ABSTRACT
In the growth of public will any agency amenable to public opinion may serve as an instrument; and this means, of course, any sort of rational activity, personal as well as institutional. The view which many hold that public will must be chiefly if not wholly identified with the institution of government is a just one only in a certain narrow sense. The maddening thing about the oppression of private monopolies is the personal subjection, the humiliation of being unable to assert oneself, while in public life the free citizen has always a way of regular and dignified protest. There are few things that would be more salutary to the life of people than a lively and effective civic consciousness in towns, villages and rural communities. In the United States the people often have more interest and confidence in the federal system than in their particular states and cities.
