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people boasting of their "sensitiveness to the demands of life," who in such a situation insist—not on the necessity for the strictest conspiracy, and the strictest (and therefore the closest) selection of members,—but on "the broad democratic principle"!

The position is no better as regards the second requisite of democracy—election. This principle is taken for granted in a country where political freedom prevails. "A person is regarded as a member of the party who accepts the principles of the Party program and supports the Party according to his ability,"—runs the first paragraph of the statutes of the German Social Democratic Party. And since the political arena is open to the sight of all, as the stage is to the audience of a theatre, everybody can learn either from the newspapers or from public meetings who accepts or who does not accept, who supports and who does not support. Everybody knows that such-and-such a politician began in such-and-such a way, passed through such-and-such an evolution, that at a difficult moment of his life he conducted himself in such-and-such a manner, and that he is distinguished by such-and-such qualities—and therefore, of course, all the members of the Party can, with full knowledge of what they are doing, elect that person or not to a given Party post. General control (in the literal sense of the word) over every step made by a member of the Party in the sphere of politics creates an automatic mechanism, which in biology is called "the survival