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STUDY X

PROPOSED REMEDIES--SOCIAL AND FINANCIAL

Prohibition and Female Suffrage--Free Silver and Protective Tariff-- "Communism"--"They Had All Things in Common"--"Anarchism"--"Socialism" or "Collectivism"--Babbitt on Social Upbuilding--Herbert Spencer on Socialism--Examples of Two Socialist Communities--"Nationalism" --General Mechanical Education as a Remedy--The "Single Tax" Remedy--Henry George's Answer to Pope Leo XIII on Labor--Dr. Lyman Abbott on the Situation--An M. E. Bishop's Suggestions--Other Hopes and Fears--The Only Hope--"That Blessed Hope"--The Attitude Proper for God's People Who See These Things--In the World but Not of It.

"Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there?" "We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed: forsake her, and let us go every one unto his own country: for her judgment reacheth unto heaven." Jer 8:22 ; Jer 51:7-9

VARIOUS are the remedies advocated as "cure-alls" for the relief of the groaning creation in its present, admittedly serious, condition; and all who sympathize with the suffering body-politic must sympathize also with the endeavors of its various doctors, who, having diagnosed the case, are severally anxious that the patient should try their prescriptions. The attempts to find a cure and to apply it are surely commendable, and have the appreciation of all kind-hearted people. Nevertheless, sober judgment, enlightened by God's Word, tells us that none of the proposed remedies will cure the malady. The presence and services of the Great Physician with his remedies--medicines, splints,

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bandages, straitjackets and lancets will be requisite; and nothing short of their efficient and persistent use will effect a cure of the malady of human depravity and selfishness. But let us briefly examine the prescriptions of other doctors, that we may note how some of them approximate the wisdom of God and yet how far they all fall short of it--not for the sake of controversy, but in order that all may the more clearly see the one and only direction from which help need be expected.

Prohibition and Female Suffrage as Remedies

These two remedies are usually compounded, it being conceded that prohibition can never command a majority support unless women have a free ballot--and doubtful even then. The advocates of this remedy show statistics to prove that much of the trouble and poverty of Christendom are traceable to the liquor traffic, and they aver that if it were abolished, peace and plenty would be the rule and not the exception.

We heartily sympathize with much that is claimed along this line: drunkenness is certainly one of the most noxious fruits of civilization; it is rapidly spreading, too, to the semi-civilized and barbarous. We would rejoice to see it abolished now and forever. We are willing to grant, too, that its abolition would relieve much of the poverty of today, and that by it hundreds of millions of wealth are annually far worse than wasted. But this is not the remedy to cure the evils arising from present, selfish social conditions, and to meet and parry the grinding pressure of the "Law of Supply and Demand," which would progress as relentlessly as ever, squeezing the lifeblood from the masses.

Who, indeed, squander the millions of money spent annually on liquors?--the very poor? No, indeed; the rich! The rich specially, and secondly the middle class. If the liquor

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traffic were abolished tomorrow, so far from relieving the financial pressure, upon the very poor, it would have the reverse effect. Thousands of farmers who now grow the millions of bushels of barley and rye and grapes and hops used in the manufacture of liquor would be obliged to cultivate other crops, and thus in turn further depress farm produce prices in general. The vast army of tens of thousands of distillers, coopers, bottlers, glassworkers, teamsters, saloon-keepers and bartenders, now employed in and by this traffic, would be forced to find other employment and would further depress the labor market, and hence the scale of daily wages. The millions on millions of capital now invested in this traffic would enter other lines and force business competition.

All this should not deter us from desiring the removal of the curse, if it were possible to get a majority to consent to it. But a majority will never be found (save in exceptional localities). The majority is composed of slaves to this appetite and those interested in it financially, either directly or indirectly. Prohibition will not be established until the Kingdom of God is established. We merely point out here that the removal of this curse, even if practicable, would not cure the present social-financial malady.

The Free Silver and Protective Tariff Remedies

We freely concede that the demonetization of silver by Christendom was a masterstroke of selfish policy on the part of money-lenders to decrease the volume of standard money and thus to increase the value of their loans; to permit the maintenance of high rates of interest on such debts because of the curtailment of the legal money, while all other business investments, as well as labor, are suffering constant depreciation as the results of increasing supply and competition. Many bankers and money-lenders are

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"honest" men according to the legal standard of honesty; but, alas! the standard of some is too low. It says, Let us bankers and money-lenders look out for our interests, and let the farmers, less shrewd, look out for themselves. Let us delude the poorer and less shrewd by calling gold "honest money" and silver "dishonest money." Many of the poor desire to be honest, and can thus be brow-beaten and cajoled into supporting our plans, which, however, will go hard with the "reapers." Under the influence of our talk about "honest money," and our prestige as honorable men, our standing as financiers and wealthy men, they will conclude that any views contrary to ours must be wrong; they will forget that silver money has been the standard of the world from earliest history, and that gold, like precious stones, was formerly merchandise, until added to silver to meet the increasing demand for money sufficient to do the world's business. As it is the rate of interest is falling in our money centers; how much lower the rate of interest would be if all silver had a coin value and money were thus more plentiful! Our next move must be to retire all paper money and thus bolster up the rate of interest.

Under the law of supply and demand every borrower is interested in having plenty of money--silver, gold and paper; under the same law every banker and money-lender is interested in abolishing paper money and in discrediting silver; for the less money there is of a debt-canceling value, the more that little is demanded. Hence, while labor and commercial values are dropping, money is in demand and interest nearly holds its own.

