WORLD MOVEMENT.

Wanganui Chronicle, Issue 12856, 30 April 1912, Page 2

WORLD MOVEMENT.

RELIGIOUS, SOCIAL, ECONOMIC, AND INDUSTRIAL. !

On Sunday afternoon, before a large gathering of the Wanganui Men's Brotherhood, Mr. E. R. Peacock, of Melbourne, delivered a most interesting and instructive address touching on the great world movements of the day. The speaker, who is a business man of wide experience and considerable travel, said. —Did you ever stop to think what tremendous" changes have come over the world within the last 25 years, and tho rapidity with which these changes are taking place to-day? How marvellously the world is being linked up and has become inter-dependent. For purpose of contrast we might take a little longer period, say 100 years. A hundred years ago a man and his family lived on a lot and were large independent of the rest of the world. They grew all they required to eat, and were able to make most of the articles for daaly use. The man was not merely a farmer. He was half a carpenter, half a harness maker, half a blacksmith, and a score of other things, while the woman was not simply a housewife: she was a weaver, working up the homegrown wool, and making the clothes and in a hundred other ways supplying the requirements of the family life. To-day, by reason of the rapid transportation and communication, as well as the improved methods of production all this is changed, and no man can be called independent. No community is independent. As Dr. Josiah Strong says: "Take one article of our daily life—the morning newspaper. Think how much united effort has been put into ita production. Think how many reporters have gathered the news. How many telegraph operators have been engaged in transmitting it. How many compositors setting the type. How many machinists to print it, publishers to deliver it. Away back of these are the men chopping the trees in the forest and others transforming them into pulp and paper; men in the mines digging the metals for the type and. machinery ; men in the foundries and factories making these tools. Men engaged on the steam-ships and j railways to transport them, and so on to an almost infinite extent." Again, in the world of thought, & hundred years ago, if a man conceived a thought it took weeks, months, or even years to convey that thought to other rnindsJ in different parts of the w rorld, and to get a response. To-day President Taft or Earl Grey conceives the thought of an Anglo-American Arbitration Treaty and to-morrow millions of men in all parts of the world are discussing this thou£?''r and so it is with other thoughts which influence life and action. A fortnight ago I sat in the little cabin up on the boat deck of a steamer out at sea and with the little instrument at my ear heard the singing spark of another steamer crossing tho Australian Bight and another on the way to Fiji. The world is no longer made up of a- lot of scattered communities concerned only in local affairs and independent of each other. The world lias become one, and no community is independent, but in its industrial, financial, and moral welfare is inter-depend-ent to a degree it is difficult to realise. When I was in New York a few years ago I bad a man pointed out to me, Mr G. W. Perkins. I was told that as a hoy he had entered the office of a Lifo Insurance Company, and by his exceptional ability had rapidly secured promotion until he was in a. position at the head of the concern receiving. I was tokl, £40.000 a year, and another business was trying to secure his services at five times -that salary. TJltimatelv ho became a partner of J. Piernont Morgan. In that capacity he has .had to deal with the great industrial problem which is rackinc England today, in so far as it applied to two of the greatest industrial organisations in the world, viz.. the United States Steel Trust and the International Harvester Company of America. That is the problem of what is fair between Capital, Labour, and the Public (a moral question), and ho claims that he has solved it there so that no strikes are possible, and he has solved it to the satisfaction of the parties most interested. - He has now laid himself out to render this servico to other industrial concerns. Grand work for a great man.

In another part of the world another big man, Norman Angel, has taken up tho great problem of international relationships in his book, "The Great Illusion." He shows how old political boundaries and limitations are broken down, and how the real relationship between peoples (economic a-nd financial) know no ro!itir>nl linos of rV»v)-Tui-tion. The terms which even politicians use are obsolete. He shows how impossible it is for nations to go to war with nny hone of achieving the results which they set out to accomplish. That a nation's so called victories mean her own destruction, and how for her very own security she must come to the rescue of even her so-called enemies. That does not mean that we are not going to have any more big wars. I wish it did.

A study of these world problems is intensely interesting, and bearsi out more forcibly than ever the truth of tho scriptural statement "that no man liveth to himself alone" which may bo extended to no nation liveth to itself, no town, no community. We are alllinked up and directly interested and concerned in the welfare of each other.

