W A S H I N G T O N G L A D D E N , D.D.
First Church, Columbus, O.

APPLIED CHRISTIANITY

MORAL ASPECTS OF SOCIAL QUESTIONS

BY WASHINGTON GLADDEN

BOSTON AND NEW YORK
H O U G H T O N , M I F F L I N A N D COMPANY
1891

Copyright, 1886,
BY WASHINGTON GLADDEN.

All rights reserved.

FOURTH EDITION

The Riverside Press, Cambridge,Mass., U.S. A.
Electrotyped and Printed by H. 0. Houghton & Company,

CONTENTS.
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CHRISTIANITY AND W E A L T H

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Is LABOR A COMMODITY?

38

T H E STRENGTH AND WEAKNESS OF SOCIALISM
Is IT PEACE OR W A R ?

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T H E WAGE-WORKERS AND THE CHURCHES .

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102
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THREE DANGERS
CHRISTIANITY AND SOCIAL SCIENCE

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146
180

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CHRISTIANITY AND POPULAR AMUSEMENTS
CHRISTIANITY AND POPULAR EDUCATION

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210
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248
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284

APPLIED CHRISTIANITY.

C H R I S T I A N I T Y AND W E A L T H .

T H E Christian economists of America are
confronting a great problem. The wealth of
the country is increasing at a prodigious rate.
Every census shows the population multiplying, and wealth multiplying much faster than
the population. In 1860 the estimated valuation of all the property, real and personal, in
the United States was a little over $16,000,000,000; in 1870 it was a little more than
$24,000,000,000 ; and between these dates came
a wasting war, with the destruction of a million of producers, and the extinguishment of
property in slaves reckoned at $1,500,000,000.
The census estimates for 1880 put the wealth
of the nation at $43,642,000,000, and make the
United States the richest nation in the world,
exceeding Great Britain by several hundred

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millions. Signs of this increase of wealth appear on every hand: railroads, factories, farm
buildings and machinery, warehouses and docks,
long lines of wholesale stores and retail shops,
great financial institutions — banks, insurance
companies, trust companies for the storage and
use of capital; houses going up in the cities
and the towns by the hundred thousand, many
of them palaces; equipages, furniture, rich costumes, costly works of art. The one impression
made upon the mind of the philosophical observer who makes a tour of the watering-places,
and notes the scale on which multitudes of his
fellow-citizens are living, is that this is a rich
country. He may doubt whether these people
can all afford to spend so much ; but the money
is here, else they could not be spending it. I t
may not all rightly belong to them, but it is in
their hands, and no one can see the floods of it
that are poured out without feeling sure that
there must be oceans of it.
In 1860 the census told us that if all the
property of this country were equally divided,
there would be for every man, woman, and
child about $514. In 1870 the share of each
would have been $624. In 1880 the valuation
per capita is $814. The population increased
during these twenty years a little more than 59
per cent., the wealth a little more than 170 per

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cent. These figures are reduced to a gold basis,
and do not take into account the fluctuations of
an inflated paper currency.
This increase of wealth appears, in a somewhat less marked degree, in the mother country. The national wealth of England in 1860
was estimated at $26,000,000,000; in 1870 at
$34,000,000,000; in 1880 at $43,000,000,000.
It is easy to discover a part, at least, of the
sources of this swelling flood of wealth. Vast
areas of fertile land in this and other countries
have been brought under cultivation; better
methods of agriculture have added to the productiveness of the lands cultivated (the production of cereals in this country in 1879 was considerably more than twice that of 1869) ; mines
have been developed on an enormous scale,
yielding untold stores oi the precious and the
useful minerals; the discovery of petroleum
has added another to the great staples of commerce ; natural gas adds a tremendous force to
the development of our mechanical industries;
railroads, pushed in every direction, unlock the
resources of new countries and bring their
wealth to waiting markets ; steamships sail
from every shore with the contributions of all
the continents to the world's trade ; above all,
machinery, driven by steam, or falling water,
or imprisoned air, or electricity, is multiplying

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the power of man to turn the crude products of
the earth into forms that shall serve his needs
or gratify his desires.
The world is fast growing richer; of this
there can be no doubt. And what has the
Christian moralist to say about it ? Does the
ethical system of which he is the expounder
authorize him to say anything, and if so, what ?
Should he teach that this increase of wealth is
a good thing or an evil thing ; a blessing to be
rejoiced in, or a misery to be deplored ?
One fact thrusts itself in our faces as soon as
we ask this question : this great increase of
wealth is visible mainly, after all, in Christian
lands. We said that the world is growing rich,
but it is our world — the world with which we
are brought into closest political and commercial relations — of which this is true; it is not
true of the teeming populations of Africa, save
of those tribes that have received Christianity;
of them it is true. It is not true of China, nor
of India, nor of Persia, nor of Turkey to any
great extent.
I have referred to the change wrought, in respect of wealth, in the tribes that have lately
received Christianity. This is a notable phenomenon. When we wish to prove the beneficent nature of Christianity we often mention
this. Pointing to such a people as the Hawai-

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ians or the Zulus, we say: Remember what
they were before the missionaries visited them,
and now look at them. They had no houses, no
clothing to speak of, few cultivated fields, and
these but rudely tilled ; no stores of food to
keep them from famine. .Now they dwell in
ceiled houses ; they are clad in the garments
of civilization; many of the comforts of home
are in their houses ; they are cultivating the
soil with skill and success ; they have barns,
plows, hoes, many instruments of husbandry;
they are learning some of the mechanical arts ;
they produce more than they need, and have a
surplus for less fruitful seasons. That is to say,
there has been a great increase of wealth among
them. Every one of the statements that we
have made respecting their changed condition
comes under this generalization. [ We say, therefore, and say truly, that one effect invariably
produced by Christianity upon an uncivilized
people receiving it is to multiply the wealth of
that people. We point to that result as an
evidence that Christianity is a blessing to mankind. The major premise of the syllogism here
involved must be that the increase of wealth is
a benefit rather than an injury to men.
If the Christian moralist were called on to
justify this proposition, he would be likely to
appeal to the Scriptures, and he would find

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plenty of Scripture on his side. In the Old
Testament, especially, this doctrine is almost
fundamental.
The connection of prosperity
with righteousness is taught on almost every
page. When the old servant of Abraham went
to the far land of Padan Aram after a wife for
his young master, Isaac, he wanted to make on
the kindred of Rebekah a strong impression of
the fact that God had been his master's friend,
and this was the way he put it: " I am Abraham's servant; and the Lord hath blessed my
master greatly, and he is become great." What
is the proof of this ? " He hath given him flocks
and herds, and silver and gold, and men-servants and maid-servants, and camels and asses."
This was the evidence that God had blessed his
master. Everywhere in the Old Testament
statements are found in which the possession
and the increase of wealth are adduced as proofs
of the favor of God.
In the New Testament this teaching is not
contradicted, though the proportion is somew*hat changed. Our Lord admonishes us, indeed, that a man's life consists not in the abundance of the things that he possesses ; he means
that we shall learn to regard material good as
inferior to spiritual good — a truth no{; so
clearly brought out in most of the Old Testament references to prosperity. But Jesus him-

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self promises that the meek shall "inherit the
earth " ; that to those who seek first the kingdom of God all earthly good shall be added ;
and his apostle tells us that godliness has promise of the life that now is as well as of that
which is to come. So far, therefore, as the
Christian documents are concerned, the increase
of wealth is abundantly approved. Christianity expects to see the possessions of men multip l y — their lands bringing forth abundantly,
their garners filled, their homes supplied witlr
comfort and adorned with beauty.
I t has good reason to expect this, for its uniform effect upon human nature is to create in
man many of those wants which it is the office
of wealth to supply. The savage has few
wants; the fully developed Christian has many;
the progress of the savage from barbarism up
to Christian civilization consists largely in the
multiplication of his wants. A missionary lately
returned from Africa testified that the great
difficulty with the natives, as the missionaries
found them, was that they had so few wants ;
"their greatest want was a want." How to
develop in them the sense of want — t h a t was
the' problem for the missionaries. It was a
great encouragement when one day a Zulu
found out that he wanted a wash-basin. Pretty
soon he wanted a shirt and a pair of trousers,

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and, after a little, a house with a chimney, and
a hoe, and a plow, and by and by he wanted a
book to read; and when he had got all this
property he was a wealthy man compared with
his neighbors. So Christianity always has the
effect to develop faculties that require for their
exercise the possession of property, and to
waken desires that can be gratified only by the
use of those material goods whose aggregate we
call wealth. If it develops these faculties, it
must expect us to exercise them ; if it awakens
these desires, it intends to have them gratified.
The Christian moralist must say, then, that
the increase of wealth is not of itself an evil;
that it is, instead, a blessing to mankind. This
is not to say that it is a blessing to a child to
be born rich; but it is surely better to be born
into a community filled with the resources and
the opportunities that wealth creates. At any
rate, it is historically certain that the reception
of Christianity by a people who have hitherto
lived under any other form of religion will result in greatly increasing the material prosperity of that people. Christianity cannot be hostile to the production of wealth without making
war upon itself; for it is the one grand cause
of the production of wealth in modern times.
But now comes a harder question.

How is

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this growing wealth divided ? Is it rightly or
wrongly divided ? If it is wrongly divided, has
the Christian moralist anything to say about
a better way ? Christianity, as we have seen,
has much to do with the production of wealth;
has it anything to do with its distribution ?
We saw a little while ago that there is
enough wealth in the country so that, if it
were equally divided, there would be for each
person eight hundred and fourteen dollars; a
family of six persons would have, say, something less than five thousand dollars' worth of
property, of one sort or another. But the
wealth of the country is not equally divided.
One man recently exhibited evidences of wealth
amounting to seventy-three millions of dollars,
and said that this was only part of his estate.
If the property of the country were divided into
shares as big as this, it would hardly go round;
in fact, about five or six hundred men would
own it all, and there would be more than fifty
millions of us who would not have a penny
apiece. We shall all agree that this would not
be a judicious distribution. Yet there are quite
a number of persons in this country who count
their gains by tens of millions, and hundreds
who count by millions. If any one will take
pains to find out how many millionaires there
were in the United States forty years ago, he

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will get a vivid idea of the increase of wealth.
Besides this considerable and constantly growing class of the very rich, there are thousands
who have attained to competence, and even to
opulence, who are able to live in elegance, without labor, on their accumulations. Then comes
a larger class of the well-to-do, who by combining the income from their savings with moderate earnings are able to live in comfort, and
even to allow themselves many luxuries. It is
impossible to draw the line between the rich
and the poor; but as we descend the scale of
material possessions, we come next upon a large
class of those commonly called poor, who live
in a measure of comfort, and who have attained
to some degree of independence, who earn a
decent livelihood and have a few hundred dollars invested in a dwelling or in the savingsbank or in a life insurance. ) Below these still,
there is another large class of the really poor,
of those whose earnings are small, whose life is
comfortless, who have nothing laid by, who are
often coming to want, many of whom frequently
become a charge upon society, either through
their failure to fulfill their contracts or through
their receipt of public or private charity. This
class of the very poor—those who are just on
the borders of pauperism or fairly over the borders — is rapidly growing. Wealth is increas-

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ing yery fast; poverty, even pauperism, is increasing still more rapidly.
" Unpleasant as it may be to admit it," sa}rs
a late writer, " it is at last becoming evident
that the enormous increase in productive power
which has marked the present century, and is
still going on with accelerating ratio, has no tendency to extirpate poverty, or to lighten the
burdens of those compelled to toil. It simply
widens the gulf between Dives and Lazarus,
and makes the struggle for existence more intense. The march of invention has clothed
mankind with powers of which, a century ago,
the boldest imagination could not have dreamed.
But in factories where labor-saving machinery
has reached its most wonderful development,
little children are at work; wherever the new
forces are anything like fully utilized, large
classes are maintained by charity, or live on the
verge of recourse to it. . . . In the United
States it is cleax that squalor and misery, and
the vices and crimes that spring from them,
everywhere increase as the village grows to the
city, and the march of development brings the
advantages of the improved methods of production and exchange. It is in the older and richer
sections of the Union that pauperism and distress among the working classes are becoming
most painfully apparent." 1
1

Progress and Poverty, pp. 7-9,

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These words of Mr. Henry George are not
overstatements of the fact. We may say what
we please about Mr. George's explanation of
the fact; for my own part I do not regard it as
a sufficient explanation ; but the most orthodox
political economists, Mr. David A. Wells, for
example, have borne testimony to the truth
which Mr. George thus emphasizes.
Plainly there is something out of joint in our
machinery of distribution, or this state of things
could not be. During the past fourteen years
the wealth of this nation has increased much
faster than the population, but the people who
work for wages are little if any better off than
they were fourteen years ago. It is doubtful
whether the average yearly wages of the mechanic, the laborer, or the operative will purchase for him more of the necessaries of life now
than at that time. At any rate, the gain, if
gain there has been, must be very slight. What
is true of the wage-laborer is true, also, of the
small trader who subsists upon the laborer's
patronage, and also quite largely of clerks and
of teachers, as well as of those professional men
whose services are chiefly in request among the
poorer classes. There is a considerable class in
the community whose fortunes are closely linked
with those of the wage-laborers.
This, then, is the existing state of things.

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The production of wealth in the country increases enormously year by year ; the workingman's share of what is produced, and the share
of those economically affiliated with the workingman, increases very slowly. This is exactly
what Professor Cairnes laid down, some years
ago, as the law governing the present industrial
system — " a constant growth of the national
capital, with a nearly equally constant decline
in the proportion of capital which goes to sup-,
port productive labor." And the result of
this, as he points out, must be " a harsh separation of classes, combined with those glaring
inequalities in the distribution of wealth, which
most people will agree are among the chief elements of our social instability." And Professor
Henry Carter Adams has lately declared it to
be a fact that " the benefits of the present civilization are not impartially distributed, and that
the laborer of to-day, as compared with the nonlaboring classes, holds a relatively inferior position to that maintained in former times. The
laborer himself interprets this to mean that the
principle of distribution which modern society
has adopted is unfair to him." By " former
times," I suppose that Professor Adams means
fifty years ago, and not five hundred. Five centuries ago the laborer was commonly a slave.
But as compared with recent years, the labor-

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er's relative position in society is certainly lower
than formerly. Great as the inequality now is,
Professor Cairnes says that under the present
industrial system it is sure to increase; that
" the rich will be growing richer, and the poor,
at least relatively, poorer."
What has the Christian moralist to say about
this state of things ? He is bound to say that
it is a bad state of things, and must somehow
be reformed. He is bound to declare that " the
laborer is worthy of his h i r e " ; that, in the
words of the apostle Paul, " t h e husbandman
that laboreth must be the first to partake of the
fruits." The broad equities of Christ's rule demand that this great increase of wealth be
made, somehow, to inure to the benefit, in a
far larger degree, of the people by whose labor
it is produced. He will not deny that the capitalist should have a fair reward for his prudence and his abstinence; he will not refuse to
the " undertaker," the entrepreneur, the organizer of labor, who stands between capitalist and
laborer, enabling them to combine in the production of wealth, that large reward to which
his superior intelligence and experience entitle
h i m ; but he will still insist that the workman
ought to have a larger share than he is getting
now of the wealth that grows so rapidly under
his hands. And Christianity, by the lips of all

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its teachers, ought with all its emphasis to say
to society: " Your present industrial system,
which fosters these enormous inequalities, which
permits a few to heap up most of the gains of
this advancing civilization, and leaves the many
without any substantial share in them, is an inadequate and inequitable system, and needs important changes to make it the mstrument of
righteousness."
But when this testimony is borne, we shall
hear men answering after this fashion : " Suppose it is wrong; what are you going to do
about it ? Would you have the state take possession of all the property and divide it equally
among its citizens ? "
To this question an answer will promptly come
from another quarter before the Christian moralist has time to open his mouth: " Certainly.
That is the Christian solution of the problem.
That is exactly what the first Christians did at
Jerusalem, after the Pentecost." But to this
the Christian moralist, as soon as he gets a
chance to put in his word, will be likely to reply
that whatever division of property was made at
Jerusalem was made voluntarily, and not under
compulsion of the state; and that it affords,
therefore, no precedent for the communistic
schemes.
In the second place, he will deny that the

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whole property of those disciples was put into
a common fund out of which all were supported.
They had " all things common " in this sense,
that each man considered his property as held
by him in trust for the benefit of all that were
in need. " Not one of them said that aught of
the things he possessed was his own." Each
one must, then, have possessed some things.
But no one said, " M y money is my own, and I
will do what I please with i t ; " every one said,
" My money is for the service of the wants of
my brethren as well as of my own wants." And
" as any man had need," they sold their possessions and goods, so far as it was necessary\
and supplied his needs. That is about all that
can be got out of this narrative of the Acts of
the Apostles. It is plain that there was in Jerusalem a voluntary consecration by each member of the infant church of his property to the
supply of the actual needs of the brotherhood.
That is, no doubt, the Christian rule; but that
stops a long way short of the communistic dogmas.
Perhaps the question with which we are trying to grapple will be more easily handled if we
divide it just here into two separate inquiries:
1. What ought Christians to ask the state to
do toward a more equitable distribution of
wealth ? What should be attempted in this
direction by political methods ?

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2. What should Christians teach that individuals ought to do to promote a more equitable
distribution of wealth ?
First, then, it is undoubtedly the duty of
Christians to do what they can by means of
•law to secure a better industrial system. But
this is not saying that Christians should ask the
state to take the property of the rich and distribute it among the poor. It is true that the
state does something in this direction already.
It takes, by taxation, the property of the rich
in large amounts, and expends it for the benefit
of all, the poor equally with the rich. Thousands who pay no taxes at all have the full
benefit of streets, street-lamps, sewers, sidewalks, water, police, fire department, and
schools, not to speak of important provisions
made exclusively for the poor, such as city physicians and dispensaries, alms-houses, insane hcipitals, and the like. The destitute classe: thus
get the benefit of a considerable distribution of
property annually enforced by the state. And
it is pretty clear that the state is now going
quite as far in this direction as it is safe to go8
Certainly we want no more eleemosynary distribution of money by the state than we have
now. The time may come when the nation
will be compelled to take under its control, if
not into its ownership, the railroads and the

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telegraphs, and administer them for the common good. They are falling, in far too large a
degree, into the hands of men who use them
for the spoiling of our commerce and the corruption of our politics. But the wisdom or the
equity of this measure is not yet so clear that
it can be demanded as an act of public justice,
and therefore the Christian moralist will not
yet venture to pronounce upon it.
There are, however, one or two things that
he will insist upon as the immediate duty of
the state. Certain outrageous monopolies exist
that the state is bound to crush. It is an outrage on public justice that half a dozen men
should be able to control the entire fuel supply
of New York and New England, forbidding the
miners to work more than two or three days in
a week, lest the operatives of the New England
: aills or the longshoremen of the New York
whai'Vf s should get their coal at a little smaller
price per ton. This forcible suppression of an
industry by which one of the necessaries of life
is- furnished, this violent interference with the
natural laws of trade in the interest of a few
monopolists, is so contrary to public justice and
public policy that some way must be found of
making an end of it. The coal barons, must
not be permitted to enrich themselves by compelling the miners to starve at one end of their

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lines and the operatives to freeze at the other.
In like manner the great lines of transportation
from the West are under the control of three or
four men, and although they have not hitherto
been able to combine in such a way as greatly
to enhance the price of breadstuffs, it is not improbable that combinations will yet take place
by which such a levy will be made upon the
food of the nation. Even now the oil in the
poor man's lamp is heavily taxed by a greedy
monopoly. All these iniquitous encroachments
upon the lights of the people must be arrested ;
and it is the duty of every Christian, as the
servant of a God of justice and righteousness,
to say so in terms that cannot be misunderstood.
Another gigantic public evil that the state
must exterminate is that of gambling in stocks
and produce. This system of gambling in margins is a system of piracy; by means of it hundreds of millions of dollars are plundered every
year from the industrial classes. It is treason
to say that it cannot be put down ; it must be
put down or it will destroy the nation. It is
the vampire that is sucking the life-blood of
our commerce; it is the dragon that is devouring the moral vigor of our young men. When
these monsters of the Stock and Produce Exchanges are killed, and a few of our great mo-

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nopolies are laid low, the greatest obstructions
to a free distribution of wealth will be removed,
and the working classes will secure a larger
share of the product of their industry than they
are getting now. All such violent hindrances
to a free and fair exchange of commodities and
services — all such hungry parasites of indust r y — the state is bound to remove, and Christian morality calls on all its professors to enforce this obligation on the state.
Beyond this they cannot go far in this direction. To urge a distribution among the poor,
by the power of the state, of the goods of the
rich, would be a blunder so nearly criminal in
its dimensions as fairly to justify Fouque^s paradox No one who clearly apprehends the drift
of Christian teaching on the subject would ever
think of such a thing. If all the property of
this country were equally divided to-morrow
morning, before to - morrow night thousands
would be penniless, and some nundreds would
already be well on the way to fortune. The
division would need to be remade every night
-—a rather troublesome bit of administration.
Moreover, the speedy loss of their portion by
the great multitude of those who had nothing
before would be the smallest part of the calamity befalling them ; having it for even so short
a time would do them great harm. After it

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was gone they would be far worse off, physically and morally, than they were before it
came. Money is almost always a curse to those
who have not won it by their own industry and
frugality. " The result," says Professor Roscher, of the attempt to equalize possessions by
the communistic scheme would simply be " that
where there are now one thousand wealthy persons and one hundred thousand proletarians,
there would be, after one generation, no one
wealthy, and two hundred thousand proletarians. Misery and want would be universal.
For the purpose of giving the crowd a very
agreeable but rather short-lived period of pleasure, — a period simply of transition', — almost
all that constitutes the wealth of a nation, all
the higher goods of life, would have to be cast
to the waves, and henceforth all men would
have to content themselves with the gratification afforded by potatoes, brandy, and the pleasures of the most sensual of appetites." An enforced communism is not, therefore, likely to be
urged by Christian teachers. They have not
often interpreted their documents as authorizing any such experiment. The story of the
social life of the early church at Jerusalem has,
indeed, frequently been quoted as sanctioning
such measures; but those who have carefully
studied the Christian ethics have never been

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misled b y this narrative into t h e adoption of
communistic theories.
Roscher exactly expresses the consensus of Christian opinion on
this subject when he says : —
Every approximation toward a community of goods
should be effected by the love of the rich for the
poor, not by the hatred of the poor for the rich. If
all men were true Christians, a community of goods
might exist without danger. But then, also, the institution of private property would have no dark side
to it. Every employer would give his workmen the
highest wages possible, and demand in return only
the smallest possible sacrifice.
All t h a t intelligent Christians will ask the
state to do, therefore, toward promoting the
distribution of wealth, is to provide for the general welfare, as it now does, by t a x a t i o n ; t o
protect all classes in the exercise of their r i g h t s ;
to strike down those foes t h a t now clutch our
industries by the throat, and t h e n to leave t h e
n a t u r a l laws of t r a d e and t h e motives of h u m a n i t y and good-will to effect a more equitable
distribution.
T h e second half of our question is not less
important. W h a t does Christianity require individuals t o do in cheir private relations tow a r d securing a juster division of the growing
wealth of t h e nation ? M a k e the question concrete and personal. I n every city or large town

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are more or less rich people — people with large
incomes — people who are spending large incomes, at any rate; and a good share of them
are making all they spend and more, so that
they are rapidly accumulating competence or
fortune. Not a few of these are Christians in
belief and purpose; many who have made no
profession of their faith recognize the Christian
rule as the right rule, and mean to conform to
it. In evexy- city or large town, also, is a much
larger class who have no property at all, among
whom there is not a little discomfort and distress. A few among them are helpless invalids,
with none to care for them. Another class —
in some communities a large class — are paupers in spirit and purpose, determined to get a
living without work if they can. The great
majority are working people of various sorts,—
mechanics, operatives, laborers, clerks, errand
and office boys, —r who subsist on their wages,
well or ill, and no more. Among them in
many large cities and manufacturing towns are
crowds of young men and women, many of
whom are away from home, most of whom are
working for small wages, all of whom are exposed to many temptations.
Here are the two classes over against each
other in the same community. The one class is
rich already, and is rapidly growing richer.

24

APPLIED

CHRISTIANITY.

The wealth of the community, increasing so
fast, goes mainly into their hands. The other
class has little or nothing, and cannot, under
existing industrial conditions, expect as wage-laborers to get much more than a bare livelihood.
The social gulf between these two classes is
already pretty wide in many places, and the
political economists tell us that it is sure to
gj-ow wider year by year.
We have already settled it that there is something wrong in this state of things. No possible system will remove all inequalities; but a
system which tends to the depression of any
class in the community, which prevents them
from reaping their full share of the advantages
of an advancing civilization, is a system that
needs to be reformed. But what can individuals do to reform it ? What message has Christianity for those who are getting the lion's
share of the profits of production, respecting
their duties to those who are getting so small a
proportion of it ? Does it bid these rich people
divide their gains with their poorer neighbors ?
There are plenty of philosophers who could
answer that question, off-hand, with one word,
yes, or no; but I must have a little more room.
1. It is clearly not the duty of these rich
Christians to go about town with their hands
full of money, bestowing a dollar here and a

CHRISTIANITY

AND

WEALTH.

25

h u n d r e d dollars there, without much knowledge
of the real needs of the people to w h o m they
give it. > Most of what was thus carelessly given
would go into the hands of actual or incipient
paupers, and t h e fruit of such sowing would b e
a harvest of pauperism.
Of course there are
hundreds of poor men who are always saying
of this or t h a t rich man, " H e might give me a
hundred dollars and it would n ' t h u r t h i m a
b i t . " Possibly ; b u t it is certain t h a t the habit
of depending on such gifts would h u r t t h e receivers fatally. A n eleemosynary distribution
of their surplus by wealthy men among the
able-bodied working people of their neighborhood would not be a judicious proceeding.
2. Helpless invalids, old people, and little
children who are destitute have a special claim
on those who hav^ a b ^ - a a n c e . Those to whom
wealth has been given ought to make sure t h a t
no persons of these classes in their neighborhood are ever left to lack for t h e comforts of
life.
3. A n o t h e r form of voluntary distribution
t h a t can sometimes be judiciously practiced is
t h e quiet helping of honest and w o r t h y persons
who are struggling to get on in the world, a n d
who have proved themselves to be possessors of
a moral quality t h a t would not be enervated by
sucii bounty. 1 said just now t h a t money is

26

APPLIED

CHRISTIANITY.

almost always a curse to those who have not
won it by industry and prudence. Almost,
but not always. There is now and then a
young man or a young woman or a young
couple who would be benefited by timely assistance. George Macdonald says that a man
is often better worth endowing than a college.
But you must be sure of your man.
4. The possessors of large wealth who wish
to use their abundance in such a way as to benefit their neighbors may do so in a very effective way by supporting various public voluntary
institutions and benevolent agencies. In every
city or large manufacturing town is a multitude of persons who are working for low wages
or small salaries, and by whose labor the prosperity of the community is, in large measure,
produced. The people who are growing rich
so fast, are, as a general rule, growing rich out
of the labor of this working class. The work of
the factories and shops could not go on without
these working people ; they are drawn together
in such multitudes to serve the purpose of the
organizers of labor. It is out of their earnings,
too, in great part, that the profits of the retail
merchants and shop-keepers are made. Now,
it is the plainest dictate of Christian principle
that those who are profiting by the presence
and labor of these thousands of poorly-paid em-

CHRISTIANITY

AND

WEALTH.

27

ployees should see to it that they take as little
detriment as possible from their environment.
The property-holders are taxed, as I have said,
to make many public provisions for the benefit
of these people ; but there is much that cannot
be done by taxation, and that needs to be done
by voluntary contributions for their physical
and moral welfare.
Many of the families of this class find it hard
to secure decent tenements.. A most Christian
charity is the building of sanitary tenementhouses, well lighted, well ventilated, to be kept
in good order and rented at a fair price. Nor
would this be altogether a charity; the experience of Sir Sidney Waterlow and Miss Octavia
Hill, in London, and of Mr. Alfred T. White,
in Brooklyn, shows that it may be a good investment. Mr. White reports a net income of
six per cent, from his beautiful tenementhouses, after paying all taxes and charges, and
making constant improvements.
Remunerative though it might be, such an expenditure
would prove in many places an unspeakable
blessing to the wage-receiving class, promoting
their health, their happiness, and their virtue.
I t would seem that intelligent men of large incomes, who are often puzzled to find ways of
spending their money, might discover in the
study of this subject and in the construction of

28

APPLIED

CHRISTIANITY.

model tenement-houses, a kind of diversion
quite as satisfactory as that of spreading banquets, or sailing yachts, or speeding horses.
But the moral welfare of these multitudes
of working people, and especially of the young
men and women, should be the especial care
of men of wealth who recognize the Christian
law. Those whom their labor is enriching
ought to guard them in every possible way
from evil, and to surround them on every hand
with wholesome moral influences. The foes
that lie in wait for them are many; the agencies by which they may be shielded and saved
should be multiplied and strengthened. Many
of them are without homes ; whatever can be
done to supply in part the influence of home
should be done without stint. The churches
are the proper agencies for this work, and, in
spite of all their delinquencies, they are doing
more of it than any other social organizations.
They ought to be fully equipped for it, and
stirred up to take hold of it. They should be
provided with attractive social rooms, and with
all the appliances needed for furnishing entertaining instruction and wholesome social diversion to these homeless people. Whatever money
is wanted for this work ought to be forthcoming.
Whether they attend the churches or not, the
prosperous men of all our large places ought

CHRISTIANITY

AND WEALTH.

29

to see to it that the churches that have a mind
to do such work are not crippled for lack of
money.
Many other agencies of the same nature
ought to be strengthened and created. Public
libraries should be handsomely endowed and
made free. Buildings devoted to the social uses
of young men and young women should be
erected on the principal streets, safe, bright,
attractive places of resort, with coffee-rooms,
reading-rooms, amusement-rooms, music-rooms,
lecture-rooms, gymnasia — places whose beauty
and freedom and hearty good-fellowship should
overmatch the allurements of the beer-garden
or the variety show.
In every community there are men of goodwill, who, if they had the money, could organize methods of work among the tempted classes
by which many of them could be saved ; by
which the patronage of the saloons could be
visibly reduced ; by which many snares, now
set for the feet of the unwary would be broken.
And the Christian moralist thinks that men of
wealth ought not to wait to be begged to furnish the means to do this work; that they
ought to take the initiative themselves, seeking
out the men of good-will who are ready to undertake it, and bidding them go forward. Such
would be the dictate of Christian love, and the

30

APPLIED

CHRISTIANITY.

dictate of prudence with ominous finger points
the same way. Out of the social conditions
produced by the herding together of so many
people without homes in our large industrial
communities, moral pestilence and social peril
are sure to arise, and none can tell when the
blight will fall upon his hearthstone. It is
only by a vigorous and determined use of moral
preventives that society can be protected; and
this will call for a liberal distribution of the
wealth that is so rapidly accumulating.
5. But there is a method still more effective,
in which men of wealth who are the employers
of labor may distribute a portion of their surplus among their employees. It is confessed
that, as a general rule, the capitalists, or the
organizers of labor,- are getting the lion's share
of the abundant wealth produced, and that the
laborer's portion is small. Out of this notorious fact grows the troublesome labor question.
The laborers are discontented. It i\s idle to tell
them that they are better off to-day than people of their class were fifty or a hundred years
ago ; that a workingman's wages will buy more
of the necessaries of life in the days of President
Cleveland than in the reign of Queen Anne.
That may or may not b e ; the fact is that they
are not getting a fair share of the wealth that
their labor is now producing. And the truth

CHRISTIANITY

AND WEALTH.

31

for every Christian employer to note is that
under the wage-system, pure and simple, there
is no prospect that the laboring class will
ever get their fair proportion of the game of
civilization. Under this system, says Professor
Cairnes, " the margin for the possible improvement in their lot is confined within narrow barriers which cannot be passed, and the problem
of their elevation is hopeless. As a body they
will not rise at all. A few, more energetic or
more fortunate than the rest, will from time to
time escape, as they do now, from the ranks of
their fellows to the higher ranks of industrial
life; but the great majority will remain substantially where they are. The remuneration
of labor, skilled or unskilled, can never rise
much above its present level." With Professor
Cairnes agree other economists. It is becoming pretty clear, after fifty years' experience of
the large system of industry, that under it the
wage-receiving class will never escape from a
dependent condition. Now, the first thing for
the Christian employer of labor to recognize is
the existence of this state of things, and the
fact that, for the laboring classes, it is a bad
state of things. The wage-system, so long as
it rests wholly on competition, is fundamentally
wrong. Competition is of the nature of warfare : in warfare the victory is with the strong-

32

APPLIED

CHRISTIANITY.

est; capital is stronger than labor, and, therefore, in competition, labor always goes to the
wall. The workman who must have wages or
starve is in no condition to try conclusions with
the corporation. The historical fact is that
strikes are almost always unsuccessful.
All
the economic harmonies that can be reasoned
out will never alter this stern fact. It is the
sufficient demonstration of the weakness of labor when pitted against capital.
Society results from a combination of egoism and altruism. Self-love and self-sacrifice
are both essential; no society can endure if
based on either of them to the exclusion of the
other. Without the self-regarding virtues it
would have no vigor ; without the benevolent
virtues it would not cohere. But the combination of capitalists and laborers in production is
a form of society. Both these elements ought
to be combined in this form of society. The
proportion of altruism may be less in the factory than in the house or the church, but it is
essential to the peace and welfare of all of
them. Yet the attempt of the present system
is to base this form of society wholly on competition, which is pure egoism. It will not
stand securely on this basis. The industrial
system as at present organized is a social solecism. It is an attempt to hold society together

CHRISTIANITY

AND

WEALTH.

33

upon an anti-social foundation. To bring capitalists and laborers together in an association,
and set them over against each other, and announce to them the principle of competition as
the guide of their conduct, bidding each party
to get as much as it can out of the other, and
to give as little as it can, — for that is precisely
what competition means, — is simply to declare
war — a war in which the strongest will win.
The Christian moralist is, therefore, bound
to admonish the Christian employer that the
wage-system, when it rests on competition as
its sole basis, is anti-social and anti-Christian.
" T h o u shalt love thy neighbor as thyself" is
the Christian law, and he must find some way
of incorporating that law into the organization
of labor. It must be something more than an
ideal; it must find expression in the industrial
scheme. God has not made men to be associated for any purpose on an egoistic basis;
and we must learn God's laws and obey them.
It must be possible to shape the organization
of our industries in such a way that it shall be
the daily habit of the workman to think'of the
interest of the employer, and of the employer
to think of the interest of the workman. We
have thought it very fine to say that the interests of both are identical, but it has been nothing more than a fine saying ; the problem now
is to make them identical.

34

APPLIED

CHRISTIANITY.

It is not a difficult problem. The solution
of it is quite within the power of the Christian
employer. All he has to do is to admit his
laborers to an industrial partnership with himself by giving them a fixed share in the profits
of production, to be divided among them, in
proportion to their earnings, at the end of the
year. If there were no profits there would be
nothing to divide ; but a certain percentage of
the gains of the year might thus be distributed
when gains were made. The employer ought
to have a large reward for his abstinence, and
for the intelligence and experience required in
organizing and managing the business — a reward far larger than any of his workmen. That
principle few among them would think of disputing. They would expect him to reap the
benefit of his superior power; and they would
understand that his accumulations must be sufficient to enable him to meet the losses occurring from time to time, which they could not
share. But if they could see that they were to
be sharers of his prosperity, — that the larger
his gains were, the larger would be their dividends at the end of the year, — they would have
a motive to do good work that now is lacking,
and a wholly new relation would be established
between,themselves and their employer. That
this would be for the interest of the employer,

CHRISTIANITY

AND

WEALTH.

35

I have no doubt; that it would attach his laborers to him, and awaken a feeling of goodwill and a hope of bettering their condition
that would add greatly to their happiness and
to their efficiency, seems plain. But the strong
reason for the change, in the mind of a Christian man, would be the simple justice of it.
Experience has shown him that the wagereceiving class are getting no fair share of the
enormous increase of wealth ; reason teaches
that they never will receive an equitable proportion of it under a wage-system that is based
on sheer competition; equity demands, therefore, that some modification of the wage-system
be made in the interest of the laborer. . If it
is made, the employer must make it. > Saint
Paul's doctrine is that " the husbandman that
laboreth must be the first to partake of the
fruits " ; and this doctrine, for substance, is receiving the indorsement in these days of many
of the ablest political economists. Such a limited industrial partnership of employer and employed is indicated by careful study of the
economic laws, as well as by the Christian
ethics. It incorporates the altruistic element
into industrial society. Until some such fundamental readjustment .has been made the
whole structure will remain in unstable equilibrium,

36

APPLIED

CHRISTIANITY.

W h e t h e r Professor H e n r y C a r t e r A d a m s , of
Michigan University, wishes to be ranked as a
Christian moralist or not, I do not k n o w ; b u t
the following words of his exactly express t h e
substance of t h e Christian doctrine as applied
to t h e labor question : —
To employers who feel the moral responsibility
of their position additional considerations may be addressed. They are asked to analyze human nature
until they recognize this truth: There can never be
any equitable or continuous adjustment of the wages
question upon the basis of free competition in labor.
If the unions become well organized, they may fluctuate about the equitable point; but peace and harmony between employers and employed there will
never be. The only true rule for wages is that they
fluctuate with profit. But, objects some one, this will
change the basis of all business. Certainly, but that
basis must be changed. To pay labor in proportion
to profit, by whatever method that may be accomplished, is to recognize the true relationship between
capitalists and laborers, which is that of common
partnership. . . . Professor Cairnes is right in claiming that the ultimate solution of the labor question
is the establishment of cooperative industries. This
solution is beset with difficulties, but it is the only
one in harmony with the democratic spirit of the
century or Christian business principles. The creation of industrial partnerships forms the intermediate
step.

CHRISTIANITY

AND WEALTH.

37

The sum of all this discussion is that the
possession of wealth is justified by the Christian ethics, but that it puts the possessor under
heavy obligations to multitudes less fortunate.
He could never have become rich without the
cooperation of many; he ought not to hold his
riches for his own exclusive benefit. The great
inequalities arising from the present defective
methods of distribution will only be corrected
through a deepening sense of the obligations
imposed by the possession of wealth. The economic law, like the moral law, can never be
fulfilled without love.

IS LABOR A COMMODITY?

