The Challenge to Democracy
religion. But with us—so far—it is different. This
may not continue. The days of dictatorship may be
coming upon us, too, when each of us will be hit on
the head by one party or the other, if we are suspected
of being lukewarm in the established faith. But so far,
even those who differ in political opinion assist their
political opponents to make and use the same drains.
A candid account of the facts, therefore, and not any
Utopian dream must allow that even persons who hate
one another can work together for some common ends. It is
not implied that they are better morally when they are
sitting together in the bus than when they are cursing
their opponents on platforms. But they are different
in the two cases. As producers and users of common
drains they have a life in common. They are integral
parts of a single community. They are members of
one another. And the "real" person is as truly a part
of a larger whole as he is truly an individual when he
makes and shares the common goods of a city-area.
There is, then, an actual, if unconscious, community
in the lives of all neighbours in a city-area. This life
in common has been created by certain common
services; and it is itself a force which may be used to
assist in the removal of existing evils and the
realization of still finer common life.
The Conflict of Interests
The common services of the city have grown up in the
midst of the traditional tangle of private enterprise,
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