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About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (July 12, 1907)
-- JUIiT 12ifT - Commoner. 7 WHEN THE BRITISH EMPIRE FALLS "But Jeshunm waxed fat; and kicked l thou art waxen fat, thou art grown thick, thou art covered with fatness; then ho forsook God which made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation." Deuteronomy xxxii, 16. When the British empire falls it will be from two causes: One Is our increasing inter est in its" problems; the other is our success in solving them. This sounds like a paradox, and so it is. I hasten therefore to add that it does ;npt .apply to the self governing portions of the empire, but to the countries like Egypt, India, Ceylon, and the Malay states where our rule Is autocratic or semi-autocratic in principle and in fact. It Is with regard to these countries that I maintain that the two greatest perils that confront us are our wanting to know and our ability to achieve. And if I were called upon for my proofs I should answer by pointing to Lord Cromer's recent report. If you. examine into the average English man's sense of empire you find it to consist of a vague pride of ownership and nothing more. Take, for instance, the case of India. The "man in the street" is a whole encyclopaedia of Indian misinformation. The subject is altogether too vast and remote for the ordinary busy citizen. You will find, if you pump him with sufficient diligence,, a few tangled recollections of Clive and the Black Hole of Calcutta, some more defi nite convictions as to Mr. Kipling and the diffi culties of the Indian civil service examination, a suspicion that Anglo-Indians are overpaid, and in the background a vast miscellany of jungles, frontier wars, jewels, tigers, famines, white temples, disordered livers, and Russian in trigues. In other words, he knows nothing about India. It remains for him and -or most of us just a brilliant abstraction. You who read this and who are ultimately responsible for what is being done in your name between the Himalayas and Cape Comorin, and who would fight to the last to keep the British Raj intact, could not give a clear outline of even one of the thousand fascinating problems that face the rulers of that fascinating country. A Durbar may jog your interest, a frontier war. may von excite it, "and some confused notion that Russia needs watch ing is probably always more or less at work at the back of your mind. Bu't when India is neither particularly spectacular, ndr particularly at war, nor particularly harassed by "Russian designs," you find it frankly dull. I am not urging this as a reproach. Far from it. I rejoice at the healthy and judicious indifference of our people. It shows that they possess the true secret of empire. I can imagine nothing more fatal than that India should be come a topic on which every Englishman felt bound to have an opinion, and when I say India I mean, of course, every-country in which we are ruling Orientals by ways we do not apply to ourselves.t Every Englishman for nearly a hundred years has felt bound to have an opinion on Ireland, which is a country not without its .streak of Orientalism and look at the result! Our national genius for not bothering about the principles and daily detailed workings of our imperial rule has been the .greatest safeguard of v the empire. The empty benches in the house of commons when such subjects are up are an overwhelming demonstration of political com mon sense. But there are signs that this common sense is passing from us, and is being replaced by an unpolitic curiosity. More and more members are growing fatally interested in the empire, are beginning to ask for streams of fact, are fussing over little Incidents, are prying into this and questioning that, and are doing what they can to convert the supremacy of the house of commons over our alien dependencies from a necessary fiction Into an inquisitorial fact. Mr. Byles. and Mr. Robertson and their friends typify the spirit and the scope of these activi ties. They bring, to the problem of Oriental government great earnestness, a colossal altru ism, no imagination, a profound faith in the democratic idea; and no local knowledge. This, is an impossible .equipment for imper ial statesmanship, and its increasing favor among our radical sentimentalists is a danger of the first magnitude. When we find in the house of commons a growing number of men whose conscience will not allow them to be democratic at home and autocratic abroad, who will never be persuaded that one nation's meat may be another nation's poison, who j-egard all men and all societies as equally capable of self government, Who ar3- obsessed by a mania for political proselytism, and whose instinct fs to govern India, and Egypt, and the Malay states on the lines of a somewhat larger Warwick shire, wo may be sure England is well on tho road to confirming Proude's dictum that "free peoples can not govorn subject races." All democracies sooner or later feel this temptation, and most of them succumb to it. There is nothing the French like bettor than ap plying the "principles of 1789'' to tho natives of tho Congo; and the Americans have no other conception of tropical government than that of dumping upon the Filipinos all the privileges of American citizens and all the paraphernalia of democracy. Even wo, thougn restrained hitherto by tho wholesome apathy of our people and by their instinct for trusting the man on the spot, have foisted upon India and Egypt any number of institutions and contrivances of a purely Occidental character not In the least because India or Egypt wanted them, but simply because we were used to them at home. But there is