T H A T labor may be considered and treated as
a commodity is beyond question. That it is so
considered by some economists, and so treated
by some employers, is undeniable. Whatever
can be purchased for money is a commodity,
and labor is purchased and sold for money.
That it is, and, to some extent, must be, under
the law of supply and demand; that scarcity of
labor has a tendency to make it dear, and that
abundance cheapens it, is also evident.
Is it anything other and more than a commodity? Should the economist and the employer put it into the same category with corn,
and coal, and pig-iron, or does it belong in a
different category ? Are there any other laws,
besides the law of supply and demand, that
should govern the purchase and the sale of
labor ?
That the labor market ought to be free, may
be admitted. That the employer should be
free to purchase labor of those who will sell it

18 LABOR A COMMODITY?

39

to him at the lowest price, and that the workman should be free to sell his labor to those
who will buy it of him at the highest price,
seems evident. Our laws assume and guaranty
this freedom.
Nevertheless, it is somewhat
abridged by combinations on both sides, employers combining to reduce, and laborers to
enhance the price of labor.
It may also be admitted that self-interest, in
its three forms of desire of wealth, love of ease,
and craving for costly indulgences, is a fairly
constant element in human nature, and a powerful force in determining the selling price of
labor. Given a free market, to which no employers and no laborers resort who are not
wholly under the sway of these egoistic motives, and it would be a sound deduction that
the rate of wages would be governed wholly by
the relation between the supply of service and
the demand for work. Some economists have
assumed a market absolutely free, and a race
of human beings so purely egoistic, that no important correction, due to the operation of other
motives, needs to be made in the calculation of
their conduct. On this basis they have constructed a science of wealth. The " economic
man " of these economists is a man governed
wholly by avarice and indolence and love of
pleasure ; the business of economy, they say, is

40

APPLIED

CHRISTIANITY.

simply to find out how such men will act, and
what will be the consequences of their action.
It is not necessary to prove that such a man, if
a purchaser of labor, will always buy it in the
cheapest market; and, if a seller of labor, will
sell it in the dearest. Labor, in the estimation
of such a man, will be nothing but a commodity.
I will not here discuss the utility of this conception of the " economic man." Let it be
granted that some scientific gains may result
from considering man solely as a money-making
and pleasure-loving being. But great practical
difficulties have arisen from confounding the
" economic man " with the actual man. Not a
little of the trouble now existing in the industrial world has sprung from this confusion.
The "laws " of political economy, as drawn from
observation of the " economic man," have been
supposed to be laws of conduct; men have read
the descriptions of the actions of men under
the influence of egoistic motives, and have regarded themselves as authorized to act in the
same way. Indeed, some of the more enthusiastic students of this science have gone so far as
to say that when men act solely from self-interested motives, the result of their action will be
wholly beneficent; from which it follows that
selfishness is a duty. But when this conclusion

JS LABOR A COMMODITY*

41

has not been stated, it has often been inferred
from those discussions which, in the words of
John Stuart Mill, are "concerned with man
solely as a being who desires to possess wealth,"
and which make "entire abstraction of every
other human passion or motive, except those
which may be regarded as perpetually antagonizing principles to the desire of wealth,
namely, aversion to labor, and desire of the
present enjoyment of costly indulgences." The
economists of this school endeavor to show us
how men will act under the influence of these
passions, and men say, " This is the way we
ought to act."
When human beings are acting freely, under
the impulse of self-interest, say these economists, labor will always be bought in the cheapest market and sold in the dearest; the law of
supply and demand will regulate the prices.
Other teachers, rising up to instruct the people,
take their words out of their mouths and transform them from an economic generalization
into a moral obligation. " Labor, like flour or
cotton-cloth," say these moralists, "should always be bought in the cheapest market and sold
in the dearest. The sole legitimate condition
that regulates wages is the demand for service
and the supply of workers." Hence we get the
dogma that labor is nothing but a commodity:

42

APPLIED CHRISTIANITY.

that it is to be put into the same category with
flour or cotton-cloth; that no different motives
or principles are involved in the purchase and
sale of it from those which are involved in dealing with other forms of merchandise.
This confusion of what is with what ought to
be is a source of great mischief, and it should
not be difficult to detect the fallacy and avoid
the resulting injury. Political economy recognizes many facts, and points out many tendencies, which the wisest of its teachers do not approve. " I n Circassia," says President Walker,
" a beautiful daughter is wealth, and is popularly and justly so accounted. No one, in making up the list of his wealth, could omit this
item from the account, any more than he would
leave out his fields." The economist records
the fact that a daughter is merchandise in Circassia, but it does not follow that she ought to
be. And there are quite a number of economic
facts in this country that do not require of us
apology or reproduction. It may be true that
there is a strong tendency among the purchasers
of labor to regard labor simply as a commodity;
that the actual man, in the person of the employer, is becoming more and more assimilated
to the " economic man " of the theorists ; but,
if so, the tendency ought to be resisted. Doubtless the massing of capital under the large sys-

IS LABOR A COMMODITY 1

43

tern of industry promotes this tendency. The
men who receive the profits often have no
knowledge whatever of those who receive the
wages. " Labor," to the people who pocket the
dividends, is often just as impersonal as coal or
cotton. This is what is, but is it what ought
to be ? Is it not, indeed, a serious question,
whether an industrial system thus constituted
can permanently and peacefully endure ? Let
us, however, consider the simpler case of an individual employer.
A cotton manufacturer goes to New York
and purchases a hundred bales of cotton for his
mill. Of course, he buys them in the cheapest
market. This is the law of trade. It is impossible for him to consider what the effect of his
purchase may be upon the seller of the cotton;
he buys it in open market as cheaply as he can,
and that is the end of the transaction.
At the same time he hires a hundred men,
women, and children to work in his mill.
Doubtless he buys this labor as he bought his
cotton, at the cheapest market price. These laborers, under their contract, come to live in the
neighborhood of his mill, perhaps in tenements
owned by him. He meets them, more or less,
day by day; he knows, or may know, something
of their manner of life; his relation with them
is, to some extent, personal and continuous. Is

44

APPLIED

CHRISTIANITY.

it now desirable or possible for the employer,
under the relation thus formed, to put this
labor, which he thus purchases and uses, into
exactly the same category with his cotton ?
Can he deal with this labor wisely and productively if he does not bring into action any other
feelings, or motives, or principles of conduct
than those which come into play when he purchases his cotton on the cotton-exchange and
ships it to his factory ? Let it be granted that
he has a right to buy cotton at the market rate,
and that he is not bound to ask any questions,
for conscience sake, as to what will become of
the men who sell it. May he purchase his
labor in the same way, at the market rate, and
have no care as to what becomes of the people
who sell it ? Does he thus establish a proper
relation between himself and them — a relation
that is likely to be permanent and peaceful and
profitable to him and to them ? If these questions cannot be answered without hesitation in
the affirmative, some suspicion is thrown on the
theory that labor is nothing but a commodity.
For my own part, I must express a doubt as
to whether such a theory is workable. There
may be some scientific advantage in formulating it, but it does not seem to include and explain the facts of life. It might afford a curious
and interesting study, if one were to consider

IS LABOR A COMMODITYt

45

human beings simply as clothes - wearing animals, and to formulate a science of clotheswearing, showing the effect on individuals and
on society of desiring clothes, and of buying and
selling clothes, and of wearing clothes. Carlyle
has laid the foundation of such a science in
"Sartor Resartus," and some valuable hints
might be gained from its generalizations as to
our relations with our fellow-men ; but it is not
at all clear that such a science would afford an
adequate basis on which human beings could
usefully associate for any purpose whatever.
Man is a clothes-wearing animal, but he is
something more. Man is also a money-making
animal, but he is something more. If he were
nothing but a money-making animal it might
be correct to regard labor simply as merchandise ; if he is something more, the philosophy
which makes abstraction of everything else but
the desire of wealth and the passions which
directly antagonize this desire, furnishes no
adequate rule of human conduct.
The theory that labor is to be regarded simply as a commodity does not, I say, appear to
include some of the cardinal facts arising out of
the relation between the employer and the
laborer. To go back to our cotton manufacturer, what does he desire when he hires the
hundred laborers? Does he merely desire to

46

APPLIED

CHRISTIANITY.

employ the muscular power of these persons
for a certain number of hours a day, as if they
were beasts of burden ? Probably he expects
a great deal more than this. He wants intelligence, skill, and honesty ; he wants a practical
interest in the work on the part of the workers ; he wants their hearty good-will toward
himself and toward the enterprise; he wants
them to be cheerful and hopeful in their work,
since work that is not done in this temper is not
apt to be well done. Are these intellectual and
moral elements no part of the " labor" ? I
think that they are essential parts if i t ; that
the labor which lacks these is worth but little.
Are these elements obtainable by those who
proceed upon the theory that labor is simply
a commodity, to be bought in the cheapest
market, and sold in the dearest ? A slight
knowledge of human nature, and a little observation of human relations, will convince any
man that they are not. The employer who
wants these elements infused into the labor
that he purchases must consider and treat this
" labor " a s if it were something besides merchandise. Sentiments, motives, principles of
action must come into play in dealing with
" labor " that find no place in the purchase of
cotton or of corn, or else these intellectual and
moral qualities which give to u labor" the

IS LABOR A COMMODITY?

47

greater part of its value will not be properly
developed. If the employer desires intelligence
and skill, he must treat his laborers as if they
were intelligent beings; if he wants them to be
trusty, he must not only trust them, he must
himself be trustworthy ; their good-will toward
him can only be begotten by his good-will toward them; their interest in the enterprise will
be aroused by showing them that the enterprise
is conducted in their interest.
The employer and his laborers are cooperating in production; and men cannot cooperate
successfully for any purpose if the sole bond between them is self-interest. \The theory that
free-contract and cash payment furnish a sufficient basis for industrial society has been tried,
and found wanting. The notion that the relation
between masters and men should be regulated
solely by supply and demand —that thus the
master will get the most labor, and the men
the most wages, and the community the greatest benefit, is a very pernicious notion. John
Ruskin's theories of political economy may often
be wide of the mark, but what he says about this
pestilent heresy is everlasting t r u t h : —
It would be so, if the servant were an engine of
which the motive power was steam, magnetism, gravitation, or any other agent of calculable force. But
he being, on the contrary, an engine whose motive

48

APPLIED

CHRISTIANITY.

power is a Soul, the force of this very peculiar agent,
as an unknown quantity, enters into all the political
economist's equations, without his knowledge, and falsifies every one of their results. The largest quantity
of work will not be done by this curious engine for
pay, or under pressure, or by help of any kind of fuel
which may be applied by the chaldron. It will be
done only when the motive force, that is to say, when
the will or spirit of the creature, is brought to its
greatest strength by its own proper fuel, namely by
the affections.1
W h a t e v e r m a y b e said, therefore, about t h e
scientific value of this theory, b y which selfinterest in its coarsest form is regarded as t h e
sole economic force, it is evident t h a t it is a
theory which very inadequately explains the
facts of industrial society ; and which, when
adopted as a philosophy of industrial society,
and p u t to work, is sure to m a k e unceasing
trouble.
A s a m a t t e r of fact, it has been
adopted consistently b y b u t few e m p l o y e r s ;
t h e a t t e m p t to follow it to its logical results
would quickly plunge society into chaos and
anarchy.
I t is t h e constant bringing in of
other and b e t t e r principles of action which
m a k e s possible t h e cooperation of employer and
laborer. T h e t h e o r y t h a t labor is nothing b u t
a commodity is a t h e o r y t h a t will not work.
1 Unto This Last, p. 23.

IS LABOR A COMMODITY?

49

Nothing is more unphilosophieal, nothing can
be more stupidly unpractical, than to try to
bring human beings together, and to get them
to associate for industrial purposes, or any other
purposes, upon a basis that is essentially unsocial. That is exactly what is attempted when
industrial organizations are founded upon the
theory that labor is simply a commodity, and
that the only principle which can regulate the
relation of employer and laborer is the law of
supply and demand. It must by this time begin to dawn upon the minds of some of its most
ardent advocates that there is some flaw in this
theory.
But the fact that it is not workable is not the
only reason for condemning it. By the practical test it is found wanting; by the ethical test
it must also be rejected. The employer is
bound to consider the effect of the employment
which he furnishes, and of the reward which he
gives for this service; upon the lives of those
whom he employs., The health, the morality,
the happiness of the people whom he employs,
are affected more or less by the work they are
doing, and the life which they needs must live.
So far as it is in his power, he is bound to see
to it that they take no detriment from the work
he gives them, or from the environment which
he provides for them. Especially is this true

50

APPLIED

CHRISTIANITY.

if he is prospering by the use of their labor.
He has no right to grow rich and powerful
while the people by whose labor he is thriving
are poor and hungry and hopeless. He has no
right to wax fat by consuming their strength
and their life. It is possible that some of the
disciples of Ricardo may require me to prove
these propositions; but I am loath to argue the
thesis that a man ought not to be a cannibal.
I will venture to regard it as a moral axiom.
All talk of cheapest and dearest markets is impertinent in face of these great facts of human
degradation and human suffering. The employer is bound to know how the people whom
he employs are affected by the work that he
furnishes, and by the wages that he pays. If
the conditions under which they are at work
are unsanitary, so that their vitality is needlessly impaired by their labor, he must correct
that evil; if the wage that he pays is so small
that they are starving, he must not heap up
profits coined from their life-blood, no matter
what the market rate of wages may b e ; if the
whole effect of the labor which he furnishes
them and of the recompense which he gives
them be to rob them of heart and hope and
vigor, it is plain that he has no vocation as an
employer; let him get this business which he
is bungling so fatally out of his hands at once.

IS LABOR A COMMODITY?

51

The man who enters the labor market as a
buyer must beware lest he impair or destroy
this vital force on whose healthy action the life
and prosperity of the country depend.
Those who recognize no higher law than that
of patriotism must feel the force of this obligation. The welfare of the nation requires the
highest possible degree of health, vigor, and independence in all its citizens. It is not by the
amount of wealth produced, so much as by the
productive energy of the whole people, that the
state of the nation is most wisely judged. A
people's life consists, no more than a man's life,
in the abundance of the things which it possesses. It is not commodities that we want so
much as men. The main question for the people to ask is not how fast the aggregate of their
products is increasing, but rather how it fares
with the multitude of their producers. It is
just here that the political economy of the Ricardian school diverges from that of later economists. The one fixed its attention wholly on
the increase of the national wealth, the other
considers more anxiously the increase of the
national vigor. Says a recent writer: —
The rapid increase of wealth may be taking place
at the cost of the future and to the detriment of posterity ; and while the increase of the comforts and
enjoyments of life is a good thing, it is not a good

52

APPLIED

CHRISTIANITY.

thing that they should be obtained by imposing an
intolerable burden on those who come after us. We
cannot, then, be satisfied with economic principles
which are almost wholly concerned with the greatest
production of useful things in the present, but we require principles that shall help us to husband the
strength and resources of the nation to the best of
our wisdom.1
T h i s is t h e r i g h t end for t h e nation to keep
in view, and it is no less the proper aim of every
good citizen.
T h e individual employer must
b r i n g bis enterprise to this test. T h e question
is n o t merely whether he is multiplying the
abundance of things ; the more u r g e n t question
is w h e t h e r he is improving the quality of t h e
citizens. If he can so organize labor as to m a k e
t h e people about him constantly more intelligent, m o r e vigorous in body and brain, more
hopeful and more contented, he is a benefactor;
if t h e effect of t h e labor which he organizes
upon t h e people who perform it is to render
t h e m more and more degraded and discouraged
and incapable of self-support, h e is a malefactor,
a public enemy, no m a t t e r how useful m a y be
the wares t h a t he produces or how a b u n d a n t
t h e profits t h a t he hoards.
T h e labor of the nation is the life of t h e nat i o n ; is t h a t a commodity to be bought in t h e
cheapest m a r k e t and sold in the dearest ?
l Politics and Economics. By W. Cunningham, D. D.

T H E S T R E N G T H AND WEAKNESS OF
SOCIALISM.

T H E time has passed when socialism can be
dismissed with curses, or threats, or sneers, or
interjections of amazement. We may be greatly
astonished to hear that men entertain theories
so chimerical; we may think it a sufficient answer to call them cranks or lunatics; we may
denounce them as freebooters and look about
for forcible measures to suppress them; but
none of these methods will avail. They are
here ; they are the natural progeny of existing
industrial conditions ; and they will not be exterminated by all the hard words we may fling
at them, nor silenced by any amount of indifference or contempt.
There is, indeed, a class among these socialists to whom it is difficult to make any reply.
The more violent wing of them, whose mouths
are full of cursing and bitterness ; who constantly threaten us with revolution and with
rapine; who march about the streets of our

54

APPLIED

CHRISTIANITY.

cities with bands and banners, shouting that
our homes are soon to be pillaged and our
churches destroyed, — these crazy nihilists are
not entitled to any consideration at our hands.
On their rage discussion is wasted. Ifc is idle
to ask them what they mean; they tell us
plainly: they mean murder and arson; they
mean the destruction of the present social order,
that anarchy may take its place. To such a
frenzy no answer is possible. The kingdom
that is based on unreason cannot be overthrown
by reason. When these men begin to carry
out their threats we shall know exactly what
to do with them; and the business will be
speedily and thoroughly done. Meantime the
best thing to do is to give the utmost publicity
to their movements and their outgivings. Pew
of their speeches and manifestoes are uttered
in the English language, but they ought to be
reported and translated and disseminated as
widely as possible. Let the workingmen of
this country hear what are the plans and the
threats of these destructionists. They are able
to judge for themselves whether the nihilistic
programme is practicable and desirable.
It must not, however, be supposed that these
miscreants are the exclusive representatives of
socialism in this country. Mr. Raei in the introductory chapter of "Contemporary Social-

STRENGTH

AND WEAKNESS

OF SOCIALISM.

55

ism," justly says that " American socialism is a
mere episode of German socialism; that it is
confined almost exclusively to the German population of the United States." A writer in the
" North American Review," quoted by Mr.
Rae, mentions the fact that the socialist vote
has been increasing of late more rapidly in New
York and Chicago than in Berlin, and attributes the fact to German immigration. Beyond a doubt a considerable portion of this increase consists of the more extreme and violent
elements of the Social Democracy of Germany.
The severe measures resorted to by the German
government, after the attempt to assassinate
the emperor, had the effect to hasten the departure of many of these rash spirits from their
native land. Probably, therefore, the proportion of nihilists among the German socialists of
this country at the present time is greater than
among the same class in Germany. Nevertheless, in this country, as in German}' and even
in Russia, the violent elements are but a small
minority. What Mr. Rae says about Russian
nihilism will bear pondering by Americans: —
A party of violence and extreme principles can
only thrive in the warmth of the countenance lent it
by the less demonstrative disaffection of the more
moderate members of society; and it always withers
away when the latter classes are satisfied by timely

56

APPLIED

CHRISTIANITY.

concessions. Procrastination only swells instead of
mitigating the revolutionary spirit, for it but prolongs the political unrest from which that spirit is
thrown off. The nihilists of Russia are merely the
extremer and more volatile minds who have been
touched by the impact of the present upheaval. They
are the spray and the foam which curls and roars on
the ridge of the general political movement which
has for years been rolling over Russia, and their
whole real importance is borrowed from the volume
and momentum of the wave that bears them up.
Folly, it is said, is always weak and ridiculous till
wisdom joins it; and the excesses of nihilism, if they
stood alone, could not be the source of any formidable
danger. But they do not stand alone; they flame
out of an atmosphere overcharged with social discontent and political disaffection.1
I t is not, then, t h e spray and t h e foam of
these nihilistic assemblies t h a t should engage
our thought, so much as t h e wave t h a t bears
t h e m on. . T h a t " less demonstrative disaffection of t h e more moderate members of society,"
which furnishes the Russian destroyers w i t h
t h e i r excuse for being, is present in G e r m a n y
and i n America. A m o n g the G e r m a n immigrants are many socialists of t h e more rational
as well as of t h e more violent t y p e ; and t h e
theories of Rodbertus, and Winkelblech, and
Karl M a r x , and Ferdinand Lassalle have been
1

Contemporary Socialism,, pp. 316, 317.

STRENGTH

AND WEAKNESS

OF SOCIALISM.

57

transplanted to our soil. About the roots of
these exotics not a few Americans have been
digging somewhat; cautiously ; the feeling that
something is fundamentally wrong with the
present organization of society is entertained by
many thoughtful and humane persons; and the
books that expound the socialistic philosophy
have been widely read, by some for the sake of
controversy, and by some for the sake of information.
There is, therefore, in this country at the
present time a considerable number of persons
who have some knowledge of the various
schemes for the reorganization of the social and
industrial order, and not a few who expect
these schemes to be realized. These persons
are by no means all lunatics. Their hopes for
the future of society may seem vague, but there
are those among them who are ready to give
you a reason for their hopes. They have studied history. They are familiar with the theories of political economy. They rest their demands on a reasoned system of philosophy.
They can only be answered by a completer induction of historical facts, a broader political
economy, and a sounder philosophy.
On what grounds do these people base their
demand for a reorganization of society ? Not
solely, as some suppose, on their envy of those

58

APPLIED

CHRISTIANITY.

who are b e t t e r off t h a n themselves, b u t on cert a i n economical evils, acknowledged a n d deplored b y all intelligent political economists.
T h e y observe t h a t t h e wealth of the world is
rapidly growing, and t h a t t h e share of it which
falls to those who work for wages is increasing
much less rapidly. T h i s is a fact t h a t they have
learned of the most orthodox political economists. " I t is only t o o . manifest," says M r .
Rae, in the work from which I have already
quoted, " t h a t the immense increase of wealth
which has m a r k e d the present century has been
attended with surprisingly little amelioration in
t h e general lot of t h e people, and it is in no
way r e m a r k a b l e t h a t this fact should tend t o
dishearten t h e laboring classes, and fill reflective minds with serious concern."
Mr J. E.
Cairnes, one of the most careful and thorough
thinkers among recent economists, says : —
The fund available for those who live by labor
tends, in the progress of society, while actually growing larger, to become a constantly smaller fraction of
the entire national wealth. If, then, the means of
any one class of society are to be permanently limited
to this fund, it is evident, assuming that the progress
of its numbers keeps pace with that of other classes,
that its material condition in relation to theirs cannot
but decline. Now, as it would be futile to expect, on
the part of the poorest and most ignorant of the pop-

STRENGTH AND WEAKNESS

OF SOCIALISM.

59

ulation, self-denial and prudence greater than that
actually practiced by the classes above them, the circumstances of whose life are much more favorable
than theirs for the cultivation of these virtues, the
conclusion to which I am brought ist this, that, unequal as is the distribution of wealth already in this
country, the tendency of industrial progress, on the
supposition that the present separation between industrial classes is maintained, is toward an inequality
greater still. The rich will be growing richer, and
the poor, at least relatively, poorer. It seems to me,
apart altogether from the question of the laborer's
interest, that these are not conditions which furnish
a solid basis for a progressive social state. 1
I t m a y be imagined t h a t t h e reasonings of
Mr. Cairnes apply only to the state of things in
his own country ; b u t this is not t h e ease. His
conclusions are drawn from t h e operation of t h e
laws of free contract and competition in t h e
labor market, and they are j u s t as applicable
to America as to England. Indeed, some of the
most thoughtful of our own teachers of economy have joined with Mr. Cairnes and M r .
Mill and Mr. F a w c e t t in teaching the same doctrine.
This, then, is the foundation fact on which
t h e theories of the socialists rest. T h e i r philosophers, men like Karl M a r x and Lassalle, are
1

Some Leading Principles of Political Economy, p. 340.

60

APPLIED CHRISTIANITY.

profound students and independent investigators in all this field of political economy, and
they have disciples in every nation. A book
lately published in this country, " The Cooperative Commonwealth," by Laurence Gronlund,
exhibits these economical laws lying at the
basis of their system. To bring the fact now
under consideration before the eyes of his readers, Mr. Gronlund has prepared a series of diagrams, representing the increase of the net
product of the industries of the United States
through the last four decades, and the manner
in which this product has been divided between
" w a g e s " and "surplus." The diagrams with
the accompanying figures, drawn from the censuSj show that while the net product of our
manufactures increased from $437,000,000 in
1850 to $1,834,000,000 in 1880, or more than
four hundred per cent., the average annual
wages of labor increased from $248 in 1850 to
$346 in 1880, or about forty per cent. The increase of the population, during this period,
must also be considered: Mr. Gronlund's disproportion would thus be considerably reduced.
The increase of the " n e t product" is due, of
course, in great part to the increased use of
machinery and the improvement in methods of
production. That the laborer has been benefited
to some extent by this enormous increase of the

STRENGTH

AND

WEAKNESS

OF SOCIALISM.

61

productive energies of the nation is thus apparent ; the fact is one that well-informed socialists do not deny; they only point out that the
increase is disproportionately small; that the*
laborer is getting some share of the growing
wealth, but by no means his fair share.
Attempts have recently been made by Mr.
Giffen in a paper read before the Statistical
Society of England, by Mr. Mallock in his
" Property and Progress," by Mr. Rae in " Contemporary Socialism," and by others, to break
the force of this assertion. Figures have been
marshaled from many quarters, tending to show
that wages have risen as rapidly as wealth has
increased, and that the laboring class are receiving their full share of the gains of modern society. These figures cannot be examined here
in detail. Suffice it to say that the conclusions
based upon them are far from being settled.
Mr. Giffen's reasonings, for example, are confined to the improvement which has taken place
in the condition of the English working classes
during the last half century; but the point
of comparison from which he starts was notoriously one of the very lowest in English history.
The laboring classes had reached a point below
which they could not have sunk without becoming extinct. From that point they have rapidly
risen during the past fifty years. This improve-

62

APPLIED

CHRISTIANITY,

ment is mainly due to three causes: the abolition of the corn laws, the factory legislation
protecting women and children, and the effective combinations of the trades-unions. But as
Mr. Thorold Rogers has clearly pointed out,
the recent rise in British wages cannot be
rightly estimated without taking account of the
previous depression. If from any causes the
laborer is thrust below the level at which he
can subsist and rear his family, his return to
that level can hardly be reckoned as "progress."
And, as a matter of history, Mr. Rogers declares that the English workman was better off
four hundred years ago than he is to-day, — not
only relatively, but positively better off; that
the real wages of labor were higher then than
now. There have been great fluctuations in
the remuneration of labor in England, as Mr.
Rogers so clearly shows in his monumental
book on " Work and Wages." By taking one
of the extreme points of depression in the past,
and comparing the condition of the laborer then
with his present condition, it is easy to show
that he is far better off than formerly; but a
complete and exhaustive study of wages and
prices, running through six centuries, like that
of Mr. Rogers, leaves the student in a much less
optimistic frame of mind. The real question
is, however, what has been the effect upon the

STRENGTH

AND

WEAKNESS

OF SOCIALISM.

63

laboring class of the large system of productive
industry now in vogue, — the system which
comprises the massing of capital, the division
of labor, and the use of machinery, with free
contract and competition as the regulative
forces. And the answer to this question given
by the socialists is, I am persuaded, substantially correct. Doubtless they exaggerate the
facts, but, making all due allowance for exaggeration, the facts support their assertions. Indeed, although Mr. Rae, in the chapter to which
I have referred, tries to dispute the conclusions
of Mr, Cairnes, I do not see why he does not
himself fully admit5 in the sentences I have already quoted from him, all that Mr. Gairnes
asserts and all that the socialists claim. If " i t
is only too manifest that the immense increase
of wealth which has marked the present century has been attended with surprisingly little
amelioration in the general lot of the people,"
Mr. Cairnes's law is exactly fulfilled; and I
confess myself quite unable to reconcile Mr.
Rae's statement, just quoted, on page 319, with
his contention on page 324, that " it is a mistake to suppose " that the wage-laborer " has a
less share in the wealth of the country than he
had when the wealth of the country was less."
The socialists lay much stress upon what they
call the u iron law of wages" enunciated by

64

APPLIED CHRISTIANITY.

Ricardo, who taught that the natural rate of
wages is " t h a t price which is necessary to enable the laborers one with another to subsist,
and to perpetuate their race without increase
or diminution." It is true that Ricardo qualified this law by teaching that the consent of the
laborer is an element in the determination of
the price of labor, and that this consent is influenced by custom. The " natural" price is
the lowest on which the workman will consent
to marry and rear a family. But the introduction of this element into the problem takes
away all its scientific value. To say that the
natural rate of wages is what the laborer is
willing to accept is to utter an extremely indeterminate proposition. And, although Ricardo
did endeavor to qualify his law by adding custom and choice to physical necessity, there is
not much doubt but that the actual working of
unrestricted competition strongly tends to fulfill the law in its narrowest statement, and to
confine the remuneration of laborers to the stipend actually required for the maintenance of
life and the perpetuation of their race " without
increase or diminution." A bare support is all
that the economical forces, working unhindered,
will guaranty to the laborer. So long as competition is the sole arbiter of his destiny, that is
about all he will get. If in England during

STRENGTH

AND WEAKNESS

OF SOCIALISM.

65

t h e last fifty years he has been g e t t i n g more
t h a n this, his prosperity is due to the restriction
of competition by the F a c t o r y A c t s and t h e
trades-unions. If in America he has had more
t h a n this " n a t u r a l " r a t e of wages, it has been
because free land has constantly tempered t h e
iron rule of competition.
T h e socialists point out the fact t h a t the multiplication of commercial crises a n d t h e frequent recurrence of periods of stagnation and
depression, causing great insecurity and distress
among laborers, are n a t u r a l consequences of the
present industrial system. I t is all due, they
say, to overproduction, a n d is a natural and
inevitable result of t h e system of competition.
Private enterprise, [says Mr. Gronlund], compels
every producer to produce for himself, to sell for
himself, to keep all his transactions secret, without
any regard whatever for anybody else in the wide
world. But the producer and merchant — the small
ones especially — find out daily that their success
or failure depends, in the first place, precisely on how
much others produce and sell; and, in the second
place, on a multitude of causes — often on things
that may happen thousands of miles away — which
determine the power of purchase of their customers.
They have got no measure at hand at all by which
they can, even approximately, estimate the actual
effective demand of consumers or ascertain the pro-

66

APPLIED

CHRISTIANITY.

ducing capacity of their rivals. In other words,
" private enterprise " is a defiance of Nature's law
which decrees that the interests of society are interdependent; and Nature punishes that defiance in her
own crude way by playing ball with these individualists, and, what is worse, by rendering all production,
all commerce, chaotic.1
T h e existence of this evil is not disputed, nor
t h e suffering t h a t it causes to multitudes of laborers. K a r l M a r x , as paraphrased by D r . E l y ,
shows h o w t h e latter class is affected by it.
During prosperous times manufacturers employ all
the men, women, and children who will work. The
laboring classes prosper, marriage is encouraged, and
population increases* Suddenly there comes a commercial crisis. The greater part of the laborers are
thrown out of employment, and are maintained by
society at large; that is, the general public has to
bear the burden of keeping the laborers — the manufacturers' tools—for their ^employer until he may
need them again. These laborers without work constitute an army of reserve forces for the manufacturer. When times begin to improve he again gradually resumes business and becomes more prosperous.
The laborer's wages have previously been reduced on
account of hard times, and the manufacturer is not
obliged to raise them, as there is a whole army in
waiting, glad to take work at any price.2
1
2

Cooperative Commonwealth, p. 42.
French and German Socialism in Modern Times, p. 181.

STRENGTH

AND

WEAKNESS

OF SOCIALISM.

67

The verification of this statement was easy
when this was written. In many of our cities
from one twentieth to one tenth of the population were receiving during the winter of 1884-5
partial support, either from the city authorities
or from voluntary charities. But this is only a
fraction of the burden thrown upon the general
public by laborers out of employment. Count
in all the rent bills, board bills, butchers' and
grocers' bills, store bills of all sorts, which remain unpaid in times like these, and are finally
charged up to profit and loss, and it will be
evident that the wage-receivers become in these
times of depression heavy pensioners upon society at large. This evil, according to the socialists, is inseparable from the present industrial system, and can only be cured by reforming
that system out of existence.
They call attention also to the fact that the
tendency of trade and manufactures at present
is toward the creation of great enterprises and
the destruction of the lesser ones. The class of
small tradesmen and capitalists is rapidly becoming extinct. " The same causes," says Mr.
Rae, " have of course exercised very important
effects upon the economic condition of the working class. They have reduced them more and
more to the permanent condition of wage-laborers, and have left them fewer openings than they

68

APPLIED

CHRISTIANITY.

once possessed for investing their savings in
their own line, and fewer opportunities for the
abler and more intelligent of them to rise to a
competency." 1 That this will be increasingly
true under a system of unmitigated competition
is a simple deduction from the recognized 1H\AS
of political economy. The wage-laborer has
now " less chance than before of becoming anything else," and his chances will lessen as time
goes on. The concentration of industrial direction in fewer and fewer hands is part of the
logic of events.
*
As a consequence of this we have the growth
of the plutocracy, into whose hands is gradually
falling the power of the state, as well as the
direction of commerce. Against the vast combinations that are made by the great corporations and the great capitalists the people seem
to have little power. During the past ten years
the number of rich men in the Senate of the
United States has greatly increased. Doubtless
these gentlemen have not resorted to Washington as a mere pastime. That some of them
have used money freely in obtaining their seats
is notorious; and these are " business" men,
and not likely to expend so much time and
money without a definite, "practical" purpose.
We may expect to see this class of men increase
i Page 324.

STRENGTH

AND

WEAKNESS

OF SOCIALISM.

69

in the Congress of the United States. If this
is becoming, indeed, a plutocracy, — if, in other
words, our economical system is contrived in
such a manner as to throw a steadily increasing
proportion of the wealth of the country into the
hands of a few rich men, — we must expect
that those whom we thus exalt will possess
themselves, in one way or another, of a steadily increasing share of the political power of
the country. Until human nature is greatly
changed tlxe political power will rest in the
hands of those who possess the physical power.
Such is the indictment of .the present order
which socialism has drawn. Is it a true bill ?
It must be said, at any rate, that a prima facie
case is made out, arid that the complainants are
entitled to a hearing. , Indeed, these tendencies
to which they point, — the tendency of wages
to sink to starvation point, the tendency of the
workman's share of the national wealth to grow
constantly smaller, the tendency of commercial
crises and depressions to become more frequent
and disastrous, the tendency of all business operations and enterprises to become concentrated
in fewer hands, and the consequent tendency to
confine the wage-laborers more and more rigidly to their present condition, with the steady
growth of a plutocracy on the one side and a
proletariat on the other, — all these are, as I

70

APPLIED

CHRISTIANITY.

believe, t h e n a t u r a l issues of an industrial syst e m whose sole motive power is self-interest,
and whose sole regulative principle is competition.
T o show t h a t this prediction of t h e socialists
is not a mere scarecrow, let me quote a few
sentences from a master in political science who
will not be accused of rashness.
If, however [says Dr. Woolsey], that to which
we have referred more than once already should be
found to be a law of social progress, — that the free
use of private property must end in making a few
capitalists of enormous wealth, and a vast population
of laborers dependent on them; and if there could be
no choice between this disease of free society and the
swallowing up of all property by the state, — then,
we admit, it would be hard to choose between the two
evils. Nothing would lead the mass of men to embrace socialism sooner than the conviction that this
enormous accumulation of capital in a few hands was
to be not only an evil in fact, if not prevented, but a
necessary evil, beyond prevention. . . . If such a tendency should manifest itself, it would run through all
the forms of property. A Stewart or a Claflin would
root out smaller tradespeople. Holders of small
farms would sink into tenants. The buildings of a
city would belong to a few owners. Small manufacturers would have to take pay from mammoths of
their own kind or be ruined. Then would the words
of the prophet be fulfilled: " Woe unto them that

STRENGTH AND WEAKNESS OF SOCIALISM. 7 1
join house to house, that lay field to field, till there
be no place that they may be placed alone in the
earth." For if this went to an extreme in a free
country the " expropriated" could not endure i t ;
they would go to some other country, and leave these
proprietors alone in the land, or would drive them
away. A revolution, slow or rapid, would certainly
bring about a new order of things. 1
I t is evident t h a t this cautious t h i n k e r recognizes t h e possibility of the result which t h e
socialists prophesy. In another place he says,
still more significantly : " If any such law, fatal
a n d inevitable, is a t work, its progress must be
measured, not by years, b u t by centuries.
The
socialists have done existing order a favor b y
calling to i t t h e attention of m e n . " 2 T h i s m u s t
imply t h a t the danger, though remote, is real.
T h e socialists would be entitled to no t h a n k s
for discoursing of purely imaginary perils.
These words, and, indeed, the respectful treatment which all t h e more intelligent students of
political science give to t h e discussions of t h e
philosophical socialists, m a k e it quite plain t h a t
t h e y have something to s a y ; and it is precisely
here, in its criticisms of t h e present order, t h a t
the strength of socialism is found. I t s arraignm e n t of t h e methods of industry and commerce
now existing is t r e n c h a n t and timely.
The
1 Communism and Socialism, pp. 297, 298.

2

Page 281.

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warnings that it utters every wise man will
heed.
But criticism is always easy; construction is
another matter. When the socialists begin to
outline the new order which is to supplant the
old one, they reveal their weakness. The first
problem, of course, is to dispose of the stock of
political and social goods now on hand. What
shall be done with the present order ?
The nihilists and anarchists, as we have seen,
have their answer ready. In one word, it is
dynamite. They propose to wipe out the present civilization, to raze it, even to its foundations. They want to blow the whole social
fabric into fragments. Out of the chaos thus
produced they expect to evolve some sort of
socialistic cosmos — a new heaven and a new
earth, wherein every man shall do that which
is right in his own eyes. Those brutal outbursts of reasonless and reckless hate to which
they treat us now and then are the signs of a
fatal weakness. The spasms of an epileptic exhibit the same sort of energy.
But it would be unfair to hold the philosophical socialists responsible for the freaks of these
madmen. Their programme is, for the most
part, much more rational. They denounce the
present system, but they hold the men guiltless
who have been nourished by it. Nay, they hold

STRENGTH AND WEAKNESS OF SOCIALISM.

73

t h a t t h e present order is a n a t u r a l and necessary outgrowth of t h e p a s t ; a stage t h a t was
inevitable in the process of evolution, and, until
it h a d fulfilled its purpose, beneficent.
The social state of each epoch [says Mr. Gronlund] was just as perfect as the corresponding development of our race permitted. The evils, therefore,
of the " let-alone " policy are to be considered the
legitimate workings of a principle to which humanity
in times to come will find itself greatly indebted.
This conception ought to guard us against any illfeeling towards the individual members of our plutocracy. Passions directed- against the system are most
proper, for it is only passion that can nerve us sufficiently to overthrow the system; but our capitalists
are as much the creatures of circumstances as our
paupers are. Neither should we forget that there
have here and there been employers and capitalists
who would willingly have sacrificed them all to right
society. Robert Owen was the more noble a man
for being rich. 1
T h i s is t h e tone which t h e more moderate
socialists adopt, t h o u g h even these are sometimes found emitting t h e sulphurous b r e a t h of
t h e anarchist. T h u s the generally reasonable
writer whose words I have just quoted refers in
t h e last chapter of his book to t h e natural force
called vril, described in B u l w e r ' s romance,
1 The Cooperative Commonwealth, p. 59.

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" T h e Coming Race." " I t can be stored in a
small wand which rests in the hollow of the
palm, and, when skillfully wielded, can rend
rocks, remove any natural obstacle, scatter the
strongest fortress, and make the weak a perfect
match for any combination of number, strength,
and discipline. No wonder that these people
attribute their equality, their freedom, felicity,
and advancement to this discovery. What if
this vril" — so Gronlund muses — "is but a
poetic anticipation of the civilizing power of
that real, energetic substance, which we call —
dynamite I" x Coming, as this does, in the
course of a conjectural discussion of the ways
in which socialism may be realized, it is little
better than fiendish. Dynamite is, and will always be, the weapon of dastards. When the
ideas of socialism shall have gained possession
of the minds of the majority of the people, its
reign can be ushered in without resorting to assassination. Until that time shall come, the
men who undertake to force it upon a disbelieving and hostile community by the methods of
the dynamiters are savages.
It is not, however, by these diabolical methods that intelligent socialists expect to see the
new order replace the old one. They regard it
as the next step in the evolution of society, —
1 Page 275.

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sure to follow the capitalistic regime, as that
was to follow feudalism and slavery. And they
regard these very tendencies which we have
been considering as movements in the direction
of socialism. The large system of industry, by
which laborers are drawn together in masses,
the trades-unions, the Knights of Labor, and
other organizations of similar character, are all
preparing the way for the new order. The separation of society into two distinct classes, of
the very rich and the very poor, — a pluftDcracy
on one side and a proletariat on the other, — is,
to them, a cheering sign. They are quite willing that the wage-laborer should remain a wagelaborer, and they look with no favor upon any
attempts to introduce cooperative industries or
industrial partnerships. The faster the work of
concentration and division goes on, the better
they are pleased. When that time shall come of
which Roscher speaks, in which there shall be
" a well-defined confrontation of rich and poor,"
the middle class having practically become extinct, the hour of the new order will strike.
Another sign of the good time coming, to
which the socialists point, is the increasing
amount of governmental interference. When
Sir Arthur Helps wrote his " Thoughts on
Government," twelve years ago, his plea for
paternalism was thought to be extremely heret-

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i c a l ; b u t t h e current is now setting strongly
in this direction. A s an acute writer has recently s a i d : " Laissez faire is at t h e present
time losing ground because of evolutionary tendencies, which n e i t h e r political power nor social
philosophy can r e s i s t ; t h e government must
assume a larger share of duties, and laissez faire
must so far stand aside." 1 Mr. H e r b e r t Spencer's late essays on The Man and the State are
one prolonged complaint of this tendency.
Evidently, then [he writes], the changes made,
the changes in progress, and the changes urged will
carry us not only toward state ownership of land and
dwellings, and means of communication, all to be administered and worked by state agents, but toward
state usurpation of all industries; the private forms
of which, disadvantaged more and more in competition With the state, which can arrange everything for
its own convenience, will more and more die away,
just as many voluntary schools have, in presence of
board schools ; and so will be brought about the desired ideal of the socialists.2
So universal is this tendency t h a t Adolf
W a g n e r , t h e great G e r m a n economist, has
enunciated it as a law — t h e law of the increasing function of government. F r o m the operation of this law, which causes Mr. Spencer so
1 Reforms: Their Difficulties and Possibilities, p. 212.
The Man and the State, p. 39.

2

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much anxiety, the socialists expect the introduction of the new regime.
What is to be the new regime? It is, briefly,
the nationalization of capital. The state is to
own all the land, all the mines and factories,
all the machinery, all the raw material of production ; it is to assume the direction of all
the productive and distributive industries ; it
is to own and manage all the railroads, the
telegraphs, the telephones, — all the means of
transportation and communication; it is to keep
in its storehouses the fruits of the earth and the
products of labor; it is to distribute them where
they are needed, and to facilitate exchanges between different groups of workers. Gold and
silver and their representatives will be abolished ; the only currency will be labor-checks,
given in exchange for certain amounts of labor,
and exchangeable at the government stores for
commodities. All callings are to be classified,
and the government is to be administered
through these classes of laborers, the principle
being that of appointments from below and removal from above. Let Mr. Gronlund tell us
how the thing may be done : —
Suppose, then, every distinct branch of industry,
of agriculture, and, also, teachers, physicians, etc., to
form, each trade and profession by itself, a distinct
body, a trades-union (we simply use the term because

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it is convenient), a guild, a corporation managing its
internal affairs itself, but cubject to collective control.
Suppose, further, that, e. g., the " heelers " among the
operatives in a shoe-factory at Lynn come together
and elect their foreman; and that the " tappers," the
"solers," the "finishers," and whatever else the various operators may be called, do likewise. Suppose that
these foremen assemble and elect a superintendent
of the factory, and that the superintendents of all the
factories in Lynn, in their turn, elect a — let us call
him — district superintendent. Again, we shall suppose these district superintendents of the whole boot
and shoe industry to assemble themselves somewhere
from all parts of the country, and elect a bureau
chief; and he, with other bureau chiefs of related
industries, say the tanning industry, to elect a chief
of department. However, we do not want too many
of these chiefs, for we mean to make a working body,
not a talking body, out of them. We mean that these
chiefs of department shall form the national board
of administrators, whose function it shall be to supervise the whole social activity of the country. Each
chief will supervise the internal affairs of his own
department, and the whole board control all those
matters in which the general public is interested. 1
T h i s national board is, however, in Mr. Gronlund's scheme, less a legislative than an executive b o d y ; for all general laws framed by it are
to be referred to the people, and will only be<
1

The Cooperative Commonwealth, p. 79.