There was a time when a man could put a fence round his allotment and claim to bo supremo within the encJosure, but now his neighbours join together and form a council and compel him to consider the public welfare in what ho aoes within that enclosure.

There was a timo when a man could hire the .services of another person, man, woman or child, and compel such to work under any conditions he chose and for whatever payment they might agree upon.

To-day wo have factory laws that have altered all that, because the community as a whole has a very direct interest in tho individuals of tho State. You require your mines to be properly ventilated and work carried om under safe and healthy conditions.

There was a time when a man permitted his children to grow up in ignorunco and run wild. To-day the State steps in and provides the money to educate every child in tho Dominion because the community as a whole realises its iiitor-dependont responsibility, and that the wealth of the- State depends, upon the cultivated iutelligenco of the individual citizens. If all this is so, in relation to the economic; and financial relationship of peoples and communities, how much more so is it in regard to the moral and religious welfare with the real character building influences. The State through its laws can only deal with violations. It says thou shalt not. It cannot construct character.

The State has decided that every youth and man«shall bo drilled and made physically fit for the purposes of defence. It cannot compel men to do those things which will develop ideal character. This cannot be done by compulsion at all. It can only be done by drawing out of man in a congenial atmosphere the expression of the Divine, and by stimulating his ambition in a wholesome manner. Surround him with strong Christian influences and you can enthuse him in service and in that way prepare the soil (to use a figure of speech) for spiritual truths and experiences which cannot help but bear per-

manent fruit, and radiate out to a j wider circle of influence. i

Our laws are limiting the hours we ! may labour or transact business and increasing our leisure time which has to be watched, for it very largely depends upon how this time is used by the boys and young men of to-day, what sort of citizens we shall have in the future.

You will see. therefore, that we are not independent of those around us, and we cannot be indifferent as to what sort of characters our young men are developing. You cannot have physical pestilence in your community and remain unconcerned; neither can you have moral pestilence without being injured, and jusb as we have health authorities to watch over pur public health so you must concern yourself with the moral and religious welfare of your boys and men to work along positive constructive lines.

I know it becomes nauseous to some persons to be continually talking about America, but I tell you I saw things there which will ever stand out and command my admiration and respect. How men, great men, bankers, merchants, strong men of affairs, were interesting themselves in the moral and religious welfare of those around them and in a way they revealed the genuineness of their interest. How men were not afraid to get clown and rub shoulders with the less fortunate and exercise personal influence. One case comes to mind of a banker in Brooklyn who was laving himself out to win a wild young fellow, a regular hooligan, a lad about 18, the leader of a push. He had made connection with him and won his rospet't and confidence, interested him in other than religious subjects and step by step won him along to associate with other environment and influences, and so was transforming him from a moral pestilence to a reputable Christian citizen. The fellow had force, strength, was a born leader, his activities required direction, his thoughts lifted to higher ideals, and his influence instead of working moral mischief to those about him, became a commercial asset to the community and a- blessing to all who came under his influence.

The State is experimenting with industrial laws, adjusting economic questions, spending millions on education, und still more on defence, but it cannot, it dare not touch the moral and religious side of our people. Christiandom Tinfoiifcunate!y i=s too much dv:led' to permit that. The moral religious I welfare of your young men is so tied up with the economic and political questions of the world that you cannot separate them, or ignore the former without suffering in the latter. There is morality and religion running through all. Without the moral and religious influences, industry, economies und politics are in chaotic conflict.

The Young Men's Christian Association with its sound Christian principles, its wide sympathies, its many Bided activities, its flexibility in adapting itself to every class and condition of community has proved itself an ideal organisation for constructive purposes, touching men and boys at every\point. It seeks to • prevent the efficient from becoming inefficient, and to make the inefficient efficient. Beginning where manhood begins with boy, dt seeks to interest him in wholesome activities, directing his progress through the perilous years of young manhood with

all its pitfalls, and seoks to build him up into" the four-square man, the ideal Christian citizen, capable of taking his place in the world, inspired with the spirit of service, controlling and directing the big things of the city and the big things of the world.