As already shown, the indications of prophecy seem to be that silver will not be restored to equal privileges with gold as standard money in the civilized world. But it is manifest that, even if it were fully restored, its relief would be but

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temporary: it would remove the peculiar incentive now being given to manufacturers in Japan, India, China and Mexico; it would relieve the farming element of Christendom, and thus remove part of the present pressure under which every one labors "to make both ends meet"; and thus it might put off the crash for a while longer. But apparently God does not wish to thus postpone the "evil day"; and hence human selfishness, blind to all reason, will rule and ruin the more quickly; as it is written, "the wisdom of their wise men shall perish"; and "neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the Lord's wrath." Zep 1:18 ; Eze 7:19 ; Isa 14:4-7 , margin; Isa 29:14

Protection, wisely gauged so as to avoid creating monopolies and to develop all the natural resources of a land, is undoubtedly of some advantage in preventing the rapid leveling of labor the world over. However, at the very most it is but an inclined plane down which wages will go to the lower level, instead of with a ruder jolt over the precipice. Soon or later, under the competitive system now controlling, goods as well as wages will be forced to nearly a common level the world over.

Neither "Free Silver" nor Protective Tariff, therefore, can claim to be remedies for present and impending evils, but merely palliatives.

Communism as a Remedy

Communism proposes a social system in which there will be community of goods; in which all property shall be owned in common and operated in the general interest, and all profits from all labor be devoted to the general welfare-- "to each according to his needs." The tendency of Communism was illustrated in the French Commune. Its definition by Rev. Joseph Cook, is--" Communism means the abolition

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of inheritance, the abolition of the family, the abolition of nationalities, the abolition of religion, the abolition of property."

Some features of Communism we could commend (see Socialism), but as a whole it is quite impracticable. Such an arrangement would probably do very well for heaven, where all are perfect, pure and good, and where love reigns; but a moment's reflection should prove to any man of judgment and experience that in the present condition of men's hearts such a scheme is thoroughly impracticable. The tendency would be to make drones of all. We would soon have a competition as to who could do the least and the worst work; and society would soon lapse into barbarism and immorality, tending to the rapid extinction of the race.

But some fancy that Communism is taught in the Bible and that consequently it must be the true remedy--God's remedy. With many this is the strongest argument in its favor. The supposition that it was instituted by our Lord and the Apostles, and that it should have continued to be the rule and practice of Christians since, is very common. We therefore present below an article on this phase of the subject from our own magazine:

"They Had All Things in Common"

"And all that believed were together, and had all things common; and sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need. And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God, and having favor with all the people." Act 2:44-47

Such was the spontaneous sentiment of the early Church: selfishness gave place to love and general interest. Blessed experience! And without doubt a similar sentiment, more or less clearly defined, comes to the hearts of all who are truly converted. When first we got a realizing sense of

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God's love and salvation, when we gave ourselves completely to the Lord and realized his gifts to us, which pertain not only to the life that now is, but also to that which is to come--we felt an exuberance of joy, which found in every fellow-pilgrim toward the heavenly Canaan a brother or a sister in whom we trusted as related to the Lord and having his spirit; and we were disposed to deal with them all as we would with the Lord, and to share with them our all, as we would share all with our Redeemer. And in many instances it was by a rude shock that we were awakened to the fact that neither we nor others are perfect in the flesh; and that no matter how much of the Master's spirit his people now possess, they "have this treasure in earthen vessels" of human frailty and defection.

Then we learned, not only that the weaknesses of the flesh of other men had to be taken into account, but that our own weaknesses of the flesh needed constant guarding. We found that whilst all had shared Adam's fall, all had not fallen alike, or in exactly the same particulars. All have fallen from God's likeness and spirit of love, to Satan's likeness and spirit of selfishness; and as love has diversities of operations, so has selfishness. Consequently, selfishness working in one has wrought a desire for ease, sloth, indolence; in another it produced energy, labor for the pleasures of this life, self-gratification, etc.

Among those actively selfish some take self-gratification in amassing a fortune, and having it said, He is wealthy; others gratify their selfishness by seeking honor of men; others in dress, others in travel, others in debauchery and the lowest and meanest forms of selfishness.

Each one begotten to the new life in Christ, with its new spirit of love, finds a conflict begun, fightings within and without; for the new spirit wars with whatever form of selfishness or depravity formerly had control of us. The "new mind of Christ," whose principles are justice and love, asserts itself; and reminds the will that it has assented to and convenanted to this change. The desires of the flesh (the selfish desires, whatever their bent), aided by the outside influence of friends, argue and discuss the question, urging

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that no radical measures must be taken--that such a course would be foolish, insane, impossible. The flesh insists that the old course cannot be changed, but will agree to slight modifications, and to do nothing so extreme as before.

The vast majority of God's people seem to agree to this partnership, which is really still the reign of selfishness. But others insist that the spirit or mind of Christ shall have the control. The battle which ensues is a hard one Gal 5:16-17 ); but the new will should conquer, and self with its own selfishness, or depraved desires, be reckoned dead. Col 2:20 ; Col 3:3 ; Rom 6:2-8

But does this end the battle forever? No--

"Ne'er think the victory won,

Nor once at ease sit down;

Thine arduous task will not be done

Till thou hast gained thy crown."

Ah, yes, we must renew the battle daily, and help divine implore and receive, that we may finish our course with joy. We must not only conquer self, but, as the Apostle did, we must keep our bodies under. 1Co 9:27 ) And this, our experience, that we must be constantly on the alert against the spirit of selfishness, and to support and promote in ourselves the spirit of love, is the experience of all who likewise have "put on Christ" and taken his will to be theirs. Hence the propriety of the Apostle's remark, "Henceforth know we no man [in Christ] after the flesh." We know those in Christ according to their new spirit, and not according to their fallen flesh. And if we see them fail sometimes, or always to some degree, and yet see evidences that the new mind is wrestling for the mastery, we are properly disposed to sympathize with them rather than to berate them for little failures; "remembering ourselves, lest we also be tempted [of our old selfish nature in violation of some of the requirements of the perfect law of love]."

