The Dominion. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 1911. DEMOCRACY AND CHURCHMEN-

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1286, 15 November 1911, Page 6

The Dominion. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 1911. DEMOCRACY AND CHURCHMEN-

The Dean of St. Paul's must have known that his address on democracy would bring a storm about his cars; but he is not one of those timid time-serving Churchmen who shrink from saying unpopular things. Of Me. W. M. Hughes's criticism of the Dean—that he is "of the type of pampered, narrow-minded clerics who are getting the Church into disrepute"—it is unnecessary to say more than that it is the trade of the demagogue to fling mud at anybody and anything he may dislike. The Dean's address was much condensed in the cabling, and has obviously suffered much in the condensation. The main sentiment attributed to him, namely, that "democracy is the silliest of fetishes," has already been interpreted by some shortsighted _ people as a complete condemnation of democracy as a theory of government; but it should be quite apparent that the Dean was merely condemning the erection of the democratic idea into a fetish. Every educated man knows that democracy is only one of manv forms of government, and that it is absurd to speak of it as the ideal, perfect, _ predestined form to which civilisation has been painfully struggling through the centuries. There have been great democracies in the past whichhave collapsed into ruin, and there is no warrant for supposing that our present-day democracy will last for ever. It will pass, and , after long centuries will come again, i Totake any other view is simply to I write oneself down as ignorant and' unreachable. Whether democracy is the best form of government, whether, as Bishop Welldon asserts m criticism of Dn. Inge, it "tends to secure the greatest happiness for the greatest number," is a problem that cannot be finally solved, and thatno true philosopher, wherever his immediate political sympathies may lie, would care to say is soluble. Bub it is quite certain that there is a tendency to make a, "fetish"of dc-mocracy-to regard as good everything that seems to obey the formula ol democracy. To anyone who thinks you cannot have too much of democracy, that the democratic formula should apply in all things, wo need only give one example of what-democracy exalted into a fetish would require- it would require that Judges should be appointed by popular vote every _year. Obviously the democratic principle must be anplied with discretion.

The special point of interest for JNew Zealanders in the Dean's address is his reference to Socialism: Socialism might suit a country Hko JNew Zealand until the British fleet ceased to safeguard it; and then the yellow men would make short work of the pampered trade unionists." Uur complete dependence on the British Wavy has blinded many poopl" to the weakening forces of Socialistic advances; and it is well to be reminded now and then that as a nation wo should act as if that mighty arm might at any moment be taken away. It is a commonplace that only the very boldest partisan would deny, that during the past twenty years there has been a steadily increasing inclination in the public mind to look to "the State" whenever anything is to bo done The facts in proof of this statement abound in the newspapers every day. Democracy by no moans requires that "the State" shall replace individual effort and thereby weaken too national character. A do-.

mocracy is conceivable in which the State shall he strictly limited in its i unctions, in which trade unionism can llonrish side by side with individualism; but the tendency has always been towards the dwarfing of the spirit of energy and self-reliance. History is full of warnings on the P» int -. The greatest of these, the late of the koman Empire, has been eloquently set forth by Du. HodgKIN in his great work on Italy and Iter Invaders: '''Whatever occasional ebbing there may bo in tho current, there can bo Utile doubt that tho tido of affairs in Knglniid and in all tho countries of Western Jiiirnpe, as well as in tho United States of America, sets permanently towards democracy. Will the great democracies of the twentieth century resist tho temptation to uso political power as a means of material felf-onrichmcut? With a higher ideal of public duty than has been shown by some of the governing classes which preceded them, will thov refrain from jobbing the commonwealth? Warned by tho experienve of Homo, will they shrink from reproducing, directly or indirectly, tho political heresy of Cains Gracchus, Unit ho who voles in [lift Forum must be fed by tho Slate? If they do, perhaps tho world may see democracies as long-lived as the dynasties of Kgypt or of China. If they do not assuredly now us in tho days of our Saxon forefathers, it will bo found that ho who is a giver of bread is also lord. The old weary round will recommence, democracy lending to anarchy, and anarchy to despotism, and tho national workshops of some future Gracchus will build tho palaces in which British or American despots, as incapable of rule as Arcadius or ironorius, will jjuido mighty empires to ruin amidst the acclamation of flatterers as eloquent and as hollow as tho courtly Claudinn." The attitude of the Church in England is a disquieting (sign of the times. At the Church Congrats, which was held at Stoke-on-Trent last month, the outstanding feature was tho evidence of an anxiety on the part of many of the Bishops to fit the Church somehow into the, scheme of democracy. This anxiety can only increase, for Dr. Inch; is iii a hopeless minority in refusing to advocate the Church's co-operation with the Labour movement, and in time we may expect to sec the Church losing its way, and losing its strength, in the dust aud din of democracy's politics. It is not the function of the Church to solve economic problems, or to do anything towards solving them beyond encouraging the practice of the civic and national virtues. If tho Churches in New Zealand wish to take a hand in the nation's material problems, they can do far better service by preaching national selfreliance than by preaching anything else. What they should preach, if they are to preach at all on temporal problems, is, not Socialism, but the shaping of such a society aa would not collapse into ruin if' the British Navy ceased to protect it.