British Socialism Part 43

"THE CAPITALIST'S TEN COMMANDMENTS

"I am Capital, thy Master, that brought thee out of the Land of Liberty into a State of Slavery. Thou shalt not become thine own Master, nor have any other Masters but me. Thou shalt commit murder for my sake only. Thou shalt give thy daughters in prost.i.tution and thy wife in adultery to me."

THE LATEST DECALOGUE

Thou shalt have one G.o.d only, who Would be at the expense of two?

No graven images may be Wors.h.i.+pped, except the currency.

Swear not at all, as for thy curse Thine enemy is none the worse.

At Church on Sunday to attend Will serve to keep the world thy friend.[1023]

The foregoing representative statements and extracts clearly prove that the teachings of Socialism, far from being in harmony with Christianity, are incompatible and directly hostile not only to Christianity but to all religion. The philosopher of British Socialism has very truly said, "Socialism has been well described as a new conception of the world, presenting itself in industry as co-operative Communism, in politics as international Republicanism, in religion as atheistic Humanism, by which is meant the recognition of social progress as our being's highest end and aim."[1024] As there is very little difference between "atheistic Humanism" and Atheism pure and simple, Socialists have really no right to complain if their opponents, relying on Bax's high authority, reproach them with being Atheists. The excerpts given above show that the religion of Socialism is a political and economic one. Its character and principles may be found in the publications of the Labour Church Union and of the Socialist Sunday School Union. The prospectus of the Labour Church Union contains the following declaration of principles:

"(1) That the Labour Church exists to give expression to the religion of the Labour movement. (2) That the religion of the Labour movement is not theological, but respects each individual's personal convictions upon this question. (3) That the religion of the Labour movement seeks the realisation of universal well-being by the establishment of Socialism--a Commonwealth founded upon justice and love. (4) The religion of the Labour movement declares that improvement of social conditions and the development of personal character are both essential to emanc.i.p.ation from social and moral bondage, and to that end insists upon the duty of studying the economic and moral forces of society."

It will be noticed that the words Christianity, G.o.d, morality, virtue, &c., do not occur in the foregoing statement.

Now let us study the details of the Socialist religion. These details are taken from a statement of the aims, methods, &c. of the Socialist Sunday Schools, published for the enlightenment of the public by the Glasgow and District Socialist Sunday School Union, the princ.i.p.al Socialist Sunday School Union of Great Britain. In that official publication we read: "Socialism, which the children are taught, is an idealism. It has been described as 'the highest flight of the ideal into the realm of the practical.' It is a faith--a faith based on the divine brotherhood and sisterhood of humanity--irrespective of cla.s.s, colour, or creed. It is a religion--a religion greater than creeds or dogmas. It is a religion of love! Its followers and disciples are lovers of mankind! Its wors.h.i.+p is service to humanity! Socialism has absorbed not only all the essential spiritual elements contained in the Christ teaching, but it has also, as Christianity itself has done before it, absorbed all the highest altruistic teaching of the ages.

But Socialism has done something more--it has struck a new note, deep-sounding, far-reaching, and its vibrations are stirring in the hearts of the nations! Socialism has proclaimed its tenets, declaring the only possible ways and means whereby the sacred rites of the religion of love can be observed, and without which there can be no realisation of the divine sentiment--'the brotherhood of man.'

"The Church, the State, and the people alike, in so far as they sanction and sanctify unrighteous social conditions, are equally guilty of breaking the very first laws of brotherhood, and thereby of violating the pure and holy religion of love. When the Sun of Social Justice--Socialism--has arisen in its full glory, all the artificial and unnatural causes of evil and error will have been rooted out from the pathway of human progress. The sons and daughters of men may then, without mockery, stand before the great throne of love and wors.h.i.+p the beauty and the wonder and the glory of the earth, sky, and sea, as brothers and sisters in one holy unity, and be more worthy to fathom the deeper mystery. Thus Socialism, or the law of the religion of love, unfalteringly maintains: That private property in land is public robbery. It is public robbery because, the land being the source of all the necessaries of life, it should belong equally to all, by birthright of our common inheritance in the brotherhood of the world. 'Let them know that the earth from which they were created is the common property of all men, and that therefore the fruits of the earth belong indiscriminately to all. Those who make private property of the gift of G.o.d, pretend in vain to be innocent, for they are the murderers of those who die daily for want of it.' Such is the terrible and una.s.sailable dictum of one of the great founders of the early Christian Church, Saint Gregory I. Private property in capital--whether in money, railways, mines, factories, machinery, tools, &c.--is public robbery.

