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diff --git a/30758-h/30758-h.htm b/30758-h/30758-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d4160f1 --- /dev/null +++ b/30758-h/30758-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,9116 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1" /> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Communism and Christianism, by William Montgomery Brown</title> + <style type="text/css"> + + p { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; + } + hr { width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + } + + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + + .pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; + } /* page numbers */ + + .blockquot{margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 10%;} + + .center {text-align: center;} + .right {text-align: right;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + + .tnote {margin: 2em 5% 1em 5%; font-size: 90%; padding: 0.5em 1em 0.5em 1em; + border: solid 1px silver; margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%;} + + .caption {font-weight: bold;} + + .figcenter {margin: auto; text-align: center;} + + .fnanchor {vertical-align: super; font-size: .8em; text-decoration: none;} + + .poem {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; text-align: left;} + .poem br {display: none;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem span.i0 {display: block; margin-left: 0em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i2 {display: block; margin-left: 2em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i4 {display: block; margin-left: 4em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i10 {display: block; margin-left: 10em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.right {display: block; text-align: right; margin-right: 0em; padding-right: 0em; text-indent: -3em;} + + hr.full { width: 100%; + margin-top: 3em; + margin-bottom: 0em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + height: 4px; + border-width: 4px 0 0 0; /* remove all borders except the top one */ + border-style: solid; + border-color: #000000; + clear: both; } + pre {font-size: 85%;} + </style> +</head> +<body> +<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, Communism and Christianism, by William +Montgomery Brown</h1> +<pre> +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at <a href = "http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre> +<p>Title: Communism and Christianism</p> +<p> Analyzed and Contrasted from the Marxian and Darwinian Points of View</p> +<p>Author: William Montgomery Brown</p> +<p>Release Date: December 25, 2009 [eBook #30758]</p> +<p>Language: English</p> +<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p> +<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK COMMUNISM AND CHRISTIANISM***</p> +<p> </p> +<h3>E-text prepared by Peter Vachuska, Matt Whittaker, Chuck Greif,<br /> + and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br /> + (http://www.pgdp.net)</h3> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> + +<h3><span class="smcap">To the Purchaser:</span></h3> + +<p>Lying Supernaturalism is going; robbing Capitalism is +falling; saving Laborism is rising, and leveling Unionism +is coming.</p> + +<p>This booklet, Communism and Christianism, is a contribution +by Bishop and Mrs. Wm. M. Brown, of Galion, +Ohio, towards the furtherance of these downward, upward +and forward movements, the most fortunate events +in the whole history of mankind. We hope that you will +read, mark, learn and inwardly digest its extremely +revolutionary, comprehensive and salutary teachings concerning +both religion and politics with the happy result +of becoming an apostle of its illuminating and inspiring +interpretation of the scientific gospel of Marx and Engels +to wage slaves, the only gospel which points the way to +redemption from their body and soul destroying slavery.</p> + +<p>You may become a missionary of this gospel in your +neighborhood, and as such do more good than all its +orthodox preachers, teachers, editors and politicians together +at no financial cost to yourself by ordering booklets +at our special rates: six copies, $1.00; twenty-five +copies, $3.00, prepaid, and selling them to workers at +our retail price, 25 cents for one copy. As we make +no profit and do no bookkeeping, cash should accompany +all orders.</p> + +<p>To organizations working for bail, defense, liberation +or unemployment funds, Bishop and Mrs. Brown +donate twenty-five copies for each twenty-five ordered +with remittance.</p> + +<p>The Bradford-Brown Educational Company, Inc. +Publishers—Galion, Ohio</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>Editions and Their Dates.</h3> + +<p>First Edition, 10,000 copies, October 11th, 1920.</p> + +<p>Second Edition, 10,000 copies, revised and enlarged +from 184 to 204 pages, February 15th, 1921.</p> + +<p>Third Edition, 10,000 copies, March 2nd, 1921.</p> + +<p>Fourth Edition, 10,000 copies (2,000 in cloth binding), +revised and enlarged from 204 to 224 pages, April +9, 1921.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 467px;"> +<img src="images/front.jpg" width="467" height="600" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption">Rt. Rev. William Montgomery Brown, D. D.<br /> + +Fifth Bishop of Arkansas, Resigned; Member +House of Bishops Protestant Episcopal Church; +Sometime Archdeacon of Ohio and Special +Lecturer at Bexley Hall, the Theological Seminary +of Kenyon College. Now Episcopos in +partibus Bolshevikium et Infidelium.</span> +</div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h1>COMMUNISM AND CHRISTIANISM</h1> + +<h2>ANALYZED AND CONTRASTED +FROM THE +MARXIAN AND DARWINIAN +POINTS OF VIEW</h2> + +<h4><i>by</i></h4> + +<h3><i>William Montgomery Brown</i></h3> + +<h4>Banish the Gods from the Skies<br /> +and Capitalists from the<br /> +Earth and make the world safe<br /> +for Industrial Communism.</h4> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> + +<h4>The +Bradford-Brown Educational Company, Inc. +Publishers ... Galion, Ohio</h4> + +<p class="center">Fortieth Thousand</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>DEDICATION</h3> + + +<p>This booklet is gratefully dedicated to +the Proletariat from whom Bishop and +Mrs. Brown are sprung, and to whose unrequited +labors (not to the good providence +of a divinity) they owe their wealth, +leisure and opportunities.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="PROLEGOMENA" id="PROLEGOMENA"></a>PROLEGOMENA<span class="fnanchor"><a name="Atop" id="Atop"></a><a href="#A">[A]</a></span></h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Religion is the opium of the people. The +suppression of religion as the happiness of the +people is the revindication of its real happiness. +The invitation to abandon illusions regarding +its situation is an invitation to abandon +a situation which has need of illusions. +Criticism of religion is therefore the germ of +a criticism of the vale of tears, of which religion +is the holy aspect.</p> + +<p class="right">—Marx.</p></div> + + +<p>Not only, indeed, is the struggle against religion +intellectually useful, but it cannot conscientiously be +avoided, for religion is used against the Socialist +movement by the possessing class in every country.</p> + +<p>But to abolish religion is not to abolish exploitation, +because only one of the enemy's guns will have been +silenced. The workers have, above all, to dislodge +the capitalist class from power. The religious question, +and indeed all else, is secondary to this.</p> + +<p>The test of admission to a Socialist Party must be +neither more nor less than acceptance of the following +seven working principles and the policy of +Socialism as a class movement:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>1. Society as at present constituted is based upon +the ownership of the means of living (i. e., land, factories, +railways, etc.) by the capitalist or master class, +and the consequent enslavement of the working class, +by whose labor alone wealth is produced.</p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span></p> +<p>2. In society, therefore, there is an antagonism of +interests, manifesting itself as a class struggle, between +those who possess but do not produce and +those who produce but do not possess.</p> + +<p>3. This antagonism can be abolished only by the +emancipation of the working class from the domination +of the master class by the conversion into the +common property of society of the means of production +and distribution, and their democratic control +by the whole people.</p> + +<p>4. As in the order of social evolution the working +class is the last to achieve its freedom, the emancipation +of the working class will involve the emancipation of all +mankind without distinction of race or sex.</p> + +<p>5. This emancipation must be the work of the +working class itself.</p> + +<p>6. As the machinery of capitalist government, including +the armed forces of the nation, conserves the +monopoly by the capitalist class of the wealth taken +from the workers, the working class must organize +consciously and politically for acquiring the powers +of government, national and local, in order that this +machinery, including these forces, may be converted +from an instrument of oppression into the agent of +emancipation and the overthrow of privilege, aristocratic +and plutocratic.<a name="Btop" id="Btop"></a><span class="fnanchor"><a href="#B">[B]</a></span></p> + +<p>7. As all political parties are but the expression of +class interests, and as the interest of the working class +is diametrically opposed to the interests of all sections +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span>of the master-class, the party seeking working-class +emancipation must be hostile to every other party.</p></div> + +<p>If a man supports the church, or in any respect +allows religious ideas to stand in the way of the foregoing +seven essential principles of socialism or the +activity of a Party, he proves thereby that he does +not accept Socialism as fundamentally true and of the +first importance, and his place is outside.</p> + +<p>No man can be consistently both a Socialist and a +Christian. It must be either the socialist or the religious +principle that is supreme, for the attempt to +couple them equally betrays charlatanism or lack of +thought. There is, therefore, no need for a specifically +anti-religious test.</p> + +<p>So surely does the acceptance of Socialism lead to +the exclusion of the supernatural, that the Socialist +has little need for such terms as Atheist, Free-thinker, +or even Materialist; for the word Socialist, +rightly understood, implies one who, on all such questions, +takes his stand on positive science, explaining +all things by purely natural causation, Socialism being +not merely a politico-economic creed, but also an +integral part of a consistent world philosophy.</p> + +<p>So long as the anarchy of modern competitive +society exists, the accompanying obscurity and confusion +in social life will continue to shelter superstition. +This point is illustrated in the following +reference by Marx to the United States:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>When we see in the very country of complete +political emancipation not only that religion exists, +but retains its vigour, there is no need, I hope, for +other proofs in order to show that the existence of religion +is not incompatible with the full political +maturity of the State. But if religion exists it is be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span>cause +of a defective social organization, of which it is +necessary to seek the cause in the very essence of the +State.</p></div> + +<p>Class domination is the essence of the modern +State. It is based on competitive anarchy and +parasitism—the evidences of a defective social organization. +It still leaves room for religion, because it +maintains ignorance and confusion by its structure +and contradictions, and because religion is fostered as +a handmaiden of class rule.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, the growth of the social forces of production +within modern society, and the better knowledge +the workers obtain of their true relations to each +other and to Nature, loosen the chains of ghost worship +and mysticism from their limbs and lessen the +power of religion as a political weapon in the hands +of the ruling class, while they form, at the same time, +the material and intellectual preparation for an intelligently +organized society. The matter has been +put in a nutshell by Marx in the chapter on "Commodities" +in "Capital," volume I.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The religious reflex of the real world can, in any +case, only then finally vanish, when the practical relations +of every-day life offer to man none but perfectly +intelligible and reasonable relations with regard +to his fellow men and to nature.</p> + +<p>The life process of society, which is based on the +process of material production, does not strip off its +mystical veil until it is treated as production by freely +associated men, and is consciously regulated by them +in accordance with a settled plan.</p> + +<p>This, however, demands for society a certain +material groundwork or set of conditions of existence +which in their turn are the spontaneous product of a +long and painful process of development.</p></div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span></p> + +<p>It is, therefore, a profound truth that Socialism is +the natural enemy of religion. Through Socialism +alone will the relations between men in society, and +their relations to Nature, become reasonable, orderly, +and completely intelligible, leaving no nook or cranny +for superstition. The entry of Socialism is, consequently, +the exodus of religion.</p> + +<div class="tnote"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<p><a name="A" id="A"></a><span class="fnanchor"><a href="#Atop">[A]</a></span> From the Official Manifesto by the Socialist Party of +Great Britain, showing the Antagonism between Socialism +and Religion.</p> + +<p><a name="B" id="B"></a><span class="fnanchor"><a href="#Btop">[B]</a></span> This section has been slightly changed to make sure +of guarding against the advocacy of armed insurrection. +Socialists throughout the world want a peaceful evolution +from capitalism into socialism; but whether or not it will +be so in the case of any country is, as Lenin prophesies, +to be determined by the dealings of its capitalists with +its laborers. In reply to an inquiry on this vexed subject +by an English author, Lenin said, in effect, that in England, +as elsewhere, the tactics of the capitalist class will determine +the program of the labor class.</p> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span></p> +<h3><a name="THE_INTERNATIONAL_PARTY" id="THE_INTERNATIONAL_PARTY"></a>THE INTERNATIONAL PARTY.</h3> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Arise, ye prisoners of starvation!</span> +<span class="i2">Arise, ye wretched of the earth,</span> +<span class="i0">For justice thunders condemnation,</span> +<span class="i2">A better world's in birth.</span> +<span class="i0">No more tradition's chains shall bind us,</span> +<span class="i2">Arise, ye slaves! no more in thrall!</span> +<span class="i0">The earth shall rise on new foundations,</span> +<span class="i2">We have been naught, we shall be all.</span> +</div> <div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">We want no condescending saviors.</span> +<span class="i2">To rule us from a judgment hall.</span> +<span class="i0">We workers ask not for their favors,</span> +<span class="i2">Let us consult for all.</span> +<span class="i0">To make the thief disgorge his booty,</span> +<span class="i2">To free the spirit from its cell,</span> +<span class="i0">We must ourselves decide our duty,</span> +<span class="i2">We must decide and do it well.</span> +</div> <div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The law oppresses us and tricks us,</span> +<span class="i2">Taxation drains the victim's blood;</span> +<span class="i0">The rich are free from obligations,</span> +<span class="i2">The laws the poor delude.</span> +<span class="i0">Too long we've languished in subjection,</span> +<span class="i2">Equality has other laws:</span> +<span class="i0">"No rights," says she, "without their duties.</span> +<span class="i2">No claims on equals without cause."</span> +</div> <div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Toilers from shops and fields united,</span> +<span class="i2">The party we of all who work;</span> +<span class="i0">The earth belongs to us, the people,</span> +<span class="i2">No room here for the shirk.</span> +<span class="i0">How many on our flesh have fattened!</span> +<span class="i2">But if the noisome birds of prey</span> +<span class="i0">Shall vanish from the sky some morning,</span> +<span class="i2">The blessed sunlight still will stay.</span> +</div></div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span></p> +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + +<table> +<tr><th></th><th>Page</th></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Prolegomena</span></td> <td align="right"><a href="#Page_5">5</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="center">PART I.</td><td></td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Communism: The Naturalistic This-worldly<br /> +Gospel for the Coming age of Classless Equality<br /> +and Economic Freedom</span></td> <td align="right"><a href="#Page_13">13</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="center">PART II.</td><td></td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Christianism: A Supernaturalistic Other-worldly<br /> +Gospel for the Passing Age of Class Inequality<br /> +and Economic Slavery</span></td> <td align="right"><a href="#Page_85">85</a></td></tr> +<tr><td></td><td></td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Appendix</span></td> <td align="right"><a href="#Page_157">157</a></td></tr> +</table> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span></p> +<div class="blockquot"><p>Hitherto, every form of society has been based on +the antagonism of oppressing and oppressed classes. +But in order to oppress a class, certain conditions +must be assured to it under which it can, at least, +continue its slavish existence. The serf, in the period +of serfdom, raised himself to membership in the commune, +just as the petty bourgeois, under the yoke of +feudal absolutism, managed to develop into a +bourgeois. The modern laborer, on the contrary, instead +of rising with the progress of industry, sinks +deeper and deeper below the conditions of existence +of his own class. He becomes a pauper, and +pauperism develops more rapidly than population and +wealth. And here it becomes evident that the +bourgeoisie is unfit any longer to be the ruling class +in society, and to impose its conditions of existence +upon society as an over-riding law. It is unfit to +rule, because it is incompetent to assure an existence +to its slave within his slavery, because it cannot help +letting him sink into such a state that it has to feed +him, instead of being fed by him. Society can no +longer live under this bourgeoisie, in other words, its +existence is no longer compatible with society.—Marx +and Engels.</p></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span></p> +<h2>COMMUNISM AND +CHRISTIANISM</h2> + +<h3>ANALYZED AND CONTRASTED +FROM THE +MARXIAN AND DARWINIAN +POINTS OF VIEW</h3> + +<h3><a name="PART_I" id="PART_I"></a>PART I.</h3> + + +<h3>Communism: The Naturalistic This-worldly Gospel +for the Coming Age of Classless Equality and +Economic Freedom—An Open Letter to a +Brother Bishop and a Christian +Socialist Comrade.</h3> + +<h4>Come over and help us.<br /> +Abandon Christian Socialism<br /> +for Marxian Communism.</h4> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span></p> +<h3><a name="FOREWORD" id="FOREWORD"></a>FOREWORD<a name="Ctop" id="Ctop"></a><span class="fnanchor"><a href="#C">[C]</a></span></h3> + + +<p>The concept of God, as an explanation of the Universe, +is becoming entirely untenable in this age of +scientific inquiry. The laws of the persistence of +force and the indestructibility of matter, and the unending +interplay of cause and effect, make the attempt +to trace the origin of things to an anthropomorphic +God who had no cause, as futile as is the +Oriental cosmology which holds that the world rests +on an elephant, and, as an afterthought, that the +elephant stands on a tortoise.</p> + +<p>The inflexible laws of the known universe cannot +logically be held to cease where our immediate experience +ends, to make way for an unscientific concept +of an uncaused and creating being. The Creation +idea is unsupported by evidence, and is in conflict with +every scientific law.</p> + +<p>Socialism is consistent only with that monistic view +which regards all phenomena as expressions of the +underlying matter-force reality and as parts of the +unity of Nature which interact according to inviolable +laws.</p> + +<p>Socialism is the application of science, the archenemy +of religion, to human social relationships; and +just as the basic principle of the philosophy of Socialism +finds itself in conflict with religion, so does it, +as a propagandist movement, find religion acting +against it.</p> + +<div class="tnote"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<p><a name="C" id="C"></a><span class="fnanchor"><a href="#Ctop">[C]</a></span> From the Official Manifesto by the Socialist Party of +Great Britain, showing the Antagonism between Socialism +and Religion.</p> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span></p> +<h2>COMMUNISM: THE NATURALISTIC THIS-WORLDLY +GOSPEL FOR THE COMING +AGE OF CLASSLESS EQUALITY +AND ECONOMIC FREEDOM.</h2> + +<h4>Make the World safe for Industrialism<br /> +by turning it upside down with<br /> +Workers above and Owners below.</h4> + + +<p>My dear Brother and Comrade:</p> + +<p>Your letter of June 13th<a name="Dtop" id="Dtop"></a><span class="fnanchor"><a href="#D">[D]</a></span> relative to the meeting +called for the 27th, in the interest of a more radical +socialist movement in our church, came duly to hand, +and its invitation to attend, or at least write, was +highly appreciated.</p> + +<p>My days for attending things are, I fear, past. I +did not feel able to go to the Annual Convention of +the Socialist Party of Ohio, which met much nearer +here on the same date, June 27th, and ended on the +29th with a great picnic—a communion, as real and +holy, as was ever celebrated. I cannot even be sure +of being with you in the House of Bishops during +the meeting of the General Convention in October.</p> + +<p>However, I intended you to have a letter and set +the 26th aside for the writing of it, but I work slowly +now and its hours slipped away while I was making +notes until only one was left. It was spent in trying +to condense all I wanted to say in the letter into a +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span>telegram. What I regard as the best of these efforts +was taken to the office at seven p. m. on that day:</p> + +<p>Make world safe for democracy by banishing Gods +from sky, and capitalists from earth.</p> + +<p>Here are four of the many other efforts: (1) Come +over and help us. Abandon Christian Socialism for +Marxian Communism; (2) Make world safe for +democracy by turning it upside down with workers +above and owners below; (3) Revolutionize capitalism +out of state and orthodoxy out of church; (4) Come +over and help us. Abandon reformatory for revolutionary +socialism.</p> + +<p>What I wanted you to understand is that, in my +judgment, there can be no deliverance for the world +from the troubles by which it is overwhelmed so long +as theism holds the religious field and capitalism the +political field.</p> + + +<h4>I.</h4> + +<p>Religion and politics are the two halves of the +sphere in which humanity lives, moves and has its +social being. Religion is the ideal and politics the +practical half of this sphere. Both halves naturally +exist as the result of the same natural law of necessity: +the matter-force law which makes it necessary +for a man to feed, clothe and shelter his body in order +to preserve it and its life.</p> + +<p>Marxian socialism is at once this religion and politics, +all there is of both of them which is for the good +of the world as a whole.</p> + +<p>Marxian socialism is a revolutionary movement +towards doing away with the existing competitive +system for producing and distributing the basic necessities +of life (foods, clothes and houses) for the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> +profit of a few parasites, and substituting a system for +making and distributing them for the use of all workers.</p> + +<p>So far some competing, lying, robbing, enslaving +system for the production and distribution of these +necessities has been the basis of every religion and +politics—of none more than the Christian and American, +and they with the rest have been tried in the +balance of experience and found utterly wanting. Indeed, +they are making a hell, not a heaven, of the +earth in general and of our country in particular.</p> + +<p>Christianism as a religion has collapsed. It promised +to secure to the world peace and good will, but +it has never had more of strife and hate. The tremendous +English-German (or if you prefer German-English) +war was a conflict at arms between the most +outstanding among Christian nations and it was solemnly +alleged to have been fought for the high purpose +of ending such conflicts; but in reality it scattered +the hot coals of war throughout the world, +several of which were fanned into blazing by its so-called +peace conference and others are ominously +smouldering.</p> + +<p>Americanism as a politics has collapsed. It promised +a classless government of all the people, by all +the people, for all the people, but has instead given a +government of a class, by a class, for a class. This +class, comprising not more than one out of every ten +of the population, is the capitalist class, which owns the +means and machines for the production of the necessities +of life and for their distribution, a class which, +as such, though bearing no necessary relationship +to either one of the branches of this business, yet +realizes enormous profits from both, profits which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> +are wholly at the expense of the large class, at least +nine out of every ten, which does all the work connected +with the making of the machines and the operating +of them.</p> + +<p>This government was to make the country safe for +democracy by securing to it the privilege of free +speech and free assemblage, the existence of an independent +press and the right of appeal for the redress +of grievances; but our fathers did not have any too +much of these liberties, we have had less and, if the +competitive system for the production and distribution +of commodities for the profit of the small owning +class is to continue, our children are to have none.</p> + +<p>Indeed, this is already true of the overwhelming +majority, the working class. Its representatives have +little if any real part in the government. They are +completely subjected to the rule of the owning class. +There never has been a body, mind and soul destroying +slavery which equaled theirs, either as to the number +of men, women and children involved in it, or as +to the degrees of misery to which it doomed its victims.</p> + +<p>Nor is the end yet. The world war certainly has +taken American slavery out of the frying pan into the +fire rather than into the water.</p> + +<p>American slaves appeal to their government as +Jewish slaves appealed to one of their kings for relief +and receive the same answer, not in words but in +deeds which speak louder:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Thy father made our yoke grievous; now therefore +make thou the grievous service of thy father, and his +heavy yoke which he put upon us, lighter, and we will +serve thee. And he said unto them, Depart yet for +three days, then come again to me. And the people<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> +departed. So all the people came the third day as the +king had appointed and the king answered them +roughly, saying: My father made your yoke heavy, +and I will add to your yoke: My father also chastised +you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions. +So when all Israel saw that the king harkened not +unto them, the people answered the king, saying, +What portion have we in David?</p></div> + +<p>As to details history does not exactly repeat itself +and, therefore, I do not believe that the other planets +of the universe, of which no doubt there are +many billions, are inhabited by human beings of the +same type as those of the earth, nor that its men, +women and children are to have their bodies reconstructed +and resurrected, after they have been disintegrated +by death. Such beings on other planets and +such reconstructions on this planet would in every +case involve a detailed repetition of infinitely numerous +processes of evolution which had extended +through an eternal past.</p> + +<p>Yet in every part of the universe and throughout +all eternity, like causes ever have produced and ever +shall produce like effect. If, therefore, the course of +the Judean masters towards their slaves led to a successful +revolt of ten out of twelve tribes, there is +every reason for believing that the parallel course +which the American masters are pursuing against +their slaves will sooner or later issue in a revolution—a +revolution which shall do away with both +masters and slaves, leaving us with a classless America +and a government concerned with the making of +provisions for enabling all the people who are able +and willing to work to supply themselves in abundance +with the necessities of life and with the most<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> +desirable among the luxuries, rather than a government +which provides that they who produce nothing +shall have the cream and top milk of every necessity +and the whole bottle of every luxury, leaving of the +necessities only the blue milk for the producers of +them and of the luxuries, not even the dregs.</p> + +<p>Under this government those who can but will not +work will be allowed to starve themselves into a better +mind and out of their laziness. The young and the +old, the sick and crippled will have their rightful +maintenance from the state and out of the best of +everything.</p> + +<p>The deliverance of the world from commercial imperialism +and the making of it safe for industrial +democracy would prevent most of its unnecessary +suffering and this great salvation is above all else +dependent upon a knowledge of the truth. "Ye shall +know the truth and the truth shall make you free"—free +from all the avoidable ills of life, among them the +diabolical trinity of evils, war, poverty and slavery.</p> + +<p>The happiness of the world will be promoted in +extent and degree in proportion as the knowledge of +the truth is disseminated by a twofold revelation: +(1) the truth as it is revealed by history according to +the Marxian interpretation thereof, a revelation of the +truth which is saving the world from the robbing impositions +of the capitalistic interpretation of politics, +and (2) the truth as it is revealed by nature, according +to the Darwinian interpretation thereof, a revelation +which is saving the world from the robbing impositions +of the supernaturalistic interpretations of religion.</p> + +<p>Man has always had as a basis for his thought, +belief and action, a system for the production and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> +distribution of the necessities of life. This is the discovery +of Karl Marx which is known as the scientific +or materialistic interpretation of history.</p> + +<p>According to the scientific interpretation of history +which is taught by naturalistic socialism, man is what +he is, and his institutions are what they are, because +he has fed, clothed and housed himself as he has.</p> + +<p>According to the traditional interpretation of history, +which is taught by supernaturalistic Christianism, +man is what he is because of his thinking, believing +and acting with reference to a revelation of a god, +as it has been interpreted by his inspired representatives, +the great prophets and statesmen, like Isaiah +and Luther, Moses and Washington.</p> + +<p>Perhaps the best proof of the correctness of the +scientific or naturalistic explanation of the career of +man and of the incorrectness of the traditional or supernaturalistic +one is afforded by the history of morals, +the soul of both religion and politics, without +which neither could have any existence.</p> + +<p>Before the discovery of the art of agriculture, man +was dependent for his food upon fruits and nuts, +game and fish. When these sources of sustenance +failed, the tribes living in the same neighborhood +fought with each other in order that the victorious +might eat the vanquished.</p> + +<p>During this period cannibalism was morally right, +and it probably extended through at least two hundred +thousand years, even into the Old Testament +times. So righteous and holy was it that, in the +course of time, the victims were recognized as saviour +gods and the drinking of their blood and eating of their +flesh constituted a Lord's Supper in which the god +was eaten.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span></p> + +<p>Cannibalism is the basis of our sacrament of the +holy communion of bread and wine. As a connecting +link between these extremes there was the form of +communion which consisted in the eating of animal +sacrifices.</p> + +<p>By a sacrament with such an origin, you and I render +our highest act of worship, though yours is still +directed towards one among the supernaturalistic +divinities and mine is now directed towards humanity. +You say of a divinity: Thou, Lord, hast made me after +thine own image and my heart cannot be at rest until +I find rest in thee. I say of humanity: Thou, Lord, +hast made me after thine own image and my heart +cannot be at rest until it find rest in thee.</p> + +<p>Within the social realm humanity is my new divinity, +and your divinity (my old one) is a symbol of it, +or else, so I think, he is at best a fiction and at worst +a superstition.</p> + +<p>You will be surprised, and I do not expect you to +understand me, when I tell you that by translating +the services and hymns from the language of my old +literalism into that of my new symbolism, I am getting +as much good out of them as ever and indeed +more. I love the services, especially that great one, +the Holy Communion, and the hymns, especially those +great ones, Guide Me O Thou Great Jehovah; Lead, +Kindly Light; Abide With Me; and Jesus, Lover of +My Soul.</p> + +<p>My experience has convinced me that the sentimental +and poetical elements in religion, to which I +attach as much importance as ever, are as readily +excited and securely sustained by fixing thought and +sympathy upon the martyred human savior, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> +working class, as upon a crucified divine saviour, +who after all, as the suffering son of God, is but a symbol +of the suffering sons and daughters of man, the +workers, from whom all good things come.</p> + +<p>If grace at dinner means anything, it is addressed to +a god who is the symbol of the many workers who did +the innumerable things necessary to the producing and +serving of it, without whom there would be nothing of +all the good things on the table.</p> + +<p>In the representation about my pleasure in the +services of the church and their value to me, and in +many representations scattered throughout this letter, +I have in mind the question of an unanswered +letter of yours, bearing date, February 25th, 1919, the +one in which you ask, in effect, by what right a man +can remain in an institution after he has, as I have, +abandoned its chief doctrines and aims as they are +authoritatively interpreted.</p> + +<p>The right of revolution is the one by which I justify +my course, and surely no consistent Protestant Christian +or American citizen will doubt the solidity of this +ground; for Protestantism and Americanism had their +origin in revolutions.</p> + +<p>Our national declaration of independence contains +this famous justification of political revolutions, and +it is equally applicable to religious ones, for religion +and politics are but the ideal and practical halves of +the same social reality:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all +men are created equal; that they are endowed by their +Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among +these, are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. +That to secure these rights, governments are insti<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span>tuted +among men, deriving their just powers from the +consent of the governed: that, whenever any form of +government becomes destructive of these ends, it is +the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to +institute a new government, laying its foundation on +such principles, and organizing its powers in such +form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their +safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate +that governments long established, should not be +changed for light and transient causes; and, accordingly, +all experience hath shown, that mankind are +more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, +than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to +which they are accustomed. But, when a long train +of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the +same object, evinces a design to reduce them under +absolute despotism, it is their right—and it is their +duty—to throw off such government, and to provide +new guards for their security.</p></div> + +<p>Jesus was nothing if he was not a revolutionist. +Anyhow, his alleged mother is authoritatively represented +as believing him to have been foreordained as +one, for this song is put into her mouth:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>He hath showed strength with his arm: he hath +scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.</p> + +<p>He hath put down the mighty from their seat: and +hath exalted the humble and meek.</p> + +<p>He hath filled the hungry with good things: and the +rich he hath sent empty away.</p></div> + +<p>This Christian socialism, like Bolshevik socialism, +turns the idle rich empty away; but, whereas the +Christian gives them no chance to get anything to eat, +the Bolshevik allows them to have as much as the +poor, if they will work as hard.</p> + +<p>Assuming for the sake of argument, that there may +have been an historical Jesus who taught some of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> +doctrines, in accordance with the representations of +the gospel, which are attributed to him, I am nevertheless +justified in claiming that he was quite as +heretical touching the faith of orthodox Judaism as I +am touching that of orthodox Christianism.</p> + +<p>As to the Jewish faith he said, in effect, of himself +what I say of myself: I have all of the potentialities +of my own life within myself. I and my god are one. +He dwells in me and I in him, and we are on the earth, +not in the sky.</p> + +<p>As to the Jewish church and state, Jesus taught +that they had become utterly antiquated and that it +was the mission of himself and disciples to establish +a new heaven, that is to remodel the church; and a +new earth, that is, to remodel the state; both remodelings +being with reference to the service of humanity +by enlightening its darkness and alleviating its misery +here and now, rather than teaching it to look for light +and happiness elsewhere and elsewhen.<a name="Etop" id="Etop"></a><span class="fnanchor"><a href="#E">[E]</a></span></p> + +<p>As for the faith and church of orthodox Christianism +there is no reason for believing that he would be +any more loyal to either than am I. His loyalty was +to the truth and to the proletarian, and they (this +faith and church) are disloyal to both, being ever on +the side of tradition against science, and on the side +of the owner against the worker.</p> + +<p>Jesus remained in the Jewish church, in spite of his +many and great heresies, until he was put out by death.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span></p> + +<p>My contention is that in view of this example, whether it +be, as you think, of an historical or, as I think, of a +dramatic character, there is no reason why I should +voluntarily go out of the Christian church.</p> + +<p>Religion in general and Christianity in particular +are nothing unless they are embodiments of morality, +and morality does not consist in professions of belief +in a god and his revelations as they are recorded in a +bible and condensed in a creed, but in a desire and +effort to acquire a knowledge of the laws of nature in +order that, by conformity to them, life may be made +longer and happier.</p> + +<p>When this desire exists and this effort is made +with reference to one's own self, they constitute morality; +when with reference to one's own family and +associates, they constitute religion, and when with +reference to all others of contemporary and future +generations, they constitute Christianity.</p> + +<p>But in making such distinctions the fact should not +be lost sight of that at bottom there is no difference +between morality, religion and Christianity. They are +synonyms for the same virtues, the desire and effort +to know and live the truth as it is revealed in the doings +of nature. There are no other revelations of +the truth, nor is there any other morality, religion or +Christianity.</p> + +<p>Socialism is for me the one comprehensive term +which is a synonym at once of morality, religion and +Christianity. Marxian and Bolshevikian socialism are +two halves of one thing, the theoretical half and the +practical half. Marxism is socialism in theory. Bolshevism +is (perhaps imperfectly as yet) socialism +in practice.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span></p> + +<p>As long as gods dominate the sky and capitalists +prevail upon the earth, the world will be safe for commercial +imperialism, having a small heaven for the few +rich masters and a large hell for the many poor slaves.</p> + +<p>Come over and help us make the world safe for +industrial democracy by banishing the personal, conscious +gods from the sky and the lying, robbing capitalists +from the earth.</p> + +<p>But in coming there is no need for leaving your +church any more than there is for leaving your state. +During the short time which is for me, before the +night cometh in which no man can work, I shall remain +in both as long as the powers that be allow it, +and do what little I can to revolutionize them—revolutionize +the church into a school for the teaching of +truth instead of lies, and revolutionize the state into a +hive for the making of commodities for the use of all +instead of for the profit of a few. In doing this I shall +be following in the very footsteps of the human Jesus.</p> + +<p>After it was discovered that the ground, by planting +and cultivating, would produce the necessities of +life, when a tribe found that it had too little of it for +its growing population, it would go to war with the +weaker among adjacent tribes for the purpose of securing +its territory; but from this on the vanquished +were not eaten, and it was morally wrong to eat them. +They were kept alive and put to work at raising +harvests for their conquerors, hence arose the institution +of slavery, and hence its moral rightness even +in this country of the free, down to the beginning of +the generation to which I belong.</p> + +<p>However, human slavery has never ended, nor will +it ever end while the competitive system for the pro<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span>duction +of the necessities of life for profit rather than +use continues. Human slavery is, so to speak, the +basic ingredient of this system.</p> + +<p>Speaking broadly, there have been three forms of +human slavery—the chattel, feudal and wage slaveries—the +third much worse than the first, and the second +intermediary between them.</p> + +<p>The chattel slave, as the adjective signifies, was the +property of his master, as much so as were the horse +or the mule with which he worked, and he was cared +for in much the same way and for about the same reason.</p> + +<p>The feudal slave was as really a chattel as was his +predecessor, only he had to look out for himself to a +greater extent; and, more was expected from him of +accomplishment for the opulence and glory of the master, +especially insofar as these depended upon the success +of his wars.</p> + +<p>The wage slave is, likewise, as really owned by his +master as was the chattel or the feudal slave; but, if +the master has no need for his service, he is altogether +down and out, as the feudal slave was not and still +less the chattel, and he has accomplished at least ten +times more for his master than did either of his predecessors.</p> + +<p>So far man has produced and distributed the necessities +of life by a competitive system. The existing +form of this competition is known as capitalism. It +has supplanted, or at least overshadowed, every other +form and is, so to speak, monarch of all it surveys.</p> + +<p>The system as it now stands divides the world into +two spheres—a small one, in which a few live surfeitingly +by owning, and a large one, in which the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> +many live starvingly by working; and, yet, ultimately, +absolutely everything for both depends upon the worker +and nothing at all on the owner.</p> + +<p>Yes, the worker is indispensable to the owner, as much +so as (to use the classical illustration) the dog +to the flea; but the owner is no more indispensable to +the worker than a flea to a dog. As dogs would be +much better off without fleas, so would workers without +owners.</p> + +<p>The discovery that the itch is caused by a parasite +was of an epoch making character because it led to +the discovery that many, if not most of the diseases +by which mankind and also animal kind are afflicted +are of a parasitical character. This is as true of the +social organism as of the physical. Capitalism is the +tape worm of society.</p> + +<p>The existence of the master and slave classes inevitably +gives rise to four struggles: (1) the struggle +of the slaves with the master for better conditions, +issuing in rebellions; (2) the struggle between masters +for advantages in markets, issuing in wars; (3) the +struggle between the slaves for jobs, issuing in a body +and soul destroying poverty; and (4) the struggle of +the slaves with the master for a reversal of conditions, +issuing in revolutions.</p> + +<p>All this struggling between the classes and within +them tends towards two results with both classes.</p> + +<p>In the case of the master class, these results are the +making of the rich fewer and the remaining few +richer.</p> + +<p>In the case of the slave class, these results are the +making of the miserable poor more numerous and all +less happy.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span></p> + +<p>While capitalism stands, all talk about peace on +earth and good will among men will be so much hypocrisy; +for, until it falls, the world will be divided +into the slave and master classes and these four contentions +with these results will continue to fill it with +hatred and strife.</p> + + +<h4>II.</h4> + +<p>The overthrow of capitalism in Russia is the greatest +event in the history of the world and it has converted +International Socialism (the Marxian revolutionary +kind) from a theory into a condition.</p> + +<p>Theories come and go. Conditions remain and +work. From this on revolutionary socialism will be +working, night and day, with might and main, here +and there, everywhen and everywhere, and its three +herculean tasks are: (1) to dethrone the great imperialist, +competitive capitalism; (2) to enthrone the +great democrat, co-operative industrialism; and (3) +to make the world safe for an industrial classless democracy.</p> + +<p>In less than three years revolutionary socialism in +Russia has accomplished more of these three tasks for +the world, than all the states and all the churches with +all their wars have done in the whole course of man's +career, extending through at least two hundred thousand +years. Indeed they never did anything to these +ends. On the contrary, what progress has been made +towards them was made in spite of their strenuous +opposition at every step.</p> + +<p>Revolutionary socialism is a world movement towards +the deliverance of the producing slave from the +non-producing master who has robbed him of the +fruits of his toil and left him half dead on the wayside<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span>—the +only effective movement to this humanitarian +end.</p> + +<p>Revolutionary socialism is the Good Samaritan of +the despoiled and wounded laborer. The reformatory +kinds of socialism are so many priests and Levites who +pass by on the other side.</p> + +<p>Of no reformatory socialism is this more true than +of the Christian kind. Christian socialism is absolutely +worthless, and its utter worthlessness is due to +the essentially parasitic character of supernaturalistic +or orthodox Christianity.</p> + +<p>Until the reformation, Christianity was dominated +by monks—parasites who lived by begging, lying, and +persecuting; and since then by capitalists—parasites +who live by robbing, lying and warring.