Readily
accessible books and magazines together with club and forum lectures in
cities, towns, and villages were rapidly educating the population in
social science, and the result was a growing independent vote to make
politicians despair.
Here was an instance of a democratic culture growing in isolation,
resentful of all external interference. To millions of Americans
--especially in our middle western and western states--bent upon social
reforms, the European War appeared as an arresting influence. American
participation meant the triumph of the forces of reaction. Colour was
lent to this belief because the conservative element which had opposed
social reforms was loudest in its demand for intervention. The wealthy
and travelled classes organized preparedness parades and distributed
propaganda. In short, those who had apparently done their utmost to
oppose democracy at home were most insistent that we should embark
upon a war for democracy across the seas. Again, what kind of democracy?
Obviously a status quo, commercially imperialistic democracy, which the
awakening liberal was bent upon abolishing.
There is undoubtedly in such an office as the American presidency some
virtue which, in times of crisis, inspires in capable men an intellectual
and moral growth proportional to developing events. Lincoln, our most
striking example, grew more between 1861 and 1865 than during all the
earlier years of his life. Nor is the growth of democratic leaders, when
seen through the distorted passions of their day, apparently a consistent
thing.
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