he may have no ground for
discontent or complaint. He stands on his own feet, he rises in
proportion to his ability and industry. Hence the program of the British
Labour Party rightly lays stress on education, on "freedom of mental
opportunity." The vast sums it proposes to spend for this purpose are
justified.
If such a system of education as that briefly outlined above is carefully
and impartially considered, the objection that democratic government
founded on modern social science is coercive must disappear. So far as
the intention and effort of the state is able to confer it, every citizen
will have his choice of the task he is to perform for society, his
opportunity for self-realization. For freedom without education is a
myth. By degrees men and women are making ready to take their places in
an emulative rather than a materialistically competitive order. But the
experimental aspect of this system should always be borne in mind, with
the fact that its introduction and progress, like that of other elements
in the democratic program, must be gradual, though always proceeding
along sound lines. For we have arrived at that stage of enlightenment
when we realize that the only mundane perfection lies in progress rather
than achievement. The millennium is always a lap ahead. There would be
no satisfaction in overtaking it, for then we should have nothing more to
do, nothing more to work for.
The German Junkers have prostituted science by employing it for the
destruction of humanity. In the name of Christianity they have waged the
most barbaric war in history. Yet if they shall have demonstrated to
mankind the futility of efficiency achieved merely for material ends; if,
by throwing them on a world screen, they shall have revealed the evils of
power upheld alone by ruthlessness and force, they will unwittingly have
performed a world service. Privilege and dominion, powers and
principalities acquired by force must be sustained by force. To fail
will be fatal. Even a duped people, trained in servility, will not
consent to be governed by an unsuccessful autocracy. Arrogantly Germany
has staked her all on world domination. Hence a victory for the Allies
must mean a democratic Germany.
Nothing short of victory. There can be no arrangement, no agreement,
no parley with or confidence in these modern scions of darkness
--Hohenzollerns, Hindenburgs, Zudendorffs and their tools. Propaganda must
not cease; th
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