another and moro insidious peril that threatens the empire, a peril that has been created by our very success. The most pregnant though the least noticed sentence in Lord Cromer's report was that n which ho practically took upon himself the responsibility for the growth of the Egyptian nationalist Idea. "It has been evoked," he said, "by the benefits which, with a rapidity probably unparalleled in history have been conferred on the country by the introduction of western civilization at the hands of an alien race; and it is surely tho irony ofLpoIItical destiny that that race, or tho instruments through whom It has principally acted, should bo represented as tho principal obstacles to the realization, of schemes the con ception of which is mainly due to their own action." Those who will ponder these words and their implications will come very near the heart of the master-problem of imperialism. Stated in the broadest terms, that problem is the in finitely arduous and delicate one of escaping the penalties of too much good government. We enter these alien countries determined and able to rule them for their own benefit. Wo begin by imposing peace and establishing order. We go on to deal out to the peoples under' our rule the one novelty that Orientals always ap preciate that of oven-handed justice. Wo pass from this to increasing their prosperity, to educating them, fo surrounding" their persons and property with innumerable securities. At the same time wo preserve to them, with as lit tle interference as possible, their distinctive social and religious customs. At first the natives, if not grateful,, realize at all events that they are better off, and remain passive. Then comes a generation which, hav ing known no other conditions, takes all we have done for it for granted. Meek acceptance gives way to criticism; criticism passes into abuse; abuse is developed into a demand for some share in directing the administration we liave erected. We yield to that demand and admit natives here and, there, in government offices, in local .councils, In the lower ranks of the civil and judicial service. The old days of decisive personal autocracy Jiavo passed; the new days of government by System, and a system which acknowledged the representative princi ple, have -come. The agitator arises. Each new concession Is made a stepping stone to another. Our own sphere of influence contracts and that of native opinion expands. The gulf between rulers and ruled grows daily greater; clouds of Intervening native officials swarm between the administra tors and the people. The railways bring a new aid tq intercourse and therefore to solidarity and therefore to agitation. We educate more men than we can find employment for and there by foster discontent. Industrialism comes with all its quickening impulses, and a native press preaches sedition and stimulates an Intellectual ferment. The old task of" creation was not easy, but it was as nothing by the side of the new task of assimilation. Thus the very excellence of our rule pro vides the means for Its overthrow, and Its ma terial success implies that we are producing the conditions most favorable to its resistance. Sydney Brooks, in London Daily Mail. MAJORITY RULE CATECHISM. The initiative and referendum are ex plained in the following questions and answers, supplied by the National Federation for People's Rule: What is majority rule? It is the people's rule as distinguished from the rule of the few. Does majority .rule exist ' in the United State? Not In national affairs, nor in state anl municipal affairs excopt whoro tho voters havo re-established a system whereby thoy cau ballot diroct on public questions. What other names has tho dlrect-voto sys tem? One form of it is tho inltiatlvo and refer endum. Another is tho advisory initiative and advisory referendum, frequently termed tho in itiative and referendum principle. What fs tho chief difference in these sys tems? One requires a constitutional amend ment for Its cstabllshniont, tho other can be installed by statute law a most decided differ ence. What is tho system through which the few. aro in power? Machlno rule. What Is its- distinguishing featuro? Tho final power as to legislation is in tho political machine. In other words, there is no system whereby tho voters cau Instruct representatives after they are in office, nor Is there any way whereby the voters can veto tho acts of their representatives or oxercise the power of direct legislation. How would you describe machine rule? It is the rule of tho few through popular forma; The people vote but do not rule. Who favors,, machine rule? Those who hayo secured private monopolies and those who desiro them. What is ttho result of majority rule? 'It quickly terminates private monopolies (special privileges). Special privileges can exist only wher.o the few aro in power. oooo A QUESTION ANSWERED "Hasn't the president already aottled upon Mr. Taft as his successor?" sneoringly asks Mr. Bryan's Commoner. Hasn't Tho Commoner. al ready settled upon Mr. Bryan as the candidate the democratic party must nominate? Sioux City Journal. The Commoner has not "already settled up on Mr. Bryan as tho candidate the democratic party must nominate." Tho rank and file of the democratic party will select the democratic candidate. The democratic party has no mas tors into whose hands has been given tho mat ter of providing the candidate and outlining the issues. oooo A CORRECTION In a orecent issi, of The Commoner it was stated that the first town to be named for Mr. Bryan was located in Oklahoma and that tho name'was'solected by James Simmons. It should have been printed James Emmons. 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