THE SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY.
98
of Parliament. The Evangelical Socialist party resembled the
French Legitimists, in that they held up to admiration, as the
type of government, the reign of Frederick II., and still more
that of his father, the brutal churl whom Carlisle admired so
excessively, who kept his kingdom and his family under the
rod, but who was very pious after his fashion, and an excellent
Economist
Stöcker founded two associations : first of all, the Central
Union for Social Reform,”* and then the “Christian Socia
Working Men’s Party.” t Although the same ideas and nearly
the same persons had directed the formation of the two groups,
their aims were very different The Union for Social Reform
was to be composed of well-to-do and educated men, such as
ministers of the Church, professors, manufacturers, and land-
owners, who would join in seeking for means of conciliating
the anarchic classes through reforms inspired by the spirit of
Christianity. Hitherto the partisans of corporations, the
“ Agrarians,” all who demand protection for national labour,
not only were unable to agree so as to combine their efforts,
but even opposed and neutralized each other’s action. It was
necessary, then, to show how these tendencies harmonize wuth
one another, and to point out the superior principle that
justifies them and binds them together.
What is called cultivated society is so far from compre
hending the true mission of Christianity that, when Minister
Stöcker first took up the Social question, all the liberal and
progressist papers protested against this Mucker-socialismusy
this “ sham socialism.” It was therefore imperative to combat
the materialism of the upper classes and the atheism of the
people, and to renew the religious conception of the world and
society. It was necessary, in the first place, for the clergy to
extend a helping hand to the labourers, in order to rally them
to Christianity, and this was to be the work of the Christian
Social Working Men’s Party; while, in the second place,it Vras
incumbent on the friends of the people, among the upper
ranks, to combine in order to forestall revolution by reforms.
* Central Verein für Social-reform.
t Christlich-sociale Arbeiterpartei.