302 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



The politicians also pretend that this is a war between 

 democracy and autocracy. But what exactly do they mean 

 by these words ? In a sense, German autocracy is really the 

 democracy of Germany — accepted willingly for years by the 

 German people because they believed that it was a more 

 efficient form of government than the babel-rule of England, 

 for example. But if we take democracy to mean, not only a 

 type of government accepted by the people, but one in which 

 the people really approve and sanction every separate enact- 

 ment — then neither the German nor the English form of 

 government is a democracy at all. Each country is, in fact, 

 ruled by a small clique, numbering much less than say one per 

 cent, of the total population, and consisting of the same type 

 of person, and that not the best type, in both countries. The 

 principal difference was that the German clique were foolish 

 enough to think that the war would be of benefit to them, 

 while the English clique were wise enough to see the folly of 

 it, but not wise enough to guard against it. And this differ- 

 ence was due to the facts that the German clique were con- 

 trolled chiefly by soldiers who live by the sword and the Eng- 

 lish clique by lawyers who live by the tongue. 



Our Politicians' Democracy 



Electoral reform is now before the British people. Let us 

 therefore examine the real nature of the so-called British 

 democracy. 



At present the House of Commons contains 670 members, 

 elected by 8,357,648 electors, or one member to about 69,302 

 people on the average, and to 12,471 electors. How are they 

 selected ? By the " free voice of the people " ? Well, actually 

 the first selection of candidates is made by the Conservative, 

 Liberal, Nationalist, and Labour organisations. These have 

 branches in every constituency, consisting mostly of a few 

 country gentlemen, local lawyers, manufacturers, builders, 

 surveyors, tradesmen, working men, etc., who nominate the 

 candidates who please them. There are no rules governing 

 the selection, except that the candidate must conform in 

 general to the programme of the party, and, if he wishes to 

 succeed, should establish local " claims." Service to his 

 country, experience of administration or affairs, virtue, trained 



