l
exert his proper measure of control over the community. The two are
interlocked and interdependent, each exerting exactly the proper amount
of power and accepting proportionate responsibility."

"But have you provided against the possibility of one man or a group of
men buying up a majority of the stock and so controlling the company?
They could then freeze out the smaller owners."

"Yes," said Grant, toying with his coffee, "I have made a provision for
that which I think is rather ingenious. Don't imagine that this all came
to me in a moment. The central thought struck me last night on my way
home, and I knew then I had the embryo of the plan, but I lay awake
until daylight working out details. I am going to allot votes on a very
unique principle. It seems to me that a man's stake in a country should
be measured, not by the amount of money he has, but by the number of
mouths he has to feed. I will adopt that rule in my company, and the
voting will be according to the number of children in the family. That
should curb the ambitious."

They laughed over this proviso, and Phyllis agreed that it was all a
very wonderful plan. "And when they have paid for all their shares you
get your money back," she commented.

"Oh, no. I don't want my money back. I didn't explain that to you. I
will advance the money on the bonds of the company, without interest.
Suppose I am able to finance a hundred farms that way, then as the
payments come in, still more farms. The thing will spread like a ripple
in a pool, until it covers the whole country. When you turn a sum of
money loose, WITH NO INTEREST CHARGE ATTACHED TO IT, there is no limit
to what it can accomplish."

"But what will you do with your bonds, eventually? They will be
perfectly secured. I don't see that you are getting rid of your money at
all, except the interest, which you are giving away."

"That, Phyllis, is where autocracy and democracy meet. All progress is
like the swinging of a pendulum, with autocracy at one end of the arc
and democracy at the other, and progress is the mean of their opposing
forces. But there are times when the most democratic countries have to
use autocratic methods, as, for example, Great Britain and the United
States in the late war. We must learn to make autocracy the servant of
democracy, not its enemy. Well--I'm going to be the autocrat in this
case. I am going to sit behind the scenes and as long as my company
functions all right I wil