The Irish standard., 1914-01-31
Socialists are Cropping in the Darkness o1
Atheism and Agnosticism
Deny the Divinity of Founder of Church and
Brand Him as an lmpostor
Men Not Made Virtuous by Furnishing Them
With Work, Food, Pleasure

lie ownership of the means of life. It
tells US this must be. Anything else
Is wrong, radically, fundamentally and
eternally wrong. The church does
not QUARREL with public ownership.
She says it may be. But she does op-
pose and condemn those who saw that
private ownership is wrong. There
are abuses in private ownership, but
those abuses are not essential There
are remedies. Some of those reme-
dies have been discovered. Human
genius can invent others. Some of
them are now in operation. More will
come. There is not disease for
which there is not remedy, and
there Is no abuse that man cannot
correct. God has said: Thou shalt
not steal Men have always dis
obeyed, and they will continue to dis
obey as long as time lasts.
Socialism tells US public ownership
will cure all those abuses. The
declaration is prophecy, it is a hope.
1t Is a promise. None of these can
be demonstrated. In city like this.
that prophecy will find much less
credence than it will in places where
public thieves have been less success
full
The right of private ownership is
natural and divine. Leo XIII, in his
immortal encyclical, which we may
regard as the authoritative statement
of the position of the church, says:
The very reason and motive of work
is to obtain property and to hold it.
We work for hire to obtain what we
need for food and clothing and shell
ter. II we save money and buy land,
that land is only our wages in another
form. 1t is ours to dispose of as much
as the money we receive for our
labor. In this power of disposal,
ownership consists. Every man has
by nature the right to possess prop
erty. This right distinguishes him
from animals. lie has reason. He
lives in the future and provides
for it,
"That this right is divine we prove
rom the Commandments: Thou shalt
not covet,' and Thou shalt not steal,'
as we'll as from the words of Christ
to the young man who expressed the
desire to become his disciple: Sell
what thou hast If it was not his,
and if he had not right to 1t, he
would not have been urged to sell it."
Lack of time caused Father Bel
ford to pass cursorily over the fal-
lacy of labor being the only source
of value, as we'll as the impossibility
of fixing system of just remunera-
tion in the new republic. He then
took up the quotations of Socialist
authorities, saying:
Would Destroy Christianity.
"Materialistic philosophy is the
death of Christianity. Bebel tells us
in the Socialist State religious organ
izations will gradually disappear, and
the churches with them A writer in
the New York Call says: Economic
determinism alone leaves no room for
the supernatural Liebknecht de-
clares 1t is our duty as Socialists to
root out faith in God, nor is anyone
worthy of the name who does not
consecrate himself to the spread of
atheism Mr. Leatham tells us:
Faith is now dead. There is no
longer any reason to believe in God.
There is nothing left for the Deity to
do
"Now, there are classes in Social
ism. There are some pure-minded
and wellmeaning men and women In
the movement. We wonder what has
blinded them. But there are some
monsters who deliberately seek to
poison the mind and corrupt the heart
Of woman and childhood. In q cate
chism for children, the New York
Mission and Tract Society tells us it
found these statements: There is no
God. Man has no soul. There can
be no Son of God. Christianity is
harmful. 1t makes us spiritual Grip
pies. All churches are humbugs.
Adultery is not a sin. Young and
immature persons should not give
themselves to this, for it retards their
mental and physical development y"
"The church is the champion Of All
the weak, especially Of the woman
and the child. It protects the virtue
Of the one with marriage and the liss