DEMOCRACY.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume I, Issue 209, 21 August 1911, Page 11

DEMOCRACY.

Writing to the “Otago Daily Times” “Nemo” says: —

The following extracts from the preface of John Trevena’s book j “The Rein of the Saints” give food ! for reflection: “M hen he hears on. ' all sides the cry of democracy for i more liberty and equality, and • when he sees ahead that fatal turning towards which the majority • have already set their faces, he is J tempted to look forward, not with | the prophet’s eye, which neither he ' nor any man possesses, but with i the student’s mind, and to present a not illogical conclusion, if that I false turning should draw the I majority aside into what would prove to be the cul-de-sac of a : false democracy. What are the • cries that invite the thoughtless to enter this blind alley? There come the deliberately false voices of statesmen inciting the poor and ignorant to rise against employers. There come the treacherous voices I of politicians urging brown-skinned people to revolt. There come the wild voices of workmen complaining violently against the order, ‘ln the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat bread.’ And there come the excited shouts of thousands of spectators wasting their hours in

watching bought men play. You know better than the writer what befalls the country which demands all the luxuries that civilisation can offer, which squanders money heedlessly, develops an abnormal passion for amusements, rebels against sound government, shirks military- service, shrugs its shoulders at a falling birth-rate, professes no religion except in name and outward show, and feasts while the Goths are waiting at the gates. You know that certain other races are living frugally, refraining from idle sports, submitting to conscription. preparing for the day* when destiny shall call them to the front. You cannot have failed to notice how rapidly these races are increasing. Is not their birth-rate now as two to one compared with ours? May it not soon be higher? Is it not true that if a superior race steadily decreases while a lower as steadily increases, the position must at last, be changed? One other change you will have noticed —the arrival of groups of politicians. who by their actions and speeches, calmly considered, appear to be actuated by motives which cannot be reconciled with patriotism.” The above remarks are singularly appropriate to the present time, and will carry the approval of thoughtful men.