SOCIETY AND VIOLENCE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14110, 12 July 1909, Page 4

SOCIETY AND VIOLENCE.

An alarming indication of modern tendencies is the resort to violence of those who profess themselves reformers, when they become weary of attempting moral suasion, and of those who differ from their employers or from their fellow workmen upon industrial questions. There was a time when great social movements depended upon the righteousness they embodied, and when the outbreaks which occasionally displaced them, as the Reform riots, were in no way part of - the recognised plan of campaign. But the. British suffragettes have adopted such violence as they are capable of as an official weapon, and this without any apparent protest from their more moderate adherents. And there was a time when the importation of violence into labour disputes was regarded as wholly continental or American, or as a belated survival of suppressive days. Now, however, we have violence in both Canadian and British coal strikes, and though the former is much more ! serious the latter' is equally to be regretted. For, whatever disagreej ments may arise between Labour ! and Capital, it is incomparably j better for both parties to discuss them in an amicable spirit, and indisputably certain that if civilisation is to continue Law must be maintained. If democracy has any meaning it is that old forms of protest, of rioting, of rebellion, of ; physical force, are no longer to be relied upon; but that reason is to be depended upon to enforce justice, and that, while disputes are in process of settlement law and order are to be obeyed and maintained by all. If increased violence is to be the result of democratic methods, society will necessarily return to autocratic or oligarchic methods in order to preserve itself from anarchy and destruction. '