The Daily News. SATURDAY, JANUARY 25. CHURCH AND SOCIALISM.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 65, 25 June 1910, Page 4

The Daily News. SATURDAY, JANUARY 25. CHURCH AND SOCIALISM.

A remarkable sei'fiire was conducted by the Dean of Newcastle, New South Wales, recently. "The subject was "Socialism.'''' The Diian said there was no word in the language that had a greater variety of interpretation than "Socialism/' and probably if one hundred, Socialists were asked to define Socialism the result would be one hundred different definitions. Socialism had already caused'a big upheaval in Australia, and it was causing a big upheaval all over the civilised world. One might sum up the present aims of .Socialism as the effort to gain .political power in order to convert private property, whether in land or in capital, into common property and use it for the common weal. How far such a result, if possible, 'would be for the common weal was to very many more than a matter of doubt. What were the causes which made men without much thought declare themselves on the side of Socialism? Men saw strange differences between class and class, one class living largely for themselves, carelessly indifferent as to how Che other classes lived, or if they lived at all. Speakingi of .poverty as he had seen it in London, the Dean continued: "Who has not seen, on a bitterly cold winter's night, a crowd of shivering wretches waiting in the rain or snow, outside some restaurant, for the broken bits of food that will ibe doled out to t%m, the rich man's (leavings? Who has not heard the curse from the unemployed, tramping wearily through the streets, when the rich man's car splashes him with j mud, as it whizzes by ? Who has not heard the man turn and say, 'Damn the rich man,' and has not felt some sympathy, some pity, and some compassion! who has lived, as I have, amongst the refuse of the world, in the slums in the East End of London, who has not pitied the man he "has heard curse God, perhaps, because this wife is at home unaible •to suckle her lba.be —her breasts are ary from want of food —while he sees dainties that cost almost their weight in gold nibbled by the rich man and then discarded? Can it be wondered at that he does not remember that the luxuries enjoyed by the rich man all meant the employment of labor? Fortunately, poverty, out here in Australia, as such, is scarcely known, because you have not the climatic conditions to fight against that they have in the Old Country. Here, hospitality is so common, the climate is so kind—poverty, what is it? Some of you have known what it is to ibe for weeks out of work, to see your children go unshod, and .perhaps eating! food which erstwhile they would give to • the fowls. But, whatever the cause, the! cause is rotten and wrong." Men saw the inequity between the wealthy and I the poor, the Dean said, and cried, i "Away with class." It was easy to condemn men who went to extremes and made attacks upon capital. It was easy to say such men should be put down with all the force of the law —these men attacking! the system which lie called "individualism." The extreme of individualism was anarchy. The extreme of Socialism was communism, and the French Revolution 'had taught that anarchy and communism 'were twin brothers were, in fact, synonymous terms. When men said they were attacking capital they were misusing the term. He had heard men talking in a Ibig, easy way, and saying the capital was the damnation of the country. would ask them, When does a man become a capitalist? Is capital £5 or £50,000? He would define capital as' the po"-- '■ to wait and 'work. The grindin.r of it was that capital had tlie pe starving out. That was the abuse of capital. 'lt was when that power was used that every right-think-ing man condemned capital. That was why his sympathy was so much with the man who had no power to wait and to work. 1 Capital might be a .power for good, or it might be the most unjust power that a man could wield. "Where we have a state of affairs where Socialism is possible," the Dean added, "you will have a state of affairs where Socialism will not be necessary. If you can so arrange things in this world as to make it possible for men to share alike, be alike, have alike, you will, have a condition of things where there' will ibe no need to share, no need to have, be-, cause the millennium will cotne straight! away. There is a struggle going on In the world now between one class awl another. One class sees another class of people living an extravagant, luxurious life. They argue that if these men would only do their duty there would not be the horrible crushing poverty there is in the world. That is true. The Lord Jesus Christ was the Friend of the rich man and the Friend of the poor man, but I think He threw His weight on the side of the poor man." The Dean went on to refer to the illogical .position taken up by some politicians who, while advocating the handing over of the control of all capital to the Government, were always complaining of the way in which the Government ran the State services and treated the State employees. He wished them not to abuse capital, but the man who used capital not for the ibenefit of the com l munity but for individual luxury. They must realise that capital and labor were interdependent. Some people talked of Christian Socialism. There was no such thing. What they meant was .social Christianity. ;If Christianity was not social, it was not Christianity at all. "The Church, I am sorry to say," the Dean declared, "has not done her duty to the bodies, as well as to the souls, of those to whom .she should minister. There is that estrangement—l have felt it here in Newcastle as I felt it in the Old Country—which should not exist between the Church and the working man. The worker should see that he has a friend in the Christian minister; that, whether he is right or wrong, the clergyman will view with sympathy what he has to say, and if he is right, 'Support him at all costs. The Church that simnly throws its weight on the popular side has lost its high ideal; it is not the

Church of Jesus Christ. The Church that stands boldly and strongly for wo at is right, and says, 'lf the rich man won't have me, then I will be the Church of the poor man—that is the vital Church; that is the Church that will live. There is another side. If the poor man is acting wrongly, the Church must say, 'Friend, don't act like that. Your claims are unjust,' But. like our Lord, the Church must remember always that the poor man deserves much more sympathy than the rich man, for his hardships are many, many more. If the Church is to be the power she was in the apostolic t'iines, then the Church must show the •working class that she cares for them and is .prepared to live for them and work for them. She must show the workers that she is the working Church, careful for their bodies as well as for their souls, Where the Church sees a wrong done by the Government or byj a man, whatever that wrong may be, the Church, in spite of all, should &neaß and onndfmn it. I know full 'well that when the Church rises, as I think she will,' to her high privilege of ibeing the cliam-

pint; of the right—whether the right is ■Wi the side of the worker or on the side 'of the rich man—she will win respect, and in good time win universal admiration. But if she is going to stand on one side, wrapped u:p in her antique respectability, clad in her old garments, living in a past, forgetful of the present, pro- j foundly indifferent to the future, without a shadow of doubt she will cease to be a ipower, and in time will become nonexistent." In conclusion, the Dean said I lie brotherhood of man was behind every socialistic movement. It was the doctrine that if a man did not work neither -shou'ld he live. Some people were liable to think that. Laborism is synonymous with Socialism. It need be nothing of the kind. IJe referred to the "splendidly loyal" resolutions passed bv the Federal Government on the occasion of the King's death, and by unions throughout the country. "While that is true," he said, "we need not fear labor, ibut only those who try and teach ilalwr unionism extreme Socialism. We want to teach flaibor that capital is necessary to labor, and teach capital that labor is necessary to capital. Social Christianity teaches to give and take. No one has a monopoly of right or wrong. Let us try and understand each other better, and make Australia a .place where give and take is the creed of the Commonwealth, and class hatred is anathema to all true and right-thinking men."