SWAYING THE MASSES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 271, 16 April 1914, Page 4

SWAYING THE MASSES.

Of the making of mob orators there is no end, but their moulding is invariably of one type. The good old Tories of our younger days wen; always sure • t of applause when, 8 n the occasion on , which they aired their limited eloquence ; In fore sympathetic audiences they re- ; ferred to the leaders of the masses as tliasv. "blatant demagogues." There is nothing new in Hie methods of mob orators to-day. They are identical with those, in vogue over two thousand years ago, and so pointedly satirised hy the ancient flreek dramatists. Take, for instance, the vulgar, yet shrewd character of the Sausage-seller in -'The Knights," whose stock-in-trade as an agitator is so aptly slimmed up in the following excerpt:— " ; '•Ve influential, inipudeiitial powers Of sauciness and jabber, slang' and ("rant me a valuable utleranee, and a vast Unbounded voice, and steadfast impudence!" Such was the description given by Aristophanes of a typical demagogue in the years 424 R.C., ;md it is equally applicable to-day, as recent events at Wellington political meetings have forcibly demonstrated. It does not say much for the advance of civilisation and learning when, after (he. lapse of between two and three thousand years, the masses are still at the mercy of such beings as Aristophanes held up to ridicule in his day. We must, however, take men and affairs as we find them and live in fervent hope that the spread of universal education and the opening up of avenues to higher mental attainments will in the future accomplish that which the past has failed to do. It is decidedly galling to And that politics

have become the happy hunting ground of the men whoso solo ability yonsists of the knowledge of how to tiesle the ears of the crowd. It is true that this meagre equipment, implies a knowledge oi human passions, the possession of a hide absolutely impervious to all sensations—good, bail, or indifferent —a voice of brazen .intensity, a ready wit—the more pungent and the less polite Mio better—and a vocabulary of invective, abuse and flattery that will enable their remarks to make a temporary impression on their crude audience for just a sullicicnt length of time to strike or defeat an opponent. It is well known that the majority of people do not trouble to reflect on the problems of the moment, hence the instability of popular favour. This particular blot is one that educationalists have long been striving ;to overcome, but as yet it is a dream of the future. Universal suffrage has given a new lease of life to the blatant demagogues who are endeavouring to make hay while the smn shines. If only the people would exercise their intelligence, however small, with which they have have been endowed they could easily appraise the utterances and vague promises of these political parasites. Everyone is possessed of a certain amount of common-sense—the sense of -the common good—and if they would only exercise that faculty, even to a small' extent, the machinations of the debasers of politics would be thwarted, and the way cleared for the operation of sane and saund measures for the good of the people. The present state of affairs reflects anything but credit on the masses who allow themselves to be so completely gulled by the demagogues of to-day. For their own credit they should demonI strato their worthiness for 'better things jby asserting their freedom and; indei pendence, instead of allowing themselves | to be the slaves and puppets of political | mountebanks'. Above all, there should |be a sturdy upholding of British fair- ! play to friends and foes alik» and thus | maintain their self-respect.