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 CHRISTIANITY 
 
 AND INDUSTRIAL 
 
 PROBLEMS 
 
 Reiner 
 The Report of 
 TlieArclibisliop^* 
 Fifth Committee of Incpiiru 
 
 T' HE-KINGDOM OFGODISATHAND-^ 
 REPENTYEAND BELIEVETHEGOSPEL 
 
 1«. net. 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2007 with funding from 
 
 IVIicrosoft Corporation 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/christianityinduOOchurrich 
 
1^ ) ^ n ■ I J " iiipi ' i n ii '', 1 u J ^ ■^yy^"^ 
 
 Christianity and 
 Industrial Problems 
 
 BEING THE 
 
 REPORT OF THE •ARCHBISHOPS' 
 FIFTH COMMITTEE OF INQUIRY 
 
 PJRl I 
 
 Twenty-Hfih Thousand 
 
 PUBLISHED FOR THE NATIONAL MISSION 
 
 BY THE 
 
 SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE 
 
 LONDON : 6 St. Martin's Place, W.C.2 
 
 1919 
 
COMMITTEE '^ ^ ^ 
 
 Bishop of Winchester (Dr. Talbot), Chairman. 
 Master of Balliol (Mr. A. L. Smith). 
 Mr. H. Barran. 
 Rev. G. K. A. Bell. 
 Lord Henry Bentinck, M.P. 
 Mr. S. Bostock. 
 Mr. W. C. Bridgeman, M.P. 
 Miss Irene Cox. 
 Mr. M. J. R. Dunstan. 
 Mr. W. a. Durnford. 
 Mr. F. W. Gilbertson. 
 Colonel Hesketh. 
 Mr. W. L. Hichens. 
 Mr. F. Hughes. 
 Rev. R. R. Hyde. 
 Mr. H. E. Kemp. 
 Mr. G. Lansbury. 
 
 Bishop of Lichfield (Dr. Kempthorne). 
 Canon Lovett. 
 Mr. Albert Mansbridge. 
 Bishop of Oxford (Dr. Gore). 
 Bishop of Peterborough (Dr. Woods). 
 *Mr. C. E. B. Russell. 
 Mr. R. H. Tawney. 
 Mr. Christopher Turnor. 
 Miss Constance Smith. 
 Dean of York (Dr. Norris). 
 Rev. J. B. Seaton, Secretary. 
 
 * The Committee were deprived of the valuable assistance of Mr. 
 C. E. B. RusselJ, owing to his lamented death, at the outset of their work. 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 BY THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY 
 
 THIS Report belongs to a series : it is one of five. They 
 have the same historic origin, and that origin should be 
 steadily in the thoughts of those who read them. 
 Two years ago, in this grave crisis of our nation's history, 
 after much thought and prayer, we called the people of England 
 to a National Mission of Repentance and Hope. 
 
 First, during 1916, came the preparation of the Church 
 itself. In every Diocese and Parish we sought fresh guidance 
 of the Holy Spirit to reveal to us our own failures, both as 
 individuals and as members of the Church and nation. Then 
 followed, in every corner of the land, the Mission-call to cor- 
 porate repentance and to hope in Christ as the living answer 
 to our needs. The call told : not, of course, universally, but 
 very widely. We found that people were ready to face familiar 
 facts afresh : that a new spirit was breathing upon dry bones : 
 that we must, and could, be up and doing. As we appraised 
 the outcome of the Mission-call five subjects in the life of Church 
 and nation stood out with obvious claim for our rehandling. 
 The character and manner of our teaching : our worship : our 
 evangelistic work : the discovery of removable hindrances to 
 the Church's efficiency : the bearing of the Gospel message 
 on the industrial problems of to-day. 
 
 Five Committees of our best and strongest were accordingly 
 appointed to deal with these, and 1917 was given to the task. 
 Let no one regard as a disappointing thing the pause which 
 that deliberation involved. It may prove, by its results, to 
 have been the most fruitful time of all. 
 
 And now in 1918 the five Reports are in our hands. They 
 
 -1-52307 
 
iv FOREWORD 
 
 are not official documents; but whether we accept the con- 
 clusions or not they have the high authority which belongs 
 to the opinions of specially qualified men and women who 
 have devoted long months to their elaboration. The roadway 
 to right knowledge and effective action is now open. It is a 
 roadway which is offered not to those only who approach it 
 as churchmen and churchwomen, but to the English people 
 as a whole. It is the most important stage of the National 
 Mission. With all earnestness I invite, for these Reports, the 
 study and thought of men and women of good-will. We shall 
 not all agree about the various recommendations. We want 
 critics as well as advocates. Let there be quiet reading of all 
 that they contain. Let there be meetings large and small. 
 Let there be sermons and addresses and study circles, that 
 we may perceive and know what things we ought to do, and 
 that together, as the needs of our day demand, we may " go 
 forward." " It is not a vain thing for us : it is our life." 
 
 Randall Cantuai?/; 
 Lent, 191S. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 Introduction . . . ^ . . ix 
 
 I. The Call to the Church ..... 1 
 
 TI. Cifristian Principles and their Social Application 3 
 (i.) Introductory. 
 
 (ii.) The general character of Christian teaching. 
 (iii.) The example of slavery, 
 (iv.) The nature of the Church's witness. 
 
 (v.) The social teaching of the Church an essential 
 part of its witness. 
 
 (vi.) Christian Ethics binding upon social relations 
 as well as upon individual conduct. 
 
 (vii.) The teaching of the New Testament with 
 regard to material wealth. 
 
 (viii.) The teaching of the New Testament with 
 regard to the sanctity of personality. 
 
 (ix.) The teaching of the New Testament *with 
 regard to the duty of service. 
 
 (x.) The teaching of the New Testament with 
 regard to corporate responsibility. 
 
 (xi.) The social teaching of the Church only one- 
 part of its witness. 
 
 (xii.) The importance of character. 
 
 (xiii.) Conclusion. 
 
 Appended note on certain objections to the 
 application to industry of Christian prin- 
 ciples. ' 
 
 III. Some Historical Illustrations of Christian Thought 
 
 on Social Relationships . . . . .26 
 
 (i.) Introductory. 
 
 (ii.) The teaching of the New Testament, 
 (iii.) The Fathers and the Mediaeval Church, 
 (iv.) The influence of the new Political Economy. 
 
 (v.) Recent developments. 
 
 IV. Urban Life and Industry . . . . .50 
 
 (i.) Introductory, 
 (ii.) The need of a new spirit in economic life. 
 
vi CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 (iii.) The danger of acquiescence in familiar evils. 
 
 (iv.) The treatment of human beings as " hands." 
 
 (v.) The over-emphasis of the motive of self- 
 interest. 
 
 (vi.) The co-existence of poverty and riches. 
 
 (vii.) The evil of insecurity and unemployment, 
 (viii.) The antagonism between employer and 
 employed. 
 
 (ix.) Co-operation for public service, not com- 
 petition for private gain, the true principle 
 of industry. 
 
 (x.) The establishment of a living wage and of 
 adequate leisure. 
 
 (xi.) The prevention of, and provision for, unem- 
 ployment. 
 
 (xii.) The protection of children and young persons, 
 (xiii.) Association of workers and of employers, 
 (xiv.) The industrial employment of women. 
 
 (xv.) The need of a new attitude towards profits, 
 (xvi.) The development of local government, 
 (xvii.) Housing, 
 (xviii.) The parish priest, 
 (xix.) Summary of conclusions. 
 
 V. Education ........ 109 
 
 (i.) Introductory. 
 
 (ii.) The meaning of education. 
 
 (iii.) The significance of education for Christians. 
 
 (iv.) The importance of a liberal education for all. 
 
 (v.) The physical welfare of children and young 
 persons. 
 
 ( vi .) The training of the senses and the strengthening 
 of character. 
 
 (vii.) The educational ladder and the educational 
 highway. 
 
 (viii.) The need of a new attitude towards education. 
 
 (ix.) The necessity for more generous public expen- 
 diture on education. 
 
 (x.) The necessity of raising the remuneration and 
 status of the teaching profession. 
 
 (xi.) The reduction of the size of classes in elemen- 
 tary schools. 
 
CONTENTS vii 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 (xii.) The lengthening of the period of full-time 
 attendance at school. 
 
 (xiii.) The establishment of compulsory continued 
 education up to the age of 18. 
 
 (xiv.) Rural continued education. 
 
 (xv.) Non-vocational adult education. 
 
 (xvi.) Religious adult education. 
 
 (xvii.) Summary of conclusions. 
 
 VI. Conclusion . . . . . . .186 
 
 Appendix . . " . . . . . . 188 
 
 A Short Bibliography . . . . .HI 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 THE matters handled in this Report will be recognised 
 as exceptional in point alike of difficulty and of im- 
 portance. For it is concerned with the relation of 
 the Church to the general life around it, and, it must be added, 
 to aspects of that life which are commonly regarded as 
 least amenable to spiritual influences. 
 
 The Report represents the belief that the time requires 
 a new beginning on the part of the Church in defining its 
 attitude to the economic and social life of the nation. To 
 admit the necessity for a new beginning is to imply that some- 
 thing has been wrong in the past, and to acknowledge a need 
 for repentance. The admission and the acknowledgment are 
 both frankly made in the Report. 
 
 The matter for repentance has been in part an undue 
 subservience of the Church to the possessing, employing, and 
 governing classes of the past. It was the temptation of the 
 time, just as the temptation of the coming days will be that 
 of complaisance to the classes that are coming into power; 
 it had the force which social temptations of every kind 
 carry with them : and too often it was not resisted. 
 
 But perhaps the Church's deeper fault may have been a 
 want of faith in its own principles, the principles of the 
 Master's teaching. It required no little faith and courage 
 to stand up to what seemed a generation or two ago to be 
 the voice of science and even of philosophy, bidding men 
 trust the working of "natural laws" to yield, though at a 
 great social cost, the best attainable moral results. 
 
 But to do this will not now require, as it would have done 
 earlier, a conflict with Political Economy. Political Econom)^ 
 has itself learnt much and altered much. It has abandoned 
 the false abstraction of the economic man moved only by 
 motives of acquisition. It recognises that moral and spiritual 
 factors count, and that economic science only makes its own 
 necessarily partial contribution to the common aim of human 
 welfare. 
 
 We shall have support from economics in starting from moral 
 premises as the foundation of all economic arrangements and 
 in demanding that their authority shall prevail. In such 
 matters as those of the living wage, with adequate leisure and 
 security of employment, the status of the worker within the 
 industry in which he works, the provision of full opportunities 
 for all of education, health and housing, moral principles which 
 Christianity creates or recognises claim to dictate ' first 
 charges,' to which the economic process must submit and 
 conform. To get these things conceded, or even adequately 
 claimed, will require all the spiritual strength and courage 
 which the Church can command by disinterestedness and 
 
X INTRODUCTION 
 
 prayer. But it is the way of faith, and to follow it is, we 
 believe, to return to the best tradition of Christian teaching. 
 
 It is a difficulty inherent in a matter of the kind that a Report 
 must neither be too abstract and merely lay down general 
 principles, which may easily mean little or much, nor be too 
 concrete in detailed practical recommendation. The Com- 
 mittee have attempted to do their duty by both sides of the 
 matter, but they have strongly felt it their duty, in a time likfe 
 this, to err on the side of too much rather than too little practical 
 suggestion. The particular proposals may, doubtless, be 
 amended in many respects, but they will have done their work 
 if they make the discussions on the Report more living and 
 active, and if they show the strong conviction of the Committee 
 that the coming time is not one for speech and thought only on 
 these matters, but for considered and vigorous action. 
 
 The Committee are well aware that there is much in the 
 Report which will come to many Churchmen as an unwelcome 
 challenge and demand. They only ask not to be charged with 
 putting it forward in order to be popular. It is, indeed, likely 
 enough that the Report will, for various reasons, not be wholly 
 acceptable to any section of the community in the kind 
 of way which secures popularity. But they are not afraid to 
 say that they have tried to do something to take out of the 
 way of large numbers of God's people stumbling-blocks which 
 have made faith in God and the reception of Christ more 
 difficult for them. 
 
 The Committee, it will be observed, included representatives 
 of several different points of view and of varying industrial 
 experience, and the fact that they have signed the Report must 
 not be taken as pledging them individually to every detail in 
 the recommendations. But as its Chairman I may be allowed 
 to testify that there was a common temper in all its members 
 which made possible and largely successful the attempt to reach 
 agreement not by way of compromise, but by the gradual 
 reconciliation and interpretation of differences in the course 
 of argument and discussion. 
 
 They regard their work as, at the best, merely opening a 
 great subject. They cannot say too strongly that its practical 
 value will wholly depend upon the way in which it is made the 
 subject of quiet, temperate, and penetrating discussions by 
 Christian people, both among themselves in conference, 
 reading circles and the like, and wherever they have or make 
 opportunities of intercourse and exchange of thought with 
 others. 
 
 For the Committee hope that the Report may be of some 
 service both within and without the Church, making some 
 contribution to the common Christian mind which Christians 
 of many different kinds are alike seeking, and also giving 
 
INTRODUCTION xi 
 
 opportunity to those who wish to come into fair and friendly 
 contact with the Church's thoughts and aspirations. 
 
 There is a marvellously wide area of agreement that, in spite 
 of all Christian unfaithfulness and mistake, Christ is the centre 
 of the best aspiration and the mainspring of the best forces 
 in the world. There is a still wider consensus that the twin 
 principles of human value and human comradeship are the 
 master-keys of true progress. It may be left to history to 
 say whether the Gospel of God-in-manhood and of Love 
 human and Divine is not the one sustaining source and 
 inspiration of these principles. The coming democracy will 
 have unexampled opportunity, and will bring fresh eagerness, 
 for their application to social life. The Church, on the other 
 hand, believes itself to have the full secret of what it has 
 often failed to apply or has applied (as it must in fairness 
 be claimed) in limited, though honourable, ways. The world's 
 best hopes to-day"are bound up with the prospect of better 
 understanding between the two. If this Report should make 
 only the smallest contribution to that understanding the 
 Committee will be satisfied and thankful. 
 
 It is important to observe that the Committee confined their 
 attention to industry in its pre-war condition. The figures 
 used are pre-war figures. 
 
 The Committee made no attempt to deal with such subjects 
 as intemperance, gambling, etc., which, though they greatly 
 affect the life of the industrial, as of all other, classes, did not 
 seem to the Committee to lie within the area indicated by the 
 terms of their reference, and which were very probably being 
 handled either by one of the other Committees or in other 
 adequate ways. 
 
 Circumstances have caused more difficulty and delay in 
 dealing with the part of the subject which concerns rural 
 problems. The Committee have preferred to publish the 
 Report as it stands, with the hope that it may be possible to 
 add a Rural Supplement at a later date. ^ 
 
 The Committee were appointed m December, 1916. They 
 held, besides other meetings, one session of several days by the 
 kindness of one of their members, Mr. Christopher Tumor, at 
 his house. Stoke Rochford, Grantham. I had the honour of 
 receiving the Committee in the same way at Farnham, in 
 November ; and in January a third meeting on similar lines 
 was held at Balliol College" by the kind arrangement and 
 hospitality of the Master. 
 
 The Committee are much indebted to their Secretary, the 
 Rev. J. B. Seaton ; and, as Assistant Secretary and Registrar, 
 Miss D. W. Jones has rendered them invaliiable service with 
 equal courtesy and efficiencv. 
 
 EDW. WINTON. 
 
TERMS OF REFERENCE 
 
 To consider and report upon the 
 ways in which the Church may 
 best commend the teaching of 
 Christ to those who are seeking to 
 solve the problems of industrial life. 
 
CHRISTIANITY AND 
 INDUSTRIAL PROBLEMS 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 The Call to the Church 
 
 ^ T X T E desire to begin our Report by affirming our summary 
 \ A/ conclusion and presenting it in its practical aspect. 
 
 V T This summary conclusion of all the reflection and 
 discussion and prayer which we have given to the important 
 group of subjects submitted to us is the desire that a call as of 
 a trumpet should go forth to the Church to reconsider the moral 
 and social meaning and bearings of its faith, and, having 
 estimated afresh their importance in the full presentation of the 
 Christian message to the world, to be prepared to make the 
 sacrifices involved in acting frankly and fully upon the prin- 
 ciples of brotherhood and of the equal value of every single 
 human life. We cannot conceal either from ourselves or from 
 others that the traditions, prejudices and customs of the 
 *' industrial epoch " in the history of our country have in 
 manifold ways violated these principles even flagrantly, and that 
 the sacrifices involved in making a fresh start will be great and 
 difficult. But it is for a fresh openness of mind and a fresh 
 reality of sacrifice that we desire the trumpet-call to go forth 
 to the Church. 
 
 We recall with thankfulness the immense debt which the 
 cause of human betterment has owed in past generations both 
 to the Church as a society and to individual Christians. Upon 
 this there is no need to enlarge. But also we are conscious 
 of the lamentable failure in the Church's recent witness. It 
 has laboured hard in the cause of personal character and in the 
 cause of charity. Now, personal character is certainly the 
 indispensable requisite for the wholesome working of any 
 system ; but personal character depends largely upon the 
 general principles and assumptions of the society to which 
 the individual belongs, and it is these general principles 
 and assumptions which have been in some important respects 
 strangely defective. Charity, again, in its truest sense means 
 a sort of glorified justice, and looks at least as much to the 
 prevention of evil as to its cure. But our " charity " has meant 
 far too exclusively what may be called ambulance work for 
 mankind — the picking up of the wounded and the curing of 
 their wounds. We have neglected to attack the forces of wrong. 
 We have been content with the ambulance work when we ought 
 to have been assaulting the strongholds of evil. We have 
 allowed avarice and selfishness and grinding competition to 
 
2 CHRISTIANITY ANT) INDUSTRIAL PROBLEMS 
 
 . work havoc over the broad spaces of human life. We want a 
 strenuous reaffirmation of the principles of justice, mercy and 
 brotherhood as sovereign over every department of human life. 
 
 2. In seeking to make this call ring in the ears of the Church 
 we wish to say at starting that we use the word Church without 
 any controversy and in the largest possible sense to mean " all 
 who profess and call themselves Christians." We know and 
 deplore the divisions of Christendom, and we do not in the least 
 luiderrate the difficulties involved in healing ancient wounds and 
 restoring violated fellowship. We do not underestimate the 
 theological and constitutional questions involved. But we say 
 deliberately that in the region of moral or social questions we 
 desire all Christians to begin at once to a^t together as if they 
 were one body, in one visible fellowship. This could be done 
 by all alike without any injury to theological principles. And 
 to bring all Christians together to act in this one department of 
 life as one visible body would involve no loss and manifold gain. 
 We should get to know and trust one another : we should learn 
 to act together : we should thus prepare the way for fuller 
 unity : and, on the other hand, we should win for our action on 
 social questions in town and country a weight and effectiveness 
 which it is idle to expect from the action of a variety of sects 
 and bodies. What we desire to see in towns, counties and 
 villages is the organisation of all who share the Christian 
 profession to act together in the name of Christ for the making 
 of a better England through the courageous application to the 
 present-day situatic/n of the fundamental ethical principles of 
 our religion. 
 
 1 
 
CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 Christian Principles and their Social Application 
 
 (i.) Introductory. 
 
 (ii.) The geueral character of Christian teaching, 
 (iii.) The example ol' slavery, 
 (iv.) The nature of the Church's witness, 
 (v.) The social teaching of the Church an essential part of its 
 
 witness, 
 (vi.) Christian Ethics binding upon social relations as well as 
 
 upon individual conduct, 
 (vii.) The teaching of the New Testament with regard to 
 
 miaterial wealth, 
 (viii.) The teaching of the New Testament with regard to the 
 sanctity of personality, 
 (ix.) The teaching of the New Testament with regard to the 
 
 duty of service, 
 (x.) The teaching of the New Testament with regard to 
 
 corporate responsibility, 
 (xi.) The social teaching of the Church only one part of its 
 
 witness, 
 (xii.) The importance of character, 
 (xiii.) Conclusion. 
 
 Appended note on certain objections to the application 
 to industry of Christian principles. 
 
 (i.) Introductory 
 
 3. The first duty of the Christian Church is to witness to its 
 Master, Jesus Christ ; its second, to transmit and expound the 
 Christian principles which form part of the Faith committed to 
 it. The acceptance of those principles is not, of course, confined 
 to members of the Church or even to those who hold the 
 Christian Faith. The story of Jesus Christ, His example, 
 character, life, and words, are open to all in the New Testament. 
 His name is, therefore, widely known and honoured as that of 
 the supreme teacher and leader of mankind, even among 
 many who do not call themselves Christians ; and current 
 morality has for ages been influenced and inspired by principles 
 which are Christian in their origin and character. 
 
 While the Church claims no monopoly of the witness to 
 Jesus, it does claim that its witness shall be heard. It has 
 preserved the Gospels and the gospel which they contain. 
 It urges their acceptance and study. It claims to have an 
 understanding of them derived from those who, from the first 
 ages, have, by help of God's Spirit, followed Jesus Christ, 
 
 b2 3 
 
4 CHRISTIANITY AND INDUSTRIAL PROBLEMS 
 
 pondered His words and schooled themselves by His teaching. 
 The Church knows that it has much to give and to teach about 
 Jesus Christ which, without its help, may be missed. But it 
 recognises none the less that its interpretation may both 
 neglect and disfigure certain features of the original, and it 
 owns freely that this has been, and often is, the case. Nor 
 does it forget that men outside its pale may, in regard to the 
 application of Christian principles, see points which have not 
 been discerned by Christians. In such matters the Church is 
 ready, therefore, to learn as well as to teach. But it is sure of 
 the truth of Jesus Christ, and of its special responsibility and 
 commission to teach it. 
 
 (ii.) The General Character of Christian Teachi/ng 
 
 4. The principles of Christ are to be sought in three principal 
 ways. They are to be ascertained from His direct teaching, 
 from the teaching which He accepts, fulfils, or makes complete 
 by His own words, and from the gradual leavening of human 
 life both by His own example and teaching and by the society 
 which He founded. In the first place, there are the recorded 
 sayings of our Lord, such as those, for example, with regard to 
 the supreme and equal value of every human life, with regard 
 to brotherhood and the duty of each man to his neighbour, 
 with regard to riches and poverty and the stewardship of 
 wealth. In the second place, there is His acceptance and 
 confirmation of those moral and social teachings of the Old 
 
 ~ Testament, in the Law and in the Prophets, which made man's 
 life more humane, more just, and more free, and which were 
 partial expressions of principles fully uttered by Jesus. In the 
 third place, there is the influence upon subsequent ages of His 
 person, His example and His teaching, working through the 
 presence of His Spirit in the Church as a whole and the 
 
 ' individual members of it. 
 
 5. This threefold teaching of our Lord leads men not by rules, 
 which may be superseded, but by a spirit, whose influence is 
 perpetual because of itself it creates the hunger for its more 
 perfect application to the life of man. It offers a standard with 
 which the social institutions of every period may be compared 
 and by which they can be judged. It suggests principles of such 
 a kind that, while themselves paramount, they are capable of 
 being embodied in different political or economic forms to suit 
 the needs of different ages. It stimulates progress, for these 
 principles are capable of constantly larger and more ample 
 application. It leaves large liberty to men in giving them 
 practical embodiment in the circumstances of the period and 
 country in which they live. It thus increases both their 
 responsibility and their power to discharge it. They have often 
 been too slow, and sometimes too impatient, to keep pace with 
 
CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES 5 
 
 the method of their Master. They have treasured old bottles 
 when new ones were needed to receive the new wine of Ufe : 
 they have thrown old bottles away even when new ones were 
 not yet available. 
 
 (iii.) The Example of Slavery 
 6. As an example both of the general leavening of society by 
 Christian pnnciplcs, and of the apathy by which that process 
 was retarded, the case of slavery is, we think, instructive. 
 Jesus Christ and slavery are incompatible, for Christ is the great 
 Emancipator. Implicit in the value which He set on every 
 individual life, in the new significance given to each human soul 
 as a redeemed member of His body, and in the great and funda- 
 mental principle of mutual unselfishness which He taught, the 
 fundamental opposition of Christianity to slavery was dis- 
 cerned by St. Paul when he said, " There is neither bond 
 nor free ... for ye are all one in Christ Jesus."* But 
 Jesus Christ did not lead a movement for emancipation ; nor 
 did His disciples, though full of His spirit, and with courage to 
 face any dangers, conceive that to be their duty. The early 
 Christians had, indeed, no control qf the political system, but 
 were universally suspected and generally hated. Hence the 
 time for an organised movement had not yet arrived. It is 
 possible, indeed, that it might have been postponed by an 
 attempt to hasten it, and that the witness of the disciples to 
 the truth which came by Jesus Christ might have been lost 
 or obscured in the struggle for one of its applications. 
 
 Though, however, the disciples did not insist on the emancipa- 
 tion of slaves, it is none the less true that the effect 
 of Christianity was to modify and undermine slavery. An 
 historical process was begun through which Christian principles 
 gradually worked upon social life and institutions. On the 
 one hand, the relation between the Christian master and his 
 slave was tempered and transformed, as the absolute civil 
 authority of the former was outweighed and controlled by the 
 spiritual equality of both.f On the other hand, acts of 
 emancipation became frequent on the part of Christians, and 
 the influence of the Church was employed to promote them, 
 as deeds of charity or of repentance. When Christianity 
 gained an official status in the Roman Empire in the age 
 of Constantine this process should have gone forward 
 more quickly and on a larger scale. But the Church became 
 largely secularised and was impotent for so great a change. 
 Henceforward, therefore, during the Dark and Middle Ages, 
 the influence of Christian teaching was felt less in any general 
 
 * Galatians, iii. 28. 
 
 t Vide St. Paul's Epistle to Philemon and his injunctions to masten in 
 Ephesians and Oolosiians. 
 
6 GHRISTIANITY AND INDUSTRIAL PROBLEMS 
 
 movement than in the encouragement of individual manu- 
 missions, and also, perhaps, in causing the substitution of 
 serfdom for slavery and the gradual liberation of serf^. 
 
 It is remarkable, indeed, how hesitatingly the essential 
 Christian principle of freedom was applied. The converted 
 Anglo-Saxons atterripted with a simplicity and directness 
 beyond any of the new nations to transform the Gospel 
 precepts into declarations of law. Yet for 300 years (down to 
 Ethelred) the Anglo-Saxon laws did not forbid the selling of 
 slaves except when they were sold into a heathen nation, 
 ** that those souls perish not that Christ bought with his own 
 life." Two centuries later the Papacy denounced on the same 
 grounds the Venetians' trading in slaves. The great dis- 
 coveries of the fifteenth century, and the opening of the New 
 World in the sixteenth, led to a new form of slave trade which 
 even professed a religious sanction ; Sir John Hawkins, when 
 he made a fortune by selling negroes to the Spanish Colonies, 
 prided himself on bringing the heathen of Africa into Christian 
 lands. Even in our own country men were openly sold to be 
 slaves in the plantations after Monmouth's Rebellion in 1685. 
 It was not until 1782 that the English judges in the case of 
 the negro Somerset decided that any slave setting foot on 
 English soil becomes a free man ; a ruling which now in the 
 Red Sea and the Persian Gulf takes the very practical form 
 that a slave is freed by getting hold of a rope from a boat 
 belonging to one of our warships, as such a warship is a floating 
 piece of British soil. But it is well to remember that in Cuba 
 and Brazil slavery was legal almost to the present generation ; 
 that Livingstone could still describe the African slave trade 
 as the great open sore of the world ; and that as late as the 
 American Civil War treatises were being written to defend 
 slavery as a novitiate or apprenticeship for inferior races, as a 
 necessary stage in the development of new countries, as a 
 universal and therefore Divine institution, or as an execution 
 of the Divine decree that Ham should serve his brethren. 
 
 The truth is that a frightful set-back had taken place when 
 zeal for the inspiration of the whole Bible led to the fatal 
 mistake of putting the inspiration of the Old Testament on an 
 equality with thkt of the New. What had been allowed to 
 " them of old time " before Christ was regarded as on a level 
 with the New Law which He had pointedly contrasted with it, 
 and the Christian tradition of personal freedom was submerged 
 by the Levitical and other precedents which were freely quoted 
 as justifying the slavery of the coloured man.* But, though 
 submerged, that tradition was not obliterated. It proved its 
 
 * For an illuminating discussion of certain aspects of the teaching of 
 the Old Testament and of Christianity with regard to slavery -see Goldwin 
 Smith, Does the Bible Sanction American Slavery f 1863. (Parker.) 
 
CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES 7 
 
 vitality by reasserting itself in the agitation against the slave- 
 trade ; and, combining with doctrines of civil and political 
 liberty, it produced at last, largely through the influence of 
 great Christians such as Clarkson and Wilberforee, the abolition 
 of British slavery, which led the way for the general movement. 
 The fundamental immorality of slavery was at length fully 
 realised. 
 
 Christians are bounc( to fight against the remainders or 
 revivals of slavery, or reversions to it, without being called 
 upon to pass condemnations, which would often be Pharisaical, 
 upon the Christians of an earlier age. The process has at last 
 worked itself out. But it is easy to see that it might haye done 
 so more quickly if Christians had been more faithful, and if 
 thev had been able to make society more truly Christian. 
 
 The lesson is one which ought to be remembered. For, 
 apart from Christian influences, recrudescences of slavery, 
 especialh'' where white men deal with backward races, are only 
 too possible. The older form of Kanaka recruiting has been 
 officially described as negro slavery over again. A future age 
 will probably look upon some features of our industrial system 
 with something of the same feelings which are aroused in us 
 when we survey the nineteen centuries which it has taken to 
 make a professedly Christian world apply Christian principles 
 to the case of slavery. 
 
 (iv.) The Nature of the ChurcKs Witness 
 
 In view of the general character of Christian teaching and 
 of past experience of its influence, there are, we submit, four 
 main conditions with which the witness of the Church " to those 
 who are seeking to solve the problems of industrial life " must 
 comply. 
 
 First, it must be a witness to principles which touch some- 
 Ihing larger and deeper than social or industrial needs. Life is 
 more than livelihood, and human beings are men before they are 
 workmen or employers. 
 
 Second, it must be a witness to principles by which all social 
 conditions are to be judged. Christians cannot allow that 
 there is any department of human activity which falls outside 
 the sphere of Christian teaching. " Conscience in an industrial 
 society," to quote the Report of the Committee on Industrial 
 Problems of the Lambeth Conference of Bishops o/1897,* " will 
 look for moral guidance on economic matters. Economic 
 science does not claim to give this. . . . But we believe that 
 Christ our Master does give such guidance . . . and therefore, 
 
 * Conference of Bishops of the Anglican Communion. Holden at 
 Lamlxth Palace in July, 1897. Encyclical Letter from the Bishops, with 
 the Resolutions and Reports (S.P.C.K.). -^ 
 
8 CHRISTIANITY AND INDUSTRIAL PROBLEMS 
 
 under Him, Christian authority must in a measure do the 
 same.*' 
 
 Third, it must be a witness to principles Which are always 
 pressing, by the force that is in them, for fuller embodiment and 
 application. Thus the principle of human value must work 
 towards more complete equality, both of opportunity and 
 consideration : ' each counts for one and not more than one.' 
 The principle of service by each and all as the ideal of hiiman life, 
 expressed in the words " I am among you as He that serveth,"* 
 must result in a greater abolition of privilege and social autho- 
 rity on the part of individuals or classes, and towards govern- 
 ment or management of all by all. The principle of love and 
 brotherhood must inspire a fuller organic unity of human 
 society. The principle of the sanctity of personality must 
 achieve a fuller and more abundant life, both spiritual and 
 material, for all human beings. 
 
 Fourth, it must be a witness to principles which make any 
 social arrangement, while it lasts^ work humanely, and as fairly 
 and respectfully to each human being concerned as its limita- 
 tions allow. They must, for example, be such as to cause 
 employers to be thoughtful in detail about the conditions under 
 which employees work, employees to be considerate of the 
 problems and difficulties of employers, and the general public 
 to reveal by its practical action its consciousness of its respon- 
 sibility for the circumstances in which the goods supplied it are 
 produced. 
 
 (v.) The Social Teaching of the Church an Essential Part of 
 its Witness 
 
 10. The social principles of Christianity, therefore, must be 
 general in character and capable of progressive application. 
 But they are general because they are universal, not because 
 they are indefinite.- They are not the less obligatory because 
 they often demand a corporate, as well as an individual, effort 
 for their fulfilment. They are not a mere deduction from, or 
 corollary to, the Christian Faith. They are an essential part 
 of it, and to insist upon them is an indispensable element in the 
 witness of the Christian Church. From the Faith committed 
 to it the Church derives a distinctive conception of the nature 
 of man, of his relations to God and to his fellow men, and of the 
 principles upon which his life, both individual and social, ought 
 to be based. The ethical teaching of Christianity does not. 
 therefore, merely inculcate moral goodness, for some kind of 
 goodness is inculcated by many other religions. It indicates 
 the sense in which moral goodness is to be interpreted by 
 Christians, and the qualities upon which special emphasis 
 
 * St. Luke xxii. 27. 
 
CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES 9 
 
 should be laid by them. Founded upon the life and example 
 of a unique Person, the Christian Church claims to offer a 
 spiritual ideal sufBciently definite and comprehensive to supply 
 a criterion of human conduct and institutions. It is a society 
 which stands not only for a body of doctrine but for a way of 
 life. 
 
 The scope and application of Christian ethics have been inter- 
 preted in more than one way in the past and are interpreted in 
 more than one way to-day. The space at our disposal does 
 not allow us to enter upon a detailed consideration of the large 
 questions involved. But we venture to lay down five main 
 positions which we believe to be at once a vital part of the 
 Christian Faith, and to be too generally disregarded, both in 
 the presentation of Christian teaching and in the economic life 
 of Christian communities. 
 
 (vi.) Christian Ethics binding upon Social Relations as well 
 as upon Individual Conduct 
 
 11. (a) In the first place, then, we think it our duty to point out 
 that Christianity claims to offer mankind a body of moral teach- 
 ing which not only is binding upon individuals in their personal 
 and domestic conduct but also supplies a criterion by which to 
 judge their economic activity, their industrial organisation, and 
 their social institutions. Though to many of our readers such a 
 statement will appear the truism which it is, it is nevertheless 
 not unimportant to insist upon it, because to tolerate its 
 neglect is to give occasion to th^ dangerous error which consists 
 in the divorce of rehgion from the business of practical life. 
 We do not, of course, suggest that this error is universal, for 
 there are many in all classes who carry the spirit of Christianity 
 into the world of industry and commerce. But few would 
 deny that it is too prevalent, that it is supported by powerful 
 currents of interest and opinion, and that it creates an environ- 
 ment unfavourable to the embodiment of Christian ideals in the 
 social order of Christian communities. - 
 
 There is a view of human affairs which draws a sharp dis- 
 tinction between the life of the individual and the organised 
 arrangements of society, between the ethical standards to which 
 it is a man's duty to conform in his personal conduct and those 
 applicable to his conduct as a workman, an employer, a mer- 
 chant, or a citizen, between his activities as a moral being and 
 the economic or political fabric within which they are carried on, 
 and which suggests that, while the former should be inspired 
 by the teaching of Christianity, the latter must be judged by 
 other criteria. Stated in its more moderate form this view 
 implies that, while it is, no doubt, desirable that Christian 
 ethics should be applied to economic conduct and industrial 
 organisation, such an application is not of the essence of Chris- 
 
10 CHRISTIANITY AND INDUSTRIAL PROBLEMS 
 
 tianity, is not always compatible with the practical exigencies 
 of business life, and is a matter of convenience rather than of 
 positive obligation. Pushed to extremes, it suggests that 
 society, and in particular its industrial fabric and economic 
 activities, are to be judged not by moral principles but by 
 economic results — that they are analogous, in fact, to a mecha- 
 nism to which spiritual considerations are irrelevant because 
 its primary function is the attainment of economic efficiency 
 and the organisation of productive power. A Christian com- 
 munity is sometimes considered, in short, to be one in which 
 individuals must endeavour to conform in their personal Jives 
 to Christian teaching, but in which they may nevertheless 
 take industrial arrangements and social institutions for granted, 
 without inquiring how far they are compatible with the ethics 
 of the New Testament and of the Christian Church. 
 
 12. " Christian opinion," stated the Committee of the Lambeth 
 Conference of Bishops of 1897, " ought to condemn the belief 
 that economic conditions are to be left to the action of material 
 causes and mechanical laws." This conception of the nature 
 of society and of the scope of religion is one which Christians 
 cannot accept, and which would probably, indeed, be repudiated 
 by the better mind of all who reflect upon its implications. 
 It would tend, if dominant, to the exclusion of Christian ethics 
 from the whole world of economic activity and of social relations, 
 and would result in the triumph of the economic Machiavellism 
 which says that " business is business," as some nations have 
 said that " war is war." It need not, indeed, be denied that 
 such a view of life produces results which are outwardly brilliant 
 and imposing, in the world both of politics and of industry. By 
 relieving men of the moral restraints which control the strong 
 and protect the weak, it simplifies their problems, and enables 
 them to concentrate on the organisation of power, power to 
 govern or power to produce. It converts society into a potent 
 engine for the accumulation of material wealth, because it 
 encourages a single-minded concentration on the pursuit of 
 economic efficiency. It is the natural creed of the Napoleons 
 and Bismarcks of the world, whether their sphere be war or 
 politics or industry. That industry is a mechanism in which 
 methods of organisation and social relationships are to be 
 determined by considerations of economic expediency — this 
 doctrine has for a century had a wide influence in moulding 
 industrial organisation and social life. Those who yield to 
 its glittering allurements have their reward. It offers them 
 power, affluence, material comfort, " all the kingdoms of the 
 world, and the glory of them."* 
 
 13. The appeal of this conception is impressive. But, whatever 
 spectacular achievements it may have to its credit, the spirit 
 
 * St. Matthew iv. 8. 
 
CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES 11 
 
 which would divorce economic activity from religious con- 
 siderations is distinctly and peculiarly unchristian. It is 
 unchristian not only in its failures but even more in its successes. 
 It does not accept the idCiils of the New Testament and fail 
 to attain them. It has an ideal which is different, and which, 
 superficially perhaps, is more plausible. For Christianity 
 regards society, not as a machine, but as an association of 
 men, the ultimate object of which is to promote the develop- 
 ment of the human spirit and its preparation for the Kingdom 
 of God. In that process of development and preparation 
 the provision of the material means of existence plays an indis- 
 pensable and honourable part, since they are the necessary 
 foundation of a full and vigorous life. But they are its founda- 
 tion, not its completion, and to give them pre-eminence in 
 its direction is to confuse the purpose of life with its accessories. 
 Industry and economic activity are not, therefore, ends in 
 themselves, to be pursued without reference to the main end of 
 human society, or by methods inconsistent with it. They 
 are part of a larger whole, which is nothing less than the gradual 
 education and perfecting of man, and their character must 
 be judged by its conformity with the end to which they are 
 means. " All things work together for good to them that 
 love God,"* and the satisfaction of man's material needs, which 
 is the function of industry,- ought to be ennobled by the spiritual 
 purpose to which it contributes. 
 
 It is not implied, of course, that such considerations can 
 always consciously be present to the minds of all who are 
 engaged in industrj^ any more than that the spiritual ends 
 for which education is carried on can always be consciously in 
 the minds of those who are engaged in the teaching profession. 
 But when the question is raised of the place of industry in 
 the community, of its ethical standards, and of the rights and 
 responsibilities of the different classes and individuals engaged 
 in it, it is the duty of Christians to insist that the ultimate 
 criterion of social institutions, of economic activity and of 
 industrial organisation is to be found in the teaching of Christi- 
 anity. Divorced from spiritual standards, industry is only 
 too likely to degenerate into a struggle to escape poverty or to 
 obtain riches, in which some of the finer qualities of human 
 nature, kindliness, and the love of beauty, and the temper of 
 disinterested service may be crushed by a single overmastering 
 motive. It is for the Church to humanise industry by uphold- 
 ing the spiritual ends to which it ought to be directed, and the 
 spiritual criteria by which it ought to be judged. Industry is, 
 in short, a social function, which ought to be carried on, in the 
 words of Bacon, for " the glory of the Creator and the relief 
 
 * Romans viii. 28, 
 
12 CHRISTIANITY AND INDUSTRIAL PROBLEMS 
 
 of man's estate." * Its character, organisation and methods 
 ought to be such as to make it unmistakable to observers that 
 it is a main practical activity of a Christian community. We 
 think, therefore, that it is the duty of the Church, while avoid- 
 ing dogmatism as to the precise methods of applying Christian 
 principles to industry, to insist that Christian ethics are as 
 binding upon economic conduct and industrial organisation 
 as upon personal conduct and domestic life. By so doing it 
 would modify the assumptions which men bring into the tran- 
 sactions of economic life, and would cause them to judge in- 
 dustry and industrial success by moral, not merely by economic, 
 criteria. Such a pre-eminence of moral over material con- 
 siderations is in accordance, it will be agreed, with the spirit 
 of the New Testament. 
 
 (vii.) The Teaching of the New Testament with regard to Material 
 
 Wealth 
 
 14. {h) The second point which we desire to emphasise is 
 the teaching of the New Testament with regard both to the 
 right employment of wealth and to the subordinate place 
 which should be occupied in human interest by the pursuit of 
 material riches. That teaching is explicit and unmistakable, 
 and cannot too constantly be present to the minds of Christians. 
 It is suggested, on the one hand, that more than a small measure 
 of material wealth is a hindrance, rather than a help, to the 
 Christian life, and, on the other hand, that those who possess 
 riches are bound to regard them not as a property which they 
 may use for their personal satisfaction, but as a stewardship 
 which they must justify by administering it for the good of the 
 community. 
 
 It is not that in the New Testament the rich are denounced, 
 for such denunciation often implies that they are peculiarly 
 enviable. And they are not envied, they are pitied. They 
 are pitied, because it is suggested that the desire for matt rial 
 riches is a terrible temptation, that riches ought to occupy 
 a quite minor place in men's thoughts, that to take them 
 very seriously is to starve the life of the spirit, that the man 
 who directs his life primarily to laying up treasures on earth 
 sins both against himself and against his neighbour. There is 
 little emphasis, indeed, in the New Testament upon the ascetic 
 merits of poverty, such as appears in some later periods in the 
 history of the Church. But there is an austere and reiterated 
 warning against undue preoccupation with what would be 
 called to-day economic considerations. That the transcendent 
 importance of the spiritual life makes any concentration upon 
 material gain, in excess of that required for maintenance, a 
 
 ■ * Bacon, The Advancement of Learning. 
 
CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES 18 
 
 positive evil, that the Kingdom of God must come first and 
 all other interests second, that the life most favourable to 
 spiritual growth is one which is not concerned, more than is 
 unavoidable, with the pursuit of riches, that wealth is a respon- 
 sibility for its owners, not a luxury to be used as they please — 
 such ideas recur again and again both in the Gospels and in the 
 Apostolic Epistles. 
 
 15. This strand of thought" survived, as we point out in a later 
 part of this Report, throughout a great part of the pre-industrial 
 era, though often neglected in practice and overlaid by other 
 considerations. If it appears alien to some characteristic 
 aspects of modern civilisation, if it causes men to be 
 " astonished out of measure,"* that fact would appear to make 
 it all the more important that it should be emphasised. When 
 Christian ethics and economic practice are at variance, the 
 latter must be adapted to the former, not the former to the 
 latter ; and it is too often forgotten that avarice, in the sense of 
 the immoderate desire for gain, is a sin which Christian tradition 
 regards as not less grave than some others which to-day 
 are more generally condemned. t It can hardly be doubted, 
 indeed, that the common assumption that the attainment 
 of riches is one of the main ends of man, and that the criterion 
 of social organisation is its power to facilitate the pursuit of 
 them, is not so much unchristian as anti-Christian ; for it 
 leads, when accepted, to the subordination of the religion of the 
 spirit to a religion of gain. He that would save his life must 
 lose it, and if the Church is to be true to the spirit of the New 
 Testament it must, we submit, spare no effort to teach man- 
 kind that the true wealth of a society is to be measured by the 
 
 ' quality of the human beings who compose it, and that undue 
 concentration upon the prizes of this world is a grave danger 
 to the soul. 
 
