The Temuka Leader SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 1891. CO-OPERATION.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2166, 21 February 1891, Page 2

The Temuka Leader SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 1891. CO-OPERATION.

Socialism appears to be occupying a great deal of attention in Dunedin at the present time, Two years ago few ever heard the word pronounced, now it is on everyone’s ,ongue, and several membera of the present Parliament are declared Socialists. So great a hold has the question taken ot the public mind that several articles have appeared in the Otago Daily Times condemning it, and pointing out what it calls the fallacy of the proposal. It is, however, ominous that the Times is giving the question so much attention, and if we mistake not it is a matter that will force its way to the front in the near future. We find on one side farmers forming co-operative associations, and working men are now uniting toge her to form similar institutions. That co-operation will in this way develop rapidly no one can doubt, and the question then is, What is to become of those outside these institutions ? The largo capitalists are forming themselves into syndicates and rings, and are thus laying the foundation for a third class of cooperators, but what will become of the present middleman and his employes? How will he be able to get a living ? Our opinion is that he cannot get it. Some people delude themselyes with the notion that co-operation will make the world more prosperous and widen the field of employment. We notice that articles to that effect have appeared in the Christchurch Press, but anyone who gnes the question a moment’s thought will see the fallacy of such an idea. Co-operation must limit the field of labor. It cannot produce any other result, Let us suppose that all the farmers of South Canterbury deal only with the farmers’ co-operative store and all the working men with their own store, How could that give more employment to the | people ? There would be only two or 1 1 three huge places of business in #i

Timaru. All the other shops would have to shut up. All carpenters, painters, bricklayers, plasterers, and so on, who now find employment in building stores, dwelling-bouses, &c, for the people of Timaru would be unemployed, and so would the shop assistants and the othera who are dependent on the storekeepers for a living, as well as the storekeepers themselves. The co-operative stores would not employ one-tenth of them, for the more business is concentrated the less labor it takes to work it. There is sufficient evidence to Bhow that this is the condition into which society is rushing headlong, and the immediate future must find a solution for social problems hitherto undreamt of. As labor-saving machinery became more generally used, and the employers ot labor become fewer, the number of unemployed must increase. No other reßult is possible. Still it must not be inferred from this that' we are opposed to co-operation. On the contrary we welcome it most heartily, and only just point out what i the immediate results of it will be. We shall have to go through very severe times during the development of the co-operative system, but it will right itself in the end, and out of it will be envolved sooner or later the 1 grand system which will unite us all into one great co-operation, " When man to man the world o\r Shall brothers be for all that." THE SOCIAL EVIL. The social evil is another question which the Otago Daily Times has been devoting some attention to lately. 1 It attributes immorality to the spread ! of the literature of quack doctors, and quotes as an authority Dr Truby King, medical superintendent of the ; Dunedin Lunatic Asylum. This is a very superficial view to take of the , matter. The social evil existed before Dr L. L Smith and his confreres cut their teeth, and it will live after they and their successors are dead. The social evil is a product chiefly of poverty, and a social system founded on wrong principles, Rarely indeed do women who have independent means of living fall to the level , which is comprehended by the terms - " social evil," They may err, but they seldom go down to the lower level. Poverty is undoubtedly the main cause, and moral laxity is also to [ blame. If a man steals a sheep he is disgraced for eyer, but if he ruins his ' neighbor's daughter, especially if he happens to be rich and she poor, the offence is at once condoned. A high- ! born lady will not hesitate to take him s for her wedded husband next day. These ideas have come down to us 1 from the barbarous past. In those ? days the Lord of the Manor owned all the sheep, and made all the laws, and [ he made the stealing of a sheep a hanging matter. He did not regard ' immorality as a very serious crime, ob | he generally was the greatest offender himself. There are many of these i•' ideas banging to as yet, and we want to get rid of them. We want to regard a human being, even if the daughter of a poor man, of greater ! consequence than a sheep, and make the crime of immorality more dis- ' graceful than sheep stealing. That would be one step towards remedying J the evil, but it would be only a step. I Poverty is the great and chief cause, : therefore poverty must be removed. In London there are 80,000 fallen ' women, and if these were reclaimed to-morrow where would they get employment? There is none to be got. There are, according to : other statistics, as many women unemployed in London, and these are willing to earn an honest living if they could get it. If all these ; women were placed in suitable situa- ; (ions to-morrow the women who to- , day fill the positions would have to go idlo, and naturally enough they would fall into wretchedness. There is em- ■ ployment for a certain number. The supply is in excess of the demand. There is do room for the balance, and , it muse fall. To provide employment for all able to work, and a refuge for such as are, would save large numbers, but even this would only be palliative. Marriage is the natural state, and only a system which gives immunity from poverty, and enables men and women to marry, can completely purify morals. Lewd publications of all kinds ought to be discountenanced as disgustingly indecent things, but they have very little effect on the social evil, and if all such books were burned the good result would not be appreciable.