BISHOP JULIUS ON THE STRIKE.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2106, 2 October 1890, Page 4

BISHOP JULIUS ON THE STRIKE.

Bishop Julius preached at the Christchurch Cathedral on Sunday night on the labor difficulty. He took for his text: “Is it net lawful for me to do what I will with mine own,” and said that all were capitalists. Brain and muscle were as much capital as money, and capital had rights which everybody asserted; but it had responsibilities which few admitted. Some possessors of money consider it within their rights to pay miserable wages, to form “ rings,” to adulterate, to trade on the weakness, ignorance, and credulity of men. .Doubtless, however, many employers would pay better wages if they got better prices, but competition prevented them. The public would buy in the cheapest market, regardless of the workers who were ground down in order that things might be cheap. Though there had been some violence, the attitude of the men in the present strike commanded his respect. Continuing, he said :—I am by no means sure that unionism can accomplish a permanent rise in wages, but I am sure it has done good; work; but when I have said, “You have a perfect right to combine, to go on strikb, to put your foot down on starvation wages and sweating, I pray you to remember that your rights have corresponding responsibilities. You have no right to crush the whole nation for the sake of one class ; you have no right to injure; the country for the sake of advancing; the interests of one party. You have no right, as far as I can see, to put pressure on the rights of any otherj man; and why should you?” I look! upen this present strike, which has! gone so far-—too far, God knows, too; far—and as I look at it, I can see howl it is changing its character, and must! change its character. I fear that it will withdraw capital from a struggling I colony, and break down the good and! healthy factories where many men| were employed. I see, and fear to see, increasing bitterness on either side—a bitterness that it will take many years to remove. I see, and fear to see. the growing misery which strikes must cause even in a land like * this—misery especially amongst women and children. I ask: What is all this going on for ? Is there a man in New Zealand to-day who can say that any good can come of it ? Surely it is time that it should be broken down ! Let the two sides combine, as they ought to have done long ago. Let us, in the name of God, have done with such a spirit as on one side, and on the other, which says: ‘‘Let the battle be fought out to the bitter end.” Shall men in this day of Christ say that to one another? Oh, God in Heaven, is there no spirit of Christ amongst us to show some way of conciliation, some arbitration which should settle finally and peacefully the present strike ? I; a bishop of the church—oh, that my voice might be heard, though but the voice of one weak man —say, “in God’s name, don’t be led by the nose i by workmen or capitalists in the neighbouring colony, but make peace amongst yourselves.” . . . There is a certain book read by everyone, discussed in ©very railway carriage, l and full, in my judgment, of a great deal of pernicious er.'or. It is “ Looking Backward ” But there are one or ; two grand principles in that book—they are hot original—and one of the grandest is that the weak man and the feeble man is paid as well as the strongest. I will give to these last—to the poor, weak man who has not my skill, knowledge and ability, even : as to the strong. That is the principle of “ Looking Backward,” the principle of modern trades unionism, and that is the principle, if I know anything about it, of the s Word of God. Men say we are not all equal. God knows we are not. Nor are the children in my family ; for one is a tiny child, and another is a great strong boy. Do I say to one, “You can help me, and therefore I will give you the more ” ; and to the other, “ You are a little, weak thing. You cannot go out on strike, nor get ©ut of me more than I like. Therefore I will keep you down ” ? Not I. When I find one man strong and able to help me, I pay him; but when I find another who is weak, and net able to work so well, shall I starve that man ? Modern society says yes. Then why did not modern society drown him when he was born, and not allow him to grow up to starve as a man ? The man of my text did nothing of the kind. He said, “In righteousness and in the name of charity I will pay this man,” and that was the beginning of the brotherhood, which is only drawning upon men’s minds to-day, taught by, ; Christ 1800 years ago. My dear, brethren, there was one man who could put that question rightly, the Lord of Lords and King of Kings; and who gainsay His word ? He might say, “May I not do as I will with mine own ? ” but he looked upon the world of suffering humanity, and, coming down from heaven, took upon Him our nature. That ws might be rich He became poor though he was Lord of all, He humbled Himself, and became ebedient unto death, even unto the death of the cross. And I, with my last word to-night, say this one thing: “ My brothers, my sisters, employers and workmen,- rich and p»or, if you are Ijke, Jesus Christ, and if you act upon His principles, then you may go and do what you will Ffth your own.”