Evening Post. FRIDAY, JANUARY 22, 1937. A DICTATOR ON DEMOCRACY

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 18, 22 January 1937, Page 8

Evening Post. FRIDAY, JANUARY 22, 1937. A DICTATOR ON DEMOCRACY

"Democracies are done for, Signor Mussolini is reported to havt told the Rome correspondent of th< "Volkischer Beobachter." He addec that they were like quicksand whereas Fascist ideals were granite It appears a little comical that s representative of the controllei Press of Germany should go tc Rome to obtain this information Herr Hitler could doubtless havi riven him the same news at Berlin: mless, of course, it was not new! jut a reassurance that the Naz lictatorship was seeking, connrma ion from one dictator to anothei hat all was well in the totalitariai yorld, and that democracy, despfa he evidence of renewed strength ii Britain, was really "done for. Signor Mussolini has given tha lomforting reassurance; but we d< lot think it will carry more convic ion in the democratic States thar 1 Duce's earlier reported statemen hat the English were slow-witted The proof for either statement i acking. When we say this, how »ver, we do not imply that there ii jo evidence. Time and agaii English history supports a charg< >f slow-wit against the Englisl )eople, yet by tenacity, courage, an< 'aith in themselves they have usually •edeemed their blunders. Simi arly there is evidence of the failuri >r partial failure of democracy witl iome of the peoples by whom it hai >een tried. One must be wary, nevertheless >f accepting this evidence of failuri is proof complete. Circumstance: ind conditions, the period of demo ; ratic trial, and the preparatioi nade for democracy must be takei nto account. To adapt Signo; Mussolini's own metaphor: somi lemocracies have been built upoi 'oundations of sand. But the founda ions of democracy in the English ipeaking world were packed to thi lardness of rock before the struc ure was finally erected. Unde: iuch conditions can it be countec ilarming, or even remarkable, tha n those States where democracy hat 10 solid foundation ,the people •everted to an older form o Government with which they wer< raditionally familiar? Professoi iuy Stanton Ford, in his editors oreword to "Dictatorship in the Modern World," states the facts fairly vhen he writes:

There is nothing new or novel about dictatorship. In the long course of the history of organised government one man by virtue of some sanction or other has ruled his fellow-men between the Persian Gulf and Portugal much longer and much oftener than they have ruled themselves. "We are ' dismayed to see dictatorships appearing in nations that in the nineteenth cen<tury seemed to be feeling their way through the forms of self-government to the possibility of its realisation as a philosophy of political life. But democracy was a tender and alien growth. Seventy years could not root in some of these continental lands the loyalties to liberty and self-government ■that England had developed in seven centuries and passed on as a heritage to the - English-speaking nations that derived from her.

It may be objected that there are great differences between the dictatorships of ancient or medieval times and those of the modern day. Aristotle considered dictatorships as he knew them and concluded that they were no more than monarchies degenerated and one of the least desirable forms of rule, since they led to the tyranny of self-interest. Rome had its experience of autocrats, and some rulers of the Middle Ages fashioned themselves on the Caesars. The dictators of today are admittedly different superficially. They exercise a wider control, because economic life is now a great part of national life; they formulate planned economies, because the opportunities for enrichment by wars and adventures are limited. But in some major characteristics dictatorship now resembles the dictatorship of old times. It has its rise in a national emergency of distress or chaos, it revolves round a central figure for which a form of hero-worship is developed, it suppresses all opposition, and it depends in the last resort upon control by force. The technique of dictatorship has changed with the times, bill not-so greatly as first thoughts

suggest. The ancient autocrat supported Ms popularity by wars and largesse. The modern dictator uses all the machinery of up-10-date propaganda. Professor Max. Lerner has discerned in the dictator-popular-ising methods a likeness to the devices employed to make the name oE a moving-picture star. The most important symbol and emotionally the most evocative figure in the entire movement is the leader himself, the Professor writes. But to say this is to say nothing more than could be said of any outstanding Hollywood star, whose appeal lies partly in her beauty, partly in the kindness of lighting and the make-up artists, and partly in the expertness of direction and the ministrations of a huge sales and publicity staff. The dictator, like the movie star, has been excessively romanticised.

Signor Mussolini's confident assertion that democracies are done for means that the free people of the world have either been persuaded that they can achieve more by surrender than by use of their liberty (in short, that dictatorship pays a good dividend) or they have been deluded by propaganda. Is it a fact that dictatorship gives better results in the long run—that it is more successful in promoting the happiness and welfare of the commurrityi? Lord Bryce, that great student of democracy, compared it with other forms of government, including modern dictatorship its earlier stages, and his conclusion, based on detailed investigation, was that democracy was not only more desirable but also more successful. His judgment is supported by a later student,' Mr. Denis W. Brogan, an Oxford lecturer in history who has examined the works andi achievements of the dictatorships and democracies of today. Mr. Brogan concludes that democracy had lessons to leam, that the leaders had to come out of their pleasant day-dreams of the inevitable triumphs of freedom, and to realise that the system would not work itself, it had to be worked. These lessons, he believes, are being learned. Democratic leaders have begun to take a more practical view of their tasks and to recognise that i their responsibilities are not confined, like those of an Austrian gene- ' ral, to being beaten according to the [ rules.

Coincident with this sobering-up of the leaders of democracy has come a loss of the first glamour of Fascism , land of revolutionary Communism. Not ; only have the boasted achievements of Fascism, ranging from balanced Budgets to punctual trains, proved to have been on a C.O.D. basis (and expensive at that), but it has become apparent that delivery has not always followed the cash. After the German example, we are hardly likely to hear such confident predictions of the golden economic future which results from getting rid of "government by talk," "putting the affairs of a country into the hands of men of action," and the like. Democracy in Western Europe and in the United States, Mr. Brogan concludes, is holding its own better than its enemies thought likely, because the first force of the attack has been spent, without carrying any of the main positions and without' any of the rival systems giving such palpably superior results that conversion necessarily follows. Government of the people, by the people, for the people may be a myth, I but it is a myth with as much chance of realisation as have the rival paradises of government for the people by wise, unselfish dictators or parties who are to be provided by the expensive and ■ uncertain gamble of a revolution. Yet the final test must be whether ; the people will think for themselves and realise this. The totalitarian 1 States that have surrendered liberty 1 are like the fox of the fable who " lost his tail and tried to persuade ' all others that the loss was an ad- ! vantage, a riddance of a useless encumbrance. The refusal of the true i democracies to accept the totalitarian arguments is an initial proof of their [ capacity to think for themselves and govern themselves.