THE FUTURE OF LABOR.

AT a time when the outlook of labor seems so black all over the civilised world, it is consoling to read the views put forth by M. Emile Zola in a recent address on "Life and Labor " delivered to the Paris Students' Association. M. Zola is above all things, a realist in fiction ; and we would not expect him to take an optimist view of his subject. Therefore the conviction expressed in the following striking passage in his lecture is all the more valuable:—" The coming century, the whole unlimited future, will belong to labor—of that you may rest assured. Cannot you already see outlined in the rise and growth of Socialism the one great law of to-morrow, the law of labor for all—liberating and pacifying toil?" These words of the dispassionate and far-seeing Frenchman should carry comfort to the mind of the much-misunderstood, the much abused Socialist. They, are the apologia—the complete justification—for his life-work.They should also infuse fresh hope into the hearts of the weak-kneed amongst the toilers—those who, had almost given up the cause in despair, and were ready to believe with the poet that
"The laborer's lot,
While all around him changes, changes not."

After all, M. Zola's views, though they are those of a materialist, accord with the Scriptural idea of man's condemnation to labor—"to eat his bread in the sweat of his face"—as the penalty for original transgression, by such opposite roads may minds wide apart as the poles travel to the same conclusion. It is through the shirking of this primary law of nature or religion—call it what we will—that communities as well as individuals suffer so grievously. At the present moment Australia is suffering from the effect of underrating honest work and exalting the adventurer and the speculator. And to her might have been specially addressed M. Zola's words to his countrymen: "The only strong nation is the nation that labors ; labor alone imparts courage and faith. . . All that is necessary is will and method." M. Zola admits that the will is somewhat weak. He does not deny the existence of "the lassitude and revolt prevalent at this end of a century of such feverish colossal labor, whose ambition has been to know and to say everything": the natural impatience and disappointment of many at finding that the old world was not built up afresh on a better basis, and that tho long-expected reign of justice and happiness had not commenced. But he claims that this is only the natural reaction which accompanies all action : the fatigue that invariably attends long journeys. "The wayfarer sits down at the roadside, and at sight of the interminable; plain— another century as it were—still spread out before him, despairs of ever reaching the goal." Indeed, he begins to question the wisdom of marching on towards a goal that ever recedes, of knowing anything if one cannot know all, and asks if it would not be better to remain in the childlike and blissful condition of ignorance! But the "hardened positivist," as M. Zola terms himself, still sees hope amidst "the despairing cry for happiness" which ascends from humanity on all sides at the present day. This, he contends, is only a halt on the forward march. Science never promised happiness : she only promised truth—"and the entire question is whether we shall be able to fashion happiness out of truth." Science keeps marching on, and the libraries, the laboratories, the consulting rooms, and the schools are not deserted." The social soil has not changed, but is still the same soil from which our century sprouted and grew." And hence M. Zola is led to the belief "that the coming century will be the affirmation of our own; tho prolongation of the democratic and scientific impulse which has carried us along so far, and which yet continues."

But excellent as is M. Zola's advice to nations and individuals respecting the value of work, and consoling as his forecast of the future must be to all who have labored in the democratic cause, there is still one portion of his address to which considerable exception is sure to be taken. Having declared that "faith does not resuscitate—once a religion is dead it turns into a mythology"—he proceeded to offer to his hearers a substitute for faith, or rather a new faith : the faith in work. Mr. Charles Pearson, in a recent book which has made much noise in England, predicted that the religion of the future would be that of the State. M. Zola would elevate Labor into a religion. His doctrine can be best expressed in his own words, the concluding ones of the address: "And so I am convinced that the only faith which can save us is a belief in the efficacy of the accomplished effort. Assuredly it is beautiful to dream of eternity. But for an honest man it is sufficient that he should have passed through life and done his work." This materialist view of the subject is in remarkable contrast to that taken, by Pope Leo XIII., in his famous Labor Encyclical, wherein it was claimed that the only salvation for labor was obedience to the law of God as voiced by the Church. And the Rev. R. J. Daddow, in an address reported in yesterday's MINER, touched the same keynote when he asserted that " a godless socialism will never work out the toiler's salvation." Yet it is a godless socialism of this kind— or, rather, a socialism with Labor as God—that M. Zola would offer as a substitute for the old faiths which are still a living and saving influence in so many lives. Such a god would be as vain an idol as the goddess of Humanity, enthroned during the French Revolution, at the close of last century, when deeds were done at the recital of which humanity still shudders. The true friends of labor will not seek to make it a religion, though they may render it an important part of religion in the sense intended in the old monkish maxim, Laborare est orare —" to labor is to pray."

 Barrier Miner 30 August 1893,