The Detroit times., 1911-08-18
BRITAIN FACES
SOCIAL UPHEAVAL
Conditions Same as Preceded French
Revolution, Says Rev. w. B. For
bush, Home From Abroad.

The most exasperating thing about
an Englishman," said the Rev. Will
lam Byron Forbush. pastor Of the
North Woodward Congregational
church, who has just returned from
a seyen-weeks' tour of Britain, Ger
many and France. lis that he is abso-
lutely without curiosity about Amer
lea. While we Americans are keen to
learn what We can of Britain, mention
America to Johnny Bull and he just
yawns.
But Britain, l think" continued
Mr.. Forbush, lis waking up to the
fact that there Is something wrong
with her social and economic system,
and Germany Is the chief factor in the
awakening. The present strike of the
transportation men OF Great Britain
and the bill withdrawing from the
house Of lords the absolute right OF
veto, are merely rumblings OF q So
cial upheaval that Is sure to come.
Attempts are now being made in
Great Britain to reform the conditions
which are causing the lower classes
to be miserably poor and unhappy, but
the reformers are trying to apply the
remedy at the wrong end. Pension
schemes for old men are being advo-
Gated. What the English workingmen
need is not pensions when they are
old, but equality of opportunity when
they are young.
There are three great defects in
the English economic and social life.
First, the peerage has practical
monopoly Of land, and the products OF
their capital and the cheap labor OF
the ,workingmen are spent In luxurious
living, in manors, IN the chase, and In
splendid balls, rather than turned into
capital for the production Of further
wealth. Britain has laws which make
IL cheaper to leave land undeveloped
for the purpose Of deer parks and
amusement grounds for the lords than
to develop that land and grow crops
on II. In the meantime one out OF
every 40, according to good authority,
IL pauper.
The second cause, is the class
caste. Once a butler. always but
Ter, or, a buffers son, butler. That
Is practically the state OF affairs.
But the greatest reason for the con-
dialon OF the lower classes, perhaps. Is
the lack of educational opportunities.
Here is where Germany excels her
rival wonderfully. In Germany there
are some 16 different kinds Of schools,
where every man can get an educa-
tion. II he has to work during the
day, there are night schools. or schools
where he can go one year and work
the next. But In Britain, public edu-
cation rarely goes beyond what We
know as the seventh OF eighth grade.
II Is but seldom that a common boy
can get as high as the university and
in order to do so he must be excep-
tionally brilliant.
There is woful lack of manual
training and trade schools. The young
Engifshman is prepared TO do the or
binary work Of his class. II his father
is a blacksmith, he will receive some
instruction in reading and writing and
arithmetic, and be put to shoeing
horses. Thus II is very difficult for
the workingman's family to rise In
the world.
cot course Britain In waking mp, but
Germany IL doing the arousing. Brit
ain IL beginning TO feel the keen com
petition OF the German manufacturer,
who has the advantage Of the services
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