</p> + +<p>Monks and capitalists have this in common, that +they are natives of the realm of parasitism.</p> + +<p>We shall never have peace on earth and good will +among men until we have a parasiteless humanity, +and we must wait for this until we have a classless +world. Parasitism is a boon companion of classism.</p> + +<p>Nor can the earth ever be rid of its parasites until +the celestial world is rid of the class gods which capitalists +have made in their own image and likeness, nor +until the terrestrial world is rid of the class states and +codes, churches and gospels which their respective +class kings or presidents and their class priests or +preachers have had the gods of their making impose +upon this world, in accordance with their interests +and in the furtherance of their lying, robbing, warring +schemes for the promotion of them.</p> + +<p>Neither capitalism nor Christianism is anything except +insofar as it is a system of parasitism and as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> +parasitic systems they have striking resemblances, +nearly as many and close as indistinguishable twins.</p> + +<p>Both have gods, churches and priesthoods and these +are in each case nothing but symbols.</p> + +<p>However, the god of capitalism, though only a symbol, +is nevertheless real gold, below a real vault, and +nearly all the world sincerely worships it.</p> + +<p>But the god of Christianism, though none the less +symbolic, but rather more so, is an unreal imaginary +spirit, a magnified man without a body, above an +imaginary vault, and only a very small part of the +world sincerely worships him.</p> + +<p>International socialism of the Marxian or Russian +type, is for those who starvingly live by working, the +most uplifting thing in the world, and for those who +surfeitingly live by owning, it is the most depressing +thing in the world.</p> + +<p>Wise people consider theories without losing too +much, if any, sleep on their account, but they study +conditions and lie awake nights over them.</p> + +<p>Millions of wise Americans have, in the past, been +studying socialism as a theory but, in the future, they +will study it as a condition, in the only way by which +it can rightly and adequately be studied—the way of +reading its official documents, accredited periodicals +and books. Of all such, the most notable is the +Communist Manifesto by Marx and Engels.</p> + +<p>This Manifesto is the Marxian gospel. I read two +pages in it every day as faithfully as ever I read a +chapter in the Jesuine gospel, and with much greater +profit; for, whereas the gospel of Marx is exclusively +concerned with this terrestrial world, about which I +know much and for which I can do a little, the gospel +of Jesus is as exclusively concerned with a celestial<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> +world, about which I know nothing and for which I +cannot do the least. Here, as a sample of this gospel, +I give half of yesterday's reading and most of today's:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The immediate aim of the Communists (Socialists) +is the same as that of all the other proletarian parties; +formation of the proletariat into a class, overthrow of +the bourgeois supremacy, conquest of political power +by the proletariat.</p> + +<p>The theoretical conclusions of the Communists are +in no way based on ideas or principles that have been +invented, or discovered, by this or that would-be universal +reformer.</p> + +<p>They merely express, in general terms, actual relations +springing from an existing class struggle, from +a historical movement going on under our very eyes. +The abolition of existing property relations is not at +all a distinctive feature of Communism.</p> + +<p>All property relations in the past have continually +been subject to historical change consequent upon the +change in historical conditions.</p> + +<p>The French Revolution, for example, abolished +feudal property in favor of bourgeois property.</p> + +<p>The distinguishing feature of Communism is not +the abolition of property generally, but the abolition +of bourgeois property. But modern bourgeois private +property is the final and most complete expression of +the system of producing and appropriating products, +that is based on class antagonism, on the exploitation +of the many by the few.</p> + +<p>In this sense, the theory of the Communists may be +summed up in the single sentence: Abolition of +private property.</p> + +<p>We Communists have been reproached with the desire +of abolishing the right of personally acquiring +property as the fruit of a man's own labor, which +property is alleged to be the groundwork of all personal +freedom, activity and independence.</p> + +<p>Hard-won, self-acquired, self-earned property! Do<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> +you mean the property of the petty artisan and of the +small peasant, a form of property that preceded the +bourgeois form? There is no need to abolish that; +the development of industry has, to a great extent, +already destroyed it, and is still destroying it daily.</p> + +<p>Or do you mean modern bourgeois private property?</p> + +<p>But does wage-labor create any property for the +laborer? Not a bit. It creates capital, i. e., that kind +of property which exploits wage-labor, and which cannot +increase except upon condition of getting a new +supply of wage-labor for fresh exploitation. Property, +in its present form, is based on the antagonism of +capital and wage-labor. Let us examine both sides +of this antagonism.</p> + +<p>To be a capitalist, is to have not only a purely personal, +but a social status in production. Capital is a +collective product, and only by the united action of +many members, nay, in the last resort, only by the +united action of all members of society, can it be set +in motion.</p> + +<p>Capital is therefore not a personal, it is a social +power.</p> + +<p>When, therefore, capital is converted into common +property, into the property of all members of society, +personal property is not thereby transformed into +social property. It is only the social character of the +property that is changed. It loses its class-character.</p> + +<p>Let us now take wage-labor:</p> + +<p>The average price of wage-labor is the minimum +wage, i. e., that quantum of the means of subsistence, +which is absolutely requisite to keep the laborer in +bare existence, as his labor merely suffices to prolong +and reproduce a bare existence. We by no means intend +to abolish this personal appropriation of the +products of labor, an appropriation that is made for +the maintenance and reproduction of human life, and +that leaves no surplus wherewith to command the +labor of others. All that we want to do away with +is the miserable character of this appropriation, under<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> +which the laborer lives merely to increase capital, and +is allowed to live only insofar as the interest of the +ruling class requires it.</p> + +<p>In bourgeois society, living labor is but a means to +increase accumulated labor. In Communist society, +accumulated labor is but a means to widen, to enrich, +to promote the existence of the laborer.</p> + +<p>In bourgeois society, therefore, the past dominates +the present; in Communist society, the present dominates +the past. In bourgeois society capital is independent +and has individuality, while the living person +is dependent and has no individuality.</p> + +<p>And the abolition of this state of things is called by +the bourgeois, abolition of individuality and freedom! +And rightly so. The abolition of bourgeois individuality, +bourgeois independence, and bourgeois freedom +is undoubtedly aimed at.</p></div> + +<p>The version of the Marxian gospel which we have +in the Manifesto is among the first of its versions. It +was published about the middle of the last century. +Within the short period which has intervened, it has +changed nearly all of the ideas of a large and rapidly +growing part of every nation about almost everything +social; and before the middle of the present century, +it will revolutionize all nations as it has Russia.</p> + +<p>Ludendorff, the greatest among the military authorities +in Germany, saw and terribly feared this, and +called Europe to arms to prevent it. In his almost +frantic appeal he said:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Bolshevism is advancing now and in a gradual +progress from east to west and is crushing everything +between the midland sea and the Atlantic ocean. It +was easy to foresee that the Bolshevist armies would +attack toward the middle of May and defeat the Poles, +as they have now done. The world at large must,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> +therefore, figure with a Bolshevist advance in Poland +toward Berlin and Prague.</p> + +<p>Poland's fall will entail the fall of Germany and +Czecho-Slovakia. Their neighbors to the north and +south will follow. Fate steps along with elementary +force. Let no one believe it will come to a stand +without enveloping Italy, France and England. Not +even the Seven Seas can stop it.</p></div> + +<p>Under the capitalist system most people are and +must continue to be slaves. If you are a slave (all +wage earners, as such, are slaves) the socialist literature, +the greatest of all literatures, will thrill you with +the hope of liberty. Read, note and inwardly digest it. +No wage earner who does this will ever again vote +either the Democratic or the Republican ticket. As a +whole this literature is a brilliantly illuminating and +almost resistlessly persuasive explanation of the most +sane, the most salutary and withal the most promising +movement towards the freeing of all toiling men, women +and children (nine of every ten) from their body and +soul destroying slavery.</p> + +<p>Both Socrates and Jesus are recorded as teaching +that the saviour of the world is truth. Among saving +truths (there is no truth without some saving efficacy) +the greatest is the one which was discovered +and formulated concurrently by Karl Marx and Frederick +Engels and it is in substance this: all which +makes for the good of mankind ultimately depends +wholly upon the laborious constructors and operators +of the machines for the cultivation, production and +distribution of the necessities of life, not at all upon +the owners of these machines, who at best are idlers +and at worst schemers, and in any case parasites.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span></p><div class="blockquot"><p>In the beginning was Work. All things were made +by it; and without it was not anything made that was +made. In it was life; and the life was the light of +men.</p></div> + +<p>The opening verses of the gospel according to John +have been thus interpreted. The commentator acknowledges +that they do not read so now, but contends for +good and sufficient reasons, that, if there ever was any +truth in them, something to this effect must have been +their original reading. Certainly there is no truth in +them as they have come down to us.</p> + +<p>This representation to the effect that productive +labor is the saviour of the world, its real god, the +divinity in which we live, move and have our being, is +the great truth, the gospel of International Socialism, +the greatest of all movements, the movement which +carries the only rational hope for the freeing of mankind +from all its unnecessary suffering—and the most +poignant sufferings, those imposed by the great trinity +of evils: (war, poverty and slavery) are not necessary.</p> + +<p>Capitalism and Christianism are alike not only in +having gods which are symbols, but also in having +great buildings set apart for the worshipping of them.</p> + +<p>The representatives of the god below the vault worship +him in banks under the leadership of a threefold +ministry: presidents, cashiers and bookkeepers.</p> + +<p>The representatives of the god above the vault worship +him in churches under the leadership of a threefold +ministry: bishops, priests and deacons.</p> + +<p>Speaking particularly of Christianity and America +the trouble is not at all with our Brother Jesus and +Uncle Sam divinities, but wholly with what they symbolize, +capitalism—the god of liars, robbers and warriors.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span></p> + +<p>What our Brother Jesus and Uncle Sam should +alike symbolize are the classless divinities: (1) law, +the king of the physical realm, and (2) truth, the +queen of the moral realm.</p> + +<p>Law is what nature does. There is no other law, +and this law is the god of the physical realm. The gods +of the supernaturalistic interpretations of religion +(Jesus, Jehovah, Allah, Buddha, and all the rest) are +personifications, or symbols, of this god, or else they +are superstitions.</p> + +<p>This representation is proved in practice to be true, +on the one hand, by the fact that no one needs to live +with reference to any among those gods, not even the +god, Jesus; and, on the other hand, by the fact that +none who fail to live with reference to this god, law, +lives at all.</p> + +<p>Every act of nature, that is, every physical and psychical +phenomenon which enters into the constitution +of the universe, is a word of the revelation of this god, +and there is no other revelation. All men must constantly +live with reference to it or else immediately +die.</p> + +<p>Truth is the interpretation of this law in the light +of human experience, reason and investigation with +the view of making human life, that of self and of all +who come or can be brought within the range of one's +influence, as long and happy as possible.</p> + +<p>Any one who desires and endeavors rightly to learn, +interpret and live this law to these ends is moral. In +everything is he wholly good and in nothing at all bad.</p> + +<p>Religion is not anything good, except only as it is +a synonym of such morality, and this is equally true +of politics.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span></p> + +<p>War shortens much life and fills more with misery, +hence it is utterly immoral, and this is equally true of +poverty and slavery.</p> + +<p>In what I say here and in some other places about +war being essentially evil, the wars referred to are +those by which the world has been cursed through all +the ages—wars between different groups of owners +with conflicting interests, not the war between owners +and workers which is now on. This war will bless, not +curse, the world, because it is for the emancipation of +the slave class, not for the enrichment of one group +of the masters at the expense of another group, at the +cost of increased misery to all the slaves on both sides.</p> + +<p>If there is any truth in the representation that real +religion and real politics alike consist in desiring and +endeavoring to make terrestrial life (there is no celestial +life of which aught is known) long and happy, +the advocate of war is the worst of heretics against +Christianism and the worst of traitors against Americanism.</p> + +<p>War is a necessary characteristic of vegetables and +animals, because they cannot make and operate machines +for the supplying of their needs.</p> + +<p>Peace is the necessary characteristic of humans, because +they can make and operate machines for the supplying +of their needs.</p> + +<p>Wars between capitalists are inevitabilities, as much +so as the wars between two hungry dogs, when one +has a bone upon which the lives of both depend. The +only difference between capitalists and dogs is, that +dogs do their own fighting, whereas capitalists first +rob the laborers who produce their commodities, and +then persuade or compel them to fight their battles<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> +with fellow capitalists in their competitive efforts to +distribute them.</p> + +<p>On the one hand it is true that a few capitalists do +lose money in wars, and still fewer their lives, but on +the other hand it is equally true that the majority of +them are made richer and that producing and distributing +laborers ultimately bear every cent of the enormous +financial burden, and that for every machine +owning master who is killed or wounded there are a +hundred wage earning slaves.</p> + +<p>Yet neither the making nor operating of machines +constitutes a man a human. It is co-operation which +does this. Nor will co-operation in itself suffice. Bees +and ants co-operate and even capitalists do so, yet with +all their co-operating bees and ants remain animals +and so do capitalists. The co-operation which converts +animals into humans is the one which is purposely +inaugurated and sustained with the view of +securing to each one the fruits of his labor while at the +same time increasing them for all—that deliberate co-operation +which consists in conscious living, letting +live and helping to live.</p> + +<p>It is this co-operation which constitutes the most +essential difference between the animal and the human. +Only animalism can exist and flourish on a competitive +basis, yet this is the basis upon which men +who falsely claim to be humans are living.</p> + +<p>Until mankind begins the construction of a civilization +on a foundation of co-operation in the production +and distribution of the necessities of life, it should not +set up a claim to humanism for itself, because meantime +it cannot sustain such a claim.</p> + +<p>It is perfectly natural and absolutely necessary for +dogs to have belligerent contentions for bones, because<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> +they cannot peacefully co-operate in the making of +them; and yet men who can do this are more fierce by +far in their competitive struggles for the bones which +are necessities to their lives.</p> + +<p>Revolutionary socialists of the Marxian or Bolshevikian +type offer the only solution of the two great +questions of the world at this time: (1) how to save +it from its intermittent and lesser hell of suffering by +the bloody wars between rival sets of capitalists, and +(2) how to save it from its perpetual and greater hell +of suffering by the bloodless wars between the machine +owning masters and the machine operating +slaves, which wars, if less excruciating, are yet more +destructive of both life and happiness.</p> + +<p>1. As to the bloody wars, a league of nations could +prevent them only while the dogs are sleeping off their +exhaustion.</p> + +<p>Nor could government ownership be depended upon +for protection. It would increase the armies and +navies, making it next to impossible that more than a +decade or two should pass before our children must +suffer as much as, or more than, we have by the recent +war between the bull dog and the blood hound.</p> + +<p>We are not at all indebted to the victory of the bull +dog (England) over the blood hound (Germany) for +what we have in the way of a guarantee against future +wars, but wholly to the presumption of the Newfoundland +dog (Russia) which has quietly walked off with +the bone of contention while the belligerents were +scrapping over it.</p> + +<p>Notwithstanding all appearances and impressions to +the contrary, this bone never was really Paris or Berlin, +but first one and then another country—the Balkan +States, Mexico, Persia, Morocco and Russia.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span></p> + +<p>Of late Russia has been the chief bone of contention. +Hence all the snarling against Russian Bolshevism, +one of a large litter of puppies born to the Newfoundland +since the beginning of the war, representatives of +which have already made their way to several countries +of Europe, and the prospects are that they or +their offspring will soon be in evidence everywhere +throughout the world.</p> + +<p>When all these Bolsheviki are grown-ups, they will +make the world safe for democracy sure enough—not +the competitive democracy of the bull dogs and blood +hounds, but the co-operative democracy of the Newfoundland +dog. Then, and not before, will the world +be safe against war.</p> + +<p>Since the beginning of the armistice there has been, +every now and then, a widespread fear that it might +not be permanent, because of a successful effort on the +part of the bull dog to put over another war on account +of the Russian bone; but for many this fear has now +been almost quieted by the total collapse of the Kolchak, +Denikin, Yudenich and Wrangel uprisings from +within, which were strongly supported by the Allies; +and by the repulsion of the Polish invasion which had +England, France and the United States behind it.</p> + +<p>An astonishing illustration of the truth of the Marxian +theory concerning the materialistic or economic +determination of history, is furnished by the melancholy +fact that the representatives of big business in +the allied countries would gladly respond to Gen. +Ludendorff's call to join the junkers, against whom +they so recently fought, in a war against Russia, of +which war Germany would be the battle field. A concerted +effort was made to organize such a war, but the +wisdom learned in the school of the world war by the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> +working-men of all the countries to which the call was +made and their consequent opposition to the effort caused +it to fail.</p> + +<p>2. But great as the suffering of the world is on account +of the bloody wars of capitalists with each other, +it is but a drop in the bucket of sorrow as compared +with its suffering on account of the bloodless wars between +masters and slaves—between the machine owners +and operators. When this bloodless war ceases, +as it will with the triumph of international socialism, +the bloody wars will cease and not until then.</p> + +<p>Under the capitalist system every institution (state, +church, school, legislature, court, business, yes, even +charity) is necessarily a robbing instrumentality by +which a small class of non-producers, fat masters, rob +a large class of producers, lean slaves, and rob them +twice, each time thrice:</p> + +<p>1. The master non-producers rob the slave producers +of the three great necessities of physical (body) +life—food, clothing and houses.</p> + +<p>Even in the United States of America, "the land of +plenty," at this time and at all times, seventy-five out +of every one hundred are insufficiently fed, clothed and +housed.</p> + +<p>2. The master non-producers rob the slave producers +of the necessities of psychical (soul) life—the liberty +to learn the facts of nature, the liberty to humanly +interpret and live them and the liberty to teach their +discoveries and interpretations.</p> + +<p>Even in the United States of America, "the home +of political and religious freedom," there is not one +who can learn, live and teach the truth without danger +of being put out of a synagogue and into a peni<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span>tentiary; +and this will continue until imperialistic +capitalism and supernaturalistic Christianism, the father +and mother of the whole brood of robbers, liars, +persecutors and warriors, have been dethroned.</p> + +<p>The gods of the capitalistic interpretations of politics +and the gods of the supernaturalistic interpretations +of religion, symbolize the same reality, parasitic +robbery.</p> + +<p>Yet within the religious realm the trouble is not +with the Jehovahs any more than within the political +realm it is with the Sams, but only with what they +symbolize.</p> + +<p>For one I should feel that both the religious and political +realms, which are but halves of the same realm—religion +the ideal half, and politics the practical half—would +be poorer without their respective Jehovahs +and Sams, even as the realm of childhood would be +without its Santa Claus.</p> + +<p>If symbols are not absolute necessities to the religious +and political realms, nevertheless they always +have been, now are and probably ever shall be ornaments +of them; I hope for their continuance, but as +subjectivities, not objectivities.</p> + +<p>All the imperialistic interpretations of politics and +all the supernaturalistic interpretations of religion must +be overthrown, else the world will be lost. The omnipotent, +omnipresent saviour who can and will deliver +us from them is already in the world. His name +is International Communism, the greatest and holiest +name which has ever been framed and pronounced; +and the gospel of this saviour as it is translated by +Thomas Carlyle is written on every wall so that it +may be read by all:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Understand that well, it is the deep commandment, +dimmer or clearer, of our whole being, to be freed. +Freedom is the one purpose, wisely aimed at, or unwisely, +of all man's struggles, toilings, and sufferings, +on this earth.</p></div> + +<p>Morality is the greatest thing in the world because +without it human life would not be worth the living, +or even possible; but, paradoxical as the assertion may +seem, freedom or liberty is greater because without it +morality would be an impossibility.</p> + +<p>One can attain to the very highest standard of +morality, religion and sainthood without the least +necessity of the slightest reference to what the gods +of the supernaturalistic religions said or did, and this +is quite as true of Jesus as of any other among such +gods, but no man can reach even the lowest standard +of morality, and so of course not of religion or sainthood, +without constant reference to the god of truth.</p> + +<p>Yet there is a difference between a law and a truth. +The law is a doing or act of nature, and as such it is a +fact or revelation. There are no other facts or revelations.</p> + +<p>According to the traditional superstitious conception, +a truth is the revelation of the will of a god, involving +a service to be rendered directly or indirectly +to him, and morality consists in a fulfillment of it.</p> + +<p>According to the modern scientific conception, a +truth is the interpretation of a fact involving a service +to be rendered to men. On the scientific theory each +man must have what truth he has, either by his own +interpretation or by the adoption for himself of another's +interpretation.</p> + +<p>No man can live the moral part of his psychical +(soul) life on the truth of another any more than he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> +can live his physical (body) life on the meals of another. +Every one must have his own truths, even as +he must have his own meals.</p> + +<p>Hence the necessity of freedom to morality. Hence, +too, the impossibility of the moral life under restraint, +such as is imposed by orthodox churches in their official +dogmas, and such as is imposed by belligerent +states in their espionage laws.</p> + +<p>Capitalism is essentially competitive and therefore +necessarily belligerent in character: hence a complete, +an ideal moral life is an utter impossibility under it, +but even the little of moral life which otherwise might be +possible is lessened to one-half by official dogmas and +espionage laws; if, then, the governments of churches +and nations have any regard for the morality of their +memberships and citizenships they will at once repeal +them, and never enact others.</p> + +<p>The democracy which means freedom to learn the +laws of the physical realm of nature and to interpret +them into laws for the regulation of human life (a +democracy which will secure to each one the longest +and happiest life which, under the most favorable of +conditions, would be within the range of possibilities +for him) must wait until the competitive system of +capitalism for the production and distribution of the +necessities has been universally and completely supplanted +by the co-operative system of socialism.</p> + +<p>The conclusion of the whole matter, as it is well put +by an able contributor to the excellent Proletarian, is +this:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>What is needed is a complete revolution of the +economic system. Private ownership of the tools of +wealth production stands in the way of further peaceful +social development and private ownership must be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> +eliminated. The capitalists themselves will not eliminate +it. That is certain. It remains for the working +class to do so. In order to accomplish this task it will +be necessary for the workers to take control of the +institution by which the capitalists maintain their +ownership of the tools of production—the political +state. That is the historic mission of the working +class. The mission of the Socialist is to organize and +train the workers for this "conquest of political +power."</p></div> + +<p>Among the signs of the times which unmistakably +point to the great day of the happy consummation of +the movement towards the proletarian revolution, and +the glorious sky is full of them, is the fact that the +world has recently learned from the great war that +man must work out his own salvation without the +least help from the gods of the supernaturalistic interpretations +of religion:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And that inverted Bowl they call the Sky,</span> +<span class="i0">Whereunder crawling coop'd we live and die,</span> +<span class="i0">Lift not your hands to It for help—for It</span> +<span class="i0">As impotently moves as you or I.</span> +</div> <div class="stanza"> +<span class="right">—Omar.</span> +</div></div> + +<p>Yes, and a god moves more impotently than a man; +for, whereas the god is driven hither and thither by +the laws of matter and force, according to which they +co-exist and co-operate through evolutionary processes +to the making of the universe what it is, and the god +cannot help himself by making it or conditioning himself +otherwise, the man, if only he will learn those +laws, may combine, guide and ride them to almost any +predetermined destination, even out of the class hell +of competitive capitalism to the classless heaven of +co-operative socialism.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span></p> +<h4>III.</h4> + +<p>The salvation of the world from its unnecessary +sufferings is dependent upon such an equitable sharing +of the labor involved in the making and operating of +the machines of production and distribution, and upon +such an equitable sharing of the products as shall issue +in a classless mankind by doing away, through a revolution, +with the class which lives by owning the means +and machines of production and distribution.</p> + +<p>It is this advocacy of classless levelism which constitutes +the theoretical core of revolutionary socialism. +Those who oppose this socialism proceed upon the +assumption of the permanency of existing religious +and political institutions, the most ruinous of all +heresies.</p> + +<p>What this heresy is and the fatal policy to which it +gives rise has its classic expression, so far as religion +is concerned, in the exhortation—"earnestly contend +for the faith once for all delivered to the saints"—and, +so far as politics is concerned, in the representation—"the +laws of the Medes and Persians which altereth +not."</p> + +<p>There is no such faith in religion, and cannot be, for +as a creed becomes stereotyped it loses the religious +character and degenerates into superstition.</p> + +<p>There are no such laws in politics, and cannot be, +for as a law becomes stereotyped it loses the political +character and degenerates into tyranny.</p> + +<p>Religion, which is the ideal half, and politics, which +is the practical half, of the same reality, human socialism, +are like all else in the universe, constantly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> +changing, and necessarily so, because life and progress +are dependent upon change.</p> + +<p>Orthodoxy in religion and politics is the blight of +the ages, because of its assumption that the great institutions, +the family, state and church with their customs, +laws and doctrines, as they exist for the time +being, constitute the foundation of society, without +which it could not exist; that these institutions are +almost if not altogether what they should be, and that, +therefore, the welfare of society, if not indeed its +existence, is dependent upon their continuance with +but little if any change.</p> + +<p>But the foundation of society always has been a +system for the production and distribution of the +necessities of life, and hence social institutions, customs, +laws and creeds are what they are at any time +because an economic system is what it is.</p> + +<p>If we compare an economic system for the production +of the primary necessities of life (foods, +clothes and houses) to a king or bishop (we may +well do so, for in all ages such systems have been +the power behind every regal and episcopal throne) +we shall see that states, with their rulers, codes and +police, armies and jails; and churches, with their gods, +revelations, heavens and hells, are but so many expediencies +for the protection of the system from +change.</p> + +<p>What is true in this respect of the state and church +is equally so of the family, the school, the press, the +lodge, the club, the library, the theater, the chautauqua +and, in short, every institution.</p> + +<p>Why all these age-long safeguards against change? +Because, so far, every economic system has divided<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> +society into two classes, a comparatively small class +who own things and a large one who make things, +and if the few honest owners are to hold their own +as divinely favored "grab-it-alls," they must be protected +at every point against the many dishonest +makers who are diabolically tempted to be "keep-somes!"</p> + +<p>These rounded out children of god have nothing in +common with these caved in imps of the devil, no +more than the flea and the dog, or the tapeworm and +the man.</p> + +<p>David hastily said: All men are liars. He might +leisurely have said this of every representative of any +religious or political orthodoxy, for they insist that +their religion and politics are the permanent elements +in social truth which remain unchanged from +generation to generation through all ages, whereas no +religion or politics continues the same during one decade, +nor even a single year.</p> + +<p>Orthodox Christians say that Jesus founded their +sectarian churches, though each sect insists that he +had to do with only one church, theirs. I doubt that +he lived. In any case, I am certain that if he did +live and founded a church in the first century and +were to come to earth again in this twentieth century, +he could not if he would and would not if he +could become a member of it, because of its changes.</p> + +<p>Our own country is different by the width of the +whole space of the heavens from what it was before +the war, and it is destined to a much wider change.</p> + +<p>So far are churches with their doctrines, and states +with their laws from being changeless, that they are +more or less modified by every development in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> +economic system to which they owe their existence +and of which they are servants.</p> + +<p>In the case of every nation its king, the economic +system, has always been a robber and enslaver of the +overwhelming majority of the people, and the church +and state have been the hands by which he accomplished +the robbing and enslaving.</p> + +<p>Insofar as they differ, Roman orthodoxy is what +it is because of its starting out as the religious +product of the feudal system of economics; and +Protestant orthodoxy is what it is because of its +starting out as the religious product of the capitalistic +system of economics.</p> + +<p>Protestantism is preferred before Romanism by +most of the leading people in the financial world, because +it is the child of capitalism, their sister, so to +speak, whereas its rival is only a cousin.</p> + +<p>As to the Roman and Protestant orthodoxies they +are on the same footing. I would not turn my hand +over for the difference between them. If literally +interpreted in the light of modern science, both are +utterly antiquated and irrational.</p> + +<p>Orthodox Romanists and Protestants have essentially +the same bible and creed. In my opinion, +as in that of all Marxian and Darwinian socialists, +every supernaturalistic representation in both must +be regarded as having either a figurative or a +superstitious character, for there is not one among +them which can endure a scientific and rational +analysis; yet, this is an age of science and reason.</p> + +<p>The difference between Romanism and Protestantism +is not at all a question of relative supernaturalism, +nor of rightness and wrongness, but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> +wholly one of the difference between the systems of +economics which gave them birth.</p> + +<p>If you ask, is not this difference at least partly a +question of the age in which they took their rise, I +reply, yes; but the age itself depends upon the system.</p> + +<p>However, it is a fact that while an economic system +does constitute the foundation of every religious +and political superstructure, yet below the +foundation itself there is always a bed rock upon +which it ultimately rests, and this is a question +of machinery by which the necessities of life are produced +and distributed.</p> + +<p>The age of feudalism was essentially traditional or +theoretical in its character.</p> + +<p>The age of capitalism is essentially scientific or +experimental in its character.</p> + +<p>This difference between these ages is due to the +fact that during the earlier age things were made with +hand tools, and during the later one with machine +tools.</p> + +<p>Machinery in a theoretical or traditional age would +be an anachronism. It must have an experimental or +scientific age for its development, and, paradoxical as +it may seem, this the machinery must make for itself. +Every period in human history has had its +determining character from the tools which brought +it into being.</p> + +<p>Supernaturalism has no place in the observations, +investigations or experimentations which are necessary +to the invention, construction and operation of +a great machine and, hence, the machines have +banished the gods from the roof of the earth and the +devils from its cellar, leaving it to us to make of it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> +what we please, a heaven or a hell without reference +to them. In his brilliant work entitled "Social and +Philosophical Studies", translated by Charles H. Kerr, +Paul Lafargue writes:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The labour of the mechanical factory puts the wage-worker +in touch with terrible natural forces unknown +to the peasant, but instead of being mastered by them +he controls them. The gigantic mechanism of iron +and steel which fills the factory, which makes him +move like an automaton, which sometimes clutches +him, bruises him, mutilates him, does not engender +in him a superstitious terror as the thunder does in +the peasant, but leaves him unmoved, for he knows +that the limbs of the mechanical monster were +fashioned and mounted by his comrades, and that he +has but to push a lever to set it in motion or stop it. +The machine, in spite of its miraculous power and +productiveness, has no mystery for him. The labourer +in the electrical works, who has but to turn a crank +on a dial to send miles of motive power to tramways, +or light the lamps of a city, has but to say, like the +God of Genesis, "let there be light," and there is light. +Never sorcery more fantastic was imagined, yet for +him this sorcery is a simple and natural thing. He +would be greatly surprised if one were to come and +tell him that a certain god might, if he chose, stop the +machines and extinguish the lights when the electricity +had been turned on; he would reply that this +anarchistic god would be simply a misplaced gearing +or a broken wire, and that it would be easy for him +to seek and find this disturbing god. The practice of +the modern factory teaches scientific determinism to +the wage-worker, without it being necessary for him +to pass through the theoretic study of the sciences.</p></div> + +<p>Earth must be a hell as long as we allow the +capitalist system to continue on it and to enslave the +vast majority of its inhabitants. Marxian socialism<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> +will ring out the old era with its hell of human +slavery and ring in the new era with its heaven of +machine slavery.</p> + +<p>One point must be grasped and held by all who +would understand the changes which take place +within the social realm and it is this: they are due +to the differences in the instrumentalities or machines +by which the necessities of life are produced.</p> + +<p>Man has risen above the lower animals which have +common ancestors with his own, because of the +superiority of the hand by which he does things to +the hands by which they do things. If a man's body +in general and hand in particular were not a great +improvement over the bodies and hands of the apes, +his mind and morality would differ but little from +theirs.</p> + +<p>The superiority of the civilization of this age over +its predecessors is a question of instrumentalities by +which the efficiency of the hand is increased.</p> + +<p>If all the modern machinery were taken from this +generation and replaced by the implements of the +stone age the civilization of the next generation would +begin to sink, and within a century it would reach +the ancient level.</p> + +<p>Strong expression is also given to the great truth +upon which we are here dwelling by the Socialist +Party of Great Britain in its noteworthy Manifesto:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Obviously, in order that there may be ideas and +human history, two material things must first be +present: human beings, and food and shelter for them. +And the fundamental fact that is so seldom realized +is, that where, by what means, and how much, food +and shelter can be obtained, determines if, where, and +how, man shall live, and the forms his social institutions +and ideas shall take.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span></p> + +<p>It is, indeed, the very basis of Socialist philosophy +that, in the words of Frederick Engels:</p> + +<p>"In every historical epoch the prevailing mode of +economic production and exchange, and the social +organization necessarily following from it, form the +basis upon which is built up, and from which, alone +can be explained, the political and intellectual history +of that epoch."</p> + +<p>This materialist concept is the Socialist key to history. +It is the first principle of a science of society, +and, being directly antagonistic to all religious philosophy, +it is destined to drive this "philosophy" and +all its superstitions from their last ditch.</p></div> + +<p>Civilization will not die with the death of the +capitalist system of production any more than it did +with the feudal system. It improved under capitalism, +because of the improvement in the machinery of production, +and it is destined to continue its progress +so long as new and better machines are made and +this will be to the end.</p> + +<p>Marxian socialism is a machine optimism. Under +this socialism the number and efficiency of machines +would increase more rapidly than they have under +capitalism and feudalism, because its aim will be +the production of commodities for use within the +shortest time by the least exertion at the slightest +risk of injury.</p> + +<p>Up to the point of over production, that is, of glutting +the markets, it is to the interest of capitalism to +encourage improvements in machinery, but the +ability to do this has been reached, as is evident +from what we hear at increasingly frequent intervals +about an over production of commodities.</p> + +<p>What machinery we now have renders it possible +to produce more commodities than can be sold with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span>out +employing all the labor power. But the idle, +starving slave is a danger to the idle, surfeiting master. +Hence, under capitalism there can be no further +development of machinery, at least not on a large +scale.</p> + +<p>An industrial government would have for its aim +to produce enough of everything for all with the least +expenditure of energy and time. Hence, the greatest +benefactors and heroes under socialism would be the +inventors of labor saving, leisure giving machinery.</p> + +<p>We hear much about the mental superiority of the +representatives of the master class over those of the +slave class, but there is little or no truth in it.</p> + +<p>On the contrary, it can be shown that the invention +of a great labor saving, rapid-producing machine is, +upon the whole, the greatest triumph of the human +mind and that nearly all among such machines are +invented, made, operated, kept in order and improved +by the laborer.</p> + +<p>Masters may be more cunning than slaves, but +cunningness is not an evidence of a high order of +intellectual power. Many of the lower animals are +quite the equals, if not indeed the superiors, of +capitalists in this quality, but no animal is the equal +of any man, not to speak of the exceptionally skilled +laborer, in the power to produce efficient machines +for the production and distribution of the necessities +of life.</p> + +<p>Romanism began its career as a child of the feudal +system for the production and distribution of commodities +for the profit of the owners of the land and +the means for its cultivation. The mission to which +it was born was the assistance of its father, feudalism, +in robbing and enslaving the workers who tilled the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> +soil, and never did a servant more faithfully or +efficiently perform a task during a longer period.</p> + +<p>Protestantism began its career as a child of the +capitalistic system for the production and distribution +of commodities for the profit of the owners of the +means and machines for their manufacturing. The +mission to which it was born was the assistance of +its father, capitalism, in robbing and enslaving the +workers, who make and operate the machines, and +never did a servant more faithfully and efficiently perform +a task in a larger or more fruitful field.</p> + +<p>Hitherto all systems of economics have had the +same soul, competition; and, because of it, every one +among them has been a diabolical trinity of which +lying is the father; robbing is the son, who proceeds +from the father; and murder is the spirit, who proceeds +from the father and the son.</p> + +<p>Labor, "the certain man" of every nation, is half +dead lying in the ditch by the wayside, despoiled and +wounded, the victim of capitalism, the greatest liar, +robber and murderer of all the ages.</p> + +<p>The church is the archangel or prime minister +through which this Beelzebub, capitalism, has done +most of his lying, though within the last hundred +years the business has become so great that the office +of coadjutor to this archangel was created, and the +press appointed to it.</p> + +<p>The state is the archangel or prime minister through +which this prince of devils, capitalism, has done most +of his robbing and killing, though the church has +often taken a helpful hand in these departments of +the devil's work, the great work of converting earth +into a hell.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span></p> + +<p>Nearly all of the backwardness of the world and +more than half of its unnecessary sufferings have been +due to efforts to prevent changes in religion and +politics. Our nation is passing through the darkest +period of its history because of such efforts on the +part of the powers which be in the state, and they +are supported by those in the church.</p> + +<p>Speaking of the change with which we are here +especially concerned, the one involved in the supplanting +of an old economic system by a new, there +have been several revolutions due to such changes, +and another is inevitable and imminent.</p> + +<p>When an economic system fails, as the capitalistic +one is failing, to feed, clothe and house the workers +of the world who produce all foods, clothes and +houses, the time when it must give place to another +is manifestly near at hand.</p> + +<p>Capitalism is failing in this, the only legitimate +mission of an economic system. It has indeed over-supplied +the needs of about one in ten, but in doing +this it has shown partiality, for the remaining nine +are left more or less foodless, clotheless and houseless, +and this notwithstanding they have done all the +feeding, clothing and housing. Those favored by the +system will not be able to prevent its overthrow by +those who are wronged.</p> + +<p>With our materials, factories, railroads and skill, +all should have enough and to spare of every necessity, +but so far is this from being the case that millions +are insufficiently fed, clothed, housed and warmed, +and are doomed to a perpetual and exhaustive +drudgery which leaves neither leisure nor energy for +the cultivation of their soul life.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span></p> + +<p>The economical and statistical experts of our +government's Department of Labor represent that +the bare necessities of a comfortable and efficient life +for a family of five require an annual income of +$1,500, and that the simple luxuries, which are next +to being indispensable, require an additional $1,000, +in all $2,500, per year.</p> + +<p>How many American families of five have even the +smaller of these sums at their disposal? The overwhelming +majority have less than $1,000. Let us be +honest with the peoples of other nations by ceasing +to speak of our country as "the land of plenty and +the home of the free," until there is a great change +for the better.