THE COMMUAL SPIRIT

Evening Star, Issue 19454, 12 January 1927, Page 3

THE COMMUAL SPIRIT

LECTURE BY PROFESSOR WOOD Hundreds of panaceas and cure-alls for our social ills are being put forward by reformers, “ uplifters,’ and “ rightthinkers,” but Professor Ernest Wood, who is at present in Dunedin,_ lecturing on behalf of the Theosophical Society, considers_ that the only hope for stricken humanity is to fall back on the Golden Rule. The professor, who comes from India, kept a large andience interested at the Theosophical Hall last evening with an eloquent plea for a trial of this old remedy; and ho showed in the course of his address that humanity had already made substantial progress, because it had not entirely forgotten the Golden Rule, even in the world of business. Cr W. A. Scott occupied the chair The professor first dealt with the population question, and stressed the significance of the fact that those who were furthest removed from the “poverty line” had the fewest children; and he quoted a striking example from amongst the clergy. Many years ago it was considered that a clergyman, even with a large family, could he passing rich on £4O a year; but to-day the average Anglican clergyman received nearer £4OO a year than £4O, and yet he had far fewer children than in the past. In New South Wales it had been shown I that the average was slightly less than I two per family. He claimed that they need not he very anxious about the, population question if they raised the | poverty line. ' He' thought there was something [ wrong with the people’s ideals. “ A certain disease of the imagination had corrupted society, and that was greed.” The speaker thought that if men worked a few hours a day in co-opera-tion with modern methods _ everyone would enjoy the luxuries of life. The [fault did i»t lie with a few people; very many people were to blame for the present unsatisfactory state of affairs. The Golden Rule was the real social law. He believed that when Jesus promulgated it He was giving to the world an ordinary, natural, material law. When one travelled about the world one was struck hy the progress where the people had made an effort to carry it out, and he described it as the “development of the communal spirit.’’ This development had been going on all over the world, the lecturer instancing the progress made in public utilities ns evidence _of the fact. They now had many things in common, such as their roads, which at one time were in private hands, and one could not nso them without pavin'- for the privilege. As showing that the “development of the socialism of mutual trust ” was not confined to America, whore most of the examples were cited from, he pointed out that last year 42,000 volumes had been handled in the Diinedin Reference Library, and only two had been stolen. Professor Wood opined that this “ socialism of mutual trust ” was the best alternative to Communism, which he defined as “ compulsory socialism.” Tho same rule applied in business, though at first sight it might not he thought so. At one time one did not purchase an article without a good deal of preliminary wrangling and struggling; while the shopman, on his part, endeavored to “ take down ” his more timorous clients. John Wanamaker, of Philadelphia, had changed all that when he decided to have a fixed price for every article, so that prospective customers would not he obliged to enter into arguments about what they had to pay. It was predicted that the innovation would prove disastrous, but Wanamaker had decided to take the risk, and he believed that he had acted From altruistic motives. It had proved a great success, and shops in all parts of the world soon fell into line. He dealt with the experiment that had been conducted in a factory controlled hy an American named Nash, who, from religious motives, had decided to give his employees a share in the profits of the business. It had proved a wonderful success, though it was significant that the workmen did not want to share in the responsibility of running the factory. He believed that few really wanted responsibility if they could live with a certain degree of comfort without it. Most people wanted a leader—someone they could lean on.

He was emphatic that the development of the communal spirit would lead to prosperity. It had frequently been objected that the existence of criminals would spoil things for the great majority of law-abiding people. Those who advanced this seemed to have the idea that people had to be frightened into going straight. The fact was that the real criminal was very hard to find. Ho was of opinion that the harshness of the laws made criminals, and he made special reference to India, where most of the laws were very bad. Education would assist very materially to eliminate criminality. The speaker answered a number of questions, and was accorded a hearty vote of thanks.