 16. It must teach this, not in the interests of any particular class, 
 nor, primarily, with the object of achieving practical reforms, 
 but for the sake of the Truth committed to it, because the life 
 is more than meat, and the body than raiment. It will not 
 be denied, however, that at all times, and pre-eminently 
 in commercial communities, where the rewards of successful 
 enterprise are dazzling, there is urgent need of such teaching. 
 The pursuit of wealth as an end in itself creates an atmosphere 
 in which right social relations are hardly attainable, and in 
 which it is difficult not only for the rich, but for all classes, to 
 enter the Kingdom of Heaven. For, whether it results in the 
 selfishness which prefers the life of individual self-advancement 
 to the life of fellowship, or the parsimony which grudges 
 expenditure on all but utilitarian purposes, or the extravagance 
 
 ♦ St. Mark x. 26. 
 
 t Colossians iii, 5. 1 Corintliians v. 10. 
 
14 CHRISTIANITY AND INDUSTRIAL PROBLEMS 
 
 which diverts human energy from fruitful labour to the multipli- 
 cation of luxuries, it fosters the spirit which justifies, too often, 
 indeed, which glorilies, the subordination of human beings to 
 considerations of material success. If society is to be the master, 
 not the servant, of the forces which it has liberated, if it is to 
 escape the danger of succumbing to the very success with which 
 it has applied science and organisation to the conquest of 
 nature, it must possess some standard of values superior to 
 economic expediency, and be guided by some ideal more 
 absolute than the shifting currents of supply and demand. 
 Such an ideal, such a standard the Christian Faith offers in a 
 sentence : " What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the 
 whole world, and lose his own soul ? "* 
 
 (viii.) The Teaching of the New Testament ziith regard to the 
 Sanctity of Personality 
 
 17, (c) The New Testament emphasises, as we have already 
 pointed out, that every soul is of infinite and equal value, 
 because all men are children of one Father. It reiterates in 
 different ways the sanctity of human personality. It suggests 
 that even the most venerable institutions are secondary to 
 personality, and that they must give way when they conflict 
 with it, because institutions are a means and personality is an 
 end. This paradoxical valuation upon individuality is ex- 
 pressed by the word '' love " in such sayings as " God is Love.'* 
 It brouglit, it may be suggested, a novel element into the 
 thought of the world, or one at least which it would be difficult 
 to find expressed in classical writings with the same intensity 
 and vehemence as in some passages of the Sermon on the Mount. 
 And it is an idea which was not easily accepted then and which 
 is not easily accepted now. For it is in perpetual contradiction 
 with those elements in human nature which desire to eliminate 
 or subordinate individuality in the interests of the smooth 
 routine of an orderly and efficient system, whether political 
 or economic. It is the inner faith of which liberty is the out- 
 ward expression, because it places the development of the 
 human spirit above all material convenience. It emphasises 
 freedom rather than power, quality rather than quantity, 
 spontaneity rather than system. The apostolic precept to 
 " honour all men " has perhaps received disproportionately 
 little attention either in the presentation of Christian doctrine 
 or in the practical organisation of social life. 
 
 If it is true — and who can doubt it ? — that the sanctity of 
 personality is a fundamental idea of Christian teachhig, it is 
 evident that Christians are bound to judge their industrial 
 organisation by that principle and to ask whether in modern 
 
 *iSt. Mark viii. 36. 
 
CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES 15 
 
 industry human beings are regarded always as ends and never 
 as means. We do not venture to give a dogmatic answer to 
 that question. But we submit that the criticism which the 
 thoughtful workman passes upon the economic system is that 
 it often treats him and his class as instruments of production, 
 and that this criticism is a very weighty one, because it cuts 
 to the root both of modern industrial relationships and of 
 modern social ethics. 
 18. It would not be fair to blame individuals for evils which . 
 many of them deplore, and which as individuals they are often 
 powerless to alter. We recognise that the relations between 
 employer and employed are frequently marked by a spirit of 
 humanity, of forbearance, and of mutual consideration and 
 respect. Nor do we forget that the community as a whole, 
 whose demand it is that ultimately sets the wheels of industry 
 in motion, bears at least as large a responsibility for its methods 
 and organisation as do many of those who appear to be more 
 directly in contact with it. But the criticism to which we 
 have referred raises a larger question than that of individual 
 shortcomings or of the conflicting claims of the different parties 
 engaged in industry. It refers to the general character and 
 tendency of the industrial system. It suggests that, except in 
 those industries in which, by prolonged and repeated struggles, 
 the workers have forced on society the fact that they are men, 
 not machines, they are still too often liable to be treated, of 
 course, as we have said, with many exceptions, as cogs in the 
 industrial mechanism. 
 
 While there are, no doubt, aspects of modern industry which 
 such an indictment omits or misrepresents, there are others 
 to which it must be reluctantly admitted to be applicable, and 
 we think it has too much substance to be lightly dismissed by 
 the conscience of Christians. Workmen are often engaged 
 when there is work and dismissed when there is not. They 
 are employed casually, if casual employment is economically 
 convenient. Unless protected by law or by trade unionism, 
 they are liable to be worked inhuman hours, to be paid the 
 lowest wage which they can be forced by fear of unemployment 
 to accept, and to be bound by regulations which they have no 
 voice in making. That such conditions must produce poverty 
 is obvious, for they leave the weaker members of the community 
 without protection against the downward ^thrust of economic 
 pressure. But that is not the gravest stricture to be passed 
 upon them. The fundamental objection to them is that they 
 tend to result in men and women being treated as instruments of 
 production, and that to treat human beings as instruments 
 of production is morally wrong. Any system under which 
 they are so employed, however efficient or imposing, is in itself 
 anti-Clu-istian. 
 
16 CHRISTIANITY AND INDUSTRIAL PROBLEMS 
 
 19. It may be said, indeed, that some of the evils to which we 
 have referred above, and which we shall discuss more fully in 
 Chapter IV, of this Report, have in the past been accepted by a 
 considerable body of economic thought as almost inevitable 
 incidents of economic progress. But economic science, like 
 other sciences, is concerned primarily with what is, not with 
 what ought to be, and the Church must not allow itself to be 
 intimidated by the alleged doctrines of political economy, 
 wrongly understood as those doctrines often have been, into 
 subordinating Christian ethics to economic considerations. It 
 ought to reiterate that the welfare of human beings, including 
 not merely material comfort, but scope for initiative and 
 opportunities for self-development through education and 
 through labour, and freedom to take part in the control 
 of industrial organisation and direction of economic con- 
 ditions and policy, must be the first condition of any 
 industry carried on by Christians, It ought to insist that 
 no economic convenience justifies any oppression. It should 
 not wait to speak till evils are monstrous and full grown, 
 for when they are full grown they are often almost incurable. 
 It should make war on the spirit which produces them. That 
 it cannot pretend to solve the detailed problems of economic 
 organisation is, indeed, as obvious as that it could not in past 
 ages have been expected to invent a police system to check 
 robbery on the highways. But it can insist that it is the duty 
 of Christians to solve them, just as it insists that it is the duty 
 of Christians to prevent theft. It can assert the supreme 
 authority of Christian principles as the final criterion of the 
 social order. It should not simply denounce. But it should, 
 on the one hand, appeal to principle, and, on the other, so 
 far as is possible, point towards the remedy. As long as there 
 are good men who believe that with such questions Christianity 
 has no direct concern, the full message of the Church is mis- 
 apprehended, and its witness to social righteousness is in- 
 complete. 
 
 (ix.) The T-eaching of the New Testament with regard to the Duty 
 
 of Service 
 
 20. (^) The emphasis which the New Testament lays upon 
 individuality is counterbalanced by the emphasis which it lays 
 upon the fact that Christians are members of a society. By 
 itself the former might lead to an extreme individualism. But 
 the New Testament corrects that tendency by reiterating that 
 as members of a society, the Kingdom or the Church, Christians 
 are bound to each other by mutual obligations. It insists 
 upon the duty of service, upon the importance of what may be 
 called the non-competitive temper, on meekness and humility, 
 on mutual kindness and forbearance. The spirit of personal 
 
CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES 17 
 
 self-assertion, of rivalry, of pride is discountenanced. It is 
 suggested that Christians form a corporate body, the members 
 of which ought to be knit together in a close union, and to 
 subordinate themselves to the good of the whole. In using 
 modern phraseology it is difficult, no doubt, to avoid expressions 
 which are liable to be coloured by misleading modern associa- 
 tions. But we think that the ethical spirit of the New Testa- 
 ment may reasonably be described as co-operative rather than 
 competitive. The idea that men are justified in driving hard 
 bargains with each other, in grasping all that the law allows, or 
 in taking advantage of their neighbours' necessity, is, un- 
 doubtedly, alien to it. St. Paul in a well-known passage* 
 exhorts the Christian to " labour, working with his hands 
 the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that 
 needeth.'* It is the message of the New Testament that work 
 is a duty which is incumbent upon all, that the members of a 
 Christian community should aim at giving rather than getting, 
 and that they should seek the service of others rather than 
 the personal profit of themselves. 
 21. These ideas form part of the social ethics of Christianity. 
 It is important, therefore, that the Church should emphasise the 
 duty of applying them to industry more persistently and more 
 explicitly than it does at present. It must recognise not 
 merely that men's practice falls below their theory in these, 
 as in all other, matters, but that, as sometimes presented, 
 the theory of 'modern industry itself requires profound modifi- 
 cations, if it is to be compatible with the teaching of the New 
 Testament. In particular, the doctrine sometimes advanced, 
 that a man is free to do what he likes with his own, that all men 
 are justified in following their own pecuniary interests to the 
 fullest extent allowed by law, and that social well-bemg will 
 incidentally, but certainly, result from their efforts to further 
 their own self-interest, is definitely anti-Christian. 
 
 It need not be denied, indeed, that this spirit has given a 
 strong impetus to productive efficiency. It would appear, 
 however, to be alien to the teaching of Christianity. If this is 
 so, the Church, whose function it is not to show society how 
 to be rich but to show it how to be Christian, ought not to be 
 dazzled by imposing material achievements into distrusting its 
 own creed. It is possible that society may have to choose 
 between being Christian and being rich, as in other ages men 
 have had to choose between Christianity and prosperity, 
 comfort, or life itself. We believe, indeed, that the Christian is 
 not less efficient, but more efficient, in the affairs of practical 
 life because of his Faith, and that mankind will find that, if 
 they seek first the Kingdom of God, other things will be added 
 to them. Among other considerations tending to support 
 
 * Ephesians iv. 28. 
 
18 CHRISTIANITY AND INBtJSTRIAL PROBLEMS 
 
 such a conclusion it is important to remember that, if it be 
 true that any restriction upon the opportunities of acquiring 
 vast fortunes would remove or weaken an undeniable stimulus 
 to industrial development, it is also true that the broadening 
 of the opportunity to acquire a reasonable competence so as 
 to include the whole mass of the workers and their admission to 
 a share in the management of industry would supply a stimulus 
 to industrial activity over so wide an area as would be likely 
 to compensate for anything which would be lost through the 
 restriction upon the power of the few to acquire unlimited 
 wealth. It is not for that reason, however, that the Church 
 must teach the social ethics of the New Testament. It must 
 teach them because they are right. Its duty is to let material 
 riches take care of themselves, and to preach the Gospel 
 committed to it without regard to consequences. It must obey 
 the call of its Master : " Let the dead bury their dead, but 
 go thou and preach the Kingdom of God."* 
 
 22. Such considerations should result, we believe, in increased 
 emphasis being laid by the Church upon the social message of 
 Christianity. It is important for it to insist, for example, 
 that the duty of personal work is incumbent on all, that idleness, 
 and institutions which encourage idleness, whether among 
 rich or poor, are wrong, that the primary function of industry 
 is social service, not merely personal gain, that a man is bound 
 to judge his economic activities not by the profits which they 
 bring to himself, but by the contribution which they make to 
 the well-being of others ; that it is wrong to take advantage 
 of the necessities of the public or of private individuals to 
 drive a hard and profitable bargain ; that it is wrong to 
 adulterate goods or to charge exorbitant prices for them ; that 
 an industry which can only be carried on by methods which 
 degrade human beings ought not to be carried on at all ; that 
 property is not held by absolute right on an individual basis, 
 but is relative to the good of society as a commonweal ; that 
 if an institution is socially harmful no vested interest is a 
 valid plea for maintaining it. 
 
 23. Accepting the view that such implications are involved in 
 Christian ethics, the Church would regularly and publicly 
 call attention to the temptations of economic life, as it does to 
 temptations of another kind. It would point out to its mem- 
 bers that if they are living idly, whether on charity or on 
 inherited wealth, when they are able to work, they are com- 
 mitting a sin, that luxury and waste in any class of society 
 are not only correspondent to, but largely responsible for, 
 the want and destitution which are a blot on that society, 
 ^nd that this connection of cause and effect needs to be clearly 
 indicated to those concerned. When it saw men making large 
 
 * St. Luke ix. 60. 
 
CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES 19 
 
 fortunes out of public necessities it would remonstrate with 
 them. When it saw one class taking advantage of another 
 and more helpless class it would point out that this was wrong. 
 Nor would the Church confine itself to warnings of a negative 
 character. It would emphasise the duty of strenuous and 
 honest work, the oblifration of all men to observe a hifjh stan- 
 dard of honour, of public spirit, and of himianity in their 
 economic transactions, and their moral responsibility for the 
 organisation of industry and for the standard of social life 
 obtaining in the society of which they are members. Above 
 all, it would seek to impress upon them the conviction that 
 industry \b a social function carried on for the benefit of the 
 whole community, and would teach them to seek satisfaction, 
 not in evading their share of the common task, but in dis- 
 charging it more faithfully. 
 
 But it is not necessary to do more than give examples of 
 the principle that the economic life of Christians ought to be 
 inspired by the motive of service. If the Church emphasises 
 that principle, if it examines existing institutions and practice 
 in the light of it, it will have no dilBculty in stating further 
 applications of it. More important, it will encourage indi- 
 viduals to find such applications for themselves. It will 
 awaken their reason and stimulate their conscience> and thus 
 find a welcome for its message in the quickened spiritual life 
 of countless men and women, " by manifestation of the truth 
 commending " ourselves ** to every man's conscience in the 
 sight of God."* 
 
 (x.) The Teaching of the New Testament with regard to Corporate 
 Respons}bilit7j 
 
 24. (e) The New Testament does not only emphasise the duty of 
 the members of the Christian society to the society. It also 
 emphasises the duty of the society to its members. This 
 seems to be involved in the very idea of the Church as a true 
 community, a single body. " The social order . . . must be 
 tested by the degree in which it secures for each freedom for 
 happy, useful, and untrammelled life, and distributes, as 
 widely and equitably as may be, social advantages and oppor- 
 tunities."t It follows, therefore, that Christians have a 
 corporate responsibility for seeing that all members of society 
 have the opportunity of a good life. How that opportunity is 
 to be secured to them is. of course, a matter about which 
 opinions will differ. But there can be no difference of opinion 
 as to the duty of seeing that it is secured. It is evident 
 
 ♦ 2 Corinthians iv. 2. 
 
 f Conference of Bishops of the Angrh'can Communion. Holden at 
 Lamlx'th Palace in July, 1897. Encyclical Letter from the Bishops 
 with the Resolutions and Reports (S.P.C.K.). 
 
 c2 
 
20 CHRISTIANITY AND INDUSTRIAL PROBLEMS 
 
 that it is not, even approximately, provided at present. 
 Thousands of children and young persons suffer, as we show 
 in Chapter V, from preventabje ailments which undermine 
 their physique and impair their education, and are stunted, 
 both in body and mind, by work in industry which is both 
 excessive and premature.* Many hundred thousand workers 
 are paid wages which make a life of honourable independence 
 very difficult, and labour for hours which leave but the 
 scantiest leisure for rest or reflection or recreation. Nearly 
 one-tenth of the whole population are housed under conditions 
 which do not, indeed, prevent the growth of noble character 
 — for nothing, apparently, can do that — but which make the 
 words " Lead us not into temptation " a perpetual mockery. 
 In some districts of our great industrial towns large populations 
 are employed with an irregularity which is prejudicial at once 
 to their morale and to their economic welfare. And, while 
 large classes of our countrymen are exposed to the temptations 
 of excessive poverty, another and a smaller class is surrounded 
 with the temptations of excessive riches. 
 25. To some of the practical problems raised by such social con- 
 ditions we return in the subsequent chapters of this Report. 
 But we would point out here that the task of calling the 
 attention of men to the duty of bearing each other's burdens 
 is involved in the very nature of the Church as a corporate 
 society, and that it is its function to awaken their consciences 
 to the importance of removing both the one temptation and the 
 other. It is important, also, for it to insist on the duties of all 
 members of a corporate body ; that what is wrong for each to 
 do individually cannot be right for the collective body ; that 
 business companies, trade unions, colleges, chapters, and 
 similar associations receive legal privileges from the community 
 and are bound by corresponding obligations to the community ; 
 that, in fact, the new conceptions of corporate responsibility 
 which are growing up should be emphasised as a part of our 
 duty to our neighbour. 
 
 The Church, in short, is a society which must insist upon the 
 obligation of its members to maintain the distinctive standard 
 of social ethics revealed to men in the New Testament. It 
 should not merely preach brotherhood ; it should be a brother- 
 hood. The test which the individual can use to determine 
 
 * See Chapter V of this Report and Reports of the Chief Medical 
 Officer of the Board of Education for 1915 (Cd. 8338) and 1916 (Cd. 8746). 
 The latter Report states : '* A year ago a moderate computation yielded 
 not less than a million children of school age ... as being so physically 
 or mentally defective or diseased as to be unable to derive reasonable 
 benefit from the education which the State provides. . . . There are no 
 grounds for believing that the figures here quoted are otherwise than 
 a moderate estimate or imder-estimate of the existing condition of things 
 to^ay." 
 
CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES 21 
 
 whether the social conditions of his neighbours are such as 
 can be approved by the Christian conscience is, after all, a 
 simple one. It is whether they are such as he would desire 
 for himself, for his own children, and for his own friends. The 
 task of the Church is to stimulate men to apply that test with 
 warmer sympathy and deeper insight, by reminding them that 
 they are failing as Christians unless they use to the full 
 such means as they may possess of securing the material con- 
 ditions of a good life for mankind. " A Christian community, 
 as a whole," stated the Report of the Lambeth Conference 
 quoted above, " is morally responsible for the character of its 
 own economic and social order." 
 
 (xi.) The Social Teaching of the Church only one Part of its 
 
 Witness 
 
 26. It is implied in the preceding pages of this chapter that the 
 Church will, in our belief, be discharging an urgent part of its 
 witness by inviting those concerned in solving the problems of 
 industry to consider how Christian principles bear upon those 
 problems, how they suggest ever better solutions of them, and 
 how they prompt the spirit and energy by which efforts to 
 solve them will be hopefully made. Moreover, we think that, 
 by emphasising this aspect of its teaching, the Church will 
 offer an invaluable credential for the whole witness which it is 
 responsible for giving. For the witness of the Church upon 
 social questions can never be its whole witness to any class 
 or generation of men. Life is deeper, larger, more sacred, 
 more eternal, than any social arrangements, and to forget that 
 the witness of the Church upon social relationships is but a part, 
 though a vitally important part, of its larger spiritual witness, 
 would be to make a mistake not less disastrous than that of 
 those who would ignore its social witness altogether. 
 
 (xii.) The Importance of Character 
 
 27. W Further, the Church must commend its witness by laying due 
 stress upon the importance of character. The Gospel was, 
 indeed, introduced to men by character — the supreme character 
 of Jesus Christ. It made its way by the character of those 
 who followed Him, and of the society into which they were 
 joined. The Church has been weak where it has lost its 
 character, and where its members have had little or nothing to 
 show for their faith. But it always carries the secret of 
 character, and the power by which character is formed, 
 strengthened and protected. For it witnesses, on the one hand, 
 to God's presence and judgment, to the sacredness of man, in 
 body and in spirit, in conscience and in conduct, to the rightness 
 and nobility of unselfish life and citizenship ; and, on the other 
 hand, to the Spirit of God as the power who enables man to 
 
22 CHRISTIANITY AND INDUSTRIAL PROBLEMS 
 
 be what by himself he cannot be — to be, indeed, his true self. 
 Social history is partly the record of how character in noble 
 men and women has led and achieved reforms, and partly also of 
 how promising schemes of libertj^ and comradeship have been 
 wrecked by weakness and treachery, or through lack of the 
 character necessary to give them effect. Social reformers 
 cannot afford to neglect the teaching of the Church which, after 
 all confessions and allowances have been made, must be pro- 
 nounced to be the greatest school of character that the world 
 has known. 
 
 (xiii.) Conclusion 
 
 28. Once more, therefore, the Church may commend its witness 
 by asking the comrades with whom it joins in asserting the 
 fundamental principles of social welfare and progress to 
 recognise the real springs and securities of those principles. 
 The sacredness of each human life, the rightfulness of claims for 
 liberty of development and for equality of opportunity and 
 consideration, the duty of mutual help and corporate service — 
 these are the indispensable and sovereign things. They 
 depend, to a degree which is easily overlooked, upon the 
 fundamental human faiths which Jesus Christ finally made the 
 property of the race, that God is, that God and man are akin, 
 that His Love gives value to every least human life, that He 
 has taken action for man's redemption in Jesus Christ and 
 established His Church to be the home of human brotherhood, 
 that the power which really works to carry human development 
 onward to its goal is the power of God Himself working through 
 Christ in the consciences and efforts and characters of men. 
 
CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES 28 
 
 Appended Note 
 
 On Certain Objections to tlie Application to Industry of Christian 
 
 Principles 
 29. Any attempt to state the application of Christian teaching 
 to industrial and social life is met at the outset by three 
 objections: 
 
 (1) It is said that there is no social teaching in the Gospels. 
 The appeal of Christ was to the individual, and to the individual 
 only. 
 
 (2) It is said that if there is any social teaching in the New 
 Testament it is not applicable to the modern world. Circum- 
 stances have changed, and the Gospel of peasants is not likely 
 to be helpful in Birmingham and Manchester. 
 
 (3) It is said that if there is any social teaching in the New 
 Testament it had better be made the basis only of a moral 
 appeal to the individual, and not applied to the organised 
 social life of a modern nation. To seek so to apply it, by 
 legislation or otherwise, is inevitably to degrade it. The 
 Church must not tune its pulpits. 
 
 These three objections are often used to stop further inquiry. 
 To discuss them adequately would require much learning and 
 space. But, though these objections contain some truth, yet 
 they are not in themselves so conclusive as to relieve men of 
 the obligation of considering whether there is such a thing as 
 Christian social ethics, or of the obligation of considering how 
 to apply them in legislation. Our common principles must be 
 the basis and background of legislative activity. 
 SO. On (1) it may be said: [a) Granted that the appeal 
 of Christ was to the individual, yet individual and social 
 conduct are not sharply distinct. Nor would the teaching 
 of Christ appear to sanction the division between personal 
 and social behaviour, between the relation of a man to 
 his immediate circle and his relation to the outer" world 
 of business, which is often made to-day. It does not, 
 indeed, enter into detail, because it assumes the whole existing 
 body of social teaching, the Law and the Prophets, and takes 
 it for granted while seeking to put a new spirit into it. But 
 Christ emphasises that all men are neighbours, that a man 
 cannot love God if he does not love his brother, and that to 
 follow Him it may be necessary to revolutionise esfahlished 
 habits and expectations. (6) The interpretation of Christian 
 teaching by the Apostles and by later authorities does not, it 
 may be suggested, support the view that Christianity has no 
 concern with social ethics. What degree of concern it has, 
 what the application of its teaching would be in various 
 circumstances, are, no doubt, very difficult questions. But it 
 would be a somewhat revolutionary view to say that the 
 traditional interpretation excludes from Christian teaching all 
 
24 CHRISTIANITY AND INDUSTRIAL PROBLEMS 
 
 social reference. Even superficial knowledge would indicate 
 that from the first century to the seventeenth the social reference 
 in Christian teaching frequently recurs. Leaving the last two 
 centuries on one side, and admitting the present impossibility 
 of, a connected history of Christian teaching on social and 
 economic subjects, one may suggest that the volume of the 
 references to such subjects is too great to sanction the view that 
 the interpretation of Christian teaching restricts it entirely to 
 individual conduct, as distinct (if the distinction is possible) 
 from social relations. Tradition is on the side of giving it a 
 wider reference than that, however indeterminate, fluctuating 
 and lacking in precision that reference may be. 
 
 As to (2). This objection is powerful. It is not probable — at 
 first sight — so the objection runs, that modern industrial com- 
 munities have much to learn from Galilee. No, it is not 
 probable. Cultivated Greeks and Romans thought much the 
 same. But if, like many good peoplCj one thinks it is so 
 improbable as to be incredible, one ceases, we suppose, to be a 
 Christian. Perhaps, therefore, it is not necessary to discuss this 
 view here. The hypothesis of this Committee involves the 
 acceptance of what, speaking humanly, is improbable. 
 
 As to (3). This objection is of practical importance. Honest 
 and independent men see (or think they see) that the Church 
 may be tempted to preach a Gospel agreeable to the multitude. 
 I'hey resent this, and their resentment is justified. It is as 
 wrong to flatter Caesar when Caesar is a democracy as when he 
 is a king or an aristocracy (though hitherto the Church has 
 flattered the two last more often than the first). No self- 
 respecting teacher will stop to consider whether what he says 
 will be popular. ^ 
 
 81. But those who urge that Christianity has a social Gospel 
 which the Church should preach are not actuated by any 
 desire that it should say what is agreeable. They desire it to 
 say what is right. They desire it to say what is right in all 
 circumstances and relations of life, not omitting those to 
 which ideas of right and wrong are regarded by custom as 
 having little application. If the result is that one group of 
 men approves and another disapproves, that is not any impu- 
 tation on the independence of the Church. It is in the nature 
 of things. Christ was accused of courting the mob, because 
 His teaching was accepted by the people niore readily than by 
 the powers of this world. His followers must run the same 
 risk. They must rebuke what is wrong and uphold what is 
 right, and let men approve or disapprove as they please. 
 Their safeguard is that their message is too broad and deep 
 permanently to divide or unite men on lines of class. The 
 proper attitude for the Church is, not to consider what kind of 
 teaching is popular or unpopular, but to teach what is right, 
 
CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES 25 
 
 irrespective of consequences. Nor does it escape the charge 
 of ** tuning its pulpits " merely by silence. Just as there are 
 circumstances in which inaction is a kind — perhaps a wrong 
 kind — of action, so there are circumstances in which silence 
 is a kind — perhaps a wrong kind — of teaching. It is no more 
 " unbiased " to support a status quo than it is to work for a 
 revolution. To ignore what is wicked in industrial life is 
 not to be impartial. It is to condone wickedness. 
 32. We submit, therefore, that the prima facie objections to the 
 suggestion that it is desirable to ascertain whether Christianity 
 has any special message with regard to social ethics are not 
 conclusive. They have some weight. ,They suggest warnings 
 against hasty dogmatism. But they do not relieve Christians 
 of the duty to consider carefully whether Christianity contains 
 principles of social conduct applicable even in the complex 
 circumstances of modern industrial communities. 
 
 But this is, indeed, an understatement. While those who 
 are not Christians may often be in doubt, not merely as to the 
 detailed application of moral principles, but as to the very 
 nature of the principles to apply, or even as to the existence of 
 moral principles of any kind, Christians are more fortunate. 
 They are Christians because, we suppose, they accept a certain 
 kind of life, indicated though not fully described by the New 
 Testament, as the only life of absolute importance to men, the 
 only life in which they can find peace and happiness. That 
 life serves as a kind of canon or standard by which they judge 
 themselves and human society. They may often be uncertain 
 as to what it involves. But the very existence of Christianity 
 depends, it would seem, upon the certainty being greater than 
 the uncertainty. There is no sense in belonging to a society 
 if one does not even know the kind of conduct and life which it 
 desires to encourage. Christians may fairly, we think, be said 
 to know the kind of conduct and life involved in membership 
 of the Christian Church, however uncertain they may be as to 
 the particular duties incumbent upon them on particular 
 occasions, and however difficult they may find it to carry out 
 the duties which they do know. Christians, therefore, qua 
 Christians, possess a standard by which to judge themselves 
 and their conduct in society. 
 
I 
 
 [This Chapter was entrusted by the Committee to the Master of 
 Balliol. who has associated with himself other members of the 
 Committee in the work. For some of the material thanks are due to 
 Mr. G. G. Coulton. Mr. A. G. Little and the Rev. A. J. Carlyle. 
 For the use made of it they are not responsible.] 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 Some Histoeical Illustrations of Christian Thought 
 ON Social Relationships 
 
 (i.) Introductory. 
 
 (ii.) The teaching of the New Testament, 
 (iii.) The Fathers and the Mediaeval Church, 
 (iv.) The influence of the new Political Economy. 
 
 (v.) Recent developments. 
 
 (i.) Introductory 
 
 83. "f" T is impossible for us in the present chapter to attempt to 
 give anything like a connected account of the development 
 of Christian teaching upon the subject of social relation- 
 ships and the ethics of industry. Such an account would be of 
 the utmost value, both as a chapter in the history of thought 
 and as helping to dissolve the prejudices which are an obstacle 
 to the wise conduct of practical affairs. But the materials for it 
 have, as yet, been hardly digested. Nor, even were our 
 knowledge fuller than it is, would the space at our disposal 
 admit of our attempting a detailed survey of a very intricate 
 and perplexing subject. 
 34. Our purpose in the following pages is a humbler one. It is 
 not to write a history, but to recall to the minds of our readers 
 that there is a historical background which should be borne in 
 mind in any attempt to formulate the application of Christian 
 principles to the practical problems of our own nation and of 
 the present age. Such a reminder is most needed, perhaps, by 
 those to whom it seems least necessary. It is the natural 
 disposition of each generation to identify Christianity with 
 those aspects of it which, for one reason or another, happen 
 at the moment to receive most emphasis, to exclude or minimise 
 as unessential or impracticable those elements in Christian 
 thought which it finds uncongenial to its temper or inconvenient 
 to its habits or disturbing to its peace of mind, to place, as 
 it were, its own gloss upon Christian teaching and to regard 
 that gloss as the only natural, sometimes, indeed, as the only 
 conceivable, interpretation. Of the errors arising from that 
 
 26 
 
SO^IE HISTORICAL ILLUSTRATIONS 2T 
 
 process of selection and omission, of over-emphasis at one 
 point and under-empluisis at another, knowh'd^e of the past 
 is the natural corrective. For even a superficial study of the 
 past is enoui^'h to show that the interpretations placed upon 
 the moral teaching of the New Testament have been various 
 and sometimes inconsistent, that the ideal of the Christian life 
 and the Christian society has been regarded • as involving 
 different kinds of practical conduct and social organisation in 
 different ages, that moral principles which at one time were 
 thought to stand at the very centre of Christian teaching have 
 at another been thrust to the circumference or abandoned 
 altogether, that, if Christian ethics have permeated the world 
 of practical activity, they have often been diluted to suit its 
 exigencies or have succumbed to its standards, that the more 
 facile the acceptance of principles which are called Christian 
 the greater the danger that they may have become acceptable 
 because they have ceased to be disturbing, and that it is 
 precisely those aspects of social life which are most readily 
 taken for granted — slavery in antiquity, serfdom in the middle 
 ages, or industrialism at the present day — of which the exam- 
 ination in the light of Christian teaching is at once most 
 indispensable and most difficult. Thus even the briefest 
 commentary upon the interpretations put by past ages upon 
 the application of Christianity to social life has something 
 more than a merely antiquarian interest. It should help to 
 deliver the mind from undue acquiescence in the assumptions 
 of the present, by offering a standard with which the present 
 may be compared, and thus turn the flank of prejudices which 
 are impregnable by a frontal attack 
 
 (ii.) The Teaching of the Nexv Testament, 
 
 35. The foundation of Christian ethics is the account given 
 in the New Testament of the teaching and Person of Christ, 
 the teaching of the New Testament writers, and the practice 
 of the Early Church. It has been aptly said that " Christ 
 views social phenomena from above, in the light of 
 His religious vocation. He approaches them from within 
 through the development of personality. He judges them in 
 their end, as contributing to the Kingdom of God." Four 
 great principles stand out clearly from His teaching. God is 
 our Father and all men are our brethren. The Kingdom of 
 God is at hand. Life is the measure of true value. All 
 disciples are stewards. VVh le in some passages a sudden 
 apocalyptic coming of our Lord is suggested, His teaching 
 involves, at least as often, a regeneration of human society 
 here and now through the working of the law of righteousness 
 and love, and in the background of it stands the message of 
 social righteousness delivered by the prophets of the Old 
 
28 CHRISTIANITY AND INDUSTRIAL PROBLEMS 
 
 Testament. God's Kingdom implies God's reign over the 
 whole of human conduct, and carries with it a fellowship 
 among His subjects. There is to be a Christian Society, a 
 People of God, a Church, which shall be the light, the salt, 
 the leaven of human life. But this Society is rather the means 
 of realising the Kingdom than the Kingdom itself. Life, at 
 its highest, is the knowledge of God, but all human life 
 comes within our Lord's purpose. Life itself is carefully 
 distinguished from the material means of living ; the service 
 of Mammon is typical of the spirit of the " Kingdom of this 
 age." Wealth is dangerous ; and detachment from pre- 
 occupation with wealth is the first mark of the subjects of 
 God's Kingdom. Men are responsible for their fellows, and for 
 the use of the gifts which they themselves possess. " He 
 that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much." 
 In every station and position in life there must be fidelity. 
 The Incarnation is a revelation of human duties. As the 
 Son of God took man's whole nature upon Him, nothing can be 
 alien to Him. Man in the fulness of his nature is capable 
 of fellowship with God, and the dominion of the spiritual must 
 be extended over the whole of man's life in the world. The 
 solidarity of the human race is implied in the universal manhood 
 of our Lord. All the distinctions which cause division — 
 nationality, class, sex — are merged in the Incarnate Son of God. 
 " Ye are all one in Christ Jesus." Thus the Incarnation is 
 the inexhaustible spring of brotherhood, and the Cross points 
 to self-sacrifice as belonging to the very nature and character 
 of God himself. Not self-development, but unselfish service, 
 is the law of human life. The union of God and man, once 
 accomplished, is continually effective. Men strive in depen- 
 dence on a living God. " God has taken Humanity to Himself, 
 and man redeemed in Christ is called to work out his destiny 
 in reliance on the Holy Spirit." 
 36. These central ideas found expression in the teaching of the 
 New Testament writers and in the practice of the Early Church. 
 Personal relationship with God is emphasised as essential. 
 Christ " saves " men and " reconciles " them to God. The sin 
 from which they are saved is self-assertion in relation to God, 
 selfishness ,in relation to man. The Commandments are 
 summed up in the Commandment of Love, which is " the 
 first of the fruits of the Spirit Who dwelleth in us." Thus a 
 right relationship with God carries with it a right relationship 
 with our fellow-men. " Fellowship with the Father " implies 
 fellowship with one another. The sacrament of Baptism, for 
 example, which is the sacrament of men's membership with 
 Christ, brings with it their incorporation with the Christian 
 Society. The sacrament of Holy Communion is the sacrament 
 not only of their renewed and perpetual fellowship with God in 
 
SOME HISTORICAL ILLUSTRATIONS 29 
 
 Christ, but also of their fellowship one with another. " Brotherly 
 love " exists primarily in the Christian Society, and, when the 
 great question of Jew and Gentile has been settled, the aim of 
 that society is to bring all men on equal terms within its borders. 
 But there is a clear sense of duty towards " those who are 
 without " : c^t/VaScAc^ia leads to ay dirij^ which knows no limita- 
 tions. Brotherly luve implies unsglfishness with regard to this 
 world's goods. The Communism of the Early Church at 
 Jerusalem, though temporary in regard to method, was per- 
 manent in its spirit. Care for the poor is emphasised as vital. 
 Our Lord's warning with respect to the danger of wealth is 
 echoed by St. Paul, and even more clearly by St. James. The 
 duty of honest labour is proclaimed, and luxury is plainly 
 regarded as impossible for a Christian. Hence, though there is 
 in the New Testament no hint of revolutionary changes in the 
 existing political and social order, though St. Peter and St. Paul 
 enjoin loyal obedience to the " powers that be," unless 
 obedience to God is clearly inconsistent with obedience to man, ' 
 and though the institution of slavery is not explicitly con- 
 demned, very powerful solvents of the established social 
 system were nevertheless set to work. The declaration that 
 ail men are of equal value before God, the breaking down in 
 Christ of the barriers of nationality, class and sex, had implicit 
 in them far-reaching political and social changes, and were 
 destined in time to bring such changes about. 
 
 (iii.) The Fathers and the Mediasval Church 
 
 87. To what extent have the social implications of the teaching 
 of the New Testament been developed by the Christian thought 
 of succeeding ages ? That question is not easily answered. 
 Different conditions involve different applications of identical 
 principles. Nor does the New Testament appear to contem- 
 plate the distinction between individual and social ethics which 
 such a question seems to imply. If, however, that distinction 
 be accepted, it seems true to say that in most periods the 
 Christian faith has been interpreted, though with varying 
 shades of emphasis, as possessing a social as well as a personal 
 application and as offering a standard by which to try the life 
 of communities in addition to that of individuals. 
 
 88. In the age of the Fathers a distinction ought, perhaps, to be 
 drawn between the ante-Nicene and the post-Nicene Church. 
 In the earlier period Christianity was not a dominant, but often 
 a persecuted, religion. It was, therefore, unnecessary for it to 
 work out any systematic body of social ethics, and there was 
 less temptation for it to accommodate itself to those of the 
 world. The patristic writings, however, both before and after 
 the Council of Nicsea, contain recurrent references which show 
 that the Christian life was regarded as involving a distinctive 
 
80 CHRISTIANITY AND INDUSTRIAL PROBLEMS 
 
 attitude towards questions of property, of wealth and poverty, 
 and of economic conduct, which was in antithesis to sonic of 
 the prcvaihng practices of Roman civihsation, though probably 
 influenced in part by the thought of pagan writers. '' The 
 Gospel," in the words of Harnaek, "' thus became a social 
 message. The preaching which laid hold of the outer man, 
 detaching him from the wojld and uniting him to his God, 
 was also a preaching of solidarity and brotherhness. The 
 Gospel, it has been truly said, is at bottom both individualistic 
 and socialistic. Its tendency towards mutual association, so 
 far from being an accidental phenonicnun in its history, "is 
 inherent in its character. It spirituahses the irresistible 
 impulse which draws one man to another, and it raises the 
 connection of human beings from the sphere of a convention to 
 that of a moral obligation. In this way it serves to heighten 
 the worth of man and essays to recast contemporary society."* 
 89. Sentences isolated from their context are apt to be mis- 
 leading. But it would not be dilhcult to quote from the works 
 of the Fathers passages illustrating the api)hcation of Christian 
 thought to social relationships during the earlier centuries of 
 our era. "Thou shalt share all things with thy neighbour and 
 shalt not say that they are thine own property ; for if you are 
 sharers in the things which cannot pass away, how much more 
 in those that can ? "t *' Observe those who are heterodox 
 concerning Christ Jesus's grace, which came to us, how contrary 
 they are to God's rule. They have no regard for deeds of 
 charity, for the widow and the orphan, the oppressed, the 
 bound, the hungry or the thirsty. "J *' We must treat servants 
 as we do ourselves, for they are men hke ourselves ; and 
 God ... is equally the God of all, both to free men and to 
 slaves. "§ " God Who begets and inspires Inen has wished 
 them to be all equal, that is all on a level. . . . Neither the 
 Romans nor the Greeks succeeded in maintaining justice, 
 because they kept men divided from each other by various 
 gradations of rank, ranging from poor to rich, from humble to 
 mighty, from private persons to the highest powers of royalty. 
 For where all are not on a level there is not equity. The 
 mere fact of inequality excludes justice, the very essence of 
 which consists in making equal those who entered this life by 
 an equal lot."|| *' The harshest form of co^^tousness is not 
 even to give things perishable to those who need them. To 
 whom do I do injustice by keeping my very own ? Tell me, 
 
 * Hamack, Tfie Mission and Expansion of Christianity in the First 
 Three Centuries, vol. 1, pp. 184-5. 1908. (Williams and Norgate.) 
 + The Epistle of Barnabas, xix. 8. 
 X St. IgiiJitJUN, Ad Smyrn, vi. 
 
 5 Clement of Alexandria, Paedagogus, iii, c 12, 92* 
 \ Lactantiud, De JusiUiUy JLib. V. 15. 
 
SOIVIE HISTORICAL ILLUSTRATIONS 81 
 
 what is your own ? Whence did you get it and acquire it for 
 your living ? It is exactly as if a man seized a theatre seat and 
 drove off all who came to it, claiming as his private pro| erty 
 what is granted for the common use of all. Such are the rich. 
 They seize upon the common heritage and make it priva e by 
 their pre-occupation. But if every man took what sufficed for 
 his own need, and left what is over for the needy, no one would 
 be rich and no one poor. . . . He who strips a man of his 
 clothes will be called a foot-pad. Is not he who fails to clothe 
 the nake.d when he could do it worthy of the same title ? It is 
 the hungry man's bread you hold ; it is the raiment of the 
 naked you lock in your cupboard."* " Poverty and riches, 
 what we call freedom and slavery, and similarly named things, 
 are later effects in the race of men. They are the common 
 diseases which have fallen upon our baseness. . . . He Who 
 first formed man made him free and a master, bound only by 
 the law of God's commandments. "f "It is not yours that you 
 give to the poor, it is his. For what was given as common for 
 the use of all, you alone usurp. The earth is all men's and not 
 the property of the rich ; but those who use their own are fewer 
 than those who have lost the use of it. Therefore (in giving 
 alms) you pay a debt, you do not bestow a bounty. "{ " Let us 
 abstain, my brethren, from holding private property, or from 
 the love of it, if we cannot from the holding of it, and thus make 
 a place for the Lord."§ " In one way must they be admonished 
 who neither covet other men's goods nor bestow their own ; 
 in another way, those who give what they have, but cease not to 
 seize other men's goods. Those who neither covet other men's 
 goods nor bestow their own are to be warned that they should 
 anxiously bear in mind that the land, the source of their revenue, 
 .s common to all men, and for that reason bears its fruits for 
 the common benefit of all. In vain, therefore, do they think 
 themselves innocent who claim God's common gift as private to 
 themselves. . . . For when we minister any sort of necessaries 
 to the needy we only give them their own, we do not bestow 
 on them what is ours. We are discharging a debt of justice ; 
 we are not doing works of charity. "|| 
 4fO. To be judged fairly such sentences must, of course, be read 
 with the qualifications suggested by their context, and must 
 be interpreted in relation to the circumstances of the different 
 periods and places in which they were written. But it is elearly 
 true to say that a thought common to several of the Fathers 
 is that by Divine or natural law all property is common, and 
 
 ♦ St. Basil, Horn, in illud Luc(B, Deslruam, 
 
 t St. Gregory Nazianztn. Or. xiv, 25. 
 
 t St. Ainbi-obe, de \abuthe, xii. 
 
 S St. Augustine. In Psalm CXXXI. 
 
 (I St. Gregory, liegula Pwitoralis Curce, XXI. 
 
82 CHRISTIANITY AND INDUSTRIAL PROBLEMS 
 
 that private property is tolerated as a concession to the weak- 
 ness of human nature, that riches are a danger to the soul, if 
 not a positive evil, and that the assistance of those who need 
 aid is one of the first duties incumbent upon the brethren — an 
 act of justice rather than of charity. "To the Fathers," 
 writes Dr. A. J. Carlyle,* "the only natural condition is that 
 of common ownership and individual use. The world was 
 made for the common benefit of mankind, that all should 
 receive from it what they require. They admit, however, 
 that human nature being what it is, greedy, avaricious, and 
 vicious, it is impossible for men to live normally under the 
 condition of common ownership. . . . Private property is 
 allowed, but only in order to avoid the danger of violence and 
 confusion ; and the institution cannot override the natural 
 right of man to obtain what he needs from the abundance of 
 that which the earth brings forth." 
 
