That Pastoral on Socialism.

Maoriland Worker, Volume 3, Issue 54, 22 March 1912, Page 7

That Pastoral on Socialism.

An Open letter to Archbishop Redwood.

By E. R. HARTLEY.

(Continued.)

Earlier on you wroto of tho moral law which humankind in sll ages has respected. You, Sir, must have read some history. Probably you have forgotten, or you would know that -the moral law of the ages has been an ever-changing quantity; that tho moral law, the ethical ideal, and tho very forms of religion have changed at various stages of history, and that they have ever changed in accordance with and to fit in with tho material conditions of the people concerned.

Sir, it is true! Our principles aro grounded on Materialism, for the all-sufficing reason that, like your cathedrals and your very ChuTch ceremonies, there is no safe and solid ground anywhere else.

The material side of life is not the be-all and end-all nf life, but 'tis the very foundation of life, and all other forms of Hfe aro moulded from and take their rise and shape from the material conditions.

If Socialists are grateful for your emphasising the material ground of out position, how much more so ought we to be far the fact that you compliment us so highly as to "solemnly warn Catholics" to avoid the Socialist meetings?

Are our teachings so pertinent, so true, so founded on justice •nd oommonsense that you fear that years of teaching and training in your schools and churches will.be of no avail against them?

Perhaps we have a better tiling to offer them than you hare «ver given 1 Why should they not take it? It is idle to suggest that with all your teaching and training they may chooso a worse. After all that you have done, this should be impossible. Beware, my Lord Archbishop, lest ye also are opposing the truth I

The Class Struggle.

You say: "Socialism is founded on class hatred."

Another of your little mistakes. Socialism is founded on a ■cientific examination of tho facts of history, which prove that the growth of society has divided its members into two classes. One class owns tho land and tho capital, and while not using these as a means of production themselves, uses them as a means of oppressing the class which owns neither land nor capital.

Men cannot live and men cannot work if access to tho land Mid the tools of production aro denied them.

The owners of the land and the tools of production wtfl not allow them to be used to-day, except upon the conditions that the largest share of the tilings produced are given up to tlioso who produce none of them. This induces the state of things we term "The Class Struggle" or "Tho Class War," wherein there is a constant fight in which eaoh side is trying to obtain a larger share of the things produced.

There is no question of the usual political or religious differences in those tilings; men put themselves on the si<3<> of tlioir

economic interests apart from their politics or religion. If the threatened dispute with the General Labourers of Auckland comes to open rupture, all ifche property-owning and employing classes will join their fellow-employers and owncTS. Liberals and Reformers, Catholics and Protestants will join hands to fight the men and defend their economic; their class interests.

On the other hand, nion who voted against each other at the recent election • men who attend different churches and hold, a variety .of'different opinions on other matters, will be compelled to join'bands with their fellow-workers to light for tbo economic interests of the workers as a class.

This is jione of our doing; this is none of the churches' doing. It is" the, .natural.outcome of the history of the past and the economic development of the present. Tis idle to blame anyone, 'tis the result of the system. . Socialism is the only -way to abolish such a system. .

What such a system really means, and how near it approaches the barbarism of actual war, is shown by a statement of the Mayor of Auckland to tho representative of the "Herald." That tho Mayor would stand by his class was shown at the very beginnitig ol tho. dispute; that he understands the real meaning ip shown by tho following: Mr. Parr .thinks "the local bodies would p.ulU-r very'little as compared with the workmen. In tho meantime' close <>n "-WX) m<-n might remain idle. Surely under such eircuinstniiees the men and their families must necessarily be the chief 'sufferers."

Precisely ro "The men and their families." Their familiesi Not the families 'of tJie owners and employers, not the families of Mayor and councillors. To in any of these a strike may mean greater profits and greater opportunities for further profits. They will have no privations, they will have no suffering. It is the workers and their families who will feel the pinch of hunger and privation, and it.is because this master-class understand the power of hunger and privation that they deliberately try to provoke this point of tho class fight to an issue and invoke the aid of starvation and suffering to bring victory to their side.

How true it is to-day, Sir, that men know not what th«y do! Probably not a man of the whole set of employers and owners would deliberately try to starve one man or woman into submission, but as a class they have no hesitancy, and the Mayor's words would.seem to show tkey fully under§tand the issue.

Rent, Profit, and Interest.

In the Christian society of to-day, this is the position:—

The landlord wishes to get more rent; the tenant wishes to pay less rent.

The employer wishes to get more work for leas wages. The workman desires more wages for less work.

The mon< vlonder wishes for more interest on his money, and cures not from whom it comes.

Landlords,-employers and moneylenders are a very small part of tho community, whilo their interests are always contrary to the general well-being—their interests are always of a selfish nature.

Bat while small in number, they arc large in authority. When the workers undoi stand, very few of this class will ever again hold public positions. They cannot serve two masters, and their private interests are Contrary to the public good.

"Whether we like it or not, it is a. fact that society to-day is (liviiVd into two classes, two classes whoso interests are sharply divided—the Haves and tho Have-nots. These live in different

parts of the city, and the Haves try to arnmge tho sale of lands and property so that the Have-nots cannot live near'them. It is commonplace to refer to a working-class district, a ( middle-class district) tho district of the well-to-do. We can find it in any. guide-book.

■ The seats in our theatres and concert halls are arranged in the same way, while the very national railways are labelled first and s««omid-<;kss

/My Lord Archbishop, as we Socialists have arranged none of these jthings you can scarcely blame us. You can scarcely blame us when we see things clearly, because we have become classeonscious. We should hardly suggest that'you ride in the first-class carriages and sit in the first-class- seats because you hated the people in the poorer carriages and scats j but you yourself would not say it w«as because you loved them. Yon might in the church on Sunday declare that all men aore brothers, and even say they were equal in the sight of God, but on Monday' wlieri'travelling you would label them second-class. It would neither be lovo nor hatred—it would bo class-consciousness —and you would know to which class you belonged. . W« want tho working-classes to become class-conscious, not that they may hate the other class, but that they may consciously and intelligently break down class barriers and sweep them away for evermore.

No,.' Sir, Socialism is founded on justice, ami'class hatred 19 a product of the system of which you are an eminent pillar.

Socialism would make class hatred an impossible thing Chiristianity has failed to do sol

Having had so many points of difference, it is delightful t< come to points in which we can and do agree.

You ask your readers to "follow the noble ideal of justice fert all."

Why, Sir, it is because of our longing for this that we are Socialists! It is because a state in which the essentials of life are own«d and used for the. public good, instead of tho present system of ownership for gain, is the only one where it is possible to give "justice to all" that so many of us have spent, and are spending, our lives in trying to bring it about.

Will you, my Lord? AVill all those who, without enquiry and etudy, denounce Socialism, make a deeper inquiry, a fuller examination of what it ineane?

Will you please note that, in spite of the opposition of principalities and powers, for a long time most of its adherents - were drawn from the unlearned and poor; that to-day it is becoming a world power, loved and cherished by its adherents, and only feared by selfish interests and those who do not understand?

My Lord Bishop and gentlemen, we could not have gone so far and grown so great if there had not been in our principles the elements of Truth and Justice. No world movement has ever grown without these.

Sock yo the light. Examine, inquire into, search out diligently these things if they be true. They are true!

Com© into our ranks that we may speedily see that happy time—

"When man to man the wide world o'er Shall bri there be for a' that."