Wheeling majority. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1907-192?, 1910-12-08

ends-the poor from their poverty and
the rich from surfeit. AS | see 1t, So
cialism will be a good thing for ali.
Ultimately that must be SO, for Social
ism means Brotherhood, and that can
not be bad for anybody"
l have never known Socialist, no
matter how narrow and sordid his
verbal Interpretation might be, WHIT
lid not take that position: whose So
cialism was, in its last and deepest
analysis, anything less than a pro-
lound faith in the Brotherhood OF
Man. And make the claim with con-
idence that, not only is spiritual in
depreciation of Socialism possible, but
it is also ESSENTIAL to proper under
standing of it. The Spirit of Socialism
cried out:
l am Religion and the church / build,
Stands on the Sacred flesh with
passion packed;
In me the ancient gospels are full
filled
In me the symbol rises into Fact
Think you that | claim too much for
this great movement of the masses,
this march of protesting proletarians
whose loud cry makes kings and en-
perors tremble and whose tread
shakes palaces and thrones? Do you
Jhink that rhetorical passion has swept
me on out of my depths that l make
fhis claim for the Socialist movement,
lor these armies of protesting, strlk-
ing, ballotting workers with red ban
ners? Nay. have chosen every word
in that claim with calm elaboration;
weighed each word and examined 1t IN
the light of conscience and reason.
| classification of the claim l point
20 the movement itself. Here we have
the greatest political movement IN nls-
|ory, embracing men and women OF all.
the nations of the earth, OF ill colors
and all creeds. At the very threshold,
we are confronted by the fact that
there is in this international move
ment power of appeal strong enough
to overcome all the barriers and dis
tinctions of race, of sex, OF speech, OF
tradition and of belief, uniting all In
one vast aim and kindling in. the
hearts of all it's adherents one sub
lime enthusiasm for freedom and
brotherhood.
In the past races have been born to
heritage of hatred, race hating race
and nation hating nation. Even the
religions of the world have not united
mankind. Christians have prosecuted
and butchered Jews; Professionals ana
Catholics have We'd with each other in
the bitterness of their hatred. Over
the pages of the history of civilization
rests the scarlet shadow of mans hate
for man born out of cruel perversions
of the religious instinct. Visions OF
lbloody battlefieIds, vast acreages OF
bleached human bones, gibbet and
rack and thumbscrew, flames from
funeral pyres leaping in mad fury
around the writhing forms, or I'M
believers" brutal and dehumanlzeo
mobs filled with worse tnan brute pas
sion-such visions rise out OF the pages
of history, terrible witnesses OF the
failure of organized religion to bind
the nations of the earth together. This
1 saw with no desire to attack organic
ed religion, or to disparage 1t, but
with reluctant spirit.
Never before in all the centuries
were SO many millions of people OF
diverse races and religions, porn TO
such widely varied traditions and Ell
vironments, united in one great move
lment. From the crowded tenements
of New York, Boston, Chicago and San
francisco to those Of London, Paris,
Berlin, Rome and st. Petersburg;
from the slums of Boston, Phlladel
lphia. New York and other American
cities. to the slums of Melbourne and
ISydney. Calcutta and Bombay, Tokyo
and Picking, Cape Town and Johannes
lburg, Socialism draws its recruits.
draws them, also, from the little Ne"
England farms and the great farms OF
1.-THE prairies; from the coal mines d
1.-The Alleghenies and the metalliferous
mines of the Rockies; from the vine
Yards of Italy and France; from the
Russian "Pale"-and the German work
Eshop; from the Japanese military bar
racks and the Chinese school; from
the African diamond mine to the little
. Istore in an English country village
In a word, wherever men and Wome'
! Iare toiling for the leisure ofo theirs
. land wherever poverty and misery lurk
che Socialist movement presents itseli
II If that were all--if uniting into on
| Igreat movement all these strange ele
lIments of humanity, subduing all racla
/ and religious hatred and distrust. wer
| 1.-THE only achievement of the Social1s
! movement, should confidently asser
: Its claim to be counted among tn
! greatest spiritual forces Of the worlt