The Daily News TUESDAY, JUNE 16. EVOLUTION VERSUS REVOLUTION.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 150, 16 June 1908, Page 2

The Daily News TUESDAY, JUNE 16. EVOLUTION VERSUS REVOLUTION.

During the recent mayoral elections, a candidate was asked whether lie was a j Socialist. "I am an evolutionist; not a revolutionist,'' was the happy reply. If the mind, tripping lightly l)»<-'k t( > tllc Saxon and early Norman periods, conjures a picture of serfdom alld the viilenage that then prevailed) when men: were regarded as little better than sheep and the oxen they tended and were practically sold with them, some idea will be formed of the progress man has ma le under the process of evolution. Under the Saxons there was the Witenagemnte, but it was not till Simon de Alountfort appeared that knights and sijuircs were called into council, laying the foundation of the constitutional system we enjoy to-day: a very-great evolution indeed. In human life there is scarce!;' anything so interesting as the gradu.il evolution of Parliamentary power, synonymous at it is with the mental and moral progress of tile people. If the records are investigated, it will he found that up till less than one hundred years ago, with the choice of electors narrowly restricted, with the suffrage limited by high (nullifications, with in some instances the right of determining the •sicalled representation of tile people i'l the hands of families, and with boroughs purchascablc, the legislation was wholly in the interest of the class's. What was due to the people as a whole never came into account at all. In 1835 came the Great Reform Bill. How truly great—how far-reaching in its consequences—that measure was has perhaps never been properly appreciated. .it recognised the people; it enabled the people to achieve something for themselves; it was the initiation of a new era—the era of to-day. During a thousand years progress has been sometimes slow, sometimes suddenly and violently I forced as by Charles tile First and James 1 the Second—our had Kings serving linnj kind the liest —but it has gone on cvolv- | ing until we stand where we are toI day.

Charles the First sought to trample upon the rights acquired by Parliament, and he fell, the gain being that the rights of Parliament remained more Strongly emphasised, .lames the Second sought to follow in his footsteps and he fled, the gain being that the rights if Parliament were not only more clearly defined, but extended by the Bill of t Ilights. The two evolutions which marl-T our history were necessitated by a desire to hold on to that which was already enjoyed, not by any hope of bringing about radical changes. What revolution known to history has ever accomplished ought for mankind'; The revolution of 1703 was immediately followed by the ajijiearance of the most incorrigible despot the world has ever known, one who drenched the fields «.l' Europe with human blood and reduced France to a nation of dwarfs. Another revolution placed Napoleon 111. on nie throne, and what did the world gain b. him? Dust and ashes and wailing—lifter humiliation, at least, was the lot of the portion of the land that produced him. There have been revolutions in Hungary and Poland—what the gain* In Russia —what the gain? There lies more hope for Russia ill the Douma—-mongrel, restricted, apparently powerless tiling as it may be held—than all the merciless bloody deeds that have been Freedom's name. The Douuia will evolve-

Now, in this God-blessed land, in this land where there are no restrictions, save such as arc practically self-impose.i, there are men who hav<» dared to taik of revolution. To this land where educationally the people generally stand upon the highest pliine. where the criminal statistics will compare favorably with those of any other land on t lie face of the globe, men have had the consummate elFronterv to talk of barricades dc. And why? 1 Jcrausc in t!,c. Divine wisdom humanity has not been cast, from one mould; we have not Iwen shaped and fashioned and mentally endowed equally. The handiwork of improved by recklessness. As 110 man is to be held superior to another there are to be no leaders and no organisation elia'»s confounded! There be reason for the iK'lief that under the Socialistic regime, when it comes into 7 force, the present currency will be abolished and a system of labor certificates take its place. As possibly there may be a scintilation of honesty left amongst a majority of .Socialists, all the gold and silver in the country, being no longer of value, may be sent Home to pay in full our colonial debt; but, although there may lie a good deal of scrambling and intriguing for positions as certificate distributors and collectors, there is to by yo difference between then and the men who sweep the streets, if, indeed, it is contemplated the streets arc ever to be swept. Who is to make appointments of any kind is a question quite unsolvable. * Mr, Jveir Hardie, that great apostle of Socialism, has declared that <; to dogmatize upon the form that Socialism will tak'-" when it comes into operation, '•is to play the fool." It has not occurred to this far-reaching comprehension that to talk of revolution, barricades, and bloodshed, without knowing what one is striving for. is a thousand times worse than playing the fool. A fool may make one laugh, and laughter is good, but the irresponsible madman who jabbers a farrago of idiotic rubbish is usually locked up. To put Ken* Jiardie's revolutionary Socialists in ga >1 would be a mistake; it would make martyrs of them: some sympathy could be mistakenly extended, and evil would be wrought; but really there is no reason why every known revolutionary Socialist should not be medically examined.