Under "the present distress," therefore, while each has all that he can do to keep his own body under and the spirit of love in control, sound judgment, as well as experience and the Bible, tells us that we would best not complicate matters by attempting communistic schemes; but each make as straight paths as possible for his own feet, that that which is

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lame in our fallen flesh be not turned entirely out of the way, but that it be healed.

(1) Sound judgment says that if the saints with divine help have a constant battle to keep selfishness subject to love, a promiscuous colony or community would certainly not succeed in ruling itself by a law utterly foreign to the spirit of the majority of its members. And it would be impossible to establish a communism of saints only, because we cannot read the hearts--only "the Lord knoweth them that are his." And if such a colony of saints could be gotten together, and if it should prosper with all things in common, all sorts of evil persons would seek to get their possessions or to share them; and if successfully excluded they would say all manner of evil against them; and so, if it held together at all, the enterprise would not be a real success.

Some saints, as well as many of the world, are so fallen into selfish indolence that nothing but necessity will help them to be, "not slothful in business, but fervent in spirit, serving the Lord." And many others are so selfishly ambitious that they need the buffetings of failure and adversity to mellow them and enable them to sympathize with others, or even to bring them to deal justly with others. For both these classes "community" would merely serve to hinder the learning of the proper and needed lessons.

Such communities, if left to the rule of the majority, would sink to the level of the majority; for the progressive, active minority, finding that nothing could be gained by energy and thrift over carelessness and sloth, would also grow careless and indolent. If governed by organizers of strong will, as Life Trustees and Managers, on a paternal principle, the result would be more favorable financially; but the masses, deprived of personal responsibility, would degenerate into mere tools and slaves of the Trustees.

To sound judgment it therefore appears that the method of individualism, with its liberty and responsibility, is the best one for the development of intelligent beings; even though it may work hardships many times to all, and sometimes to many.

Sound judgment can see that if the Millennial Kingdom were established on the earth, with the divine rulers then

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promised, backed by unerring wisdom and full power to use it, laying "judgment to the line and righteousness to the plummet," and ruling not by consent of majorities, but by righteous judgment, as "with a rod of iron"--then communism could succeed; probably it would be the very best condition, and if so it will be the method chosen by the King of kings. But for that we wait; and not having the power or the wisdom to use such theocratic power, the spirit of a sound mind simply bides the Lord's time, praying meanwhile, "Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is done in heaven." And after Christ's Kingdom shall have brought all the willing back to God and righteousness, and shall have destroyed all the unwilling, then, with Love the rule of earth as it is of heaven, we may suppose that men will share earth's mercies in common, as do the angels the bounties of heaven.

(2) Experience proves the failure of communistic methods in the present time. There have been several such communities; and the result has always been failure. The Oneida community of New York is one whose failure has long been recognized. Another, the Harmony Society of Pennsylvania, soon disappointed the hopes of its founders, for so much discord prevailed that it divided. The branch known as Economites located near Pittsburgh, Pa. It flourished for a while, after a fashion, but is now quite withered; and possession of its property is now being disputed in the Society and in the courts of law.

Other communistic societies are starting now, which will be far less successful than these because the times are different; independence is greater, respect and reverence are less, majorities will rule, and without superhuman leaders are sure to fail. Wise worldly leaders are looking out for themselves, while wise Christians are busy in other channels-- obeying the Lord's command, "Go thou and preach the Gospel."

(3) The Bible does not teach Communism, but does teach loving, considerate Individualism, except in the sense of family communism--each family acting as a unit, of which the father is the head and the wife one with him, his fellow-heir of the grace of life, his partner in every joy and benefit as well as in every adversity and sorrow.

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True, God permitted a communistic arrangement in the primitive Church, referred to at the beginning of this article; but this may have been for the purpose of illustrating to us the unwisdom of the method; and lest some, thinking of the scheme now, should conclude that the apostles did not command and organize communities, because they lacked the wisdom to devise and carry out such methods; for not a word can be quoted from our Lord or the apostles advocating the communistic principles; but much can be quoted to the contrary.

True, the Apostle Peter (and probably other apostles) knew of, and cooperated in, that first communistic arrangement, even if he did not teach the system. It has been inferred, too, that the death of Ananias and Sapphira was an indication that the giving of all the goods of the believers was compulsory; but not so: their sin was that of lying , as Peter declared in reviewing the case. While they had the land there was no harm in keeping it if they got it honestly; and even after they had sold it no harm was done: the wrong was in misrepresenting that the sum of money turned in was their all , when it was not their all. They were attempting to cheat the others by getting a share of their alls without giving their own all.

As a matter of fact, the Christian Community at Jerusalem was a failure. "There arose a murmuring"--"Because their widows were neglected in the daily ministrations." Although under the Apostolic inspection the Church was pure, free from "tares," and all had the treasure of the new spirit or "mind of Christ," yet evidently that treasure was only in warped and twisted earthen vessels which could not get along well together.

The apostles soon found that the management of the community would greatly interfere with their real work-- the preaching of the gospel. So they abandoned those things to others. The Apostle Paul and others traveled from city to city preaching Christ and him crucified; but, so far as the record shows, they never mentioned communism and never organized a community; and yet St. Paul declares, "I have not shunned to declare unto you the whole counsel of God." This proves that Communism is no part of the gospel, nor of the counsel of God for this age.

