The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 1915. EUROPE'S DEMOCRACY.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXV, Issue 35, 12 February 1915, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 1915. EUROPE'S DEMOCRACY.

It is perfectly true that democratic ideas have been severely brushed aside

and set at nought by the insolent and autocratic Prussian, and most nations

must now await the time when the despicable plunderer has been accounted for, in order to better view the prospects of Democracy in Europe. It may be held that there are actually only two radically different views as to the nature and functions of government, and following out this line the Commer, cial Record says that, according to one it is an art which has to be learnt J by those who exercise it, just as the i art of bootmaking or of teaching or of' painting have to be learnt—a portion ' of labour divided off and assigned to certain members of the community, are just as other portions of labour are divided off and assigned to other portions of the community. According to the other view, it is a, mere machinery of inter-com-munication between the different, branches of society, a machinery by which these different brandies may, learn each others' wishes, may forward tbose wishes if it be agreeable to them to do so, or if it be not\ agree- j able may be saved the necessity of, an actual struggle by a recognition of the amount of force that can be array- 1 ed against them. It is further rightly' pointed out that a well-ordered State 1 must in part bo animated by both' these views. Thoso governments' which are organised wholly on the for-' mer, or aristocratic, principle, govern.' ments in which the spontaneous politiJ cal action of the people is unknown,! can hardly be well aware of the wishes of the people, and though the wishes' of the people are not absolutely co- ; incident with their real interests, they! have yet most important connections' therewith. On the other hand, in thoso governments which act merely as a machinery for preserving the equilibrium of the different parts of society (the democratic ideal) there can really be no broad political foresight i because if a quarrel or dispute arises the physically stronger party must prevail, since there is no authority above all parties with time and means to form an impartial judgment, to which, therefore, all parties would submit. There will, as a necessity, in nearly all cases, be a certain amalgamation of these two views—an amalgamation in which one or the other view will predominate, according to the felt superiority of the government, according to its positive excellence, and according to the trustfulness and patience of the masses of the people, ft is assumed by some that the tendency of time is to bring about more and more the democratic ideal. Tt undoubtedly is true in a sense that the masses of men get more power as time goes on, but it is pure assumption to suppose that in every nation the

masses will use this increased capacity against the government by which their greatest interests are regulated; on the contrary, they may have a strong sense of the necessity of a central power, of the inexpediency of deciding all disputes by mere weight of numbers—which must' happen in a pure democracy—that they will support the action of the government, even when it is to their own disadvantage and against their own opinion. To some extent this may be Germany's position so far as the masses of her people are concerned, blinded with falsehood and fed up with hatred as they unfortunately have been. Their sufferings in their degradation must be greater than those of the peoples they have wronged and are wronging.