What is a demagogue?

He is a politician skilled in oratory, flattery, and invective; evasive in discussing vital issues; promising everything to everybody; appealing to the passions rather than the reason of the public; and arousing racial, religious, -and class prejudices-a man whose lust for power without recourse to principle leads him to seek to become a master of the masses.

It is on such social and economic abuses that demagoguery thrives.

The demagogue may make a lot of noise, but ordinarily he is not heard until depression and economic hardship goad desperate men to believe anyone who will promise them relief.

If there is lack of balance in American Demagogues, it is not that the charlatanry of the demagogues is overemphasized; it is that the conditions which give rise to them are, perhaps, underemphasized.

The demagogues were, by and large, crooks and shysters, by no means averse to "doing business" with the "interests" while preaching and posing as "men of the people".

In almost any age, there are conditions made to order for exploitation by the demagogues. To this, add the political insecurity caused by the balance of power tactics which have dominated international intrigues for a century, and an additional avenue is opened up for demagoguery.

So long as there is international unrest or economic and social exploitation of large masses, there will be political eploitation by those who seek mastery over the masses.

Erradicate the economic conditions which make demagoguery profitable.

To prevent the rise of demagogues, citizens of all and no political parties in a free society must be ever on the alert; they must take more interest in public affairs and deeply scrutinize their candidates for elective office. Well, so they must! But first, we must recognize that a democracy is peculiarly vulnerable to the demagogue's assault. In a political community organized on totalitarian principles, the government and its licensees have a monopoly. But in a democratic society, demagoguery is a free enterprise.

With political maturity, the masses become their own masters and the demagogues pastures are less green.