</p> + +<p>Wage slavery may be prolonged by a military +coercion but it cannot have a successor in any other +form of human slavery. Military coercion prolonged +chattel slavery, and by so doing brought what is +known as the dark ages upon the world. If wage +slavery is to be prolonged by military coercion the +world must pass through a second dark age. The +league of nations is fixing for this; but let us hope +that this coalition will not stand and that wage +slavery will soon be followed by machine slavery, the +form of slavery which will end human slavery; not +until then shall we have peace on earth and good will +among men.</p> + +<p>Then they shall beat their swords into plowshares, +and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not +lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn +war any more.</p> + +<p>Do you not now see with me that the christ of the +world is not a conscious, personal god, but an un<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span>conscious, +impersonal machine? It is the machine +of man, not a lamb of god, to which we may hopefully +look for the taking away of the sins of the +world.</p> + +<p>Ignorance is the great misfortune of the world, its +devil, and slavery is his hell. The machine is the +redeemer who shall save man from this devil and +hell.</p> + +<p>Yes, strange, even blasphemous, as the representation +may seem, it is nevertheless true, the machine +is the only name given under heaven whereby the +world can be saved.</p> + +<p>Civilization is salvation. The civilization which +is salvation depends on leisure and it on slavery, but +so long as leisure is dependent upon the slavery of +man, civilization must be limited to a diminishing +few.</p> + +<p>Marxian socialism is a movement towards the +equalization and universalization of leisure by doing +away with the master and slave classes, through +transference of slavery from man to machine.</p> + +<p>If there is any truth in my naturalistic representation +about the dependence of morality upon a system +for the production of the necessities of life, there +is none in the supernaturalistic one, which makes it +dependent on any among the gods; and, what is true +of the realm of morality is equally so of the realm of +history, and this whether it be the history of the +universe in general or man in particular.</p> + +<p>Lavoisier and Mayer showed that no god (Jesus, +Jehovah, Allah, Buddha) created the universe out of +nothing, for the matter and force which enter into its +constitution are eternalities and universalities.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span></p> + +<p>Kant and Laplace showed that the earth and the +heavenly bodies were not created by any god at all, +but evolved from gaseous nebulae.</p> + +<p>Kepler and Newton showed that these bodies were not +governed in their motions by a god but by the law +of gravitation.</p> + +<p>Darwin and Wallace showed that the species of +animal and vegetable life were not created by any +among the gods, but evolved from a common protoplasm.</p> + +<p>Marx and Engels showed that man's career has not +been determined by any among the gods, but by his +systems for producing and distributing the necessities +of life.</p> + +<p>These ten men are the greatest teachers the world +has had, and this is the sum of all their great teachings: +The universe is self-existing, self-sustaining +and self-governing, having all the potentialities of its +own life within itself, and what is true of it in general +is equally so of all the phenomena which enter into +its constitution, including man; who, though he is +the highest among them, is only a phenomenon, on a +level with all the rest, not excepting the lowest. A +microbe and a man are on the same footing, both as +to their origin and destiny, and as to their having +within themselves all power which is available for +making the most of their respective lives.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"We are part</span> +<span class="i0">Of every rock and bird and beast and hill,</span> +<span class="i0">One with the things that prey on us,</span> +<span class="i0">And one with what we kill."</span> +</div></div> + +<p>Darwinism and Marxism constitute one gospel, the +only true, comprehensive and sufficient gospel which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> +the world has ever had or can have, and there is no +hope for the future of mankind except in it. If it +fails the world is lost, but it shall not and indeed cannot +fail, for its words are so many acts or facts of +nature.</p> + +<p>There is no fact which is not such an act, and every +such fact is a part of the one only law upon the +knowing and doing of which terrestrial life and its +happiness are wholly and solely dependent.</p> + +<p>Yes, life, long life, happy life, all there is of such +human life, or divine life, (if there be any), depends +entirely upon a knowledge of and conformity to this +law which is the doing of nature, and not at all upon +any law which is the willing of a god, if indeed there +is such a law.</p> + +<p>Neither the religion nor the politics which enters +into the constitution of Marxian or proletarian +socialism is at all concerned about the heaven above +or the hell below the earth, if there are such places: +but the concern of both is wholly to ring out a hell +from the earth and to ring in a heaven upon it.</p> + +<p>Nor have the religion and politics which constitute +this socialism the least concern about the service of +a celestial divinity (Jesus, Jehovah, Allah, Buddha or +any other) by doing his will; but both are much concerned +with the service of humanity, which consists +in rightly learning, interpreting and using the laws +of nature, wholly for the purpose of making the +terrestrial lives of men, women and children as long +and happy as possible, and with absolutely no +reference to any celestial life which may be either +above or below the earth.</p> + +<p>Religion and politics are the complementary and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> +inseparable halves of the social sphere, religion being +its idealism and politics its practicalism.</p> + +<p>Religious idealism is a social soul of which the +church should be the embodiment.</p> + +<p>Political practicalism is a social soul of which the +state should be the embodiment.</p> + +<p>Contrary to the representations of orthodox +Christianism it is impossible for any soul to exist +without an embodiment.</p> + +<p>In truth the body produces the soul, not the soul +the body. We must have the church and state in +order that we may have their souls, idealism and +practicalism.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Why, if the Soul can fling the Dust aside</span> +<span class="i0">And naked on the Air of Heaven ride,</span> +<span class="i0">Were't not a Shame—were't not a Shame for him</span> +<span class="i0">In this clay carcass crippled to abide?</span> +</div> <div class="stanza"> +<span class="right">—Omar.</span> +</div></div> + +<h4>IV.</h4> + +<p>The church and the state are on the same level as +to their origin and importance. Both are human institutions +and each is indispensable to the other. It +is not at all desirable or possible to rid the world of +either, but it is absolutely necessary that both should +be revolutionized, the church by having its bible and +creed rewritten or at least reinterpreted, on the basis +of truth as it is revealed by nature, and the state by +having its institutions reorganized on the basis of +service to all instead of only to those of a small class, +the owner or master class.</p> + +<p>All the idealistic aims of churches and all the +practical undertakings of states should be directly +concerned with the answer to three questions: (1)<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> +the question as to how to reach the goal where +terrestrial life shall in the case of each man, woman +and child be as long and happy as it is within the +range of possibilities to make it, by the fullest of +attainable knowledge concerning the laws of nature; +(2) the question as to how to make the most successful +endeavor universally to disseminate such knowledge, +and (3) the question as to how resistlessly to +persuade to the living of it.</p> + +<p>These are the only concerns and aims of Marxian +socialism and they cannot be promoted or even +avowed by Christian socialists.</p> + +<p>The great crime of the ages is the robbing of the +producer of the basic necessities of human life by the +non-producer.</p> + +<p>Capitalism is the robber, and the politics and religion +of the old states and churches are the right and +left hands by which he has been and is doing the +robbing.</p> + +<p>Marxian socialism is an undertaking which has for +its task the overthrow of the system which makes it +possible for those who produce nothing to live +surfeitingly, and renders it necessary for those who +produce everything to live starvingly.</p> + +<p>Poverty is a disease caused by the unjust wage +system of competitive capitalism for producing and +distributing the necessities of life (food, clothing and +shelter) for the profit of capitalists, the few who live +by owning the materials and machines of production +and distribution; and this blighting malady cannot +be cured by charity, but it will spread until this system +is supplanted by the just one of co-operative +industrialism, a system by which these necessities shall<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> +be produced and distributed for the use of laborers, +those who live by making and operating the machines.</p> + +<p>Every gift to charity by a rich man is a robbery of +a poor man. You will not see this at once, if ever, +and I shall not blame you for the failure to do so. It +was not seen by me until I was much older than you; +but I am now seeing it as clearly as I ever saw the +sun on a cloudless noonday, and this is true of rapidly +growing millions who are resolutely resolved to do +away with the prevailing conception of charity, according +to which capitalists may rob laborers of the +fruit of their toil, giving them of it barely enough to +keep body and soul together and to raise up children +who are doomed to follow in their footsteps; and +then, when the strength of their victim fails, to make +amends for the robberies, by giving the most highly +favored among them beds in hospitals, poor-houses +in which to die prematurely, and nameless graves in +potter's fields in which to await hopefully a resurrection +and ascension to an inheritance of happiness in a +sky, which was denied them on the earth.</p> + +<p>The time is at hand when everywhere the unemployed +and the underpaid shall begin a resistless march towards +the goal of economic levelism under a banner containing +this slogan: We want no charity but the right to +work and the fruits of our labors that we and our helpless +dependents may have every necessity to the fullest +life for body and soul.</p> + +<p>During more than a whole generation Mrs. Brown +and I have not produced a spoonful of any food, +a thread of any garment or a shingle of any +house; and yet we have had foods, garments and +houses in abundance with some to spare, while their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> +producers have had them in scarcity with much to +want.</p> + +<p>While the world war was on, an ill wind for the +producers blew a thousand dollars to us and an ill +wind for us blew it into the hands of a committee, +ostensibly for investment on behalf of a hospital of +which we approved, but really for the purchase of a +bond in the interest of a war of which we disapproved.</p> + +<p>The fathers of the present generation of producers +and distributors of the necessities of life were robbed +in order that we might inherit the property from +which our income is derived; the sons and daughters +are being robbed over and over again and again, year +after year, in order that the property may continue +to yield this income to us.</p> + +<p>We therefore paid nothing of our own for this +bond. What we gave for it was of the spoils which +the great robber, capitalism, has bestowed upon us, +its favorite children, from what it has taken from its +unfortunate victims.</p> + +<p>The same persons or their children and successors +were or shall be robbed first to create our +property, then to pay the income of it, next to buy +the bond, and now they are being robbed to meet the +interest on it and finally they will be robbed to pay +its face value. If capitalism stands, of course the +victims of the last of these robberies will belong, +probably, to a remote generation; but this delay is a +misfortune in store for many of all intervening +generations.</p> + +<p>If the robbery connected with this bond were +limited to its original cost, one thousand dollars, and +to its accruing interest, which is likely in time to ag<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span>gregate +several thousand dollars, it would indeed be +bad enough, yet not nearly as much so as it is under the +melancholy circumstances; for the money paid on +account of the bond goes towards killing or wrecking +its producers, if not those who produced this particular +thousand dollars, yet others of their class to +whom the world owes all of its wealth; therefore the +thousand dollars which went into this bond has been +devoted to the robbery of those who were robbed of +it and of the most precious of all things: life and limb.</p> + +<p>You will ask: how can you and Mrs Brown, in the +face of your theory, according to which all who live +by owning are robbers of those who live by working, +consistently receive and expend the income of your +inheritance?</p> + +<p>The answer was given to a friend who asked us why +we did not follow the heroic example of a young American +who had recently renounced what had been inherited +by him, and this is, in effect, what we said:</p> + +<p>As we look at the question, our course is more +rational than his, because the wealth which he renounces +may go to some one who is without his +sympathy for the proletariat. We prefer to receive +our inheritance and use it to overthrow the economic +system which makes it possible for us to do nothing +and have everything, and for those who do everything +to have nothing.</p> + +<p>Capitalists, as such, people who live by the owning +of the machines of production and distribution, instead +of by the making and operating of them, have +much to say against the alleged anarchism of +socialists and yet they are necessarily what they +accuse anarchism of being, robbers and murderers.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> +Every cent of profit, interest and rent is so much robbing, +and all wars are so many conflicts between the +capitalistic bandits or robbers in the countries involved, +and the peace conferences, which follow them, are so +many attempts of the bandits on the successful side to +have the spoils as large as possible, and to satisfactorily +divide them.</p> + +<p>It is Holy Week 1921. The week in which during +all the years of many and long ages benighted +people sacrificed their Christs to Shylock gods. If +Jesus lived and was a Christ, unhappily He was +neither the first nor the last, for there were many +both before and after Him. Were they who superstitiously +led these victims to their Golgothas greater +sinners against humanity than those who did +avariciously during the war drive large armies of +young men to the terrible trenches, a wholesale sacrifice +of the lords of power and wealth and who do now +drive the vast majority of the nations involved in that +war to a terrible body and soul destroying poverty and +slavery? No. The modern robbers even more than +the ancient ones are in need of the prayer: Forgive +them for they know not what they do.</p> + +<p>Communism and Christianism have, indeed, this in +common, that their object is to promote life, long life, +and happy life, both lives in a large and full measure, +pressed down, shaken together and running over.</p> + +<p>Yet, with this sameness in the gospels of Communism +and Christianism there is this difference in the aims +of the christs who preached them, which separate them +as widely as the east is from the west, leaving a great +and impassable gulf between them.</p> + +<p>Marx, the christ of the Communist gospel, said: I am<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> +come that the world might have terrestrial life for +body, mind and soul, and have it for each in the +fullest of possible measures by co-operation with each +other in the discovery of the laws of nature and in +making them serve men, women and children by +securing for them food, clothing, shelter, health and +comfort for the body, and leisure for the mind to think +and for the soul to grow.</p> + +<p>Jesus, the christ of the Christian gospel, according +to orthodoxy, said: I am come that ye might have +celestial life for mind, body and soul and have it for +each in the largest and fullest possible measure by +co-operation in persuading each other in particular +and the world in general to receive a revelation of +the will of a conscious, personal God, made through +prophets, preserved in the bible and interpreted by +the church.</p> + +<p>With me it is a melancholy but resistless and +deepening conviction, that, if orthodox Christianism +should become associated with Marxian socialism, as +Kingsley and you would associate them, we should +soon have a glaring illustration of the truth of two +proverbs: a house divided against itself cannot +stand; and no man can serve two masters.</p> + +<p>Moreover, I believe that if Christian socialism were +to become a door to Marxian socialism, through which +orthodox Christianism could enter and make itself +at home, the revolutionary aims of the slave class +would be thwarted and the world would enter upon +a new dark age, as it did when Constantine was converted +to Christianity and Christians became the +most loyal citizens and valiant soldiers of the Empire.</p> + +<p>At that time chattel slavery had run its course as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> +wage slavery has now; and, if it had not been prolonged +by a military despotism, as I fear this may +be, the world would have had something of the +feudal slavery, but nothing of the dark age. This +age was the baneful fruit of Christianism. Christianity +has held the world back from civilization instead of +advancing it towards civilization.</p> + +<p>The Christianization of Marxian communism, in accordance +with the program of Kingsley and our +Church Socialist League, would spell another military +despotism for the prolongation of a second system of +slavery, which has run its course and is in a fair way +of being overthrown; but if the revolutionists fail, +as the result of being trampled under the iron heel, +we are at the threshold of a second dark age and +shall soon be passing through all the miseries of it.</p> + +<p>My interest in the movement within our church +looking towards a Christian socialism of a more +radical and revolutionary type would be great, if only +I could feel as I should so much like, that the +Christian socialism to which you have consecrated +the whole prime of your life, and the Marxian +socialism, to which I have consecrated all of the little +that remains of mine, the fag-end, are not utter incompatibilities, +so much so that it is absolutely impossible +that they can co-exist and co-operate to any +good purpose.</p> + +<p>The irreconcilable incompatibility of Christian +socialism and Marxian socialism is due to the fact +that, whereas the Christian is essentially imperialistic +in its character, the Marxian is as essentially democratic. +The reason for this fundamental and ineradicable difference, +and the consequent incompatibleness, is the fact<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> +that orthodoxism, whether Christian, Jewish, Mohammedan +or Buddhistic, is nothing unless it is supernaturalistic +and traditional; and Marxism is nothing +unless it is naturalistic and scientific, as much so as is +Darwinism.</p> + +<p>In order that you may see the reason, as I understand +it, for this wide, deep and bridgeless difference, +I draw the following contrasts between the essential +beliefs of Marxian socialists and orthodox Christians:</p> + +<p>1. Marxian socialism is essentially naturalistic. +Orthodox Christianism is essentially supernaturalistic. +The consistent socialist says: I have all the potentialities +of my own life within myself. The consistent +Christian says: My strength is from God.</p> + +<p>2. Marxian socialism is essentially classless. +Orthodox Christianism is essentially a class system +by which the world is divided into two classes, saints +and sinners. The consistent socialist says: Every man +is my brother. The consistent Christian (like the +theist of every name—Jew, Mohammedan, Buddhist +and the rest) says: Every true believer is my brother, +but those who are not are only potential brethren.</p> + +<p>3. Marxian socialism is essentially terrestrial. +Orthodox Christianism is essentially celestial. The +consistent socialist says: Earth is my home. The consistent +Christian says: Heaven is my home.</p> + +<p>4. Marxian socialism is essentially materialistic. +Orthodox Christianism is essentially spiritualistic. +The consistent socialist says: The basic necessities of +life, and therefore its first concern, are foods, raiments, +shelters, comfort and leisure. The consistent Christian +says: Take no primary thought for these, but only for +faith in and obedience to God, regarding all else of +secondary importance.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span></p> + +<p>5. Marxian socialism is essentially proletarian. +Orthodox Christianism is essentially bourgeois. +The consistent socialist says: I am, by reason of my +antecedents, a man, a woman, a child of nature on an +essential level as to my origin and destiny with every +other representative of humanity and indeed animality. +The consistent Christian, like the theist of every +name, says: I am (by reason of my faith, baptism or +conversion) a prince or princess, the son or daughter +of a king, God.</p> + +<p>6. Marxian socialism is essentially democratic. +Orthodox Christianism is essentially imperialistic. +The consistent socialist says: I live with reference to +the will of the majority. The consistent Christian +says: I live with reference to the will of a God.</p> + +<p>7. Marxian socialism is essentially pacific.<a name="Ftop" id="Ftop"></a><span class="fnanchor"><a href="#F">[F]</a></span> +Orthodox Christianism is essentially belligerent. +The consistent socialist says: Since you are a man, I +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span>co-operate with you. The consistent Christian says: +Since you are not a believer, I contend with you.</p> + +<p>8. Marxian socialism is essentially non-sectarian. +The consistent socialist says: All the world is my +home and the desire and effort to render service to +men, women and children is my religion. The consistent +Christian says: Only Christendom is my home +and the desire and effort to serve a God is my religion.</p> + +<p>9. Marxian socialism is, as to the source of knowledge +and the means of attaining it, essentially scientific. +Orthodox Christianism is essentially traditional. +The consistent socialist says: The salvation of the +world is dependent upon what is learned by natural +experience, observation and investigation about the +doings of a matter-force-law, nature. The consistent +Christian says: This salvation depends upon what is +learned by revelation, tradition and inspiration about +the willings of a father-son-spirit, God.</p> + +<p>10. Marxian socialism explains the history of mankind +on the naturalistic theory that it has been determined +during every period by the existing system +for supplying the materialistic necessities of life. +Orthodox Christianism explains this history on the +supernaturalistic theory that it is determined by the +providential directions of a triune divinity. The consistent +socialist says: If you will tell me of the +economic system by which a people have fed, clothed +and housed themselves, I will tell you, at least in +general outline, what has been their history. The +consistent Christian says: If you will tell me what the +providences of my God have been towards a people, +I will tell you their history.</p> + +<p>11. Marxian socialism has inscribed on one of its<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> +banners: Liberty. Orthodox Christianism has this +inscription on its corresponding banner: Obedience. +The consistent socialist says: This Liberty-banner is +the symbol of my freedom as a son of man to be +progressively learning, living and teaching the unfolding +revelations of nature—to know and to live +which is to have life, terrestrial life in an ever increasing +measure, all the life there is here and now +or elsewhere and elsewhen, if there is to be a conscious, +personal life anywhere or anywhen else. The +consistent Christian says: This Obedience-banner is +a symbol of my slavery as a son of God by which I +am bound to receive, live and teach the faith once for +all delivered to the saints in the Old and New Testaments +or else lose the permanent life in the sky which +is to follow this temporary one on the earth.</p> + +<p>12. Marxian socialism has inscribed on another of +its banners: Justice to Man. Orthodox Christianism +has on its corresponding banner: Love to God. The +consistent socialist says: It is my aim to do unto +others as I would have them do unto me if our circumstances +were reversed. The consistent Christian says: +It is my aim to love God with all my heart, mind and +soul.</p> + +<p>And if there be any further contrast between this +Christianism and Socialism, it is briefly comprehended +in these three statements,—in themselves sufficient to +show how absolutely impossible it is for a consistent +Jesuine Christian to be a consistent Marxian Socialist:</p> + +<p>1. Marx seeks to save by doing away with both the +master and slave classes—Jesus by exalting the slave +class above the master class.</p> + +<p>2. Marx exhorts the slave class to look to itself<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> +for deliverance—Jesus taught it to look to a God for +this.</p> + +<p>3. Marx promises salvation for this world here +and now, a world about which everybody knows +much—Jesus promised it for another world elsewhere +and elsewhen, a world about which nobody knows +anything.</p> + +<p>The world has never had a gospel which is at all +comparable in its excellency to that of Marxian +Socialism. The gospel of Jesuine Christianism, according +to the orthodox interpretation of it, is no exception; +for, granting it to be superior to the Mosaic, +Buddhistic, Mohammedan and other gospels, it is, +nevertheless, almost infinitely inferior to the Marxian +gospel. Gospels are for the purpose of saving the +world from its suffering. The Jesuine and Marxian +gospels are alike in having for their object the salvation +of the proletarian world.</p> + + +<h4>V.</h4> + +<p>About three years ago I discovered that I had +spent a long, strenuous and open-handed ministry in +preaching lies to the permanent ruin of my health and +the temporary embarrassment of my purse; therefore +I had the unhappy experience of being forced +to see that all this part of my life, its prime, had +been mostly, if not wholly wasted and worse. What +was to be done?</p> + +<p>My friends told me as plainly as they could, and +some succeeded in making it brutally plain, that in +losing my faith in the supernaturalistic dogmas of +traditional Christianism, as they are literally in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span>terpreted +in the doctrinal standards of the orthodox +churches, I had lost the pearl of great price.</p> + +<p>My soul told me that I had never possessed this +jewel, but that, even with the little time and enfeebled +strength that remained to me, I might yet find it, if +only I should cease looking for it in the field of supernaturalism, +under the direction of divine authority, +and begin looking for it in the field of naturalism, +under the direction of human reason.</p> + +<p>Happily, where faith went out courage came in, and +it increased with my desperation until (though +standing on the shore of death where the deep and +unknown stream lies darkly between the present and +future) I could and I did undertake the supreme task +of my life—the breaking of the chains by which I +was bound as a slave to the degrading superstition +that I was, both by an inherited and cultivated disposition, +a doomed man, and by an inherent weakness, +a helpless one with no power to emancipate myself.</p> + +<p>Of such enslaving chains I mention three among +the strongest, the severed parts of which, with those +of all the rest, now lie scattered about me: (1) the +chain of the fear of God; (2) the chain of the fear +of the devil, and (3) the chain of the fear of man.</p> + +<p>Hitherto I had been a child, thinking as a child, +understanding as a child and speaking as a child.</p> + +<p>Henceforth I was to be a man, the greatest, conscious, +personal being who has anything to do with +this world; and as a man, I put away the things of a +child, especially the most childish of all things, fear, +the fear of God, the fear of devil and the fear of man.</p> + +<p>Preachers of the supernaturalistic interpretations<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span> +of religion say that the fear of God is salvation. It +is damnation. No one who has fear of any conscious, +personal master whomsoever or wheresoever, God in +heaven, devil in hell or man on earth, is free or other +than a slave. Nor has any such attained to the full +stature of manhood.</p> + +<p>There is only one fear which saves and that is the +fear of ignorance. The world's destroyer-god is +ignorance. There is no other devil on earth or in +hell below it, and this one lives, moves and has his +being in the fear of knowledge.</p> + +<p>The world's saviour-god is knowledge. There is +no other Christ on earth or in any heaven above it, +and this one lives, moves and has his being in the +fear of ignorance.</p> + +<p>Happily, I listened to my soul and I have found +the pearl of great price, yes, a whole bed of them, so +that I am now in position to substitute in my preaching +a truth for every lie I used to preach, and thus +save myself; but woe unto me unless I make the +substitution by ringing out the lie and ringing in the +truth.</p> + +<p>Within the last three years I have learned that, as +I have not been, since the beginning of my Christian +ministry, more than a generation ago, a producer, I +have nothing of my own to give to charity, and what +is true of me is true of Mrs. Brown.</p> + +<p>No one is a producer who does not grow things on +the farm, make things in a shop, discover things in a +laboratory or render some necessary or helpful +service to those who do such things. I have done +nothing of the kind. If I had been preaching truths<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> +I might have rendered such service, but I preached +lies.</p> + +<p>Every possession rightfully belongs to the productive +worker and nothing to the unproductive idler. +This is one of the two greatest and most salutary +among all the truths known to mankind. Recently I +made acknowledgment of it on the pledges to a good +cause, that of the Red Cross, by writing on their +upper left hand corners: "The gift of Unknown +Laborers through Bishop and Mrs. Brown, whose +possessions are the fruits of their enforced toil and +sacrifices."</p> + +<p>By this acknowledgment I rang out a great lie—the +lie which makes the salvation of the world depend +upon the capitalists with their servants, the +preachers on the right and the politicians on the left +hand.</p> + +<p>Salvation or, what is the same reality, civilization, +always has been and always will be dependent upon +the producer. It will never be attained until the laboring +class has done away with the capitalist class. The +ideal civilization (which is the salvation of the world +from its unnecessary sufferings, especially the overwhelming +ones due to the great trinity of evils, war, +poverty and slavery) is in the very nature of things +an impossibility on the basis of class sectarianism, +such as we have even in our Anglo-American +Christianity, the best interpretation of traditional religion, +and in our American democracy, the best interpretation +of traditional politics.</p> + +<p>Among the pathetic things about war, there is this, +the laboring class makes by far the greater sacrifices, +not only of life and limb, but also of money.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span></p> + +<p>Quite contrary to the general impression, capitalists, +as such, pay no part of the enormous and ruinous +pecuniary cost of war. When Mr. Rockefeller pays +out three million dollars in war taxes he is disposing +of what rightfully belongs to laborers, because they, +not he, earned it. Capitalists, as such, neither earn +nor pay anything, in time of either war or peace.</p> + +<p>So much for one of the two great truths. The +other, which is the greater because it includes its companion, +is this: Man has within himself all the +potentialities of his own life. This is true of the +universe as a whole, and, therefore, necessarily so of +all that therein is.</p> + +<p>The sum of both truths is that the salvation of the +world is wholly dependent upon productive laborers +and that they must look individually only to the +exertion of their own mental and physical powers +and collectively to co-operation with each other for +the accomplishment of their mission.</p> + +<p>Through the whole of my past ministry in the field +I rang out these great truths and rang a great lie in +by representing that the salvation of the world depends +upon a potentiality which is in the sky and not +in man, that heaven is above the earth and hell below +it, not on it.</p> + +<p>When I commenced my present ministry in the +study,</p> + +<div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I sent my Soul through the Invisible,</span> +<span class="i0">Some letter of that After-life to spell;</span> +<span class="i0">And by and by my Soul return'd to me,</span> +<span class="i0">And answer'd 'I Myself am Heaven and Hell!'</span> +</div></div> + +<p>Omar, the poetic astronomer, might have added a +stanza which would have closed. "I myself am God."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> +This is, in effect, what Jesus did say: "I and my +Father are one." This is as true of you and me and +of every man, woman and child as it was of Jesus.</p> + +<p>And Jesus represented that God, both as Father +and Son, dwells in the hearts of believers. But every +relevant fact which has been scientifically established +as such (and there is a whole mountain of such facts) +points to the conclusion that Christians are no more +divine than other people, and that, as to his essential +nature, no man would be less divine than he is if +Jesus had never been born.</p> + +<p>Gods in the skies (Jesus, Jehovah, Allah, Buddha) +are all right as subjective symbols of human +potentialities and attributes and of natural laws, even +as the Stars and Stripes on a pole, Uncle Sam in the +capitol and Santa Claus in a sleigh are all right as +such symbols; but such gods are all wrong, if regarded +as objective realities existing independently of those +who created them as divinities and placed them in celestial +habitations.</p> + +<p>What is true of the gods is equally so of all the +supernaturalistic dogmas of the several traditional +interpretations of religion. Insofar as they are not +pure superstitions they are symbols of imaginary +events which people think should or must have +occurred in the past or should or must occur in the +future; not statements of historical events which have +occurred or are to occur.</p> + +<p>So far I have not found it necessary to renounce +the Christian God or any of the things which go with +him and I have no idea of doing this, any more than +I have of renouncing the American Uncle Sam and +the things which go with him, but I place the Brother<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> +Jesus of the Christian religion and the Uncle Sam of +the American politics on the same footing with each +other and with others of their kind as subjective +realities. I could be a Jew and an Englishman as +conscientiously as a Christian and an American. +Many of the early Christians were also Pagans, worshippers +of other Gods than Jesus.</p> + +<p>Nor is this all or even much more than half of my +religious and political levelism.</p> + +<p>On the one hand as a religionist I can be any and +everything but an orthodox sectarian. This orthodoxy +is a libel against humanity. The world owes to it a +great part of all its unnecessary troubles—those which +are brought about by the triune devil of persecution, +ignorance and superstition.</p> + +<p>On the other hand as a politician I can be any and +everything but a nationalistic sectarian. This +nationalism is a libel against humanity. The world +owes to it a great part of all its unnecessary troubles—those +which are brought upon it by the triune devil +of war, poverty and slavery.</p> + +<p>Hoping that you will abandon Jesuine socialism for +Marxian communism and join me in an effort to banish +the fictitious, superstitious gods from the skies and +the lying, robbing capitalists from the earth, I am +with every good wish,</p> + +<p class="center"> +Very cordially yours,<br /> +WM. M. BROWN.<br /> +</p><p> +Brownella Cottage,<br /> +Galion, Ohio.<br /> +</p> + +<div class="tnote"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<p><a name="D" id="D"></a><span class="fnanchor"><a href="#Dtop">[D]</a></span> This letter was written in July, 1919, and sent to the +press in September, 1920. In the interim several of its +representations and arguments were made more complete: +therefore, some among the additions bear the marks +of dates belonging to later months.</p> + +<p><a name="E" id="E"></a><span class="fnanchor"><a href="#Etop">[E]</a></span> According to the showing of the science of biblical +criticism there is more than one Jesus of whom we have +an account in the New Testament: (1) a naturalistic, +this-worldly, pacific, human Jesus, and (2) a supernaturalistic, +other-worldly, belligerent, divine Jesus, the +Jesus of orthodox Christians.</p> + +<p><a name="F" id="F"></a><span class="fnanchor"><a href="#Ftop">[F]</a></span> This shall be true of Marxian socialism when it is +triumphant, but it will not be so while it is persecuted. +Socialist Russia has asked for peace after every war which +the capitalist nations (England, France, Italy and America) +have waged against her, not because she could no +longer defend herself, but for the reason that her +socialism, being co-operative in its character, necessarily +imposes humaneness; yet they could not grant it, because +their capitalism, being competitive in its character, as +necessarily imposes inhumaneness. The hand of the +capitalist world is aggressively against socialist Russia, +and must be, because the life of capitalism depends upon +her death: and her hand is defensively against all the +capitalist nations. Capitalism and socialism cannot +occupy the earth together. Either the one or the other +must have all of it. Mankind in general is illustrating +the truth of the proverb which has been illustrated by +so many families in particular—a house divided against +itself cannot stand.</p> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span></p> +<h3>THE GRAND MARCH</h3> + +<h4>By Helen Keller</h4> + + +<p>The hour has struck for the Grand March! Onward, Comrades, +all together! Fall in line! Start the New Year with a +cheer! Let us join the world's procession marching toward a +glad tomorrow. Strong of hope and brave in heart the West +shall meet the East! March with us, brothers every one! +March with us to all things new! Climb with us the hills of +God to a wider, holier life. Onward, Comrades, all together, +onward to meet the Dawn!</p> + +<p>Leave behind you doubts and fears! What need have we +for "ifs" and "buts"? Away with parties, schools and leagues! +Get together, keep in step, shoulder to shoulder, hearts throbbing +as one! Face the future, out-daring all you have dared! +March on, O Comrades, strong and free, out of darkness, out +of silence, out of hate and custom's deadening sway! Onward, +Comrades, all together, onward to the wind-blown Dawn!</p> + +<p>With us shall go the New Day, shining behind the dark. +With us shall go Power, Knowledge, Justice, Truth. The time +is full! A new world awaits us. Its fruits, its joys, its opportunities +are ours for the taking! Fear not the hardships of the +road—the storm, the parching heat or winter's cold, hunger +or thirst or ambushed foe! There are bright lights ahead of +us, leave the shadows behind! In the East a new star is risen! +With pain and anguish the Old Order has given birth to the +New, and behold, in the East a man-child is born! Onward, +Comrades, all together! Onward to the camp-fires of Russia! +Onward to the coming Dawn!</p> + +<p>Through the night of our despair rings the keen call of the +New Day. All the powers of darkness could not still that +shout of joy in far-away Moscow! Meteor-like through the +heavens flashed the golden words of light, "Soviet Republic +of Russia". Words sun-like piercing the dark, joyous radiant +love-words banishing hate, bidding the teeming world of men +to wake and live! Onward, Comrades, all together, onward to +the bright, redeeming Dawn!</p> + +<p>With peace and brotherhood make sweet the bitter way of +men! Today, and all the days to come, repeat the Word of +Him who said, "Thou shall not kill". Send on psalming winds +the angel-chorus, "Peace on earth, good-will to men". Onward +march, and keep on marching until His Will on earth is +done! Onward, Comrades, all together, onward to the life-giving +fountain of Dawn!</p> + +<p>All along the road beside us throng the peoples sad and +broken, weeping women, children hungry, homeless like little +birds cast out of their nest. With their hearts aflame, untamed, +glorying in martyrdom they hail us passing quickly, "Halt not, +O Comrades, yonder glimmers the star of our hope, the red-centered +dawn in the East! Halt not, lest you perish ere you +reach the Land of Promise". Onward, Comrades, all together, +onward to the sun-red Dawn!</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span></p> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 458px;"> +<img src="images/marx.jpg" width="458" height="600" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption">KARL MARX</span> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span></p> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 401px;"> +<img src="images/darwin.jpg" width="401" height="600" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption">CHARLES DARWIN</span> +</div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span></p> +<h2>COMMUNISM AND +CHRISTIANISM</h2> + + +<h3>ANALYZED AND CONTRASTED FROM THE MARXIAN AND DARWINIAN POINTS OF VIEW</h3> + + +<h3>PART II.</h3> + +<h3>Christianism: A Supernaturalistic Other-worldly +Gospel for the Passing Age of Class Inequality +and Economic Slavery—An Open Letter +to a Christian Theologian and +Brother Churchman.</h3> + +<h4>Revolutionize capitalism out of<br /> +state and orthodoxy out of church.</h4> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span></p> +<h3>FOREWORD<a name="Gtop" id="Gtop"></a><span class="fnanchor"><a href="#G">[G]</a></span></h3> + + +<p>The contradiction in terms known as the Christian +Socialist is inevitably antagonistic to working-class +interests and the waging of the class struggle. His +policy (that of the Christian Socialist) is the conciliation +of classes, the fraternity of robber and +robbed, not the end of classes. His avowed object, +indeed, is usually to purge the Socialist movement +of its materialism, and this means to purge it of its +Socialism and to divert it from its material aims to +the fruitless chasing of spiritual will-o'-the-wisps. A +Christian Socialist is, in fact, an anti-Socialist.</p> + +<p>Clearly, then, the basis of Socialist philosophy is +utterly incompatible with religious ideas; indeed, the +latter have been reduced to their logical absurdity in +what is called "Christian Science."</p> + +<p>Moreover, the consistent Christian, if such exists, +could look upon the existing world only as an +essential part of God's plan, to be accounted for only +through God, and modified at God's pleasure. He +could regard those who sought the explanation of +social conditions in purely natural causes, and who +also sought to take advantage of economic development +in order to turn this vale of tears into a pleasant +garden, only as men who denied by their acts the very +basis of his faith.</p> + +<div class="tnote"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<p><a name="G" id="G"></a><span class="fnanchor"><a href="#Gtop">[G]</a></span> From the Official Manifesto by the Socialist Party of +Great Britain, showing the Antagonism between Socialism +and Religion.</p> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHRISTIANISM: A SUPERNATURALISTIC +OTHER-WORLDLY GOSPEL FOR THE +PASSING AGE OF CLASS INEQUALITY +AND ECONOMIC SLAVERY.</h2> + +<h4>Come over and help us.<br /> +Abandon Reformatory for<br /> +Revolutionary Socialism.</h4> + + +<p>My Dear Brother:</p> + +<p>Your letter (April 1st, 1920) enclosing an essay, +entitled, Is There a God, came duly to hand and I +thank you warmly for it. The essay is a masterpiece +and I hope you can let me keep this copy, or make +another for myself, for reference when I am writing +or conversing on its lines, as is frequently the case.</p> + + +<h4>I.</h4> + +<p>In the dispute between yourself and friend of which +you speak, you are altogether right and he is entirely +wrong. In the last analysis it is a disputation as to +whether or not the Jewish-Christian bible contains +an infallible revelation from an omniscient being, a +triune god, Father, Son and Spirit. It does not.</p> + +<p>As an objectivity there is no such divinity. He is a +subjectivity existing in the imagination of orthodox +Christians. You do not agree with me in this, but +every day of thought and study deepens the conviction +that it is true. None among the gods of the supernaturalistic +interpretations of religion are objectivities. +The lesser ones are generally ghosts of dead<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> +men, and the greater ones are as generally versions of +the sun-myth.</p> + +<p>The one god of the Jews and the triune god +of the Christians, if taken seriously, are superstitions; +and the bible revelations of their willings and records +of their doings, if taken literally, are lies.</p> + +<p>Both the Old and New Testaments are utterly +worthless as history. The twelve patriarchs of the +Jewish God, Jehovah, are not historical personages, +but myths, and this is true of the twelve apostles of +the Christian God, Jesus.</p> + +<p>Yes, the Old Testament is the Jewish version of +the immemorial and universal sun-myth, rewritten +several times for the purpose, not of telling any truth, +but of imposing the fiction that Jehovah and his people +constitute the greatest procession that ever came +down the pike of supernaturalism. The New Testament +is the Christian version of the same myth, only +with the view of showing that Jehovah and the Jews +were not, but Jesus and Christians are, this procession.</p> + +<p>In itself, the sun-myth, as symbolism, is not only +poetically beautiful, but also scientifically true; yet, +as literalism, it is in the case of the ignorant, superstition, +and in the case of the educated, self-deception.</p> + +<p>The sun is, in a very literal and real sense, the creator-god +in whom this world lives, moves and has its +being; and he is the saviour-god who was born of a +virgin nebula, and every winter descends into hell +and rises from the dead (the southern solstice) by a +new birth and ascends into heaven to be seated at the +right hand of the father (the sky) at the northern +solstice, and finally he is the illuminator god who +lighteth every man that cometh into the world.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span></p> + +<p>And the apostles who preached the gospel of the +redemption of the world are the twelve signs of the +zodiac through which the sun apparently passes in its +annual ascension to the summer solstice and descension +to the winter solstice.</p> + +<p>Nor is this all: "the Lamb of God that taketh away +the sins of the world" is the sign of the zodiac, Aries +(sheep, ram) through which the sun passes towards +the end of March, when all the saviour-gods annually +died and rose again. The rising symbolizes the return +of the sun towards the northern solstice from the +southern one, upon which return seed-time and harvest +are dependent, without which the world would +perish, not indeed by sin but by starvation.</p> + +<p>Jehovah is the sun-myth rewritten to fit in with the +ideals and hopes of the owning, master class of the +Jews.</p> + +<p>Jesus is the sun-myth rewritten to fit in with the +ideals and hopes of the owning master class of the +Christians.</p> + +<p>The Christian god, Jesus, is an improvement upon +the Jewish god, Jehovah, because of the division of +labor. The task of the owning master class is a twofold +one, the robbing of the weak owners by the strong +ones in wars, and the robbing of the slaves by the +masters which under the capitalist system is done +in surplus profits.