ing than is at first anticipated; that unethical means are likely to obscure ethical ideals, and that more effective means for securing social cohesion are at hand.65

Summary. Socialists have thus, for many years past, maintained that the state, under socialism, must be controlled by the mass of the people; that it must become less and less a "government of men and ever more an instrument for constructive social endeavor, that it must be democratized in all of its parts, that it must provide an administrative machinery through which both consumer and producer might adequately express themselves; that it must scrupulously avoid a regimentation of its citizens, and that it must consistently apply the principle of decentralization.

The war has brought renewed prominence to the problems of occupational representation, of organization by function, of dual sovereignty, and the relative claim of state and other social groups over the activities of the individual. A reconstruction of socialist thought, as a result of recent developments, is now in process.66

RELIGION AND SOCIALISM

Attitude of Socialists.- Passing from the industrial

65 The extremists are at present writing inclined to call themselves Communist Socialists or Communists, to differentiate themselves from the more moderate socialists. Marx, it may be remembered, called the early socialists "communists" in his Communist Manifesto. The word communist was formerly used to designate that comparatively small group in society who believe in the common ownership of private property. The communist-socialists and present-day communists do not hold such belief.

66 See also, among the recent literature on the state which is molding socialist thought, Follett, The New State; Laski, Studies in the Problem of Sovereignty; Russell, Political Ideals; Belloc, The Servile State; De Maeztu, Authority, Liberty and Function; Cannan, Freedom, etc.

and political features of the socialist state, let us consider some of its social features. What, for instance, will be the status of religion under socialism?

Many of the opponents and even some of the adherents of socialism contend that socialism is opposed to religion. This position is based primarily on two premises: first, that many socialists have opposed organized religion; second, that the philosophy of socialism is itself diametrically opposed to the principles of revealed religion.

It is true that many of the pioneers of socialism, as well as many of its modern exponents, have denied the validity of religious tenets. This attitude may be explained on several grounds. The philosophy of socialism was formulated at about the same time that the scientific facts of evolution were first given to the world. The organized church in practically every country took the position at that time that these truths were in conflict with the teachings of the Bible, and that those who accepted them must be considered outside the religious pale. The socialists embraced the new scientific truths, and certain of their leaders declared themselves against that religion which both they and its supporters believed to be incompatible with true science.67

Furthermore, the or

The Church and Democracy. ganized church, in many of the countries where socialism gained its first foothold, was a state church. As such, it generally fought on the side of an autocratic state whenever there was a conflict of interest between the state and the people. The workers, therefore, found the church lined up with their enemies in most battles for democracy. And even where the church and the state were not one and where the state no longer could be regarded as auto67 See Spargo and Arner, op. cit., p. 361.

cratic, the workers frequently felt that the former was too largely influenced by commercial and industrial interests which supported it. The Bible was too frequently quoted to prove the rightness of things as they were, and the wickedness of proletarian agitation. The result of this attack was a counter attack by the workers, within and without the socialist movement. Nor did the socialists and others in their attitude always nicely discriminate between certain forms of "churchianity" and religion generally. When socialists, embittered by clerical opposition abroad, migrated to other countries, they frequently continued their opposition, even though the reason for that opposition might have largely disappeared.

Neutrality. However, the socialists as a body have time and again declared their neutrality on the subject of religion in their conventions and elsewhere. "The Socialist Party," reads the resolution passed at the 1908 convention of the American movement, "is primarily an economic and political movement. It is not concerned with matters of religious belief."

Socialists in this country represent every denominational creed. There is a Christian Socialist movement containing hundreds who believe that the logical application of Christianity to industrial life would lead to socialism, and some of the most eminent religious teachers in the country proclaim themselves adherents of the socialist philosophy.68 In Great Britain the chief leaders in the Independent Labor Party are ardent members of the

68 See also Hughan, American Socialism of the Present Day, p. 161. At a state convention of the Michigan socialists in 1919, speakers were instructed to explain the socialist stand on religion. This organization was subsequently expelled from the Socialist Party and induced the Communist Party to adopt a similar resolution.

conformist and non-conformist churches, while the Church Socialist League, with its large following among the clergy, is extremely active in the movement.69

It is also con

Theism and Economic Determinism.tended that the acceptance of the belief in the economic interpretation of history precludes the acceptance of religious belief. The reasons for this position are various. First, it is maintained that the economic interpretation of history, promulgated by the early socialists, excludes a belief that ethical forces influence history in any way; therefore such a belief is materialistic. But, as Professor Seligman so well expressed it,

"the economic interpretation of history, in the reasonable and modern sense of the term, does not for a moment subordinate the ethical life to the economic life; it does not even maintain that in any single individual there is a necessary connection between his moral impulses and his economic welfare; above all it does not deny an interpenetration of economic institutions by ethical and religious influences. It endeavors only to show that in the records of the past the moral uplift of humanity has been closely connected with its social and economic progress, and that the ethical ideals of the community, which can alone bring about any lasting advance in civilization, have been erected on, and rendered possible by, the solid foundation of material prosperity. In short, the economic interpretation of history properly interpreted, does not neglect the spiritual forces in history; it seeks only to point out the terms on which the spiritual life has been able to find its fullest fruition."

"70

69 In Germany, of the 110 members of the Reichstag in 1912, 22 belonged to the established Protestant churches, 17 to other Protestant churches, 4 to the Catholic church, while 7 were Jews. Fiftyeight, on the other hand, belonged to no church, 6 declared that they had no religion whatever, and 2 were non-committal. (Walling, Stokes, Hughan and Laidler, The Socialism of Today, p. 30.)

70 Seligman, Economic Interpretation of History, pp. 133–4.

Second, it is assumed that unless one believes that human progress has been primarily the result of the influence of spiritual and ideological forces, as contrasted with economic forces, one denies the omniscience of the Godhead in the development of human society. The socialist's reply is that it is just as reasonable to assume that an Infinite Power designed that the world evolve primarily through the conflict of economic forces as to assume that He expressed His will in the world only through spiritual forces. To acknowledge the efficacy of the law of gravitation and other physical laws in the universe, the socialist maintains, is by no means to deny the presence of the Deity. The economic interpretation of history does not deal with ultimate causes.

The confusion between the economic interpretation of history and the materialistic philosophy of life is due partly to the fact that the socialists first termed their philosophy the "materialistic philosophy of history," and partly because those who formulated the theory were themselves philosophic materialists with a desire to connect their philosophy of economic development with their general world philosophy, and to make of it a Weltanschauung. The followers of the socialist fathers, desiring to be no less "scientific " than were their teachers, were no more discriminating, and accepted both philosophies as parts of a whole.

Of course, materialism was not monopolized by the early socialists. As Rauschenbusch declares: "The socialist faith was formulated by its intellectual leaders at a time when naturalism and materialism was the popular philosophy of the intellectuals, and these elements were woven into the dogma of the new movement. Great movements al71 See Spargo, Marrian Socialism and Religion.