SOCIALISM.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 60, 4 July 1907, Page 3

SOCIALISM.

(r To the Kditor. Sir, —Is it a sacrilege to criticise tin editorial "wV'i If it is not, then would like to pour a few words in you) coniidiug oar re your sub-editorial oj . 'him- 27th on "Industrial ICspionugu.' . Anion*; other things, you put these word; into the mouth of the Socialist, making him say: "l have not the courage, the grit, the determination, or tiie brains; ' necessary fur the accumulation oi' mo- » nev. Von, my employer, have all those i qualities. I demaud ilie right of law to annexe a share of the work of your enterprise without doing anything for it." IVo'ligious! 1 said when L road the wi.-dom of the above sentence. Let me for a change transport you across the seas to England whore they do things in grand style. Look at this picture: The ltev. Father Wilcox, of Barmouth, writing to the Board of Guardians at Dougells, preaches this gospel: "I do nol see why we as ratepayers should provide shelter, food and attendance in the workhouse for profligates or fallen females. Why not let; such persons suffer in their own homes to their own shame and at their own loss, seeking their- own friends to wait on their needs? To give them shelter, food and every attention is only encouraging their evil ways, which ways ought to be crushed out of them." Now let tis turn to what a preacher of Socialism says, j and we read: ''The lot of supreme worth j is feeding the hungry, giving drink to I the thirsty, clothing the naked, hclpiug the poor and imprisoned. Our reason, conscience and pity draw us before ull other labor, towards living men, to sustain the life of our brethren and our sisters, to protect them from pain and death which haunt them in their unequal fight with nature." Which is the nearest approach to the gospel of "I was sick and ye ministered unto me."—Father Wilcox's or Robert Blatchford's ? We are proud of the fact that the liev. Father does not call himself a Socialist. When one contrasts the attitude of the high and mighty ones of the earth towards the bottom dog of society, because, like Oliver Twist, he asks for more, it raises a feeling of wonder as tortile possible outcome and if, after all, ''preaching the gospel to ilie poor" is not a misnomer. For, though the Church is worked ou Socialistic lines, "each for all and all for each," yet the richer branches arc dead against the gospel of Socialism. But the end is not yet, and we gradually learn wisdom from our mortals, and some day we will ''arrive." The trend of modern legislation seems to point to the reformation of the criminal, but a fellow wonders if the word "seems" is not the sum total after all. Some day in the far future we may emerge from savagedom far enough to find that we are men and brothers.—l am, etc., R.J.T.