A Chapter of British History.

Maoriland Worker, Volume 2, Issue 32, 13 October 1911, Page 5

A Chapter of British History.

:'■-'■ fJWAORILAND'' WORKER'"; SPECIAL. y 4 \ ";'

» ': Current Events and the Materialist Conception,

By DOG&fIATIST.

By DO ' ■ ■ ■ IT. ■' ; 1 Thus through the mind within receivng impressions, correctly corresponding to the 'thmgs.. without —through Am men of -the time becoming aware jf the existence of certain things around them, their nature and properties, and not only becoming aware of k> much about them, but letting their responsive minds' run -intently xipon ihem sufficiently long to become aware also of the suggestions which these things in themselves contained, as to where and how they could be improved md used-to better purpose in the proluction of merchandise, with the limitless reservoir of natural forces drawn upon to supplement the power in the (workmen's muscle—it came about that machines were made, factories built, water power used, the steam engine installed, and by the factory hands, thus better equipped, the goods were poured out upon the markets of the world in such quantities that their jirst flooding began. . But production meant something further. The raw materials had to be poured into these too busy hives of industry as fast as the finished products went out of them, and certain of these raw material's had to be brought from faraway countries and continents. The need if increase and improvement in the means of transport became pressing, attention was drawn, had to be turned to it, and as this matter became turned into thoughts, so more money was turned into capital, more jrde'rs went to the shipbuilding yards, more yards were opened, more employmen b for workpeople found in this branch of industry, and the harbour towns grew accordingly. Ships and Seamen. Ships, their tonnage capacity, their build, their character in other particulars, became matters of growing importance for interested minds to dwell upon, and Were all continuously turned into thoughts • and plans were conceived, alterations made, and the size of the ships increased, till men were sailing to the ends of the earth and back 'in a 000-tonner. Of course, exoepting those who went forth in coffin ships. They never cair.o back, and their fate was the outcome of shipowners turning things into thoughts after -an insurance system had been called into existence, called into existence after men's minds had been impressed with the fact that a definite proμ-jrtion <of the ships and cargo was regularly lost at sea, and a littlf each from all would cover the losses of the few. The owners did not insure the sailors' lives when they ensured their deaths. The loss of the crew that went down with the ship was not a shipowners' loss, and if as the ship went out of port any Aveak thoughts of providing "for the widows and orphans, by insuring t'he doomed sailors, floated uppermost in his mind, they would be promptly crowded out by other thoughts of what a waste of good money it would be. A sailor's life might be as sweet to him, and as husband and father he might be as dear to his wife and children as other people's were, but as the shipowner's head was not the sailor's head so was not his thoughts the sailor's thoughts as the ship went down. The shipowner was bent on making a rise and the thought of making- widows and orphans at the same time did not deter him. Ie has been said the worst thing you can do with a man is to make a king of him, so it is only too true that after the throne is filled the worst thing you can do by a man is to make a shipowner of him, or allow him to make a shipowner of himself. But there are those who would have kindly feelings for the coffin-ship owner. Lately at a friend's house a discussion arose as to what would happen to either of. certain well-to-do women Frie-ud.3 if the breadwinner was taken. One said,- "Well, not one of them has any notion of how to face the world, and earn a living for herself and family ; so far as I can see there would f>9 nothing before either of them but

the Avashtub." "No," said another, -"and Avhat a pity." Then, after a moment's pause, "But if if had. not been for such poor creatures, aa'lio should jye get to do our Avashing?'' TJnder Socialism this Avoman Avould not be able probably to turn unfortunate widows and the Aveek's Avashing, but electric appliances and the week's washing, into thoughts. Things determine thoughts. The objective determines the subjective! that is, the world without determines the life of thought within : change the environTueufc and the rest folloAvs. •More History In the Making.

land was an ever-present problom. Prdduction went on apace, but to turii ' the products .into;money they had to be taken to market—to, ha distribute' •ed through the country, taken to the doors of those who would buy and consume them. In every direction and ■every part of the country this problem had to be faced. Roads were turned into thoughts: how to form them, the best materials to be used; all Connected with them, local governing bodies, ratepayers and users turned one another into thoughts too, and history on this side was made—turnpike history, and a most interesting chapter it is. Canal history was made ; bits! of it made, perhaps ■, to escape another sort of history—that is to say, to fill/I

work for great crowds of unemployed Avhen they became dangerously clamorous in times of commercial crisis. A hungry English croAvd is decidedly dangerous when its blood is up. Close on 200,000 people peacefully left tlie State of Victoria in yea<rs of crisis to try their luck elsewhere. Something similar, but on a smaller scale was also true of N.Z. a few years earlier. If in each case they had got their blood lip, instead of leaving, they -would have saved themselves the worry and expense of travelling. . The Locomotive Appears. While road after road was being put in order, and turnpike gates put across by private enterprise, and mile added to mile of canal, there stood those stationary steam engines, and as they worked and the avheels revolved, they themselves made, the suggestion that the Avheels should be put under the engine so that as they reAolved the engine would travel along. It was something more than a suggestion, so imperious was it. Those Avheeis hummed it, buzzed it; they indeed roared it out. The idea got hole, of men avlio could not escape from it.; they turned Avheelo, mechanical principles and engines into thoughts night and day, tumbled them over and over and over in their minds. What some would call their unsuccessful trials Avere steps oiiAvard to success, and .at last the locomotive was an accomplished fact.

It has been my privilege to Avalk over the very ground where a first successful trial of one of these was made. The story runs that this experimental engine had been brought out upon the road by its maker, Richard Trevithick, on a certain evening, but it is not said whether that time AA-as chosen so that darkness might aid any failure to move; anyway, steam Avas got up, off it started, and some men coining home from Avork seeing this monster approach mistook it for the devil, and bolted as fast as their legs could carry them. Those Avho, kneiv said, a dog tail-piped could not have outdistanced them. Were it not that they could not be seen for gloom, they -would not haA r e been seen for dust, so Avell did they work their feet in road hitting. In those days that which sprang from "AvoAvser" fear Avould surpass anything in the way of steam, and they Avore not OA r ertakcn. With the locomotive commenced the story of the railways. There are a few still Avith us Avho were alive in England Avhen the first railway Avas opened for goods aud passenger traffic, though scarcely one Avho.se Avord could be taken that he remembers the event. Yet not so long ago I met an old fefloAV avlio Avas ploughing in England on the day Queen Victoria came to the throne, and was doing the same thing in Australia on the day her jubilee Avas celebrated. He remembered all the rejoicings, but of Socialism ho kneiv nothing AvhateA-er; lie belongs to the old order, and but for the Socialist propagandist so would the Avriter. (To be continued.)

Turning again to our history. At '-ft. certain stage of this process there Were those Avho found their thoughts running on coal, steam engines, and ships, and found no rest for their souls till they found themselves afloat going up the river against the stream or sailing the open seas against wind and tide on a paddle-Avheeler. But something better than paddle-Avheels wore wanted When the billows rose. Men's attention Avas drawn to screws. Fix the, thing and the screw travelled ,iii or out of it according to the way .'it was turned. "Fix the scre\v and the thing travelled -forwards or backward as the - screw was fumed. A . thought comes up,|*er'most as to how. to do it, and .away goe3 -the first. thv°kbing steamship oriycij, by a screw, propeller. In- our day they have made a success Of the fcurbino. But transport on sea aiid on