

APPLETONS' - llO& 



POPULAR SCIENCE 

 MONTHLY. 



NOVEMBER, 1899 



THE REAL PROBLEMS OF DEMOCRACY. 



By FEANKLIN SMITH. 



ML'CH has been written of late about " tbe real problems of 

 democracy." According to some " thinkers," they consist 

 of the invention of ingenious devices to prevent caucus frauds and 

 the purchase of votes, to check the passage of special laws as well 

 as too many laws, and to infuse into decent people an ardent de- 

 sire to participate in the wrangles of politics. According to others, 

 they consist of the invention of equally ingenious devices to com- 

 pel corporations to manage their business in accordance with Chris- 

 tian principles, to transform the so-called natural monopolies into 

 either State or municipal monopolies, and to effect, by means of the 

 power of taxation, a more equitable distribution of wealth. Ac- 

 cording to still others, they consist of the invention of no less in- 

 genious devices to force people to be temperate, to observe human- 

 ity toward children and animals, and to read and study what will 

 make them model citizens. It is innocently and touchingly believed 

 that with the solution of these problems, by the application of the 

 authority that society has over the individual, " the social con- 

 science " will be awakened. But such a belief can not be realized. 

 It has its origin in a conception of democracy that has no founda- 

 tion either in history or science. What are supposed to be the 

 real problems of democracy are only the problems of despotism — 

 the problems to which every tyrant from time immemorial has 

 addressed himself, to the moral and industrial ruin of his subjects. 

 If democracy be conceived not as a form of political government 

 under the regime of universal suffrage, but as a condition of free- 

 dom under moral control, permitting every man to do as he likes, 

 so long as he does not trench upon the equal right of every other 



VOL. LVI. — 1 