It is public robbery because it creates and divides the human family into cla.s.ses. Cla.s.ses of rich and idle people who claim and hold all these things as by right--and cla.s.ses of hirelings who are thus forced to pay for the use of them--as rent in land, interest in capital, profit on labour. This means that the hireling cla.s.ses require to give all the work of their hands and brains in order to secure a small share of the things which they need to live, and which they themselves have produced out of Nature's ample store. And this at once hinders the possibility of any unity of brotherhood or sisterhood and breaks the law of love."[1025]

It will be noticed that in this lengthy statement G.o.d is mentioned only for party purposes, and that the chief aim of the "religion of love" is to sow hatred and to incite to plunder.

The Labour Church Union and the Socialist Sunday Schools use the same form of the Socialist Ten Commandments, which are as follows:

"Love your schoolfellows, who will be your fellow-workers in life.

Love learning, which is the food of the mind, and be grateful to your teacher as to your parents. Make every day holy by good and useful deeds and kindly actions. Honour good men, be courteous to all, bow down to none. Do not hate or speak evil of anyone, do not be revengeful, but stand up for your rights and resist oppression. Do not be cowardly, be a friend to the weak and love justice. Remember that all the good things of the earth are produced by labour. Whoever enjoys them without working for them is stealing the bread of the workers. Observe and think in order to discover the truth. Do not believe what is contrary to reason, and never deceive yourself or others. Do not think that he who loves his own country must hate and despise other nations, or wish for war, which is a remnant of barbarism. Look forward to the day when all men will be free citizens of one fatherland and live together as brothers, in peace and righteousness. Socialism is the hope of the world."

Here also the words Christianity and G.o.d do not occur.

We are officially told that "Socialist Sunday Schools are intended to serve as a means of teaching economic causes of present-day social evils and of implanting a love of goodness in the child mind."[1026]

The following extracts from the "Red Catechism" serve to show how "love of goodness" is inculcated in the Socialist Sunday Schools:

"Q. Is there any difference in the teachings at Socialist Sunday schools and other Sunday schools? A. Yes.--Q. What is taught in Christian schools? A. Christian morals and capitalist teachings.--Q.

What is meant by the term 'employing men for profit'? A. Capitalists, when they pay wages, make the workers produce three or four times the amount they pay them. The extra which the men produce over their wages is called profit.--Q. What evidence is there that the workers earn a great amount and get very little? A. The national amount of wealth produced every year is two thousand millions and the amount paid out in wages is only five hundred millions, showing that the poor are poor because they are robbed.--Q. Who creates all wealth? A. The working cla.s.s.--Q. Who creates all poverty? A. Our capitalist society.--Q. Who are the workers? A. Men who work for wages.--Q. What cla.s.s of men get into Parliament? A. The capitalist and aristocratic cla.s.s?--Q. How is that? A. Because the workers are opposed by men interested in keeping them poor.--Q. How many children are there in London who go to school insufficiently fed and clothed? A. It is stated as many as 100,000; a number equal to the population of a small county.--Q. To what cla.s.s do these poor starving children belong? A. The working cla.s.s.--Q. Is it not the working cla.s.s which creates all wealth? A. Yes.--Q. Do the rich trouble about the poor children of London who are ill-fed and clothed? A. No.--Q. What is a pauper? A. One who lives upon others, while being able to work?--Q. Are the rich cla.s.s able to work? A. Yes; because they are well cared for when young and grow up strong?--Q. Do they work? A. No; they consider it menial and beneath them.--Q. Then they are paupers? A. Yes.--Q. Do the rich and their children live at the expense of those who work? A. Yes.--Q. What does machinery enable the workers to do? A. To produce wealth quicker.--Q. Do the workers benefit by machinery? A. No. On the contrary. It generally reduces their wages and throws them out of work.--Q. Why is that? A. Because the machinery is controlled by the capitalist cla.s.s.--Q. What is a wage-slave? A. A person who works for a wage and gives all he earns to a capitalist.--Q. What proportion does a wage-slave receive of what he earns? A. On the average about a fourth. The slave and serf always had food, clothing, and shelter. The wage-slave, when he is out of work, must now starve or go into the workhouse and be made miserable, or commit suicide.--Q. What is the remedy for wage-slavery? A.

