THE WORLD'S INDUSTRIAL TROUBLES:

Otago Witness, Issue 3442, 2 March 1920, Page 57

THE WORLD'S INDUSTRIAL TROUBLES:

FROM A FRENCH POINT OF VIEW. Some time ago portions of several letters received from a. French lady correspondent were printed in these columns. Perhaps a letter since received, dealing chiefly with the to-day's industrial difficulties as they present themselves in France may be of interest to readers. "Paris, December 28. "... .Of course you ha.ve read in the papers about our elections, which have been good on the whole, and rather conservative. There was a- great danger of being conquered by Bolshevism, which has proved to be a wicked system, especially in Russia. There was too much common sense in France for yielding to such a scourge and triumph of barbarism. There was a great union of thoughts and wills in the country, and so our Bolshevist party was conquered at last. "Workmen are not unhappy nowadays in France. They can earn high wages, and I assure you that, in spite of the high cost of living, most of them buy expensive goods, both food and clothes. They are not afraid to pay a great deal for an object that we do not care to buy, we middle class people; and if the cost of living is always so high one reason is because working people do not want to restrict themselves. Economy is a virtue too much out of use in our modern society, and it :'s mor<3 necessary than before. To help the working classes in increasing their wages was a duty, but some are never satisfied; the more they have the more they want tp f;et. Our ancestors were happy with much ess. They worked harder and spent less. It is all right to give people more comfort, in some cases it is quite necessary, but the most necessary thing would be to teach people to want less and be satisfied with an average of comfort and ease, and not to envy others who are much richer, but not, perhaps, happier. Equality can never exist here below. It does not exist among human minds, and there are many people among the working classes who would not be so useful to society if they were better educated and more learned. (This sentence by itself might be read as implying that the writer held to the discredited view that culture is the pregogative of the privileged classes, but the context will shew .that she means only that if instruction leads the rank and file to shun manual employments and crowd into 'genteel' callings, tilie

public interest will suffer: This is plain enough, and it is to prevent this evil that manual work" is finding larger place in our own schools, and that technical schools and colleges are increasing in number and scope)." The writer goes on: —"Some of them do not like study at all, and 'f most of them iiked ;t, who would do their work! I like study very much; but there are in my family many of my cousins who would not like to attend lectures as I do. It would be a great bore to them. Nevertheless they have received the same education as mine. In society there must be all kinds of trades and professions to get a good order of the world: to incite every one. to enter 'liberal professions' as lawyers, professors, etc., would be nothing good Here in France we have good primary schools, where the children of the working classes can get a good education, and those who have special abilities for study are allowed to pass examinations and enter the iyceums of secondary teaching as 'boursiers," and their families have nothing to pay for them. The State provides for clever people. "I think that women will soon be admitted to vote. Our next 'Chambre des Deputes' will be inclined to grant this request, and I hope that justice will be done !>0 us next time —in 1923." Elsewhere she says of the Senators' action in rejecting the bill for conferring the vote on women, which had been passed by the Chamber of Deputies, "Why are these old fogeys so frightened of us women''?

Passing to literary interests she says: "At the Sorbonne we study and comment on 'The Woodlanders.' by Hardy. I like it well enough, and I was lent 'Joan imd Peter,' by Wells, which will be good reading for my Christmas holVays. I read lately 'The by Marion Crawford," but I did not like it very much; there is no literary interest in this book. To give you a good pattern of "French prose, I intend to send you later on 'Jerusalem,' by Pierre Loti. His descriptions are wonderful; this author is one of my favourites. Have you read.'Pecheurs dTslande,' one of his most renowned works? "Up to this day our winter was very mild, except a few days at the end'of November, when we had snow. _ Now it rains nearly every day, and our rivers are much swollen. Nancy has been overflowed. "I am going to Orleans to pass the whole week on account of the New Year. I am -very glad to see my family again. Next year travelling will be very dear. Bread will cost twice as much as to-day, and also shoes and boots. Let us hope that every one will work as much as he can in order to get cheaper living later on. Economy and work are the best remedies for this present crisis. "I enclose a speech which was delivered at the Academy by M. Boutroux, a renowned philosopher. It is well written and just. I think yon will appreciate it." (The speech is an eloquent exposition of the vital importance of high moral and spiritual ideals as a condition for realising social happiness). "People of the non-wealthy middle class will everywhere be ready to endorse the writer's assrtion as .to the indulgence of many 'working class' people in luxuries which they themselves cannot afford. Thrift has been regarded as a typical French virtue, but no doubt it is the peasants and the 'petit bourgeois' who practise it most consistently. It will always be found that a hand-to-mouth existence, a jeally low standard of living, is unfavourable to thrift. The worker who perhaps has not been accustomed' to earn much more than will provide for bare necessaries, who has no farm to improve or business to extend, no settled home to make comfortable and beautiful, will, when fortune grants him better pay, be tempted to devote the surplus to enjoyment and display—.and so will his wife. Thrift is a habit which has to be learned."

Our French corespondent, in quwtioning the benefit of "higher education" for the rank and file of the working classes, appears to confine her view to its effect on fitting its recipients to earn a living, and in inclining or disinclining them to a choice which will subserve the interests of society. But no doubt she would agree that a really good education is one which not only fits its subject to earn a corninfinitely in both kind and degree of society, but which also fits him to employ his leisure in ways beneficial to himself and his fellows. Human" minds differ infinitely in both kind and degree )f power. True education, such as we mav hope will ere long be general, will aim at

enabling each to develop the capacities with which nature has endowed him, and a'fc leadng him to utilise them fully for the common good.