liance with the laws.

Here we find the real explanation of that widespread disregard of law
which characterizes American society to-day. We are witnessing and
taking part in the final struggle between the old and the new--a
struggle which will not end until one or the other of these
irreconcilable theories of government is completely overthrown, and a
new and harmonious political structure evolved. Every age of
epoch-making change is a time of social turmoil. To the superficial
onlooker this temporary relaxation of social restraints may seem to
indicate a period of decline, but as a matter of fact the loss of faith
in and respect for the old social agencies is a necessary part of that
process of growth through which society reaches a higher plane of
existence.

CHAPTER XV

DEMOCRACY OF THE FUTURE

The growth of the democratic spirit is one of the most important facts
in the political life of the nineteenth century. All countries under the
influence of Western civilization show the same tendency. New political
ideas irreconcilably opposed to the view of government generally
accepted in the past are everywhere gaining recognition. Under the
influence of this new conception of the state the monarchies and
aristocracies of the past are being transformed into the democracies of
the future. We of the present day, however, are still largely in the
trammels of the old, though our goal is the freedom of the new. We have
not yet reached, but are merely traveling toward democracy. The progress
which we have made is largely a progress in thought and ideals. We have
imbibed more of the spirit of popular government. In our way of
thinking, our point of view, our accepted political philosophy, there
has been a marked change. Everywhere, too, with the progress of
scientific knowledge and the spread of popular education, the masses are
coming to a consciousness of their strength. They are circumscribing
the power of ruling classes and abolishing their exclusive privileges
which control of the state has made it possible for them to defend in
the past. From present indications we are at the threshold of a new
social order under which the few will no longer rule the many.

Democracy may be regarded, according to the standpoint from which we
view it, either as an intellectual or as a moral movement. It is
intellectual in that it presupposes a more or less general diffusion of
intelligence, and moral in that its aim is justice