THE NATIONAL GUILD IDEA

Otago Witness, Issue 3414, 20 August 1919, Page 19

THE NATIONAL GUILD IDEA

THE SOLUTION OF THE LABOUR PROBLEM. St. Peter's Hali was filled to its utmost capacity on the 11th. when the Rev. J. I*. Mortimer gave the second of his series of addresses on the National Guild idea, as a solution of the present labo>ur problem. During his lecture Mr Mortimer traced the industrial rise in the world, and especially that in the British Empire, from the time of the birth of tho Christian religion till the present day. In dealing with the history of our land, ho dwelt chiefly on the guild systemi of the' Middle Ages. It was pointed out how each small landholder "got a square deal." so to speak, and how the house of the laird of that time was not like the mansion of the presentday landlord in the Homo Country. At the time when the guild system was in, vogue all trades were worked on a basis that was controlled by a governing body. The laws of tho time were hard on the "sharper," and tolerated no trade deceptions. The scheme of apprenticeship was briefly dealt with, and it # was pointed out how desirable the conditions of that historio period would be if in force at the present time. No labour disruption would be so likely to arise if each serf or small farmer, instead of being forced to pay an enormous rental, was asked to render some slight personal service. However, the guild system came to an end in the reign of thatfamed ' monarch, Henry VIII. It was he who confiscated the monastic lands, and this, according to Mr Mortimer, was the commencement of the trouble. The money gained from the abovo confiscation went, not to Britain, as was to be expected, but to the members of Parliament who passed the Act enabling the seizure of the monks' territory to take place. On gaining their price, the members of the corrupt Parliament of the time began, each in his own way, to amass wealth, and in doing so become the possessor of more and more of tho valuable English pastures. As- time went on, things grew from - bad to worse, and in Queen Elizabeth's /reign thousands of men, and. women too, wei*e wandering about the country in search of work, for the nobles of the day were not industrialists, and would not employ more serfs on their respective holdings than were absolutely essential. At last, many years of suffering, .came the invention of steam power, and this, along with other changes, culminated in a crisis. When the use for steam was thoroughly realised, and large factories were set up, the demand for oheap labour increased, and the only labour of this class that seemed to offer was the service of the children. Tho tiny boys and girls were forced to work in dark factories for hour after hour to amass wealth for their employers. The conditions' of that period were terrible, said Mr Mortimer, and then* he went on to show how Mr H. G. Wells, in a book written as recently as 1906, stated that the same thing was happening at that date in the United States of America. He concluded by saying that the present social state of affairs was the result of the existing capitalistic system, which had been built up during the years succeeding the Reformation; or, as it had often been called, the years succeeding the "Great Bobbery." ;■ • As a panacea, the lecturer suggested a National Guild idea. He proposes to deal moro fully with this question in the final lecture of the series. At the conclusion of the lecture a hearty rote of thanks was passed to the speaker.