Page:Back to the Republic.djvu/12

 If you should visit the State capitals, and, beginning with the Governor, ask the hundred men most prominently identified with the State government in each commonwealth these same three questions, and have their replies compiled, you would have a volume of interesting contradictions.

If you should go still farther and visit the capitals of all the Allied countries, of the Central Powers and of the so-called neutral countries, and ask the hundred men most prominently identified with the government of each country those same three questions, and have their replies compiled, you would have several volumes of exceedingly interesting contradictions.

If you were disposed to gratify your curiosity still further and should turn to the various dictionaries, encyclopedias, magazines, newspapers, and countless volumes on political science and government, and make a collection in book form of the various definitions that have been given and the uses that have been made of the words "autocracy," "democracy" and "republic" you would have compiled the greatest curio of them all.

The purpose of this book is:

(1) To make clear the meaning of the words "autocracy," "democracy" and "republic;"