Socialism.--Q. Who pays the rent? A. Father and mother.--Q. Who demands the rent? A. The landlord.--Q. Can you say how much the landlord takes from the wages of father, generally for rent? A. Yes; a fourth.--Q. That is sheer robbery, is it not? A. Yes; but working men cannot help it.--Q. Why is that? A. Because the landlord cla.s.s have a monopoly of land and houses, and workmen have no land and are too poor to build for themselves."[1027]

With this mendacious stuff the "Religion of Love" systematically poisons the innocent minds of little children. The religion of Socialism is indeed a political religion, as Mr. Snowden, M.P., has stated.

FOOTNOTES:

[1012] Ball, _The Moral Aspects of Socialism_, p. 23.

[1013] Bebel, _Woman_, p. 213.

[1014] Bax, _Religion of Socialism_, p. 81.

[1015] Snowden, _The Christ that Is to be_, pp. 6, 7.

[1016] Bax, _Religion of Socialism_, pp. 58, 59.

[1017] Mignet, _Revolution Francaise_, ch. viii.

[1018] Sciout, iii. 176.

[1019] Sciout, iv. 386.

[1020] Leatham, _Was Jesus a Socialist?_ p. 16.

[1021] _Socialist Standard_, December 1, 1907.

[1022] See Appendix.

[1023] _A Socialists' Ritual_, pp. 7-16.

[1024] Bax, _Religion of Socialism_, p. 81.

[1025] Glasier, _Socialist Sunday Schools_, p. 9.

[1026] Glasier, _Socialist Sunday Schools_, p. 10.

[1027] Hazell, _The Red Catechism_, pp. 3-10.

CHAPTER XXVIII

CHRISTIAN SOCIALISM

The position of the Christian Churches and of Christian ministers towards Socialism is one of considerable difficulty. Socialism and Christianity are two words which are not easily reconcilable. Chapters XXVI. and XXVII. show that the att.i.tude of British Socialists, not only towards Christianity but towards all religion, is in the main a hostile one. Their att.i.tude is only logical. Socialists see in religious men and in religious corporations obstacles to their revolutionary and predatory progress. However, as many Socialists have declared that the teachings of Christ and of Socialism are identical, some large-hearted Christian ministers have tried to reconcile Christianity and Socialism. Working under the banner of Christian Socialism, these are rather trying to exercise practical Christianity than to a.s.sist the Socialist agitation, as may be seen from their programmes given in the Appendix.

Many Christian Socialist ministers are pious and worthy men whose actions are wise and moderate. Others have adopted an att.i.tude of hysterical enthusiasm and admiration towards Socialism. Whilst the former have only a few adherents, some of the latter have rapidly secured for themselves a considerable Socialist following, and if one takes note of their views, one cannot help doubting whether their motives are entirely disinterested. The following utterances, for instance, one would expect from the mouth of a Soudanese dervish or an Indian fakir, but not from the pen of a Christian minister:

"Socialism is the Greatest Movement for Justice and Brotherhood that this old Planet has ever known. Socialism is the Greatest Pa.s.sion for the Release and Freedom of the Human Soul that this world has ever felt. Socialism is the Greatest Urge of the Average Man to stand erect, independent, and free, without a Master and without a slave, that the human race has ever experienced.

