The Altruistic Type of Government 235 



and also upon the evident fact in practice that conscientious 

 choice, freed from personal interest, as intended in demo- 

 cratic election, is usually purer if not wiser, than the highest 

 wisdom of interested power. This concession carries with 

 it the necessity that the understanding of any proposed 

 action, presumed to be wiser than that prevalent, shall be 

 imparted to the community by educational methods, as a pre- 

 liminary to the execution of that action ; a course essentially 

 different from that provided under the older system, in which 

 presumably right action was imposed by coercion upon an 

 associated people, in the light of such wisdom as lay with the 

 governing power. It may be noted that a personal govern- 

 ment, even autocratic, may have much of the virtue found 

 in democracy, if it be readily changeable, and if the people 

 governed have the right of advance public knowledge of 

 public acts, so that the governor shall know and consider the 

 wishes of the governed. Such a system is merely a lower 

 development of the democratic idea; taking instinctive ac- 

 tion, instead of reasoning its method. The essence of altru- 

 istic political reform lies in its difference with the old claim 

 of a sacred right possessed by one individual or caste, to 

 direct another or others by coercive control. And the evo- 

 lution of resistance to this control, shows mankind standing 

 upon the individually free conscience as the right, and upon 

 collective responsible power, as the final authority. 



Yet there are conditions attaching to the exercise of this 

 power. The electoral right is to be recognized as a trust. 

 It is no more an irresponsible privilege than is that of the 

 elected representative. If wielded corruptly or otherwise 

 irresponsibly it is void, under the regulations adopted gener- 



