| Show POPULAR GOVERNMENT In the United StatesJ1said Count TOLSTOI to an American visitor you have the best of all governments because you scarcely know that you have any government at all1 aUThat That this is true is due to the action of the framers of the constitution who provided pro-vided barriers against the centralization of power in the hands of federal authority The government of local communities by men of their own choice is a method that hides the strong power of the government under the conscious exercise of power by the citizen Local selfgovernment is the velvet covering of the hand of steel The restraint seems less when the subject participates par-ticipates in and orders it And the local government is chiefly that wit which the citizen has to deal the one whose power he is dtrectly made aware of The superiority of pur republican form of government does not lie in any superior protection we enjoy or any less burdens we bear or any more efficient public officers we have than tho people of other nations but in the fact that the protection pro-tection the burdens and the public officials are things of our own creation We can bear our own mistakes with philosophic fortitude and can be sufficiently enthusiastic enthusias-tic over our own triumphs It is this fact which makes necessary the participation of the citizens in the affairs of government No tribunals or rulers however how-ever wise and good can ever satisfy the people like thoss whom the people elect The distrust of popular government can never be so great as the distrust of imperial rule no matter if the former should be weak I and criminal and tile latter upright In popular government the people suffer mainly from their own errors The errors of an imperial government could hardly be charged to the people who will therefore lay the entire blamo of misgovernment at the door of the ruling class The danger chiefly to be feared in popular popu-lar government is the ignorance and particularly par-ticularly the lack of political information among the voters Themisguided populace becomes a tyrannical despot at times regardless re-gardless of human rights and careless of human life Responsibility is commons common-s rate with power and tho sovereign act of casting a free ballot implies a responsibility responsi-bility to which the ignorance and passion of the many may not be adequate Yet the only hope for permanent and free government govern-ment h that by for and of the people and it the people are not adequate to the task and duty then good government will simply be wanting until they are |
