Premier's Vision of a New World.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 1212, 17 December 1919, Page 2

Premier's Vision of a New World.

Clear the Jungle' of Slums and Poverty. Fair Play Among All. / A picture oil the New "World, as he hopes to see it, was drawn by Mr Lloyd George, in his speech to tho National Brotherhood Congress at the City Temple. In telling phrase, the Premier spoke of the Old Order, and flic changes which will have to be made. • He denied cmnjiatically that he was "leading counsel" for the old order of things. There is a, new spirit in the land, he declared, that will lead to the land of promise, of which many have been dreaming. In his peroration, the Prime Minister made an eloquent appeal for fair play among all classes at home.

GONE FOB EVER. FUNDAMENTAL CHANGES OF FIVE YEARS. If 1 rnado a political pronouncement to-night, said Mr Lloyd George, I >ho Ul <l fool that I wore outraging the hospitality oi tho Brotherhood moverunt. lam not paticulaly anxious to enter into a controversy; not that I run afraid. My feeling for tho moment is that it is a tic for co-operation rather than for controversy. We have just emerged from one of the most terrible conflicts tho world has ever -seen. That could not lea\o things exactly where they were. Every disturbance does not necessarily «dt*r things fundamentally. You have seen great storms, and the tea in raging tumult and anger—the waters dashing against the reeks and threatening to sweep over the land—but tho configuration ef the coast has net been altered. That is true of many political hunieanes, which some of us have been ;u before now, but this was a tulai wave which swept away landmarks and submerged territories and if men who lived ua the earth on August 1, 131-1, were privileged to revisit it they would not knew it to-day. Vanished Autocrats, It no use talking about tho old world a.- it' nothing had happened to if-Two-thirds of Europe wa.- ; on Vugust J, 10H, governed by I'owora which were apparently firmly established autocracies. Where are these autocrats now Vanished! The greatest army of the ages, which was a menace to Europe and to the world, has gone, and you bav 0 substituted for it actualJy a polico .force. Tho changes are great and fondaintal. Tho Hapsburgs, the Hohcnzollerns, and tho Romanoffs , who not merely governed three-quarters of Europe, but represented in themsives an old order of things, have gone, and gone fo rover, and the won,] is richer and safer for their disappearance. Jt, is exactly as if you visited Switzerland, au<l found thai the Mnttcrhoru and M«ml Blanc hud disappeared, 'i'hul is the change which has taken, pia.ee in :ho political configuration! of Europe. There never has been a period in the history of the world where in five years there wore isuch funadmcntal changes in continents as those which you have hud since August, 1914. There have been other changes; there have been political changes. You have very nearly trebled the electorate of t'u* country. Js that no euange? You have a change in tho hours of Jnbutir of a most fundamental character. You have had a change in th L > altitude of the nation towards problems Hko unemployment, and in the sense of obligation* on tho community taut whetc men tiro prepared and willing tu work you ba\o no right to let them starve. The changes oro fundamental, -.'.iid. in the faeo of all this, tho people who sneer at tho idea that tho world has crumbled are simply silly when they think they are superior. Slums Have To Go.

A great many more changes will have to take place to compWto the new picture. Slums have to go. I hope that great armaments wilt •disappear, not merely in Germany. otherwise of gallant men will have bled in vain. J. hope lam not trading Oil tho region of political controversy if I express the hope that the long-drawn and wretched misunderstanding between Iroland and tho rest of the United Kingdom, will also disappear. I am looking forward to seeing waste —waste of tho resources of tho laud, waste in every ahapo and form —disappear, and a new Britain springing up, freed from ignorance, freed from insobriety, a really free land, freed from penury freed from poverty, freed fro squalour, freed from the tyranny of mankind over mankind—a free land-

There arc men übo seem, to iniogiiio that I have accepted the position of leading counsel for tbo old order of things. Bather than do it, -I would throw up my brief to-morrow. —(Loud and prolonged cheers, a portion of tbo audience rising and waving hats and handkerchiefs.) I believe that there is a spirit in this laud, a new spirit that has arisen from the sacrifices of tbo Avar, that v.-ill load up to that land of proniiso of which any of us have been dreaming, arid which I believo is within tho reach of iia if wo only hold together in tho great spirit of brothcrhod. Why should war always get tho best oat of mankind, and peace always get the poorest? My heart thrills when tho story is told of unselfishness, comradeship., brotherhood, valour euch as the world lias never seen slf-sacr lice — all placed on tho altar of war. Cannot wo get them autho altar of peaeo! Is peace going to call forth nothing but grasping, greed, avarice, faction, timidity, indulgence! OBSTACLES OVERCOME. PAIR PLAY SUBSTITUTED FOB FOBCE. ' I wonder whether any of «8 ttalise the ob&tafileii.wq oyer.f.'unp in making the war. Unprepared, unready, untutored, in three or four years" we became the most foridubje military I'mwcr in the eWorld,,* Ravins .overcome gigantic obstacles, dtf Sot let us nuako or quarrel before smaller obstacles,: I remember the great scenes at the beginning of the war;: the young men