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On the contrary, the Apostle Paul exhorted and instructed the Church to do things which it would be wholly impossible to do as members of a communistic society--to each "provide for his own"; to "lay by on the first day of the week" money for the Lord's service, according as the Lord had prospered them; that servants should obey their masters, rendering the service with a double good will if the master were also a brother in Christ; and how masters should treat their servants, as those who must themselves give an account to the great Master, Christ. 1Ti 5:8 ; 1Ti 6:1 ; 1Co 16:2 ; Eph 6:5-9

Our Lord Jesus not only did not establish a Community while he lived, but he never taught that such should be established. On the contrary, in his parables he taught that all have not the same number of pounds or talents given them, but each is a steward and should individually (not collectively, as a commune) manage his own affairs, and render his own account. Mat 25:14-28 ; Luk 19:12-24 . See also Jam 4:13 , Jam 4:15 .) When dying, our Lord commended his mother to the care of his disciple John, and the record of John Joh 19:27 ) is, "And from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home." John, therefore, had a home, so had Martha, Mary and Lazarus. Had our Lord formed a Community he would doubtless have commended his mother to it instead of to John.

Moreover, the forming of a Commune of believers is opposed to the purpose and methods of the Gospel age. The object of this age is to witness Christ to the world, and thus to "take out a people for his name"; and to this end each believer is exhorted to be a burning and a shining light before men--the world in general--and not before and to each other merely. Hence, after permitting the first Christian Community to be established, to show that the failure to establish Communities generally was not an oversight, the Lord broke it up, and scattered the believers everywhere, to preach the gospel to every creature. We read--"And at that time there was a great persecution against the Church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the

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apostles," and they went everywhere preaching the gospel. Act 8:1 , Act 8:4 ; Act 11:19

It is still the work of God's people to shine as lights in the midst of the world, and not to shut themselves up in convents and cloisters or as communities. The promises of Paradise will not be realized by joining such communities. The desire to join such "confederacies" is but a part of the general spirit of our day, against which we are forewarned. Isa 8:12 ) "Trust in the Lord, and wait patiently for him." "Watch ye, therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things, and to stand before the Son of Man." Luk 21:36

Anarchy as a Remedy

Anarchists want liberty to the extent of lawlessness. They have apparently reached the conclusion that every method of human cooperation has proved a failure, and they propose to destroy all cooperative human restraints. Anarchy is therefore the exact opposite of Communism, although some confound them. While Communism would destroy all Individualism and compel the whole world to share alike, Anarchy would destroy all laws and social restraints so that each individual might do as he please. Anarchism is merely destructive: so far as we can ascertain, it has no constructive features. It probably considers that it has a sufficient task on hand to destroy the world, and will better let the future battle for itself in the matter of reconstruction.

The following extracts from a sixteen page booklet published by the London Anarchists and distributed at their great May-day parade, gives some idea of their wild and desperate notions:

"The belief that there must be authority somewhere, and submission to authority, are at the root of all our misery. As a remedy we advise a struggle for life or death against all authority--physical authority, as embodied in the State, or doctrinary authority, the result of centuries of ignorance

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and superstition, such as religion, patriotism, obedience to laws, belief in the usefulness of government, submission to the wealthy and to those in office--in short, a struggle against all and every humbug designed to stupefy and enslave the workingmen. The workingmen necessarily must destroy authority: those who are benefited by it certainly will not. Patriotism and religion are sanctuaries and bulwarks of rascals; religion is the greatest curse of the human race. Yet there are to be found men who prostitute the noble word 'labor' by combining it with the nauseating term 'church' into 'Labor-Church.' One might just as well speak of a 'Labor-Police.'

"We do not share the views of those who believe that the State may be converted into a beneficent institution. The change would be as difficult as to convert a wolf into a lamb. Nor do we believe in the centralization of all production and consumption, as aimed at by the Socialists. That would be nothing but the present State in a new form, with increased authority, a veritable monstrosity of tyranny and slavery.

"What the Anarchists want is equal liberty for all. The talents and inclination of all men differ from each other. Every one knows best what he can do and what he wants; laws and regulations only hamper, and forced labor is never pleasant. In the state aimed at by the Anarchists, every one will do the work that pleases him best, and will satisfy his wants out of the common store as pleases him best."

It would seem that even the poorest judgment and the least experience would see in this proposal nothing but the sheerest folly. In it there is no remedy either proposed or expected: it is but the gnashing of teeth of the hopeless and despairing; yet it is the extremity toward which multitudes are being driven by the force of circumstances propelled by selfishness.

Socialism or Collectivism as a Remedy

Socialism as a civil government would propose to secure the reconstruction of society, the increase of wealth, and a

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more nearly equal distribution of the products of labor through the public collective ownership of land and capital (wealth other than real estate), and the management of all industries by the public collectively. Its motto is, "Every one according to his deeds."

It differs from "Nationalism" in that it does not propose to reward all individuals alike. It differs from "Communism" in that it does not advocate a community of goods or property. It thus, in our judgment, avoids the errors of both, and is a very practical theory if it could be introduced gradually and by wise, moderate, unselfish men. This principle has already accomplished much on a small scale in various localities. In many cities in the United States the water supply, street improvements, schools and fire and police departments are so conducted, to the general welfare. But Europe is in advance of us along these lines; for many of their railroads and telegraphs are so conducted. In France the tobacco business with all its profits belongs to the government, the people. In Russia the liquor business has been seized by the government and is hereafter to be conducted by it for the public benefit financially, and it is claimed also morally.

The following interesting statistics are from

"Social Upbuilding" by E. D. Babbitt, LL. D., of the College of Fine Forces, New Jersey:

"Sixty-eight governments own their telegraph lines.

"Fifty-four governments own their railroads in whole or in part, while only nineteen, the United States among them, do not.

"In Australia one can ride 1,000 miles (first class) across the country for $5.50, or six miles for 2 cents, and railroad men are paid more for eight hours labor than in the United States for ten hours. Does this impoverish the country? In

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Victoria, where these rates prevail, the net income for 1894 was sufficient to pay the federal taxes.

"In Hungary, where the roads are state-owned, one can ride six miles for a cent, and since the government bought the roads, wages have doubled.

"In Belgium, fares and freight rates have been cut down one-half and wages doubled. But for all that the roads pay a yearly revenue to the government of $4,000,000.

