The Labor enquirer., 1883-11-24
OUR PROGRESS.
How the Great Cause is Under
mining the Forces Of the
Enemy.
The Doctrines Of Socialism Per-
meating the Ranks Of the
Bourgeois.
The Aristocraey" Not Even Sure
the Allegiance Of Their
Own Members.
OUR PR0eREss.

Own Members.
The Christian Socialist, June, 1888.
Now that society is astir with schemes
of social reform. the monthly magazines
have admitted to their pages some ac-
count Of the progress which Socialism
has Of late. years been making, That
cautious writer, NJ. de Layeleye, declares
that athe red spectre haunts the imagi-
nation of all, and it is very general be-
lief that we are on the eve of great
cataclysm" and although he opines that
this may be an exaggeration, yet he COM
mits himself to the assertion that it is
nevertheless certain that Socialism, in a
variety of forms, has spread most extra
ordinarily of late. "In violent form it
has been adopted by town laborers,
workmen ID factories, ETC., and is now
spreading to the country. In q scientific
form it has penetrated into the domain
of political economy, and is upheld by
professors in nearly all the Universities
of Germany and Italy" By an orator in
the German Parliament just FIVE years
ago, we were rightly informed that a
movement, almost imperceptible when it
commenced, had developed with extra
ordinary rapidity, and that Socialism was
to be met with everywhere as "a uni
versal evil" while French writer Otto
day maintains that Socialism is the
social phylloxero." But we need not
multiply proofs of the permeation of
modern society by those whose great aim
is TO equalize social conditions. Signs Of
the times may be'notieed on the Bench
as well as the Bar; in the pulpit no less
than in the lecture-room. From the
judge who confessed in public that he
had sneaking liking for Socialism, to
the preacher who addressed his audience
in Westminster Abbey as the worship
pers of the great Socialistic Carpenter,
we may find plentiful proofin all classes
of society of the sympathy of the think
ing portion of mankind with those pre-
cepts of Christianity which condemn
riches and inequality with vehemence
nowhere surpassed.
The Socialist takes his stand on Justice
enforced by law; the Economist expects
to realize his millennium in the results
of personal interest individually pursued.
Selfshness, aloft on the pedestal from
which brotherly love has previously been
dethroned, surveys the generations Of
men and while deeply .regretting with
Nautilus that they are SO many, begins to
perceive that they are finally revolving
from her sway.
1t is admitted on all hands that Chris
tianity is as much against the possession
of great riches as the most radical Social
list, while the Fathers of the Church en-
dorse her teaching in words which read
as if they might have come fresh from
the columns of the Irish World. "The
rich are thieves" says st. Basil. "The
rich are brigands," says St. Chrysostom,
outdoing even St. Basil in his choice of
severe epithets. "Opulence is always
the result of theft" says St. Jerome; "if
not committed by the actual possessor; it
has been the work of his ancestors"
while, according to st. Clement, if justice
were enforced there would be a general
division of property, private possession
being an iniquitous thing.
We will quote the comments of M. de
Laveleye:-"We see, then, that Chris
tianity engraves very deeply in the hearts
of all ideas which tend strongly to Social
ism. It is quite impossible to read at
tentively the Old Testament prophesies
and the Gospels, and then cast glance
at the economic conditions of the present
day, without being led strongly to con-
demn the latter as very contrary to the
ideal of Jesus Every Christian who un-
derstands and believes his Masters
teaching has some Socialistic tendencies,
and every Socialist, great as may be his
hatred of all religion, possesses some un-
conscious Christianity; Christianity and
Socialism declare war against the strong
that Is to say, the rich-and they
preach the relief of the poor and the af-
ficted. They subject the pretended
natural laws to law of justice" Again,
Socialism claims for the laborer an in
tregal produce of his labor. Nothing,
apparently, can be more just than that
claim. Socialism considers that riches
should no longer be the privilege of the
idle, that they who do not SOW should
not be allowed to reap. This is exactly
the teaching of st. Paul, If any will not
work, neither shall he eat"
In another article, entitled 'The Euro
pean Terror" the same writer contrasts
the programme of the Collectiveists with
the "Pan-destruction" aimed at by Bak-
ounine and the NihilIst party. This
programme includes the reduction Of
the length of The working-day to eight
hours, legal minimum of wages, to be
fixed yearly according to the price o.
provisions, free education, the nationali
zation of banks, railroads and mines and