act according to our present light and disregard what under this must be incomplete or inadequate. Some will here undoubtedly interject the popular notion that in a supposed free country the people have it in their power to repeal useless laws whenever they choose; the facts do not seem to bear out the statement, but, let that be as it may, as already hinted at, the inculcation in the minds of the young of military obedience to law must certainly make the chances for repeal more and more hopeless.
Now, what do they mean, they who seriously argue that if we are to preserve our free institutions we must rear a generation of men "who have a wholesome respect for discipline, a habit of obedience together with an enduring love for flag and country which can not be uprooted by every passing storm of modern isms"? What do they mean by saying that a vote in the hands of such is a safe vote for the country? In the mouth of Emperor Wilhelm such words and sentiments are perfectly consistent: his power lies in the obedience of his subjects. But free institutions and a servile spirit can never go hand in hand. Free institutions can only be maintained by the eternal vigilance of the individual men and women, whose power of deciding between right and wrong is strengthened by free play and exercise. Change, ceaseless change, is the essence of life in superorganic as well as in organic bodies. Evolution and dissolution, growth and decay—this is the immutable order everywhere. If freedom and liberty are dependent on institutions, then clearly these must be changeable, for, once they become fixed and stagnant, freedom to act is out of the question. If this be not so, what is the meaning of "a vote in the hand of a freeman"? And what is the meaning of many of our symbols of liberty? At the harbor of New York city was erected the Statue of Liberty as "a pharos light to the weak endeavor." Could this mean simply that the citizens basking in its light should cultivate a submissive obedience to what once was decreed as best for them? Was it not rather intended as a reminder of the fact that liberty can only thrive with a distrust toward the old and a spirit ever ready to adapt itself to the new?
The promoters of this movement can only have this in view: The desirability of securing for our country a population of well-drilled subjects whose business shall be, not so much "to reason why" as it shall be "to do and die"—"to toe out and hold their chins up" when orders are given. When we remember how largely, already now, legislation is dictated by concentrated capital or by various interests intrenched behind governmental protection, how it is influenced by religious or superstitious prejudices; when we remember how conservative these controlling forces from their very nature must be toward everything that
