Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1902-12-01
SOUL OF SOCIALISM.
BLISS CARMAN SAYS 1T is TO BE
FOUND IN CHRISTIANITY.

Socialism is very safe word. Its
meaning is so vague and undetermined
for the most part that even the con-
servative take it upon their lips with
out trepidation. They speak indulgent-
ly of socialists as erratic and harmless
dreamers, Jumping together their many
different aims and creeds, much as one
speaks of all manner of insects as
bugs"
But the truth is that every one is
something of socialist, and many of
our institutions are purely socialistic.
Free schools, for instance, and free IL
braries (where they really belong to a
township of free people and are not the
gift of well meaning but offensive and
misguided atfiuence) are purely social
istic. They exist for the good of all
and are supported by the contributions
of all, though there may be some to
whom they are of no value and by
whom they are not wanted. Never
mind, we must have them, for the
sense of the community has decided
they are good things. If you have no
children to be educated and are hater
of books, it IS just the same. You must
put your hand in your pocket to buy
books for your neighbor and educate
his children. That surely is pure So
cialsm. Also it is pure Christianity.
And that brings me to the point
wish to make-namely, that the soul Of
socialism is love, or Christianity, if you
prefer that word. The divers kinds of
socialism are as mushrooms in the
morning They spring up fresh every
day until it seems that every man may
be his own prophet In matters pertain
ing to the commonwealth. Yet all these
schemes are alike in aim; they all have
for their sole object the betterment of
society. However foolish, however
wrong headed, however visionary or
even dangerous they may be, we must
still credit them nearly always with no.
bility of purpose and sincerity Of inten-
ton. They are so many formulas for
the solution of difficult problem in
the science of life, and though many
of them would not solve the perplexing
equation for us mt all, but would only
make matters worse Qn all probabili-
ty), still their dsnterested aim must
enlist our sympathy even while we
withhold our approval. That is to say,
the spirit that prompts them is all
right, though the thought that goes to
their construction is often so faulty.
For socialism in whatever form is,
after all, only an ingenious device for
putting in practice the generous i'm
pulses of the human heart. Socialistic
schemes are just SO many contrivances
for the carrying out of our nobler pur
poses. In themselves they cannot di-
rectly foster goodness; they can only
promote it by making its path easier
Under right social and industrial con-
dtions it will be easier to be good than
it is now; it will be easier for beauty to
touch our everyday life; it will be
easier for the truth to find us out and
cheer us with illumination.
One would not call the constitution
Of the United States a socialist docu-
ment. suppose. and yet it certainly is
an instrument invented to facilitate
state. The American Revolution, like
the French revolution, like the great
rebellion in England, has no other
meaning than that, and the mistake
we make in thinking of these move
ments Is in putting our final trust in
them rather than In the spirit Of free
dom and love in man which produced
nd linn r.f,i,,
these events were, they were, after all,
only so many steps in this direction or
that. We believe in this country that a
democratic form of government Is bet
ter than older, more primitive forms.
1t is not therefore necessarily the best
form. 1t may be itself but step to
another form still better which will
bring us still more enlightenment and
happiness. We must be careful not to
make fetch of it, as our fathers
made of monarchy long ago. 1t is the
tendency OF conservative minds to re-
spect the settled institution, the tradi-
tional ideal Old institutions and es-
tablished ideals are indeed to be re-
spected, but they are not as much to be
TeSpeCIeu as tue SplIll VI huildiiity
which begot them. They are only in
ventions of the mind of man pondering
ON some plan to give his soul vent in
| free and beneficent action. 1t Is our
business to maintain and guard them
only SO long as they prove effective for
that and to relinquish them without
regret as soon as we outgrow them and
| find them hindering our progress or re-
| tarding our happiness. We shall have
others in their stead more ample, more
adequate, more nearly perfect and no
less worthy of loyalty than they WERE
And If we are not to have too great
and infexible q respect for authority
and traditional institutions neither
must we be overconfident Of the new
est plans of social management of our
own devising. They, too, we must re-
member, are only methods or ways of
doing things. And the great perma-
nent fact to be remembered and rever-
enced is the spirit Of love which
prompted us human creatures from the