CHRISTIANITY AND SOCIALISM. 



89 



opposed not for itself, but on the ground that it had forgotten its 

 ideals, and had allowed the terrible ills of the present day to grow 

 up in Christian lands. 



Before condemning men for following the only system that as far 

 as they could see gave them any economic hope, and before setting 

 iiside that system as incompatible with Christianity, it was surely 

 their duty as Christians to propound an alternative and a remedy 

 to the existing state of affairs. 



Rev. Sidney Pike. — I rise to draw attention to two books, The 

 Problems and Perils of Socialism,*' and The Triumph of Socialism^ 

 The latter has on its cover a significant illustration : a man 

 carrying a large sack labelled " Nationalisation," as indicating the 

 vast aims of Socialism ; and from a hole in the bottom are dropping 

 •out, one after another, " Credit," ''Capital," " Trade/' "Commerce," 

 " Employment," " Xational Security," the final outcome of the 

 Socialistic propaganda. 



A few quotations from Problems and Perils may be given : — 



" The chief peril of Socialism is vraste — waste both in the moral 

 and in the economic sense. Socialism would not only deteriorate 

 character, but it would lessen product. Our present organisation 

 does provide an incentive to work. Socialism substitutes the much 

 less powerful incentive of coercion, depriving men of their liberty, 

 preventing full-grown men selling their labour at their own price 

 and under their own conditions." 



The old Poor Law of 1800-1834 is quoted as an "Experience of 

 an almost complete Socialistic system." "There was State 

 endowment for the old, for the unemployed, for motherhood." 

 " The destruction of family life and family ties was accomplished 

 by the indiscriminate Poor Law relief of those days, e.g., 'A widow 

 with two children, in receipt of three shillings a week from the 

 parish, married a butcher. The allowance was continued. But the 

 butcher and his bride came to the overseer and said that they were 

 not going to keep those children for three shillings a week, and if a 

 further allowance was not made thet/ should turn them out of doors 

 . and throw them on the parish altogether. ' " 



On the economic side Mr. Strachey says, as to municipal trading 



* By I. St. Loe Strachey. 



t By John D. Mayne, Barrister-at-Law. 



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