THE SOCIAL REVOLUTION

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXI, Issue LXII, 16 May 1912, Page 2

THE SOCIAL REVOLUTION

NECESSARY CHANGES

REASONS AA rHY

Many minds in England, as well in tne coionies, are now pointing now many ana how great will be future results of tne present industries revolution. THE TWO RELIGIONS. "Something far more sacred than political supremacy is tnreatenea,' says tne Nation, published in j_ondon. "it lo tne luxurious me of our times that is in peril— tne sacred week-ena, already infringed by tne profanity oi a ttaturday sitting, ike champagne standard, the costly motor, tne pleasant combination of town ana country iire, tne leisurely enjoyment or unlimited and unearned wealth, an that is the reverse of the seamstress iv her attic and the docker turned away empty from the gates. '•it is a war of religions —the Religion of Pleasure, which dominates modern society, and the Religion oi I Lite, which is taking hold of the nanioler people and inspiring the aemand for the conditions under whicn, in ail grades and m ail occupations, men and women may riot merely exist, but live as men and women." CIVILISED INDUSTRIAL LIFE. "Those who urge upon us the undoubted fact tnat other workers,, many ot them even poorer than the miners, will have to pay these higher prices,, miss the morai or' the story," adus the Nation. "That moral is, not that the miner ■ should be refused an adequate security for his minimum, but that the other workers should press upon society their more urgent case for a similar guarantee. We are passing from the era in which the subsistence of any class of our working population can be left to the uncontrolled fluctuations of supply and demand and the higgling of tne market. A saner regard for social order and progress enforces the need for regulating competition in the labor market by laying down a lower level beneath which no wage-bargain will be legally permissible. Industrial life will have to accommodate itself to this principle of civilised life." AVHAT THE AVORKER SEES. H. Armstrong Hall (Methley Rectory, Leeds), in a letter to the Spectator, says: "The social revolution has been prophesied for long; no one guessed that it was so near at hand as now seems likely. Two considerations make this more than possible. "In the first place, the British working man, altnough, not being a master of style, he says very little, sees and thinks like everyone else. His silence must not be mistaken for ignorance. He observes what is taking place around him and draws his own conclusions. And what he chiefly notices is the luxury of the classes above him—luxury no longer confined to the aristocracy, but passing through the "nouveaux riches" to the "bourgeois" immediately above him. In this luxury he claims to have his share. Can yon wonder? THE ASSAULT AVILL CONTINUE. "The minimum wage for coal-workers is, however, only an outpost of the entire industrial position, and it may be taken for granted that the assault w rill continue, at the expense of the luxuries of the well-to-do, until all workers obtain such a wage and such conditions of service as shall enable them to take a legitimate share in the enjoyment of life no less than its toil. "The other consideration has to do with the results of education. For forty years now we have compelled the worker to be educated. AVith what result? Mainly, he is persuaded that there is no reason in nature, or religion, or good government (as he conceives these tilings), why all the unpleasant jobs should be laid upon his shoulders always, and all the pleasant ones —as they seem to him —always to fall to you and me. To say that this is God's plan, however comforting to us, brings no conviction to him. Do you wonder? Books and newspapers have opened new worlds to him. Why shall he, he asks, be expected to clean the sewers and win the coal, and catch fish on the Dogger, "and be, as he considers, inadequately remunerated for it," whilst we do pleasanter work under easier circumstances and with much better pay? REMOVE THE DISCONTENT. "There is nothing new in this discontent; it is only that now, instead of being satisfied with grumbling, the worker is determined that the cause of discontent shall be removed. He admits that the unpleasant jobs have to be done; he admits a certain fitness for doing them, and he is not unwilling to continue, the task. But he demands that, if he takes these burdens off our shoulders, we shall make his life such as in a Christian community it should be. It is of little use for us to tell him that we regard him as a brother whilst we decline to make it possible for him to make life as stimulating and' happy as he believes God meant him to do \ ! "This, of course, all means sacrifice on the part of the well-to-do—call rt increased cost of living, or taxation, or what you will. But self-sacrifice used to be a recognised part of Christian living, and assuredly there is only one principle on which these disputes can be ended—or, better still, avoided— the principle of the Master, 'Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.' "