he noblest of emperors to the butcher of Berlin, we would sweep them
all aside, to the ash-heap of outworn tools. Our dream is the awakening
and education of the multitude, so that the majority will be able and
glad to choose, as its guides, leaders and representatives, the noblest
and best. When that day comes, there will be, for the first time in the
history of mankind, the dawn of a true _aristocracy_ or rule of the
best; and it will come through the fulfillment of democracy. A long and
troubled path, with many faults and evils meantime? Yes, but not so
hopelessly long, when one considers the ages of slow struggle up the
mountain and the swiftly multiplying power of education over the mind of
all.

XVIII

PATERNALISM VERSUS DEMOCRACY

The contrast between paternalism and democracy in aim and method is thus
extreme. Paternalism seeks directly organization, order, production and
efficiency, incidentally and occasionally the welfare of the subject
population. Democracy seeks directly the highest development of all men
and women, their freedom, happiness and culture, in the end it hopes
this will give social order, good government and productive power. It
is willing, meantime, to sacrifice some measure of order for freedom, of
good government for individual initiative, of efficiency for life.
Paternalism seeks to achieve its aims, quickly and effectively, through
the boss's whip of social control. Democracy works by the slower, but
more permanently hopeful path of education, never sacrificing life to
material ends. Paternalism ends in a social hierarchy, materially
prosperous, but caste-ridden and without soul. Democracy ends in the
abolishment of castes, equality of opportunity, with the freest
individual initiative and finest flowering of the personal spirit. Which
shall it be: God or Mammon, Men or Machines?

There is no doubt that efficiency can be achieved most quickly under a
well-wielded boss's whip, but at the sacrifice of initiative and
invention. Moreover, remove the whip, and the efficiency quickly goes to
pieces. On the other hand, the efficiency achieved by voluntary effort
and free cooperation comes much more slowly, but it lasts. Moreover, it
develops, hand in hand, with initiative and invention.

The negro, doubtless, has never been so generally efficient as before
the civil war, in the South, under the overseer's whip; yet every negro
who, to-day, has character enough to save up an