ing that we have been endeavoring to make democracy
a success, we have at the same time tenaciously held on to the essential
features of a political system designed for the purpose of defeating the
ends of popular government.

CHAPTER XII

INDIVIDUAL LIBERTY AND THE ECONOMIC SYSTEM

The American doctrine of individual liberty had its origin in economic
conditions widely different from those which prevail to-day. The tools
of production were simple and inexpensive and their ownership widely
diffused. There was no capital-owning class in the modern sense.
Business was carried on upon a small scale. The individual was his own
employer, or, if working for another, could look forward to the time
when, by the exercise of ordinary ability and thrift, he might become an
independent producer. The way was open by which every intelligent and
industrious wage-earner could become his own master. Industrially
society was democratic to a degree which it is difficult for us to
realize at the present day. This economic independence which the
industrial classes enjoyed ensured a large measure of individual liberty
in spite of the fact that political control was in the hands of a class.

The degree of individual freedom and initiative which a community may
enjoy is not wholly, or even mainly, a matter of constitutional forms.
The actual liberty of the individual may vary greatly without any change
in the legal or constitutional organization of society. A political
system essentially undemocratic would be much less destructive of
individual liberty in a society where the economic life was simple and
ownership widely diffused than in a community possessing a wealthy
capitalist class on the one hand and an army of wage-earners on the
other. The political system reacts, it is true, upon the economic
organization, but the influence of the latter upon the individual is
more direct and immediate than that of the former. The control exerted
over the individual directly by the government may, as a matter of fact,
be slight in comparison with that which is exercised through the various
agencies which control the economic system. But the close
interdependence between the political and the business organization of
society can not be overlooked. Each is limited and conditioned by the
other, though constitutional forms are always largely the product and
expression of economic conditions.

Individual liberty in any real sense implies much m