</p> + +<p>Jehovah serves Christians as the god of war. In +his name they wage wars, either as groups within a +nation having different commercial interests, as in the +case of the Civil War of the United States, or as nations +against nations with different commercial interests, +as in the case of the Revolutionary war of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> +Colonies with England, or the World War of the +Allied countries with the Central ones.</p> + +<p>Jesus serves Christians as the god of slavery. When +they have successfully waged a war of conquest, as +the Pilgrim Fathers did against the Indians of America, +or when they have appropriated all the means and +machines of production, as the capitalists have everywhere, +they reconcile the propertyless to a terrestrial +hell of toil, want, sorrow and slavery by preaching +the Jesuine gospel of hope for a celestial heaven of +eternal rest, joy, plenty and freedom.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Some for the Glories of This World; and some</span> +<span class="i0">Sigh for the Prophet's Paradise to come;</span> +<span class="i0">Ah, take the Cash, and let the Credit go,</span> +<span class="i0">Nor heed the rumble of a distant Drum."</span> +</div> </div> + +<p>In remaking the Jewish god to suit their purposes +of robbing and enslaving, the Christian owning master +class provided for a further division of his work +by creating the Holy Ghost, who devotes himself to +the giving of new revelations of the will of Jehovah +and interpreting the earlier ones as they are recorded +in the bible.</p> + +<p>It is generally supposed that the masters are the +strong people of the world, but they are not. Labor +is really the giant, the Samson, and it would be impossible +for the pigmy, capital, to rob him, but for his +lack of knowledge. The Holy Ghost sees to it that the +slave class is kept in ignorance.</p> + +<p>The English-German, or if you prefer, the German-English +war has been an eye-opener to the giant, +labor, and capital is ruined unless he can get him to +sleep again.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span></p> + +<p>Capital knows that Marx was right in characterizing +the orthodox interpretations of religion, including the +Christian one, and especially it, as a sleeping potion.</p> + +<p>The churches were the dormitories in which the +slaves slept through the night of the dark ages of +traditionalism, but the light of the age of scientism +is breaking upon the world and most of the slaves +have left the churches and are now beyond the reach +of their care-takers, the preachers.</p> + +<p>When I wrote the Level Plan for Church Union, I +believed that the coming together of the churches +would prove to be a blessing to the world, but I am +now persuaded that it would be a curse, because the +league of churches would co-operate with the league +of nations in its robbing and enslaving schemes, the +churches doing the lying and the nations the coercing.</p> + +<p>We are living in the age of scientism and, in the +case of its true sons and daughters, only scientifically +demonstrated facts count in any argumentation.</p> + +<p>From the scientific point of view it is seen that there +is but one universal Kingdom of Life, Nature. This +kingdom may be divided into three, perhaps four, +states constituting the United States of Life: the mineral, +the vegetable, the animal and the human.</p> + +<p>Beginning with the highest, each of these states, +except the lowest, is dependent upon the next lower. +The only independent autonomous state in the kingdom +is the mineral. This is the greatest both as to its +extent and importance. It is the common source of +every supply of all the states of life, and the seat of +each of their governments.</p> + +<p>All theologians and some metaphysicians postulate<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> +a fifth state of life, the divine, placing it above the rest +as their source.</p> + +<p>Comte, who preceded Marx as a social philosopher, +and who is the founder of modern socialism of the reformatory +type, as Marx is of the revolutionary one, +had this to say about the theologians, metaphysicians +and scientists, and he was right:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>From the study of the development of human intelligence, +in all directions, and through all times, the +discovery arises of a great fundamental law, to which +it is necessarily subject, and which has a solid foundation +of proof, both in the facts of our organization +and in our historical experience. This law is this: +that each of our leading conceptions—each branch of +our knowledge—passes successively through three +different theoretical conditions: the theological, or +fictitious; the metaphysical, or abstract; and the +scientific, or positive. In other words, the human +mind, by its nature, employs in its progress three +methods of philosophizing, the character of which is +essentially different and radically opposed: viz., the +theological method, the metaphysical and the positive. +Hence arise three philosophies, or general systems +of conceptions on the aggregate of phenomena, +each of which excludes the others. The first is the +necessary point of departure of the human understanding; +the third is its fixed and definite state. The +second is merely a state of transition.</p></div> + +<p>In order for a man who has reached the scientific +stage in his intellectual development to make anything +out of the reasonings of those who are still in the +stage of theological childhood or in that of metaphysical +adolescence, it is necessary for him to use their +insubstantialities as symbols of his substantialities.</p> + +<p>The only difference that I can see between a theologian +and a metaphysician is that, whereas the former<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> +personifies a generality which is the creation of his +imagination, calling it a god, the latter objectifies a +particularity which is the creation of his imagination +calling it an entity; but all such personifications and +objectifications (gods, things-in-themselves, vital entities, +souls) are alike fictitious, because the childish +theologians and metaphysicians proceed on the basis +of philosophically assumed realities, not on scientifically +established facts which pave the way on +which an adult proceeds.</p> + +<p>Comte analyzes the difference between the intellectuality +of theological children, metaphysical youths +and scientific adults as follows:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>In the theological state, the human mind, seeking +the essential nature of beings, the first and final +causes (the origin and purpose) of all effects—in short, +absolute knowledge—supposes all phenomena to be +produced by the immediate action of supernatural +beings.</p> + +<p>In the metaphysical state, which is only a modification +of the first, the mind supposes, instead of +supernatural beings, abstract forces, veritable entities +(that is, personified abstractions) inherent in all +beings, and capable of producing all phenomena. +What is called the explanation of phenomena is, in +this stage, a mere reference of each to its proper +entity.</p> + +<p>In the final, the positive state, the mind has given +over the vain search after absolute notions, the origin +and destination of the universe, and the causes of +phenomena, and applies itself to the study of their +laws—that is, their invariable relations of succession +and resemblance. Reasoning and observation, duly +combined, are the means of this knowledge. What is +now understood when we speak of an explanation of +facts is simply the establishment of a connection be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span>tween +single phenomena and some general facts the +number of which continually diminishes with the progress +of science.</p> + +<p>There is no science which, having attained the positive +stage, does not bear the marks of having passed +through the others. Some time since it was (whatever +it might be now) composed, as we can now perceive, +of metaphysical abstractions: and, further back +in the course of time, it took its form from theological +conceptions. Our most advanced sciences still bear +very evident marks of the two earlier periods through +which they passed.</p> + +<p>The progress of the individual mind is not only an +illustration, but an indirect evidence of that of the +general mind. The point of departure of the individual +and the race being the same, the phases of the +mind of men correspond to the epochs of the mind +of the race. How each of us is aware, if he looks back +upon his own history, that he was a theologian in his +childhood, a metaphysician in his youth and a natural +philosopher in his manhood. All men who are up to +their age can verify this for themselves.</p></div> + +<p>According to the scientific classification, there are +only three kingdoms or states of life, the mineral, the +vegetable and the animal.</p> + +<p>The life of the vegetable kingdom has arisen out of +the life of the mineral kingdom and is sustained by it.</p> + +<p>The distinguished scientist, Professor Lowell, says, +"there is now no more reason to doubt that plants +grew out of chemical affinity than to doubt that stones +did," and nearly all outstanding zoologists would say +as much of animals.</p> + +<p>Sir J. Burdon Sanderson, one of the most eminent +among biologists, insists that "in physiology the word +life is understood to mean the chemical and physical +activities of the parts of which the organism consists."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> +The renowned Sir Ray Lankester strenuously holds +that "zoology is the science which seeks to arrange +and discuss the phenomena of animal life and form, +as the outcome of the operation of the laws of physics +and chemistry," and goes so far as to say that he +knows of no leading biologist who is of a different +opinion. The prince of biologists, the late Professor +Haeckel, occupied this position and impregnably fortified +it in several great books, especially in his "Riddle +of the Universe."</p> + +<p>There is no force that is not life, nor life which is +not force; and there is no life or force, about which we +know anything, without a body or chemical laboratory.</p> + +<p>So far as is known, there is only one life—force. +The difference between lives is a question of the organism, +the laboratory, which gives embodiment to +force.</p> + +<p>The life that enables the wheels of a locomotive to +go, the sap of a tree to flow, the heart of an animal +to beat and the brain of a man to think is the same +chemical potentiality differently organized.</p> + +<p>During all historical time and over all the earth, +under one name or another, the whole world has kept +days of rejoicing for life, especially Thanksgiving, +Christmas, New Year and Easter.</p> + +<p>Nothing is so wonderful as life and perhaps the +greatest of its wonders is that all of it is of the same +kind.</p> + +<p>Everything and every being is alive with the same +life. The Thanksgiving day sheaf of wheat, the +Christmas day Son of Man and the Easter day Son of +God (if there are conscious, personal gods and they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> +have sons) are alive and their life is the same, the +difference being wholly in the form and degree, not at +all in kind.</p> + +<p>A proof of the oneness and sameness of all life, notwithstanding +its widely different forms and degrees, +is the fact that a bar of iron, a stick of wood, a piece +of flesh and a section of brain respond alike to the +same electrical stimulus, and all may be poisoned or +otherwise killed so that they will make no response +to it. Perhaps even a more conclusive evidence is that +the eggs (every form of both vegetable and animal +life develops from an egg) of some animals rather +high in the one tree of mundane life, which has a +common root and a stump, but two stems, the vegetable +and the animal, can be mechanically fertilized by +chemical processes.</p> + +<p>Even Sir Oliver Lodge, the most conspicuous +among the comparatively few men of science who +hold to the theory that life comes to the earth as vital +entities of celestial origin and destination, makes this +fatal admission: "There is plenty of physics and chemistry +and mechanics about every vital action." On +the theory of traditional Christianity there was no +physics, chemistry or mechanics connected with the +vital actions which originally brought the universe +and all that therein was, including the earth with its +vegetable, animal and human kingdoms, into existence.</p> + +<p>Every representative of each form of life in these +kingdoms (in the vegetable: a grass blade, a wheat +stalk, an oak tree; or in the animal: an insect, a horse, +a man) is a chemical laboratory for the production, +sustentation, advancement and procreation of a particular +type of one universal life. These laboratories<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span> +have all the potentialities of their respective lives +within themselves,—no laboratory, no chemistry; no +chemistry, no life.</p> + +<p>What life is, both as to its manifestation and character, +is determined by the form of organization +through which force, all there is of life, becomes a particular +and differentiated vital phenomenon. This is +as true of states and churches as it is of trees and men, +for a church or a state is a vital phenomenon as really +so as a tree or a man.</p> + +<p>The trouble with every reformatory socialism of +modern times is that it undertakes the impossibility +of changing the fruit of the capitalistic state into that +of the communistic one, without changing the political +organism; but to do that is as impossible as to gather +grapes from thorns or figs from thistles. Hence an +uprooting and replanting are necessary (a revolution +not a reformation) which will give the world a new +tree of state.</p> + +<p>Capitalism no longer grows the fruits (foods, +clothes and houses) which are necessary to the sustenance +of the world. Hence it encumbers the ground +and must be dug up by the roots in order that a tree +which is so organized that it will bear these necessities +may be planted in its place.</p> + +<p>The people of Russia have accomplished this uprooting +and replanting (this revolution) in the case +of their state, and those of every nation are destined +to do the same in one way or another, each according +to its historical and economic development, some +perhaps with violence, most, I hope, peaceably. The +Russian Bolsheviki occupy the highest peak in man's +history; and while they stand, the world will<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> +be safe for industrial democracy. This democracy +is the tree of life whose fruits are for the sustenance +of the nations and whose very leaves are for their +healing.</p> + +<p>The only lives of which we need know aught are +those that we shall live in our bodies by chemical +processes and in the race by conscious or unconscious +influences; for, if there is another, it will take care +of itself, if we take care of these.</p> + +<p>Since, therefore, all life is on a level and since morality, +religion and Christianity are but manifestations +of it, do you not see how profoundly and incontrovertibly +true is my levelism?</p> + +<p>According to this levelism all interpretations of +Christianity (protestant and catholic—congregational, +presbyterian, episcopalian and papal) and all the interpretations +of religion (Christian, Jewish, Mohammedan, +Buddhistic and the rest) are essentially on the +same footing, the difference between them being +wholly a question of natural excellencies, not at all of +supernatural uniqueness.</p> + +<p>The science of biology establishes my levelism by +proving that animal and human life are on a level as +to their origin, character and destiny.</p> + +<p>The science of sociology establishes my levelism +by proving that animal and human institutions are on +a level, and that therefore, there is nothing more supernatural +about a human state or church than about +an ant hill or a bee hive.</p> + +<p>The science of literary criticism establishes my levelism +by proving that the bibles of the several interpretations +of religion are on a level as to their entirely +human origin and authority.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span></p> + +<p>The science of the comparative interpretations of +religion establishes my levelism by proving that all +the conscious, personal creator-gods, destroyer-gods, +saviour-gods and illuminator-gods, with all their +angels, heavens and hells, are so many myths—creations +of the human imagination, subjective fictions, +not objective realities.</p> + +<p>Until comparatively recent times, through all the +theological history of mankind, the sun was almost +universally regarded as a god. Manifestly without it +there could be no life on earth, and its annually recurring +motions are such as to give the impression of +birth and death—of birth by ascension into the heaven +of the summer solstice—of death by descension into +the hell or grave of the winter solstice. Not only is the +sun the giver and sustainer of life, but it is also the light +that lighteth every man that cometh into the world.</p> + +<p>Modern science justifies this ancient conception as +to the dependence of the earth, and all that thereon is, +upon the sun for its being. By a slight adaptation +men of science and scientific philosophers could use +the very words of the apostle John at the opening of +his version of the Christian gospel, where he says of +Jesus, what they say of the sun:</p> + +<p>All things were made by him and without him was +not anything made that was made. In him is life; and +the life is the light of men.</p> + +<p>The birth, death, descension, resurrection and ascension +of all the Saviour-gods, not excepting Jesus, are +versions of the sun-myth.</p> + +<p>Yet the naturalness, the universalness, the beautifulness +and withal the profound truthfulness of this +myth are such as to render it almost as undesirable<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> +as it is next to impossible to relegate it to the realm +of superstition, to which it should undoubtedly be +assigned if a literal interpretation is a necessity.</p> + +<p>The more science advances, the more of precious +poetry and pathos, and of deep verity, too, is seen in +the Saviour-gods, who are essentially the same mythical +personifications of the glorious sun and of the +happy events of its annual career, because from it +the earth with its brother and sister planets had their +origin, and because from it the earth, not to speak of +the other planets, has the heat, light and force which +make its life a possibility.</p> + +<p>There is no reason for believing that any one among +the gods of the four old supernaturalistic interpretations +of religion (Jehovah, Jesus, Allah, Buddha) or +that either of the gods of the two new interpretations +by the renowned physicist, Sir Oliver Lodge, and the +distinguished sociologist, Mr. H. G. Wells, has had +more to do in creating, sustaining and governing this +world than another, that is to say, there is no ground +for believing that the personal, conscious gods in the +skies either individually or collectively have had anything +at all to do with it.</p> + +<p>Science, as it is understood by the great majority +of its exponents, teaches that the earth (with all +things, physical and psychical, which contribute to +make its world what it has been, is, and is to be) was +originally in the sun, and would quickly disappear +into its original, unorganized elements but for the sun.</p> + +<p>This is as true of man as of all else. He with his +brain and its thought, with his hand and its skill; +with his homes, farms, cities, mines, shops, stores, +trains, ships, schools, hospitals and churches; with his +hate, bestiality and barbarism, and with his love, hu<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span>maneness +and civilization, was in the sun, billions of +years before his appearance on the earth.</p> + +<p>Speaking of things appertaining to the world war: +there in the sun, before it had thrown off the earth, +were the kaiser on the throne, the president in the +white house, the millions of soldiers, the uniforms, the +rations, the forts, the cannons, guns, powder and shot, +the trenches, the barbed wire, the dreadnoughts, the +submarines, the aeroplanes, the wireless telegraph +stations, the wounded, their sufferings and groans, the +doctors and nurses, the corpses, the cripples, the +broken hearts; yes, and all the things connected with +that terrible war; the bereaved mothers, the widowed +wives, the outraged girls, the ruined country, the +wrecked cities, were in the sun from its beginning, +indeed while it was yet a nebula, many thousands of +millions of years previous to the birth of the earth.</p> + +<p>If we except intruders into our solar system, such +as comets and their comparatively inconsiderable effects, +we may say that every physical or psychical +reality which at any time has entered into the history +of this planet and that of its brothers and sisters was +in that vast flowing, swirling, revolving globe of gases +which is known to have been at one time at least five +billion miles in diameter, or fifteen billions in circumference.</p> + +<p>Of course no phenomenon, such as Jesus hanging +on the cross, if He lived and was crucified, was in the +sun as an actuality, but only as a potentiality. Nevertheless +He, with His doctrine and His suffering, was +there, else He would never have been anywhere, not +in the realm of history, not even in the realm of imagination.</p> + +<p>The universe is ever all that it can be, and every po<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span>tentiality +which contributes to make it so is within +itself. What is true in this respect of the universe as +a whole is equally so of every part of it, including man, +and especially him, because he is exceptionally capable +of controlling his own destiny, being able not only to +preserve life by a discovery of and conformity to the +laws upon which it is dependent, but also to enlarge +and enrich its content by making these laws co-operative +servants.</p> + +<p>The time cannot be far off when it will be seen by +all educated, thoughtful men and women that if the +traditional, supernaturalistic interpretation of Christianity +is the only possible one, its message is not a +gospel, because its teaching touching three fundamentals +is, in each case, contrary to that of three relevant +sciences:</p> + +<p>1. The sciences of astronomy, geology and biology +teach that the representation of traditional supernaturalistic +interpretation of Christianity to the effect +that the universe, including the earth with its physical +and psychical life, was supernaturally created out of +nothing by a conscious, personal god is not true and +therefore can be no part of any gospel; for, according +to the teaching of these three sciences, the truth is: +the universe with all that therein is, not excepting +mankind and civilization, was naturally evolved out +of a self-existing matter by a self-existing force co-operating +in accordance with the necessity of their +nature.</p> + +<p>2. The sciences of biology, physiology and embryology +teach that the representation of the traditional, +supernaturalistic interpretation of Christianity to the +effect that man and woman are unique beings, who +have supernaturally derived their physical form, vital<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> +and psychical potentialities directly from a conscious, +personal creator with whom are their natural affiliations, +is not true, and therefore can be no part of any +gospel; for, according to the teaching of these three +sciences, the truth is: man and woman as to their whole +beings (body and mind, life and soul) were naturally +evolved from pre-existing animal life, not supernaturally +created respectively out of the dust and a rib, so +that they owe their existence to and natural affinities +with a terrestrial and bestial parentage, not a celestial +and divine one.</p> + +<p>3. The sciences of anthropology, sociology and +comparative interpretations of religion teach that the +representation of the traditional, supernaturalistic interpretation +of Christianity to the effect that man and +woman were supernaturally created in the image and +likeness of a conscious, personal god, sinless and +deathless beings with ideal environments, but that +they fell from this happy estate, through a serpentine +incarnation of a supernatural devil, and are being restored +to it, through a human incarnation of a supernatural +saviour, is not true, and therefore can be no +part of any gospel; for, according to the teaching of +these three sciences, the truth is: during many ages +man and woman, in both appearance and predilection, +were much more animal than divine and that gradually, +without any supernatural assistance, they have worked +themselves out of a state of bestial barbarism into one +of human civilization.</p> + +<p>It follows therefore that the representations of both +the Old and New Testaments, concerning the origin +and history of man are largely fictitious impositions, +not historical compositions, so much so, that no confidence +can safely be reposed in any of them.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span></p> + +<p>There is no rational doubt about the fictitious character +of the divine Jesus. Some think that the human +Jesus may have been an historical personage; but, +none among outstanding scholars believes that we +have a connected account of his life and work, and +most of them insist that we do not certainly know any +saying or doing of his.</p> + +<p>No religious doctrine or institution of which we +have an account in the New Testament is peculiar +to Christianity and this is equally true of moral precepts.</p> + +<p>The gods of all the supernaturalistic interpretations +of religion are so many creations of the dominant or +master class, and their revelations were put into their +mouths by the makers for the purpose of keeping the +slave class ignorant and contented.</p> + +<p>Orthodox Christians earnestly contend that this +naturalistic doctrine makes for immorality. Heretical +socialists rationally answer that the life which men, +women and children live with reference to their terrestrial +influence, rather than to celestial rewards or +punishments, is the only one which is lived to any +moral purpose.</p> + +<p>According to socialism, morality, religion and Christianity +are but synonyms of one and the same reality, +which consists wholly in the desire and effort of a +man to learn the laws or doings of nature, and to conform +his thoughts and words to them, in order to +make his present life on earth, and that of others, as +long and happy as possible, and not at all in a desire +and effort to learn what the will of a conscious, personal +god is and to conform to it, in order to avoid a +hell and gain a heaven for a future life in the sky.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">O threats of Hell and Hopes of Paradise!</span> +<span class="i0">One thing at least is certain—This Life flies;</span> +<span class="i0">One thing is certain and the rest is Lies;</span> +<span class="i0">The Flower that once has blown forever dies.</span> +</div></div> + +<p>If you object that this is a representation of a sceptical +poet, I reply that it is in alignment with a representation +of a scriptural preacher:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts;</span> +<span class="i0">Even one thing befalleth them;</span> +<span class="i0">As the one dieth, so dieth the other;</span> +<span class="i0">Yea, they have all one breath;</span> +<span class="i0">So that a man hath no pre-eminence above a beast;</span> +<span class="i0">For all is vanity.</span> +<span class="i0">All go unto one place;</span> +<span class="i0">All are of the dust,</span> +<span class="i0">And all turn to dust again.</span> +</div></div> + +<p>Darwin showed that each man in his physical development +from the embryonic cell to birth passes +through, by short cuts, the different forms of life from +say, the worm, fish and lemur with all that went before, +intervened between and followed after, and Romanes +showed that this is as true of the mind as of the +body; that, in fact, all the representatives of the animal +kingdom are physically and psychically related, +and therefore on the same level as to their origin and +destiny.</p> + +<p>In his illuminating book entitled, "The Universal +Kinship," Professor Moore says:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The embryonic development of a human being is +no different from the embryonic development of any +other animal. Every human being at the beginning of +his organic existence is a protozoan, about 1-125 inch<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> +in diameter; at another stage of development he is a +tiny sac-shaped mass of cells without blood or nerves, +the gastrula; at another stage he is a worm, with a +pulsating tube instead of a heart, and without a head, +neck, spinal column, or limbs; at another stage he has +as a backbone, a rod of cartilage extending along the +back, and a faint nerve cord, as in the amphioxus, the +lowest of the vertebrates; at another stage he is a +fish with a two-chambered heart, mesonephric kidneys, +and gill-slits, with gill arteries leading to them, +just as in fishes; at another stage he is a reptile with +a three-chambered heart, and voiding his excreta +through a cloaca like other reptiles; and finally, when +he enters upon post-natal sins and actualities, he is +a sprawling, squalling, unreasoning quadruped. The +human larva from the fifth to the seventh month of +development is covered with a thick growth of hair +and has a true caudal (tail) appendage, like the +monkey. At this stage the embryo has in all thirty-eight +vertebrae, nine of which are caudal, and the +great toe extends at right angles to the other toes, +and is not longer than the other toes, but shorter, as +in the ape.</p></div> + +<p>Surely no argument is needed to convince you that +Darwinism corroborates the representation of our +ancient heretical poet and scriptural preacher concerning +a life beyond the grave rather than the representations +of modern orthodox theologians.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Strange, is it not? that of the myriads who</span> +<span class="i0">Before us pass'd the door of Darkness through,</span> +<span class="i0">Not one returns to tell us of the Road,</span> +<span class="i0">Which to discover we must travel, too.</span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="right">—Omar.</span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>II.</h4> + +<p>In history slavery stands out as a huge mountain +range traversing the whole of a continent. During<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> +long ages it was supposed that these phenomena of +the human and physical worlds were due to the will +of a god (Jesus, Jehovah, Allah or Buddha) but the +vanguard of humanity has now reached a viewpoint +from which it sees that both are alike due to a law, +that a law is what nature does, not what a god has +willed, and that a system of slavery and a range of +mountains are due to the same law.</p> + +<p>The matter-force law is everywhere the same, and it +is as omnipotent and immutable in a social order as in +a solar system.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"The very law that moulds a tear,</span> +<span class="i0">And bids it trickle from its source,</span> +<span class="i0">That law preserves the earth a sphere,</span> +<span class="i0">And guides the planets in their course."</span> +</div></div> + +<p>Most of the time, and especially just now, our world +is very full of tears, almost as much so as space is +full of spheres, but there would not be half so many +tears at any time, if the laws of states were so many +correct interpretations of the laws of nature.</p> + +<p>In every age, nearly all the hot tears which deluge +the world flow, like streams of springs, from their +deep sources as the result of unnecessary suffering by +grinding poverty, by hopeless slavery, by avoidable +diseases and by premature deaths; and by far the most +of these and of all sufferings may be traced to man-made +laws which not only have no correspondence +with those of nature but are contrary to them—laws +of which both the civil codes and religious bibles are +too full.</p> + +<p>You will agree with me that society should punish +none of its members by the slightest fine or shortest +imprisonment, not to speak of death, except on the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> +basis of justice. So far, and it is a long way, we certainly +walk together. We part company, if at all, on +the question as to the basis of justice, but come together +again in the conclusion that it is right, not +might.</p> + +<p>What, then, is this right? If you answer: the law +of the state as it is interpreted by a competent court, +I reply: no legal enactment, and so, of course, no interpretation +of one, can really constitute a right, unless +it is an embodiment of a truth containing an indispensable +stone in the foundation which is necessary +to the superstructure of the ideal civilization, under +the roof of which every man, woman and child shall +possess the greatest of possible opportunities to make +life for self as long and happy as it can be, and to +help others in an ever widening circle to do this for +themselves.</p> + +<p>Laws are not made. All social laws (domestic, +civil, commercial, yes, even the moral and religious +ones) are matter-force realities, as much so as is any +other among all the physical or psychical realities entering +into the constitution of the universe; which +realities are but the expressions of the processes necessarily +resulting from the necessary co-existence and +co-operation of this matter and force; therefore, laws +are so many eternal necessities and, this being the +case, it is not possible that men in states or churches +should make them, no, not even gods in heavens.</p> + +<p>Man would, then, have progressed much further +with the superstructure of an ideal civilization, if only +in his efforts to rightly regulate his life, he had happily +searched out the laws of nature as they are revealed +through its phenomena and interpreted by experience +and reason, instead of looking for direction<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> +to the laws of the gods (Jehovah, Allah, Buddha or +even Jesus) as they are revealed through prophets and +interpreted by kings or presidents, by priests or +preachers and by other "powers that be of God" in +states and churches—institutions which exist in the +interest of the capitalist class and against that of the +labor class. The world owes by far the greater part +of its most poignant sufferings to this fatal mistake of +looking to gods in heavens and their representatives +on earth for direction instead of to nature and reason.</p> + +<p>Life in the physical realm is dependent upon living +in harmony with the matter-force law. The representative +of any form of life (mineral, vegetable, animal, +human) which either through ignorance, accident +or willfulness does not conform to it, is destroyed or +at least injured.</p> + +<p>Life in the moral part of the psychical realm consists +in a disposition and effort to learn the matter-force +law, and to fulfill in thought, word and deed the +individual obligations to self and the social obligations +to others imposed by it when it has been humanely +interpreted by a man for himself.</p> + +<p>Religion and Christianity are but wider extensions +of one and the same great all-inclusive virtue, morality, +without which human life would not be worth +living, indeed not even a possibility, for without morality +a man is a beast, not a human.</p> + +<p>Morality is the greatest thing in the world. Yet, +paradoxical as the representation may seem, there is +one greater thing, freedom—the liberty to think, speak +and act in accordance with one's own convictions as +to what is the law and as to what are its requirements. +Without this liberty there could be no morality, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> +therefore, freedom is greater than the greatest thing in +the world, morality.</p> + +<p>But liberty, the greatest and most indispensable necessity +to morality, religion and Christianity, indeed, +to the existence of a human being, is manifestly impossible +on the theory that a man must be guided by +the will of a conscious, personal God in the sky as it +is interpreted by the kings and priests, presidents and +preachers on earth.</p> + +<p>You will note that I am not contending for the liberty +to live without reference to an external authority. +If this were my contention you would rightly insist +(as some among my friends do) that I am an atheist +in religion and an anarchist in politics; but I am +neither, for I recognize the fact that I must live with +reference to the existence of an external authority, +matter-force law, and there is no other, upon which +anything good in religion or politics is dependent.</p> + +<p>No one is an atheist in religion, an anarchist in politics +or anything bad, who, in the physical realm of +life, tries to live with reference to the law of nature, +and who, in the moral realm of life, tries to live with +reference to a truth which is that law humanely interpreted +by himself in accordance with his own experience, +observation, investigation and reason. In the +nature of things, the interpretation cannot be by +some one else, because one man cannot live the moral +life on another's ideals any more than he can live the +physical life on another's meals.</p> + +<p>Since this is the case, it follows that the whole conception +of a law which is willed by a god and revealed +or formulated by his representatives (prophets, kings, +priests, legislators) to which a man must have refer<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span>ence, +if he would live the moral life, is, at best, a harmless +fiction and at worst a hurtful superstition.</p> + +<p>There is no one (man or god) with whom people +can stand in the moral realm except themselves alone, +and if they are not within this realm they are not men +and women.</p> + +<p>Manhood is dependent upon standing alone with +matter-force nature and with human reason, and it is +manhood which really counts everywhere in the social +realm, for without manhood one is nothing anywhere +in that realm.</p> + +<p>Nature is my God. The gods of the several supernaturalistic +interpretations of religion (Jesus, Jehovah, +Allah, Buddha) are so many symbols of this divinity. +The words of this God are the facts of nature. +My religion and politics, worship and patriotism consist +in a desire and effort to discover these facts and +to interpret and live them humanely.</p> + +<p>My God, Nature, is a triune divinity—matter being +the Father, force the Son, and law the Spirit.</p> + +<p>Nature is the sum of the matter-force-law phenomena +of which the universe is constituted. Man +with his barbarism and civilization is but one among +such phenomena, on a level with the rest, as to his beginning +and ending, and as to the dependence of his +life and its fullness upon conformity to the matter-force +law, without necessary or, indeed, possible reference +to any divine-human system of laws as set +forth by a catholic or protestant church or by an imperialistic +or democratic state.</p> + +<p>Unless states and churches persuade, encourage and +help man to more fully discover, more correctly interpret +and more perfectly live the matter-force law they +are worthless; and indeed worse, if in the long run<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> +and on the whole they hinder him; and undoubtedly +they have done this in the case of the slave class—a +class which, ever since the rise of private property in +the means of producing the necessities of life, has +comprehended the vast majority of the human race.</p> + +<p>Whether then man is barbarous or civilized is really +and truly, wholly and entirely a question of the knowledge +of and conformity to the matter-force law, that is, +of whether or not the articles of his religious creed and +political code are so many ideal embodiments and practical +interpretations of facts or realities as they are revealed +by the doings of my god, Nature.</p> + +<p>There is no other creed, belief in the articles of which, +and there is no other code, obedience to the articles of +which, will advance mankind, individually or collectively, +so much as one step in the long, rugged and steep way +towards the goal of a perfect civilization—a civilization +which will secure to every man, woman and child the +greatest of possible opportunities to make the most of +life that is within the range of possibilities.</p> + +<p>My god, Nature (the triune divinity, matter-force-motion) +the doings of which god are so many words +of the only gospel upon which the salvation of the world +is to any degree dependent, is an impersonal, unconscious, +non-moral being.</p> + +<p>For me, this god, Nature, rises into personality, consciousness +and morality in myself, and in no other does +nature do this for me, though what is true of me is of +course equally so of every representative of mankind.</p> + +<p>Jesus (either as an historical or dramatic personage, +and it does not matter which he was) said, "I and my +Father (god) are one," and in saying this he gave expression +in one form to the most revolutionary and salu<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span>tary +of all truths. The other form of the same truth as +taught by Darwin and Marx is: man has all the potentialities +of his own life within himself. Every representative +of the human race can and should say with +Jesus, "I and my Father, God, are one."</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Stop man! where dost thou run?</span> +<span class="i0">Heav'n lies within thy heart,</span> +<span class="i0">If thou seek'st God elsewhere</span> +<span class="i0">Misled, in truth, thou art.</span> +</div> <div class="stanza"> +<span class="right">—Angelus Silensius.</span> +</div></div> + +<p>This truth constitutes the most ennobling and inspiring +part of man's knowledge, and it was naturally discovered +by him, not supernaturally revealed to him. It +is the foundation of socialism and the justification of +optimism.</p> + +<p>The universe moves, with all that therein is. The +vanguard of mankind is moving to a viewpoint from +which rapidly increasing numbers will see that a +revolution which is necessary on the part of a slave to +free himself from a master is not only justified but required +by the great, first law of the biological realm, +the law of self-preservation—a nature-made law on +behalf of freedom. This nature-made law will ultimately +nullify all class laws, every law which is in +favor of the enslaving capitalist class and against +the enslaved labor class.</p> + +<p>Every state with its executive, legislative, judiciary, +military and educative systems is founded on capitalism. +Since this is the case and since human nature is what it +is, all political institutions, the American with the rest, +are of the capitalist, by the capitalist, for the capitalist, +and each to the end that the capitalist may keep the laborer +in poverty and slavery.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span></p> + +<p>Every modern church with its ministry, bible, creed, +heaven and hell is founded on capitalism. Since this is +the case, and since human nature is what it is, all religious +institutions, the Christian with the rest, are of +the capitalist, by the capitalist, for the capitalist and +each to the end that the capitalist may keep the +laborer in ignorance and slavery.</p> + +<p>Whether Jesus was an historical or a dramatic person, +the morality involved in his trial, condemnation +and execution is the same. Assuming the historicity, +he was put to death by Pilate because a class of the +people said: We have a law and by it, according to its +official interpretation, he should die. The Governor, +finding that the legal enactment and the judicial decision +were in accordance with the representation of the +Jews, turned Jesus over to the executioners for crucifixion, +and the world condemns him because he knew that +the law was the embodiment of a fiction instead of a +truth, because he interpreted it in the interest of a sect +instead of a people, and because he basely acted with +reference to his own political interests without regard +to justice for an heroic but helpless champion of slaves +in their struggle against the masters.</p> + +<p>Philosophic anarchy differs by the space of the whole +heavens from practical anarchy, and it is the latter that +I always have in mind. The great essential of philosophic +anarchy is individualistic freedom. The great +essential of practical anarchy is imperialistic slavery.</p> + +<p>Capitalism is the outstanding, overshadowing imperialist, +the father of all the kaisers by which the world +has been cursed, not only of the terrestrial ones such as +Wilhelm II, Nicholas II, Woodrow I, but also of the +celestial ones such as Jehovah, Allah, Buddha.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span></p> + +<p>The occupants of regal thrones have no more responsibility +for the existence of imperialism than those of +presidential chairs, nor they any more than I, and I have +none. The truth is that the responsibility for this blight +of all the ages is now at last, if indeed it has not always +been, wholly with the representatives of the working +class. They have the great majority in numbers and all +of the revolutionary incentives and power; therefore +they, and only they can do away with imperialism, and +they can rid themselves of it whenever they choose. +Prince Kropotkin, the philosophic anarchist, a great +soul, would agree to this representation, for he says:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The working men of the civilized world and their +friends in the other classes ought to induce their Governments +entirely to abandon the idea of armed intervention +in the affairs of Russia—whether open or +disguised, whether military or in the shape of subventions +to different nations.</p> + +<p>Russia is now living through a revolution of the +same depth and the same importance as the British +nation underwent in 1639-1648 and France in 1789-1794; +and every nation should refuse to play the +shameful part that Great Britain, Prussia, Austria and +Russia played during the French Revolution.</p></div> + +<p>Since death ends all of consciousness, the most inhuman +of all inhumanities and the most immoral of all +immoralities is the shortening of human life; and next +to it is the diminishing of its happiness.</p> + +<p>War shortens many lives and fills more with misery; +hence its essential inhumanity and immorality.</p> + +<p>A large part of the world has just passed through the +furnace of war—a war between the German and English +nations with their respective national allies. All international +wars are contests for supremacy in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> +markets of the world, or at least for advantage in some +among them. This one was no exception.</p> + +<p>The furnace of this war was seven times larger and +seven times hotter than any other has been. According +to the latest estimates (September, 1920) its fierce flames +directly and indirectly killed thirty million young men and +wrecked totally twice and partially thrice as many +more.</p> + +<p>Yet the fire by which the world upon the whole and +in the long run suffers most is not the intermittent, +flaming one of the hell of international war, which is +always kindled and sustained by the capitalists of the +belligerent nations for the purpose solely of securing +commercial advantages over each other; but the greater +suffering is by the permanent, smoking fire of the hell +of the inter-class war which is always kindled and sustained +by the capitalist class in each nation for the purpose +solely of robbing the labor class of the fruit of +their toil.</p> + +<p>These national and class wars (hells, flaming and +smouldering) are due to the same matter-force law, +the law of self-preservation, and, paradoxical as it may +seem, this law is equally operative on both sides in +each war.</p> + +<p>Both hells exist as the result of the working out of +the same law of animal preservation by competition—the +law of capitalism, and both hells will be done away +with as the result of the working out of the same law of +human preservation by co-operation—the law of socialism.</p> + +<p>One proof of the rightness of the co-operative system +is the fact that it necessarily operates for the +whole people and not for a class, whereas the competi<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span>tive +system as necessarily operates for a class and not +for the whole people.</p> + +<p>Still another proof, and it is in itself almost if not +quite conclusive, of the rightness of the co-operative +system is the fact that its competitive rival breaks down +in every great emergency. It broke down completely in +all the belligerent countries (in none more than the +United States) immediately upon their entrance into the +world war. Our government was obliged to assume +control of the railroads, coal mines and food products.</p> + +<p>If a class government, such as ours is, can provide +during a war by the co-operative system, and only by it, +for the wants of a country, and better, too, than during +the time of peace, what may we expect in the way of +plenty, comfort and leisure, when under the classless +administration there shall be no more war with its wholesale +waste, and when there shall be one vast army of +producers?