Life — March 26, 1925 — page 12: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

IK NU Ne AUG gs BS > LiFe’s Question Contest Announcing the Winning Answer to Question Number Five: HERE were infinitely more good answers to the question, “Is De- a Success?” than to any of its rs in this great contest, Some nty contestants ha: hon- orable mention this We carnestly urge that you read all these ers, as ti Unqualified “TS Democracy a Success?” Hasn't it given us Congress. . and Prohibition id the Income Tax cand the Anti-Saloon L the Lord's Da liance. Klux Klan...a pression of Vice Doesn't it guarantee to every man the inalienable right to pursue liberty and happiness — and a year in jail if he catches them? Hasn't it made the Tower of Babel 1oo-per-cent. American, without chang- ing a syllable? Hasn't it made every European peasant with the price of a steamship ticket as good a man Thomas A, Edison—or maybe better? Well, then, look what democracy’s done that God couldn't do. If Caius J. Caesar had tried to pull the stuff democracy is getting away with, Gibbon could have covered the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire in three pica lines and a funeral notice. “Is Democracy a Success?” It's a riot! Carl M. Chapin, 35 Fairview Street, Waterbury, Conn. as Faint Praise EMOCRACY is a partial success. It is better than no government at all. Mrs. L, E. Thompson, 21 Prince Rupert ¢ Toronto, Ontario. Utopia | D solfeeeeasts docs not work as well as Autocracy might in a community of morons, or as Socialism might in a community of angels; but it remains the most “Is Democracy a Success?” THe Prize oF $50.00 1s AWARDED TO: H.W. Davis 1727 Fairciew Avenue Manhattan, Kansas For the following answer: EMOCRACY is a rip-roar- ing success. If you don't believe so, say out loud that it isn't—and run for your life. De- mocracy pats the greatest num- ber of people on the back and makes the most promises. Of course it seldom deliv what of th We live made happy by promise, not per- formance. And happiness is success, for all that anybody has been able to prove to the contrary. Ergo, de- mocracy is a success. There! The pup has his tail in his teeth. successful experiment in government among rational and fallible beings. When the time comes that all the people can be fooled all the time, or that none of the people can be fooled any of the time, then a new form of government should be considered. E, D. Washburn, R. F. D1, Box 173, lo Park, Cal. Liberty and Democracy EMOCRACY is flourishing while bet- ter things starve and die. Our army went across “to make the world safe for Democracy.” They might as well fight for the loose-leaf system. Democracy is a method of government good or bad, like a machine gun, according to the purpose for which it is used. In the Revolution and the Civil War we fought for Liberty. Not your liberty or mine—not liberty for ny selected group. Recognition rather of the principle that the State is made NEXT WEEK—The winning answer to Question Number Six: “Do despotism it Newspapers Encourage Crime?” will be published in the Travel Number. for the man, and that it can only justify its existence and its use of force upon the individual by using its power solely to protect human rights against aggres sion. To-day there are successful democra- cies all over the world, all dedicated to the proposition that any law is justified by a fifty-one-per-cent. vote in its favor, all run on the theory that the state is a gigantic great-grandmother—head of th clan, knowing the needs of her hous:- hold and compelling them o live their lives as she thinks best. Democracy, the handmaiden, sits en- throned; and Liberty, the wise and gentle queen whose world-wide reign could bring peace and happiness, lies quietly bleeding to death, Mathew I. Riley, 1&4 Montague Street, Brooklyn, e York, Frankenstein HE mother of great men, democracy has repeatedly perished at the hands of her favorite sons. Alexander sprang from the funeral pyre of Greek freedom Cesar brought the Roman Republic to its deathbed, and Napoleon scattered the ashes of his revolutionary progenitres to the four winds. So shall the success of Democracy’s present labor be mea sured by the magnificence of the son who shall achieve his triumph in her destruction. Spencer J. 428 Eleventh Av Duluth, Minn, Around the Corner EMOCRACY is a splendid word to juggle with; first verbal aid of the demagogue ; the fetish of the professional reformer; the semblance but not the re- ality; the shadow without the substance The democracy of one century for us our freedom from tyranny; the democracy of a later day forges the fetters of despotism. Democracy is thus the world’s greatest paradox. It comes forth from despotism, and into returns again. Democracy is what you will, wins comicbooks.com