298 SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITIES 



would^ ennoble and strengthen its purposes^ But, instead 



of all this, what is it we too often see? You have been 

 present at meetings where candidates for civic or imperial 

 responsibilities have sought the public confidence ; you 

 have heard them "heckled," you have perhaps observed 

 the questions asked of them. Have you ever heard 

 Capital press upon the candidate the rights of Labour? 

 Have you seen Labour anxious for the rights of Capital ? 

 Not as a rule, I venture to say. "The so-called 'rights' 

 of capital are all too well sustained," says Labour. 

 "Labour is sufficiently clamorous already," says Capital. 

 And both speak true, at least in this respect, that each side 



has^n]y_aji_obscurg^nd faint vision of the interests of the 

 State as a whole, and sees clearly only its own. I have 

 been ashamed in this city to hear the wealthy cry against 

 taxation irrespective of wh^^ajcatjonbrings, andjhe_poor 



cryjor civic gifts irrespective of what they cost. 



But if you would observe this spirit^at its worst, where 

 exposes its degradation most shamelessly ? jpou^ would 



find it where the amalgamated interests of a class of men 



are so powerful as to threaten the capture of the State. 



You will find it active wherever the State or city has privi- 

 leges to gnmt_or_to refuse. This is one of the evils which, 



as even its advocates would admit, "Protection" has to 

 encounter, and which must be set in the balance against 

 any benefits it may be supposed to bring. But you will 

 find it also in countries where trade is free. Does the 

 working man, through his labour representative in City 

 Council or Parliament, pja^ejiis^wjijiitej^sts^rstj 1 Then, 

 he repeats the errors of the privileged classes of the past, 

 and makes social wrongs reverberate further down the ages. 

 Let him rather send to City and Parliament men who care 



