THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 15, 1910. THE DEMOCRATIC IDEA.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10069, 15 June 1910, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 15, 1910. THE DEMOCRATIC IDEA.

Mr Arnold Bennett, in the English Revisw, pays a remarkable tribute to that small groupof powerful men J —the Makers cf the Democratic idea, "This force," he says, "has made modern domestic politics what they are—that is to say, it has transformed what was chiefly a polite game into 'what is chiefly a, genuine struggle—and it alone renders progress possible, or any, kind of movement desirable. I mean the democratic idea. Among the millions of politicians, professional and amateur; in these islands, there are a few thousand men who believe passionately in the democratic idea at it 3 widest. They believe that every • adult man and woman is potentially capable of self-government, and that every adult man and woman must learn, by practice, to take a share in the general government. Not only do they bate the idea of a majority oeing exploited by a minority, as now; but they hate equally the idea of a minority being exploited by a majority; and they will

not be satisfied as long as the real interests of one single man or woman are sacrificed to those of the rest. In other words, they want nothing less than universal justice—what is called abstract justice; and, indeed, there is no other kind. All other aims in the art of politics are clumsy, timid, and—worse—unscientific, and contrary to the basic principle of sociological evolution. But the supporters of the uncompromising democratic idea are strong, not mainly because the idea is the sole scientific idea, but because they believe in it religiously, it is their creed, and because they have nothing to gain from its realisation except the satisfaction of their passion for justice The men who fight the most powerfully, effectively, and honestly against the established order to-day are altruists in the material nense. and egotists in the spiritual sense. Their merit is that, so far as they are concerned, they change the plane of politics. Intellect of uncommon quality is needed to grasp the true significance of the uncompromising democratic idea. And courage oi uncommon quality is needed to envisage calmly the dangers inevitable to its progress. Now intelleci and courage can always win easily ir the struggle for material welfare, i: they set themselves to the task and there is no doubt that the fin est contemporary democrats migh gain tremendous prizes by reinforc ing the established order. Only i happens that'these tremendous prize mean nothing to them. Ideas alon are real to them. They are religious They are in possession of what 1 conceivably the only religion tha has survived the huge upheavals o the nineteenth century. These thousand men are the life-blood c the Radical Party. They inspire il - If they 'do not lead, they inspir the leaders. They refresh and cleans its leaders after the foul demoral sation of daily contacts. They shain its leaders again and again into th 1 narrow path. And by their careles and fine candour they alienate ult , mately those leaders who are n< worthy to lead. They at once stimi

late and purge. They cannot be defeated: they must win; partly because by a happy dispensation of - natura they have the 'moat brains; r partly because the intellectual will always tire out the material; and i, partly because they are on the side of science; the force that unfolds the bud is behind them."