REAL QUALITIES OF DEMOCRACY

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 226, 19 June 1940, Page 11

REAL QUALITIES OF DEMOCRACY

Need For Appreciation PART TO BE PLAYED BY EDUCATION Dominion Special Service. CHRISTCHURCH, June 18. The danger of democracy running to seed and the need to guard against this by educating the present generation to an appreciation of the real qualities of democracy and of the value of firmly established principles were emphasized by Mr. A. J. Campbell, lecturer in history at Christchurch Training College, in an address to the Canterbury ■branch of the Royal Empire Society last night.'. Traversing the evolution of the British Empire and its form of government, Mr. Campbell referred to three main needs of organized mankind economic (food, clothes, and shelter), political (law and order), and “good life” needs (literature, art leisure, and things which made life more worth living). “Our system of Government aims to provide the good life needs of tlie people,” Mr. Campbell said. “The system was not built for militarism. That is why whenever war strikes us we, at the start, suffer reverses. The system is not 'built to keep the military machine ready for action, but to let our people as far as possible enjoy the good life. It is a system which allows ami encourages the growth of moral sensitivity. Moral and Social Heritage. “If, ou the contrary, there is one thing which has come out of the totalitarian forms of government it is this —that men are forced back to the period when moral standards were at their lowest. “We do not want others who come after us to be denied their moral and social heritage. Tlie British form of Government has gone to Canada, South Africa, and Australia, and has come to New Zealand. It is in a sense the evolution of the British people themselves. And so it is not for the colonies that we are lighting with our backs to the wall today, not for their wealth, but the institutions —democratic government through Parliament—which make possible our good life needs. “There is, of course, one danger, of democracy running to seed. This Is where there is n-need today for education. for imparting firmly established principles. Those of us who through age or family responsibilities feel we cannot help as we would like in tills war can perlmps go on educating those of (lie present general ion to tlie real qualities of democratic government, to tlie need for established principles, and to rhe fact that we must never let democracy run to seed.”