MEN OR THE SYSTEM.

Maoriland Worker, Volume 3, Issue 45, 19 January 1912, Page 13

MEN OR THE SYSTEM.

The "Appeal" says: "We do not blame men but the system, /lot we criticise the old slave holder tor liavin.r slaves. Ido blame men. They could quit the grasping if they would.— J. E. Gore.

Of course, rthcre is a measure of pe-sonal rospons-iWility (says the "Appeal's" answerer). Kveu under present conditions, one should strive to be aw decent as possible. Hip re are men' who are too honest to Kraft, people who would not engage in the grosser forms oi' commercialism, such as the white- slave, traffic or even the liquor traffic, even if they knew thero was money in it. Had men been all they ought to have been, from an ideal standpoint, there never would have been such conditions as prevail to-day. Yet no man is entirely responsible for capitalism, and not even one generation is wholly responsible tor it. The- capitalist, is merely taking advantage of conditions which lie found in existence when he came, and his training may have be«n such that personally he failed to see the <-vil in what he did. Ho may have made conditions worse and still be unable to understand that ho was doing wrong. Should one capitalist refrain from taking advantage of the openings before him it would not relievo the situation, but lie would only put himself at a disadvantage as compared with others. Self-interosi suggests that lie win in the game, and therefore there is a sense in which no one is worthy of blame.