Page:Back to the Republic.djvu/81

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Dangerous Experiments
77

would feel the necessity of slightly discrediting the other four.

This is one of many illustrations that might be given, and the pity is we are growing worse instead of better in this regard.

Suppose that when President Wilson called Elihu Root to Washington and asked him to go on a commission with Russell, who had been assaulting our institutions for many years, and other men who had no concept of the meaning of a republic, Mr. Root had said: "Mr. President, I am seventy-two years old and willing to undertake this hazardous journey, but if I go, I must go alone as an ambassador, as Franklin went to France, and I must go with a definite message that must have your approval before I start, and no interference after I leave. That message will be the Constitution of the United States translated into the Russian language. Upon my arrival I will ask that the Constitution be read in the Russian language to those who are assembled to consider the new government for Russia. After the reading of the Constitution, I will ask for an interpreter, through whom I will say that this Constitution provided for the first form of government that ever worked well, and that, if they wish to utilize its teachings in working out their problems, I will be glad to be