Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 85.djvu/71

Rh Nepotism and other forms of favoritism now and then determine preferment, but large enterprises have usually been free from these influences. The sixth is the wholesome effect which comes from doing things in the open. The tendency to insist upon publicity in corporate and public management is strong.

Publicity exposes not only wickedness but also folly and bad judgment. It makes crime and political corruption more difficult and less attractive. The forger, burglar and corruptionist need secrecy, for two reasons: first, that they may succeed in their crimes; and secondly, that they may enjoy the fruits of their wickedness. The most callous sinner finds it hard to enjoy the product of his sin if he knows that everybody is aware how he came by it. No good cause ever suffered from publicity; no bad cause but instinctively avoids it.

I am not unmindful of the perils which attend the period upon which we have entered. Some of them have been alluded to in the course of these pages. In addition I will mention the following. First, is the prevalence of a superficial habit of reading and thinking. Few college graduates, even, are capable of sustained thought. Many voters read nothing but a party newspaper. Second, is the difficulty which many voters experience in foreseeing the distant consequences of some kinds of political action. Third, is the vice of indifference and irresponsibility to which some voters are subject. In a large population, the amount of sovereignty that resides in the individual is so small that he is tempted to wonder if it makes any difference whether he votes or not. Fourth, is the temptation to assume that the majority is invariably right, or, at any rate, that it is irresistible and that it is not worth while to try to reverse it. Fifth, the press is interested in selling news and has a certain bias in favor of war. It is therefore tempted to pander to prejudice against foreigners and to foment international ill-feeling. The manufacturers of armor plate and other military supplies are subject to the same temptation. These and other perils, however, seem to me for the most part as inevitable as the dangers which attend the young man who leaves home to go to college, or is set adrift in the world to shift for himself. Moreover, they are largely offset by the critical spirit which has taken the place of a blind obedience to authority and precedent among a large number of the population. As responsibility is the making of the man that is in the boy, so political institutions that depend upon the self-control, public spirit and wisdom of the masses tend to bring out the better side of human nature. One can not learn to swim without the perils which attend going into the water. Neither can humanity acquire a larger measure of self-discipline with the aid of democratic institutions without the risk of not making the best use of its opportunities. When the suffrage was enlarged in Great Britain in 1867, Robert Lowe is said to have remarked: "We must now at least educate our new masters." No words are more appropriate at the present juncture in human affairs.