TWO SERMONS

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21534, 25 July 1935, Page 20

TWO SERMONS

TO THE EDITOR 0» THE PRESS Sir,—Two sermons reported in yesterday's (Monday's) "Press," one by Canon Perry at St. Michael's, and the other by the Rev. J. F. Fc-ron at St. Matthew's Church, deserve more than passing comment. I consider that Canon Perry has shown present-day troubles in a wrong perspective. The tragedy is not that there is lack of work, or employment—so many people seemed to be imbued with the wjprk complex. Canon Perry said: "The unemployed deserve our utmost sympathy. It is not their fault that as there is a •surplus of food products, so there is of labour." Now, it is utterly wrong that unemployed should go hungry because there is a surplus of food or go shabby and ill-clad because there is an overplus of clothing. Leisure is not a calamity—it is a boon. If ths machine displaces workmen, these men must be given the wages of the machine (in some such form as a national dividend), so that they are enabled to share the product of the machine in common with other members of the community. The Rev. J. F. Feron, in his address, extolled the uses of adversity. Hardship and failure were not the things, he said, that broke down soul and personality. I think this needs qualifying. Extreme poverty can be most debasing and some people in this country have almost reached this stage. Extreme destitution leads to thievery in order to live, as police courts can testify. Extreme poverty gives a man a hopeless view of life and leads to malnutrition of his wife and family to the stunted mental growth and physical growth of his children. Give this man the fheans to raise himself from the gutter where he lies dirty and unkempt and hungry, for even soap and towels cost money. Give him aew clothes lor himself and

family, a comfortable home, and a well-stocked larder, and he becomes a reputable citizen, eager and anxious to take his; part once again in the life of the community. In fact, a soul redeemed. » If all thinking people could be Induced to give their thoughts to the solution of the problem of distribution and consumption of the plenitude of goods oroduced, it would no longer be necessary for such bodies as the Rotary Club to have to distribute more than 20 tons of food to 7000 necessitous folk as they did last Christmas in this city. —Yours, etc., K. A. LOVELL-SMITH. July 23, 1935®