A CHALLENGE

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 111, 6 November 1937, Page 10

A CHALLENGE

LABOUR AND CAPITAL

PART OF EDUCATION

THE MONEY POWER

The interrelation of Labour, Capitalism, and education formed the subject of an" address given by Mr. B. Martyn Renner, principal of Rongotai College, at a recent meeting of the Wellington Theosophical Society. Mr. Renner said he was convinced < that ultimately Labour would be in a position to challenge Capitalism, and the success or failure of that challenge would depend on the results of education directed to that purpose.

Mr. Renner defined Capitalism as the whole present industrial an 4 financial system with its forces of director*, employers, shareholders, etc., and with its organisations into ■ trusts, companies, private firms, and banking institutions, and so on. Labour was explained as the rank and file ot salaried men and wage-earners, who were eligible by virtue of legislative enactments to form themselves into unions, guilds, or similar organisations. Education, rather than being vocational training or a preliminary to • examinations for University' degrees, was the training and equipping of youth, mentally, morally, spiritually, and physically, for the part it was to play in life, and for service to. humanity.

Mr. Renner then made a rapid survey of man's evolution from his nomadic beginnings to the present time, first the clan, later the tribe, and finally the nation, and he • pointed out that no sooner had man in any age attained some semblance of homogeneity -than he fell a prey to disruptive force of some kind either domestic, political, or religious. Every advance in civilit sation in the development of the social and economic order was made as a result of the application of forces that "threatened to disintegrate and disrupt the work of national unity and to defeat man's gregarious instincts.The history of Labour, paralleled human history to a great extent, and time had proved that.where the principles of democracy were suppressed, the progress of the worker halted. . Inevitably in totalitarian States man's evolution was repressed, both by the very nature of the autocratic . rule under which he subsisted, and by the general conflict of Labour and financial and economic interests. ■ ■ • '■ "At the present time," said Mr. Henher, "we are struggling desperately to emerge from the depths into which the existing economic system has forced us, the monetary dictatorship which for some decades has proved de-i't-imental and has misled and proved a false guide to people." REAL DEMOCRACY WANTED. . Too well today they realised, they wanted, peace, not war, disarmament not armaments, broad internationalism not parochial nationalism, and free trade, not higher and ever higher tariff walls.- In short, they wanted neither Fascism nor Communism,' but real democracy. "The ware-earners in all countries have a very clear conception of their needs and an ever-Increasing reluctance to have their destinies arranged for them by any group of politicians,'financiers, or armament concerns," said Mr. Renner. "Clearly, too, did the wageearner realise the disparity of living conditions between himself and those for whom he produced wealth, and he knew by past experience that when differences arose between, the allpowerful financial groups, his actual role became a passive one and he himself cannon-fodder or the victim of starvation. "Labour does not under-estimate the magnitude of the task that lies before it—literally to create a new heaven and a new earth, but it has," said the lecturer, "taken stock of its failures as well as its successes and profited by both and never for a moment lost sight of its ultimate goal."

Education could play a vital part in helping Labour attain its. objective, were it not so shackled by tradition and custom. The youth of tomorrow undoubtedly would be taught to think clearly, deeply, and straight and would reject the ready-mads misconceptions regarding work and wages and profits end the relative importance of each. But educationists of today were handicapped by the limitations of the system under which they worked, a system which fitted the youth of the world for the abnormal expansion of the indusr trial and financial machines rather than developing them into potential assets of the community in order to enable them to render service to their fellows. The ultimate test of a man's worth was not the wages he received but the value of the service he rendered. CO-OPERATIVE STATE. Mr. Renner covered a-very wide field, making comparisons with the achievements of organised Labour both here and abroad and outlined the part it still had to play in the social order. He depicted for his hearers an ideal State where Labour, education, and Capital co-operated—no extremes of wealth or poverty—every man knowing his real value as a unit of a community—a place where wars and rumours of wars would be an absurdity. In conclusion, Mr. Renner said it was his firm conviction that ultimately Labour would be in a position.to challenge Capitalism and the success or. failure of that challenge would depend upon the results of education directed to that purpose. .