LABOUR ITEMS.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 8132, 16 January 1895, Page 4

LABOUR ITEMS.

The Bishop of Durham writes in the Economic Review on the Co-operative ideal: This he describes [as the realisation of that corporate life, to the fulness of which every man brings his peculiar offering, and in which each man shares according to his capacity, all bringing alike without waste. and without selfassertion. The paper is full of characteristic sayings, as when he speaks “ of developing trustful fellowship between those who have to fulfil different functions, of making labour itself-, in.all its different forms,, a. true human life and not a provision for living.’’ In co-oper-ative production* in. mdiistrial co-part-nesship, or profit sharing, he sees steps irretraceable towards industrial concord. We need, he says, some industrial organisation corresponding, to the old military organisation* an organisation of •service instead of an organisation of force, which shall at once guard great powers, possessions, ■ traditions, as a. common inheritance,, and supply noble interests and the. opportunity of generous activity to every workman. Privilege, if rightly interpreted, is a call to special devotion. Fellowship in labour is. the, condition of happy and lasting peace. “We want, I say, -an organisation of.industry which shall stir enthusiasm like the military organisation of the Middle. Ages. ... . . Manufactures, commerce, trade, agriculture, if once the thought of personal gain is subordinated to the thought of public service, offer scope for the most chivalrous and enterprising - and courageous. It can only be through some misapprehension that it seems to be a nobler duty to lead a regiment to the battle-field than to inspire the workers in a factory with the enthusiasm of labour. , . . In this way, step by : step, the Great Industry, full of dangers as it seemed to be at first, will—may we not dare to prophesy ?—be made to contribute to the material and moral elevation of all who are engaged in it; hot as separate or conflicting units, but as parts of the social organism.”