Page:David Atkins - The Economics of Freedom (1924).pdf/48

 to do with democracy. It is, in fact, a left-over weapon of irresponsible power, and our so-called reformers show remarkable aptitude in its use, at the behest of special and local interests.

The last duty named in our list, the scrutiny of the character and suitability of would-be citizens before admitting them, is another painful necessity which bowls over a number of our standing ideals at the same time. Reverting to the conception of democracy as an estate of which the citizens are joint-landlords, we may be fully justified in saying self-interestedly, “Our fields are ripe unto harvest and the laborers are few: let them come in.” Or magnanimously, “We have broad pastures untilled and hillsides unterraced; there is room for all your destitute: let them come in.” The barrier to this policy of permitting the free movement of peoples, which is almost as dear to the idealist as the free movement of goods, is not sheer selfishness and wrong-headedness, even though some of the selfish and the wrong-headed do not approve the invitation. The final barrier is not economic but is political, and is actually the long-cherished hope behind the fine-sounding word “democracy”—the dream of freedom in a zone of self-imposed order. Under a purely idealistic conception, whether our immigrants come as needed laborers or, for the sweet sake of charity, are yearned over in their destitution, they graduate under our present system into joint-trustees, with no adequate training for the task and little in the way of tradition except a belief that the price of liberty can be paid over to a steamship ticket-agent and the bargain sealed. They also, because of their long-standing aches and pains, have a belief in nostrums even more dangerous than our own.

We have failed in this task, owing to our lack of comprehension as to the first cost of democracy, and the cost of maintenance, and owing also to the deplorable haste with which we have turned our immigrants over to the demagogue and the privilege-monger for their own ulterior uses. The needed laborers and the dubious refugees we have welcomed so warm-heartedly are now joint-landlords together with their spoilers,