SOME CAUSES OF MODERN SOCIALISM.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 167, 14 July 1908, Page 3

SOME CAUSES OF MODERN SOCIALISM.

Last evening Mr F. G. Ewington gave a lecture to the Church of England Men's Society at All Saints' on the above subject. There was a good attendance of I members, and the chair was taken by i Key. C. Thomas, curate in charge. The lecturer said that the industrial revolution caused by the invention of machinery in the latter part of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th had made a complete change in the methods of economic production. The domestic operatives had been displaced, and vast numbers had been made to herd together in factories. Those who worked at home were supplied with goods to make up, and they often sublet their contracts, which ted to sweating and its attendant miseries. Women and children, because of their low-priced labour, were engaged in factories, and they suffered great hardships, and there was 11 deterioration of the race of manual toilers. Sensible men like KingsIcy. Maurice, and Lord Shaftesbury felt that the nation was on the down-grade industrially, and they tried hard for reforms. Numbers of rich men espoused the cause of the toilers, and aimed at removing the evils of the industrial system and perfecting it if possible. Robert Owen made great sacrifices on socialistic lines, and Karl Marx and other Socialists came upon the scene proposing drastic remedies. They contended that the industrial revolution divorcing the labourers from land and tools, and introducing a system whereby the extremely limited capital of the workers became practically useless, the only hope of the toilers was in universal compulsory eo-operaticm or .Socialism, as opposed to unregulated competition. Under Socialism, land, labour, and capital were to be nationalised and held in trust by all for the good of all. There was no longer to be private employers, private traders, or the private lending of money at interest. The State was to own everything necessary for produc- | tion. All private competition was to ! cease, and. as that could not be stopped while nations competed one against tho | other, internationalism was to prevail I and the ideal was the brotherhood of j man. There would no longer be mas- ! ters and servants—all were to be coniI rades. The hardness of the conditions | of life rendered these doctrines very captivating and welcome, and the spread of education and aspirations after a higher plane of life induced men to dwell upon those ideas. There followed a decay of religious belief. Men no longer felt content tn look beyond time to eternity for rewards. .Many doubted whether there really be any future, and they preferred "a bird in hand." Some : even doubted whether there really be j a God supreme over all, because the inI equalities and injustices in modern so- • cicty were hard to reconcile with that | thought. The Socialist promised some- ! thing now and here, and thus outbid I the Christians, who. ignoring the teachings of Christ, had failed to teach men that God's Kingdom was to "be set up on earth. The Church, having preached no practical Gospel, but confining itself too much to mere platitudes, psalmsinging and praying in public, instead of insisting on religion as the most practical thing in the world, and the only panacea for social,.and not mere individual salvation, lost its hold of the masses, who lapsed from the Church, which they now distrust and oppose. There appeared too many things to countenance the Socialists' indictment of the present industrial system. Intermittent work, inadequate wages, an army of unemployed, misery driving men to intemperance, the abuse or misuse of riches, the tyranny of trusts, corners, j wars of aggression for trade, class hat- { reds. taritT wars, the enclosure of common's land, and the abuse of landownI ing; all these things played into the hands of Socialists, and made men eagerly listen to proposals that might make life better worth living. Other potent causess of Socialism were the unwise statements and promises of vote-catch-ing politicians and popularity-hunting I ministers of religion. Some of the proj mises were impossible of fulfilment without the absolute overthrow of our indus- ! trial system, but they were none the less delusive and inflammatory. The Hon. J. A. Millar, Minister of Customs and of Labour in our present Government, was now, like the Hon. John Burns, in England, struggling with tho "Frankenstein" which he had helped to create. Then another cause of the present modern socialistic propaganda -was the co-operative movement, too, whereby in England nearly three millions of members did an annual trade turn-over of £90.000.000, and in Germany of £ 150,000,000, with a handsome profit, which lent colour to the Socialist gospel, people forgetting that although volun- | tary co-operation in some things succeeds, it by no means followed that compulsory co-operation in all things would succeed. But the people saw the waste of money, and of effort in the present system, and came to look upon it as immoral and anti-social. Mr Ewington. however, affirmed his belief that the true remedy was not Socialism, but the present industrial system with its evils eliminated through the infusion of religion, and a more general interest in politics. Religion' Vas God in action in society, and He working through His people in Church and State, could set up His Kingdom on earth, for a godless people can never have peace or prosperity.