Organiser's Rotes.

Maoriland Worker, Volume 3, Issue 58, 19 April 1912, Page 4

Organiser's Rotes.

By E. R. HARTLEY.

* WHAT WOULD YOU DO WITH THE IDLER?

C<-:tair iiciv-pajjers publish r« gularly i "('cod Tli.ngs irons Bonks.'' "Notable Sayings.'" ei<\ One heads its column, j ; "The Best Sayings." .Note this one:; "Da\ul m;i- just the t\ pit-iil, well-bred i V'Uiig liiii_ilMiiii;ui-- idle, good-natured, ■« >:Ui\\ r.gv.i.;. absorbed in sport and games."- ■•' 'Laura.'" by (.'areline Gros-vi-nor. Ivven SvJaliM, ppenker find most Nciaiisrs iiii; familiar wii.li the question. 'What would ymi do with the idler under N'ciali-uiir' These practical ; jioopic e.i;ii!.oi deal with the facts of J t< -<T.\ ; t-hey always; walnt to know | what :s going lo he done next week, ! nc.Nt n."-n;h. next year, or next con-; tury —wli«'!i ihey don't even know if they will i..< alive to-morrow. Yet tlioy insist (in b< ing called "practical." 'liiv proper answer to all .such is, "What do you do with the idler now!- 1 " In '."real Hritain threequarters of a million el' adult mcn —a population nearly as hig us that of all New Zealand—i oiiie ss in the census that they don't do anything. Further, they don't no,;ri to work. Like David in the book quoted, they are "well-bred." They need not work, because they have n number of slaves who are compelled to work tor them. It would degrade David and his friends to work; but their brothers (on Sundays) want work, must, work or starve! These "well-b-'ed' - (.:-) idlers lind it dignified to be extravagant, to waste their lives in sports and games ''while their brothers pine and die." And forsooth, the rich men's newspaper, the rich men's book, and the leaders of fashion and society describe them as gentlemen. "Cannibals!'' is the proper name —who eat up the very lives of their fellows. Ye shortsighted critics of Socialism, what do we do with the idlers now? Ye praise them, and belaud them, and hold them up as examples. .Listen I Under Socialism, there will be no idlers. I wonder what the world would think if all the workmen of Now Zealand demanded that, like David in the story, they should never work again but be idle and extravagant?