"In Germany, the government-owned roads will carry a person four miles for a cent, while the wages of the employees are 120 per cent higher than when the corporations owned them. Has such a system proved ruinous? No. During the last ten years the net profits have increased 41 per cent. Last year (1894), the roads paid the German government a net profit of $25,000,000.

"It has been estimated that government ownership of railroads would save the people of the United States a billion dollars in money and give better wages to its employees, two millions of whom would doubtless then be needed instead of 700,000 as at present.

"Berlin, Germany, is called the cleanest, best paved and best governed city in the world. It owns its gas works, electric lights, water works, street railways, city telephones, and even its fire insurance, and thus makes a profit every year of 5,000,000 mark, or $1,250,000, over all expenses. In that city the citizens can ride five miles as often as they please every day in the whole year for $4.50, while two trips a day on the elevated railroads of New York would cost $36.50.

"Mr. F. G. R. Gordon has given in the Twentieth Century the statistics with reference to lighting a number of American cities and finds that the average price of each arc light by the year, when under municipal control, is $52.12 1/2 while the average price paid to private parties by the various cities is $105.13 per light each year, or a little more than twice as much as when run by the cities themselves.

"The average price for telegrams in the United States in 1891 was thirty-two and a half cents. In Germany, where the telegraphs are owned by the government, messages of ten words are sent to all parts of the country for five cents.

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From the greater distances and higher prices for labor, here, we would probably have to pay from five to twenty cents, according to the distance. The remarkable advantage of having each municipality control its own gas, water, coal and street railways, has been demonstrated by Birmingham, Glasgow and other cities in Great Britain."

Very good, we answer, so far as it goes. But still no sane man will claim that the poor of Europe are enjoying the Millennial blessings, even with all these Socialist theories in operation in their midst. No well informed man will undertake to say that the working classes of Europe are anywhere near on a par with workmen in general in the United States. This is still their Paradise, and laws are even now being formed to limit the thousands who desire still to come to share this Paradise.

But while we rejoice in every amelioration of the condition of Europe's poor, let us not forget that the nationalization movement, except in Great Britain, results not from greater sagacity on the part of the people, nor from benevolence or indolence on the part of Capital, but from another cause which does not operate in the United States-- from the governments themselves. They have taken possession of these to avoid bankruptcy. They are under immense expense in supporting armies, navies, fortresses, etc., and must have a source of revenue. The cheap rates of travel are with a view to please the people and also to draw business; for if the rates were not low the many who earn small wages could not ride. As it is, the fourth-class cars in Germany are merely freight cars, without seats of any kind.

In full view of such facts let us not delude ourselves with the supposition that such measures would solve the Labor Problem, or even relieve matters for more than six years, and that but slightly.

We have reason to believe that Socialism will make great progress during the next few years. But frequently it will

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not be wisely or moderately advanced: success will intoxicate some of its advocates, and failure render others desperate, and as a result impatience will lead to calamity. Capitalism and Monarchism see in Socialism a foe, and already they oppose it as much as they dare in view of public opinion. The Church nominal, though full of tares and worldliness, is still a powerful factor in the case; for she represents and largely controls the middle classes in whose hands is the balance of power as between the upper and the lower classes of society. To these Socialism has hitherto been considerably misrepresented by its friends, who hitherto have generally been infidels. Rulers, capitalists and clergymen, with few exceptions, will seize upon the first extremes of Socialism to assault it and brand it with infamy, and temporarily throttle it, encouraging themselves with specious arguments which self-interest and fear will suggest.

We can but rejoice to see principles of equity set in motion, even though they be but temporary and partial. And all whose interests would be affected thereby should endeavor to take a broad view, and to relinquish a portion of their personal advantage for the general good.

As intimated the movement will be crushed under the combined power of Church, State and Capital and later lead to the great explosion of anarchy, in which, as indicated in the Scriptures, all present institutions will be wrecked--"a time of trouble such as was not since there was a nation."

But even should Socialism have its own way entirely, it would prove to be but a temporary relief, so long as selfishness is the ruling principle in the hearts of the majority of mankind. There are "born schemers" who would speedily find ways of getting the cream of public works and compensations for themselves; parasites on the social structure

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would multiply and flourish and "rings" would be everywhere. So long as people recognize and worship a principle, they will more or less conform to it: hence Socialism at first might be comparatively pure, and its representatives in office faithful servants of the public for the public good. But let Socialism become popular, and the same shrewd, selfish schemers who now oppose it would get inside and control it for their own selfish ends.

Communists and Nationalists see that so long as differences of compensation are permitted selfishness will warp and twist truth and justice; and in order to gratify pride and ambition it will surmount every barrier against poverty that men can erect. To meet this difficulty they go to the impractical extremes which their claims present-- impractical because men are sinners, not saints; selfish, not loving.

Herbert Spencer's View of Socialism

Mr. Herbert Spencer, the noted English philosopher and economist, noticing the statement that the Italian Socialist Ferri supports his theories, wrote: "The assertion that any of my views favor Socialism causes me great irritation. I believe the advent of Socialism to be the greatest disaster the world has ever known."

While great thinkers agree that competition or "individualism" has its evils that require drastic remedies, they deprecate the enslavement of the individual to social organization: or rather the burial of all individuality in Socialism, as eventually the greater disaster; since it would create armies of public employees, make politics still more of a trade than at present, and consequently open the way more than ever to rings and general corruption.