who thronged to the Horse Guards'parade to give their names. They were lighting for something for which there is a good word in the English language —fairplay. What is fairplay! A sense o fright—yes, but it in a good deal more. It includes a sympathy for tho weak who aro harshly treated. It is a compound of justice and mercy. I am proud of tho fac-t that it is always associated with tho British character. It sometimes needs rousing, it sometimes is discouraged and overcast, it is somotiines missed regarding its facts, but it is thero always deep down in the British heart. What the League Is.

Tho Lenguo of Nations is an organised attempt to substitute fair play for force. Tho world has not settled down. We made peace with Germany, wo mado peace with Austria but in half Europe and nearly half Asia you can hear the tranip of armed men marching to tho slaughter of their fellow men. Human -passions, when they aro thoroughly aroused, aro difficult to tho frenzy of anger in tho world and the frenzy of blood ha 3 not exhausted itself.

I fear that this welter of warjiug peoples will go on unless you have u strong hand like that of tho federated power of tho nations of the world to insist on peaeo from ocean to ocoan. Everything depends on tho League being worked >uot in tho spirit of Intrigue,, nafc in tho spirit of suspicion between rmious, not in tho spirit of using it for ono nation to got on advantage over another, but in u spirit of true comradeship among tho peoples of the earth. If that is done it will Inone of the greatest institutions ever planned by tho hand of man The only othor appeal I have- to niako is for fair play among all classes at home. If Capital and Labour, employer and employed, if each party is determined to eierciso its power or its wen th to extort advantages for itself without reference to what is right and fair cither to the party or to tha community us a whole, that -will us truly end in disaster at homo for all classes us a similar spirit ended in a groat catastrophe abroad for the nationsthat were animated by it. 2\o man, be ho employer or bo ho workman, has a right to say in roferto the commun'ty or to others, 'Am I my brother's keeper?' That is tho policy of Cain and not tho policy of brotherhood. „, Honour the Sacrifice. If ruiu were to come from a conflict conducted on both sides in that spirit I know who would suffer. Strong men can always look aftor thomselves in any misfortuno that may befall society. It is tho average man who would suffer and the interest of tho vast majority of tho people of this eountry rests in establishing a reign of strict fair play betwoen all classes. (Cheer 3.) I do want to sco Britain Hitting in its armchair with the stuffed trophies of itj victories around it. I want it to reclaim tho wilderness, clear the jungle of slums, poverty, drunkenness, ignorance, wrong, and every form of tyranny. It is due to tho immortal dead that wo should do so. They aro asking that wo should build up a newBritain as a monument to their heroism. . 4 -?wi*H The world is left as it was weer. they marched into this fire, with, its slums, its sweating, starvation, waste, its huge armaments, its futilo words, its treacherous words. If tho spirit of brothorhood shown in tho war goes on to build a new Britain happy, contented, prosperous, free, then tho spirits of tho dead will rejoice that we have honoured that sucriiico,

BILLY SUNDAY'S SET-TO WITH SIN.

SINCERE, PICTURESQUE, AND ALWAYS VULGAR. It is rumoured that Billy Sunday is going to sail for England soon, says a 'Sunday Chronicle' writer. We Bha.ll get it hot. 'Weasel-eyed, hog-jowled. beetlebrowed, Jiberlyhatijtg crew of sauerkraut ers.'

This, in a nutshell, i s Mr Billy Sunday a personal opinion of the Hohenzollorns, and during tho war this famous American revivalist preacher never missed tin opportunity of attacking 'Kaiser Bill and his muck buueh. J 'The Germans cant shoot their erased Kultur and damnable Hoheuzollernism down our throats. They can't spit on the Stars and Stripes. They can't erase a star from that pure held. We're not a quarrelsome bunch—oh, no, but woe bctido anyone who gets us started.'

