A Chapter of British History.

Maoriland Worker, Volume 2, Issue 31, 6 October 1911, Page 5

A Chapter of British History.

By DOGMATIST.

$ , Current Events and the Conception.

"iViAORiLAMP WORKER" SPECIAL.

"The Miners' Federation of Great Britain will meet in October to discuss, the question of a national British coal strike in December next for the establishment of a minimum wage," says a Press cablegram, which suggests a chapter of history that could be made delightfully interesting, and v most enlightening if dealt with from the point of view of the mater ialist conception of history by one win bad the knowledge and tho talents fo the task, which I lack. . Breaking in upon that continuous life of the people of Britain at a point where little coal was used, and the coal' miner counted for little, he could "follow'the process which has led up to the marshalling of these labor battalions of the coal industry—now an army a million strong and certain sections'of them threatening a Avar >f the-'capitalists do not concede to them a little higher standard of living. History—What is it? But speaking of history, what is it? There is the history which is the spoken or written word, and there is the thing-in-itself, of which the account is given, of which the story is told, in writings and in speech. This thing-in-itself is the succession of events and incidents that arise in connection with the social life, which continues and grows in complexity ■through the ages. Until Socialism aroso there was no science of history, and therefore no . philosophy of it. No grasp of the underlying process of which these events .. and incidents are the expression. •\ Speaking generally, they were, and """Still- are, outside Socialist circles, looked upon as being the manifestation of human motive and action —and all else mystery. That is to say, these events and incidents resulted from people putting forth effort and having the reasons for so doing. As to tracing these reasons to their origin, the learned have either had no time for such work or may be, no room in their heads for the idea of doing such a thing. This we know■:' Queer notions concerning ' things are the lot of those who know nothing more of them than is to be seen in their shadows and reflections, and so there have always been those who thought the reasons fell from heaven or sprung up from below accordingly as they '..''were or were not to their liking. Accounting for Events. Taking these words "human motive*' to mean human wish, will, desire and reason, it is easy enough to see, for example, that a long list of great battles can be traced to the wish to enlarge the bounds of empire, to the desire for the extension of class, of national, or of personal dominion; or to the will to take risks in attempts to oscape from subjection in one or other of its forms. But since science has spoken and philosophy given us a new truth in the new conception of history, it can no longer be assumed that events are accounted for as they become traced to the insensate ambitions of an individual, the longing for riches, for wider markets, to the wish for a change in government, the desire to be admitted to, or to exclude people from the political orders of the nation. For when we have thus traced the action to the thought that preceded it how far have we got? Event is link' ed up with human action, this with human motive, and in this way event is linked up with the ideas oi : the time, \ existing in some head or heads. And while, clearly, those who take part on the day of the event are moved.to do so, from the greatest down to the i- least, because of the ideas in their v> heads; yet clearly the event is not [fully accounted for till these ideas are \accounted for. History is not accountled for-by recording the ideas and {events which are parts of it any more AbCn eclipses are accounted for by rethem. s~-W Yet the process of history is easily ■understood if we just follow facte in their order and see how one thing leads to another; not stopping short with the thought that our work is done when we have discovered what were the contents of people's noddles on the day of the event, but keeping <on and noticing how the things, processes and people outside affect the minds within, give rise there to thoughts that are followed by human action, which effect changes outside and these again give rise to new impressions and new thoughts within, end so on in a continuous chain of antecedents and consequents, and all the time men's thoughts and actions ----will be seen to be determined by the circumstances and conditions of life which surround them, just as in our daily occupations our thoughts and acts are determined by the nature of the materials in the work of production- ~ , Back to the Third Gesrge. •Aiid now, supposing we go back over the history of Britain to the days when tbe v third George was King, selecting Hjiafc time because the parents of those whom, some of us have known lived thei*- We. have heard those parents talked about, and that makes their "tUtf -seem not so very far removed from J ; ' oU r.;'own. It is modern Britain and /•-.had, been modern for a couple of gen- , j' i gratio<ns or more, as historians look at -. CpVLid we but go back to that time we should miss, and how would the people seem. not the same individuals as to-day, yet the same British /Simple, identical in all that is due to to birth, as the like of one begots\the like of the next. towns *iad : cities of to-day

were then some of them only villages, pojthai>s there are those that then scarcely existed at all. Where now stands what is called Greater London, you would then find ploughed fields. No Dreadnoughts nor ironclads around the coast. The only great throbbing leviathans of the deep, tho •vhales that inhabited it, for not a steamship of any description would be •.een upon the open ocean. No ac■ounts of hundreds of thousands of ■coble crossing the seas from land to and in a year, nor of the transport of millions upon millions of tons of cargo in the same time. The facts did not exist, so ideas relating to them could not exist.