The following from the Literary Digest (Aug. 10, 1895), has a bearing upon the subject in hand as going to show

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that Socialistic principles would not endure unless supported by some kind of force--so strong is selfishness in all mankind:

"Two Socialist Communities"

"Two practical trials of Socialism attract the attention of students of social economy abroad. In both cases the original promoters of Socialist communities are doing fairly well, in one they are even prosperous. But the attempt to live up to the teachings of Socialistic theorists has failed in both instances. The erstwhile communists have returned to methods which scarcely differ from those of the bourgeoise around them. A little more than two years ago a party of Australian workingmen, tired of a life of wage-slavery relieved only by the hardships of enforced idleness, set out for Paraguay, where they obtained land suitable for farmers who have no large machines at their disposal. They called their settlement New Australia, and hoped to convert it into a Utopia for workingmen. The British foreign Office, in its latest official report, gives a short history of the movement which caused many men to exchange Australia, 'the workingman's Eldorado,' for South America. We take the following from the report mentioned:

"The aims of the colony were set forth in its constitution, in which one of the articles runs as follows: 'It is our intention to form a community in which all labor will be for the benefit of every member, and in which it will be impossible for one to tyrannize another. It will be the duty of each individual to regard the well-being of the community as his chief aim, thus insuring a degree of comfort, happiness and education which is impossible in a state of society where no one is certain that he will not starve.'

"This ideal was not realized. Eighty-five of the colonists soon tired of the restrictions imposed upon them by the majority, and refused to obey. New arrivals from Australia made up the loss occasioned by this secession; but the new arrivals, dissatisfied with the leader of the movement, elected a chief of their own, so that there were now three parties in the colony. The equal division of the proceeds of

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their labor soon dissatisfied a number of the workers, who, in opposition to Socialist rules, demanded a share in proportion to the work they had done. The strict enforcement of Prohibition was another cause of dissatisfaction, especially as its infringement was punishable by expulsion without a chance of getting the original capital sunk in the undertaking refunded. The colony was on the point of breaking up, when the erstwhile leader of the movement succeeded in getting himself appointed judge by the Paraguayan authorities, and surrounded himself with a police force. There is hope that the colony will now become prosperous, but Socialistic regulations have been discarded.

"The experience of the miners of Monthieux is somewhat different. In their case it was prosperity that caused the Socialistic theories to be set aside. The Gewerbe Zeitung , Berlin, tells their story as follows:

"'At Monthieux, near St. Etienne, is a pit which was given up by the company which owned it a couple of years ago, and the miners were discharged. As there was no chance for employment in the neighborhood, the workmen begged the company to turn over the pit to them, and as the owners did not believe that the pit could be made to pay, they consented. The miners had no machinery, but they worked with a will and managed to find new veins. They made almost superhuman efforts and managed to save enough of their earnings to purchase machinery, and the discarded mines of Monthieux became a source of wealth to the new owners. The former owners then endeavored to regain possession, but lost their suit, and the labor press did not fail to contrast the avarice of the capitalists with the nobility of the miners who shared alike the proceeds of their labor. The mines of Monthieux were pointed out as an instance of the triumph of Collectivism over the exploitation of private capital.

"'Meanwhile the miners extended their operations until they could no longer do all the work without help. Other miners were called in, and did their best to further the work. But the men who had first undertaken to make the pit a paying one refused to share alike with the newcomers. They knew that the wealth which lay beneath their feet had been

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discovered by them with almost superhuman efforts; they had, so to speak, made something out of nothing, why should they share the results of their labors with the newcomers, who had, indeed, worked all this time, but elsewhere? Why should they give to the new comrades of the harvest they had not planted? The newcomers should be paid well, better than in other mines, but they should not become joint owners. And when the newcomers created a disturbance, the 'capitalistic' workingmen fetched police and had them thrown out of their council room.'"

Nationalism as a Remedy

Nationalism is a later development of theory along the lines of socialism. It claims that all industries should be conducted by the nation, on the basis of common obligation to work and a general guarantee of livelihood; all workers to do the same amount of work, and to get the same wages.

Nationalists claim that--

"The combinations, trusts and syndicates, of which the people at present complain, demonstrate the practicability of our basic principle of association. We merely seek to push this principle a little further and have all industries operated in the interest of all, by the nation--the people organized --the organic unity of the whole people.

"The present industrial system proves itself wrong by the immense wrongs it produces; it proves itself absurd by the immense waste of energy and material which is admitted to be its concomitant. Against this system we raise our protest: for the abolition of the slavery it has wrought and would perpetuate, we pledge our best efforts."

Some favorable points, common to both, we have mentioned favorably under the caption "Socialism or Collectivism as a remedy"; as a whole, however, Nationalism is quite impracticable; the objections to it being in general the same that we urged foregoing against Communism. Although Nationalism does not, like Communism, directly threaten the destruction of the family, its tendency would

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surely be in that direction. Among its advocates are many broadminded, philanthropic souls, some of whom have helped, without hope of personal advantage, to found colonies where the principles of Nationalism were to be worked out as public examples. Some of these have been utter failures, and even the practically successful have been forced to ignore Nationalist principles in dealing with the world outside their colonies: and, as might be expected, they have all had considerable internal friction. If, with "one Lord, one faith and one baptism" God's saints find it difficult to "preserve the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace," and need to be exhorted to forbear one another in love; how could it be expected that mixed companies, claiming no such spirit as a bond, could succeed in vanquishing the selfish spirit of the world, the flesh and the devil?

Several colonies on this Nationalist plan have started and failed within the past few years, in the United States. One of the most noted failures is that known as the Altruria Colony, of California, founded by Rev. E. B. Payne, on the theory "One for all and all for one." It had many advantages over other colonies in that it picked out its members, and did not accept all sorts. Moreover, it had a Lodge form of government of very thorough control. Its founder, giving the reasons for the failure, in the San Francisco Examiner , Dec. 10, 1896, said:

"Altruria was not a complete failure;...we demonstrated that trust, good will and sincerity--which prevailed for a part of the time--made a happy community life, and on the other side, that suspicion, envy and selfish motives diabolize human nature and make life not worth while.... We did not continue to trust and consider one another as we did at first, but fell back into the ways of the rest of the world."