 41. Such examples of patristic teaching upon subjects bearing 
 some analogy to that referred to us could, if it were worth 
 while, be greatly increased. What is significant and of per- 
 manent instructiveness in them is not so much the specific 
 conclusions reached, as the frank application of Christian 
 principles to social relationships and institutions as well 
 as to individual conduct ; to property, to riches and poverty 
 and the stewardship of wealth, and to what would to-day 
 be called economic questions. It is not considered that 
 these questions fall outside the sphere of Christian ethics, 
 or are matters of indifference. On the contrary, it is sug- 
 gested that there is an attitude towards them which is 
 distinctively Christian, in the sense of being different from 
 that prevalent in the non -Christian world, and that this 
 attitude it is the duty of Christians to practise and of the 
 Church to preach. 
 
 42. As the teaching of the Fathers contributed one element 
 to the intellectual background of the mediaeval church it 
 had an importance extending beyond the centuries in which 
 it was formulated and the particular conditions to which 
 primarily it referred. What effect, if any, such conceptions 
 had upon practical conduct, either when they were first 
 developed or in later periods of history ; how far, if at all, the 
 Christian tradition influenced economic conduct and modified 
 social relationships in what are called the middle ages, are 
 questions to which very different answers are given by 
 different authorities. 
 
 48. The mediaeval church did not speak with one voice, and it 
 is easy, by selecting witnesses, to present a picture which is 
 consistent with itself, but untrue to the facts. There is much 
 
 • " The Theory of Property in Medieval Theology," in Property : It* 
 Duties and Rights, edited by tho Bishop of Oxford. 1915. (Macmillan.) 
 
SOME HISTORICAL ILLUSTRATIONS 38 
 
 evidence to support the view of those who argue that in 
 economic and social matters it attempted Httle, and failed in 
 what it attempted. The Church was hampered, it is said, by 
 its own traditions and theories. Its view, not only of religion 
 but of society, was static. The possibility of extensive changes 
 in material conditions was hardly conceived ; and those 
 who thought of State and Church as progressive communities 
 tended to become more or less definitely heretical or, at least, 
 anti-clerical. It was ignorant of history and science, and the 
 clergy, as a whole, were deplorably unlearned. It was haunted 
 by the Apocalypse, and it hardly seemed worth while to look 
 forward in a world which might end to-morrow. The one 
 thing that mattered was eternity. It was enough to remind 
 the poor that he might go to heaven if he willed, and the rich 
 that in accumulating more than was sufficient for churches 
 and for charity he ran a terrible risk of hell. Nor, such an 
 interpretation might continue, was the practice of the mediaeval 
 church better than its theory. The ecclesiastical landowner, 
 like the lay landowner, bought and sold serfs when he bought 
 and sold land. There are few, if any, examples of a mediaeval 
 churchman who denounjeed serfdom. Manumissions of ecclesi- 
 astical, as of lay, bondmen do, indeed, occur, but they are 
 neither very numerous nor always disinterested. There were 
 serfs on some English monastic estates almost up to the 
 Reformation, and on some French monastic estates till just 
 before the Revolution. What the South German peasants 
 thought of the practical working of the ecclesiastical system 
 on the eve of the Reformation is shown by the movement 
 led by Hans Bohm, by the Bundschuh revolts, and by the 
 articles drawn up at Memmingen in 1525. The mediaeval 
 church was not, as has sometimes been suggested, democratic, 
 except in the sense that it was inclusive. No doubt some of 
 its officers expressed sympathy with the poor. But, as the 
 church of general unity, it remained on good terms with the 
 rich, and the freedom with which illegitimates of noble birth 
 were promoted to ecclesiastical offices is a proof of its com- 
 plaisance to the aristocracy. Almost the commonest charge 
 brought against it by contemporaries, at least from the middle 
 of the thirteenth century, was that of avarice. Popes, it was 
 said, and said truly, embezzled money given for crusades 
 and traded in livings. Abbeys ate up parishes. Parish 
 clergy ground the peasants by a system of mortuaries, which, 
 in its way, was hardly less odious than serfdom. Clerical 
 and feudal dues appear in some places and periods to have 
 been regarded with equal detestation. True, churchmen 
 spoke much of the blessings of poverty, classed avarice among 
 the deadly sins, denounced usury, and occasionally punished 
 the usurer in the ecclesiastical courts. But was the rigour 
 
84 CHRISTIANITY AND INDUSTRIAL PROBLEMS 
 
 of the Church more beneficial than its laxity ? In encouraging 
 the giving of alms it did nothing to remove the causes of 
 poverty, and helped to make mendicancy a profession. Its 
 teaching as to poverty was not easily reconcilable with an 
 elaborate hierarchical system or with endowments. When St. 
 Francis brought that teaching from sermons into life he was 
 defeated by the official Church, which virtually made the 
 friars a possessionate order like the rest. In less than a 
 century after his death it was made a formal count of heresy 
 against friars that they obstinately clung to doctrines of 
 poverty which it is certain that St. Francis had held, and on 
 those, among other, counts they went to the stake. The 
 author of Piers Plowman knew very well who had. driven 
 charity out of the Church — charity which had been there in 
 the days of St. Francis, but which now Hngered in his order only 
 among " poor fools " who were persecuted for their pains. 
 The teaching of the Church as to usury was based partly upon 
 the Bible, partly upon Aristotle, partly upon practical ex- 
 perience of the effects of moneylending in a community com- 
 posed predominantly of peasants and craftsmen. But when 
 economic relations grew into something faintly resembling 
 their modern complexity, as in the commercial cities of 
 Italy they did even in the latter part of the twelfth 
 century, the ecclesiastical prohibition of usury was either 
 evaded in practice or qualified by multitudinous excep- 
 tions. In its general rule, " Lend, hoping nothing in re- 
 turn," the Church looked backwards, not forwards, and in 
 order to maintain the principle it was compelled to connive 
 at casuistical expedients which preserved it in name but 
 undermined it in fact. If the relief of the poor and the 
 foundation of Monts de PUU ought not to be forgotten, 
 neither must it be forgotten that poverty was accepted 
 as part of an unalterable order, and that the Church drove 
 into heresy the Waldenses, the poor men of Lyons, and the 
 Humiliati. 
 44f. This, in bald summary, is one side of the picture. But 
 there is another side. If the Church had not in some measure 
 stood for social righteousness its influence would be unintell- 
 igible, and the crash would not have been so long deferred. 
 Granted the truth of the charge of greed and worldly ambition 
 brought against many of its officers, yet the Church itself 
 had helped to create the standards by which it was condemned, 
 and the very fervour with which, in the later middle ages, 
 its corruption was denounced both by lay and ecclesiastical 
 writers is an indication that it had not failed to inspire an 
 ideal of Christian conduct in men's minds, however deplorably 
 it had failed to realise that ideal in its own practice. If most 
 churchmen accepted the prevalent yiew which regarded 
 
SOME HISTORICAL ILLUSTRATIONS 85 
 
 society as static, identified equity with custom, and held 
 existinj^ class relationships to be part of a divinely appointed 
 system, yet the idea of status itself had more than one applica- 
 tion. It offered protection as well as imposed disabilities, and 
 a competitive &frc may do well to remember that, while it 
 hmited the opportunities of self-advancement, it gave the 
 weak some security against the downward thrust of economic 
 pressure. Some eminent churchmen protested against the 
 slave trade; and though the Church did little to abolish serfdom, 
 it did something to humanise it. There is some evidence that, 
 in England at least, peasants enjoyed easier terms on the estates 
 of ecclesiastical bodies than on those of lay landowners, and 
 much to show that they were often gravely prejudiced by 
 the economic revolution which accompanied the seculari- 
 sation of monastic property. More important, the teaching 
 of the Church, that, though different classes had different 
 functions, yet all classes have rights and all classes have 
 duties, had an importance which can hardly be exaggerated. 
 All men are equal in the eyes of the Creator : ** Homo servus 
 alteriiis secundum corpus, non autem secundum m^niem.^^* 
 While it is true that the preoccupation of the Church 
 with the next world often implied indifference to the wrongs 
 of this, it is equally true that it was the occasion of lessons 
 to the rich and powerful that their authority is fleeting and 
 that their riches will perish with them, and of warnings not 
 to oppress those who are as fully the children of God as them- 
 selves, and who, though their inferiors on earth, may be their 
 superiors in heaven. The teaching of Chaucer's parson is 
 typical of the thought of a meditcval churchman upon rural 
 relationships. " Of covetousness come these hard lordships, 
 through which men be destroyed by tallages, customs and 
 carriages, more than their duty or reason is. And eke they 
 take of their bondmen amercements, which might more reason- 
 ably be cleped extortions than amercements 
 
 Certes these lordships do wrong, that bereave their bond-folk 
 
 things they never gave them Lords should not 
 
 glorify themselves in their lordships, since by natural condition 
 the^y be not lords of thralls, for that thralldom cometh first 
 
 by the desert of sin These that thou clcpest thy 
 
 thralls be God's people, for humble folk be Christ's friends, 
 
 Think eke that of such seed as churls spring, 
 
 spring lords. As well may be the churl saved as his lord. 
 The same death that taketh the churl, such death taketh the 
 lord. Therefore, I rede, do right so with the churl, as thou 
 wouldest that thy lord did with thee, if thou were in his plight. 
 
 Every sinful man is a churl of sin I wot well 
 
 there is: degree above degree, as reason is, and skill it is that men 
 * St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theol, 2a, 2ae, q. 104, art. 6, 
 
 Da 
 
86 CHRISTIANITY AND INDUSTRIAL PROBLEMS 
 
 do their devoir, thereas it is due. But, certes, extortions and 
 despite of your underlings is damnable."* 
 45. It is true, of course, that in the application of religious 
 conceptions, as in the application of political conceptions, 
 to the daily business of society there was in the middle ages 
 a profound gulf between theory and practice. But, after all, 
 it might be said, the teaching of the Church is more significant 
 than its practical action. It was the greatest teaching body 
 in existence ; its thought wound into men's minds by a hundred 
 channels, and its influence must be judged by its indirect 
 effect in modifying opinion, rather than by its direct inter- 
 vention through legislation or judicial action. That indirect 
 effect was considerable, even in the sphere of social and economic 
 affairs. Mediaeval thought did not allow that there was 
 any department of life which lay outside the scope of Christian 
 ethics, and which was to be guided by a purely naturalistic 
 morality, such as that to-day expressed in the phrases, " the 
 struggle for existence," or the "survival of the fittest," or to be 
 regarded as the sphere of mechanism rather than of morality. 
 In theory the Church aimed at spiritualising industry by relating 
 it to the central purpose of man's life, his preparation for the 
 Kingdom of God. Economics were one branch of ethics or 
 politics ; ethics and politics were one branch of theology. 
 As presented both in the schoolmen and in popular sermons the 
 note of mediaeval thought upon economic relationships is 
 that economic activities must be estimated by the contribution 
 which they make to the welfare of man as a spiritual being, 
 and that economic conduct is one branch of moral conduct 
 which must be judged by the same principles as are applied 
 to conduct of other kinds. What sanctifies or condemns the 
 pursuit of wealth is the purpose for which it is carried on. 
 ** The law of Divinity is to lead the lowest through the inter- 
 mediate to the highest things." Riches are not an end but a 
 means. The acquisition of them, if not laudable, is harmless 
 as long as it is regarded as one rung, and a low rung, in the 
 ladder of human life ; as long as it is duly subordinated to its 
 main spiritual purpose. Thus trade is honourable, when a man 
 " refers the moderate gain that he seeks from trade to the 
 sustenance of his family or to the relief of the distressed, 
 or when he applies himself to it on behalf of the public interest, 
 that the necessaries of life may not be wanting to his country, 
 and seeks gain not as an end but as the wages of his labour. "t 
 But the desire for gain is a sin " if it leads to the despising of 
 eternal good for temporal " or if it causes another to be in 
 want. " For temporal goods are subject to man, that he may 
 
 * Chaucer, The Persones Tale, §§ 64-66. 
 
 t St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theol. 2a, 2ae, q. 99, art. 4. 
 
SOME HISTORICAL ILLUSTRATIONS 87 
 
 use them for his necessity, not that he may set up his rest in 
 fg them, or be idly solicitous about them.'** 
 
 Hence the sharp dualism between personal conduct — the 
 sphere of morality — and economic transactions — the sphere 
 of objective laws — which is so marked a feature of later thought, 
 either is unintelligible to most mediaeval writers or is denounced 
 by them. In economic matters their ethical standards were 
 not necessarily either better or worse than those of the modem 
 world ; but they were certainly different. A good deal of 
 what is now praised as enterprise would have been condemned 
 by them as covetousness. A good deal of prudence would 
 have been called avarice ; of thriftlessness, charity, and of 
 good business, extortion or forestalling or usury. Mediaeval 
 opinion held that economic transactions ought to be controlled 
 by moral considerations, not because it was subtle, but because 
 it was simple ; because it did not regard the economic world 
 as a self-contained department of life with standards of its own, 
 but judged it by principles derived from current ethical and 
 religious conceptions. That is not to say, of course, that these 
 principles were not often abandoned in practice. But in 
 abandoning them men knew they were acting wrongly and 
 were known to be so acting by their neighbours ; their conduct 
 was not condoned on the ground that " Business is Business." 
 In all contracts, it was thought, there is a standard of equity, 
 for " a transaction designed for the common advantage of two 
 people should not bear heavier upon one than upon the other, 
 ' and the contract between them should proceed upon the 
 principle of equaHty."t There is a just price, the price which 
 yields equal advantage to buyer and to seller. There is a fair 
 rent, the rent which allows landlord and tenant their customary 
 livelihood. There is a reasonable profit and a reasonable wage 
 which enables a man to maintain himself and his family in his 
 accustomed position in society, and which pays him for his 
 risk and for his labour. The man who takes advantage ot his 
 neighbour's necessity to exact more, the monopolist, the 
 speculator, the forestaller, is guilty of sin. He is guilty, above 
 all, if, like the usurer, he exacts it without labour of his own. 
 For work is a duty, and " to wish, like the usurer, to live 
 without labour is contrary to nature. "t Limited by various 
 qualifications as to different kinds of contracts, the general 
 denunciation of usury was directed against almost any 
 inequitable bargain, not only between borrower and lender, but 
 between buyer and "seller and landlord and tenant. It was 
 the classical example of ** unreasonable covetousness," a 
 general heading to which all minor economic offences 
 
 * St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theol. 2a, 2ac, q. 55, art. 6. 
 
 + Ibid. 2a, 2ae, q. 77, art. 1. 
 
 X Gerson, de Contract, pars. 1, cons. 13. 
 
88 CHRISTIANITY ANB INDUSTRIAL PROBLEMS 
 
 were referred. Nor were these conceptions mere theories. 
 Municipal records show that they were the assumptions of 
 plain men who sat on juries and made good ordinances for the 
 government of boroughs. They had their practical foundations 
 in the economic circumstances of village and town. What 
 the Church did was to work them into a system, by relating 
 even the details of economic life to the universal principles of 
 the Christian faith. The characteristic of mediaeval thought 
 on social relationships — the thought not only of the "'thinkers " 
 but of some part at least of the practical world — was the 
 attempt to regard all economic questions as a sub-department 
 of the grand interest of human life — religion. 
 
 47. The essence of the difference between these ideas and modern 
 economic opinion is the disappearance of that characteristic. 
 It has been expressed in a variety of ways, as the substitution 
 of science for ethics, or of reason for authority, or of enlightened 
 self-interest for the rule of custom, or of economic rationalism 
 for religious tradition, or of impersonal laws for personal 
 moralit5^ The change was a gradual one, a transformation 
 extending over centuries, the beginnings of which can be dis- 
 covered in the fourteenth century, if not earlier, and the full 
 implications of which Were not evident until the middle of the 
 seventeenth. And it did not take place, as is sometimes sug- 
 gested, at the Reformation. The Renaissance and the Refor- 
 mation gave, it is true, a tremendous impetus to the rexnsion of 
 accepted economic, as well as of accepted political, assumptions. 
 But in. England, at least, there was in the sixteenth century no 
 sharp or definite breach with the traditional view, which 
 held that economic activity was part of ordinary moral conduct, 
 and, as such, to be judged by moral considerations. Indeed, 
 the very reaction produced by swift economic changes, the 
 confusion caused by the enclosures and the spread of pasture- 
 farming, the increase in vagrancy, the confiscation of monastic 
 estates and of part of the property of gilds, the growth of 
 foreign trade and of an international money market, gave a 
 shock to accepted ethical standards which caused the traditional 
 conceptions to be reaffirmed with the heightened emphasis 
 of a doctrine which is menaced. Faced with problems created 
 by the transition towards capitalist agriculture and capitalist 
 industry, writers and preachers repeated the arguments of the 
 schoolmen against " uncharitable " dealings, unreasonable 
 prices, unconscionable rents and fines, the " bringing of the 
 livings of many into the hands of one," and the damnable 
 sin of usury, because the schoolmen had systematised sentiments 
 which had their roots in popular instincts. 
 
 48^ Not only were such ideas reaffirmed, but tentative attempts 
 were made to apply them. Ecclesiastical courts appear to have 
 continued to deal with certain economic matters throughout 
 
SOME HISTORICAL ILLUSTRATIONS 89 
 
 the sixteenth century. Secular authorities used new machinery 
 to enforce ancient traditions. Reasons of State stepped into 
 the field which was gradually being vacated by theology, and the 
 fact that the objects of statesmen in interfering with economic 
 life were in reality of a severely practical character did not 
 prevent their being normally expressed in the customary 
 phraseology of religion. If the man who by competitive 
 methods disturbed customary relationships, who raised rents, 
 or *' engrossed *' farms, or cornered the wheat supply, or 
 charged unconscionable usury was, from one point of view, 
 guilty of sin, he was, from another, a disturber of the peace ; 
 a bad neighbour who was unpopular in his own locality, a 
 troublesome citizen whose conduct might lead to a riot. Hence, 
 in spite of the revolution in rural life produced by the dissolution 
 of the monasteries, Tudor governments endeavoured to enforce 
 traditional standards, partly because to enforce tradition was 
 the simplest way to enforce order, partly because statesmen 
 had inherited from the Church the conception that there was 
 a standard of equity in economic transactions which ought 
 to be maintained, and, however practical or even Machiavellian, 
 could not step outside the circle of ideas into which they were 
 born. Preambles of statutes and proclamations are bad evidence 
 for what men did. but they are good evidence for what men 
 thought they ought in decency at least to appear to believe ; 
 and the mixture of motives is illustrated by the legislation 
 against depopulation, the statutes forbidding, and then limiting, 
 usury, and the attempts of the Privy Council to control prices, 
 to prevent engrossing and forestalling, and to enforce on 
 reluctant parishes the maintenance of persons in distress. 
 If such interference with economic activity was unpopular 
 with business men and financiers, the activity of juries in 
 presenting forestallers and moneylenders suggests that it was 
 in accordance with the opinion of the peasants and small 
 masters who formed the bulk of Elizabethan society, and who 
 retained the mediaeval distrust of the un-neighbourly conduct 
 of the man who was " a great taker of advantages." Bunyan's 
 comments upon the economic iniquities of Mr. Badman, 
 is a belated expression of sentiments which lingered in the 
 popular consciousness long after they had been expelled 
 from the world of thought by the new science of " Political 
 Arithmetic." 
 49. For, of course, by the middle of the seventeenth century 
 several causes had combined to depose, first religious, and then 
 moral, considerations from their position of theoretical pre- 
 eminence as the standard by which economic transat;tions were 
 to be tried. Impersonal methods of economic organisation, the 
 growth of foreign trade and of the money-market, capitalist 
 agriculture and capitalist industry, made it difficult to treat 
 
4,0 CHRISTIANITY AND INDUSTRIAL PROBLEMS 
 
 economic life as amenable to the simple moral criteria of 
 charitable and covetous dealing which could be applied when 
 merchant and customer were neighbours, and master and 
 servant lived in the same house. As these conditions spread, 
 economic conduct is no longer regarded as laudable or blame- 
 worthy, for men are no longer responsible for it. They are 
 like men thrusting one another in a throng, or like the wheels 
 of a clock, in which " the first wheel, being stirred, drives the 
 next, and that the third, till the last moves the instrument 
 that strikes the clock."* And as economic activity escaped 
 from the sphere of morals, it entered that of objective science, 
 which is concerned not with right or wrong, but with facts, 
 and the laws of which are generalisations, not precepts. The 
 forces which had fostered economic rationalism in Florence in 
 the fourteenth century fostered it in England in the sixteenth. 
 In 1550 it was still something of a novelty, in literature though 
 not in practice. Sixty years later Bacon combined it with 
 some remnant of the older tradition. By the middle of the 
 seventeenth century it set the tone of economic thought. Its 
 progress in the Elizabethan age may be traced in the debates on 
 the statutes against depopulation, or still more in the debates 
 on the usury laws, in wiiich quotations from St. Augustine and 
 the Psalms jostle appeals to practical experience of the opera- 
 tions of economic self-interest.f Naturally, the new science 
 was individualistic, for its essence was the denial of any 
 authority superior to the individual reason. Naturally, also, 
 the Church came to accept it as a substitute for its traditional 
 teaching as to social ethics. For the Church no longer was an 
 intellectual leader, but went to school with the world, both 
 when it was wise to do so and when it was not. It 
 had no independent authority, and no distinctive inter- 
 pretation of social rights and obligations. By the end 
 of the seventeenth century the ground had been prepared 
 for the triumph of the mechanistic individualism of the 
 eighteenth, and it was probable that when that triumph 
 took place the Church, which was the cUent of the dominant 
 aristocracy, would have no alternative theory of society to 
 oppose to it. ' 
 
 (iv) The influence of the new Political Economy 
 
 50. To understand the cause and the effects of the severance 
 
 between the religious and economic aspects of the modern 
 
 world it is instructive to study their severance during the 
 
 period when it was most njiarked. That period may be con- 
 
 * The Common Weal of this Realm of England (r. 1540), f. 58. Ed. 
 E. Lamond (Cambridge University Press). 
 
 t D'Ewes, Journal of the House of Commons, 1571. 
 
SOME HISTORICAL ILLUSTRATIONS 41 
 
 vcniently dated from 1776, the publication of Adam Smith's 
 Wealth of Nations, to 1869, when Mill threw over the wages 
 fund theory ; and the central idea of the period may be found 
 in the laissez-faire theory, *' the obvious and simple system 
 of natural liberty." " Liberty " was invaluable as a means 
 of breaking down the barriers and restrictions which, as an 
 inheritance of the Middle Ages, were hampering the new life. 
 Commerce and industry had found themselves curbed and 
 checked at every point by a wire entanglement of protective 
 duties, bounties, State fixing of wages and prices. The new 
 economic doctrine was the heavy artillery which blew all this 
 obstruction away. The wealth of nations was shown to 
 consist, like the wealth of individuals, in producing more 
 than is consumed, and to depend upoil mutual service between 
 the different nations, not upon an internecine bargain snatching. 
 
 51, Under perfect freedom, wages and prices, trade and industry 
 would all '* find their natural level. This was almost the only 
 lesson the ruling class learnt from Adam Smith."* His 
 equally uncompromising denunciation of the Corn Laws 
 and other protective duties, of Combination Laws against 
 workmen, and Settlement Acts restricting the freedom of 
 labour, his proposal to tax ground rents and not food, were all 
 conveniently ignored. 
 
 52. Again, Adam Smith had denounced the payment of wages 
 in Truck, and said that high wages increased population, 
 industry, and production ; that " the dictates of reason " 
 ought to moderate the hours of labour ; that " our merchants 
 who complain of the bad effect of high wages say nothing 
 of the bad effect of high profits." But these views of his on 
 labour were equally ignored. The governing classes adopted, in 
 short, those parts of the economists' teaching which appeared 
 advantageous to themselves, and tended to neglect the 
 remainder. When, in 1795, Whitbread urged in the House of 
 Commons the desirability of fixing a legal minimum wage, the 
 Government of the day opposed the proposal on the ground that 
 wages ought to be allowed to find their " natural " level, and 
 Pitt recommended the disastrous alternative of lavish out- 
 relief. When, faced ^vith the appalling misery produced by the 
 new conditions of industry, the hand-loom weavers begged in 
 1808 that the State should intervene to fix minimum rates, 
 the Parliamentary Committee which examined their petition 
 reported that the policy suggested was " wholly inadmissible 
 in principle, incapable of being reduced to practice by any 
 means which can possibly be devised, and, if practicable, 
 productive of the most fatal consequences."! When, despairing 
 of protection from the State, the working classes endeavoured 
 
 * Hammond, The Town Labourer, 1760-1882. 1917. (Longmnns). 
 t Reports on Petition of Cotton Weavers, 1809 and 1811. 
 
42 CHRISTIANITY AND INDUSTRIAL PROBLEMS 
 
 to protect themselves by combination, Parliament, by the 
 Combination Laws of 1799 and 1800, made membership of 
 a combination a criminal offence. Such remnants of an 
 industrial code as survived from an earlier age were abolished 
 in deference to the gospel of free competition, almost at the 
 very moment that Parliament proceeded to protect agriculture 
 by a more stringent Corn Law. In 1815 it forbade the im- 
 portation of foreign wheat so long as the price of wheat in the 
 home market did not rise above 80s. It repealed the wage 
 clauses of the Statute of Artificers in 1813, and the appren- 
 ticeship clauses in 1814, both of which had probably long 
 been virtually inoperative, but the enforcement of which had 
 been demanded by considerable numbers of the working 
 classes. In 1824 the last remaining Acts fixing wages, the so- 
 called Spitalficlds Acts, were repealed, although not only the 
 majority of employers and workmen in the industry concerned 
 who had given evidence about their w^orking, but the Parlia- 
 mentary Committee which had reported on them five years 
 before, had stated that they had prevented the appearance in 
 London of the pauperism which characterised the other silk- 
 weaving districts, and had recommended their continuance.* 
 53. Parliament was as slow to extend new methods of legislative 
 protection as it was quick to abolish the old. As early as 
 1784 " public attention was drawn to the state of working 
 children ... by that most effectual of all reminders, an 
 infectious fever " in one of the cotton districts of Lancashire, 
 and a committee of Manchester doctors, in pointing out the 
 causes, called attention *' to the injury done to young persons 
 through confinement and the long-continued labour, to w^hich 
 . . , the cotton mills have given occasion. "t Yet it was not 
 till 1802 that Parliament lim.ted the working hours of pauper 
 apprentices in cotton factories to twelve a day. When, in 
 1819, it returned to the subject, it again restricted its inter- 
 ference to cotton mills, fixed the age limit below which children 
 might not be employed in them at nine years, and forbade any 
 person under sixteen to be employed for more than twelve 
 hours a day exclusive of meal times. It was not till 1833 
 that factory inspectors — four in number — were appointed, 
 and not till 1847 that a ten hours' day was established, nomi- 
 nally at least, for women and young persons in the textile 
 trades. Lord Shaftesbury's account of the struggle to obtain 
 factpry legislation is well known : " Out of Parliament, there 
 was in society every form of ' good-natured ' and compassionate 
 contempt. In the provinces, the anger and irritation of the 
 opponents was almost fearful. ... In very few instances did 
 any mill -owner appear on the platform with me ; in still fewer 
 
 * Report of Committee on Ribbon Weavers, 1818. 
 
 t Hutchins and Harrison, iiistory of Factory Legislation. 1911. (P. S. King). 
 
I 
 
 SOME HISTORICAL ILLUSTRATIONS 48 
 
 the ministers of any religious denomination. At first not one, 
 except the Rev. Mr. Bull, of Brierley, near Bradford ; and, even 
 to the last, very few, so cowed were they (or in themselves so 
 indifferent) by the overwhelming influence of the cotton lords. 
 I had more aid from the medical than from the divine pro- 
 fession."* Thus it came about that the new economic world 
 born of the industrial and agricultural revohitions was not 
 merely dominated by exclusively economic idea'i, but that those 
 ideas represented a very narrow and one-sided part of econo- 
 mics, and were unconsciously a mere reflectionof a short-sighted 
 view of their interests taken by the ruling class of landlords 
 and manufacturers. 
 4. Can we now begin to answer the question : how could the 
 agfe tolerate those abuses which are sickening even to read of ? 
 How could men who were really religious, men sincerely 
 patriotic and personally benevolent, how could men even of 
 common sense defend as a quite natural state of things such 
 facts as children of six kept at work in factories from 5 a.m. 
 to 9 p.m., girls under eight crawling through coal seams 
 eighteen inches high, boys of four sent up flues seven inches 
 square, in " a country renowned for its humanity '* ? 
 55, There are several considerations which answer this question. 
 
 (1) Men took the world around them for granted, as we 
 are doing in this our own age. They assumed that the proper 
 thing was to accept that station in life unto which it had 
 pleased God to call them. 
 
 The Bible was taken as inculcating resignation in this world 
 w^ith the expectation of justice and recompense in the world 
 to come, and Christianity as not a standard by which to judge 
 institutions, but as a Divine warrant for submission to them. 
 
 Thus Wilberforce, in his Practical View f laid dovm for the 
 lower orders, explains " that their more lowly path has been 
 allotted to them by the hand of God ; that it is their part 
 faithfully to discharge its duties, and contentedly to bear its 
 inconveniences ; that the present state of things is very 
 short ; that the objects about which worldly men conflict 
 BO eagerly are not worth the contest ; that the peace of mind 
 which religion offers indiscriminately to all ranks affords 
 more true satisfaction than all the expensive pleasures which 
 are beyond the poor man's reach ; that in this view the poor 
 have the advantage ; that, if their superiors enjoy more 
 abundant comforts, they are also exposed to many temptations 
 from which the inferior classes are happily exempted ; that, 
 ' having food and raiment, they should be therewith content,' 
 
 ♦Hodder, Life and Work of the Stvenih Earl of Shnfiesburq. 1887. 
 (Cassell), 
 
 t Willjerforce, Practical View of the System of Professed Christians Con- 
 trasted with Real Christianity. 1797. 
 
44 CHRISTIANITY AND INDUSTRIAL PROBLEMS 
 
 since their situation in life, with all its evils, is better than 
 they have deservecj at the hand of God ; and, finally, that 
 all human distinctions will soon be done away, and the true 
 followers of Christ will all, as children of the same Father, be 
 alike admitted to the possession of the same heavenly inheri- 
 tance. Such are the blessed effects of Christianity on the 
 temporal well-being of political communities." 
 
 Paley actually argued that the poor were better off than 
 the rich, who lead a languid, satiated existence, whereas all 
 the provision which a poor man's child requires is industry 
 and innocence ..." frugality is itself a pleasure, and the 
 necessary care and forecast to keep expenses level form an 
 agreeable engagement of the thoughts." 
 
 56. (2) Not only was the social conscience silenced by the 
 theory that " liberty " was " the natural order," and that 
 any practical " inconveniences " were only temporary and 
 certain to be cured as the liberty became more complete and 
 competition more unrestricted, but the theory crystallised 
 into an accepted maxim that alF might safely be left to the 
 "enlightened selfishness" of employers; "landowners and 
 farmers by following the dictates of their own interests become 
 in the natural order of things the best trustees and guardians 
 for the public " (House of Commons Committee, 1817). Burke 
 said : " It is plainly more the farmer's interest that his men 
 should thrive than that his horses should be well fed, sleek, 
 plump, and fit for use " ; and "the benign and wise Disposer 
 of all things obliges men, whether they will or not, in pursuing 
 their own selfish interests, to connect the general good with 
 their own individual success." 
 
 This was the principle invoked against limiting the children's 
 working day to eleven hours ; " the employer is the person 
 who knows the different degrees of strength and is the most 
 likely to avoid overworking them." Similar arguments may be 
 heard in the wool and the cotton industry to-day, backed 
 by similar phrases such as " the indispensable requirements 
 of British trade against foreign competition," and " the 
 impossibility of free contracts being onerous to either party." 
 It is still actually the case that " young persons " between 
 14 and 18 years of age may lawfully be employed for the 
 same hours as adult women — ^namely, 55^ hours in textile 
 factories and 60 hours in non-textile factories and work- 
 shops. 
 
 57. (3) Another influence which acted as an opiate to the social 
 conscience was the teaching of Malthus. This was far from his 
 intention. He wrote in 1798 to combat the dangerous optimism 
 of Godwin, who would lead men to expect " the perfectibility 
 of man " in a near future and by an automatic social process. 
 Malthus, on the contrary, depicted human progress as dogged 
 by the menacing shadow of increasing population ; " man 
 
SOME HISTORICAL ILLUSTRATIONS 45 
 
 multiplies up to his food . . . the numbers are cut down by 
 famine, disease, and vice . . . this is the sharp surgery of 
 Providence, the vis medicatrix naturas." It is true that in his 
 second edition this warm-hearted and generous thinker relieved 
 this picture of the struggle for food in a purely animal society 
 by introducing the human qualities of foresight and reason ; 
 in a civilised society the preventive check, delay in the marriage 
 age, would operate, and the society would not fall back on the 
 positive checks of vice, misery, disease. But what was really 
 adopted by his age was the crude doctrine of the edition of 
 1798 ; the qualifications introduced in 1803 got little hearing. 
 Thus it became accepted that poverty was a sort of Divine 
 safety-valve to society ; evil is allowed to exist that it may 
 stimulate us to activity ; and Malthus did, in fact, hold that 
 relief of the poor created the poverty which it vainly professed 
 to cure. Hitherto society had, since 1795, been acting on the 
 principle that low wages were to be made up out of rates, 
 and this was another salve to the social conscience. But 
 gradually the Malthusian teaching made its way, and was at 
 last embodied in the Act of 1834 abolishing outdoor relief 
 to the able-bodied. 
 
 This policy was defended as being, if drastic, yet probably 
 wholesome. But, to be defensible at all, it required as its 
 logical complement the repeal of the Corn Laws. The Corn 
 Laws, however, were not repealed till 1846, and an interval of 
 twelve years thus was left in which the labourer was thrown 
 upon his own earnings, while the price of bread was increased 
 threefold and fourfold by legal enactments supposed to be for 
 the landed interests. It is significant that this interval 
 witnessed the rise of Chartism. Is our own Poor Law system 
 so much more satisfactory ? After seventy-five years' ex- 
 perience it is reported by a Royal Commission that two millions 
 of paupers and an expenditure of £17,000,000 a year, besides 
 the unsatisfactory position as regards the children, the sick, 
 the aged, and the vagrants, constitute a severe indictment 
 of the existing system. The Commission was unanimous in 
 condemning the workhouse, the union as area, the election 
 of guardians, and the existing practice of out-relief and medical 
 relief; and they remarked that the reform of 1834 tried to 
 confine itself to drastic surgery, whereas we now see that 
 besides this are needed preventive, remedial, and restorative 
 methods. The reformers of 1834 and the administrators (and 
 many of us have served in this capacity), who tried to cany 
 out their principles, were unconsciously making the economic 
 assumption that destitution, and even poverty, were due 
 mainly to personal character, and not to economic causes often 
 stronger than any one person. " Pauperism is, in general, due 
 to indolence, improvidence, or vice, and can be averted by 
 ordinary care or prudence " ..." to turn the independent 
 
46 CHRISTIANITY AND mDUSTRIAL PROBLEMS 
 
 labourer into a pauper, all that is required is to offer relief 
 without conditions ; conversely, to turn a pauper into an 
 independent labourer, all that is required is to offer relief 
 only on harder conditions, to make the lot of the pauper less 
 eligible than that of the independent labourer." We see better 
 now the ludicrous aspect of these complacent simplifications 
 of the economic problem. 
 
 58. (4) It was Ricardo*s economics which completed the final 
 stajre in making social evils tolerable to the conscience even of 
 the best men in the generations from 1776 to 1869. The laws 
 regulating profits and wages were, like all scientific laws, fixed. 
 The price of labour depended on the supply of it and the 
 demand for it ; this market price of labour tended towards 
 the natural price of labour — that is, the minimum of sub- 
 sistence. This was taken to be the " iron law of wages " ; and 
 thus science seemed to put its seal on the " irremediable poverty 
 of the poor." " Thus came the Wages Fund theory by a 
 combination (as it has been well put) of Malt bus's Law of 
 Population and Ricardo's theory of values, each in a crude 
 form." There was by this theory a fixed fund devoted to 
 wages, the amount available for each individual being simply 
 the quotient of the total sum divided by the number of 
 recipients. No human effort could alter this, for at any time 
 it was the mere ratio of capital to population. All that human 
 effort could do was to alter the relative distribution of the 
 shares — that is, to interfere between the recipients, and this 
 interference would be unjust. Thus the influence of this theory 
 dunng the period from about 1820 to 1870 was incalculably 
 great in staying social progress, in lulling the conscience of 
 the educated classes, and therefore in encouraging a violent 
 class antagonism. 
 
 59. When all these currents of thought are taken into account, 
 it becomes intelligible how good men could tolerate appalling 
 social conditions. Many such men, like Sadler and Buxton, 
 felt the responsibilities of wealth. Many, like Romiliy and 
 Whit bread, were ardent reformers. But all of them, and 
 society as a whole, were the victims of the divorce of economics 
 from ethics. Moreover, economics was not merely non-moral, 
 it was even non-human, and therefore narrow and misleading 
 even in the economic sphere. Nowadays we begin to see 
 this, and our task is first to accept the modern economists' 
 work in putting their science on a broader human basis, and 
 then to keep economics in its proper place as a subordinate 
 study in a wider social conscience. It was all painfully wrong. 
 But it belonged to a time when spiritual fife in the Church was 
 at its lowest level. Hence there was no spiritual force strong 
 enough to make the stubborn protest of faith and charity 
 against what seemed to be deference to the strictest scientific 
 
SOIVIE HISTORICAL ILLUSTRATIONS 47 
 
 teaching. After that, spiritual Hfe was absorbed in the effort 
 to get upon its feet again, and hence it was only after the dis- 
 tinetivrly spiritual revivals of the different movements that 
 the Church began in the way that is described below to occupy 
 itself with social policy and reform. The mistake may well 
 recur in days to come in very different forms if popular theories, 
 intellectual and social, are not controlled by spiritual forces. 
 60. In the fifty years whieh laid the foundations of modem 
 England the influence of the Church as a witness to social 
 righteousness was, it is hardly an exaggeration to say, almost 
 negligible. It helped, through the establishment of the 
 National Society, to sow the seeds of what afterwards became 
 a national system of elementiiry education ; and individual 
 Churchmen, like Sadler, Shaftesbury, Oastler, and Bull, the 
 Vicar of Brierley, fought for factory legislation in the face of 
 an almost overwhelming body of complacent indifference or 
 embittered hostility. But against the prevalent materialism 
 of the age, with its sacrifice of human welfare to the rage for 
 productivity, its reverence for the rights of property and its 
 contempt for the rights of men and women, against the indus- 
 trial oppressicm which ground the workers n\ factory and mine 
 and the political oppression which culminated in Peterloo, the 
 Church raised no voice of warning or protest. Nor indeed, 
 with a few conspicuous exceptions, does it appear to have 
 realised that a warning was required, or that spiritual issues 
 were involved in the reshaping of social relationships under the 
 pressure of the new economic forces. The Chuich carried 
 into the strange and turbulent world of modem industry the 
 easy-going acceptance of the established order which had 
 characterised it in the eighteenth century, and repeated the 
 watchwords of that order long after it had begun to be dis- 
 solved. Allied through its leaders to the aristocracy, it shared 
 with them the terror of popular agitation which France had 
 inspired. It was hardly more independent intellectually than 
 it was socially. It is the fate of those who have not any clear 
 interpretation of social rights and obligations to be at the mercy 
 of those who have. Uninspired by any distinctive conception 
 of social values drawn, as such a conception might have been, 
 from the Christian tradition, the Church, like the rest of the 
 upper classes, turned for guidance to the economists, who them- 
 selves possessed, indeed, a kind of religion ; and the economists 
 seemed to confirm the view that moral considerations were 
 irrelevant to industry, that social misery was an inevitable 
 incident in economic progress, and that attempts to remove 
 by legislative intervention the evils of the economic system 
 must be attended by consequences disastrous to all, and 
 particularly disastrous to those for whose benefit intervention 
 was designed. The natural consequence was a presentation 
 
48 CHRISTIANITY AND INDUSTRIAL PROBLEMS 
 
 of religion which offered it to the rich as a preservative of social 
 order and to the poor as a consolation for a misery which was 
 inevitable in an imperfect world. " The economist besought 
 the reformer not to quarrel with nature ; the Christian might 
 warn him not to quarrel with the dispensations of God. For 
 such^ minds Christianity was not a standard by which to 
 judge the institutions of society, but a reason for accepting 
 them."* 
 
 (v.) Recent Developments 
 
 61. 
 
 We have to confess, then, the failure of the Church to give 
 a faithful witness in the face of the moral problems which the 
 Industrial Revolution brought forth. Can we say that the 
 Christian conscience of the present time is awake to social 
 duty ? At least there is a movement away from selfish 
 individualism, a consciousness that a religion which is 
 " drenched with self-regard " cannot be a genuine Chris- 
 tianity, a growing conviction that the one purpose worth 
 striving after is tne Kingdom of God, and that no region of 
 life, least of all the sphere of human industry, can be excluded 
 
 g2. from His sovereignty. 
 
 Apart from the strong and effective protests of individual 
 reformers, Hke Lord Shaftesbury, against the worst evils of the 
 new industrialism, the first attempt to substitute the Gospel 
 of the Kingdom for the " gospel of self-interest " came from 
 the Christian SociaHsts, among whom Frederick Denison 
 Maurice and Charles Kingsley hold the place of honour. The 
 name did not imply any collectivist economic theory ; in 
 Maurice's words : " Anyone who recognises the principle of 
 co-operation as a stronger and truer principle than that of 
 competition has a right to the honour or the disgrace of being 
 called a Christian Socialist." 
 
 Other teachers, such as John Ruskin, proclaimed their 
 prophetic message ; other reformers gave themselves to 
 practical effort. The leaven was at work and the Christian 
 conscience was beginning to rebel against the postulates of 
 the older individualism. Then, in the year 1889, a group 
 of Churchmen, among whom Brooke Fosse Westcott and 
 Henry Scott Holland were leaders, endeavoured to concentrate 
 and organise Christian opinion on social duty, and the Christian 
 Social Union was formed. Its objects were described as 
 follows : 
 
 1. To claim for the Christian law the ultimate authority to 
 rule social practice. 
 
 2. To study in common how to apply the moral truths and 
 
 * Hammond, The Town Labourer, 1760-1832. 1917. (Longmans.) 
 
SOME HISTORICAL ILLUSTRATIONS 49 
 
 principles of Christianity to the social and economic difficulties 
 of the present time. 
 
 8. To present Christ in practical life as the living Master and 
 King, the enemy of wrong and selfishness, the power of right- 
 eousness and love. 
 
 While many members of the Christian Social Union have 
 devoted themselves to practical social work, its main function 
 has been educational. In its various branches throughout the 
 country it has promoted serious study, and its published 
 literature, most of it the work of experts, covers a wide field 
 of social reform. Other Christian communions have followed 
 its lead in the formation of social unions or guilds, and an 
 endeavour has been made, with considerable success, to draw 
 these unions together for conference and united action. Mention 
 should also be made of societies, such as the Church Socialist 
 League, which have identified themselves more closely with 
 some special economic propaganda. 
 
 63. We must not exaggerate the importance of these organisations, 
 but they at least give evidence of an awakening conscience. 
 It is significant that, at the Pan-Anglican Congress in 1908, 
 the section which dealt with social subjects aroused the widest 
 popular interest. So far as the leaders of the Church are 
 concerned, resolutions of the Pan-Anglican Synods in 1888,^ 
 1897,1908 — referred to elsewhere in this Report — are strong in 
 their advocacy of social reform. Nor need the Bishops who 
 are members of the House of Lords be ashamed of their record, 
 at least in recent years,with regard to their voices and votes 
 on Bills dealing with social subjects. And with regard to the 
 great body of Christian people, we may fairly claim that at 
 least some of the driving force which has made for a better 
 social order has come from those who believe " that each 
 amelioration of man's circumstances is the translation of a 
 fragment of our Creed mto action." 
 
