AN APPEAL TO POLITICIANS

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXVIII, Issue 8295, 25 September 1903, Page 4

AN APPEAL TO POLITICIANS

The Paris Revue contains "An Appeal to Politician:?," by Count Leo Tolstoi, which is likely to attract widespread attention, and to give rise to no little controversy. The moral of this characteristic and suggestive discussion of what Count Tolstoi describes as the essential evil of the power exercised by all forms of government, and of the anarchist attitude towards the problem of social nie and individual liberty, is somewhat vaguely hinted at the in. following motto, which he borrows from Shelley : "The most fatal error that ever happened in the world was the separation of political and ethical science." The first part of the article is a profoundly pessimistic survey of the inevitable and progressive 'decline' of liberty under all forms of government. The one feature common to the autocratic systems of the past and to the revolutionary and socialist ideals of our own times is the recognition of the-right of enforcing obedience to established law as a necessary condition of social welfare. An absolutely novel phenomenon is the monopoly rendered 'poM'&lo' by technical 'improvements during the 19th century, whereby modern Governments have not only secured enormous wealth, but also the control of means of influence over the masses in the direction of the press, of religion, and of public instruction. All revolutions by force have thus become impossible. The sole means of overthrowing 'Governments to-day consists in the refusal of the army to defend them. But ample and effective precautions have been taken against such an eventuality. Oon.;'qu?ntly, those who desire to change the existing order of things ought to conform their acts to this altered situationAfter dealing in torn with the views of ►lie advocates of an anarchist doctrine of liberty, and pointing out that they disagrea as to the manner in which, social order •• A -ho. —inintained without the exercise of force, Count Tolstoi contends that the religious conception of life ;s the sole effective- weapon for securing true liberty. The remainder of the article, .which would seem to be stronger in it 6 negative criticisms than on the positive side, is devoted to proving the hopelessness of merely- political and material reforms in the absence of moral improvement. .Count Tolstoi, wfid seems disposed to represent the Dukhobors as models of this higher morality, maintains that the sole, means of permanently benefitingiumanifc' is for the individual to give the example of a good life. ' All political' short cuts simply divert" the. human race, from the true path. ■