Practicable Socialism, New SeriesBarnett, S. A. (Samuel Augustus)
Religion
Practicable Socialism, New Series
Barnett, S. A. (Samuel Augustus)
Great Britain -- Social conditions -- 19th century; Social problems; Working class
The working people have now come into power, and they have many wrongs
to put right. The anxious question is, Will they use their power more
wisely and more generously than the capitalist class? There is not much
sign of a wide and generous outlook in a policy which assumes that war
is the necessary attitude of employed and employers. There is not much
evidence of an inspiring vision of society when there is so little
recognition of the interdependence of all sorts and conditions of men.
There is not much grasp of principle among those who begin a strike,
which must involve untold suffering, as if it were a holiday. The
working people may have wrongs to bear, they may have splendid qualities
of faithfulness to comrades and endurance under hardships, but they can
hardly be said to have that knowledge of humanity which makes them
humble before the best, with a capacity for judgment and a standard by
which to apply it.
The race in all nations seems to be one between Education and Ruin. The
Universities who are especially responsible for national education have
too late begun to share their resources with working people, and the
success of their long-delayed start has only served to encourage the
formation of the rival Central Labour College. This College is thus
described by Mr. Rowland Kenney: “It makes no pretence of giving a
‘broad’ education.... Its teaching is frankly partisan. History is dealt
with as a record of the struggles which have taken place in social
groups, because of the conflicting interests of the various classes that
have from time to time divided society.... Its key to the interpretation
of Sociology is class interest; dividing the social groups into the
owners and non-owners of property, it points out the common interest of
all those who work for wages.... It absolutely cuts out any idea of
conciliation as a final solution of labour problems.” The College, in
the name of education, appears to be using its forces to block the way
to peace and goodwill which it is largely the object of education to
keep open. It preaches a class war, treats every member of the middle
class as “suspect,” and bitterly opposes the Workers’ Education
Association because its Council includes University men. This College is
said to supply the brains behind the labour revolt.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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