</p> + +<p>All the days which the fifty millions of soldiers spent +in idleness will then be so many holidays for toilers who +are in need of them for rest and self-improvement; and +every dollar which is now wasted will then be two dollars +saved, so that the pecuniary prosperity of war times +will be increased, rather than diminished, and made continuous. +Under a classless administration the world +would soon become comparatively rich and happy.<a name="Htop" id="Htop"></a><span class="fnanchor"><a href="#H">[H]</a></span></p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span></p> +<p>Representatives of the capitalist class are trying to +create the impression that the co-operative system which +our government temporarily established as a military +necessity is socialism, and that the labor class should +seek no more than its restoration and continuance: but +this system is the same old wolf in sheep's clothing.</p> + +<p>The rickety house in which we are living is a competitive +structure and it cannot be made into a co-operative +one, at least not upon its present foundation, +the sand of capitalistic classism. Industrialism must +take it down and rebuild it upon the rock of classless +labor. Neither this demolition nor this reconstruction +constitutes any part of the government program. Its +socialism is a mirage, not a reality, and the matter-force +law renders it necessarily so.</p> + +<p>Marxian socialism is simplicity itself. It requires only +three conditions, each of which is perfectly intelligible; +but no one of them ever has existed or could exist under +any capitalist government, because all such governments, +not excepting our own, especially not it, are organized +in the interest of parasitic profiteers, not productive laborers. +The three indispensable yet simple prerequisites +to this real socialism or communism are:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>First, that the people within a municipality, either +town or city, own and control the utilities within the +area occupied by that municipality, which have to do +with the immediate comfort of the people who live +there.</p> + +<p>Second, that the people in each state own and control +the utilities that come in contact with the people +on a state-wide scale.</p> + +<p>Third, that the people within the nation own collectively +and control democratically the utilities +which affect us on a national scale.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span></p> + +<p>Should we desire to go into more detail, we might +say that the things necessary to the individual be +owned and controlled by the individual, that the home +be controlled by the family, and so on. To go into +the question on an international scale we might also +add that utilities mutually necessary to all the nations +be owned by the nations, as the Panama Canal, for +instance.—Higgins.</p></div> + +<p>Prince Kropotkin, though not a bolshevik, says approvingly +of the Russian revolution that it is trying to +build up a society where the whole produce of the joint +efforts of labor by technical skill and scientific knowledge +should go entirely to the commonwealth; and he declares +that for the unavoidable reconstruction of society, +by pacific or any other revolutionary means, +there must be a union of all the trade unions of the +world to free the production of the world from its +present enslavement to capitalism.</p> + +<p>Higgins and Kropotkin have here put co-operative +socialism or communism in a nutshell both as to its aim +and program.</p> + +<p>The law of self-preservation is ever the same, but +whether its salvation is for a part of the people by competition—capitalist +salvation, or for the whole people +by co-operation—socialist salvation, depends upon +whether it rides or is ridden.</p> + +<p>So long as the law of self-preservation was supposed +to be the will of a conscious, personal god whose earthly +representatives were kings and priests or presidents and +preachers, the law did the riding within the large domain +of animal competition—the domain of capitalism. +War is the normal, indeed necessary evil of this domain, +and hence the world must have wars so long as it remains +within it, and it will remain there so long as it has<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span> +celestial divinities with terrestrial representatives in +states and churches for its governors.</p> + +<p>Now that the law is known to be a matter-force necessity, +not a divine decree, the time may rationally be +hoped for when the people will do the riding within the +small domain of human co-operation—the domain of +socialism. Peace is the normal, indeed necessary, state +of this domain, and hence the world must cease to have +war when it enters it, and is governed by itself instead +of by a god and the powers of state and church alleged +to have been ordained by him.</p> + +<p>Capital punishment should not be administered, if at +all, except to a murderer whose guilt has been established +to the satisfaction of the great majority of the people in +the community to which he belongs, and never in the case +of a suspected murderer of whom this is not true.</p> + +<p>If William II were really the devil behind the European +war by which many millions of the young men +of the world have lost their lives, and if Thomas Mooney +were really the devil behind the San Francisco explosion +by which ten citizens of California lost their +lives, their punishment by death might be urged with +much show of reason as a social necessity. But if +both were hung on the same gallows the world would +go on suffering by the ever recurring and closely related +misfortunes of war and riot as if nothing had +happened. The real devil behind all wars and riots is +the capitalist system. There will never be an end of +wars and riots until this devil is overthrown.</p> + +<p>The so-called Kaiser-war and the so-called Mooney +riot are on the same footing, both having the character +of an insurrection and both having the aim of self-preservation. +The insurrection of the Kaiser was a riot<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> +on behalf of the capitalist class of Germany and for the +purpose of protecting it against the capitalist class of +England. The insurrection of Mooney (assuming his +guilt, merely for illustration) was a riot on behalf of +the labor class of California and for the purpose of +protecting it against the capitalist class of that state.</p> + +<p>Incidentally, both riots have secondary aims of world-wide +extent. The Kaiser had two of these: to overthrow +the commercial supremacy of England that Germany +might have it, and to overthrow industrial republicanism +(socialism) everywhere. Mooney had this: +the overthrow of commercial imperialism (capitalism) +everywhere.</p> + +<p>As rioters, there is this in common between Kaiser +William and Thomas Mooney, that though moving in +opposite directions, they are nevertheless carried by the +same matter-force law which manifests itself in the +same riotous system, capitalism—a system which, under +one form or another, has ever produced international +wars and class revolutions; and, so long as it is allowed +to exist, never will cease the production of them.</p> + +<p>Hence the interests of the world require not that these +rioters, Kaiser William and Thomas Mooney, should be +hung, but that the capitalist system, which by the operation +of the law of self-preservation by animal competitions, +produced both of the riots with which they +are respectively credited, should be overthrown by the +labor system, which, by the operation of the same law +of self-preservation by human co-operation, will put an +end to all bloody conflicts.</p> + +<p>But taking the popular view concerning the responsibility +for this commercial war and labor riot and assuming +that they should be charged respectively to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> +Kaiser William and Thomas Mooney, why should the +promoter of the little riot die, or worse, suffer imprisonment +during life, and the promoter of the big +war live?</p> + +<p>Yet, if the Kaiser were captured even by England +there is no probability that he would be turned over to +a court constituted of representatives of the allied nations, +tried, found guilty and put to death. Why not? +Because, like all wars, his war, no matter which side +won the victory, has been upon the whole, or will be in +the long run, in the interest of the capitalists of every +nation on both sides, at least of the great ones.</p> + +<p>If Kaiser William would not be sent to the gallows +by such a court why should the court which tried +Thomas Mooney be allowed to send him to it; and, +especially why, since California is part of a republic, +and the Kaiser's war was on behalf of imperialism and +a small minority, while Mooney's riot was on behalf of +republicanism and the overwhelming majority?</p> + +<p>Just now the human part of the world is especially +afflicted by unnecessary and therefore unjustifiable +deaths. The Governor of California has the opportunity +to prevent one such death. I say to him, do it. +In the name of Justice and in the name of Humanity, I +with millions of others solemnly call upon him to save +Mooney, the revolutionist, as Pilate, the Governor of +Judea, according to the verdict of all right-thinking +men and women, should have saved Jesus, the revolutionist.</p> + + +<h4>III.</h4> + +<p>You say in effect that we must postulate a divine consciousness +to account for human consciousness; but, on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span> +your theory, how could human consciousness come out +of a divine consciousness; and, anyhow, contrary to your +implication, we know of no consciousness which has +come, except by inheritance, from another consciousness, +but only of consciousnesses which have come from +unconsciousnesses.</p> + +<p>Your contention, in this connection, is to the effect +that nothing can come out of nothing, and this is the core +of a book, "A Short Apology for Being a Christian in +the Twentieth Century," by the learned ex-president +of Trinity College, Hartford, Dr. Williamson Smith, +with whom you have had, I think, some correspondence.</p> + +<p>This Apology was written against a letter of mine to +the House of Bishops, entitled, "A Natural Gospel for +a Scientific Age," which has never seen the light, partly +because the ex-President convinced me that if I must +give up the orthodox conception of God, I could not hold +to the one which I had worked out in the letter.</p> + +<p>If you have not seen the ex-President's book, you +will, I am sure, enjoy it more than I did, but I doubt +whether you will profit as much by it, for it verges towards +your lines and away from mine; and so it set me +to studying as it will not you, with the result of rejecting +the new conception of God which I had worked out for +myself, but with it I threw over the old one and ceased +to believe in the existence of a conscious, personal +divinity. Of course, my faith in the existence of a +spiritual world and hope for a future life in it went with +the god.</p> + +<p>Dr. Williamson Smith and you are entirely correct +in the contention that something cannot come out of +nothing: but I no longer pretend that it can and I now<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> +see that the stones which have been thrown at me by +you both and others have come from glass houses; for +this is really the pretension of orthodox theologians. +They affirm that the universe was created by God out of +nothing, but produce no scrap of evidence for His existence, +and even if they could prove that He exists, they +would have to admit that He came out of nothing, or at +least from something which did so.</p> + +<p>It is indeed true that I am unable to tell what matter, +force and motion came from, or if I agree with most +physicists that they arose from ether, I cannot give its +derivative; but, granting that I am as incapable of +proving their existence as you are of proving the existence +of the Christian trinity, nevertheless I have this +immense advantage over you, that I can prove that +everything both physical and psychical (including +man and his civilization) entering into the +constitution of the universe, lives, moves and +has its being in my divine trinity—matter, force and +motion: whereas you cannot prove that anything is indebted +for what it is to your divine trinity—Father, Son +and Spirit: therefore I insist that your trinity is a +symbol of mine.</p> + +<p>What is true of the Christian trinity is true of all +the divinities of the supernaturalistic interpretations +of religion. The Jews live with no reference to the +Christian God, or at least not with any to his second +and third persons, and neither Christians nor Jews do +so in the case of either the Mohammedan or Buddhistic +divinity, and so on, all around the whole circle of +gods.</p> + +<p>But no representative of any god lives without constant +reference to mine, of which yours and all the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span> +others are, as I think, symbols, if they are anything +better than fetishes.</p> + +<p>If you and ex-President Smith mean by your fundamental +thesis, that a thing which is essentially different +from that from which it came is an impossibility, +you are certainly wrong, for the world is full +of such things. In the tree of life there are millions +of examples, since (using language in its general significance) +everything above the amoeba must be regarded +as essentially different from it, though all, including +man, came out of it.</p> + +<p>Going back as far as we safely can on solid ground, +we come to the nebulae from which the solar systems +of the universe have evolved, and surely a solar system +is as essentially different from the nebula as a +man is from an amoeba. Coming to our earth when +its primeval, flaming, swirling gases had been condensed +into inorganic matter, the protoplasm which +is organic matter, arose from it, and so something +which grows from within out, comes from something +which grows from without in.</p> + +<p>The large hoofed horse came from a small five-toed +animal, not much larger than a rabbit. The piano +and the gun are brother and sister, born of the bow +and arrow, yet how different the children from the +parent.</p> + +<p>An infant is unconscious at birth and what it has of +consciousness as a child and an adult is dependent +upon the development of its body.</p> + +<p>Moreover, as the human body is a development +through animal bodies, we may logically conclude that +human consciousness is ultimately dependent upon<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> +and inherited from animal consciousness rather than +a divine one.</p> + +<p>Jesus is represented as saying that God is a spirit; +and the fathers of the English part of the Christian +reformation said that there is but one living and true +God without body, parts or passions. This is their +explanation of his conception of God.</p> + +<p>When the Jesuine definition of God and the Anglican +explanation of it were framed, the Divine Spirit +was supposed to be an objective personality.</p> + +<p>Modern psychology teaches that no spirit, divine, +human or otherwise, is a personality. According to +this science, spirit and soul are synonyms for the +subjective content of a conscious life, which content +consists of feelings, aspirations, ideals, convictions and +determinations.</p> + +<p>Psychologists know of no spirit or soul without a +body constituted of parts any more than physicists +know of a force without matter constituted of molecules, +atoms, electrons and ions.</p> + +<p>Gods represent the religious ideals of people and +are symbols of what they think they should be as religionists. +They are symbolic, emblematic, parabolic, +allegoric devices of the imagination, and contain +nothing but the ideal, imaginary things which are +put into them by people for themselves, and they do +nothing except what the people perform through them +in their names for themselves.</p> + +<p>Matter and force constitute a machine, an automatic +one, which produces things, everything which enters +into the constitution of the cosmos, by evolutionary +processes, or rather all such things, and there are no<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span> +others, are the result of one universal and eternal +process of evolution.</p> + +<p>What is known as nature is the aggregation of the +products of this machine by this process. The machine +is unconscious and its workings are mechanical, +yet some of its products rise into self-consciousness +with the power of self-determination, but both the +consciousness and the determination are limited. The +infinite consciousness, personality and determination +which are postulated of gods are contradictions.</p> + +<p>Of all beings man possesses most of consciousness, +personality and determination. What he has of these +is not dependent upon gods, but all they have of them +is dependent upon him. Divine beings are, as to their +self-consciousness, personality and determination, human +beings personified and placed in the sky. Man +does everything for gods. They do nothing for him.</p> + +<p>Such are the facts and arguments based upon them, +which have forced me step by step over the long way +from the position of supernaturalistic traditionalism +in its Christian form, still occupied by you, to that of +naturalistic scientism in its socialist form which I am +now occupying, as tentatively as possible, pending +further study in the light of additional facts, for which +(some six years ago, when I was desperately battling +to prevent the shipwreck of my faith in the god and +heaven of orthodox Christianity) I appealed to about +800 outstanding theologians, among them yourself, +representing all parts of christendom and every great +church, including of course all our bishops among the +theologians, and the Anglican communion among the +churches.</p> + +<p>You may remember how much of correspondence<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> +we had at that time, though neither you nor any one +who kindly tried to reach me with the rope of the new +scientific apologetics for which I appealed, can realize +how eagerly I looked for the replies to my questions, +nor the sickness of heart which I experienced when I +saw that, in spite of every possible effort of my own +and help of others, I was slowly but surely drifting +towards what I then thought to be the fatal whirlpools +and rocks, but what I now regard as a sheltered +port—the golden gate of that delectable country, +Marxian socialism, the only heaven that I am now +hoping to behold.</p> + +<p>You earnestly contend that I am wrong in representing +that the majority of outstanding men of science +and scientific philosophers do not believe in the +existence of a conscious, personal divinity, who created, +sustains and governs the universe, or in a conscious, +personal life for man beyond the grave, and +that none among such scientists and philosophers are +orthodox Christians.</p> + +<p>Prof. Leuba, the Bryn Mawr psychologist, is one +among my authorities for these representations. In +his "Belief in God and Immortality" (1916) he +exhibits the results of a recent and thorough-going +investigation in a chart from which it appears that, +taking the greater and lesser representatives of the +scientists together, they fall below 50 per cent as to +their belief in God, and below 55 per cent in their belief +in immortality.<a name="Itop" id="Itop"></a><span class="fnanchor"><a href="#I">[I]</a></span></p> + +<p>The showing for the scientists who are especially +concerned with the origin and destiny of life, +biologists and psychologists, is much less favorable +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span>to you; for, taking the greater and lesser together, +only 31 per cent of the biologists believe in God and +35 per cent in immortality; and only 25 per cent of +the psychologists believe in God, and 20 per cent in +immortality.</p> + +<p>But the worst by far, is yet to come; for, taking the +greater biologists and psychologists, those who count +most, of the former 18 per cent believe in God, and +25 per cent in immortality; and of the latter, the +greatest of all authorities, only 13 per cent believe in +God, and only 8 per cent in immortality.</p> + +<p>The greater psychologists are comparatively consistent +in that fewer among them believe in a conscious, +personal life for humanity beyond the grave +than in the conscious, personal life of divinity beyond +the clouds. Human immortality is an absurdity without +divine existence. The overwhelming majority of +great psychologists (the greatest of all authorities, as +to whether or not gods "without bodies, parts or +passions" can consciously exist in the skies, and disembodied +men, women and children in celestial paradises) +see this and limit the career of man to earth. +In their judgment his heaven and hell are here, and +the gods who make and the devils who unmake civilizations +are humans, not good or bad divinities.</p> + +<p>This is the conclusion of a rapidly increasing number +of educated people. A century ago only a few +men of science and scientific philosophers had reached +it, not twenty five per cent, but now the percentage +is nearly ninety and it will soon be ninety-nine. The +time is coming, and in the not distant future, when no +educated man shall look to the god of any supernaturalistic +interpretation of religion for light or<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span> +strength, and when none shall hope for a heaven above +the earth or fear a hell below it.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Heav'n but the Vision of fulfill'd Desire,</span> +<span class="i0">And Hell the Shadow from a Soul on fire</span> +<span class="i0">Cast on the Darkness into which Ourselves,</span> +<span class="i0">So late emerg'd from, shall so soon expire.</span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="right">—Omar.</span> +</div></div> + +<p>Joseph McCabe and Chapman Cohen are among the +most brilliant of present day writers on scientific and +philosophic subjects. They are not socialists, but +both see that modern socialism and orthodox +Christianism are utterly irreconcilable incompatibilities.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"How is it that on the Continent democratic bodies +are so sceptical, or sceptical bodies so democratic? +Precisely because they doubt (or reject altogether) +the Christian heaven. They want to make this earth +as happy as it can be, to make sure of happiness +somewhere. Having taken their eyes from the sky, +they have discovered remarkable possibilities in the +earth. Having to give less time to God, they have +more time to give to man. They think less about +their heavenly home, and more about their earthly +home. The earthly home has grown very much +brighter for the change. The heavenly home is just +where it was.</p> + +<p>"The plain truth is, of course, that the sentiment +which used to be absorbed in religion is now embodied +in humanitarianism. Religion is slowly dying everywhere. +Social idealism is growing everywhere. People +who want to persuade us that social idealism depends +on religion are puzzled by this. It is only because +they are obstinately determined to connect +everything with Christianity, in spite of its historical +record. There is no puzzle. We have transferred<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span> +our emotions from God to man, from heaven to earth."—Joseph +McCabe.</p> + +<p>"Socialists who have one eye on the ballot box may +assure these people that Socialism is not Atheistic, +but few will be convinced. The statement that Socialism +has nothing to do with religion, or that many +professedly religious people are Socialist, is quite +futile. A thoughtful religionist would reply that the +first point concedes the truth of all that has been said +against Socialism, while the second evades the question +at issue. No one is specially concerned with the +mental idiosyncracies of individual Socialists; what +is at issue is the question whether Socialism does or +does not take an Atheistic view of life? He might +add, too, that a Socialism which leaves out the belief +in God and a future life, which does not, in even the +remotest manner, imply these beliefs, which does not +make their acceptance the condition of holding the +meanest office in the State, and, at most, will merely +allow religious beliefs to exist so long as they do not +threaten the well-being of the State, is, to all intents +and purposes, an Atheistical system."—Chapman +Cohen.</p></div> + +<p>In summing up the results of his investigations +Prof. Leuba observes that:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>In every class of persons investigated, the number +of believers in God is less and in most classes very +much less than the number of non-believers, and that +the number of believers in immortality is somewhat +larger than in a personal God; that among the more +distinguished, unbelief is very much more frequent +than among the less distinguished; and finally that +not only the degree of ability, but also the kind of +knowledge possessed, is significantly related to the +rejection of these beliefs.</p></div> + +<p>In another connection Prof. Leuba speaking of +Christian dogmatism as a whole says:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Christianity, as a system of belief, has utterly broken +down, and nothing definite, adequate, and convincing +has taken its place. There is no generally acknowledged +authority; each one believes as he can, +and few seem disturbed at being unable to hold the +tenets of the churches. This sense of freedom is the +glorious side of an otherwise dangerous situation.</p></div> + +<p>Your conception of the origin, sustenance and +governance of the universe is burdened, as are all +interpretations of religion which are hinged upon the +existence of conscious, personal divinities, with two +difficulties: (1) its physical impossibility, and (2) its +moral impossibility.</p> + +<p>1. Physical Impossibilities. The atomic and +molecular movements required for the thinking of a +single man would be beyond the capacity of all the +gods of the supernaturalistic interpretations of religion +together.</p> + +<p>Some idea of the number of such motions which are +taking place in every human brain, will be derived +from the conservative representations of Hofmeister +as exhibited in the following condensed form by McCabe +in his book, "The Evolution of Mind:"</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>We have reason to believe that there are in each +molecule of ordinary protoplasm at least 450 atoms of +carbon, 720 atoms of hydrogen, 116 of nitrogen, 6 of +sulphur, and 140 of oxygen. Nerve-plasm is still +more complex.</p> + +<p>Recent discoveries have only increased the wonder +and potentiality of the cortex. Each atom has proved +to be a remarkable constellation of electrons, a colossal +reservoir of energy. The atom of hydrogen contains +about 1,000 electrons, the atom of carbon 12,000, +the atom of nitrogen 14,000, the atom of oxygen 16,000, +and the atom of sulphur 32,000. These electrons<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span> +circulate within the infinitesimal space of the atom +at a speed of from 10,000 to 90,000 miles a second. +It would take 340,000 barrels of powder to impart to +a bullet the speed with which some of these particles +dart out of their groups. A gramme of hydrogen—a +very tiny portion of the simplest gas—contains energy +enough to lift a million tons more than a hundred +yards.</p> + +<p>Of these astounding arsenals of energy, the atoms, +we have, on the lowest computation, at least 600 million +billion in the cortex of the human brain.</p> + +<p>Scientists, says Professor Olerich, in his book, "A +Modern Look at the Universe," estimate that the +chemical atom is so infinitesimally small that it requires +a group of not less than a billion to make the +group barely visible under the most powerful microscope, +and a thousand such groups would have to be +put together in order to make it just visible to the +naked eye as a mere speck floating in the sunbeam.</p> + +<p>The microscope reveals innumerable animalcules in +the hundredth part of a drop of water. They all eat, +digest, move and from all appearances of their frolics, +they are endowed with sensation and ability of enjoyment. +What then shall we say of the minuteness +of the food they eat; of the blood that surges through +their veins; of their nervous system that thrills and +guides them? Their minutest organs must be composed +of molecules, atoms, ions and electrons inconceivably +smaller than are the organs themselves.</p></div> + +<p>Is there any god in a celestial field who could care +for the movements which occur in the molecules constituting +a hundredth part of a drop of water, not to +speak of those which occur in the bodies of its myriads +of inhabitants? And what shall we say of all the +inorganic and organic movements in a small cup of +whole drops of water, let alone those of a great ocean +of them?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span></p> + +<p>But why go further into this subject? Is not the +utter childishness of the orthodox representative of a +supernaturalistic interpretation of religion, who +credits his god with the governance of the motions +occurring in the mineral, vegetable and animal kingdoms +of this globe, leaving out of account those of +its solar system, and of other systems which constitute +the universe, sufficiently manifest?</p> + +<p>If you say that the motions which issue in the +phenomena of the universe are regulated by a law +which was once for all willed by the god of the +Christian interpretation of religion, I ask why the +law should be credited to the willing of this god +rather than to that of the god of Jewish, Mohammedan +or Buddhistic interpretation.</p> + +<p>Newton took the first of the six initiatory steps in +the long way which led to the conclusion that the +universe is self-existing, self-sustaining and self-governing, +by showing that all the movements of the +solar systems were necessarily what they have been +by reason of a matter-force law, gravitation. This +discovery is the most momentous event in the whole +history of mankind.</p> + +<p>Laplace took the second step by showing that the +cosmic nebulae contain within themselves all the +potentialities necessary to the formation of solar systems.</p> + +<p>Lavoisier took the third step by showing that the +matter which enters into the constitution of the universe +is an eternality.</p> + +<p>Mayer took the fourth step by showing that the +force which enters into the constitution of the universe +is an eternality.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span></p> + +<p>Darwin took the fifth step by showing that the +protoplasm contains all the potentialities of every +form of physical and degree of psychical life from the +moneron to man; that all representatives of both the +vegetable and animal kingdoms, including man, are +related and so on a level as to their origin and destiny, +and that the different species are the natural results +of the necessary struggle with rivals and with adverse +environments for existence.</p> + +<p>Marx took the sixth step by showing that the +essential difference between humans and beasts is +primarily a question of the hand and secondarily of +the machines by which its efficiency is immeasurably +increased; that slavery has been and must continue +to be the means of advancement towards the ideal +civilization; that the kinds of human slavery were +what they have been because machines have been +what they were, and that the time is coming when +the slaves will no longer be men, women and children, +but machines which will be exploited for the good of +the many, not the profit of the few—then, and not +until then, rapid advance shall be made towards the +goal where the whole world shall be one great co-operative +family, every member of which shall have +the greatest of possible opportunities to make the +most of terrestrial life by having it as long and happy +as possible.</p> + +<p>2. Moral Impossibilities. The moral impossibility +of the assumptions of these apologies is seen by all +who have eyes for seeing things as they are in the +fact that if God is credited with the good He must +also be debited with the evil. If for example, He endowed +the human body with its useful and necessary<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> +parts. He also endowed it with its harmful and unnecessary +parts.</p> + +<p>Experts in the field of anatomy tell us that there +are in our bodies at least 180 useless parts, some +among which are the occasion of much suffering and +many premature deaths, the vermiform appendix +alone causing many thousands of such cases annually.</p> + +<p>Do you not see that these useless structures, all of +which are inherited from the lower animals, are so +many evidences of the truth of Darwinism and the +untruthfulness of Mosaism? Eleven of these wholly +useless and more or less harmful inheritances have +been of no use to any of our ancestors from the fish +up and four are inherited from our reptilian and +amphibian forefathers, but according to Moses we +have no such progenitors.</p> + +<p>Admitting the fact of the existence of evil there is +no escaping from the logical conclusions of dear, old +sensible Epicurus:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Either God is willing to remove evil from this world +and cannot, or he can and is not willing, or finally he +can and is willing. If he is willing and cannot, it is +impotence, which is contrary to the nature of God. +If he can and is unwilling, it is wickedness, and that +is no less contrary to the nature of God. If he is not +willing and cannot, there is both wickedness and impotence. +If he is willing and can, which is the only +one of these suppositions that can be applied to God, +how happens it that there is evil on earth?</p></div> + +<p>Oh, if only the world had been influenced by this +logic instead of by the metaphysics of the supernaturalistic +interpretations of religion, it would have +been so far on the way towards the ideal civilization +as to have long since passed the point where it would<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span> +have been possible to have the world war which has +recently deluged the earth with blood and tears, or to +make the Versailles treaty which is destined to issue in +one war after another, ever filling the world fuller with +the tyranny, poverty, slavery and misery which are the +inevitable concomitants of all wars.</p> + +<p>In my opinion the fascinating essayist, Mallock, +has written the best of all apologies for theism. I +cannot imagine a better one. He, however, makes no +more attempt than Sir Oliver Lodge does to establish +Christianity, or any other supernaturalistic interpretations +of religion. Like Kant and yourself, Mallock +takes his stand on the ground that a belief in a +celestial God, and in the immortality which goes with +it, is necessary to morality, the basic virtue upon +which civilization rests. As Kant admits that the +existence of God cannot be inferred from pure reason, +so Mallock admits and even strongly contends that +it cannot be established on scientific grounds. I quote +a striking passage:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>We must divest ourselves of all foregone conclusions, +of all question-begging reverences, and look the +facts of the universe steadily in the face.</p> + +<p>If theists will but do this, what they will see will +astonish them. They will see that if there is anything +at the back of this vast process, with a consciousness +and a purpose in any way resembling our +own—a Being who knows what he wants and is doing +his best to get it—he is, instead of a holy and all-wise +God, a scatter-brained, semi-powerful, semi-impotent +monster. They will recognize as clearly as +they ever did the old familiar facts which seemed to +them evidences of God's wisdom, love and goodness; +but they will find that these facts, when taken in connection +with the others, only supply us with a stan<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span>dard +in the nature of this being himself by which +most of his acts are exhibited to us as those of a +criminal madman. If he had been blind, he had not +had sin; but if we maintain that he can see, then his +sin remains. Habitually a bungler as he is, and callous +when not actively cruel, we are forced to regard +him, when he seems to exhibit benevolence, as not +divinely benevolent, but merely weak and capricious, +like a boy who fondles a kitten and the next moment +sets a dog at it. And not only does his moral character +fall from him bit by bit, but his dignity disappears +also. The orderly processes of the stars and +the larger phenomena of nature are suggestive of +nothing so much as a wearisome court ceremonial +surrounding a king who is unable to understand or to +break away from it; whilst the thunder and whirlwind, +which have from time immemorial been accepted +as special revelations of his awful power and +majesty, suggest, if they suggest anything of a personal +character at all, merely some blackguardly larrikin +kicking his heels in the clouds, not perhaps bent +on mischief, but indifferent to the fact that he is causing +it.</p> + +<p>But we need not attempt to fill in the picture further. +The truth is, as we consider the universe as a +whole, it fails to suggest a conscious and purposive +God at all; and it fails to do so not because the processes +of evolution as such preclude the idea that God +might have made use of them for a definite purpose, +but because when we come to consider these processes +in detail, and view them in the light of the only purposes +they suggest, we find them to be such that a +God who could deliberately have been guilty of them +would be a God too absurd, too monstrous, too mad +to be credible.</p></div> + +<p>The god who had any part in bringing upon the +world the English-German war, the Versailles peace, +the Russian blockade, is for me a devil not a divinity.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span> +If you say that the Christian god had nothing to do +with them, I reply that these are among the greatest +of all curses wherewith mankind has been afflicted in +modern times; and if he could not or would not prevent +them, what ground is there for looking to him +for help in any time of need?</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>How can I adequately express my contempt for the +assertion that all things occur for the best, for a wise +and beneficent end? It is the most utter falsehood, +and a crime against the human race.... Human +suffering is so great, so endless, so awful, that I can +hardly write of it.... The whole and the worst, +the worst pessimist can say is far beneath the least +particle of the truth.... Anyone who will consider +the affairs of the world at large ... will see +that they do not proceed in the manner they would +do for our happiness if a man of humane breadth of +view were placed at their head with unlimited power. +A man of intellect and humanity could cause everything +to happen in an infinitely superior manner. But +that which is ... credited to a non-existent intelligence +(or cosmic "order," it is just the same) should +really be claimed and exercised by the human race. +We must do for ourselves what superstition has +hitherto supposed an intelligence to do for us.—Richard +Jeffries.</p></div> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Would but some winged Angel ere too late</span> +<span class="i0">Arrest the yet unfolded Roll of Fate,</span> +<span class="i0">And make the stern Recorder otherwise</span> +<span class="i0">Enregister, or quite obliterate!</span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Ah Love! could you and I with Him conspire</span> +<span class="i0">To grasp this sorry Scheme of Things entire,</span> +<span class="i0">Would not we shatter it to bits—and then</span> +<span class="i0">Remold it nearer to the Heart's Desire!</span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="right">—Omar.</span> +</div></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span></p> +<p>You frequently intimate that my doctrine concerning +the origin and destiny of the universe with all +that therein is, including man, is not that of the +majority of men of science and scientific philosophers, +but that yours is. It will therefore be of interest to +you to know that I have submitted the most radical +of my materialistic pieces to three men of science, all +great authorities, one of whom replied, that he was +in substantial agreement with me, but thought me to +be 400 years ahead of our time; another, that he found +nothing to criticize unless it might be my failure to +give greater prominence to the fact that the gods of +the redemptive interpretations, of religion were so +many versions of the sun-myth, and the other, that +the essay would pass any world congress of scientists +by a large majority.</p> + +<p>You think that I am wrong in quoting Newton and +Darwin on my side, because they believed in the +existence of a conscious, personal god. I am persuaded +that such was not the case with Darwin at his +death; but, however this may be, it is in neither of +these cases, nor in that of any other scientist, a +question of what he philosophically believed concerning +a god, but of what he scientifically established +as a fact.</p> + +<p>Newton established the fact that the movements +of the stars in their courses are naturally regulated +by the law of gravitation, not supernaturally by the +will of a god.</p> + +<p>Darwin established the fact that all living species +of animal and vegetable life exist as the natural results +of evolutionary processes, not as the supernatural +results of creative acts.</p> + +<p>If Newton were to stand by his theological writ<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span>ings, +he would fall in your estimation, for his work +on the book of Daniel would be regarded by you as +an absurdity. He considered Daniel to be the great +revelation of a God, Jehovah, but you know it to be +the purest fiction of a man, quite as much the work +of the imagination of its author as Don Quixote is +that of Cervantes.</p> + +<p>Among the many theological authorities whom you +quote against me, the greatest, in my estimation, is +Dr. Inge, Dean of St. Paul's, London, whose utterances +I have been noting with great interest of late; +partly, no doubt, because he seems to be giving up +your orthodox side and coming over, slowly but +surely, to my heterodox one. In a London paper +which has just reached me, the Literary Guide, this +is said of the Dean:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The theological opinions of Dean Inge, one of the +official mouthpieces of the Church of England, and +probably the most distinguished spokesman for the +more liberally minded of the clergy, have now reached +an interesting stage, both for those without the +Church as well as for those within it. Although he +does not feel called upon to state his own private +conclusions on such debatable questions, he no longer +regards the doctrines of the Immaculate Conception +and the Bodily Resurrection as essential prerequisites +of Christianity and would consider fit for ordination +any candidate who rejected them, provided such +a person still acknowledged the divine nature of +Jesus Christ—that is, he would not exclude him from +the Church's ministry.</p></div> + +<p>If I understand Dean Inge as he is reported in the +article of which this is the opening paragraph, he +bases his faith in the divinity of Jesus upon the +uniqueness of his character and teachings, not on the +miraculousness of his birth and healings.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span></p> + +<p>But Dean Inge has no authentic or reliable account +of the life and teachings of Jesus; and so, as a +theologian, like all theologians, he lives, moves and +has his being in the realm of fiction, the difference between +him and yourself being that he is in that part +of it where the imagination sits enthroned, and you +in the region where metaphysics is monarch of all it +surveys.</p> + +<p>An outstanding theologian who, as it seems to me, +overshadows Dean Inge, commenting upon a piece +of my writing which is quite as radical as any part +of this letter goes even further than he.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"I have," he says, "just read the Chapter of your +Natural Gospel for a Scientific Age, which you have +kindly sent me, with the greatest interest. Indeed I +have come so heartily to share your point of view +that I can find no points for criticism; I can only say +how grateful I am to have had an opportunity of seeing +your uncompromising and clear expression of the +only kind of Modernism that has any promise for the +future. I am beginning to feel more and more uncomfortable +in our Christian movement because so +many of our leaders here are attempting an impossible +compromise with dogma. Men like Dr. Rashdall have +no place in the movement for men who cannot accept +their 'fullblooded theism.' In fact they are +Harnackians with their one or two unalterably fixed +dogmas."</p></div> + + +<h4>IV.</h4> + +<p>If you ask why I continue to be a member of an +orthodox church and its ministry, the answer is, there +is no reason why I should not for (if they may be interpreted +by myself, for myself, spiritually) I accept +every article of the creed of catholic orthodoxy; but if +the articles of this creed must be interpreted lit<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span>erally +there is no one in our church (the Episcopal) +or in any among the churches, who believes +all of them. For example, who believes, that God +created the heavens and the earth out of nothing +in six days, as he is represented to have done +in his alleged revelation of which the creed is a condensation? +All in this church, or at least all the +ministers of it, who have obeyed its requirement respecting +the devotion of themselves to study, as I +have, know that the firmament or heaven of which +the revelation speaks has no substantial existence, +only an imaginary one. What was supposed to be +it, is but the reflection of light upon the dust of the +atmosphere. As for the earth it was not made out +of nothing; and, indeed, it was not supernaturally +made at all but naturally evolutionized out of matter +and force, and even they were not created by a god, +for they are co-existing eternalities; nor were their +evolutionary processes directed by him, for they have +eternally, automatically and necessarily co-operated +in such processes to the production of every +phenomenon which has contributed to make both +the physical and psychical parts of the universe what +they have been at any time, including the divine, +diabolical and angelic fictions which men have made +and placed above and below the earth.</p> + +<p>If you ask whether I am still a professing Christian, +I will answer: yes, yet the Brother Jesus of the New +Testament, catholic creed and protestant confessions, +is not for me an historical personage, but only a +symbol of all that is for the good of the world, even as +the Uncle Sam of American literature is not an historical +personage but only a symbol of all which is +for the good of the United States.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span></p> + +<p>If you ask whether I am a praying Christian, I +shall answer: yes, yet when I pray, as I do every +day, my prayer is an appeal to a real divinity within +my heart, the better self, of which self all the unreal +divinities in the skies including the Christian trinity, +Father, Son and Spirit, are but poetic symbols, and I +no longer expect this God to answer otherwise than +the symbol of parents, Santa Claus, answers the +prayers of children, or the symbol of the United States, +Uncle Sam, answers the prayers of Americans.</p> + +<p>If you ask whether I am a communing Christian, I +shall answer: yes, yet when I go to the Lord's Supper, +as I do every month, the strength which I receive is +derived from the feeling that through it I place myself +in communion with my human brethren on earth, not +with a divine brother in the sky, particularly with the +members of my church and the citizens of my town +and its neighborhood, but generally with all men, +women and children throughout the whole world, of +which real brethren the brother god in the sky, Jesus, +is but a poetic symbol; nor do I now regard the +communion of this supper as being essentially +different from that of any ordinary family-meal, +lodge-banquet, or socialist-picnic, with each of which +repasts the informal Lord's Supper of the apostolic +church had much more in common than it has with +the formal celebrations of the sacrament in any among +the sectarian churches.<a name="Jtop" id="Jtop"></a><span class="fnanchor"><a href="#J">[J]</a></span></p> + +<p>Many critics represent that, in view of the changes +in my theological opinion, if I am an honest man, not +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span>a hypocrite, I will leave the ministry and communion +of the Episcopal Church. But why should I go while +any of my brother clergymen remain? I give a +symbolic or allegorical interpretation to every article +of the whole system of Christian supernaturalism and +uniqueism; yet as symbols, allegories, parables, or +myths, I do not reject any, and no member of our +House of Bishops literally accepts all.