CRISIS IN LONDON

STRAY NOTES.

THE PARALYSIS OF LONDON TRADE.

ABOUT 12 months ago the BARRIER MINER, in commenting upon a threat by English shipowners " to lay up all vessels in the event of sailormen attempting to enforce demands" stated that should such a calamity occur, it would be the first move towards revolution. Recent cablegrams have stated that the threat by the shipowners is now being carried out, and, if so, the opinion of the BARRIER MINER 12 months ago still holds good. The world is told that the trade of London is completely paralysed ; that the Thames is congested with idle vessels; that the streets are swarming with unemployed ; and that the clamor for bread and work has grown into a determined roar that will not be silenced.

But it was ever so, lisps the bloated colonist who left England 25 years ago, and who has every reason to thank his lucky stars that he didn't make the date of his leaving any later. "It was ever so and will continue so to the crack of doom."

Hardly ! When you, sir, left the old country the population of London was about three millions, and now it is over five. Since you were there poverty has bred another generation, and this generation is just about laying the foundation of a third. The pauper population has grown to 1 in 9, the largest percentage in the world, and if things go on as they have been going on, the beggars of London will, in another half-century, be fully two to one in excess of the unemployed. The population of that great city continues to spread out like oil on the surface of a sheet of glass. The territory will not stretch an inch, and unless things alter, the time must come when the pauper population will be hustled right on the edge, and then if not now the end must come.

The smashing up of landed estates will postpone the inevitable, and though this means will undoubtedly be sought, it will, some think, be preceded by the smashing up of a good deal else. The present crisis in London is one of the most fearsome things in history. Only thinking men appear to realise the keenness of the sword which is now hanging by a thread over the heads of English society.

A labor Volcano is about to belch forth destruction; and what the end of it will be is fearful to contemplate. Invited here by Australian labor, John Burns has replied, "No; I must see the end of this great struggle." Burns is head of the labor ranks of England, and leader of the Socialist movement among his class.

Which reminds us that a certain high priest stated on Sunday that Socialism was a theorist's dream. Well, then, Christ was the first to preach the dream, though it cannot be said that the church is inconsistent to deny it, seeing that it repudiates the teachings of the Saviour in every single form observed in worship. The mitred bishop, lawn-sleeved parson, and pulpit-throned priest are not followers of Christ, deny the fact who list. The rag-clad Man of Nazareth said, "Beware of men who preach in fine synagogues, and wear purple and linen."

Although Jesus was the prince of Socialism, the Church alleged to be established in his name is its deadliest enemy. It preaches the equality of man from the pulpit, but dines with the rich, mixes with the rich fraternises with the rich, and worships the rich. The princes of the Church of England are spiritual peers of the house of Lords, and revel in yearly in comes of thousands. The prince of the Church of Rome wear lace and silk, magnificent rings and diamond buckled slippers, and roll to lay foundation stones in thoroughbred horse-drawn carriages. None of them follow the teaching of Christ, but rather find the violation of his teachings their means of livelihood. Christ preached humility, the Church preaches pomp. The true church of Jesus will come, true, but it will come only when the equality of the race is established.

All these thoughts, you see, follow on a heading - "The Paralysis of London Trade."

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 BARRIER MINER 25/2/1891, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-page3362807