The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1901-10-14
b. UNKUM
To the Editor of The Spy:

The chief feature of interest in those
communications from Socialists which
have recently appeared in The Spy, is
the intense positiveness of the writer's.
The glory in the fact that they are
only Workingmen, but this does not de-
ter them from saying in effect, See
how much better we can reason than
educated ministers or statesmen or
even Archbishops."
1t never seems to occur to them that
positiveness is more often born of err
ror than it is of truth. Until Magellen
demonstrated that the world was
round like a ball, it's inhabitants were
positive it was fiat like a pan cake.
They were also positive that it never
moved until in due time they We're
shown their error.
And to descend to individuals, who
have not been deceived in a railway
train into thinking 1t was his train
that moved until the sudden passing Of
the rear end of the other train fairly
shocked him with the instant awaken
ing to the real truth?
The Socialist may be positive that it
is his train which is in motion because
to his senses every evidence of mo-
ton is clearly apparent, nevertheless
as with the person in the railway
train, the senses may be deceived.
1t will be asked, how then may one
know that his senses are not beguiled?
A good way to begin is by first
learning to distrust the senses, and
more especially that sense called com
mon sense" for common sense says
that the Sun rises in the East, but this
is not a fact, it is merely an Illusion.
Common sense says the ocean is a fiat
expanse but this is not a fact it is
merely an illusion also
Real sense is a result of that knowl-
edge which enables one to distinguish
between the real and the apparently
real. The bright and eloquent work
ingman, whose only guide to truth is
his native perception is of all men, the
first to be deceived, because the dull
headed workman is naturally conserv-
alive and the cultivated scholar intel
ligently wary.
Every man needs some fixed thing
by which to determine the truth of
what to his senses seems like truth
otherwise he is like a ship at sea with
no Sun to judge by. Some conscious
ness Of this need is apparent in those
Socialist letters for they contain many
references to Christ and to Christiani-
ty with the aim, manifestly, of demon
strating their position in relation to
that fixed star. They take offence
when told that Socialism is not in har-
mony with Christianity and one writer
who signs himself B. Unkum, takes
Archbishop Corrigan to task for having
written a letter to this effect
B. Unkum is positive that the So
cialistic ship is steering by the fixed
light of Christianity while the Christian
Archbishop is hopelessly stationary in
he dsar 10 &c
made a mistake in asserting that the
test of Christianity was charity. He is
positive that charity and love and
almsgiving were interchangeable terms
used by classic heathens, and that no
scientific speaker or writer would have
used such an expression in such a con-
nection.
B. Unkum is evidently more acquaint-
ed with the Classics, then he is with
Christ or Christianity. otherwise ne
would have known that Christ ex-
banded the word Charity to an ex-
tent of significance far beyond its
classic limitations. He would have
known that along with the admonition
to his disciples love one another +"
give to the poor; he also demanded
that they should love their enemies -
To love ones. enemies, this is chart |
ty, the greatest of the virtues and il I
is precisely what Archbishop Corrigan I
said 1t is: The test of Christianity
B. Unkum the Socialist, ridicules |
this position taken by the christian
archbishop. and this is sufficient tn #
prove the truth Of that other statement I,
OF the archbishop's: Socialism is an
tagonistic to Christianity"
A. o'C.