Hokitika Guardian & Evening Star THURSDAY, DEC. 6, 1917. THE ENEMY DEMOCRACY.

Hokitika Guardian, 6 December 1917, Page 2

Hokitika Guardian & Evening Star THURSDAY, DEC. 6, 1917. THE ENEMY DEMOCRACY.

It is very clear that a great change will require to come over public opinion i n Germany before the democracy of that country will he moved to attempt the establishment of such a form of democratised government a jS is insisted upon by the President of the greatest democracy extant Ito-day. Even the extreme 'Social Democrats of Germany nave allowed themselves since the beginning of this "’at of plunder, rapine and brutality, to justify the exercise of the force used to maintain the aggresive conflict. Confidence in the ruling Party was shown by the voting of the necessary credits to carry on the war. The Social Democrats likewise recognised the need for national unity and refused as one of their leaders put it •‘to vote no-confidence in Government on the ground of their internal policy’” What this means is thus emphasised by M. Paul Hirsch lin one. of his earliest speeches o n the war: “By adopting such an attitude, as this, the S°cml group in the Prussian chamber would not merely have dealt the severest flow to the interests of labour, but would have weakened the Fatherland in the fa'ce op it's einomios. High as we place the idea of international solidarity, we place still higher the cood of our country, the economic aggrandisement of our people. The greater our economic power as a nation, rho stronger, also, will he the foundations of the modern labour movement. It is the guarantee of civilisation in the. future.” This extract- from a notable speech seems to typify the spirit of Germany in this great war, and gives an insight into the forces working behind the nation which give it the power within which it is demonstrating now after more than three years of exhausting warfare. Is there r.ot a lesson to be learned therefrom? What of our own political Labour forces and how do they stand 1 in the relation of their own party aspirations and the national needs? Do they feel concerned about weakening the Empire within and lessoning the power to face a cruel and un.compromiising foe ? Do they place the good of their own country 'before class consfderations? It must he confessed that the attitude' and ideas of a section of the political social element in the British Empire and the Socialists and in Germany are widely divergent in the common desire and sacrifices for a supreme national vi,ct(oryt. In] !G(ermany the workman hinds himself to the State and its cause in spite of all the Government imperfections and conflicting interests. As Heine puts it in 1915; “The workmen is a part of tlie German people and at this time of war he feels more than ever that his country’s destiny in his own,” As further evidence of the loyalty of the German democracy to the State, read what their official organ (the Vorwnerts) lately wrote: “Victory for us is a question of self-preservation and self-defence . . . If nine-tenths of the German people are convinced that the road to this indispensable victory is barred by obstacles traceable to the internal arrangements of our Constitution, could anyone have the wish or the newer to nrevent their removal.” The spirit of the German nation is such that it will sacrifice all for the national cause. That, as i s being instanced over and over again, accounts for the rejuvenating forces

which appear to bo always * working within the nation, and give it an unquenchable military support. The same seif-sacrificing degree is not so apparent in our own nation, delude ourselves as wo will as to our great- flow of-loyalty