PLATO, POLITICS, AND CANVAS HOSE.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1049, 11 February 1911, Page 9

PLATO, POLITICS, AND CANVAS HOSE.

In its capacity as tho. chroniclo of tho wiso and witty things uttered by the contemporary world, "Tho Argus" naturally favours us wit)h occasional paragraphs from tho .Parliament of West Australia. 1 Recent news from tho same quarter have 1 enabled us to roaliso what % a'\'charm.'of, sweet and old-world dignity pervades that particular,chamber of 'tho Chosen. This, morning- (Friday) 'wo obtain another whiff of tho knowledgo and wisdom with which its atmosphere must bo almost overloaded. Tho subject under discussion was tho University Bill, and, among persons who apparently considered themselves qualified to deal with it was a. Mr. Underwood. Ho delivered himself concerning Plato, concerning the classics, and concerning politics, ,1-hcro was "no good" in Plato, and tho University man (a '"stuck-up" creature) could no moro go into politics than a porcupine, could 20 into a canvas ho'so backwards. ■ ,

Tho speaker's hostility to tho University man is probably easy,to explain. A person-who'can speak of Plato with such unabashed incompetence must almost inevitably have met with intellectual snubs. : Plato canjhardly bo tho only, subject upon which he has talked foolishly. When a man has read Plato, and asserts that thoro is "no good" in him, wo have an index to his intellectual calibre'.-...When ho .'makes tho assertion without havinj; read him, wo 'have an .index to his intellectual morajo. In tho ono caso his mental operations require to bo strengthened; in tho other they rcquiro to bo chastened. Tyho aim of •a. university is to ,securo this strengthening and mind, the.' power of comprehending, and appreciating what you read, and the'habit, olspeaking with co¥nWncV'c"ifly s fiF*what you know. Tho result is, pcdiaps, n certain want of proper "cocksurones3," a cortauvcOlpablo liesitation about settling in-ono minuto those social problems which havo distracted a hundred generations; n certain unpopular way of maintaining that tho civilisation of the world..'did not begin yesterday; and also, perhaps, at times a certain, impatienco when somo moro Winn usually appalling ignorance or self-conceit .reveals itself in an ipso dixit, especially if that ipso dixit proposes to take- tho perilous shape of an Act of Parliament. University _ meii arc, after all, among God's sentient creatures, and there aro limits to their porcupine.patience. It. is a myth that the animal goes out of.' tho way to shoot its quills, but it does occasionally mako a clumsy kandlcr't hwaro ihat it possesses them. Hiue-' illas lacrimae.

The University man;, wo aro told, is' unfit for politics. Of European politics, American .politics, or Japanese politics the statement/is demonstrably and abyBiirdly' untrue If it is truo (as I in no way admit) of Australian politics, why this calm assumption that, it is . the fault of tho University man, instead of being tho fault of the politics? "When we speak of politics, do we mean statesmanship—the science , and practice of tiho soundest management of a civilised State regarded as a unity? Or do we mean political tactics and political tricks, aiming at tho ascendancy of some particular party? There can bo doubt as to which is meant by, tho graceful rhetorician of Western Australia. IWs, theroforo, little wonder that ho sees no good in Plato.. If (as is just possible) lie has read a few pages of that thinker ho must have found somo oxtremely unpalatable passages. That "stuck-up" 'Athenian actually maintained that the. ipolitician ought to know what a State is, and what its best interests are. AVorso still, ho actually maintained that the politician often ppssesscs.no such knowledge. Ho'cvcu confessed that ho himsolf was but feeling, his way to tho light. Tho useless man! Far'better to "study" somo writer who will simply voico your own opinions and acknowledge none of thqso intellectual scruples which might hamper your hurrying feet on fheir way to your particular mare's-nest.

Wo need not, however, becomo thus metaphorical. Tho gentleman himself * supplies n most excellent figure of speech. Tho University man, ho says, is no more fitted, to enter politics than a porcupino ,to go into a canvas hoso backwards. Tho porcupine, being a sagacious and wif.hal au independent creature, has no desire to enter a canvas hose, least of all backwards. If politics arc to becomo a canvas hose, tho eel or snake, tho rafc or mouse, may find -tho passage comfortablo enough—possibly he may even negotiate it backwards. Jiut why blamo tho poor porcupine for holding that thcro arc some creatures which Ilcavcn has made too big to crawl through such'a hose; that passing through a fnose is hardly a proceeding for an intelligent being; that thcro is a good open world outside the hoso, where the air is pure and tho sun is allowed to shine—-that in fact Jlie will take his politics whore he can sco what he is doins and what the world is like, and not where he must simply follow his leader at running through a tube?

Surely this parable of the hose is just a triflo overdrawn, or, if not overdrawn, surely it is just a little too candid. It places the modern politician •in too humilating n position. Uo is to "enter the hoso under pressure from the pump, and to ho made to spout (I knowno nptor word) in whatever direction the coutrollinfphand (in America calbd the "boss") chooses to turn him. For himself, ho is to ho mindless, volition-Itss-rjus6 a fluid, clear or foul, as tho ease may he—a spurt or dribblo as ho is hidden. Moamvhilo tho porcupine possesses his freedom, goes whero Ibc finds it wisest to go, and has too many quills—in the shape of items of knowledge, rcruples, and doubts—to admit of bis beinr; nropclled through the pipe and its nozzle. Of course, the West Australian orator did not intend to convey all this. Ho merely looked for something to reprcs-.uit political life an

ideally conceived by jiiimsclf, and among tilings cramped, baekbaneless, and devoid of lijht ho found tho best analogue in Lis canvas lioso.

If thero is any conception of politics calculated to rouse the scorn of Plato's ghost it is this. Amazingly democratic as Athciu was, it never last sight of tho a man was a man, and that ho retained'his intellectual rights as such, /flicro was plenty of political folly and crime, but it was not an organised folly or crimo worked bv a machine. Plato' despised tho follies and detested tho crimes, but bo was never confronted with tho phenomenon of a canvas hoso government. As, therefore, bo says nothing about its most c'ftectivo usd, ho is manifestly "no good" to tho modern "student." Lot mo say, in conclusion, that I write, this absolutely without reference to tho party to which Mr. Underwood is reported to belons. It has been thus far a distinguishing feature, of that party that it makes much of education, and insists on opportunities for making porcupines of as many citizens as possible, particularly among its own children. Tho avowed views of t&o party being thus liberal, it would seem that, for once, its West Australian adherent has found his way into tho wrong hose. —Professor Tucker, in Melbourne "Argus. ■ : . •