The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-01-10
Sermons on Socialism
Rev. Dr. .Shanley of Danbury Begins a Series-The
 First One
His Definition of Socialism Divided Into Is Proposi- tions for Consideration Hereafter.

 ing. He said. in substance:
 Socialism dates back to pagan times It has been reproba ted by the wisest and best men of history. It is so- vine law
 Plato. the Greek philosopher. pro- mulgated it's doctrines in his ''Repub- Tc,' four hundred years before .ths Christian era. Aristotle, the grea test of the Greek philosophers, demonstrat- ed that it was unsound and dangerous Tn the sixteenth century.
 Thomas More, Lord Chancellor of England, in his Utopia" showed that it's philosophy was an idle dream.
 Modern socialism appeared in Flu rope in 17s9. at the beginrIng of the French Revolution. The infidels, Jean Jacques Rousseau. Count de St. Lie non. Charles Fourier, Louis Blanc Radbertus and Karl Marx taught that was a thief, that labor alone is the foundation of value, that man ought to be allowed to do what he liked that a1l land should be turned over to. the state, which should pay every one the worth of his work.
 Dr. Sharlev divided his general eefn- itTon of socialism into fifteen points.
 Appended are the fifteen paragraphs, which Dr. Shanley said constitute propositions of socialism, as he would consider it in his series of sermons:
 Capital systematically expresses la bor. The la,borer has certain natural
  an equal right to gratify those desires.
 i''Government Is always and every where on the side of capital Al the forces of advancing civilization under the present structure of society are monopolized by capital, and directed to the increase Of Its power to aEgran- dize itse'f, and crush labor down to condition of complete suhjection.
 s'It is the height of folly to depend upon political changes. upon altera- tions in the forms Of government, up on the abrogation of certain laws. up- labor from its bondage.
 t'The constant oppression of laDoF springs from the recognition of the so- called right of property; from the he- titious sacredness attached to indivfd- ments, and all governments that have ever existed, are and have been thus radically wrong.
 with the overthrow of government. there must be total new creation ot society. Fight and wrong are merely conventional ideas, having no eVistence outside of the notions of mem; tnelr only actual basis is nothing else than
 ssTi1 order to recreate society. all ex- ist'ng social ins-Ftrtions must be -%ept away They are obstacles in the way of the proposed social recreation ana m1TI .lTbe pc f,rsi a90 tonG Sne of this re-crea- ton is thlsSaihe S--$stence of fndivid- ual pr37t must be dsstr6yed t,,S11,,l,, ana I acoui hz property must be prevented.
 '-Tt family relations. also. must De destroyed, because where they are per niitted. and the affections anc asplra- lions which spring from them are al lowed to exert their influence. men invartab bly, seek for the sake of the-r wives and children to accumulate property. . has no sanctity or perpetuity. This is a false and pernicfous notion tend- ing to marrow and limit the interests and affections of men and women. Eliminating from their minds the fact of the universal brotherhood Of man lzird.
 of man to man and man to woman is that which grows out of sexual de
 ..Parents have no right of personal control or authority over their chil- cation The children are the future commune. and beIong to the commune which, for its own perps & 'ation, shoald take charge of and regulate their edu- cation.
 .~The parentaI : relations must be abolished. The feelings which it's tol- eration promote both in parents and children, tend to concentrate in the family circles, affections that are an- tagonistic to the common Interest. end to strengtben the false notion of: indi- vidual property.
 'eThe church has ever been the firm est support of government, of the idea of individual right in property, and ot family relations The church. conSe- ouently, is the greatest and most per ssstent obstacle in the way of the new socfcI creation. and therefore must he destroyed. The doctrines of Chris tianity, as long as they have power over the minds of men. will prevent the esta abIishment of the new social creation.
 What has been said of Christianity holds good of every religion, that rec l.ogn'zes any authority or source of au- Itho-fty above man.
 l Belief in a future state of existence l Is not only a de usion, but a positive l hindrance to the common interests This world is the world in which mar must obtain all his enjoyment"