+The Meaning of Party Government.+--Why should there be two parties
instead of one in order that the people should be able to govern
themselves? To answer this question we must start at the beginning, and
consider what is the problem of popular government. The best definition
is that it is to promote the general welfare--to reconcile or average
the real interests of all sections of the community. Now, if the people
could all agree what is best in the interests of all, unity of action
might certainly be obtained; but even then the problem would not be
solved, for the people are not infallible. The greater part of the
problem consists in finding out what is best in the interests of all,
and no amount of mere abstract speculation can solve this part. So
diverse and so complex are the interests to be reconciled, so interwoven
and interdependent one with another, that the problem of securing a just
balance is incapable of solution by anything short of omniscience. But
in any case the people cannot be always got to agree to one course of
action. Therefore the people cannot govern themselves as one united
party. The only workable basis is, then, the rule of the majority, and
the problem of popular government is how to ensure that the majority
shall rule in the interests of all.

Party government provides the best known means of solving this problem.
The only way of finding out what is best for the whole people is by the
incessant action and interaction of two great organized parties under
their chosen leaders; each putting forth its energies to prove its
fitness to hold the reins of government; each anxious to expose the
defects of the other. This healthy emulation as to what is best for all,
with the people to judge, is the real secret of free government. The
two parties are virtually struggling as to which shall be king. Each is
striving to gain the support of a majority of the people; and the
grounds on which it appeals for support are that the measures it