DEMOCRACY AND GOVERNMENT.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 294, 15 May 1914, Page 4

DEMOCRACY AND GOVERNMENT.

To the student of politics who is imbued with high ideals as to the destiny of civilised humanity, there is no more congenial subject for thought than that of the ethics and evolution of democracy. There is no longer any question of its reality, nor can its existence be otherwise regarded than as a mighty force capable, if lightly directed, of exercising a dominant influence in the social and political affairs of the nations. It has taken many years of struggle and sacrifice for democracy to attain definite recognition as a settled principle of government by the people- for the. people, but there is still a vast work to be done before its machinery ig perfected. The two main factors which act as deterring influences- are the ever-changing' influences that are brought to bear on the conditions of life, and the enhancement of the intellectual power of the masses as the result of universal eduction. These two factors, while separate in themselves, converge at'"several points, and they both play a prominent part in the general scheme. Necessarily. democracy must be adaptive, and consequently there must be a continuous nroccss of making existing institutions lit in with the aim on which it is based--the uplifting of the masses—and the only way is which that can possibly be achieved is at the expen.io of the favored few. It will be seen, therefore, that democracy is only possible under condition which provide a class who have something to lose, that is In say. w;!» in a measure parasitical, but ha.s in process of time become \igorous and ■ powerful. The causes which produced the French revolution and evolved a Republic out of terrible retributory cruelties and bloodshed arc akin to tho«e on which democracy was founded—revolt against unbearable conditions of life and labor, and an insistent demand for a seat in the sun—a larger share of the good things of life. To-day, the youth of the country is recruiting the ranks of organised labor, with the result that

there is a tendency to impetuosity—a speeding up of labor legislation—which is likely to outrun the legitimate and reasonable limits of safety. The rising generation is far better equipped for the buttle of life and the advancement of its interests than was the case with those who fought the fight in the past with erudeness but skill, yet they are fiu'ed continually with new problems to solve, with the result that labor legislation is ever making greater demands on Parliament. Emerson, one of America'?: ■best-known writers, aptly described this phase of the question when he said: '•'.Every generation that drinks of the new wine of democracy becomes boastful of its achievement and insolent towards the past; but when it has tried its hand at re-making the world, and has found out by painful experience how Utile can be done toy -the most aclivp und eager age, and that the solution of the old problems simply clears the ground for new problems, it becomes more modest in its estimate of its own power, and more intelligent in its estimate of the work of the fathers." It is these two qualities of modesty and intelligence that democracy needs to work out its own salvation in alliance with the State, for it is by and through Parliament alone that democracy can come into its own.