 64. As to this present time, the stem teaching of the war has 
 undoubtedly had a tremendous effect in awakening the social 
 conscience of Christians. All are resolved that the sacrifice 
 of our best men shall not have been in vain, and that among the 
 fruits of it must be a new and better order in which justice 
 and friendship shall reign. All Christians are convinced that 
 this new order is impossible apart from the principles of Christ 
 and the power of His Spirit. We know our past failure in 
 witness and in service ; even now it is too much to say that 
 EngHsh Christendom as a whole is prepared to work Christ's 
 principles out to their full conclusion or to make the sacrifices 
 which they require. But there is a dawn of hope, and the 
 next generation^may see a better day. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 Urban Life and Industry 
 
 (i.) Introductory. 
 
 (ii.) The need of a new spirit in economic life, 
 (iii.) The danger of acquiescence in faniiliar evils, 
 (iv.) The treatment of human beings as " hands." 
 (v.) The over-emphasis of the motive of self-interest, 
 (vi.) The co-existence of poverty and riches, 
 (vii,) The evil of insecurity and unemployment, 
 (viii.) The antnjronism between employer and employed, 
 (ix.) Co-operation for public service, not competition for 
 
 private tjain, the true principle of industry, 
 (x.) The establishment of a living wage and of adequate 
 
 leisure, 
 (xi.) The prevention of, and provision for, unemployment, 
 (xii.) The protection of children and youngs persons, 
 (xiii.) Association of workers and of employers. 
 (xiv.) The industrial employment of women, 
 (xv.) The need of a new attitude towards profits, 
 (xvi.) The development of local government., 
 (xvii.) TTousinjr. 
 (xviii.) Th(^ parish priest 
 (xix.) Summary of conclusions^*^ 
 
 (i.) Introductory 
 ^5« In the preceding chapters of this Report we have emphasised 
 the applicability of Christian teaching to all aspects of social 
 life ; we have endeavoured to indicate the principles which, in 
 our judgment, should inspire, not merely individual Christians, 
 but the social institutions and conduct of a Christian com- 
 munity ; and we have given a summary sketch of the interpre- 
 tation placed upon those principles and of .their practical 
 application or partial neglect in some preceding periods of 
 history. What we have already said in jjeneral terms we desire 
 to repeat with special reference to the practical problems which 
 are the subject of this chapter. Christians cannot regard any 
 interpretation of Christianity, or any conception of economic 
 life, which would divorce the theory or practice of industry or 
 commerce from the ethical traditions of the Christian Church, 
 as representing more than, at best, a temporary phase of social 
 thouirht and development. It is true, of course, that the 
 primary appeal of Christianity is to the individual conscience. 
 But the individual is a member of a society : his faith is to be 
 known by his works : and the expression of the Christian faith 
 
 50 
 
URBAN LIFE AND INDUSTRY 51 
 
 held by individuals oii^ht to be a society which reveals the 
 character of its faith in its motives, its corporate life, its practical 
 standards of conduct and its institutions. Amon^j those 
 institutions industry and commerce occupy a prdminent place. 
 We hold, therefore, that the teaching of Christianity is binding 
 upon men not only in their personal and domestic conduct, but 
 in their economic activity and industrial orjjanisation, and that 
 it is the duty of the Christian Church to urjje that considerations 
 of Christian morality must be applied to all such social 
 relationships. 
 
 (ii.) The Need of a New Spirit in Economic Life 
 
 66. Those who accept such general considerations and turn from 
 them to reflect upon the main features of the economic civilisa- 
 tion which they see around them cannot fail, we think, to feel 
 a grave uneasiness as to some of the motives by which it is 
 inspired, of the methods which it adopts, and of the results 
 which it produces. We recognise, indeed, that many of the 
 evils springring from the era of almost revolutionary economic 
 change which, hardly more than a century ago, transformed in 
 two generations the very fabric of social life, and laid upon a 
 basis of coal and iron the foundations of our modern industrial 
 system, have already been mitigated ; that partly through the 
 initiative of public spirited individuals, partly through the 
 growth of voluntary combinations, partly through legislation 
 such as, to give only one example, the Factory and Workshops 
 Acts, there has been, since the early part of the nineteenth 
 century, a marked improvement both in the material well- 
 being of the people and in the moral standards recognised in 
 industry ; and that it is, indeed, precisely the progress which 
 has already taken place which affords the best hope of swifter 
 and more extensive progress in the future. We do not under- 
 estimate the splendid qualities of skill, endurance and initiative 
 which, find expression in the existing organisation of industry, 
 or the general confidence and mutual good faith upon which 
 commerce depends. We do not forget that, of those engaged 
 in industry, there are many in all classes who carry the motives 
 of religion and a high standard of personal conduct into the 
 practical life of labour and of business and whose example is 
 a potent influence for good among all with whom they are 
 brought into contact. We have endeavoured to avoid the 
 fallacy of ascribing to any particular economic order what are 
 the faults or deficiencies of human nature, or of allowing the 
 incidental and exceptional features of industrial life to preju- 
 dice our judgment with regard to its normal characteristics. 
 
 67. But when every allowance has been made both for the 
 good qualities elicited by the industrial system and for the 
 incidental defects which are likely to be found in any sybtem 
 
 E2 
 
52 CHRISTIANITY AND INDUSTRIAL PROBLEMS 
 
 whatever, we, nevertheless, find it impossible to resist the 
 conclusion that, in certain fundamental respects, that system 
 itself is gravely defective. It is defective not merely in the 
 sense that industrial relations are embittered by faults of 
 temper and lack of generosity on the part of the employer, 
 of the employed, and of the general public alike, but because 
 the system itself makes it exceedingly difficult to carry into 
 practice the principles of Christianity. Its faults are not 
 the accidental or occasional maladjustments of a social order 
 the general spirit and tendency of which can be accepted as 
 satisfactory by Christians. They are the expressions of certain 
 deficiencies deeply rooted in the nature of that order itself. 
 They appear in one form or another not in this place or in 
 that, but in every country which has been touched by the 
 spirit, and has adopted the institutions, of modem indus- 
 trialism. To remove them it is necessary to be prepared for 
 such changes as will remove the deeper causes of which they 
 are the result. 
 68. We cannot, therefore, agree with the view sometimes ex- 
 pressed which would allow Christians to take for granted the 
 general economic arrangements of society, and would confine 
 their attention to supplementing incidental shortcomings and 
 relieving individual distress, in the belief that if men will live 
 conscientiously within the limits of established industrial 
 arrangements, without seeking to modify them, the result will 
 be such a society as can be approved by Christians. Nor can 
 we accept, without large qualifications, the suggestion that the 
 attempt to modify them is impracticable, on the ground that 
 any other arrangement is *' contrary to human nature." We 
 recognise, indeed, that the large changes which are necessary 
 must be carried out gradually, in a spirit of tolerance and of 
 mutual charity and forbearance. But we think that it is 
 precisely the general economic organisation of society which is, 
 in some respects, defective ; that the efforts of Christians 
 should be directed not merely to attacking particular evils as 
 they arise, but to discovering and removing the roots from 
 wh'ch they spring, and that Christian teaching supplies a 
 sufficient motive to make practicable any change which is right. 
 It is not enough, therefore, merely to cope with those defects 
 in our economic life which have become so clamorous or sensa- 
 tional as to attract general attention, for by the time that they 
 are sensational they may have become almost incapable of 
 peaceful removal. It is necessary to make such changes in 
 the normal organisation of society as may prevent them from 
 arising. The solution of the industrial problem involves, in 
 short, not merely the improvement of individuals, but a 
 fundamental change in the spirit of the industrial system 
 itself. 
 
URBAN LIFE AND INDUSTRY 56 
 
 (iii.) The Danger of Acquiescence in Familiar Evils 
 
 69. We shall endeavour, in a subsequent part of this chapter, to 
 state the principles upon which, as we think, such a fundamental 
 change should be based, and the direction in which it should 
 proceed. It should am, to anticipate briefly what we have to 
 say later, at making the spirit of co-operation for public service 
 the dominant motive in the organisation of industry and of social 
 life, in place of the spirit of competition for private gain by 
 which it tends, at the present time, to be too commonly 
 governed. But there is a danger lest grave social evils should 
 meet with acquiescence precisely because they are well known. 
 Before, therefore, we approach these larger issues we would 
 urge our readers to reflect once more upon certain aspects of 
 modern industry which are familiar to their minds but which 
 yet cannot be weighed too often or too seriously by the Christian 
 conscience. We would ask them to put from them for the 
 moment the whole body of assumptions and presuppositions as 
 to the objects, methods and consequences of our industrial 
 society, which habit has made a second nature, and to approach 
 these commonplace phenomena of economic life with the 
 detachment of observers who are introduced to them for the 
 first time, and to whom long custom has not reconciled their 
 strangeness, condoned their anomalies, nor blunted the edge 
 of their injstices. 
 
 (iv.) The Treatment of Human Beings as " Hands " 
 
 70. (a) We would call their attention, in the first place, to the 
 peculiar and, as we think, unjustifiable position of subordina- 
 tion in which many wage-earners are placed by the organisation 
 of modern industry, except in so far as it has been modified by 
 law or by voluntary combination. We do not allude, of. course, 
 to the mere submission of the individual to general rules and 
 regulations, which is necessary in any common undertaking, 
 and which is not merely compatible with liberty but is one of 
 its indispensable conditions. What we have in mind is the 
 position of economic inferiority in which, unless he has emanci- 
 pated himself from it by concerted action with his fellows, the 
 worker is liable to be placed by his dependence for his livelihood 
 upon an undertaking whose general policy and organisation he 
 is powerless, as an individual, to control, or sometimes even to 
 influence. He is powerless to control it because he is helpless 
 without the material equipment that capital provides, and 
 because, if the loss of a workman is an inconvenience to the 
 employer, the loss of employment means normally distress or 
 even ruin to the workman. We do not desire to read more into 
 a phrase than it contains and we recognise that there are very 
 wide differences between the circumstances of workers in 
 different industries and in different parts of the country. But 
 
54 CHRISTIANITY AND INDUSTniAL PROBLEMS 
 
 we think that the common description of workers as " hands ** 
 summarises aptly an aspect of tiieir economic position which is 
 not the less degrading because it has hitherto met with too general 
 acquiescence. Ihe suggestion is that the worker is an accessory 
 to mdustry rather than a partner in it ; that his physical 
 strength and manual dexterity are required to perform its 
 operations, but that he neither has a mind which requirci* to be 
 consulted as to its policy nor a personality which demands 
 consideration ; that he is a hired servant whose duty ends with 
 imphcit obedience, not a citizen of industry whose virtue is in 
 imtiative and intelligence. 
 
 71. Nor, indeed, is the evil merely a matter of words. Current 
 phraseology reliects only too faithfully certain common features 
 of current practice. It is true, of course, that in most tirms in 
 some industries and m some tirms m most industries the 
 workers are gradually being conceded a different status by their 
 enipioycri>, or arc wiiiiiiiig it for themselves. In an increabiiig 
 number of trades practical experience of the actual working 
 of trade unionibin is leading employers to understand the ad- 
 vantages of combination, and trade unionists to understand 
 the problems and dilheulties of employers. There is good 
 hope, as we point out in section (xiii.) of this chapter, that 
 these improved relations will form the basis of such schemes of 
 closer co-operation as have* been suggested in the Whitley 
 Report,* and in other similar proposals. Moreover, it is right 
 to acknowledge with appreciation the attempts which are 
 being made by an increasing number of firms to introduce 
 into industry more humane and inteUigent relations than 
 those of the ** cash-nexus " denounced sixty years ago by 
 Cariyle, through the development, in various forms, of what 
 has come to be called '" we If are- work." Provided such 
 experiments are administered in a spirit, not of patronage 
 but of equality and mutual consideration, they deserve nothing 
 but sympathy and approval. 
 
 72. But the organised workers form a minority f of the whole 
 working population, and something more, indeed, than 
 organisation, as hitherto understood, is necessary if the worker 
 is to enjoy not merely better m.aterial conditions, but an 
 economic status of greater dignity and independence. We 
 desire to avoid exaggeration, and we recognise that, as we 
 have already said, the workers in certain industries are in a 
 much stronger position than in others. We think, ncverthe- 
 
 ♦ Keconstruction Committee, Sub-Committee on Relations Between 
 JSmployers and Kmployed. Interim Heport on Joint standing Councils, 
 1917. [Cd.bttOtJ.l 
 
 t ill'; total auiubcr of trade unionists in the United Kingdom in Decern* 
 ber, 1913, was given by tiie Board of Trade Seventeenth Abstract of 
 Labour Statistics of the United Kingdom as 3,987,115, and on Ueot^mber 
 Slst, 1917 (inciudiug 130,000 teachers) it is estimated from another source 
 as approximately 4,950,000. 
 
URBAN LIFE AND INDUSTRY 55 
 
 less, that it would not be unfair to say that large numbers 
 of working people are at the present time employed on terms 
 which suggest that they are means to the production 
 of wealth rather than themselves the human end lor whom 
 wealth is produced. They too often have cause to feel 
 that they are directed by an industrial autocracy, which 
 is sometimes, indeed, both kindly and capable, but which is 
 repugnant to them precisely because it is an autocracy, and 
 because, in so far as it controls their means of livelihood, it 
 also, not the less certainly because often unconsciously, con- 
 trols their lives. The conditions of their work may be deter- 
 mined not by them, but for them, and may be determined by 
 the tinancial interests of persons who are responsible neither 
 to them nor to the community and whose primary interest 
 may not be the welfare of the workers but the profitableness 
 of the business. In such circumstances workers are employed 
 when trade is active : they are dismissed when trade is slack. 
 Piece-rates in some industries may be arranged and rearranged 
 without their being consulted, and on no principle that they 
 can understand. If boys are cheaper than men, men may be 
 displaced by boys, to the ultimate disadvantage of both. 
 Though it is happily true that in certain industries arrange- 
 ments have been made by employers' associations and trade 
 unions for obviating the displacement of labour by machinery, 
 it is still too often the case that the livelihood of a group of 
 workers may be abolished without compensation by the intro- 
 duction of a new process or machine. Employment may be 
 casual, as at most docks, because it would be less convenient 
 or more expensive to employ a regular staff, and, as a result, 
 a whole district may be demoralised ; and since casual work 
 breeds casual habits, some of those who suffer from it most 
 may in time come even to prefer it to regular employment and 
 oppose proposals for its diminution or abolition. The 
 worker's pride in his craft is often destroyed by its subdivision 
 into simple and monotonous processes, and his human interest 
 in his work destroyed by his absence of responsibility for its 
 permanent results. He may be employed on processes injurious 
 to his health, or on work of a kind which is degrading because 
 adulterated or dishonest. 
 T8t ^^ '^^'y recognise the weight of impersonal economic 
 pressure which leads to such methods of organising industry, 
 and the frequent inability to resist it of the very individuals 
 through whom it is exercised. We recognise also that it is by 
 no means the case that the relations which we deprecate exist 
 only between workmen and employers. They aie found, 
 often to an almost equal extent, between the consumer and 
 industry as a whcrle, and between different classes of workmen. 
 Ot\ the one hand, the general public, through selfishness or 
 mere lack of thought, is only too apt to insist that its demand 
 
56 CHRISTIANITY AND INDUSTRIAL PROBLEMS 
 
 for cheap and expeditious service shall be met without regard 
 to the reaction of its requirements upon the different classes 
 engaged in industry. On the other hand, there are industries 
 in which it is the practice for one class of workmen to be en- 
 gaged, not directly by the management, but by another class 
 of workmen. In some such cases it has happened that the 
 sub-contractor, who is himself a workman, has shown to the 
 human interests and well-being of his fellow- workmen pre- 
 cisely the same selfish indifference as he resents when it is 
 shown to him by his employer, and that sometimes members 
 of a society organised to sell their own labour dear have even 
 used their power to insist on the labour of another and more 
 helpless class being offered to them cheap. Such facts show 
 only too clearly that there is no one single class in the com- 
 munity to which alone the responsibility for social evils can 
 justly be ascribed, and that the remedy must be one which 
 touches the springs and tendencies of human conduct in every 
 - section of society. What is on trial is not only the short- 
 comings of individuals, but also the quality of a system. 
 
 74. If all classes, however, have some responsibility for these 
 evils, it is the more necessary for all classes to do their utmost 
 to remove them. If individuals are often helpless the need 
 for a united effort is the greater. Industry exists for man, 
 not man for industry, and we cannot believe in the stability 
 of any society, however imposing its economic triumphs, if 
 it cripples the personality of its workers or if it deprives them 
 of that control over the material conditions of their own lives 
 which is the essence of practical freedom. Christianity above 
 all religions has fostered a keen sense of the value of every 
 individual, and Christians cannot acquiesce in the undue 
 subordination of human beings to the exigencies of any 
 mechanical or economic system. 
 
 (v.) The Over-Emphasis oj the Motive of Self- Interest 
 
 75. (b) The second point which we desire to emphasise is one 
 which is connected with the tendency to allow the motive of 
 economic self-interest excessive influence in the conduct of 
 industry, and, indeed, in social life as a whole. We recognise, 
 of course, that practice is often better than theory, and that the 
 rigour of economic systems is tempered by the conscience and the 
 kindliness of individuals. But the tendency of the whoJe body 
 of opinion, which assumes that, within the limits imposed by 
 law, individuals and classes are justified in driving the best 
 bargain for themselves which they can, is strangely at variance 
 with the traditional ethics of Christianity, and Christians accept 
 it too lightly when they regard it as so inevitable as to be hardly 
 worth discussion. It may be conceded that the anticipation of 
 large financial gains has been a powerful incentive to the 
 
URBAN LIFE AND INDUSTRY 57 
 
 increase in productive power which has been the most con- 
 spicuous achievement of the economic development of the last 
 century and a half, though it is also true that some of the most 
 important economic improvements have been the work of 
 scientists or inventors whose interest in their financial result was 
 small. But, while it is evident that the economic stimulus of 
 , personal profit is one cause which has elicited the increased 
 production of wealth required by the community, it is also 
 evident that it is not by itself a guarantee that, when the 
 interests of any group of producers are at variance with those 
 of the public, the greater interest will be preferred to the less. 
 Economic motives are good servants but bad masters, and the 
 danger of a society which exalts them unduly is that it may 
 evoke a spirit which it cannot control. 
 76. Few who have observed the present tendencies of industrial 
 life would afiBrm with confidence that this danger is altogether 
 negligible. The period in which competition (however undesir- 
 able some of its consequences) could plausibly be regarded as 
 in itself offering an adequate safeguard of the interests of the 
 consumer and of the community seems to be yielding to one 
 in which the community is confronted by producers some of 
 whom find their interest in close combination. While such 
 combinations have unquestionably great potentialities of 
 good, they may also, unless inspired by an ideal of public 
 service, be tempted to give private interests precedence over 
 those of society. Nor can it be said that the temptation 
 is one which is always resisted at the present time. On 
 the one hand, there is the fact that in some industries the 
 output appears sometimes to be unduly limited by concerted 
 action among certain classes of workers. On the other hand, 
 there is the fact that concerted action between manufacturers 
 in certain industries enables them sometimes to secure prices 
 which are in excess of those needed to cover the cost of pro- 
 duction and to yield a reasonable profit. We pass judgment 
 upon the motives of the one party as little as upon those of 
 the other, and we certainly do not desire to imply that un- 
 limited competition is necessarily to be preferred to com- 
 bination. The action of both is often, indeed, a not unnatural 
 result of the effort to avoid the downward pressure upon profits 
 and wages of excessive competition, of the desire to escape 
 ruinous prices on the one hand, of the desire to avert the danger 
 that increased production may result in the cutting of piece- 
 rates upon the other hand. But the fact that such a collision 
 of interests between different groups of producers and the 
 public should arise as a natural consequence of the economic 
 interests of the former, is an illustration of the danger of giving 
 the motive of economic self-interest an undue pre-eminence in 
 the control and direction of industry. 
 
68 CHRISTIANITY AKD INDUSTRIAL PROBLEMS 
 
 77, "^ The function of industry is to provide the material means of 
 a good social life. It is of high importance, therefore, that it 
 should be conducted in the manner best calculated to achieve 
 this end, that the most efficient machinery and organisation 
 should be used in the production of wealth, that every section 
 of producers should give ungrudgingly the best service of which 
 it is capable, and that no obstacle should be interposed by 
 private interests to deprive the community as a whole of the 
 increasing benefits which it ought to derive from progressive 
 improvements in the methods of production. If that con- 
 dition is realised, a country reasonably endowed with natural 
 resources is likely to acquire and retain the means of material 
 prosperity. If that condition is not realised, it is likely to be 
 without them. It is clearly, therefore, the duty of each class 
 to contribute what it can to that end, and clearly wrong to 
 impede its attainment. It has a right to fair treatment and 
 adequate payment for its services. It has no right to any- 
 thing more, or to attempt to extort more by holding the com- 
 munity to ransom. Such considerations are relevant to the 
 conduct of ail classes, both to organisations of workpeople and 
 to organisations of employers. It is as unjustifiable for a 
 group of workers to restrict the output, or to scamp their work, 
 or, because they supply some indispensable article, to use their 
 strong economic position to tax the community, as it is for 
 manufacturers to do the same by combining to raise prices. 
 Nor can such conduct be condoned merely because, in the one 
 case as in the other, it sometimes originates as a measure of 
 self-defence against undesirable conditions. If the conditions 
 are such as to constitute a grievance, there is, indeed, good 
 ground for altering them. The community should display an 
 anxious solicitude for the welfare of all its members, and, in 
 the event of its failing to intervene, it is obviously reasonable 
 and necessary, under present conditions, that any class should 
 be able to exercise the right to self-protection by using in the 
 last resort the power which they possess of withholding their 
 services. But measures of self-protection must not be such 
 as needlessly to jeopardise the public welfare, which includes 
 that of large classes unprotected by any organisation. In 
 themselves such practices as have been mentioned above are 
 plainly an ti -social, and the public conscience should hct itself 
 against them. 
 
 ^ Such a statement of principle will probably meet with general 
 'acceptance. But the growing movement towards the substi- 
 tution of combination for unrestricted competition makes it 
 specially important to emphasise it at the present time. That 
 movement, which was visible in certain industries before the 
 war, has received an additional impetus from the recent develop- 
 ment of united action to meet both the difficulties of the present 
 
WlBAN LIFE AND INDUSTRY 59 
 
 emergency and the problems which will arise on the conclusion 
 of peace. It is not necessary lor us to enter into detail upon 
 this subject, but it is a matter of common knowled^^e that in 
 more than one industry plans arc under discussion for elimi- 
 nating or diminishing wasteful competition, and that such 
 plans have met with favourable consideration by the Govern- 
 ment. 
 
 79. it will be agreed, we think, that it would be very regrettable 
 if this tendency towards closer combination between different 
 groups of producers were to result in crushing out of existence 
 the smaller hrms, to which, though they may not occupy so 
 conspicuous a place in the public eye as their larger oonipeti- 
 tors, the nation owes much of the elasticity and adaptability 
 of its industrial orgaiU5>ation ; nor, indeed, since combined 
 action is likely in most cases to stop short of complete amalga- 
 mation, will such a result necessarily follow. In itself, the 
 development of closer co-operation between firms which have 
 hitherto been competitors seems to offer, apart from the obvious 
 economies which it is likely to effect, the possibility of certain 
 social advantages. There are few more important reforms, to 
 give one example, than a deliberate attempt on the part of 
 those directing industry so to regulate it as to avoid over- 
 production, with its concomitants of overtime and excessive 
 labour at one period, and industrial slackness, with its resulting 
 unemployment, at another. In so far as a more exact and 
 methodical adjustment of supply to demand is facilitated by 
 organisation among producers, it ought to become practicable 
 to substitute a more even and regular level of production for 
 the fluctuations of alternate activity and depression which 
 have hitherto been characteristic of many, if not most, of our 
 larger industries. 
 
 80, It is evident, however, that while the growth of combinations 
 may be beneficial in facilitating a more stable and eflicient 
 organisation of industry, it is likely to cause the relations 
 hitherto existing between industry and the community to be 
 considerably modified, since it may result in the consumer 
 being faced, in some cases, with a condition of partial or 
 complete monopoly. That fact is not a reason for discouraging 
 combination, but for emphasising that increased power and 
 privileges must be correlative to, and balanced by, increased 
 obligations. It makes it peculiarly important to insist tliat 
 industry is before all things a social function, and that those 
 engaged in it ought not to seek their own advantage at the 
 expense of the community by unduly limiting the output, 
 raising the prices, or deteriorating the quality of the ser\'ices 
 which they offer. Faced by such combinations, what pro- 
 tection has the ^community against extortionate charges, unless 
 pubUc opinion in ail classes recognises that the claims of society 
 
60 CHRISTIANITY AND INDUSTRIAL PROBLEMS 
 
 as a whole are superior to those of any of its members and that 
 Christian ethics require the postponement of private interests 
 to the common good ? What alternative is there to the 
 struggle of groups for riches and advancement except their 
 common subordination to the principle of public service ? 
 
 (vi.) The Coexistence of Poverty and Riches 
 
 81. (c) If such considerations seem unduly theoretical to some of 
 our readers, the same cannot be said of the extreme disparity of 
 income which is the third point to which we desire to call their 
 attention. The coexistence in modern society of riches and 
 poverty is the tritest theme both of the economist and of the 
 reformer, and we do not desire to repeat a miserable and thrice- 
 told tale. But we would urge our fellow Christians to ask 
 themselves once more whether an economic system which 
 produces the striking and, as we think, excessive, inequalities of 
 wealth which characterise our present society is one which is 
 compatible with the spirit of Christianity or in which a 
 Christian community ought to acquiesce. 
 
 82. There is a sense, no doubt, in which poverty has in the past 
 been the lot of all mankind to a far greater extent than it is 
 to-day. The earth must be conquered before it yields its 
 material riches. Man wins his living in the swoat of his brow. 
 There is a natural poverty arising from the niggardliness of 
 nature which is the condition of most primitive communities. 
 If it is no longer sought by the saint, it is borne without bitter- 
 ness of spirit by the fisherman, the colonist, and the peasant. 
 Individuals may be exceptionally unfortunate or ill-qualified 
 by character to maintain the effort needed to secure a liveli- 
 hood, but in such conditions individual suffering follows on 
 individual deficiencies. The connection is evident and the 
 responsibility unmistakable. Such poverty is a fact, which, 
 like other facts, must be either endured or overcome. It is not 
 a problem. Or, if it is a problem, the problem is the technical 
 one of discovering the methods by which to conquer the recal- 
 citrance of nature, not a social problem concerned with the 
 relation of man to his fellows and with the economic organisa- 
 tion of society. 
 
 88. But this natural poverty is not that which is characteristic 
 of modern industrial communities, and which we are called 
 upon to consider in the present Report. Productive power 
 has been greatly increased in the course of the last two 
 centuries. But the social problem is more acute, not less acute, 
 than when peasants tilled their own strips of land with their 
 home-made ploughs, or wove woollen cloth in cottages with a 
 rough hand-loom. It is, no doubt, of high importance that 
 the production of wealth should be still further increased, by 
 science, by organisation, by energetic and wisely directed 
 
URBAN LIFE AND INDUSTRY 61 
 
 labour. But the mere increase of production cannot by itself 
 offer a solution of the social problem which arises in those 
 societies where productive power has already been increased 
 far beyond the point which would have been believed possible 
 by an earlier age. The problem of poverty in the modern world 
 is, in fact, a problem not merely of the amount of wealth 
 produced (important though that aspect of it is), but of the 
 proportions in which it is distributed ; and a mere increase in 
 the amount, which left the proportions unaltered, would not 
 solve that problem. It might indeed cause it to be felt even 
 more acutely than it is at present. 
 
 84. The question to-day is not simply why nature is niggardly 
 or why individuals fall into distress. It is why large numbers 
 of men and women, who have not fallen into exceptional 
 distress, derive a meagre and precarious livelihood from 
 industries which appear to yield another and a smaller number 
 considerable affluence. The evil of poverty, in short, is 
 not merely that many have too little for a life worthy of 
 man. It is that many have too little, while others have too 
 much. It is, of course, precisely because the social problem 
 is not simply one of increasing productive power, but of 
 distributing in accordance with principles of right the wealth 
 which is produced, that its solution makes an urgent appeal to 
 the Christian conscience. For Christianity is concerned very 
 little with teaching men to be rich. It is concerned very much 
 with teaching them to be just. 
 
 85. We do not propose to enter in detail into an account of the 
 actual distribution of wealth which existed in Great Britain 
 before the war, and which will exist again, it is to be presumed, 
 after the war, unless deliberate action is taken to alter it. But 
 we would point out that though statisticians differ from each 
 other in detail, their conclusions tend on the whole to corro- 
 borate* the common opinion that it was characterised by great 
 disparity of income. The evidence is, in some respects, 
 imperfect ; the facts vary to some extent from year to year ; 
 and of course all existing standards have been temporarily 
 revolutionised by the present crisis. But we do not think that 
 the general impression of extreme social inequality can be 
 
 * See Report from the Select Committee on Income Tax, 1906, pp. xxii.-xxiii., 
 and evidence of Messrs. Bowley, Coghlfin, Chiozza Money and Sir Henry 
 Primrosp ; also Chiozza Money,' Riches and Poi^erty, 190.5 (Methuen). The 
 latter, which has been generally accepted as presenting a picture correct 
 in its main outlines, though open to criticism in detail, estimated that 
 out of a total national income which was then about £1,710,000,000, 
 persons with h^ss than £160 per year, numbering with their families 
 38,000,000, received £880,000,000 ; persons Mith incomes between £160 
 and £700, numbering with their families 3,750,000, received £245,000,000 ; 
 jieraoas with incomes of £700 per year and upwards, numbering with their 
 families 1,250,000, received £685,000,000. 
 
62 CHRISTIANITY AND INDUSTRIAL PROBLEMS 
 
 seriously contested. It is, indeed, visible to all eyes for whieh 
 long familiarity has not blurred its significance with the neutral 
 tint of custom, and is confirmed by such statistics as are 
 . available. 
 
 Tlie most extensive inquiry ever made into earnings and 
 hours of labour in different industries in Gnat Britain was 
 that conducted by the Board of Trade in 1906. The figures 
 then obtained were in some respects, no doubt, incomplete, 
 and since they were published circumstances have widely 
 changed, both before and during the war. In view of the 
 assistance which exact information can give to the formation 
 of a wise judcrment upon social questions, it is important that 
 such information should be regularly placed at the disposal of 
 the public, and we think that the Department concerned might 
 well enlist in that task the co-operation of the Industrial 
 Councils suggested later in this chapter. While, however, 
 particular items in the Report of the Enquiry of 1906 may be 
 questioned, the figures supplied by it have been generally 
 accepted by competent authorities as giving, on the whole, a 
 reliable picture of the conditions obtaining at the period to 
 which they refer. The average wages in certain staple indus- 
 tries in 1906 were stated in that Report ♦ to be as follow ; 
 
 Average wages Percentage 
 
 of Adult getting 
 
 Males in one less 
 
 representative than 30s. 
 
 week of per week. 
 
 1906 or 1907. 
 s. d. 
 
 Cotton . . . , 29 8 59-7 
 
 Woollen and worsted 26 10 67-4 
 
 Tailoring (bespoke) 83 6 46-1 
 
 Boot and shoe 28 8 68-9 
 
 B"ildinff trades 83 87-1 
 
 Pii hi ic utility services. . .. .. 28 1 61-7 
 
 Metal engineering and shipbuilding . . 83 11 41-0 
 
 Railways (other than electric) . . 26 8 71 -5 
 
 Average Wages'^[[^ Percentage 
 
 of Adult getting 
 
 Women over 18 less 
 
 in one week of than 20s. 
 
 September, 1906. per week. 
 I s. d. 
 
 Cotton 18 8 59-3 
 
 Woollen and worsted 13 10 91 
 
 Linen .. 10 9 99-8 
 
 Dress and millinery (workshop) . . 13 10 85 3 
 
 Shirts, underelothincj, etc. .. ,. 13 4 91-7 
 
 Tailorino (readv-made) .. ,. 12 11 931 
 
 Laundry (factory) 12 10 93-6 
 
 * Board of Trade Report of Enquir>' into the Eamings and Hours of 
 Labour of Workpeople of the United Kingdom : I., Textile Trades in 1906 
 
URBAN LIFE AND INDUSTRY 68 
 
 87. We (\o not snrrirost, of course, that these statistics pive an 
 acnirate picture of the situation that exists in 1918. Since 
 they were published hoth mnncy-wnqrcs anri prices have risen. 
 We quote them as the most reliMhIc official accounts of the 
 economic position of the workintr classes in the decade preceding 
 the war. They indicate the normal social conditions of our 
 ape and country, which the subsequent sudden revolution in 
 economic standards makes it more important, rather than less 
 important, to remember. What thf^ show is that in each of 
 eipht staple industries more than one-third of the adult male 
 workers were earning less than .30s. per week, that in two preat 
 industries the proportion earninp less than 80s. was over 
 two-thirds, and in three others more than one-half. To 
 put it otherwise, if these earninps had been maintained for 
 every week throuc^hout the year, the averape yearly income 
 of adiilt men in the best paid of these eipht industries would 
 have been between €88 and £80, the averape yearly earninps 
 of adult men in the worst paid would have been between 
 £60 and £70. It is. of course, perfectly true that some workers 
 in each industry, and many workers in some industries, were 
 earninp considerably above the averape. But that fact itself 
 shows that many other workers must have been obtaining 
 extremely low earnings in order to reduce the averapes to the 
 fipures piven above. And, of course, to calculate the yearly 
 income on the basis of these fipures would pive an unduly 
 optimistic impression. Some addition to them, it is true, 
 must be made for the extra earninps of overtime. But 
 that fact is more than counterbalanced by the deductions 
 which must be made for short time, sickness, and unem- 
 ployment. 
 
 88, These fipures do not stand alone. They are supplemented 
 and corroborated by the later and more detailed researches of 
 private investigators. W^e need not allude to the works of Mr. 
 Booth or Mr. Rowntree, which laid the foundation of all 
 subsequent inquiries, but which are now, perhaps, no lonper 
 up-to-date. But we would refer our readers to the exhaustive 
 account of the economic position of the workinp classes in four 
 Enplish towns piven by the well-known statistician. Dr. Bowley, 
 in his book, Livelihood and Poverty* As the facts described 
 
 (1909) [Cd. 45451; II.. Clothing Trndef iv 1906 (1900) fCH. 4844]; TTT., 
 Builffing and Wnodrrorking Troffet iv 1906 (1910) fCrl. 50861 ; IV., Pvhlic 
 Utility Services iv 1906 (1910) fC^. 5196]; VI., Metal. Fvsineerine avd 
 SMphutlffivs Trades in 1906 (1911) [Cd. 5814] ; VII., Unilway Servire in 
 1907 (1912) [Cd. 605.31. 
 
 « Bowley and Rumett-Hiirst, Livelihood and Poverty. 1915. (Bell). This 
 work shows : — 
 
 (a) That of all the adnlt male workers in these four towns (Northampton, 
 Warrington, Reading and Stanley), considered as a unit, 82 per cent., or 
 
64 CHRISTIANITY AND INDUSTRIAL PROBLEMS 
 
 were collected in 1912 and 1918, the work offers the most 
 precise and authoritative picture of the social conditions of 
 four towns, differing in size, in economic character, and in 
 geographical position, on the eve of the war. 
 
 89. It is sometimes suggested that the wages of an adult workman 
 are normally sufficient to bring up his family in decency, that 
 the causes which bring men into poverty are within their own 
 control, and that the children of the working classes have as 
 good a chance of a life of independence and health as have 
 those of the well-to-do. The evidence* of Dr. Rowley's 
 inquiries, which is in agreement with that collected in 1899 by 
 Mr. Rowntree for the City of York, indicates that these sugges- 
 tions are at variance with the facts. As far as it extends, 
 what it proves is that in four towns taken together just under 
 one-third of the working classes — 32 per cent. — were earning 
 prior to the war less than 24s. per week, that between one-sixth 
 and one-Reventh — 16 per cent. — of the persons in working-class 
 households, in one town more than a quarter — or 29 per cent. — 
 were in receipt of an income so low as to be insufficient to 
 provide the necessaries of healthy physical existence, that by 
 far the most important single cause of poverty was low wages, 
 and that about a quarter of all working-class children — 27 
 per cent. — were living in households below what is commonly 
 called " the poverty Hue." 
 
 90. Poverty such as this is imperfectly apprehended if it is 
 considered only in terms of money. It should be interpreted 
 in terms of health and sickness, house-room and overcrowding, 
 
 almost exactly one-third, were earning less than 24s. per week-, irrespective 
 of any deduction caused by sickness or unemployment. 
 
 (6)'^That of all the working-class households in these towns 13^ per 
 cent., and of all the persons in those households 16 per cent., were living 
 in a condition of primary poverty (t.c., of poverty caused by an incorhe so 
 low as to be insufficient to provide the necessaries of healthy physical 
 existence, assuming the whole of it to be spent in the most economical 
 manner, and upon necessaries alone). 
 
 (c) That in the case of the households living in poverty the cause of their 
 poverty was to be found in the death of the chief wage earner in 14 per 
 cent., in his illness or age in 11 per cent., in his unemployment in 2 per cent., 
 in the irregularity of his work in 2 per cent., in the fact that his income 
 was insufficient for his family of three children or less in 26 per cent,, in 
 the fact that his income was insufficient for his family of four children or 
 more in 45 per cent. 
 
 (d) That 27 per cent, of all the children in these towns (in one town 47 
 per cent, of the school children and 45 per cent, of the infants) were living 
 in households which failed to reach the low standard taken as necessary for 
 healthy physical existence. 
 
 * It is not, of course, conclusive as to the conditions in England as a 
 whole, since it omits the textile towns of Lancashire and Yorkshire on the 
 one hand, where wages are relatively high, London, where there is much 
 casual labour, and the rural districts in which wages are lowest. But it 
 includes two towns (Northampton and West Stanley) in which wages are 
 relatively high and labour is strongly organised in trade unions. 
 
URBAN LIFE AND INDUSTRY ^5 
 
 education and ignorance, happiness and endless mental anxiety, 
 life and death. It means that of the children born into the 
 world 110 per thousand die, on the average, under one year of 
 age,* over 200 per thousand in some districts, partly because 
 of poverty and of the conditions which poverty creates. It 
 means that thousands of working-class parents pay nearly 
 one-fifth of their income in rent, and then cannot obtain 
 the house-room needed for health and decency. It means 
 that women work who should be at home and children work 
 who should be at school. It means that many working- 
 class families after years of labour have not the savings to 
 meet a month of sickness or unemployment, cannot afford to 
 take a holiday, to visit a relative, or to buy books, and fear 
 nothing so much as the loss of employment which will cause 
 their low earnings to cease altogether. 
 
 91, Such persons continue to exist, it is true, and bring up 
 families who will continue to exist also. They exist. But 
 do they live ? Yet if they are condemned to struggle with 
 unending poverty, it is not that society does not possess the 
 means of producing the necessaries which they are without. 
 For before the war cut short wasteful expenditure, part at 
 least of the productive power of the nation was applied 
 to satisfying wants which, if harmless, were not ahvays indis- 
 pensable to a good life, and which were catered for because the 
 effective demand for commodities of one income of £10,000 
 counts as much in the market as the effective demand of one 
 hundred incomes of £100. Is there not some grave error of 
 distribution when the normal lot of many hundred thousand 
 families of independent and industrious citizens, the men who 
 have saved England in the field and the factory, the men who, 
 indeed, are England, is one of constant poverty in spite of 
 constant labour ? 
 
 92. It may be said, indeed, that the aggregate national income 
 is still relatively small, and amounts per family to an average 
 income which, though in excess of that now received by most 
 working-class families, would seem to many insignificant. 
 But the answer is unconvincing as a plea against diminishing 
 the disparity of wealth. If the nation's total income is small, 
 air the less can the community tolerate extreme inequality 
 in its distribution. If the nation's productive power is limited, 
 all the more essential is it that it should not be diverted to the 
 
 * Average of years 1911-14, inclusive. The average infantile mortality 
 rate per 1,000 bom in the five worst districts during the yeare 1911-1914, 
 was as follows : Burnley, 172 ; Ashton-under-Lyne, 169 ; Famworth, 
 168 ; Stalybridge, 166 ; Stoke-on-Trent, 161. (Local Government Board 
 Forty-Fifth Annual Report, 1915-16. Supplement in Continuance of 
 the Report of the Medical Officer of the Board for 1915-16, containing a 
 Report on Child Mortality at Ages — 5, in England and Wales, 1916 
 1 Cd. 8496].) 
 
66 CHRISTIANITY AND INDUSTRIAL PROBLEMS 
 
 provision of luxuries, before it has been used to supply the 
 material conditions of a good life to the whole population. 
 
 (vii.) The Evil of Insecurity and Unemployment 
 
 93, (d) The poverty which is caused by low wages, serious as it is, 
 would be less intolerable if those wages were regular, and could 
 be earned month by month and year by year with approximate 
 certainty. In fact, however, the earnings of large numbers of 
 workers are not only low but insecure, and their livelihood is 
 precarious and uncertain. In modern society the individual 
 worker is normally unable to earn a living without access to 
 plant and material which do not belong to him. He is, there- 
 fore, in the position of a tenant-at-will whose continued 
 employment depends upon his services continuing to be desirtd 
 by the person, usually the persofia ficta of a company, who 
 employs him. Hence it is inevitable that his position should 
 be, and should bt- felt to be, one of greater precariousness than 
 that of an owner of property, who even if he is equally poor, is 
 not to the same extent dependent for his livelihood upon 
 the convenience, good will, or solvency of some one else. Cases 
 in which the worker loses his employment through some com- 
 paratively trivial or unjustifiable cause, a quarrel with a fore- 
 man, an indiscretion or blunder, a reputation for being an 
 '* agitator," may not be common. But they certainly occur, 
 especially in the trades where trade unionism is feeble or non- 
 existent, and the fact that they occur creates a spirit which is 
 not compatible with mutual confidence, nor with social 
 freedom, nor with industrial efliciency. Such insecurity of 
 tenure is not merely a material evil ; it is a moral grievance. 
 It causes men to feel that they are not fully masters of them- 
 selves, and that they live at the will of another person, who 
 may act towards them in an arbitrary manner. . 
 
 94. But individual cases of arbitrar\' dismissal are comparatively 
 rare, we believe, in the organised industries, and are only a minor 
 aspect of the problem arising from the precariousness of the 
 worker's position. A graver practical evil is the heavy burden 
 which the irregularity of industry itself imposes upon them. 
 
 The facts of the problem of unemployment have been more 
 thoroughly investigated than have those of any other social 
 problem, and it is not necessary for us to do more than refer 
 our readers to the standard works upon the subject.* We need 
 only point out that in almost all industries at some time, 
 and in some industries at almost all times, there is a margin of 
 unemployed workers who not only undergo, in the persons of 
 
 * In i^articiilHr the Royal Commission on the Poor Laws and ReHtf of 
 Distress, 1909, Majority lieport (Vols. J. and II.), Minorily Report (Vol. 
 III.) ; Beve ridge, Unemployrntnit 1909 (Longmans) ; Mess, Casual Labour 
 ai the Docks, 1910 (Bell). 
 
