Article June 17, 1922 Issue

Signs of the Times

with contributions from J. Newton Davies, Beverly Robinson, Paul S. Reinsch, Elsie Murray

["Citizenship in the Making"—From The Christian Science Monitor, Boston, Mass.]

The Rt. Hon. Viscount Bryce in his "Modern Democracies" says: "Heretofore, with a few transient exceptions in some small republics, the richer class have ruled, usually legally, always practically. Now, however, with the establishment of universal suffrage over nearly the whole civilized world, legal power has completely passed to the poorer strata of society, for being everywhere the majority, they have the whole machinery of government at their disposal."

In the foregoing paragraph, Viscount Bryce graphically pictures the condition which applies to the American Government. Moreover, we detect the implication that ample preparation of the whole body politic for its responsibilities is imperative. If government were still a prerogative of the richer class, liberal education could more safely be concentrated on the few; meanwhile confining the education of "the mob" to rudimentary knowledge, such as is commonly embraced in the term, "the three R's," justifying our course by the assumption that the mass needs only to earn its living and follow the directions of its "betters" in a fairly intelligent manner. But in a modern democracy with unusual franchise the majority not only rules, but it initiates legislation, and even determines the rights of life and property.

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