Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 4.djvu/636

 6l6 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

Statement, but, do the best it can to avoid the criticism, social- ism is essentially an economic system and approaches the indi- vidual life with much the same presupposition as did the older political economy it assails. And that presupposition is the existence of an " economic man." In a word, socialism says this : Make the economic man prosperous, and the moral, the altruistic, the intellectual, the aesthetic, and (as a concession) the religious man will inevitably be prosperous. Here again indiscriminate criticism is unwise. No one can deny the influ- ence of economic conditions upon the character of men, and the Christian who follows the better impulses of his nature will make common cause with any rational effort at producing greater economic equality. Indeed, if once socialism as a merely economic program according to which some or all industries were to become socialized, were seen to be just and best, there is no reason why Christians should not accept it. But as homeopathy as practiced today is one thing, and homeopathy as Hahne- mann worked it out is another, so socialism as a form of economic life and socialism as an all-embracing philosophy of social reform are not to be confounded. Good economic surroundings, so far as ordinary observation shows, are in no way the guarantee of good or even contented men, and as a working theory of life the position of Jesus is not only more philosophical, but more practicable: "Seek first the fraternity of the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and food, clothes, and creature comforts will follow." It may very well be that a thoroughly Christian civilization will be — at least partially — socialistic. It is not so clear that a socialistic state would be Christian.

At the same time it must be granted that, as both are today, the church has much to learn from socialism. It is hard to say it, but the church has hardly yet the clear vision which enables socialism to see the moral aspects of today's economic life. Yet such a charge must certainly soon be removed. The fact that it unfortunately is composed of certain strata of society may retard its action, but it is impossible that the church should not soon see the inconsistency between its religious

\