URBAN LIFE AND INDUSTRY 67 
 
 themselves and their families, severe physical privations and 
 acute mental suffering, but who drag down the whule standard 
 of life of their fellows. The percentage* of unemployed trade 
 unionists offers some indication of the larger lluctuations of 
 employment in the decade before the war. But those general 
 figures, though a valuable measurement of the cyclical increase 
 and decrease of unemployment, are no adequate measure of its 
 volume. Not only is there the fact that the abjiormally 
 acute unemployment in certain industries, rismg sometimes to 
 15 to 20 per cent., is concealed in the general total ol all indus- 
 iries making returns, and that the short time which takes the 
 place of unemployment in some others is not revealed by 
 these figures at all. There is also the fact that even in normal 
 years the workers in some trades — for example, building — 
 undergo a long period of seasonal unemployment. Most sig- 
 niiicant of all these is the prevalence in certain industries of a 
 type of organisation which makes reguiar employment the 
 exception rather than the rule, because it reposes upon a basis 
 of casually employed labour. 
 95. In nciirly all large ports, to give only one example, unemploy- 
 ment is not occasional, it is chronic ; for the method^ of 
 engagement and organisation arc such that, instead of the 
 workers being employed regularly, the work to be done is 
 distributed over a large number of men, of whom a consider- 
 able proportion obtain only from one to four days work a week. 
 " B. is about sixty, and gets very little work. He gets up at 
 five, and goes all over the j)laee in search of it ; he comes home 
 dead tired and cries. I tell him sometimes to give up looking for 
 work, but he says that would look as if he were lazy." This 
 picture of the day of a casual labourer, given by his wife, is only 
 too true a description of the misery of thousands of men. When 
 such casual employment exists upon the scale in which it is 
 found in London and Liveqiool, what it means is that whole 
 populations live permanently in a state of semi-starvation, that 
 thousands of men are demoralised because it is imj)ossible for 
 them to know where they will obtain work to-morrow, or 
 whether they will obtain it at all, that married women and 
 young persons work long hours for miserable wages, in order to 
 
 * The figures are as follows : — 
 Year. Percentage. 
 
 1004 
 
 6-0 
 
 1005 
 
 60 
 
 1006 
 
 3-6 
 
 lOOT 
 
 8-7 
 
 1008 
 
 7-8 
 
 Year. 
 
 Percentage 
 
 1000 
 
 7-7 
 
 1010 
 
 4-7 
 
 1011 
 
 3 
 
 1012 
 
 8-2 
 
 1013 
 
 21 
 
 {Board of Trade Seventeenth Abstract of Labour Statistics of tlie United 
 Kingdom, 1915 [Cd. 7733J.) 
 
 F2 
 
08 CHRISTIANITY AND INDUSTRIAL PROBLEMS 
 
 supplement* the irregular earnings of their husbands and 
 fathers, that wages are reduced by the merciless competition 
 for employment, and that permanent combination is made 
 difficult because employment itself is without permanence. The 
 picture is not overdrawn. It can be corroborated from the 
 official reports of the Poor Law Commissioners, or from the 
 works of private inquirers. The facts are well known. They are 
 shameful. And, on the whole, apart from certain minor 
 changes, they are still what they were when attention was first 
 called to them.f An organisation of industry which allows 
 men who are capable of working and willing to work to be 
 deprived of adequate means of livelihood through no fault 
 of their own is contrary to the first principles of justice, and is 
 therefore contrary to the principles of Christianity. 
 
 (viii.) The Antagonism between Employer and Employed 
 
 9fi» (e) We have deferred to the last a reference to the subject 
 of industrial disputes, which occupies almost the most pro- 
 minent place in such public attention as is given to social 
 questions, because we believe that it can be considered with 
 advantage only after a review of the conditions which form the 
 soil whence disputes spring and the atmosphere in which they 
 are conducted. The prevalence^ of an attitude of mutual 
 antagonism and suspicion between the different parties engaged 
 in industry, though qualified by the cordial relations which 
 exist in more than a few instances, is, no doubt, a serious 
 matter from the point of view of the community. It involves 
 material loss and moral bitterness. Like war itself, industrial 
 disputes inflict almost as much suffering upon non-combatants 
 and neutrals as upon the parties to them. 
 
 97. It is not through any lack of appreciation of the grave issues 
 
 * For the connection of married women's work and casual labour see 
 Howarth and Wilson, West Ham, 1907 (Dent), and Vesselitsky, The Home- 
 worker and Her Outlook, 1916 (B' 11). 
 
 t As long ago as 1887 Miss Beatrice Potter (now Mrs. Sidney Webb) 
 described the struggle for work at the London Docks. See also the Reports 
 of the Labour Commission of 1891. The last writer on the subject, Mr. 
 Mess (1916), says : " As one reads the indictment brought against the 
 system of dock labour twenty-five years ago, one realises sadly that most 
 of it stands to-day. And in 1889 it was already hackneyed." (Moss, op. 
 dt.) 
 
 X Number of Aggregate duration 
 
 Year. disputes begin- in working days 
 
 ning each year. each year. 
 
 1910 531 9,894.,831 
 
 1911 903 10,319,591 
 
 1912 857 40,914,675a 
 
 1913 1,497 11,630,732 
 080,000,000 due to coal strike. 
 
 {Board of Trade Report on Strikes and Lock-Outs and on Conciliaiion 
 cmd Arbitratio Boards in the United Kingdom in 1913 (1914) [Cd. 76581.) 
 
URBAN LIFE AND INDUSTRY 69 
 
 involved that we say that to give industrial disputes the position 
 of prominence sometimes given them in discussions of social 
 questions is to view the problem in a false perspective. It is 
 normally unprofitable to blame either of the two parties con- 
 cerned. The whole community shares their responsibility. 
 On the one hand, it is responsible for the continuance of the 
 conditions which help to produce disputes. On the other hand, 
 it has hitherto accepted the conception of indif?trial life as a 
 struggle in which each individual or group is justified in taking 
 what can be obtained by persuasion or threats. As long as 
 those conditions continue and that conception is dominant, it 
 is, in our opinion, idle to anticipate that disputes will not occur. 
 It may, indeed, be said that industrial disputes are a form of 
 war, that peace is one of the highest of public interests, and that 
 therefore the parties concerned should subordinate their 
 interests to those of the community. But though combatants 
 may be willing to give way to a principle or cause superior to 
 them both, it is not reasonable to expect them to give way to 
 each other, and it is precisely that common principle of pubhc 
 service which, as we have already suggested, receives in modem 
 industry no emphasis sufficiently obvious and unmistakable 
 to make it of cogent authority. 
 98. On one aspect of industrial disputes there is, indeed, no 
 room for indecision. It is true, of course, that the methods 
 by which disputes are settled will differ from industry to in- 
 dustry, and we offer at this point no opinion as to the proper 
 machinery or procedure which should be adopted for the 
 purpose of ratifying agreements. But it is obvious that 
 agreements once entered upon must be regarded as binding 
 for the period for which they were made. The strict obser- 
 vance of obligations by contracting parties is one of the moral 
 foundations of human society, and that principle is as absolute 
 when the contracting parties are associations as it is when 
 they are individuals. Moreover, it is one which is of great 
 importance to the vitality and development of the whok 
 system of settling industrial conditions by negotiation between 
 associations of employers and trade unions. The growth of 
 collective bargaining, with the apparatus of representative 
 institutions on which it reposes, is one of the most striking 
 examples of the practical political genius of the ordinary 
 citizens of our nation. It has served them as a school in the 
 art of self-government. It has probably contributed more 
 than any other development of the last half-century to raising 
 both the economic position and the social independence of 
 the working classes, and to the elimination or expeditious 
 settlement of the minor causes of industrial friction, which, 
 \vithout such representative machinery, might have developed 
 into serious disputes. Few changes would contribute more 
 
TO CHRISTIANITY AND INDUSTRIAL PROBLEMS 
 
 to social progress than the extension of the practice of the 
 ortranised industries to those which are unorganised, and 
 which still include the greater number of workers. 
 09- It is evident, however, that the possibility of collective 
 bariraininfT reposes, to a peculiar degree, upon the good faith 
 of those who take part in it. Its further progress, and indeed 
 its very existence, depends upon the willingness of both parties 
 to abide by tHf terms of the agreements which they have made, 
 and to secure the observance of them by all the members of 
 the associations to which they brlong. There is no use in 
 entering upon negotiations if the resulting settlement is liable, 
 before it expires, to be jettisoned by those who are dissatisfied 
 with it, and anything which undermines the observance of 
 agreements undermines also the whole principle of the adjust- 
 ment of industrial questions by the collective action of 
 employers and workers, of which binding agreements are one 
 result. It is probable, indeed, that in the vast majority of 
 cases the terms settled by negotiation are honourably observed 
 by the parties whom they concern, and it is, of course, true 
 that disputes may arise over the interpretation of the best 
 drafted agreement, which must not be confused with thfe 
 repudiation of the agreement itself. But instances of such 
 repudiation have occurred, and have occurred on a scale too 
 conspicuous to allow of their being waved aside as insignificant. 
 It is. we think, essential that the public opinion of employers, 
 of workers, and of the whole community, should make it 
 plain that it regards Ihe departure from the terms of a settle- 
 ment, during the currency of the period for which the settle- 
 ment was made, as the grave offence against society which 
 it is, and that the organisation concerned, whether of em- 
 ployers or of workers, should dissociate itself formally from 
 any member who may be guilty of such conduct. 
 100. But agreements are made for a period which, whether long 
 or short, is limited. When that period has elapsed, it is not 
 sufficient to suggest, as a condition of industrial peace, the 
 maintenance of the status quo, or reasonable to blame the 
 party which disturbs it as wantonly initiating industrial war. 
 Whether it is desirable to maintain existing conditions depends 
 upon what the actual nature of those conditions is. Apart 
 from the minor and perhaps unavoidable cases of friction, 
 industrial disputes are not rightly understood when they are 
 regarded as isolated outbursts. They must be considered 
 in relation to their background, and judged with reference to 
 the events which precede and follow them. To large numbers 
 of working people their present position in industry seems 
 degrading and unjust. Looking back on such progress as 
 they have achieved in the course of tlie past half century, 
 it appears to them that the principal instrument in securing 
 
URBAN LIFE AND INDUSTRY 71 
 
 it has been orjranised pressure. Looking forward, they beh'eve 
 tliat their ability to secure attention for their demands for 
 better conditions of life and labour will be proportionate to 
 the vigour with which they are able to support them. They 
 are not unaware of the waste involved in a pro!on;^ed cessation 
 of work or of the suffering's which they inflict upon themselves, 
 their families and the community. But they regard them as 
 incidents in a prolonged campaign, and believe that unless 
 the community is prepared itself to secure an adequate standard 
 of life for all its citizens, then different groups of citizens are 
 justified in endeavouring to secure it for themselves, even 
 at the cost of inflicting temporary loss upon the community. 
 
 101. It is this background of suspicion and dissatisfaction which 
 must be borne in mind if a reasonable judgment is to be 
 formed of the best way in which to work for better relations 
 
 . in industry. That all agreements are binding for the period 
 for which they were made, that all parties to disputes ought to 
 show a reasonable and acconmiodating spirit, and that they 
 should consider the interests of the whole society as well as of 
 themselves — these truths are fundamental and cannot be too 
 often emphasised. But society can make them effective as coun- 
 sels of industrial peace only if it also makes it evident that all 
 parties can secure consideration for their reasonable claims 
 without industrial war. Bunyan's parable of the broom 
 which raised the dust and the water which laid it is one which 
 the public should lay to heart. If disputes become less fre 
 quent and less bitter in the future, they will be diminished 
 not through exhortations, or menaces, or denunciations, still 
 less through attempts directly to prohibit them, but through 
 the growth of a spirit of co-operation and of social service, and 
 through the removal of the industrial conditions which at 
 present foster industrial unrest. 
 
 (ix.) Co-operation for Public Service, not Competition for Private 
 Gain, the True Principle of Industry 
 
 102. In a preceding part of this chapter we said that what is 
 required if social life is to be raised to a higher level is not 
 merely the improvement of individuals, but a fundamental 
 change in the spirit of the industrial system itself. The reader 
 who reflects, in the light of Christian teaching, upon the facts 
 and tendencies of which we have given a summary description 
 will be disposed, we think, to agree with us that, though detailed 
 readjustments are desirable, they are not by themselves 
 suificient. It is necessary that the system itself should be 
 inspired by a nobler ideal, that it should be judged more 
 rigorously by Christian standards, and that it should move 
 upon a different and higher plane. Certain accepted traditions 
 and practices must be modified, certain others must be discarded 
 
72 CHRISTIANITY AND INDUSTRIAL PROBLEMS 
 
 altogether, and certain permanent spiritual laws, whieh are 
 too generally disregarded, must receive more effective 
 recognition. 
 
 103. To the question in what direction such a change should 
 proceed, we would answer that it must be based upon a fuller 
 acceptance of two principles. The first is that industry is a 
 social function, and is carried on to serve the community. 
 The second is that the relations between the different parties 
 engaged in it should be determined by considerations of right 
 and justice, not merely by economic expediency or economic 
 power. An industry, when all is said, is based upon the 
 association of men to obtain a livelihood by providing society 
 with some service which it requires. Whether its organisation 
 is simple or complex, whether it consists of peasants ploughing 
 their own fields, or of craftsmen labouring with hammer and 
 chisel, or of armies of mechanics aided by machines which are 
 miracles of scientific invention, its function is service, its 
 method is association. Its relation to the community should, 
 therefore, be one of subordination to public needs, and it 
 reaUses its purpose in proportion as those engaged in it do not 
 endeavour merely to obtain the most advantageous terms for 
 themselves, but take a pride in providing the best and most 
 economical service which they are capable of rendering. Its 
 internal organisation should make some appeal to the spirit 
 of brotherhood and be determined by moral principles, not 
 merely by considerations of economic convenience or by the 
 immediate self-interest of its members. It should, in short, 
 be social in purpose and co-operative in spirit. 
 
 104. Such a conception of the place of industry in society is one 
 which would meet with the approval of all thoughtful and 
 public-spirited members of the community. It is not a 
 novelty which requires to be supported by elaborate arguments. 
 It is a truism, the validity of which men already recognise in 
 the inner forum of their conscience, a standard to which they 
 already feel allegiance in their hearts, and which only requires 
 to be publicly unfolded for them to rally round it in increasing 
 numbers, and to make it supreme in their social life. They 
 desire a more visible brotherhood, a life of more disinterested 
 service, and the desire is not confined to those who suffer 
 most from the practical effect of social disorders, but is found 
 in all classes of society. But if the conception of social service 
 as the inspiration and guide of economic activity is to be 
 realised in practice, there must be, as we have said, a funda- 
 mental change in the spirit of the industrial system. For 
 though it is true that this conception influences the conduct 
 of individuals, it would be idle to pretend that it finds at the 
 present time any adequate expression in the actual organisa- 
 tion of industrv. 
 
URBAN LIFE AND INDUSTRY " 78 
 
 1 05. What impedes its fuller realisation is not simply the inevitable 
 shortcomings of individuals but the too common acceptance 
 by all classes of an attitude towards economic life which we 
 regard as radically unsound and unchristian. The principle 
 of co-operative service has to contend with a rival principle, 
 which too often overpowers it. That rival is the idea that 
 the end of industry is the personal profit of those by whom it 
 is carried on, that the measure of its success is the financial 
 return which it yields them, and that, provided they do not 
 infringe the law, any method of organisation or economic 
 policy by which that return is increased possesses, at any rate, 
 a prima facie justification. We recognise, of course, that there 
 are in all classes men whose primary interest is the efficient 
 discharge of the service which they have undertaken, and who, 
 if they attach a high importance to pecuniary profit, do so 
 mainly because, in the existing circumstances of industry, 
 it is the most obvious and unmistakable evidence that they have 
 not failed in their undertaking. But it cannot, we think, be 
 disputed that the prevalent tendency is to underestimate the 
 aspect of industry as a service, and to encourage unduly the 
 competitive spirit which, in the excessive importance which 
 it attaches to private gains, does not weigh, as it should, the 
 social cost at which such gains are often obtained. Those 
 who would gladly pursue a higher ideal are often powerless 
 in the face of an environment from which they cannot escape, 
 and are compelled, in spite of themselves, to conform with the 
 standards set up by the too common and too influential view 
 of industry, which conceives of it not as a social function, but 
 as an enterprise conducted for the personal advantage of private 
 individuals and as needing no higher credentials than the 
 pecuniary returns which it offers them. That assumption is 
 not confined to any particular social class, and, as long as it is 
 general or even common, it must make any considerable step 
 in social progress exceedingly difficult. For, in so far as it is 
 not checked by other considerations, it makes industrial life 
 the sphere of a struggle for personal gain, too often of a struggle 
 against unending and degrading poverty; it opposes the barrier 
 of economic self-interest to the claims of the community and 
 of the Christian conscience ; and it causes the influence of 
 financial standards to spread from industry into the general 
 atmosphere of social and political life. 
 
 106. We cannot believe that what is at best a too exclusive 
 concentration upon material gain, and at worst a selfish 
 individualism, can be the last word of man's social development, 
 or that the inevitable consequence of economic progress must be 
 the excessive predominance in society of economic motives 
 which exists to-day. The purpose of industry, which is the 
 conquest of nature by skill and science and enterprise for the 
 
74 CHRISTIANITY AND INDUSTRIAL PROBLEMS 
 
 service of man, is fundamentally a noble one. Its spirit should 
 be as noble. It should be one of co-operation rather than of 
 intense and sometimes embittered riv^alry. It should find 
 room in the qualities which it demands for something of the 
 chivalrous self-sacrifice of the soldier, of the disinterested 
 devotion of the scientist, or doctor, or administrator, of the 
 temper of loyalty and mutual confidence which sprinirs from a 
 life of corporate endeavour and achievement, and should appeal 
 at once to the artistic faculties of the craftsman and to the 
 statesmanship of the organiser. We cannot doubt that such 
 qualities exist in abundance in the world of business and 
 labour, and that if they do not set its tone and guide its organi- 
 sation, It is not because they are uncommon, but because the 
 economic environment allows them too little opportunity of 
 expression. All work which is necessary is equally honourable. 
 We believe that, just as men honour in the statesman or soldier 
 not the title or the decoration, but self-sacrificing labour and 
 devotion to duty, so they are prepared to honour in the mer- 
 chant, or the workman, or the organiser of industry, not the 
 riches which prove that they have outstripped their rivals in the 
 struggle for advancement, but work honestly performed, and 
 difficulties skilfully overcome, and the disinterested service of the 
 community which can be rendered as fully and faithfully in indus- 
 try and commerce as in any other department of human activity. 
 
 107. That the true life of man is the life of brotherhood, not of 
 strife ; that the true wealth of a body politic consists in the 
 persons composing it, to whom the use of all forms of property 
 should be subservient ; that industry rightly conceived is a 
 social service, not a selfish competitive struggle ; that all men 
 who labour have the right to live honourably by their labour, 
 and all men the duty to labour in order to live ; that there is no 
 moral justification for the burden upon the community of the 
 idle or self-indulgent, or for social institutions which encourage 
 them ; that the resources of a Christian community must be 
 used' to provide necessaries for all, before they are applied to 
 providing luxuries for a few ; these truths we hold for self- 
 evident, and we believe that the economic life of a Christian 
 society must be based upon them. 
 
 108. We are concerned in this Report with principles rather than 
 with programmes, and it is obviously impossible for us to enter 
 upon an exhaustive discussion of specific measures of reform. 
 But in order to indicate the direction in which, as it seems to 
 us, a Christian community should move, we proceed to state 
 certain practical conclusions which, we think, may be deduced 
 from these principles, and some of the particular changes in 
 our industrial system which may reasonably be supported by 
 those who are anxious that the social life of our nation should 
 be inspired more deeply by the teaching of Christianity. 
 
URBAN LIFE AND INDUSTRY 75 
 
 (x.) The Establishment of a Living Wage and of Adequate 
 
 Leisure 
 
 109. {a) In the first place, then, the whole body of economic 
 tradition and practice whicli permits industry to repose upon 
 a human foundation of workers who are under])uid, over- 
 worked, or casually employed, the whole conception of society 
 which tolerates as normal and inevitable the co-existence of 
 riches and widespread poverty, instead of rc«rardin<; if as the 
 shameful denial of Christian brotherhood which it is, must be 
 renounced by Christians and abandoned by the comnun\ity. 
 We think that it is the duty of the nation to take without 
 delay such steps as may be necessary in order to secure a full 
 livinjj waffc and reasonable hours of labour to all workers in 
 industry, and that it is the duty of Christian men and women 
 to jircss for the establishment of such conditions by all means 
 in their power. By a livinnr wafje we mean not merely a wage 
 which is sulTicient for physical existence, but a wa<?c adequate 
 to maintain the worker, his wife and family in health and 
 honour, and to enable him to dispense with the subsidiary 
 earninj^s of his children up to the age of sixteen years. By 
 reasonable hours we mean hours sufTiciently short not merely to 
 leave him unexhausted, but to allow him suflicient leisure and 
 energy for home life, for recreation, for the development through 
 study of his mind and spirit, and for participation in the affairs 
 of the community. 
 
 110. We hold that the payment of such a wage in return for such 
 hours of work ought to be the first charge upon every industry. 
 We are aware, indeed, that it is sometimes objected that there 
 are industries in which it is not practicable to establish such 
 conditions of payment and labour without damaging thei^ 
 pros])erity or checking their expansion. It. is true, of course, 
 that in industries in which wages are already relatively high, 
 or in which the expenses of production consist almost entirely 
 of wages, an increase in wages may, temporarily at leasts 
 result in increasing prices, with the effect of lowering the 
 real wages of other classes of workers. But we are concerned 
 in this section of our Report with those workers whose CHrnings 
 are barely above the level, or even below the level, needed to 
 maintain them in health and cflficiency ; and in the ease of 
 sueh workers the objection that any improvement in working 
 conditions must inevitably, or probably, increase the cost 
 of production is suf)ported, we think, neither by practical 
 experience nor by economic theory. On th^ one hand, wages 
 have been raised in a large number of industries through the 
 pressure of trade unionism, and in a smaller number of 
 industries by the Trade Boards described below, without 
 any disastrous reactions upon the industrial prosperity of the 
 country. On the other hand, it is not true that low wages or 
 
76 CHRISTIANITY AND INDUSTRIAL PROBLEMS 
 
 excessive hours necessarily, or even probably, imply a low 
 cost of production, or that the cost of production, which 
 depends on numerous factors of organisation, machinery, and 
 human efficiency, is necessarily raised when wages are increased 
 or hours are reduced.* The teaching of principle is in this 
 matter supported by the teaching of experience, and the 
 burden of proof is upon those who argue that industry cannot 
 afford to offer adequate wages and reasonable hours to the 
 workers, not upon those who urge that such conditions are 
 one element, and a not unimportant element, in industrial 
 efficiency. If, prior to the war, a large number of workers 
 were underpaid and overworked, the reason was not the 
 economic impossibility of establishing proper conditions of 
 labour, but the fact that the community had not taken the 
 steps needed to secure that such conditions were established. 
 
 111. The only body of adult men whose hours are limited by law 
 is the miners, in the case of whom they are 48 hours per week 
 for underground workers and 54 per week for surface workers. 
 The hours of adult women and of young persons under 18 
 are limited by the Factory and Workshops Acts to 55^ per 
 week in textile factories and 60 in non-textile factories and 
 workshops. The legal maximum working week for young 
 persons in shops is 74 hours. For considerable numbers of 
 women and young persons, for example those employed as 
 clerks or in the transport industry, and for all adult men, 
 except miners, there is at present no legal limitation of the 
 working week. We think that the time has come when the 
 whole subject of factory and workshops legislation might well 
 be reviewed with the object of extending the protection of the 
 law to those classes of workers who are at present without it, 
 of establishing so far as is practicable and with due allowance 
 for the varying conditions of different industries, a normal 
 working week of 48 hours, and, in particular, of reducing the 
 hours of young persons between 14 and 18 who are at present 
 liable to be gravely injured by working for hours beyond their 
 strength. 
 
 112. At the same time, it is necessary that steps should be taken 
 to raise the wages of the more poorly paid workers. To 
 indicate iipon what hiLes such steps should proceed, we 
 would refer our readers to the exi3erience derived from the 
 administration of the Trade Boards Act of 1909. Under that 
 Act Trade Boards consisting of representatives of employers, 
 representatives of the employed, and of members nominated 
 
 * On the relation of wages to the cost of production see Oregon Minimum 
 Wage Casts, by Felix Frankfurter and Josephine Goldmark, reprinted 
 by the National Consumers' League, 289 Fourth Avenue, New York 
 City, U.S.A. On the relation of hours to output see Health of Munition 
 Workers'' Committee Memos 5, 7 and 18, and Goldmark, Fatigue and 
 Efficiency. 1913. (Russell Sage Foundation, New York). 
 
113. 
 
 URBAN LIFE AND INDUSTRY 77 
 
 by the Ministry of Labour, have been set up, with the function of 
 fixing minimum rates in certain industries, which, after due 
 notice has been given, have the force of law, and the payment 
 of which is enforced by officers of the Board. Such Trade 
 Boards* have now been estabhshed in eight industries in England, 
 and five in Ireland, and their number is likely, we understand, 
 to be considerably increased in the near future. They have 
 played an important part in stinmlating and giving practical 
 effect to the pubhc opinion of the trades in which they are 
 established, and have enabled the higher standards of certain 
 districts to raise the lower standards of others. They have 
 largely increased the earnings of a large number of poorly 
 paid workers, with the approval both of those employed and 
 of the majority of employers. By establishing a minimum 
 below which wages cannot be driven, they have enabled 
 workers who previously were too poor or too helpless to 
 organise to protect themselves by combination, and to obtain 
 by trade unionism rates considerably above the minimum fixed 
 by the Boards. 
 
 The practical demonstration thus given of the possibility of 
 raising wages by public intervention, without any undesirable 
 economic reactions, and of enforcing the minimum fixed by 
 the Board, appears to us to be of the utmost importance. We 
 think that such Boards should be established in all industries 
 in which the workers are not efficiently organised or in 
 which they are not receiving a full living wage ; that 
 they should have power to fix minimum rates of payment 
 and maximum hours of labour, and such other conditions 
 of employment as it may from time to time appear desir- 
 able to them to regulate-; and that the minimum wages, 
 maximum hours and other conditions thus fixed should be 
 enforced by law. Overtime and Sunday labour, in partic- 
 ular, should be reduced to the minimum. The WTong which 
 is done through the underpayment and overwork of large 
 numbers of the more helpless members of the community 
 is grave, of long continuance and unmistakable. The methods 
 by which it can be prevented are known, and have been 
 tested by experience. We think that Christian men and 
 women ought to urge upon the community their immediate 
 and progressive application. 
 
 *The follo^ving Trade Boards are now (July, 1918) in existence: — 
 The Chain Trade Board, the Machine-made Lace and Net-finishing Trade 
 Board, the Paper Box Trade Board (Great Britain), the Paper Box Trade 
 Board (Ireland), the Tailoring Trade Board (Great Britain), the Tailoring 
 Trade Board (Ireland), the Sugar, Confectionery and Food Preserving 
 Trade Board (Great Britain), the Sugar, Confectionery and Food Preserv- 
 ing Trade Board (Ireland), the Shirt-making Trade Board (Great Britain), 
 the Shirt-making Trade Board (Ireland), the Tin Box Trade Board, the 
 HolloT¥-ware Trade Board, the Embroider^' Trade Board (Ireland). 
 
78 CHRISTIANITY AND INDUSTRIAL PROBLEMS 
 
 (xi.) The Prevention of and Provision for Unemployment 
 
 114. The principle of the living wage involves not only adequate 
 payment during employment, but continuity ot employment. 
 In the second place, therelbre, we desire to expn-ss our 
 conviction that it is the duty of Christians to cope, by all 
 means in their power, with the problem of unemployment. 
 Their first aim must be to prevent its occurrence, their second 
 to make the adequate maintenance of the unemployed part 
 of the normal provision of all industries which suffer from 
 unemployment. Unemployment in more than one form is, 
 as we have already pointed out, a normal feature of our 
 industrial system. Though for the moment it has been 
 thrust out of sight by the emcrgencN' created by the war, the 
 causes which have created it in the past, unless they can be 
 removed, will continue to create it in the future. Young 
 persons will drift from *' blind alley " occupations into irregular 
 or casual emj)loynient. Adult men will be displaced by the 
 introduction of machinery or of new processes. In certain 
 indiistrics and districts chronic casual labour will, unless 
 deliberately prevented, continue, as it has done hitherto, to 
 degrade whole populations. In the future, as in the jiast, most 
 industries will go through a period of season;d unemjjlo^ment. 
 In the future, as in the past, widespread unemployment will be 
 created in a large number ul different industries by the periodical 
 depressions which have occurred at intervals of years since the 
 first quarter of the nineteenth century, and of which the last 
 culminated in 1909. 
 
 115. An evil which has several different aspects must be attacked 
 from several different sides. We refer below* to the subject of 
 what has been called " blind alley " employment, and we need 
 not here do more than point out the paramount importance 
 of so organising industry that all young persons, before they 
 reach the age of manhood, should receive the training needed 
 to qualify them for a life of regular employment. A more 
 important, though still a minor, phase of the problem is that 
 created by the introduction of machinery and new processes. 
 The individuals affected may not at any one time be large, 
 but the material distress and mental suffering of the specialised 
 worker who sees his livelihood taken from him, and himself and 
 his family ruined, through a ctCuse which he cannot control, 
 are often acute, and we think they are considered too lightly 
 when they are regarded as inevitable incidents in economic 
 development. Industrial changes must, of course, be made. 
 But the path of economic progress ought not to be strewn 
 with innocent victims. The worker who has given his life to 
 a trade has acquired a vested interest, which ought, in the 
 
 * See Section (xii.) of this chapter. 
 
uhban life and industry 79 
 
 name of humanity, to be respe ted. In certain industries, 
 for example, some branches ol' tlie printing trade, that prin- 
 ciple has already received practical recognition, in the form 
 ol" agreements between the employers' association and the trade 
 union concerned as to the conditjons upon which machmery 
 is to be introduced and the provibion to be made for workers 
 affected by it. Such arrangements are obviously just, and 
 it is highly desirable that they should be widely extended. We 
 think, mdeed, that there is a strong obligation on all who 
 organise industry to take such steps, whether by shortening 
 hours, or by rearranging work, as may result in the minimum 
 dis[)laccment of workers being caused by the introduction of 
 new machinery. Further, as we state below, we tlimk that 
 its introduction sliould in all cases be preceded by an agree- 
 ment between the workers and the management as to tlie 
 terms upon which it is to be introduced, and that in such 
 agreement proper provision should be made to safeguard the 
 interests of workers who may be threatened with displacement. 
 
 llg^ But *' blind alley " occupations and the displacement of 
 workers by machmery are not such serious aspects ol the pro- 
 blem as are casual labour and the unemployment caused through 
 periodical contractions of industrial activity. Of all forms 
 of unemployment casual labour is in some ways at once the 
 most mischievous, the most neglected, and the most easily 
 remediable ; the most mischievous because it is not recurrent, 
 but chronic ; the most neglected, because those whom it 
 demoralises are tempted to acquiesce in it ; the most remediable, 
 because it can be largely diminished, or even abolished, by 
 organisation, and because the lines upon which that organisa- 
 tion should proceed have been worked out by competent 
 authorities. 
 
 il7. ^^^ think that the casualisation of labour, whether brought 
 about deliberately for the convenience of employers, who 
 desire to have abundant reserves of labour at their disposal, 
 or arising through mere carelessness in organisation, deserves 
 the strongest condemnation ; and we feel bound to add that 
 the almost insiguilicant progress which, in spite of praise- 
 worthy efforts in certain districts, has been made towards 
 abolishing an evil system, since its character was again exposed 
 and the remedies for it again explained by the late Poor Law 
 Commission, is a grave blot upon our national life. We do 
 not propose to enter upon a discussion of the economics of 
 casual labour, which have been diagnosed in easily accessible 
 works. Its essential feature, which is repeated at several 
 different ports, and to a less extent in other industries — for 
 example, building — " is the maintenance of a floating reserve 
 of labour far larger than is required to meet the maximum 
 demands of employers. This is brought about by the inde- 
 
80 CHRISTIANITY AND INDUSTRIAL PROBLEMS 
 
 pendent action of the separate employment agencies each seek- 
 ing to retain a following of labour as nearly as possible equal 
 to its own maximum demand."* Dock workers in London 
 and Liverpool are engaged at different " stands " in different 
 parts of the Docks. Little effort is made to employ the same 
 men regularly ; indeed, foremen often prefer to increase the 
 supply of competitors for employment by attracting casual 
 workers by occasional doles of work. There is little communi- 
 cation between different parts of the Docks, with the conse- 
 quence that men are kept waiting round one "stand" who 
 might get work at another. f The result is that instead of the 
 work of an industry being done by a body of workers who are 
 regularly employed, it is spread out over a larger -body, each 
 of whom is casually employed or under-employed. The 
 surplus of men not engaged over men seeking work at the 
 Docks was estimated before the war as at least 10,000 in London 
 on an average day and as at least 7,000 in Liverpool on a busy 
 day 4 It is, we think, the duty of employers, of workers, and 
 of the State to aim at substituting regular employment and 
 wages for casual employment and wages. To achieve that 
 result three changes are necessary. The first is that instead 
 of men being engaged casually as men are wanted, without 
 regard to any factor but the needs of the moment, the largest 
 possible number of men should be employed as a permanent 
 staff upon weekly wages. The second is that when, owing 
 to the varying exigencies of trade, it is necessary to engage 
 
 * Beveridge, Unemployment^ p. 92, 1909 (Longmans). See also Royal 
 Commission on the Poor Laws and Relief of Distress Majority and Minority 
 Reports, 1909, and Mess, Casual Labour at the Docks, 1916 (Bell), which 
 is the latest study of dock labour in London. For Liverpool, see Miss 
 Rathbone, Report of an Inquiry into the Condition of Labour at the Liver- 
 pool Docks, 1904 (Northern Piiblishing Co.), and R. Williams, 2"he Liver- 
 pool Docks Problem, 1912 (Northern Publishing C-o.). 
 
 t The following description of engagement at one large wharf in London 
 and the figures of men taken on give a practical illustration of the system : 
 " There is a good deal of pushing and struggling at the calls here, the men 
 rushing across the road and hiiing up on the other side directly the foreman 
 appears. He walks up and do^vn the line, inspecting the men exactly as 
 though they were cattle, and as they are passed over they run along to 
 take up a position farther on to get another chance." 
 
 
 Number 
 
 
 
 
 of Men _ 
 
 Number 
 
 Not 
 
 Date. Time. Place. 
 
 waiting. 
 
 taken on. 
 
 taken on. 
 
 13.12.13 10 a.m. Lower Thames St. 
 
 200 
 
 60 
 
 140 
 
 10 a.m. „ „ 
 
 150 
 
 45 
 
 105 
 
 10 a.m. „ „ 
 
 150 
 
 40 
 
 110 
 
 10 a.m. „ „ 
 
 50 
 
 16 
 
 34 
 
 20.12.13 7 a.m. „ „ 
 
 80 
 
 56 
 
 24 
 
 8 a.m. High St., Wapping 
 
 200 
 
 70 
 
 130 
 
 10 a.m. „ „ 
 
 60 
 
 30 
 
 30 
 
 (Mess, op. dt , p. 36.) 
 % Mess, op. cit., p. 86. 
 
URBAN LIFE AND INDUSTRY »1 
 
 extra men for special emergencies, those men should be engaged 
 through employment exchanges, in touch with a large number 
 of different centres of employment, in order that workers 
 instead of being exposed, as now, to intervals of unemployment 
 between different jobs, may be enabled to pass rapidly and 
 regularly from one centre of employment to another.* Thirdly, 
 in order to prevent the abolition of casual labour causing dis- 
 tress among those already engaged in the industry, the docks 
 should be closed to new comers, on the principle partially 
 adopted at Liverpool, until the surplus of existing workers 
 had been reduced by death or by the ordinary process of attri- 
 tion. If these or other reforms are to be effective, they must 
 not merely be imposed from above, but must be planned and 
 carried out by some body representing the various interests 
 involved. We think, therefore, that it is desirable that an 
 Industrial Council, such as is suggested in Section (xiii.) of this 
 chapter, should be established in the Transport Industry, with 
 District Councils in each of the principal centres of employment, 
 and that such a Council should have as its first duty to prepare 
 a scheme for regularising employment and earnings among all 
 workers at docks. 
 118. Such a policy, if carried out in the different forms necessitated 
 by the varying conditions of different industries and different 
 localities, would result in the substitution of regular work and 
 earnings for the degrading system of casual einployment 
 which obtains in some industries at present. It might well 
 be supplemented, in many cases, by the encouragement of 
 dual occupations ; in particular, by the combination of in- 
 dustry with work upon the land, a possibility to which too 
 Uttle attention has hitherto been paid in England. The 
 worker in the factory, the dock labourer, the clerk in the office, 
 should all have access to land. Tkey should be able to get a 
 small plot upon which they can, spend their spare time, and 
 work when they would otherwise be out of employment. Such 
 an allotment does not only provide a healthful and pleasant 
 occupation ; it also offers a valuable supply of fresh food for 
 the worker's family. A plot of land not more than one- 
 sixteenth or one-eighth an acre in size can, if properly handled, 
 yield at least £5 worth of vegetable food during the year. 
 There are to-day, perhaps, some one million allotments, though 
 no exact figures are available. There is no reason why there 
 
 * Thus, to give a concrete example, there are at present about 15 
 different calling-on places at which men are engaged at the Victoria and 
 Albert Docks. The best plan would be that at all the "calls" men 
 should be taknn on at one or two central places. If this is not adopted 
 the next plan would be that the first " call " (at 7 a.m.) should take place 
 as now, but that at all subsequent " calls " (8, and 1 o'clock) the men 
 should be engaged not at 15 stands, but at one or two surplus stands only. 
 
82 CHRISTIANITY AND INDUSTRIAL PROBLEMS 
 
 should not be some five million allotments, the total yield from 
 which woukl reach the sum of £25,000,000. 
 
 119. How such a plan may be systematically worked out is shown 
 by the example of Paris, with its extensive market gardens, 
 or of Antwerp and Hamburg, in both of which dock labourers 
 possess allotments which they cultivate at times when their 
 services are not required in unloading vessels. In most 
 continental towns some such dovetailing of industry and agri- 
 culture obtains ; and there is no reason why it should not 
 become equally general in this country. Indeed, attempts 
 have already been made to acclimatise it here. Under the 
 pressure of the present crisis steps have been taken on a large 
 scale to increase the opportunities for working on the land 
 which are open to dwellers in cities, and such efforts should 
 not be allowed to lapse with the termination of the present 
 emergency. In the methodical planning of town development 
 w^hich will become, it is to be hoped, increasingly common in 
 the future, it should be the normal policy to set aside belts of 
 land for productive purposes which could be used for agri- 
 cultural allotments of various sizes, from those of the inmost 
 zone, which would normally contain only a few rods, to those 
 of the medium zone, which might amount to a quarter of an 
 acre, and those of the outer zone which might reach the size 
 of a small farm. Few things are more destructive of character 
 than enforced idleness, or more invigorating than a few hours' 
 work upon the land. We agree with those who urge that 
 the provision of largely increased opportunities for such a 
 subsitliary occupation would at once increase the ame»iity 
 of town life, and be a valuable resource against the effects 
 of such kinds of unemployment as cannot be prevented by 
 better organisation. 
 
 120. Hardly less serious than casual labour is the unemployment 
 caused by recurrent industrial slackness. Methods have been 
 suggested by eminent authorities* by which the Government 
 and local bodies, by concentrating a considerable part of their 
 demand for goods in periods in which the normal industry of 
 the country is depressed, could diminish the fall in the aggre- 
 gate purchasing power of the community, which at once results 
 from and intensifies such depressions, and thus avert or mitigate 
 their effect upon employment. According to evidence sub- 
 mitted to the recent Poor Law Commissionf the difference 
 between the total wage bill of the United Kingdom in the 
 best years and worst years of a trade cycle was before the war 
 about £10,000,000, and the total loss of wages over a period 
 
 * lioynl Commission on the Poor Lazvs and Relief of Distress, Minority 
 Report, l»t>9. 
 
 t lioyul Ccrmmission on the Poor Laws and Relief of Distress, 1910. 
 Appendix, Vol. VIII. Minutes of Evidenc?e with Appendix [Cd. 50661- 
 
URBAN LIFE AND INDUSTRY 88 
 
 of ten years approximated to £4.0,000.000. Moreover, apart 
 from sucli cycliciil lluct nations of industry, there are tlu* wt-ll- 
 known seasdtial v^ariations of employment, of whicli tlie most 
 fatniliar instanee is that given by tlie building tradis, but which 
 affect in a greater or less degree a wide range of industries. 
 Willie we do not imply tliat it is practicable entirely to smooth 
 out such contractions and ex])ansions in the volume ol" eniploy- 
 ment, it is important, we think, that every effort should be 
 made to diminish them by using the purchases of j^ul^ic bodies 
 to exercise a counteracting or compensating inlluence in the 
 maimer descrilud by tiie Minority Report of the Poor Law 
 Commissioners. Apart fiom the peculiar circumstances of 
 the present emergency. Departments of State and Local 
 Authorities are in normal times purchasers upon an extensive 
 scale of a great variety of goods and services. There are, 
 indeed, com})aratively few industries which are unaffected 
 by the demand of the Admiralty Contracts and Purchase 
 Department, the Admiralty Works Department, the War 
 Ollice, the Home Oirice, the Post OfTice, the OHice of Works, 
 the India Office, the Stationery Office, the Commissioners of 
 Woods, the Commissioners of Public Works, the Metropolitan 
 Police, the Road Board, the Development Commission, the 
 Prison Commissioners and the County Borough and District 
 Councils of the kingdom ; and in view of recent extensions 
 of State activity, the number of industries influenct d by 
 the orders of such public authorities will prove, it is probable, 
 to be considerably larger after the war than it was in 1014. 
 While some of the requirements of these and similar bodies 
 must be met when they arise, there are others which are 
 capable of being postponed until a period of slack trade sends 
 up the percentage of unemployed. The execution of contracts 
 for new buildings, such as schools, post ofRces, barracks, for 
 repairing old buildings, for the clothing of the army, navy, 
 police, tramwaymen, and other public servants, could in 
 time of peace often be deferred to the worst years of 
 the industrial cycle, and, if so deferred, would do something 
 to counterbalance the decHne in the demand for labour which 
 would otherwise take place. It is clearly in the public interest 
 that this policy should, when practicable, be adopted both by 
 the Central Departments of State and by the Local Auth(jrities. 
 121. But while it is eminently desirable that practical effect 
 should be given to such plans for preventing unemployment, 
 we think it necessary to recognise that only time and experi- 
 ment can prove their value, and that it is in the meantime 
 indispensable to take immediate measures to ensure that the 
 next depression of trade docs not find the community un- 
 prepared. The right policy we believe to be contained in 
 Part 11. of the Insurance Act, though we do not bind our- 
 g2 
 
84 CHRISTIANITY AND INDUSTRIAL PROBLEMS 
 
 selves to an approval of all the details of that measure. The 
 principle of that Act is that the maintenance of workers during 
 times of industrial slackness should be defrayed out of funds 
 accumulated during periods of industrial prosperity. That 
 principle we consider a sound one, and we think it should 
 be extended in two directions. In the first place, it should 
 be applied to all those trades, including women's occupations, 
 to which it does not at present apply. In the second place, 
 the benefit paid to the unemployed worker should be increased, 
 and the period during which it can be drawn should be 
 lengthened, the necessary financial readjustments being made 
 to permit of that increased sum being available. 
 122. If workers are indispensable for industry when it is active, 
 it is, in our opinion, right that they should be adequately main- 
 tained when industry is slack. The spectacle of the man who 
 is capable of working, and willing to work, but who is deprived 
 of the opportunity of earning his livelihood by circumstances 
 over which he has no control, is a constant challenge to the 
 conscience of Christians, which, hitherto, they have done too 
 little to meet. To leave the unemployed workman to struggle 
 unaided with his misery is unchristian : to offer him doles is 
 an insult. We submit that it is the evident duty of Christians 
 to press upon the community .^r5<, the adoption of such measures 
 as are likely to diminish unemployment, and, second^ the 
 provision of adequate iand honourable means of maintenance 
 for all workers, who, in spite of such preventive measures, may 
 be from time to time unemployed. 
 
 (xii.) The Protection of Children and Young Persons, 
 
 128. In the third place, we would emphasise that it is the duty 
 of employers, of workers, and of the whole community to take 
 special pains to ensure that the organisation of industry shall 
 be such as neither to impair the health nor to prejudice the 
 education of children and young persons. We shall deal with 
 education in a subsequent chapter, and we do not propose to 
 anticipate here what we have to say upon that subject. But 
 the possibility of establishing an improved system of education 
 depends in no small measure upon the recognition by all classes 
 that children and young persons must be regarded primarily 
 not as wage-earners, but as potential parents and potential 
 citizens, and that a great sin is committed when the develop- 
 ment of their physique, their character, and their intellectual 
 capacity is sacrificed to the exploitation of their immediate 
 economic utility. 
 
