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THE SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY.
Dr. Schæffle, former Minister of Finance in Austria, and author
of Socialismus und Capitalismus ; Herr Adolf Samter, banker at
Königsberg ; and Professor von Scheel.* But in order to
influence the masses, as the Catholic Socialists have done, the
assistance of the clergy was needed ; and it was to gain this
assistance that the founders of the movement, Herren Stöcker
and Todt, directed all their efforts. According to them, the
duty of ecclesiastics, and even of the Protestant Church as a
body, was to take part in discussions on the social question.
This question, they said, embraces the whole of humanity. The
Social Democracy rests on materialism and propagates atheism,
while Liberalism and so-called Positive Science, by endeavouring
to eradicate the religious sentiment, supply it with weapons.
Who is to defend this precious treasure, if not the pastor?
Christ came to bring the “ glad tidings ” to the poor ; His
disciples and apostles ought to do likewise. They ought to
search out the causes of the ills of the lower classes, in order to
find the remedy. Political Economy can alone throw light
upon these difficult questions, and it must accordingly be
sedulously studied. The clergy ought unceasingly to remind
the State and the upper classes of the duty imposed upon them
by the law of the Gospel in respect of their destitute brethren.
The passion for accumulating riches is becoming more and
more the characteristic of our age. This “Mammonism” is
the enemy of Christianity, and must be unwearyingly combated.
The people are turning away from the Church, because it
offers them only barren abstract formulas. Let her descend to
the sphere of reality, let her speak to the people of what
occupies their thoughts, and she will regain her influence. Why
should the workman hearken to the atheist demagogue who
brings to him a cheerless doctrine, hostile to righteousness,
rather than to the priest who offers him the Gospel ? But in
order to counteract the demagogic agitators, the clergy must
have some knowledge of the questions they discuss and the
arguments they invoke. They ought, therefore, to follow the
* See Herr von Scheel’s excellent book, Unsere sociale politische
Parteien (“Our Social Political Parties”).
