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Democratic Error. As a High Councilor, Dr. Carrel would promptly correct ''an error'' concerning democratic equality. Says he: "This dogma is now breaking down under the blows of the experience of the nations. It is, therefore, unnecessary to insist upon its falseness. But its success has been astonishingly long. How could humanity accept such faith for so many years? The democratic creed does not take account of the constitution of our body and of our consciousness. It does not apply to the concrete fact which the individual is. Indeed, human beings are equal. But individuals are not. The equality of their rights is an illusion. The feeble-minded and the man of genius should not be equal before the law. The stupid, the unintelligent, those who are dispersed, incapable of attention, of effort, have no right to a higher education. It is absurd to give them the same electoral power as the fully developed individuals."
In his mighty flight of fancy Dr. Carrel does not pause to explain to men of lesser minds just how, as a practical political matter, these titanic reforms are to be brought about. Nor does he adduce any historic arguments to prove that doctors make great governors of men, perhaps because such arguments are difficult to find. U. S. experience with doctors in high office (e. g. New York's Senator Royal S. Copeland and Representative William Irving Sirovich) Dr. Carrel apparently realized would not help him make his point.
Dr. Carrel is a great scientist, an avid mystic who knows no intellectual bonds. He is, besides, a sly mocker who delights in wild rant. Whether his thesis of iatrocracy was meant to be a colossal joke with which to fool members of his profession or whether he offered it in all earnestness with the idea that it would add to his stature as a world thinker he alone knew last week.
* Harpers ($3.50).