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GIFT OF 
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^HE EVOLUTIOiK OF 
 DEmOCRACY 
 
 By 
 WILLIAM JOH^ MEREDITH 
 
THE EVOLUTION 
 OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 By 
 
 WILLIAM JOHiNi MEREDITH 
 
 Vice-Principal Montezuma Mountain Ranch 
 
 School For Boys, Author of "In The Love 
 
 Of Nature," "Our Own Kind Of 
 
 Folks." "The Margin of Life," 
 
 Etc., Etc. 
 
 "^^i^a 
 
 Published by 
 
 THE PEOPLE'S INSTITUTE 
 
 Los Gatos, California 
 
 1916 
 
^M. 
 
 C\:-, 
 
 1^00 
 
..^l 
 
 The Conference Sunday 
 Lectureship 
 
 The I'irst Kaptist Church of Los Galos, Cali- 
 fornia, Rol)ert AMiitakcr, Minister, in the month 
 of June, 1*^4, which was the Fifth .Anniversary 
 of the present pastorate, began the observance 
 of what is known as "CONFERENCE SUN- 
 DAY." This was held on the last Sunday of the 
 month, and each month's last Sunday since has 
 been set apart for a like observance, with a sliglit 
 variation since Christmas time of 1915. 
 
 On Conference Sunday the Sunday School 
 meets as usual, at 10 a. m., and the regular 
 preaching service is held at 11 a. m. After this 
 service, at which the pastor commoidy ]:reaches, 
 the congregation sit (h^wn to a common meal, 
 which is a sort of new observance of the "Lord's 
 Supper" among us, prcjbably much more like that 
 which Jesus had in mind for I lis memorial than 
 the more formal obser\-ance of the Communion 
 Ser\ice \\-hich for many reasons we still main- 
 tain. 
 
Following the common meal certain lectures 
 have been griven in the early afternoon hours. 
 The pastor gave for a time a course on "The 
 Moral Values Of Great Literature." Professor 
 TT. D. I'rasefield. now of Palo Alto, gave a course 
 on "Zaology." a word which he himself coined 
 to express "the science of right living." And 
 Professor ^^^ J. Meredith of the Montezuma 
 Mountain Ranch School For Pioys at Los Gatos, 
 gave a course on "The Evolution of Democracy." 
 Onlv the last named course has been main- 
 tained throughout the months since Conference 
 Sundav began. Professor Brasefield by reason 
 of his non-residence with us, and the pastor by 
 reason of excess of other work thought it best to 
 discontinue their classes, and to consolidate the 
 afternoon audience in one class under Professor 
 Meredith. 
 
 The concluding lecture in Professor Meredith's 
 course was given on Sunday morning, January 2, 
 1916, instead of on the afternoon of the Sunday 
 preceding, which was Christmas Sunday. It was 
 in the nature of a summary and review of the en- 
 tire course, which had proven to be of such rare 
 value there were many who expressed the desire 
 
 4 
 
to see the lectures in print. This not being prac- 
 ticable with respect to all the eighteen lectures, 
 chiefly for lack of funds, it was agreed that the 
 final lecture should be set forth in some simple 
 but worthy form. Through the kindness of a 
 friend we are able to present this lecture here- 
 with. As an indication of the kind of work which 
 we are doing, as a token of the very large value 
 of the particular course of which it is at the best 
 but a summary and a partial review, and finally 
 as a suggestion of the reasons why our people 
 have steadfastly grown in enthusiastic apprecia- 
 tion of the exceedingly fine quality of Professor 
 Meredith's work among us, this lecture is sent 
 out in the sure confidence that all who read it 
 carefully will be of one mind with us in the high 
 estimate which w^e have formed of the author's 
 capacity both to see and say beyond the ordinary 
 measure of thinkers and speakers today. There 
 are whole volumes in this single lecture, if the 
 reader will but read with open eyes, and will fol- 
 low the intimations which are given here. Well 
 read, and carefully considered this little book will 
 prove an education in itself. 
 
 ROBERT WHITAKER. 
 