 124. The record of our country in this matter, with its per- 
 mission in the past of cruel and brutalising overwork, its 
 timid intervention to protect those least capable of pro- 
 tecting themselves, its tolerance even at the present time 
 
URBAN LIFE AND INDUSTRY 85 
 
 of the sacrifice of human potentialities to the alleged exigencies 
 of industry, is, on the whole, a discreditable one. Though 
 some of the worst evils have been abolished, others remain. 
 It is no exajcrgeration to say that even to-day there are many 
 industries which have as their foundation the labour of chil- 
 dren, who are not the less children in their helplessness, their 
 need of protection, and their immaturity of mind and body, 
 because many of them are, in the eyes of the law, " young 
 persons." We would point out that not only are children who 
 receive partial exemption allowed to work in the mill at 12 
 years of age, but that at 14 all young persons are allowed by 
 law to work the full legal hours of 55 J (textile factories) and 
 60 (non-textile factories and workshops) per week, and that 
 it has recently been stated in an official report* that of the 
 numerous young persons employed in industries where there 
 has as yet been no legal limitation of hours, some are working 
 for as much as 90 hours per week. 
 125. Further, we would call special attention to the different 
 but hardly less grave evil aptly described as " blind alley " 
 employment. In certain industries part of the work is per- 
 formed by young persons between 14 and 18 years of age, who 
 have no prospect of permanent employment in the firm, or 
 indeed in the industry, who receive no training which will 
 qualify them for future employment, and who are dismissed 
 when they demand an adult's wage, to struggle for a precarious 
 living in the unskilled labour market, and to be replaced in 
 the industry which they have left by a fresh relay of adolescent 
 workers, who will be similarly dismissed in their turn. " Between 
 15 and 18 years of age," stated the Report of the Inter-Depart- 
 mental Committee on Partial Exemptionf in speaking of the 
 woollen industry, " the greater part of the boys leave the 
 trade, having lost an important part of their schooling, having 
 acquired some preliminary knowledge of a trade which cannot 
 find them employment, and are cast upon the labour market. . . . 
 As far as the boys are concerned, the system seems calculated 
 to create casual and unskilled male labour." " New develop- 
 ments of the factory system," said the Consultative Committee 
 of the Board of Education in its Report on Attendance at 
 Continuation Schools, " are multiplying opportunities of non- 
 educative employment, both for boys and girls, during ado- 
 lescences In many works . . . boys' work, or girls' work, 
 is simply a specialised compartment which gives no kind of 
 qualification for future skilled employment outside it. . . . 
 Unless counteracting measures are taken to check them, these 
 
 * Board of Education Report of Departmental Committee on Juvenile 
 Education in Relation to Employment after the War, 1917 [Cd. 8512], 
 
 t Report of the Inter-Deparimental Committee on Partial Exemption 
 from School AtUndance, Vol. I., 1909 [Cd. 4791]. 
 
86 CHRISTIANITY AND INDUSTRIAL PROBLEMS 
 
 developments of factory production and of the transport trades 
 will cause <^rave and lastinjij injury to the national life." *' The 
 mass of Unemployment," reported the Minority of the Royal 
 Commission on the Poor Laws and Relief of Distress, " is 
 contiimally bcin^j recruited by a stream of young men from 
 industries which nly upon unskilled boy labour, and turn 
 it adrift at manhood without any s})ecial or general industrial 
 qualification." " Their occupaticms," reiterates the last Report 
 on the subject, that of the Board of Education Departmental 
 Committee of 1917 on Juvenile Education in Relation to 
 Emj)li)yment after the War, "give them no kind of industrial 
 training which will fit them for skilled adult employment, and 
 in many cases not even that general training of the faculties 
 which makes the intelligent and adaptable, even though 
 unskilled, labourer. Nor are these occupations necessarily 
 an avenue even to unskilled employment within the same 
 industries. Most of those following them will be dismissed 
 whenever they begin to ask for an adult's wages. This is not 
 because they are inefficient workers, or for any other personal 
 or accidental reason ; it follows regularly and inevitably from 
 the way in which the industries arc organised. Either they 
 have no adult workers or practically none, or they can only 
 absorb in employment a small proportion of those employed 
 as juveniles. The rest drop out " (often) " to join the ranks 
 of the permanently or intermittently unemployed." Van 
 boys, doffers in textile factories, oven-boys in bakeries, drawers- 
 off in saw mill^, machine minders in furniture factories and 
 in certain branches of the engineering trade — these are a few 
 examples out of a much larger number of juvenile occupations 
 to which the officinl descriptions quoted above are often 
 applicable. This misuse of the nation s youth is not excep- 
 tional, but common. It is not an unex])lored problem, but 
 an evil which has been repeatedly diagnosed* by experts. It 
 has not been substantially diminished since attention was 
 first called to it, but continues almost unabated either by 
 conscience or by law. Indeed, the present emergency has 
 caused it to increase to even more disastrous dimensions. 
 126. Christians cannot undo the past ; but they are bound to 
 insist that this bad chapter in the nation's history shall be 
 closed at once, and closed for ever. We submit that the past 
 and present use of children as wealth-producers stands con- 
 
 * Reports of Royal Commission on the Poor Laws and Relief of Distress, 
 1909, '^sTvcially of M^. (mow Si^-) Cviil Jackson, on Boy Labour. Appendix, 
 Vol. XX. [Cd. 46321 ; Board of Education Report of Consiiltntive Committee 
 on Attendance. Compulsory or Otherzvise, at Continuation Schools, 1909 
 [Cd. 47.57! ; Report of Inter- Departmental Committee on Partial Exemption 
 from School Attendance, Vol. I., 1909 [Cd. 4791 | ; Board of Education 
 Report of Departmental Committee on Juvenile Education in Utlation to 
 Employment after the War, 1917 [Cd. 8512]. 
 
URBAN LIFE AND INDUSTRY 87 
 
 demned both for folly and injustice, and that the demands of 
 industry must not be allowed to prevent any child from ob- 
 taininiT full opportunities of education as a human he'inff and 
 a citizen. It is, we think, the duty of employers, aetin<T in 
 conjunction with orsranised labour, to make the fullest use of 
 such machinery and methods of or<Tanisation as may diminish 
 the number of younij persons employed in what we have 
 described as ** blind alley " occupations. Further, as we sug- 
 gest in Chapter V. of our Report, there should be regular 
 co-operation between Juvenile Advisory Committees, or 
 Choice of Employment Committees, and parents, teachers, 
 employers, and trade unions, with a view to assisting yoimg 
 persons to find the employments for which they are best 
 suited. 
 
 127. But, apart from that particular evil, there remains the larcfer 
 task of securing that emplovment in industry shall not conflict 
 with the physical and mental development of all children and 
 young persons. We warmly welcome the Education Act 
 which has just become law, under which all exemptions under 
 the age of 14 are abolished, and attendance at continuance 
 schools is made obligatory on all young persons between 14 and 
 18 for either 7 or 8 hours per week during the first seven years 
 of the Act's operation, and subsequently for 8 hours per week. 
 At the same time, for reasons which we exf)!ain in our chapter 
 on Education, we believe that on educational ffrounds the 
 age of compulsory full-time attendance at school should be 
 raised in time to 15, and ultimately to 16. and that the ideal 
 to be aimed at is that, between the age at which full-time 
 attendance at school ceases and that of 18, all young persons 
 not engaged in occupations which are themselves directly 
 educational should spend, ultimately, not less than half 
 their working time in continued school education. If 
 this programme is to be realised, industry must be reorganised 
 in such a way as no longer to rest upon a basis of the labour 
 of children and young persons. We think that the duty of 
 undertaking such a reorganisation, and of urging upon the 
 community that it shall be undertaken, is one which ought 
 to make a special appeal to the conscience of Christian men 
 and women. 
 
 (xiij.) Axsociation of Workers and of Employern. 
 
 128. (d) The fourth point which we desire to emphasise is the 
 important and indeed predominant part in the prouress to- 
 wards a more Christian society which may be played by 
 voluntary combinations. Whatev^er the specific measures of 
 reform which may be introduced by the action of the com- 
 munity, the character of industrial life mu«it. in the last resort, 
 depend mainly upon the ideals and practice of those im- 
 
88 CHRISTIANITY AND INDUSTRIAL PROBLEMS 
 
 mediately engaged in it. In the long run it will be what they 
 make it. And if the idea of co-operation for public service is 
 to replace that of competition for private gain as its guiding 
 principle, that principle must not merely be an external 
 standard imposed by public pressure upon a reluctant body 
 of producers ; it must find practical realisation in the daily 
 life and ordinary organisation of each industry, and, indeed, 
 of each individual workshop. It must not merely result 
 in compliance with rules imposed by law, but must mould the 
 internal structure and organisation of economic life. 
 129. It is mainly, we believe, through a wide extension of the 
 principle of association that such a spirit is to be fostered. Of 
 that principle the Church is itself intended to be the greatest 
 expression, and its development among Jhose engaged in 
 industry should command the sympathy and practical support 
 of Christians. Experience suggests, we think, that unre- 
 stricted competition among workers and among employers 
 tends to result in social degradation, and that trade asso- 
 ciations includmg all workers, both men and women, on the 
 one hand, and similar associations including all employers 
 on the other, are the best foundation of mutual understanding 
 industrial peace and social progress. No one who compares 
 the conditions obtaining, for example, in the cotton industry 
 to-day with those which characterised it in the middle of 
 the nineteenth century can doubt that organisation, both 
 among workers and among employers, has been a potent 
 force in the civilisation of industrial life, or fail to desire 
 that its influence should be widely extended to include those 
 classes of workers, such as most agricultural labourers, most 
 women, and large bodies of other poorly paid workers, who are, 
 at present, without the protection of any organisation. 
 
 180. If^ however, associations of workers and of employers are 
 to render the full services of which they are capable, something 
 more is required than a mere increase in their membership. 
 We do not pretend, of course, to the special knowledge needed 
 to define the proper relations between the different parties 
 engaged in industry. But there are many indications that 
 public opinion among all classes is ripe for far-reaching changes 
 in industrial relationships, which must be a matter of the 
 deepest interest to all who accept the teaching of Christianity 
 as the guide of social life. In particular, there is, we think, 
 a growing conviction that the organisation of industry must 
 be such as not merely to yield a life of security and comfort to 
 all engaged in it, but to admit of their exercising a genuine and 
 increasing control over the conditions upon which their liveli- 
 hood depends, and over industrial policy and organisation, 
 in so far as those conditions are affected by them. 
 
 181. Whatever may be thought of that conviction, its existence is 
 
URBAN LIFE AND INDUSTRY 89 
 
 a fact which requires to be weighed by all concerned with the 
 future of industry and with the improvement of social relation- 
 ships. On the one hand, it is increasingly felt that the existing 
 organisation of industry often confers upon the manager or 
 employer powers over the working life of hundreds, sometimes 
 of thousands, of men and women too great to be entrusted to 
 any individual, however capable or ^benevolent. On the other 
 hand, it is believed that trade unionism, which has proved its 
 value in dealing with the tasks hitherto undertaken by it, 
 offers an instrument through which the worker may obtain 
 an increasing share in the control of industry. The social 
 movement of our day is, in short, incorrectly understood, when 
 it is assumed to seek only an improvement in the material 
 conditions of industrial life. It represents at bottom a demand, 
 which is growing in volume and intensity, for the gradual 
 displacement, through some form of representative and respon- 
 sible government, of the industrial autocracy which, if it 
 played an indispensable part in the earlier stages of industrial 
 development, is believed to be neither necessary nor desirable 
 in a democratic and educated community. 
 
 Upon the practicability of this aim and of the methods 
 suggested for attaining it, we are not in full agreement with 
 each other. To some of us it appears that economic progress 
 and efficiency can be secured only through the ultimate 
 responsibility for decisions upon questions of industrial policy 
 and organisation being, as now, in the hands of individuals 
 who are unfettered by subordination to any superior authority ; 
 to others of us that an increasing responsibility for industrial 
 organisation ought to be devolved upon the organised bodies 
 of workers, as they become willing and fit to undertake it, and 
 that the future of the employer or manager is as one workman 
 among other workmen, who will be, with them, a fellow-servant 
 of the community. But while we differ as to the remoter 
 ideal, we are in agreement as to the sU ps immediately desirable. 
 We think that the demand for an increasing share in the control 
 of those industrial conditions upon which the Hvelihood of the 
 worker depends is one which ought to be met. What is 
 required is some change in status such as we endeavoured to 
 express in an earlier part of this Report when we said that his 
 position should be that, not of a hand, but of a citizen of 
 industry. The beginning of such a change of status is that it 
 should be recognised that both the prosperity of industries as 
 a whole, and the methods of organisation adopted in individual 
 workshops, are matters which concern the workers as much as 
 their employers, and that they should have an equal oppor- 
 tunity of taking part, through their representa-ives, in the 
 discussion of industrial questions and the settlement of in- 
 dustrial conditions. As a step in this direction we think ; ^ 
 
90 CHRISTIANITY AND INDUSTRIAL PROBLEMS 
 
 133. (1) That it should be the normal practice in organised trades 
 for representatives of employers and workers to confer at 
 regular intervals upon such questions affecting the trade ai 
 may be suitable for common consideration. 
 
 134. (2) That representatives of the workers should be normally 
 and . permanently associated with the management in matters 
 affecting their livelihood and comfort, and the welfare of the 
 business, such as the fixing and alteration of piece-rates, the 
 improvement of processes and machinery, and the settlement 
 of the terms upon which they are to be introduced, workshop 
 discipline, and the establishment of the maximum possible 
 security of employment. 
 
 135. So far from hampering industry, this system of Industrial 
 Parliaments and Workshop Committees would, we believe, 
 increase its efficiency. It would result in valuable suggestions 
 being made, and would remove the minor causes of friction 
 before they arose. But efficiency, though important, is 
 not the ultimate consideration. Most important of all, the 
 worker would obtain greatly increased control over the con- 
 ditions of his employment. He would no longer have reason 
 to believe, as in certain industries he has to-day, that if his 
 weekly earnings increase his piece-rates will be reduced. He 
 would be protected against arbitrary dismissalJ^y having an 
 appeal to a committee on which he was represented. He would 
 take part, through his representatives, in discussing the larger 
 questions of the industry, such as the regularisation of employ- 
 ment and the abolition of casual labour, the systems of wage 
 payment, the improvement of the technique of production 
 and methods of preventing the introduction of machinery from 
 displacing workers who have spent their whole working life in 
 the industry and who, if displaced, will be ruined. 
 
 136. The development of such a system would tend, we believe, 
 to raise the status of the worker. It is probable that it would 
 also do something to diminish both the frequency and the 
 bitterness of industrial disputes. That the social life of any 
 civilised nation should be such as to cause the recurrence of 
 something like industrial warfare, with all its incidental 
 misery, to be regarded almost as one of its normal features, 
 ought to arouse profound dissatisfaction among all who believe 
 that industry should be inspired by the ideal of co-operation 
 for public service. It is evidence both of the existence of 
 deeply rooted social evils and of the weakness of the link 
 which at present binds different classes and different industries 
 to the service of the community. We cannot believe that such 
 perpetual tension represents a condijtion either natural to man 
 or such as can be accepted with approval by Christians. 
 
 137. In order, however, to promote industrial peace, it is not 
 enough to deplore industrial war. There must be a two-fold 
 
URBAN LIFE AND INDUSTRY 91 
 
 change in the relations at present existing between each in- 
 dustry and the gcniTal public. Practical application must be 
 given to the principk- tliat all engaged in industry have obli- 
 gations to the community and that the community, in its 
 turn, has obligations to all engaged in industry. On the one 
 hand, the menibcrs of each industry must be prepared to sub- 
 ordinate their own immediate interests to those of the public, 
 and must refuse to snatch special advantiiges or privileges for 
 themselves at the cost of penalising the consumer. On the 
 other hand, the public must recognise its duty to make every 
 effort to secure to all its members the opportunity of obtaining 
 the material conditions of a good life, so that every class may 
 be confident that it can secure redress for its grievances without 
 an appeal to force. It is not reasonable to demand that, of 
 the two parties immediately concerned in a dispute, either 
 employers should give way to workmen- or workmen to em- 
 ployers. It is reasonable to require that both should n'we way 
 to a principle, or to a cause, or to the higher interests of the 
 society of which both arc members. In so far as, and only in 
 so far as, industry becomes unmistakably organised for the 
 service of the public, the community will be in a position to 
 insist that the disagreements of the different sections engaged 
 in it must be subordinated to the public service. 
 
 138. While we believe that such an ideal is not unattainable, its 
 attainment must be a matter of time and patient e'ff«)rt. For 
 the present at least it must be recognised that disputes will 
 continue to occur, though many of those arising from trivial 
 causes will be prevented. We think that it would be advan- 
 tageous if the associations which we have described were 
 completed by their federation in a larger and more n prescn- 
 tative body, a national industrial Parliament representing the 
 statesmanship of all parties concerned in industry, to which 
 disputed points might be referred by individual trades for 
 inquiry, report and decision. We believe that the decisions of 
 such a Parlin merit would rapiflly come to be regarded by all 
 parties as final. It is. of course, important that, whatever the 
 machinery adopted, the questions submitted should be ex- 
 amined and decided with the least possible delay, and that, as 
 we have already stated, agreements once made should be 
 strictly observed. 
 
 (xiv.) The Industrial Employment of Women* 
 
 139. (^) The proposals which we have advanced above vnih regard 
 to the establishment of a full living wage, the prevention of 
 unemployment, and the encouragement of a more comprehen- 
 sive trade unionism, apply, of course, to women as well as to 
 men. The economic position of women workers in the majority 
 of industries was, before the war, one of peculiar impotence. 
 
92 CHRISTIANITY AND INDUSTRIAL PROBLEMS 
 
 Entering industry at an early age, and for the most part without 
 any specific training, expecting very often to leave industrial life 
 after ^ few years on their marriage, employed largely in seasonal 
 trades, and often restricted by custom, prejudice and ignorance 
 to low-skilled branches of industry, large numbers of women 
 workers accepted before the war wages which, as the figures 
 quoted above* show only too clearly, were often insufficient to 
 provide even the bare necessaries of physical existence, and 
 were sometimes insufficient to provide even them. Like men, 
 they suffered from fluctuation of employment, but, unlike 
 some men, they had no accumulated funds upon which to 
 draw when their wages ceased. Outside the cotton industry 
 only an insignificant proportion were protected by trade 
 unionism ; and indeed the wages of many women workers 
 were so low, and their industrial position so precarious, as to 
 make effective membership of a trade union almost impossible. 
 Apart from the special case of women's trade unionism in 
 Lancashire, the one bright spot in the recent history of women's 
 industry is the striking improvement in the wages of women 
 workers in the occupations in which Trade Boards were 
 established under the Act of 1909. Desirable for all but the 
 well-organised workers, a legal minimum wage is indispensable 
 to women. All occupations in which a large number of women 
 are employed, unless the workers are sufficiently well organised 
 to protect themselves, should, therefore, be scheduled under 
 the Trade Boards Act, and Part II. of the Insurance Act. 
 amended on the lines which we have suggested above, should 
 be made applicable to them. 
 140. But while these measures of protection are as necessary for 
 women as for men, there ought, we think, to be a change in 
 the. attitude of society towards the industrial employment of 
 women commensurate with the importance of the part which 
 they have played in the war. During the last three years large 
 numbers of women have undertaken work hitherto reserved for 
 men, and new standards with regard both to wages and to the 
 other conditions of employment have begun to grow up. It is 
 important, we think, that after the war these new and better 
 standards should be maintained. It is, of course, indisj^ensablc 
 that where individual men, whose place has been taken by 
 women, have been promised reinstatement, they should be 
 reinstated. Further, both employers and the Government 
 have given an explicit promise to restore trade union conditions, 
 and that promise, unless waived by those with whom it was 
 contracted, must be observed. But, apart from these special 
 obligations, it ought, we think, to be recognised that in future 
 the economic position of women must not be determined 
 merely by an appeal to previous custom or by considerations 
 
 • See p. 62. 
 
t URBAN LIFE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 98 
 
 of profit. Women are entitled not merely to " equal pay for 
 equal work," when the work which they do is the same as that 
 done by men, but to equal freedom in the choice of their occupa- 
 tion, equal justice and consideration, and an equal voice in 
 controlling the conditions of employment. Provided that these 
 conditions of equality obtain, the comparative efficiency of 
 men's and women's work should generally serve, in normal 
 times, to delimit their respective spheres. We recognise, 
 indeed, that there are certain occupations which are manifestly 
 unhealthy and injurious to women, in which, in spite of their 
 unsuitability for them, they continue to be employed. But 
 we think that if any occupations are to be closed to women on 
 these grounds, it must be done, after women themselves haye 
 been consulted, by means of legislation. 
 
 141. There is one aspect of women's employment in industry which 
 is at once of special gravity and of special difficulty. We allude 
 to the work of married women. On the one hand, it cannot be 
 doubted that tlie employment in industry of women with 
 young children is often prejudicial both to their families and to 
 the community. On the other hand, except, perhaps, in the 
 textile districts, it is true to say that married women's labour 
 is commonly undertaken through the economic necessity of 
 supplementing the low or irregular earnings of the husband, 
 and that it flourishes most in those parts of the country in 
 which the earnings of men are inadequate and their employ- 
 ment intermittent.* It is, in short, a bad alternative to a 
 worse evil, and can be diminished not by direct prohibition, 
 but only by raising the wages of men to a point which will 
 enable them to maintain their families in comfort, by abolish- 
 ing casual labour, and by providing adequate maintenance 
 during unemployment. Were such conditions of industry 
 established, married women's labour would diminish, because 
 its main causes would have been removed. Moreover, those 
 married women who do not work in industry ought not thereby 
 to be placed in a worse financial position than those who do. 
 We think, therefore, that some more effective method should 
 be devised for recognising the status of married women, and 
 for dealing with husbands who neglect the support of their 
 wives and families. 
 
 (xv.) The Need of a New Attitude towards Profits. 
 
 142. (/) In the fifth place we think that some modification is 
 neeessaiy in the attitude of the community towards the 
 profits of industry. The principle upon which the industry of 
 
 * See Howarth ar.d \AiIson, West JIam : A Study in Social and Indus- 
 trial Problems, 1907 (Dent), and Royal Commission on the Poor Laws and 
 Relief of Distress, Report by Miss Constance Williams and Mr. Thomas 
 Jones on the Effect of Outdoor Relief on Wages and the Condition'i of Em- 
 loyment, 1909. Appendix, Vol. XVII. [Cd. 4690]. 
 
94 CHRISTIANITY AND INDUSTRIAL PROBLEMS 
 
 the country has been conducted since the middle of the last 
 century is that the individual should hv free to buy in the 
 cheapest and sell in the deares>t niarktt, and to apply tin- profit 
 as he pleases. Though the most successiul man of business 
 may have been the least scrupulous, yet so long as ho kipt 
 within the limits set by law, he incurred no responsibility lor 
 the wealth which he accumulated. The normal unit of the 
 fargcr industries of the country, with the exception of agri- 
 culture, is the limited company ; and a liniitid company, 
 with its impersonal organisation, makes it diflicult for the 
 shareholder to feel any responsibility either to the work- 
 people who contribute to the earning of his dividends or to 
 the community as a whole. 
 
 143. Moreover, the subject of profits is a complicated one. In- 
 dustr}'^ offers differing degrees of security at different times; 
 losses arc made as well as profits ; and what migiitibe con- 
 sidered a fair return in one industry may fail to attract capital 
 in another, in which the security is less and the chance of loss 
 greater, it is well-knowTi that in almost every industry the 
 profits of the different firms included in it vary greatly at any 
 one time, often even to the extent of large profits being earned 
 by those at one end of the scale and losses made by those at 
 the other. Frequently, indeed, the profits are made by 
 successful buying and selling, and in that case they must be 
 regarded as the result of speculation rather than of manu- 
 facturing. While the abnormal profits derived from combina- 
 tion and monopoly cannot be morally justified, it must not 
 be forgotten that, in the absence of partial or complete mono- 
 poly, a limit to profits tends to be set by competition, and that 
 it is essential to the progress of industry, particularly in a 
 country where industry engages the majority of the population, 
 that adequate stimulus to enterprise, to initiative, and to the 
 highest efficiency of work should be maintained. Nor, finally, 
 is it c-^sy to judge what the scale of profits in an industry may 
 actually be. The rates of dividends are not a sure guide, as 
 they depend upon the nominal capital upon which they are 
 
 Eaid, and the nominal capital either may be infl-ated, or may 
 e less than the real capital employed, as is the case with those 
 firms which continually reinvest in their businesses. 
 
 144. The problem is therefore complex, and, while so much un- 
 certainty obtains about it, too many industrial controversies 
 are battles in the dark. We think it important, therefore, in 
 the first place, that steps should be taken by the Board of 
 Trade, or by some other Department concerned with industry, 
 to place at the disposal of the public the fullest information 
 which it can obtain with regard to the profits of different 
 industries. In particular, if in future, as seems not impossible, 
 the State should encourage the formation of combmations, it 
 
URBAN LIFE AND INDUSTRY 95 
 
 would be reasonable, we think, to require that their profits 
 should be checked by an extension of the costing system 
 adopted during the war, and by a public audit of their accounts. 
 In industry, as in other departments of social life, one great 
 safeguard against misunderstanding is to be found in complete 
 publicity. Suspicion is often the result of ignorance. If it is 
 the case, as is sometimes alleged, that the profits in most in- 
 dustries are inconsiderable, they ought to be known in the 
 interests both of the shareholder and of industrial peace. If 
 they are excessive, they ought to be known in the interests of 
 the worker and of the general public. 
 
 145. But while the farts cannot be stated exhaustively or with 
 precision, the principle for which Christian men and women 
 should stand is not, we think, open to dispute. It is that 
 there is no moral justification for profits which exceed the 
 amount needed to pay for adequate salaries to the management, 
 a fair rate of interest on the capital invested, and such reserves 
 as are needed to ensure and maintain the highest efficiency of 
 production and the development and growth of the industry. 
 Judged by that standard, the profits obtained in certain 
 industrial undertakings are, we cannot doubt, excessive. 
 Though there are, no doubt, some difficulties in any method 
 by which it may be sought to give practical application to 
 this principle, the poHcy of taxing surplus profits beyond a 
 certain determined standard has been found practicable, and 
 has strong arguments in its favour. We do not suggest, of 
 course, that adherence to this principle should be used to 
 penalise exceptional capacity or effort, as progress and enter- 
 prise are necessary to the welfare of the community. But the 
 importance of encouraging such qualities does not constitute 
 an argument in favour of the large dividends distributed to 
 the shareholders in certain undertakings which they are free 
 to consume on their personal expenditure. It constitutes 
 rather an argument against them. Christians are bound to 
 discountenance by every means in their power the application 
 of wealth to luxuries, to expensive amusements, and to the 
 gratification of wasteful habits, whatever the class in which it 
 may take place. They are bound to insist that, since industry 
 is a public function, no persons are entitled to an income for 
 which no service is rendered, and that it is the duty of those 
 engaged in it to offer the community the best service techni- 
 cally possible at the lowest price compatible with adequate 
 payment to those who provide it and with the growth and 
 extension of the industry itself. 
 
 146, The whole body of social tradition and practice which esteems 
 an industry primarily according to the profits which it yields, 
 which assumes that large profits are desirable, and which per- 
 mits aii individual to apply at his own pleasure the profits 
 
96 CHRISTIANITY AND INDUSTRIAL PROBLEMS 
 
 arising from participation in an exceptionally prosperous 
 undertaking, is, indeed, strikingly at variance with the spirit 
 of brotherhood which should characterise a Christian com- 
 munity. " Publice egestas, privatim opulentia " was the judg- 
 ment of an enlightened Pagan upon a society which spent 
 lavishly upon private luxuries and meanly upon public needs. 
 Modern civilisation, which has a nobler ideal to inspire it and 
 a more exacting standard with which to conform, ought not to 
 fall under the same condemnation. It is the duty of Christians 
 to- urge that after the necessary charges upon industry, men- 
 tioned above, have been met, any surplus should be applied to 
 the benefit of the whole community, and to bear gladly such 
 demands as the community may make upon them for that 
 purpose. 
 
 (xvi.) The Development of Local Government, 
 
 147. (^) While the specific reforms which we have indicated would, 
 we believe, contribute to the humanising of industry and to 
 the maintenance of a higher moral standard in economic life, 
 the only permanent security that society will be guided by 
 Christian ideals is an intenser spirit of brotherhood and a more 
 general devotion to the service of the community. That spirit 
 and devotion cannot be created merely by legislation ; to foster 
 them is one of the tasks of the Christian Church. But they 
 must work through institutions ; and one principal institution 
 through which men and women of goodwill and public spirit 
 can co-operate to serve the w^ll-being of their neighbours 
 consists in the organs of local government, especially those of 
 our great cities. 
 
 148. The intimate contact of these local public bodies with 
 the daily needs of the people should make them at once a 
 school of good citizenship, and the most potent influence 
 to improve the conditions of social life. Though much 
 valuable work has been done by Local Authorities in the course 
 of the last half century, much remains to be done. There is 
 a marked difference between the standards of civic duty recog- 
 
 ^ nised by different local communities and by their representa- 
 tives. While some among them make the fullest use of their 
 existing powers, others, it is only too evident, are content 
 to comply merely with the minimum obligations imposed 
 upon them by statute, and in such matters as -education, the 
 improvement of public health, and the^ provision of adequate 
 housing accommodation, allow the service of the community to 
 be thwarted by pubHc apathy, by a narrow and short-sighted 
 parsimony, or even by the sectional interests of influential 
 individuals and classes. That unselfish and energetic citizen- 
 ship is incumbent upon Christians is a point which ought 
 to be too obvious to require emphasis. There are few matters 
 
URBAN LIFE AND INDUSTRY 97 
 
 upon which an increased attention and understanding by 
 Christians might be made more fruitful of immediately prac- 
 tical results. It should be their task to awaken the public 
 conscience to the existence of neglected evils, to co-operate 
 with all forces making for social righteousness, and to strengthen 
 by their example and influence the consciousness of brother- 
 hood and the sense of civic responsibility without which the 
 best devised administrative system is but lifeless mechanism. 
 
 149. We think, further, that in view of the conspicuous services 
 rendered by many of the great Local Authorities, a wider view 
 should be taken of their functions, and that their powers 
 should be increased to correspond with it. In par- 
 ticular. Local Authorities should be allowed more initiative 
 in undertaking such new services as may from time to time be 
 desired by the citizens whom they serve. At present they can 
 do only what they are expressly authorised to do by Act of 
 Parliament. They cannot purchase or hold land except under 
 powers given by legislation or for the purposes specified in it. 
 They cannot undertake the supply of foodstuffs or of fuel, even 
 though the easiest way of checking an undue rise in the price of 
 the necessaries of life may be to offer the consumer the alter- 
 native of purchasing them from a public body. They cannot 
 establish places of refreshment, rest and recreation, which may 
 offer an alternative to the public house. They can undertake 
 the building of houses, since powers to that effect have been 
 conferred upon them ; but they cannot undertake operations 
 which may be subsidiary or supplementary to building houses. 
 If they wish to obtain fresh powers they can only do so, except 
 for the specific purposes to which Parliament has made appli- 
 cable the procedure of Provisional Order, by the cumbrous 
 and expensive process of Private Bill legislation. 
 
 150. Such a limited conception of the powers of Local Authorities 
 may have been natural and desirable when English municipal 
 machinery assumed its present shape in the earlier part of the 
 last century. But the larger municipalities of England now 
 form communities which possess both public spirit and practical 
 experience, and they should be encouraged to develop their 
 communal life in the way they think best. Central control is 
 necessary in order to ensure that posterity is not burdened by 
 excessive capital expenditure, to preserve a minimum standard 
 of efficiency, and to adjust the claims of conflicting authorities. 
 But provided that these conditions are observed, the right 
 principle would seem to be that Local Authorities should not 
 merely be allowed to do what they are empowered to do, but 
 that they should be at liberty, without the necessity of incurring 
 the expense of promoting a Private Bill, to do any work in 
 the sphere of Local Government which they are not forbidden 
 to do. The greater the dignity and import:ance of their func- 
 
98 CHRISTIANITY AND INDUSTRIAL PROBLEMS 1 
 
 tions and powers the more likely are they to command the 
 services of able and public-spirited men, and to become the 
 visible expression of a lofty ideal of citizenship. We think, 
 therefore, that in order to foster civic patriotism and public 
 spirit, the larger Local Authorities (for example, County 
 Boroughs) should be free to undertake such services as the 
 inhabitants of their respective areas may desire, subject to such 
 central control and approval as may be needed ^^to^secure 
 efficiency and to check exorbitant borrowing. 
 
 (xvii.) Housingt ^ 
 
 151. (h) In conclusion we desire to urge with all the emphasis at 
 our command the grave evils which arise through the provision 
 of inadequate or unhealthy house accommodation, and the 
 paramount importance that immediate steps should be taken, 
 both by local bodies and by the Central Government, to increase 
 its supply and to improve its quality. Christian teaching 
 has repeatedly emphasised that it is through the influence of 
 the family that character is trained, and the seeds implanted 
 from which the qualities of the good citizen and the Christian 
 may later develop. But the condition of family life is a home 
 which is at once physically healthful and not too crowded to 
 permit of rest after labour, of conversation and reflection, and 
 of innocent recreation. It is no exaggeration to say that that 
 condition is one which several hundred thousand of our fellow 
 countrymen are without. Families which are obliged to live 
 with an average of more than two persons in each room may 
 possess shelter, but they can hardly be said to have the homes of 
 human beings. 'Yet as long ago as 1901 the Census showed that, 
 in England and Wales alone, there were then no fewer than 
 2,667,506 persons living more than two to a room.* And even 
 this figure gives no indica tion of the extent to which overcrowding 
 prevailed in those areas in which it was most serious. In Glasgow 
 55*7 per cent, were living more than two persons to a room, 
 and 27 9 per cent, actually more than three persons to a room.f 
 
 152. Nor is there, unfortunately, any reason to believe that the 
 situation has improved since 1901. The Census of 1911 shows 
 that 9*1 per cent, of the total population of England and 
 Wales, and 17*7 per cent, of the population of the County of 
 London, were overcrowded,! in the sense of living with more 
 
 * Censua of England and Wales, 191 1, Vol. VIII, ; Tenements in Adminis- 
 tive Counties and Urban and Rural Districts, 1913 \Qd. G910]. 
 
 t Census of Scotland, 1911 ; Report on the Twelfth Decennial Census qf 
 Scotland. Vol, I., Part 2, City of Glasgow, 1912 [Cd. 60971. 
 
 % The percentage overcrowded in different districts of London was, of 
 course, much higher. Thus in Finsbury it was 39-8, in Shoreditch 36-6, in 
 Stepney 35, in Bethnal Green, 33-2. Outside London the percentage was 
 highest in Gateshead (33-7), South Shields (32-9), Sunderland (32-6), 
 ji^wcastie (31-7), Tyiiemouth (30-8), 
 
URBAN LIFE AND INDUSTRY 99 
 
 than two persons per room, and that 89*1 per cent, of the 
 population were housed in tenements with over one but not 
 more than two persons per room. In England and Wales, 
 thertfore, 48*2 per eent., nearly one-half of the population 
 were living in houses with more than one person per room. In 
 Scotland* the situation was even worse. In 1911, 43-6 per 
 cent, of the population were living more than two in a room, 
 21.1 per cent. — over a fifth — were living more than three 
 in a room, while 8.3 per cent. — one in twelve — were actually 
 living more than four in a room. The inquiries of Professor 
 Bowley, to which we have already alluded, show that in 1912-18 
 the percentage overcrowded in Northampton, Warrington, 
 West Stanley, and Reading was respectively 8'7, 19 7, 50-0, 
 and 13 5 per cent. Since 1914, except in certain munition 
 areas, building has almost come to an end. The President 
 of the Local Government Board has, since the beginning of the 
 war, estimated the deficiency of working-class dweUings and 
 flats in England and Wales alone at half a million. 
 
 158, Such a shortage of accommodation not only makes over- 
 crowding inevitable, but has two other results which are 
 hardly less serious. On the one hand, it causes rents to rise 
 till they absorb between one-fifth and one-sixth of the income 
 of the poorer working-class families.! On the other hand it 
 causes the continued occupation of premises unfit for habita- 
 tion, since tenants are naturally reluctant to leave insanitary 
 property, and Local Authorities to destroy it. when no alterna- 
 tive accommodation is available. Familiarity has, in fact, 
 blinded the eyes even of public-spirited and benevolent men 
 to a deficiency of housing accommodation, in town and country 
 alike, which is quite inconsistent with healthy national and 
 personal life. 
 
 154. The effects upon health and character of residence in in- 
 sanitary and overcrowded property are so evidently disastrous 
 as to impose upon Christians the duty of remedying them by 
 every means in their power. In his classical work upon 
 infantile mortality. Sir George NewmanJ has collected a large 
 body of evidence proving that the death rate both among the 
 general population and among infants under twelve months of 
 age varies with the degree of overcrowding in which they live, 
 which itself, of course, is closely connected with the family 
 income. During the ten years from 1891-1900 the infantile 
 mortality rate of London districts in which 10 per cent, of 
 the population was overcrowded was 142 per 1,000 ; where 
 
 * Census of Scotland, 1911 : Report on the Tweljlh Dtcennial Census of 
 Scotland, Vol. II., 1913 [Cd. 6896]. 
 
 t Bowley and Bumett-Hurbt, Livelihood and Poverty, 1915 (Hrll). 
 Professor Bowley's definition of overcrowding is slightly more stringent 
 than the offioial d'^finition. 
 
 J Newman, Infant Mortality, 1906 (Methuen). 
 
 h2 
 
100 CHHISTIANITY AND INDUSTRIAL PROBLEMS 
 
 15-20 per cent, was overcrowded the infantile death-rate was 
 196 ; where over 85 per cent, was overcrowded it was 228 ; 
 and, of course, for one infant which dies, many survive with 
 health undermined and faculties impaired. Nor is the destruc- 
 tion of life and health the only evil resulting from the con- 
 tinued failure of the community to secure healthful conditions 
 of life for its urban population. The character of the environ- 
 ment in which they live has an intimate effect upon both the 
 mental development and personal morality of children and 
 young persons. 
 
 155. At the present time, as far as housing is concerned, that 
 effect, we fear it must be said, over large areas and in many 
 places, is almost wholly bad. On the one hand, in the over- 
 crowded areas of our great cities, children are divorced from 
 all contact with nature, and are too often deprived of the 
 opportunity of healthful recreation. They find their play- 
 ground in the street, and the stimulus which their imagination 
 craves in the picture-palace. On the other hand, it is well 
 "known that overcrowding fosters some of the worst vices of 
 adults among boys and girls who are little more than children, 
 but who are forced by the conditions under which they live 
 into a precocious acquaintance with aspects of life from which, 
 in a healthy society, they would be shielded. 
 
 156. There are two main lines along which, we think, reform 
 should proceed. On the one hand a higher standard of 
 sanitation must be enforced by the community, and houses 
 which are unfit for human habitation must be condemned 
 as rigorously as food which is unfit for human consumption. 
 To enforce that higher standard must be, in the main, the 
 task of Local Authorities and of the State. But if they 
 are to be assisted in the performance of it, as they should 
 be, by a more exacting and sensitive public opinion, it is 
 essential that the public should be sufficiently informed as 
 to the various parties who have a legal interest in urban land 
 and house property, to enable it to fix responsibility upon those 
 upon whom it ought to rest. At present that information is 
 not available. Property is let, and sublet, and sublet again. 
 It is impossible in many cases to ascertain the different parties 
 interested in it ; and even if the name of the ultimate owner 
 of insanitary property is known, it by no means follows that 
 it is the ultimate owner who derives the profits from its con- 
 dition or who ought to bear the responsibility for it. It is 
 this atmosphere of secrecy which enables those who derive an 
 income from letting insanitary premises to escape the public 
 odium which ought to attach to a practice so clearly dis- 
 honest and anti-social. Publicity is an antiseptic for many 
 evils ; and in order that an appeal may be made to the con- 
 science both of individuals and of the public, complete publicity 
 
URBAN LIFB AND INDUS'JC^V • 101 
 
 in these matters is, it seems to us, essential. We think, there- 
 fore, that the names and addresses of all owners of urban land 
 and house property, and of other persons having a legal interest 
 in them, should be registered with the local Public Authority 
 and should be easily accessible to the public. 
 
 157. The inferior quality of much existing accommodation is only 
 one aspect of the Housing Problem. The deficiency in its 
 quantity is, as we have already pointed out, even more impor- 
 tant, for it is difficult to maintain a high standard of quality 
 unless the supply itself is greatly increased. If that deficiency 
 — ^no novel or transient evil — is to be overcome, it must be faced 
 by Christian men and women with a courageous determination 
 to end conditions which make a life of health, "or even of decency, 
 almost unattainable by so many of their countrymen. Some- 
 thing will, indeed, have been done to remove one cause of 
 overcrowding if wages, as we have already suggested, are raised 
 sufficiently to enable the worst paid worker to provide the 
 necessaries of a healthy life for themselves and their families 
 without being compelled, as now, to economise on house-room. 
 But it is not enough to increase the effective demand for 
 accommodation : it is necessary to increase the supply. The 
 fundamental need is a large, and, as far as practicable, a rapid, 
 increase in the actual number of houses within the reach even 
 of the smallest incomes. 
 
 158. We are not concerned with the technicalities of housing 
 reform, but with the principles which should be supported by 
 Christians. The right principles are, we think, simple, though 
 their application will demand much disinterested public service, 
 self-sacrifice and devotion. They are, first, that land should be 
 made available for the erection of houses before the need for it 
 is so urgent as to cause existing accommodation to be over- 
 crowded ; second, that building should, as far as possible, not 
 merely keep pace with the demand but anticipate it. We think, 
 therefore, jirsU that in order to discourage the practice of 
 holding land from the market longer than is desirable in 
 the interest of the community, unused urban land should, 
 after adequate provision has been made for open spaces, be 
 specially and heavily rated ; second, that local authorities 
 should be free, subject to the necessary central control and 
 approval to acquire and hold land for such purposes as they 
 may deem proper ; third, that Local Authorities and the State 
 should ensure the provision of sufficient and healthful housing 
 accommodation, by planning the development of towns with a 
 due regard to the provision of open spaces, and by themselves 
 undertaking the building of houses in those districts in which 
 the supply is, or is likely to be, inadequate. Such a deliberate 
 attempt to anticipate the requirements of a growing population 
 seems to us the indispensable condition of a healthy social life 
 
102 CHRI^11Al<JtY AND I^IDUSTRIAL PROBLEMS 
 
 in an urban civilisation such as that of Great Britain. The 
 urban population increases decade by decade. There is on the 
 outskirts of most growing towns a belt of land which is un- 
 occupied by houses, while those nearer to the centre are over- 
 crowded. Yet, at the present time, in spite of the increased 
 powers conferred upon them by the Housing and Town Planning 
 etc., Act of 1909, it is still difficult for Local Authorities to 
 provide for the needs of the future by buying land in advance 
 of the demand, which can be held and built upon as need arises. 
 We believe that, if the policy which we recommend were carried 
 out, land would be brought more readily into the market ; 
 public bodies would be able to anticipate the housing require- 
 ments of their areas ; house rents would be kept at a level 
 which would not impose an excessive burden upon families of 
 small means ; and local revenues would be increased, as in 
 many towns, both in foreign countries and in the Dominions, 
 through the appreciation in the value of land caused by an 
 increasing population. But we are not concerned merely, or 
 even mainly, with the material benefits which would follow a 
 resolute attempt to cope with the Housing Problem. In- 
 sufficient and insanitary housing is the source of moral weak- 
 ness and spiritual degradation. It undermines the health of 
 childhood, weakens the bonds of family life and impairs the 
 comfort of old age. There are few more urgent duties for 
 Christian men and women than to play their part in removing 
 this great and inveterate evil from the life of the community. 
 
