THE DECADENCE OF POPULAR LEADERS.

Press, Volume XLIX, Issue 14668, 17 May 1913, Page 10

THE DECADENCE OF POPULAR LEADERS.

It is the privilege of every ago to believe that it is worse than tho ago which went beforo it. Something seems always to bo missing which the preceding age possessed and enjoyed. The man in tho street is so accustomed to hearing that things are not what they used to be that ho has stock jokes upon the "laudatores temporis acti." On tho whole, tho man in the street is right, even if he is right only by accident. The comparison of one generation with tho preceding one, or one century with the century before it, is a trivial and unprofitable occupation. Nobody would think it worth whilo discussing whether a man's character on a given day is worse or better than it was a week before; and a century is no more, if it is not less, in the story of human development than a week is in tho life of an individual. There is accordingly not much of an audienco for those who would speak regretfully of tho past; but a new aspect of tho old question is treated very well by a writer in the "Irish Homestead." "Wo aro inclined." says this writer, "to think the leaders of nations in these days havo lost all that noble or divine air that the great leaders of men woro in tho past." Personally, we should be inclined to say that nobility and divinity in leadership are not extinct, but aro dormant, waiting until tho circumstances require their appearance.. But the fact can hardly be denied that great men greatly striving for great causes aro nowhere to bo seon. Even in tho United Kingdom the protagonists of the main parties, able men as they are, are not as great as their cause9.

Tho writer wo have quoted is a little uncertain as to the reason for the disappearance of the noble or divine air of tho great leaders of the past- That the modern leaders aro not inspired with a passion for the creation of a

fino social order or of a noble spirit in the people is due. ho fancies, to tho failure of "tho literary men." One cannot avoid smiling at his point as he enlarges it:—"ln ancient Ire- '■ land, in ancient Greece, in ancient " India, the poets wrote about great "kings and heroes, enlarging on their " magnificence of spirit, their chivalry, "their generosity, creating in the " popular mind an ideal of what a " great man was like, and kings and

'•' heroee wero influenced by the ideal " created and strove to win the glory "of tho bards, to bo recrowned by "them a second time in great poetry." Ono can object to this that even if songs and music can create a city, they cannot transform a small politician into a great leader. There is a much more simple explanation of tho dearth of divine and heroic souls than tho pre-occupation of the poets with small emotions. It is given by the brilliant writer of tho "Letters of an Englishman" in ono of the most recent issues of the London "Daily Mail."

Ho takes for his theme, "What is tho People?" being moved to do so by tho "paeans of praise" sung to "this abstraction" by tho politicians. "And when," ho says, after a vivacious fling at the theory that "tho People" can do no wrong, even if its "will" leads to tho wrecking of an Empire, "and when you attempt to analyse or "explain this worship of what is called " tho People, you discover instantly " that it is nothing more than a base "appeal for votes. Conciliation is tho " solo object of the flatterer's applause. "Ho sees that all his hopo lies in " votes, and he takes what he deems " tho shortest cut to obtain them." And, after all, "the People" of tho politician's speech is "nothing more " nor less than the strongest mass of "organised opinion." Once "tho People" was "tho middle class," and now it is organised "Labour." There will bo no wiso government, "an Englishman" declares, until the rulers recognise tho plain truth that the People is made up of all classes in tho State. It is not much comfort that when this plain truth can be recognised, tho poets will bo able, "with wonderful, deathless ditties to build up tho world's great cities." Both events aro far in tho future, and the great leaders of men aro receding daily further into the past.