The Evolution 
 of T)emocracy 
 
 F'TER I had announced the title of this 
 lecture course a year and a half ago, I 
 found it necessary to build a comprehen- 
 sive definition, first of all, — to indicate the extent, 
 loi^ical trend and limitations of the subject as I 
 meant to treat it. Naturally a two-fold aspect 
 was suggested, evolution, a slow growth, unfold- 
 ing and adaptation to changing conditions ; de- 
 mocracy, a political organization or set of insti- 
 tutions, making effective the rule of the freely 
 expressed will of the majority, a government of 
 the peoj^le — deriving all its powers from the con- 
 
 7 
 
l^M. 
 
 sent of the governed — administered for the good 
 of all the people, by the chosen servants of the 
 people supported by the enlightened public opin- 
 ion of the whole community or commonwealth or 
 nation. 
 
 J phrased this definition, you remember, as 
 follows : 
 
 The Evolution of Democracy is to be 
 thought of as that slow growth, change 
 and adaptation of personal relations, tribal 
 customs, traditions and ancient racial ten- 
 dencies, which have developed into our 
 present highest ideals of self-government 
 as social beings. 
 
 Let me direct your attention to the fact that 
 democracy as defined above includes no such ab- 
 surdity as a ruling class, not even the domination 
 of ''natural leaders," ''aristocracy of brains or of 
 virtue." "born kings of men," or any other out- 
 grown catchword once used to. justify personal 
 despotism. It has nothing to do with that per- 
 nicious dogma of privilege so often expressed in 
 the phrase, "conserving the rights of the minor- 
 ity," as if the minority could ever have a right 
 that w^as not included in the rights of all. secured 
 and guarded by the Avill of the majority. The 
 
phrase itself argues a total misconception of the 
 meaning of democracy. For the only security 
 that any human right can have, or claim, is the 
 enlightened sense of justice possessed by the ma- 
 jority. In a democracy every reform must wait 
 imtil by argument, experience, suffering and the 
 wear of time the majority is brought to a free 
 consent. Anything else means deception, con- 
 spiracy and downright usurpation, as short- 
 sighted as it is vicious, for in a rational universe, 
 as we must concede this to be, no lasting good 
 can ever come from any form of dishonesty or 
 violation of natural law. 
 
 The old aristocratic doctrine that the masses 
 can never be safely trusted with actual govern- 
 ment but must always be cajoled, and cozened 
 and ruled for their own good by the well-born, 
 the well-educated and the well-to-do, is itself 
 based, first, on a misinterpretation of actual ex- 
 perience, and, secondly, on a selfish egotism; for 
 if I can show that the mass of mankind is stupid 
 and vicious, does not that prove my own supe- 
 riority and right to control them — and take from 
 them a tribute as compensation for my beneficent 
 ^guardian.ship? Which is only another statement 
 
 9 
 
of the divine right of kings to exploit and phmder 
 their subjects. 
 
 Now no honestly observant person wouhl 
 claim that man anywhere has thus far done better 
 than to approximate democracy. It is still (uir 
 ideal, and no man has yet imagined an}- ])olitical 
 good beyond it. At present we need nothing 
 lievond it to spur us onward along" the path of 
 human betterment. It is and must be the' domi- 
 nant idea of all enlightened humanity. 
 
 The thing that most amazes a thinker is that 
 men should still blindly and ignorantly pursue 
 the traditional struggle for selfish individual gain, 
 when the very existence and security of individ- 
 ual possession must rest solely on the tolerance 
 and cooperation of others. It would seem that 
 the most elementary thinking and observation 
 would convince even the least discerning that it 
 is not by competition that man has risen, and 
 that the greatest possible individual good can 
 come only from the widest possible cooperation. 
 Everyday experience shows that man instinc- 
 ti\-cly turns to corporate, community and govern- 
 ment cooperation to accomplish that which he 
 cannot do alone. 
 
 10 
 
.Mil 
 
 The continual struggle of the lone individual 
 for ( arthlv possessions to insure his freedom and 
 i^exibility in life is such an absurdly pathetic 
 waste of human endeavor that the angels must 
 \vee]i over it. Xo one who has ever glimpsed a 
 better way. can ever be again content to worship 
 at the shrine of so shallow and heartless a faith 
 as laissez faire. (See Webster's International.) 
 
