SAYINGS OF RUSKIN

Manawatu Standard, Volume LII, Issue 142, 18 May 1932, Page 2

SAYINGS OF RUSKIN

ADDRESS TO LUNCHEON CLUB. John Ruskin, writer and art critic, economist and religious teacher, social leader and political philosopher, who lived between 1819 and 1900, was the subject o 1 an address delivered to the Citizens’ Luncheon Club yesterday by Mr H. Barry Coney, of Auckland, who is a judge at the Manawatu competitions. . Mr G. I. McGregor presided and extended a welcome to Mr Coney. , Tire lecturer dealt with Ruskin four works —“Roots of Honour,’ “Veins of Wealth,” “Qui Judicates Terram” and “Ad Valorem.” He said that it was interesting to note what Ruskin wrote 70 years ago. His radical criticism had received' a great deal of hostility at the time of writing, but this had not been so evident with the passing of the years, Ruskin had said that those who objected to work should be made to work. He began by dealing with the question of tire preparation of boys and girls in order to lit them to do the best possible work in any calling tliev might follow. He advocated the establishment of Government schools for children in which they wore to bo taught laws of health, habits of gentleness and justice, as well as being trained for their callings. “In the latter respect our young people are well served, though I am not so sure that in other respects Ruskin’s ideal has been realised,” said Mr Coney. The speaker advocated that factories and workshops should be established where every necessary of life and all useful arts should be produced, the work being paid for at fixed wages. "I am afraid, at the present time, with fluctuating prices of foodstuffs, a fixed rate of wage for manufactures would be impossible,” he commented. Ruskin had advanced the opinion that there could lie no real justice between employer and employee and in their treatment of each other without human affection entering into their relations. Industrial strikes were often the result of mechanical work and lack of personal interest in their work people displayed by their emplovers. These tilings still held good to-day ] the speaker said, and arbitration courts and labour unions would never take the place of personal interest on tire part of employers. “Ruskin gives reasons why trade is generally thought to be a less honourable calling than that, of the soldier, the physician or the clergyman. In these latter professions there enters a strong element of unselfishness and sacrificed for the common weal, whereas in trade a man is popularly supposed to get as much as possible for himself and leave as little as possible for his neighbour or customer.” In “The Veins of Wealth,” Ruskin had dealt with what he considered the true sources of wealth. He believed that few businessmen knew the real meaning of the word “rich” that they did not realiso that it was a relative word, implying its opposite, “poor.” The art of making one’s self rich, in the mercantile sense, was necessarily the art of keeping one’s neighbour poor .in what we had to sell. Political economy of a state or its citizens was in reality the production, preservation and distribution at the fittest time and place of all useful and pleasurable things. The speaker pointed out, with examples, that property was of little use to its owner unless he had also commercial power of labour. In his third essay, Ruskin had pointed out that “the getting of riches by a lying tongue is a vanity tossed to and fro of them that seek death”' (Solomon). Ho had contended that •mercantile theft consisted in taking advantage of a man’s necessities to obtain his labour, or property at a reduced price. Ho had deprecated the helping of the poor by almsgiving or in any other way than that of giving them justice accompanied by .holiness and helpfulness. He had said that the lightening of taxes did not improve tho position of the unemployed as cheaper commodities of life invariably resulted in lower wages. Mr Coney did not have time to refer to Ruskin’s fourth essay.

Summarising, the speaker said Ruskin had put production under two headings, positive and negative—putting child rearing first and murder in the latter section. There were two kinds of production—one of seed and one of food —but all were essential for the mouth. He believed that all true wealth was life and it was not a matter of how much habitable land there was, but how many human beings could be maintained on a given space of habitable land. Ruskin had finished with an eloquent appeal against luxury as enjoyed at the present day and also appealed to everyone not to £o through the world blindfold to the injustice that abounded everywhere. He was a man of strong religious sentiments and one could not help feeling that his mark had its inspiration in the words “love thy neighbour as thyself,” and “combine with that love the wisdom of an honest, upright character.”

Mr A. D. Campbell proposed the vote of thanks to Mr Coney to whom the club was indebted for the address. Guests welcomed to the club were Messrs C. Nolan (Rongotea), A. H. Palairet (Rangiora), J. Wylie (Auckland), A. H. Northover and G. Burnett (Palmerston North).