The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-04-05
TOPICS IN EASTERN PULPITS
Rev. DR.. Behrends Discusses the As
sumptions of Modern Socialism,
And Reaches the Conclusion that They Are
BaseIess, and that Agitation of that Sort
Is Not Only Foolish but Criminal.
MODERN SOCIALISM.


BROOKLYN, April 4.-Rev. DIR. Behrends, of
the Central Congregational Church, this evening
delivered the fourth of his sermons on Social
ism and Christianity In the course of mis- re-
marks he said:
There is a general agreement on the part of
modern Socialists, In the following claims: First,
that labor is the only source Of value, and that
consequently, the workman is entitled TO all he
produces; second, that capital is the result, not
of saving, but of spoliaton; third, that the true
function of government is the solution OF the
industrial problem fourth, that land and the in
struments of production, together with all ma
chinery and means of transportation, should be
seized and held as common property; and, finally,
that labor should enter at once, by political agi
taton and action, upon the seizure of the state.
These may be said to be the FIVE points of mod
ern Socialism, as clearly concatenated creed as
are the five points of Cavlnism; and Of both it
may be said that they stand and fall with their
assumptions The claims are based upon GER
tain doctrines, and the doctrines are rooted in
and Of history. Three of these are
to be considered in the present
discourse The first thing that impresses the
careful student of Socalstc literature is the al
lance of it's political economy with the materi-
alistic philosophy, according to which man is the
sport Of circumstance, the creature of his envi
ronment. He is regarded as dependent on
matter that his elevation is possible only by in
dustrial Improvement The order of society
must be changed to make his emancipation pos
sibe. The policy is not first to make the man
better and so pave the way to his economic ard
social Improvement, but to reverse the process.
The Germans compress the phllosophc assump
ton into single sharp sentence: MAN is what
he eats" 1t is an open secret that the scientific
expounders of European Socialism have been
and are disciples of materialistic evolution; or,
as we should say, of Darwinism. Karl Marx
was an avowed materialist, and sLassalle only
H. L.
pendent OH social combinations, and therefore
not to be responsible from an economic point
of view The chains that enslave the laborer
are rot ignorance, idleness and intemperance,
but the enactments of industrial tyranny, and
his emancipation, therefore, must come by q
public act creating an environment of economic
equality, not by dealing with individual men
and summoning each man to prove his manhood.
Such philosophy degrades man, and squarely
antagonizes the lessons OF all history Clvliza-
ton has advanced from within outward; from
the man TO his condition, making men more and
more conscious of their dignity, and so raising
within them an intelligent and intense discon
tent with every form of enslavement. First
change your man. and only then can you perma
nently improve his condition; nay. you may
trust him after that to be the carver of his own
fortune. It seems strange, as Laveleye has
pointed out. that Socialism should court the phi
losophy of Darwin, and antagonize Christianity.
For if there be creed that FORCES letters of
steel, and dooms the weak to merited and hope
less bondage, it is the philosophy that life Is a
fierce struggle for existence, whore only the fit
test survive. For if the industrial battle is to be
conducted only by appeal to force it Is certain
that mere numbers will not gain the day, but
the higher organization which brains always Gre
ate And, therefore, do we break with the ma
terialistic philosophy of Socialism in the name
of TIC poor mans enfranchisement 1t may
seem reckless to say that modern socialism Is as
unhistorical in it's temper as it is materalstc in
in it's philosophy. For if it's prophets pride
themselves upon anything it is upon their his
torA~A science. They never weary of showing
that as history began in Socialism or communal
life without capital, SO now we have capital
without Socialism, and the future will give US
Socialism approprating capital Have we not
here thesis, antthesis and synthesis2 But the
logical formula is wholly an empty one. Social
ism knows no real history, because it brands all
past and present institutions the creations of
force The past and the present have not been
shaped by reason and righteousness Socialism
does not look for the ideal state through the exist
ingstate. Its temper is revolutionary. not RENE
dial It utterly ignores the truth that
in history the present is AS necessary
as the past and the future; that
in every age there has been the energy of reason
and ideal justice. No age has ever been satanic
nor has any been angelic. But in the incessant
conflict of good and evil forces there has been a
steady evolution of social justice which invites
and commands further elaboration. We need,
therefore, only push earnestly forward along the
lines of present advance to make an end to every
form of tyranny. A third assumption of modern
Socialism, to which its owes much of its popular
force, is the claim that the rich are growing
richer and the poor poorer. That assumption is
the slender thread on which the slogic of Prog
ress aud Poverty" hangs, the very title of the
book taking the fact for granted, and it is re-
peated from the platform, and on tie printed
page as one of the axoms of political economy.
The affirmation has called out volumnious
literature of careful comparative statistics,
showing most. conclusiyely that even
in England, where industrial competition
has been the keenest. the Socialistic charge is
refuted. Mulhall, Neall. Leone Levi, Giffin and
Professor Rogers, than whom there are no more
competent and careful authorities, agree in their
verdict Pauperism has decreased by so per
cent in forty years, wages have risen in amount
and in purchasing power, the hours of labor
have been shortened, the poor are better shell
tered, and the rate of mortality has decreased.
The wages of common labcrers. farm hands, and
domestlcS, have increased 30 per cent since 1857.
The wel-to-do have increased more rapidly than
the very wealthy. There has been an increase
in thirtX.years, of rs per cent. of incomes over
SIS. 000 q Ear, of II per cent in incomes ranging
between So 600 and So 900 year, of 100 per cent.
in incomes ranging between ST., 500 and So, 600 a
year, of 148 per cent. in incomes ranging between
$3.50 and $1,000 year, and the average annual
income of all who receive under $3.50 a year
has increased 100 per cent In forty years. Such
statistics might be multiplied indefinitely, and
the showing would be much more startling by
the study of our own national record. The new
world is the laborer's paradise. But even in
England, which. on a territory little greater
than that of the State Of New York, supports
Is, 900, coo souls, country that Is full one vast
workshop, importing its food, more sensitive
than any other land to commercial and industrial
fluctuations, it is not true that the poor are
growing poorer. The assumption on which mod
ern Socialism builds is as groundless castle
in the air, and the rebutting evidence is so
ample and convincing that revolutionary agita-
ton, urging to the overthrow of existing indus
trial conditions, must be condemned as foolish
and criminal"
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