Excerpt from American Planning and Civic Annual: A Record of Recent Civic Advance in the Fields of Planning, Parks, Housing, and Neighborhood Improvement, Including the Principal Papers Delivered at the National Conference on Planning, Held at San Francisco, California, July 8-11, 1940, and the Nineteen There is nothing new in the statement that democracy is under fire. It always has been. For a few years after the World War the attacks upon democratic organization died down and perhaps seemed to some ended, but this was only an intermission - a lull in the storm. For centuries there have been two opposing assumptions about con trol in political society: (1) that the control of the common affairs of the community belongs in the few; and (2) that the control Of the common affairs of the community belongs in the many. The problem of the few has been: (1) to find the superior, (2) to continue the line, (3) to insure their regard for an judgment of the common good, and (4) to bring about mass confidence In their intentions and actions. Mirage, rainbow, illusion, are written on this record. The alternative is govern'ment of common affairs by the community. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.