THE STRUGGLE FOR EQUALITY 193 



One of the most salutary uses of political agitation is, by sounding a 

 note of caution, to keep business from running to that excess from which 

 it is sure to rebound. Even agitation that is purely destructive may 

 serve this purpose, however harmful it may be in other ways. The com-, 

 plete cessation of political agitation among a people so self-confident as 

 those of the United States would in all probability result in such a reign 

 of speculative activity as to prove a calamity. The politician helps to 

 keep the industrial ship from becoming topheavy. 



The fact that political agitation brings out the social side of modern 

 life goes far to compensate for any unwarranted interference by agita- 

 tors with business affairs. The various facilities, such as schools, books 

 and magazines, which quicken the popular intelligence, would exist to 

 little purpose if the ethical relations in which the age is so rich were 

 barred from discussion. But for politics, considerations of public policy 

 and the equity of social and industrial relations would receive all too 

 scant attention. Few things bring out better the fact that we are all 

 members one of another, or do more to turn people aside from sordid 

 and purely personal ends. There is no game in which the nation finds 

 more delight than politics. Few matters are so frequently the subject 

 of editorial comment or occupy more space in the newspapers and 

 magazines. 



Our recurring presidential campaigns have an educational value 

 which the preferential primary by compelling rival candidates to make 

 their appeals directly to the voters promises to enhance. The discussion 

 of such questions as free silver, the tariff, conservation, and the regula- 

 tion of trusts and railways stimulates the popular intelligence. Viewed 

 simply as a schoolmaster, Mr. Bryan has for years rendered the country 

 an invaluable service. The wisdom of electing state officers and both 

 houses of a legislature every year, as in Massachusetts, is more than 

 doubtful. It is a fair question, however, whether the gain in having 

 our presidential elections come every six years in place of quadrennially 

 is worth what would be lost educationally. The discussion of national 

 issues helps to preserve our sense of nationality. The primary purpose of 

 democracy is not that men may become rich, but that human nature 

 may be perfected by discussion, deliberation and criticism, by exercising 

 the power of self-control, and by learning to give due weight to the 

 rights of others. Any civilization is to be judged by the way it reacts 

 upon the moral and spiritual side of man, and not by the extent, to 

 which it heaps up riches, however necessary the latter may be to human 

 wellbeing and progress. 



Ill 



In politics, as elsewhere, discretion is sometimes the better part of 

 valor. The protected interests have mainly themselves to thank for the 

 reduction of the tariff which they have experienced at the hands of the 



