In such a
debate we can often judge who has won the dialectical victory, but we
are virtually defenseless against a false premise that none of the
debaters has challenged, or a neglected aspect that none of them has
brought into the argument. We shall see later how the democratic
theory proceeds on the opposite assumption and assumes for the
purposes of government an unlimited supply of self-sufficient
individuals.
The people on whom we depend for contact with the outer world are
those who seem to be running it. [Footnote: _Cf._ Bryce, _Modern
Democracies_ Vol. II, pp. 544-545.] They may be running only a
very small part of the world. The nurse feeds the child, bathes it, and
puts it to bed. That does not constitute the nurse an authority on
physics, zoology, and the Higher Criticism. Mr. Smith runs, or at least
hires, the man who runs the factory. That does not make him an
authority on the Constitution of the United States, nor on the effects
\of the Fordney tariff. Mr. Smoot runs the Republican party in the State
of Utah. That in itself does not prove he is the best man to consult
about taxation. But the nurse may nevertheless determine for a while
what zoology the child shall learn, Mr. Smith will have much to say on
what the Constitution shall mean to his wife, his secretary, and perhaps
even to his parson, and who shall define the limits of Senator Smoot's
authority?
The priest, the lord of the manor, the captains and the kings, the
party leaders, the merchant, the boss, however these men are chosen,
whether by birth, inheritance, conquest or election, they and their
organized following administer human affairs.
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