STRENGTH AND WEAKNESS

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come laws when ratified by them. He also
proposes that every directing officer have the
right of dismissing any of his subordinates, and
that the highest in every department, the chief,
be made liable to removal by the whole body
of his subordinates. " The subordinates elect,
the superiors dismiss," except in the case of the
highest in rank, who, since he can be responsible to nobody above him, is to be responsible
to everybody below him. The question what
the foreman of the primary group is to do with
refractory or negligent workers is not an easy
one to this philosopher. "Whereto could a
worker be removed ? " he inquires. " He must
be employed somewhere. Of course, there must
be some kind of remedy by which society could
protect itself against any rebellious or negligent
worker. For such cases, a trial by his comrades might be provided, the issue of which
might be removal to a lower grade, or some
sort of compulsion." The question, however,
concerns the lowest grade. What could be done
with people who would not work even there ?
This part of the programme must be carefully
thought out, for unless human nature changes
mightily before the dawn of the new order,
there will be a great multitude of these people;
and their persistent attempts to get a living
without work are likely to make trouble in the
best-regulated phalanstery.

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The state will have three chief functions : it
will be Superintendent, Statistician, and Arbitrator. It will direct and control all the farming, mining, manufacturing, carrying, teaching,
healing, buying, and selling. It will also collect information from all parts of the country,
upon which it will base its decrees concerning
the amount of each product necessary for the
year. " I n the socialistic state," says Schaeffle,
" the functionaries who would have to do with
sales would ascertain the amounts needed, would
distribute the national work accordingly among
the different classes of people doing business
and the persons concerned in production, transportation, and storage, and would assign to the
products a value according to the mass of socially necessary work spent upon them."
Nothing like trade or commerce would therefore exist in this state; the shops and stores
by which our products are now distributed
would give place to vast government bazaars,
where your labor-check would be good for a
given amount of any product that might happen to be in stock. No leasing would be possible, for all the lands and tenements would
belong to the state. Householders would pay
taxes to the state for the premises occupied.
The state would help itself, out of the storehouses, to any additional amount needed to de-

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fray its own expenses. These expenses would
not be small, for a pretty large army of officials
would be required to supervise all the multifarious details of production, and distribution,
and transportation, and instruction. Physicians,
teachers, judges (arbitrators, Mr. Gronlund calls
them), and all such "non-productive" laborers
would be remunerated out of the government
stores. The pay of all workers would be assimilated to that of the common laborer, making due allowance for the amount of time required by the skilled worker to fit himself for
his calling. The compensation would be graded
on this principle. The difference in the various
kinds of work, Mr. Gronlund says, u consists
simply in being more or less complicated. I t
takes, simply, more time to learn the one than
the other. The most complicated kind of work
can always be reduced to ordinary unskilled
labor, may always be considered as multiplied
common labor." Thus, for example, the actuaries of the new order may determine that the
average number of working years in a man's
life is thirty. A coal-heaver, who needs to take
no time to learn his trade, would have thirty
years to work. A teacher must spend five additional years in study ; he would have, therefore, but twenty-five years for work. He should
receive, therefore, for his twenty-five years'

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labor as. much as the coal-heaver for his thirty
years' labor. The teacher's daily stipend should
be one fifth larger than that of the coal-heaver.
I t will be observed that, under socialism,
every citizen would be directly and consciou3ly
in the employ of the government. The government would be the only employer.
The
civil service would include the whole population. The shoemaker or the hod-carrier would
be a government officer as much as the postmaster or the department clerk.
Under this regime private property would
not be abolished, but it would be greatly restricted. A man might live, doubtless, on less
than the amount of his daily earnings, and thus
an accumulation of labor-checks might be made
upon which he could subsist while devoting his
leisure to study or travel; but the savings of
day-wages must needs be small. Loans with
interest would be prohibited ; for it is the very
foundation-stone of socialism that capital — that
is, property of any kind from which income is
derived — shall all belong to the state. Every
man's income would be strictly confined to his
actual earnings; and the state would be his
employer and would fix his stipend. Inheritance would also be restricted or forbidden.
Private property would not be allowed to accumulate in this way, in families, by transmission.

STRENGTH

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On this question, however, there is not entire
agreement among socialists; some of them holding that the right of bequeathing one's personal
savings should not be denied. The limitation
of private property would, however, be pretty
strict, if Mr. Gronlund is a prophet. This is
his judgment: —
Every millionaire is a criminal.
Every one who amasses a hundred thousand dollars is a criminal.
Every president of a company with nominal duties, if his salary is but a thousand dollars, is a
criminal.
Every one who loans his neighbor one hundred
dollars and exacts one hundred and six in return is a
criminal.
I t is evident that the reign of the plutocrat
will cease when socialism comes to its own.
One interesting feature of the new order is
conveyed in the assurance that the question of
domestic service will be forever settled. " Domestics will be incorporated in the family, as
members of it. No one, then, surely will be so
slavish as to accept the position on less honorable terms.55 After making this fact known,
Mr. Gronlund imagines some objector crying
out, " Is the man crazy? No one to black our
boots, sweep our rooms, attend us at meals,

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n u r s e our children ! No one to look after our
comfort! " T o which he makes this a n s w e r : —
We really think you will have to "look after
your comfort' yourself. Most of your fellow-men,
many of them far more worthy than you, now have
to do that. At the public places, of course, you can
have all your wants supplied and yourself attended
to, but mark! by persons as much public functionaries as you j^ourself will be, and conscious of being
so, and whom you cannot familiarly call " Ben " or
" John " except on an equal footing. But at home
you will have to be " served " by members of your
family, and such people whom {sic) your personal
qualities will attach to your person.
Socialism aims, fundamentally, at t h e reconstruction of the industrial order ; and it need
not concern itself with questions of morality or
religion. W h a t e v e r m a y be said by its expositors about these questions should be taken as
m e r e obiter dicta, and should not be suffered
t o bind or to b a n t h e system. Nevertheless it
is n o t e w o r t h y t h a t those socialists who touch
upon domestic and ethical matters indicate their
preference for a somewhat radical reconstruction of society along these lines. Their prediction is t h a t marriage will be purely voluntary ;
t h a t society will interpose no obstacles to the
separation of discontented partners ; t h a t t h e
control of children by their parents will b e

STRENGTH

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85

much less absolute than at present; that in
many of the most important interests of life
society will stand in loco parentis. I " Children
do not belong to their parents," says Mr. Gronlund ; " they belong to society." " In the very
nature of things family supremacy will be absolutely incompatible with an interdependent, solidaric commonwealth, for in such a state the
first object of education must be to establish in
the minds of the children an indissoluble association between their individual happiness and
the good of all. To that end family exclusiveness must be broken down first of all." i
As to morals,..the socialists are inclined to
charge all evil-doing upon the present order of
society, and to excuse, if not to justify, the existing race of criminals. x The new order will
make men good by furnishing them with a better "environment; it will successfully tempt
"tHem to do right.
As to religion, something of that nature will
still remain, no doubt. \ There is no reason in
the nature of things, as Dr. Woojsey says, why
socialists should not be Chris t i a n s \ They might
even make Christianity the state religion.
There is in Germany at the present time a considerable body of Christian Socialists, whose
programme is, indeed, much less radical than
1 The Cooperative. Commonwealth, p. 224.

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that of the Social Democrats, but who are fairlyentitled to the name. As a matter of fact,
however, the great majority of socialists are violently opposed to all that is known by the
name of religion at the present day.
u
Socialists," says Schaeffle, " pronounce the
church to be a police institution in the hands
of capital, and affirm that it cheats the proletarian ' by bills of exchange on heaven.' It
deserves to perish."
This exposition of the philosophy and the
aims of socialism is necessarily rough and incomplete; I have endeavored to set forth, as
fairly as I could, the main features of the system. In doing so I have exhibited its weakness. As a positive programme for the reconstruction of society its ineptitude must be
apparent. I t can never survive a thorough
popular discussion. So long as it is content
with criticising the present order it can gain a
hearing; and, as a matter of fact, it does, for
the most part, confine itself to this role. Its
advocates are chary of definite information
about their plans. They are able clearly to
point out the evils of competition and capitalism ; but when they are asked to tell what they
would put in the place of the existing system,
they at once begin to deal in generalities. An

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attempt such as Mr. Gronlund has made to furnish an outline of the new order is the most
convincing argument against it. The reflections that must force themselves on all who
take the trouble to think out this scheme are
briefly these : —
1. The attempt to regulate the social and
industrial life of a great nation like ours by
a centralized bureaucracy would break down
under its own weight. The work would be so
vast and complicated, the details so multifarious, the adjustments so difficult, the administration so herculean, that its collapse would be
speedy. To do all this work an army of " nonproductive " government officials would be required, whose draft upon the products of industry would be enormous ; it is a question whether
the ." productive " workers would obtain any
larger portion of the net product of their industry than they are now receiving. Under any
system labor must be supervised and directed,
and exchanges of products must be effected, and
this work of direction and exchange must be
remunerated. Socialists must carefully count
the cost of all this before they enter upon the
warfare in which they are now enlisting. The
cumbersomeness rather than the cost of the
method is, however, the feature upon which
attention should be fixed. That a " national

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board of administrators " at Washington should
set out to ascertain and measure the desires of
fifty millions of people for the necessaries, the
comforts, the luxuries of life, and should undertake to produce all these " satisfactions " and
distribute them to those who crave them, seems,
on the face of it, preposterous.
2. Closely connected with this objection another fundamental weakness of the scheme appears. This is the attempt to base all values
upon cost of production, without any consistent
reference to the principle of supply and demand.
Things are to be worth just what it costs to
produce them ; the strength or the weakness of
the desire of the consumer is not to have any
measurable influence in determining the price
that shall be paid for them. Mr. Gronlund admits that supply and demand is a natural law,
and that it has at present a great deal to do in
fixing the prices of commodities, and he thinks
that a little room may perhaps be found for the
play of this force under the socialistic regime;
but it is evident that he likes it not, and would
willingly be rid of it altogether. The practical
difficulties which would arise on account of it
are easily conceived. Suppose, for example, a
group of manufacturing tailors produce one
hundred thousand coats, which are sent to the
government warehouses to be sold. The price

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of each is fixed by the time expended by the
workman in making it. Suppose another group
manufactures the same number of coats out of
material costing exactly the same, and with the
same amount of labor, and these go into the
warehouses in the same way, to be sold, of
course, at the same price. Owing to the differences iu the color and style of the material, and
in the pattern and finish of the work, the one
lot of coats is quickly disposed of, while the
other lot proves unsalable. What is the government to do with this product for which it
has paid, and which nobody wants? Will it
dispose of the stock for less than its actual cost
in labor ? Will it not continually find its storehouses filling up with goods that nobody will
buy ? Mr. Gronlund allows that sacrifices
would sometimes have to be made in this way,
which the government, " as the universal insurer," would be obliged to meet. He thinks,
however, that the government would find ways
of controlling this troublesome factor — that is,
of causing the people to demand those commodities, and those only, of which it has the supply.
It is easy to see how this might be done, in
part, by establishing uniformity in a great
many of the features of life where now diversity
exists; by compelling the people all to dress
exactly alike; to dwell in houses of uniform

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size and cost; to lay aside their individual
tastes and preferences, and live a life prescribed
by governmental regulation. The socialistic
scheme can never be worked without the enforcement of such a uniformity in most of the
details of life.
3. It is evident that the freedom of the individual would be greatly limited under such a
regime. No despotism could be more absolute
or more intolerable than that which this fierce
democracy would be sure to exercise. Many
of the questions which men are now left to determine for themselves would be determined
for them by the state; the range of their
choices and responsibilities would be greatly
narrowed ; the forces by which high character
is developed would be correspondingly weakened. It is by no means clear that the right of
movement from place to place would be left to
the individual. Mr. Gronlund insists that it
would be, but he has not shown us how this
great governmental machine will be able to
carry on its work successfully, unless it has the
power to compel its workmen to stay where
they are put, and do the work assigned to them.
As Baron J. Eotvos 1 has strongly said, " The
unconditional subjection of the individual under the state " is the first principle of socialism.
1

Quoted by Woolsey, Communism and Socialism, p. 269.

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" What the form of the state would be in its
socialistic era," says Dr. Woolsey, " would be
of little importance. The essential characteristic is that it must become all but unlimited;
and our readers are well aware that all unlimited governments are more like one another,
whether they be called monarchies or oligarchies or democracies, than they are each like to
a limited government of their own name." 1
That this unlimited government, though democratic at first, would easily pass under the control of a single despot, is a truth \4hich reason
announces and history confirms. I t was revolutionary and communistic France that flung herself so suddenly and so eagerly into the arms of
Napoleon. Mr. Gronlund's " national board of
administrators" would soon find some single
will ruling in its councils, and the question of
the responsibility of this body, with which its
inventor labors, would be promptly solved.
4. But socialism is fundamentally an economical method, and is, therefore, fundamentally
wrong, because it is based on a doctrine of economy which is false; namely, the doctrine that all
value is the product of labor. This doctrine of
value, formulated by Karl Marx, is the cornerstone of socialism. " Nothing," says Mr. Gronlund, " can so effectually kill our cause as the
i Page 232.

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successful impeachment of the answer we shall
give to the question, ' What is value ? ' " 1 This
is undoubtedly true, and therefore socialism
can never survive a thorough discussion of its
economical basis; for no matter whether Ricardo or Marx be the author of this doctrine, it
is unsound. Other elements besides the "quantity of common human labor measured by time "
help to make up value. Here are two groups
of a thousand men, equally industrious and capable. The workmen of the one group find
such occupation as they can ; but many of them
have poor tools, and many others are lacking in
constructive or artistic skill, and do not know
how to direct their own powers; and many
others make mistakes of judgment in determining what they will produce, and continually
find that they have expended their energies
upon products for which there is no demand;
and many, still more helpless, though willing
to work, are idle a good part of the time because they can find nothing profitable to do.
The other group are employed by a man of intelligence and experience. He possesses an
ample supply of the best tools and machines;
he knows, by wide observation and careful
study of the market, for what articles there
will be an efficient demand; he has the coni Page 16.

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93

structive skill and the taste that enable him to
produce the goods that will please the people ;
he knows when to get them to the market, and
how to put himself in communication with
purchasers. Under his direction the second
group of men work for a year. Will any man
say that the product of their labor, thus directed, will possess no more value than the product of the first group, who wrought blindly
during the same time, without direction ? Will
any man say that the knowledge, the skill, the
taste, the judgment, the enterprise, the organizing ability, of this employer are not elements
in the production of this enhanced value ? The
majority of the men who work lack the power
of directing their own labor so as to secure from
it the most'valuable product. A very large
share of the value produced by their labor is
given to it by the intelligence and the organizing power of their employers. To say that
this intelligence and this organizing power have
nothing to do, or but little to do, with the creation of value is to talk arrant nonsense.
The power to organize and direct labor is
highly useful to society. W e owe to it the
great multiplication of wealth and the rapid
progress of the industrial arts. The workmen
themselves have derived from it incalculable
benefits. And this power has been developed

94

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CHRISTIANITY.

in great degree by the operation of that same
" private enterprise " whose doings the socialists so constantly execrate. Even Mr. Gronlund is forced to acknowledge this: " We
heartily admit that it has performed wonders.
It has built monuments greater than the pyramids. Its Universal Expositions have moved
greater masses of men than the crusades ever
did. It has done mankind an immense service
in proving by hard facts that wholesale manufacture is the most sensible form of labor." 1
This is a grudging admission. It has done
far more than this. With all its mischiefs and
its curses, — and they are multitudinous, —
private enterprise has filled the world with
blessings. It has been the motive power of
material civilization.
But socialism proposes to dispense with it.
It will suffer private property, in a restricted
sense, but it will not suffer private enterprise.
The state is to monopolize the enterprise. The
organizing genius, the constructive skill, the
executive energy which have built up modern
civilization have been developed by giving an
open field to private enterprise, and permitting
individuals to reap for themselves the rewards
of their own vigilance and sagacity. The closing of this door would paralyze industry and
1

Page 53.

STRENGTH

AND

WEAKNESS

OF SOCIALISM.

95

put a stop to development. The prospect of
profit from industrial investment is the mainspring of industrial progress. In the words of
Mr. Cairnes : " The inducement thus offered to
the acquisitive propensity in man constitutes
under the actual system of things the ultimate
security for all the results which go to form our
industrial civilization. The feeling appealed to
may, if you like, be a coarse one, but it is at
any rate efficacious; it does lead to habitual
and systematic saving, and furnishes society
with the necessary basis for civilized progress."
The proposition of the socialists to exterminate
or repress this central principle of human nature is clearly unscientific; the reform for which
they call is " a reform against nature."
The just demand of the working class is that
they shall share in the growing wealth of the
world. " Now this," says Mr. Rae, " involves
two things: first, progress; and second, diffusion of progress; and socialism is so intent on
the second that it fails to see how completely it
would cut off the springs of the first."
The two coordinate forces of the ideal society are self-interest and benevolenceA In the
perfect society they will exactly balance each
other. The present industrial order makes selfinterest the sole motive power. Under this
one-sided regime the mischiefs have .arisen of

96

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CHRISTIANITY.

which socialism complains. The remedy which
socialism proposes is the entire reconstruction
of society upon the other principle of benevolence, allowing no opportunity for the free play
of the self-regarding motives?) From the one
extreme it flies to the other. Because civilization has gone on one leg till it is lame, socialism
insists that it shall go on the other, exclusively,
till that too breaks down. Its health and its
progress will be promoted by permitting it to
go on both legs, (j^rj^ate property and private
enterprise must be maintained, and some means
must be found of infusing into them a larger
measure of^gojod^wjll!) The manual laborer is
not entitled to the whole of the net product of
his labor; but a wise philanthropy, studying
his conditions, freely allows that a larger share
of it than he now receives equitably belongs to
him, and insists that some adjustment shall be
,*rrade by which he shall obtain a larger j^mre.
The wage-laborer ought to have nof only the
market rate of wages, under competition, but a
^stipulated share in the profits of business?) He
ought to be identified in interest with his employer; and he must be, before there can ever
be peace between them. The system of profitsharing, or industrial partnership, saves and enlarges the gains of private enterprise, and permits the workman to participate in them. By

STRENGTH

AND WEAKNESS

OF SOCIALISM.

97

some application of this principle the efficiency
of the present wage system will be preserved,
and its worst mischiefs averted. \ l f any one
wishes to know whether this m e thodis" pr:a.cS£
"SBle^F^not, let him read that eloquent little
^ o g T y n S e a n e v ^ a W F F r i T \P^ofiESi^Sgrl , *
in which the results of a large number of j g >
periments along^tliis^rine are clearly set forth.
TlfforeTria^Tlaindred estaHisKmenls upon^the
croSnenT QTE^opelaFejP.ow SSFkigg IfiEPill
and prosperously upon this basis, v
The socialists, indeed, as I have said, are altogether unfriendly to this method, v They prefer that the guirTBetwe'eTTlnTTa^ol-ers and their
employers should go on widening and deepen~jng. ) T h e faster this proceeds the sooner will
cpme the social revolution For^Tn^Ti^K^praVT
Therefore they denounce all workmen who en^ter~^2^2^L^F^^^ 1 ^P s with" their employers,
as a class u with one foot in TffieHkmV of ''the
bourgeoisie and the other in the campofjthe
proletariat." E x a c t l y so. In this lies the wis""""^nTan^Tmf^ory of the method. I t is not
divisive, it is u n i t a r y ^ " It is only," says Mr.
Rae, " by linking*^ lower class to a higher that
you can raise the level of the whole."
There is good reason to hope that this simple
readjustment of the economical relations of emf

1

London : Kegan Paui, Trench & Co.

98

APPLIED

CHRISTIANITY.

ployer and laborer would put a new face upon
industrial society. Peace would take the place
of strife, confidence of distrust, hope of despair.
The efficiency of labor would be promoted, and
the gains of civilization, for all classes, indefinitely increased.
\ Instead, therefore, of pulling down the existing order, as the socialists propose, the thing to
be done is to enlarge its foundations. They are
right in saying that an industrial system whose
sole motive power is self-interest and whose sole
regulative principle is competition will end in
pandemonium ; but they are foolish in thinking
that humanity will thrive under a system which
discards or cripples these self-regarding forces.
What is needed is the calling into action of the
good-will which is equally a part of human nature. This also must be made an integral part
of the industrial system; it must be the business of the employer to promote the welfare of
his workmen, and the business of the workmen
to promote the interest of their employer. The
organization of labor must be such that the one
class cannot prosper without directly and perceptibly increasing the prosperity of the other.
This is the true remedy for the evils of which
the socialists complain. The reform needed is
not the destruction but the Christianization of
the present order,

STRENGTH

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WEAKNESS

OF SOCIALISM.

99

Yet, in the language of Sedley Taylor, these
methods of profit-sharing and industrial partnership, " valuable as they are in themselves,
constitute no self-acting panacea ; . . . their
best fruits can be reaped only by men who feel
that life does not consist in abundance of material possessions, who regard stewardship as nobler than ownership, who see in the ultimate
outcome of all true work issues reaching beyond the limits of the present dispensation, and
who act faithfully and strenuously on these beliefs." Those who are under the sway of such
motives must take the initiative in this great
enterprise of making peace between the workmen and their employers. Edme-Jean Leclaire,
founder of the Maison Leclaire in Paris, and a
man whose life was devoted to the building up
of a noble and beneficent industry upon this
foundation, wrote, upon his death-bed, this confession of his faith : " I am the humble disciple
of Him who has told us to do to others what we
. would have others do to us, and to love our
neighbor as ourselves ; it is in this sense that
I desire to remain a Christian until my last
breath." Out of such a faith ought to grow
such fruit. If our Christianity has any life in
it, it can solve this problem of the relation between labor and capital. And every employer
over whom Christian motives have any power

100

APPLIED CHRISTIANITY,

ought to feel the weight of the obligation resting on him to establish between himself and his
workmen a relation in which it will be natural
for them as well as for him to obey the Christian law.
As a consequence of this economical readjustment better relations would be established
between all classes in society, and sympathy
and kindliness would take the place of suspicion and alienation. The iron law of wages
would be broken, and the yawning chasm between rich and poor would be bridged by goodwill, .,
The principal remedy for the evils of which
socialists complain is to be found, therefore, in
the application by individuals of Christian principles and methods to the solution of the social
problem. The notion that the state can cure
all these mischiefs is not to be entertained.
Nevertheless, though the state cannot do everything, there are some things that it can do, and
must do. The limits of governmental interference are likely to be greatly enlarged in the
immediate future. New occasions bring new
duties ; the function of the state must be broadened to meet the exigencies of our expanding
civilization. We may go far be}rond Mr. Spencer's limits and yet stop a great way this side
of socialism. Out of unrestricted competition

STRENGTH AND WEAKNESS OF SOCIALISM. 101

arise many wrongs that the state must redress,
and many abuses that it must check. It may
become the duty of the state to reform its taxation, so that its burdens shall rest less heavily
upon the lower classes; to repress monopolies
of all sorts; to prevent and punish gambling;
to regulate or control the railroads and telegraphs ; to limit the ownership of land; to
modify the laws of inheritance ; and possibly
to levy a progressive income tax, so that the
enormous fortunes should bear more, instead of
less, than their share of the public burdens.
The keeping up of such fortunes is against public policy, and the state has the same right to
discourage them that it has to inspect factories
or ships, to tax saloons, or to prohibit the erection of a slaughter-house upon the public square.
By some such measures the state may clearly
indicate its purpose, while carefully guarding
the essential liberty of its citizens, to restrain
those oppressive evils which grow out of the
abuses of liberty; and, while protecting property and honoring industry, to check, by every
means in its power, those tendencies by which
society is divided into the two contrasted and
contending classes of plutocrats and proletarians.

IS I T P E A C E OR W A R ?

T H E question of peace or war between capital
and labor includes several questions: whether
there is at the present time peace or war between these two great powers, and if it is war,
what they are fighting for ; whether war is better than peace, and if not, how the war is to be
brought to an end and peace is to be made, -—
whether by capital subjugating labor, or by labor subjugating capital, or by finding some way
of uniting their interests*
The question whether peace or war now exists in the industrial realm need not detain us
long. The answer is too easy. Optimists have
been diligently assuring us, for a score of years,
that there was no such thing as a labor question,
except in the minds of a few crazy agitators ;
that everything was lovely in the industrial
world, and constantly growing lovelier: that
those beautiful harmonies of the French economist were sure to make everybody rich and
contented and happy very soon. Few are now

IS IT PEACE OR WAR?

103

heard talking in this strain. Everybody admits
that the relations between the working classes
and their employers are extremely uncomfortable; the strikes, the lockouts, the boycotting,
the rioting here and there, make up a large
share of the telegraphic news in our daily papers. The state of industrial society is a state
of war, and the engagement is general all along
the line.
This state of things is the natural result of
a system of 'pure competition. N Competition
means conflict. The proposition is disputed,
but if any philosopher wishes to test its truth
by a scientific experiment, let him gather a
crowd of twenty urchins together upon the sidewalk and address them as follows: u Here is a
handful of coppers, which I propose to divide
among you, and I wish to tell you how T am
going to make the distribution. To begin with,
you have all got to stand back on the other side
of the curbstone ; then I shall heap the coppers
on that flat stone; then, when I give the word,
let each one of you come forward and take what
he can get. The only principle, my dear young
friends, that we can recognize in the distribution
of this fund is the principle of competition.
Neither justice nor charity can have anything
to do with it. Under competition, the political
economists tell us, everybody gets a reasonably

104

APPLIED

CHRISTIANITY.

fair share. All ready! One, two, three —•
grab ! " If our philosopher will stand by now
and watch his experiment, he will see reasons
for believing that competition is not uniformly
a beneficent force. In the first place, it will
turn out that the biggest boys will begin at
once, while he is talking, to crowd themselves
up nearest to the curbstone, and nearest to the
pile of coppers, pushing back the smaller boys.
Likely enough they will have a fight for this
vantage-ground while he is making his speech
explaining the beauties of competition. When
he gives his signal they will rush in at once,
trampling on one another, the strongest, of
course, seizing the largest share, and many of
the little boys getting only a stray copper or
two that may be dropped from the hands of
their more greedy and powerful companions as
they make off with their booty. This is the
way that competition works. The whole story
of the competitive regime is outlined in this
thumb-nail sketch of the curbstone financiers.
Competition means war. And the law of war
is the triumph of the strongest.
What is it that the scientific people tell us
Eilways happens in the struggle for existence ?
Is it not that the strongest individuals and the
strongest races kill off the weakest ? Competition is the struggle for existence, which is the

IS IT PEACE OR WARf

105

law of the inferior races, adopted as the law of
industrial society. It works in society exactly
as it works among the inferior races. I will
not stop to argue whether or not it is a good
thing to kill off the weaker classes; my only
point now is that under a system of which competition is the law this is the tendency. Naturally, the weaker classes object to being killed
off, and fight against it with what strength they
have ; hence the conflict which always must accompany a system of pure competition.
It may be admitted, however, that a system
of fair competition would work better than the
existing system. If all the competitors were
equally intelligent and equally strong, and if
our laws were able to prevent classes among
them from securing by unjust means unfair advantages, then we should see a different state
of things from that with which we now have to
deal. For, bad as unrestricted competition
would be, we have something now that is worse.
Pair competition between the strong and the
weak, between men of trained faculty and men
of low intelligence, is pretty sure to result in
combinations on both sides, by which the bitterness of the conflict is greatly intensified. This
is what we are confronting to-day. Competition, as the regulative principle of our industry, has utterly broken down, and combination

106

APPLIED CHRISTIANITY.

has taken its place. It began with the establishment of those great financial and industrial
corporations in which capital was encouraged
by the state to combine, and, thus organized,
was exempted from certain liabilities and given
advantages which the individual proprietor does
not possess. And these corporations, and the
great business firms and banking institutions
in which the savings of many are consolidated
under the management of one, have learned the
art of combining among themselves, so that, in
all branches of industry and commerce, competition is greatly crippled where it is not killed,
and prices as well as wages are largely fixed
by conferences, and syndicates, and pools of all
sorts. Is it competition that determines freight
rates and railway fares ? Not at all. The best
part of the railroad business of the country is
done under agreements between the great companies. The price of oil, the price of coal, the
prices of many of the common necessaries of
life are determined much of the time by combinations among the producers or the dealers.
" Our various industries," says the Rev. Josiah
Strong, " are combining to force down production — that means that workingmen are thrown
out of employment; and to force up prices —
that means increased cost of living. There are
lumber, coal, coke, oil, brick, nail, screw, steel,

IS IT PEACE OR WAR?

107

rope, fence-wire, glass, wall-paper, school-book,
insurance, hardware, starch, cotton, and scores
of other combinations, all made in the interests
of capitalists. Small dealers must enter the
4
pool/ or be crushed. Once in, they must submit to the dictation of the ' l a r g e ' men. Thus
power is being gathered more and more into the
hands of conscienceless monopolies." On the
other side, there are powerful combinations
among the workingmen which seek to control the
rate of wages and the hours of labor, and sometimes to prevent improvements in industry —
combinations rapidly increasing in numbers and
in power. Under this reign of combination
there is no longer any such thing as free or fair
competition. The individual coal operator in
the Hocking Valley cannot compete with the
other operators for the labor of the miners; he
is tied up by an agreement to pay no more than
a certain price. The individual miner cannot
compete with his fellows for the wages offered
by the operators; he is bound by his union to
take no less than a certain price. And these
combinations on all sides are made for fighting
purposes. The big dealers combine that they
may crush out competition, and kill off the
small dealers. The employers combine to fight
the workmen, and the workmen combine to
fight the employers. Doubtless it is an illusion

108

APPLIED

CHRISTIANITY.

to suppose that competition, under the best conditions, while human nature remains what it is,
would ever give us peace; however that may
be, it is certain that the combinations which
have so largely supplanted competition are calculated to give us nothing else but war. And
war it is, bitter, and destructive, and desolating.
" Masters and men," says a great Belgian economist, " are in a state of constant warfare, having their battles, their victories, and their defeats. It is a dark and bitter civil war, wherein
he wins who can hold out longest without earning anything; a struggle far more cruel and
more keen than that decided by bullets from a
barricade; one where all the furniture is pawned
or sold; where the savings of better times are
gradually devoured, and where at last famine
and misery besiege the home and oblige the wife
and little ones to cry for mercy."
The war arises in the division of the product
of industry. The capitalist employer on the
one side, and the laborer on the other, are fighting over the wealth produced by their joint
exertionso The capitalist says that the laborer
wants more than his fair share, and the laborer
says the same thing about the capitalist; the
capitalists, on the one side, combine to keep
the laborers from getting any more, and the
laborers, on the other side, combine to get as

IS IT PEACE OR WAR?

109

much more as they can. Then the question of
the hours of labor comes in ; the laborers contending that the world's work can be done in
fewer hours, and the employers as a general rule
resisting that demand. Still other matters in
dispute are the right of the workingmen to combine, and their rig]it to dictate to the employer
whom he shall employ. The workingmen think
that if they are to succeed in this conflict they
must be able to combine and to bring the whole
force of labor into the combination; and the
employers think that if they are to succeed they
must prevent the combinations of laborers by
some means or other. Perhaps both are right.
I cannot see how the workingmen can win the
battle without uniting; and I am equally unable to see how the masters can win unless they
can break up the unions. Such attempts as
that of the manufacturer in Springfield, Ohio,
to crush the labor organizations, are perfectly
logical if war is the proper relation between labor and capital. Such attempts as those made
by the employees of the Third Avenue railroad
to compel the company to discharge some of its
old hands because they would not join the union are natural and legitimate, if war between
employer and employee is the necessary and
normal condition of things. These are war
measures on both sides. Are they right ? They

110

APPLIED CHRISTIANITY.

are right, if war is right. Is it right to march
through the country, destroying barns and
grain-ricks, appropriating the farmer's pigs and
chickens, driving off his cattle and horses, and
pillaging the stores and the smoke-houses in the
cities and villages ? It is right, if war is right;
it is a common and sometimes a necessary war
measure. Is it right to kill men who have been
guilty of no crime by thousands and tens of
thousands? It is right, if war is right; this is
the immediate object in view when people go to
war. Is it right for the labor unions to endeavor
to coerce men to join their ranks under pain of
starvation ? It is right, if war is right; it is a
natural war measure. Is it right for an employer to discharge men because they belong to
a union ? It is right, if war is right; it is attacking the stronghold of the enemy. Many
things which, in a state of peace, are inexcusable and even criminal, are justified, as everybody says, by the laws of war. Falsehood,
deception, violence, homicide are the very substance of war. In a state of peace it would
seem an abominable piece of tyranny to insist
that no man should be permitted to earn his
daily bread in the trade which he had practiced
all his life, unless he would join the trades-union. In a state of peace it would be a gross
outrage upon personal liberty for an employer

IS IT PEACE OR WAR?

Ill

to discharge his workmen for belonging to a society which they had formed to promote their
own interests. These are war measures. This
fact cannot be too strongly emphasized. Let
us get clearly before our minds exactly what we
are doing and why we are doing it.
Of course, both parties to the conflict claim
that this warfare is purely metaphorical; that
they neither propose nor condone illegal measures. But it is hard, in such a deadly controversy, to keep within the law. It is inevitable
that coercion should take violent forms. Society must deal sharply with such disturbances,
but it is not easy to prevent them. They are
indefensible, they are criminal, yet they are
terribly logical. But even those coercive measures on both sides which keep within the law
can be justified only as war is justified. If war
is a good thing, they are good things. If war
is evil, they cannot be good. What, then, shall
we say about this fundamental question ?
Is a state of war the natural and proper
state of mankind? Are the happiness, the
prosperity, and the morality of the people at
large promoted by the maintenance of warfare ?
We shall agree, doubtless, that war is not the
best employmen.t for human beings ; that it is
not, on the whole, a good thing for people to
be divided into classes and arrayed in armies

112

APPLIED CHRISTIANITY.

for the purpose of encroaching upon one another's liberties or possessions. Surely the world
is not enriched by warfare; it is impoverished,
rather. While men are fighting they are not
producing wealth ; they are consuming what
has already been produced, and they are very
likely destroying, wantonly, about as much as
they consume. This war between labor and
capital, as we have seen, is about the division
of the product of industry ; and it is certain
that the more they fight the less they will have
to divide. The more constant and persistent
the fighting is, the smaller every man's share
of the world's wealth must be.
But this is not the worst of it. Such a warfare as this destroys the moral wealth of the
nation even faster than its material wealth. It
tends to make men bitter, suspicious, cruel; it
turns neighbors against each other; it keeps
the embers of resentment and hate all the while
smouldering. This is the saddest part of the
whole business. Those who have some knowledge of the temper of the combatants know
that suspicion and distrust and ill-will have
been steadily growing more intense on both
sides. Surely it cannot be well for men to
cherish such feelings toward one another, and
one cannot help wondering whereunto this will
grow. In a recent letter from over the sea,

IS IT PEACE OR WAR*

113

written by one who is giving his life for the
welfare of the working people, are these solemn
words : " There is a strong feeling among employers and employed that the cruel conflict
between capital and labor, aggravated by competition, is destroying some of the best elements in human character." This is the kind
of destruction most to be dreaded. When the
old feelings of friendliness are gone, when a
sullen envy and a rankling hatred have taken
their places, the very foundations of the social
order will be gone, and chaos and anarchy will
be at hand. None of us will be very rich or
very happy when that time comes.
War is not, then, a good thing. - Yet there
are evils worse than war. In the olden times
the men who did the world's work were mainly
slaves. There was no warfare then between
capital and labor, because labor was owned by
capital. That was not a good state of things
for the laborer, and it was no better for the
capitalist, though Carlyle lauded it and longed
for its return. It is better that the laborer
should be a free man, even though some measure of conflict and suffering be the price of his
emancipation. And if the labofer could see
that the tendency of the industrial system under which he was living was to reduce him to
a state little .better than slavery, so that he

114

APPLIED

CHRISTIANITY.

would be dependent upon his employer, so that
his chances to rise in the social scale would
grow steadily less — if the laborer could see
that this was the steady drift of the existing
system, then, I think, he would be justified in
fighting against that fate ; in being willing to
die rather than submit to it.
W a r is always a terrible evil; but it is sometimes the lesser of two evils. The degradation
of a large class in society would be a greater
evil than a war undertaken by that class to
prevent such degradation. Now, it is certain
that the wage-workers of this country feel that
they are in danger of social degradation; in
danger of falling behind the rest of the community in the march of industrial progress; in
danger of becoming, to a great extent, dependent upon their employers, or upon the community at large, for subsistence and livelihood.
We must do them the justice of recognizing
this as the real reason of the widespread discontent that exists among them. The certainty
that they are losing ground socially, and the
fear that they may come to want .and dependence, are the sources of the present tendency
to combine for offensive and defensive warfare.
I am not referring to any such outbreak as
that which, at this writing, is taking place in
Chicago. , That is not war; it is rapine, assas*

IS IT PEACE OR WAMt

115

sination, savagery. It is not the work of tne
Knights of Labor, nor of any other labor organization ; it is led by men who, in the brutal
harangues by which they stirred up the mob,
denounced the Knights of Labor; men who
have no part nor lot in the legitimate labor
organizations; who, by creed and profession,
are simply destroyers. It is a cruel injustice
to identify these miscreants with the army of
labor. The labor forces sometimes make sad
mistakes and commit serious offenses, but nothing like this fiendishness can be charged upon
them. It is not with such weapons that they
are waging war. No wrongs ever existed in
any, state of society which could * justify the
methods of these men. I am not* then, discussing their complaints. I am considering
how the matter lies in the minds of the great
body of sober, industrious workingmen.
, Some time ago Mr. Powderly described the
working classes in this country as the "army
of the discontented." He meant that there
were enough of the discontented to make a
large army; but it is also true that it is their
discontent that is leading them to organize
themselves into an army, that they may the
better do battle against the evils which cause
their discontent. If they are right in thinking
that they are losing ground, if they are reason-

116

APPLIED CHRISTIANITY.

able in their fears about the future, then they
are justified in organizing thus for protection
and defense.
Are they right ? I will not try to answer so
large a question ; I will only indicate the answer that the thoughtful working man is inclined to give. To begin with, the fact that
this country is rapidly getting rich is a fact
that the workingman, though not a political
economist, knows very well. The evidences of
this growing wealth are before his eyes. I
will not rehearse the familiar figures paraded
during the last,two years by so many persons,
for so many purposes ; by Mr. Blaine, to prove
that national salvation could not be found in
any other than the Republican party; by Mr.
George, to show that poverty and progress advance with equal step. Unless the figures of
the census are greatly at fault, the wealth of
the nation is increasing much more rapidly
than its population. With this great increase
of wealth, with the enormous development of
lands and mines, and with an improvement in
machinery which is said to double the productive power of our manufacturing industries
every seven years, it would seem that the average annual income of the individual must be
greatly increased. Of some classes of the population this seems to be true. To speak of the

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class with whose circumstances I am most familiar, I should say that clergymen must be
receiving incomes at least fifty per cent, larger
than they were receiving twenty-five years ago.
I t is certain that they are living much more
expensively now than they were living then ;
that they can afford many luxuries of furniture
and decoration and travel that they could not
then afford. This U not probably true of all
the country ministers, but of the clergy as a
class I believe it is true. The clergy are not
exceptionally prosperous ; the same is true of
the other professions. The average lawyer or
the average physician gets a far better living
to-day than he got twenty-five years ago. I
think that the salaries of teachers, and salesmen, and book-keepers, and clerks in the great
offices have also been considerably advanced.
Besides these, between the capitalists on the
one hand and the wage-laborers on the other,
there is a large class of persons who render
professional and personal services of various
sorts, many of whom are well remunerated.
Such are musicians and teachers of music, artists and teachers of art, actors, and purveyors
of public diversions. This class has greatly increased within the period under consideration,
and is much better paid for i^s services now
than formerly. A large share of the national
income falls into the hands of such persons.

