INDUSTRIAL UNREST.

Taranaki Daily News, 1 March 1920, Page 5

INDUSTRIAL UNREST.

THE UNDERLYING CAUSES. METHODIST VIEWPOINT. The cause of social and industrial unrest was discussed by the president of the Methodist Conference, the Rev. E. Drake, in the course of his inaugural address. He said that many remedies had been tried for the ills of society—legislation, conferences, and Courts—but no satisfactory solution had been evolved. There had been unrest beforo the .war. Selfishness was the cause of social unrest, and was responsible for the upheavals of society, class hatred, and general dissatisfaction and bitterness, "If Labor makes demands that seem unreasonable and unjust," said Mr. Drake, ''let us remember that Labor suffered for generations from unreasonableness and injustice. And if Labor is unreasonable, so is Capital. In proportion, I suppose, there are as many unreasonable and unjust employers as there are unreasonable and unjust employees. There is a mission for Methodist employers and for Methodist employee:! alike—to Christianise their class, to insist on Christian principles being adopted in all methods of business and in all details of work. ''Profit-sharing and bonuses will not meet the case. If profits can be shared and bonuses given, then either* wages are not sufficiently good or the public is being robbed to an unreasonable extent in the price of articles sold. Moreover, in this way the capitalists are increased in number at the expense of the general public—a public that is never really considered in industrial disputes. There must be general co-operation of all classes for the common good, and this can only be readied and intelligently carried out as Christian principles dominate our conduct. Surely the Methodist Church will be true to its traditions in this respect! What" is necessary ii Chrwtianity—in experience and in practice."