</p> + +<p>Who among influential preachers of any rank in +any church believes: (1) that the world was made +about six thousand years ago by a personal, Creator-God +out of nothing; or that it was made at any time +out of anything? (2) that such a God formed Adam +out of dust and Eve out of a rib; that they left His +hands as perfect physical and moral images of Himself, +and fully civilized representatives of the human +race; or that there was any first man and woman? +(3) that He planted a Garden of Eden and placed +them therein under ideal conditions, and that He +walked in it and talked with them; or that there ever +was any such garden? (4) that a personal destroyer-Devil, +incarnated in a talking serpent, tempted them +into disobedience; or that there ever was any such +Devil? (5) that but for this Devil's influence and +their sin, labor and suffering, physical death and moral +degradation would have been unknown on earth, and +that it would have been the permanent abode of mankind, +as indeed of all sentient creatures; or that any +of the higher forms of life would have been possible +without death? and (6) that to repair the evils accomplished +by this Destroyer-Devil it was necessary +for a personal Restorer-God to become incarnated in +a man, in order that he might shed this blood as a +sufficient sacrifice for the satisfaction of the offended<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span> +Creator-God; also, in order that the resurrection of +the bodies (bones, flesh, blood and animal organism) +of all deceased men, women and children and the +rehabitation of them by their respective souls could be +accomplished, to the end that a few, on account of their +faith, might be transferred to a permanent home in a +heaven on a firmament above the earth, and the many, +because of their lack of faith, to a permanent home in +a hell below; or that there ever was any such incarnation +for these purposes; or that there are any +such firmament, heaven, and hell, or that there will +be any such resurrection, ascension or descension?</p> + +<p>If other bishops, priests and deacons can, as they must, +bring in their symbolism or allegorism touching any or +all of these six fundamentals, which constitute the basis +of the supernaturalism of traditional Christianity, and +yet not leave the church, why may not I bring in mine +and remain?</p> + +<p>Attention is called by several critics to Sir Oliver +Lodge, as an example of an outstanding man of +science who accepts supernaturalism. While I was +desperately trying to retain my conception of a supernaturalistic +God and of all the supernaturalism that +goes with it (revelation of truth, answer to prayer, +guidance by providence, resurrection of the dead and +their ascension, eternal consciousness and happiness) +I at one time centered a great deal of hope in him, +and eagerly studied his works as indeed I did those of +most apologists for supernaturalism among them the +greatest, Flammarion, Balfour, Bergson and Hudson, +but my careful study of his many writings convinced +me that he does not hold any of the supernaturalistic +doctrines which are distinctively Christian.</p> + +<p>However, it is my doctrine concerning Jesus, rather<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span> +than that of Christian traditionalism, that is in exact +alignment with that of this renowned physicist. We +agree that Jesus, if historical, was a Son of God and +the Christ to men in no other sense, and therefore in +no higher degree, than all representatives of the +human race may be sons or daughters of God, if there +are gods and christs, to the men, women and children +with whom they come in contact.</p> + +<p>Most critics think that I am wrong in representing +that the great majority of the leading men of science +are naturalistic, not supernaturalistic, but Sir Oliver +Lodge represents that among such scientists it is +generally believed that the universe is "self-explained, +self-contained and self-maintained;" and speaking on +his own behalf of its creation out of nothing he says: +"The improbability or absurdity of such a conception, +except in the symbolism of poetry, is extreme, and +it is unthinkable by any educated person."</p> + +<p>All these gods were created, endowed and located +by man, and then he had them make revelations, +create churches, institute sacraments and appoint +priesthoods for his redemption from devils whom he +also created, endowed and located.</p> + +<p>This is why people of the same country and time +have such different gods and revelations. Jehovah is +the god and the Old Testament the revelation of the +kings and plutocrats who are responsible for wars; +Jesus is the god and the New Testament is the +revelation of the doctors and nurses who do what +they can to alleviate the misery of them.</p> + +<p>The gods, not excepting Jehovah and Jesus, are as +mythical as Santa Claus and answer their suppliants +not otherwise than he answers his, through human +representatives. If the suffering, needy or afflicted do<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span> +not get help and sympathy from men, women and +children they get none from the gods and angels.</p> + +<p>While on the one hand the great majority of +scientists, scientific philosophers and educated people +generally doubt that any god ever answered a prayer +or exercised a providence, on the other, no one doubts +that men, women and children answer millions of +prayers daily and that every person's career is wholly +different from what it would have been but for human +providence; that, indeed, life would be impossible +without the providence which all people exercise in +the hearing and answering of prayers.</p> + +<p>Representatives of many of the interpretations of +religion strewed every battle-field of the European +war. The celestial saviours did not care for one of +their devotees. The terrestrial saviours (doctors and +nurses) did everything for the desperately wounded +and saved millions who would have miserably perished +but for them. These were the real christs and angels +of whom the celestial ones are but symbols. The +celestials always have passed by on the other side. +The terrestrials are the Good Samaritans when there +are any.</p> + +<p>Sceptics infer from this negligence that the gods +and angels have no real objective existence. Believers +contend that they really exist objectively and excuse +the neglect on account of preoccupation. For example, +the God of traditional Christianity is supposed to +spend much time counting hairs on the heads of His +people and watching sparrows fall to the ground. +Sceptics are reverently but earnestly asking: Why +does He not keep the sparrows from falling? Why +does He not let the hairs remain unnumbered, until +He has put a stop to wars and promoted good will<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> +among men to a degree which will render it impossible +that the world should any longer be cursed +by them?</p> + +<p>If believers say that we have no knowledge of the +ways of God, sceptics reply: Since all which is known +about any objective reality is concerning the ways +thereof, what the action is under given circumstances, +how do you know that your God has anything to do +with either sparrows or men, or even that He exists?</p> + +<p>As to their philosophy concerning the origin, +sustenance and governance of the universe, socialists +of the school of Marx, are almost to a man +materialists; but, as to their philosophy concerning +life, they are as generally idealists. There is, I feel +sure, as much idealism in my thinking and living now +as there was in the days of my orthodoxy, but I will +let you judge for yourself after reading the following +confession of faith:</p> + +<p>My early life was blighted as the result of the +premature death of my father by the Civil War and +the consequent breaking up of his family and my +bondage to a German who made a slave of me, broke +my health by overwork and exposure, and, worst of +all, kept me in ignorance, so that when, at the age +of twenty-one, I began my education, I was assigned +to the fourth grade of a public school.</p> + +<p>The prime of my life has been wasted in preaching +as truths the dogmas of the Christian theology, the +representations of which I now believe, with the overwhelming +majority of educated people, to be at best +so many symbols and at worst superstitions.</p> + +<p>But though I do not now and probably never shall +again believe in the existence of a conscious, personal +god, a knowledge of and obedience to whose will is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span> +necessary to salvation, yet an injustice is done me +by those who say I have abandoned god and religion.</p> + +<p>Every one who desires and endeavors to fulfill the +requirements of a law which is independent of his +will and beyond his control has a god and a religion. +I desire and endeavor this in the case of two such +laws and so have two gods and two religions. Both +of my divinities are trinities. One is in the physical +realm and the other in the moral one.</p> + +<p>In the physical realm my triune god is: matter, the +father; force, the son, and motion, the spirit.</p> + +<p>In the moral realm, my triune god is: fact, the father; +truth, the son, and life, the spirit.</p> + +<p>For me the triune divinity of Christianity is a +symbol of these trinities and it is my desire and effort +to discover and fulfill what they require of me, in +order that I may make my own physical, psychical +and moral life as long, happy and complete as possible +and help others in doing this for themselves. This +desire and effort is at once my morality and religion, +my politics and patriotism, and they are spiritual +realities.</p> + +<p>On account of the first of these sets of spiritual +virtues (morality and religion) I claim to be a +Christian of the highest type, and that any accusation +which is raised against me because of alleged disloyalty +to any essential of Christianism is an injustice.</p> + +<p>On account of the second of these sets of spiritual +virtues (politics and patriotism) I claim to be an +American of the highest type, and that any accusation +which is raised against me because of alleged disloyalty +to an essential of Americanism is an injustice.</p> + +<p>From the viewpoint of the self-styled one hundred<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span> +per cent Christians, I am a betrayer of Brother Jesus +because I do not believe that he ever had any +existence as a god and that, if he was at any time a +man, the world does not now and never can know of +one thing that he did or of one word that he said.</p> + +<p>From the viewpoint of the self-styled one hundred +per cent Americans, I am a traitor to Uncle Sam, because +I did oppose his going into the English-German +war, and because I do object to the partiality which +he shows to his rich nephews and nieces.</p> + +<p>Still Jesus and Uncle Sam are as dear to me as ever +and indeed dearer, yet not as objective, conscious personalities, +but as symbols, ideals or patterns.</p> + +<p>However, though I love my Brother Jesus and +Uncle Sam all the time, as a child does Santa Claus +at Christmas time, I am no longer childish enough +at any time to look to either of them to do anything +for me, because I know that what is done for me must +be done either by myself or by men, women and +children, and that as objective, conscious personalities, +my Brother Jesus and Uncle Sam have had no more +to do with my life than the man-in-the-moon.</p> + +<p>Your observation concerning the American government +as being the standard to which all governments +will ultimately conform challenges an earnest word +of friendly dissent.</p> + +<p>Our government is what all the governments of the +world are (with the single exception of the Russian) +a government in the interest of a small class, the +representatives of which own the means and machines +of production and distribution and who produce and +distribute things for profit, each for himself.</p> + +<p>The representatives of one class produce things +socially, and those of another class appropriate them<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span> +individually. This is capitalistic anarchy, the worst +of possible anarchism, and it must have an end soon +or the world will be lost.</p> + +<p>Robbery is the essence of anarchy and Marx showed +that every cent of profit made under the existing system +of economics (and in the United States it amounts +to several billions of dollars every year) is so much +robbery of the many who make and operate the +machines, because they are paid less in wages than +the value of the products made and distributed by +them.</p> + +<p>We are hearing much in these days about the +anarchy of those who are dissatisfied with the +capitalistic governments, but the governments themselves +and those in whose interests they exist are the +real anarchists. The flesh and blood of anarchism +are robbery and lying, and these are the meat and +drink of capitalism.</p> + +<p>The English-German war was the most flagrant +act of anarchy in the whole history of mankind. The +peace of Versailles and the blockade of Russia were +outrageous acts of anarchy, and so also are the +terrorism and tyranny of which every capitalistic +country is so full, our own with the rest.</p> + +<p>Morality is the very heart of civilization and of all +that really makes for it; but morality is impossible +on a capitalistic basis, for it is founded on the most +immoral things in the world, robbery, lying, murder, +ignorance, poverty and slavery.</p> + +<p>If I am right in the conviction that the United +States is more wholly given over to capitalism than +any other nation, not excepting even England, it is +the greatest robber, liar and murderer on earth. How<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span> +then, can the United States become the standard for +the governments of the nations?</p> + +<p>If the government of Russia holds its own, it, rather +than that of the United States, will become the +standard to which all governments must measure up +or else go down.</p> + +<p>Yes, not the government of the United States but +that of Russia is destined to become the standard of +all peoples, for the aim of our government is money, +more money, and then some, for the few, while the +infinitely higher aim of theirs is life, more life, fuller +life for every man, woman and child.</p> + +<p>Within my generation the vanguard of humanity +has passed from the age of traditionalism to that of +scientism and this transition is the greatest and most +salutary event in the whole history of humanity. It +is impossible to exaggerate its importance. It marks +the time when man began consciously to realize that +he must look to himself rather than to any god for +salvation.</p> + +<p>From time immemorial man has realized that +ignorance is his ruin and knowledge his salvation, +but during the too many and too long ages of +traditionalism he made the fatal mistake of supposing +that he was dependent upon a supernatural revelation +by an unconscious, personal god for the necessary +knowledge. But now the leading people of the world, +the shepherds of the sheep, are seeing with increasing +clearness that man has naturally inherited his knowledge +and must naturally acquire by his own +experience, reason and investigation every addition +to it.</p> + +<p>The world is indeed passing through a long, dark +night, but neither the longest nor the darkest, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span> +since at last a great and rapidly increasing multitude +happily realize that humanity must work out its own +salvation through the living of its own knowledge +by its own inherited and increased strength, not +by a supernatural grace, we of this generation may +rationally hope, as those of no other did or could, for +the dawning of the longest and brightest of all days.</p> + +<p>As an old year dies into a new one, and as flourishing +generations die into rising ones, so the old +traditional ages, when nations and sects looked to +their rival gods in the skies for help, are happily +dying into the new scientific age, when all sensible +and good men, relying upon the strength of a common +divinity which is within themselves, will unite +in an all-inclusive brotherhood for the promotion of +the ideal civilization, a universal reign of righteousness.</p> + +<p>It is night,—midnight. The clock is striking twelve. +But this is the very hour and the very minute, when +all the saviours of mankind have always been and +ever will be born. Then it is that the Virgin, Nature, +comes to this dark world with her new born Son, +Truth, whom to know and follow is morality, religion, +politics and life. It is then that those who give +expression to the highest ideals and deepest longings +of mankind, hear the angels, Reason and Hope, sing: +On earth peace and good will towards men.</p> + +<p class="center"> +Very cordially and gratefully yours,<br /> +WM. M. BROWN.<br /> +</p><p> +Brownella Cottage,<br /> +Galion, Ohio.<br /> +</p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 405px;"> +<img src="images/engels.jpg" width="405" height="600" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption">FREDERICK ENGELS</span> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 463px;"> +<img src="images/lenin.jpg" width="463" height="600" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption">NIKOLAI LENIN</span> +</div> + +<div class="tnote"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<p><a name="H" id="H"></a><span class="fnanchor"><a href="#Htop">[H]</a></span> The difference between a political republic, such as +America has developed, and an industrial republic, such +as Russia is developing, is that the administrators of the +former are elected from the geographical divisions and +those of the latter from the productive divisions into +which the population is divided.</p> + +<p>If we liken states to fruit trees, the American tree may +be said to have been evolutionized for the purpose of producing +the fruit of commodities for the profit of the owning +class, and the Russian, the fruit of commodities for +the use of the working class.</p> + +<p><a name="I" id="I"></a><span class="fnanchor"><a href="#Itop">[I]</a></span> See appendix.</p> + +<p><a name="J" id="J"></a><span class="fnanchor"><a href="#Jtop">[J]</a></span> Nevertheless I consider church-going to be a bad +habit, and if I could live my life over, I would not allow +myself to become addicted to it.</p> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span></p> +<h2>COMMUNISM AND +CHRISTIANISM</h2> + +<h3>ANALYZED AND CONTRASTED +FROM THE +MARXIAN AND DARWINIAN +POINTS OF VIEW</h3> + +<h3><a name="Appendix" id="Appendix"></a>Appendix.</h3> + + +<table> +<tr><td align="right">I</td><td></td> <td><a href="#I_SCIENTIFIC_SOCIALISM">Scientific Socialism.</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right">II</td><td></td> <td><a href="#II_GOD_AND_IMMORTALITY">God and Immortality.</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right">III</td><td></td> <td><a href="#III_MYTHICAL_CHARACTER_OF_OLD_AND">Mythical Character of Old and New Testament Personages.</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right">IV</td><td></td> <td><a href="#IV_WOULD_SOCIALISM_CHANGE_HUMAN">Would Socialism Change Human Nature?</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right">V</td><td></td> <td><a href="#V_WHAT_WILL_BE_THE_FORM_OF_THE">What Will be the Form of the Workers' State?</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right">VI</td><td></td> <td><a href="#VI_WITHDRAWAL_OF_PRIZE_OFFER">Withdrawal of Prize Offer.</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right">VII</td><td></td> <td><a href="#VII_AFTERWORD">Afterword.</a></td></tr> +</table> + + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Morality is the greatest thing in the world; but +paradoxical as it may seem, there is one greater +thing, liberty—the liberty which is freedom to +learn, interpret, live and teach the truth as it is +revealed by the facts or acts of nature. Without +this freedom there can be no morality, and +of course no true religion, politics or civilization.</p></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span></p> +<h3>SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST.</h3> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">In northern climes, the polar bear</span> +<span class="i0">Protects himself with fat and hair,</span> +<span class="i0">Where snow is deep and ice is stark,</span> +<span class="i0">And half the year is cold and dark;</span> +<span class="i0">He still survives a clime like that</span> +<span class="i0">By growing fur, by growing fat.</span> +<span class="i0">These traits, O bear, which thou transmittest</span> +<span class="i0">Prove the Survival of the Fittest.</span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">To polar regions waste and wan,</span> +<span class="i0">Comes the encroaching race of man,</span> +<span class="i0">A puny, feeble, little bubber,</span> +<span class="i0">He has no fur, he has no blubber.</span> +<span class="i0">The scornful bear sat down at ease</span> +<span class="i0">To see the stranger starve and freeze;</span> +<span class="i0">But, lo! the stranger slew the bear,</span> +<span class="i0">And ate his fat and wore his hair;</span> +<span class="i0">These deeds, O Man, which thou committest</span> +<span class="i0">Prove the Survival of the Fittest.</span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">In modern times the millionaire</span> +<span class="i0">Protects himself as did the bear:</span> +<span class="i0">Where Poverty and Hunger are</span> +<span class="i0">He counts his bullion by the car:</span> +<span class="i0">Where thousands perish still he thrives—</span> +<span class="i0">The wealth, O Croesus, thou transmittest</span> +<span class="i0">Proves the Survival of the Fittest.</span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But, lo, some people odd and funny,</span> +<span class="i0">Some men without a cent of money—</span> +<span class="i0">The simple common human race</span> +<span class="i0">Chose to improve their dwelling place;</span> +<span class="i0">They had no use for millionaires,</span> +<span class="i0">They calmly said the world was theirs,</span> +<span class="i0">They were so wise, so strong, so many,</span> +<span class="i0">The Millionaires?—there wasn't any.</span> +<span class="i0">These deeds, O Man, which thou committest</span> +<span class="i0">Prove the Survival of the Fittest.</span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="right">—Mrs. Charlotte Stetson.</span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span></p> + +<h3><a name="I_SCIENTIFIC_SOCIALISM" id="I_SCIENTIFIC_SOCIALISM"></a>I. SCIENTIFIC SOCIALISM.</h3> + + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The working class and the employing class have nothing +in common. There can be no peace so long as hunger +and want are found among millions of working +people and the few, who make up the employing class, +have all the good things of life.</p> + +<p>Between these two classes a struggle must go on until +the workers of the world organize as a class, take possession +of the earth and the machinery of production, and +abolish the wage system.</p> + +<p>We find that the centering of management of the industries +into fewer and fewer hands makes the trade unions +unable to cope with the ever growing power of the employing +class. The trade unions foster a state of affairs +which allows one set of workers to be pitted against +another set of workers in the same industry, thereby helping +defeat one another in wage wars. Moreover, the +trade unions aid the employing class to mislead the +workers into the belief that the working class have interests +in common with their employers.</p> + +<p>These conditions can be changed and the interest of +the working class upheld only by an organization formed +in such a way that all its members in any one industry, +or in all industries if necessary, cease work whenever a +strike or lockout is on in any department thereof, thus +making an injury to one an injury to all.</p> + +<p>Instead of the conservative motto, "A fair day's wage +for a fair day's work", we must inscribe on our banner +the revolutionary watchword, "Abolition of the wage +system".</p> + +<p>It is the historic mission of the working class to do +away with capitalism. The army of production must be +organized, not only for the every-day struggle with capitalists, +but also to carry on production when capitalism +shall have been overthrown. By organizing industrially +we are forming the structure of the new society within +the shell of the old.—Preamble of the Industrial Workers +of the World.</p></div> + +<p>The following Synopsis of Scientific Socialism will +serve both as a summary of and supplement to my +little book. It is the introductory part of a catechism +(a series of questions and answers) entitled "Scientific +Socialism Study Course" published by Charles H.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span> +Kerr & Company, 341 East Ohio Street, Chicago, and +is reprinted here by their consent, with certain changes +in the interests of brevity and perspicuity. As a +whole this short Study Course of only thirty small +pages in large type is the greatest piece of catechetical +literature of which I have any knowledge. Even the +synopsis as given here contains more of the education +which makes for the good of the world than all +the catechisms of all the churches. The Catechism +was published in 1913.</p> + +<p>1. How do you explain the phenomena of History?</p> + +<p>Ans.: History, from the capitalist point of view, +is a record of political and intellectual changes and +revolutions of so-called great men, wherein the +economic causes for these acts and changes are ignored +or concealed; but, from the socialist view point, history +reveals a series of class struggles between an exploited +wealth-producing class and an exploiting ruling +class over the wealth produced.</p> + +<p>2. What effect have "great men" had on history?</p> + +<p>Ans.: Great men were simply ideal expressions of +the hopes of some class in society that was becoming +economically powerful. They formed a nucleus +around which a class gathered itself in attaining +economic conquests in its own interest, and in establishing +social institutions in harmony with, and for the +perpetuation of, such class interests. These men had +to embody some vital principles from the economic +conditions of their time and represent some class interest. +The same men with the same ideas would not +be great men under a different mode of production +when the time for their ideas was not ripe.</p> + +<p>3. What great factor is responsible for the rise of +"great men?"</p> + +<p>Ans.: The fact that the ideas of these men coincided +with the class interests of some class in society +that was becoming economically powerful. Therefore +economic conditions must exist or be developing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span> +which find their highest expression in the ideas of +such men.</p> + +<p>4. Why do social institutions change and not remain +fixed?</p> + +<p>Ans.: Because the process of economic evolution +will not permit them to remain fixed. The development +and improvement of the means of production and +distribution produce economic changes, therefore social +institutions (the state, church, school and even the +family) are forced to change to conform with changing +economic conditions. These are due to evolutionary +and revolutionary processes connected with the +means of production and distribution.</p> + +<p>5. What is responsible for the birth of new ideas, +and do they occur to some one individual only?</p> + +<p>Ans.: New ideas, theories and discoveries emanate +from material conditions, and such conditions act +upon individuals. The same idea or discovery may be +brought out by different individuals independently +and apart from each other. This proves that it is not +great men who are responsible for material conditions, +but that material conditions (modes of production +and distribution) produce the men best able to marshal +the facts and express the idea; usually in the interest +of some class.</p> + +<p>6. What single great idea occurred to both Darwin +and Wallace independently?</p> + +<p>Ans.: The theory of "Natural Selection" which +showed that the closely allied ante-type was the parent +stock from which the new form had been derived +by variation.</p> + +<p>7. What single great idea occurred to both Marx +and Engels independently?</p> + +<p>Ans.: The "Materialistic Conception of History."</p> + +<p>8. Name the three great ideas developed by Marx +and Engels which now form the bed-rock basis for the +socialist philosophy.</p> + +<p>Ans.: (1) the Materialistic Conception of History, +or, the law of economic determinism, (2) the Law of +Surplus Value, and (3) the Class Struggle.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span></p> + +<p>9. Explain, briefly, the "materialistic conception +of history."</p> + +<p>Ans.: "In every historical epoch, the prevailing +mode of economic production and exchange and the +social organization necessarily following from it +forms the basis upon which is built up and from which +alone can be explained, the political and intellectual +history of that epoch." The laws, customs, education, +religion, public opinion and morals are in the long +run controlled and shaped by economic conditions; +or, in other words, by the dominant ruling class which +the economic system of any given period forces to the +front.</p> + +<p>10. What is the most important question in life?</p> + +<p>Ans.: The problem of securing food and shelter.</p> + +<p>11. What bearing does this have on the materialistic +conception of history?</p> + +<p>Ans.: It gives us the only key by which we can +understand the history of the past, and within limits, +predict the course of future development.</p> + +<p>12. What effect does the prevailing mode of production +and exchange in any particular epoch, have +on the social organization and political and intellectual +history of that epoch?</p> + +<p>Ans.: "Anything that goes to the roots of the +economic structure and modifies it (the food and +shelter question in life) will inevitably modify every +other branch and department of human life, political, +ethical, religious and moral. This makes the social +question primarily an economic one and all our +thought and effort should be concentrated on it."</p> + +<p>13. Do the ideas of the ruling class, in any given +epoch, correspond with the prevailing mode of economic +production?</p> + +<p>Ans.: They correspond exactly, as all connective +institutions, civil, religious, legal, educational, political +and domestic have been moulded in the interest +of the economically dominant class who control these +institutions in a manner to uphold their class interests +where their ideas find expression.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span></p> + +<p>14. What effect do these ideas of the ruling class +have on the interests of the subject class?</p> + +<p>Ans.: The effect is detrimental to the interests of +the subject class as the different class interests conflict. +Therefore the ruling class finds the institutions +mentioned very useful in either persuading or forcing +the so-called "lower classes" to submit to the economic +conditions that are absolutely against their interest, +even though they are the wealth producing class.</p> + +<p>15. Distinguish natural environment from man-made +environment.</p> + +<p>Ans.: Natural environment which consisted of the +fertility of the soil, climatic conditions, abundance of +fruits, nuts, game and fish was all-important in the +early stage of man's development. With the progress +of civilization this nature-made environment loses its +supreme importance and the man-made economic environment +becomes equally important.</p> + +<p>16. Explain, briefly, the law of Surplus Value.</p> + +<p>Ans.: It is the difference between what the working +class as a whole gets for its labor power at its +value in wages, say an average of five dollars per day, +for producing commodities, and what the employing +class as a whole gets, say an average of twenty-five +dollars, for the same commodities when sold at their +value. According to this conservative estimate capital +is upon the whole and in the long run robbing +labor of four-fifths of the value of its productive power. +Capitalism is therefore the great robber, the Beelzebub +of robbers.</p> + +<p>17. Since the economic factor is the determining +factor, what does the law of Surplus Value furnish +us?</p> + +<p>Ans.: "Surplus Value is the key to the whole present +economic organization of society. The end and +object of capitalist society is the formation and accumulation +of surplus value; or in other words, the +systematic, legal robbery of the subject working +class."</p> + +<p>18. Define value and state how measured.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span></p> + +<p>Ans.: Value is the average amount of human labor +time socially, not individually, necessary under +average, not special, conditions for the production or +reproduction of commodities.</p> + +<p>19. What determines the value of labor power?</p> + +<p>Ans.: It is determined precisely like the value of +every other commodity, i. e., by the amount of labor +time socially necessary for its production or reproduction +by the raising and support of children to succeed +their parents as wage-earning slaves.</p> + +<p>20. Since labor power is a commodity, what condition +is it subject to?</p> + +<p>Ans.: It is subject to the same conditions that all +other commodities are subject to without regard to +the fact that it is the source of all social value. The +worker in whom the commodity labor power is embodied, +does not get the value of the product of his +labor, but only about one-fifth of it, enough to keep +him in working order and reproduce more labor +power in his children. If the worker received the +value of the product of his labor he would receive much +more than enough to keep him in working order and +to raise his family. Such an economic condition would +abolish all forms of surplus value or profit, also the +wage system, by substituting economic and social organization +in the interest of the working class. No +other class could remain in existence and the class +struggle would be ended.</p> + +<p>21. In what economic system, past or present, does +surplus value appear?</p> + +<p>Ans.: It is the root of all social systems since the rise +of the institution of private property, but only under the +present system (capitalism) has labor power assumed +the commodity form. Labor power is a commodity with +a two fold character: it has a use and an exchange value. +Its use value consists in its being capable of producing +values over and above its own needs for sustenance and +reproduction. Its exchange value consists in the amount +of socially necessary labor time required for its production +and reproduction.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span></p> + +<p>The chattel and feudal systems of slavery were not +directly concerned with the production of commodities +for the profit of the masters, but rather with the producing +of the necessities of life for all, masters and +slaves, and the luxuries for some, the masters. That +which was not produced for immediate consumption +was sold, if opportunities presented themselves, and +occasionally the professional traders developed, for +example, the Phoenicians; but they were an exception +to the rule. The same holds good for feudalism, except +that during the latter stages of that system commercialism +arose; but this commercialism was no feature +of feudalism—it was the rising capitalism that began +to unfold and assert itself.</p> + +<p>22. Name the three great systems of economic organization +upon which the structure of past history +and social institutions have their basis.</p> + +<p>Ans.: (1) Chattel slavery, (2) serfdom, or feudal +slavery and (3) wage slavery.</p> + +<p>23. Explain, briefly, how the subject class was exploited +under each of these economic systems.</p> + +<p>Ans.: 1. Under chattel slavery the laborer was a chattel +(possession or property) the same as a mule or horse, +and only received his "keep," that is, enough food, clothing +and shelter to keep him in working order and to +reproduce labor power by raising children. All he +produced (use values and children) was taken by his +master. The body of the slave was the property of +his master. 2. Under serfdom or feudal slavery, the +worker produced what was necessary to keep him in +working order and to raise a family of slaves, and +then the balance of his time produced use values for +his feudal lord. The body of the slave was his own, +though he could not go about with it from one place +to another; for it was bound to the land of his master. +3. Under the wage slavery, the worker receives wages +which again equals only the amount necessary to keep +him in working order and to reproduce more labor +power in his children. His entire product belongs to +the capitalist, and out of this resource he pays the wages<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span> +for the commodity labor, also for other commodities +such as raw materials, and appropriates all of the balance +and converts it into capital with which he not only continues +but increases the exploitation of his workers. The +body of the capitalist's slave is indeed his own as under +the feudal system but with this difference, that if he does +not like his master, or he is disliked by him, he can +or must go abroad with it from one place to another +looking for a job—a liberty or necessity which is to +the advantage of the owning class and the disadvantage +of the working class. Unemployment is necessary +to the existence of capitalism, but this necessity is a +danger to the system and will ultimately destroy it in all +countries as it has in Russia.</p> + +<p>24. Define the "Class Struggle."</p> + +<p>Ans.: It is the direct clash between two hostile +class interests wherein the employing class makes +every effort to appropriate more of the wealth produced +by the working class, and the working class ever +struggles to retain more of the wealth which it produces. +The capitalist class strives to get more surplus +value and the working class strives to get more wages.</p> + +<p>The class consciousness of those who live by working +has found one of its best expressions in the following +paragraphs:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"The world stands upon the threshold of a new social +order. The capitalist system of production and distribution +is doomed; capitalist appropriation of labor's +product forces the bulk of mankind into wage slavery, +throws society into the convulsions of the class struggle, +and momentarily threatens to engulf humanity in chaos +and disaster.</p> + +<p>Since the advent of civilization human society has +been divided into classes. Each new form of society has +come into being with a definite purpose to fulfill in the +progress of the human race. Each has been born, has +grown, developed, prospered, become old, outworn, and, +has finally been overthrown. Each society has developed +within itself the germs of its own destruction as well<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span> +as the germs which went to make up the society of the +future.</p> + +<p>The capitalist system rose during the seventeenth, +eighteenth and nineteenth centuries by the overthrow of +feudalism. Its great and all-important mission in the +development of man was to improve, develop, and concentrate +the means of production and distribution, thus +creating a system of co-operative production. This +work was completed in advanced capitalist countries +about the beginning of the 20th century. That moment +capitalism had fulfilled its historic mission, and from +that moment the capitalist class became a class of +parasites.</p> + +<p>In the course of human progress mankind has passed +(through class rule, private property, and individualism +in production and exchange) from the enforced and inevitable +want, misery, poverty, and ignorance of savagery +and barbarism to the affluence and high productive +capacity of civilization. For all practical purposes, co-operative +production has now superseded individual production.</p> + +<p>Capitalism no longer promotes the greatest good of +the greatest number, It no longer spells progress, but +reaction. Private production carries with it private +ownership of the products. Production is carried on, +not to supply the needs of humanity, but for the profit +of the individual owner, the company, or the trust. The +worker, not receiving the full product of his labor, can +not buy back all he produces. The capitalist wastes part +in riotous living; the rest must find a foreign market. +By the opening of the twentieth century the capitalist +world—England, America, Germany, France, Japan, +China, etc.—was producing at a mad rate for the world +market. A capitalist deadlock of markets brought on in +1914 the capitalist collapse popularly known as the +World War. The capitalist world can not extricate itself +out of the debris. America today is choking under +the weight of her own gold and products.</p> + +<p>This situation has brought on the present stage of +human misery—starvation, want, cold, disease, pestilence,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span> +and war. This state is brought about in the midst of +plenty, when the earth can be made to yield a hundredfold, +when the machinery of production is made to +multiply human energy and ingenuity by the hundreds. +The present state of misery exists solely because the +mode of production rebels against the mode of exchange. +Private property in the means of life has become +a social crime. The land was made by no man; +the modern machines are the result of the combined ingenuity +of the human race from time immemorial; the +land can be made to yield and the machines can be set +in motion only by the collective effort of the workers. +Progress demands the collective ownership of the land +on and the tools with which to produce the necessities +of life. The owner of the means of life today partakes +of the nature of a highwayman; he stands with his gun +before society's temple; it depends upon him whether +the million mass may work, earn, eat, and live. The +capitalist system of production and exchange must be +supplanted if progress is to continue.</p> + +<p>In place of the capitalist system we must substitute a +system of social ownership of the means of production, +industrially administered by the workers, who assume +control and direction as well as operation of their industrial +affairs."</p></div> + +<p>25. Define "class consciousness."</p> + +<p>Ans.: Class consciousness of the workers means +that they are conscious of the fact that they, as a class, +have interests which are in direct conflict with the interests +of the capitalist class.</p> + +<p>26. What function does the state perform in the +class struggle?</p> + +<p>Ans.: "The state is a class instrument, and is the +public power of coercion created and maintained in +human societies by their division into classes, a power +which, being clothed with force, makes laws." It is, +therefore, used by the dominant class to keep the subject +working class in subjection in accordance with +the interests of the ruling and owning class. It is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span> +also used to prevent the workers from altering the +economic structure of society in the interests of the +working class.</p> + +<p>As the author of the catechism, of which these twenty-six +questions and answers constitute a small part, says:</p> + +<p>"Society is a growth subject to the laws of evolution. +When evolution reaches a certain point, revolution +becomes necessary in order to break the bonds of the +old and bring in the new. As the chicken grows +through evolution until it reaches the point where it +must break its shell (the revolution) in order to continue +its growth, so do classes of people come to the +point in their evolution where revolution is necessary +in order to continue their growth, bring in the new +society and consummate the next step in civilization."</p> + +<p>Since 1913, when the foregoing catechism was published, +we have had the war to end war and to make the +world safe for democracy—a fateful and mournful war +in which millions of lives were lost and other millions +wrecked with the result of multiplying wars and increasing +imperialism.</p> + +<p>It was a war between national groups of capitalists +with conflicting interests for commercial advantages, +which is unexpectedly issuing in three great crises: (1) +the imminent bankruptcy of capitalism; (2) the communist +revolution in Russia, and (3) the imminent taking +over of the world by the revolutionary proletariat.</p> + +<p>Hitherto, the sons and daughters of capitalism have +owned the earth with all that thereon and therein is. +Henceforth, the sons and daughters of the useful +workers shall be the owners.</p> + +<p>The future belongs to the workers, but not until +they organize themselves into one big revolutionary +union. What ideas and aims are involved in the faith +and endeavor of Revolutionary Unionism will appear +from this passage in Comrade Philip Kurinsky's Industrial +Unionism and Revolution, a brilliant pamphlet, +published by The Union Press, Box 205, Madison +Square, New York City:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Slavery is not abolished. It is merely a change in +the struggle which throws itself hither and thither like +the waves of the seas. In ancient times chattel slavery +existed. Feudalism then took its place. Feudalism +in its turn was overthrown by capitalism which +at present reigns supreme. As the immortal Tolstoy +explained, 'The abolition of the old slavery is similar +to that which Tartars did to their captives. After they +had cut up their heels they placed stones and sand in +the wounds and then took the chains off. The Tartars +were sure that when the feet of their prisoners were +swollen, that they could not run away and would have +to work even without chains. Such is the slavery of +wages'.</p> + +<p>Of this slavery does revolutionary unionism speak +in the name of the revolutionary worker. It analyzes +the present society and shows that it is divided into +two economic classes. One class, the capitalist class, +is the master class which controls all the factories, +mills, mines, railroads, lands and fields and all the +finished and raw materials. This class possesses all +the natural riches of the world and this economic supremacy +gives it control of the state, of the church, and +of all educational institutions. In short, this class owns +everything and controls the whole social and political +life of each country. The other class, the working +class, owns nothing. It produces all and enjoys little. +It uses the machines and tools but does not possess +them, and is therefore forced to sell its only possession, +its labor power, to the master class. And the latter +uses the opportunity to buy that wonderful power like +any raw material or some other commodity (some of +the representatives of craft unionism wish to deny +this but unsuccessfully). For the commodity which +the worker is compelled to sell in order that he might +live, he receives a wage which is determined as is the +price of every other commodity. The price is always +smaller than the value of the product which the worker +produces for the capitalist.</p> + +<p>Between these two classes there must, naturally,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span> +exist a tremendous struggle which often has the character +of actual war. No one urges the workers to this war—not +the terrible I. W. W.'s nor the political socialist, +neither the Bolsheviks nor the Anarchists, but the war +naturally and inevitably arises from existing conditions.</p> + +<p>On the one hand, the capitalists are continually +chasing after higher profits which results in the employment +of cheap labor under the worst conditions. +Naturally the ideal of the capitalist class is to keep +the workers in a condition of slavery. If the workers +attempt to revolt, as they do daily, their masters try +to suppress the revolt with all the power at their command. +On the other hand, the workers struggle with +all their power to lighten their burdens. They strive +to get better conditions, higher wages and shorter hours, +and in general the ideal of the working class is to +throw off the yoke of capitalism.</p> + +<p>No one rightfully can say that this struggle is merely +a theory. We can see this struggle in the attempts +of the capitalist class to destroy the victorious Russian +Proletariat. It is mirrored before our eyes in the continual +strikes. Nothing can stop this struggle except +the abolition of exploitation.</p> + +<p>No matter how hard the Citizens' Committees, +Boards of Arbitration, of Conciliation and of Mediation, +with their so-called impartial members try to +convince the world that it is possible to bring the warring +classes into closer relations, their attempts are +doomed to failure. At best their success is only temporary +and their efforts succeed only in blinding the +eyes of the working masses. And if at some time these +boards claim a victory, the credit is not due to them, +but to the force exerted by the workers. It is the +strike-weapon, held in reserve by the toilers, that +brings victory to the workers—not the efforts of the +philanthropic gentlemen. Furthermore the efforts of +these gentlemen greatly harm the workers, for at times +when the workers can attain success through the use +of the strike, these philanthropists interfere, and deaden<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span> +the initiative and aggressiveness of the strikers. Often +this causes strife between the strikers themselves. +They lose confidence in one another, and the existence +of the organizations which the workers succeeded in +building up through their efforts and sacrifices are +jeopardized.