The Trade - Union Congress opened on Monday at Huddersfield,
Mr. William Pickles delivering the Pre- sidential address on the following day. Ten years ago, said Mr. Pickles, the problem was how best to determine toe rights and duties of the working classes in the existing social order. The problem and the mental attitude of the leaders of the movement had now so far changed that they proposed to sweep away the existing social order altogether and substitute collectivism for capitalism as its basis. This had brought them into collision with the teaching of Darwin and Herbert Spencer, but Mr. Pickles sought to show by lengthy philosophical argument that the anomaly was only apparent, at least so far as the survival of the fittest was con- cerned. Under different social stages different types would survive. The community were driven to adopt collectivism in self-defence as the simplest remedy against the greed of the capitalist. "The capitalist had socialised production [through the application of the joint-stock principle], and the people would socialise ownership and distribution." In the Millennium as sketched by Mr. Pickles the struggle for existence would be suspended, natural selection would once more operate, though on a higher plane, and man's only chance of obtaining high social position would be by the possession of actual sterling merit, by cultivating morality, intelligence, art, literature, and science. In the course of the subsequent discussion a motion condemning the wax was carried by a small majority.
Previous page
