ave tended to extend to its utmost
limit the principle of representative government. Congress represents
the people of the whole nation, {420} but committees represent Congress
and subcommittees represent committees. There is a constant tendency
to delegate powers to others. Pure democracy has no place in the great
American republic, except as it is seen in the local government unit.
Here the people always have a part in the caucus, in the primary or the
town meeting, in the election of local officers and representatives for
higher offices, in the opportunity to exercise their will and raise
their voice in the affairs of the nation. To some extent the supposed
greater importance of the national government has led the people to
underestimate the opportunities granted them for exercising their
influence as citizens within the precinct in which they live. But
there is to-day a tendency to estimate justly the importance of local
government as the source of all reforms and the means of the
preservation of civil liberty.

It has been pointed out frequently by the enemies of democracy that the
practice of the people in self-government has not always been of the
highest type. In many instances this criticism is true, for experience
is always a dear teacher. The principles of democracy have come to
people through conviction and determination, but the practices of
self-government come through rough experiences, sometimes marked by a
long series of blunders. The cost of a republican form of government
to the people has frequently been very expensive on account of their
ignorance, their apathy, and their unwillingness to take upon
themselves the responsibilities of government. Consider, for instance,
the thousands of laws that are made and placed upon the statute-books
which have been of no value, possibly of detriment, to the
community--laws made through the impulse of half-informed, ill-prepared
legislators. Consider also the constitutions, constitutional
amendments, and other important acts upon which the people express
their opinion.

The smallness of the vote of a people who are jealous of their own
rights and privileges is frequently surprising. Notice, too, how
frequently popular power has voted against its {421} own rights and
interests. See the clumsy manner by which people have voted away their
birthrights or, failing to vote at all, have enslaved themselves to
political or financial monopoly. Observe, too,