THEIR QUEST FOR THE IDEALS

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 80, 30 December 1918, Page 8

THEIR QUEST FOR THE IDEALS

STORY OF A STRANGE LITTLE COMMUNITY SOCIALIST MISTAKES AVOIDED (From the Melbourne "Age.") About twelve years ago certain Seventh Day Adventista made an exodus from Melbourne and settled on tho banks-of the Yarra at Warburton. Thaie Advenlisfcs regarded the Victorian metropolis much as Bunyan'B Christian regarded tho City of Destruction. As these particular Advontistn were engaged in u publishing factory in one of those "crowded central part?," they feared that, with tho narrow street as playground, th'-'ir children would grow up pale-faced and weedy. But more than tho emoke-liiden air flnd the tiny houses with tinier yards jammed close- together they dreaded tho "pleasures of the world." For them tho footpaths, with thoir habitues, sometimes wanton, often profane, the picture theatres with their photo-playe, often silly, eometimes gross; the tare with their doors always open, woro colleges in a. university graduating in which their children would forget tho citv beautiful.

In order that thoir employees and their children might escape perils, some of them very real, others largely imaginary, the directors of tho Adventist Signs of tho Times Publishing Company bought land at Warburton. On a part of it they built houses for Ihoir employees, a. church, a schoolhouse, and a sanitorhini. Tho settlement thua formed in less than a mile from, tho Warburton railwny station, and is a little apart from Warburton proper. "Tiny Town," some of the Warburton folk call the settlement, and, viewed from the opposite side of the hill, the settlement makes as pretty- a picture as the wanderer is likely to find within fifty miles of Melbourne. ■ A Self-contained Settlement. Thoug'h the Adventists stuniTilcd on a. spot which would have charmed the jovial monk of old as it charms tho artist of to-day, it was on utilitarian grounds that the directors jnado their choice. There was pure water in abundance. That meant cheap electricity for motive power and. for lighting in the factory, and surplus power for the lighting of the settlement. Householders are supplied with electricity at Is. a quarter for each light. And tho light may bo used from the early lour in tho morning at which the factory whistle Bounds till 10 o'clock at night. Jor tho most part the householders aro employees of the company, which built the houses and sold (hem to tho occupants on rent-pur-chase terms, but without profit.

It is hardly necessary to remark that a company which goes into the bush on hygienic and moral grounds, which Bells houses without profit, and which supplies electricity for the lighting of a fiveroomed house for <£1 a yonrj is not .run on ordinary commercial lines. The company has directors, but they are appointed, not by shareholders, but l>y the annual conferonc(T of the Adrciitisfc Church. There aro no dividends; th'e profits ara devoted to the enlargement of the factory, or to the mission and other agencies of tho church. In the first instance, the capital was raised by voluntary subscription, and the company confines itself to the publication of literature setting forth the 'hygienic and theological ideas of the Advenf.ists.

Tho employees are for the most part jMventisls. So the company had to faca what at first sight would seem a rather hnavy handicap, for his crenl will not allow the Adventist to work on hia Sahbnth, which, like the Jewish one, is from sunset on Friday to sunset on Saturday, and tho law of the land will not allow him to work on Sunday. Tho factory nine for thfc number of hours preecrihed in the Factories Act, fio the workers sgj live rather long days at thoir task. "We havo no whisper of labour Troubles here," said Mr. Miller, brother of the manager; "all our people consider it <i privilege to bo oiigngoa in the work." Juuijin); from a graph -which was on tho Wack bnard in a room the employees use as a chapel, clnssroom and gymnasium, the company flourishes anmingly. Prom ISO 6 to l!)0!> there- was a steady increase in the sales. From 1901) on the output 'has increased enormously—'from ■£14,000 to .£32,000 it .rear. And vor.r little of this increase is due to the charging of higher prices for books and pnpnrs. as aim being the making, not of profits, Tint of converts, advnncce in price have been made vovy tardily and very sparingly, Tho publishing house ha? ,its own azonoics in the different Slates for the distribution of its literature.

The Business Side. The AUvoutists, of whom, according to the 1111 l census, thero are more than UOOO in Australia, are iiitereetiiif,' 'because iu their belief mid in their methods' they display wich a reinurkablo blending of extreme simplicity with exceptional shrewdness. With, tho "pleasures of the world" they eschew 'animal food, alcoholic drinks, tobacco, tea and colfeo. They attach the utmost importance to the keeping holy of tho seventh day, us opposed to the ordinary Sunday; they dwell with an iteration .the mibmicii' find's wearisome on tho immediate or very early coming of Christ in person to reign 011 earth. Hut when you study their factory and ask questions about till) management, of it, you find, that their dynamos, presses, cameras, tlectrotyping plant are up to date. Tho latest American efficiency publications are on the shelves, and the big storeroom which is being added to tho building is to be connected by fcwim line with.Uie various departments, so that all laborious carrying of printing piiper, finished sheets, books in tlie milking way bo eliminated. The church lw its own medical men, so that the faithful may not be tempted to seek strength in stimulants or in forbidden foods; it has its own correspondence college, so that those of its members who live reuiotd from an Adventist centre'may pursue their studios at their own fireside. Tho missionaries of the church are trained as teachers, of course, but llicy«re also trained in all that goes to the ma.kiug of the nil-round man who can build his own hut, lend his own garden, Bee to his own clothes, prescribe for his own ailments, should episodes in a life lived far from tho beaten track make it necessary that he fend for himself.

The Adventists who turned their backs on Melbourne avoided the mistake of tlio Socialists who have founded settlements. They wero men nml women dominated by ideas which to many seem visionary, bo were tho Socialists who formed colonies. But they were also men and women skilled in a. given industry which thoy had followed successfully for years, whereas the Socialists were of many occupations or of none, talkers who imagined tltat to build, to farm, to breed sheep and cattle come by nature. They avoided the fatal mistake which Labour made when it increased the Parliamentary salary to J!fMO a year, with free pass, free club house, nml many pickings. Thoy did not give their managers tho bift salary or the easy life. The managers did iiot ask for them, because all coiicerni'd hud that Bavins common sense which warr.i! them Hint between the wife anil daughters of tho man with .£!?. n. week anil ninny perquisites and tho wife anil daughters ,of tho man with 4)3 ■ n. week, with blank weeks,in times of sickness, of strike, or commercial crisis, thero is a great pjulf fixed. Tho shoo of tho XI?. a week, plus this and that, pinches in rmitc different fnsliion to tho shoe of the £3 a week man, minus this and Hint. I'rom which those who choose to dwell on the facts may possibly ilwliico tlinl; the industrial problem is not likely to bn solved by 00-onarative effort till a. religion, an enthusiasm, an idea, induces those who prate about brotherhood to accept, not equal pay, but such approach lu it as will enable the glib talker and tho imfieiil listener to live in slyjoS similar enmiu'b to make free social intercourse possible.