SAPPIN.G THE SOCIAL FOUNDATIONS $ 



Is required than the mere power to carry out our 

 desires. There is no conscience any longer to 

 stay the passions of men, their greed or immor- 

 ality; for there is no one to whom henceforth 

 they are held accountable? Hence the counsel 

 of the hoary sensualist in the Russian novel who 

 wished indeed to draw this conclusion for himself 

 alone that it might not be applied against him in 

 turn : "Let's not say that aloud. Let us keep that 

 as our secret." 



But it is not included in the devil's program 

 that this logical conclusion from the atheist's 

 premises, wrongly said to be based upon natural 

 science, should ever be kept secret. It is too 

 serviceable for his purpose. 



Why should laborers not be anarchists, I. W. 

 W., Nihilists or Bolsheviki, if there were no God, 

 and these plans and methods promised them the 

 control of wealth which they are determined to 

 acquire? Why should capitalists not be extor- 

 tioners and profiteers? 



Admit the false premise that there is no God, 

 and we may well defy all the universities in the 

 world to point out any flaw in the argument: 

 "Then everything is permitted, Ivan, everything 

 is allowable." Everything is allowable I There 

 would then be no punishment hereafter for sin 

 and no reward for virtue. 



Here we have sounded the depth of capitalist 

 injustice and of labor revolution ; we have touched 