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Without considering the condition of the
employing classes, it is evident, therefore, that
signs of increasing prosperity are visible in
other parts of society. But how is it with people who work for wages ? Some of the English
statisticians have been trying to prove that the
income of the wage-laborers in that country has
increased as rapidly as that of any other class;
but the validity of this cheerful conclusion is
by no means established. The latest and apparently the most thorough investigation, by
Professor Leone Levi, shows that the actual
money-wage of the English laborer has increased
during the past twenty-seven years about thirty
per cent., while the cost of meat and other necessaries of life has also risen almost but not
quite as much; so that the English laborer is
a little better off to-day than he was twentyseven years ago. Is this the case with the
American wage-laborer ? The statistics do not
permit us to dogmatize. Professor Richmond
M. Smith has shown us some of the fallacies of
the labor figures. The doctrine of averages has
not been well understood by some of our statisticians, and their conclusions are not trustworthy. Two or three considerations must be
borne in mind in determining this question.
The first is the fact that in most industries
work is much less continuous and stoppages are

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far more frequent and more prolonged now than
formerly. If the day wages are larger, the annual wages may still be smaller. The precariousness of employment is now a serious matter
to most workingtnen.
The second fact to be considered is the effect
of machinery in reducing the demand for skilled
labor. To take a single example: the ironwork of carriages was nearly all made by hand
twenty-five years ago ; and the blacksmiths employed in the carriage-shops were skilled workmen, who could forge any part of the iron-work
of a carriage, and who commanded good wages.
Most of these irons are now stamped out by
machinery, and the hand-work is so subdivided
that very few skilled men will be found in a
large factory; the hand who tends a machine,
and who can learn his work in a week or two,
cannot, of course, obtain the remuneration paid
to the superior mechanic of the days before the
war.
The third fact is the increased cost of many
of the necessaries of life. Clothing and flour
and some groceries are somewhat cheaper; rent,
which is the largest item in the poor man's expenditure, has increased, and meats, vegetables,
butter, milk, and fuel are much dearer. On
the whole, then, it may be questioned whether
the average annual wages of the average work-

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ingman will purchase for him any more of the
necessaries of life to-day than it would in the
year before the war.
Mr. Carroll D. Wright, the most experienced
and the most judicious of our labor statisticians,
estimates that from 1860 to 1881 wages increased about thirty-one per cent., and prices
about forty-one per cent. If this estimate is
to be trusted, the workingman was a little
worse off in 1881 than in 1860 ; and the year
1881 was an exceptionally prosperous year for
the working people.
Nevertheless, as I have said, it is not well to
dogmatize. We need more light on this question. Over-confident statements on either side
are not to be encouraged. All I can say is,
that such light as I can get inclines me to the
belief that the real annual wages of labor are
little, if any, higher to-day than they were in
1860. If this is all that can be said, then the
wage-workers are falling behind the rest of the
community; for, between 1860 and 1880 the
wealth of the whole country increased from sixteen billions of dollars to forty-three billions,
or one hundred and seventy per cent., and the
average income must have been very considerably increased.
In 1860 the value of the manufactured goods
produced in this country was eighteen hundred

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millions of dollars; in 1880 it was fifty-three
hundred millions, almost three times as much.
This is the pile to be divided. The number of
the persons among whom it is to be divided has
grown about sixty per cent. — but not half as
fast as the pile has grown. And now, when
the working classes come up to get their share
of the pile, they complain and rebel. " What
is the matter with y o u ? " asks some rather
thoughtless onlooker. " Are you not getting as
much as you ever g o t ? " " Perhaps we are," is
the answer ; " but that pile was produced very
largely by our labor; it is about three times
as large as it was twenty-five years ago, and it
looks to us as though we ought to get a good
deal more than we got then. Other people,
who do not labor with their hands, are getting
more out of it now than they got then ; the
traders as a class, the professional people, the
people on salaries, most of them, are able to
live in a great deal better style now than they
could afford a quarter of a century ago ; while,
as for the capitalists and employers, they certainly show us many evidences of greatly increased wealth. Some of us can remember the
social conditions of twenty-five years ago, and
the signs of opulence and splendor then visible
were few and insignificant, compared with what
we see nowadays. We can* compare in our

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memory the most luxurious sections and environs of New York and Boston and Philadelphia
and Cleveland and Chicago then with what we
see to-day, and the increase in the magnificence
is amazing. There were a number of fine turnouts at Saratoga and Newport in 1860 ; but the
luxury of that day was plebeian simplicity compared with the extravagance of to-day. Long
Branch was a cluster of simple wooden cottages
t h e n ; travel up and down the Jersey coast today, and see the oriental pomp and magnificence that spread themselves all over that favored region. Much the same can be said of
the Atlantic coast north of Boston. Such sights
are common. We should know by the evidence
of our eyes, if the census had nothing to say
about it, that the wealth of this country is increasing very fast; we can see where the bulk
of it' is going; and we know, by a bitter experience, that we are getting a very small share
of it.
" We read the newspapers too, and know
something of that class of plutocrats which has
sprung up in this country within twenty-five
years. Some of us can remember the time
when there were only one or two men in the
country worth a million dollars ; now there are
hundreds of them. We pick up a newspaper
and read such an item as this, which appeared

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in many of the journals in the month of January, 1880: ' The profits of the Wall Street
kings the past year were enormous. It is estimated that Vanderbilt made thirty millions;
Jay Gould, fifteen millions ; Russell Sage, ten
millions ; Sidney Dillon, ten millions ; James
R. Keene, eight millions; and several others
from one to two millions each, making a grand
total for ten or twelve estates of about eighty
millions of dollars.' We know, of course, that
there is some exaggeration about this; but if
half of it is true, the story is ominous. What
is more, we know that these rich men are gaining control of our courts and our legislatures,
and of the Congress of the United .States, and
they get the legislation that protects their interests and builds up their fortunes, and that
taxes us to enrich them. It looks as though
we had a system of things under which the
rich were sure to grow richer, and the poor, at
the best, to remain as they are, shut down to a
bare subsistence. We do not^ like the prospect.
We think it is not fair. We are not going to
submit to it, if we can help ourselves ; and we
see no other way but to' band ourselves together
for mutual protection and defense, and fight
against this adverse fate."
Such is the reply of the more intelligent and
sober of the wage-workers to the critic who

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APPLIED CHRISTIANITY.

cavils at their discontent. I submit that they
make out, at any rate, a primd facie case. ¥ I
submit that what they say has so much reason
and justice that no right-minded man can dismiss it with a growl and a sneer. Their fears
of social degradation are not groundless. As
things are going now, it looks as though they
would steadily be forced by the combinations
above them to remain at the very bottom of
the ladder, while the rest are climbing over
their heads to independence and opulence. And
since this is the day and age of combinations,
since capital in a thousand ways is forming
combinations for its own advantage, who will
deny to labor the right to conibine for the assertion of its just claims ?
Combination means war, I admit. Combinations, whether of capital or of labor, are generally made in these days for fighting purposes.
And war is a great evil — no doubt of that.
But it is not the greatest of evils. The permanent social degradation of the people who do
the world's work would be a greater evil. And
if, by combination, the wage-workers can resist
the tendencies that are crowding them down,
and can assert and maintain their right to a
proportional share of the growing wealth, then
let them combine, and let all the people say,
Amen!

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125

The state of the industrial world is a state of
war. And if war is the word, then the efficient
combination and organization must not all be
on the side of capital; labor must be allowed
to make the combinations necessary for the
protection of its own interests. While the conflict is in progress, labor has the same right that
capital has to prosecute the warfare in the most
effective way. If war is the order of the day,
we must grant to labor belligerent rights. The
sooner this fact is recognized, the better for all
concerned. The refusal to admit it has made
the conflict, thus far, much more fierce and sanguinary than it would otherwise have been.
So far as the students of political economy
are concerned, it is now, I believe, universally
agreed that the right of the workmen to combine cannot be questioned. Professor Sumner,
who represents the old school of laissez faire
economists, and President Walker, who represents the new historical school, are equally emphatic in their assertion of the right of the
workmen to stand together in trades-unions for
the defense of their own interests. And the
more reasonable of the employers are also beginning toysee the point. Mr. James Means, a
leading shoe manufacturer of Massachusetts, in
an address to his employees last autumn, uttered
these sensible words : —

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APPLIED CHRISTIANITY.

If the public assumes an attitude of antagonism
toward trades-unions as a whole, the sense of inju3tice felt by the working people will bring them at
last to seek redress by extreme measures. I believe
that orderly trades-unions are to be encouraged. . . .
Labor is the poor man's commodity ; it is the only
thing he has to sell * he must get the highest price
,
for it that he cai by legitimate means. The price
which labor will bring is the market price. What is
the market price of any commodity ? It is the point
where the " bull movements " and the " bear movements " exactly counterbalance each other. The fact
that labor brings a certain price in the market does
not mean that such is a fair market price. It may
be a price based upon injustice. If there is any one
who does not believe this, let him consider what
would be the effect upon the market price of wheat,
or any such commodity, if such price were governed
entirely by the " bears," and if the " bulls " were to
cease their action. What is a trades-union ? It is a
" bull movement " in the labor market. Can any one
wish to see the price of that commodity wliich we
call labor governed by the " bears " alone ? The
" bears " are organized, and no one complains. Is it
fair that the price of labor should be fixed by powerful organizations opposed by weak individuals?
Is it Dot rather to' be desired that a more reasonable
price should be fixed by organization met by organization ?

Other utterances of the same tenor might be
quoted.

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127

The indications are, then, that in this warfare the belligerent rights of the wage-workers
will soon be recognized. Strong combinations
of employers still insist that they will never
recognize them, but they are fighting against
fate; the community at large concedes the right
to the workingmen, and those who stand out
will find it hard to stem the current.
So the battle is joined. Capital and labor
confront each other, both organized and resolute, both determined to win. What will be
the issue ? A year or two ago we should have
said without hesitation, Capital will win; it is
stronger and better organized, and it has the
sinews of war. Up to that time the victory
had almost always been on the side of capital.
The great majority of the strikes had been unsuccessful. But within the last year matters
have taken a turn. The organization of the
laborers is much more perfect and more formidable now than ever before. It is by no means
clear that it may not prove a match for its
antagonist. A t any rate, things have now assumed such a shape that we may fairly expect
to see some destructive fighting. The combinations on both sides are so strong that they ought
to be able to do each other, and the whole country, a great deal of damage. It must be possible for them to paralyze the industries of the

128

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nation; to waste a good part of its savings ; to
dig the chasm that separates the employer from
the employed a great deal deeper and wider
than it now i s ; and to sow seeds of jealousy
and spite that will bear a woeful harvest through
many generations. Is it not a good time to stop
and ask the question whether this warfare is
really worth while ?
When people go to war, they generally have
before them one of two possible issues of the
conflict.^ Each combatant may be determined
on a complete triumph over the other — a
triumph that shall result in exterminating or
subjugating or enslaving the other; or each
combatant may desire to make an exhibition of
his strength which shall enforce the respect of
the other and secure honorable terms of peace.
It is well for these combatants to determine,
before they go any farther, whether they desire
to subjugate one another.
Do the employing class think it would be a
good thing to subjugate the wage-laborers — to
reduce them to a condition in which they would
be practically slaves or dependents ? Do the
employing class want to keep the wages of the
laboring class down as nearly as they can to
the level of subsistence? Doubtless there are
selfish and greedy men among them who would
care very little what became of the working

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people, so long as they were able to make themselves rich. But I am sure that the employers
of labor as a rule cherish no such heartlessness; they know that it would be fatal to our
national life if the class of wage-laborers became a permanently degraded class ; they know
that peace and prosperity cannot abide in the
land unless all classes have an equal chance and
a fair prospect. What is more, when they look
at the matter from the lowest materialistic
standpoint, they know that the wage-laborers
constitute a very large share of the consumers
of goods; that if they are able to purchase
nothing but the bare necessaries, of life, trade
will be dull; that when they have plenty of
money in their pockets trade will be brisk;
that it is not, therefore, for the interest of the
manufacturing and mercantile classes that the
laboring classes should be reduced to the verge
of starvation. Capital is not such a fool as to
wish to push this war to the subjugation of its
antagonist.
Neither does labor, I trust, desire to subjugate capital. That, to be sure, is the socialistic
programme: the theory of socialism is that the
capital shall all belong to the state, and shall
be owned and controlled by the workers ; that
there shall be no private enterprise; that all
the business of production and transportation

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CHRISTIANITY.

and exchange shall be managed by state officials.
But we are not ready yet for such a revolution. Beyond all question, the industrial system which is based on private enterprise is the
best system practicable at the present time, and
will be for a long time to come. It needs to
be modified, but it cannot be overthrown without disaster to the working classes. Business
will be managed for a good while yet by captains of industry; and it is for the interest of
the people who do the world's work that it
should be. Larger gains, on the whole, will
come to them through this management properly modified than through any which they
could substitute for it. The attempt to destroy
or even cripple capitalistic enterprise is suicidal.
So then it is absurd and even monstrous for
either of these combatants to dream of subjugating the other. It is for the interest of each
that the other should be free and prosperous
and contented and hopeful.
The other rational object that men have in
fighting is the assertion of their rights and the
demonstration of their prowess. They want to
make it evident that it is not safe to encroach
upon /their liberties; they want to lay the
foundations of an honorable peace. Have not
these two combatants been fighting long enough
to accomplish this object? Surely labor has

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OR WAR?

131

reason enough to respect and even dread the
power of capital; and is not capital by this
time sufficiently impressed with the power of
labor ? Is it not a good time for the contending parties to ground their arms, and shake
hands, and sit down, and have a frank and
friendly conference? Is not this business of
war a senseless, brutal, barbarous business, at
best ? Does either side expect to do itself any
good by fighting the other ? It is about as rational as it would be for the right hand and the
left hand to smite each other with persistent
and deadly enmity, or for the eyes and the ears
to array themselves against each other in a
remorseless feud. It is a sorry comment on our
civilization that here, at the end of the nineteenth Christian century, sane and full-grown
men, whose welfare depends wholly on the recognition of their mutual interests and on the
cooperation of their efforts, should be ready to
spend a good share of their time in trying to
cripple or destroy one another. It is not only
wicked, it is stupid ; it is no£ simply monstrous,
it is ridiculous.
Are not the employers ready, by this time,
to hear reason ? Have they not had fighting
enough for the present ? Are they not willing
to make peace? If so, the first thing*for them
to do is to face the fact that the wage~workers9

132

APPLIED CHRISTIANITY.

by whose labor they are gaining their wealth,
are entitled to a little better share of the joint
product than they are getting now; that they
have a perfect right to expect it, to ask for it,
and to combine for the purpose of getting it.
When that fact is frankly admitted, arbitration
of labor disputes will follow as a matter of
course.
The demand for fewer hours of labor must also
be fairly considered. It does not seem, on the
face of it, altogether unreasonable. With the
continual improvements in machinery it is not
at all incredible that the world's wants can be
supplied by eight hours' work in a day. Would
it not be vastly better for the health, the morals, and the thrift of the community to have
our shops and factories going eight hours a day
all the year round than to have them go ten
hours a day for nine or ten months, and be idle
all day for two or three months in the year,
which is the present order in large sections of
the country ? The question whether the daily
Working time can be reduced one-fifth with no
diminution in the daily wage is, of course, a
question that must be settled on economical
rather than sentimental principles. But some
interesting experiments tend to show that, even
when machinery is a large factor in production,
the product of eight hours' work will be much

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133

more than four-fifths of the product of ten
hours' work. The reduction of the time will
not proportionately reduce the product, and
should not, therefore, proportionately reduce
the wage.
I t is often said that increased wages and
shorter hours will only promote recklessness
and dissipation among tlie men ; that the addition to their income would go to the saloons ;
that the enlargement of their leisure would result in debauchery. Such statements are too
sweeping. Some of the more ignorant and degraded of the men would be affected in this
way, no doubt, but it would not be true of all
of them; it would not, I trust, be true of the
majority of them. The new hope, the enlarged
opportunity, would make the better elements
among them self-respecting and frugal; their
leisure would not all go to the uses of the flesh.
The most careful English student of this question, Professor Leone Levi, bears this testimony : —
As a rule, and in the long run, scarcity, low wages,
and scantiness of food go hand in hand with high
mortality, drunkenness, and crime ; while abundance,
high wages, and full consumption go hand in hand
with low mortality, temperance, and good behavior.
A sudden increase of wages, as in the colliery districts in 1872-73, may find the recipients utterly un-

134

APPLIED

CHRISTIANITY.

prepared for their good fortunes. And so we have
heard of miners indulging in champagne wine, and of
puddlers purchasing for themselves sealskin waistcoats. But reason speedily asserts her higher sway.
The housewife eagerly arrests a portion of the higher
wages to furnish the bare rooms, to fill the empty
cupboard, and to clothe the children. Little by little,
as the novel condition with its bountiful stores is
realized, self-respect increases, sobriety of conduct is
induced, and the family as a whole rises to habits of
virtue and prosperity. 1
T h i s is t h e result which we have good reason
t o expect, not by any m e a n s universally, b u t on
t h e whole, and in t h e long run, from t h e improvement in the laborer's condition. Some laborers cannot bear prosperity ; some employers
cannot. Most employers, I dare say, have an
abiding conviction t h a t it would not h u r t t h e m
in t h e least to be a little b e t t e r off, and t h e y
may safely reason in t h e same way with regard
to their men. O n t h e whole, and in the long
run, happiness is b e t t e r for men t h a n misery,
plenty better t h a n want, hope b e t t e r t h a n despair. E v e r y effort t h a t is made for t h e amelioration of h u m a n i t y rests on t h a t assumption.
Some employers chafe under t h e n e w dem a n d s of labor. Doubtless these demands are
sometimes arrogant and unreasonable ; is this
1 Wages and Earnings of the Working Classes, p. 35.

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135

to be wondered at ? War is an essentially unreasonable business ; it is not by reason that its
issues are determined, but by force. " It is a
pity," men say, " if an employer cannot manage
his business to suit himself." It may be a pity,
but-it is true. If by this phrase is meant managing his business solely in his own interest,
that is exactly what he cannot do. The assumption that he can is one of. the bottom causes of
all this trouble. It is true that employers have
long been taught that if they were perfectly
selfish in the management of their business, the
results would be beneficent; that this kingdom
of industry is the one department of human activity with which, conscience and good-will have
no normal relation; that self-interest is and
must be the sole ruler of this realm. Most of
them have believed this doctrine ; some of them
have acted accordingly ; but many of them have
behaved a great deal better than the theory required them to behave, and have mixed not a
little humanity with their business, thinking, no
doubt, all the while that they were doing a silly
thing. It was not a silly thing. The wisdom
of their hearts was sounder than the theories of
their heads. The doctrine which bases all the
relations of employer and employed upon selfinterest is a doctrine of the pit; it has been
bringing hell to earth in large installments fqr a

136

APPLIED CHRISTIANITY.

good many years. There is no department of
human conduct in which pure egoism is a safe
guide. No employer can manage his business exclusively in his own interest. It is not
exclusively his business. The men who do the
work are in reality his business partners, and
he is bound to think of them, and care for them,
and manage the business in their interest as
well as his own. This ia what employers must
do if they want peace. You can have hell in
your factory, or you can have heaven there, just
which you please. If it is hell that you want,
build your business on the law of hell, which is
simply, "Every man for himself and the devil
take the hindmost!" Out of that will come
wars and fightings, perennial and unrelenting.
If it is heaven that you want, then build your
business on the law of the kingdom of heaven,
which is, " Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." That will put you in the path of peace.
If peace is better than war, the employer's
first problem must be to find a way of getting
his enterprise on a peace basis. He can only do
that by identifying his men with himself in the
hopes, the prospects, the rewards of their joint
undertaking. It begins to be evident to many
employers that industrial partnership in some
form is the next step in the evolution of our industrial system. This method has been thor-

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oughly tried in scores of establishments, large
and small, upon the continent of Europe, with
splendid and almost unvarying success. Multitudes of people, who never have tried it, and
have never seen it tried, and who know nothing
about it, are free to say that it would not work ;
but what is the judgment of such doctrinaires
worth in the face of the almost unbroken experience of the hundreds who have tried it ? It
is hard to keep one's patience when those who
profess to be " practical men " set up their ipse
dixit against the solid achievements of thirty
years of peaceful and prosperous industry conducted upon this basis.
I have called attention in another chapter to
the inspiring recital by Mr. Sedley Taylor of
the progress of this principle in Europe. Quite
a number of important firms and companies in
this country have been practicing it with entire
success for several years ; and the rapidity with
which the movement has been advancing since
the beginning of the present year is something
notable. We shall soon have a chance to see
for ourselves whether profit-sharing will work
in this country.
The common objections to this method are
easily answered. " Some years there are no
profits to divide," it is said. True ; and in such
years the workmen would get their regular
wages, but no bonus at the end of the year.

138
u

APPLIED

CHRISTIANITY.

But this would make them dissatisfied and
rebellious," it is urged. " They would think
they had been cheated." This is assuming that
they are hopelessly unreasonable and unjust. It
is probable that if the employer really wishes
to make his men the sharers of his prosperity,
he Nwill be able to make them believe it, and
that they will forego their dividend without
complaint.
" But there are sometimes losses," it is said,
" and it is not fair that the men should share in
the profits unless they share in the losses also."
Let that be granted. But the system provides
for laying aside a reserve fund in the prosperous years, out of which losses could be made up
in the unprosperous years. Thus the workmen
do share in the losses.
" But the profits are none too large now," it
is urged ; " t o lessen them by an additional dividend to labor would cripple many industries."
The census makes it plain that the laborer
might have a larger share of the profits without
doing anybody' any injustice; but this point
may be waived. It is enough to say that all
the economists declare that whatever renders
labor more efficient is a clear gain both to labor
and to capital; it makes a larger product to divide between them. And it is the general testimony of those who have tried profit-sharing,

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139

that it makes the laborer more industrious and
more economical of materials and tools ; that
the expense of superintendence is largely reduced ; that the employer has as much left after
he has paid the laborer his share of the profit
as he had before. A slight acquaintance with
human nature would make it easy to believe
that this might be.
It does not seem at all incredible that business might be more prosperous on a peace basis
than on a war basis; and it is at least possible
that the employer could put it on a peace basis
by making his men his business partners, and
letting them share with himself in the rewards
of their joint industry. I will venture to predict that peace will never come to stay until
this principle, under some form, has been introduced into the industrial order.
What answer now shall we hear from the
men of toil to tins burning question ? Shall it
be peace or war ? ^Before they give their voices
for the continuance of war, some things should
be well considered.
In the first place, they ought to see that the
employing class is not their worst enemy. It is
not the employing class, as such, that is absorbing the wealth of this country, so much as it is
the gamblers and the political corruption is ts.
A pretty large share of the plutocrats have

140

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CHRISTIANITY.

gained their wealth by gambling operations in
the stock and produce exchanges, and by bribing city councils and legislatures and courts and
congresses. With franchises and legislative favors and judicial decisions thus obtained, they
have robbed the public for their own benefit.
The net profits of industry are not excessive,
but the plunder of these parasites is enormous.
After they have filled their pockets out of the
product of industry, there is a good deal less to
be divided between employers and laborers.
The working classes are just as much responsible for their existence as their employers are.
If workingmen had been as careful in choosing
men to represent them in the city councils and
the legislatures as they ought to have been, this
class of parasites could never have flourished as
they have done. The first fight for them to
make is against these parasites of industry.
In the second place, the workingmen should
make up their minds before they push this fight
any further, whether they wish to overthrow
the present system of industry, or whether they
prefer to modify it, so that it shall be more favorable to their interest. They may be able to
destroy i t ; but it will be well for them to count
the cost before entering on that campaign.
Samson overthrew the temple of the Philistines; but it is instructive to remember what
became of Samson.

IS IT PEACE OR WAR*

141

In the third place, if workingmen do not want
to exterminate private enterprise, and if they
expect to have business relations with the employing class, they cannot too soon unlearn the
bitter and violent habits of speech and thought
into which they have been falling of late in their
discussion of the labor question. The sweeping
denunciations of the capitalists as thieves and
swindlers and robbers, in which some of them
are wont to indulge, are both unwise and unjust. Successful business relations cannot be
maintained among men who cherish such feelings toward one another. There are heartless
and selfish men among employers; so there are
among laborers. Wrongs are done on both
sides; people who are at war are not apt to be
scrupulous about respecting one another's rights.
Many employers are heartily desirous of doing
their men full justice; and the men by no means
always show a proper appreciation of this goodwill. Permit me to say that I know something
about this war; I have been in-the thick of it
for thirty* years, trying to make peace, and helping to care for the sick and the wounded; and
I know that the wrong is not all on one side,
and that the harsh judgments and the fierce talk
of both sides are inexcusable.
In the fourth place, if workingmen want business put on a peace basis, let them say so, and
show that they mean it. If they desire to have

142

APPLIED

CHRISTIANITY.

labor disputes settled by arbitration, let them
frankly and good-naturedly ask for arbitration,
and show that they have a reasonable temper
and a purpose to stand by a fair award. If
they want profit-sharing, let them put that into
their platforms, and make it clear to their employers that they can be trusted to give the
scheme a fair trial. Some of them are hoping
for cooperation ; for an organization of industry
in which the men who do the work shall own
the capital, and receive both profits and wages.
To every such enterprise, God speed ! It takes
a high degree of intelligence and self-control to
cooperate in production ; workingmen are gaining these qualifications steadily; they will be
ready for it before long. But production, on
any basis, requires capital — capital to purchase
the plant, and capital to live on while the product is maturing; and capital can be got by
those who are not born rich in only two ways
— by saving, and by stealing. Workingmen
cannot afford tQ steal; they will never prosper
if they do. It is true that many of our plutocrats got their money by stealing from the people at large, but their prosperity is a blight
upon them and upon the nation. If they have
been unjust, our workingmen cannot afford to
rebuild the industry of the country on the same
foundation of injustice. It is only by economy
that the capital can be accumulated by which

IS IT PEACE OR WAR?

143

they can cooperate; and it is to be hoped that
profit-sharing will put them in the path that
leads to this goal.
The present appears to be a critical time in
the history of labor. Within the past few
months our workingmen have suddenly come
to the consciousness of great power. Their
more compact organization, their more effective
weapons of war, have given them advantages
that they never had before. The question of
the hour is whether they can use this power
temperately and wisely. There are ominous
signs of a disposition to employ it passionately
and vindictively. Men who speak in the interests of selfish capital are heard to express the
confident hope that the workingmen will soon
overstep the bounds of prudence and justice,
and ruin their own prospects. That is the real
danger. Doubtless, it is hard for those who
are smarting under a sense of injustice to be
always temperate and judicious; but the welfare of these n^en depends on keeping their
heads cool. Vengeance does not belong to
them; and they are strong enough now to be
magnanimous.
It is easy for the organizations of labor to
cripple by unreasonable demands the industries
of whole sections. They have done this thing
already more than once. In the stoppages and
readjustments thus occurring, great suffering is

144

APPLIED CHRISTIANITY.

caused and no advantage is gained. An unjust
demand, even if it be temporarily enforced, always reacts on those who make it. The working classes have now tremendous power; they
may easily employ it for self-destruction. It is
quite possible for them to use their power tyrannically ; and tyranny will not thrive in this
day, the tyranny of a mob no more than the
tyranny of an autocrat. This weapon of the
boycott with which the labor unions have lately
armed themselves is pretty sure to prove a
boomerang. If they use it recklessly, there
may easily arise a consumers' union, to fight
them with their own fire — to patronize those
whom they proscribe. Already the popular
indignation at the unscrupulous use of this
weapon is so strong that the publication of a
boycott has proved, in several cases, an excellent advertisement of the boycotted dealer.
With all the improved enginery of war the
labor unions are sure to find that war is dangerous business. \It is all the more dangerous because of these improved weapons. It can never
be anything else but perilous and destructive
business. Let not these combatants on either
side suppose that they can hurt and maim their
antagonists and get no harm themselves !
Over all this wretched strife one can imagine
those " better ^ angels of our nature," whose
ministry Abraham Lincoln once pathetically

IS IT PEACE OR WARt

145

but vainly invoked, bending with divine compassion and crying to the embattled hosts with
solemn rebuke and benignant appeal: Is it well,
brother men, is it well to fight ? Is it not better to be friends? Are you not all children of
one Father ? Nay, are you not, as the great
apostle said, members one of another? Your
war is not only wholesale fratricide, it is social
suicide. It is little to say that you cannot afford to fight: you cannot live apart; you must
live for one another. That is the way you
were made to live; and you will never have
anything but trouble and sorrow till you learn
that way and walk in it. The stars in their
courses will fight against you until you make
peace with one another. Have we nofc had
more than enough of war and its dismal noises
and its spectral train of woes; more than
enough of silent looms and tireless forges; of
children's faces pale with hunger, and women's
sunken eyes; of hearts made fierce and hard by
long-cherished enmities ; of class arrayed against
class and neighbor against neighbor?' Oh, put
it all away from you — the hate, the suspicion,
the scorn ; stand here together, brethren as you
are, helpers of one another as you must be, and
promise one another that you will do what you
can, every one of you, to bring the day when
between Labor and Capital there shall be no
longer war, but peace for evermore.

THE W A G E - W O R K E R S AND
CHURCHES.

THE

W E often say that Christianity is the cure of
the evils that threaten modern civilization, but
the troublesome fact that rises up to confound
us whenever we express this confidence is the
fact that a large section of the population is
wholly outside our churches, and apparently
"beyond the reach of their direct influence. I t
is true that Christian ideas and sentiments do,
to a certain extent, pervade all our society; the
social atmosphere contains more or less of its
vital elements, and no man can breathe in this
Christian land without unconsciously assimilating some of its truth. But the complete separation of large numbers of our people from the
institutions of religion, their utter ignorance of
us and of all that we are trying to do, is a discouraging fact. This was brought home to me
a few years ago in a manner that ought to have
humbled my conceit, whether it did or not. I
had been working pretty busily for almost eight
years in a city of New England where neigh*

THE WAGE-WORKERS

AND THE

CHURCHES.

147

bors generally know one another, and where
the church-going population is exceptionally
large, and I had tried to bear my part in the
social and political life of the city as well as in
its religious life. One Sunday a friend of mine,
unfamiliar with the city, was walking down the
principal street looking for my church, and
three of my fellow-citizens of whom he inquired,
in succession, did not know where the church
was, and did not appear to have ever heard of
its pastor. I suspect we should all be somewhat surprised if we could know just how
many people there are within hearing of our
church bells who do not know the name of the
churches or of their ministers, to whose thought
all our interests are foreign, to whose ear our
familiar speech is an unknown tongue. Many
others there are who know something of us, but
do not love us; who listen with indifference, if
not with resentment, when our church-bells
ring; who regard our assemblies with suspicious criticism; who are not so accessible to
our influence as those who know less about us.
I do not mean to be understood as affirming
that the majority of our population is thus
wholly outside of all church relations. This
class of entire neglecters is, as yet, a minority
in most of our cities, but it is a minority large
enough to cause us anxiety and to furnish us

148

APPLIED

CHRISTIANITY,

one of our hardest problems. Certain it is that
Christianity can never cure the social ills under
which we are suffering while so large a class remains practically untouched by its healing influences.
Our perplexity increases when we discover
that this neglect is greatest in that class of the
population in which Christianity claims to be
specially interested, to which it has always
made its most gracious promises and its most
successful appeals, with which its Founder himself was identified while He was on the earth —
the wage-workers and the poor. The strongest
of the evidences of Christianity has always
been that one to which our Lord himself pointed
the disciples of John: " The Gospel is preached
to the poor." It must be confessed that this
proof of Christ's divine mission is losing its cogency.
I do not think that church neglect is increasing, as a rule, in other classes of the population.
There are exceptional cities in which this neglect pervades all orders to an alarming degree,
and seems to be steadily growing. But, generally, in our cities and large towns, I am inclined to think that the proportion of the people who attend the church or the Sunday-school
— who are present in the house of God during
some part of the Lord's day — is as large as

THE WAGE-WORKERS AND THE CHURCHES. 1 4 9

ever it was. The merchants, the clerks, the
professional people, the teachers, are not deserting the churches. Of course there are multitudes of these persons who do not come to
church now, and such multitudes have always
been with us; but neglect does not increase
among them, and it does increase among the
wage-workers. The proportion of wage-workers in our churches is diminishing.
Proof of this proposition is not easily furnished, and I would much rather those who
listen to me would search out the facts for
themselves, than take my word for them. I
suppose that there are localities in which the
statements just made would not hold good, but
a pretty careful study convinces me that they
do hold good of the country at large, and especially of the cities. My analysis of the census makes it probable to me that the mechanics,
the shop-hands, and the common laborers — the
wage-workers employed in manual labor of one
kind or another, with their families, constitute
fully one fourth of the population. Is it true
that one fourth of the membership of our city
churches belongs to this class ? That is a
question that every pastor can easily answer
for himself, so far as his own church is concerned. It is true that in our Roman Catholic
churches the proportion of wage-laborers will

150

APPLIED

CHRISTIANITY.

be found to be much larger than one fourth;
the average in our Protestant churches should,
therefore, be somewhat less than one fourth. It
would be well for every pastor to satisfy himself what the proportion is in his congregation.
Of course the reckoning must be made by families, rather than by individuals. In my own
congregation, which worships in a very plain
church, the seats of which are free, in a neighborhood easily accessible to the working classes,
and which has been known always as an extremely democratic congregation, I find only
about one tenth of the families on my list belonging to this class. The proportion would be
slightly increased if I added the families which
are represented in our Sunday-school, but which
send no adults to any of our services. This is
the result of repeated special efforts made in
the interest of the working classes, with several
courses of lectures on Sunday evenings for their
benefit. Goodly numbers of them have attended these lectures, and there is, I think, a
kindly feeling among them toward our church
— certainly toward its pastor ; but the number of those who identify themselves with us is
still very small.
It is true that there are missions in all our
cities into which larger numbers of these people are drawn; all these must be taken into ac«

THE WAGE-WORKERS

AND THE CHURCHES.

151

count in our estimates; for although the arrangement whereby the rich are separated
from the poor in their worship is not the ideal
of Christianity, and although it may be a question whether in the long run church neglect
may hot be caused rather than cured by this
arrangement; yet the question we are now considering respects the actual church attendance
of the working classes — it is the question
whether {he proportion of wage-workers in our
churches and our missions is as large as it is in
our population.
To get at the workingmen's ideas respecting
this question, whether the people of their class
are drawing away from the churches, and, if
so, why, I sent out circulars, a few months
ago, to workingmen connected with the various
manufacturing industries of my own city, and
obtained from them a large number of replies.
From establishments employing in the aggregate between three and four thousand men, I
had letters, and out of these, as nearly as I can
estimate, from the figures given me, not more
than one third attend church; and of those
who do go, a good share are Roman Catholics.
How is it with the other extreme of society ?
In this same city I asked one of the best informed citizens to make me out a list of fifty of
the leaders of business. He did not know my

152

APPLIED CHRISTIANITY.

reason for wishing such a list, but after it was
put into my hands, I found that fifty-five per
cent, of these men were communicants in the
churches, and that seventy-seven per cent, of
them were regular attendants upon the churches.
A large proportion of the capitalists are more
or less closely identified with the churches,,
while of the laborers, only a small share are
thus identified, and the number tends to decrease rather than to increase.
This statement is sometimes disputed,' but I
am quite sure that it cannot be successfully
controverted. Some of those who have expressed a contrary opinion have counted clerks,
book-keepers, teachers, and office-boys into the
" working class," but the question we are considering has nothing to do with these. We are
talking now about the manual wage-workers —
the mechanics, the operatives, and the day laborers ; as to what may be the degree of neglect among those other classes, I am not prepared to express an opinion.
If the tendency of the class with which we
are now dealing is what I have represented it
to be, the fact is one of grave significance. If
the churches are losing their hold on these
working people, not only are they exhibiting a
most alarming sign of their own degeneracy, but
they are permitting the growth of elements and

THE WAGE-WORKERS

AND THE CHURCHES. 1 5 3

forces which will prove fatal to the peace, and
even to the existence, of society. There is no
other cement that can hold society together
but that genuine good-will which is the heart
of Christianity. The weakening of this bond is
an ominous sign. I do not think that it is the
part of wisdom to ignore it. If it is true, we
cannot too speedily discover it, nor too frankly
confess it, nor too earnestly seek to know what
it means.
What is the cause of this tendency ? Why
is it that the working people are slowly and
sullenly drawing apart from the churches ?
Many reasons are given. First, and most
conclusive to the minds of some philosophers,
is the comprehensive fact of total depravity.
The working people stay away from church
because their hearts are set against God and
divine things; because they prefer to spend the
day in idleness and pleasuring. Undoubtedly
the working people have their full share of this
universal moral disability; but I am not prepared to admit that they have any more than
their share. Total depravity will account for
just as much church neglect among working
people as it will account for among traders,
and lawyers, and teachers, and no more ; and
what we are now considering is the exceptional
degree of church neglect existing among work-

154

APPLIED CHRISTIANITY.

ing people. The cause assigned will not account for this unless we assume that their depravity is considerably more than total.
Another explanation finds the reason of this
fact in the infidelity prevalent among the working classes. It then becomes necessary to show
that infidelity is more prevalent in these classes
than in the mercantile and professional classes.
I am not sure that this can be shown. But
suppose that it can be shown. Admit, for the
sake of the argument, that there is more skepticism among wage-workers than among the
other classes of society. The next question is,
how came this to be so ? What has made skeptics out of these workingmen ? Infidelity is not
what Dr. Emmons said Romanism was, " a n
ultimate fact." I t needs to be explained, quite
as much as church neglect needs to be explained. Perhaps the same cause that drove
these people out of the churches robbed them
also of their faith in the doctrines on which the
churches are founded. Perhaps when we have
learned the reason of their church neglect we
shall know the reason of their doubt.
When we ask the working people themselves
to tell us why they are not in the churches,
they give us various responses. I have a large
bundle of letters at home in which this question
is answered in many different ways. Some of

THE WAGE-WORKERS

AND THE CHURCHES. 1 5 5

these reasons are manifestly pretexts, destitute^
of serious meaning. One says that it costs too
much, to support the churches ; but this objection was made respecting a church, which it
costs no man a cent to attend ; where he can
contribute as much or as little as he chooses,
and the amount of his contribution will be
known to nobody. Another says that some
ministers preach politics; but he is perfectly
aware, of course, that some ministers do not.
Another urges that workingmen need the day
for rest; but he can hardly be ignorant of the
fact that the Sabbath rest is not prevented, but
most effectually promoted, by the quiet and refreshing service of the sanctuary. All these
are pleas that the advocates do not expect us to
take very seriously.
The real reasons for the absence of the working people from church, as they reveal themselves in this correspondence of mine, resolve
themselves into two: first, their inability to
dress well enough to appear in a place as stylish
and fashionable as the average church; secondly, their sense of the injustice that workingmen, as a class, are receiving at the hands of
capitalist employers, as a class. These two reasons are often combined. It is because the
workingman is not receiving a fair compensation for his labor, that he cannot dress his wife

156

APPLIED

CHRISTIANITY.

and children well enough to go to church. T h e
plain or shabby raiment is the badge of his
poverty, t h e evidence of the wrong t h a t he is
suffering.
One reason [writes one of my correspondents]
for not attending the larger churches, which have
wealthy congregations and good ministers, is that
they are composed of the class who hire men to work
for them, and, of course, dress themselves and their
families better than the mere wage-worker can afford
to do. When we see our employers going to church
in~broadcloth, and silk, and satin, and furs, and laces,
and ribbons, it is natural for the man with a faded
and patched coat, and the woman with a calico dress,
to feel rather uncomfortable in the midst of such
finery.
One reason of their absence [writes another] is
their inability to clothe themselves in a manner to
make a respectable appearance in church, owing to
the starvation wages paid to them.
You want to know what the workingmen think
about capitalists ? [writes another.] We think [he
answers, rather compendiously] that they are thieves
and robbers.
Of course [writes another^] the manufacturers can
and should dress better than the laborer ; but when
we see them so full of religion on Sunday, and then
grinding the faces of the poor on the other six days,
we are apt to think they are insincere. They say to
us, " We are not making as much as we would like •,
we will have to reduce the cost of our goods by cut*

THE WAGE-WORKERS

AND THE CHURCHES.

157

ting down your wages a little." We say, " W e can't
clothe our families comfortably now." They say we
must economize by buying a cheaper article of clothing. We say, u Hard work gives us a good appetite,
and we can't set a substantial table." They say,
" Corn is cheap; your table ought not to cost much."
This creates an ill-feeling between capital and labor.
When the capitalist prays for us one day in the week,
and preys on us the other six, it can't be expected
that we will have much respect for his Christianity.
This letter fairly expresses the sentiment t h a t
runs t h r o u g h a good share of m y correspondence. T h e assumption of most of t h e letters is
t h a t the churches are chiefly attended and controlled by the capitalist and the employing
classes; they make it evident t h a t there is b u t
little sympathy between these classes and t h e
laboring class ; and they show t h a t the laborers
have no desire to attend t h e churches in which
their employers worship. T h e social barrier
between t h e m is high and strong on week days ;
they are not inclined to lower it on Sundays.
Beyond a doubt, a great many conversations of
t h e same nature as t h a t reported by t h e workingman above do take place between masters
and m e n ; and when, after all this t a l k about
reduced wages, and consequent corn cake and
calico for t h e workman's family, t h e w o r k m a n
sees his employer's family faring sumptuously,

158

APPLIED

CHRISTIANITY.

and walking or riding abroad in the most gorgeous array, he is not, naturally, in the proper
mood to sing the same hymns and pray the
same prayers.
Nothing is more certain than that the wageworkers of this country feel that they are falling
behind in the race of life. They know that the
nation's wealth is increasing with almost miraculous rapidity, the figures of the census tell
them so, and the fact thrusts itself upon their
senses on every side. They know, moreover, if
they have memories reaching back twenty or
thirty years, that their condition is not greatly
improved; that the real wages of labor are but
little increased ; and that, relatively to the rest
of the community, they are worse off than they
were thirty years ago. The annual expenditure
for living purposes of the average employer has
enormously increased, the annual expenditure
of the average mechanic or operative has not
greatly increased.
The workman feels that this tendency is due
to the pitiless action of natural forces which the
employing classes do not try, to restrain. If he
does not reason much about it, he has a pretty
strong notion that the fates are against him,
and that his employer is on the side of fate.
He knows that money, when it is massed in
great corporations or companies, or heaped up

THE WAGE-WORKERS

AND THE CHURCHES.

