was created between individual interest and social stability and welfare.  The interests of the privileged rulers demanded the perpetuation of unjust institutions.  The interest of the people demanded a revolutionary upheaval.  In the absence of such a revolution they had no sufficient inducement to seek their own material and moral improvement.  The theory was proclaimed and accepted as a justification for this system of popular oppression that men were not to be trusted to take care of themselves—­that they could be kept socially useful only by the severest measures of moral, religious, and political discipline.  The theory of the American democracy and its practice was proclaimed to be the antithesis of this European theory and practice.  The people were to be trusted rather than suspected and disciplined.  They must be tied to their country by the strong bond of self-interest.  Give them a fair chance, and the natural goodness of human nature would do the rest.  Individual and public interest will, on the whole, coincide, provided no individuals are allowed to have special privileges.  Thus the American system will be predestined to success by its own adequacy, and its success will constitute an enormous stride towards human amelioration.  Just because our system is at bottom a thorough test of the ability of human nature to respond admirably to a fair chance, the issue of the experiment is bound to be of more than national importance.  The American system stands for the highest hope of an excellent worldly life that mankind has yet ventured,—­the hope that men can be improved without being fettered, that they can be saved without even vicariously being nailed to the cross.

Such are the claims advanced on behalf of the American system; and within certain limits this system has made good.  Americans have been more than usually prosperous.  They have been more than usually free.  They have, on the whole, made their freedom and prosperity contribute to a higher level of individual and social excellence.  Most assuredly the average Americanized American is neither a more intelligent, a wiser, nor a better man than the average European; but he is likely to be a more energetic and hopeful one.  Out of a million well-established Americans, taken indiscriminately from all occupations and conditions, compared to a corresponding assortment of Europeans, a larger proportion of the former will be leading alert, active, and useful lives.  Within a given social area there will be a smaller amount of social wreckage and a larger amount of wholesome and profitable achievement.  The mass of the American people is, on the whole, more deeply stirred, more thoroughly awake, more assertive in their personal demands, and more confident of satisfying them.  In a word, they are more alive, and they must be credited with the moral and social benefit attaching to a larger amount of vitality.