I  know  that  this  opinion  will  set  most  American  citizen  up
in  arms,  for  they  are  firmly  decided  to  have  neither  governors
nor  governed.  However,  I  maintain  it,  for  it  seems  to  me  to
be  perfectly  just.  Doubtless,  equality  seems  better  realized  in
the  United  States  than  anywhere  else  ;  but  everywhere  there,
even  more  than  elsewhere,  men  are  classed  according  to
their  work,  and  play  parts  that  vary  with  that  work.  Cer
tainly,  nobody  is  ranked  after  the  antecedents  of  his  family  or
the  fame  of  his  ancestors ;  nobody  takes  a  higher  place  with
out  giving  some  proof  of  superior  personal  ability.  But
although  the  governing-class  is  not  a  close  corporation,  it  never
theless  exists.  It  constantly  absorbs  the  choicest  elements
from  the  mass  of  the  nation  and  rejects  the  others.  It  is  the
outcome  of  a  constant  selection.
The  big  settlers,  such  as  those  whose  farms  we  have  inspected,
who  import  fine  breeds  and  introduce  better  agricultural
methods,  ought  also  to  be  counted  among  the  governing-class.
They  even  have  a  place  of  their  own  in  it,  because  they  are  the
people  of  the  country,  and  most  intimately  identified  with  its
interests  and  its  future,  more  than  the  banker  and  much  more


94  AMERICAN    LIFE.
than  the  railway  man.  They  have  another  distinguishing
characteristic.  While  the  banker  brings  one  or  two  clerks  with
him,  or  engages  them  out  there,  the  big  settler  employs  a  dozen
men  all  the  year  round,  and  thirty  for  three  months  every  year.
