Page:Democracy, theoretical and practical (IA democracytheoret00hendrich).pdf/16

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DEMOCRACY

initiative in the hour of crisis, as well as foresight in preparing for it. When events are moving rapidly they must be able to see at a flash what is the right thing to do, and lose no time in doing it. They must be able to exert a power similar to that which Cromwell used at Marston Moor. Nelson at Cape St. Vincent, and Napoleon in nearly every battle that he fought. And how much has been accomplished in this world under such leaders as they! How little by armies badly led! What terrible disasters overtook the leaderless hosts that first left Europe for the conquest of the Holy Land in the Middle Ages!

B. IN POLITICS.

The value of management in war is generally recognized; but it holds good in statesmanship too. How much does the British Empire owe in this last great struggle to the initiative, resource, and courage of Mr. Lloyd George who handled the financial problem with success in the early days of the war, settled strike after strike, overcame the difficulty about munitions, and, in the teeth of fierce opposition, brought all the armies of the Allies under one supreme command?

C. IN INDUSTRY.

Great, too, is the value of competent direction in industrial' affairs. There are plenty of labouring men who believe honestly that it is they who create wealth, and that management has little to do with it. The history of the Revolution in Russia is teaching the world something very different. But we do not need to go beyond our own State for an argument. In his admirable lecture on "The Humanizing of Industry," Mr. Gerald Mussen, speaking of the smelters at Port Pirie, told us that "if a committee of workmen owned the smelters, and ran them, and, say, 20 experts were with-