</p> + +<p>The "Conciliation," however, can bring no conciliation +between the employers and workers, because that +is unnatural. On the contrary, the hatred of one side +to the other is intensified and war breaks out oftener +and assumes a more bitter and more obstinate character.</p> + +<p>Thus viewing the two struggling classes of capitalist +society, revolutionary industrial unionism comes to +the logical conclusion that between capital and labor +there exists nothing in common, that the struggle must +go on and peace can come only when economic oppression +will cease, which is possible only when the program of +revolutionary unionism will be realized; namely, when +the workers will take over the means of production and +abolish the system of private ownership. The autocratic +control of industry, the unequal division of products will +then disappear and society will be built on a socialist +foundation, where the industries will be owned and +operated by the workers, organized in a truly democratic +manner, and where the individual will receive the full +product of his labor.</p> + +<p>These are the principles of revolutionary unionism, +the principles of the international proletariat. They +are the true expressions of the class struggle and because +of that, revolutionary unionism attracts more +and more followers whose ideal is to develop within +the working masses a consciousness of their historic +mission."</p></div> + +<p>In the words of an eloquent representative of the +organized workers in the United States, I exhort the +working men and working women of America: Keep +your eyes on Russia. Watch what is going on there and +what the capitalist plunderbund will try to do. Do not +be misled by the lies and slanders that are daily dished<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span> +up to you. Bear in mind that those who tell you these +yarns have an interest to mislead you. They want to +use you as a makeweight in their game of wresting +from the Russian workers their dearly-won liberty. It +is of no use to enumerate the lies that have already been +punctured because they will invent new ones faster than +one can write and print. Let your reason guide you. +Think yourselves into the shoes of your Russian fellow +workers. Think how you would act if placed in the +same position and then draw the conclusion that they +act about the same way that you would, because they are +like you moved by the same emotions, the same desires, +the same aspirations. You, too, would like to keep for +yourselves the fruits of your toil, if you only knew how +to go about it, if you had the organization that would +make it possible. But as yet you do not know and you +have not that organization. In politics you still vote +against one another in the Republican or Democratic +camp. You will have to wait until you do know and +until you do have the means—the Industrial Unions of +the entire working class that will be able to take and +hold and administer industry for the reason that it will +have the might, the power to do so. And when you have +expressed through the ballot your will for that new +society, which will guarantee to you the full fruits of +your labor, remember the slogan of revolutionary Russia: +"All power to the Soviets," and let your slogan then be: +"All power to the Industrial Unions!"</p> + +<p>These are prophetic words written fifty years ago by +Frederick Engels:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Since the historical appearance of the capitalist mode +of production, the appropriation by society of all the +means of production has often been dreamed of, more +or less vaguely, by individuals, as well as by sects, as +the ideal of the future. But it could become possible, +could become a historical necessity, only when the actual +conditions for its realization were there. Like every +other social advance, it becomes practicable, not by men +understanding that the existence of classes is in contradiction +to justice, equality, etc., not by the mere will<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span>ingness +to abolish these classes, but by virtue of certain +new economic conditions.... So long as the total +social labor only yields a produce which but slightly exceeds +that barely necessary for the existence of all; so +long, therefore, as labor engages all or almost all the +time of the great majority of the members of society—so +long, of necessity, this society is divided into +classes....</p> + +<p>But if, upon this showing, division into classes has +a certain historical justification, it has this only for a +given period, only under given social conditions. It was +based on the insufficiency of production. It will be swept +away by the complete development of modern productive +forces. And, in fact, the abolition of classes in society +presupposes a degree of historical evolution, at which +the existence, not simply of this or that particular ruling +class, but of any ruling class at all, has become an +obsolete anachronism....</p> + +<p>With the seizing of the means of production by +society, production of commodities is done away with, +and, simultaneously, the mastery of the product over the +producer. Anarchy in social production is replaced by +systematic, definite organization. The struggle for individual +existence disappears. Then for the first time +man, in a certain sense, is finally marked off from the +rest of the animal kingdom, and emerges from mere +animal conditions into really human ones.... It +is the ascent of man from the kingdom of necessity to +the kingdom of freedom.</p></div> + +<p>The capitalist countries are ruled through banks, and +a bank is necessarily an institution of the owning class.</p> + +<p>Russia is ruled through Soviets, and a soviet is necessarily +an institution of the working class.</p> + +<p>Banks and Soviets are so many headquarters for big +unions. In capitalist countries the banks are such for +the one big union of the owners, and in Russia the soviets +are this for the one big union of the workers. These +big unions cannot co-exist and flourish in the same country.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span></p> + +<p>All owners everywhere see the necessity for their one +big union and in all capitalistic countries, nowhere more +than in the United States, they have the advantage of +being on the ground floor and indeed on all the floors +of all the sky scrapers with their union which is the +most universally inclusive and the most relentlessly +efficient organization on earth.</p> + +<p>Some workers everywhere see the necessity for their +one big union, but nowhere is it seen as generally and +clearly as in Russia,—the only country in which the +workers have held the ground floor for any considerable +time against all comers.</p> + +<p>In all countries a beginning has been made by the +workers in laying the foundation for their one big union, +but in only one country, Russia, has progress been made +with the superstructure, and here as everywhere the +owners have hindered the workers so that they must defend +themselves with their right hand while they build +with their left. Nevertheless wonderful progress is +being made and when the industrial structure has been +completed, as it soon must be, else the world is doomed +to destruction, it shall tower above its capitalist rival as +a mountain over a foot hill.</p> + +<p>After all, the power of the owner is money and it is +not a real potentiality, for within the social realm there +is in reality only one potentiality, the power of productivity +which exclusively belongs to the worker.</p> + +<p>In the sky there is no god, and on earth there is no +king or priest like unto Labor, the lord of gods, the tzar +of kings and the pope of priests.</p> + +<p>Labor is high above all potentialities. The motto, +"All Power to the Workers," which the class-conscious +proletarians inscribe on their banners, is not the expression +of an ideal fiction, but the declaration of a +practical reality, the greatest among all realities, that +reality in which the whole social realm lives, moves and +has its being.</p> + +<p>Down with the one big union of the owners. Long +live the one big union of the workers.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span></p> +<h3><a name="II_GOD_AND_IMMORTALITY" id="II_GOD_AND_IMMORTALITY"></a>II. GOD AND IMMORTALITY.</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">We have done with the kisses that sting,</span> +<span class="i0">With the thief's mouth red from the feast,</span> +<span class="i0">With the blood on the hands of the king,</span> +<span class="i0">And the lie on the lips of the priest.</span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="right">—Swinburne.</span> +</div></div> + + +<p>Many critics contend that socialism and supernaturalism +are not, as I represent, incompatibilities; but +they lose sight of four facts: (1) this is a scientific age; +(2) Marxian socialism is one of the sciences; (3) the +vast majority of men of science reject all supernaturalism, +including of course the gods and devils with their +heavens and hells, and (4) only in the case of one of +the sciences, psychology, is this majority greater than +in the science of sociology.</p> + +<p>The truth of the last two of these representations +will be overwhelmingly evident from the chart on the +next page. It and its explanation given in the following +quotation is taken with the kind consent of the +author and also of the publishers of a book entitled +God and Immortality, by Professor James H. Leuba, +the Psychologist of Bryn Mawr College. This book +is having a great influence and I strongly recommend +it to all who think that I am wrong in the +contention that conscious, personal existence is limited +to earth; that, therefore, we are having all that we +shall ever know of heaven and hell, here and now, and +that whether we have more of heaven and less of hell +depends altogether upon men and women, not at all upon +gods and devils. The second edition of Professor +Leuba's book is now in the press of The Open Court +Publishing Company, 122 South Michigan Ave., Chicago, +Ill. Here is the quotation in support of our contentions:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 640px;"> +<img src="images/chart.jpg" width="640" height="384" alt="Chart XI + +PARTIAL SUMMARY OF RESULTS" title="" /> + +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span></p> +<div class="blockquot"><p>What, then, is the main outcome of this research? +Chart XI, Partial Summary of Results, shows that in +every class of persons investigated, the number of believers +in God is less, and in most classes very much less +than the number of non-believers, and that the number +of believers in immortality is somewhat larger than in a +personal God; that among the more distinguished, unbelief +is very much more frequent than among the less +distinguished; and finally that not only the degree of +ability, but also the kind of knowledge possessed, is significantly +related to the rejection of these beliefs.</p> + +<p>The correlation shown, without exception, in every +one of our groups between eminence and disbelief appears +to me of momentous significance. In three of +these groups (biologists, historians, and psychologists) +the number of believers among the men of greater distinction +is only half, or less than half the number of believers +among the less distinguished men. I do not see +any way to avoid the conclusion that disbelief in a personal +God and in personal immortality is directly proportional +to abilities making for success in the sciences +in question.</p> + +<p>A study of the several charts of this work with regard +to the kind of knowledge which favors disbelief shows +that the historians and the physical scientists provide the +greater; and the psychologists, the sociologists and the +biologists, the smaller number of believers. The explanation +I have offered is that psychologists, sociologists, +and biologists in very large numbers have come to recognize +fixed orderliness in organic and psychic life, and not +merely in inorganic existence; while frequently physical +scientists have recognized the presence of invariable law +in the inorganic world only. The belief in a personal God +as defined for the purpose of our investigation is, therefore, +less often possible to students of psychic and of organic +life than to physical scientists.</p> + +<p>The place occupied by the historians next to the physical +scientists would indicate that for the present the +reign of law is not so clearly revealed in the events with +which history deals as in biology, economics, and psy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span>chology. +A large number of historians continue to see +the hand of God in human affairs. The influence, destructive +of Christian beliefs, attributed in this interpretation +to more intimate knowledge of organic and psychic +life, appears incontrovertibly, as far as psychic life +is concerned, in the remarkable fact that whereas in +every other group the number of believers in immortality +is greater than that in God, among the psychologists the +reverse is true; the number of believers in immortality +among the greater psychologists sinks to 8.8 per cent. +One may affirm it seems that, in general, the greater the +ability of the psychologist, the more difficult it becomes +for him to believe in the continuation of individual life +after bodily death.</p></div> + +<p>Within the generation to which I belong Darwin +and Marx, the greatest teachers that the world has +had, went over the top of entrenched ignorance +with the greatest books of the world, worth infinitely +more to it than all its bibles together. Darwin did +this in 1859 with his Origin of Species by Natural +Selection and Marx in 1867 with his Capital, a +Critique of Political Economy.</p> + +<p>Darwin with his book is driving the Christian +church out of its trench of supernaturalism and +uniqueism by showing that the different kinds of +vegetable and animal life are not, according to the +representation of its bible, so many separate creations +by a personal, conscious divinity, but interrelated +evolutions by an impersonal, unconscious nature, the +higher out of the lower, and that, therefore, man is so +far from being a special creation, having his most +vital relationships with a celestial divinity and his +most glorious prospects in a heavenly place with him, +that he is really more or less closely related to every<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span> +living thing on earth, and is as hopelessly limited to +it, as an elephant, a tree or even a mountain.</p> + +<p>Marx with his book is driving the states out of the +trench of imperialism and capitalism.</p> + +<p>As Darwin is driving the conscious, personal gods +out of the realm of biology, placing all animal and +human life of body, mind and soul on essentially the +same footing, so Marx is driving all such divinities +out of the realm of sociology, placing all life of family, +state, church, lodge, store and shop on essentially the +same level.</p> + +<p>According to Darwin, all animal life is what it is +at any time by reason of the effort to accommodate +the physical organism to its environment.</p> + +<p>According to Marx, human civilization is what it is +at any time because of the economic system by which +people feed, clothe and house themselves.</p> + +<p>This Darwinian-Marxian interpretation of terrestrial +life in general, and of the human part of it in +particular, is known as materialism. It is the +materialistic, naturalistic, levelistic interpretation of +history, and differs fundamentally from the spiritualistic, +supernaturalistic, uniqueistic interpretation of +Christian preachers. The contrast between these interpretations +is especially strong in the case of human +history.</p> + +<p>On the one hand the Christian preacher says, man's +history is what it is because of the directing providence +of a God, the Father, Son and Spirit, and because +of His directing inspiration of great leaders, +such as Washington, Luther, Caesar and Moses.</p> + +<p>On the other hand Darwin and Marx agree in saying +that both the triune god and the inspired leader<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span> +are what they are, because society is what it is; that, +again, the character of society depends upon the +economic system by which it feeds, clothes and houses +itself, and that finally all such systems owe their +existence to the machinery in use for the production +of the basic necessities of life, the primal machine +being the human hand to which all other machines +are auxiliaries.</p> + +<p>The most insatiable and universal among all +human longings is for freedom—freedom from +economic want, social inequality and imperialistic +tyranny, also freedom to learn, think, live and teach +truths.</p> + +<p>Socialism of the Marxian type is the gospel of freedom, +because a classless god, nature, reveals it in the +interest of a classless world: therefore, it is true, and +slavery, of which there never was so much before on the +earth, and nowhere is there more than in the United +States, is utterly incompatible with truth, and classless +interests.</p> + +<p>All the supernaturalistic gospels are revealed by a +class god (Jesus, Jehovah, Allah, Buddha) in the +interest of the capitalist class: therefore, they are +false and freedom is utterly incompatible with falsehood +and class interest.</p> + +<p>Ignorance is the destroyer-god and capitalism is +the diabolical scourge by which he afflicts the wage-earner +with many unnecessary sufferings, especially +the crushing ones arising from the great trinity of +evils, war, poverty and slavery.</p> + +<p>Knowledge is the saviour-god and Marxism is his +divine gospel of freedom from these capitalistic sufferings.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="III_MYTHICAL_CHARACTER_OF_OLD_AND" id="III_MYTHICAL_CHARACTER_OF_OLD_AND"></a>III. MYTHICAL CHARACTER OF OLD AND +NEW TESTAMENT PERSONAGES.</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>What man of sense will agree with the statement that +the first, second, and third days, in which the evening is +named and the morning, were without sun, moon and +stars? What man is found such an idiot as to suppose +that God planted trees in Paradise like an husbandman? +I believe that every man must hold these things for +images under which a hidden sense is concealed.—Origen.</p></div> + + +<p>One of the critics of Communism and Christianism +whose representations are in alignment with several +others says:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>While the Bishop speaks in the language of scholarship, +he entirely ignores all the findings of modern scholars +on the literature of the Bible.</p></div> + +<p>The failure to show more clearly that my representations +concerning the untenableness of the basic doctrines +of Christian supernaturalism are in alignment +with the conclusions of outstanding authorities in the +newly developed sciences of historical and biblical +criticisms is indeed a defect and an attempt will here +be made to remove it by a short but faithful and, as I +think, convincing summary of what such authorities in +these sciences have to say on the subject.</p> + +<p>My summary is summarized from a pamphlet by +Charles T. Gorham, published by Watts and Company, +17 Johnson's Court, Fleet St., E. C. 4, London, +England, which is itself an able summarization of the +relevant facts which have been scientifically established +as they are given in the greatest of all the Bible +Dictionaries, the Encyclopedia Biblica.</p> + +<p>It will be seen that all except one among my contentions +concerning the baselessness of the supernaturalism +of orthodox Christians are well sustained. This<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span> +exception is the contention that Jesus is not an historical +personage, but a fictitious one. However the +great critics are unanimously with me even in this, +for two crushing facts are admitted by them: (1) the +Old Testament affords no scientifically established data +from which a reliable history of the Jews can be written, +and (2) the New Testament has no such data for a +biography of Jesus.</p> + +<p>The illuminating summary which is a large part of +my answer to the criticism under review follows, and +it is as far as possible in the language of Mr. Gorham:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Once upon a time there was a system of Christian +Theology. It was a wonderful though a highly artificial +structure, composed of fine old crusted dogmas +which no one could prove, but very few dared to dispute. +There was the "magnified man" in the sky, the +Infallible Bible, dictated by the Holy Spirit, the Trinity, +the Fall, the Atonement, Predestination and Grace, Justification +by Faith, a Chosen People, a practically omnipotent +Devil, myriads of Evil Spirits, an eternity of +bliss to be obtained for nothing, and endless torment for +those who did not avail themselves of the offer.</p> + +<p>Now the house of cards has tumbled to pieces, or +rather it is slowly dissolving, as Shakespeare says, "like +the baseless fabric of a vision". The Biblical chronology, +history, ethics, all are alike found to be defective and +doubtful. Divine Revelation has become discredited; a +Human Record takes its place. What has brought about +this startling change? The answer is, Knowledge. +Thought, research, criticism, have shown that the traditional +theories of the Bible can no longer be maintained. +The logic of facts has confirmed the reasonings +of the independent thinker, and placed the dogmatist in +a dilemma which grows ever more acute. The result is +not pleasant for the believer; but it is well that the real +state of things should be known, that the kernel of truth +should be separated from the overgrown husk of tradition.</p></div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span></p> + +<p>During the last few years a work has been issued +which sums up the conclusions of modern criticism better +than any other book. It is called the Encyclopedia +Biblica, and its four volumes tersely and ably set forth +the new views, and support them by a mass of learning +which deserves serious consideration. And the most +significant thing about it is not merely that the entire +doctrinal system of Christianity has undergone a radical +change, but that this change has largely been brought +about by Christian scholars themselves. A rapid glance +at this store-house of the heresy of such scholars will give +the reader some idea of the extent of the surrender +which Christianity has made to the forces of Rationalism. +It must be premised that space will permit of the +conclusions only being given, without the detailed evidence +by which they are supported.</p> + +<p>Let us begin with our supposed first parents. Is the +story of Adam and Eve a true story? There are, we +are told, decisive reasons why we cannot regard it as +historical, and probably the writer himself never supposed +he was relating history.<a name="Ktop" id="Ktop"></a><span class="fnanchor"><a href="#K">[K]</a></span></p> + +<p>The Creation story originated in a stock of primitive +myths common to the Semitic races, and passed through +a long period of development before it was incorporated +in the book of Genesis. If, then, it is the fact, as Christian +scholars assert, that this story of the Creation originated +in a pagan myth, and was shaped and altered by +unknown hands for nearly a thousand years, it is nothing +more nor less than superstition to hold that it is +divinely true.</p> + +<p>As for the Old Testament patriarchs, we now learn +that their very existence is uncertain. The tradition +concerning Abraham is, as it stands, inadmissible; he is +not so much a historical personage as an ideal type of +character, whose actual existence is as doubtful as that +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span>of other heroes. All the stories of the patriarchs are +legendary.</p> + +<p>The whole book of Genesis, in fact, is not history at +all, as we understand history. Exodus is another composite +legend which has long been mistaken for history.</p> + +<p>The historical character of Moses has not been established, +and it is doubtful whether the name is that of an +individual or that of a clan. The story of his being exposed +in an ark of bulrushes is a myth probably derived +from the similar and much earlier myth of Sargon.<a name="Ltop" id="Ltop"></a><span class="fnanchor"><a href="#L">[L]</a></span></p> + +<p>Turning to the New Testament, we find that modern +critical research only brings out more clearly than ever +the extraordinary vagueness and uncertainty which enshroud +every detail of the narrative. From the article +on "Chronology" we learn that everything in the Gospels +is too uncertain to be accepted as historical fact. +There are numerous questions which it is "wholly impossible +to decide". We do not know when Jesus was +born, or when he died, or who was his father, or what +was the duration of his ministry. As these are matters +on which the Gospel writers purport to give information, +the fact of their failure to do so settles the question of +their competency as historians.</p> + +<p>The supposed supernatural birth of Jesus has of late +exercised the minds of theologians. It is not surprising +that some of them should reject the notion, for it is one +without a shred of evidence in its favor. Setting aside +the well-known fact that many other religions assume a +similar origin for their founders, we may note the New +Testament accounts are in such hopeless conflict with +each other that reconciliation is impossible.</p> + +<p>The important subject of the "Resurrection" is treated +by Professor P. W. Schmiedel, of Zurich, who tells us +that the Gospel accounts "exhibit contradictions of the +most glaring kind".<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span></p> + +<p>The article on the Gospels by Dr. E. A. Abbott and +Professor Schmiedel is crammed with criticism of a kind +most damaging to every form of the orthodox faith. +The view hitherto current, that the four Gospels were +written by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and appeared +thirty or forty years after the death of Jesus, +can, it is stated, no longer be maintained.</p> + +<p>The alleged eclipse of the sun at the Crucifixion is impossible. +One of the orthodox shifts respecting this +phenomenon is that it was an eclipse of the moon!</p> + +<p>Modern criticism decides that no confidence whatever +can be placed in the reliability of the Gospels as historical +narratives, or in the chronology of the events which they +relate. It may even seem to justify a doubt whether any +credible elements at all are to be found in them. Yet it +is believed that some such credible elements do exist. +Five passages prove by their character that Jesus was a +real person, and that we have some trustworthy facts +about him. These passages are: Matthew xii. 31, +Mark x. 17, Mark iii. 21, Mark xiii. 32, and Mark xv. 34, +and the corresponding passage in Matthew xxvii. 46, +though these last two are not found in Luke. Four other +passages have a high degree of probability—viz., Mark +viii. 12, Mark vi. 5, Mark viii. 14-21, and Matthew xi. +5, with the corresponding passage in Luke vii. 22. These +texts, however, disclose nothing of a supernatural character. +They merely prove that in Jesus we have to do +with a completely human being, and that the divine is +to be sought in him only in the form in which it is capable +of being found in all men.<a name="Mtop" id="Mtop"></a><span class="fnanchor"><a href="#M">[M]</a></span></p> + +<p>The four Gospels were compiled from earlier materials +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span>which have perished, and the dates when they first appeared +in their present form are given as follows:—Mark, +certainly after the destruction of Jerusalem in +the year 70; Matthew, about 119 A. D.; Luke, between +100 and 110; and John, between 132 and 140.</p> + +<p>The question of the genuineness of the Pauline Epistles, +is now far from being so clear as was once universally +supposed. Advanced criticism, Professor Van Manen +tells us in his elaborate article on "Paul", has learned +to recognize that none of these Epistles are by him, not +even the four generally regarded as unassailable. They +are not letters to individuals, but books or pamphlets +emanating from a particular school. We know little, in +reality, of the facts of Paul's life, or of his death: all is +uncertain. The unmistakable traces of late origin indicate +that the Epistles probably did not appear till the +second century.</p> + +<p>The strange book of Revelation is not of purely Christian +origin. Criticism has clearly shown that it can no +longer be regarded as a literary unit, but it is an admixture +of Jewish with Christian ideas and speculations. +Ancient testimony, that of Papias in particular, assumed +the Presbyter John, and not the Apostle, as its author or +redactor.</p> + +<p>The Epistles of Peter, James and Jude are none of +them held to be the work of the Apostles. They probably +first saw the light in the second century; the second +Epistle of Peter may even belong to the latter half of +that period.</p> + +<p>All the above conclusions are summarized, as nearly +as may be, in the words of the authors of the respective +articles. Their significance is surely enormous. Right +or wrong, eminent Christian scholars here proclaim results +in complete antagonism to the ideas usually accepted +as forming the true basis of the Christian faith. They +amount, in fact, to a complete and unconditional surrender +of the whole dogmatic framework which has hitherto +been held as divinely revealed, and therefore divinely +true.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span></p> + +<p>Thomas Paine was a Deist. As such he believed +that nature may be compared with a clock and God +with its maker. As the clock maker, under normal +conditions, has but little to do with his handiwork, so +it has been with the Creator and his universe. The +theists of every name (Christian, Jew, Mohammedan +and Buddhist), not to speak of others, believe that the +universe, with all which therein is, lives, moves and +has its being as the result of the willings of their respective +gods.</p> + +<p>Though I have my god, indeed two gods, one god in +the world of my physical existence—a trinity: matter, +force and motion, and another god in the world of my +moral existence—a trinity: fact, truth and life, yet if +the rejection of both deism and theism is atheism, I +am an atheist.</p> + +<p>But assuming for the sake of argument that there +is a conscious personal being who has had and is having +something to do with making things what they +are, I set my seal to this arraignment:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Of all the systems of religion that were ever invented, +there is none more derogatory to the Almighty, more +unedifying to man, more repugnant to reason, and more +contradictory in itself, than this thing called Christianity. +Too absurd for belief, too impossible to convince, and too +inconsistent for practice, it renders the heart torpid, or +produces only atheists and fanatics. As an engine of +power, it serves the purpose of despotism and as a means +of wealth, the avarice of priests; but for the good of +mankind it leads to nothing here or hereafter.</p> + +<p class="right">—Thomas Paine.</p></div> + +<p>William Rathbone Greg in his Creed of Christendom +says that much of the Old Testament which +Christian divines, in their ignorance of Jewish lore,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span> +have insisted on receiving and interpreting literally, +the informed Rabbis never dreamed of regarding as +anything but allegorical. The literalists they called +fools.</p> + +<p>Origen and Augustine, the two greatest men which +Christianity has produced, would agree with Greg in +this. We have already quoted the motto of this section +from Origen, and we will now quote this from Augustine:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>It very often happens that there is some question +as to the earth or the sky, or the other elements +of this world, respecting which one who is not a +Christian has knowledge derived from most certain reasoning +or observation, and it is very disgraceful and mischievous +and of all things to be carefully avoided, that a +Christian, speaking of such matters as being according +to the Christian Scriptures, should be heard by an unbeliever +talking such nonsense that the unbeliever, perceiving +him to be as wide from the mark as east from +west, can hardly restrain himself from laughing.</p></div> + +<div class="tnote"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<p><a name="K" id="K"></a><span class="fnanchor"><a href="#Ktop">[K]</a></span> But if Adam and Eve are not historical personages +there is no doctrine of supernaturalistic Christianism +resting on the solid ground of facts and the whole of its +immense dogmatic structure is floating in the air of theories +and myths.—Author.</p> + +<p><a name="L" id="L"></a><span class="fnanchor"><a href="#Ltop">[L]</a></span> It is questionable whether such persons as Samson, +Jonah and Daniel ever lived, but it is certain that their +adventures are as mythical as anything in Aesop's Fables.—Author.</p> + +<p><a name="M" id="M"></a><span class="fnanchor"><a href="#Mtop">[M]</a></span> But these nine texts which for some years were often +triumphantly pointed to as the pillars upon which securely +rested the historicalness of Jesus as a man are now +lying in the dust where the learned and brilliant Professor +William Benjamin Smith of Tulane University put them +by his great contribution to the Christological problem in +a book, entitled Ecce Deus in which he, as I think, proves +conclusively that the Jesus of the New Testament never +was a real man but always an imaginary god, the Christian +recasting of the Jewish God, a new Jehovah.—Author.</p> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="IV_WOULD_SOCIALISM_CHANGE_HUMAN" id="IV_WOULD_SOCIALISM_CHANGE_HUMAN"></a>IV. WOULD SOCIALISM CHANGE HUMAN +NATURE?</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Fear not the tyrants shall rule for ever,</span> +<span class="i0">Or the priests of the bloody Faith:</span> +<span class="i0">They stand on the brink of that mighty river</span> +<span class="i0">Whose waves they have tainted with death,</span> +<span class="i0">It is fed from the depths of a thousand dells,</span> +<span class="i0">Around them it foams and rages and swells,</span> +<span class="i0">And their swords and their scepters I floating see</span> +<span class="i0">Like wrecks in the surge of eternity.</span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="right">—Shelley.</span> +</div></div> + + +<p>My revolt against the existing capitalist system of +economics and the capitalized political and religious +systems which support it is complete, and the end<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span> +which I have in view in this booklet is that of primitive +Christianism, as it is taught by Mary in the Magnificat, +the putting down of the owning masters of the +world and the exaltation of the working slaves, only +that I do not recommend, as she did, that the masters +should be banished to starve but rather that they +should be allowed to become producers and to live +then as such, not as robbers, as they now live.</p> + +<p>This is bolshevism. It is not anarchy, but a new +dictatorship instead of the old, that of the proletariat +in place of the bourgeoisie. But this dictatorship +(though necessary during the period of transition from +the capitalist system, by which commodities are made +only for the profit of a few to an industrial system by +which they will be made only for use of the many) +is not the goal of socialism. Its goal is a classless +world—a world in which all who are able to work +shall directly or at least indirectly contribute their due +proportion, according to their abilities and opportunities, +towards feeding, clothing, housing and educating +it.</p> + +<p>Perhaps the truest thing in the Bible relates to the +utterly corrupt condition of civilization, nor was it +ever truer than now, and it always must be equally +true while the world is divided into master and slave +classes under the dictatorship of the masters:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The whole head is sick and the whole heart faint. +From the sole of the foot even unto the head, there is +no soundness in it, but wounds and bruises, and putrifying +sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, +neither mollified with ointment.</p></div> + +<p>Capitalism and Socialism differ fundamentally in +that the former always has sought and always will<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span> +seek to exercise a permanent dictatorship, whereas +that of the latter is to constitute the temporary bridge +over which the world is to pass from the economic system +under which commodities are competitively made +for the profit of the few, to the economic system under +which they will be co-operatively made for the use of +the many.</p> + +<p>It is contended with much show of reason that the +dictatorship of the proletariat will not lead to the goal, +because human nature being what it is the slaves will +automatically develop into another class of masters.</p> + +<p>But those who raise this contention proceed upon +the assumption that human nature is a constant quantity +so that it cannot be essentially changed and that +it has made the economic systems, what they have +been.</p> + +<p>This is not the case. Human nature, like animal nature, +is constantly changing and neither the one nor +the other voluntarily changes itself, but both are +forced to change by the development of new and external +conditions and by the necessity of conformity +to them.</p> + +<p>Professor Joseph McCabe, not a socialist, observes +that these developments and conformities were so +many revolutions and that the man who says, the +secret of progress is evolution, not revolution, may be +talking very good social philosophy but he is not talking +science, as he thinks. In every modern geological +work you read of periodical revolutions in the story +of the earth, and these are the great ages of progress—and, +I ought to add, of colossal annihilation of the less +fit.</p> + +<p>Darwin discovered that animal nature changed (for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span> +example snake nature changed into bird nature) because +of changed physical environments and the necessity +of life to adaptation to them.</p> + +<p>Marx discovered that human nature changed from +what it was during the period of chatteldom to what +it was during serfdom and from that to what it is +under capitalism by reason of the difference in the +economic systems of these periods by which the world +fed, clothed and housed itself and that these differences +are in turn accounted for by the differences in the machines +by which the necessities of life are produced.</p> + +<p>Thus Darwin explained the history of animal life +without the hypothesis of a divine creator, and Marx +explained the history of mankind without the hypothesis +either of a divine ruler or human leaders. These +Darwinian and Marxian explanations constitute what +is known as the materialistic explanation of history.</p> + +<p>Marx represented that capitalism would end the +class struggle and issue in a classless world because its +profiteering system of production and distribution +could not be succeeded by another, since it divides +mankind into masters who are ever growing less numerous +and slaves who are ever growing more numerous, +without the possibility of those who are half capitalists +and half workers rising out of their nondescript +condition into a new master class, as did the bourgeoisie +under feudalism. For these reasons he contended +the proletarian slaves would become the grave +diggers for the bourgeois masters and so end capitalism +with the burial of its representatives.</p> + +<p>But with the complete and sustained triumph of the +proletarian class the bourgeois class will rapidly pass +away, as is now the case with it in Russia, and a class<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span>less +world will be born to live on a co-operative instead +of a competitive basis, in a heaven instead of a +hell.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="V_WHAT_WILL_BE_THE_FORM_OF_THE" id="V_WHAT_WILL_BE_THE_FORM_OF_THE"></a>V. WHAT WILL BE THE FORM OF THE +WORKERS' STATE.</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Hail Soviet Russia, the first Communist Republic, the +land of, by and for the common people. We greet you, +workers and peasants of Russia, who by your untold +sacrifices, by your determination and devotion, are transforming +the Russia of black reaction, of the domination of +a few, into a land of glorious promise for all. Comrades +in America, watch the bright dawn in the East; you have +but your chains to lose, and a world to gain!—The +Workers' Council.</p></div> + + +<p>In general outline the form of the workers' state +will be that of the Russian Soviet Republic, and what +it is will appear from the following semi-official description, +the briefest and clearest of any which I have +seen. Its authorship is unknown to me but I know +it to be the work of a committee of which Zinoviev, +one of the directing and inspiring minds of the +proletarian movement in Russia, was a member, and +it may be that he is the author. Anyhow it is a recently +published, authoritative classic containing the +information for which a large part of the world has +been waiting:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>We have before us the example of the Russian Soviet +Republic, whose structure, in view of the conflicting reports +printed in other countries, it may be useful to describe +briefly here.</p> + +<p>The unit of government is the local Soviet, or Council, +of Workers', Red Army, and Peasants' Deputies.</p> + +<p>The city Workers' Soviet is made up as follows: +Each factory elects one delegate for a certain number of +workers, and each local union also elects delegates<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span>. +These delegates are elected according to political parties—or, +if the workers wish it, as individual candidates.</p> + +<p>The Red Army delegates are chosen by military units.</p> + +<p>For the peasants, each village has its local Soviet, +which sends delegates to the Township Soviet, which in +turn elects to the County Soviet, and this to the +Provincial Soviet.</p> + +<p>Nobody who employs labor for profit can vote.</p> + +<p>Every six months the City and Provincial Soviets +elect delegates to the All-Russian Congress of Soviets, +which is the supreme governing body of the country. +This Congress decides upon the policies which are to +govern the country for six months, and then elects a +Central Executive Committee of two hundred, which is +to carry out these policies. The Congress also elects +the Cabinet—The Council of People's Commissars, who +are heads of Government Departments—or People's +Commissariats.</p> + +<p>The People's Commissars can be recalled at any time +by the Central Executive Committee. The members of +all Soviets can be recalled very easily, and at any time, +by their constituents.</p> + +<p>These Soviets are not only Legislative bodies, but also +Executive organs. Unlike your Congress, they do not +make the laws and leave them to the President to carry +out, but the members carry out the laws themselves; and +there is no Supreme Court to say whether or not these +laws are "constitutional."</p> + +<p>Between the All-Russian Congresses of Soviets the +Central Executive Committee is the supreme power in +Russia. It meets at least every two months, and in the +meanwhile, the Council of People's Commissars directs +the country, while the members of the Central Executive +Committee go to work in the various government departments.</p> + +<p>In Russia the workers are organized in Industrial +Unions all the workers in each industry belonging to +one Union. For example, in a factory making metal +products, even the carpenters and painters are members<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span> +of the Metal Workers' Union. Each factory is a local +Union, and the Shop Committee elected by the workers +is its Executive Committee.</p> + +<p>The All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the +federated Unions is elected by the annual Trade Union +Convention. A Scale Committee elected by the Convention +fixes the wages of all categories of workers.</p> + +<p>With very few exceptions, all important factories in +Russia have been nationalized, and are now the property +of all the workers in common. The business of the +Unions is therefore no longer to fight the capitalists, but +to run industry.</p> + +<p>Hand in hand with the Unions works the Department +of Labor of the Soviet Government, whose chief is the +People's Commissar of Labor, elected by the Soviet +Congress with the approval of the Unions.</p> + +<p>In charge of the economic life of the country is the +elected Supreme Council of People's Economy, divided +into departments, such as, Metal Department, Chemical +Department, etc., each one headed by experts and +workers, appointed, with the approval of the Union by +the Supreme Council of People's Economy.</p> + +<p>In each factory production is carried on by a committee +consisting of three members: a representative of +the Shop Committee of the Unions, a representative of +the Central Executive of the Unions, and a representative +of the Supreme Council of People's Economy.</p> + +<p>The Unions are thus a branch of the government—and +this government is the most highly centralized +government that exists.</p> + +<p>It is also the most democratic government in history. +For all the organs of government are in constant touch +with the working masses, and constantly sensitive to +their will. Moreover, the local Soviets all over Russia +have complete autonomy to manage their own local +affairs, provided they carry out the national policies laid +down by the Soviet Congress. Also, the Soviet Government +represents only the workers, and cannot help but +act in the workers' interests.</p></div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span></p> + +<p>The motto of this section is the conclusion of a good +article in the first number of one among the best of +the periodicals devoted to the promotion of Marxism, +The Workers' Council, published by the International +Educational Company, New York City. This article +is so short and lends itself so naturally as a supplement +to the foregoing explanation of the new economic +system which has been established and is being developed +in Russia that I quote the rest as the conclusion +of this section about Sovietism.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Communist Russia, the Russia of the common people, +marks a new epoch in the world's history. It marks a +basic change in the structure of human society. Up to +this time society lived under the rule of the few, under +the rule of the class which possessed the wealth of the +country. The methods were different at different periods +in the world's history, but the results were the same: +riches and power for the few, a bare existence and endless +toil for the many. The slaves, the serfs, or the +wage workers of today, who compose the masses of the +people, have ever been the hewers of wood and the +carriers of water, the beasts of burden on whose backs +sported and fattened kings and nobles, landlords and +capitalists. They who possessed wealth had the power. +And they passed laws to protect that power, to make +the possession of wealth a social institution. Private +property was enthroned and every striving of mankind +was subjected to the rule of property. Thence grew the +exploitation of man by man for private profit, and all +abuses resulting therefrom; fear of loss of property, care +of possession, dread of the future, fear of loss of +employment, envy and greed. Human society was ruled +by property grabbers; masters, kings, capitalists, providing +toil, disease, war for the masses of mankind. That +is the rule of capitalism, and cannot be otherwise.</p></div> + +<p>But under communism, profit is abolished, and with +it the exploitation of man by man; private property is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span> +no longer a factor in the life of man; property becomes +universal, all natural and created wealth belong to +society, to every member of the community, as secure a +birth right as air and sunlight. Everybody's measured +work provides a common fund of things to satisfy +material needs, today, tomorrow and in years to come. +There can be no fear of losing one's job, of seeing one's +children starve, of the poor-house in old age. As sure as +the sun will rise on the morrow, man is secure of his +bread, his shelter and clothing. Man is freed from +animal cares, free to develop his human qualities, his intelligence, +his brain and heart.