DEMOCRACY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16451, 13 June 1921, Page 6

DEMOCRACY.

ADDRESS BY PROFESSOR SALMOND.

Democracy is not assured ; it has no nionopcl}' of the virtues, and has many defects; the oldest democracy has existed but 140 years. It can be safe- j guarded and developed not merely by sharpening of the intellect; with this must go development of the higher feelings. These points wore brought out in an address on ‘ ‘ Democracy and Education ” delivered by Professor Salmond, of Canterbury College, on Saturday night us one of the series of popular public lectures under the auspices of the Workers’ Educational Association. “What is democracy?” asked the speaker. They could not do hotter than taKe Lincoln’s definition—“ Government of the people, by the people, for the people.” The postulate from which democracy 7 started was that men were equal. It was only partly true. The profound ethical truth at the basis of democracy was not “ I am as good as you are,” but “ lou are as good as I am,” and if it were fully and generally carried into practice our social ' evils would vanish. To-day we took democracy too much for granted. The oldest democracy (the United States) was only 140 years old. What guarantee had they that modern democracies would hold their place? Were they justified in their assurance regarding the lasting nature of their democracies ? As a form of government democracy had shown itself to have no monopoly of the virtues. Lord Bryce summed it up by saying that, on the whole, democracy had given better practical results than the rule of one man or of a class. Plato saw a close relation between democracy, anarchy and tyranny, the last two springing from the former. Plato had rightly insisted upon an element of danger in democracy. Who would deny it, having regard to the present state of human society? In universal suffrage there" were obvious anomalies; yet against these was the fact of public opinion, the persuading of ignorance by knowledge. It was easy to see here the part which education must play. In the failure of democratic Forms of government to draw the best men to the service of the .State and in the fact that the plain man was apt to be suspicious of superiority in position and intellect, lay danger and weakness. We had left snobbery- to land in envy, hatred and malice. A right education, brought tio the masses, should cure that tendency. Another defect of democracy, pointed out by Lord Bryce, was its failure to diminish class and race selfishness. Then, again, Lord Bryce pointed out the universal extravagance of democracy. . There was an inevitable tendency in democracy to lose tho virtues of thrift and industry, and to discourage economy.

These were serious defects; tfliero were also great virtues. juord Bryce pointed out the wonderful manner in which democracy preserved public order, cared for the poor, and was comparatively constant and grateful. It was evident that only right education could remove tho defects of democracy. The quality of government must depend upon the quality of the citizens. The people must be educated. Lowell said that, unless democrocy succeeded in being gracious and winning it must fail. Only by cultivating the virtues of men could that com© about, lt was plain, then, that education was essential.

Did education mean a storing up of knowledge in the mind of the student, and the sharpening of the intellect? In itself, intellect was a force which might be used for evil as well as good. There was a kind of education going on to-day in some quarters which consisted of a mere sharpening of intellect. There was a college in Wales, called the 'Labour College, which insisted on having nothing to do with culture. It turned out 2000 or 3000 leaders each year. They were trained in narrow economics, a false school of philosophy, and in Marxian Socialism. which the best thinkers said was false. In this narrow intellectual education these men w'ere content. He had no hesitation in saying that such an education was evil. An education which failed of a wide moral culture was futile. There must lie education not merely of intellect, but or the emotions. Lord Bryce said that the question of permanence in democracy resolved itself into the question of whether man was growing in wisdom and virtue. The bnsis of human nature was found in tho emotions which we had in common with the animals. When these primal emotions became attached to ideas, anarchy often resulted in the human mind. How were these emotions to be reduced to order? “Train man’s intellect,” it was said, and lie will see tho stupidity of evil emotions. But there could be no regeneration through mere intellect. Intellect of itself would merely become the instrument of the emotions.

The ultimate question of education, then, was how to reduce to order the disorder of our emotional lives. The answer was that the only way to quell the disorder of the emotions was to bring them under the sway of the higher feelings. The human mind was capable of a higher form of feeling, called the sentiments. The difference between these and the simpl© emotions was that whereas the former were aroused by direct excitement, the sentiments were aroused by an idea or an image, or a group of such. The sentiments were complex emotional ideas. The more the life of ideas expanded, the stronger became the sentiments. They were the alchemists of character. Thus mere animal anger might become the anger of a saint against evil; fear might become respect ; self-subjection might become reverence. Therefore education had to do with more than intellect. Democracy would never reach its goal unless they produced men of fine feelings. All education should give the power of appreciation of great art, especially literature; should inculcate tho love of truth for its own sake ; should develop the sentiment of goodness, popularly called conscience, 'lhere was no ending to the development of that great sentiment. By a right moral education this sentiment, the conscience, might be developed to an unlimited extent. Only as* the public conscience was developed would democracy become safe and really progressive democracy must- include moral and spiritual as well as purely intellectual elements.