122. ANDREW J. SHIPMAN MEMORIAL 



feudal system passed away in the eighteenth century. It was 

 a nobly conceived system of government, which lasted for 

 nearly five hundred years, founded upon duties as well as 

 rights. When the governing class forgot their duties and 

 insisted only upon their rights, the feudal system fell; for it 

 was like a scale which was overbalanced. To it has suc- 

 ceeded the industrial and democratic regime. The latter will 

 do well if it lasts one-half as long as the feudal system did. 

 It may seem like contradicting every modern view of history 

 and progress to cast doubts upon a purely democratic popular 

 regime, but I have in mind an example which seems to do so, 

 and which nearly every one is quoting as a most brilliant ex- 

 ample in government. The Panama Canal Zone is lauded 

 from one end of the country to the other as an example of 

 almost perfect government. Things go like clock-work; dis- 

 ease and destitution are banished ; there is justice and plenty 

 for all. But it is a one-man government — merely a benevo- 

 lent despotism after all. The people there have no say in it ; 

 democracy is invisible at Panama. 



In fact, it rests upon the same fundamental principle as 

 the feudal system. The rights of the governing power are 

 correlative with its duties towards the welfare of the gov- 

 erned. So long as they are made to balance the government 

 is a success. And the same rule holds good in democracies. 

 When industrialism succeeded to the feudal system, and 

 even when taken over by democracy in government, it, too, 

 forgot that duties followed rights. That is one of the causes 

 of the industrial unrest to-day, which breaks out in varied 

 forms, all the way from socialism to anarchy. The financial 

 magnate, railroad king, or captain of a thousand industries 

 too often regards his enterprises as his personal individual 

 property and acts accordingly, like the feudal monarch of two 

 centuries ago. He forgets his duties, but clings tenaciously to 

 his rights. Where he rules an industrial empire with almost 

 as many subjects as the feudal chieftain, the people of that 

 empire with keen memory of duties forgotten are going to 

 act exactly as they did a century ago to get constitutional gov- 

 ernment. They are bound to have a voice in the industries 

 which they sustain by their labor. It is your duty, gentlemen 

 of the graduating class, and your future task to see that they 

 divide the power and responsibilities with the heads of such 



