Democracy.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 14042, 28 October 1909, Page 3 (Supplement)

Democracy.

A TEMPORARY EXPEDIENT. We Britishers, says the wise 'tohiinga" of the Auckland '-Herald, are so proud of our representative i|«trtntions that vou would really think that this was the only form of government ever evolved, and that it was the only way of reaching political heaven. Vie alwavs think that way. Hie Scote"' gardener who was satisfied that lie ••and two or three more" members oi Ins particular Little Bethel might he saved, but was -not so sure of the more," was British to the marrow oi his bones. We become Protestant and try to conyert the world. We become Free Traders, and try to break up everv customhouse. We are parliamentarians, and devote ourselves with delicious naivity to establishing parliaments, in Naples, in Spain, in Russia, in Turkey, in Persia, in China, and in India itself. And we never laugh at ourselves. Yet if we had a real sense of humour we should have quite a good time looking in the mirror at stodgy John Bull trying to fit paunchy Bengalees and skinny Arabs and squat Tartars into the political clothes which fit him so snugly. , , For although it is treason to modern superstition to suggest it, the probabilities certainly are that representative institutions are only ephemerally suited even to Britishers and North Europeans, and that they no more suit Asia or South Europe or Africa than Asiatic or South European or African methods suit us. There is nothing essentially just, equitable, or politic about counting heads, else we might halt between the Great Teacher and Judas Iscanot, and give Pontius Pilate a casting vote And-while on this, is it not recorded that the multitude plumped solidly for Barabhas? Evidently you can't give a man wisdom- by giving him a vote, any more than you can rectify the economic disadvantages of women by extending to them the suffrage. Representative institutions may afford the best machinery for governing .within - some specified period, and among some specified people, as now and with ns, but is there anything more in them? _ Representative -institutions fail the moment an earnest minority finds itself serionslv threatened by an antagonistic majority. They only remain strong where the majority waives its theoretic power and does not insist upon its theoretic right to over-ride the claims of this intense minority. If we examine history we find that the intense and determined minority always succeeds in imposing its will upon careless or indifferent majorities—and it doesn t seem to matter very much how this is (lone.- The count of heads is convenient enough where no deep quarrels divide a nation, and where no serious attempt is being made to imperil the existence of a powerful section. That is all. „ T . . c To talk to a citizen of Louisiana of the wickedness of not allowing the white vote to be matched against the negro vote, and of the violation of democratic principles and all human rights involved in keeping negro voters from the polls by display of force, is sillv. Silly in this sense, that it is talking of a democracy not understood either by the white men of Louisiana or* by any other group of Englishspeaking men on the face of the earth. There are 350,000,000 coloured folk in our Empire, 60,000,000 white folk. Whit*-'about its government npon representative principles? What about Sooth Africa? AYhat about Fiji? We need not confuse the matter by talking of India, but is there any country in which the white man has settled to stay, where he wonld dream of inviting the alien to be democratic?