THE DESPOTISM OF DEMOCRACY. 505 



ready to assume the countless forms that meet the ever- changing 

 needs of human life. There is no interference with either the law 

 of evolution, which is left to work its miracles, nor with the law 

 that merit shall be the measure of benefit. Subjected to their 

 powerful stimulus, the individual, neither cramped nor plundered 

 by an ignorant and greedy bureaucratic despotism, is impelled to 

 make the most of his talents and opportunities. He is free to 

 struggle and experiment with himself and with the world in every 

 direction. Not protected from the evils of his blunders by an 

 unwise philanthropy nor deprived of the fruits of his successes 

 by confiscatory taxes, he learns to avoid the one and to strive for 

 the other. What is beyond his own achievement he induces his 

 fellows to help him achieve. Whether the object be one of per- 

 sonal profit or public benefit, that alone is the true method. It is 

 the method that will enable men to execute the most important 

 commercial enterprises, like the construction of canals and rail- 

 roads, and to work out the weightiest moral reforms, like the 

 abolition of intemperance and the mitigation of cruelty. It was 

 the method of the founders of the great religious orders of the 

 middle ages ; it is the method of the founders of the great church 

 and secular societies of to-day.* The modern industrial system, 

 unparalleled in history, had the same origin. Not only without 

 the aid of statesmen, but often hampered and almost crushed by 

 their vicious meddling,! its founders have turned forests and 

 deserts into farms and gardens, covered continents and seas with 

 lines of transportation, and filled cities with markets, banks, and 

 exchanges. Thus are avoided the evils of every form of despot- 

 ism. There is no longer the incentive to practice the ethics of 

 war. No one is forced to surrender his liberty without consent, 

 or to part with his property except by gift or contract. Nor is 

 he obliged to change his thought J or mode of life at any behest 

 but that of persuasion and conviction. 



* Note the Epworth League, the King's Daughters, and the Young People's Association 

 of Christian Endeavor. Note also the League of American Wheelmen and the savings and 

 loan associations. 



f "No great political improvement," says Buckle (History of Civilization, vol. i, p. 

 272), " no great reform, either legislative or executive, has ever been originated in any 

 country by its rulers." Even in our own country Congressman Loud made a desperate but 

 futile attempt to reform the postal service and to turn the constant deficit into a surplus. 

 The perpetuation of the seed-distribution evil, despite the efforts of Secretary Morton, is 

 another .example of the tenacity of the same trait of bureaucratic despotism. 



\ Everybody is familiar with the intolerance of ecclesiastical despotism ; but the intol- 

 erance of political despotism is not so much thought about, especially under popular gov- 

 ernments. I do not refer altogether to the intolerance of trade unionism nor to that of 

 party organizations, nor even to that of both to foreign immigrants, which are very marked 

 in the United States and sufficiently significant of retrogression. I refer more particularly 

 to the intolerance that denounces the teaching of free trade in colleges and universities ; that 



VOL. LI. 39 



