessors of it. Be- cause they have not had the leisure which the suc- cession to that wealth will provide, they are scarcely to be reckoned with at all. But their grandchildren and their grandchildrens' children will be quite another race. Inherited wealth gives time for reflection and meditation, which, in turn, almost lead mathematically to certain so- cial results. For people thus circumstanced it be- comes annoying and baffling to pass their lives with asecond bestwhen they might have the best. As time mellows their circle they will be apt to cast their eyes about, and if anywhere in the world they observe the noble and brilliant things of life in higher honor and esteem, they will sigh for that civilization. And here the danger for