Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 46.djvu/181

Rh  My will fulfilled shall be, In daylight or in dark; My thunderbolt has eyes to see Its way home to the mark!"—Emerson.

It was the dream of the founders of this republic that each year the people should choose from their mimber "their wisest men to make the public laws." This was actually done in the early days, for our first leaders were natural leaders. The men who founded America were her educated men. None other could have done it. But this condition could not always last. As the country grew, ignorance came and greed developed; ignorance and greed must be represented, else ours would not be a representative government. So to our congresses our people sent, not the wisest, but the men who thought as the people did. We have come to choose, in our lawmakers, not rulers but representatives; we ask not wisdom, but watchfulness for our personal interests. So we send those whose interests are ours, those who act as our attorneys. And just as the people do this, so do the great corporations, who form a large part of the people and control a vastly larger part. And as the corporations command the best service, they often send as their attorneys abler men than the people can secure. And so it has come about that demagogues and special agents make up the body of lawmakers in this country, and this in both parties alike. They represent, not our wisdom, but our business. They are the reflex of the people they represent; no better, and certainly no worse. Those whose interest lies in the direction of good government alone, often know not which way to turn, and at last fall back on the time-honored anathema—

In this degree republican government has failed. For this failure there is again but one remedy—education. If the people are to rule us, the people must be wise. We must have in every community men trained in social and political science. We must have men with the courage of their convictions, and only the educated man has any real convictions. We must have men who know there is a right to every question as well as many wrongs. We must have men who know what this right is, or, if not knowing, who know how the right may be found. Very few men ever do that which they know and really believe to be wrong. Most wrongdoing comes from a belief that there is no right, or that right and wrong are only relative.

If representative government is ever to bring forward wisdom and patriotism, it will be because wisdom and patriotism exist and demand representation. In this direction lies one of the most important duties of the American university. Every question of