CHURCH AND LABOUR

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1523, 20 August 1912, Page 8

CHURCH AND LABOUR

, DOSSES AND PAID AGITATORS, "A TYRANNY. ALMOST UNENDURABLE-" PLAIN SPEAKING FROM THE PUPIT. Continuing his exposition of the Eighth Commandment in St. John's Church, last Sunday evening, Dr. Gibb said that in a previous discourse they had seen reason to think that property or wealth was not equitably divided, and if so, it was tho duty of the Church to demand iu Christ's name, ami the name of humanity, that tho wrong should bo'righted. < In. the immediately preceding sermon thte truth had been sufficiently emphasised, and the obli.gntions, as well as tho shortcomings, of vlio possessors of wealth set forth with much.plainness of speech. But if tho Church was bound to tell the owner of ■wealth to his faco of his selfishness and disregard of tho olaims of humanity, she should' be equally fearless in speaking the truth, to the other man, who, to gain his own ends, was ready to turn tho world upside down, and to trample under foot every consideration.' of truth, honour, and justice. Greed and unscrupulousness and indolence were as vile in tho worker as in the' capitalist or. employer. It was greatly --to be regretted that tho Church, in approving, ns she ought to approve, of the desire of the worker to better his condition, had littered no protest against tho insolence ami threats and occasional defiance of law and order displayed by a certain section of the workers. As with the Church, so with the average politician. 1 The passion of his heart was to assure the ■worker that Codlin was his friend, not -Short, antl but few voices were raised in condemnation of the bitterness and rancour too often manifest in tho ranks of . labour. , The ; Democracy. Wise men sometimes spoke almost despairingly of tho democracy, and tho vox popiili was not always the vox Dei. Tho voice of the people had on a, certain occasion shouted, "Crucify Him, crucify Him." Hut on the whole the movement of- the democracy had been in the direction of a broader and a juster brotherhood. Tho trouble really was that the democracy was in danger of ceasing toibe democratic' It looked like as if_ it were abdicating its rights to a;n oligarchy—tho oligarchy of the Labour < bosses and tho paid agitator. Dr. Giibb counted among his esteemed , and . trusted friends members of labour unions in this city, and said he did not believe that tho . more thoughtful of tho manual toilers approved of this state of things. Soma of them, he knew, confessed themselves thralls to a tyranny almost unendurable. The men who in this country and.other countries were aiming' at tho solution of . the problem not along the lines of a 'sure and sane evolution,'• but by the .methods of -revolution-. and . syndicalism weTe as a pestillence' to. the nation that jharboured them.. He had- said :that the Tich man who , heaped up money irrespective of the claims of God and manwas the enemy of God and man. Ho now said that the revolutionary and the syndicalist were equally the enemy of .God-and man. ■ ■ : . . Atmosphere of Hatred. In supporting these contentions, Dr. Gibb quoted from various authorities, and especially from H. l'ngeman, in a contribution mado. some time ago to tlie "Maoriland Worker." Tho columns of that paper were perhaps the. last place in the world where one would expect to ' iind a condemnation of the -syndicalist, ,but the thing was a fact. But there was Jittlo need to appeal to authorities. Did they not all know the atmosphere of jhatred which was being created by certain of the.leaders of the now movement? 'Samples were given of this—the "to hell '■with the bosses" policy. Did they not know'the arrogant assumption that men ■who did not .work with their hands were ' drones and dead-weights in.the commurtity? For his part, he said tho man who ■worked only U hours a week did not know what work meant. Even the labour agitator had a less rosy time of it in this respect tlian tlio workers he led, for the . very mischief he was engaged in fomenting must tax his energies and keep him 'always on the alert. Did they not know the cry for shorter hours, springing partly, no doubt, out of a foolish notion that tho sum total of work to bo done was a fixed quantity, and that if A did too krge a share 6f it, there would not te enough for B to do, but arising also from sheer indolence and a base conception of life as a condition, not of strenuous toil and unceasing endeavour, but of inglorious ease and sloth. The wealth of the world for the world's' workers! Amen, he said, but tho demand too often was the wealfJii of tho world for the world's shirkers. The Church and Organised Labour. He had said nothing of the attitude of organised labour to the Christian Church. The attitude seemed to bo antagonism, save on condition that tho Church should approve of all their ideals and all their methods, and refrain from criticism at every point. Yet let them make no mistake. - There-were churches riot a few in Wellington that would be absolutely denuded of •members if they lost all their working men. In every . Presbyterian church in this city a Jnrge percentage of the members were enrolled in labour unions of ono sort or another. The trouble in New Zealand was that few men or no men occupying the position tf leadership in the labour moveinen were identified with any church, but at Home it-was not so. If at Home they had a Tom Mann and a Ben Tillet, they had also a John Burns and Ramsay Macdonald and Lloyd-George. It was difficult to say which was tho more earnestly to be banned—the greed of the "haves" or the violence of tho' "have-nots," but this at any rate was true: a fair result would bo attained only when all parties had a clearer vision of the principles which ought to. determine what _is fair, arid when there was less disposition on all sides to seize undue advantages. A .recognition of the fact that principles of moral equity, as .well as of political economy were involved in. these economic questions; with a readiness to search . for what was ..just and not for'flic'utmost that could bo got, would go further than anything elie to solve difficulties and to heal strife. The Remedies. So much 'for the Church's duty 'of criticism. As he had said the Church had not only-to condemn the greed and Injustice of the plutocracy, and the violence and unscrupulousness of their opponents; she- was called of Gad at least to breathe the temper m which the various remedies proposed should be discussed, and further to indicate the principles upon which a solution might bo found, in harmony with the dictates of righteousness and brotherhood and the claims of the Kingdom of <God These remedies might' bo summarised thus: The payment of the highest wages any industry could afford, and tho settlement of this by conciliation boards «nd arbitration courts. Then there were communism, Socialism, and what no perBonally believed to be the only availing' remedy; co-operation anil profit sharing. The discourse closed with a brief discussion of the first of those.alleged remedies .namely, arbitration courts, etc. 1 hat had certainly failed to settle matters. Tho •workers were paid better wages, but with every increase in the wage, rate the cost nf commodities increased so that their •condition was very little bettered by the additional earnings. It was an lnterest- ! Ing question into whoso pockets the increase of wages was chiefly flowing. 11 iw\ little doubt that it was going int.) Douches already sufficiently replenished. At anvrate, it was clear that peace was not to" be established along this line of effort.' • ~ . , , The remaining remedies he proposed t Wseus3 in a final sermon next Sunday. For the present he again insisted _ that thou»n the supreme business/of-the. Christian "Church was to bring men and women to God, her duty was also to proclaim the Vorth of the individual and to demand ' that his rights should be • safeguarded. Verv probahly it was necessary that a ercatly modified social order must be established before the Church could get an availing access to the hearts of multitudes;' and if this were so, how strong and deep a motive the Church had for roform. As had been wisely said: If the coming of a new order is to establish the Kingdom of God, then surelv wnatever material sacrifices have to on made will lie offered gladly and joyfully. If tho prayer Thy kingdom como, is answered, tho prnyer, Thy will bo done, will bo uttered, not as the Inst sigh of nn ex- : piring vitality, bnt as the chanting of en Alleluia."-