"The Spirit of the Lord of Life within me, burning as a fierce flame in my bones, saith 'Speak unto the people these words': There is only one Sacred Thing beneath the stars--Human Life. Human Life is the Incarnation of the Desire of the Lord of Life. Behold! He awaits the Full Expression, the Complete Emanc.i.p.ation, the Perfect Freedom of that Human Life, as Life, in all its undisclosed majestic meanings.

And it doth not yet appear what it shall be! The Average Man at your side in the street, next door--the average woman, any woman, the child, any child--Behold here is the Sacred One. Love, Wors.h.i.+p, and Bless in the name of the Lord of Life. 'Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these, ye have done it unto Me.' No artificial, conventional, social, or financial dignity can make that Human One worthy; no present degradation or humiliation can finally obscure that Radiant One. 'I see through your sham tinsel and t.i.tle; I see through the dirt and despair to the Human One s.h.i.+ning there,'

saith the Living Truth. 'The wors.h.i.+p that pa.s.seth these Darlings of My Heart and leaveth them--that wors.h.i.+p I am against,' saith the Lord of Life. O stand erect now, just where you are, just as you read these words. Thou hast no Superior! Thou art very Beautiful! Thou art the Freedom Incarnate, whose Heart-beat shall dissolve all slaveries and Injustice. I Love thee, O Thou Human One. There is only one Sacred Thing beneath the stars--Human Life. Whatever hurts, harms, makes cheap, blights, hinders, enslaves, subordinates, or profits off Human Life is Wrong tho' demanded by ten thousand priests, tho' framed in a thousand laws, tho' h.o.a.ry with ten thousand years. Whatever hurts the Son of man--that--that is the Blasphemy. Whatever helps, releases, emanc.i.p.ates, makes free, glorifies, makes sacred, enlarges, enricheth Human Life, that is the Right and Good, tho' persecuted by private interests; that is the Truth, tho' withstood by dead men's creeds.

Whatever emanc.i.p.ates the average man--that--that is the coming of the Lord. The Fundamental fact of Life is Bread. Man doth not--cannot live by Bread alone. But man cannot live without Bread. In the eating of Bread, behold the Divine Democracy of Human Life. The necessity of eating Bread--there is the Universal Sacrament--all are present--all partake. Behold, the Supper of the Lord is--just Bread--our common Daily Bread. Why is this Bread Sacred? Not in itself. No! Why, then?

It is the food of the Sacred Ones--the Human Ones. It is the Food of the Incarnation of the Lord of Life. And the first Basic Sacred Ceremony of Man is--Labour in securing that Bread--the Fact of Bread-Getting. If that is not Just, True, Right, Good, a Blessing--then nothing is. All else is measured here. You cannot build a Sacred Ceremony in the superstructure of Human Life if the Basis in Bread-getting is a Lie, a Fraud, a Cheat, a Theft, a Slavery, a Service to the Gain-G.o.d--Mammon, a Gamble with Human Flesh. Nay, verily! 'I will not hear your prayers, your chants, your liturgies, your praises; My soul hateth even your solemn meeting,' said the Lord of Life, if thou wilt not see Me in these Human Ones as they struggle for Bread, if thou wilt not make thy Bread-getting Just, and Holy, and Good, and True.

"And now, O Capitalism, Thou art doomed! I am against thee, saith the Spirit. O Capitalism, I have weighed thee in My balances--thou art found wanting. O Capitalism, thou hast gambled with the Land that I gave to all for Bread. O Capitalism, thou hast gambled with the great machines that are for the bread-getting of the people. O Capitalism, thou hast made Human need an a.s.set of thy gains. Thy Purse is filled with b.l.o.o.d.y Coin. Thy Store-Houses burst where the many Hunger. The Little Ones cry in the streets whilst thou hidest thy Plunder. I am against thee, O Capitalism, I am against thee! Thou hast gambled with the very Bodies and Souls of men in thy Mad Mammonism. Thy fierce Profit-Hunger Hath rejoiced in the Hunger of Man. I am against thee, O Capitalism!