The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1909-07-22


them; own the land, and cultivate it;
erect all buildings, and fix the wages
of mechanics; i'm short, be the only
employer and let everybody be on its
payroll. This is the complete pro
gram of the Socialist. It is paternal-
ism run mad. II is reversion to the
ideas and methods of the ancient Pa
gan empires before Christ; in fact it
goes far beyond them, for it proposes
to remit to governmental care all the
complexities of our modern civiliza-
| ton which were unknown in those old
Pagan times. 1t would be a crushing
burden that no government could sus-
tain. But If 1t were practicable for
the state to manage all industries and
be the only employer, it would prove
the death of invention and progress.
| 1t would remove every incentive to
self help, would foster dependence
and hinder men from making the most
of themselves. The worker would be
simply part of a gigantic machine,
obeying orders, but WITH personality
dwarfed and without motive to seek
superior excellence The capable and
the incapable would be put on the
same level, and the work done would
be deprecated. There would first be
stagnation in our civilization; then
decline and extinction.
We cannot accept therefore the
panacea of the Socialist for the ills
that affect our industrial system
There must be found some other
remedy for them than a resort to pa
ternal despotism. 1t may be that for
mer methods of competition are to be
permanently replaced by the consoli-
datiOn of capital and the confedera-
ton of labor; but these unions are
only justifable when they are used for
protection, not for oppression. They
must be duly regulated by law in the
interests of the entire public; not al
lowed to promote without restriction
the selfish greed of a class. And
they must not be permitted to crush
the sense of individuality; to rob the
individual of tne incentive to do his
best and to rob the community of the
results of superior skill and efficiency
We must be on our guard against the
evils that are sure to come from these
great combinations If they are not
watched and controlled in accordance
with the principles that underlie our
national civilization and have made
IL so grand.
But as regards the industrial prob
lem, so as regards the religious prob
lem, there is a tendency nowadays to
seek its solution by directing effort
toward the Improvement of society as
a whole rather than TO the conversion
of individuals. We are told that the
religious and moral methods of the
past have largely failed: that in every
generation only a remnant has gained
the purifying and elevating influences
of Christianity while most of the peo-
pie, the poor and ignorant especially
have been left in degrading vice. It
is contended that this is more than
ever the case at present; that the
church has become largely the insti-
tuition of the well-to-do. the educated.
the prosperous, while the masses in
the cities have drifted away from it.
and are unreacned by its teachings
and sinking into practical infidelity.
The attempt to renovate them one by
one is slow and hopeless in their pre-
sent environment. ii is claimed; the
environment itself needs to be chang
ed to be made more favorable to the
cultivation of virtue more intelli-
gent and cheerful. The idea of SOC
ial betterment is therefore put in the
place of the idea of evangelization
We must secure, II is said, improved
| tenement houses for the poor, elimi-
mating dark rooms and providing
| abundant light and good air; must
furnish them facilities for keeping
themselves clean by bath rooms in
their houses by public baths: must
open parks in crowded city districts
for breathing places and pleasurable
| resort; must lay out Fairgrounds for
| the children and roofgardens for the
young people; must provide gratuit-
Gus or cheap entertainments that will
afford healthful recreation and crowd
out vicious amusements; must ar
range courses of simple and interest
| ing lectures on educational, historical
and scientific subjects, on travel, and
art and housekeeping and nome-mak-
ing. BY thus changing and eleyating
the environment of the poor ii is said
they will be turned from vicious ways
and be started upon better develop
ment. Let the church therefore I'M
dertake every form of social service.
and seek to gain the masses by min
istering to their evident needs.
Now there is much in this progress
that is commendable, but tne reason
ing that underlies it is fallacious. No
doubt untoward conditions of living
should be ameliorated for the poor so
far as possible by sympathizing Chris
tian effort. They should not only be
relived of all oppression, but be given
the better opportunities indicated. 1t
is mistake, however, to suppose that
this will be sufficient to redeem them
from sin and Indebtedness that more
comfortable surroundings will make
them purer in morals, and intellectual
advantages conduce to tneir practical
piet. All experience is opposed to
such a superficial view. 1t is not
found to be true of those who are
born and brought up in the circles of
the well-to-do the educated and re-
fined, that they are therefore better
in heart. Human nature is not sane
titled by environment but absolutely
needs regeneration by divine grace
Men must be converted to God in or
der to be turned away from evil. What
is needed then to recover the masses
to righteousness is not more extensive
efforts to improve their outward cir
cuu, ctanpac huf mora lOvinp andaa vor