CHAPTER XII 



THE FARMER AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 



WHY do we hear so much these days about democ- 

 racy? Europe perhaps needs democracy, but why dis- 

 cuss it for America? It is easy to sense the contrast 

 between autocratic Germany and free America. It is 

 clear that when Russia overthrew the reign of the Czar 

 she desired democracy; and it is equally clear that what 

 she really obtained at first was not democracy at all, but 

 merely a different kind of autocracy. Some of us may 

 have read the declaration of the British Labor Party, 

 which calls for a " complete reconstruction of society," 

 and perhaps we observed to ourselves that for England 

 with its House of Lords and its king and its nobility, 

 such a necessity may exist; but as for America we now 

 have democracy and no reconstruction is needed. 



Democracy is the outstanding, distinctive glory of 

 our great country. Her mission has been to show the 

 world how to develop a nation at once populous, busy, 

 efficient, free. But this is not the whole story. Most 

 Americans think of democracy as a form of government 

 in which the people rule through their right to vote. 

 Democracy is something far more than popular election 

 of representatives or even of popular vote on laws and 

 constitutions. We may easily mistake the form of 

 democratic government for its reality. Have we never 

 protested against the rule of " bosses " and of " rings " 

 and of " the interests "? Are we satisfied that even in 

 government we have actually realized the full fact of 



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