 Xo, democratic cooperation is really the law 
 of all evolution. The survival of the fittest does 
 r.ot mean the triumph of the fighter or the plun- 
 derer, but of the fittest cooperator with his kind 
 and with the other kindly things of the universe. 
 When the last king and priest and lawyer are a 
 curious historical memory, man will still be pa- 
 tiently climbing toward a more perfect co-part- 
 nership, just as when the last lion, tiger, wolf and 
 hvena are stuffed specimens in a museum, the 
 bees and cattle and useful fowls will multiply in 
 countless multitudes in kindly cooperation with 
 man. 
 
 The purpose of the course was to follow step 
 bv step the arduous climb of man to political self- 
 ex]jrcssion in the form of government we now 
 enjoy here in California, l'. S. A. For men have 
 
 11 
 
g"ot so in the way of accepting things, customs, 
 institutions, as if they were the iuichang"eably 
 perfect revelation of Divine x\uthority. that we 
 neglect the historical background, the unques- 
 tionable \)V()oi that all scjcial, poHtical and reli- 
 gious systems are but the slowly developed re- 
 sults of our human experience, venerable only as 
 they have long ministered to human good. 
 
 From the savage hunter who must wrest from 
 hostile nature the satisfaction of every want, thro 
 the Avandering herdsman seeking grass and 
 water, the rude husbandman defending his little 
 plot of cultivated river valley, the first town-dwel- 
 lers around the base of a natural hill fort, the 
 little city state emerging by consolidation into a 
 kingdom, expanding by conquest into a short- 
 lived empire, developing personal despotism, the 
 "divine right of monarchy," feudal vassalage, 
 commercial inter-communication with other 
 lands and cultures, specialization of industry, 
 trade guilds, royal charters, city republics, 
 banking and exchange, travel and exploration, 
 diets and parliaments, ministries and constitu- 
 tions, revolutions and plebiscites, elections and 
 congresses. — at last we come to the birth of the 
 
 12 
 
<;reat Republic, the American Experiment still 
 watched with anxious interest or critical skepti- 
 cism by the old world. 
 
 \\> have studied the emigration hither of 
 English adventurers and ncm-conformists, their 
 re-enforcement by refugees from all lands ; we 
 have watched the g;ermination and growth of 
 colonial self-g-overnment, the federation of jeal- 
 ous and often hostile colonies mider the pressure 
 of a common dang-er to their liberties, their 
 secession from the British Em])ire, the working 
 out of state constitutions and partial overthrow 
 of traditional privilege ; subordination of the com- 
 monwealths to national congress, executive and 
 court, the displacement of the first aristocratic, 
 centralized interpretation of the Union by a dem- 
 ocratic ideal which, with temporary setbacks has, 
 — largely thro the influence of Western expan- 
 sion,- l)ecome the accepted program of our na- 
 tional progress and destiny. 
 
 We must make an end. Not that the subject 
 of study has been exhausted or can ever fail in 
 interest so long as man feels a passion for human 
 [)elterment, but time and other duties ])ress upon 
 us. 
 
 13 
 
iM. 
 
 What of the present status of clemocracy. an(] 
 what is the province of the future? 
 
 Since Jefferson's day we have overflowed the 
 mountains, tilled the national domain to the Mis- 
 sissii)pi, filled the great Louisiana Purchase 
 which doubled the area of the "Old Thirteen;'" 
 by conquest, purchase and negotiation we have 
 stretched our borders from the gulfs to the Great 
 Lakes, from the Atlantic Ocean to the shores of 
 the Sundown Sea, have passed the floods and 
 possessed the isles of the main; we have added 
 thirty-one new members to the galaxy of the 
 states; we have ended forever the mad folly of 
 sectional war; purged ourselves of chattel slav- 
 ery; bound indissolubly together all our citizens 
 by rapid transportation and lightning message ; 
 by immigration we have made our English-speak- 
 ing race bloodkin to all the peoples of earth; by 
 the ])ub]ic school we have made every dweller in 
 our land potential master of all that human ex- 
 perience has accumulated and recorded; we have 
 furnished a working model to half a hundred re- 
 publics scattered throughout the world, to vie 
 with us in the holy pursuit of human freedom. 
 From a universal property — or religious — quali- 
 14 
 
hcatitm in Washington's clay which gave one 
 voLtr in forty of the population, we have come 
 ti) wcllnigh universal manhood suffrage of one 
 in se^'en. JMoreover, sweeping eastward from the 
 ever-freer West, equal suft'rage of male and 
 female adults is already the rule over one-third 
 of the nation's area. 
 
