TRAINING THE LEADERS

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 129, 2 June 1928, Page 21

TRAINING THE LEADERS

"Polities and Education." By Leonard Nelson, late Professor oi! Plulosophy ;it tho Uuivcrsity of Gottingon; translated by W. Lausdell. London: Gcorgo Allen and Unwin, Ltd. With a long experience of universal adult suffrage wo have come to accept as axiomatic the idea that majority rule is right—that, somehow, questions of ethics and justice can be determined by counting heads, with no distinction 'in the value of the heads. . The late Professor Nelson (he died .before the English translation of his lectures appeared) was courageous enough to oppose this simple idea. The collection of his lectures hero reviewed combats tho theory that majority rule is tho wisest rule. There is right and there is jusI tice, but it is not correct to assume that tho will of the majority will tend towards right. There is no ground foe assumhm that this will of the majority will airreo with tho demands of right, or even for regai-dint,' it merely as probable. For that wo should have to assume that insight into right is so far manifest that it needs no special trainiiif: of the understamlint; for its attainment, and no special Irainins; of the will to ensure that Us action shall bo determined by this insight when onto it lias been (,'aincd —an hypothesis the optimism of which sets all experience at defiance. History, the professor holds, teaches us that tho fair hopes built upon demo- i cracy have not been fulfilled. More is | to bo hoped for from leadership. •'' It is said that leadership and democracy do not exclude each other, since the mass, even in democracy, may be influenced and guided by its leaders. We may even hear the opinion that really it is only through democracy that the way becomes free for individuals to prove .their capacity for leadership. Democracy is the great arena in which the victor proves his fitness. Here (the professor held) a distinction must bo made between the actual loaders and those best iitted for good leadership. The qualities necessary'^for attainment of a leading position arc different from those requisite for filling that position well. Tlio methods .of demagogy decide who shall lead; and these methods do uot ensure leadership i in lino with the ideal of social justice. No change can be expected until other methods arc substituted for those now in operation for tho choice of leaders. Such Methods are not available to-day (it is stated) because of tho superstitious belief in the dogma of democracy as tho' only saving truth. But methods j can bo. ( devised. Professor Nelson's method, which had begun to take form under his guidance, was to train a carefully-selected body of young men in tho essentials of leadership. These essentials are, briefly, an insight into truth and justice (to be gained by the study of philosophy) and the devolop- . ment of tho will to make tho ideal a guiding principle in practical politics. The difficulty and slowness of tho proe'ess are admitted. The nucleus of the party of justice must first train its i loader and then a following for him. Tho idea here set forth is jiiot entirely novel. Rhodes was inspired by something similar in his own life and in his scholarship foundation—designed to furnish leadei-s for the Empire. The old universities, without the definite aim or purpose, have for ages been training men who believed (but without saying much about it) that their position in life and their training imposed upon them onerous obligations in the work of government. Under Professor Nelson's plan this training would be supplied with a set purpose and upon a greater scale. ' ■ The.ideal, as set forth in philosophic terms, must prove entrancing to those who perceive that tho counting of heads and tho chance selection of lenders are not speeding progress towards a perfect world. But tho imperfection of tho system lies in the possibility, even the probability, of its coming under the control of another school of politics. An appendix to the lectures illustrates this weakness. The' International League of Youtli" (Professor Nelson's organisa-1 tion) formerly associated itself with the Social Democratic Party, and when it severed itself from that party it continued to co-operate with the parties to the Loft. With domination by an existing party (and democracy and demagogy know how to effect such domination,) the education for leadership may degenerate into training for leadership on set lines. Such training has been, and is being, given in llussia—Marxian economics, Leninist philosophy, and Bolshevik ethics, with a solid grounding in the wiles of demagogy. This is far different from Professor Nelson's ideal. But how can the ideal system be safeguarded until it is strong enough to resist the attempts of existing organisations to swallow it whole, leaving nothing but "the smile on tho face of the tiger"?—J.E.S.