BY THE WAY

Evening Star, Issue 16991, 13 March 1919, Page 7

BY THE WAY

[6/ Cash* Chos*.] When church gatherings make up their minds to ‘ ‘ sympathise 1 ’ with Labor and tout for its patronage, it is suggestive of a child running out from the footway to give a push to a passing motor-car, and getting nothing but dust for its pains. Labor is too strong to need any help from the Church, and has its eye on objectives in the attainment of which it has no use for the sanctions or inspirations of religion though it probably enjoys the sight of the Church in a stew as to the best means of bringing about a •“ mutual understanding,” and has no objection to the futile fuss of ecclesiastical ninnies who think to throw - their gossamer net over such an awkward customer. ******* The folly of church gatherings meddling in the detail of industrial reform has received an illustration within the last few days. A speaker in the Methodist Conference suggested that the Church should uphold the principle of a 42-hour week to start with. But in the forthcoming Labor Conference in Sydney a resolution is to be submitted for a 38-hour working week in all Government departments and in secondary industries, and a 30-hour week for miners. Thus if the Methodist Conference had allowed themselves to pronounce in favor of a 42-hour week they would, in_ a few days, have found themselves antagonising the Sydney proposal to the tune ol four hours a week, and in the case of miners, 12 hours. But perhaps four hour* are neither here nor there. ******* One speaker at the Conference said he would like the word “Labor” dropped and “citizen” substituted. Of course the word “citizen” would be no substitute at all; but I mention the cir cumstance as an occasion for the remark that the term “ Labor ” is far too restricted to express all that it is made t< cover. I sec a great evil threatening society, an evil that proceeds from an absolutely false emphasis, and in the spirit of hate, and through diabolical means, e.\ pects to bring universal harmony and wellbeing. When I expose and attack thiu evil, as I am bound to do. I am told that lam attacking Labor! No one can have keener satisfaction in the progressive wellbeing of the wage-earner and his family than myself. But when I see Labor associating itself with all kinds of devilries, it is Labor’s own fault if it thinks itself attacked because the devilries are _ attacked. What is called “Labor” certainly includes what-is suggested by the name—that is, it represents the legitimate interests of wage-earners. But the trouble is that it includes so much more. More especially since it openly espoused Socialism, what is called Labor has shown more than a tendency to become a deep-laid conspiracy against civilisation, root and j branch, and lias already gone so far as to have evident difficulty in "avoiding an open' confession of identification with the Red Terror in Russia. ******* It is one of the greatest dangers with which we are threatened that principles and programmes which, undisguised and in open day, would excite our loathing, has secured toleration and support, and found homo and headquarters, under the I respectable banner of Labor; and, by adopting the mask of the worker and the seductive lingo of hunijinitarianism, have. deceived the very elect in shoals. Stark j atheism, with its doctrines of the ditch, j no longer loads a furtive and fugitive j existence in some back room in a blind j alley. Its full enfranchisement has ar- 1 rived, and it walks abroad with all the j confidence of a public benefactor, and as an indispensable factor in the cause of man. For the nearer one gets to the burning centre of militant Socialism the more one realises its hostility to theism, religion, and the family institution. It is common enough for people to call themselves Socialists who would be horrified at such a suggestion, as, for instance, in a paper on Socialism, read at the Church Congress in 1890, the Bishop of Durham said he would “ venture to employ it [the term Socialism] apart from its historical associations,’’ and proceeded to use it, as many do now, as a synonym for co-opera-tion*! Thus, a man believes in the nationalisation of land, industry, transport, etc., and forthwith innocently calls him- - self a Socialist, and may go so far as to I say that “we are all Socialists now.” But the designs of the militant thing called Socialism are very much more serious, comprehensive, and radical. Socialism is a revolutionary reinterpretation of man through all the wide range of his being and his relations. ****** -Jilt is difficult to write about Jerusalem as you would about any other city without appearing. irreverent, but a writer in the Holy City has accomplished the task very successfully in an article in the ‘Spectator,’ under the title ‘Jerusalem the Golden.’ “Jerusalem is yjtddy with prosperity,” he says. “The British Tommy is here, and a Pactolean stream of piastres floods the shops, bazaars, the very gutters. . . , Turk, Jew, and Gentile shopmen, curio-seilers, restaurateurs, cabmen, guides, and beggars are enjoying an affluence they have never known or dreamed of since King Solomon’s day. . . . This is not at all the Jerusalem of ‘Tommy’s’ boyhood’s fancy. As I write a braid ‘is discoursing lively waltz music in the} public garden off the Jaffa road. Occasionally the music _is drowned by the rumbling of heavy lorries or prolonged eh tick of motor horns, or punctuated by the shouts of vendors of cakes and lemonade. ... I have paid several visits to the holy places. . . As there are not enough English-speaking professional guides to go round, the military authorities have wisely detailed soldiers to the-task of escorting their fellows over the- chief shrines, and incidentally recalling Scripture history. But you cannot expect an honest, long-suffering sergeant or corporal to become a Cook’s guide at a moment’s notice. . . . Indeed, I have heard of more than one padre who had to interfere and insist upon a more reverent recital of the events of our Lord’s Passion. I myself heard one ruddy-faced n.c.o. continually referring to the Saviour throughout his ‘ patter ’as ‘ J.C.’ . . . He told his gaping audience that this or that iniquity was perpetrated upon ‘ J.C.’ by the ‘ruddy Turks’—a sad misreading of history ! Jerusalem is a seething cauldron of speculation as to what is going to happen. Since Mr Balfour’s pronouncement the Jews have the utmost confidence as to their future. . . . The Wailing Place is deserted. . . . For the first time in centuries the spectacle of the crouching Hebrew lifting up his voice in lamentation at the lost glories of Israel has wholly ceased. There is nothing to lament about. But there is another side to the picture. It is not an exaggeration to say that the Moslems and Syrian and Armenian Christians are nervous._ They do not like the idea of Jewish domination, and many tell you frankly that they will be obliged to emigrate.” But sufficient unto the day! ******* It is reported that the attitude of Japan to the League of Nations is one of “ complete scepticism to the whole idea ”; that she will take her stand on the demand for complete racial equality, and will require that the constitution of the League shall begin, like the American Declaration of Independence, with an affirmation of the equality ot all men and all races. It Is very unlikely that Japan will do anything of the sort, and for very obvious reasons. Her chances of scoring in such a way would be discounted by the fact that she would be taking the lowest possible ground by • the side of Dyaks, Fillipinos, and such-like impossibles. Her true policy would be to urge her own special claim on her own special merits. The logical dilemma which the Paris correspondent of the ‘ Daily Express ’ seems to think would prove such a' “ poser ” for President Wilson and Colonel House would not trouble any seasoned politician for five msputes. Indeed, everybody knows that life is a bigger thing by far than logic, and that the man who, when the two come into conflict, is not prepared to say “ So much the worse for the logic,” is not fit fo»- any serious responsibilities. ~ ’

