a
remedial policy. Different reformers really mean something very
different by the traditional system, from which American practice has
departed and which they propose to restore. Some of them mean thereby a
condition of spiritual excellence, which will be restored by a sort of
politico-moral revivalism and which will somehow make the results of
divine and popular election coincide. Others mean nothing more than the
rigid enforcement of existing laws. Still others mean a new legal
expression of the traditional democratic principle, framed to meet the
new political and social conditions; but the reformers who agree upon
this last conception of reform disagree radically as to what the new
legal expression should be. The traditional system, which they seek to
restore, assumes almost as many shapes as there are leading reformers;
and as the reforming movement develops, the disagreements among the
reformers become more instead of less definite and acute.

The inability of the reformers to cooeperate in action or to agree as to
the application of their principles is in part merely a natural result
of their essential work. Reformers are primarily protestants; and
protestants are naturally insubordinate. They have been protesting
against the established order in American business and politics. Their
protest implies a certain degree of moral and intellectual independence,
which makes them dislike to surrender or subordinate their own personal
opinions and manner of action. Such independence is a new and refreshing
thing, which has suddenly made American politics much more interesting
and significant than it has been at any time since the Civil War. It has
a high value wholly apart from its immediate political results. It means
that the American people are beginning a new phase of their political
experience,--a phase in which there will be room for a much freer play
of individual ability and character. Inevitably the sudden realization
by certain exceptional politicians that they have a right to be
individuals, and that they can take a strong line of their own in
politics without being disqualified for practical political association
with their fellow-countrymen--such a new light could hardly break
without tempting the performers to over-play the part. The fact that
they have over-played their parts, and have wasted time and energy over
meaningless and unnecessary disagreements is not in itself a matter of
much importance. The g