The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-01-08
SOCIALISM IN AMERICA
INTERVIEWING BOOK REYIEW BY
 REF. DR. GTLBERT.

Read Before the New Haven Methodist Ministers' Association-Individ ualism Versus Socialism in This Country-our Practical Ideas Regarding Freedom and Equality. " At the regular monthly meeting of the Methodist ministers of New Haven and vicinity held at the First M. E. church on Thursday afternoon, the following interesting review of Nicholas Paine Gilman's book on Socialism was given by Rev. pr. Gilbert of the Trinity M. E. church:
 The book of this title, vo. of 370 | pages, dedicated to the Rt. Hon. James Bryce, M. F., is the work of Nicholas Paine Gilman, West Newton, Mass, who had previously brought his name before the public as the author of book on | prof1t-sharing between employer and employe-a study in the evolution of the wage system--which went quickly | through several editions. The writer, | tAOuSh lloN iFliiS III VlooSoSAiooSesSs and a staunch eulogist of that state, | lays claim to a wide acquaintance through residence with various parts of the country and to an extended practi- cal knowledge of the spirit and needs of our people. Although he does not ex- plicitly avow any political or, religious creed it becomes evident in his pages that he is moderate conservative of l 0f tc i,, political life, with sympathy for mug wumpianism, and, in religion, enter taining the Unitarian order of thought
 He is intensely interested in all social experiments and believes in them-un- | der due limitations. This book, howev- CT, has for it's definite purpose ito prove that thorough-going state socialism, carried out in obedience to the theo- rists, who would replace private owner | ship, production and corruption, with public or national control, is incompati- ble with the spirit of the American peo- | pie, as shown in their genius, peculiari- | ties, history and institutions. Although | his coolness and hard-headedness is apt | to quench enthusiasm, still think we can acknowledge an indebtedness to any one who challenges reflection and I | checks, with somewhat chilling criti- cism schemes which may be extrava- | gant and quixotic. This paper does not commit itself to the views outlined, but
 endeavors to state, without comment, the position fairly. I shall confne my self mostly to the first half of the book
 wherein the argument is theoretically
 developed The remaining chapters l hat O11r. time will not permit us satisfactorily to l examine.
 There is distinctively such thing as
 a peculiar American thought, and cer- tain principles that belong alone to America, and feelings experienced by | none but Americans. While we can learn and ought to from Europe, we must not become servile imitators. Be- cause a governmental telegraph may be worked in England, or national railways in France or Germany, 1t does not ne- l cessarily hold that here. with great differences in national and political conditions, these are feasible. We have
 an enormous area; they a compactly settled and comparatively small terri tory. They have an empire; we con- | stitutional republic. He believes that the present drift is largely toward so- cialism, in the general sense of the ex- pansion of the powers of the govern
 ment, local, state and national, but has no sympathy with romantic socialism or natonalisn1, nor with such Chris tian socialism as seeks, with undue fit- | eralism, to force the precepts of Jesus upon an age differing economically from his in toto He assumes that the un-
 soundness of scientific socialism has 4 been sufficiently demonstrated by Rae and others, and contends that the pres ent system needs not annihilation but
 improvement through a closer union of
 employer and employe, through co-ope-
 ration and profit-sharing; that the gov
 erning powers of America need purifica-
 tion rather than enlargement, and that
 the way to Utopia lies in a higher, more
 unselfish, more consecrated, rightly
 conceived individualism and better
 social spirit. Tn the contrast drawn be-
 tween individualism on the one hand
 and socialism on the other, he does not
 admit that there Is no halting place be-
 tween state socialism and anarchy, as
 extremists claim; i. e., either an enor-
 nous extension of the functions of the
 state or an abolition of all state control
 He leaves state socialist and anarchist to demolish each other Humanity is
 not to be given up exclusively either to
 unlimited authority or liberty. The two
 blend throughout history There is a
 pessimism underlying the assertion that
 our civilization, after thousands of
 years of natural evolution, needs com
 plete transformation. If the slow work
 of the ages has so blundered, is it likely
 that few theorists or novelists can set
 the world right, especially when their
 schemes would have to be administered
 by the same defective human nature?
 But mankind has sure ability of im-
 proving its lot through development.
 The obnoxious word compromise" does
 not daunt him. We must indeed find a
 middle course between two extremes,
 but no man walks by compromise be-
 tween his two eyes or reconciliation
 between his two feet This dispute is | like that between science and religion,
 which has resulted not in compromise,
 but in each attending to it's own sphere.
 Nothing must destroy the individual
 as distinct entity with physiological,
 intellectual and moral independence.
 Yet complete individualism is practica-
 ble for no human being who is bound
 up with society by the laws of associa- 1 tion There must be SelfhOOd, but not