Chapter IV
THE STANDARD FORM
IF YOU were asked to suggest a word that epitomizes in the most effective and comprehensive manner the sum total of human effort and the achievements of civilization, what would your answer be?
Undoubtedly the word "standards."
By the processes of reasoning and experience in the various fields of activity and thought, standards have been evolved to guide mankind in the onward march of civilization.
From the birth of political speculation treatises on politics have frequently discussed the question. What is the best form of government?
The men who founded this republic answered that question by evolving the standard form of government. It is the right standard in the science of government, just as the Golden Rule is the correct standard in the philosophy of right living; the Ten Commandments in the realm of law; the ten digits in the science of mathematics; the alphabet in the languages; the institution of monogamous marriage in domestic relationships; the clock in the realm of time; the compass as a guide to travel; the standards of weights and measures to express quantity; the yardstick as the unit of length; four wheels in the domain of land transportation; the fish-shaped boat in the domain of water transportation; gold in the monetary system, and the corporation in the field of business.
How do we know that these are standards? Because they have been evolved through reasoning and experiment and have been tested by experience and demonstration. Nothing was discovered or evolved up to the time of their adoption that worked as well, and nothing has since been evolved that could be substituted for them with profit and universal approval.
All of the standards above referred to except the standard form of government have met with almost universal adoption throughout the entire world, and it is high time that we should adhere strictly and literally to the republic as the standard form of government in nation, State, county and city, and recommend its adoption throughout the world.
It meets as severe a test as can be applied to any of the standards named.
During the thousands of years of history prior to the founding of this republic no government had been devised which gave to its people religious freedom, civil liberty, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, security of individual rights, popular education or universal suffrage.
During the first hundred years of the existence of this standard form of government all these privileges were secured. In that first century of our history we developed a larger galaxy of great statesmen (because they were working and thinking along standard lines) than has been developed by all other governments in the history of mankind. We harmonized into a splendid citizenship people of many nationalities coming to our shores with varying ambitions and ideals. We stood the strain of the great Civil War and came out of it stronger and better. We made material and commercial progress that has had no parallel in history, and while making that matchless record we established for the United States of America the leading place among the nations of the world.
All these evidences of the adaptability of the republic successfully to meet unlooked-for emergencies, to harmonize the incoherent elements from other lands, to establish the blessings of liberty, of education and of individual rights, and to successfully solve the problems which had baffled the philosophers and statesmen throughout the ages, are proof that the republic is not only the best, but the standard form of government.
It was the first form of government that worked well, and no form of government has since been devised which has met with such universal approval; but for some unexplainable reason it has not met with universal adoption.
The delay in universal adoption is not unusual, but quite in accord with the experience of history. It is doubtful if any of the other standards now universally recognized, met with immediate adoption. Their discovery in most instances was probably followed by a period of doubt and further fruitless experiment.
The people of all ages have quite generally failed to recognize the merit of the work of the benefactors of the race and the prophets of their time, and have frequently paid popular homage to those who were finally revealed as impostors.
They humiliated Westinghouse for discovering the airbrake.
They laughed at Bell for discovering the telephone.
They persecuted Columbus for discovering a new world and unfolding hidden truth.
They made a wandering pilgrim of Confucius in China.
They gave Socrates the cup of hemlock for philosophy now taught in our universities.
They crucified Christ, who came to lead the way and set the standard of right living for all mankind.
"Not understood!
Poor souls with stunted vision
Oft measure giants by their narrow gauge;
The poisoned shafts of falsehood and derision
Are oft employed 'gainst those who mold the age,
Not understood!"
The light finally dawned; the truth, although "crushed to earth," finally prevailed, and ultimately the importance of the work of the men who founded the republic will be recognized and understood.
There is no reason to suppose that the framers of the Constitution realized the full significance of their work. The ultimate purport of many of our greatest discoveries was not fully revealed until long after the discoverers passed over the great divide.
So the framers of the Constitution, though they knew that they had conscientiously provided a form of government better suited than any other possible form to the need of their country, probably did not fully realize that they, too, had made a discovery of universal import. There is no evidence that they were conscious of having established the golden mean or of having evolved the standard form of government. But when the scope of this tremendous governmental achievement dawns upon mankind, the republic will be the universal form of government everywhere around the world, just as other standards and other golden means in other fields of activity have been universally utilized when their superiority became known and acknowledged.
Just so certain as the sphere is the standard form for the heavenly bodies, including the earth, throughout all the realm of nature, from the mightiest suns to the smallest planets, so sure it is that the republic, the golden mean, will become the standard form of government throughout the world.
It may be urged that the republic has not worked perfectly. The answer is that it is not the fault of the form of government, but of its imperfect application. It has provided by far the best government of any form that has ever been devised.
Problems in mathematics are not always worked correctly, but it is not the fault of the digits. It is the fault of imperfect application. Words are misspelled, but it is not the fault of the alphabet. We do not have perfect monetary systems, but it is not the fault of gold. Our remedy lies not in further experiment with dangerous departures, but in improving our application of the standard form through exercising greater vigilance, more discretion and better judgment in the selection of representatives who are to administer the affairs of the government. One of the very vital tests that should be applied to prospective candidates as to their fitness is whether or not they understand thoroughly what this form of government is and the stern importance of adhering strictly and literally to it in nation, State, county and city.
No one claims that republics are perfect—nothing human is perfect—but I do maintain that there is the same difference between a republic and either a democracy or an autocracy that there is between good and bad.
During a recent conversation with a gentleman who is an earnest student of government and who for years had been a teacher of constitutional history in one of our largest universities, he said: "I have always been of the opinion during my years of thought and study and teaching that one form of government worked well in one country and another form of government in another country." I replied: "Why don't you say that of the clock, of the compass, of the alphabet, of the Grolden Rule, of the ten digits, of the standards of weights and measures, or of the institution of marriage?"
This standard form of government would work better than any other form in any country, under any conditions, in the midst of any people, just as the other standards heretofore enumerated, that have been universally adopted, work better in their various fields than anything else that has been devised. This standard form of government would work better than any other form in darkest Africa, densest China, chivalrous France, intellectual England, efficient Germany, chaotic Russia, serious Scandinavia, impulsive Mexico or anywhere else, and it will work better than any other form of government in any nation. State, county, or city, whether the population run into the millions or is limited to a few hundred. The very essence of a republic is to make possible the selection of the best fitted people to work out the problems of government in a representative capacity.
The student of government further observed: "I have always been of the impression that the quality of public service depended more upon the intelligence of the people than upon the form of government." And I replied:
"From 1776 to 1788 we were living on the same land, with the same sun to shine by day and the same moon and stars to shine by night, with the same people, the same able men; the May-flower compact had been written; the Declaration of Independence had been adopted; there was a yearning desire to have a stable government; but after operating under the Articles of Confederation for twelve years, from 1776 to 1788, we were in a good deal the same condition in this country that Russia is today. In 1787 we wrote the Constitution, founded the republic, and in twelve years we had made unbounded progress and won the admiration of the world because of our form of government."
No better proof could be given of the great importance that the form of government plays in the welfare and progress of a people.
It is high time that the people of the world should be aroused and become wide-awake to the tremendous truth that the vital significance of the work of the men who wrote the Constitution and founded the republic is that they evolved the standard form of government.
Each individual has a threefold relationship: the relation to God, the relation to government, and the relation to society. When one acquires the right concept of God and the right concept of government, it almost assures a right relationship toward society.
To my mind the most important event that has occurred since creation was the coming of Christ, for he came to establish the standard of right living for all mankind. The next most important event was the founding of this republic under the Constitution, because it provided for the standard form of government.