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Show H Socialism Opening the H Doors to Hordes H of Asia 1 London, Dec. 12 "Democracv is H perhaps the silliest of all fetishes' ser- H loiiHly worshiped among us." H This utterance of Dr. Inge, dean of H St. Paul's, heforo an audience ow wo- H men at Slon college has started a H widespread controversy in the pulpit H and press of England. The statement H was made during the first of a series H of lectures on "The Co-Oporation of H the Church With the Spirit of tho H Dr, Inge, after referring to the great j achievements of the nineteenth cen- H tury, said that that great epoch v:i3 H now over, and civilization was sitting H pensively in the midst of her accum- H ulations like tho figure of Melanchol- H la. Tho speaker declared fhat the era H of scientific discoveries was happil H not closed, hut in all other fields H signs of exhaustion wero vory appar- H "For the man in tho street," said H the speaker, "tho tottering of the H great industrial fabric of the nine- H teenth century dominated all other is- H sues. A population of forty-eight mil- H lions had been massed on two small R Islands, while Englishmen wore mak- H iug England the workshop of the H world." Ho then explained that the H i natural advantages which had made Hj Great Britain master of tho commer- H rial world had either passed or were H passing and that America had now be- H come tho natural center of commerce H "In this country," he continued, "the H twentieth century is the spendthrift H heir of the nineteenth. The working H man seems to have resolved to make H himself comfortable by taxing capl- Hj lal in plain terms, by looting the ac- H cumulations of Queen Victoria's reign H and living on the rates and taxes. H He would have a short life and a mor- H ry one. An even worse fate will prob- Hj ably overtake Australia, a nearly H omptv continent within easy reach of H the Industrially far more efficient yel- H low races, guarded gratis by the H British fleet for a mere handful of H inhabitants.. For these reasons I H cannot join In the chorus of lay and H clerical advocates, who, when they H tell us to co-operate with the spirit of H the age. really mean that we should H co-operate with the labor movement H w and the spirit of Socialism. Social- H ism or almost any other exocriment H might answer in New Zealand till the H "Rrltlsh fleet ceased to patrol the rlng- H fence, after which the Yellow Man H would make short work of the pam- H percd trade unionist, but in England the conditions, T fear, are ideally un- H favorable for those who hope to sec H a dense population with high wages H and short hours. Our soil -will not H support them When wo cease to H outwork and undersell other nations H the working classes must emigrate or H Dr. Inge said fhat the belief that H the ballot box decided questions wisc- H 1, was only the old superstition of H the divine 'right of kings standing ou H Its head. Ho also decried what' ho H declared to be the soft an 1 flabby M side of modern humanltarianism. Tb H present horror of taking life, he said, I H seemed unnatural and was probably H only temporary. The Btate of the fu- H turc, he believed, would kill more H mercifully, but more freely. 1 Dr. Ingo deprecates the storm which 1 a lecture delivered before a modest H organlaztlon of women has aroused, H hut he is standing by his guns, ,il- M though fellow churchmen have' de- M nounced his statements regarding dc- H mocrncy in unmeasured terms. M That tho work of smoke abatement 1 and fog prevention is well beyond the 1 cxporimental stage, is one of the fl things which sanitary enginecrK will H attempt to prove at tho International M Smoke Abatement exhibition - -which ' H will bo held in London next March. ' M Politicians and medical men, as well 1 as engineers, have interested them- H selves in tho exhibition and are ac tively at work on the various committees. com-mittees. The demonstrations will show how smoke is formed and the loss It entails on tho householder in wasted fuel and the need for constant renovation. Firoloss cookery will ho a feature of the demonstrations, and the promoters promise to explode the theory that steel cannot bo manufactured manufac-tured without smoke. That tho movement for smoke and fog abatement haH not boon without effect Is shown by the statement of a London expert that since the movement move-ment began the average numbor of douse fogs hero has decreased by over 00 per cent, while the average amount of winter sunshine in tho metropolis has increased by 50 por cent- He bc-lloves bc-lloves that If the general public can be induced to tako,the matter seriously, seri-ously, tho London pea-soup fog can be abolished. British shipowners nrc preparing quietly, but on a largo scale, to participate par-ticipate in tho development of trade that is expected to follow the opening open-ing of the Panama canal. A combination combi-nation of somo of tho larger and smaller companies has recently boon effected which, it is bclioved, will give the British companies a commanding position in the competition for tho trade which will use tho cnnal The new concern will bo controlled by Lamport & Holt, a Liverpool shipping ship-ping firm. According to official figures, fig-ures, the combination controls steamers steam-ers aggregating 358,127 tons. A number of men employed on the Atlantic aud other liners, which make Liverpool thoii homo port, havo organized or-ganized a union which has for Its object ob-ject the prevention of strikes The union hopes to avoid strikes by the formation of conciliation boards in every district, for the organizers believe be-lieve that the idea will be taken up In every port. |