THE PRODUCT OF WAR

Otago Witness, Issue 3333, 30 January 1918, Page 58

THE PRODUCT OF WAR

A LABOUR 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 have 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 left will find some means of standing together in tho days of peace ahead. The attempt of Germany to crush us has led to the drawing, together of tho 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, great and small, are all of them largely engaged in voluntary war work. They are members of different committees. On these committees they meet, as their fellow-members, people drawn from quite other classes of society. The lighterman finds himself sitting next to, and working in co-operation with, the titled lady amd 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 the good of the nation. They in turn realise that the mysterious 'Labour agitator' is not so terrible an individual as they imagined. It it not necessary to put away their best silver or fine china when he comes to their houses. He hasa 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 the small local branch of the union as well as bigger officials. It is breaking down prejudices, creating new friendships, and bringing class in read touch with class. ' . . , „ "It is impossible to imagine that all these things are going to count for nothing, and that the influences of a common curpose 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 be one end. But once that end is attained it is for the world 'to see that the sacrifice of life at once ceases. When other scourges sweep over the world they take away the Old, tho feeble, the unfit. This scourge of war is robbing us of our best, of our young men in their prime, of the pick of the nation It will leave us with a depleted manhood, and with our women condemned to perpetual solitude. We have during the past generation trained our young women to fill their places in life worthily. . To-day, when they are emerging strong/ fit mates and fine comrades, the men who ehould be their husbands are being killed in the war. We will have to face 'the problem of the wounded and those made invalids in the war and the fatherless children. " To solve these nroblems we must stand a united nation. We cannot afford to have any sections of our people ignorant, wnen 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 prow to tho 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 aro 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, I glance at the statue of Shakespeare, and read 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."