provide a sufficient revenue
to meet the enormous expense of catering to the multifarious interests
of a population of a hundred million people.

343. =The Problem of Democracy.=--The problem of prosperity is
complicated by the problem of democracy. If by a satisfactory method a
body of wise men could be selected to study carefully each specific
problem involved, could experiment over a term of years in the
execution of plans worked out free from fear of being thrown out at
any time as the result of elective action by an impatient people,
prosperity might move on more rapid feet. In a country where power is
in the hands of a few a specific programme can be worked out without
much friction and rapid industrial and social progress can be made, as
has been the case during the last fifty years in Germany; but where
the masses of the people must be consulted and projects depend for
success upon their sustained approval, progress is much more spasmodic
and uncertain. Everything depends on an intelligent electorate,
controlled by reason rather than emotion and patient enough to await
the outcome of a policy that has been inaugurated.

This raises the question as to the education of the electorate or the
establishment of an educational qualification, as in some States. Is
there any way by which the mass of the working people, who have only
an elementary education, and never see even the outside of a State
university, can be made intelligent and self-restrained? They will not
read public documents, whether reports of expert commissions or
speeches in Congress. Shall they be compelled to read what the
government thinks is for their good, or be deprived of the suffrage as
a penalty? They get their political opinions from sensational
journals. Shall these publications be placed under a ban and the
nation subsidize its own press? These are questions to be considered
by the educational departments of State and nation, with a view to a
more intelligent citizenship. Democracy cannot be said to be a
failure, but it is still a problem. Government will not be any better
than the majority of the citizens want it to be; hence its standards
can be raised only as the mental and moral standards of the electorate
are elevated. Education, a conscious share in the responsibility of
legislation, and sure justice in all controverted cases, whether of
individuals or classes, are necessary elements in winning even a
measure of success.

344. =Th