What some people demonstrate by experience others know by inductive reasoning, based upon knowledge of human

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nature. Any one wanting a lesson on the futility of hope from such a quarter while selfishness still controls the hearts of men, can get his experience cheaply by boarding for a week each at three or four second-class "boarding houses."

General Education of Mechanics a Remedy

In The Forum some years ago an article appeared by Mr. Henry Holt, in which he endeavored to show that education should be largely industrial, to fit a mechanic to readily turn from one employment to another--he should "learn a dozen" trades. While this might for a time help a few individuals, it is manifest that such a measure would not solve the problem. It is bad enough as it is, when plasterers and bricklayers may be busy while shoemakers and weavers are idle; but what would be the effect if the latter also understood bricklaying and plastering? It would multiply competition in every trade, if all the unemployed could compete for the busy jobs. The gentleman, however, deals well with two comprehensive truths, respecting which education is needed. He said:

"The simpler of these truths is the inevitable, even if cruel--the necessity of Natural Selection. I do not say it's justice. Nature knows nothing of justice. Her machinery pounds remorselessly along in a set of hard conditions, but, after all, pounds out of those conditions the best they will yield. True, she has evolved in us intelligences to slightly direct her course; and it is in using them the function of justice comes up. But we can direct her only in channels fitted to her own currents: otherwise we are overwhelmed. Now, no one of her courses is broader and more clearly marked than that of Natural Selection, and in the exercise of our little liberties and suffrages, we are never so wise as when we fall in with it--when, for example, we raise a Lincoln from his cabin. But so far, we are vastly more apt to prefer the demagogue, and then we suffer. Socialism proposes to extend

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the danger of this suffering into the field of production. The captains of industry are now chosen purely by natural selection--at least with a very moderate abnormality in the action of heredity, which rapidly cures itself: if the son does not inherit fitness, he soon ceases to survive. But with increasing freedom of competition, and increasing facilities for able men without capital, to hire it, it is substantially true that industry is at present directed by Natural Selection. For this, the Socialist proposes to substitute artificial selection, and that by popular vote. A general knowledge of the superiority of Nature's way would cure this madness.

"The other truth so difficult to impart clearly, but not impossible to give some conception of, is the more important. It is difficult, not so much because it calls for some preliminary education, as because dogma has been fighting it for thousands of years, and fights it still. To most who read this, every one of these assertions will probably appear strange, when the truth is named in the familiar phraseology --The Universal Reign of Law. Yet it is the fact that hosts of men who think they believe in it, pray every day that it may not be--that exceptions may be made in their cases. People generally--and legislators generally--in a matter of physiology, would send for a doctor; or in a matter of machinery, for an engineer; or in chemistry, for a chemist; and would follow his opinion with childlike faith; but in economics they want no opinions but their own. They have no idea that such matters are, like physical matters, under the control of natural laws--that to find those laws, or learn those already found, requires special study; and that to go counter to them, in ignorance, must bring disaster as fatal as in perversity...

"The workingman needs, then, not only instruction in the trade-school and in certain economic facts, but the kind of instruction in science and history that will give him some conception of Natural Law. On the basis thus provided could be built some notion of its control in the social as well as in the material world; and also some realization that human law is futile, or worse, except as, by close study and

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cautious experiment, it is made to conform to the Natural Law. Hence would come the faith that no human law could make the unfit survive, except at somebody else's expense; and that the only way to enable them to survive at their own, is to make them fit."

Yes, it is well that all should learn that these two laws control in our present social system, and that it is not in the power of man to change nature or nature's laws; and hence that it is impossible for him to do more than tinker present social conditions, and temporarily improve them a little. The new and more desirable laws necessary to the perfect, the ideal society, will require supernatural powers for their introduction. Learning this lesson will help to bring (instead of a discontent which aggravates itself) "godliness with contentment," while waiting for the Kingdom of God and praying, "Thy Kingdom come; thy will be done on earth as in heaven."

The Single Tax Remedy

Doubtless because he saw the effects of Communism and Nationalism and Socialism, as pointed out above, Mr. Henry George devised a scheme of some merit, known as the "Single Tax Theory." This may be said to be the reverse of Socialism in some respects. It is Individualism in many important features. It leaves the individual to the resources of his own character, efforts and environment; except that it would preserve to each an inalienable right to share, as the common blessings of the Creator--air, water and land. It proposes very little direct alteration of the present social system. Claiming that the present inequalities of fortune, so far as they are oppressive and injurious, are wholly the results of private ownership of the land, this theory proposes that all lands become once more the property of Adam's race as a whole; and claims that thus the evils of our present social system would speedily right themselves. It proposes

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that this re-distribution of the land shall be accomplished, not by dividing it proportionately among the human family, but by considering it all as one vast estate, and permitting each person as a tenant to use as much as he may choose of what he now possesses, and to collect a land-tax or rental from each occupant proportional to the value of the land (aside from the value of the buildings or other improvements thereon). Thus a vacant lot would be assessed as heavy a rental or tax as an adjoining lot, built upon, and the untilled field as much as the adjoining fruitful one. The tax thus raised would constitute a fund for every purpose for the general welfare--for schools, streets, roads, water, etc., and for local and general government; hence the name of the theory, "Single Tax."

The effect would of course be to open to actual settlement thousands of town lots and barren fields now held for speculative purposes; because all taxes being consolidated into one, and being removed from cattle, machinery, business and improvements of every kind, and all concentrated upon the land would make the land-tax quite an item; graduated, however, so as to show no favoritism, poor farm lands or remote from transportation being taxed less in proportion than better lands, and those nearer to transportation. City lots similarly would be assessed according to value, location and surroundings considered.