159

in accumulations, is p o w e r ; t h a t concentrated
capital has the power to dicate terms to singlehanded labor, and t h a t it is by no means certain
t h a t any combination of labor can successfully
hold its own against t h e power of c a p i t a l ; it
looks to him as t h o u g h a bitter and deadly conflict were in progress under t h e law of the survival of the strongest; and if he has ever heard
of Rieardo's " Iron L a w of W a g e s , " he is inclined to t h i n k t h a t it is being fulfilled in its
narrowest sense, and t h a t t h e tendency of t h e
present industrial regime is to b r i n g the price
of labor down to the lowest figure at which t h e
w o r k m a n can subsist and propagate his species.
T h e kindly relations which once subsisted between t h e master and his workmen have disappeared ; t h e large system of industry scarcely
permits of any personal relation between the
capitalist and t h e laborer; labor, under t h e
modern system, is a commodity as much as coal
or cotton, a n d t h e only question is how to buy
it most cheaply. This tendency, obvious enough
to all thoughtful observers, is clearly pointed
but by the lamented Arnold T o y n b e e in his
lecture on " Industry and Democracy " : —
Apart from the system of short contracts, which
does not necessarily mean transient ties, there was a
cause for separation between employer and workmen

160

APPLIED

CHRISTIANITY.

in the very constitution of modern industrial life, with
its rapid migration of men from occupation to occupation and from place to place. This is most conspicuous in a new country like America, where the whole
staff of a cotton factory is sometimes changed in three
years ; and where the Western farmer, hiring laborers for the season, seldom sees the same faces the
second time. How could personal bonds exist under
such conditions as these? Not only, moreover, did
the workman become more and more divided from his
employer, he had, as De Tocqueville long ago pointed
out, become more and more unlike him. The modern
capitalist understands nothing of the details of his
business. He leaves the management of his factory
and the engagement and discharge of his men to a
subordinate, lives in a mansion far- away from the
works, and knows nothing of, cares nothing for, the
condition of his work-people. Frequently the employer is not an individual, but a company ; and towards a company, at any rate, warm personal attachment is impossible. As the result of these changes,
the workman, divided from his employer and receiving from him no benefits, regarded him from a distance with hatred and suspicion as the member of a
dominant class. The employer, divided from his
workman and conferring upon him no benefit, looked
upon him uneasily as the member of a subject class
claiming a dangerous independence. The gulf between the two classes seemed, and to many still
seems, impassable. 1
J- Industrial Revolution in England, p. 197.

THE

WAGE-WORKERS

AND THE CHURCHES. 1 6 1

Toynbee has put this into the past tense.
The conditions which he describes seemed, at
the time when these words were spoken, — in
the year 1881, — to be gradually passing away.
Doubtless this was true of England, for the industrial revolution began earlier in that country than in this, and its fiercest stages are apparently past. But the picture that he paints
is still visible in fresh colors on this side of the
ocean ; we have been steadily moving for thirty
years in the direction which he points out; and
whether or not the gulf between masters and
men is yet to grow wider and deeper is at this
moment a serious question. To some of us it
seems already a portentous chasm. Such, then, is the state of industrial society
at the present time. The hundreds of thousands of unemployed laborers, vainly asking for
work; the rapid increase of pauperism, indicated by the fact that during the last Winter,
in the chief cities of this rich commonwealth,
nearly one tenth of the population sought charitable aid from the infirmary director or the
benevolent societies; the strikes and lock-outs
reported every day in the newspapers ; the sudden and alarming growth of the more violent
types of socialism, are ominous signs of the
times. Any one who keeps his ear close enough
to the ground will hear mutterings of discontent
and anger in unexpected quarters.

162

APPLIED

CHRISTIANITY.

It is evident that the wage-workers, as a
class, are discontented. They feel that they
are not getting their fair share of the gains of
advancing civilization.
It is evident that they are becoming more
and more widely separated from their employers in the social scale.
It is evident that the old relations of friendliness between the two classes are giving place
to alienation and enmity.
It is evident that the working people have
the impression that the churches are mainly
under the control of the capitalists and of those
in sympathy with them.
If all these things are so, the reasons why the
working people are inclined to withdraw from
the churches ought also to be plain.
The fact of a great and growing discontent
among the working classes, the fact of the
increasing separation and alienation between
wage - workers and their employers, are facts
that cannot be disputed by any intelligent person. It may be doubted whether existing circumstances are bearing as severely upon the
laborer as he imagines; it may be that he is
better off than he thinks he is. But the question with which we are now concerned is, What
does he think about it ? He may be wrong in
cherishing such unfriendly and resentful feel-

THE WAGE-WORKERS

AND THE CHURCHES. 1 6 3

ings toward his employer ; but does he cherish
them ? He may be in error in thinking that
the capitalist classes exercise a preponderating
influence in the churches; but does he think
so ? If his state of mind is what it is assumed
to be in this discussion, you have a reason for
church neglect which is wide-spread and deepseated ; you have a disorder to cure which is
constitutional and obstinate, and which will
never be removed by the sprinkling of rosewater j you have a problem on your hands
which calls for clear thinking and heroic endeavori
The "masses " of our cities that we are trying to reach are composed, to a large extent,
of these wage-workers, and we shall never reach
them over this barrier.
The sooner the
churches recognize this fact and adjust their
theories and their methods to it, the sooner they
will begin to see daylight shine through this
dark problem of church neglect.
So long as
we ignore this fundamental difficulty, all our efforts to allure these neglecters will be in vain.
A few of them will come in now and then in
response to our urgent invitations; some of
them, less thoughtful, or more hopeful, or more
long-suffering than the rest, will continue to
worship with us, finding in the promise of the
life to come some help to bear the hardships of

164

APPLIED

CHRISTIANITY.

the life that now is ; but the great multitude
will turn upon us suspiciously or resentfully
when they hear our invitations, saying: We
want none of your free seats, we can do without
your fine music and your pious commonplaces,
we do not greatly care for your hand-shaking
in the house of God and the perfunctory calls
of your visitors at our houses. All we ask is
justice. We want a chance to earn a decent
living. We want a fair share of the wealth
that our labor is helping to produce. We do
not want to be left far behind when our neighbors; the employers, the traders, the professional people, are pushing on to plenty and
prosperity. In the midst of all this overflowing bounty, we want something more than meagre subsistence. We are not quite sure whether
you people of the churches want us to have it
or not. Many of you, as we are bitterly aware,
act as though you did not greatly care what became of us; and we hear from many of you
hard and heartless comments on every effort
we make to fight the fates that are bearing us
down. I t looks to us as though your sympathies were chiefly given to the people who are
getting rich at our expense. Until our minds
are clearer on this score, we shall never be
drawn to your churches, charm you never so
wisely.

THE WAGE-WORKERS AND THE CHURCHES. 1 6 5

What are you going to do with people who
talk in this way ? That is the one tremendous
question which the Church of God is called to
answer to-day.
Suppose you say that these people are all
wrong in these theories, and all astray in their
censure. Suppose you insist that they are getting their full share of the gains of this advancing civilization, or, if they are failing to do so,
that ifc is wholly their own fault. Then it is
your business to convince them of this by patient and thorough discussion. You cannot remove their misconceptions by denouncing them,
or contemptuously ignoring them. You cannot disabuse them by abusing them. If they
are wholly in error with respect to this matter,
their error is most deplorable and hurtful to
them, and to society at large; and the Church
has no more urgent duty than that of convincing them that they are wrong.
Suppose that they are all wrong in their impression that the sympathies of the churches
are on the side of the classes with which they
are in conflict. The impression is there, and
no headway can be made in bringing them into
the churches until it is somehow eradicated.
" The only cure of all this trouble," some one
will confidently answer, " is the gospel. Preach
the gospel faithfully, and it will make an end

166

APPLIED

CHRISTIANITY.

of all this strife." This answer assumes that
the fault all lies with the people now in the
churches. What effect can the faithful preaching of the gospel have upon those who do not
and will not hear it? If the gospel thus
preached reaches these neglecting multitudes,
it can only be through those who now listen to
it. And the very trouble we are considering is
that those who now frequent the churches find
it difficult, and almost impossible, to put themselves into friendly relations with the neglecting
multitudes.
What is meant by those who use this language is simply this: that the strife between
labor and capital arises from the natural depravity of the human heart; and that, if men
were soundly converted, all these grounds of
contention would be removed. Unfortunately,
this reasoning overlooks some important facts,,
The gospel, considered simply as an evangelistic or converting agency, will never put an end
to this trouble. There are plenty of people in
our churches to-day, who give every evidence
of having been soundly converted, but who are
conducting themselves continually in such a
manner as to cause this trouble, instead of curing it. When a man is converted, he has a
purpose to do right; and if you choose to go a
little farther and say that he has the disposition

THE WAGE-WORKERS AND THE CHURCHES. 1 6 7

to do right, I will not stop to dispute you. But
he may have very crude* ideas as to what right
is; bis heart may be regenerated, but his head
may still be sadly muddled. And there are
thousands of people in all our churches who
mean to do right by their working people, but
whose ideas have been so perverted by a false
political economy that they are continually doing them grievous wrong. If a man has been
taught the wage-fund theory, or if he has got
into his head the idea that laissez faire is the
chief duty of man, the gospel, in the ordinary
acceptation of that term, will not correct the
defects in his conduct towards his work people.
He may beHeve that he is a sinner, that he cannot save himself, that lie must be saved from
his sins by faith in Christ; and he may humbly
confess his conscious faults, and trust in Christ
for forgiveness and salvation. But his habit of
taking the law of supply and demand as his
sole guide in dealing with his working people
is not a conscious fault. He has been diligently
taught that labor is simply a commodity ; that
what Carlyle calls the " cash-nexus" is the
only bond between himself and his employees.
As Toynbee puts it, Political Economy has
steadily said to him, whenever he has thought
of governing himself, in his relations with his
work people, by Christian principles, — " You

168

APPLIED

CHRISTIANITY.

are doing a very foolish thing. You might as
well try to make iron swim as to alter the rate
of wages by your individual will. The rate of
wages, like the succession of night and day, is
independent of the will of either employer or
employed. Neither workmen nor employers
can change the rate determined by competition
at any particular time." 1 Fortified by this
philosophy, the converted employer feels that
any attempt to give his men a larger share of
his gains would be superfluous, if not mischievous ; that the fates will have it all their own
way in spite of him; that all he can do is to
buy his labor in the cheapest market, and sell
his wares in the dearest. In other words, he
has been taught, and he believes, that the industrial world is a world in which the Christian
laws of conduct have no sway; in which sympathy is fallacious, and good-will foolishness
What can preaching the gospel, in the ordinary sense of the word, do for such a man?
His purpose is right, his heart is right, but his
theories are all wrong. Some people say that it
makes no difference what a man believes if his
heart is right. It makes a tremendous difference!
The gospel, then, as the simple evangel, will
not cure this evil. But Christianity will cure
1

The Industrial Revolution, p. 158.

THE WAGE-WORKERS AND THE CHURCHES. 1 6 9

it. Christianity is something more than a gospel. Christianity is a law, as* well as a gospel.
And the Christian law, faithfully preached, as
the foundation of the gospel, will put an end
to all this trouble. We sometimes hear it said
that the pulpit of the present day is derelict,
because there is not enough preaching of the
law. It is true. What the Church needs is a
great deal more enforcement of law — not
necessarily more threatening of penalty, but
more preaching of law — of the law of Christ,
in its application to the relations of men in
their every-day life. By the law is the knowledge of sin. Many of the Christian people in
our churches have not been convicteld of their
sins, because the law has not been laid down to
them. This Christian law, when it is faithfully
preached, will make short work with the theories of materialistic political economy. It will
cause the employers to understand that their
wills do affect the condition of their work people ; that they are bound to consider the interests of those by whose labor they make their
gains — actually to love them as themselves ;
to use the power which capital and intelligence
give them, not merely in seeking their own
prosperity, but in ministering to the welfare of
those nearest them. It will enforce the doctrine that wealth is a trust, and that business

170

APPLIED

CHRISTIANITY.

capacity is a trust; that both are to be used
with a solemn sense of responsibility to God;
and that the first obligation of the employer
binds him to the people in his employ. What
he can do to increase their welfare, to make their
homes happier, to encourage provident habits
among them, to open a door of hope to them,
to increase their self-respect, and develop their
manliness, he is bound to do. They are not his
natural foes, to be battled with and beaten
down, under the stern law of competition ; they
are his allies, his associates, the helpers of his
prosperity, to be cherished and befriended, and
bound to him with hooks of steel. In deed and
in truth, they are his business partners; and it
is only right that he should so consider them,
and therefore identify them with himself in his
enterprise, letting them share in his profits, and
making their reward depend, in part, upon the
abundance of his gains.
All good Christians believe, of course, that
they ought to love their neighbors as themselves ; but there are many among them who
need help in answering the question, " Who is
my neighbor ? " The idea that the operatives
in his factory, the brakemen on his freight
trains, the miners in his coal mines are his
neighbors, is an idea that does not come home
to many a good Christian. He has been told

THE WAGE-WORKERS AND THE CHURCHES. 1 7 1

that the law that governs his relations with
them — the only law that cau usefully govern
his relations with them — is the law of competition, the law of supply and demand. In all
this vast industrial realm, as he has been taught,
self-interest is the only motive power. In the
family, in social life, to a certain extent also in
civil life, the force of good-will must be combined with the force of self - love; altruism
must be coordinated with egoism ; but in the
industrial world, in the relations of employer
and employed, this benevolent impulse must be
suppressed. In this kingdom of industry they
say that altruism is an interloper. In the family, in the neighborhood, in the state, if men
were governed only by self-interest, we should
have endless strife; in the industrial world, if
we are governed by self-interest alone, we shall
have peace and plenty. So he has been instructed. Over the entrance to the thronging
avenues and the humming workshops of the industrial realm, an unmoral science has written,
in iron letters: " A L L L O V E ABANDON, Y E
W H O E N T E R H E R E ! " If beyond those portals is pandemonium, who can wonder? The
first business of the Church of God is to preach
that legend down, and to put in place of i t :
"YOUR

W A G E - W O R K E R IS YOUR

NEIGHBOR."

NEAREST

172

APPLIED CHRISTIANITY.

In many respects the old relation of lord and
villain, of master and slave, was a better relation than that now subsisting between the employer and the workman. There was many a
master who tried to obey the Christian law ;
who remembered those in bonds as bound with
them ; who identified himself with his bondmen, loved them, cared for them, ministered
unto them, and who was loved by them in return. W e used to preach to the masters that
their slaves were their brethren ; and it was the
right doctrine to preach. In one respect the
Christ van master did infringe upon the Christian law of brotherhood ; he deprived his slave
of his liberty. That was a great injury. We
did right to upbraid him because of it. Doubtless the denial of liberty is a grave wrong —
the gravest, perhaps, of wrongs—because liberty is the very condition of character. But
while the Christian master deprived his slave
of liberty, he gave him love. And now, when
the slave gains his liberty, and becomes the
hired man of his former master, is there no
more love due from the one to the other? Is
the "cash nexus " the only bond between them
now ? Is there no responsibility of the stronger
for the welfare of the weaker ? When we pass
from status to contract, do we leave Christ's
law behind ? Is the relation between the capi-

THE WAGE-WORKERS

AND THE CHURCHES. 1 7 3

talist and the laborer either love without liberty, or liberty without love? Nay, but it is
liberty and love, — the good fellowship of
brethren, whose rights are equal, whose duties
are reciprocal, whose interests are identical.
This is what the Church of God has to say
about this business ; and it is high time that
the Church of God were saying it from hearts
of flame with tongues of fire. We must make
men believe that Christianity has a right to
rule this kingdom of industry, as well as all the
other kingdoms of this world; that her law is
the only law on which any kind of society will
rest in security and peace; that ways must be
found o^incorporating good-will as a regulative
*
principle, as an integral element, into the very
structure of industrial society.
You must not understand me as denying that
there have been and are many Christian employers who recognize this truth, and try to
make it practical in their relations with their
workmen. And there are many others who, although they always deal with their workmen as
workmen on " strictly business " principles —always paying the lowest wages for which they
can get the work done; discharging men with
families when they can get from boys or girls
the same service for less money, without troubling themselves to ask what will become of

174

APPLIED

CHRISTIANITY.

the families; striving to attract into the neighborhood of their industries great numbers of
surplus workmen, that in the keen competition
between these they may reduce the price of labor; reckoning labor always only as a commodity, and always studying how they can get it at
the lowest figure — are yet quite generous in
the use of their money for benevolent purposes ;
giving it liberally for the support of churches
and missions, for the endowment of libraries
and colleges, even for the support as paupers or
dependents of the people who have been reduced to penury by their own masterful combinations in the labor market. A great deal of
the money that is given in charity is thus
gained by the exploitation of labor. And not
seldom it happens that families pauperized on
starvation wages, are fed with alms taken from
the fortunes that their labor has helped to heap
up. With one hand capital thrusts labor down
toward mendicancy by the stern law of competition ; with the other hand it flings to these
mendicants it has made the dole that confirms
them in their life of degradation. It is hard to
tell by which method we have made the most
paupers, > whether by our heartless political
economy, or by our sentimental charity.
It should not be wondered at if the workmen
denounce the bounty thus wrung from their

THE WAGE-WORKERS

AND THE CHURCHES.

175

labor, as the alms of hypocrites ; if they have
bitter words to speak of the men whose princely
gifts come from wealth produced by their own
poorly requited toil. But I do not think this
judgment just. I do not think that it is, in all
cases — I doubt if it is in the most cases — conscious hypocrisy or wanton selfishness. These
men have made their money by the operation
of laws which they have been taught to believe
are beneficent; their generosity to the churches,
the schools, the heathen, is not always ostentation ; it is often genuine good-will; they give
of their increase, because the impulse to do
good is in their hearts; they would have shared
their fortunes, just as cheerfully, with the people who have helped them make their fortunes,
if they had not been so sedulously instructed
that it was foolish for them to do i t ; that a
benevolent purpose could find no standing room
in the realm where workman and employer
make their contract. Of course there is selfishness on both sides of this quarrel; there are
selfish employers and selfish workmen ; but the
majority of the masters that are in our churches
are not brutes nor tyrants; they would have
done justice to their men if they had not been
misled by a false philosophy. That philosophy
must be killed ; no other dragon is devouring
so many precious lives; and it is the first busi-

1J76

APPLIED CHRISTIANITY.

ness of the Christian Church to kill it. We
want no other weapon than the sword of the
Spirit, which is the Word of God. Christ's
law, faithfully applied to the relations of workman and employer, will settle the whole question. With Christ's law in our minds, instead
of the laws of Eicardo and Bastiat — and witli
Christ's grace in our hearts, we shall very
quickly get the barrier out of the way which
keeps the working people out of the churches.
Just a word or two more by way of specific
practical suggestion.
1. It goes without saying that we must manage in some way to convince the wage-workers
that the churches are not on the side of capital
in the struggle now going on. I t may not be
necessary that the Church should take either
side in this battle. She ought to rebuke the
selfishness and rapacity of both sides; certainly
she ought not to take the side of the stronger
against the weaker, nor ought it to be possible
for any fair-minded man to believe that this is
her attitude.
2. The Church ought not to censure, but
rather to approve and encourage, the combination of laborers for the protection of their own
interests. The acts of violence and oppression
perpetrated by these unions are, of course, to
be denounced; but the unions themselves are

THE WAGE-WORKERS

AND THE CHURCHES. 1 7 7

lawful and necessary. I know of no reputable
political economist of any school who does not
now approve of the organization of labor. Capital combines to control the price of labor; and
labor is helpless to protect itself without organization.
3. Compact labor unions can secure arbitration of labor disputes. Under the present industrial system this is the best way of avoiding
strife and securing justice. The influence of
the churches ought to be thrown energetically
and constantly in favor of arbitration. Most
labor troubles are now peacefully arbitrated in
England ; they ought to be and can be arbitrated in this country.
4. It is not, perhaps, necessary for the pulpit
to discuss the methods by which the Christian
law can be applied to the relation between
workmen and employer, but if any minister
will make himself familiar with the facts about
the working, in France and in Germany, and to
some extent also in this country, of the system
of industrial partners]lip or profit-sharing, and
will bring these facts in a lecture clearly before
the minds of the employers in his congregation,
he may render them a great service. Profitsharing is simply the incorporation of good-will
into the industrial system as a working force ;
and the scores of great companies on the conti-

178

APPLIED

CHRISTIANITY.

nent of Europe that have won magnificent success upon this basis prove it to be no visionaryscheme, but one of the solidest of accomplished
facts. Christianity is not a chimera; it will
work. Try i t ! Get your capitalists to try i t !
Jesus Christ knew a great deal more about
organizing society than David Ricardo ever
dreamed of knowing, and the application of his
law to industrial society will be found to work
surprisingly well*The appearance within a few months past in
several quarters of a disposition to venture upon
experiments of this sort shows that a better
conception of their calling is beginning to gain
possession of the minds of employers. I can
take you to more than one manufacturing village in New England, where the capitalists,
though not yet adopting the method of profitsharing, have flung laissez faire to the winds,
and have begun to study their workmen's welfare—villages that blossom as the rose under
the breath of this benign influence.
I cannot help hoping and believing that the
worst of the warfare between capital and labor
is now past in this country, and that the day of
peace is even now dawning.
A terrible interval of suffering there was [says
Arnold Toynbee], when the workman, fiung off by his
master, had not yet found his feet; but that is pass*

THE WAGE-WORKERS AND THE CHURCHES. 1 7 9

ing away, and the separation is recognized as a necessary moment in that industrial progress which enabled
the workman to take a new step in advance. . . . If,
however, history teaches us that separation is necessary, it also teaches us that permanent separation is
impossible. The law of progress is that men separate, but they separate in order to unite. The old
union vanishes, but a new union springs up in its
place. The old union, founded on the dependence of
the workman, disappears — a new union arises, based
on the workman's independence. And the new union
is deeper and wider than the old.
God g r a n t i t ! God h a s t e n i t ! A n d let the
Church of God, from all her steeples, with the
chiming of ten thousand Christmas bells,
" King out the old, ring in the new 1 "

THREE DANGERS.

T H E R E are strong impulses in human nature
that make war against society and that tend to
subvert the social order. Self-love and benevolence are the central forces of human life; both
are essential to progress and happiness, but they
are always in conflict; individual and social
welfare is secured only when they are brought
into harmony. They are like the centripetal and
centrifugal forces of the solar system. These
forces are, so far as our measurements can ascertain, perfectly balanced; therefore, we have the
rhythm and harmony of the heavenly bodies.
When self-love and benevolence are perfectly
balanced in human conduct, we shall have on
earth the beginning of the thousand years of
peace. All the mischiefs that students of social
science seek to prevent or to cure arise from the
excess of one or the other of these forces.,
No doubt misdirected kindness is a source of
much physical and moral evil. Many children
are ruined by the exaggerated unselfishness of

THREE DANGERS.

181

their parents — thegparents undergoing all the
hardships and making all the sacrifices; the
children growing up in greedy indolence, always ministered unto and never ministering ;
so going out into life helpless and selfish, with
their powers undeveloped and their characters
spoiled. Another excessive development of the
same principle is seen in the sentimental philanthropy and the indiscriminate almsgiving by
which paupers and criminals have been propagated on a grand scale.
But the evils arising from an excess of goodness have been small when compared with those
arising from selfishness. These last are, by
eminence, the unsocial evils. Pure egoism is
the antithesis of society. Its impulse is to get
everything and give nothing in exchange for i t ;
while, as Herbert Spencer says, " the universal
basis of cooperation (and therefore of social life)
is the proportioning of benefits received to services rendered." The selfishness which sets this
law at naught is the source of all crimes against
the person and property, and of all those evils
which directly tend to the disintegration of society. Of these there are a multitude; but the
three of which I wish to speak a r e — t h e vice
of intemperance,1 the causes that directly assail
the family, and the practice of gambling. I
shall not undertake to show how they may be

182

APPLIED

CHRISTIANITY.

counteracted; I wish simply to point out the
manner in which they tend to undermine and
subvert the social order«
L
The evils of intemperance furnish a topic
sufficiently hackneyed ; but I wish to deal with
an aspect of the question that is somewhat less
familiar. I am not discussing the rule of abstinence ; nor denying that there may be a
legitimate use, dietetic or even convivial, for
alcoholic beverages ; nor considering the question as a moralist, nor as a physiologist: I
would simply call attention to the unsocial
effect of the drinking habits now existing
among us. Let it be admitted that many persons use alcoholic beverages,without being injured by them; with that form of use we have
nothing to do; we are dealing now with intemperance in the strict sense of the word — with
that use of ardent spirits which is on all sides
admitted to be excessive and injurious. When
a man uses alcoholic liquors in such a way that
his property, be it large or small, is rapidly
diminished, and he goes every month a little
nearer to want and dependence ; when he uses
them in such a way that his physical and mental energies are impaired, and his power of car.

THREE DANGERS.

183

ing for himself and those dependent on him is
sensibly lessened, all will allow that his use of
them is pernicious. The harmful effect upon
the individual does not need to be dwelt upon ;
it is the effect upon the common weal that we
are now considering. It is plain that one who
has a surplus, large or small, and who consumes
it in indulgences which yield no benefit to himself nor to any other person, violates the fundamental law of society. The surplus thus
consumed would have served him, and those
dependent on him, in future sickness or infirmity sure to come; the destruction of this surplus
brings him to the verge of pauperism, and
makes it probable that the time will come when
he, and perhaps others whom he ought to support, will be a charge upon public or private
charity. In short, such a waste of savings reduces the waster to that condition in which, as
soon as he is overtaken by sickness or misfortune, he will be able to make no proportionate
return for the services that he will require. But
society depends, as Mr. Spencer tells us, on the
ability and disposition of the individuals composing it to make such a proportionate return.
If all men were in the condition to which this
man has reduced himself, society would be impossible.
What is true of one who wastes a surplus

184

APPLIED CHRISTIANITY.

that he has earned or inherited is equally true
of one who consumes upon this unnatural appetite all that he earns beyond what is necessary to sustain life, so that he never gains a
surplus, and always lives on the edge of pauperism.
Still more unsocial is the conduct of one who
spends on this indulgence more than his net income, incurring bad debts for the necessaries
of life to his landlord, his grocer, his tailor, and
thus devouring the savings of his thrifty neighbors.
Still more unsocial is the conduct of one who
ruins his health by his drinking habits — thus
not only disabling himself for self-supporting
industry, but entailing' upon his offspring enfeebled and morbid physical constitutions, predisposing them to insanity or vice or pauperism
or crime. If, at the same time, the home in
which these children are being reared is so
squalid or so disorderly that there is small opportunity for them to learn those lessons of selfrespect and self-restraint by which men and
women are fitted for citizenship, — so that by
environment as well as by organization they
are crippled and degraded, -— the unsocial effects of this vice will be set in a still stronger
light. And when, as the result of such drinking practices, the man is often led to direct en-

THREE

DANGERS.

185

croachments upon the persons or the property
of his neighbors, the fact that he has become
an enemy of society scarcely requires further
demonstration.
Now, consider how many thousands of our
fellow-citizens there are of whom most, if not
all, these things are true. As a direct consequence of the use of alcoholic liquors, they are
wasting their surplus, or failing to gain a surplus ; by their failure to fulfill their contracts,
they are devouring the gains of their neighbors ;
they are ruining their health and bequeathing
physical and moral disorders to their children,
and entailing upon society that curse of curses,
hereditary pauperism ; they are appealing to
their neighbors for charity,' and crowding the
hospitals and the almshouses; they are committing assaults, robberies, murders,—all manner
of offenses against the public peace and welfare.
Look at the subject from another point of
view. Sober and trustworthy estimates show
that at least nine hundred millions of dollars
are expended in this country every year for
alcoholic liquors. That a considerable portion
of this is used productively, in the arts, and innocently, or without any social injury, for
drinking purposes, may be admitted.
Let us concede that one half of it is used in

186

APPLIED CHRISTIANITY.

this way. Half of all this amount must then
be expended in such a manner as to produce
those very effects of which we have been speaking. That is to say, we are paying out every
year four hundred and fifty millions of dollars
in the purchase of want, and pauperism, and
vice, and disease, and insanity, and crime. So
much money ought to procure a large quantity
of these staples, and it does. Nobody can deny
that we get our money's worth.
Look at it from another point of view. A
low estimate puts the number of persons engaged in the sale of liquor at five hundred
thousand. We have admitted that these persons render some service to the community; let
us admit that half of«the number would be
required to dispense the amount of liquor that
could be consumed without social injury. We
have left an army of a quarter of a million liquor-sellers, to whom we are paying four hundred
and fifty millions of dollars every year. Society
is rendering to them a pretty valuable service.
What service are they rendering to society ?
They are devoting their energies to the destruction of society. They live wholly upon the
ruin of their fellow-men. The whole tendency
of the employment for which society pays them
so large a sum is to reduce their fellow-citizens
to those conditions of want and disease and

THREE DANGERS.

187

moral degradation in which society becomes impossible. We are safe in characterizing this as
a highly unsocial proceeding.
I have not intended any exaggeration in these
statements; I believe that I have kept far
within the truth. Neither have I any nostrum
for the cure of this disease, nor any faith in
those most commonly advertised. My own belief is t h a t the roots of this evil run very deep,
and that it will take many generations to eradicate them.
Nevertheless, it is well for all students of
human welfare to keep distinctly before their
minds the unsocial effects of intemperance —
the large number of persons who, through this
vice, become violators of the organic law of society, either as its burdens or as its foes.
II.
Let us now consider those unsocial forces
that make war upon society by assailing the
family. The monogamous family, formed by
the union of one woman with one man, and by
the increase of children born to them, is the
structural unit of modern society. Whatever
may be the political unit, the family is the
social unit. Society is an organism. Now, as
a physical organism is formepl not of atoms n6r

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CHRISTIANITY.

of - molecules, b u t of organized cells, in like
m a n n e r the modern social organism is composed
n o t of, individuals, but of households.
What
t h e earlier forms of society may have been I do
not u n d e r t a k e to s a y ; b u t it is almost certain
t h a t monogamy is a late product of t h e social
evolution. L a t e or early, it is by most philosop h e r s admitted to characterize that society
whose t y p e is the highest and whose foundations are the firmest.
Mr. H e r b e r t Spencer, in his " D a t a of
E t h i c s , " tells us t h a t : —
Tribes in which promiscuity prevails, or in which
the marital relations are transitory, and tribes in
which polyandry entails in another way indefinite relationships, are incapable of1 much organization. Nor
do peoples who are habitually polygamous show
themselves able to take on those high forms of social
cooperation which demand due subordination of self
to others. Only when monogamic marriage has become general and eventually universal, only when
there have consequently been established the closest
ties of blood, only when family altruism has been
most fostered, has social altruism become most conspicuous.
M r . Bagehot, in his " Physics and Politics,"
shows how t h e training of t h e family fits nations for survival and conquest.
A cohesive family [he says], is the best germ for

THREE DANGERS.

189

a campaigning nation. In a Roman family the boys,
from the time of their birth, were bred to a domestic
despotism which well prepared them for subjection in
after life to a military discipline, a military drill, and
a military despotism. They were ready to obey their
generals because they were compelled to obey their
fathers; they conquered the world in manhood because as children they were bred in homes where the
tradition of passionate valor was steadied by the habit
of implacable order. And nothing of this is possible
in loosely bound family groups (if they can be called
families at all), where the father is more or less uncertain, where descent is not traced through him. . . .
An ill-knit nation, which does not recognize paternity as a legal relation, would be conquered like a
mob by any other nation which had a vestige or a
beginning of the patriot potestas.
I n another place h e s a y s : —
The nations with a thoroughly compacted family
system have " possessed the earth," — that is, they
have taken all the finest districts in the most competed-for parts; and the nations with loose systems
have been merely left to mountain-ranges and lonely
islands. The family system, and that in its highest
form (the monogamous form), has been so exclusively
the system of civilization that literature hardly recognizes any other.
These witnesses testify from a point of view
strictly scientific; they are n o t t h e slaves of
t r a d i t i o n ; t h e y only repeat t h e verdict of his-

190

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CHRISTIANITY.

tory. The fact that the monogamous family
furnishes the highest type of the social organization— the one most favorable to stability and
strength and peace — is beyond the denial of
intelligent men.
The dependence of the physical welfare of
society upon the maintenance of the family is
easily explained. Even the physical vigor of
the people is likely to decline under any other
system. Population would decrease by the
substitution for monogamy of either polyandry
or polygamy ; and the physical nature of young
children can be provided for in no other way
so well as in the monogamous family. As a
matter of history, polyandry has commonly
been based on the practice of destroying female
infants, or of selling them after they are grown
into foreign parts; while polygamy is ordinarily
the consequence of fierce and constant wars in
which the males of the population are largely
destroyed. Both these forms of domestic life
seem, therefore, to grow out of conditions in the
highest degree unsocial.
But it is not chiefly for its physical existence
and welfare that society depends on the family.
It is for the cultivation of the moral qualities
that fit men for association with one another
that the family is indispensable. " Monogamy
is doubtless the Creator's law," says Professor

THREE

DANGERS.

191

Roscher, " since only in monogamous countries
can we expect to find the intimate union of
family life, the beauties of social intercourse
and free citizenship." The passages which I
have quoted from Mr. Herbert Spencer and Mr.
Walter Bagehot emphasize the importance of
the family as a training-school in which discipline and the habit of subordination and the
unselfish sentiments and habitudes are acquired,
Without these virtues society is impossible, and
there is no school for the cultivation of these
virtues that compares with the monogamous
fam-ily. We are beginning to discover, in our
charitable work, that it is better to place the
children who are the wards of the State in
families than to rear them in asylums and refuges ; since a home which comes considerably
short of the ideal is a better place for a child to
grow up in than the best public institutions.
Since, therefore, the family in its present form
bears to society a relation so vital; since, in
Mr. Spencer's words, " those high forms of social cooperation which demand due subordination of self to others" are only taken on by
those who have been trained in the family, it
is evident that any force assailing the sacredness or the security of the family must be, in
the highest sense of the word, an unsocial force.
By so much as the permanence of the family is

192

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CHRISTIANITY.

disturbed, by so much is the bond of society
weakened. An increase of the proportion of
the people who do not live in families means an
increase of public peril, a decay of social virtue,
a diminution of the common weal.
Unfortunately, it is quite impossible to deny
that this institution, on whose health the social
order depends, is now suffering a considerable
loss of respect and power. There are yet in
the land hundreds of thousands of safe and
happy homes; but the proportion of our population who do not live in families is steadily
increasing. That this must be true is made
evident by two startling facts: first, that the
proportion of marriages to the population is
rapidly decreasing; second, that the proportion
of divorces to the number of marriages is rapidly increasing. Fewer families are formed;
more families are broken up.
The statistics of Massachusetts relating to
this subject are more complete than those of
any other State; but, so far as the facts have
been gathered in other States, substantially the
same tendencies appear. We may take Massachusetts, therefore, as a fair sample ; and we
find that in that commonwealth the population
increased between 1860 and 1880 forty-five per
cent., while the marriages increased only twentyfive per cent. In 1860 there was one marriage

THREE

DANGERS.

193

to every 99 persons; in 1880 one marriage to
every 114 persons.
The number of divorces, meanwhile, increased
from 243 in 1860 to 600 in 1878 (I have not the
figures for 1880), one hundred and forty-five
per cent. In 1860 there was one divorce for
every 51 marriages; in 1878 there was one divorce for every 21 marriages. Massachusetts is
the best of the New England States in this respect ; in all the others the proportion of divorces to marriages is much larger than in
Massachusetts.
It is not possible to add to the significance of
these figures. They are the numerical expression of a force that is assailing the foundations
of society. Fewer families, smaller families, an
increasing number of families disbanded by divorce-—that is the ominous record. A much
smaller proportion of our people are now living in families than was the case twenty-five or
fifty years ago. This means less discipline of
the young; less self-restraint among young and
old; less training in the virtues of industry and
sympathy and helpfulness and self-sacriiiee. It
means, also, a greater exposure of the young
and the weak to temptation, and greater opportunities of vice, Part of what ib signifies is
seen in the face that while twenty years ago the
number of illegitimate children annually born

194

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CHRISTIANITY.

in Massachusetts was less than three hundred,
the number now born every year exceeds eight
hundred. The population has increased, meanwhile, only about forty-five per cent.
It is not necessary to infer from these figures
that the era of national dissolution has set in.
On the whole, the world is growing better; but
in this current of moral progress there are eddies, and we are just now in one of them.
Therefore it becomes us to take our bearings.
Some reasons for this state of things readily
suggest themselves. The effect of the popular
social philosophy, which during the last quarter
of a century has greatly exaggerated individualism, has been pointed out by recent writers.
The sacredness of personality has been exalted,
and the relations and mutual obligations of persons have been overlooked. Most of our talk
has been of rights, not much of duties or of services; and the consequence is a disinclination
to assume the responsibilities and to make the
sacrifices involved in the family relation. With
this intellectual cause must be reckoned an economical cause, the effects of which are visible
on every side. The large system of industry
which masses the population in the cities and
the great manufacturing centres affords, if I
mistake not, an explanation of many of the
facts which we have been considering. Eco-

THREE

DANGERS.

195

nomically, this modern system, by which capital is aggregated in vast amounts and laborers are congregated in great multitudes, is, no
doubt, an improvement over the old system; it
enormously increases production, and multiplies
the wealth of the nation. But socially and morally the system has not yet justified itself; it
requires considerable modification to make it
serve the social interests of the community.
What are the facts ? In the cities and in the
large manufacturing villages great numbers of
laborers of both sexes — more than half of them
young women — are gathered together. Many
of them come from the country; the growth of
the cities at the expense of the country consists
largely in the removal of the young men and
women from the farms to the cities and the factory towns, where they find employment in the
mills and the shops. Here they are thrown together rather rudely in their work ; the boarding-houses where most of them spend their
nights and their Sundays afford them none of
the restraints of a home; their evenings are
wont to find them on the streets and in cheap
places of amusement. The wages of these operatives, especially of the females, are, as a general rule, very small. In a table showing the
wages paid in forty-four different mills in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, I find that the

196

APPLIED CHRISTIANITY.

average wages paid to women was $6.10 per
week, and to female children $3.41. I am sure
that the average weekly earnings of females
over fifteen years of age, in our factories, box
shops, button shops, brass-works, and so forth,
would be less than five dollars. Out of this
those who do not live at home must pay for
board and room, washing and clothing. What
a pinching life this must be can be easily imagined.
In the same communities where these girls
are employed are numbers of young men of
their own social grade, and of grades a little
higher, to whom marriage and the possession of
a home seem, in the present state of society, a
distant and not always a desirable prospect.
Such are the conditions — the herding together of operatives, male and female, in places
remote from their homes, with low wages and
strong temptations. The moral fruits of such
an exposure are not likely to promote the founding of permanent families; the character and
habits developed in such an environment are
not the best outfit for happy wedlock.
Another feature of the life we are considering is its lack of permanence. Owing to strikes,
failures, changes of business, operatives are continually flitting from one place to another. Such
instability of life discourages the forming of fam-

THREE DANGERS.

197

ilies, and often results in scattering those that
are formed.
I am convinced that it is to the industrial conditions which I have now in an inadequate way
outlined, that much of the neglect and deterioration of family life is due. There are manufacturing communities in which these evils have
been largely overcome, through the intelligence
and good-will of the employers of labor. They
may be overcome everywhere. But the unsocial forces that are undermining the family, and
thus assailing the life of society in its most vital
part, are generated to a considerable degree by
the selfishness which too often characterizes the
administration of capital. They will not be
counteracted until employers cease to think of
labor simply as a commodity, and begin tc\ understand their responsibility for the moral and
social welfare of the people by whose labor their
fortunes are gained.
III.
But by far the most dangerous of the unsocial forces now threatening the destruction of
society is the gambling mania. It is probably
true that there is less of what may be called
social gambling now than there was one hundred years ago. In the days of Queen Anne

198

APPLIED CHRISTIANITY.

and the Georges in England, and in our own
revolutionary times, gambling was a common
diversion in what was considered the best society ; men like Fox, Pitt, and Wilberforce, at
one time or another in their lives, plunged
deeply into its excitements; it was scarcely
disreputable at that time, on either side of the
water, to play heavily for money. Of late years
this has not been true, though the signs are that
the practice is just now becoming more prevalent in fashionable society. The fascinations of
poker are, if I am rightly informed, beginning
to be confessed in many polite circles.
Lottery gambling, also, in spite of all the
measures taken to suppress it, still holds its
own pretty firmly, and especially among the
poorest classes. The amount of money squandered by poor laborers, by negroes more than
by any other class, in the policy-shops of our
chief cities, is said to be very large. Gamblinghouses of all sorts, recognized as such, are commonly suppressed in well-ordered communities;
here and there in a city moral sentiment is too
weak to cope with the abomination, but weakness of this sort is universally regarded as a reproach. Such places exist, of course, in all our
large cities ; but they generally hide themselves.
The social injury resulting from those forms of
gambling to which I have now alluded is, no

THREE

DANGERS.

