Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 09.djvu/255

LEFT SYNCRETISTIC 211 SYNDICALISM of fellowship and union between the Protestant churches of Germany. These controversies may be grouped into three periods: (1) From the Colloquy of Thorn (1645), in which it was sought to force a new confession of faith on the Lu- theran Church, to the death of Calixtus (1656). George Calixtus was a Pro- fessor of Theology at Helmstadt, and his scheme of union was founded on the following propositions: (1) That the fundamental principles of Christianity were maintained pure in the Roman, Lu- theran and. Reformed Churches. (2) That the tenets and opinions which had been constantly received by the ancient doctors during the first five centuries were to be considered as of equal truth and authority with the express declara- tions and doctrines of Scripture. (3) That the Churches which received these points, and held the additional tenets of the particular churches as non-essential, should come into peaceful relations, and thus pave the way for a future union. After the death of Calixtus, there was a period of peace for about five years. (2) From 1661-1669. The conflict was renewed by the wish of the Land- grave of Hesse-Cassel, William VI., to secure a religious constitution broad enough to embrace both the Lutheran and Reformed Churches. The second at- tempt to have the Consensus adopted, which implicitly condemned Calixtus and his adherents as non-Lutheran and heretical, was a failure, and the subject was abandoned for a time. (3) In 1675, Calovius, Professor of Divinity at Wittenberg, reopened the controversy, and compelled the Univer- sity of Jena to disavow all sympathy with the views of Calixtus. The death of Calovius in 1686 put an end to the dis- pute. SYNDIC, an officer of government in- vested with varying powers in different places; a kind of magistrate intrusted with the management of the affairs of a city or community; also one chosen to transact business for others. In the University of Cambridge, England, syn- dics are chosen from the senate to trans- act special business, as the regulation of fees, the operations of the Clarendon Press, etc. Mayors of Italian towns are so called. SYNDICALISM, broadly speaking, is a branch of the general socialist move- ment which has as its object a complete reorganization of society on a co-opera- tive basis. The first concept of Social- ism was that the workers should own and control the industries through a pro- letarian state, or government, now known as State Socialism. This idea, well il- lustrated in Bellamy's famous book, "Looking Backward," presented unpleas- ant features to many persons otherwise inclined in favor of radicalism and even revolutionary methods. As a reaction against this ideal, which suggested the dangers of a gigantic state bureaucracy, the Syndicalist movement appeared, first in France, in the early 80s of last cen- tury, taking its name from the French syndicates, or trade unions. Its chief ex- ponent has been the French writer of Sorel, who again has been strongly in- spired by the philosophy of Henri Berg- son. The central idea of the Syndicalist i3 that, not the state, or government, but the workers, organized in bodies follow- ing the lines of the big industries, shall assume control of production. It is an enlargement of the old concept of the Early English Christian Socialists, who were obsessed of the idea that the work- ers should own their own tools, regard- less of the fact that under a moderate system of production industrial organi- zation is much more complicated than it was in the days of handicrafts, when hand tools were employed in the manu- facture of commodities. Concretely il- lustrated, the idea is that the railway workers should own and control the railroads, the coal miners should own and control the coal mines, the postal em- ployees should have charge of the post- office service, and the teachers should be in control of the schools. The fallacy in the idea is the assumption that the purpose of industry is to supply jobs to the workers, whereas the only legitimate aim of industry is to supply the necessi- ties and pleasures of life to society at large, to the people, as consumers. Outside of France, Syndicalism has made comparatively little headway, and even there it went completely to pieces as a movement during the World War, because of the split among the members as to whether they should support the government against Germany or not. One of the fundamentals of Syndicalism is that government may be almost com- pletely, if not entirely, eliminated. In the United States the Syndicalist idea is represented by the Industrial Workers of the World, but this is an organization which has had very little influence in the general American labor movement. In England Syndicalism has practically disappeared in the Guild So- cialist movement, which resembles Sjm- dicalism in that it would place control of the industries in the hands of the labor organizations, but would vest the government with the power of veto, as