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  landowners,
  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  comprehending ­
  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.