ABSTRACT
It is difficult to translate the economic level of democratic striving from the field of theory to the field of practice. The intellectual level of democratic striving is above the literacy line, just as the economic level is above the poverty line. It is possible that the German masses are today a more capable democratic group than are the English, because the Germans, though perhaps poorer, and with fewer political rights, are better educated. But wealth, without education, furnishes no sufficient motive power to democratic movements. A diffused education, like a diffused prosperity, is necessary to democracy. In a democracy, the government can hardly rise above the intellectual level of the mass. Where, as in America, the majority are but little inclined to submit their opinions to the judgment of a special intellectual class, it is absolutely essential that the mass of the people be intelligent–politically and otherwise.
