"Chains" and the Empire.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 15 July 1910, Page 4

"Chains" and the Empire.

-J. f — A ItBMAIUvAiMy)'] PLAY. (IJy 11. Hamil'tou jtyfe, in tho " Daily .Mail.") A Canadian 'once said to mo "What [ cannot uivl«it«ti!Mid in ICngliand is the flood of able-bodied young men which pours oub of every station in 1/ondon every -morning iand bides itself .way in stuffy officoSj .sitting alii day over ledgers, doing uninteresting work, without prospect of anything better, selling life, with all its splendid possfbilites, for a wretched pittance. Why do they do it?" "Most of them do it," i explained, "because they are afraid to try anything else. They do it because their education lias taught them nothing aibout ' those splendid possibilities,' nor encouraged them to bo curious, adventurous, enterprising. They cling to their work in offices as drowning; men cling to hencoops; they are convinced that, if they loosed their hold, they would go under." "I once heard of a man," said my Canadian friend reflectively, " who had been loft a. fortune without knowing anything a:hoiit it. He was drawing a pound a. week for a job he detested, living pretty rough and short, and all the while there were thousands waiting for Mm in the bank. I reckon there are many of you English like that man. You don't know liow well off you aire. You haven't realised vet that you've censed to he islanders, that you belong to a country which is the biggest, and is onlv waiting to 'be made the richest, in the whole world." I thought the other evening of that talk which I had with the man

from Calgary in the train running through the magnificent miountain scenery of the Canadian Rockies. I was reminded of it by a play. It is not often that tho theatre in England sets one thinking; still le&s often does it open up an Imporial horizon. Hut the play called "Chains," at the Repertory Theatre does both. Whether -Miss Elizabeth Baker, who wrote it, had any idea of fiounding tho Imperial note Tdo not know. [ should ratliei think not. Her object, T fancy, was to show up .the hard lot of clerks, and to draw a picture of the life she saw around her. But artists who aro 'moved by a genuine impii'lse to record their observatiious always build _ better than they know. "Chains" supplies, whether intentionally or not. a striking comment upon tho blindness of a groat pant of the people of this country to their goodly iheritage. Fif.tv years ago there was some exouse for regarding "the colonies" with doubt and distrust. Thoy were then really "n long way off." Those who "went to the colonies" were generally failures at Home. An old. settled country naturally disliked the idea of new, raw societies upon the margin of the wilds. To-dav there is no such excuse. Tho civilisation 'of Canada and Australia is in many respects superior to our own. Fast and luxurious liners have drawn the Empire together, as "Chains" shows us, a large class of people still mostly persists in thinking that England means "these islands in the Western Sea," and not, in King George's stirring phrase, "an England which is spread over tho whole surface of the globe." 'lhe play concerns a clerk who is struggling to exist "respectably" on about £120 a year. His wife, a busy cheerful 'little soul, does all hei own housework. They are obliged to take a lodger, and when, on account of "bad times," salaries in the office are reduced, fcliev" have to talk about putting up two. Their friends are mostly clerks also. They find their work tedious and uninteresting. But to few of their maginations lias it ever occurred that work could be anything but an unpleasant necessity. Suddenly tho lodger announces that ho is going to "chuck lit" and go to Australia. He is sack of the dull grind <it the 'office* He wniiitts a change. .Most of the others call him a fool for "throwing up a sale job." What does ho know about Australia, they ask contemptuously. Things are just as bad out there. I hey do not want clerks. "I'm net going to be a clerk," is his answer. "I m going on to a farm." At which tlwjy cackle and crack feeble, obvious jokes—all except tho clerk li« lodges with. hi his mind the idea stirs up a strange confusion. He sees a vision of a Larger, cleaner, healthy life in the open. Ht) sees himself developing, glorying in existence instead of grumbling at it building up a future for himself and ma family by "making things grow." He is young and strong, and ho has still the instincts of a countryman —witness his pathetic efFort toraV l flowers in his sunles-s, cat-infested back garden. Why should lie not go too? As soon as lie speaks of it, f'o typical class suspicion and dislike of the Colonies" are unloosed. Hi.. wde weeps and uses the limbic .-il Knghsh argument, "It would be

dreadful if yon failed!" Her fam i v ftbtac kliiin vehemently. It is "wicked" to think of giving up a < e tamty for a '.risk.. "Who is he to rebel against clerkdom? "What 1 was good enough for .bis father ought to bo good enough for him." 1 here are thousands of clerks ml shopkeepers who have still to learn what the Empiro means. Their schools (to not teach them. Their narrow daily round gives them no wide vistas of Imperial citizenship, lliey lack the bold freedom of spirit venturesome readiness tio encounter new conditions, whicJi used to be BritisJi traits. Charlie Wilson would K o to Australia but for his wife's final a,ppea,l to him on tho ground that she may f xm ~e mother. He had better 'have gone anyuviy. It i s children who would be the Empire's best assets if they could grow up to a natural, healthy life, instead of amid th© squalor and tli-o sordid of suburban "respectability" upo,* £120 a year. Among clerks there is splendid material for t,h« emigrat'ioii flgont, ami for any country ivhuch wants intelligent, Wd-w<xl : - mg settlers. They are a source as yet scarcely tapped at all. T/oL them bo helped to throw off their $r?, fl nd a trebly gtxid res,ilt "ill follow. The standard of emigration will be raised'; knowledge of the Empire will he extended « l home; and, furthermore, tlm hardships of which clerks coniiplaini nowadays, will, fith reduced competition, tend to disappear.