199

doubt, very great. Tens of thousands of our
young men, for whom great sacrifices have been
made, on whom the future welfare of households depends, are ruined by them every year;
most observing persons are ready to repeat from
personal knowledge sad stories of the wreck of
fortune and character. But the injury done to
society by those forms of gambling that are recognized and undisguised is trifling when compared with the damage clone by that form of
gambling which wears the mask of business.
Those are the pimples on the skin ; this is the
corruption in the blood.
This kind of gambling is sometimes called
speculation ; but speculation it is not, in any
proper sense of that word. To buy property of
any sort and hold it for a rise in its value is .a
legitimate business transaction. Speculation,
when it hoards the necessaries of life, may often
be a heartless and injurious business; it may,
on the other hand, have beneficent results, putting money in the hands of producers in the
dullest times, carrying over an unsalable surplus, and thus equalizing the pressure of supply
and demand. " To buy in the cheapest and
sell in the dearest market" may sound like an
extremely selfish maxim, and the man who has
no higher principle of action will not attain to
any heroic virtue; nevertheless, society can have

200

APPLIED CHRISTIANITY.

no quarrel with him. Buying and selling may
be selfish business; but buying and selling is a
wholly different operation from gambling; and
a very large share of the so-called commercial
operations of this land to-day is not buying and
selling at all, but simply and only gambling.
All legitimate commerce consists in an exchange of values. If I buy goods of a merchant, there is an exchange of money for merchandise ; the merchant desires the money more
than the merchandise; I desire the merchandise more than the money. It is simply a transfer of property, by which each one satisfies his
wants. If I employ a physician to attend me
in sickness, or a music-teacher to instruct my
children, or a laborer to clean my carpets, there
is still an exchange of values. I give my money
for the services of the physician or the music.teacher or the laborer because they are\valuable to m e ; they give me their services because
they want my money. But when one man bets
another that a certain card has such a face, or
that one horse will trot a mile in fewer seconds
than another, or that wheat will sell for so
many cents a bushel thirty days from date, and
the loser pays the bet, what exchange takes
place ? The winner gets the loser's inoney;
the loser gets nothing at all in exchange for it.
This is gambling. The gambler's business is

THREE DANGERS.

201

simply t h i s : to get money or other p r o p e r t y
a w a y from his neighbors, and to give t h e m
n o t h i n g whatever in exchange for it. W h a t ever money or other property any man wins in
g a m b l i n g some one else loses; b y as much as
h e is enriched some one else is impoverished ;
for all t h a t he has got in g a m b l i n g he has
given no equivalent. O t h e r people have parted
w i t h t h e money t h a t he has gained, and he has
given t h e m for it no merchandise, no service,
no pleasure, no accommodation — nothing whatever. This is the n a t u r e of all gambling ; and
it is easy to see t h a t it is egoism in its most
virulent form — the precise kind of egoism
t h a t renders society impossible. If " society is
produced," as Carey says, " by an exchange of
services," g a m b l i n g is t h e antithesis of society.
H e r e is a striking passage from " T h e S t u d y
of Sociology," in which Mr. H e r b e r t Spencer
discusses the nature of gambling. H e is pointing out the shallowness of the t r e a t m e n t generally given to this subject by moralists.
Listen [he says] to a conversation about gambling, and when reprobation is expressed, note the
grounds of the reprobation : that it tends to the ruin
of the gambler; that it risks the welfare of family
and friends; that it alienates from business and leads
into bad company — these and such as these are the
reasons given for condemning the practice. Rarely

202

APPLIED

CHRISTIANITY.

is gambling condemned because it is a kind of gratification by which pleasure is obtained at the cost of
pain to another. The normal obtainment of gratification, or of the money which purchases gratification,
implies, first, that there has been put forth effort of a
kind which, in some way, furthers the general good ;
and implies, secondly, that those from whom the
money is received get, directly or indirectly, equivalent satisfactions. But in gambling the opposite happens. Benefit received does not imply effort put
forth; and the happiness of the winner involves the
misery of the loser. This kind of action is, therefore,
essentially anti-social.
A n d this is precisely the kind of action followed b y all those persons who practice w h a t
is called speculating in margins, — t h a t is, betting on t h e future value of stocks or produce.
I t is useless to t r y to disguise t h e real n a t u r e
of these transactions; t h e y are simply gambling, nothing more or less. W h a t is the difference between the gambling practiced at a faro
b a n k and the g a m b l i n g practiced b y those persons w h o b u y and sell margins ? O n e man
bets another t h a t ten thousand bushels of wheat
will be worth so much at a certain future t i m e ;
if it is selling in t h e market at t h a t time for
less than t h e price named, he agrees to pay t h e
difference ; if it is selling for more t h a n t h e

amount named, the other shall pay him the dif-

THREE DANGERS.

203

ference. Neither party owns a bushel of wheat;
there is no transfer of merchandise; there is
simply a transfer from the one man's pocket to
the other man's pocket of the money won in
the bet. Oil and corn and pork, and all the
great staples of agriculture, are employed in
the same way by the gamblers; so are all the
stocks of great railroads and steamship companies and manufacturing companies and mines.
Men who never own any of these kinds of
property spend their lives in gambling in them,
or, rather, about them, — betting on their future prices, and doing their best by such reports, true or false, as they can circulate, and
such influences, good or bad, as they can bring
to bear, to raise or lower these future prices,
so as to make them correspond to their bets.
To say that gambling in margins is as bad as
faro or roulette is a very weak statement; it is
immeasurably worse. It is far more dishonest.
The gambler in margins does his best to load
the dice on which lie bets his money. It is,
moreover, far more injurious. By this practice values are unsettled ; business is often paralyzed ; the price of the necessaries of life is
forced upward. The poor man's loaf grows
small as the gambler's gains increase. Every
cent made by this class of men is taken from
the industrial classes with no compensation.

204

APPLIED CHRISTIANITY.

This must be so, because they live and grow
rich, although they perform for society no service whatever. The men who play in the
gambling-houses only rob one another and such
innocents as they can lure into their dens ; the
men who bet on margins on Broad Street and
State Street, and in the Boards of Trade, rob
the whole country ; every man who buys bread,
who burns oil, who rides a mile in a railway
car, pays tribute of his earnings to the treasuries of these gamblers. How many are there
of them now operating in this country ? How
large is their aggregate income from this source ?
I have seen a recent estimate which puts the
amount of which the " l a m b s " are shorn in the
New York stock market alone at eight hundred
million dollars a year. I do not vouch for this ;
it seems to me an extravagant figure. But
everybody knows that the men who gamble in
margins are a great multitude, and that there are
not a few among them who count their gains
by millions and by tens of millions. All this is
plunder. The gambler's gains are all plunder.
He may be a pillar in the church ; he may hobnob with college presidents, and sit on commencement platforms, and be pointed out to
the young men with notes of admiration as one
of our merchant princes, but he is a plunderer;
all his goods have been gained by the spoiling

THREE

DANGERS.

205

of his neighbors; it is not by cooperating with
his fellow-men, but by preying upon them, that
he has obtained the wealth that renders him an
object of worship.
From whom is this plunder extorted ? Most
of it comes from the pockets of venturesome
people in city and country, who have heard
that money is made by speculating in margins,
and who risk and lose their savings, great or
small—the fruits of legitimate industry. The
fleecing of these " lambs " affords the gamblers
a great revenue. Another part of their spoil is
won as the result of cunning combinations, in
which the courts have sometimes been induced
to join, and by which the prices of valuable
stocks (sometimes ironically called securities)
are forced up or down to suit their purposes,
the conspirators buying when the innocent and
helpless owners are frightened into selling at a
sacrifice, and selling when unwary investors are
tempted into buying an inflated stock. This is
something worse than gambling; it is sheer
robbery. And people who hold up their hands
with horror at the rantings of a few crazy communists, sit by and suck their thumbs while operations of this sort are going on.
It is not often, however, that the gamblers
are able to make use of the courts in spoiling
their victims. A Canadian judge lately threw

206

APPLIED

CHRISTIANITY.

out of court a suit brought to recover a debt
owed by one who had lost in betting on margins, because it was nothing but a gambling
debt. Similar decisions have been given in
several of our own courts. The fact that such
transactions are contrary to law and to public
morality would be affirmed by any respectable
jurist.
It is amazing to witness the dullness of the
public conscience upon this matter. The evil
has called forth but faint reprobation. I am
ready to believe that multitudes of men who
follow this nefarious business are but dimly
sensible of its real nature. A practice so widespread, and against which the reputable classes
raise so little objection, may well have seemed
to ambitious young men innocent and legitimate. What Mr. Spencer says about the inadequacy of the treatment which the whole
subject has received from the teachers of morality is profoundly true. A young man who had
been graduated recently from one of our best
colleges told me the other day that the only
ground on which his teacher in ethics taught
him to condemn gambling was that it substituted an appeal to chance for the exercise of
reason and judgment. One might as well make
the wrong of stealing to consist of the habits
of indolence which it encourages in the thief.

THREE

DANGERS.

207

Gambling is, indeed, ethically of the same nature as stealing, and is to be condemned for the
same reasons. Socially and economically, the
gamblers of a community sustain to its industrial systein precisely the same relation as do
its thieves. It is a hard word to say, but it is
the exact scientific truth; and it is high time
that somebody said it.
One would like to know how often and how
distinctly this truth is enforced in the leading
pulpits of New York and Chicago and Boston,
and the other great cities where business gambling is most prevalent. W e hear occasionally
of clergymen who bet on margins ; nobody believes that this is a common practice among
ministers; nevertheless it may be doubted
whether this class of our public teachers have
borne witness, as they ought to have done,
against the iniquity. One or two of the secular
papers have treated it intelligently and vigorously ; but the press in general has dealt with
it but gingerly. In a newspaper controversy
concerning a governor's private stock operations, the belief that he was addicted to such
practices did not discredit him much in the
opinion of most of the journalists; the only
question was whether he had slaughtered his
friends in the fray, or whether he had used
other people's money in the transaction. I do

208

APPLIED CHRISTIANITY.

not undertake to condemn or to justify this
governor; I am simply referring to the general tone of the public press in discussing the
charges against him, which seemed to admit
that it is all right for a governor to gamble,
provided he gambles fairly. Clearly there is
need of a great deal of elementary teaching on
this subject, in order that a public sentiment
may be created which will deal with the evil in
an effective way. Those men who follow the
business must be made to see that gambling, in
its many phases, is the parasite of commerce,
the corrupter of youth, the evil genius of our
civilization, and that every man who follows
the trade is as truly an enemy of society as
if he went about picking his neighbors' pockets
or setting their harvest fields on fire.
That these three maladies which assail the
national life are necessarily fatal need not be
asserted, but it is not well to conceal from ourselves the truth that they are dangerous. Over
against these anti-social forces are the powers
that make for unity: the intelligence and conscience and benevolence of a people among
whom the Christian ethics is yet, we may hope,
something more than an obsolete sentiment;
the love of equity, not easily extinguished in
the breasts of Anglo-Saxons; the steadily grow-

THREE

DANGERS.

209

ing feeling of a common interest; the vast combinations of industry and commerce that are
wholly inoperative without confidence and goodwill. All these are mighty, and they will prevail in the end against the evil. Of their triumph on this soil, in the life of this nation, we
must not, however, be so sanguine as to neglect
the supply of the conditions on which alone
these remedial and constructive forces will do
their work. For we must remember what Professor Roscher says, that in this case the patient
is also the physician; and that the cure depends on the clearness of his intelligence and
the firmness of his will.

C H R I S T I A N I T Y AND SOCIAL SCIENCE.

T H E title of this essay assumes a relation
between Christianity and Social Science; and
the study of this relation is the task before us.
The first thing to be attended to is the definition of our terms. What do we mean by Christianity? what by Social Science?
I. We shall take the word Christianity in its
largest sense, as signifying that form of social
order whose organizing force is the life and
teachings of Jesus Christ. Webster defines it
as " t h e system of doctrines and precepts taught
by Christ," but this definition is too narrow.
Christianity is something more than a body of
doctrines and precepts. A chemist might give
you, in a series of formulae, all that his analysis
could discover in the human body; but his formulae, if they were perfectly accurate, would
not be a complete description of a man. There
is much in a man of which chemistry takes no
note; and there is much more in Christianity
which the dogmatist and the moralist cannot

CHRISTIANITY

AND SOCIAL SCIENCE.

211

include in their systems. The intellectual and
the ethical elements of Christianity are important, but the vital force, the spiritual essence,
is the principal thing. Christianity gives us,
in the words of Jesus Christ, a comprehensive
statement' of religious truth and a perfect rule
of conduct; but this is a small part of what it
does for us; its unspeakable gift is summed up
in the saying, " I n Him was life, and the life
was the light of men."
The work of Christianity is chiefly done, not
by pedagogic methods, nor even by furnishing
men an example to study and copy; but by the
communication of a subtle personal force, from
one life to another, through which the sentiments are purified and the aims are elevated.
" If any man have not the spirit of Christ he is
none of his," no matter how strictly he may adhere to Christian beliefs, nor how scrupulously
he may follow the ethical rules of the New Testament, nor how servilely he may try to copy
the life of the Son of man. And, conversely,
one who has the spirit of Christ, — the central
motive of whose life is in harmony with Christ,
— ought to be counted as a Christian, even
though his philosophy may differ somewhat
from that of the Christian schools. Christianity is, therefore, broader than any sect,—•
broader than all the sects. I t is the name by

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which we describe the Kingdom of God in the
world.
The work of Christianity is remedial or redemptive. " The Son of man is come to seek
and to save that which was lost." It does not
undertake to account for the moral disorder and
suffering now existing; it recognizes their existence and provides a remedy for them. I t finds
men in ignorance and seeks to enlighten them ;
it finds them in bondage to tyrannous appetites
and riotous passions, and offers them the freedom and the peace of virtue; it finds them poor
and sick and sorrowful, and it serves their needs
and cures their ills and wipes away their tears;
it finds them afraid of that Power behind Nature
whose laws they have transgressed, and it assures them that his name is Love, and that He
is ready to forgive and save them; it finds them
shivering in a dark uncertainty on the threshold
of the grave, and it lifts the curtain and shows
them life and immortality beyond. What form
the Kingdom of God in the world would have
taken if there had been neither sin nor sorrow,
we may not know; but since the world is what
it is, the Kingdom of God is a kingdom of salvation.
II. Social Science is a term scarcely less comprehensive. It deals, according to Dr. Lankester, with " the social relations of man to man

CHRISTIANITY AND SOCIAL SCIENCE. 213

and the duties growing out of those relations."
It proposes, according to another authority, " the
systematic investigation, in various lines of research, of principles and laws affecting the welfare of mankind in society.'' Social Science, as
well as Christianity, recognizes the fact that
men are in a condition of disorder and distress.
Its mainspring is the desire to relieve existing
evils. The lines on which its work has run have
been chiefly these :
1. The study of sanitary laws with a view to
the prevention of disease.
2. The study of the conditions of social vice
in the interests of public morality.
3. The study of the phenomena of crime and
of the methods of restraint and reformation and
prevention.
4. The study of jurisprudence, in all its
branches, with the hope of making the laws
more simple and more just.
5. The comparison and criticism of methods
of education.
6. The investigation of the causes of pauperism.
7. The examination of the whole structure
of society, to discover, if possible, whether it
.is organized on right principles; and what hindrances, political, economical, or customary, are
in the way of its welfare.

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APPLIED CHRISTIANITY.

The realm of Social Science is thus seen to
be a broad one, and its purpose a high one.
And the close relation between Social Science
and Christianity at once becomes manifest.
They have a common field of operations; the
lines on which they are working are parallel.
Christianity takes thought for the welfare of
men beyond this life, while Social Science does
not; Christianity reaches out after the ignorant
and degraded in other lands, while Social Science
cares only for those at home; Christianity concerns itself directly and primarily with individual character, while Social Science studies men
in masses. The range of the one is therefore
broader than that of the other; but as far as
Social Science goes, Christianity goes with it;
there is no end proposed by the former which
the latter is not seeking to promote.
The relation of Social Science to Christianity
is, in fact* the relation of an offspring to its
parent. Social Science is the child of Christianity. The national and international associations that are so diligently studying the things
that make for human welfare in society are as
distinctly the products of Christianity as is the
American Board of Missions* It is only in
Christian nations that such associations exist.
Individuals, in lands not Christian, have given
thought to such matters; but the existence of

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215

associations of men meeting regularly for such
studies, and expending upon them precious time
and unremunerated labor, is a witness to the
diffusion through society of philanthropic sentiments, — an evidence that not only here and
there a philosopher entertains such thoughts,
but that they are the common currency of human intercourse. And this is true only of those
societies that have been Christianized. The
very impulse from which Social Science springs
is the effect of Christianity.
It would seem, therefore, that there ought to
be no schism between Christians and Sociologists, but the closest sympathy and cooperation.
Yet there often is, I am sorry to say, a degree
of jealousy between those who profess to be followers of Christ and those who assume to be the
expounders of Social Science. That semi-savage obscurantism which performs its medicine
dances in some of our pulpits, and brandishes
its ignorance in the columns of some of our religious newspapers, is roused to wrath by everything that bears the name of science : the attempt to study and understand the natural
phenomena of vice and crime and pauperism
seems to this habit of mind almost presumptuous. On the other side, we have professors of
sociology expressing their contempt for all that

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savors of Christian faith. Mr. Herbert Spencer,
for example, in his book on The Story of Sociology, repeatedly gives notice that nobody who
believes in a God whose will is free can be
allowed within the precincts of his favorite
science. " That mode of conceiving human
affairs, which is implied by the D. V. of a missionary meeting placard, is," he says, " . . . one
to which the idea of a Social Science is entirely
alien and indeed repugnant.'' Mr. Spencer
seems here, as indeed often, to assume his own
omniscience. It may be, impossible for him to
conceive how any one could believe in divine
Providence and at the same time be an interested and intelligent student of Social Science;
nevertheless, a little observation would reveal
to him the existence of quite a number of such
persons, — of persons, at any rate, who profess
to recognize divine Providence, who seem, also,
to be devoting themselves, with some enthusiasm, to the investigations of Social Science, and
who are not by their neighbors commonly regarded either as fools or as hypocrites. And
what, indeed, is there so contradictory in the
two states of mind referred to ? Why may not
the person who puts " D. V." on a missionary
meeting placard believe in the possibility of Social Science ? Surely, it is possible that the
missionary meeting, thus advertised, may not

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217

take place. The house in which it is to be held
may burn up or be blown down; the persons
engaged to conduct it may be ill or absent;
many circumstances ma}7 arise to prevent the
holding of the meeting. Scientific meetings, I
dare say, as well as missionary meetings, are
sometimes prevented by unforeseen circumstances. Even a Social Scientist like Mr.
Spencer would not wisely venture to announce
that such a meeting would be held at such a
future time, whether or no. The contingency
of the event would be recognized. Now the
phrase "God willing," introduced into such a
notice, if devoutly and intelligently used, implies, first, this admitted contingency, and, secondly, the belief that the circumstances conditioning the holding of this meeting are under
the control of infinite Wisdom. It does not imply any fortuitous or arbitrary interference with
the holding of the meeting; the circumstances
arising to prevent it may be part of the natural
order: it only implies that this natural order,
under which the holding of the meeting may
become impossible, is under the supervision of
a Divine Intelligence. Of course such a phrase
may be used superstitiously, or as a mere cant
term; but it may also be used devoutly by persons who simply intend to affirm, by using it,
their belief that there is a perfect Wisdom and

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a loving Will behind all the phenomena of Nature. I do not see how this belief disqualifies
any one for the study of Social Science. Mr.
Spencer himself asserts that the progress of
thought is " towards an ultimate recognition of
a mystery behind every act and appearance; "
and he says that nothing can ever permanently
"shut out the thought of a Power [he writes it
with a capital P, too,] of which humanity is
but a small and fugitive product, — a Power
which was in course of ever changing manifestation before Humanity was, and will continue
through other manifestations when Humanity
has ceased to be." Very well; suppose the
Christian ventures to apply to this Power the
sacred name of God, and to recognize the common events of his life as part of his " manifestations," is he then and therefore incapacitated
for sociological studies? The assumption is perfectly gratuitous. It is the utterance of that
" an ti- theological b i a s " against which Mr.
Spencer elsewhere protests. It is not an argument, it is a sneer.
I t would not have been worth while to undertake this analysis of Mr. Spencer's fling, were
it not that it takes us into the vicinity of an
important distinction. Social Science differs
from the physical sciences in including a class
of facts that do not come under the laws of

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219

causation. The actions of men are not simply
effects produced by physical causes.% The law
of the conservation of energy will not explain
them all. The element of freedom plays a
large part in all this realm. To some extent,
therefore, the courses of human conduct are incalculable ; and it is not philosophical to expect
exact results. " It is for the social philosopher,"
says Dr. Lankester, "to hope that he may one
day lay down the laws of society in such a manner as to indicate, with a certainty equal to that
of the chemist or the physiologist, what will
happen as the result of any particular circumstance arising in the social life of man." This
is a visionary hope. The chemist or the physiologist deals wholly with necessary causes:
the same forces, in the same conditions, will, he
knows, always produce the same results. If
his science is not exact, it is simply because his
induction is imperfect: he does not know all
the facts. But human action is not necessitated. Imagine two men exactly alike, in organization, in environment, in history; the
same inducement may be presented to both at
the same moment, and the one may yield to it
while the other resists it. What one man may
do may be done by many men; indeed, it is
often the case that the action of many men is
influenced by one man; and there was a mo-

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ment when this one man could have taken
either of two courses, his action being determined, not by his circumstances, but by himself. The expectation that the s ° ^ e degree of
certainty can be secured in Social Science that
may be secured in the physical sciences is, therefore, chimerical. Even Mr. Spencer, though he
ascribes the actions of men to " causation," and
often uses language which implies that the wills
of men are unfree, nevertheless says that the
phenomena of Sociology, " involved in a higher
degree than all others, are, less than all others,
capable of precise treatment; such of them as
can be generalized can ^be generalized only
within wide limits of variation as to time and
amount, and there remains much that cannot
be generalized." It is not only true, as Mr.
Spencer says, that the difficulties of this science
are greater in degree than those of the physical
sciences: it is also true that it is environed
with difficulties of a different hind from those
encountered in the other sciences.
Nevertheless, it is possible to predict, with a
good degree of probability, what direction men
will take under given circumstances. There
are certain known qualities of human nature,
and certain well defined tendencies of human
action; and taking men in masses, experience
enables us to say that such and such results are

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221

likely to flow from such and such combinations
of circumstances. The probabilities, in many
cases, are so strong that we are justified in treating them as certainties. There is, therefore, a
social science, with a large and constantly growing body of valuable generalizations.
The
materials of this science are the facts of human
history, — of that kind of human history that
concerns itself not merely with courts and cabinets and congresses, but with the daily life of
the whole people; that traces the effects of
laws, institutions, customs, industries, habits, of
life, methods of charity, upon the welfare and
happiness of the whole people. I do not think
I am claiming too much when I say that Sociology, the Science of Human Welfare, is at once
the most comprehensive and the noblest of the
sciences.
The facts which form the materials of Social
Science are, therefore, the very facts with which
Christianity is dealing; and there would seem
to be no good reason why there should not be a
good understanding and a close alliance between
these two great agencies. Each has the power
of helping the other: the disciples of each may
profit by a sympathetic study of the other. Toward this mutual service I wish to make a few
suggestions.
What, then, are some of the directions in

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which Christianity may look for aid from Social
Science ?
First. As to the nature and the amount of
work to be done, the investigations of Sociology
are helpful. The studies of vice and crime and
ignorance and pauperism which have been prosecuted by the specialists in these departments
put within our reach a vast amount of the most
valuable information. We have a general idea
that sin and woe abound in many of our communities ; but the great majority of our churchmembers— even of those most active in churchwork — have no definite knowledge of the
physical or moral conditions of the multitudes
outside the churches. There are thousands of
American Christians who are better informed
respecting the degraded classes in India than
they are respecting those who live in the wards
adjoining their own residences. The reason is
plain. The missionaries whom they send to
India make themselves thoroughly familiar with
the life of the people there, and their careful
reports are spread before the people of the
churches monthly in the missionary meetings :
while no such skillful and careful explorations
are reported to the churches of the moral and
social status of the denizens of the slums near
by, where pestilence lurks, and pauperism
breeds, and crime vegetates. I do not say that

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223

no attempts are made by the churches to acquaint themselves with the condition of the
degraded classes; but the kind of work that we
do for them is rather uncertainly done, and
generally done by proxy. We have applied
our remedies roughly, without much investigation of the real wants of these classes. Some
of the benevolent workers of our churches are
in possession of much information; but the
attempt is not often made to systematize the
knowledge so gained in such a manner that intelligent and concerted action may be based
upon it. Such a work as that of Dr. Dugdale's
on " The Jukes," or such a study of human conditions and tendencies as that contained in the
first chapters of Professor Walker's book on
" T h e Wages Question," would afford some valuable hints to any Christian man who wants to
do good as he has opportunity. I have mentioned two books out of hundreds that might
be quoted. The literature of these and related
topics is already large and rich : from all these
fields of inquiry, busy hands have been gathering and classifying the facts of human life.
Those Christians who desire to know what the
fields are that they are called to cultivate, and
with what sort of growths they are filled, and
what kind of harvests are ripening in them,
cannot afford to neglect the means of informa-

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tion put within their reach by students of social
science.
Second. We may gain from the suggestions
of Social Science some useful hints as to methods of work.
1. One great part of our duty as Christians
respects the care of the poor. We have them
always with us, and whensoever we will, as the
Master said, we may do them good, — if we
know how. But it is a very delicate and difficult business, and it is quite as easy, even for
those who have the best intentions, to do harm
as good. And, after a somewhat careful study
of the whole subject, I have no hesitation in
saying that, until within the last few years, the
Christian churches of this country, in the distribution of what they call their charities, have
done more harm than good. They have found
and relieved some cases of actual want, and it
would have been a great pity if these cases had
not been found and relieved; but in doing this
they have bred paupers by the thousand; by
their careless and unquestioning doles they have
paved the way for whole families to enter the
steep and slimy path of beggary ; they have
aided and abetted parents in training up their
children for mendicancy and crime. The physical degradation and the moral mischief that
have resulted from the practice of indiscrimi-

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225

nate giving at the doors, and from the overlapping of church charities, could not easily be
computed.
The philanthropic sentiment has been well
developed in our churches : the readiness to
give money is proof of this. There is no difficulty in securing money enough for the relief
of any case of actual suffering. And the feeling is common among Christian people that the
giving of money to those who ask for it is a
meritorious act, no matter whether it does them
harm or good. If we suppose that they need
it, and give it with the purpose of doing them
good, then we get the blessing promised to the
givers : if they make a bad use of it, that is no
fault of ours. Now this reasoning is plausible,
but it is nevertheless unsound. Suppose it
turns out to be true that the money thus bestowed by us is a source of moral injury to
those who have received it, have we any right
to go on in this way getting blessings for ourselves at the cost of the souls of our fellows ?
No: our duty is to take all reasonable pains
before we bestow money or material aid on persons unknown or ,but slightly known to us, to
find out whether they are likely to be benefited
or injured by that which we propose to give.
We may be deceived, after having diligently
endeavored to find out the t r u t h : if we are, we

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CHRISTIANITY.

may fall back on our good purposes. But this
way of earning Paradise for ourselves by careless and lazy largesses that tend to corrupt and
destroy our fellow-men is not to be commended.
I have heard of paving the way to hell with
good intentions; but it is hardly Christian for
us to furnish such material for a pavement over
which our neighbors shall walk down that way.
The need of studying the methods of charity,
of learning how to do good to the poor, as we
have opportunity, is one of the needs of the
hour in our Christian work. In solving this
question the men and women who are studying
the phenomena of crime and pauperism can give
us most valuable aid. They can tell us some
painful stori'es of the results of undiscriminating giving; and they can furnish us some practical suggestions as to the methods of charitable
work. And I think we shall see, when we begin to look into this branch of our study, that
the relation between Christianity and Social
Science is very far from unfriendly. For, as a
matter of fact, the latest and most emphatic
word that has come from the students of Social
Science respecting this problem is simply this,
— that what the poor need most is not money,
nor food, nor better drainage, nor better tenements, but friendship; that the one important
thing to do for them is to furnish each family

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227

with a wise, faithful, patient, strong willed
friend, who shall teach and direct and inspire
and cheer them in the ways of self-respecting
industry and self-restraining prudence. That
is counsel with which as Christians we cannot
quarrel, and to the putting in practice of which
we ought to spring with all our energies.
2. On many other practical questions with
which we are called to deal in our Christian
work some light is thrown by the studies of the
Social Scientists: how to deal with drunkenness
is one of these. W e have been rather prone to
say of intemperance what Dr. Emmons said of
the Roman Catholic faith, that it is an " ultimate fact; " but much of the recent study of its
phenomena leads toward the conclusion that it
is quite as often an effect as a cause. It is generally assumed that intemperance bears to all,
other vices a seminal relation — that men are
led into other vices through intemperance.
That this is often true will not be doubted by
any; but so far as any careful investigation of
the facts has been made, the indications are
that intemperance is quite as apt to be the child
as the parent of other vice. It seems to be true
that there are fully as many cases in which impurity leads to inebriety, as there are in which
inebriety leads to impurity. And when we
come to investigate the relation of these two

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CHRISTIANITY.

vices to other crimes, some rather unexpected
conclusions are reached. Mr. Carroll D. Wright,
the chief of the Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics, a gentleman better informed on these
topics, probably, than any other in that commonwealth, and, withal, a very earnest and radical temperance man, has expressed the opinion
that, if you reckon out the crimes against chastity and the liquor crimes, and consider the
remaining crimes, more of these will be found
to have been caused by licentiousness than by
drunkenness. I do not vouch for this conclusion, but I think it not improbable. And whatever may be the relation of inebriety to crime,
one thing is certain : it is, in the great majority
of cases, the result of certain morbid physical
and mental conditions. " Investigation," says
Dr. Dugdale, "tends to show that certain diseases and mental disorders precede the appetite for stimulants, and that the true cause of
their use is the antecedent hereditary or induced
physical exhaustion : the remedy being healthy,
well balanced constitutions."
All this does not show that intemperance is
not an evil, nor does it encourage us in relaxing
our efforts to eradicate the evil; but ^t may
lead us to adopt in our teaching more discriminating forms of statement; to be a little less
confident in our assertion that it is so much

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229

greater than all the other evils to which humanity is heir that they are dwarfed in the comparison ; and so, perhaps, to adjust our measures
of dealing with it to a broader and sounder
philosophy.
Third. Another great service which Social
Science is able to render Christianity is the
elucidation of some of the more important
truths of theology. Social Science is, as we
have seen, the science of human welfare, and
the facts on which it is based are the facts of
human history. The laws which it formulates
by the comparison of these facts are therefore
the laws of human nature. The tendencies
which it discovers in the moral and in the social
life of men are tendencies resulting from the
nature of man in his present environment.
These facts and laws and tendencies are therefore the very stuff out of wliich that part of
theology which we call anthropology is constructed. The Bible gives us an account of
those matters; but the biblical account does
not invent or create the facts, it simply reports
them. What the Bible tells us about men can
be verified by our study of the phenomena of
human nature. A large and fair induction of
observed facts must give us substantially the
same theory of man that the Bible gives us.
We say that the Bible is a revelation, and so it
is. But what does this revelation reveal ?

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CHRISTIANITY.

1. It reveals, first, the truth about God, and
his nature and purposes, much of which is beyond our knowledge. But it does not originate
this truth about God. All this truth was true
before a word of the Bible was written. It
simply uncovers or discloses to the minds of
men the truth about God and his purposes towards men.
2. The Bible also reveals much truth concerning man, the tendencies and principles of
his nature; the kind of action that is habitual
with him; the effects of such actions upon himself and the society in which he lives. The Bible does not originate this truth, it reveals or
discloses it. It points out the facts and laws of
human life. The facts and laws of human life
that it points out are the very same facts that
the Social Scientist is studying. And it is certainly conceivable that we may obtain much
help in understanding the statements of the
Bible in regard to these matters by studying
the facts themselves. If we may be aided in
understanding what the Bible tells us about the
creation of the world by studying geology, then
we may also be aided in understanding what
the Bible tells us about the human race by
studying men. If the Bible be true, it cannot
contradict the facts of human life; should it
seem to do so, it is either because our induction

CHRISTIANITY AND SOCIAL SCIENCE. 231

of facts is incomplete, or because our understanding of the Bible is imperfect.
3. Upon one very important part of the revelation of the Bible these studies can throw but
little lights Of the grace tff God, and salvation
by grace, Social Science can give us no satisfactory account. The realm of grace is the realm
of the supernatural; it shows us a power above
nature, descending upon nature, to restore order and health and peace.
4. But the Bible takes us also into the realm
of law, and that realm of law into which it
takes us is the realm in which we live and
move and have our being. The moral law, as
revealed in the Bible, is put into preceptive
form; but that precept is only a generalization
of the facts of human life. The moral law,
contained in the Bible, was not then first enacted when it was written down in the words of
the Bible. It was incorporated from the beginning into the order of nature.
Here is a machine, made to work in a certain
way. With the machine go written directions
as to the manner of using it. These you may
call the law of the machine. If you obey this
law the machine works smoothly and productively ; if you disobey this law you not only get
3
no product from it, you derange and disable it.
But did the printed directions originate and

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and establish the law of the machine ? Would
there have been no right way of working it if
no directions had been printed?
Certainly
there would. The law of the machine is incorporated into the structure of the machine, and
an expert mechanic, studying its parts and
their adaptations, and testing it in actual use,
could soon tell how it ought to be worked, and
could supply directions to those desiring to use
it. Precisely the same thing is true respecting
the nature of man. Man is made to act in a
certain way. When his powers. are exercised
according to this rule, the result is life and
health and happiness; when they are not exercised according to this rule, the result is misery
and disease and decay. This rule is revealed in
the Bible, but it is also incorporated into the
constitution of man, and is impressed on the
environment in which man lives. The moral
law, recorded in the Bible, has precisely the
same relation to humanity and its environment
that the printed directions for the working of
the machine have to the machine. I t does not
announce a rule of conduct as something arbitrary or ab extra; it simply states the moral
order in accordance with which man was made,
and which he must follow in his conduct, if he
would have health and peace. This moral
order does not exist because the Bible formu-

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lates i t ; the Bible formulates it because it exists. If it exists, then it is rational to studyit not only where it is formulated but where
it is. And if it is thus studied, with humility
and docility — in the true scientific spirit — it
will yield us valuable results — results that
will, confirm the moral teachings of the Bible.
Take one of the greatest generalizations of
the Bible: "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as
thyself." This law was given by Moses, but
with a limited meaning: it was repeated by
Christ with a universal meaning. The new
definition of the word " neighbor " makes it a
new law. But did this law then begin to be
the rule of life for man when Christ first spoke
it ? No : it was incorporated into the nature
of man at his creation. Men are so made that
if they would secure for themselves as individuals and for the society in which they live, perfection and blessedness, they must obey this
law. It is, therefore, a law which experience
will verify. And as men gather and compare
and classify the results of their experience, they
find that just to the extent of their obedience
to this law have they secured their own individual and social welfare. Health and happinqss
have followed obedience of this l a w : disorder
and misery have resulted from the disobedience
of it. That it will be perfectly obeyed in the

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perfect society of the future is now recognized
as a scientific certainty.
Let me justify my last remark. Mr. Herbert
Spencer gives us in his " Data of Ethics " the
results of an elaborate investigation into the
foundations of morality. This investigation is
made, of course, with no regard whatever for
the teachings of the New Testament: it is an
an examination of the facts and laws of human
nature, nothing else. And although his reasonings are by no means always to be accepted,
yet when he comes to his practical rule of morality he gives us an exact restatement of the
Christian law. In those chapters on the relations of Egoism and Altruism, Mr. Spencer
proves, first, that unqualified egoism is selfdestructive ; second, that unqualified altruism
is equally self-destructive, — even under the
utilitarian form of the greatest happiness principle ; so that the maxim "Live for self," and
the maxim " Live for others," are equally irrational as rules of life; third, that the only right
principle is a combination of egoism and altruism. " Self - sacrifice," he says, " is no less
primordial than self-preservation." " Egoism
and altruism are co-essential." What is this
but the statement in philosophic phrase of
Christ's own law, " Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself " — a command that enjoins a

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235

rational self-love, and makes that the measure
of our love for our neighbor ? The most distinguished living sociologist, studying human
beings in their social relations, and interrogating
experience to find the right rule for their guidance, reaches, after much careful study, the very
law laid down by Jesus Christ nineteen hundred years ago. It would seem that Mr. Spencer might have recognized this fact a little more
distinctly." His grudging admission, at the end
of his argument, that the result to which he
has come is " a rationalized version of the ethical principles of the current creed," does him
small credit. But however reluctant he may be
to concede to the Great Teacher the honor that
belongs to Him, the fact remains that he by his
scientific studies has simply verified Christ's
law.
5. If this greatest of generalizations can be
verified by the study of the phenomena of human life, there is much encouragement for the
prosecution of such, studies. For not only can
we gain from such studies a verification of the
precepts of the moral law, we can also see the
working of its penalties. If the precept is
wrought into the moral order, so also is the
penalty. The effects of disobedience are exhibited before our eyes. The terrible reactions of
sin upon the character, its disorganizing and

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destructive work in society — these are the very
facts with which social science is dealing. If
you want to know what is meant by the Scripture which says, " The soul that sinneth, it shall
die," go out with these philanthropists and
study the condition of some of the poor creatures who by long courses of transgression have
debauched their bodies, wasted, their mental
energies, paralyzed their moral powers, until
corruption has invaded every part of their natures — until the awful gangrene of sin is eating
them up — and the life that they are living is a
living death. If you want to know what hell
is, there are men who can show you. For not
only is it true that good men get in this life
the substance of the things they hope for, it
is also true that bad men get in this life the
substance of the things they are to expect ;
and. the fearful looking-for of judgment becomes a fearful realization of judgment. Hells
there are on earth — not shadows, but realities
— where all that makes hell fearful, the hate,
the bestiality, the spreading leprosy of vileness,
fill our senses and our souls with unutterable
horror.
Now I believe that any man who will study
human nature in the misery and ruin which sin
has brought into the world will gain in that
way some clear knowledge of the doctrine of

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retribution. There is much dispute about what
the Bible teaches concerning retribution : why
not study the retributive laws themselves, as
they are doing their deadly work before our
eyes ? I do not think any man can understand
this subject who does not constantly compare
the biblical statements with the facts which
they describe. It is conceded by all that there
is much in the biblical teaching on this subject
that is figurative: all about us are the literal
facts, working themselves out in the daily lives
of men. There is the great fact of heredity;
men have taken the poetical statements of the
Bible concerning it, and have deduced from
them doctrines that seem to impugn the divine
justice — doctrines that many refuse to accept;
but, doubtless, these statements mean something. What do they mean ? The social scientists can tell you.
I cannot dwell upon this branch of my subject any longer, fruitful though it is. But any
one can see that if the human nature with which
Social Science deals is the same human nature
that is described in the Bible, then the doctrine
of man found in the Bible may, if true, be verified by careful study in the fields of social
science. And it would seem clear that this
science ought to be cultivated not only by those
Christians who are engaged in benevolent work,

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but also oy students of Christian doctrine, and
that it ought to have an important place in the
teaching of every theological seminary.
For considering the inquiry, What help may
Social Science gain from Christianity? very
little space is left. Yet I am quite sure that
Sociology needs the infusion of Christian ideas
and influences quite as much as Christianity
needs the help that Sociology is able to give.
1. There are certain important practical aids
which those Social Scientists who are at the
same time philanthropists may derive from
Christianity. The people among whom their
studies are pursued, in behalf of whom their
labors are undertaken, differ in many things,
but they are alike in this — that they need,
more than anything else, a moral invigoration.
Their greatest defect is a defect of character.
What Cassius said applies to most of them, —
The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
But in ourselves, that we are underlings.

Something can be done for them by improving
the environment, but after all it is the man who
needs mending more than the environment.
The need of rousing, in some way, the dormant
self-respect, the flagging energy, — this is the
great need. I have already referred to the conclusion lately reached by some of those most

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experienced in the study of pauperism — that
friendship is the thing most needed by those
who are sinking toward mendicancy. Material
aid is, in the vast majority of cases, the very
thing they ought not to have. Moral aid is
what they want. The stimulus and quickening
of a sound, vigorous, hopeful, loving nature
brought into immediate contact with their own
is the medicine they need. They ought to have
a better environment — better drainage, better
ventilation, better food, of course; but they
ought to get them for themselves. The thing
to be desired is the impartation to them of a
force or an impulse that shall stir them up to
get these things for themselves. This, I say, is
the last word of Social Science respecting work
among the pauperized classes ; and, in uttering
this word, Social Science has admitted the substantial truth of the proposition that I am now
urging.' It is a distinct recognition of the truth
that the deepest needs of man are moral needs,
and that the strongest forces for his elevation are
moral forces. And this is the principle on which
Christianity rests. The kind of work for which
Social Science thus calls is the very kind of
work that Christianity is organized to do. Do
you say that the proper work of Christianity is
to evangelize these degraded people ? Yes: but
they are best evangelized by living epistles.

