Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 1.djvu/409

Rh neglected. Apart from the bitterness of competitive strife, interested in public welfare as others are but not directly interested in rich or poor alone, the student of social phenomena may be reasonably expected to bring to light and present for consideration elements of social well-being which hot contestants for immediate and class advantage are sure to overlook.

It is of the essence of democracy that the interests of all should not be at the mercy of a few, but should be the care of representatives of the entire community. Kings by "divine right," and feudal lords by grace of birth, have assumed that they knew how to legislate for the "lower classes" better than the chosen spokesmen of these classes. Nothing but rude blows of revolution and noisy chartist petitions shook the ruling classes of Britain out of this delusion. Monopolies of social wisdom and virtue do not exist. The frank recognition of division of intellectual labor and of common social concern is all that is asked by the social theorist, and in an age when the pen is mightier than sword or hammer, his claim is not likely to be permanently ignored.