Part 34 (1/2)

In Nature we observe two systems of social existence: one compet.i.tive, one cooperative. Both are attended by evils; both by advantages. Man can frame his social and economic conditions so as to eliminate the evils and secure the advantages of both. This is Socialism.

Socialism leaves the church free to proceed along the lines of its faith; but it furnishes the church with the inestimable advantage of creating economic conditions that make the practice of religion for the first time possible. To-day economic conditions by ignoring the soul of Man and appealing only to his appet.i.tes make the practice of the Golden Rule impossible.

Economic conditions can be so changed that they appeal to the soul of man without ignoring his appet.i.tes. It may be that the earth is a place of preparation for another life. But it is not for that reason necessarily a place of misery and injustice. Socialism by eliminating misery and injustice will make this preparation easier. The environment of Socialism will tend to improve not only the individual, but also the type. It may be that the grace of G.o.d will help man to be n.o.ble and just. Let the church continue to teach this.

But let science be heard also in the positive proof it furnishes that man will and must be what the environment makes him; that if we continue to tolerate economic conditions that appeal to his selfishness, he will and must remain selfish; whereas if wiser economic conditions appeal to his unselfishness he will and must tend to be unselfish.

And so in Socialism and in Socialism alone, do we find reconciled the ethics of the church, the needs of economics, and the demands of science.

The new church will continue to teach social service; the new economics will permit of social service; and the new science will make of social service an environment out of which the new type of man will be evolved that will justify the words of Christ: ”Hath it not been said in your law 'Ye are G.o.ds'?”

FOOTNOTES:

[207] ”Evolution and Ethics,” by T.H. Huxley, p. 80.

[208] ”Evolution and Ethics,” p. 13.

[209] ”Evolution and Ethics,” p. 20.

[210] Ibid., p. 81.

[211] ”Evolution and Ethics,” p. 81.

[212] Ibid., p. 83.

[213] Ibid., p. 85.

[214] Ibid., p. 116.

[215] ”Evolution and Ethics,” p. 20.

[216] Book II, Chapter I.

[217] ”Government or Human Evolution,” Vol. I, p. 16.

[218] ”Evolution and Ethics,” p. 85.

[219] Ibid., p. 86.

[220] ”Modern Socialism,” by R.C.K. Ensor.

[221] Of course, I must not be understood to mean that nothing beautiful or useful grows in Nature outside of the art of the gardener. On the contrary, we know that in the Tropics Nature furnishes not only beautiful things, but enough of useful things to make the art of the gardener unnecessary. The lesson to be drawn from the garden patch is that, if the best result in the shape of beautiful and useful things is to be obtained from a limited surface, Art must be applied to that surface; Nature cannot be depended upon.

[222] Book III, Chapter II.

CHAPTER VI

SOLIDARITY

I think it was Miss Martineau who said that if her generation was better than that which preceded her, the betterment was due to the teachings of Carlyle; and much though we may differ with John Ruskin in matters of detail, no one will dispute the apostolic fervor with which he endeavored to push on the work of Thomas Carlyle. It is a significant fact, therefore, that both Thomas Carlyle and John Ruskin had nothing but abuse to give to political economy. Nevertheless, I think we all must agree that this hostile att.i.tude was due to a misconception of the scope of political economy, a misconception due in great part to its name; for the words ”political economy” seem to indicate that it deals with the economy of the state, and that it becomes the duty of its teachers to show us not only what the rules regarding the production and distribution of goods are, but what they ought to be.