Te Aroha AND Ohinemuri News. TUESDAY, JULY 14, 1908. SOCIAL UNREST.

Te Aroha News, Volume XXVII, Issue 43349, 14 July 1908, Page 2

Te Aroha AND Ohinemuri News.

TUESDAY, JULY 14, 1908. SOCIAL UNREST.

This above all—to thine own self be true , And it must follow as the night the day Thou canst not then be false to any man Shakespeare.

(By F. G. Ew.’-ngton).’

One striking feature of modem life is the great unrest in industrial spheres manifested in grumblings, strikes, and class animosities. One of the remedies proposed for settling all labour troubles is socialism. They say : “It would be heaven below.” 5We doubt it. Let us look some facts in the face.

New Zealand workers have very little to complain about, and any reasonable complaints will easily secure the care of a paternal Government. The industrial classes here have amassed wealth, estimated by some persons at about £75,000,000 sterling. They also have acquired immense political power, so that collectively they could carry any just political measure they might desire. Thousands of them .could at once become employers of labour, but they prefer the certainty of good weekly wages to the uncertainty and worry of business liabilities. For in no part of the civilized' world are wage-earners so well-off as they are in New Zealand. They have within their grasp peace and prosperity, and a happy future that rarely falls to the lot of manual toilers. Will they use their talents wisely or unwisely? Will they listen to the voice of Socialist charmers and be led* to barter away their birthright ? We cannot think that the toilers in the Dominion will exchange their present savings, hopes, and beliefs for the uncertainties of collectivist socialism. That would be attaching more value to the shell than the kernel, to the body than to the soul, to the transitory than to the eternal. It would evidence the folly of mferely trimming the cage without feeding the bird within it.

By all means let us remove all preventive social evils, political abuses and economic wrongs. Let us secure justice for all political parties and for all individual mental and muscular workers. Let us aim at making life truly worth living, and even let us be on our guard against greed and selfishness, which cause so many deplorable evils.

In the industrial struggle that is now being witnessed in the United States, Russia, Germany, England, Australia, and New Zealand, .selfishness is the dominant note. The panacea offered by Socialists is purely in the working class interest, and there is a glaring disregard of the other great section of the people. Can it be reasonably imagined for a moment that society can be properly reconstructed except on the plan laid down by the Great Architect of the Universe ? “Other foundations can no man lay than those that are laid.” He has laid the foundation- of society in justice, mercy, pity, and brotherhood. Such 'a false step as the attempting to rear society on another basis was tried in France and it failed. “Reason,” says Frederick Engles, the eminent Socialist, “ became the sole measure of everything. The State based on reason completely collapsed.” Of course it did. So will all nonreligious, unscientific utopias. Let our working classes beware Lawrence Greenland, the Socialist author of various works held in high esteem, said ; “ I am more and more convinced that Karl Manx’s doctrine that ‘ the bread and butter question is the motive force of progress,’ is not tenable, but' that we must grasp the very highest moral and religious truths.” Exactly so. That is it. Personal rectification of character—the getting into “ tune with the Infinite ” —is what is needed and then the brotherhood of man based on the brotherhood of God will allay all social unrest.