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The gospel incarnated in wholesome, happy,
earnest, loving lives, and thus brought into living contact with them in their homes, is most
likely to be the power of God unto salvation.
This is, indeed, the very method of the gospel.
No man is a Christian who has not received of
his fullness of whom it was said, " In Him was
life, and the life was the light of men." And
the grace that is freely received is freely given.
From one life to another, by subtlest channels
of sympathy, flow the regenerating influences.
The new method of charity is, therefore, the
very essence of Christianity. And it is a good
sign that the importance of this kind of work
is coming to be recognized by practical philanthropists. A great deal of cheap sarcasm has
been expended by certain shallow persons on
the kind of benevolence which is content with
bestowing good advice and spiritual consolation
upon the poor, instead of shoes and coal and potatoes ; and it may, indeed, be true that penurious hypocrisy sometimes takes this mask ; but,
after all, the physical wants of the poor are not
their deepest wants; and the method of Him
who said, " Thy sins be forgiven thee," before
Pie said, '* Arise and walk," is the philosophical
method. The great thing to do is to get at the
hearts of these people, to kindle in them the
flame of a holy energy, to arouse in them

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241

what Professor Shairp calls the " moral motive
power."
For the kindling of this flame in the hearts of
these miserable people, the best torch is hope.
In the hearts of most of them hope burns
faintly; some of them are down in the depths
of poverty or disgrace; the fates seem to be
against them; others esteem themselves rejected of men ; others seem to themselves to be
in hopeless slavery to their own appetites or infirmities. If only in some way the principle of
hope could be strengthened in them, the battle
would be half won. All those who have tried
to lift up these fallen ones know how hard it is
to overcome the dead weight of apathy and discouragement that holds them down. Now the
torch of hope is the light that Christianity carries into all these dark places. " We are saved
by hope," Paul says, —all of us. It is the hope
set before us in the gospel that at first allures
us all. We all need its quickening influence,
and those who have sunk the lowest need it
most. It is the very message for these poor
people — the good news, the promise of peace
and power, of liberty and joy. Christianity
goes down to these people in their deepest degradation proclaiming freedom to the captives,
and the opening of the prison doors to the bondslaves of sin; offering to these children of wrath

242

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and woe power to become the sons of God;
opening to all glimpses of a glory yet to be revealed in the life beyond, brighter than all
their fairest fancies, — in a land of rest and
plenty and pure delight. It is by this glorious
hope that the dull souls of many of these unhappy children of earth are stirred, and that
they are led into the ways of virtue. The
knowledge that some one loves them ; the good
news that God loves them ; the hope of a better
day held up before them, — these are the most
potent forces to elevate and -save them. And
those who study the ways of doing good to
these hapless multitudes make a capital mistake
when they ignore the mighty influences having
their source in the gospel of Jesus Christ.
2. We saw that Christianity had need of the
help of Sociology in the shaping of its methods,
and also in the framing of its theories. We
have now seen that Sociology needs the aid of
Christianity in shaping its methods. Does it
also need the same aid in the fashioning of its
theories? It seems clear to me that this is its
most manifest need. The one thing needful
for Sociology as a science is to be suffused with
Christian ideas and sentiments. Without this
transforming influence it is in danger of becoming shallow and heartless, of dealing with its
subjects from a stand-point purely materialistic

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243

and mechanical, and thus of utterly failing to
serve mankind. I cannot now enlarge upon
this topic: I can only say that students of Social
Science need to keep always before their minds
the Christian estimate of human nature. The
sacredness and value of a man — the fact of his
Divine parentage, and of the great possibilities
bound up in him — these are thoughts that those
who pursue these studies ought to come back to
often, lest they become entangled in the network of material causes. - There is a tendency
to carry the methods and the maxims of physical science into this realm; and to make Biology not merely the analogue of Sociology, but
identical with i t ; thus confining the attention
to physical forces, and putting all the stress on
physical remedies. To correct this aberration
the Christian teaching respecting the spiritual
nature of man needs to be steadily held in
mind.
3. But chiefly is the intervention of Christian ideas needed in that branch of Social Science which deals with the production and distribution of wealth, — the science of Political
Economy. The " dismal science," some one
has named i t ; and verily, as often taught, it is
dismal enough ; not only because of the perplexities that environ it, but also and chiefly
because of the selfishness of its maxims and

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the inhumanity of its conclusions. Mr. John
Rae is right when lie says that u the operation
of the laws of political economy is sometimes
represented as if it were morally as neutral as
the law of gravitation." The law of supply
and demand, the principles of competition, are
exalted as if they were supreme over all conduct; and when we see them working misery
and ruin before our faces, we are exhorted to
let it all alone; it is the operation of nature
and must not be interfered with. The operation of nature it is, no doubt; but of a fallen
and disordered nature, that constantly needs
restraining.
The current Political Economy has insisted
on treating labor — that is, the laborer — as a
commodity: it has discussed him just as if he
were a bag of wheat or a bushel of coal. It has
excluded all moral considerations from its reasonings about him : it has recognized no rights
or interests that equal competition will not secure. Yet the fact stares us in the face that
there is no such thing as equal competition :
that under such, competition as exists, masses
of laborers are continually pushed to the wall,
trodden down into a condition of feebleness and
hopelessness from which, they cannot rise. Says
Mr. Rae: —
To treat the labor contract as a simple exchange

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AND SOCIAL SCIENCE.

245

between equals is absurd. The laborer must sell his
labor or starve, and may be obliged to take such
terms for it as leave him without the means of enjoying the rights which society awards him, and discharging the duties which society claims from him.
Look on him as a ware, if you will; but remember
that he is a ware that has life, that has connections,
responsibilities, expectations, domestic, social, political. To get his bread he might sell his freedom, but
society will not permit him ; he may sell his health,
he may sell his character, for society permits that;
he may go to sea in rotten ships and be sent to work
in unwholesome workshops; he may be herded in
farm bothies where the commonest decencies of life
cannot be preserved; and he may suck the strength
out of posterity by putting his children to premature
toil, to eke out his precarious living. Transactions
which have such direct bearings on freedom, on
health, on morals, on the permanent well-being of
the nation, can never be morally indifferent. They
are necessarily within the sphere of ends and ideals.
Their ethical side is one of their most important ones,
and the science that deals with them is therefore
ethical.1
T h i s is exactly t h e lesson which this branch of
Social Science needs to have enforced upon it
continually. W e have had quite too much of
t h e speculation about wealth t h a t leaves moral
a n d h u m a n e considerations wholly on one side;
1

Contemporary Socialism, p. 213.

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CHRISTIANITY.

the effect of such speculations on public opinion
and on legislation is injurious in the e x t r e m e ;
t h e practical result of such a divorce between
economics and ethics must always b e mischievous. T h e y are things t h a t God has joined together ; let not man p u t them asunder. H a p pily there has arisen a school of economists in
these latter days — men like W i l h e l m Roscher
of G e r m a n y , and our own Francis A . W a l k e r
of Massachusetts — who insist on infusing into
t h e " dismal science " some elements of h u m a n ity ; who agree w i t h t h a t fine saying of Emerson — a saying t h a t reflects the light t h a t shines
from every page of t h e N e w T e s t a m e n t •— " T h e
best political economy is the care and culture of
men."
I have t h u s sought to define Christianity and
Social Science; to indicate t h e near relation between t h e m ; to show how t h e disciples of each
m a y profit by a sympathetic study of t h e other.
A s M r . Mulford declares in " T h e Republic
of G o d " : —
In science, as the knowledge of the process of the
physical world [and not less as the knowledge of the
evolution of society] there is discovery — in that
form a revelation of that which is actual; and science
in its furthest advance becomes the stronger ally of
this revelation of God. Tho contest of each is with
vice and crime, with the manias and fevers that shat>

CHRISTIANITY

AND SOCIAL SCIENCE.

247

ter men, with the slavery of the world, and the forces
which tend to the division and degradation of humanity.1
When the true Republic of God shall be finally
established among men, Christianity and Social
Science will be no more twain, but one.
l Page 98.

CHRISTIANITY A N D P O P U L A R
AMUSEMENTS.

T H E historical relation of Christianity to popular amusements is one of antagonism. The
philosophy of the church respecting the whole
subject may be summed up in the cynical counsel of Douglas Jerrold to persons about to
marry, " Don't! " There have been contrary
voices, and not a little practical dissent has
found expression; but the tenor of the ecclesiastical utterances respecting amusements has
been prohibitor}^ not to say objurgatory. In
some of the sects a less stringent doctrine has
been taught; but it is not very long since the
average Protestant church-member took no diversion without some compunctions or questionings of conscience.
Doubtless this inveterate hostility to amusements of all sorts is partly traditional, a survival
of that wholesome horror and righteous enmity
with which the first Christians resisted the

CHRISTIANITY

AND POPULAR AMUSEMENTS.

249

amusements in vogue throughout the Roman
Empire. The frightful, debaucheries and cruelties which constituted the sports of the Romans
merited the holy indignation with which the
disciples of the early days denounced them.
The conflict of Christianity with heathenism
began in this very arena. One of the broad
lines of distinction which the Christians drew
between themselves and their pagan neighbors
was their refusal to attend the Roman games.
When we know that the best actor was the one
who could behave the most obscenely; that the
chariot races at the circus, where there were
seats for three hundred and eighty-five thousand spectators, were deemed most successful
when horses and men were killed in the contest; that the spectacles at the amphitheatre
derived all their relish from the butchery of
gladiators by scores and hundreds in their battles with wild beasts and with one another;
that the public executions also offered a delectable entertainment for the populace, the condemned sometimes appearing " in garments interwoven with threads of gold, and with crowns
on their heads, when suddenly flames burst
from their clothing and consumed them," all
for the amusement of the people, — we are not
disposed to find fault with the protest of the
early Christians against the popular diversions.

250

APPLIED

CHRISTIANITY.

" Bread and games !" was the cry of the Roman
populace. " Work and prayer ! " was the watchword of the Christians. Against the indolence
and savage frivolity of the people about them,
they lifted up their standard of industry and
soberness. It was a great conflict on which
they thus entered ; and there was small opportunity for compromise or discrimination. The
sentiments and maxims which had their origin
in this early warfare have been perpetuated in
the Church, and the judgments of the early
Christians upon popular amusements have been
repeated in modern times against sports altogether different from those of Rome in the first
century.
A t the time of the Reformation in England,
the hostility of the Puritans to popular amusements was even more bitter than that of the
early Christians to the Roman games, though
the reasons for this hostility were much less
cogent. Doubtless there was good cause to protest against the roystering sports of that period.
The desecration of the Lord's Day by noisy and
wanton pastimes was common everywhere, and
this called forth their loudest protest. But
when they entered upon their crusade against
the diversions of the people, they became so
extravagant in their judgments, including in
their denunciations so many harmless things

CHRISTIANITY

AND POPULAR AMUSEMENTS,

251

and failing so utterly to preserve any moral
perspective in their teachings, that they never
could have carried with them the consciences of
intelligent persons. Those who were trained
in their own households and who were subjected to the strenuous pressure of their public
opinion could be brought to adopt their theories.
By an educational process as careful and insistent as that, for example, to which John Stuart
Mill was subjected, a child can be made to believe or to disbelieve almost anything. By such
rigid training the Puritans did create in the
minds that were brought under their influence
the strong belief that every species of amusement was sinful*; and this theory they enforced
with all the fervor of religious enthusiasm, and,
when they were able, by all the power of the
State. But it was only from those who had
been subjected from childhood to the pressure
of this intense philosophy that any steady conformity to its rules could be expected. Nature
and reason were against it. The utter disproportion of its judgments must soon become
evident. The moralist to whom the dancing of
the boys and girls around the May-pole on the
village green is a " horrible* vice " ; who cries
out, with old Stubbes, " Give over your occupations, you pipers, you fiddlers, you musicians,
you tabretters, and you fluters, and all other of

252

APPLIED

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that wicked brood," holding that "sweet music
at the first delighteth the ears, but afterward
corrupteth and depraveth the mind ; " who
damns the simplest and most wholesome sports
quite as roundly as the worst debaucheries, —
will soon find himself speaking to a limited audience. If it be trne, as Knight tells us, that
" drinking, dicing, bear-baiting, cock-fighting —
the coarsest temptations to profligacy — were
not such abominations in the eyes of the Puritans as " stage plays, interludes, and comedies,"
then the Puritans ought to have lost their influence with the English people.
Macaulay's remark that the Puritans opposed
bear-baiting less because it gave pain to the
bear than because it gave pleasure to the spectators, has often been quoted as an example of
his vicious fondness for antithesis ; but it is by
no means clear that the cynicism lacks justice.
Many a Puritan did think merriment a worse
sin than cruelty to animals. The story of the
Highlander who reported that he saw, on the
Sabbath, men and women walking along the
streets of Edinburgh, and u smiling as if they
were perfectly happy," adding, " It was an
awfu' sight! " illustrates the view of life which
was taken by the more strenuous Puritans.
Knight says that the Judicious Hooker's statement about the Anabaptists was indirectly

CHRISTIANITY

AND POPULAR AMUSEMENTS.

253

pointed at them : " Every word otherwise than
severely and sadly uttered seemed to pierce like
a sword through them. If any man were pleasant, their manner was fervently with sighs to
repeat those words of our Saviour Christ, ' Woe
be to you which now laugh, for ye shall lament' "
That this overstrained asceticism of the Puritans was excusable, in view of the excesses
against which they testified, may be freely admitted ; albeit the reveling Cavaliers might
doubtless claim some similar mitigation of their
condemnation, in view of the rigors of the
Roundheads. Each party was driven into
worse extremes by the extravagances of the
other. The philosophy of life which underlay
the Puritan regimen has given way slowly.
Down to the present generation it has been
the received doctrine in most of the reformed
churches, that all " worldly pleasures " ought
to be eschewed. If personal testimony may be
offered, the writer remembers very well that,
when a boy of twelve, he mentally debated the
question of conversion, under the impression that
the change involved the sacrifice of base-ball, and
base-ball was then an innocent game. This impression was gained in the religious services upon
which he was a constant attendant. I t is true
that at that time, and long before, members of

254

APPLIED CHRISTIANITY.

churches did engage to some extent in sport
and merriment, but generally under some protest of conscience, and with the feeling that the
indulgence was a charge against their piety.
The ideal Christian of the reformed churches
was a man who had no use for any kind of diversion, and whose neighbors would have been
shocked if they had seen him unbending in a
merry game.
The only enjoyment deemed
strietljf legitimate for the eminent saint was^ religious rapture—the "awful m i r t h " described
by Dr. Watts in his psalms. It was, the implicit, if not the avowed, doctrine of the Church
that all kinds of diversions were substitutes for
this holy ecstasy, and as such sinful. It was
said, indeed, in sermons and in songs, that
" Keligion never was designed
To make our pleasures less; "

but by this was meant that the pleasure to be
found in prayer and meditation, and in the
anticipation of heaven, was,superior to the
" worldly " pleasures abandoned ; not that the
common diversions of life could themselves be
continued and sanctified. The time is within
the memory of many of those who will read
this essay, when ministers first began to say
frequently and freely that a long face and an
ascetic habit were not signs of saintliness.
Those who were so bold as to make these as-

CHRISTIANITY

AND POPULAR

AMUSEMENTS.

255

sertions in the pulpit were regarded at first as
somewhat erratic ; it was not easy for the average Christian to comprehend t h a t a genuine
piety could consist with cheery manners and a
h e a r t y joy in the good things of this life.
O u t of this traditional estimate of the n a t u r e
of religion, and its relation to what is known as
the secular life, came the maxims which t h e
Church for many years applied to amusement.
I t is needless to say t h a t these maxims are obsolete. I n this case, at any rate, prohibition
has not prohibited. T h e parson, with t h e pitchfork of excommunication, has not prevailed over
n a t u r e . T h e rigorous rule of the P u r i t a n , long
enforced by the most tremendous motives, is
utterly broken, and will not in our day be restored.
Failing to prohibit, t h e Church has now for
some time undertaken to regulate amusements
by drawing the line between t h e clean and t h e
unclean. Certain diversions have been allowed,
and certain others forbidden. Much casuistry
of a dubious sort has been expended on this
discussion ; the questions whether dancing is
sinful, and whether billiards are worse t h a n
croquet, and whether cards are always an abomination, and whether church-members ought to
be disciplined for attending t h e t h e a t r e or t h e
opera, have been widely and hotly d e b a t e d ;

256

APPLIED CHRISTIANITY.

most of us have had a hand in the threshing of
this chaff'. Whether these controversies have
aided greatly in the formation of a sound public
opinion on this subject may well be doubted;
the grounds on which the permission of some
amusements and the prohibition of others have
been rested are often inconsistent and irrational ; and the Church would be far wiser to
give over these questions of casuistry, and insist
upon a few general principles, such as these:—1. Amusement is not an end, but a means —
a means of refreshing the mind and replenishing the strength of the body ; when it begins to
be the principal thing for which one lives, or
when, in pursuing it, the mental powers are enfeebled and the bodily health impaired, it falls
under just condemnation.
2. Amusements that consume the hours which
ought to be sacred to sleep are, therefore, censurable.
3. Amusements that call us away from work
which we are bound to do are pernicious, just
to the extent to which they cause us to be neglectful or unfaithful.
4. Amusements that rouse or stimulate morbid appetites or unlawful passions, or that cause
us to be restless or discontented, are always to
be avoided.
5. Any indulgence in amusement which has

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AND POPULAR AMUSEMENTS.

257

a tendency to weaken our respect for the great
interests of character, or to loosen our hold on
the eternal verities of the spiritual realm, is, so
far forth, a damage to us.
These principles will apply to all kinds o£
amusements, but the application must be made
by individuals. Parents must reduce these
principles to rules for the guidance of their
.children, for the power to comprehend and use
principles is only gradually gained; children do
not always possess i t ; authority rather than
reason must often be their guide. But the
Church must use reason rather than authority;
and the pulpit can do no better than faithfully
to enforce some such general maxims as I have
suggested. Whatever the Church can do in the
regulation of amusements, can best be done by
this method.
But is this all that the Church has to do with
the amusements of the people ? Is its function
fulfilled, in this important realm of human conduct, by repressing or regulating the diversions
of the people, — by preventing excess and
abuse ? Has the Church no positive duties to
perform in providing popular amusement ?
Let me say at the outset that the churches
are doing already all that they ought to do in
the way of furnishing amusements of various
kinds in connection with their own organiza-

258

APPLIED

CHRISTIANITY.

tions and in their own houses of worship. The
church sociable has become a recognized institution ; and, in spite of certain scandalous reports, its influence, on the whole, has been salutary. It is certain, however, that the churches
have gone fully as far in this direction as it is
safe for them to go. It is not the business of
the Church to organize dramatic troupes or
minstrel companies for the amusement of the
people in its own edifice. The proper function
of the Church is that of teaching and moral influence ; and when it goes extensively into the
show business, it is apt to lose its hold upon the
more serious interests with which it is charged.
The duty of the Church, with respect to the
provision and direction of popular amusements,
will be discharged, if at all, as its duty to the
unfortunates of the community is discharged,
— by inspiring and forming outside agencies to
do this very thing. The hospitals and the asylums are the work of the Church; but it is neither economical nor desirable that each church
should undertake to provide in connection with
its own edifice, and under the care of its own
officers, a hospital, an asylum for the insane,
and a home for the friendless. When it is said
that the Church ought to provide wholesome
diversions for the people, it is meant, therefore,
that the Church ought to stir up the intelligent

CHRISTIANITY

AND POPULAR AMUSEMENTS.

259

and benevolent men and women under its influence to attend to this matter, and ought to
make them feel that this is one of the duties
resting on them as Christians. And the question now before us is whether any such obligation as this is now resting on the Church;
whether this is a field which Christian philanthropy can and should enter and cultivate. In
answering this question several considerations
must be borne in mind.
1. Popular amusement is a great fact. A
large share of the people are seeking amusement of one sort or another continually. In
every city or considerable town the operahouses, the concert-halls, the rinks, the museums, the beer-gardens, as well as many lower
and less reputable places of diversion, are always open and generally well patronized. It
is probable that more persons attend places of
amusement than attend church ; or, rather, that
there is a larger number of persons in almost
any large town or city who seldom or never attend any place of worship, than of those who
seldom or never visit any place of amusement.
The places of amusement are generally open six
or seven days in the week, while most churches
are open only two or three days. Even the
poorest people, those who obtain but a meagre
subsistence by their labor, and who often ap-

260

APPLIED

CHRISTIANITY.

peal to their neighbors for c h a r ^ , spend a
good part of their scanty earnings for amusements. A family, known to the writer, that
sold the last feather pillows in the house for
money to go to the circus, is a type of a large
class. Church-going is a luxury too expensive
for multitudes who spend three times as much
as a seat in church would cost on the theatre
and the variety show.
2. The business of amusement constitutes a
great financial interest. An army of men and
women get their living by providing diversion
for the people. Millions of dollars are invested
in buildings, furniture, instruments, equipage,
scenery, animals, vehicles, and appliances of all
sorts, devoted to this purpose. Busy brains are
all the while contriving new forms of diversion
that shall prove attractive to the people and remunerative to their projectors. Large fortunes
are made by successful managers; indeed, the
capital of a millionaire is required for the handling of some of our great popular amusements.
This liberal outlay and this enterprising provision involve a general and large expenditure of
money on the part of the people. In one inland
city of sixty thousand inhabitants there are two
opera-houses. In each of these there is an average of five performances a week during the season, which lasts about forty weeks. Four hm>

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dred performances a year, with average receipts
of two hundred and fifty dollars, give us one
hundred thousand dollars expended for amusements every year in these two houses — more
than is paid for the support of all the Protestant churches in the city. A base-ball club in
the same city received during the last season,
for gate money, about twenty thousand dollars.
Add all the money that was paid for diversions
of various sorts at the other halls, and the rinks,
and the public gardens of the city; all that was
taken by several circuses and other outdoor
shows; all that was devoted to billiards, and
to dances, and to horse-races, and to a multitude of other amusements, more or less refined,
— and it can be easily seen that the amusement
bill of a city of this size must reach a formidable figure. Not counting the cost of drink
or debauchery, which is not properly reckoned
against amusements, — counting only the expense of what may be fairly classed among the
diversions of the people, — we see that a large
share of their earnings is devoted to this purpose. Complaint is sometimes made of the cost
of education-and of religious privileges; but it
is safe to say that the people of this country
spend every year for amusements more than
they pay for their schools, and three times as
much as they pay for their churches.

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3. Amusement is not only a great fact and a
great business interest, it is also a great factor
in the development of the national character.
If a wise philanthropist could choose between
making the laws of any people and furnishing
their amusements, it would not take him long
to decide. The robust virtues are nurtured
under the discipline of work ; if the diversions
can be kept healthful, a sound national life will
be developed. The ideals of the people are
shaped, and their sentiments formed, to a large
extent, by popular amusements. It is claimed
that the drama renders important service to
public morality in this direction; but the claim
can hardly be allowed. A careful collection
and analysis, by a well-known clergyman, of
the plays produced at the leading theatres of
Chicago during a given period clearly indicated
that the actual drama is far from being a great
teacher of morality. Doubtless many plays are
produced whose moral lesson is helpful and
stimulating ; but it cannot be claimed that the
preponderance of the influence of the drama is
on the side of virtue. It is conceivable that the
drama might be a great friend of morality; it
is possible that it will be one day ; it is undeniable that there are a few noble men and
women now upon the stage who are doing what
they can to lift up its standards; it is not nee-

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263

essary to indulge in any sweeping censures when
we speak of i t ; but it is quite clear that this
form of popular amusement, as at present administered, tends to the degradation rather than
the elevation of the people. It is not only nor
chiefly by the questionable morality of many of
the plays that this injury is done ; it is by their
flippancy, their silliness, their sensationalism,
their unreality. Their effect upon the intellect
is like that produced by the reading of the most
trashy novels, only more debilitating. So far
as the drama is concerned, therefore, I fear that
it must be said that the net result of its influence upon the national character is injurious
rather than beneficial. And the same thing
must be said of popular amusements in general,
as at present organized and conducted. Although the people receive much wholesome refreshment and innocent pleasure from the diversions now provided for them, yet the effect
of these amusements, as a whole, upon their
minds and their morals and their physical
health, is not salutary. I am not inclined to
pessimism on this or any other subject, and I
am able to look without horror on many diversions commonly regarded as wholly pernicious:
yet careful observation of the effect of the popular amusements upon the people at large leads
me to believe that the balance of their influ-

264

APPLIED CHRISTIANITY.

ence is on the side of injury. They are a great
factor in the life of the people, but their product, on the whole, is evil; they do much good,
but more harm.
4. Seeing that amusement is so large an element in the life of the people, seeing that it
lays so heavy a tax on their resources and
affects their character so powerfully, the questions naturally arise: How is it managed ? By
whom is it furnished? How much of intelligence and of philanthropic purpose enters into
the plans of those who provide the amusements
of the people ?
Concerning the "class of persons who devote
their lives to the business of amusing the people, it is not best to make any unqualified statements. Among them are many who are exemplary in their conduct, and who would never
engage in any enterprise the tendency of which
would be immoral or degrading. But if what
has been said is true, that the preponderance of
the influence of the popular amusements is on
the side of evil, then it is reasonable to conclude
that the majority of those who furnish them are
not persons of exalted character. As a matter
of fact, the business of diverting the people is
largely in the hands of men and women whose
moral standards are low, whose habits are vicious, and whose influence upon these with

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whom they come in contact must be evil. I t
is to people chiefly of this class that this most
important interest of life is intrusted.
When we ask on what basis the business of
amusement is conducted, the answer is that it
rests almost wholly on a pecuniary basis. The
main interest of those who furnish it is a pecuniary interest. The principle that regulates it
is the principle of supply and demand; and this
principle is interpreted, as we have seen, by
persons who would not be likely to discover a
demand for diversions of an elevating nature, if
there were such a demand.
The question now arises whether this great
interest of human life ought to be left to settle
itself in this manner, by the law of supply and
demand. It may be wise to allow the material
interests of men to adjust themselves according
to this law. But amusement is not one of the
material interests of men. Man's need of amusement is one of the needs of his higher nature —
his spirit, as well as of his body ; his use of
amusement affects his mind and his character
directly and powerfully. And whatever may
be said about the introduction of the principle
of good-will into the business of producing and
distributing commodities, there can be no question, when you enter the realm where those
forces are at work by which character is pro-

266

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CHRISTIANITY.

duced, that the principle of good-will must come
in, and must be allowed to rule. If this is true,
the business of providing amusement for the
people ought not to be merely or mainly a
mercenary business; the intelligence, the conscience, and the benevolence of the community
ought to recognize the realm of amusement as
belonging to them, and ought to enter in and
take possession.
Does the Church leave the religious wants of
the community to be provided for under the law
of supply and demand ? Is it supposed that this
matter will properly regulate itself ; that the
people will call for what they need and get i t ;
that no care is to be exercised and no effort
made to provide wise and safe religious teaching for them ? By no means. It is assumed
to be the function of the Church to provide
Christian institutions and Christian instruction
for the people; to spread the gospel feast before them and send forth the invitations to them^
not to wait and see what they would like, and
give them what they may ask for; not to leave
this matter to be attended to by those who seek
to make gain of godliness.
How is it with the intellectual wants of the
community ? Does the state leave these to be
supplied under the economical law? Is it imagined that the people will get all the educa*

CHRISTIANITY

AND POPULAR AMUSEMENTS.

267

tion that they need if they are left to provide it
for themselves, irregularly and spasmodically,
according to their own notions of what they
want ? Not at all. The intelligence and philanthropy of the best citizens, expressing themselves in the laws of the state, provide education
for the people, build school-houses, organize
systems of education, employ teachers, offering
thus to the public a large and wise and constant
supply of one of their deepest needs. It may
be said that the provision is only a response to
the popular demand, but this is not true. The
great motive power of education is not the cry
of ignorance; it is the offer of intelligence.
Plow is it in our homes ? Is the education of
our children the result of their call for learning,
or of our constant and insistent proffer of learning to them ? Here and there is a child that
hungers for useful knowledge ; but the great
majority need to have this hunger created in
them, and need to have it stimulated continually
by a wise and patient presentation to them of
the knowledge which we wish them to acquire.
Thus all popular education proceeds, and has
always proceeded, from an altruistic motive.
The demand has been created by furnishing
the supply; it is the intelligence, the conscience, the patriotism, the philanthropy of the
best citizens — not always of the richest citizens

268

APPLIED CHRISTIANITY.

— that have taken this business of education in
hand and managed it for the benefit of the
whole people. A large part of the work of
education — the work of school-boards, and
trustees, and visitors —• is done gratuitously.
•
Philanthropy is not the sole motive in the work
of education; the self-regarding motives have
large scope among teachers as well as pupils;
but the philanthropic element is an integral element in all our best educational work. Benevolence is one of the forces that keep the machinery in motion. Education deserves always
to rank as one of the great missionary enterprises. The best reward of the faithful teacher
is not his salary, but the consciousness that he
is rendering a valuable service to those whom
he instructs and to the state. When a prominent educator announced, not long ago, his purpose of abandoning his profession that he might
devote himself to the getting of money, a murmur of indignant comment was heard from the
noble fraternity of teachers. Among them are
thousands who fully appreciate and adopt the
saying of Professor Agassiz, that he had no time
for money-making. If there are millions in the
land to whom such a statement is incredible,
and the man who makes it a hypocrite, this
only indicates how deeply we have sunk into
that abyss of mercantilism, wherein, as true

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AMUSEMENTS,

269

prophets are warning us, the best elements of
our national life are fast disappearing. A sorry
day it will be for this land when the work of
education is wholly or mainly done for mercenary reasons.
Now, amusement, like education and religion,
is a real need of human beings — not so deep
or vital a need as education or religion, but a
real and constant need, and a need of the higher
nature as well as of the lower; an interest that
closely concerns their characters; and it is almost as great a mistake to leave it to take care
of itself, and to be furnished mainly by those
who wish to make money out of it, and who
have no higher motive, as it would be to leave
education or religion to be cared for in that
way.
I t i s time that we begin to comprehend the
idea that this is one of the great interests of
human life which Christianity must claim and
control — one of the kingdoms of the world
which, according to the prophecy, are to " become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his
Christ." When these words are quoted, the
thoughts of disciples are apt to fly off to Burmah and Siam and Timbuctoo; these are the
kingdoms of this world that are to be Christianized. Doubtless they are; but the text ought
to mean more than this. It should signify that

270

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CHRISTIANITY.

all the wide realms of human thought and action are to be brought under the sway of the
King of righteousness; that the kingdom of
industry, and the kingdom of traffic, and the
kingdom of politics, and the kingdom of amusement are all to be made subject to his law;
that all these great interests of men are to be
brought under the empire of Christian ideas
and Christian forces; that instead of standing
aloof from them and reproving and upbraiding
them, Christianity is to enter into them and
pervade them and transform them by its own
vital energy. The duty of the Church with
respect to popular amusements is not done
when it has lifted up its warning against the
abuses that grow out of them, and laid down
its laws of temperance and moderation in their
use. It has a positive function to fulfill in furnishing diversions that shall be attractive, and,
at the same time, pure and wholesome. This
cannot be done, as we have seen, by the
churches as churches, but it can be done by
men and women into whom they breathe their
spirit, and whom they fill with their intelligence
and good-will.
When I say that it can be done, I speak of
what I know and testify of what I have seen.
The most remarkable success in the way of popular entertainment that I have ever witnessed

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271

has been achieved along the line which I have
just been pointing out. And inasmuch as an
ounce of experience is worth a pound of theory,
I can do no better than to tell the story of one
successful experiment in this field.
The Cleveland Educational Bureau has closed
its third season and issued its annual report.
This enterprise owes its existence and its success to many men and women of good-will, who
have heartily cooperated in sustaining it, but
chiefly to the ingenuity and enthusiasm of Mr.
Charles E. Bolton, its secretary and manager,
to the literary skill and facility of Mrs. Bolton,
and to the liberality of Mr. W. H. Doan, the
treasurer, who owns and rents to the Bureau
for a nominal price the People's Tabernacle, in
which its work is done. The plan of operations
is varied slightly from year to year, but the
general design can be clearly indicated.
The "People's Tabernacle" is a plain but
capacious assembly-room, built on leased land,
and devoted to educational and religious purposes ; it boasts few decorations, and not much
upholstery; but it is clean, and well ventilated,
and brilliantly lighted by electricity. A gallery
runs around the hall, and the platform is pushed
forward so near the centre that the audience of
four thousand or forty-five hundred hears a distinct speaker without difficulty. The platform

272

APPLIED CHRISTIANITY.

is usually covered with a profusion of potted
plants; and handsome bouquets of cut flowers
in baskets and vases wait to be bestowed upon
the performers at the end of the entertainment.
The manager describes his evening's programme as furnishing a " fourfold intellectual
treat." Very little is said about diversion in
connection with this enterprise; it is not called
a bureau of amusement; it is an educational
bureau. The appeal is wisely addressed to a
higher principle than the mere craving for diversion ; and the recreation is incidental and
secondary, as it ought always to be. If the
Bureau announced itself as a purveyor of amusement, it would not amuse the people half so
successfully as it does. The play has a better
relish when it is brought in as the sauce of a
more solid intellectual repast. It is a high compliment to the working people of Cleveland
that is paid by the managers in the invitation
to devote ten of their Saturday evenings, every
winter, to the exercises of an Educational Bureau. The magnificent success of the entertainment shows how well the compliment is deserved.
The " fourfold intellectual treat " begins usually at a quarter before seven, with an excellent
orchestral concert. During this time the au-

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273

dience is assembling, and by seven o'clock the
building is packed to the walls. No reserved
seats are sold: the motto is, " first come, first
served." Early comers are not even allowed
to reserve seats for their friends. A large force
of neatly dressed ushers assists in seating the
audience. No single tickets are sold before a
quarter past seven; season-ticket holders have
the exclusive right to the house up to that
time.
The orchestral concert ends with a grand
chorus by the entire audience, which rises and
joins, under the lead of a precentor, with the
orchestra, the organ, and a trained choir, in
singing one of the national hymns.
Following this, at precisely a quarter past
seven, is the "lecture-prelude," which is generally an off-hand address of half an hour on
some scientific or practical subject. Among the
topics treated in these lecture-preludes, I find
these: " The Pyramids," " Architecture Illustrated," " Wonders of the House we Live In,"
"Microscopic Objects Magnified," " T h e Terminal Glacier, Illustrated," " Wrongs of Workingmen and How to Right Them." Next is a
" singing-school," in which a vigorous precentor,
aided by the orchestra and the choir, leads the
great congregation for ten or fifteen minutes in
singing national hymns. The precentor drills

274

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them finely, singing - master - fashion ; he tells
them how he wants the piece sung, and gets
them to sing it as he wishes ; he divides them
into choirs, and makes them sing antiphonally;
they have the words and music in their hands,
and are able to join, as most of them do, heartily in the great chorus.
After this comes the principal attraction of
the evening, in the shape of popular lecture,
dramatic reading, debate, or concert, which begins at eight o'clock precisely, and always closes
promptly at half-past nine. Mr. Bolton- himself has contributed several lectures of travel,
finely illustrated with the stereopticon.
A
debate on Protection vs. Free Trade, between
Professor W. G. Sumner and Professor Van
Buren Denslow, filled one evening last winter,
and aroused the deepest interest. Another
debate, between Mrs. Livermore and Professor
Denslow, on the question whether women ought
to vote, closed the recent course with great
eclat. It is safe for the manager to promise
any speaker who has something worth saying a
cordial and appreciative hearing.
During the last season, five illustrated lectures on the art of cooking were delivered by
Miss Juliet Corson to an average audience o£
three thousand women. These lectures were
free to the holders of season tickets ] the admis-

CHRISTIANITY

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AMUSEMENTS.

275

sion fee to those not members of the Bureau
was fifteen cents, or fifty cents for the course.
It is difficult to understand how Miss Corson
could make herself intelligible to so large an
audience, but we learn that her lectures were
very successful, and that they were received
with great enthusiasm. " Whole carcasses of
animals," says the reporter, " were cut into suitable pieces on the platform, and all kinds of
plain cooking were done."
The Bureau also furnished during the summer ten open-air evening concerts on the public
square, which were enjoyed by many thousands
of people.
Another important feature of the work is the
circulation of useful literature. Each person
who attends the winter's entertainments receives on every evening a little book in paper
covers, printed by the Bureau for its members.
Four thousand of these little books — a whole
wagon - load — are distributed every evening.
They are continuously paged, and the advertisements upon the fly-leaves can be removed
for binding. At the close of the course a
Cleveland binder puts the series of ten pamphlets into neat red muslin covers for thirty-five
cents. Each pamphlet contains about forty
pages, and is devoted to the popularization of
science, or to some sort of useful information.

276

APPLIED CHRISTIANITY.

The series for 1882-83 includes a « Short History of Modern France; " a " Brief History of
Science;" a " Sketch of the History of the
United States; " " The Story of the Steam
E n g i n e ; " an excellent little archaeological essay on " Early Man," well illustrated ; a series
of brief biographies of " Great Artists; " a crisp
and sensible essay on " Secrets of Success " (of
which twenty-five thousand extra copies were
distributed), and other similar matter. Each
pamphlet contains also the national hymns sung
by the great chorus on the evening of its distribution, and the programme for the evening.
For all this, how much are the patrons of the
Bureau required to pay? The season ticket,
which admits to the ten "fourfold entertainments " on successive Saturday evenings, comprising the ten orchestral concerts, the ten
"singing-schools," the ten books, and the ten
" special attractions " (popular lecture, elocutionary readings, debate, or grand concert),
costs for this year one dollar and a quarter, or
twelve and a half cents for each evening. These
tickets also admit to the course of lectures byMiss Corson, and from the proceeds of their
sale the summer evening concerts are provided.
In only one sense is the Bureau a gratuity.
A great amount of unrewarded labor is performed in its behalf by the ladies and gentle-

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277

men who are directly interested in its management ; and many of those who take part in its
entertainments volunteer their services. The
"lecture-preludes " are generally given by gentlemen of the city or the vicinity, who are glad
to serve the Bureau, and whose carefully prepared addresses have been highly appreciated
by the audience. Most of the " special attractions," however, come from a distance and cost
money. But the sale of more than four thousand season tickets pays the expenses of the
Bureau, and leaves a balance in the treasury at
the close of every season. The people get a
great deal for their money, but they have the
satisfaction of knowing that they pay for what
they get — all but the good-will and kindly
effort on their behalf put forth by their employers and their neighbors, which money will
not buy.
I have spoken of the audience as composed
mainly of workingmen and their families. The
first year three thousand two hundred season
tickets were sold in the shops of Cleveland.
When the work was begun, Mr. Bolton visited
all the great manufacturing establishments, obtained permission from the managers to have
the men collected ten minutes before the stroke
of twelve, and then, in a brief speech, explained
to them his plan. Tickets were placed on sale

278

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CHRISTIANITY.

in the offices connected with the shops, the employers heartily cooperating. The interest of
the mechanics was thus enlisted in the beginning, and although about four hundred schoolteachers and a sprinkling of the dwellers on
u
Algonquin Avenue" may be counted in the
evening audiences, they still consist, for the
most part, of working people and their families. Mr; Bolton says that many of the mechanics carry their suppers to their shops on
Saturdays, that they may be early at the Tabernacle in the evening. Few signs of this are
visible from the platform, however; the audience seems to be clad in its Sunday clothes. It
would be hard to find anywhere a company
whose attire was neater, whose faces were
brighter, whose behavior was more decorous,
or whose appreciation of wit or eloquence was
keener. I t was my pleasure to look into the
faces of these people for an hour and a half
while two accomplished lady readers were entertaining them, and a more responsive audience I have rarely seen. It was an exquisite
pleasure to sit and watch their movements, to
note the eagerness with which they hung upon
the lips of these gifted women, and the relish
with which they listened to the interpretation
of the masterpieces of English poetry and humor recited to them, and to feel the surges of

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279

pure and strong emotion that swept over the
throng and broke continually at my feet in a
sympathetic sigh, or in happy and wholesome
laughter. That it is an extremely well-behaved
audience will be understood when I say that
it has abolished encores and the pandemoniac
practice of stamping the feet, and — ecce signurn ! — that it keeps its seat respectfully until
the performance is concluded.
It was impossible not to reflect that a large
share of these thousands would, if it were not
for this Bureau, be spending their Saturday
evenings in such places of amusement as might
be open to them, admission to which would cost
them three or four times as much as they pay
at the Tabernacle; that the great majority of
these would be places where their minds would
be debauched and their morals damaged ; where
they would find a temporary excitement to be
followed by disgust and ennui; where they
would receive no wholesome impulses and gain
no new thoughts; and where they would often
have their prejudices roused and their hearts
inflamed against their more prosperous neighbors ; for the cheap theatre is one of the mouthpieces of the communist and the pe*troleuse.
Now they are brought together in this great
assembly, that is itself an inspiration, and, in
its decorum, its self-restraint, and its good-na-

280

APPLIED

CHRISTIANITY.

ture, an incarnate Gospel; good music charms
their ears; a profusion of flowers on the platform delights their eyes; they join in the national songs, and their best emotions are
aroused; they listen to the kindling words of
poet or orator or teacher, and are instructed
and quickened ; they rejoice in this ample and
admirable supply of one of their deepest wants,
and recognize the benevolence that has devised
it, and their hearts are filled with a kindlier
feeling toward all their fellow-men. They go
home sober, with all their week's earnings in
their pockets, and a little book to read in which
they will find something to divert and enlighten
them ; and they are much more likely to be
found in church the next day than if they had
spent the Saturday night in the beer-garden or
at the variety show. A free gospel service is
held in the Tabernacle every Sunday afternoon,
and the attendance upon this service has greatly
increased since the Educational Bureau was organized.
I have thus endeavored to set down a plain
account of what seems to me a most wise and
noble Christian enterprise. A charity it is not,
m the ordinary acceptation of that word, and it
is all the more charitable because it is not a
charity, and because it pays its own expenses;
but it is one of those effective applications of

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281

Christianity to the social needs of men that we
may expect to see becoming more and more
common in the future. It is doubtful whether
any revival services held in Cleveland during
the winter help so efficiently in the Christianization of the people as do the entertainments
given at the Tabernacle. Applied Christianity
is what the world wants, and'this is Christianity
applied to one of the great interests of human
life.
Whether Mr. Bolton's enterprise is indebted
to any hint from Dr. Holland, I have not heard
him say; but a multitude of readers have not
forgotten the story of " Nicholas Minturn," nor
the experiments of the hero in entertaining the
people of the " Beggars' Paradise," in the " Athenaeum." The fiction with which the name of
Nicholas is connected is far less remarkable than
the facts which I have just recited; the enterprise of the novel was undertaken in behalf of
a more degraded class of persons; but the ideal
of the story and the achievement of the Bureau
are identical; both show us Christianity at work
in the same field, turning the love of diversion
into a pure channel and making it aid in the
enlightenment and elevation of the people.
The fiction was plausible enough, but the accomplished fact admits of no gainsaying. What
has been done in Cleveland can be done in every

282

APPLIED

CHRISTIANITY.

city and large town in this country. The scheme
may well be varied ; the application of the principle calls for ingenuity and practical sense;
methods that are successful in one city would
need modification to fit them to the conditions
of another ; but the purpose is easily understood, and the main idea can be realized, with
the expenditure of very little money, wherever
there are men of good-will who will give to the
enterprise the necessar}^ thought and care. It
cannot be done without work; nothing important is accomplished without large expenditure
of time and effort; but it is work that brings in
a large return.
Some of the conditions of success in such an
enterprise may be readily named:
1. A large and cheerful hall. That the prices
may be low, the audience must be large.
2. A capable manager. Enthusiasm, good
temper, fertility of resource, and sympathy
with the people are among his qualifications.
3. Variety in the entertainment, with no
hitches or wearying pauses between the parts.
The movement must be swift and sure.
4. Punctuality and business-like thoroughness in the management. Begin and end on
the minute. Give exactly what you promise,
or, if that be impossible, what will be recognized as a full equivalent.

