Random Reflections.

Maoriland Worker, Volume 2, Issue 36, 10 November 1911, Page 17

Random Reflections.

By THINKER. Herbert Spencer was a great philosopher. There are people alive who believe that in the beginning he created the heavens and the earth. That is a [mistake, however. Still he knew a .thing or two. His knowledge Avas greater than his wisdom. He believed that Socialism was bound to come and that it would be an odious form of slavery.

You can find inconsistencies in the Bible. And Herbert Spencer does not •always agree with himself. I do not quite agree with Carlyle in regarding Herbert Spencer as "the most unending ass in Christendom," but I have ahvays thought him not to be quite the demigod that his disciples make him out to be.

Spencer taught that society was an organism. That is so. He said, too, that society exists for man and not man for society, AA'hich seems to mc like declaring that the body exists for its members and not the members for the body. If society be an organism then its parts cannot be greater than the Whole. And if society be an organism, then the Avhole of Herbert Spencer's anti-Socialist Avritings were Avroug. And Avhatever is Avrong cannot be right, and should be got rid of.

Social reformers are often taunted with seeking class legislation. Bift that is a total error. All social reform is* at'bottom a protest against class legislation. Class legislation —laws passed by the class in poAve-r for its own bonent—has existed for ages. Every levoit of the doAvntrodden -worker has been a protest against class legislation. The highway of progress is strewn Avith the bones of the men who stood up against class legislation. The Socialist is a mortal foe to class legislation. Socialism will abolish class legislation by destroying classes. Then ail men will be workers within the meaning of tho Act.

A literary writer in the "Times" quotes R. L. Stevenson on Socialism. That all-embracing and very human "ism" is objected to on the ground that it Avould probably put an end to the daily paper. This the literary scribbler cannot away with. He values his morning paper Avith its garbage better than his breakfast. There is no accounting for tastes. I think that if Socialism pxit an end to the daily paper of to-day ft would deserve Avell of humanity. But Why should Socialism monopolise journalism ? I see no reason. The Socialist State would provide newspapers giving -full and true accounts of contemporary history, but it would be open to any individual to run a-paper to suit his OAAm tastes and those of others who .. were like-minded. It is surely a mistake to imagine that Socialism Avould .kill all private enterprise. The efforts of the individual .would be turned to good account in journalism and literature, and the huge Avaste that- now obtains would be done away with. That I "conceive would be what the late William Shakespeare would call "a consummation devoutly to be wished. There is hardly a form of private enterprise more vicious than present-day journalism. While the bloated capitalist is destroying the body of the worker, the daily press is poisoning his soul.

Of recent years a class of anti-Social-ist has groAvn up \alio object to Socialism on the ground of its "materialism." These folks are generally prosperous, Avell-fed citizens, who are fully alive to the benefits of comfort and wealth. One such, since gone to his account, Avho greAv rich on the labors of men who were cruelly sweated and tortured, said: "It was not so much a new house a man Avanted as a new soul." This hypocrite, Avho stabled his horses better "than his Avorkers Avere lodged, was a famous Scots philanthropist, and (had a habit of giving Bibles away. Had he studied his Bible to better account, he Avould have known that the founder of Christianity Avas no believer in hunger and cold "as a means of promoting righteousness. He fed the multitude before preaching to them. And he said to the rich man: "Sell all that thou hast and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven. But the rich man of Christ's day was like his present-day descendant, and preferred the treasure on earth. The Socialist insists on a healthy body for a clean soul. And if material good be not the best good, why do the rich men cling to their money-bags? Socialism will lead humanity to higher regions of spirituality by using material ladders. iYou cannot breed saints in slums, and it is mockery to preach the life everlasting, to a,-.starving man.