The Daily News. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 14, 1919. THE MIDDLE CLASS AND LABOR.

Taranaki Daily News, 14 October 1919, Page 4

The Daily News. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 14, 1919. THE MIDDLE CLASS AND LABOR.

The stirring speech recently made by the French Premier, M. Clemenceau, contains much material for serious consideration. Ostensibly it was an appeal for increased population as the most effective weapon against German aggression, but in reality it was a timely and emphatic warning against the misuse of power by the masses. France has experienced the rule of the nobility, the bourgeoisie, a,nd the rabble, but times have .changed, and it is the people, otherwise masses, who now control the destinies of the nations. M. Clemenceau has taken a leading part in French politics since the dark days of 1871, when he first entered the National Assembly, and he had first-hand experience of the commune by, which he was thrust from office. With his "long experience "and exceptional powers of observation and analysis, he speaks on this subject with an authority which few can claim, so that when he says that the masses, just as the nobility and middle class, believe everything is permitted them, and that to-day they can overthrow society because they possess the means to do so, his assertion may be taken at face value. At the same time he makes it quite clear that no class can arrest the economic life of the country without gravely damaging itself. Some idea of the relative economic standing of the so-called middle class with respect to what is known as Labor is to be gathered, apparently, from a little statement made at Harvard University in conjunction with the university campaign for an endowment fund ample enough to allow increased salaries to professors. "A motorman," says the statement alluded to, "gets sixty cents an hour, a professor eighteen. "Which is Worth the more, minding the train or training the mind?" That Labor is relatively in considerably better status than the middle class workers—the salaried folkis so obvious of late that to state it is trite. Labor is quite aware of this fact and is supremely indifferent thereto, although it is the middle class which feels acutely every upward throb of the Labor pendulum. Labor is organised, the middle class individualised, so that this indifference or hostility on the part of Labor bears unfavorably upon the middle class on the one side and the burden of capitalistic exactions, such as those expressed through food control and high prices, on the other. The organisations that are most directly representative of the middle class, instead of evolving a union among themselves, are gravitating towards organised Labor. Manifestly it is expediency that is forcing this sort of thing, but it has to be remembered, as already stated above, that the essence of the typical middle class worker is individualism, whereas the essence of the typical Labor class worker is uniformity. The natural consequence of this gravitation would appear to be the merging of the two classes for a common object—to secure fair pay and fair Working conditions. Labor would .gaia a substantial advantage J>jj.

a merger of the two classes, one result being a more general and more powerful stand against oppressive forms of activity byCapital, while it would also benefit by the development of a higher average of individualism in the merged classes, the middle class carrying into Labor an increasing body of mental workers, causing a corresponding uplifting of the combined bodies. Naturally the scope of the Labor unions would have to be enlarged, but the reform would be distinctly advantageous—to have the men minding the train join hands with the men training the mind. Another factor is also apparent—the elimination of the Labor extremists, the men who level down instead of levelling up. At the moment, with economic conditions serving as a vigorous stimulant to class action on all sides, there is an important interest in discovering whether Labor will welcome a union with the middle class and intellectuals. Such a merger would form a powerful and stable government in the interests of the community as a whole, and an impregnable barrier to exploiters and profiteers. The present tendency of the masses to overthrow society tis pernicious in the extreme. Labor needs a leaven that will counteract the existing yeasty influence that is continually working trouble. The advice of the French Premier is timely and most acceptable. It is only by a common effort that the problems of the day can be met and overcome, and that effort can only be made to bear fruit by real unity on sane, progressive lines.