Socialism and American ideals

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Socialism and American ideals

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Title: Socialism and American ideals
Author: William Starr Myers
Release Date: October 11, 2004 [EBook #13706]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
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SOCIALISM AND AMERICAN IDEALS
BY WILLIAM STARR MYERS, Ph.D. PROFESSOR OF POLITICS,

PRINCETON UNIVERSITY

PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS PRINCETON LONDON
HUMPHREY MILFORD OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 1919

1919, by PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS
Published February, 1919 Printed in the United States of America
TO THE MEMORY OF SAMUEL SELDEN LAMB IN PARTIAL
FULFILMENT OF A MUTUAL PROMISE MADE AT "DEAR OLD
CHAPEL HILL"

PREFACE
The following essays originally appeared in the form of articles
contributed at various times to the (daily) New York Journal of
Commerce and Commercial Bulletin. Numerous requests have been
received for a reprinting of them in more permanent form, and this little
volume is the result.
I am deeply indebted to my friend Mr. John W. Dodsworth, of the
Journal of Commerce, for his kind and generous permission to reprint
these articles. Since numerous changes and modifications from the
original form have been made the responsibility for these statements
and the sentiments expressed rests entirely upon me.
I hope it is not necessary for me to say that this is not intended as an
exhaustive study of the more or less widespread movement to advance
paternalism in Government. My object is to lay before the people, in
order that they may carefully consider them, the reasons for thinking
that Socialism is in theory and practice absolutely opposed and contrary
to the principles of Americanism, of democracy, and even of the
Christian-Jewish religion itself.

WM. STARR MYERS.
Princeton, N.J. November 28, 1918.

CONTENTS
Introduction--Materialism and Socialism 3
I. The Conflict with the Idea of Equality of Opportunity 13
II. Why Socialism Appeals to Our Foreign-Born Population 23
III. Its Conflict with the Basic Principles of Democracy and Religion
34
IV. Some Instances of its Practical Failure 54
V. The True Antidote Found in Co-operative Effort 74

INTRODUCTION
MATERIALISM AND SOCIALISM
It was about a decade ago that Professor E.R.A. Seligman of Columbia
University published his valuable work on the "Economic
Interpretation of History," which gave a great impetus to the study, by
historians, of the economic influences upon political and social
development. Professor Seligman showed conclusively that one of the
most potent forces in the growth of civilization has been man's reaction
upon his material environment. Since that time the pendulum has
swung so far in this direction that many students of history and
economics would seem to think that all of life can be summed up in
terms of materialism, that environment after all is the only important
element in the advance of society, and that mankind is a rather
negligible quantity. This is just as great a mistake as the former practice
of ignoring economic influence, and even so great an authority as

Professor Seligman would seem to tend in that direction.
On the other hand, Mr. George Louis Beer rightly claims that "the chief
adherents of economic determinism are economists and Socialists, to
whom the past is, for the most part, merely a mine for illustrative
material. The latter, strangely enough, while explaining all past
development by a theory that conceives man to be a mere
self-regarding automaton, yet demand a reorganization of society that
postulates a far less selfish average man than history has as yet
evolved."[1]
Most thoughtful people of to-day know that the political and economic
elements were just as strong as the religious one in the Protestant
Reformation in Germany, but that fact by no means would lessen the
value of the gains for intellectual and religious freedom that were won
by Martin Luther. Again, bad economic conditions had as much, or
more, to do with the outbreak of the French Revolution as did political
and philosophical unrest. Also taxation, trade and currency squabbles
had more to do with causing an American Revolution than did the
idealistic principles later enunciated in the Declaration of Independence.
And there was a broad economic basis for the differences in crops,
transportation and the organization of labor which expressed
themselves in a sectionalism which finally assumed the political aspect
that caused the Civil War. Yet the student who would forget the
spiritual element in our