Page:Back to the Republic.djvu/24

 having over 65,000 decisions of courts of last resort during those same five years, and compiling 631 large volumes of decisions?

These are only a few of the many questions that might be asked because we have been drifting away from the plan of a republic.

The conditions that have been wrought through these departures, this reckless agitation, and the enactment of approximately fifteen thousand new statutes each year, have had a disastrous effect upon this country and resulted in greatly lessening our influence for good in other countries. We have drifted from the republic toward democracy; from statesmanship to demagogism; from excellent to inferior service. It is an age of retrogressive tendencies.