The weekly tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1891-1894, 1894-04-13
What Christian Socialism n.

~ VA " SA8v
the word christian" can be attached to
socialism at all. But Of this class is not
Rev. Philip Stafford Moxon, who writes
on the topic in The New England Maya
zine. He declares there are powerful
Christian socialist organizations in the
world today. He also mentions various
Christian socialist writers in France. in
England, in Belgium, in Germany-ev-
erywhere, in fact, but America. We in
this country have apparently made no
advancement to speak of on the road to-
ward Christian socialism.
christian socialism is both a senti-
ment and q fact" said Mr.. Moxon. 1t
means lever trying to get the advantage
Of another in a bargain. Christian 60
cialism "contemplates men working to-
gether for mutual benefit rather than
against each other for individual gain"
It declares that men are meant to be
helpers and brothers of one another, in
stead of rivals and hurters. 1t is only
visionary as the founder Of the Christian
religion was visionary.
1t does not for a moment advocate the
invasion Of individual rights, but favors
every mans having his own home, per-
sonal belongings and his own money.
On land and capital it lays its hand and
says they shall be under collective or CO.
operative management. so that the fruits
of joint labor and she unearned incre-
ment of land shall be distributed equi-
tably, and the many shall not be de-
prived of what the many produce. There
may be private ownership of land and
capital, provided they be under equitable
control, SO that they shall be not used to
crush and Cypress.
Christian socialism fosters individual
ity far more than the present scheme of
wageworking does, says Mr.. Moxon. 1t
sets mankind free, so there shall be room
for individual development. 1t does not
promise equality of possessions, for that
would be absurd. Its strong point will
be equitable distribution, so that each
shall get just what he justly earns, no
more. The fact that robber barons and
later robber ~monopolies have always
grasped the wealth and got it away from
the majority of mankind is no reason
why this should always be the case. On
the contrary, it is a sufficient reason for
stopping the injustice. This Christian
socialism proposes to do. we are told.
The greatest achievements for the
good of man have not been wrought by
the competitive system, says the writer,
but by the law of love, by the worker
who cared for somebody else than him
self. Christian socialism plants itself
squarely on the platform that men are
not meant to be competitors and enc
mics, but brothers and helpers. Once
this law is understood, genius will be
freed and set to work more beneficently.
In the face of the judgment of nearly all
the rest Of mankind, Christian socialism
declares that the law of %selishness is not
so strong as the law of love.
Let the cynics sheer and the votaries
Of selfshness denounce this thought of
life as a Dream" writes DR.. Moxon.
1t is a glorious dream. 1t is a divinely in
spired dream. 1t is a dream that will haunt
the imagination of men and stir their hearts
and inspire their endeavors until the long
struggle of humanity, in its battle march from
the nomadism of the savage to the ordered and
peaceful and beneficent civilization of the re-
public Of God, shall draw to n close, and hui
man society shall fulfill the sublime prophecy
of that apocalyptic symbol, the city that lieth
four square," in which there shall be no more
death, neither sorrow nor crying: neither shall
there be any more pain