food or clothing. It has allowed a business man to be hard in his business, if he is easy in response to charitable appeals. But times have changed, and we no longer hope for a society in which rich people are kind to poor people; we rather think of a society where employers and employed share justly the profits of work; where there is no dependent class, and all find pleasure in the gifts of character which follow the full growth of manhood in rich and poor. If the Church recognized some such conception of society it would aim to humanize business relations and teach investors to ask, as Bishop Stubbs (whose “Social Creed,” lately published in the “Times,” well repays study) suggests, “Not only whether a business is _safe_ to pay, but whether the business _deserves_ to pay”. Coal-owners, under the Church’s influence, might substitute for such villages as Tonypandy, villages such as Earswick, and then every increase of wages would mean that widening of human interests which helps to satisfy the individual and to increase the stability of the nation. ------------------------------------ The strike is doing vast mischief, as it dislocates trade, spreads poverty, and embitters class relationships. But all its mischief may be outweighed if it forces people to think. Our prosperity, the triumphs of machinery, the daily provision of opinions by an ubiquitous Press, have encouraged a self-satisfied and easy-going spirit. We do not take pains to make up our minds; we do not try to think our rivals’ thoughts; employers do not put themselves in the men’s place, and the men do not put themselves in the employers’ place; none of us put ourselves in the Germans’ place when they are angry at our policy. The greatest danger of the time is the forgetfulness of danger, the light-heartedness of the people, and the want of seriousness which prefers enjoyment to study, and the carelessness which, for example, goes on refusing to consider the Insurance Act, saying, “It will never come into force”. People will not think. The Tariff Reform agitation has done untold good in making, at any rate, a few people think out the meaning of Free Trade. The strike will do good if it makes people--masters and men--think out the interdependence of trade--whence it is that profits come--what is the relation between home and foreign trade--what is the duty which a trade bears to the State--what is the justification for a strike or a lock-out which cripples the State--and what are the calls for State interference. Professor William James declares that the secret and glory of our English-speaking race “consists in nothing but two common habits carried into public life--habits more precious, perhaps, than any that the human race has gained.... One of them is the habit of trained and disciplined good temper towards the opposite party when it fairly wins its innings. The other is that of fierce and merciless resentment towards every man