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the people themselves do appear, in which the forces of reason mayshapethe direction of things.Hitler and Mussolini were men who perceived these facts—Mussolini consciously, Hitler intuitively. In Germany and Italyscores of movements resembling theirs were started with dynamicand ruthless leaders. But generally they were movements with hardand-fastprograms built on inflexible doctrines, led by men who didnot know how to break out of the prison of doctrine and submittheir movements to the molding process of popular desire.The problem of the leader of this type changes when he comes topower. It is one thing to promise employment, security, and bountifulcrops, full-blast production, free from the difficulties of competition.These are the things the masses desire. They do notnecessarily desire so ardently the regulations by which these blessedyearnings are to be fulfilled. Very soon the leader in power hascritics. Then come taxes, the discomforts of regulation, the irritationsand even sufferings at the hands of the compliance machinery.It is when the leader takes power that he begins to run againstgreat and powerful currents of opinion. He must enforce compliancewith his policies and his decrees. He must, of necessity, bea dictator.No free society can extort from its people compliance with allthe abrasive rules and ravaging taxes, the endless intrusions intotheir business affairs that grow and multiply, one rule calling foranother to correct its repercussions in unexpected quarters, oneintrusion the forerunner of countless others. Free men will notendure it. They will, if they retain their freedom, cast it off bydriving the leader out and putting another in his place who willnow promise them softer and more amiable conditions of life. Hencethe leader who rides to power upon the masses' hunger for jobs, forsecurity from the cradle to the grave, for the regulation of businessagainst the evils of overproduction, will quickly enough discover,even if his tastes do not already run in that direction, that he mustmake an end of criticism, that he must suppress opposition, that hemust enforce compliance by the application of force and through acomprehensive attack of positive propaganda. Hence he assumesdictatorial power. He liquidates the critics. He introduces all the159

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