^20 The Hon. Walter Mines Page [June 12, 



wealth by the right use of it, is so ^veat that most rich men <,'ome 

 to a period in their lives when their chief concern is how they may 

 most wisely bestow their wealth for the public welfare. The result 

 is a constant flow of private aid into channels that help forward the 

 building up of the people. We have now an era of private mnni- 

 ficence that is perhaps without parallel in all history. 



Many evils may befall the American democracy, as doubtless 

 many evils will ; but there must be a complete change in its temper 

 and tendencies before tbe evils of plutocracy overtake us. And, 

 since we have neither entail nor primogeniture, a great fortune will 

 remain in one family only so long as members of the family have 

 ability to use it wisely enough to conserve it. 



And our same fundamental dogma finds many other expressions : 

 the dominant desire that every man and every group of men si k mid 

 have its best chance for development and self-management brings 

 into the American colonial experiments a hesitancy that sometimes 

 seems to be a disadvantage. 



Take the American management of the Philippine Islands ;is an 

 example. There is no doubt but a vast benefit to the eight inillion 

 people of the Archipelago has been wrought by the American occu- 

 pation. The story of the sanitary rehabilitation of Manila is one 

 of the bright chapters in modern history, taking a place alon i with 

 the sanitary triumphs at Panama, which made the construction of 

 the Canal possible. But the question, how long American control 

 should continue, and how fast self-government should be gniiited, 

 never disappears. The result is embarrassing to those who have in 

 hand the practical task of managing the Islands. I mention this, 

 not to enter into the controversy that has arisen, but only to stiow 

 that the dominant dogma of the utmost opportunity to every man 

 and to every group, and to every people, asserts itself throughout 

 our whole national life, and no delicate and difficult problem escapes 

 its intrusion. For this reason the question is yet regarded by many 

 persons as an open one, whether a democracy can ever become a 

 successful manager of colonies. My own opinion is, that a democracy 

 is the best of all instruments for building up dependent peoples ; 

 but I am trying to interpret the practical working of public opinion 

 rather than to burden you with my own opinions. 



Thus, I hope, I have made it cleai* by these exaniples that the 

 main motive in our anti-trust legislation, in our railway regulation, 

 in our educational work, and in our brief colonial experience, is the 

 same — the motive, namely, to give every man, every comniunity, 

 every people, the utmost chance to realize themselves. 



So far I have tried to give you one key to an understanding of a 

 wide range of social and political actions and phenomena — the key of 

 this fundamental conviction. Xow quite as wide a range of other 

 political phenomena will be understood by remembering not a 

 peculiarity of conviction but a peculiarity of method. 



