For Russia, however, the War was of the people, rather than of the
autocracy at the top, and one saw that Russia would emerge from the War
changed and purified. What one could not foresee was that, under the
awakening of the people, Russia could pass, in a day, through a
Revolution as profound in its character and consequences as the great
explosion in France. It would be almost a miracle if so complete a
Revolution, in such a vast, benighted empire, were not followed by
decades of recurrent chaos and anarchy. If Russia avoids this fate, she
will present a unique experience in history. The tendency to abrogate
all authority, the spectacle of regiments of soldiers becoming debating
societies to discuss whether or not they shall obey orders and fight,
are ominous signs for the next period. Emancipated Russia must learn,
if necessary through bitter suffering, that liberty is not license, that
democracy is not anarchy, but voluntary and intelligent obedience to
just laws and the chosen executors of those laws. Meantime, whatever
her immediate future may be, Russia's transformation has clarified the
issue and justified her place with the allied democracies. However long
and confused her struggle, there can be no return to the past, and, in
the end, her Revolution means democracy.

Thus, in democracy, the State exists for Man. Other forms of society
seek the interest or welfare of an individual, a group or a class,
democracy aims at the welfare, that is, the liberty, happiness, growth,
intelligence, helpfulness of _all the people_. Under all the welter of
this world struggle, it is therefore these great contrasting ideas that
are being tested out, perhaps for all time. What is their relative
value for efficiency, initiative, invention, endurance, permanence;
beneath all, what is their final value for the happiness and helpfulness
of all human beings?