Mr W. P. Black, president of the Auckland branch of the National Labor party, is hard oh the track of the Hon. J. T. Paul, M.L.C.. and that outrageous political Pooh-Bah will have something to do if ho is going to time that that highly elusive gentleman was compelled to disclose his identity aa a factor m the public life of New Zealand, just exactly where and what he is, and what he stands for. The following list of little queries from Mr Black’s letter to the Christchurch ‘Sun’ are worth repro-

ducing : 1. By what means and upon precisely what pledges and promises did the Hoh. Mr Paul secure nomination to the Upper House from the Liberal party and a reappointment from the Reform party ? 2. Will Mr Paul publish a detailed statement showing exactly what sums he has received from the Labor and trades union movement, in the form of fees, salaries, and travelling expenses during the past 18 years? I will do the same, • and leave the workers to judge our respective disinterestedness. 3. Is Mr Paul prepared to repudiate the political and economic views of Messrs Semple,, Fraser, and Holland? 4. Will he disown the disloyal and seditious ‘ Maori land Worker’ as the official organ of his party? 5. Does ha repudiate Bolshevism, Spartacism, Sinn Feinism. and qny form of direct action, whethea." strike, go-slow policy, sabotage, or force in any shape? 6. Seeing that he is president of a party advocating the abolition of the Upper House, will Mr Paul set an example, resign his seat at the coming election, and contest with me any Dunedin sent he chooses to select, and let the w price re decide between us?