DOUBTFUL DEMOCRACY.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 3826, 2 August 1928, Page 4

DOUBTFUL DEMOCRACY.

POLITICS IN AMERICA. AUTOCRACY BEHIND THE SCENES. Some pertinent comments on the democracy (or alleged democracy) of America and its dangerous system of judges influenced hy polities and public favours, were made by Dr. J. J. Van Der Leeuw, a doctor of laws of Holland, who is visiting New Zealand. • "In America they have the idea that they are an exceedingly free nation,” said Dr. Van Der Leeuw. “But in many respects I do not think they arc quite as free as they think they are. Democracy is a very beautiful word, but in American democracy is found a very small group of politicians prescribing what is going .to happen. A small committee decides who are to be the Presidential candidates, but the people have the idea that they are free to choose their own President. Looking behind the scenes, you see that the President is appointed for them. Democracy is often a word with which people drug themselves, and behind many democracies there are forms of autocracy. I have yet to see the first democracy.” Hoover was the first Presidential candidate for years who was the people’s choice. He had not been selected by a committee. He had a big name throughout the States for his straightness and eflilcieney, and he also had international interests.

"Do you think that America is any freer than Great Britain, Australia, or New Zealand?” Dr. Van der Leeuw was asked. “America is no better off,” he replied. “A small and powerful group is ruling the people in a greater way than anywhere else. I have noticed that in many respects. Is America the Utopia of modern countries? Well, I think California life is nearer to the ideal of human life than is found in any other country. I do not want to place it before New Zealand or Australia, but the people in California see nothing but business, and one feels that life itself has not a look in. The trouble in the eastern States of America is not that they do not have enough leisure, but they do not know what to do with leisure. In California the people have more of the true enjoyment of life.”

As a doctor of laws Dr. Van Der Leeuw feels that the election of judges in America is a very serious matter. Justice in America (he said) was not of the highest. When a judge was appointed to the bench he was entirely free from popular favour or disfavour. But when a judge had to cater for public support to retain office it was the commencement of a dangerous and very doubtful procedure. Judges should be entirely unaffected by what the public thought of their judgments. Politics entered too much into American judicial matters, and also into education. The very best and the worst could be found in America, said Dr. Van Der Leeuw, who added that he loved the country, but it was a place of extremes.