05 Jul Democracy on July 4th, 1943

The New Yorker celebrated July 4th by republishing a piece E.B. White wrote for the Notes and Comment section of the magazine’s July 3, 1943, edition. White was responding to a letter from the Writers’ War Board  asking for a statement on “The Meaning of Democracy.”

It is the hole in the stuffed shirt through which the sawdust slowly trickles; it is the dent in the high hat. Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half of the time. It is the feeling of privacy in the voting booths, the feeling of communion in the libraries, the feeling of vitality everywhere. Democracy is a letter to the editor. Democracy is the score at the beginning of the ninth. It is an idea which hasn’t been disproved yet, a song the words of which have not gone bad.

In short, one of those spare, perfect essays White turned out with unerring reliability. Read the whole thing here, and as a bonus, view this great photo of a youngish White with his dachshund, Fred.

H/T: DMcK