SALARIES AND SIN.

NZ Truth, Issue 75, 24 November 1906, Page 1

SALARIES AND SIN.

It- is strange that the' many bible- j baneui)^ bounders who aim at becoming social reformers never seem to stop and consider causes instead of continually crying for reform by legislation. Of course there are numbers of people m every walk m life. who take .to vice as a duck takes to water, but it is 6nly too selfevident that among the great number of vouns: men m Wellington who daily (or rather nightly)* go wrong m. a moral seiise, the majority have, m, the first instance, no real vice m t-hem. but merely start these pernicious practices— such as drinking and mercenary love— through having no better amusement. It , is a solemn fact, den 1 ? it who may, that, taken class for class, there is no more immoral— excepting always the Chinese immigrant — on the face of God's earth; thW. the Wellington clerks. It is no doubt hard for many to believe this statement, but anyone who will take' the trouble to inquire from any local medico dome much business with 'those suffering from venereal complaints, will find that the med-icine-man's chi<pf client m this class of disease i^Jhe. wen-dressed, .collar-artd^fefl^-pß^iM»e^^;^A*& 'far as the' drink side of the question is concerned one. has only to go into a private bar on a week night to see which class it is that is the publican's friend. To those interested m social questions' this surely signifies something that a certain section of the community, for the most part well educated, should run such a good second to the Hainimg-street Chinaman on the score of immorality. Some members of the staff of a big local shipping firm may remember the time, some two and a-half years aw, when nuite 50 per cent, of the clerical staff were suffering from "private complaints" m some form or other, and m a number of instances the sufferers were under the ac» of 21, and' m two cases were only 16 years old. Instances such^ as this are not by any means rare" m our mock-modest "don't-rknow-what-you-mean" community. How is it that the younger memTjers of other professions are not to anything like the same extent patrons of the brothel and the courtesan ?

Perhaps the employers— in so many instances pillars of the Church and religious enthusiasts— would rise- m righteous anger at the mere suggestion that the cause m many instances: lies with them. "But," they would say, "we set an example. We go to church. At night we stay at home." True. And yet it is m these last few words that perhaps the crux of the matter lies. The , employer has his home, his wife, his children; and it never seems to occur to him that the clerk who drags his existence out poring over work dreary enough to tire a. cab horse, should also want a - home of. his own. That "there's no place like home" is always being quoted by people ,who never trouble to look for a clear interpretation of the old saw.- Home, to the young man of any spirit is not the home of his parents, but of himself, of his wife, of his children. The employers who daily marvel at the great social evils of the day do they never think that half the young men who nightly resort to the dens of infamy, to the Haining-street gambling hells, to the brightly-lighted private bars, would not do so had they wives and children to work for, and yet how can a young man, unfortunate enough to be an ink-slinger, hope for a home when he is paid a wage which the employer would never dare offer to his store hands or his carters ?

Three minute's walk from "Truth" office there is a business firrri, the 'lead office of which is m a Southern city, and which pays (this as an example) its slapping clerk, at present nearly five years m the employ, the magnificent salary of £1 2s (3d per

i week. Some time ago this same firm ! lost a ledger clerk, through illness, and were forced to engage a temporary hand at £2 -per week: The other day word was received from the head office that this man's salary must be reduced as the firm "could not afford to pay that amount." This firm has five places of business m the colony, and on some lines clears up to 200 per cent, and 300 per cent., and yet it cannot afford . to pay a bookkeeper, a man of 29 or 30 years • of age, the magnificent salary of £2 per week. . This is only one case of dozens that could be mentioned, and yet it serves to illustrate the case of the clerk who, unable to support a wife or to have a home of his own, turns for amusement and . everything that makes life worth living, to the illicit pleasure-givers,' the publichouse and the bookmaker. The remedy lies with the employers. Let them pay v fair wages, and. besides gettine: their , employees entire devotion to their interests they will save the •country, from beinp: what it is now fast becoming—a country of brothels, beer-shops and bookies, whose chiel supporters are recruited from the class • - (self ; styled "■ gentlemen) 'the clerks and book-keepers. ,