John Dewey

About the most we can ask of the state, judging from states which have so far existed, is that it put up with their production by private individuals without undue meddling.

A state which will organize to manufacture and disseminate new ideas and new ways of thinking may come into existence some time, but such a state is a matter of faith, not sight.

When it comes it will arrive because the beneficial consequences of new ideas have become an article of common faith and repute.

It may, indeed, be said that even now the state provides those conditions of security which are necessary if private persons are to engage effectually in discovery and invention.

In any case, it is absurd to expect the public, because it is called in no matter how eulogistic a sense the state, to rise above the intellectual level of its average constituents.

Without roads which one is free to use at will, men might almost as well be castaways on a desert island.

Means of transit and communication affect not only those who utilize them but all who are dependent in any way upon what is transported, whether as producers or consumers.

The increase of easy and rapid intercommunication means that production takes place more and more for distant markets and it puts a premium upon mass-production.

Thus it becomes a disputed question whether railroads as well as highways should not be administered by public officials, and in any case some measure of official regulation is instituted, as they become settled bases of social life.

They relieve the mind from thought of means, thus freeing thought to deal with new conditions and purposes.

Moreover, interference with a well-established habit is followed by uneasiness and antipathy.

If one wishes to realize the distance which may lie between “facts” and the meaning of facts, let one go to the field of social discussion.