CHRISTIANITY AND SOCIALISM. 



97 



would soon be elbowed out by the glib-tongued materialistic dema- 

 gogues, who would tickle the vanity and excite the greed of the 

 lower strata of the poor. History would repeat itself. The Girondins 

 of the French Ee volution were thus supplanted by the Jacobins, 

 followed by chaos, bloodshed and the old order re-established. 



Social amelioration must be gradual. The immediate doubling of 

 working class incomes, a boon to many, would, I am convinced, show 

 an evil balance of increased drunkenness, gambling, crime, and 

 laziness. If anyone doubts it let him go round the public houses 

 on a Saturday night (pay day). 



All who desire to raise humanity must work hard and intelligently 

 and be satisfied if they see slow progress ; they must speak boldly 

 against the canker of ostentatious vulgar luxury, and the feminine 

 craze of fashion and overdressing ; they must cultivate the simple 

 life and intellectual pleasures : strengthen the law against financial 

 thimble rigging, and wisely tone down the injustices of the past 

 without shattering the social fabric. 



Colonel Alves writes : — I have for many years been in favour 

 of Tariff" Reform with a view to the protection of our home industries 

 and those of our dependencies. This is seen by many. But what 

 I do not see commented on, and what I believe to be equally 

 important, is the attitude of Trades Unions which, beginning as 

 protectors of the wage earners, have now become the tyrannical 

 masters of the employers. Until their power for evil is curtailed, 

 I do not think that even Tariff" Eeform will do us any great good. 



We can see this amongst the leaders of the unemployed : — " Find 

 them work, but you must give them the Trades Union rate of wages." 

 The Socialists' theory is : — " The wage receivers do all the work, and 

 should receive all the profits, but never make good the losses " ; and 

 the Socialists are capturing the Trades Unions. 



The Trades Union policy for many years has been that of reduc- 

 ing activity and skill to the level of laziness and clumsiness, with a 

 view to " spreading-out " work over as large a surface as possible. 

 This is one of the most mischievous forms of Socialism, tending, as 

 it does, to the debasement of character. 



I fear that many of our workers amongst the poor, having more 

 benevolence than judgment and firmness, have been great, though 

 involuntary, workers of mischief, through failing to realise that life 

 is a very serious war, a war waged largely in the old way by men 



