Our Republic : The Golden Mean

During the forty-five years since Back to the Republic was first published in 1918, problems confronting our great Republic -- which the author, Harry Atwood, recognized as inimical to the interests of liberty and freedom -- have ripened into a constitutional crisis. Following the publication of the tenth edition, Back to the Republic was out of print for twenty-five years. Now this eleventh edition has been published. No changes have been made in the text matter of this book; the only departure from the original publication is the new title: Our Republic.

Because of the urgent need today to recognize fundamental factors that contributed to the development of the United States of America into the great people of our Republic, this book is again made available. It is hoped that its forthright presentation will induce the citizens of our nation to raise their voices against the drift toward the establishment of a democracy, a form of government abhorred by our fore-fathers.

Excerpt:

Page 41-43

The law of degree also applies to forms of government. The more extreme the autocracy, the more vicious the government; and, on the other hand, the more extreme the democracy, the more vicious the government; but the more strictly and literally the republic the is adhered to, the better the government.

Frequently you hear people say that the more popular the government becomes, the better it becomes. That statement is as absurd and untrue as it would be to say that the more drink you give person, the more temperate that person becomes, or the more excessive the amount of food you give a person, the better nourished that person becomes; the more fanatical a person becomes, the more religious that person is; the more seed you sow, the better the crop.

An exhortation heard repeatedly during the World War was, "Make the world safe for democracy." That expression was as superficial, and as impossible, and as unwise as it would be to say: "Make drink safe for drunkenness; make food safe for gluttony; make religion safe for fanaticism; make the social world safe for free love; make music safe for discord; make justice safe for lawlessness; make automobiling safe for joyriding." It is a weak, unsound, beggarly slogan. Government was created to make safety, not to have safety made for it.

A more effective statement would be, "Make the world safe through democracy," if there were any basis for faith in such a slogan; but we cannot make the world safe for democracy, nor can we make the world safe through democracy, because democracy itself is one of the most dangerous things in the world.

To discuss a governmental situation in terms of autocracy and democracy and ignore the republic is as shallow and unscientific as it would be to discuss a food problem in terms of starvation and gluttony and ignore nourishment, which is the vital thing; or to discuss the drink problem in terms of thirst and drunkenness and ignore termperance, which is the important thing; or to discuss the question of human rights in terms of bondage and license and ignore liberty, which is the essential thing.

The tendency, however, during recent years, of those in authority in all countries has been to go to one extreme or the other; to appeal to ignorance, passion, prejudice, emotion, hate and fear by intemperate speech, and to ignore the danger signals of history. There is an appalling need today for a knowledge and an observance and an application of the law of the golden mean in word, thought and action.

End Excerpt.