The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE THURSDAY, DECEMBER 19, 1918 A DEMOCRATIC FALLACY.

Taihape Daily Times, 19 December 1918, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 19, 1918 A DEMOCRATIC FALLACY.

(With which iB incorporated The "£*i« hape Poat L.nd Waleravt-jo News).

It has been said that noble minds seek the highest liberty, only that they may rise to tnj perception of highest law. Unstinved use of the word "democracy" tends to the suggestion that the characteristic of o'?r times is democracy, but there are not wanting-evidences that those who can and do snatch pow-3r are the enemies of democracy, and the thought will assert itself In many minds that the tford democracy is merely a slogan used by thosa seeking power to attain it, and by ihose whjo have it to retain it. Ik-seen?s that democracy is virtuous just as it is associated with virtuous methods and objects, just as it is interpreted by honest, noble intelligences. Ti:e Bonny Mayflower casf anchor in the surges of Plymouth Sound, carrying westward the seeds of a democracy that, planted on the sfcil of a new continent, have grown into a democracy that now spreads an overpowering influence in a process of democratising the world, and yet there are those who urge that the United States is a democracy only in name and structure; that name and machinery have been seized upon and usurped by a class that has little of the element of democracy in it. The element of democracy has figured in the founding of all nations in historic time; it has been the foundation of all States. The history and fitful growth and development of the British Empire may fairly be taken as the history of democracy. It will be admitted that the British character is nothing else but British; it was developed through the ag»,s shut in on an unpropitious island. By industry it transformed hills and swamps into gardens and fields, rocks into houses and palaces. In fact, the democracy of any nation depends upon its industry, and hence we realise the relationship of the word in its present-day uses. Every advance

; made by labour in industry has given . added understanding to the term. On I its way to highest development it has : overthrown the old steel-clad baron, and it is continuing to clear from its : way caballing statcmem and tinselled princes. The march of democracy is the progress of the people, of industry, for there can be no permanent progress without industry. The everlasting battles of labour are a struggle ! with Nature to force and tempt from the soil that which alone democracy can move onward and upward upon. To limit the capacity of the soil is to block the way of democracy. The ruling of the people by the people is virtueless if it is going to limit industry; it is the acme of foolhardiness to imagine that emolument of labour can continue to increase concurrently with an ever-lessening amount cf labour. It was by the great, the prodigious labour of the Pilgrim Fathers that arrived in the western contiennt, and their sons, that made America the greatest of all democracies. The cry of men in our little community seeking political power is solely for more wages. We do not deny that labour is miserably underpaid, but all should ever have the unalterable fact beforo them that it is the volume of production, the application of labour in various industries, and not the sum total of wages paid, that democracy thrives upon. It was industry that won Hritains national pre-eminence in the commercial contests of the nation; it was industry upon which Germany rose almost to the point of snatching world dominion; it was industry that made America the rival of Britain in the trade of the world. High wages and less work may be used as nails in the coffin of democracy. Industry and democracy are inseparable terms; there can be no true, successful, powerful democracy shorn of strong, virile industry. In New Zealand the way of democracy has been sinuous and tortuous; at various periods it has gone off at a tangent in one direction or another. Its glaring fallacy at the present time is the notion that higher values create greater riches. It should be evident that a loaf of bread has only the food value of a loaf of bread; that charging more tlian its food value for it does not mako iiie country or the Empire one farthing wealthier, or advance the cause of the democratic elysium a millionth part of an inch; it simply tak?s the money from the possession of i-he consumer and puts it in possession of the seller. In short, unprincipled values are nothing more nor less than legalised u:b-

bery. By this rank commercial under-

growth man places himself on a level with hive-robbing bees; instead of gathering honey from the flowers around them they surreptitiously enter the honey stores of others, "..ut the process by no means increases the quantity of honey gathered, it simply transfers it from the hive of one to the hive of another—from the banking account of one lo the bank ing account of another. Democracy in this country seems to h.ive arrived at bewildering cross arays, and in the hustle and excitement has lost control of its collective intelligence. Industry is being diverted to hivarobbing, the number of selling and money changing hive-robbers are increasing at an alarming rate, while a corresponding alarming increase is continuing in the ranks of legitimate honey gatherers—labourers in wealthproducing industries. Wealth from its natural source is passed over and. forgotten, while the mad career of hive-robbing becomes faster and mere appallingly furions. Germany was on the very verge of conquering tne world by industry, but ignominious failure resulted from methods opposed to industry. It is enly on the quality and volume of its industry that any nation or state can become great; it is only on the industry of labour, socialism, or any other cult can achieve permanent greatness. Every great civilisation commenced to crumble from the time democratic principles' were disregarded and departed from. Our democracy is so intent upon getting money that it has actually become engaged in a process that can only end in destruction of that which it is desired to build up. We pro- j claim from our housetops that there must be increased production, that only vastly increased production, will enable the State to pay its way, while we neglect to commence producing more and throw ourselves with greater energy into hive-robbing. Neither the taking of accumulated wealth : from those who have it, nor the endless waste of time in striving for it, will aid democracy or increase the general wealth by one half-farthing; to follow any such fallacious course is worse than beating the air. The world, and particularly the British Empire, needs more production and less hive-robbing.