THE PRODUCT OF WAR

Otago Daily Times, Issue 17217, 21 January 1918, Page 7

THE PRODUCT OF WAR

A LABOtfR LEADER'S VIEW.

"The war has broken down many of tho barriers which formerly existed between different classes," writes Mr Harry Gosling, president of the British Transport Workers' Federation. "Men of various sections of society who are working together have come to know one another's good qualities, and havo learned to understand) each other's point of view. I know what many men of our Transport Workers' Federation say of their officers when they come back from the front. They are full of their praises. Occasionally, of course, they come across a man they don't like, but in nearly every case they find their officers accessible, sympathetic, and helpful. When men fight together—and many of them fall together— fighting a common foe, it is certain that those who are loft will find some means of standing together in the days of peace ahead. The attempt, of Germany to crush us has led to tho drawing together of the different classes of our people. "This better understanding of each other is being brought about in another way also. The trades -unions of England have given every worker possible to help in the war. Trades union officials, groat, and small, arc all of thorn largely engaged in voluntary war work. They are members of different committees. On those committees they meet, as their fellow-members, people drawn from quite other classes of , society. Tho lighterman finds himself sitting next to, and working in co-operation with, tho titled lady and the high military official. He discovers that they are people very like himself, and that they are working to the best of their power for tho good of the nation. They in turn realise that the mysterious 'Labour agitator' is not. so terrible an individual as thoy imagined. Itit not necessary to put away their best silver or fine china when he comes to their houses. Ho has a point of view unknown to them before. They reach a common understanding over common work for the welfare of their country. That is going on in a thousand districts. It is affecting tho leader of tho small local branch of the union as well as bigger officials. It is breaking down prejudices, creating new friendships, and bringing class in real touch with class. . "It is impossible to imagine that all these things are going to i count for nothing, and that the influences of a common nurpose and a common sorrow, of common disappointments and united victories, will cease when the war is over. They will not cease. They will help to make England united more than ever before. "For 'us there can only w> ono end. But oncq that end is attained it is for tho world 'to see that the sacrifice of life at once ocases. When other scourges swoop over the world they take away the old, the feeble, tho unfit. This scourge of war is robbing us of our best, of our young men in their prime, of the pick of tho nation. It will leavo us with a manhood, and with many of our women condemned to perpetual solitude. We have during the past generation trained our voung women to fill their places in life worthily. To-day, when they are emerging strong, fit mates and fine comrades, tho mer. who should be their husbands aro boing killed in the i war. Wo will have to face 'the problem of the wounded and those marie invalids in the war and the fatherless children.

"•To solve these problems wo must stand a united nation. Wo cannot afford to have any sections of our people ignorant, when ignorance spells weakness. Wo cannot afford to have any section under-developed, for all our strength will be needed to make up for the losses of 'the war. It is to the good of the country that Labour should grow to the full, and that, realising its strength, it should use. its strength, and use it wisely. It is essential that the old artificial barriers of class should disappear. Fresh impulses are sweeping over the world. Fresh causes of unrest are arising; there will be fresh perils to face. Knowledge, unity, justice, and the co-operation of all classes will see us safely through. " Sometimes, when walking through Leicester square, in London, J glanco at the statuc of Shakespeare, and road 'the inscription : ' There is no darkness but ignorance.' It is true. In ignorance lies our real danger, in knowledge is found the only sure road to permanent peace."