</p> + +<p>Russia points the way. Russia is now one huge corporation, +every man, woman and child an equal shareholder. +The state is administered as a business; the +benefit of the stockholders being the object of the corporation. +The individual contributes his labor, whatever +it may be: manual, mental, artistic. This labor is +applied to available materials: the soil of the farm, +the natural resources, the mines, and mills and factories. +The finished product is distributed through the agencies +of the corporation, in the shape of food and clothes and +shelter, of education and amusement, of protection to +life and limb, of literature and art, of inventions and +improvements: to every man, woman and child of the +nation.</p> + +<p>To be sure this ideal of a human brotherhood is not +yet realized in Russia. No sane person would expect so +tremendous a change to be consummated in three years, +in the face of universal aggression, intrigues and blockades. +It may take ten years, perhaps a generation. What +of it! Russia is past the most difficult period of +transition from the capitalist state to a communist state, +while other capitalist countries must still face the period +of revolution. Therefore let Russia lead the way. Let +the American workers realize that Russia's fight is their +fight, that Soviet Russia's success is the success of the +laboring people the world over!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Have you ever been to Crazy Land,<a name="Ntop" id="Ntop"></a><span class="fnanchor"><a href="#N">[N]</a></span></span> +<span class="i2">Down on the Looney Pike?</span> +<span class="i0">There are the queerest people there—</span> +<span class="i2">You never saw the like!</span> +<span class="i0">The ones that do the useful work</span> +<span class="i2">Are poor as poor can be,</span> +<span class="i0">And those who do no useful work</span> +<span class="i2">All live in luxury.</span> +<span class="i0">They raise so much in Crazy Land</span> +<span class="i2">Of food and clothes and such,</span> +<span class="i0">That those who work don't have enough</span> +<span class="i2">Because they raise too much.</span> +<span class="i0">They're wrong side to in Crazy Land,</span> +<span class="i2">They're upside down with care—</span> +<span class="i0">They walk around upon their heads,</span> +<span class="i2">With feet up in the air.</span> +</div> <div class="stanza"> +<span class="right">—T.</span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="VI_WITHDRAWAL_OF_PRIZE_OFFER" id="VI_WITHDRAWAL_OF_PRIZE_OFFER"></a>VI. WITHDRAWAL OF PRIZE OFFER.</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Never have anything to do with those who pretend +to have dealings with the supernatural. If +you allow supernaturalism to get a foothold in your +country the result will be a dreadful calamity.—Confucius.</p></div> + + +<p>Mrs. Brown and I hereby withdraw, for the present +at least, our prize offer, and for two reasons:</p> + +<p>1. We are convinced that it is as necessary to the +welfare of the world to smite supernaturalism in religion +as capitalism in politics, but while many are able +and willing to attack the octopus of capitalism, this is +true of only a few in the case of the dragon of supernaturalism. +Some hesitate because they feel with one +of the critics of Communism and Christianism that +revolutionary forces are coming to the surface in the +churches.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Where," he asks, "shall we classify the stand of the +Catholic Church against the open shop? What shall +be said of the Interchurch report on the steel strike? +What of the attitude of the combined commission in +Denver of Catholics, Protestants and Jews on the +street car strike?"</p> + +<p>We have no desire to belittle such efforts nor to +discourage their promoters; but (though they may afford +some local and temporary alleviation to the miseries +of far the greater part of the world—miseries +growing out of its division into two classes, a small +class of owning masters and a large class of working +slaves) we center no hope in them, because the whole +history of the supernaturalistic interpretations of religion, +not excepting the Christian, show these efforts +to be only reformatory and temporary bubbles which +sooner or later are always pricked by the masters of +what little revolutionary air they contain, and so never +issue in any general or permanent improvement of the +sad lot of the overwhelming majority of the slaves.</p> + +<p>How little the church serves the working slaves, and +how much the owning masters, will appear from the +following representations of Roger W. Babson, the +well-known financial expert and adviser:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The value of our investments depends not on the +strength of our banks, but rather upon the strength of +our churches. The underpaid preachers of the nation +are the men upon whom we really are depending, rather +than the well-paid lawyers, bankers and brokers. The +religion of the community is really the bulwark of our +investments. And when we consider that only 15 per +cent of the people hold securities of any kind and less +than 3 per cent hold enough to pay an income tax, the +importance of the churches becomes even more evident.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span></p> + +<p>For our sakes, for our children's sakes, for the nation's +sake, let us business men get behind the churches +and their preachers. Never mind if they are not perfect. +Never mind if their theology is out of date. This only +means that were they efficient they would do very much +more. The safety of all we have is due to the churches, +even in their present inefficient and inactive state. By all +that we hold dear, let us from this very day give more +time, money and thought to the churches, for upon these +the value of all we own ultimately depends.</p></div> + +<p>What our critics say about the recent efforts of the +American churches being in the right direction is interesting +to Mrs. Brown and me, but we are much +more impressed by the observation of a writer in a +late issue of Soviet Russia. In speaking of the baneful +influence of the Russian church through all the +ages he says:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Out of the shadows of antiquity, from the morning of +man's cupidity and avarice, two sinister figures have +crawled with crooked talons through history, leaving a +trail of blood and fear most horrible which has not +halted yet. These are the monarch and the priest. +The one is symbolical of despotic or oligarchic power, +the other typifies the sordid ignorance and fearful superstition +of the credulous masses which maintains the +power of the first. High in the streets of Moscow, +where one may see the pallid, long-haired, degenerate-looking +venders of holy lies and pious impositions shuffle +along like spectres from a remoter age, there hangs a +woven streamer of scarlet hue with huge white lettering, +which defiantly proclaims that religion is the opium of +the people.</p> + +<p>Though many still cross themselves a score of times +daily on passing the church, yet nevertheless the people +are rapidly assimilating the knowledge which elevates +and enlightens, and learning to reject that which terrorizes +and deforms the mind, and just so sure as the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span> +last filthy tyrant has been placed for ever beyond mischief, +so will the last priest soon vanish from the land +once contemptuously known as "Holy Russia".</p></div> + +<p>The foregoing is from a revolutionary sympathizer +with soviet Russia and the following is from a reactionary +criticizer of it, but both are to the same +effect, that orthodox Christianity is wholly against the +interest of the proletariat and entirely for that of the +bourgeoisie:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>One of the most striking characteristics of Bolshevism +is its pronounced hatred of religion, and of Christianity +most of all. To the Bolshevik, Christianity is not merely +the theory of a mode of life different from his own; it +is an enemy to be persecuted and wiped out of existence.</p> + +<p>To understand this is not difficult. The tendency of +the Christian religion to hold before the believer an ideal +of a life beyond death is diametrically opposed to the +ideal of Bolshevism, which tempts the masses by promising +the immediate realization of the earthly paradise. +From that point of view Christianity is not only a false +conception of life; it is an obstacle to the realization of +the Communist ideal. It detaches souls from the objects +of sense and diverts them from the struggle to get the +good things of this life. According to the Bolshevist +formula, religion is opium for the people: and serves as +a tool of capitalist domination.</p></div> + +<p>This influence of the churches, in the long run and +on the whole has been and will continue to be the +same throughout christendom everywhere and everywhen, +not excepting these United States in the twentieth +century.</p> + +<p>Nor is it to any convincing purpose that the representatives +of the owning class contend that kings and +priests have lost their supremacy to presidents and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span> +preachers, for it is imperialism in politics which enthralls +and supernaturalism in religion which degrades. +The world is greatly afflicted with both, none of it +much, if any, more than our country.</p> + +<p>It seems to us that we see two fundamentally important +facts more clearly than our critics see them: +(1) the first step in the way of salvation for the proletariat +is class consciousness, and (2) the Christian +interpretation of supernaturalistic religion has been, +and until it is discredited will continue to be the most +efficient among the many preventives to this consciousness.</p> + +<p>Let me show this to be the case by an experience +which I had some years ago when Mr. Pierpont Morgan, +Senior, was at the height of his glory, as the king +of the great realm of big business, receiving homage +on the one hand from the Rockefellers and Rothschilds, +and on the other hand from the Blockheads +and Henry Dubbs of all the world.</p> + +<p>At that time I made a confirmation visitation for +my sick episcopal brother, the Bishop of New York, +to what was popularly known as Pierpont Morgan's +church (St. George's, one of the downtown churches +for working people.) He was the senior warden of +this great parish having nearly 5,000 communicants. +He went with the collecting procession out through +the great congregation and back to the chancel where +each collector ceremoniously emptied the contents of +his basket into the great gold alms basin held by the +Rector.</p> + +<p>While the famous financier was collecting contributions +from obscure toilers, how could any, +brought up as I was and as nearly all of the great<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span> +congregation were, see that capitalism has divided +humanity into two conflicting classes which "have +nothing in common, the working class and the employing +class, between which a struggle must go on +until the workers organize, take possession of the +earth and the machinery of production and abolish +the wage system!"</p> + +<p>By the light of what I had been taught all along +and of what I was then seeing with my own eyes +from the bishop's chair such a representation would +have seemed preposterous and what was true of me +was equally so of all present, rector, wardens, vestrymen, +members and visitors.</p> + +<p>There were not many I. W. W.'s. in those days, but +if one had been there and upon leaving the church +had made a representation to this effect to a fellow-worker +who was a member of St. George's would not +the reply have been something as follows:</p> + +<p>See what Pierpont Morgan and I have in common: +the same God; the same religion; the same church; +the same services for worship; the same collection +basket in which he puts a $100.00 bill and I a ten cent +piece; the same Lord's Supper where we eat and +drink together; and, besides all this, there is the same +hell where he will go unless he gives me a fair day's +wage and where I will go unless I do a fair day's +work, and the same heaven where both will go to +equally glorious mansions, if we are alike 100 percenters +in church and state, and if he pays me liberally +for my work and I slave hard enough for his +money.</p> + +<p>Assuming the truth of the Christian interpretation +of religion this conclusion is correct. But this Chris<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span>tian +religion is not true. Christianism offers nothing +to either the owners or workers in the sky for its +god and heaven, devil and hell are lies. And neither +religious Christianism nor political Republicanism or +Democracy, not to speak of the other isms of religion +and politics, offers the workers aught on earth.</p> + +<p>Capitalism is the god of this world, of no part of +it more than of these United States, and capitalism +is to the laborer a robbing, lying, murderous devil, +not a good divinity.</p> + +<p>2. The recall of the prize offer is also occasioned +and justified, we think, by a demand, which was as +unexpected as it is gratifying, for our little propagandist +in foreign countries, and we have been persuaded +that it should be met by securing to him the +gift of tongues. We propose to do this by devoting +the money which was set aside for the prizes to the +encouragement of making and publishing translations.</p> + +<div class="tnote"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<p><a name="N" id="N"></a><span class="fnanchor"><a href="#Ntop">[N]</a></span> The capitalist countries of the world constitute the +United States of Crazy Lands.</p> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="VII_AFTERWORD" id="VII_AFTERWORD"></a>VII. AFTERWORD.</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"So many Gods, so many Creeds,</span> +<span class="i2">So many ways that wind and wind,</span> +<span class="i0">When all this sad world really needs</span> +<span class="i2">Is just the art of being kind."</span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="right">—Ella Wheeler Wilcox.</span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>I.</h4> + +<p>My title, given in Latin on the picture page, is bestowed +upon me by some in jest and by others in reproach, +and I am accepting it from both as compliments, +because they prove that I have at least succeeded +in making clear the general outlines of my +religious and political position.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span></p> + +<p>The use of this title is due to the desire that those +who pick up the booklet should not buy it, much less +undertake to read it, under a mistaken impression as +to its doctrinal trends. In English the Latin title is, +"Bishop of the Countries belonging to the Bolsheviki +and the Infidels."</p> + +<p>Certain friends greatly fear that some things said +in this booklet may fall foul of the criminal-syndicalism +laws. I have carefully read those of Ohio +and believe that the booklet contains nothing which +is not safely within them.</p> + +<p>Anyhow, I have spoken the truth about supernaturalistic +religion and capitalistic politics as I +understand it, and I believe that I have adequately +supported all my representations on bases of relevant +facts which cannot be gainsaid or, at any rate, upon +sound arguments which have such facts for their +foundations.</p> + +<p>However, I am trying to hold myself open to conviction; +and, this being the case, if "the powers that +be" in state or church feel that they must proceed +against me, I beg that, in justice to all the persons +and interests concerned, they will come with their resources +of persuasion, not coercion.</p> + +<p>My appeal to the religious and political rulers to do +this shall be in the burning words of a celebrated defender +of the capitalistic system of economics, John +Stuart Mill, words which constitute the most remarkable +passage in his powerful essay on Liberty:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>No argument, we may suppose, can now be needed, +against permitting a legislature or an executive, not +identified in interest with the people, to prescribe +opinions to them, and determine what doctrines or +what arguments they shall be allowed to hear.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span></p> + +<p>Speaking generally, it is not, in constitutional countries, +to be apprehended, that the government, whether +completely responsible to the people or not, will often +attempt to control the expression of opinion, except +when in doing so it makes itself the organ of the +general intolerance of the public.</p> + +<p>Let us suppose, therefore, that the government is +entirely at one with the people, and never thinks of +exerting any power of coercion unless in agreement +with what it conceives to be their voice.</p> + +<p>But I deny the right of the people to exercise such +coercion, either by themselves or by their government. +The power itself is illegitimate. The best +government has no more title to it than the worst. +It is as noxious, or more noxious, when exerted in +accordance with public opinion, than when in opposition +to it.</p> + +<p>If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, +and only one person were of the contrary opinion, +mankind would be no more justified in silencing that +one person, than he, if he had the power, would be +justified in silencing mankind.</p> + +<p>Were an opinion a personal possession of no value +except to the owner; if to be obstructed in the enjoyment +of it were simply a private injury, it would +make some difference whether the injury was inflicted +on only a few persons or on many. But the peculiar +evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is, +that it is robbing the human race; posterity as well +as the existing generation; those who dissent from +the opinion, still more than those who hold it. If +the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity +of exchanging error for truth: if wrong, they +lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer +perception and livelier impression of truth, produced +by its collision with error.</p></div> + +<p>This passage should be inscribed in letters of +gold on the doors of every church and court house in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span> +the world. It was written in condemnation of the +persecution by majorities of minorities in states, but +it applies equally to all intolerance of dissentient +opinions.</p> + +<p>It is utterly impossible in a printed discussion of +the length of this booklet to weed out every word +capable of misconstruction; and equally so to furnish +a definition or limitation to every doubtful word or +phrase. Nevertheless I call attention to a few:</p> + +<p>The word "revolution" as used here should not be +taken as implying armed insurrection or violence, +unless expressly so described. These are not necessary +features of revolution. There have been both +political and industrial revolutions entirely unattended +by violence or bloodshed; for example, the political +revolution of 1787 when the old Articles of Confederation +were abolished and the federal Constitution +imposed upon the United States; also the political +and industrial revolution of 1919 in Hungary when +for a time a soviet system was established, with Bela +Kun as premier.</p> + +<p>The bloodshed which often attends revolutions +comes almost invariably from the lawless counter-revolutionary +efforts of the deposed ruling class to +maintain themselves in power or regain power by +terrorism and murder.</p> + +<p>When I eulogize the Bolsheviki and their system +in Russia, I am not to be taken as advocating for the +United States the employment of the bloody tactics +for gaining power, which the capitalist press of +America persists in describing—and as I believe, +falsely. I deal in this booklet not with tactics but +with facts. I concern myself here not with the ways<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span> +by which the Bolsheviki of Russia gained power, but +with what they did with the power after gaining it.</p> + +<p>As I was trained in theology, I am certain that my +religious position has been so clearly outlined that +no mistake as to where I stand will be made by the +rulers in my church; but, having had no training in +the law, I am less certain that my political position +will be as unmistakably understood by the rulers in +my state. Therefore, to avoid misinterpretation of +certain words and phrases in this booklet, I here expressly +disclaim any intention of violating the +criminal-syndicalism statute of Ohio, following as +closely as may be its phraseology in these my denials +of criminal intention:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Nothing herein is to be understood as advocating +or teaching the duty, necessity, or propriety +of crime, sabotage, violence or unlawful methods +of terrorism as a means of accomplishing industrial +or political reform. This booklet is not +issued for the purpose of advocating, advising, or +teaching the doctrine that industrial or political +reform should be brought about by crime, +sabotage, violence or unlawful methods of +terrorism; nor of justifying the commission or +the attempt to commit crime, sabotage, violence +or unlawful methods of terrorism with intent to +exemplify, spread or advocate the propriety of +the doctrines of criminal syndicalism; nor of +organizing any society, group or assemblage of +persons formed to teach or advocate the doctrines +of criminal syndicalism. If any such meaning +shall be read into any passage of this booklet by +any reader, it will be a wrong meaning, not what +I intended to convey.</p></div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span></p> + +<p>A revolution by which a new industrial democracy—the +freedom to make things for the use of workers—will +supplant the old capitalist democracy—the freedom +to make things for the profit of owners—is an +inevitable event in the history of every country +within the twentieth century.</p> + + +<h4>II.</h4> + +<p>My object in this booklet is not the promotion of +class hatred and strife. Far from it. It is to persuade +to the banishment of gods from skies and capitalists +from earth.</p> + +<p>Theism and capitalism are the great blights upon +mankind, the fatal ones to which it owes, more than +to all others together, the greatest and most unnecessary +of its suffering, those arising from ignorance, +war, poverty and slavery.</p> + +<p>This recommendation as to banishments and this +representation in support of it stand out on nearly +every page of the booklet, and in order to make sure +of special prominence for them on its last pages, I +quote the following from an article by G. O. Warren +(a major in the British army, I think) an occasional +contributor of brilliant articles to rationalist publications +on sociological lines:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>If there be a God who rules men and things by His +arbitrary will, it is an impertinence to attempt to +abolish poverty, because it is according to His will. +But if there be no such God, then we know that poverty +is caused by men and may be removed by men. +If there be a God who answers prayers, the remedy +for social injustice is to pray. But if there be no such +God, the remedy is to think and act.</p> + +<p>If men go to heaven when they die, and if heaven<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span> +is a place in which everybody will be made perfectly +happy, then there is no need to struggle against poverty +in this world, because a few years of trouble, or +even degradation, in this world are of no consequence +when compared with an eternity of happiness that +must be ours by simply following the directions of the +clergy. But if there be no such heaven, then it becomes +a matter of first importance that we make our +condition as happy as possible in this world, which +is the only one of which we are certain.</p> + +<p>I maintain that there is no God who rules men and +things by His arbitrary will and who answers prayers, +and that there is no heaven of everlasting bliss to +which we are to be wafted after death. And I maintain +this not only because I think that these religious +beliefs are erroneous, but because I know that they +are most potent to make men docile and submissive +to the most degrading conditions imposed on them. I +feel sure that the doctrine that obedience to rulers and +contentment in poverty are according to the will of +God, and the doctrine that the poor and the oppressed +will be compensated in heaven are the chief causes of +slums, prisons, lunatic asylums and poor-houses.</p> + +<p>All political tyranny is backed up and made possible +by belief in an arbitrary God, and all poverty is endured +because of the belief that after death everlasting +happiness and wealth await us. Two conditions are +necessary to human happiness: personal freedom and +general wealth. But we never can be free as long as +we believe that it is the will of an infinite heavenly +ruler that we should submit to a finite earthly ruler, +whether he gets upon the throne by hereditary succession +or by the votes of a majority; and wealth will +never be justly, and therefore, generally, distributed +as long as most of the people believe that because +they are poor in this world they will be rich in the +world to come.</p> + +<p>The apostle Paul says that political rulers are ordained +by God and must be obeyed, from the King +to the constable, from the President to the policeman.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span> +He says that if you are refractory, "the minister of +God" will use his sword, and will not use it "in vain." +He says that the sword-bearer is God's minister.</p> + +<p>Christ himself recites a parable about a rich man +who went to hell because he was rich and a poor man +who went to heaven because he was poor. Rich +Christians are told by the clergy that the surest way +for them to get to heaven is by being rich; but they +use this parable to console the poor with the idea that +the surest way for them to get to heaven is by being +poor. And this idea is confirmed by the saying of +Christ: 'Blessed are the poor, for theirs is the kingdom +of heaven.'</p> + +<p>I claim that it is impossible to prove that any being +exists who can do, or ever does, anything outside of +the regular processes of Nature, and therefore that +the word "God," which has always meant such a +being, should be dropped. I would have no objection +to the current use of the word "God" if that use were +harmless, but it is very far from that. It is a word +that every despot conjures with to keep the people in +ignorance and subjection. It is a word that crafty +politicians use in carrying out their schemes of bribery +and plunder.</p> + +<p>The same thing applies to the word "heaven." It +is impossible to show that there is any such place, +and the word is used as a bribe to the poor to keep +them quiet under injustice. I do not see how there +can be a life after death, but if there is it will not be +any better because we are poor and undeveloped in +this world, and therefore immortality should be a +reason rather for discontentment among the poor than +for submission to injustice.</p> + +<p>As an atheist, I object to a God who is for every +tyrannical ruler and against the rebels that he imprisons, +tortures and slays; who is for the idle landlord +and usurer and against the workers; who is for +the purse-proud prelate and against the people; who +is for the boodle politician and against the happiness<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span> +of the many; who is for the white exploiter and +against the simple colored man; who is for the rich +profiteer and against the petty burglar and pickpocket.</p> + +<p>If I am told there is no such God as this, I reply +that there is, or there is none. The God of every +Christian creed is the God of the rulers, the God of the +idle rich. There never has been any other God known +to the world. This is the God that the church now +worships and always has worshiped.</p> + +<p>There are forces in Nature that we do not yet understand, +and therefore should not name. But they +can only help us as we learn what they are and how +to use them. It is therefore neither our duty nor our +privilege to pray, nor can any good be thus achieved. +It is for us to observe, to think, and to examine the +pretensions of the privileged. It is for us to understand +that there is no God to raise our wages, and no +heaven to compensate us for our poverty and all the +misery it entails in this world.</p></div> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Said the parson, 'Be content;</span> +<span class="i0">Pay your tithes due, pay your rent;</span> +<span class="i0">They that earthly things despise</span> +<span class="i0">Shall have mansions in the skies,</span> +<span class="i0">Though your back with toil be bent,'</span> +<span class="i0">Said the parson, 'be content.'</span> +</div> <div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Then the parson feasting went</span> +<span class="i0">With my lord who lives by rent;</span> +<span class="i0">And the parson laughed elate</span> +<span class="i0">For my lord has livings great,</span> +<span class="i0">They that earthly things revere</span> +<span class="i0">May get bishop's mansions here.</span> +</div> <div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Be content! Be content!</span> +<span class="i0">Till your dreary life is spent,</span> +<span class="i0">Lowly live and lowly die,</span> +<span class="i0">All for mansions in the sky!</span> +<span class="i0">Castles here are much too rare,</span> +<span class="i0">All may have them—in the air!"</span> +</div></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span></p> +<h4>III.</h4> + +<p>According to Marxian socialism, the history of man +arose from the need of his body for food, raiment and +shelter. This is the materialistic explanation of history, +and the following is one of the passages in which Marx +clearly shows that it is true and reasonable:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>In the social production which men carry on they +enter into definite relations that are indispensable and +independent of their will; these relations of production +correspond to a definite stage of development +of their material powers of production. The sum +total of these relations of production constitutes the +economic structure of society—the real foundations, +on which rise legal and political superstructures and +which correspond to definite forms of social consciousness. +The mode of production in material life +determines the general character of the social, political +and spiritual processes of life. It is not the consciousness +of men that determines their existence but, on +the contrary, their social existence determines their +consciousness. At a certain stage of their development, +the material forces of production in society +come in conflict with the existing relations of production, +or—what is but a legal expression for the +same thing—with the property relations within which +they had been at work before. From forms of development +of the forces of production these relations +turn into their fetters. Then comes the period of +social revolution.</p></div> + +<p>Marx and his followers are justified in their contention +that the physical necessities of man (not gods or +great men) constitute the key to his history by the fact +that there was no mind of man before the human body +nor will there be any mind when the body has been disintegrated; +for the mind was made by the body, for the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span> +body, not the body by the mind, for the mind. This +very remarkable fact, when duly considered, will change +nearly all the ideas of most men and women about almost +everything.</p> + +<p>A leader is but a mouthpiece of a people through +which they give expression to their deepest convictions +and highest aspirations. Early in my life Lincoln was +the great leader of the people in the United States, and +late in it Lenin is the great leader of the people of the +world. The earlier of these was at least a rationalist +and the latter is an atheist, so that the first probably did +not suppose himself to have been inspired by a divinity, +and the second certainly does not.</p> + +<p>I claim, said Lincoln, not to have controlled events, +but confess plainly that events have controlled me.</p> + +<p>In Lenin's Birthday Anniversary number of the magazine, +Soviet Russia, the Editor says:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>At the very outset, we must clearly state that much +of Lenin's powerful position in present-day history is +made by the history itself,—by the fact that we are +living at the moment when the entire life of the race +is vindicating in a most emphatic manner the +theoretical position occupied by Lenin for many years. +After all, Lenin, like Trotsky, was an unknown man, +except to certain political circles, and the mass of +Russian revolutionists, even as late as 1916. And yet, +he was the same Lenin; had not the opportunity +come to put into practice the system for which he +and his associates had been laboring and suffering for +many years, no doubt the circle of his admirers and +readers would not be much wider in 1920 than it was +in 1916. Lenin would probably be the first to admit—nay, +insist—that the material circumstance that enables +a certain individual to assert himself is the +prime element in building his reputation. So that,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span> +if the Russian Revolution had not taken the course it +did take, Lenin, with exactly the same mental and +idealogical preparation, might have remained a relatively +unknown man.</p></div> + +<p>Those who on the one hand interpret life from the +naturalistic or materialistic point of view, and those who +on the other hand interpret it from the supernaturalistic +viewpoint need not and generally do not differ as +widely as is commonly supposed.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Materialism is the name for two totally different +things, which are constantly confused. There is, in +the first place, materialism as a theory of the universe—the +theory that matter is the source and the substance +of all things. That is (if you associate "force" +or "energy" or "motion" with your "matter," as every +materialist does) a perfectly arguable theory. It has +not the remotest connection with the amount of wine +a man drinks or the integrity of his life.</p> + +<p>But we also give the name of materialism to a certain +disposition of the sentiments, which few of us +admire, and which would kill the root of progress if +it became general. It is the disposition to despise +ideals and higher thought, to confine one's desires to +selfish and sensual pleasure and material advancement. +There is no connection between this +materialism of the heart and that of the head.</p> + +<p>For whole centuries of Christian history whole +nations believed abundantly in spirits without it having +the least influence on their morals; and, on the +other hand, materialists like Ludwig Buchner, or +Vogt, or Moleschott, were idealists (in the moral +sense) of the highest order. Look around you and +see whether the belief or non-belief (for the Agnostic +is in the same predicament here) in spirit is a dividing-line +in conduct. There is no ground in fact for +the confusion, and it has wrought infinite mischief.—McCabe.</p></div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span></p> + +<p>As to their philosophy concerning the origin, sustenance +and governance of the universe, communists are +almost to a man materialists; but, as to their philosophy +concerning life, they are as generally idealists. There +is, I feel sure, as much idealism in my thinking and +living now as there was in the days of my orthodoxy.</p> + +<p>Many of the representations of the Jewish-Christian +Bible are materialistic in a high, if not gross, degree. +This is true of the account of the creation according to +which the god, Jehovah, with hands moulded a man out +of dust; performed a surgical operation upon him for +the purpose of securing a rib out of which he carved a +woman; made a garden; and provided worship for +himself by a system of material sacrifices. The ark of +the covenant was a wooden chest, and its contents (a +pot, some manna, and Aaron's rod) were materialities.</p> + +<p>The conception, birth, death, descension, resurrection, +ascension and session of the god, Jesus, were (if they +occurred) material realities. And the eating of the flesh +and drinking of the blood of the god sounds like materialism, +especially according to the explanation of the +Greek, Roman, Lutheran and Anglican churches.</p> + + +<h4>IV.</h4> + +<p>A nutshell summary of this booklet is contained in +these confessions of my religious and political faith:</p> + +<p>I. My religious faith is summed up in the following +creed of twelve Articles:</p> + +<p>(1) The chief end of every man should be to make +the most of his own life by having it as long and as +happy as possible and to help others in doing this for +themselves.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span></p> + +<p>(2) Though parents live unconsciously in their children +and all do so in those over whom they have had +any influence, yet all there is of conscious, personal life +for man is of a terrestrial character, none celestial.</p> + +<p>(3) Knowledge is the Christ of the World. The +saviour-gods of the supernaturalistic interpretations of +religion are symbols of this one.</p> + +<p>(4) Ignorance is the devil of the world. The destroyer-gods +of the supernaturalistic interpretations of +religion are symbols of this one.</p> + +<p>(5) Knowledge consists in knowing facts and truths. +Every real fact and truth is a word of the only gospel +which the world possesses.</p> + +<p>(6) A fact is something which matter, force and motion +have unconsciously done, not what a god has consciously +willed. There are no other facts.</p> + +<p>(7) A truth is a fact so interpreted that if it is +lived it will contribute towards making the most of +life. There are no other truths.</p> + +<p>(8) Hence the greatest people in the world are the +scientists who discover facts, and the preachers who +interpret them and persuade to their living. If you +contend that mothers are greater than teachers, I shall +agree with you on condition that you will admit that a +mother is not really great unless she is a teacher.</p> + +<p>(9) The desire and effort to learn facts, interpret and +live them constitute morality.</p> + +<p>(10) Morality is the greatest thing in the world, because +it is all there is of real religion and politics.</p> + +<p>(11) But, paradoxical as it may seem, there is one +thing which is greater than the greatest thing in the +world—freedom.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span></p> + +<p>(12) And the freedom which is greater than morality +consists in the liberty to learn, interpret, live and +teach facts, without which liberty a man may be a non-moral +child, or an immoral hypocrite, but he cannot be +the possessor of the pearl of great price—morality, +without which human life is not worth the living or +even possible.</p> + +<p>II. My political faith is summed up in the following +creed of twelve articles:</p> + +<p>(1) As the universe in general is self-existing, self-sustaining +and self-governing, so man in particular, who +is but one among the transitory, cosmic phenomena, +has all of the potentialities of his own life within himself, +so that every man can say of himself what the +makers of Jesus had him say: I and my Father are +one.</p> + +<p>(2) Man has set a far-off and high-up goal of an +ideal civilization for himself, and is finding the way to +it by his own discoveries, and is walking therein by his +own strength, so that he is not in the least indebted to +any of the gods of the supernaturalistic interpretations +of religion, either for the setting of the goal, or for +what progress he has made towards it.</p> + +<p>(3) Nor is humanity indebted to its outstanding representatives +for the advance in the way of civilization, +as is evident from the fact that, but for the gods, it +would have long since been far beyond the point where +the English-German war would have been within the +range of possibilities, and these gods are the gifts to a +blind humanity by its blind leaders.</p> + +<p>(4) Humanity is not indebted to its physical scientists +any more than to its spiritual prophets for its advance +in the way of civilization, because the scientists<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span> +have always worked, as the prophets have preached, in +the interests of the profiteers of the existing system of +economics. Economic systems have been the chief, if +not indeed, the only promoters of war, and the world +war with its tremendous horrors would not have been +possible but for science.</p> + +<p>(5) So, then, the history of civilization has been +what it is because of the economic systems by which the +material necessities of life (foods, raiments and houses) +have been produced, not because gods have made +spiritual revelations, nor yet because men have made +great discoveries and persuasively taught them. According +to Marx, who discovered the key to the door of +history, it is constituted neither by the gods in the +skies, nor the great men on earth; but by economic systems. +These create the divinities and the leaders, not +they them.</p> + +<p>(6) Thus far in the history of mankind every civilization +has rested upon the institution of slavery and +there have been, speaking broadly, three different forms +of it, with their correspondingly different civilizations, +chattel, feudal and capital. Each of these forms of +slavery has been the foundation for a superstructure of +a civilization peculiar to a distinct period of history. +Chattel, feudal and capital slaveries respectively constituted +the foundations for the superstructures of ancient, +mediaeval and modern civilizations. The second +of the two great discoveries by Marx was that the wage +slavery of capitalism, by far the worst of all slaveries, is +due to surplus profits.</p> + +<p>(7) Since civilizations have their embodiments in +religious and political institutions (churches and states +with what goes with them) so clearly as to justify the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span> +contention that religion and politics are the halves of +one and the same reality—civilization—it follows that +I am right in carrying my materialism over from the +realm of religion into that of politics.</p> + +<p>(8) A system of economics is about the most materialistic +thing in the world, yet it is the only key which +will open the door to the temple of human history. Having +opened it with this key, the first thing to be seen +is a world divided into two classes, one class whose representatives +live by owning the material means and the +machines for production and distribution; and another +class whose representatives live by working in making +and operating these machines, with the result of producing +and distributing the material commodities by which +the world is fed, clothed and housed, but to the surfeiting +of the owners who as such produce nothing and have +everything and the starving of the workers who produce +everything and have nothing.</p> + +<p>(9) Capitalists and communists agree that when the +goal of humanity has been reached the world will find +itself to be one all inclusive co-operating family.</p> + +<p>(10) Capitalists say that then the co-operating +will be between the owners as fathers, and the workers +as children. The capitalists will recognize every laborer +who does a fair day's work as a good son or daughter, +and the laborer will recognize every owner who gives a +fair day's wage as a good father.</p> + +<p>(11) But communists say that then the co-operating +will be between men, all of whom are on the same footing +as laborers, since, when the goal is reached, the +world will no longer be divided as it has been, from +time out of mind, into a small owning or master class +and a large working or slave class; but it will consti<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span>tute +one great all inclusive family, every member of +which will be on the same footing with all others, except +that the older members will regard the younger +as sons and daughters, and they in turn will be regarded +as fathers and mothers, and all of the same +generation will look upon each other as brothers and +sisters.</p> + +<p>(12) Civilization always has been and ever will be +impossible without slavery, because leisure and opportunity +for study, social intercourse and travel are necessary +to it, but under capitalism, as it works out, only +representatives of the owning or master class have these +prerequisites, and those of the working or slave class +must be deprived of them. When communism supplants +capitalism all will have their equal parts in both the +labor necessary to the sustenance of the physical (body) +life, and also the leisure necessary to the development of +the psychical (soul) life. There will still be slavery, +indeed much more of it than the world has hitherto +known, but machines, not men, women and children will +be the slaves. Of course there will remain much work +connected with the making and operating of the machines, +but the time and energy required for it will more +and more decrease with the inevitable increase in the +number and efficiency of the machines until, according +to conservative estimates, three or four hours per day of +comparatively light and pleasant employment will be +quite sufficient to provide the necessities of life in +abundance for every worker and his dependents, so that, +then, all will have as much of them as the few have +now; and this without any sense of slavery because +when one is working for the benefit of himself and his +own in particular, and the public to which he belongs<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span> +in general, not for the profit of a class of which he is +not a representative, there is no feeling of irksome servitude.</p> + + +<h4>V.</h4> + +<p>A world-wide revolution has begun and is rapidly +spreading over the earth. Why? Because a world-wide +economic system for feeding, clothing and housing the +people has broken down so that it must be supplanted +by a new system, else mankind will perish for the lack +of food, raiment and shelter.</p> + +<p>This revolutionary war is between the working class +whose representatives live starvingly, though they produce +and distribute all the necessities of life and the +capitalist class whose representatives live surfeitingly, +though taking no part in the production and distribution +of these necessities.</p> + +<p>Nearly one hundred years ago our fourth President, +James Madison, saw partly and dimly what nearly every +one now sees fully and clearly:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>We are free today substantially, but the day will +come when our Republic will be an impossibility. It +will be an impossibility because wealth will be concentrated +in the hands of a few. A republic cannot +stand upon bayonets, and when that day comes, when +the wealth of the nation will be in the hands of a +few, then we must rely upon the wisdom of the best +elements in the country to readjust the laws of the +nation to the changed conditions.</p></div> + +<p>The laborers of Russia have turned the country right +side up so that they themselves are above and the capitalists +below, having the privilege of remaining down to idle +and starve or else to crawl up to work and live, but not +to rob, war and enslave.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span></p> + +<p>As I lay down my pen the working man's government +of Russia is fighting a double war, the Poland-Crimea +war, to prevent its overthrow by the capitalist governments +of the world, especially England, France, Japan +and the United States, which in this war are surreptitiously +confederated against it, and the victory seems +assured to it, largely because of the sympathy and help +of their fellow workers throughout the world.</p> + +<p>Marx though dead yet speaketh. He is speaking +more widely and persuasively in death than in life. +Russia is the megaphone from which his voice goes out +through every land and over every sea.</p> + +<p>Never man nor god spake with as much power as he +speaks. His gospel is to the slave, and this is its thrilling +appeal—workers of the world unite, and this is its +inspiring assurance—you have nothing to lose but your +chains and a world to gain.</p> + +<p class="center"> +WM. M. BROWN.<br /> +</p><p> +Brownella Cottage, Galion, Ohio.<br /> +September 24th, 1920.<br /> +</p> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> + +<div class="tnote"><p>Transcriber's Note:<br /> +<br />The typographical error "overwhelmlingly" was changed to +"overwhelmingly." All other spelling, capitalization, and +punctuation was retained.</p></div> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK COMMUNISM AND CHRISTIANISM***</p> +<p>******* This file should be named 30758-h.txt or 30758-h.zip *******</p> +<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br /> +<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/0/7/5/30758">http://www.gutenberg.org/3/0/7/5/30758</a></p> +<p>Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed.</p> + +<p>Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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