THE PRESENT WORLD-WIDE ECONOMIC DISCONTENT

New Zealand Tablet, 19 June 1919, Page 9

THE PRESENT WORLD-WIDE ECONOMIC DISCONTENT

(By Archbishop Redwood.)

That there is to-day world-wide economic discontent is obvious and undeniable. Whence does it arise ? What is its primary cause? The ready answer is: inordinate self-regard, which has become odious selfishness. Of course, there is a proper and becoming' self-regard which is nothing else than a radical instinct of the rational creature prompting it to seek its own well-being. But a regard for self, going the direful length of ignoring other people's rights, has degenerated wofully into the odious vice of selfishness; and selfishness is the basic moral disease of the present largely deChristianised world. It is the baneful abuse of a natural endowment, and its remedy is simply justice, justice all round, a virtue which curbs self and reminds it of other "selves" and their claims. It is easy, no doubt, to define justice— rendering to everyone his due but of no virtue is the violation more common and glaring. If one does not carefully discipline selfregard, it blunts and deadens our perception of the rights of others ; because men always start with a strong prejudice on behalf of self, a potent tendency to selfpreference, which must be subdued, or else to do justice to our neighbor becomes impossible. The world's wellbeing demands, of course, more than strict justice; to complete fair dealing with our neighbor requires the further exercise of charity. But the return of justice would largely contribute to reconstruct the tottering world.

Since, therefore, selfishness is the root of the present disorders of the world, the reconstruction of the world, now aimed at on all sides, needs the suppression of unjust selfishness in the community and in the individual : and, consequently, the inculcation of the motives and methods for keeping self-regard within its due limits. Now, as good Christians are aware, it is religion that must effectually supply those motives and methods. For no one can discharge fully his duty to God without also incidentally fulfilling, all he owes to his neighbor and his country. Nor can anyone realise his obligations to society, or carry them out, unless he ultimately refers them to God's law.- To take in steadily this life and all its bearings, we must needs view the next life as well.

Are, then, all plans and devices for reconstruction bound to fail in this unbelieving world ? By no means. An appeal can be rightfully made to all reasonable men before and after Christianity. Before the advent of Christianity there existed the natural law, expressed by the Ten Commandments. By this natural law -is meant, not what are called the laws of Nature, classified by scientists as the observed uniformities of -< tendency and operation of forces in the material universe, but the reflection in the mind of man of the eternal law, regulating the conscious actions of the creature to God's glory and its own welfare. It is to that law, enforced, no doubt, illustrated, expanded, and fulfilled in Christianity, but not otherwise specifically Christian, we look as the basis of social reconstruction. The prohibition of the Decalogue does not bar man's liberty, but only guides it from falling into the abyss. The highest human development must result from the directions of the all-wise Creator. Why does the human heart crave for justice and resent injustice? Because God who made it is essentially just. Man's unperverted; mind is naturally Christian. All ; men ? truly zealous to reconstruct the world, and re-establish the foundations of civilisation, so grievously impaired by the world war, are bound to welcome the support, of religion?- •; : ' . ' '■* - : so -J ; The ■reconstruction demanded by the times concerns 'not"this or that State only, but all States: world at large. The- task set before, us is to substitute trust, for suspicion, good-will for hostility, justice ■, for self-interest, co-operation; for competition, law-abiding liberty for lawless license. Now, this programme is sheer impossibility *we -practically recognise that

there is something higher, even here on earth, than the Sovereign State; that the essential interests .of each ;nation, just as in every community, the common good transcends all but the inalienable rights of the individual. Prussia's terrible threat? to civilisation- now providentially overcome, has awakened, the world to the fact that it has common interests to preserve, has united the great majority of nations for their mutual preservation. ..."

- "We are provincials no longer," aptly said President' Wilson in one of his great pre-war speeches (March 5, 1917). And again: "The world is no longer divided into little circles of interest. The world no longer consists of neighborhoods. The whole is linked together in a common life and interest such as humanity never saw before, and the starting of war can never again be private and individual matter for nations." In past ages up to the present century selfishness has been the besetting sin of Sovereign States. National action has invariably been reducible to self-interest. The great lustre round Belgium, for her splendid self-sacrifice in 1914, arose mainly from the fact of its extreme rarity. The State exists for the very purpose of promoting the national welfare, and previous generations, misled by a false and unchristian philosophy, became convinced that competition, and not co-operation, was the. primary condition of success; national selfishness was erected into a virtue, and usurped the name and credit of patriotism. To-day men have come to have at least the chance of learning that national division given one common aimneed not prevent comradeship and association. By blending into one common family, nations may, indeed, miss some opportunities of enlargement, and meet with some checks to freedom, but the sacrifices demanded under the League count as nothing to the sacrifices required without it. But the needs of the day claim that the restoration of the world's order on a common basis of justice, ought to be accompanied by a similar process in each individual State. Peace should be secured 'at home as well as abroad. Now, to be candid, can we truly say that we are governed in accord with justice ? We are a democracy, but are we not going down more and more into a plutocracy The political side of Goernment is nowadays far less important than the economic. It is in economics that reconstruction is necessary, if we hope to reach social peace. Of what avail are the widest possible franchise and the fullest participation in Government, so long as "common control, that is, control over the means of human livelihood and welfare, is in the hard grasp of a small and irresponsible minority of capitalists ? The legitimate aim of organised Labor, in this and every other country, to secure right control over industry and self-government, becomes a sham, if it leaves the control of economic power in the hands of an autocracy, or a plutocracy. Politics is a minor part of man's life; his daily —the conditions of his existence in the shop, factory, and field—is an immense part; and there can be no genuine self-government until the Government extends to the control of these things. - In other words, Capitalism in its modern development, and its patent abuses, stands in the way of a gust reconstruction of society. The practical and allimportant question of the day is how can we preserve the present industrial system in its essence divested of all its drawbacks