Billy Sunday is perhaps the only prcacher in U.S.A. with such a forceful vocabulary of—er—President's English, and he is, moreover, the exponent of tho only religion, that can command endless quous. Ho is sincere, picturesque, and always vulgar, is this baseball pleye-r turned revivalist. Ho is not O*no of those men who prefer to call' a soade a spade. He plumps for tho something shovel every time. Perhaps that is tho reason why he is so popular with tho American musses. Ho gives them their religion red hot and. strongly flavoured, and makes their floeh ercep with tho smell of brimstone and tho smoke from oternal fires. Hustle to Heaven. 1 was in Buffalo a year or so ago when Billy Sunday 3 Whirlwind Campaign Against Satan and all his Works was just opening. At one meeting whoro tho local tabernacle was packed to suffocation he delivered himself of the: following gentle homily:-,. 'God runs no half-way house, borne people think they are too good for hell and too bad for Heaven, and try to force a moral issue on- tho univcj.se. But I. tell you. people of Buffalo, it's either Heaven or hell.'

'Some of you old sinners,' he added, 'are so near hell to-night that you can look, over and smell fires; there's j.r, thing but a few belated hairs 'on "your baid plates between you and the bum stone, because you will not uud never would accept Christ.-' 'Can it bo' raved Bill with much arm flinging aud thumping of chest, "can it be that Jesus received His wounds for this whisky-soaked, bowerottod, Christ-hating, old world/' Salvation and Sanitation.

'Actual religion' lies not in the pra\ er nor the Bible reading, nor che conversions, nor the communions, nor the church attendance, nor ten baptism, but in quality of life which thoso observations create.

'Lots of people go to church and repeat the 'Lord's Prayer and tho Creed and thy Catechism, and' they're the biggest devils this sid 0 of hell. 'Tho way to Heaven is not through a bathtub or a cake Of soap. They (tho clergy)' must come, across with? something besides sanitation to will people to Jesus.

'The world would be all right if people lived up to the Golden Rule. But instead we 'find a lot of rich old devils owning tenements that are u.n, tic for a hog to live in If people lived up to tho Golden Rule wo would have "ici' rent" hanging on every brewery and boozo joint and gambling hell in the country, and tho lion and tho lamb would lie down together 'Then: are. many people who talk and chuck a bluff nt knowing a lot about the principles of the Lord's work without knowing anything about His person. You can carry all the principles you want around- with you, but you'll go to hell unless you know the person of Jesus 'You havo Unitarianism built around principles; you havo Christian Sciotv.-e built around principles; you havo ail tho nonsense and tommyrot aud foi-de-rol, and all tho isms and schisms built around principles, but only tho truo religion is built around the person of Jesus Christ j

' ''Follow me!" has always been a more inspiring summons than "Workon this programme" All other religions have been built around principles, but the Christian religion' is built around a Saviour

'There sue several things some of you have done since these meetings lief: gan. Some of you have opened*"-', the door and let Him in. Thank x G,o.dC'rfoi' that. Some of you have your hautL on tho latch, but you aro afraid id' open it. Some have turned a deaf ear to the devil, but some have turned a listening ear to the world Some have said "I will not" Anj I believe that there are some men to-night who are as truly damned as if they were in hell instead of Buffalo. Others have let liim in, but He's up in the spare room. That Spare Room. 'Ever seen a spare room} It's usually up iu the north-west corner, two blocks away from any lire. It's where you put tho preachers and the presiding eiders when they come to visit you. 'l'd just as soon sleep between two cakes of ice as in a spare room. 'Oh, throw the door open. Say: "Jesus, it's an insult tho way I have been treating you." It is an insult. Say, "Jesus, come hero with me aud hear me say tho blessing; come herej Jesus, and sit while I say family prayer; come and go with me to tho store and sec that I give 30 inches to the yard and 10' ounces to the pound, and -000. pounds to-tho t'on; eomo in and seo if there are any books I ought not to have. Out goes' all evil; well I should say so. Como here and look at this music; como here and look in iuy rcfrigerator. Ughl tako this beer out." Go homo and ask Him to come out of the spare room and treat Him

'lf you aro unwilling to inakt a sacrifice there's nothing to It If you have a quarrel with someone-, go to fhem with witnesses to make it up. H they refuse let them go to the devil. You have done your part. 'lf you are unwilling to make a saenliee and go to hell, you can go. I believe there are people in Buffalo wLo would not give up cards and the booze even though they knew it would save their sons from feeing gamblers and drunkards. ..'•'., 'lf I had my way I'd have evenpack of cards and every drop of-boer: in hell before midnight, and it's now' !> o'clock., .- • : ■ '

~ 'l can't understand Low.you tan keep still when God offers so much and hell is.so terrible. I don't see how anybody on God's earth can keep still when so many are in danger. 'And let me tell you this—you who talk so much of .uuiuanitariauisni—there was no humunit a nanism before Jesus came. Jesus is the name that builds homos, the name that sabers the drunkard, the name that sets the libertine free, the name that Avill transform this old world and make it a paradise of peace.' But a bit rough on Buffalo, wasn't it? '