TO THE WEALTHY

Evening Post, Volume XCIII, Issue 101, 28 April 1917, Page 10

TO THE WEALTHY

CHRISTIAN SOCIALIST'S PLEA

"Your Part in Poverty." By George '- Lansbury, M.P. Georgo Allen and ... Uawin, Ltd., London.

r : .Mr. Lansbury represents Bow, and. i Bromley in the House of Commons —one of the busiest and poorest constituencies in the Unitfid Kingdom. In this little work he utters the cry of the poor for juster treatment and more sympathy at the hands of the well-to-do. Mr. Lansbury. is an ardent .Socialist ; but he does not find adherence to Ids particular political views-do violence to those he holds (and evidently gives effect to) upon the Christian religion. Unlike so .many advanced Socialists, Mr. Lansbury retains a firm hold of his faith, and he will not let it go, feeling that the Church at large (he is an Anglican) can be made a powerful agency for ameliorating the lot of the working classes, and that the men in the' Church are generally too valuable to be passed over in any great-work of social construction to -be carried.oat in Britain.. ■ The Bishop of Winchester,..in a most sympathetic preface to "Your,. Part;in. Poverty/ com"mends the earnestness and disinterestedness of the author, and admits "the imperative need that the men and women of organised religion and the men and women of manual labour (thank God the division between them ,is not mutually exclusive!) should understand one another." The Bishop acknowledges that "the degree., of their present aloofness and- misunderstanding is easily the most sinister fact in our present condition." In these circumstances his Lordship writes, "We want to get closer to such' a man as Mr. Lansbury, to understand his position better, and to ask him to consider with ub our difficulties; about .accepting the whole of it, i.e., political Socialism." Mr. Lansbury regards Christianity "as taught.in almost all the Churches" a3 "a ghastly failure!' in its effect upon' life and conduct. Those who are in most intimate touch with individual 'members or 'adherents of the Churches 1' rwiir.:here r -rio- doubt, v at. once join, issue with Mr. Lansbury. They may possess the confidences (which are inviolable) of .. people ..in a way-that no layman can expect to hold them,. but cannot tell all . -they-Jknow ;. anijjesides, there 13 other - evidence—accessible to Mr. Lansbury— proving that in myriads of individual cases, "the;, doctrine of. salvation as * taught in_■almost;';aU\ the Cfiurches"' has been in its effect on life and conduct anything but "a-ghastly failure." "This failure jo£'" Clirjgtead.om to redeem the ; is* writ/largerioir the blood-stained ''^tl^fletes'i.whichrto-day stretch across :T!folcap9 t y's^?'.ykns:*&Jrica,'' Mr. Lansbury ;wntends;. 'j;Bflfc*;;he;.;.ma.kes it quite clearv-.tliatvljKei:is-'npt"j'CMifnsing.'v*ohris-/tendoin" with ''o£n&iahiiyy",''~'i6fli6 in- ' sists that -".we whot"remain at home, rich and poor,; old and,, young, must_enlist intone™ great aiTny under Christ's banner^'icceptingliHiS-teaching literally and^i^ia'lj^itsifuiness,'^determined in ; ~?CT.4?£ d.4° Jgh*Caga]nst: th,.e devil and > .■a2^his--w_orks)»an&-^ grace " ;;t'o;^^aT)lish7rlhe'«fcing36m'of -Heaven'on •^rthr "..i^^liitlle^ichjWreaJ. ";35ve one another^js'Hhe t§achj.ng;;;w|r must. follow if we-would be^Ea/ved."' Mr. Lansbury here* means save3"'in a.social sense from the catastrophic doom- that he sees, hanging over England, unless by aoine; beneficent means it can be dispelled^ The meanshe suggests are. the "basing our life and conduct on' the teaching of Christ." Then-there will be reasonable grounds for" the realisation of what- he believes (with undoubted sincerity);— "The only hope, that can come to the world will come when we have substi- , tuted< co-operation for competition." ; S';Ths ,authory who should know the .poor of London as.vsrell as. any man, is appalled by the great' gulf fixed between them and people of means. That gulf, he thinks> should be bridged,-: not by university settlements, charity organisations, or apy/other similar devices, (somo of which have become' disappointingly obsolete), but by the so-called "better classes" coming down from their pedestals to thjeir,., brethren in ; indigericy. There should be a-greater mixing. But are not the social barriers that divide today more temperamental than monetary? Assuming, as Mr, Lansbury ''. does, that there is a class war in peace time as in war time, has any one class a monopoly of the men and women who wish with .all. thejr hearfcs-to see, accomplished the'breaking down of those party walls ( that divide the, whole .people into tually hostile'aggregations? Mr. Lansbury yearns to see "a complete change of heart. ido not (he adds) mean this only in the old religious sense, though I think,tho expression is quite the soundest that can be used. . . When I say that it is, a change of heart that we need I mean an entire change of outlook." That means a, change of human nature.- How is it- to be effected? Mr., Lansbury, is not. so. clear nor so convincing in his answers as he is in his impassioned advocacy of wholehearted sympathy with the...working classes on the part of ali other classes. He says a "change of heart or a change of 'outlook.*; is essential. Granted; but what is the nature of the motive, the impelling power to effect such a change? It must be_ wrought in the individual to be seen in the mass. Mr, Lansbtiry visited Australia in 1884. Were he to visit jt (or New Zealand) to-day would he find_ that social aloofness of which he complains so evident as he says it is in England? And yet are New Zealand . and the Commonwealth, in both of which Labour has achieved great victories by constitutional means, free from many of these grievances, real and fancied, to which he gives such eloquent %ice? Is not the '"change of .heart" to which he refers a spiritual operation, one not ac* complished by temporal means? Mr.. Lansbury does suggest in a general way temporal means, and such, no doubt, would take the form of legislation—and also tho abolition of many existing laws; but there is little to show that legislation^ while it may have secured the, rights Of the individuals, has at the same time'ensured'individuals such happiness and .contentment-as-vas -hoped ' for.•■;' .:•.'•• "-: z ' , -

The outstanding feature of this little work is Mr. Lansbury's earnestness; and the' great experience he has had, living among the poor, sharing in their joys as well as their sorrows; commands for his views nnd conclusions I nil respect, if not whole-hearted acceptance.