The Socialism of to-day

Bibliographic data

Monograph

Identifikator:: 1016716656

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-162582

Document type:: Monograph

Author:: Altmann-Gottheiner, Elisabeth http://d-nb.info/gnd/116295279

Title:: Leitfaden durch die Sozialpolitik

Place of publication:: Leipzig

Publisher:: G.A. Gloeckner, Verlagsbuchhandlung

Year of publication:: 1923

Scope:: 107 Seiten

Digitisation:: 2021

Collection:: Economics Books

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io6 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 endeavour ing 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 com bated. 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”).

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