“A World Unsafe For Democracy”

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 72, 17 December 1938, Page 1 (Supplement)

“A World Unsafe For Democracy”

IN a recent address in the United States, Sir Harold Bellman, head of one of the largest building societies in England, spoke of "A World Unsafe for Democracy.'’ In tlie course of his remarks, he said: "Democracy needs to be extensively rooted before it begins its siow, sure

growth. When the plant is transplanted hastily in foreign soil, we are not greatly astonished if it is impatiently uprooted, much less if it withers. Thus in Russia and Turkey it yvas scarcely ever more than a picture on a packet; in Italy and Germany and Spain its roots were never given chance to strike really deep.

“Parliamentary democracy, liberalism, free institutions, tolerance of criticism—dare we expect them suddenly to flourish among peoples totally unprepared by training and tradition to nurture them? Conversely, in lands historically prepared and adapted to the gradual growth of free institutions —that is, in France, the Netherlands, Hie Scandinavian States, the United States and throughout the British Commonwealth—the democratic way of life persists. . . .

“Fortunately, democracy seems to he still the one system most clearly capable of surviving its own blunders; it can reprove, correct and dismiss its blunders, and yet start again. In time of emergency it eau grant its democratic executives the powers of dictatorship ‘for the duration.’ while still holding the means of reducing its members to the ranks when the crisis passes. But the blunders of dictatorship are beyond control till the blunderer destroys himself or his system. Defeat to democracies often means ’to be continued’; to a dictator it inevitably means ‘finis.’ “Thus in the flexibility of democracy lies ils inner strength. It is not only open to criticism, hut it may well thrive on criticism. Hence we should be ready to meet the obligations of liberty by reviewing and reforming the methods under which it is maintained. We can hold our place against the driving thrusts of dictatorship by democracy’s capacity to adapt its expression to lite changing needs of our times. . . .

“Democracy, working through the gradual development of free institutions and representative government, lias been tried for only a brief spell in the great span of human existence, and we may expect it to have its hesitancies, its experiments, and its gropings for some time to come. But it is nothing if not optimistic. Firmly based ,on its belief in human nature, it will live because common men are.proving capable of producing by care and forethought, by training and tradition and co-operation with their fellows, a social order which will offer life more abundantly to their kind.

“Democracy is Hie expression of man's inborn will to be free. It is tlie gift, not of governments and parties, nor even eonstitutionSrand courts; il is tlie gift of that spirit which is called liberty.

“The necessary condition of economic progress is peace—a peace which is not merely an interval between wars, but the assurance of continuing amity on a firm foundation. We speak of the guarantees of peace in terms of treaties mid the technique of diplomatists, but. in the long run, the machinery of diplomacy and international negotiation is the reflection of the aspirations of (lie world’s peoples.

“In the first place, the need for mental disarmament among individuals is as urgent as the necessity for a reduction in the technical weapons of war. ’l’lie other fellow is not a sinister, scheming individual, but a decent man ami brother, with much the same thoughts, sympathies and needs as our own; a frontier is more often tin accident of geography or history than a fact of human nature. "We need not go to the extreme of identifying ourselves with the advocacy of a World-State; for a healthy nationalism is not essentially incompatible with a sane internationalism. In the second place, the more interests Hie peoples of the world have in common the less their thoughts will incline toward war.”