Repository: UIHistories Project: Commencement - 1925 [PAGE 7]

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public. For in a democratic republic no citizen should a k for or obi in any privilege or opportunity that is not open

equally to all other citizens under similar condit ns. We have departed too far from this ideal in our politic I life. That departure is corruption. Unless it is hecked our government of the people can not endur 1 r in time government will fall into the hands of tho e who will grant special privileges to those who will keep them permanently in power and assist them in ( irrying out their own wills irrespective of the will of the people. Corruption breed.corruption. Unbridled competition for privilege, like unbridled competition in business, is bound to tall to the moral plane of the most immoral competitor. Some tell us that we can not get efficient government in a democracy. But surely we can get honest government if the individual citizens are honest. Some people believe that efficient government is of first importance no matter what the means by which it is attained. In other words, as President Butler has remarked, "there are no doubt those who sincerely believe that the Prussian ideal of organized efficiency is superior to the old American ideal of personal liberty and freedom of initiative in as many fields of endeavor as possible." I do not believe this. "Good government," in the words of Henry Campbell-Bannerman, "is no substitute for self-government." Inefficient self-government in a democratic republic is more to be desired than efficient government imposed upon the people by authority other than their own. You will believe this if you believ that freedom is our most precious possession. You will not believe it if you think that "getting results" is the most important thing in government. Of late years in America it has become fashionable to decry the importance oi individual freedom and to emphasize the importance oi economic competence, personal comfort, eilicien oi j overnmental machinery. Class sectionalism is rampant today, It aim st seems as if every class in the nation were seekin special privileges and advantages lor itself, irrespecti\ ff the influence of its action on the general welfare The cvidem i oi

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