Democratic societies from the earliest times have expected their government to protect the weak against the strong. No ‘era of good feeling’ can justify discharging the police force or giving up the idea of public control over concentrated private wealth. On the other hand, it is obvious that a sprirt of self-denial and moderation on the part of those who hold economic power will greatly soften the demand for absolute equality. Men are more interested in freedom and security than in an equal distribution of wealth. The extent to which Government must interfere with business, therefore, is not exactly measured by the extent to which economic power is concentrated into a few hands. The required degree of government inference depends mainly on whether economic powers are oppressively used, and on the necessity of keeping economic factors in a tolerable state of balance.
However, with necessity of meeting all these dangers and threats to liberty, the powers of government are unavoidably increased, regardless of the political party in power. The growth of government is a necessary result of the growth of technology and of the problems that go with the use of machines and science. Since the government must take on more powers to meet the problems of the nations, there is no way to preserve freedom except by making democracy more powerful.
Q: "Tolerable state of balance" in the last sentence of the first paragraph may mean