 From abject mediaeval subjection of the 
 worker to the tyrannical whim of his wage 
 master, we have now intelligently organized and 
 statesmanlv administered labor unions with 
 w^hich the more enlightened employers deal on 
 terms of mutual respect and growing recogni- 
 tion of c(|uality and justice. Where once men, 
 women and tender children toiled to the limit of 
 endurance under unspeakable conditions for a 
 starvation i)ittance ; statute-guarded hours, san- 
 itary and safety provisions, voluntary profit-shar- 
 ing, community improvements now rule, and suc- 
 cessful exijeriments are carried on in the abolition 
 o{ ignorance, disease and poverty, with insurance 
 against accident and old age dependence. 
 
 1^'rom the voiceless slavery of feudal vassalage 
 we have progressed to the primary election and 
 the Australian ballot which protect the voter 
 
 15 
 
from all coercion except thro his own careless 
 ignorance. 
 
 From the unrestricted tyranny of partizan ap- 
 pointees we are coming more and more to civil- 
 service examinations, commission governments, 
 citv managers, and recall elections. Instead of 
 unskilled, corporation-bound and often venal leg- 
 islatures, we are using the initiative and referen- 
 dum and will probably soon install expert legis- 
 lative connnissions with strict accountability to 
 the people to prepare our laws for our approval. 
 
 From the old petty Congressional caucus 
 which once nominated presidential candidates we 
 passed to national conventions of legal represen- 
 tatives of the citizen voters, and by the election of 
 1020 we shall probably have the direct presiden- 
 tial primary, as we have recently taken over the 
 election of the two United States senators who 
 guard the autonomy of the individual state. 
 
 In place of lobby-guarded and money-bought 
 laws, lawless railroads, manufacturers and land- 
 grabbers, we have established the Interstate 
 Commerce Commission. We recognize the es- 
 sential evil of tariff's and liquor taxes ; we have 
 set aside great national reservations and carried 
 
 16 
 
^^J 
 
 out vast irrigation and other reclamation projects. 
 Instead of antiquated and extortionate private 
 ownersliip of puldic utilities, we have come to 
 see the inicputy of granting franchises, and in 
 spite <^f conspiracy, misrepresentation and ob- 
 struction, we now ([uite generally acknowledge 
 that munici])al ownership promotes higher citi- 
 zenship, more efficient service, economy and 
 justice. 
 
 What of the future? 
 
 Prophecy seldom brings credit, afifection or 
 prosperity to the prophet. First of all he must 
 show the inevitable tendency of present condi- 
 tions, which entails condemnation of existmg 
 evils, denunciation of established privilege and 
 exposure of long established graft. It goes with- 
 out saying that no unrighteous system is gomg 
 to support the man who attacks it. 
 
 To one who has studied the evolution of de- 
 mocracy, it is not hard to predict the future Hne 
 of development. It must be toward more active, 
 more intimate and more intelligent and per- 
 sonally responsible participation by every citizen 
 in political matters,— not in office holding parti- 
 cularly, for more and more the official servant of 
 
 17 
 
i^^ 
 
 the people will come to be an expert non-partizan 
 manager or clerk, — but in actual legislation, in 
 steady, consistent law-enforcing by intelligently 
 moral public program, less and less in "thou shalt 
 nots" and penalty. 
 
 As men come more and more to feel govern- 
 ment as a part of their everyday constructive 
 operations and lose the idea of government as a 
 faraway coercive protection close akin to tyranny, 
 there will be less and less tendency to break laws. 
 As men come to see more clearly that cooperation 
 is the only possible security of any right or law- 
 ful desire, they will feel less and less the inclina- 
 tion to snatch and scramble and trample under- 
 foot as they now do for fear of coming to want, 
 nr in the vain hope of gaining by personal efTort 
 that flexibility of living which we all feel to be 
 our innate right. 
 