Not a mile of railway to anywhere, no notions in people's noddles of weekend trips, nor notions of anything else that railways particularly give rise to. No wireless messages, telephones, telegraphs, cables or electric motors, nor ideas of these things. Of all the notions connected with electricity, its graphs, grams, and codes, the only one found would probably be that of the danger of being struck dead by lightning, for it was the day of Franklin and his kite.

Much of our language they would not understand. Theirs would not suffice for us. The names of things that did for them would not be numerous enough to go round to-day. As we turned to agricultxire, we should miss every form of machine and nearly every implement now in use, and if we dropped in at harvest time upon those engaged in husbandry, from the fields would come tho sounds of many voices, as men, women, and children shared in the work of gathering in the harvest, just as they did in Bible times. Wo should miss the schools and other widespread means of education of to-day. One or two great towns had made a beginning with libraries. It is on record ~ that there was a debating society or two, but there wore whole counties with only one or two book shops each in them ; and that in itself sneaks volumes.

It was mainly an agricultural, illiterate Britain, so poor in science, «re, ways and means, and so undeveloped the faculty and aptitude of the people that no one could make enough out of them to become a millionaire, and so in those days there were none. No millionaire notions in any noddie, no anti-millionaire notions in any noddles, no notions of exproporiating the expropriator, no scientific Socialism. How Change Game, But that people living on through the years from then to now have passed through continually varying experiences, have wrought great changes, and in many ways become greatly changed in character —not nature.. There is a long chain of the events and incidents which are history that corresponds to that ' period, to what has the character of those events, and that particular chain of events been due? How has that history been made? It is the work of man and as many-sided as the work of man. It was the day of hand tools in the workshop and in the harvest field with the power that is in tlie human muscle behind those tools, and so was the day of small things in production, but it was the day of the beginnings of what were afterwards to become great things. Men had for centuries been seeking cheaper processes of reducing iron. A now one had been found, but before they had -proceeded far with it, it was seen that to continue, as they were going would mean that in a short time every tree and stick of timber in the land would be all burnt up, and the process be brought to an end unless other sources of fuel could be found. The attention of those interested became drawn to the coal deposits. Coal and iron were by them turned into thoughts aud tumbled over in the mind till by that light which is in every man it was seen how to make a successful use of these coal supplies in the process of smelting iron. This led to an extended use of coal, an increased output of iron and a cheapening of its price. This cheapening" of iron became known, it was in itself a suggestion to the minds of men that .it might now be put to use iv ways that could not be thought of before because of its price, and no sooner was one new use found for it than this new one suggested yet another. Some' found their minds running upon water power and the wood and iron appliances of the day, these they turned over and over in their thoughts till it dawned on them how the tools in an industry or two might be replaced by something bigger and more effective with water wheels behind them instead of human muscles. Capital's Chance. Here was a chance for capital, and as this became known to men with a little money, they turned these things and their money into thoughts which ended in their turning their money into capital, having the first factories built, and as these were opened the first factory hands appeared on the stage of history. . Men had for a century or more been turning steam boilers and tools into thoughts in ineffectual efforts to discover how to make it serve their purposes. This problem having once got hold of their minds, they could not give it up; the more it baffled them the more it held them. Now the time came when they could turn steam and boilers, coal and newly-applied mechanical piunciples into thoughts, and the way opened to them. Soon the wheels start«d to go round, and have never

stopped, since. The steam engine was an accomplished fact, and more coal and more iron required. Buildings, machines, steam engines, and cheaper methods of production iioav becoming known to those who had tho money to sfpare, all were turned over in these people's thoughts, and yet more money was turned into capital, -factory after factory Avas hr&vs&M into existence, and their size"^^^M

and Avith these new appliances that had been called into existence .merchandise could now bo poured out of these factories in quantities such as never before. The smallest fraction of this Avas sufficient to supply the immediate neighbourhoods in Avhich; they stood, and in line after lino soon the markets of the Avholo country Avere flood td, .and ■on tho capture of foreign ones began. (To 'ontinued.)