Also they consciously founded it upon the basis of individual freedom and responsibility as proclaimed and enforced by the precepts of the Christian-Jewish religion and by the English Common Law.  It is upon this foundation that they built their success.  Upon this same basis their descendants and successors to-day weigh, measure and estimate that which is new in thought or invention whether “native” or “foreign-born.”  And they have weighed Socialism in this American balance and found it wanting.

But they brought with them neither certain loathsome diseases nor Socialism.  All of these are likewise the results of immorality—­moral and political—­and of a type of decadent civilization still prevalent on the Continent of Europe and at that time threatening to gain a foothold even in England.  It was this last-named threat from which the founders of the American nation were wise and energetic enough to escape, even though their escape meant going into the hardships of an unknown and almost uninhabited wilderness.

Socialism is not only essentially un-American, but it is essentially undemocratic.  A democracy means a government by public opinion, and this opinion is the result of the co-operative impulse or community feeling of the people of a free country—­a people who are given the opportunity to think for themselves, and are not thought for by a divinely constituted government.  As Thomas Jefferson maintained, liberty is not a privilege granted by a government, but government is a responsibility delegated to its officers by the people.  “On this distinction hangs all the philosophy of democracy."[5] The people must decide questions for themselves and make their common will known through the representative organs of a government which is after all only the instrument intended to produce the best expression and administration of this public will.

FOOTNOTES: 

[Footnote 5:  David Saville Muzzey, Thomas Jefferson, p. 311. 
  “Generally speaking, one may say of the German soldier that he is
  normally good-natured and is not disposed to do injury to harmless
  people, so long as he finds no obstacles put in his prescribed way. 
  But once disturbed, he becomes frightful, because he lacks any
  higher capacity of discrimination; because he merely does his duty
  and recognizes no such thing as individual conscience and, besides,
  when he is excited becomes at once blind and super-nervous.”  “The
  Germans are, indeed, a good-natured people, born to blind obedience
  and humble willingness to let others do their thinking for them.” 
  Wilhelm Mühlon, The Vandal of Europe, pages 172 and 251.]

III

ITS CONFLICT WITH THE BASIC PRINCIPLES OF DEMOCRACY AND RELIGION