 (xviii.) The Parish Priest, 
 
 159. While the duty of witnessing to these principles and of 
 promoting these reforms is shared by the whole Church, it is 
 clear that a special responsibility is laid on the clergy. From 
 whatever view their ministry is regarded, they may rightly be 
 expected to take the lead in the application of the Christian 
 Faith to social and industrial practice. To them, as priests, 
 the ministry of reconciliation has been entrusted, and when 
 men are really reconciled to God, they enter on that way of 
 justice and love which leads to reconciliation among themselves. 
 It is also evident that the two great Sacraments of the Gospel, 
 of which as priests they are put in trust, speak of our fellow- 
 ship one with another in Jesus Christ. As prophets they take 
 their place in the long line which began with Amos and Isaiah, 
 and if social righteousness is not part of their scheme they are 
 false to the best traditions of their order. Doubtless there have 
 been, and still are, prophets among the laity ; and certainly 
 there are good pastors who are not endowed with great pro- 
 phetic gifts. But they have their special commission as 
 ministers of the Word. They are teachers, if not prophets. 
 They are bound to show the relation of Christian truth to vital 
 
URBAN LIFE AND INDUSTRY 108 
 
 •'■■^ 
 issues and the application of Christ's principles to the actual 
 facts of our modern life. 
 160. They will certainly fail to do this unless they are interested 
 in those issues and understand those tacts. It is therefore of 
 the first importance that as pastors they should possess the 
 pastoral gift of intelligent sympathy with every class in the 
 community where they are called to serve. Those clergy — 
 and they are very numerous — who minister to working-c ass 
 populations are bound to try to understand the aims and 
 aspirations of the workers. If poverty and simplicity of life 
 are a help to sympathy with those whose means are small, 
 certainly most clergy possess that qualification, while there 
 are numberless working-class families which count the parson 
 their best friend. Nevertheless the opinion seems to be com- 
 monly held that the clergy — with some notable exceptions — 
 are on the side of the capitalist classes. Plainly the clergy, 
 from whatever grade of society they come, ought to be outside 
 " class," and to live in equal sympathy with all sorts of men 
 and women. It is probably true that some of them find it 
 difficult to shake thernselves free from social and political 
 prejudices previously acquired. But it is also true that here, 
 as in many other cases, the memory of an unhappy past history 
 lingers in the popular mind, and that the clergy of to-day are 
 credited with the attitude of the clergy of a former generation. 
 We are bound, however, to confess that the clergy as a whole 
 have done far better work in the alleviation of degrading 
 poverty than in the effort to prevent it, and there are cases 
 where they are more interested in details of Church order than 
 in the work of redemption and reconciliation for which the 
 Church exists. 
 
 161. A few suggestions may be made. They lay noclaim to novelty, 
 (i.) It is plainly desirable that the clergy should be drawn from 
 
 every class, and that far more opportunities should be open 
 for boys of the working class to receive that wide education 
 and that special training which will qualify them for the 
 ministry. Efforts already made in this direction show that such 
 boys can become capable of ministering to all sorts of people 
 without losing their sympathy with the special difficulties and 
 
 Eroblems of those from whom they spring. Such efforts should 
 e greatly multiplied. 
 
 162. (ii.) It is difficult enough to add to the curriculum of the 
 short training which most clergy at present receive. But some 
 training in economic and social science is really of vital 
 importance, and a knowledge of the industrial position might 
 save some of the younger clergy from the fatal mistake of 
 claiming authority by virtue of their office instead of winning 
 authority by the effectiveness of their ministry to God and 
 their service to men. 
 
104 CHRISTIANITY AND INDUSTRIAL PROBLEMS 
 
 168. (iii.) If the clergy entered on their ministry with some know- 
 ledge of the facts of industrial life they would soon have ample 
 opportunity of acquiring fresh knowledge in the school of 
 practical experience. Doubtless there are many subjects the 
 expert treatment of which should be left in the hands of the 
 laity ; it is, for example, only in rare instances that clergy can 
 successfully act as mediators in trade disputes. On the other 
 hand, the clergy and their fellow-workers have a priceless 
 opportunity of acquiring a first-hand knowledge of urban 
 conditions, and there can be no doubt that means should have 
 been found for placing that knowledge at the service of the 
 community. It ought, for example, to be possible for many 
 clergymen to take a leading part in promoting well thought-out 
 schemes of housing reform. They know where the present 
 conditions are deficient, and if they give intelligent study to 
 the subject, they should be well quaUfied to help in finding a 
 remedy. Moreover, much which the clergy (or the greater num- 
 ber of them) are unable to do themselves they may most rightly 
 press as duties upon lay people. This applies, for example, 
 to the duty already referred to, of active participation in civic 
 or municipal work, and of helping to give practical effect to 
 legislative reforms by the supply of the voluntary effort 
 necessary for their successful operation. 
 
 164f. (iv.) It is probable that in many parishes the clergy ought 
 to make a radical rjeaiijustment of their time and a reorganisa- 
 tion of their scheme of work. They need more time for prayer, 
 for thought, and for personal contact with the men of their 
 flock. If they are to obtain it, they must devolve upon the 
 laity of the parish some of the details of the complicated 
 machinery with which, at present, they are often overburdened. 
 
 (xiK.) Summary of Conclusions. 
 
 165. We may now summarise the conclusions of this part of our 
 Report : — 
 
 (i.) The teaching of Christianity is binding upon men not only 
 in their personal and domestic conduct, but in their economic 
 activity and industrial organisation. It is the duty of the 
 Christian Church to urge that considerations of Christian 
 morality must be applied to all such social relationships. 
 
 166. (ii.) While it is evident that industrial relations are embittered 
 by faults of temper and lack of generosity on the part of 
 employers, employed, and of the general public also, an exami- 
 nation of the facts compels the conclusion that the existing 
 industrial system makes it exceedingly difiicult to carry out 
 the principles of Christianity. The solution of the industrial 
 problem involves, therefore, not merely the improvement of 
 individuals, but a fundamental change in the spirit of the 
 system itself. 
 
URBAN LIFE AND INDUSTRY 105 
 
 1(57. (iii.) The fundamental evil of modem industrialism is that it 
 encourages competition for private gain instead of co-operation 
 for public service. This perversion of motive fosters : — 
 
 (a) An organisation of industry which treats the workers 
 as hands rather than as persons, and which deprives them of 
 the control which they may reasonably claim to exercise over 
 the conditions under which they earn their livelihood. 
 
 (b) The absence of responsibility on the part of those 
 employed for the permanent results of their industry and of 
 human interest in the work which they do : evils which are 
 intensified by the mechanical and monotonous character of 
 many of the processes and duties required. 
 
 (c) A disposition on the, part of some of those engaged in 
 industry to seek their own advantage at the expense of the 
 community by unduly limiting the output, raising the prices, 
 or deteriorating the quality of the work which they perform. 
 
 (d) Conditions of poverty which do not arise from indi- 
 vidual defects or from natural scarcity, but which exist side 
 by side with excessive riches. 
 
 (e) An organisation of industry which creates a condition 
 of insecurity among the workers and which makes their 
 livelihood precarious and uncertain. 
 
 (j) An attitude of mutual antagonism and suspicion 
 between the different parties engaged in industry. 
 
 168. (iv.) The conception of industry as a selfish competitive 
 struggle is unchristian. Industry ought to be regarded 
 primarily as a social service, based on the effort of every indi- 
 vidual to discharge his duty to his neighbour and to the 
 community. 
 
 169. (v.) The duty of service is equally obligatory upon all. 
 There is no moral justification for the burden upon the com- 
 munity of the idle or self-indulgent, or for social institutions 
 which encourage them, and no inherited wealth or position can 
 dispense any member of the Christian society from establishing 
 by work his claim to maintenance, on the principle laid down 
 by St. Paul. Large expenditure on amusements and luxuries 
 should be discouraged in all classes of society and wasteful 
 habits should be condemned. 
 
 170. (vi.) The first charge upon every industry should be the 
 payment of a sufficient wage to enable the worker to maintain 
 himself and his family in health and honour, with such a margin 
 of leisure as will permit reasonable recreation and the develop- 
 ment of mind and spirit. Excessive hours of work should, 
 therefore, be prevented, and overtime and Sunday labour 
 should be reduced to a minimum. 
 
 171. (vii.) The principle of the living wage involves not only 
 adequate payment during employment, but continuity of 
 
106 CHRISTIANITY AND INDUSTRIAL PROBLEMS' 1 
 
 employment. The deliberate casualisation of labour merely 
 for the convenience of employers is strono^ly to be condemned. 
 It is the duty of employers, of workers, and of the State to aim 
 at substituting regular employment and wages for casual 
 employment and wages. Provision should be made for the 
 adequate maintenance of the worker during a time of industrial 
 slackness by an extension of-the system of insurance against 
 unemployment and by any other means which may seem 
 desirable. 
 
 172. (viii.) Profits in some industrial undertakings are exces- 
 sive. There is no moral justification for profits which exceed 
 the amount needed to pay adequate salaries to the management 
 ,and a fair rate of interest on the capital invested, and to ensure 
 the growth and development of the industry. 
 
 173. (ix.) After the charges on industry mentioned in (vi.), 
 (vii.) and (viii.) have been met any surplus should be applied 
 to the benefit of the whole community. 
 
 174. (x.) The past use of children as wealth producers stands 
 condemned for folly and injustice, and in future the demands 
 of industry should not be allowed to prevent any child from 
 securing full opportunities of education as a human being and 
 a citizen. The organisation of industry ought to aim at be- 
 coming such as to allow young persons (a) to attend school full 
 time up to 15, and, ultimately, up to 16 ; {b) to spend, unless 
 
 ^ engaged in occupations which arc themselves directly educa- 
 tional, not less than half their working time in continued 
 school education between the age at which they cease full-time 
 attendance at school and the age of 18. 
 
 175. (xi.) Experience suggests that unrestricted competition 
 among workers and among employers tends to result in social 
 degradation, and that trade associations, including all workers, 
 both men and women, in each industry, and similar associations, 
 including all employers, are the best foundation of mutual 
 understanding, industrial peace, and social progress. 
 
 176. (xii.) It is desirable that those industries in which experience 
 has shown organisation to be impossible or very difficult should 
 be regulated by Trade Boards on the principle of the Trade 
 Boards Act of 1909. Such Boards should have power to fix 
 minimum rates of payment, maximum hours of labour, and such 
 other conditions of employment as it may from time to time 
 appear to them desirable to regulate. 
 
 177. (xiii.) It is desirable that the discussion in common of 
 industrial questions and the collective settlement of industrial 
 conditions should be widely extended, and that with this 
 object : — 
 
 (a) It should be the normal practice in organised tradesfor 
 representatives of employers and workers to confer at regular 
 
|T|URBAN LIFE AND INDUSTRY lOT 
 
 intervals, not merelj' upon wages and working conditions, 
 but upon all such questions affecting the trade as may be 
 suitable for commori discussion. The associations represent- 
 in*^ individual industries might be federated in a larj;er and 
 more representative body — a national Industrial Parliament 
 representing the statesmanship of all parties concerned in 
 industry. 
 
 {b) Representatives of the workers in different workshops 
 should be normally and permanently associated with the 
 management in matters affecting their livelihood and comfort, 
 and the welfare of the business, such as the fixing and 
 alteration of piece-rates, the improvement of processes and 
 machinery, and the settlement of the terms upon which they 
 are to be introduced, workshop discipline and the establish- 
 ment of the maximum possible security of employment. 
 
 (c) Every effort should be made to avoid all delay in the 
 settlement of disputes. 
 
 (d) When the employer and employees in any individual 
 industry fail to agree with regard to any matter in dispute, 
 the disputed point should be referred to the Industrial 
 Parliament, composed of representatives of all industries, for 
 inquiry, report and decision. 
 
 178. (xiv.) In order to facilitate the provision by Local Authori- 
 ties of such services as the inhabitants of different areas may 
 require, Local Authorities should in future be free to undertake 
 such services, subject to such central control and approval as 
 may be needed to maintain efficiency and to check exorbitant 
 borrowing. 
 
 179. (xv.) In order to secure the publicity which is essential to the 
 realisation of social responsibility, the names and addresses of 
 all owners of urban land and house property, and of all other 
 persons having a legal interest in them, should be registered with 
 the local Public Authority and should be accessible to the public, 
 
 180. (xvi.) In order to facilitate the orderly and healthful growth 
 of towns Local Authorities ought to have power to acquire and 
 hold land for such purposes as they may deem proper. 
 
 181. (xvii.) In order to discourage the withliolding from the 
 market of land in, or on the outskirts of, towns in a way which 
 is contrary to the public interest, urban land, subject to 
 adequate provision being made for open spaces, should be 
 specially and heavily rated. 
 
 182. (xviii.) A large number of persons in Great Britain are at 
 present housed under conditions which are a grave menace to 
 their physical and moral well-being. It is the duty of the 
 State and of Local Authorities to ensure the provision of 
 sufficient and healthful housing accommodation : — 
 
 (a) By compulsorily acquiring and holding land, as stated 
 above. 
 
108 CHRISTIANIl^i^ AND INDUSTRIAL PROBLEMS 
 
 {b) By planning the development of towns with a due 
 regard to the provision of open spaces. 
 
 (c) By themselves undertaking the building of houses in 
 those districts in which the supply of houses is or is likely to 
 be inadequate. 
 
 183. (xviii.) It is the duty of the clergy to teach the application 
 of the Christian Faith to social and industrial practice. It is 
 desirable, therefore — 
 
 {a) That they should acquaint themselves by every means 
 in their power with the social aims and aspirations of those 
 to whom they minister. 
 
 (b) That they should be drawn from all classes in the 
 community, and that no boy who has a vocation for the 
 ministry should be prevented by poverty from entering it. 
 
 (c) That the preparation of the clergy for the ministry 
 should include a training in economic and social science. 
 
 (d) That the clergy should regard the maintenance by 
 their example and precept of a high standard of citizenship 
 and social morality as part of the duties of their office, and 
 should, when practicable, take the initiative in promoting 
 reforms. 
 
 (e) That they should consider the advisability of devolving 
 upon the laity some of the duties of parochial administration 
 which now fall upon them. 
 
(i. 
 
 (ii. 
 (iii. 
 (iv, 
 
 (V. 
 (vi. 
 
 (vii. 
 
 (viii, 
 
 (ix 
 
 (x, 
 
 (xi 
 
 (xii 
 
 (xiii 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Education 
 
 Introductory. 
 
 The meaning of education. 
 
 The significance of education for Christians. 
 
 The importance of a Hberal education for all. 
 
 The physical welfare of children and young persona. 
 
 The training of the senses and the strengthening of 
 
 character. 
 The educational ladder and the educational highway. 
 The need of a n«w attitude towards education. 
 The necessity for more generous pubhc expenditure on 
 
 education. 
 The necessity of raising the remuneration and status of 
 
 the teaching profession. 
 The reduction of the size of classes in elementary schools. 
 The lengthening of the period of full-time attendance at 
 ^'school. 
 The establishment of compulsory continued education 
 
 up to the age of 18. 
 (xiv.) Rural continued education, 
 (xv.) Non- vocational adult education, 
 (xvi.) Religious adult education, 
 (xvii.) Summary of conclusions. 
 
 (i.) Introductory. 
 
 184. In the preceding chapters of this Report we have stated the 
 principles which, as we believe, should inspire the social life of 
 a Christian community ; and, without entering upon exhaustive 
 schemes of reform, we have indicated certain practical changes 
 which we think necessary in order that those principles may 
 receive a progressive application in the economic environment 
 of our own day. It is evident, however, that no presentation 
 of our subject would be complete which did not attempt, at 
 least, to define the attitude incumbent upon Christians towards 
 education. There are, no doubt, certain aspects of education 
 with which Christians, with whatever sympathy they may 
 regard them, nevertheless have, as Christians, no special 
 concern. Knowledge, however valuable in itself, is neither 
 the indispensable condition of a vigorous spiritual life nor the 
 measure of its intensity. Those who, judged by merely 
 intellectual standards, are ill-informed have often a profounder 
 insight into spiritual issues than the learned, and nothing 
 which is said in this chapter as to the importance of education 
 
 109 
 
110 CHRISTIANITY AND INDUSTRIAL PROBLEMS 
 
 must be taken to imply that we overestimate the importance 
 of intellectual acquisitions or undervalue those spiritual qualities 
 which aj>ef often found, in their noblest form, in men and women 
 who have had little opportunity of formal instruction. 
 
 185. But the mere accumulation of information is not education, 
 and we do not think that in devoting to this subject a special 
 chapter of our Report we shall incur a serious danger of being 
 thought to exalt intellect at the expense of character, or to 
 forget that the most potent influence for good in the lives of 
 human beings is, and ought to be, the home. The antithesis 
 between intellect and character is, indeed, something less than 
 a half-truth, and if the home can do more for children than the 
 best school, a good school can help the best home. If in a 
 report concerned with the social principles of Christianity we 
 speak at some length upon the subject of education, it is not 
 in order to exaggerate the importance of intellectual culture, 
 but to emphasise the wide diffusion, among all classes of the 
 population, of capacities which await cultivation, and the 
 duty of Christians to take part, according to their means, 
 in securing that fuller opportunities of such cultivation are 
 provided than exist at present. We omit all reference to 
 the question of religious instruction in schools, not because 
 we underestimate its importance, but because it will be con- 
 sidered, we understand, by the Committee on the Teaching 
 Office of the Church, 
 
 (ii.) The Meaning of Editcaiion. 
 
 186. Education is a word of various connotations. But the object 
 of the education considered in this Report is simple, though its 
 methods may be as complex as educationalists like to make 
 them. It is to assist human beings to become themselves. 
 They cannot become themselves with )ut an effort of mind and 
 will, and the discipline by which that effort is stimulated and 
 guided is education. Because they cannot become themselves 
 in isolation from their fellows, education is a social thing. 
 Because their fundamental human affinities are more important 
 than their individual differences, education is the witness to 
 equality. Because their complete development involves not 
 blind or unreasoning obedience, but their intelligent co-opera- 
 tion in purposes which they themselves approve as good, 
 education is the foundation of democracy. Education is, in 
 short, the organised aid to the development of human beings 
 in a society. In the words of Milton, it is " that which fits a 
 man to perform, justly, skilfully, and magnanimously all the 
 offices, both private and public, of peace and war."*^ ^^.^ 
 
 ♦ Milton, Tractate on^Educaiion, 
 
f EDUCATION 111 
 
 (iii.) The Significance of Education for Christians , 
 
 187. Thus interpreted, edueation is a matter which should occupy 
 a primary place in the thoui;hts and aspirations of all who are 
 concerned for the application of Christian principles to social 
 life. It can contribute much which will assist them : they 
 can contribute much which will develop it. On the one 
 hand, both the spiritual insijjht to ffrasp the sicrnificance of 
 Christian teachincf and the self-sacrificin<r devotion to apply it 
 depend in the last resort upon the qnickeniner of intellit,'ence 
 and ennoblement of character amonjr individual men and 
 women, which it is the special function of education to promote. 
 On the other hand, the impulse to overcome the moral limita- 
 tions, the intellectual apathy, and the material difficulties 
 which at present prevent education from occup^nng its rijrhtful 
 position in the life of the communitv, should derive from the 
 teachings of Christianity inexhaustible inspiration. 
 
 188. It is not implied, of course, that the predominant influence in 
 the improvement of education in the modern world has been 
 that of organised Christianity. The Churches have, indeed, 
 done much to assist education, and its indebtedness in particular 
 to the National Schools can hardly be overestimated. It 
 should not be forgotten that for the greater part of the first half 
 of the nineteenth century almost all the schools of the country 
 were provided on its own initiative by the Church throuorh the 
 National Society, or by other religious bodies. But they have 
 also done something to hinder it. This has no doubt been 
 largely due to conflicts arising between the State and the 
 Church, or the Church and the Nonconformists, over the 
 control of religious instruction. Thus, if the first Education 
 Bill introduced into the British Parliament was Tas is often 
 said) opposed by the Archbishop of Canterbury* it must not be 
 forgotten that he was at that time occupied in the foundation 
 of the National Society which shortly covered the country with 
 schools, and that if he opposed the Bill it was not because of 
 its object (which he supported) but because he insisted on 
 maintaining the authority of the National Church to control 
 education in the interests of religion. f Nevertheless, Condorcet 
 in one century, and Huxley in another, are a reminder that 
 the impetus to educational improvement, though its motive 
 has often been in essence a religious one, has also often come 
 from men by whom Christianity was either repudiated or by 
 whom it was but lightly held. The stream of educational 
 
 ♦ Whitbread's Bill, introduced in 1807, which proposed to make it 
 compulsory upon all parishes to provide two years' free schooling for the 
 children of the poor out of the rates. It was rejected by the House of 
 Lords. The Archbishop who opposed it was Manners-Sutton. 
 I t See Parliunicntary Drbates. House of Lords. Tuesday, 23rd July, 
 1018. Vol. 80. No. 64. Speech of the Archbishop of Canterbury. 
 
112 CHRISTIANITY AND INDUSTRIAL PROBLEMS 
 
 endeavour has been fed from several different sources. We 
 desire neither to extenuate the shortcomings of some who have 
 called themselves Christians, nor to underrate the services of 
 some who have not. 
 
 189. But while it is true that the educational record of the 
 Christian Churches is a chequered one, it is none the less true 
 that the promotion and diffusion of education is a cause which 
 ought to make a special appeal to all who accept as authori- 
 tative the ethical teaching of Christianity. The ultimate 
 object of education is the development of personality, and on 
 the sanctity of human personality the New Testament lays, 
 as we have suggested in a previous chapter, peculiar stress. 
 Each man is of supreme value in the sight of God, because all 
 men are children of one Father, immortal spirits whom Christ 
 has redeemed. The fruit of a wise system of education is to 
 fit men for the unselfish service of their fellows, by teaching 
 them to subordinate their individual ambitions to the common 
 good. The duty of service, the obligation to bear one another's 
 burdens, which springs from membership in a common society, 
 and which is the foundation of citizenship both in the Church 
 and in the State, lies at the very centre of Christian teaching. 
 The gravest obstacle to the progress of education is the 
 materialism which would subordinate the cultivation of human 
 faculties to the exigencies, or alleged exigencies, of industry, 
 which two generations ago condemned children of ten to 
 inhuman toil in factories and mines, which still permits many 
 thousand young persons to be stunted in body and mind by 
 excessive and premature toil, and which regards the sug- 
 gestion of increased educational expenditure as an inroad upon 
 its riches or a menace to its comfort. 
 
 190. Against the temper, less common than it was, but still too 
 powerful, which would postpone the things of the spirit to the 
 pursuit of material gain, the warnings of the New Testament 
 are constant and unmistakable. The Christian who considers 
 the power to develop character and to stimulate capacity 
 inherent in a generous system of education, and who reflects 
 upon the condemnation passed by the New Testament on those 
 who misuse the talents given by God or cause His children to 
 offend, cannot be in doubt as to his duty. He is no more bound 
 to be an educationalist than he is bound to enter any particular 
 profession. He is bound to do his best to aid, according to his 
 opportunity, the progress of education, because, after the 
 Church, education is the most formal and public recognition 
 of the claims of the spirit which the world has allowed. In 
 ages in which the activities of the State were non-existent 
 or but little developed the Church was itself the greatest, 
 indeed the only, educational agency, and its influence was 
 felt in many spheres of intellectual activity besides that of 
 
EDUCATION lis 
 
 instruction of a specifically religious character. Now that the 
 provision of education has been undertaken by the State, it is 
 the duty of the Churches, in addition to performing their 
 special work of religious instruction, to insist that public 
 education shall be as generous, both in conception and method, 
 as the resources of the community can make it. 
 
 (iv.) The Importance of a Liberal Education for All. 
 
 191. While the teaching of Christianity, through the emphasis 
 which it lays upon personality, should prepare the community 
 to set a high value upon education, it also offers some criterion 
 of the objects to which educational endeavour should be 
 directed, and of the principles by which it should be guided. 
 
 192. (a) It suggests, in the first place, that the primary object 
 of education must be a spiritual one. The Christian view of 
 society is that men are first of all men, not animals, servants 
 or tools. The first aim of education, therefore, must be to 
 make, not more efficient workers, but better men, better 
 citizens, and better Christians. Much emphasis is laid at 
 the present time upon the contribution which education 
 may make to productive efficiency, and we do not under- 
 estimate the importance of technical and professional training. 
 But, valuable as such training is in its own sphere, it cannot, 
 however highly it may be developed, reUeve the community 
 of the duty of cultivating through education those faculties 
 of initiative, of judgment, and of intelligent sympathy with 
 what is excellent in human achievement, which, because they 
 are the attributes of man, are not distinctive of any class or 
 profession of men. In particular. Christians cannot accept 
 the view sometimes advanced which would regard a humane 
 or liberal education as suitable only for those entering the pro- 
 fessions, and which would estimate the success of the education 
 offered to the great majority of the population by its ability 
 to qualify them for more efficient labour in their various 
 occupations. There must be diversity of educational methods 
 because there are diversities of gifts. But the basis of dif- 
 ferentiation should be differences of taste or of capacity, not 
 differences of class or of income. The manual worker needs 
 a liberal education for the same reason as the barrister or the 
 doctor — that he may develop his faculties and play a reasonable 
 part in the affairs of the community. 
 
 193. To lay the foundation for such an education should be the 
 function of the elementary school, and it must not be diverted 
 from its proper task by any desire for premature specialisation. 
 Nor, indeed, is such specialisation likely to be successful even 
 in promoting the economic efficiency for the sake of which it is 
 sometimes advocated. We are in agreement, we think, with 
 the majority of educationalists when we affirm that the only 
 sound basis for technical training is the cultivation of mental 
 
114 CHRISTIANITY AND INDUSTRIAL PROBLEMS 
 
 alertness, judgment, and a sense of responsibility by means of 
 education of a general and non-utilitarian character. A nation 
 which aims primarily at developini? to the fullest possible extent 
 the character and intellect of its citizens may find that material 
 prosperity and commercial success are added to it. A nation 
 which rejrards education primarily as a means of converting 
 its members into more efficient instruments of production is 
 likely not only to jeopardise its moral standards and educational 
 ideals, but to discover that by such methods it cannot attain 
 even the limited success at which it aims. The exhortation, 
 " Seek ye first the Kingdom of God/'* is one which has a special 
 relevance to all who are engaged in the work of education. 
 
 (v.) The Physical Welfare of Children and Young Persons. 
 
 194. (h) The condition of a vigorous mind is normally a healthy 
 body. If a line is to be drawn between the spiritual and 
 material aspects of education, the cultivation of a sound 
 physique lies on the spiritual side of it. In the second place, 
 therefore, we think it important to emphasize the necessity 
 of giving a prominent place in our conception of education to 
 a matter which till recently has been neglected in England, 
 and which, even at the present time, does not usually receive 
 the attention which it deserves. We allude to the necessity 
 of making adequate provision in the schools for the physical 
 welfare and training of the children. It is evident that 
 instruction and practice in the laws of health is in itself an 
 important kind of education, and no intellectual training 
 can be regarded as satisfactory which is not built upon the 
 foundation of sound physical health. Blit in the case of a 
 very large number of children attending the elementary schools 
 of England and Wales that foundation does not at the present 
 time exist. The annual reports of the Chief Medical Officer 
 of the Board of Education, which summarise the results of the 
 medical inspection carried out under the Education (Adminis- 
 trative Provisions) Act of 1907, give a tragic picture of the 
 prevalence of ill-health among school children. 
 
 195. The revelation of preventible suffering and crippled capacity 
 which is contained in the figures f published by the Board 
 
 ♦ Sf. M;itth-w vi. 83. 
 
 + The following fiinires are taken from the Report of the Chief Medical 
 Offirrr of the Board of Education for the year 1 914 [Cri . 80551. 
 Percentage of certain defects among nU children inspected {routine inspection 
 only) as shown by the School Medical Officers' Reports for 1914 for 89 areas, 
 
 Nnmly?T -- • -- 
 
 Defect. insptcted. 
 
 Defective vision .. ., .. 76.126 
 
 Marked adenoids . . . . 266,664 
 
 Teeth (four or more) decayed . . 292,523 
 External eye disease . . . . 807,382 
 
 Skin disease 291 ,900 
 
 Ringworm (head) .. .. 272,078 
 
 Number 
 
 Per cent. 
 
 defective. 
 
 defective, 
 
 8,0.55 
 
 1058 
 
 8.744 
 
 1-40 
 
 75,902 
 
 25-95 
 
 7,826 
 
 2-55 
 
 5,775 
 
 1-98 
 
 827 
 
 0-84 
 
EDUCATION 115 
 
 seems to us to be one of the gravest blots upon our national life. 
 It is (liflicult to avoid the conclusion that the physical health 
 of a considerable proportion of the community is being under- 
 mined in the years of childhood in which it oujjht to receive 
 special attention, and that much of the educational effort 
 expended in the elementary schools is wasted in a vain attempt 
 to educate children who are not physically fit to profit by 
 education, and who, before they can be instructed by a teacher, 
 need the care of a doctor or of a nurse. Most of the ailments 
 revealed by inspection are, the Chief Medical Officer of the 
 Board assures us, curable, and it is satisfactory to observe 
 the beneficial results which have accrued from the schemes of 
 treatment which are being undertaken by an increasing number 
 of Authorities. 
 196. But there are still a considerable number of Education 
 Authorities who do not use, or use only very inadequately, the 
 power to provide treatment conferied upon them by the Act 
 of 1907.* Indeed, the Report t of the Chief Medical Officer of 
 the Board of Education shows that immediately prior to the 
 war only just over one-half the children requiring! medical 
 care were known to be receiving it. In 1917 it was still possible 
 
 ♦ Of 317 Education A'lthonties trpatment of somo fonn was undertaken 
 in 1914 by 266, of which 179 provided treatment at school clinics. The 
 ailments treated by different Authoritiep are shown in the following table : 
 
 Medical Treatment of School Children. 
 
 Number of areas making provision in 1914. 
 
 County Urban 
 
 Condition. 
 Minor ailments 
 Dental defects 
 Defective vision 
 Provision of ^ pectacles 
 Enlarged tonsils and 
 adenoids . . . . 
 
 Ringworm (X-ray) 
 
 (Board of Education. Annual Report for 1914 of the Chief Medical 
 Officer of the Board of Education, 1915. [Cd. 8055.]) 
 
 t Tbe proportion of rem diable defects adequately dealt with in 59 
 representative areas was as follow-; t — 
 
 Number 
 found 
 
 in Per- 
 
 need of Number Per- centage 
 
 treat- Number reme- centage reme- 
 
 Condition. ment. treated, died. treated, died. 
 Di5iea»es of nose and 
 
 throat 17,948 7,990 4,683 44-5 261 
 
 External eye diseases . . 4,645 8,820 2,562 82-2 55-1 
 
 Skin diseases . . . . 7,962 7,021 5,885 88-1 74-0 
 
 Defective vision and iquint 21,764 11,089 10,120 50-7 46-5 
 
 [Cd. 8055.1 
 
 l2 
 
 Counties. 
 
 Boroughs. 
 
 Boroughs. 
 
 Districts. 
 
 Total 
 
 28 
 
 63 
 
 86 
 
 27 
 
 204 
 
 24 
 
 41 
 
 45 
 
 20 
 
 180 
 
 40 
 
 56 
 
 71 
 
 28 
 
 195 
 
 24 
 
 49 
 
 60 
 
 82 
 
 166 
 
 14 
 
 25 
 
 M 
 
 10 
 
 88 
 
 10 
 
 81 
 
 15 
 
 12 
 
 68 
 
116 CHRISTIANITY AND INDUSTRIAL PROBLEMS 
 
 for the Chief Medical Officer of the Board to state in his Annual 
 Report that only 58 per cent, of the children proved to be ailing 
 received treatment. " Less than half of the Authorities," he 
 writes, " have made any attempt whatever to provide dental 
 treatment, and, with one or two exceptions, the provision 
 made by the 146 Authorities " (who do provide it) " is wholly 
 inadequate. There are still approximately 100 Authorities 
 which have done nothing for minor ailments or defective vision, 
 and 200 have done nothing for diseases of the ear and of the 
 throat. Yet for nine years there has been a steady flow of 
 incontrovertible evidence of the prevalence of these maladies."* 
 
 197. Now that experience has shown both the urgent necessity 
 of medical treatment and the beneficial results which have 
 followed upon its provision, it seems to us that the community 
 ought no longer to allow the health and education of the rising 
 generation to be imperilled by the neglect of a minority of 
 apathetic or parsimonious Education Authorities. We think, 
 therefore, that the provision of adequate facilities for medical 
 treatment should cease to be optional, and should be made one 
 of the statutory obligations imposed, like the provision of 
 sufficient school places, upon all Public Authorities administer- 
 ing elementary education. Further, steps should be taken by 
 Local Education Authorities to establish nursery schools for 
 children over two and under five years of age, and the number 
 of open-air schools for specially delicate children, from which 
 very beneficial results have already accrued, should be largely 
 increased. When circumstances demand it Local Authorities 
 should make full use of their powers under the Education 
 (Provision of Meals) Act, 1906. " Defective nutrition," in the 
 words of the Chief Medical Officer of the Board, " stands in the 
 forefront as the most important of all physical defects from 
 which school children suffer^" 
 
 (vi.) The Training of the Senses and the Strengthening of 
 Character. 
 
 198. (c) The conception of education which is prevalent requires, 
 in the third place, to be broadened by a larger interpretation 
 which will include under education much besides the formal 
 instruction of the classroom. We have emphasised the 
 importance of safeguarding the ideal of a liberal education for 
 all children against the danger of excessive or premature 
 specialisation. But, in order to be liberal, education need not 
 necessarily be bookish. The test of it is not the subject which 
 is studied, but the spirit of the student and of the teacher, and 
 the purpose with which study is carried on. If the specialisation 
 which would subordinate the child to economic exigencies is 
 
 * Board of Elducation, Annual Report for 1916 of the Chief Medical 
 Officer of the Board of Educatum, 1917 [Cd. 8746]. 
 
EDUCATION 117 
 
 mischievous, the specialisation which aims at adapting educa- 
 tion as closely as possible to the needs of individual children 
 deserves nothing but praise. 
 
 100. We believe that the natural avenue to the minds of a large 
 number of children lies not through books, but through some 
 kind of creative work, and that they learn most when they are 
 engaged in some activity which so absorbs them that they 
 forget that they are learning. If this view is a sound one, 
 then the encouragement of forms of education which are 
 practical, in the sense, not of aiming at results other than the 
 development of the child, but of awakening his mind and 
 forming his character through the use of the hand, the eye, and 
 the ear, is at least as important as formal instruction of a 
 literary or scientific character. It is important for all classes 
 alike, for the children of the well-to-do as well as for the children 
 of poorer parents. The object of manual work in the elemen- 
 tary schools, to give one example of our meaning, is no more 
 to make children efficient workers in industry than the object 
 of singing is to enable them to earn their living as musicians. 
 It is to develop their faculties and, in particular, the faculties 
 of those children who are sometimes thought to be dull or back- 
 ward, because they do not respond readily to the stimulus of 
 a literary education. 
 
 200. Wisely directed by sympathetic teachers, it should do more 
 than this. It should do something to overcome the divorce 
 between art and labour which is one great obstacle to the 
 humanising of industry. The statement that English people 
 are lacking in aesthetic sense, if true at all, is true only with large 
 qualifications. Music was at one time a popular art in England, 
 and there are parts of the country where the delight in music 
 finds a spontaneous expression in choral singing and musical 
 societies. But it is profoundly true that our educational 
 system neglects one great instrument, perhaps the greatest 
 instrument, of true education, because it makes little or no 
 appeal to the instincts of the craftsman. The senses are the 
 gift of God as truly as is the reason, and the intelleetualism 
 which neglects altogether to cultivate them is as unchristian 
 as the materialism which cultivates nothing else. To starve 
 the appeal of form and colour is to empty life of beauty and 
 to provoke a reaction which seeks not beauty, but excitement. 
 W^e believe that the natural culture of many children is some 
 form of artistic or creative work, as the natural culture of 
 others is science or literature. To divorce education from the 
 natural tastes of a considerable proportion of the children is 
 to sterilise the former and brutalise the latter. It is to make 
 it as impotent for good as a religion which is reserved for 
 Sundays. It is only in so far as it is intimately related with 
 the ordinarv interests of mankind that education will either 
 
IIS^CHRISTIANITY ANB INDUSTRIAL PROBLEMS 
 
 become the expression which it ought to be, of popular ideals, 
 or give the inspiration to a better social life which, rightly 
 used, ft is able to convey. 
 
 201. The cultivation of a taste for craftsmanship is one way in 
 which education may be made more stimulating, because in 
 one form or another it appeals to all children and is intimately 
 connected with their interests. But it is onJy one way. An- 
 other line of advance is to be found in the encouragement, 
 through the agency of the schools, of interests which may bring 
 the ciiiidren into closer contact both with nature and with the 
 noble records ol' human achievement, and in the development of 
 a strong corporate life and of habits of self-government. Some- 
 thuig is already being done in both these directions. On the 
 one hand, an mereasmg number of rural schools have school 
 gardens attached to tkem, and there is a growing habit of 
 taking parties of children on visits to picture galleries, and to 
 other places of interest. On the other hand, the children in 
 certain schools have been encouraged by their teachers to 
 undertake co-operative enterprises, and to take a large share 
 in the maintenance of discipline and good order in school. 
 We cannot doubt that if our national system of education is 
 to realise its full potentialities of good for the community, 
 far more attention must be given in the future than has been 
 given hitherto to the discovery of the ways in which children 
 may not merely acquire knowledge, but may develop a capacity 
 for employing their leisure in reasonable and humanising 
 pursuits, which will remain with them when their school days 
 are over, and above all may train themselves through the 
 corporate life of their school in the art of self-government. 
 
 202. ^^ certain schools, such as the Little Commonwealth for 
 delinquent children at Dorchester, or the school of which a 
 charming picture was given in Mr. Holmes's book, " What is 
 and what might be,"* that ideal has already been realised. 
 In order that it may be realised more generally, there is re- 
 quired not only the sympathy with it on th'e part of Education 
 Authorities and of teachers, which is becoming, we are glad to 
 think, increasingly common, but a far more generous expendi- 
 ture upon education, corresponding to the more generous 
 interpretation of its meaning, which has been given above. 
 There must be more teachers, and better paid teachers, and 
 teachers with far more leisure than is allowed to them at 
 present. There must be school gardens and large playgrounds 
 or playing fields attached to every school. There must be 
 opportunities for physical training and for organised games. 
 Reproductions of good pictures and school libraries must be 
 more generally provided for the schools. The schools them- 
 selves might with advantage change their appearaace. To 
 
 ♦ ion (Cott»tahle). 
 
EDUCATION IIW 
 
 erect buildings less audaciously frightful than most urban 
 eieineutary schools are to-day would probahiy not be more 
 expensive, and would certainly be more ui accordance with 
 the spait of education. 
 
 (vii.) The Educational Ladder and the Educational Highway. 
 
 208. (^) i" t^A^ fourth place, wc think it important to point out 
 that the aim of education must be not merely to otlcr special 
 opportunities to those who are specially gifted, but to provide 
 for all members of the community the education needed to 
 develop their personality and to tit them for social life, irrespec- 
 tive of their social class, income, or occupation. It is necessary 
 to emphasise this point, because it is one which is apt to be 
 overlooked in current discussions of education. It is still 
 sometimes suggested that the main function of higher education 
 is to provide mtensive cultivation for those chiUUen who have 
 unusual powers, and that the cominunity will have discharged 
 its duty m the matter of education when it has enabled the 
 exceptionally brilliant or enterprii>ing child to climb what is 
 called the educational ladder. 
 
 204. VVe do not underestimate the importance of offering special 
 opportunities to special capacity. The inadequacy ol such 
 opportunities at the present time is at once wasteful from the 
 point ol view of the community, and unjust to the children of 
 the working-classes. On the one hand it deprives the nation of 
 the services of some of its ablest sons and daughters. On the 
 other hand, it prevents the children of poor parents from 
 entering occupations for which they may be peculiarly fitted, 
 and indeed from even discovering what their special aptitudes 
 are. Figures supplied by the Board of Educatiun to tlie Koyal 
 Commission on the Civil Service show that of the children who 
 every year leave the elementary schools of England less than 
 5 per cent, enter secondary schools,* and that probably 
 far less than 1 per cent, ultimately pass to Universities. Of 
 those who do enter secondary schools the majority leave before 
 they reach the age of 16 and only a small proportion remain t 
 at school beyond the age of 17, with the result that, owing to 
 the extreme weakness of secondary education in its higher 
 ranges, the Universities draw for their students upon quite an 
 
 *The total population of the secondary schools recognised by the 
 Bouiu ol l!Aiucaiiuii is cxtrtiiieJy Kinall. Ai the ioilowing ii^uivs (Hoard 
 of EduciUion Report of Committee on JuvetdL Education in iielatian to 
 bimploifment, 1«17 [Ca. 8512J) show : — 
 
 12-18 13-14 14-16 16-16 16-17 17-18 
 
 82,709(4-68%)86,455(5 28)80,722(4-47) 20,628(3-08)11.522(l-71)4,905(0-74) 
 
 t The li^port of the Board of Education, 1914-15 [Cd. 8274J shows that 
 out of 180,507 in secondary schooli on October 1st. 1014, imder 15,000 
 were 16 years ot age or over. ^ * 
 
120 CHRISTIANITY AND INDUSTRIAL PROBLEMS 
 
 insignificant proportion of the population. The main reason 
 both why so small a proportion of elementary school children 
 pass to secondary schools, and why the school life of most 
 secondary school students is prematurely curtailed, is the 
 inability of the parents to maintain them at school. It is not 
 simply a question of school fees, though it is true that fees are 
 often a serious obstacle. It is that working-class parents 
 with several children are unable to dispense with the earnings 
 of the elder children unless they are to risk allowing the younger 
 children to be underfed. Something has been done to over- 
 come the financial difficulties which hamper the higher educa- 
 tion of working-class children by the expenditure of Local 
 Authorities upon maintenance allowances and scholarships. 
 That expenditure amounted immediately before the war to 
 just over £400,000, of which five-eighths was devoted to the 
 remission of fees, and three-eighths to maintenance.* We 
 think that the expenditure uAder the former head, both in 
 connection with secondary schools and Universities, ought to 
 be largely increased, so that no child should be debarred from 
 the education for which it is qualified by intellect and character, 
 owing merely to the financial disabilities of its parents. 
 205. The creation of more abundant educational opportunities for 
 exceptional ability is. however, only one of the objects at which 
 educational reformers should aim, and not, in our eyes, the 
 most important object. It is, we think, even more essential to 
 secure that all children should have the degree of education 
 needed for full personal development and for good citizenship 
 than it is to provide cultivation for the specially brilliant. The 
 ideal expressed by the phrase, " the educational ladder," is at 
 best incomplete, and at worst a glorification of what may 
 sometimes be a selfish individualism. We think we are right in 
 saying that the opinion of working people themselves has 
 always been in favour of such an educational spirit and 
 organisation as would aim at raising the whole level of society 
 rather than at merely offering special opportunities of advance- 
 ment to exceptional individuals. The two ideals, which we may 
 call that of the ladder and that of the highway, are not, 
 indeed, necessarily inconsistent with each other. The higher 
 the general level of culture in any society, the more likely it is 
 to appreciate the desirability of giving special cultivation to 
 peculiar ability ; the greater the opportunities of intensive 
 education open to individuals, the more certain will the com- 
 munity be of securing from its members the best service which 
 they are capable of offering. But we feel bound to emphasise 
 the idea of social solidarity as the basis of a right educational 
 system, both because it is most in danger of being overlooked, 
 
 • Board of Education Interim Report of the Consultative Committee on 
 Scholarships for Higher Education, 19K) [Cd. 8291]. 
 
