Part 3 (1/2)

The Socialists had thus seriously weakened the state at two vital points. By their continuous advocacy of a republic and their obstructive tactics they had impaired to a considerable extent the authority of the state, and autocratic government rests upon authority. By their internationalist teachings they had shaken the foundations of patriotism. And there is still another count against them.

Opponents of Socialism accuse its advocates of being enemies of the Christian religion and the church. Socialists declare in reply that Socialism, being a purely economic school of thought, does not concern itself with religious matters in any manner. They point out further that the programs of Socialist parties in all lands expressly declare religion to be a private matter and one about which the party does not concern itself. This is only part of the truth. It is true that Socialism officially regards religion as a private matter, but German Socialism--and the Socialism of other lands as well--is in practice the bitter enemy of the organized church. There is an abundance of evidence to prove this a.s.sertion, but the following quotations will suffice.

August Bebel, one of the founders of German Socialism, said:

”We aim in the domain of politics at Republicanism, in the domain of economics at Socialism, and in the domain of what is today called religion at Atheism.”[11]

[11] Quoted by W. H. Dawson in _German Socialism and Ferdinand La.s.salle_, ch. 15.

_Vorwarts_, central organ of German Socialism, wrote on July 1, 1892:

”We would fight churches and preachers even if the preachers and curates were the most conscientious of men.”

_Vorwarts_ contrived also to add insult to the statement by using the word _Pfaffen_ for preachers, a word having a contemptuous implication in this sense throughout Northern Germany.

Karl Kautsky, for years one of the intellectual leaders of the Socialist movement in Germany and one of its ablest and most representative publicists, said:[12]

”The one-sided battle against the congregations, as it is being carried on today in France, is merely a pruning of the boughs of the tree, which then merely flourishes all the more strongly.

The ax must be laid to the roots.”

[12] Die neue Zeit, 1903, vol. i, p. 506.

_Genosse_ Dr. Erdmann, writing after the war had begun, said:

”We have no occasion to conceal the fact that Social-Democracy is hostile to the church--whether Catholic or Evangelical--and that we present our demands with special decision because we know that we shall thus break the power of the church.”[13]

[13] Sozialistische Monatshefte, 1915, vol. i, p. 516.

_Vorwarts_ headlined an Article in January, 1918: ”All religious systems are enemies of women.” (The Socialists nevertheless had the effrontery during the campaign preceding the election of delegates to the National a.s.sembly at Weimar in January to put out a placard saying: ”Women, protect your religion! Vote for the Social-Democratic party of Germany!”).

The initial activities of the Workmen's and Soldiers' Councils in Hamburg and Brunswick following the revolution were correctly described in a speech made in the National a.s.sembly on March 11, 1919, by Deputy Mumm. He said:

”The revolutionary government in Hamburg has retained the bordells and abolished religious instruction. In Brunswick the school children of the capital, 1,500 in number, were a.s.sembled in the Cathedral by the people's commissioners for an anti-Christian Christmas celebration.”

At the same session, Deputy h.e.l.lmann, a member of the Majority (parent) Socialist party, said in a speech in answer to Mumm:

”The church, like all social inst.i.tutions, is subject to constant change, and will eventually disappear.”

Quotations like the preceding could be multiplied indefinitely, as could also acts consistent with these anti-religious views. The first Minister of Cults (_Kultusminister_) appointed by the revolutionary government in Prussia was Adolf Hoffmann, a professed atheist, although this ministry has charge of the affairs of the church.

The Socialist literature and press in all countries abound in anti-religious utterances. To quote one is to give a sample of all. The _Social-Demokraten_ of Stockholm, official organ of the Swedish Socialists and reckoned among the sanest, ablest and most conservative of all Social-Democratic press organs, forgets, too, that religion is a private matter. It reports a sermon by Archbishop Soderblom, wherein the speaker declared that the church must have enough expansive force to conquer the ma.s.ses who are now coming to power in various lands, and adds this characteristic comment:

”The Archbishop is a brave man who is not afraid to install a motor in the venerable but antiquated skiff from the Lake of Genesareth. If only the boat will hold him up!”

This att.i.tude of Socialism is comprehensible and logical, for no student of world history can deny that an established church has been in all ages and still is one of the strongest bulwarks of an autocratic state.

From the very dawn of organized government, centuries before the Christian era, the priesthood, where it did not actually govern, has powerfully upheld the arm of civil authority and property rights. Even in democratic England it teaches the child to ”be content in the station whereto it has pleased G.o.d to call me,” and is thus a factor in upholding the cla.s.s distinctions against which Socialism's whole campaign is directed. In opposing the church as an inst.i.tution Social-Democracy is thus merely true to its cardinal tenets. If the power of the church be destroyed or materially weakened, a serious blow is dealt to the government which that church supported. People who, at the command of the church, have been unquestioningly rendering unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, begin to ask themselves: ”But what things are Caesar's?” And when the people begin seriously to consider this question, autocracy is doomed.

The effect of the Socialist campaign against the church began to make itself felt a decade or more before the war began. Withdrawals from the church became so frequent that the government was seriously concerned.