Let us glance at the abuses of the present industrial system. As things are, the inequalities of human conditions are obviously very great. The good things of life are very unevenly distributed; not more so in reality than at other periods of the world's history, but more keenly felt to be so, because of the better education of the masses and their sad loss of the support of the Christian faith— supreme consoler in affliction. 'A'MJ

Whydemand the lower classeswhy is., it that .the few should have opportunities : of education, recreation, travel, culture? Why should g they aso easily acquire positions of power and social consideration?' Why are they so free from the necessity of hard work Why should they, ; accordingly, ' claim to belong to & higher

caste, and should subordinate so inany of their fellowcreatures : Sto their needs and their luxuries ? It is no adequate *answer to appeal .. to Providence which has so , arranged this social Hierarchy. Because it is undeniable that so much is manifestly unjust in individual conditions. It is unthinkable that God could approve of it. In the past'and for centuries the multitude was unorganised and untrained to think. It was blindly led by immemorial tradition, it was powerless to make persistent and effective complaint. It had little or no voice.or weight in the Government. But. now men are not content with social subjection, a lifetime of toil, the stigma of hired service, an inferior education, a lower culture and quality of life. They justly refuse to willingly support a parasite body, a class which produces no wealth itself, but only consumes it, lives upon the past and present labor of others, and causes others to labor the more, because it chooses to be idle. Are not these aspirations justifiable? And if so, are we not compelled to admit that there is much in our present economic conditions that is grievously unjust, since they necessitate the subjection and impoverishment of such multitudes? “If a spirit of rapacious covetousness’.’ (said that shrewd observer, Disraeli) “desecrating all the humanities of life, has been the besetting sin of England for the last century and a half, since the passing of the Reform Act (1832), the altar of Mammon has blazed with triple worship. To acquire, to accumulate,- to plunder each other by virtue of philosophic phrases, to propose a Utopia to consist of only Wealth and Toilthis mas been the breathless business of enfranchised England for the last twelve years, until we are startled from our voracious strife by the wail. of intolerable serfage.’’. (Sybil.) The working of the old Economic Liberalism, here so scathingly denounced by Disraeli, was an odious industrial Prussianism. It replaced morality by fitly styled “iron laws,” that is, sundry embodiments of cupidity converted into immutable axioms. It appealed for support to atheistic philosophy involving the denial of freewill, and the assertion that all human betterment resulted from ruthless competition; “the free play of natural forces”—the elimination of the weak and the unfit. For over a century this devil’s doctrine of avarice prevailed in England’s economic life, grinding the faces of the poor, . lifting Britain to the foremost place in industrial nations, hoarding vast heaps of wealth in the hands of a few, and pitilessly bringing down degraded herds of landless workers to the status of slaves. The misery, appalling beyond description, wrought by such perversion that condoned and excited man’s innate selfishness, so prone to excess, ‘is chronicled in the dark pages of Blue Books by the score. While- it is a familiar theme to the economic student, it is ever present in the long memories of the poor. And alas! this industrial Prussianism is still rampant in Britain and elsewhere, as the world war sadly shows. Listen to the noble words uttered but yesterday by Cardinal Bourne: ' “There are millions of people, for whom the necessary conditions of life are never realised. All their lives they are forced to be content with dwellings that are badly built and equipped, unfit for a growing family and wanting in ordinary conveniences. They are tied by the exigencies of their daily toil to a particular locality, and must perforce put up with the accommodation that they can find. Their weekly income will never rise beyond a miserable pittance : before their eyes is ever -the spectre of the possibility of unemployment. But there is nothing, in the nature of things to render such a condition in any way necessary. % It cannot be urged that the goods of this world are insufficient for the maintenance of all those who dwell therein. On every side there are evidences of wealth and plenty. r Money is acquired and heaped up in the ownership of individuals to such air extent that ; it must be quite impossible for the possessor 'adequately to control either its acquisition or its outlay . ; . Such conditions are dearly unnatural- and abnormal. - The poor man is forced to struggle for his living wage, obtained

toov. often at, the cost of strikes which paralyse industry. The rich are led to think that the acquisition of' wealth is the main 'ob ject of life and the strike is fought by the lock-out. ‘ Meanwhile there is 'wealth in plenty to“ satisfy both workers and capitalist. The problem to be solved is to find a way of distributing the surplus wealth so that the poor man, manual worker or inferior clerk, may have the additional remuneration that he so urgently needs ; and the Inch man no longer receives the heaped-up increment, which he in no sens© requires, and cannot efficiently control ” All praise to 'his Eminence for thus denouncing that excessive self-regard which is the fountain-head of social injustice! Catholics are convinced, and may lawfully boast, that whatever is fair and just in the Socialistic demand will find a surer basis and more prudent application in the teaching of the Catholic Church, which has never failed in due course to condemn the selfish “individualism responsible for the present unrest and disorder. The war has proved the worship of Mammon to be still supreme in the commercial world. The set of greedy profiteers who grow rich by the nation’s needs and woes, may now profitably reflect that' they have hastened on a reformation most urgently required. Profiteering, and ..the many forms of usury, by which capital has exceeded its fair share of the wealth produced by its-association with labor, are equally iniquitous in peace and war. Labor is coming to its own. It will no longer tolerate its treatment as a mere commodity to be paid for at the market price. The wage system, as a mere wage system, is, we hope, soon to end. Instead of degrading the holy spirit of man to its sordid material exigencies, commerce must amend its ways, and adjust itself to the human needs and rights of those on whose labor it depends. This article affords no space for adequate treatment of the ways by which this desirable consummation may be effected, and, accordingly, it must be reserved for a futre contribution. ,