Such a law, made to become operative ten years after its passage, would have the immediate effect of reducing real estate values, and by the time it would become operative millions of acres and thousands of town-lots would be open to any one who could make use of them and pay the assessed rents. Mr. Henry George took advantage of the fact that Pope Leo XIII issued an Encyclical on Labor, to publish a pamphlet in reply, entitled, "An Open Letter to Pope Leo XIII," etc. As it contains some good thoughts along the lines of our topic and besides is a further statement of

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the theory under discussion, we make liberal extracts as follows:

An Extract from an Open Letter by Mr. Henry George to Pope Leo XIII, in Answer to the Latter's Encyclical on the Perplexing Labor Question.

"It seems to us that your Holiness misses its real significance in intimating that Christ, in becoming the son of a carpenter and himself working as a carpenter, showed merely that 'there is nothing to be ashamed of in seeking one's bread by labor.' To say that is almost like saying that by not robbing people he showed that there is nothing to be ashamed of in honesty. If you will consider how true in any large view is the classification of all men into workingmen, beggarmen and thieves, you will see that it was morally impossible that Christ, during his stay on earth, should have been anything else than a workingman, since he who came to fulfil the law must by deed as well as word obey God's law of labor.

"See how fully and how beautifully Christ's life on earth illustrated this law. Entering our earthly life in the weakness of infancy, as it is appointed that all should enter it, He lovingly took what in the natural order is lovingly rendered, the sustenance, secured by labor, that one generation owes to its immediate successors. Arrived at maturity he earned his own subsistence by that common labor in which the majority of men must and do earn it. Then passing to a higher--to the very highest--sphere of labor, he earned his subsistence by the teaching of moral and spiritual truths, receiving its material wages in the love offerings of grateful hearers, and not refusing the costly spikenard with which Mary anointed his feet. So, when he chose his disciples, he did not go to land owners or other monopolists who live on the labor of others, but to common laboring men. And when he called them to a higher sphere of labor and sent them out to teach moral and spiritual truths, he told them to take, without condescension on the one hand, or sense of degradation on the other, the loving return for such labor,

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saying to them that the 'laborer is worthy of his hire,' thus showing, what we hold, that all labor does not consist in what is called manual labor, but that whoever helps to add to the material, intellectual, moral or spiritual fulness of life is also a laborer.*

"In assuming that laborers, even ordinary manual laborers, are naturally poor, you ignore the fact that labor is the producer of wealth, and attribute to the natural law of the Creator an injustice that comes from man's impious violation of his benevolent intention. In the rudest state of the arts it is possible, where justice prevails, for all well men to earn a living. With the labor-saving appliances of our time it should be possible for all to earn much more. And so, in saying that poverty is no disgrace, you convey an unreasonable implication. For poverty ought to be a disgrace, because in a condition of social justice, it would, where unimposed by unavoidable misfortune, imply recklessness or laziness.

"The sympathy of your Holiness seems exclusively directed to the poor, the workers. Ought this to be so? Are not rich idlers to be pitied also? By the word of the Gospel it is the rich rather than the poor who call for pity. And to any one who believes in a future life, the condition of him who wakes to find his cherished millions left behind must seem pitiful. But even in this life, how really pitiable are the rich. The evil is not in wealth in itself--in its command over material

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*"Nor should it be forgotten that the investigator, the philosopher, the teacher, the artist, the poet, the priest, though not engaged in the production of wealth, are not only engaged in the production of utilities and satisfactions to which the production of wealth is only a means, but by acquiring and diffusing knowledge, stimulating mental powers and elevating the moral sense, may greatly increase the ability to produce wealth. For man does not live by bread alone...He who by any exertion of mind or body adds to the aggregate of enjoyable wealth increases the sum of human knowledge, or gives to human life higher elevation or greater fulness--he is, in the large meaning of the words, a 'producer,' a 'working man,' a 'laborer,' and is honestly earning honest wages. But he who without doing aught to make mankind richer, wiser, better, happier, lives on the toil of others--he, no matter by what name of honor he may be called, or how lustily the priests of Mammon may swing their censers before him, is in the last analysis but a beggarman or a thief."

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things; it is in the possession of wealth while others are steeped in poverty; in being raised above touch with the life of humanity, from its work and its struggles, its hopes and its fears, and above all, from the love that sweetens life, and the kindly sympathies and generous acts that strengthen faith in man and trust in God. Consider how the rich see the meaner side of human nature; how they are surrounded by flatterers and sycophants; how they find ready instruments not only to gratify vicious impulses, but to prompt and stimulate them; how they must constantly be on guard lest they be swindled; how often they must suspect an ulterior motive behind kindly deed or friendly word; how if they try to be generous they are beset by shameless beggars and scheming impostors; how often the family affections are chilled for them, and their deaths anticipated with the ill-concealed joy of expectant possession. The worst evil of poverty is not in the want of material things, but in the stunting and distortion of the higher qualities. So, though in another way, the possession of unearned wealth likewise stunts and distorts what is noblest in man.

"God's commands cannot be evaded with impunity. If it be God's command that men shall earn their bread by labor, the idle rich must suffer. And they do. See the utter vacancy of the lives of those who live for pleasure; see the loathsome vices bred in a class who, surrounded by poverty, are sated with wealth. See that terrible punishment of ennui of which the poor know so little that they cannot understand it; see the pessimism that grows among the wealthy classes--that shuts out God, that despises men, that deems existence in itself an evil, and fearing death yet longs for annihilation.

"When Christ told the rich young man who sought him to sell all he had and to give it to the poor, he was not thinking of the poor, but of the young man. And I doubt not that among the rich, and especially among the self-made rich, there are many who at times, at least, feel keenly the folly of their riches and fear for the dangers and temptations to which these expose their children. But the strength of long habit, the promptings of pride, the excitement of making and holding what has become for them the counters in a game of cards, the family expectations that have assumed

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the character of rights, and the real difficulty they find in making any good use of their wealth, bind them to their burden, like a weary donkey to his pack, till they stumble on the precipic