Socialism and American ideals | Page 8

take it
calmly, but if you called him a blockhead, he would challenge you to
fight a duel. All this has been amply exemplified during the present war.
It was the German socialist Lassalle who said of the lie that it was one
of the great European Powers! It was natural enough that he should
have said it."[7]
The public preparatory schools in Germany are so arranged that the
pupils are trained to unthinking subservience to the labor policy and
materialistic aims of a selfish, bureaucratic State. In fact, it is well to

remember that this German illustration only proves that Socialism,
instead of being democratic, is essentially undemocratic in its effects. It
produces an autocracy of officials which is as unfair and selfish,
because entirely materialistic, as any aristocracy of wealth or birth
could be. Shrewd observers note the same tendency in the
Commonwealth of Australia where the full fruition of its
semi-Socialistic policy of recent years has been somewhat retarded by
the individualistic influence of the English Common Law. When the
Socialistic autocracy is once completely in power, with its professed
policy of taking away human ambition and initiative, its position will
be almost impregnable and become more and more secure as the
average citizen becomes more and more servile, lazy and unambitious.
Socialism is politically decadent and contains within itself the germ of
self-destruction. During this process of self-destruction the people at
large will offer a rich field for exploitation by the demagogue, the
corrupt politician and the charlatan.
Furthermore, Socialism is essentially unChristian. It also is opposed
absolutely to the whole basis of the Jewish religion as well. The
foundation of the Jewish-Christian religion, for they are essentially the
same in basis, is the belief in the value of the individual soul in the
sight of God, and the dependence upon its relation to something Divine.
The impulse from within the human heart is the basis of all right living.
Thus Christ taught the social responsibility of the individual for his
neighbor. The appeal always was made to the individual and the
responsibility was laid upon him.
We read in the New Testament--"Remember the words of the Lord
Jesus how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive." (Acts,
XX, 35.)
Right giving, which results from an appreciation of the obligations of
service, is an individualistic action; receiving, which means a benefit
from the activity and initiative of someone else (and often irrespective
of the real deserts of the recipient), is essentially Socialistic in tendency.
The one causes a growth in individual character; the other tends to stunt
or weaken it. St. Paul mentioned (1st Corinthians XIII, 3) as one of the

greatest possible forms of service the bestowal of all one's goods to
feed the poor. But he did not suggest as a better way that the individual
should sit back, let the State take over his goods and attend to the
feeding of the poor, and thus relieve him from responsibility. In fact,
"love" itself, which is declared to be the greatest thing of all, is
essentially an individual impulse and never could be called forth from
the human heart, nor supplied to it either, by the fiat of a government.
The same note runs through the Jewish Scriptures. At the beginning
(Genesis, chap. IV), in the old story of Cain's murder of Abel, when
Cain inquired of the Lord "Am I my brother's keeper?" the inference to
be drawn most decidedly is that the Lord thought he was, and not the
State, or the tribal government of that day, in his stead. Both the
Christian and Jewish religions are essentially individualistic in appeal
and social in responsibility, and so also is Democracy.
May not the extreme brutality of the German soldier of to-day be the
result not only of the ruthless command from the official higher up but
also of the de-souling, materialistic influence of Socialism on the
common people of Germany during the past twenty-five years? Is not
the viciousness of Prussian militarism plus the demoralizing influence
of Socialism a sufficient explanation?
According to Mr. J. Dover Wilson, "the German nation, in fact, is
suffering from some form of arrested development, and arrested
development, as the criminologists tell us, is almost invariably
accompanied by morbid psychology. That Germany at the present
moment, and for some time past, has been the victim of a morbid state
of mind, few impartial observers will deny. It has, however, not been so
generally recognized that this disease--for it is nothing less--is due not
to any national depravity but to constitutional and structural
defects."[8]
Many Socialists point to the housing, sanitary, insurance and other
State activities of Germany as showing the care of the Government for
the laboring man. My dogs are well fed, are kept