STATE EDUCATION : A HELP OR HINDRANCE? 589 



decided to affirm or deny. But, whenever you call upon part of the 

 nation to administer some great institution, the case becomes wholly 

 different. Here all the various and personal views of men can not be 

 represented by a simple Yes or No. A mixed mass of men, like a 

 nation, can only administer by suppressing differences and disregarding 

 convictions. Take some simple instance. Suppose a town of fifty 

 thousand electors should elect a representative to assist in administer- 

 ing some large and complicated institution. Let us observe what hap- 

 pens. It is only possible to represent these fifty thousand people, who 

 will be of many different mental kinds and conditions, by some prin- 

 ciple which readily commands their assent. It will probably be some 

 principle which, from its connection with other matters, is already 

 familiar to their mind made familiar by preceding controversies. For 

 example, the electors may be well represented on such questions as 

 " Shall the institution be open or closed on Sundays ? shall it be open 

 to women ? shall the people be obliged to support it by rate ? and, 

 when rate-supported, to make use of it ? " But it will at once be seen 

 that these are principles which do not specially apply to any one insti- 

 tution but to many institutions. They are principles of common politi- 

 cal application they are, in fact, external to the institution itself, and 

 distinct from its own special principles and methods. The effect, then, 

 will be that the representative will be chosen on principles that are 

 already familiar to the minds of the electors, and not on principles that 

 peculiarly and specially affect the institution in question. Existing 

 controversies will influence the minds of the electors, and the constit- 

 uency will be divided according to the lines of existing party divi- 

 sions. Both school boards and municipal government yield an example 

 that popular elections must be fought out on simple and familiar ques- 

 tions. The existing political grooves are cut too deeply to allow of any 

 escape from them. 



"But," it may be replied, "as intelligence increases, and certain 

 great political questions which are always protruding themselves are 

 definitely settled, the electorate may become capable of conducting 

 their contests simply with regard to the principles which really belong 

 to the matter itself." Another difficulty arises here. Without dis- 

 cussing the possible settlement of these ever-recurring political ques- 

 tions, it ought to be remembered that, in the case of increased intelli- 

 gence, we should have an increase in the number of different views 

 affecting the principles and methods of the institution in question ; 

 and, as we should still have only one representative to represent us, it 

 would be less possible for him than before to represent our individual 

 convictions. If he represent A he can not represent B, nor C, nor any 

 of those that come after C ; that is to say, if A, B, C, and the others 

 are all thinking units, and therefore do not accept submissively what- 

 ever is offered to them. He can only represent one section, and must 

 leave other sections unrepresented. But as these individual differences 



