25 OCTOBER 1935, Page 18

TEACHERS AND POLITICIANS

To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] Sin,—May I, as the Clifton College master who was dismissed for standing as a candidate at the 'municipal elections in Bristol, offer a few observations on a subject which is, I believe, of great importance to the future of English democracy? It is, as you say, difficult to judge of individual cases of dis- missal without full knowledge of all the facts. The facts of my case arc, however, to. be published shortly,as an appendix to the report of the Oxford Conference on Academic Freedom. The'issue is one which affects a far wider circle than memberS of the teaching profession, for the embargo on candidature by teachers is merely part of a process which threatens to eliminate the ordinary citizen from our representative assem- blies in favour of the professional politician. In our democracy Parliainent and the great local authorities are still the seat, of power and all sorts of interests are finding it increasingly iniportant to be well represented there, Organisations of bankers, brewers, dockers, -railwaymen, manufacturers, trades- men, shop assistants, &e., are all moving in the same direction.- So our ancient democratic assemblies are kising their character of bodies of free and independent .citizens and are being steadily transforthed into bodies composed of represental ives of sectional interests, whose first duty is, not to their con- stituents as a Whole but to the Members of the organisation which has promoted and financed, their candidature. 'File time-honoured 'tradition of the local Knight of the Shire," survives only in a number of rural eons' ittienciess and in the mining areas, where lie has been reborn in the person of the miner M.P. Elsewhere his. place is taken by the " carpet- . bagger."

The new tendency was intensified on the Labour side by the almost universal hostility of , emploYerS to independent working-class representation. This hostility resulted in an excessive demand being made on the Trade Union and 'Co- operative . movements to encourage their• ofti, cials. to come forward as Labour candidates, for no one whose livelihood was not secure dared to stand.

But the custom is in no sense confined to the Labour Party. I'ant a member of a professional organisation which has for many years financed the candidature of its officials for safe seats in all three political parties. We are thus 'assured of the assistance of a " friend at court," whatever government is in power. Last year the Bournemouth conference of the National Federation of Newsagents debated the adVisabilitY of selecting two candidates in the two main political parties who were to accept nomination for " likely " constituencies„ and it was stated that the cost would be 11,800.

I have seen enough of the " professional politician " system of America and Europe to convince me of the superiority of the English tradition. Curiously enough I find I have an ally in Mr. Baldwin, who in a broadcast to VI Form boys on " English Liberty " some eighteen months ago, stressed the peculiar value of the English tradition of personal service in Parliament, County Council and municipality, " the tradition of service in a free country by free men." He welcomed the fact that with the extension of democracy this tradition could become more .widespread and he finally urged his hearers when they come out into the big world to assist in the task of extending this tradition, growing ". rhinoceros hides " and taking an active part in our political life. It is one of the many anomalies of my case that I should have been dismissed. by a body which included the Vice-Chancellor of one of the provincial universities and a Law Officer of the C'rown because I had done exactly what Mr. Baldwin was, urging all public- spirited citizens to do.

In a democracy each of us counts for one and no one counts for more than one. It is often difficult enough to get the ordinary citizen to do his " democratic bit," but at least he, should he encouraged to do so. But the Clifton resolution forces the entire staff of a large. Public School to consent to , a contractual eurtailMent of their full rights and responsibilities as citizens forthe,period of their service at the college. Such a resolution cuts at the roots of democracy. The tacit accept- ance of this vicious principle in large sections of the business world has already reduced membership of our representative assemblies to dangerously narrow limits. Its extension to civil servants in the Trades Disputes Act and now to teachers threatens to bring democracy into still further contempt', and is largely responsible for time steady drift of politically- minded people towards the Communist or Fascist alternative. ,