Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 3.djvu/461

 ////-. ./r.\7(M' REPUBLIC

447

M1XINT, MORTAR

been with him would be able successfully to conduct a republic. On the other hand, he would be willing to place any one of a dozen of the older boys themselves at the head of independent colonies. The secret of success is a masterly non-interference. When matters go wrong, when rights and brawls are rampant, when in- justice is done, the adult is eager to descend like a dramatic deus. ex machina and set things right. But the spirit of democratic gov- ernment insists that the citizens must learn from their own fail- ures, and, further, that individuals must occasionallv suffer from wrongs done by the community of which they personally are guiltless. In this alone is the vitality of growth and improvement. That the Junior

Republic will develop rationally and soundly no one can doubt who studies it carefully on the ground. The plans now under way provide for cottages accommodating ten or fifteen citizens, instead of the existing large barracks and tents. Thus the individual will be more clearly separated from the mass. These cottages are each to have an adult housekeeper, but citizens organized as a business corporation in each will be independent of other cottages, will own and cultivate their separate tracts of land, provide their own table, and so on.

The Republic is legal Iv incorporated under a board of trustee^. and it is purposed that new "states" lc organized in other parts of the country under the general supervision of Mr. George. Property worth a half million dollars in Pcnnsvlvania is alrcad\ placed at the disposal of the trustees for tin- purpose. It is to

be hoped that Mr. Gcorirc will not be drawn au.iv trom his
 * \ illc experiment, loi here is a truly growing organism capable

of manifold development, and as it continues to be shaped under hl8 guidance, it Will reveal new devices and sn- u ,-stions which