Page:Back to the Republic.djvu/46

 strictly and literally the republic is adhered to, the better the government.

Frequently you hear people say that the more popular the government becomes, the better it becomes. That statement is as absurd and untrue as it would be to say that the more drink you give a person, the more temperate that person becomes, or the more excessive the amount of food you give a person, the better nourished that person becomes; the more fanatical a person becomes, the more religious that person is; the more seed you sow, the better the crop.

On every hand almost daily we hear the expression, "Make the world safe for democracy." That expression is as superficial, and as impossible, and as unwise as it would be to say: "Make drink safe for drunkenness; make food safe for gluttony; make religion safe for fanaticism; make the social world safe for free love; make music safe for discord; make justice safe for lawlessness; make automobiling safe for joyriding." It is a weak, unsound, beggarly slogan. Government was created to make safety, not to have safety made for it.

A more effective statement would be, "Make the world safe through democracy," if there were any basis for faith in such a slogan; but we cannot make the world safe for democracy, nor can