UNDER WHICH KING?

Taranaki Daily News, 22 December 1931, Page 12

UNDER WHICH KING?

DEMOS—OR INGE? NO MERIT IN MASS STUPIDITY. Dean Inge does not believe that mass ignorance can possibly provide a cure for Governmental waste. He regards a periodical poll of adult voters as no guarantee of financial wisdom; and if he were Dictator the first thing he would do “would be to take the power of the purse from the hands of an assembly elected by universal suffrage. At present politics mean nothing but class bribery and pillage of minorities. Those who pay the piper should call the tune. I would abolish the House of Commons and have a Senate representing interests, not numbers. It would be a dignified body, consisting mainly, of elderly persons, who had served their country with distinction.” Dean Inge broadcasted these views in England on December 4. He told listeners-in that as a plenipotentiary despot, he would create a State embracing all countries formed on the modal of the British Commonwealth. Through this medium he would abolish war, tariffs, and passports, and create an international uniform currency, repopulate countries, declare war on disease, regulate populations as regards quantity and quality, and establish English as the universal language. “National taxation would be light, since there would be no army and navy, no doles, and lower interest of debts. I would levy taxes on all luxuries. Distribution of wealth would be encouraged. The chief immediate problem to be solved during my dictatorship would be how to get rid of millions of men with families whose jobs have been taken by labour-saving machinery, and through other causes. I would start a scheme of State colonisation. “I would nominate two committees to design rational and becoming dress for men and women. There is not much at fault with present women’s fashions, so the women’s committee would soon finish, but face paint, scarlet lips, and dyed haiT would be forbidden as aesthetically offensive. The drab dinginess of a. modern crowd would be relieved by the distinctive dress of each profession or trade. The idle rich, tramps, and others with no occupation would be obliged to wear an ignominous badge. “I should put down betting and gambling with a strong hand. It is a worse national vice than drunkenness, and much more common. A nation which did not take steps to check multiplication of its worst stocks would be considered an offender against the progress of humanity, and pressure might be brought to bear upon that nation. My friends of the Eugenic Society all favour sterilisation of the unfit. It has already been tried in California. In my opinion, we shall need more knowledge, as well as more education, before, Britain becomes converted to this step. Referring particularly to the necessity for redistribution of the population, Dean Ingle said that if Australians were unable to colonise their tropical territories, Italians or Asiatics should be allowed to come in.