WORK OF DEMOCRACY

Evening Post, Volume CXVII, Issue 109, 10 May 1934, Page 10

WORK OF DEMOCRACY

(To the Editor.)

Sir, —A phrase in , a recent leader entitled "Man and the System" contains a great fallacy. It says: "The beginning,of reform must be with the men who do the work of democracy" (i.e., Parliament). The fallacy lies in the fact that in our so-called 'democracy Parliament doesn't do the work of governing and controlling the whole social and economic system at all; the most vital powers of governing being in hands other than those of our legislators. When.the Reserve Bank controversy raged around "freedom from political control," tho chief advocates of this "freedom" were the vested interests of the financial world. "Political control" means Parliament pure and simple, and freedom > from Parliament's control (even though vcrv slightly qualified) means that those left with such "freedom" are laws unto themselves, which is the perfect negation of democratic government. I The common good, i.e., the spiritual and temporal welfare of every family I in the State, is the object, the only I reason, for a Government's existence. To hand over to sectional interests any power which can adversely affect the I rights of even one family is an acti which no Government morally possesses any right to perform. Parliament, there-' fore, under a system which legally denies its right to govern; cannot "Jo the work of democracy," because"that work is" controlled by unseen powers, whose sole aim is personal perfection for those wielding such power. The success of law-making depends entirely upon the subjects' loyal co-operation with and observance of the laws made. The beginning of. reform then must obviously be with the people who place their governors in power, and,as the necessary reform is moral in character, the State- must seek the help of the .moral teacher. Without this help, no State can successfully govern.—l am, etc., d. Mclaughlin, Notional Secretary, National Union of Unemployed. "' [The above letter has been abridged. What the. correspondent terms a fallacy arises' from, his, different idea of what should bo undertaken by the organisation of government and what should be left to the private individual But even if it be held that Government should regulate the actions of the community in every respect, it .would still be necessary ; to begin this work by appointing or electing to* tho office of Government men able aiid willing to inaugurate the system'.—Ea:]