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

I'M It's exceptional characters, ana That |
similar Individual Instances may be |
found in almost every other move
Ement. whether religious or political |
The average Socialist of today no
more believes in these things tlan
fIaes the average Christian or the av-
eraee Democrat or Republican.
The Socialist programme not only
does not contain any such proposals.
hit ii is directed against those fac
tors which in present society tend tu
the disintegration of family life. II
ainls to so change economic condl-
tions4as to prevent the evil CONNER
eialiaation of marriage which takes
Mace when q woman enters into u
'oyaless marriage ''for a home" lis
surely as when another marries for
great fortune or title and patent Of
nobility, rather than for love. It aims
to nut an end to those economic con-
ditions which make the cry OF hui
man child bearing the divine imprint
of less importance than the cry of a
machine. force the mother to leave
her babe in order to become wage
slave. servitor of the machine, and
comuel the child to enter into indus
| trial competition with its father. So
cialism is the only movement in the
world today actively and aggressively
struggling for these things; Socialists
can claim with; perfect candor anG
confidence that they are fighting
those things which prostitute Love
and menace the family, for. conditions
under which marriage and the family
can flourish. go 3-lG
A final word CONCERNING Socialism
in relation to religion. A. few years
ago the average Socialist would dog
matically assert that Socialism and
religious belief Of any kind were al
solutely Incompatible, and it would be
idle to deny that there are still many
Socialists who make the assertion.
Thore ar; also MANY earnest ana IN
telligent Christians and other reli-
gious believers who declare Socialism
to be fundamentally and irreconcila-
!, bly, opposed to all forms Of religious
faith. ~
Against these declarations we must
set the fact that there are many
thousands of devoted Christians o &c
adherente of other religions who Il e
earnest and active Socialists. They
find no antagonism between the essen
tails of Christian teaching and the es-
sentials of the MARKHAM philosophy. |
Tens of thousands of Christians, in
GLIDING Roman Catholics and Protest
ants of all sects and denominations,
and thousands of orthodox Hebrews /
call themselves Socialists, are enroll
ed as members Of the Socialist parties |
III the world, and cote and work for
the Socialist cause just as Loyalty as
those who most loudly proclaim reli-
gion to be an evil thing. To the AGA
demic question as to whether Social |
ism and religion can be recenciled the
best answer is that they are so recon |
ciled by tens Of thousands in every
land who find in each the complement |
of the other.
Religion Is at bottom Mans at
tempt to relate himself to the universe
in which he finds himself, and to In
terpret It's forces. Whence? Why? !
Whittier ?-these are the questions re-
ligion answers, or, rather, the answer
Man makes to them becomes the |
framework OF his religion. Fundamen-
tally, then, religion has to do with |
|statecraft and political economy. In !
every age, and under all KINDS Of gov /
ernnlents, men have looked at the |
stars scattered through the upper
deep and asked themselves whence
they came. wondered whence and why |
the lightning's flash, and whence and
why and whittier the first movement |
In life In the void and blackness of
the unremembered and unrecorded |
Beginning.
There is nothing in the fact that one |
mans answer is an intelligence called |
God" while auatheris is an ineviEl-
pie process called Evolution to pre-
vent both from accepting The Socialist |
programme. The one lsees in the |
programme the way pointed out by |
God, while the other sees in it the |
next step of Evolution. Both of them |
can take the step together. The So
cialist parties of the world have |
-eeme to recognize this and their plat |
forms all declare religious or nOn-be- |
lief to be private matter. So in our |
Socialist movement today the Episco- |
pal bishop and the Catholic laborcr, |
the Evangelical Protestant and the |
Jew can and do join with the Agnostic |
and the Atheist in loyal adherence to /
the Socialist programme and in the !
glorious comradeship OF great
cause.
This was not always possible. In
the early days of the modern Social i!
list movement 1t was undoubtedly bit
terly hostile to all forms of religion.
From the utterance of the greatest
leaders of the movement it would be |
easy to compile formidable list of |
quotations, all charged with bitter de- !
nunciation and scorn of religion, all |
insisting that erligious ideas and be-
liefs must be uprooted from the; hui |
man mind before there could be an in |
telligent acceptance of the Socialist |
ideal an programme. The reason for |
The Union Store gets the new things
first, as you will see if you are ready