 What are the greater problems of the imme- 
 diate future? Among many these five seem to be 
 most insistently clamoring for solution : 
 
 I. The establishment of social justice by in- 
 telligent control of unemployment, elimination 
 of profit in vice, minimizing of crime by humane 
 treatment of social victims, education out of the 
 18 
 
mental habit of lawlessness by simplifying- laws, 
 suppression of attorneys and rationalizing- court 
 procedure. 
 
 II. Recognition of woman's true social func- 
 tion and economic status. That is to say, we 
 must treat them as human adults with equal 
 rcs])onsibility, ecfual rights. e(|ual duties, regard- 
 less of sex, all (|uestio.ns of employment to be 
 decided as now among men according to the men- 
 tal and physical fitness of the individual, doing 
 away with the hypocrisy and insult of "chivalry,"" 
 and all that foolish patter of the natural subord- 
 ination of the female. 
 
 III. The protection, care and culture of the 
 child, every child, as the state's paramount duty, 
 throughout all accidental gradations of society, 
 with full consciousness that the foundling of to- 
 day may be the people's highest servant of the 
 morrow% that as each generation guards its 
 young, so will the next fulfill the hope of the race. 
 
 I\'. The abolition of poverty and the slum 
 by that intelligent cooperation which shall insure 
 to every human being food and warmth at least 
 as the simplest, cheapest and safest provision we 
 can make for the jihysical happiness of all, for 
 
 19 
 
 ^ 
 
^M^ 
 
 the development of individual genius, for the ele- 
 vation of common morality and emancipation of 
 man from the base fear which lies at the root of 
 all injustice. 
 
 V. The eradication of disease through scien- 
 tific investigation at public expense, isolation of 
 communicable plagues, sterilization of degener- 
 ates, national education in healthful living and 
 hygienic responsibility. 
 
 It is a big program when viewed pessimistic- 
 ally or selfishly, but there is nothing in it phy- 
 sicallv impossible, and surely no expense or labor 
 would be too great, now that we see the need. 
 Less than this no man who loves his kind or 
 values the happiness of his own descendants can. 
 without shame, approve. That it mtist come in 
 time no one who has studied the evolution of 
 democracy can doubt. Why not begin now to 
 win this great and crowning triumph of man's 
 long climb upward, so as to clear the way for a 
 more glorious vision than any man has yet be- 
 held? 
 
 What lies in the way? Let me tell you. Of 
 all the dragons that bar the path to progress and 
 human liberty, the most formidable is that old 
 20 
 
heresy that man is naturally bad. "prone to do 
 evil as the sparks are to fly upward," unable to 
 choose and do the risj^ht without strong coercive 
 influences thrown about him. This ancient con- 
 spiracv between king and priest to hold man in 
 subjection has no warrant in the history of hu- 
 man experience rightly studied, and reason 
 shouts the contrary from every hilltop that marks 
 man's upward progress through the ages. 
 
 The one indomitable characteristic of man is 
 to rise. His path is ever toward the higher re- 
 gions of light and truth. If it were not so, he 
 would have sunk to extinction ages ago and some 
 other form of life would now hold sway over 
 matter. 
 
 No. The fledging eagle no more naturally 
 launches on bold pinion into the upper blue than 
 man aspires to noble things. The wonder is that 
 so few men have failed to respond in some meas- 
 ure, have fallen short of their divine inspiration. 
 
 Let us use our God-given powers in intelligent 
 cooperation for the common good, teaching our 
 vouth true values instead of false, and man's 
 ascent will be as much more swift and trium- 
 ])hant as the long thousands of years heretofore 
 21 
 
have been arduous. Then will each one choose 
 and follow an Object in Life worthy of his son- 
 ship to God, the Father of us all, and of that 
 Elder Brother who taught us human Justice, and 
 the service of the common good, which is the 
 Kingdom of God. 
 
886383 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY