The Necessity of Sacrifice

NZ Truth, Issue 818, 16 July 1921, Page 1

The Necessity of Sacrifice

"Oh, to bo m England," sangr Browning, and Harry Lowerison .wrote a book of nature sketches which he published under the title of "In England Now." We venture to, say that nobody who knows "England" or its sister countries, and who left it "for their country's good" or for their own, no matter how much nor how long they have cherished the notion of seme day revisiting the scene of their former failures, would care to be "In England Now." Industrial unrest, strikes and rumors of strikes, and general upheaval and uncertainty fill life's little day to the full. Bad. as things are m Ireland, an Irish correspondent writes: "Ireland is the one bright spot once -again. Ireland has no coalfields!" Happy Ireland. As one writer on the coal trouble puts it: If you stop the pumps . you will flood the mines. If you go into a mill with a sledge-ham-mer and smash the machinery the Works . will stop. So it is with the world. 'IV chose to go on a colossal bender of machine -smashing for five or six years. It cut the lines of international communication and blasted the machinery of exchange which had been m use for. a century; it twisted, jammed and spragged the wheels of the world's commerce, and. as a result, »ts efforts to unravel the tangled skein (to change the metaphor) are painful, perplexing and almost 'impossible of success. Indeed, it is generally adimjtted' that things can \ never be the same again as they were before the Big Smash. This is complacently admitted by many and they add that sacrifices will have to be made.' .The unfortunate thing is that these are the very .people who expect that, a"s m the past, all the sacrificing will be done by the workers. It is like their old story of "give and take." When any trouble arose between workers and employers, these kind and considerate persons readily admitted that there would have to be some "give and take." And there was. for m the end the workers were generally bludgeoned into doing all the "giving," while Fat, as of old, did all the "taking." So while these people complacently speak of making sacrifices, what do we see? Exchanges from the Old Dart show us that m the Big Smoke and the other cities the old round of fashion and gaiety has. been resumed just as if nothing whatever had happened to the world. Courts, levees, receptions, banquets, and all the other paraphernalia which go to make up what is called the London season. We see the rush for the winter resorts, the Riviera, Egypt, and other places m the sun. Hunting appointments, shootings, yachting, .• and other . pleasantries ' all follow the. old appointed courses. . In what are called the upper middle class suburbs of London, tennis clubs and golf clubs are crowded out, although the charges have grown enormously, rt is needless to labor the ,facts. Wealth and rank have, no inclination apparently\to break away from their well-trodden paths of pleasantness. The workers of Britain see . these things, going on, and what think you. can be their emotions when they hear the priest, pastoi', politician and pressman preach at them that the world can never be put properly on its feet again until their wages are reduced to something like the pre-war rate, or less if necessary. If this talk of necessity of sacrifice is to be taken as "dinkum" and not merely "dope" for "Demos," then the,, sacrificing must first be done by those people whom the Englishman's Frayerbook has persisted m the face of time and truth m designating his "bettei's." If they fail to do so, they need not be surprised at the worker's objection to being the only one called upon to ahti-up, and if he puts up a fight against its compulsory infliction, who is there among us who wtwld blame him? The wonder is that with such evidence of superfluous wealth, such excessive indulgence m pleasure and gaiety by society, that the worker is satisfied • with striking occasionally. Aforetimes much less has caused a bloody revolution. If there was more solidarity less stolidity among the workers there would be conclusions and things. But that time seems yet afar ofty