THE DANGER TO OUR LIVES. The Danger to Our Lives.

Waikato Times, Volume 113, Issue 18928, 24 April 1933, Page 9

THE DANGER TO OUR LIVES.

The Danger to Our Lives.

(To the Editor.) Sir, —If not over-taxing your generosity in the matter of space required I. believe it would be of great public benefit to draw attention to how history repeats itself in the way we still disregard the voice of the prophets: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets and stoned them that are sent unto thee,” applies just as much to us of ,the present generation as it did to those others at the dawn of Christianity. Here are the extraordinary pi-ophetic words of Count Lyof N. Tolstoi, written nearly 50 years ago, dealing with the wealthy and leisured class in Russia and Europe of his day, and forecasting the disasters which would surely befall if there were no change in their mode of living— If we have eyes to see and ears to hear this prophecy of Tolstoi, which fell unheeded on the ears of those it was intended for, and who now have reaped and are still reaping the penalty of their disregard, we shall make desperate attempts to set our own house in order, for most assuredly the same fate, or worse, will befall us. It is useless to sit still and trust to things righting themselves. It is quite possible this may come about, but so surely as we allow this to take place without sustained effort to right the known wrongs which are so apparent as between man and man, so surely will another visitation overtake us by which this world-wide trouble and distress will be dwarfed to insignificance, and we shall have a repetition of what has happened in Russia on a world scale.

Unfortunately the words of the prophet Tolstoi are printed in a rather expensive edition, and therefore only fall into the hands of the few, instead, as is most desirable, into the hands of ail. Thus my request to you if possible to reprint this portion taken from his. work of “What to do,” and headed, "The Danger to Our Lives" (meaning the wealthy and rullug classes in Russia), which can at this time be taken to Include the same classes all over the world at the present time. —I am, etc., E.C.H.

However much we may try to hide from ourselves the plain and most obvious danger of exhausting the patience of those men whom we oppress; however much we may try to counteract this danger by all sorts of deceit, violence and flattery—it is still growing with each day, with each hour, and it has long been threatening us, but now it is so ripe that we are scarcely able to hold our course in a vessel tossed by a roaring and overflowing sea—a sea which will presently swallow us up In wrath. The workman’s revolution, with the terrors of destruction and murder, not only threatens us, but we have been already living upon its verge during the .last 30 years, and it is only by various cunning devices that we have been postponing the crisis.

Such is the state of Europe; such is the state of Russia, because we have no safety-valves. The classes who oppress the people, with the exception of the Tsar, have no longer in the eyes of our people any justification; they all keep up their position merely by violence, cunning and expediency*; but Hie hatred towards us of the worst representatives, of the people, and the contempt of us from-the best, is increasing with every hour.

Among the Russian people during the last three or four years a new word full of significance has been circulating; by tins word, which i never heard before, people are swearing in the streets and railing us parasites. The hatred and contempt of the oppressed people are increasing, and the physical and moral strength of the richer classes are decreasing; the deceit which supports all this is wearing out. and the rich classes have nothing wherewith lo comfort themselves. To return lo the old order of tilings is impossible; one thing only remains for those who are not willing to change the course of their lives, and lo turn over a new leaf —to hope that, during their lives, they will fare well enough, after which the people may do as they like. So think the blind crowd of the rich, but the danger is ever increasing and the awful catastrophe is coming nearer and nearer.

There are three reasons which prove to rich people the necessity of turning over a new leaf: First, the desire for their own personal welfare and that of their families, which is not secured by the way in j which rich people are living; secondly, the inability to satisfy the voice of conscience, which is obviously impossible in the present condition of things; and, thirdly, the threatening and constantly increasing danger to life, which cannot be mot by any outward means. All these together ought to induce rich people to c Iran go their mode of life. This change alone would satisfy the desire of welfare and conscience, and would remove all danger. And there is but one means of making such change—lo leave off deceiving ourselves, lo repent, and lo acknowledge labour to he, not a curse, but the joyful business of life.