THEFT FOR THRIFT

Greymouth Evening Star, 20 September 1923, Page 8

THEFT FOR THRIFT

Lois-ims had (Ry Rev. 1. E. Ktith, in tne feyaney “bun. ) ’ mere are tacts and forces wnic-ii we CuliUvi uviLu,, <*nu. ugxUiot xu »uuiu be runj to slllixe. oe can no mvic reduce me universe to tile level ux me pxuixurm ui me uawur movement or me jjinpluyers r eueratiun burn e Can ieuu.ee vuiistianny lu lue coimnes ui tne proiessiuiiai caste, or imagine tne erutt oi a minion imixiun stais to De tne monopoly oi a single sect. ■ Hie pruolems oi vapital and xjauour, tne pruolems ot society ami tne race, tne problems oi commoiivealtn and Empire, are relaieu. to God's providential government oi tne universe —tney are spiritual problems. loti begin by being born. \\ neie I in what age? In wnat <_i. .u.>.‘ In wiiat class of society? With what native genius ? With wiiat social advantages or disadvantages? iiemy Ward Beecher used to say that the most important thing in life was to choose tne right parents I The congenital differences in character and capacity are so striking that Emerson said : “The gate of gifts closes on us at birth.” That is certainly true of some gifts. There is tremendous inequality in physical power, in mental capacity , and in moral endowment. No social programme, no compulsory conference, no basic wage will destroy those essential distinctions. Even men who are apparently similarly dowered, who are brothers in blood, in physical gifts, mental power, and social opportunity, differ tremendously ini their attitude to work. Given lhe safe ancestral genius, the same social environment, the same endowment and opportunity, yet one man becomes a Weary Willie and the other .a man of tireless energy. It is the contention of certain Communist agitators that the wealth of this o uctnryiSnH cgi country is created by labour, and that labour should be in possession. But value nb more arises from labour than it does from capital. Labour does not give scarce goods like rare pictures, rare editions, and old coins their value. It was not labour that gave Tom Thumb his value and made his stature, or want of it, a marketable commodity. It isn’t labour that gives Sir Harry Lauder his value, and he seems to be worth a good deal.

Communists forget me community —- that is their fundamental weakness. It is the community that gives land, labour, capital, and management their value. Communists would have to destroy spiritual priority and social utility before they could even begin to succeed. Karl Marx tried in vain io prove that skilled labour was only common labour multiplied. It is the same in my own line of things —though I am told by certain agitators that I belong to the nonproductive class. Agitators certainly produce more trouble. I have given a good deal of time and attention and other things to the question of disparity between ministerial incomes. I have sometimes interviewed a man who has thought himself comparatively underpaid, only to be convinced that it was not he who was underpaid. On the other hand, I know men who have such massive minds and such great qualities of public utility to invest that they are comparatively underpaid even if I envy their income. They can achieve in a morning’s study better results than a week’s grind will bring to me. One star differeth from another in glory, In magnitude , and in velocity. And men are like stars. There are inequalities in the distribution of wealth because there are inequalities in ability, in earning power, n power of management. And there are inequalities in responsibility. Always there have been men anxious that their rich brothers should divide their inheritance with them. Some people are anxious to claim equality with everybody above them, who yet indignantly repudiate the idea of equality with anybody even

. a little below them in social status. \ Confiscation of capital would be direct robbery of the workers. Australia owes its prosperity to the fact that most of its workers are by way of being capitalists. Capital is really a commodity on the common market. Communism would substitute theft for thrift; plunder for progress; chaos for order; collapse for credit; and destructive revolution for social evolution. Australia offers savings bank proof of popular thrift that cannot be equalled in any part of the world, and there is no country where so many workers live in nouses they can call their own. That is not saying that all is well. There is need of a progressive educational programme, a progressive social and industrial programme, a progressive political programme, and of public men withexecutive; as well as electioneering, ability. The solution of all social, economic and political problems is in applied Ch risl ianity. Christianity, like democracy, is destroyed by disintegration. We must invest our influence in evolutionary movements that will strengthen, not enfeeble, government of the people for the people by the people; in progressive evolution that will secure and establish industrial justice and happiness, and advance Australia toward the golden age and not fling her back to feud and faction. We must see light, not through the keyhole and chinks of the door of a. class-conscious dungeon. We must fling open the doors of the mind and heart to the Divine Democracy of the Sun of Righteousness. risen with heal-

- ing in Ilis wings.