cated, visionary, and revolutionary project ever hatched by the disordered brain of man. Vox populi non semper vox Dei. The reverse, however, the voice of God is always the voice of the people, is true in the long run. It is not claimed that Socialism can be realized in a day, or perhaps in a century; but that man is oblivious to the teachings of history who on this account regards it as impracticable. A movement that has God and humanity behind it, that pays supreme homage to truth, justice, and mercy, will not be seriously discounted because it is as yet ideal. The Decalogue might be opposed on the same ground and with equal propriety. It was and still is an ideal. Is it less. valuable on this account? What the pillar of fire was to the Israelites, what the compass is to the mariner, what the sun is to the universe, such is the Decalogue to the human race. True, it may not be fully realized, but it can be approximated, and all human thought and endeavor should be a struggle toward it. Will our critics oppose the Decalogue on the ground that "we must take men as they are"? This is one of the devil's maxims. We do not propose to "take men as they are; we do not propose to take ourselves as we are, so long as there is a higher ideal, something better to be attained. There is a sense of course in which this saying is true. To accomplish immediate, practical results we must make use of the material at hand; but the maxim has no sympathy with progress; nay, it is the enemy of all moral, social, and economic reform. Where is the Christian minister or moralist who dares stand forth and say, "My friends, this thing is right, but it is not practicable." What is intended by the statement, "We should all be Socialists if we could eliminate selfishness"? Are we not bound to try to eliminate selfishness? Is there any higher or nobler end to work for? Is Socialism to be rejected because it sets before it this ideal? Many of those who oppose this objection to Socialism profess to believe, in company with the entire Christian Church, in the millennium, and profess to be hoping and working for its advent. But what is the millennium at present but a "possible ideal state," a place where selfishness will be eliminated,

and a state that can only be reached by not taking "men as we find them"? It is in order for these critics to show

ary.

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that the millennium is not practicable. Their logical quiver is full of argumentative arrows ready for use, of which the following are samples: The millennium supposes a state of society that "is contrary to all human experience." It is impossible "from the constitution of man and the very nature of things." "We must take men as we find them." The millennium is "optimistic and visionIt is not necessary, because the evils of the present system," the régime of selfishness and sin, can be remedied by legislation." The millennium "does not show how wages will increase, neither does it make any provision for the mobility of labor." As unselfishness and human brotherhood must be actually realized in the millennium, is not this the end of the argument? "Selfishness has scarcely been diminished by the thousands of years" of our civilization. "Equality of conditions demanded by the " millennium "can exist only among miserable imbruted savages." "In such a state the man whose strength enables him to produce the most can have no more than others; thus he is compelled to work half his time for others. This is slavery and robbery. Can we approve" a millennium "in which such flagrant dishonesty exists"? "Besides a state" like the millennium, “in which the conditions of life should cease to be arduous and stern, is not desirable." Let us have "more competition," more of the grand economic principle of the survival of the fittest, more of that law of liberty which guarantees to the strong man "the use of all his own powers exclusively for his own benefit" and leaves the weak to take the " consequences of his weakness." The millennium is "a wild weak dream." It is not responsive to say, this is what it comes to after all, the millennium is about as probable and practical as Socialism. This is not now in question. The point is, that men who believe in the millennium, proclaim themselves its adherents, claim to shape their thought and conduct so as to hasten its advent, and feel scandalized to hear it characterized as Utopian and impracticable, do not hesitate to em

ploy the foregoing language in characterizing Socialism, which is but a single step in the direction of the millennium, and to human ken a hundred times nearer and more practicable. Every argument hurled against Socialism which they oppose, smites with tenfold more force the millennium in which they believe. It seems not to have occurred to these gentlemen that there is anything inconsistent in advocating a system of ethics that hastens the millennium, and a system of political economy that hinders it. This argument, indeed, has force only with those who believe in a millennium. Those who reject such belief are comparatively few. As certain as God exists and governs the world he has created, so certain is it that ultimately right must triumph over wrong, truth over error, virtue over vice, love over hate, and happiness over misery; and when social justice is thus crowned king the millennium has come. That only is a sound and healthy economy, whether political, social, or moral, which sets before it this ideal, and labors unswervingly for its realization.

CHAPTER VIII.

REVELATION AND OUTLOOK OF SOCIALISM.

"The future belongs to the purified Socialism."- ALBERT SCHÄFFLE. "On the irresistible momentum of these two inevitable and evergrowing forces the concentration of industry and the growth of the new democracy - Socialism depends for the realization of its scheme of transformation." - Encyclopædia Britannica. "Socialism."

WILL Socialism be realized? This is a vital question. If the industrial disturbance is only temporary, a mere excrescence of a social system that is on the whole healthy and natural, it will soon be removed by absorption or a little capitalistic surgery. If, on the other hand, the great labor rebellion, embracing all civilized countries, is not founded upon mere caprice or temporary wrongs, but upon the changed conditions of society; if the old social garment is outworn and outgrown, then all attempts to patch it by putting new cloth to it will ere long only make the rent worse.

Many causes, some of which we have mentioned in chapter II. have been operating to produce the present crisis. To-day we are witnessing not so much a revolution as an epochal period in industrial evolution. We should look forward and not backward. But will Socialism ever become a fact? We do not hesitate to affirm that the evils it opposes will be abolished, and the good it seeks will be realized. Every step to this end will be Socialistic, and the result will be Socialism or all that Socialism demands. As Christianity is bound to be realized, although it may never permanently and unalterably crystallize in any particular form, so Socialism may not take on any particular form now proposed and still be realized. If it is a régime which best meets the new and better civilization, which best satisfies the new conception of the State and its proper

functions, of the idea of right and social justice which now prevails, of the universal brotherhood of man, and of the solidarity of society, then Socialism, whatever name or form it may assume, is an inevitable and ultimate fact.

The prejudice against the term has led to the adoption in this country of the word Nationalism, which is a happy synonym of Socialism.

It is amusing as it is common to meet with people who can hardly conceal their impatience at the mention of Socialism, yet heartily approve every one of its principles. This prejudice, however, is rapidly disappearing as is evident from the friendly attitude of thoughtful minds toward the new order.

I.

Growth and Numerical Strength of Socialism.

"In scientific garb Socialism is transforming politics and is occupying the greater number of professorial chairs in Germany and Italy.

Under the form of State Socialism it sits in the council-chamber of sovereigns; and finally under a Christian form it is making its influence felt in the hearts of the Catholic clergy, and still more in the hearts of different Protestant denominations."- LAVELEYE.

The rapid spread of Socialism is phenomenal; history records nothing like it. It no sooner enters a country than it captures the moral sentiment of the people. It can repeat the famous apothegm of Cæsar, Veni, vidi, vici. A decade since it had hardly an adherent in the United States; now it numbers millions openly or secretly in sympathy with its leading principles.

Socialism pays no regard to local or national boundaries. This is one of its characteristic features. It is a world economy. This is because its leading principles are universal and immutable truths, which have heretofore been supposed to have no application to questions of labor and capital, or to the organization of industrial forces, but which are now seen to afford the only proper basis for an industrial system. This amounts to a new discovery; a discovery the grandest and most beneficial ever made by man. It will transform society, result in a new industrial world, and make possible to the race a higher civilization.