read differently, they mean very much the same thing; and they both refer in general terms to the things this chapter discusses in more familiar and express terms.  For “happier lives” can only result from a more complete satisfaction of our common wants.  Our own happiness comes from the satisfaction of our own wants and from helping to satisfy the wants of others.  And “democracy” means, in part, that the common wants of all shall be properly provided for.

In the Declaration of Independence we read: 

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created
equal that they are endowed by their creator with certain
unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the
pursuit of happiness.

OUR UNALIENABLE RIGHTS

The statement that “all men are created equal” has troubled many people when they have thought of the obvious inequalities that exist in natural ability and opportunity.  But whatever inequalities may exist, people are absolutely equal in their right to satisfy the wants described in this chapter.  These are the “unalienable rights” which the Declaration of Independence sums up in the phrase “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”  That community is best to live in that most nearly provides equal opportunity for all its citizens to enjoy these rights.  From the Declaration of Independence to the present day, our great national purpose has been to increase this opportunity, even though at times we have apparently not been conscious of it, and even though we have fallen short of its fulfillment.  One of the chief objects of our study is to find out how our communities are seeking to accomplish this purpose.

“The Declaration of Independence did not mention the questions of our day.  It is of no consequence to us unless we can translate its general terms into examples of the present day and substitute them in some vital way for the examples it itself gives, so concrete, so intimately involved in the circumstances of the day in which it was conceived and written.  It is an eminently practical document, meant for the use of practical men ...  Unless we can translate it into the questions of our own day, we are not worthy of it, we are not sons of the sires who acted in response to its challenge.”—­ Woodrow Wilson, in The New Freedom, pp. 48, 49.

A and B are two boys of the same age.  One was born in a rich family, and one in a very poor family.  So far as this accident of birth is concerned, have they equal opportunity to satisfy the wants of life?  Have they an equal right to health? to an education? to pleasant surroundings? to earn a good living?