CHRISTIANITY AND POPULAR AMUSEMENTS, 283

An institution of this nature, wisely managed, would quickly prove itself to be a seminary of sacred and benign influences, and an
agency more potent than many laws in the
preservation of peace and the reformation of
the public morals.

C H R I S T I A N I T Y AND P O P U L A R
EDUCATION.

T H E relation of Christianity to popular education is a parental reLition. Christianity lias
always been the originator and promoter of education, Of the cliurch, indeed, this must be
said with* some qualifications ; for there have
been periods when nothing in the world was
more frightfully unchristian than the ecclesiastical machine.
Christianity consists of the
teachings of Christ, and of the life, individual
and social, which is based upon his teachings
and nourished by communion with Him. Christian truth and Christian life were in the world
when the ecclesiastical powers were the most
corrupt and malignant — hiding sometimes in
the fastnesses of the mountains, and waiting for
the downfall of their persecutors. Even in
these days it is a mistake to identify Christianity with the various ecclesiastical machines;
the Church of! en happens to be the very thing
that needs Christianizing. If, therefore, it is

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true that the Church at certain periods has
shown scant favor to other than theological science, it is nevertheless true that the drift of
Christian teaching and discipline has been toward the diffusion of learning.
The uniform testimony of the Sacred Scriptures is of this tenor. The value of knowledge
is everywhere insisted on. It is, indeed, asserted that knowledge must rank below love ;
but if the Scriptures seem to disparage knowledge, it is the knowledge that despises virtue.
Every careful reader of the Bible knows that
the value of intelligence as the foundation of
character and the solid basis of national welfare is taught with iteration and emphasis in
both Testaments. Neither is the knowledge
thus praised exclusively religious knowledge.
The man of the Biblical history most renowned
for his wisdom, and most applauded for his pursuit of wisdom, was not conspicuously a theologian, but a man who seems to have mastered
what was knowable in his time of the " humanities.5' This wisdom of Solomon's did not keep
him from falling into an abyss of sensuality ;
but the record does not intimate that his fall
was the fruit of his learning; it was rather in
spite of his learning. His wisdom is always
commended and never censured. The Bible,
the Christian's text-book, may be claimed as
the friend of learning.

286

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CHRISTIANITY.

E v e n in the ages of darkness, when t h e Bible was not in the hands of t h e people, t h e
churches and the monasteries k e p t alive w h a t
learning was left in t h e world. T h r o u g h all
this period t h e councils of t h e C h u r c h steadily
required t h e clergy to provide gratuitous instruction for the young.
Theodulph, one of
Charlemagne's bishops, issued t h e following instruction to his c l e r g y : —
Let the elders establish schools in towns and villages, and if any of the faithful wish to intrust to
them their children to be taught letters, let them not
decline to receive and teach them, but with the utmost care instruct them. And when* they thus teach,
let them take from them no recompense for their
service, nor accept anything from them, except what
parents; in the exercise of charity, of their own accord may offer them.
This epistle of T h e o d u l p h is a fair sample of
numerous admonitions addressed during these
times, b y councils and dignitaries, to t h e inferior clergy. Charlemagne himself gave orders
t h a t schools be opened everywhere " to teach
children to read," and t h a t " in every monast e r y some one teach psalms, writing, a r i t h m e tic, and g r a m m a r . " T h e great king's zeal for
learning is noteworthy when it is r e m e m b e r e d
t h a t his literary acquisitions stopped short with
t h e a r t of reading, and left room for a dispute

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among the historians as to his ability to write
his name. The reasonings of his decree show
how closely he connects learning and religion ;
he urges that, just as good conduct is prescribed by a definite rule, so also must teaching
and learning be systematically carried on " that
those who seek to please God by right living
may not neglect to please Him also by right
speaking."
The Reformation was itself at once the effect
and the cause of a'great revival of learning.
Erasmus, the hero of the Renaissance, and
Luther, the hero of the Reformation, were both
apostles of the new education. The right of
private judgment implied the necessity of the
universal diffusion of knowledge, and both Luther and- Melanchthon wrought strenuously toward this end. The founders of New England,
Protestants of the Protestants, by no means forgot this corollary of Protestantism ; their history
shows on every page how great was the estimation which they placed upon knowledge, and
how close was its relation in their minds with
religion. Within thirty years of the landing of
the Pilgrims education had been made compulsory in every colony except Rhode Island, and
this was done, as the law declared, chiefly with
the purpose of circumventing " that old deluder
Sathan," who seeks " to keep men from the use

288

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of the Scriptures by persuading them from the
use of tongues."
It is scarcely necessary to trace the close connection between the church and the school in
the early New England commonwealths. From
these came forth the impulse which has made
education universal all over the Northern States
of this Unien ; so that its schools are the earliest
care and the loudest boast of every sprouting
emporium and every noisy mart; so that the
pioneer's axe loses its virgin edge upon the timber of which the log school-house is builded ;
and the ambitious piles of brick or stone, devoted to the education of the people, rival, in
all the centres of commerce, the warehouses and
the elevators and the factories.
That the motive of education is, in these latter days, much less frankly religious than it was
in the days of the Pilgrims, must be admitted.
The reasons given in the town meeting and in
the city council, when appropriations are urged
for public schools, are not the kind of reasons
that would have been suggested in Plymouth
or in Salem two hundred and fifty years ago.
The reasoned basis of popular education in the
popular mind is twofold : it includes philanthropy and self-defense. A considerable number of our citizens recognize the latter as the
only admissible ground on which a public-

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school system can rest. Philanthropy they do
not believe in ; or at any rate, they contend
that the state has no right to go into the business of philanthropy. Bat the right of selfpreservation does belong to the state; and if
popular ignorance threatens its security, and
even its very existence, then the state has the
right to provide and even to require popular education. That this is a valid basis of state
action on the subject, so far as rights go, will
not be disputed. Whether the education which
proceeds from this as the principal motive is
likely to be effective in the development of the
highest character in the citizens so educated
would be an interesting inquiry.
But the philanthropic motive is present in
the minds of many of those who advocate the
education of the people. Their desire is not
merely to avert a peril from the state, but to
confer a benefit upon the pupils. Mr. Mill affirms, in his essay " On Liberty," that the failure to provide for a child " instruction and training for its mind is a moral crime both against
the unfortunate offspring and against society "
(p. 204). x This is a recognition of the child's
rights, and Mr. Mill goes on to say that the
state ought to secure to the child his right to
education." The love of equal rights, and the
disposition to give every human being a fair

290

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CHRISTIANITY.

chance, is still, let us trust, a n influential motive in the minds of those who advocate popular education. A n d this motive is the fruit
of Christianity. Look on this picture, painted
b y t h e author of " Gesta Christi," and ponder
his c o m m e n t : —Schools are open to all. The rich are forced to
give of their abundance for the education of the poor.
Not only are common schools open to every class,
but higher schools and colleges of learning are provided for the masses. Even laws are made compelling attendance, and provisions are made by individual charity for those who are poor and ill-clad. This
is one of the most remarkable fruits of this religion
in modern times. It is a forcible distribution of
wealth to confer the highest possible blessings on the
needy. It is a confession of society that the most ignorant, degraded, and destitute person is a brother of
the most fortunate, and must have every opportunity
to exert his powers. If one could imagine the proposition made to the archai of Athens to tax the rich
in order that the helots might learn to read the Greek
classics, or a measure before the Roman Senate to
set apart a new revenue for providing teachers for
the plebs and the slaves, one could rightly measure
the progress of the Christian sentiment of equality in
these eighteen centuries.
T h a t popular education, as it exists in this
country, is t h e offspring of the religions sentim e n t is m a t t e r of history. But, like m a n y an-

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291

other unfilial child, education has shown a
strong disposition of late to disown and desert
her mother. The tendency has been gaining
strength to withdraw education from all association with religion, to eliminate religion
wholly from education, and to claim for education all the saving virtues of which society
has need. There are those who think that the
diffusion of science and literature will prove a
sufficient agency for the promotion of the welfare of the state ; and that the learning thus
diffused not only may be but must be separated from everything that bears the semblance
of religion.
I have not mentioned this demand for the
entire secularization of our schools for the sake
of opposing it at this point in the argument,
but rather for the sake of calling attention to a
manifest deterioration of public morals which
has kept even pace with this secular tendency
in education. Twenty-five or thirty years ago
most of our public schools were under Christian influences. No attempt was made to inculcate the dogmas of the Christian religion,
but the teachers were free to commend the precepts of the New Testament, in a direct, practical way, to the consciences of their pupils; and
some of us remember, not without gratitude,
the impressions made upon- our lives in the

292

APPLIED CHRISTIANITY.

school-room by the instructors of our early
days. All this has been rapidly changing ; and
contemporaneously, it is discovered that something is wrong with society. Grave dangers
menace its peace ; ugly evils infest its teeming
populations. Pauperism is increasing. The
number of those who lack either the power or
the will to maintain themselves, and who are
therefore thrown upon the care of the state, is
growing faster than the population. The cure
of this alarming evil is engaging the study of
philanthropists in all our cities. Crime is increasing. The only state in the Union that
carefully collects its moral statistics brings to
light some startling facts respecting the increase
of crime within the past thirty years. In 1850
there was one prisoner in Massachusetts to
every eight hundred and four of the population ; in 1880 there was one to every four hundred and eighty-seven. The ratio of the prisoners to the whole population nearly doubled in
thirty years. But it may be said that this increase is due to the rapid growth of the foreign
population in Massachusetts. There would be
small comfort in this explanation if it were the
true one ; but it is not the true one. The native criminals are increasing faster than the
foreign-born criminals. In 1850 there was one
native prisoner to every one thousand two hun-

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293

dred and sixty-seyen native citizens; in 1880
there was one native prisoner to every six hundred and fifteen native citizens. The ratio of
native prisoners to the native population more
than doubled in thirty years.
And this, be it remembered, is in Massachusetts—-the state in which education of every
kind, public and private, has been longer established, and is more munificently endowed and
more thoroughly administered, than in any
other state of the Union. Massachusetts expends, through her public schools, for the tuition of every pupil enumerated in her school
population, nearly sixteen dollars a year. Added
to this public provision is the great array of
universities, colleges, academies, and seminaries, amply endowed, far surpassing those of
every other state in number and in excellence.
What education can do to promote morality
has been more thoroughly done for Massachusetts than for any other American State.
Nevertheless, the statistics show an alarming
increase of the vicious and dependent classes in
Massachusetts. There is no room for supposing that the case of Massachusetts is any worse
than that of the younger commonwealths.
Those who have had opportunities for observing the conditions of society East and West
will not be inclined to believe that the morals

294

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CHRISTIANITY.

of t h e old B a y State are a n y lower t h a n those
of N e w York, or Ohio, or Illinois. If other
states would collect t h e facts as carefully, and
publish t h e m as fully, we should see similar
conditions existing everywhere.
Neither is it necessary to draw from these
facts a n y pessimistic inferences as to t h e general decadence of society.
T h i s retrograde
movement, we may well believe, is local and
temporary. T h e causes out of which it arises
may be discoverable and avoidable. W h a t they
are is a question to which t h e social philosophers, big arid little, are devoting much study.
Mr. H e n r y George has his theory of the increase of pauperism ; and since pauperism and
crime are closely linked together, t h e one evil
cannot be explained w i t h o u t uncovering t h e
causes of the other.
T h e Socialists, not cont e n t to stop at Mr. George's half-way house, go
far beyond him with their philosophy a n d their
remedy. T h e Protectionists have their theory
of the case, t h e Free-Traders theirs, the Prohibitionists theirs. Besides these there are not a
few who, in looking more deeply for the sources
of these increasing curses, are inclined to lay
the responsibility for t h e m at t h e doors of our
schools. If the schools were w h a t they ought
to be, they say, these streams of baleful influence would be dried up at their sources, instead

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295

of overflowing the land. The only radical cure
of these mischiefs is the reform of our educational system.
The explanation last named is partial, and
the censure which it implies is too sweeping.
If any man believes that popular education is
the panacea for all political and social disorders, he must, of couise, believe that the present disorders are due to a defective system of
education; but one who does not expect the
regeneration of society from methods purely
educational will not be so ready to arraign the
schools as the authors, by commission or omission, of the social depravity now existing. If
the methods of education had been faultless,
and other causes which have been all the while
operating had continued in operation, we should,
very likely, have witnessed an increase both of
pauperism and of crime. This accursed harvest
springs from more than one kind of sowing, and
will not be extirpated by any one kind of implement. The growth of the vicious and dependent classes is due to many causes.
A defective industrial system has something
to do with it. The relations of capital and
labor are not what they ought to be. The strife
between them is unnatural, and it has been fostered by a bad political economy which erects
selfishness into the supreme rule of human ac-

296

APPLIED CHRISTIANITY.

tion. Any one who thinks that it makes no
difference what men believe is commended to a
careful study of the influence of certain economical theories upon the relations between employers and employed. In cases of this nature
temper is a great matter; and the temper engendered by the current economy is the reverse
of Christian. The collisions and conflicts that
grow out of this evil temper have produced a
certain portion of the increase of pauperism and
crime.
Another cause is the massing of the populations in cities and in great manufacturing
centres, where multitudes are deprived of the
sacred restraints of home, and depraved for the
want of them.
The great fluctuations of industry produced
by changing fashions and by sudden and brief
rages of one sort or another, creating demands
for labor that quickly blaze up and are as quickly
extinguished, will account for part of it. This
shifting, uncertain life that our artisan classes
are largely compelled to live is not friendly to
morality.
The influence7 of immigration upon morality
is suggestively set forth by Mr. W. T. Harris:
Air parts of Europe and some parts of Asia are
sending us their immigrants. Each immigrant brings
some peculiar moral habits which clash with our own.

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EDUCATION.

297

The result is that each and all, immigrants and natives, have to learn tolerance. But moral punctilios
cannot be trifled with safely. When people are politically compelled to be tolerant of petty customs
that they believe to be immoral, there follows a relaxation of genuine morality itself. Even when a
false, bigoted prejudice that has rooted itself among
the moral virtues is pulled up, the cardinal virtues
themselves suffer injury.1
Heredity, too, is a great factor in the production of pauperism and crime. T h e paupers and
t h e criminals bring forth with great fecundity
after their kind, and a careless pseudo-charity
has encouraged them to persevere.
Above all, deplore it as we must, it is t h e
historical fact t h a t the rapid increase of wealth
in any country is always accompanied by the
lowering of the moral standards. T h e most
pernicious class of youth in America to-day is
largely recruited from the children of t h e new
rich, who are debauching themselves and corr u p t i n g those about them with fearful energy.
A n d the schools are not chargeable with the existence or t h e mischief of these youthful malefactors. T h e y have little to do with t h e schools,
except to infect t h e m with their own idleness
and v i c e ; and the better t h e schools are, t h e
less likely such pupils are to remain in t h e m for
any length of time.
i Journal of Social Science, xviii. 122.

298

APPLIED

CHRISTIANITY.

There are reasons enough, therefore, for the
deterioration of public morals outside of the
school-houses. Against all of these evil ten*
dencies of which we have been speaking the
schools, with all their imperfections, lift up a
barrier. They promote industry and thrift and
self-support. They check, measurably, the increase of crime. Just as they are, they exert a
salutary influence upon society*
Nevertheless, it is altogether possible that
this depravation of morals is due in part to defects in our systems of education. - Our schools
have counteracted these evils to some extent,
but much less effectively than they might have
done. t The best possible system of education
would not have prevented them all5 but it would
have prevented more of them. The increase of
pauperism and crime would have been less rapid
and alarming if our schools had been more wisely
organized and conducted.
It may be, therefore, that this unfilial daughter, having learned by experience that she is
not sufficient of herself for the regeneration of
society, will welcome a word or two of-admonition from,the mother whose counsels she has of
late rather testily rejected. Suffer it she must,
if she do not welcome i t ; for Christianity w7ill
by no means abdicate her right to deliver her
testimony on this and every other subject that
deeply concerns the public welfare.

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299

The first demand that Christianity has to
make respecting popular education is that it
be directed toward the formation of character
rather than the communication of abstract
knowledge, And inasmuch as character is
largely developed by work, the intelligent
Christian will insist that our public schools
ought to give a great deal more attention than
they ever have done to industrial training.
It may be supposed that the attempt to make
Christianity responsible for such a demand as
this is strained and extravagant.
Doubtless
there is a sentimental sort of Christianity by
which " secular " interests of this sort are little
regarded, but it is not the Christianity of Christ
nor of the apostles. When we reflect that every
Jewish boy was compelled to learn a trade ; that
the Founder of Christianity was himself a carpenter ; that the greatest of the apostles maintained himself by the labor of his own hands,
and most explicitly laid down the law to the
converts in the churches that he founded, " If
any man will not work, neither shall he eat; "
that, in the frankest contrast with the great
teachers of Greece, like Plato and Aristotle,
who declared all labor to be degrading to a freeman, the Christian fathers, from the very first,
sung the praises of self-supporting industry, and
pronounced idleness disgraceful, we readily see

300

APPLIED

CHRISTIANITY.

that the interest of a genuine Christianity in
the indastrial training of the young is neither
affectation nor afterthought.
The feeling that something ought to be done
by the public schools in the way of industrial
education has been gaining force for seveial
years. " Mercantilism " has laid its hand heavily upon the common schools; and the training
provided by them has largely ministered to the
love of trade. Much of this has been unintentional and even unconscious ; mercantilism is in
the air, and it insensibly pervades our schools,
and our school-books, and the traditions and
methods of education. A boy comes out of the
grammar school pretty well qualified to be a
clerk, but with very little preparation for any
of the handicrafts. It begins to be a serious
question whether the state ought to devote so
much time to the training of traders; whether
it might not be wiser to afford instruction that
shall turn the minds of the young in other directions also. The great majority of the pupils
in our grammar schools will earn their livelihood by manual industries of one sort or another. Is it not well to recognize this fact
in our systems of education, and to shape our
courses of instruction in such a way that they
may serve the needs of pupils of this class?
It is sometimes said that the state owes to

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301

its children only the rudiments of a general education ; that it ought to equip every citizen
for the discharge of his political duties, but
that it is not under obligation to teach men
trades or professions ; that the state is going a
step too' far when it undertakes to make men
lawyers, or doctors, or carpenters, or machinists.
The objection is valid. It is not the function
of the state to furnish technical or professional
training. But there is an industrial training
which is neither technical nor professional;
which is calculated to make better men and
better citizens of the pupils, no matter what
calling they may afterward follow; which affects directly and in a most salutary manner
the mind and character of the pupil, and which
will be of constant service to him through all
his life, whether he be wage-worker, or trader,
or teacher or clergyman. The training of the
eye and of the hand are important and essential elements in all good education. These elements the state is bound to furnish.
The question immediately arises, How much
can be done in "the common schools to promote
industrial education? Some experienced educators insist that nothing can be done ; that no
time can be found for such instruction in the
already overcrowded curriculum of the common school; that the attempt would introduce

302

APPLIED CHRISTIANITY.

confusion; that if anything is done, it must be
through the establishment, by voluntary agencies, of separate industrial schools, in which pupils may receive training out of school hours, or
after they have completed the common-school
course.
To these objections it may be answered that
a little heroic surgery upon the swollen curriculum of the common school would be extremely healthful. In the graded schools of
our cities the average pupil who completes the
course spends from eight to ten years in studying arithmetic. It must be possible to reduce
this time considerably, by the condensation and
simplification of text-books. The same may be
said of geography and of grammar.
Time
enough could thus be gained for such purposes,
with great advantage to the schools.
I t is sometimes proposed that the industrial
training of the public schools should be confined to the pupils of the high schools. But
this would greatly restrict the advantages of
such; training, inasmuch as but a small fraction
of those educated by the state reach the high
schools. Moreover, the majority of the boys
who enter the high schools are already strongly
inclined toward commercial or professional callings ; and the industrial education there offered them would, for this reason, be less wel-

CHRISTIANITY AND POPULAR EDUCATION. 303

come to them, and less influential in guiding
them toward skilled or productive industries.
It would undoubtedly be well to connect an industrial course with the high school ; but the
greatest benefit of such instruction would be
gained by the pupils of the two highest grades
of the grammar schools. The average age at
at which pupils leave the grammar school is
fifteen ; between the ages of thirteen and fifteen
instruction of this kind can be most successfully imparted. This is precisely the age at
which boys are apt to be restless and insubordinate; a little manual work in connection with
their studies would afford vent to their surplus
energies, and prove a valuable aid in maintaining discipline.
The foundation of this industrial training is
drawing, which is now taught in many of our
public schools, and which ought t o ' be made
compulsory in all of them. No branch of study
now included in the common-school curriculum
is more " practical" than drawing. At the
basis of all mechanical work lies the art of mechanical or projection drawing; at the basis of
all industrial art lies the arts of design. The
man who is to follow any kind of handicraft, or
who is to be engaged in the production of any
fabrics or articles that have form or color,
whether it be spades or shoes, or chairs or

304

APPLIED CHRISTIANITY.

wheelbarrows, or wagons or plows, or hats, or
harnesses, or houses, needs to have his eye and
his hand trained in learning to draw. A number of young men in a machine-shop lately
came to the draughtsman in that shop and
asked him to give them lessons in mechanical
drawing. They were beginning to see, what
neither they nor their parents could have been
made to understand while they were in school,
that no man can be a first-class mechanic in
any of the trades who does not know something
of mechanical drawing.
The application of art to industry is steadily
extending into all departments of work. The
commercial value of almost everything that is
made is affected, more or less, by its artistic
form. The commonest tool or utensil is more
desirable if it is shapely and symmetrica].
Therefore, the arts of design are constantly
coming into play in all mechanical or manufacturing industries, and every workman needs instruction in them.
Even those who are to follow mercantile or
prof essionaL callings are finding use, continually, for knowledge and skill of this sort, and
are often greatly disabled for the lack of it.
Who is there that does not need, every month
of his life, the power to make an intelligible
representation with the pencil of something

CHRISTIANITY

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305

that he wishes to describe, or of something
that he desires to have, constructed? A little
elementary training in drawing when he was a
child would have given him this power ; the
want of it is a constant source of regret and
annoyance. The notion that drawing is a mere
" accomplishment," an ornamental branch of
education, can be entertained by none but the
ignorant. Nothing is taught in our schools the
utility of which is more obvious.
The foundation of industrial education is
thus laid in many of our common schools
through the introduction of drawing. All that
is needed is that the work in this department
should be more thoroughly done.
In addition to this, instruction should be
given in the use of the common wood-working
tools, such as the hammer, saw, plane, chisel,
and gouge. One of the rooms of every grammar school should be a shop, fitted up with
work-benches and the requisite tools; and a
capable mechanic should be placed in charge
of it, as one of the regular corps of teachers.
From four to six hours a week in the shop
would be sufficient for each pupil: and the
bo:ys of a large school could be. divided into
classes, so that a single instructor could easily
manage them all. • In two years of such training, under a competent teacher, the use of

306

APPLIED CHRISTIANITY.

these common tools could be acquired, and a
practical skill in construction and in the manipulation of materials, which would be of the
greatest advantage to all pupils, no matter
what callings they might intend to follow, and
which would give to many of them suggestive
hints in the choice of a calling.
I t is probable that to these simpler woodworking tools lathes might sometimes be added,
and that ^the simplest processes of iron-working
might also be taught. The girls in the same
schools should receive thorough instruction in
plain sewing and in ornamental needlework,
and might also learn modeling in clay. The
details of the plan are yet to be adjusted, but
the need of introducing this kind of instruction
into the common schools of our cities is already
so obvious that the working plans must soon be
forthcoming. In the smaller country districtschools the difficulties would be greater, but
there, happily, the need is less. The boys and
girls in these schools have plenty of chance for
industrial training.
Already the matter has passed beyond the
stage of theory, and successful experiments
have been made in several places. In connection with Washington University, in St. Louis,
is a school for manual instruction in which this
plan of giving a broa4 general training i n ^ h e

CHRISTIANITY AND POPULAR EDUCATION. 307

various processes of mechanical work has been
carried into operation with great success. In
this school three hours of every day are devoted to books, one hour to drawing, and two
hours to work with tools. The three years'
course is about the same as that of the ordinary
English high school, with the manual instruction added. In the first year the pupils learn
the use of the wood-working tools, including
the lathe; in the second year they work at the
forge, learning the various manipulations of
wrought iron, and also take some practical lessons in moulding, casting, soldering, and brazing ; in the third year they go into the machine-shop, and are drilled in bench work and
fitting, turning, planing, screw - cutting, etc.
More than two hundred boys are receiving instruction in this school.
In Toledo, Ohio, a manual training school
has been established in connection with the
public schools, to which pupils from the senior
grammar grade, and from the first year of the
high school, are admitted. In Gloucester,
Massachusetts, in Boston, and in Montclair,
New Jersey, similar schools have been connected with the grammar school, for pupils
from eleven to fifteen yearn of age. The report from all these quarters is highly encouraging. The practicability of combining manual

308

APPLIED CHRISTIANITY.

with intellectual training seems to be clearly
indicated by these experiments.
The advantages claimed for this combination
by Professor Woodward, of the St. Louis school,
are briefly these : —
1. Larger classes of hoys in the grammar and high
schools. 2. Better intellectual development. 3. A
more wholesome moral education. 4. Sounder judgments of men and things. 5. Better choice of occupations. 6. A higher degree of material success, individual and social. 7. The elevation of many of
the occupations from the realm of brute, unintelligent labor, to one requiring and rewarding cultivation
and skill. 8. The solution of " labor problems."
With several of these anticipated results the <
present discussion is not directly concerned;
but they must all be regarded as beneficent;
and the reasons given by this distinguished educator for expecting them to follow are based
not only on a sound philosophy, but on a large
experience. The fact that the intellectual development of pupils thus trained is not retarded
but greatly quickened by the combination of
manual work with their studies, appears to be
established. The boys and girls of the halftime schools in England, who spend part of the
school hours in labor outside the schools, easily
keep up with those who devote to their studies

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AND POPULAR EDUCATION.

309

twice as much time. And these pupils are generally engaged in laborious and monotonous
employments, far less attractive and stimulating than those of the manual training school.
One of the best effects of this method is seen
in the awakening of pupils who, in their textbook studies, are dull and incapable, but who
find in the manual work something in which
they can excel. This puts them on better
terms with themselves, with their teachers, and
with the school; and the self-respect and hope
thus inspired lead them to attack their mental
tasks with a better resolution. Professor J"rancis A. Walker, in an excellent paper read before the Social Science Association, speaks
strongly of this result of manual training in
schools.
That the school discipline would be more
easily maintained under this system, I have
already suggested. This must result from " a
more wholesome moral education ; " and Professor Woodward can tell us how surely this is
secured by the industrial method : —
To begin with, I have noted the good effect of
occupation. The programme of a manual training
school has something to interest and inspire every
boy. The daily session is six full hours, but I have
never found it too long. The school is not a bore,
and holidays, except the name of the thing, are un-

310

APPLIED

CHRISTIANITY.

popular. I have been forced to make strict rules to
prevent the boys from crowding into the shops and
drawing rooms on Saturdays and after school hours.
There is little tendency, therefore, to stroll about,
looking for excitement. A boy's natural passion for
handling, fixing, and making things is systematically
guided into channels instructive and useful, as parents
freely relate. . . . Gradually the students acquire two
most valuable habits, which are certain to influence
their whole lives for good — namely, precision and
method. As Professor Runkle says : " Whatever cultivates care, close observation, exactness, patience,
and method, must be valuable preparation and training for all studies and all pursuits."
T h a t the j u d g m e n t would be educated b y
such practical lessons; t h a t labor itself wou\d
be dignified a n d e l e v a t e d ; t h a t t h e skill and
facility t h u s acquired would render him who
acquires t h e m more versatile, more fertile in
resources, and less liable to be>stranded in dull
times and when industries are constantly shifting, are predictions t h a t do not greatly tax our
faith. T h a t t h e salutary effect of ,the introduction of t h e system upon t h e moral as well as
t h e material welfare of t h e whole country would
be clearly visible before m a n y years, appears to
m e indubitable.
T h e French Imperial Commission, appointed several years ago to examine
this question, visited Belgium and studied the

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AND POPULAR EDUCATION

311

effects of the apprentice schools then in operation. At that time fifty-four of these schools
had been established in that kingdom, and the
commission testifies : " The official reports published in Bruges, in 1863, show that everywhere
instruction and habits of regular employment
have produced the most successful results in
improving the morals, not only of the children,
but also of the parents, and that mendicity and
vagrancy have almost entirely disappeared from
those districts " in which these schools have been
founded.
This, then, is the first admonition that an intelligent Christianity must leave with those who
direct the policy of our schools. You have been
building on a foundation too narrow; you must
enlarge your basis ; you must learn that character is the principal thing, and that character is
the result of a harmonious development of all
the powers — of the eye and the hand and the
practical judgment and the will, as well as of
the memory and the logical faculty; and you
must not forget that industrial training affords
a discipline almost indispensable to the right
development of character.
But if the Christianity whose chief concern
is righteousness has a right to reprove our state
educators for having omitted to furnish this in-

312

APPLIED

CHRISTIANITY.

direct but most effective method of moral discipline, much more has it the right to rebuke
them for their gross neglect to provide direct
and systematic methods of moral education.
The failure to awaken and develop the moral
nature of the pupils in our schools is notorious
and disastrous. Moral training has become altogether secondary; the attempt to secure it is
but feebly and uncertainly made. I have before me a consolidated, list of examination questions presented to teachers, by
county boards of examiners in the State of
Ohio. This list is said to include " t h e whole
range of the questions sent in [to the State
Board] by the examining boards of the several
counties," and it undoubtedly presents them in
fair proportion also. Running the eye over
them, it becoines evident at once that while the
ability of these intending teachers to impart instruction on all other subjects is fully tested,
there is very little effort made to find out what
their purposes and ideas are respecting the moral
training of their pupils/ Upon theory and practice of teaching there are one hundred and fourteen questions; upon orthography, forty-eight;
upon reading, thirty; upon penmanship, twentyfour; upon grammar, one hundred and six; upon
arithmetic, one hundred and four; upon geography, one hundred and sixty-two; upon his-

CHRISTIANITY AND POPULAR EDUCATION. 313

tory, nineteen; upon physiology, seventeen;
upon civil government, ten ; upon book-keeping, ten; upon algebra, eighteen ; upon physics,
twenty-eight — six hundred and ninety questions in all. Of these, two questions, under
the head of " theory and practice," refer to the
development of moral character — these two,
namely: " Do you teach morals and politeness ? "'—as if it were optional with the teacher
whether he would do so or not,—-and, " How
would you undertake to cultivate the morals of
your pupils ? " Now, when the state in its inquiry into the qualifications of teachers makes
the ratio of morals to other subjects as two to
six hundred and ninety, we could hardly expect
the teachers whom it employs to be very thorough or enthusiastic in imparting moral instruction to their pupils.
As a matter of fact, we get a great deal more
moral teaching in our schools than this astonishing exhibit would indicate. Many of the
teachers recognize their responsibility in this
matter, even if the state does not enforce it
upon thern; and they find ways of impressing
the truths of morality upon the minds of their
pupils. In their conventions and institutes, the
question of moral instruction is often earnestly
debated. On the whole, it is rather surprising
that teachers should manifest so much interest

314

APPLIED CHRISTIANITY.

in this matter, when those who employ them
appear to care so little about it. It is not at all
to be wondered at that many of the teachers
are utterly remiss in this part of their duty, and
that the moral education of the young in our
public schools is, in general, sadly neglected.
Mi*. Harris, in the essay to which reference
has been made, points out that certain of what
he calls the mechanical virtues, such as punctuality, regularity, and obedience, are taught
quite effectively in the discipline of the school.
Cleanliness, also, which comes near being a theological virtue, is pretty faithfully inculcated in
the lower grades, while the whole regimen of
the school ought to be a steady exercise in truthtelling. These are important results, and they
are a necessary outcome of the law of the school.
For all of this let us be duly thankful. But beyond these are wide ranges of conduct in which
children need careful and systematic instruction. The great duties of self-control — the
duty of temperance in the indulgence of all the
appetites, of restraining the passions, of ruling
the spirit; the social duties of honesty, and justice, and fidelity to trusts, and courage, and
honor, and magnanimity, and neighborly kindness, and toleration, and sympathy, and charity \
the sacred obligations of citizenship -— all these,
and many others, ought to be diligently im-

CHRISTIANlft AND POPULAR EDUCATION. 315
pressed upon the consciences of children in
school. T h e statute of Massachusetts sets t h i s
m a t t e r forth in large and noble c h a r a c t e r s : —
It shall be the duty of the president, professors,
and tutors of the university at Cambridge, and of the
several colleges, of all preceptors and teachers of
academies, and of all other instructors of youth, to
exert their best endeavors to impress on the minds of
children and youth committed to their care and instruction, the principles of piety and justice, and a
sacred regard to truth; love of their country, humanity, and universal benevolence; sobriety, industry, and
frugality; chastity, moderation, and temperance, and
those other virtues which are the ornament of human
society and the basis upon which a republican constitution is founded; and it shall be the duty of such
instructors to endeavor to lead their pupils, as their
ages and capacities will admit, into a clear understanding of the tendency of the above-mentioned virtues, to preserve and perfect a republican constitution
and secure the blessings of liberty, as well as to promote their future happiness, and also to point out to
them the evil tendency of the opposite vices.
W h a t this lofty s t a t u t e demands is n o t only
possible, it is the very first a n d highest m a t t e r
to be cared for in every system of education,
public or private. W i t h all their o t h e r gettings,
t h e children of our schools o u g h t to get, a n d
m a y g0, a clear u n d e r s t a n d i n g of these g r i a t

316

APPLIED CHRISTIANITY.

matters. Doubtless, as I have said, many conscientious teachers endeavor to impress moral
truths on the minds of their pupils; but what
is done is done in a desultory and uncertain
fashion; no sj^stematic attempt is made to develop this part of the child's nature.
It is sometimes denied that morals can be
taught from books, and asserted that such
teaching is best when it is incidentally rather
than formally conveyed, I am not yet convinced that this is true. The objection proceeds upon the theory that morality is something altogether transcendental and mystical,
and cannot, therefore, be didactically treated.
I t is true that what Professor Shairp calls " the
moral motive power " is a personal force rathe'r
than a formula; nevertheless, there are great
truths of morals which are scientifically verifiable ; laws which are as well established as the
law of gravitation, or the law of the trade winds,
laws which can be stated so clearly and simply
that the average"boy or girl of twelve or fourteen can perfectly understand them. The pupils of our schools need to l0ve these truths put
into their minds, in clears/statements, that they
may be remembered as guides of conduct in
coming years.
The law of veracity, for example, with the
natural and inevitable rewards and penalties

CHRISTIANITY AND POPULAR EDUCATION 317

annexed to it, is capable ofv a perfectly clear
statement. This law can be scientifically verified. All the experience of life will tend to its
verification. Get it once lodged in a boy's
mind, and he can no more get away from it
than he can get away from the laws of motion.
Now I think it is a great deal more important
to get that law fixed in a boy's mind than it is
to teach him the process of extracting the cube
root, or to instruct him in the law,of storms, or
the law of ocean currents. I doubt ^hether
many of the pupiis of our public schools ever
do get that law fixed in their minas. They
know, in a general way, that it is wrong to lie;
but the eternal reasons for ver&city^sfojd the
sure penalties of mendacity, they dS not understandf" To give them these truths in simple
proposition^; to show them the- facts on which
these propositions are based; to point 9&t to
them the operation of the moral laws,j4s you
point out to them the operation of the-physical
laws or the physiological processes of digestion,
— this would be to many of them an inestimable service. They \vould remember the l a w ;
their observation would constantly confirm i t ;
and it would influence their conduct all their
lives long.
Precisely the same thing may be said of all
the other great laws of conduct. They may be

318

APPLIED CHRISTIANITY.

clearly stated, and their natural rewards and
penalties indicated; and the state is bound to
give this kind of instruction, whatever else it
may withhold. To leave so great a matter as
this to the teacher's option, and allow him to
give moral instruction incidentally, as if it were
not a matter of prime importance, is to disparage and degrade the whole subject in a fatal
manner. W e are bound to dignify it by making it a part of the regular course of study.
Suppose the teacher tells the pupil, casually,
these truths of morality C which we have
M
spoken. • The pupil is likely to take them as
the teacher's individual opinion. If the pupil
has great confidence in the wisdom of the
teacher, these truths may make a deep impression on his mind; if he has not, they will make
very little impression. In any case, they will
not come to him as the ascertained and1 established facts of science, as truth that has been
verified by observation and experiment. That
is the way in which they ought to come to him.
The moral laws ought to be put upon an equal
footing, in the pupil's intelligence, with the laws
of physics or physiology.
I t is sometimes supposed that no effective
moral teaching is possible, save that which refers to the Bible as authority. This is a great
mistake. Doubtless many of us would rather

CHRISTIANITY AND POPULAR EDUCATION. 319

have the Bible taught in the schools as the textbook of morals-—if it could be intelligently
taught-.-than any other book. But this is not
possible. And, although no other knowledge
of morality can be so good as that which would
be gained by a reverent and intelligent study
of the Bible, yet a knowledge of the great moral
laws and their penalties, sufficient for the practical guidance of men in earthly affairs can be
gained from the experience of men and the
study of human nature. The moral laws revealed in the Bible are also impressed upon the
nature of man. They were in full force and
effect before the Bible was written. As soon
as moral beings began to exist in their present
relations these laws began to operate. The
facts of morality are stated in the Bible because
they are t r u e ; they are not true because they
are stated in the Bible; they were true before
a word of the Bible had been uttered. . Every
law of the Decalogue, as my old teacher of
morals, President Hopkins, always insists, is a
natural law. , Surely there can be no objections
to teaching natural law in the public schools;
and of all natural laws, those which relate to
conduct should first be taught by the state. The
neglect to provide this kind of teaching is sheer
fatuity ; every citizen who is a Christian, and
who believes that righteousness is the principal

320

APPLIED CHRISTIANITY.

thing, is bound to cry out against it, and to demand, unceasingly, that this great defect in our
systems of popular education be remedied without delay.
The systematic and intelligent teaching of
morals in the public schools would, undoubtedly, accomplish much good. Nevertheless the
fact must not be overlooked that truth of this
kind, to be most effective, must be vitalized by
a genuine religious faithV Religion is the inspiration of all highest morality.} And while
religion cannot be taught in the public schools,
those teachers who possess this faith may, without any dogmatic instruction, impart it to their
pupils. " It is for the teachers," says Mr. W.
T. Harris, " n o t to claim to introduce formal
religious ceremonies, but to make all their
teaching glow with a genuine faith, hope, and
charity, so that pupils will catch from them
their view of the world as the only view that
satisfies the heart and the intellect and the
will."