Democratic leaders must tell
these things to the people time after time if need be. They must repeat
them so that the masses may understand them, because the tendency in
labour has been to narrow the meaning of democracy. Democracy is not,
and ought not to be, limited to those who now constitute the industrial
population. Democracy is not a sect or a trade union club. Democracy is
wider than the confines of the manual worker. Democracy should strive to
reach the highest level of morality in doctrine and aspiration. It is
not a class formula. It is a great and elevating faith which may be
shared by all who believe in it. Democracy stands for the general
progress of mankind and means the uplifting of men, and the liberation
and unifying of nations. It does not mean the dominion of one class over
another, nor the violent wresting of position or authority by some
dramatic act of physical force, which if used would still leave a nation
in a state of unreconciled and contending factions. Democracy, again, is
a spirit whereby vast social and economic change may be effected through
a medium approaching common consent or at least by the application of
the political power of the people acting through representative
institutions and resting upon ideas which majorities accept and
understand.
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