EDUCATION 121 
 
 and because it is. that most consonant to the reference of a 
 committee concerned with the social principles of Christianity. 
 We agree witli the sentiment expressed in the Report of the 
 Board of Education for the year 1915-16 : " The needs of the 
 nation cannot be satisfied by changes affecting higher education 
 only, or by provision of educational facilities confined to 
 scholars of special gifts and abihties."* 
 
 206. It is n©t enough, therefore, that an increased number of 
 children should be transferred from elementary schools to 
 secondary schools, in which classes are smaller, teachers more 
 numerous, equipment more generous, and opportunities for 
 recreation more abundant. We desire the elementary schools 
 attended by all children to be better staffed, better equipped, 
 more truly conducive to mental and moral development and 
 physical health. It is not enough that a certain proportion of 
 specially gifted children should receive continued education 
 during the years of adolescence. We desire that all young 
 persons should receive continued education, because all have 
 minds which need cultivation and bodies which need mvigo- 
 rating recreation. It is not enough that a certain proportion 
 of working-class children should pass more easily than at 
 present to the Universities. We desire that the opportunity 
 of obtaining the highest kind of education should be brought 
 within reach of all who have the wish and the capacity to take 
 advantage of it, because all are citizens and all are worthy of 
 the most generous care that the community is able to spend 
 upon the education of its children. It is the teaching of 
 Christianity that society is one, and that the whole body 
 suffers wrong through the ignorance or mal-development of 
 the humblest of its members. 
 
 (viii.) The Need of a New Attitude towards Education. 
 
 207. The principles which we have laid down — that education 
 should be liberal and not prematurely specialised, that it 
 should include care for the physical welfare and development 
 of children, that it should cultivate children by practical work 
 as well as by more formal instruction and should strengthen 
 their character through participation in the corporate life of a 
 school, that it should aim not merely at selecting individuals 
 for intensive culture but at raising the moral and intellectual 
 level of the whole society — are such, we think, as should make 
 a special appeal to those who accept the social teaching of 
 Christianity. If they are to receive effective application, there 
 must, it is evident, be certain changes both in the national 
 estimate of the importance of education and in the educational 
 system itself. There must, in short, be a new attitude towards 
 
 * [Cd. 8594]. 
 
122 CHRISTIANITY AND INDUSTRIAL PROBLEMS 
 
 education on the part of the nation, and a new spirit in the 
 educational system. 
 
 (ix.) Tlie Necessity for more generous Public Expenditure on 
 
 Education, 
 
 208. {a) In the first place, then, the community must be prepared 
 to spend upon education a tar larger proportion of its total 
 income than it spends at present. We are aware that the 
 education rate already presses heavily upon certain districts, 
 and a readjustment of the sources from which money tor 
 education is derived is, no doubt, desirable. But there ought, 
 we are convmced, to be a large increase in the educational 
 expenditure of the nation. The parsimony with which educa- 
 tion has hithiirto been treated in Great Britain, both by 
 Local Authorities and by the Central Government, has inflicted 
 grave injury upon the character and intelJect of the rising 
 generation, and the materialism which it expresses and helps 
 to perpetuate is more mischievous than that parsimony itself. 
 The nation ought to class education among the most important 
 of the demands upon its resources. It ought not to consider 
 what it can spare for education when other needs have been 
 met. It ought to consider what can be spared for other needs 
 when adequate provision has been made for education. In 
 this matter it should have the courage to be called extravagant. 
 It should aim at showing in its expenditure upon education 
 something of the temper which inspired the far less opulent 
 societies of the Middle Ages to the splendid prodigality of their 
 churches and cathedrals, the memories of an age which, though 
 poor in material comforts, was not too poor to spend with 
 ardent profusion upon the things of the spirit. The foundation 
 of all wealth and prosperity consists, indeed, of iiniividual men 
 and women, and a nation is no more likely to impoverish itself 
 by cultivating its children than it is to do hO by cultivating its 
 land. But, though education is the most remunerative of all 
 investments, it is not mainly upon that ground that the demand 
 for increased expenditure should be based. Expenditure upon 
 education should be generous, because to spend meanly upon 
 education is to foster the false estimate of moral values which 
 attaches more imjjortance to material comfort than to the 
 development of personality. 
 
 (x.) Tlie necessity of raising the Remuneration and Status of the 
 Teaching Profession 
 
 209. {b) The second condition of educational progress is a far 
 keener public appreciation of the dignity and importance of the 
 teaching profession, the outward expression of which must be 
 better salaries, better training, and a higher status for the 
 teacher. The gross under-payment of large numbers of teachers 
 
EDUCATION 128 
 
 which has prevailed hitherto not only is unjust to a devoted 
 body of public servants, but also is disastrous to the higher 
 interests of the children and of the community. To cause 
 the teachers to be undervalued is to cause education to 
 be undervalued. And a better system of traininj^ is as 
 important as better payment. The success of the teachers 
 in coping with the dillieulties with which they are confronted 
 in the elementary schools has been astonishing, and the enthu- 
 siasm which they show for their work, often amid very dis- 
 couraging circumstances, is beyond praise. But it is no 
 reflection upon the teachers to say that the circumstances in 
 which some of them are prepared for their future profession 
 are not always those best calculated to give them breadth of 
 interest or a sympathetic understanding of the problems with 
 which they will be confronted. They are often over-worked 
 during their period of training and have too little opportunity 
 of that personal contact with men and women of different types 
 and interests which is not the least valuable part of a University 
 education. We consider that the arrangement at which the 
 nation should aim is that as large a proportion of teachers as 
 possible should study at Universities, and that their purely 
 professional training should be obtained in the last year of the 
 University course. But this is an ideal for the future. In the 
 - meantime there is a great deficiency in the supply of teachers 
 both for elementary schools and for the purpose of the con- 
 tinued education of which we speak below. It is desirable 
 that Christians who realise the importance of education should 
 do all in their power to overcome the difficulty, both by urging 
 that a higher status be given to the teaching profession, and by 
 inspiring others, especially their own children, to enter it. 
 
 (xi.) The Reduction of the size of Classes in Elementary Schools, 
 
 210. (c) However much the remuneration and status of the 
 teachers may be improved, elementary education will continue 
 to be relatively ineffective as long as the teacher is required to 
 cope with classes of the size existing in many elementary 
 schools at the present time. The third change which is 
 necessary to the progress of education is a reduction in the 
 sizes of classes to not more than 40, and ultimately to not 
 more than 30 children. It is obviously impossible, in the great 
 majority of subjects, for a teacher to maintain in a class of 50 
 to 70 children the close personal contact with each individual 
 which is the essence of education. Nor is an improvement 
 of educational methods on the lines suggested in Section (vi.) 
 of this chapter practicable, unless the number of children 
 in the care of each teacher is largely reduced. It may be 
 possible to teachEnglish grammar to 60 children simultaneously: 
 it is certainly not possible to give teaching in handicraft to 
 
124 CHRISTIANITY AND INDUSTRIAL PROBLEMS 
 
 a class of more than 25. But this point has been so constantly 
 emphasised that we need not dwell upon it. The main 
 obstacles to the reduction in the size of classes are the shortage 
 of teachers and the increased financial outlay which would be 
 involved in it. If, as we have suggested, the prospects and 
 status of the teachers are improved and the secondary school 
 population largely increased by a generous provision of scholar- 
 ships and maintenance allowances^ the deficiency of teachers 
 will, in time, it is reasonable to hope, be overcome. 
 
 (xii.) The Lengthening of the Period of Full-time Attendance at 
 
 School, 
 
 211. (d) The fourth change in the national system of education 
 for which Christian men and women should press is the 
 lengthening of the period of compulsory full-time attend- 
 ance at school. It is, we think, commonly assumed that 
 the majority of children continue in attendance at school 
 until they reach 14 years of age. But this assumption is, 
 unfortunately, erroneous. Whether children remain at school 
 till 14 years of age depends upon the bye-laws of the Authority 
 whose schools they attend. We need not go into the techni- 
 calities of the highly intricate law of school attendance. But 
 we would point out that Authorities have power to grant 
 exemptions from full-time attendance, which make serious 
 inroads upon the later years of the educational life of a large 
 proportion of the child population. Partial exemption for the 
 purpose of employment in agriculture begins at 11. Under 
 the partial exemptions granted at 12, about 80,000 children at 
 any one time (probably about 60,000 in the course of the year) 
 are employed in the textile industries of Lancashire and of 
 West Yorkshire. A large number of children cease altogether 
 to attend school at, or soon after, their thirteenth birthday. 
 
 212. It is sometimes said that all but an inconsiderable number of 
 children continue school attendance to the age of 14. But the 
 latest report upon the subject, that of the Board of Education 
 Departmental Committee on Juvenile Education in Relation 
 to Employment after the War, states that the proportion of 
 children remaining at school till they are 14 " cannot be more 
 than 66 per cent, or less than 12 per cent. ; if we place it at 50 
 per cent., the conjecture will probably not be far from the 
 truth." In view of the developments which have taken place 
 since the war, this estimate is probably somewhat too optimistic. 
 Bye-laws have been relaxed since 1914, and the proportion of 
 children permitted partial exemption at 11 and 12, and full- 
 time exemption at 13, has been increased. It is stated that in 
 some areas the war will have had the effect of creating a 
 generation of illiterates. There is only too much reason to 
 
EDUCATION 135 
 
 fear that in many districts it has been fought at the expense of 
 the health and education of the rising generation. 
 
 218. The premature cessation of full-time attendance at school 
 which obtains at present is seriously to be deprecated on more 
 grounds than one. It prevents some not inconsiderable part 
 of the expenditure on elementary education from bearing its 
 full fruit, since the children leave school just at the age when 
 they are beginning to derive most benefit from their education. 
 It is deleterious both to their physical and mental develop- 
 ment. Children of 12 are not physically fit to bear the double 
 strain of spending in the same week 30 hours in the factory 
 and 12 J in the school, or 25 J hours in the factory and 15 
 in the school, imposed upon them by what has been offi- 
 cially described as the " detestable system " of half-time. 
 Nor is it right that children of 14 should cease their edu- 
 cation in order to work for 55 J hours and 60 hours under 
 the Factory and Workshops Acts, or for 70 or 80 hours in 
 those occupations in which the working day is not regulated 
 by law. 
 
 214, The temporary relaxation of local bye-laws for the special 
 purpose of the present emergency will, no doubt, terminate 
 at the end of the war. Further, under the Education Act which 
 has just become law, all exemptions from full-time attendance 
 under the age of 14 are to be abolished. We warmly welcome 
 that measure, and we hope that it may prepare the way for 
 further educational reforms. The age of compulsory full-time 
 attendance ought, we think, to be raised in the near future to 
 15, and ultimately to 16 years. Further, all employment by 
 way of trade or for purposes of gain of children who are under 
 a legal obligation to attend school full time should be abolished. 
 Under the Employment of Children Act * of 1903, Local 
 Authorities have power to make bye-laws regulatmg the 
 employment of the large number of children who are 
 engaged in some form of work before or after school hours. 
 But prior to the war only 98 out of 829 Authorities had made 
 use of their powers of regulating the general employment 
 of children,! and the bye-laws, even when made, are extremely 
 difficult to administer effectively. No doubt there are certain 
 forms of employment which are comparatively harmless. But 
 experience has shown that on the whole it is undesirable 
 to allow children of school age to be employed for purposes 
 of gain out of school hours. " A very large number of children," 
 states the Chief Medical Officer of the Board of Education in 
 his last Report, " are being prematurely employed. . . . The 
 physical injury which manifests itself is insidious and in- 
 
 * Since amended by the Education Act, 1918. 
 
 t Child Labour and Education : During the War and After, 1915 (Workers* 
 Educational Association). 
 
126 CHRISTIANITY AND INDUSTRIAL PROBLEMS 
 
 conspicuous, but far-reaching."* We are of opinion, therefore, 
 that such employment should be prohibited. 
 
 215. Apart tioni the difRculty of srcurin;^ the necessary increase 
 in the supply of school teachers, which can be overcome only by 
 raising the general status and remuneration of the profession, 
 there are two main objections which may be made to these 
 proposals. It is urged on the one hand that to raise the age 
 of compulsory full-time attendance at school is to impose an 
 excessive burden upon the poorer parents, and, on the other 
 hand, that it will involve in difficulties those industries which 
 at present rely very largely upon juvenile labour. The first 
 objection is a serious one, and we do not desire to minimise it. 
 It is undoubtedly the case that a considerable number of 
 families are engaged in a perpetual struggle against poverty, 
 which makes the temptation to supplement the income of the 
 parent by the earnings, however small, of children who ought 
 to be at school almost irresistible. But this sacrifice of children 
 to the necessities of their parents, this accumulation upon the 
 shoulders of the rising generation of the economic burdens of 
 the present, is precisely one of those features in our social life 
 against which Christians ought unceasingly to protest. They 
 mu-^t break the vicious circle which binds ignorance to poverty 
 and poverty to ignorance, which causes the educational develop- 
 ment of one generation to be neglected because its parents 
 were poor, and the next generation to be poor partly because 
 its educational development has been neglected. If the wages 
 of parents are too low to allow of their children attending school 
 up to 16 years without undue sacrifice, the rate of wages, as 
 we have stated in a previous chapter, should be raised to a 
 level which will enable them to make provision for this as for 
 other necessary matters. In any case, it is the duty of Chris- 
 tians, working through the State, to prevent the children 
 suffering either through the curtailment of their education or 
 through premature work. If wages cannot be raised immediately 
 to the requisite level, and in cases where parents require 
 assistance, the community should extend the provision of 
 maintenance allowances so as to enable the children to make 
 full attendance without the infliction of undue hardship either 
 upon them or upon the parents. 
 
 216. The sceondohirrtion toraisinj: the agcof full-time attendance, 
 that certain industries require for their prosperity supplies 
 of cheap juvenile labour, is one which stands, we think, upon 
 a different footing of importance. It is obviously impossible 
 for us to go in detail into the probable economic effects of 
 diminishing the nufnber of children working in industry, though 
 it may be pointed out that the previous anticipations of 
 
 • Board of Education, Annual Report for 1916 of tfte Chief Medical 
 Officer of the Board of Education, 1917 [Cd. 8746]. 
 
EDUCATION 127 
 
 disastrous reactions from raisinpf the school a^e have been 
 falsified by experience, and that the economic prosperity of the 
 nation hns not been perceptibly retard<^d by the growth of the 
 restrictions on employment imposed in the interest of education 
 since the Act of 1870. The burden of proof would appear to 
 rest upon those who arrrue that industry will be jeopardised 
 by a more thoroujjfh system of education, not upon those who 
 hold that a more thorouorh education will stimulate all healthy 
 kinds of national activity, and among them industry. But, 
 whatever the temporary economic consequences of raising 
 the age of compulsory full-time attendance, the principle for 
 which Christian men and women should stand is clear. It is 
 that the welfare of the children must not be subordinated to 
 economic exigencies. They must persuade the nation, in so 
 far as it is not already persuaded, that it ought not to value 
 its schools because they supply workers for its factories, but 
 that it ought to value its factories partly because they produce 
 the wealth which may make possible better schools. 
 
 (xiii.) The Establishment of Compulsory Continued Education 
 up to the age of IS. 
 
 217. (e) Even if the age of full-time attendance is raised to 16, 
 still more if it is raised only to 14 or 15, it will still remain 
 necessary to consider ways of submitting the critical years of 
 adolescence to some kind of educational control. The fifth 
 reform which, we think, should be urored by Christians is the 
 establishment of a system of compulsory continued, or part- 
 time secondary, education from the age at which full-time 
 attendance at school ceases to that of 18. The Committee 
 on Juvenile Education, in view of immediate difficulties 
 occasioned, amongst other things, by the anticipated shortage 
 of teachers, found themselves able only to recommend that 
 eight hours be taken for continued education out of the actual 
 working week. The time which it is desirable to give to con- 
 tinued education must vary, no doubt, according to the different 
 conditions and needs of different industries. But we think 
 that the hours of attendance should be increased as soon as 
 possible, and that the goal to be aimed at, if children are to 
 attain their fulT potentialities of educational development, is 
 that in all occupations, except those which are directly educa- 
 tional, not less than half th^ working week should be spent in 
 continued education. During the past ten years much evidence* 
 has been accumulated which suggests that the seeds of social 
 
 * Chapter IV^ of this R'port, Sction (xii.) ; Roval Commission on t^he 
 Poor Laws and Rfl'nf of Distress, Mnjorilif and Minoritj/ Repnrh, 1909 ; 
 Board of Education Report of Consultative Committer on Attendance, Com- 
 ptilsortj or Othenovte, at Continuation Schools, 1909 fCtl. 4757]; Doard of 
 Education Report of Departmental Committee on Juvenile Education in 
 Relation to Employment after the War, 1917 [C^. 8512J. 
 
128 CHRISTIANITY AND INDUSTRIAL PROBLEMS 
 
 demoralisation, of economic incapacity, of intellectual and 
 physical deterioration, are sown during the period of adoles- 
 cence, in which a large majority of children escape aftogether 
 from any kind of educational supervision. Evening schools 
 have done something to keep alive the intellectual interests 
 aroused in the elementary schools. But they touch only an 
 insignificant proportion of the whole child population. More 
 than 75 per cent, of all the children in England and Wales 
 between the ages of 14 and 18 are officially stated to be receiving 
 no kind of continued school education whatever.* Of those 
 who enter the evening schools a large proportion cease attend- 
 ance before the completion of a single term. Of those who 
 continue in attendance a large proportion is too exhausted 
 after a working day of from 8 to 10 hours to derive more than 
 a trifling benefit from the education that is offered them. 
 218. This neglect of young persons during what is often the 
 most critical period of their lives is fraught with gravie 
 danger both to them and to the whole community. The evils 
 which it creates cannot be overcome merely by measures which 
 aim, like the provision of scholarships, at facilitating the entry 
 of specially able children into secondary schools and Uni- 
 versities, however desirable those measures may be upon other 
 grounds. What is required is not merely to offer special 
 opportunities to selected individuals, but to raise the educa- 
 tional level of the whole child population. The right principle 
 is simple. It is that up to the age of 18 boys and girls should 
 be regarded primarily, not as wage-earners, but as potential 
 parents and potential citizens, that education rather than 
 industry should absorb their best energies, and that their 
 employment should not be allowed to hamper their education. 
 If this ideal is to be realised it is essential that continued edu- 
 cation should take place in the day, not in the evening after a 
 full day's work, that it should be subtracted from, not added to, 
 
 * Board of Education Report of Departmental Committee on Juvenile 
 Education in Relation to Employment after the War, 1917 [Cd. 8512]. The 
 figures given in that Report are as follow : — 
 
 13-4 14-5 15-6 16-7 17-8 
 
 Young persons receiv- 
 ing education (full 
 time or part time) 
 in some Institution 
 recognised by the 
 
 Board . . . . 520,437 194,886 123,552 98,078 7«,845 
 
 (750/0) (28%) (18%) (I40/0) (110/^) 
 Difference between 
 above figure and the 
 number of persons 
 enimierated in the 
 
 Census of 1911 .. 170,295 492,869 546,419 574,896 589,890 
 (24%) (710/0) (81%) (830/^) (88%) 
 
EDUCATION 129 
 
 the hours of employment in industry. Its primary object 
 should be to strengthen the body, to develop the mind, and to 
 lay the intellectual and moral foundations of good citizenship. 
 It should not, therefore, be too narrowly specialised to meet 
 industrial requirements, and should include abundant oppor- 
 tunities for organised games and physical training. But it 
 might well be adapted to arouse interest in the different 
 conditions and problems of different industries and districts, 
 and its vocational bias would naturally be increased in the 
 later years of -school attendance to meet the needs of those 
 children who will enter an industry requiring specialised 
 technical qualifications. Juvenile Advisory Committees and 
 Choice of Employment Committees, by keeping in close touch 
 both with the parents and with the teachers of such con- 
 tinuation schools, would be in a position to assist children to 
 find work in the occupations for which they were best adapted. 
 
 (xiv.) Rural Continued Education. 
 219. It must not be supposed that it is only in the towns that such 
 a system of continued education is necessary. Rural life has, 
 no doubt, special features and problems of its own ; but they 
 should cause the education given to country children to be of 
 the kind suited to their special environment, not to be less 
 thorough or continuous than that given in the towns. The child 
 with a gift for literature or scholarship should, of course, have as 
 full opportunities of cultivating it in rural as in urban schools ; 
 to be born in the country is not necessarily to have a taste for 
 country pursuits. But some of the subjects chosen as a vehicle 
 of education might well be different, though the object of 
 education would be the same, and the periods of school atten- 
 dance could be arranged to meet the peculiar needs of the 
 agricultural industry, without involving the maintenance of a 
 lower educational standard in villages than in cities. Special 
 care should be taken to select for the rural continuation school 
 teachers who have experience of the conditions of village life, 
 and who are interested in its problems. The fullest use should 
 be made of practical work to awaken the minds of the children 
 to the principles underlying the common processes of nature. 
 They should be encouraged to form school co-operative 
 societies, and to learn by experiment as much as from the formal 
 instruction of the teacher. The object of rural continued 
 education would be, in short, not so much to produce skilled 
 agriculturists, as to create in children a love and compre- 
 hension of rural life by revealing the abundant stores of moral 
 and intellectual inspiration which are contained in every country- 
 side. The school should be the intellectual expression of the 
 rural community, focusing its traditions, its culture, and its 
 intelligence, and sending back to it men and women who will 
 
180 CHRISTIANITY AND INDUSTRIAL PROBLEMS 
 
 find happiness in the Hfe of a countryman, and take a pride in 
 fostering rural progress. 
 
 (xv.) Non-vocational 4dult Education. 
 
 220. (/) if ^11 young persons maintain their contact with education 
 up to the age of 18, it may reasonably be hoped that the number 
 of men and women with a taste and capacity for studies of an 
 advanced character will be largely increased. A further 
 improvement in our educational system which Christians 
 should labour to promote is a great extension of all kinds of 
 adult education. We have hitherto confined ourselves almost 
 entirely to the problems incidental to child and adolescent 
 life. But the successful solution of these problems will con- 
 tribute largely to the development of enthusiasm for study 
 on the part of grown men and women. We cannot insist 
 too strongly that education has never been, and cannot 
 be, confined to the opening years. It is a process which 
 persists throughout life. We desire, therefore, to urge the 
 development throughout the country, in town and village, 
 of an adequate provision of adult classes constructed to meet 
 the needs and characteristics of experienced men and women. 
 As befits our reference, we would lay emphasis upon the per- 
 sistent study of industrial and economic problems, and whilst 
 we would urge all citizens fitted by temperament and capacity 
 to take advantage of the facilities for study, we would specially 
 urge attendance upon Christians, in order that they may not 
 be remiss in understanding the industrial problems of the time. 
 It is sometimes implied that education of the kind supplied 
 by the Universities can be offered with advantage only to those 
 who have continued their full-time education up to the age of 
 18, and who are then prepared to spend three or four years in 
 continuous study at a University. This suggestion is, we are 
 convinced, erroneous. In addition to the young persons 
 who, having passed through a secondary school, desire to study 
 full time in a University preparatory to entering a profession, 
 there are an even larger number of adult men and women who 
 desire education of the type obtained in Universities in order 
 to enlarge their minds and to fit themselves better for the 
 duties of citizenship. They seek it, not so much for the purpose 
 of self-advancement, as in order to put it at the service of their 
 fellows, in their various movements and organisations. This 
 demand for higher education on the part of adult men and 
 women has grown rapidly during the last ten years, and in our 
 opinion it is of urgent importance that it should be met. The 
 aim of educational reform must not merely be to establish 
 such equality of opportunity that the children of the working 
 classes may find it as easy as the children of the well-to-do to 
 pass to the Universities and to enter such professions as they 
 
 221. 
 
EDUCATION 181 
 
 may choose, but to enable those who will remain workmen to 
 be as well educated as those who will enter the professions. 
 There ought, in fact, to be more than one road to education of 
 a University character. It should be easily accessible, not 
 merely to those who have spent some years in a full-time 
 secondary school, but also to those who have entered the 
 factory or workshop, and who will continue to work there. 
 
 222. Provided that the financial difficulties accompanying adult 
 education can be overcome, such an ideal is not an impracti- 
 cable one. Practical experience of industrial life and of the 
 problems involved in it is in itself a very valuable education. 
 Classes of adults for the study of humane subjects are con- 
 ducted to-day by various organisations in many different 
 parts of the country. The tutorial classes, to give only one 
 example, organised in connection with the different Univer- 
 sities, which include several thousand adult students, con- 
 stitute a system of extra-mural University education which is 
 capable of almost indefinite expansion. In our opinion, it 
 ought to be possible for any group of adult students who give 
 guarantees of serious and continuous work, and who are willing 
 to be inspected, to receive financial assistance from the local 
 University, the Local Authority, and the State. If such 
 assistance were sufficiently generous, there is no reason why a 
 large body of adult students, forming in all essentials a local 
 college with a continuous and expanding corporate life, should 
 not spring up in every town, and, indeed, in a large number of 
 villages. 
 
 (xvi.) Religious Adult Education. 
 
 223. {g) Such an extension of adult education would exercise an 
 incalculable influence for good upon the moral and intellectual 
 life of the whole community. The subjects studied would 
 naturally be those chosen by the students themselves, and there 
 is no need for us to discuss them here. There is one subject, 
 however, to which we feel bound to make special allusion. 
 There is growing evidence among adults of an interest in, and 
 desire for, the study of religion, which, we think, it is most 
 important should be met. On the one hand it would contribute 
 to the better understanding and wiser discussions of subjects 
 of supreme importance. On the other hand it would enable 
 men who feel a call to the ministry to begin their preparation 
 for it while continuing their ordinary occupations. It is 
 eminently desirable that candidates for Holy Orders should be 
 drawn from all classes of the community, and that they should 
 not necessarily be required to sever themselves from the persons 
 and surroundings of their earlier life, as is almost unavoid- 
 able if they pass through a full-time secondary school to 
 a University and then to a Theological College. The 
 
132 CHRISTIANITY AND INDUSTRIAL PROBLEMS 
 
 vast majority of their parishioners will consist of working 
 people. The larger the proportion of ministers who have led 
 the ordinary life, and pursued the ordinary occupations, of 
 working people, the more effectively will the message of the 
 Church to men be delivered. In the words of the striking 
 letter from the vicar of a large industrial parish which we 
 print in an Appendix,* " We clergy, with our public schools 
 and Universities behind us, look at political and social questions 
 from a different angle from that of the vast mass of the working 
 class. ... I am urging most strongly the importance of 
 removing the difficulties which stand in the way of a working- 
 class ministry, for I believe that this would mean the removal 
 of much of the suspicion with which the industrial classes 
 regard the Church, and would result in the infusion of a new 
 and strengthening element in the ministry of the Church." 
 While recognising that the subject is a large one, upon which 
 we cannot do more than touch in this Report, we think that the 
 establishment of classes for adults interested in the study of 
 religion, which might profitably be attached to Universities or 
 Theological Colleges, and thus obtain expert assistance, would 
 contribute directly to a deeper understanding of spiritual 
 questions and indirectly to the preparation of working-men 
 candidates for Holy Orders. 
 
 (xvii.) Summary of Conclusions. '\ 
 
 224. We may now summarise the conclusions of this part of our 
 Report : — 
 
 (i.) It is the duty of Christian men and women to assist in 
 every way open to them the advancement of education and the 
 removal of the obstacles which impede it. 
 
 225. (ii,) The primary object of educational effort should be to 
 lay the foundations of a broad and liberal culture, not to give 
 specialised vocational training. 
 
 * See p. 138. 
 
 •)• We are aware, of course, that the reforms indicated will necessitate 
 such a re-adaptation of finance and of industrial methods as to make it 
 inevitable that in large part they must be introduced gradually, though 
 not necessarily slowly. If they are successfully undertaken, we are con- 
 fident thu* any consequent dislocation or financial expenditure will be 
 more than neutralised by the results following upon the increased power 
 and ^/itality of the community, the necessary concomitant of developed 
 educatior. Moreover, it must be remembered that we are only on the 
 threshold of the development of the art of education, and it is' only by 
 generous experiment that we can discover more fully its potentialities. 
 To the criticism that our present educational system is in some respects 
 unsatisfactory, the answer is that more liberal expenditure, both of money 
 and of thought, on education will itself in time yield the experience needed 
 to remedy existing deficiencies. The school of to-day is a vast improve- 
 ment on that of 1870. The school of to-morrow, if we have the faith to 
 turn our full energy into its creation, will be an even greater improve- 
 ment on that of to-day. 
 
EDUCATION 188 
 
 220. (iii.) Care for the physical welfare of children and young 
 persons is an indispensable part of their education. It should, 
 therefore, be the duty of Local Education Authorities to give 
 special attention to the physical development of the children 
 in their charge and to provide curative treatment for their 
 ailments. Nursery schools for children from 2 to 5 years of 
 age should be established. The number of open-air schools 
 for delicate children should be increased. When necessary, 
 Local Authorities should make full use of the powers conferred 
 upon them by the Education (Provision of Meals) Act, 1906. 
 
 227. (iv.) A larger place should be given in all schools to practical 
 work. Abundant opportunities for recreation, organised 
 games, and play centres should be provided in all schools, and 
 children should be encouraged to participate in maintaining 
 the discipline and good order of school life. In fact, the 
 corporate life of schools should be strengthened in every way 
 possible. 
 
 228. (v.) While the opportunities for the higher education of 
 specially capable children should be largely increased, the main 
 effort of the community must be directed so to organising its 
 educational system as to raise the moral and intellectual level 
 of the whole population. 
 
 229. (vi.) The present public expenditure upon education is 
 unworthy both of its object and of the nation. The proportion 
 of the national income devoted - to education ought to be 
 largely and progressively increased. 
 
 230. (vii.) The status of teachers in elementary and secondary 
 schools should be raised ; their salaries should be commen- 
 surate with their needs and the importance of their service to 
 the State ; and they should be encouraged to obtain their 
 professional training at a University or University College. 
 
 231. (viii.) The maximum number of children per class m the 
 elementary schools should be reduced to 40, and ultimately 
 to 30. 
 
 282. (ix.) All exemptions from full-time attendance at school 
 below the age of 14 should be abolished. Full-time attendance 
 at school should in time be made compulsory up to the age of 
 15, and ultimately up to the age of 16. The wages of adults 
 should "be raised sufficiently to make it unnecessary for the 
 income of the family to be supplemented by the labour of 
 children below that age. In the meantime adequate mainte- 
 nance allowances should be paid to those parents who would 
 otherwise be _unable to dispense with the earnings of their 
 children. 
 
 283. (x.) The employment for purposes of gain of children who 
 are under a legal obligation to attend school full time should be 
 prohibited. 
 
 234. (xi.) A system of compulsory continued education should 
 k2* 
 
184 CHRISTIANITY AND INDUSTRIAL PROBLEMS 
 
 be established, the aim of which should be that all young 
 persons between the age at which full-time attendance at 
 school ceases and that of 1 8, unless engaged in occupations in 
 themselves directly educational, should ultimately attend 
 school for 24 hours out of a working week of not more than 
 48 hours (factory and school combined), or for a corresponding 
 proportion of the month or the year. 
 
 235. (xii.) The primary object of such continued education should 
 be to develop the physical and mental capacities of the children, 
 and to strengthen their character by continuous contact with 
 the corporate life of a school. It should be given a vocational 
 bias only in the later years of school attendance. 
 
 286. (xiii.) Rural education should be adapted to the needs of 
 country children, but should not sacrifice the needs of a liberal 
 culture to specialised training in rural life. The curriculum 
 and methods should be so arranged as to make use of the 
 opportunities for educational stimulus abundantly offered by 
 rural life, and to imbue children with a sympathetic under- 
 standing of nature, and of the history and present problems of 
 the district in which they live. 
 
 237. (xiv.) There is a wide and increasing demand for education 
 of a non-vocational character among adult men and women. 
 Such education should form part of the normal educational- 
 provision of the community, and should be encouraged in 
 every way possible. In particular, the financial difficulties 
 which impede it should be removed by the payment of grants 
 
 * to bodies of adult students who give guarantees of pursuing 
 serious and continuous courses of education and who are open 
 to inspection. 
 
 238. (xv.) There is a growing desire for religious education among 
 adults. This desire should be met by the establishment, under 
 expert guidance, of classes for the study of religion, the object 
 of which would be both to stimulate thought upon religious 
 questions, and to enable men to pursue studies preparatory to 
 entering the ministry while working at their ordinary occu- 
 pations. It is eminently desirable that a larger number of 
 ministers should be drawn from the ranks of adult working 
 people, and the establishment of such classes is one method 
 by which the achieverqent of this result can be facilitated. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Conclusion 
 
 239. X X tE have been considering the bearing of Christianity 
 
 \ ^i/ on the social and economic departments of Ufe which 
 V y especially concern those who are engaged in industry 
 or in solving its problems ; in other words, the great bulk of 
 the community. 
 
 240. We repudiated at the outset the idea that Christ, and the 
 religion of Christ, have no voice upon these questions. 
 
 241. We desire, in ending, with all emphasis to affirm the opposite. 
 The religion which bears the name of Jesus Christ is based upon 
 a '* word " or message. He brought it. It was embodied in 
 what He was and did. It expresses what He is. The effect of 
 it was to make men know the truth about God and about 
 themselves, as they had never done before, and have not done 
 since apart from Him. Men were taught to know God as 
 having a purpose of good for themselves and for the world, 
 and as being their Father. They became sure that " God is 
 love." Accordingly the whole life of man, his functions, his 
 value, and his destiny were seen in a new light. 
 
 In that light each life, great and small, has dignity ; and 
 all that concerns human progress and welfare is felt to be of 
 value and meaning in the sight both of God and man. The 
 revelation of an eternal destiny for man, far from diminishing 
 the importance of social righteousness in this world, does, in 
 fact, only enhance it. The New Testament implies the moral" 
 and social teaching which was given so constantly and coura- 
 geously by the Prophets, and carries it to completion in the prin- 
 ciple of love. Moreover, the religion inspired by that principle 
 at once took form, as had been directed, in a society or brother- 
 hood of equal privileges, mutual service, and the highest 
 esprit de corps. The centre and nucleus of all this was the 
 Figure of Jesus Christ, believed in as " Son of Man " and as 
 " Son of God," Who lived a life of unreserved devotion to human 
 welfare and of perfect service, and Who gave His Ufe, during 
 its course and at its awful end, to " the supreme sacrifice " for 
 mankind, and to conflict with the evils which spoil and ruin 
 our life. His Spirit, as His followers have always declared, 
 was the source and strength of all their common life. The 
 highest act of their religion was a social one : a feast of the 
 community in which the unseen Master fed them and bound 
 them into one with His own life. 
 242. We may say quite plainly that such a religion was uniquely 
 fitted to supply all human life, and not least its social forms, 
 
 135 
 
136 CHRISTIANITY AND INDUSTRIAL PROBLEMS 
 
 with deepest principles, and with driving power, and with 
 the strongest safeguards against the dangers that threaten 
 them from human weakness and fault. 
 
 243. *' But," will be the ironical repartee, " why has not this been 
 discovered sooner ? Why have the forces, labelled Christian, 
 seemed so often to lack constructive and redemptive social 
 power ? Why have Christians and Christian leaders been so 
 often associated with resistance to movements of social progress 
 and reform ? Why should things which in the light of Chris- 
 tianity should always have been clear have waited to be 
 discovered till democracy was coming into its own by its own 
 force ? " 
 
 244. To discuss this fairly and fully would carry us quite beyond 
 the limits of this Report. Nor would it serve our present 
 purpose, which is not that of vindicating the Church but of 
 witnessing to its Master and Lord. If Christians have often 
 been unworthy trustees of the good news of Jesus, the behaviour 
 of careless or defaulting trustees does not affect the value of their 
 trust. The famous saying of the revolutionary heroine, " O 
 Liberty ! what crimes are committed in thy name 1 ** may remind 
 us that the noblest things of human life may be condemned if 
 tried by the practice of some of the people, or generations, or 
 classes, who have carried their banners. 
 
 245. What we ask on behalf of Christian principles is that they 
 may be judged by the example of Christ Himself and, in due 
 degree, of the best Christians. The main point for us all, 
 whether Christians or not, to consider is not what has been, but 
 what ought to have been, and what ought to be. The self- 
 renewing power of Christian life is one of its plainest marks. 
 We believe that in a *' day of fire," like the present, much 
 that has been wrong and worldly in the past will be burnt away, 
 and that in a coming time of more equal rights and better 
 distributed power and possessions the Christian Gospel and the 
 Christian Church may be found to be among the strongest 
 forces making for a sound and wholesome progress. 
 
 246. On the part of the Church a serious and widespread effort 
 is being made to search out and acknowledge its own faults 
 and failures. And for doing this there can be no stronger 
 motive than the desire to do the service to our country in the 
 coming days which can only be done in the name of Jesus 
 Christ. For the democratic movement, just as those move- 
 ments which preceded it, will not be without its dangers, 
 and the minds of its best and wisest men will not be blind to 
 these. They are immense. An ordered liberty cannot main- 
 tain itself without self-discipline, selfless patriotism, mutual 
 confidence and brotherliness of spirit, a readiness to serve and 
 suffer for the general good, and to trust and follow chosen leaders 
 with loyalty and self-suppression. For all this it will need the 
 
CONCLUSION 187 
 
 strong stuff of deep and sterling character. But it is just to 
 produce these qualities that the Church, if it knows its own 
 business, exists. The man who has Christ's example before 
 his eyes, to whom Christ's Cross is the symbol of self-devotion, 
 of discipline, ,of public spirit, of moral fearlessness and courage, 
 is the man to make the true citizen of a free state. The man 
 for whom Christ is the sure guarantee of moral and spiritual 
 values will be armed as none other can be against all the prac- 
 tical materialism which is the vast and encroaching peril of 
 complex civilisations. Christian faith in life beyond death 
 may have led sometimes to a narrow other- worldliness : its 
 real effect is to intensify the value of all human things. Chris- 
 tian stress on personal salvation may have had here and there 
 an anti-social effect : reflection upon the Lord's own principle 
 that he who would save his life must lose it will show that its 
 true meaning is intensely social. 
 
 247. We would therefore close our Report by an appeal to all 
 whom it may concern for a close alliance and mutual regard 
 between those who are working for the best organisation of 
 industry and the Church of the world's Redeemer. 
 
 248. The conclusions which we have reached are to our minds the 
 direct implications of the Creed of the Church. The call which 
 is sounding in this day of world- judgment is that we should 
 not only hold the Faith, but re-order our life, social as well 
 as personal, in accordance with its principles. This we 
 know to be the true mission of the Church. This we are 
 persuaded is the true interest of the community. We present 
 our Report in hope, with the prayer that it may prove helpful 
 to those who, like ourselves, are anxious in this moment of 
 opportunity to hear " what the Spirit saith unto the churches." 
 
 (Signed) Ed w. Winton (C/iazVman). Henry E. Kemp. 
 
 Henry Barran. George Lansbury. 
 
 G. K. A. Bell. J. A. Lichfield. 
 
 Henry Bentinck. Neville Lovett. 
 
 S. BosTOCK. Albert Mansbridge. 
 
 W. C. Bridgeman. W. Foxley Norris. 
 
 Irene Cox. C. Oxon. 
 
 M. J. R. DuNSTAN. Theodore Petriburg. 
 
 W. A. Durnford. Arthur L. Smith. 
 
 F. W. GiLBERTSON. CONSTANCE SmITH. 
 
 George Hesketh. R. H. Tawney. 
 
 W. L. HiCHENS. Christopher Turnor. 
 
 Fred. Hughes. James B. Seaton, 
 R. R. Hyde. Hon. Secretary. 
 
 10th August, 1918. 
 
APPENDIX* 
 
 LABOUR AND THE MINISTRY 
 
 A communication from the Rev. Canon Garbett, Vicar of 
 Portsea, in a letter dated 9th May, 1917 : — 
 
 " I hope very much that your Committee on the Church and 
 Industry will consider the failure to enable the sons of the 
 working class to enter the ministry as one of the causes of 
 the alienation between the Church and Labour. 
 
 " As one who has worked for many years in a great labouring 
 parish, I am increasingly convinced that this is one of the 
 fundamental causes of our failure in this matter. I am not 
 sure if I should not place it first. Hardly any of the clergy 
 are drawn from the working class, and of the small minority 
 who come from it some were taken for their training at the 
 age of seventeen and have very largely lost touch with their 
 class. 
 
 " We have really a class ministry, and from this there follow 
 three results : 
 
 "1. First, we clergy, with our public schools and universities 
 behind us, look at political and social questions from a different 
 angle from that of the vast mass of the working class. Instinct- 
 ively, and often quite unconsciously, our past training and 
 education make us critical of, or indifferent to, the social 
 problems. We cannot feel about them so deeply as the 
 working class. The matters of issue in trades disputes are 
 often unintelligible to us, while to the working class they are 
 of vital importance. ;| Words like ' hunger ' and ' unemploy- 
 ment ' connote to us something very different from what they 
 do to the men who have actually experienced want. And I 
 believe that the reason why the Church has so often been 
 indifferent to social reform — and, more than that, has so 
 often been found on the wrong side — is that we clergy, through 
 our previous training, lack the imagination to see all that it 
 means for those who are suffering under social injustice. Men 
 who have been brought up in the hard school of manual labour 
 and poverty would instinctively sympathise with their class 
 in this matter, as we, as a whole instinctively sympathise in 
 our hearts with the employers. 
 
 "2. Secondly, it is difficult for the majority of the clergy 
 to get to know the men of the working classes really as a friend. 
 I believe a great deal can be done by evening visiting, and per- 
 sonally I would advocate the abandonment of a great deal of 
 other work if by so doing time could be found for the clergy 
 
 * See p. 132. 
 
 138 
 
APPENDIX 189 
 
 to visit the men in their homes regularly in the evening. This, 
 I believe, would break do\vn a great deal of misunderstanding. 
 Where it has been tried I know that it does. But the social 
 barriers are very real. The men on my staff of clergy who 
 have come to know the working class best feel most strongly 
 the difficulty which this barrier causes. It is the unimaginative 
 man who treats the social prejudice as non-existent. It is 
 very real, and takes years to get over. 
 
 *' 3. Thirdly, the working classes themselves feel that it is 
 unjust that if their sons have a call to ordination they should be 
 debarred simply on the grounds of financial disabilities. I 
 remember hearing a working lad of eighteen, at a debate on 
 the failure of the Church, say : * If we want to be ordained 
 we are not allowed to remain in England, but have to be 
 sent out to the missionary field.' And that, of course, is 
 very largely true. I find it far easier to arrange for working 
 class candidates to have a training in the mission colleges 
 for mission work, than to be ordained for work in England. 
 This causes real resentment, and encourages the idea that 
 the Church of England has a class ministry. 
 
 '* May I refer quite briefly to three objections which I know 
 will be raised ? 
 
 "1. That the working men themselves dislike having as 
 a clergyman a member of their own class. I think that at 
 present this is perfectly true, for the working-class members 
 of the Church are very conservative ; but then they are not 
 representative of their whole class, which increasingly manages 
 its own affairs, its Trades Unions, Friendly Societies, etc. 
 It is true that a number of so-called working-class ordinands 
 have not been very successful, but usually they have been 
 drawn from the lower middle class, and have been self-conscious 
 of their dignity and of themselves. 
 
 " 2. Secondly, it may be said that this will lower the intel- 
 lectual standard. It will, of course, mean a change in some 
 of the subjects taken at the examination for ordination, but 
 I feel certain that there need not be any reduction of the 
 intellectual standard. For instance, large numbers of the 
 lads who pass through our Dockyard schools here are intel- 
 lectually stronger than the deacon who has got his degree in 
 the pass schools at one of the universities, 
 
 " 3. Thirdly, it will be said : * Where will you place these 
 men ? * That, at first, will be a difficulty, but it is a difficulty 
 which ought to remedy itself within a few years, for these 
 men will increasingly get into touch with those we have failed 
 to reach, and bring into the Church many who so far have been 
 indifferent to its message. 
 
 " I am not in the least advocating that the working class 
 should have a set of clergy specially appointed to minister to 
 
140 CHRISTIANITY AND INDUSTRIAL PROBLEMS 
 
 them and them alone ; still less am I thinking of clergy who 
 should be labour leaders rather than spiritual guides : but I 
 am urging most strongly the importance of removing the 
 difficulties which stand in the way of a working-class ministry, 
 for I believe that this would mean the removal of much of the 
 suspicion with which the industrial classes regard the Church, 
 and would result in the infusion of a new and strengthening 
 element into the ministry of the Church." 
 
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