THE CONSPIRACY AGAINST RELIGION ABROAD
It is but proper to begin this chapter by conceding that there are many
church-going members among those who vote the Marxian ticket--not as an
indorsement of the teachings of international Socialism, but merely as a
protest against political corruption and the abuses of capitalism.
Justice, moreover, demands that we acknowledge the existence of a small
minority of dues-paying members of the Socialist Party who neither
attack religion nor tacitly approve of the atheistic propaganda carried
on in the official Marxian press, as well as in the books, pamphlets and
magazines on sale not only in the leading Socialist book-stores of
America, but even at the National Office of the party in Chicago.
In most countries of Europe, where the war against religion is much more
open and widespread than in America, the Socialists are frank in
confessing that their movement is atheistic and anti-religious.
In our own country some of the more violent Socialistic enemies of the
church admit both in their speeches and in their writings that they
would be extremely happy to see the very idea of God become a matter of
ancient history. Christian Socialists of the old Carr faction, who
constitute a minority of far less than one per cent of the Socialist
Party of the United States, have not only conceded the existence of an
atheistic propaganda within the ranks, but have attacked it and utterly
failed to suppress it.
Apart from these two classes of American Socialists, who admit the
existence of a campaign in favor of atheism, most Socialists in our
country, because they fear that votes will be lost if our people are
convinced of the anti-religious character of the party, steadfastly deny
that they are conspiring against religion. Indeed they are quite cunning
and crafty in their effort to beguile the unwary. If the person
hesitates joining the party, owing to his conviction that nearly all the
Socialist leaders have been the enemies of religion, he is informed that
it would be just as foolish for him not to be a Revolutionist for this
reason, as it would be for one not to become a Republican because Robert
Ingersoll did not believe in God and even propagated atheism.
As the conspirators against religion have, by this plausible argument,
involving the name of Ingersoll, removed the prejudices that many
persons formerly had against Socialism on account of the atheistic
teachings of its leaders, it seems but fitting to give a short
refutation of the deceptive argument and to point out the absurdity of
the comparison just mentioned.
In the first place, although Robert Ingersoll was an atheist, he never
stated that Republicanism was anti-religious. On the other hand, very
many of the highest authorities in the Marxian Party, whose extensive
knowledge of Socialism justifies our belief that they know but too well
the policy of the revolutionary movement, admit that Socialism
postulates atheism and war against religious beliefs. Ingersoll,
moreover, never attacked religion nor taught atheism with a view to
furthering the cause of Republicanism. But a very large number of the
Socialists, whether Europeans or Americans, in their endeavor to promote
what they consider to be the best interests of their party, have in
their books, magazines, pamphlets and papers been waging a relentless
war against religion. The atheistical works of Robert Ingersoll were not
purchased by the rank and file of the Republican Party for purposes of
party propaganda, but the rank and file of the Revolutionary Party spend
large sums of money on publications in which their avowed leaders teach
atheism as part of the Socialist program. Not content even with this,
the members do their utmost to increase the circulation of
anti-religious Socialist books, magazines, pamphlets and papers.
Before producing the evidence that will convict the Socialist leaders
and the rank and file of the party of openly advocating atheism and
hostility to religion, or at least of tacitly approving of such a
propaganda, a few words must be said relative to the materialistic
conception of history, or of economic determinism, as it is often
called. According to this doctrine, which is one of the fundamental
teachings of the Socialists, the whole history of mankind, including its
political, intellectual and religious development, is nothing more than
a process of evolution, the guiding principle of which is the prevailing
economic conditions and their resultant class struggles. Consequently,
the Socialists who believe this doctrine deny the intervention of God in
the development and spread of the Christian religion; for economic
determinism teaches that the development of the church is not the work
of Divine Providence, but of the economic conditions and class struggles
of society.
W. D. P. Bliss, the Socialist editor of the "New Encyclopedia of Social
Reform," in an article on page 1135 of his work, admits that it is
perfectly true that the large majority of avowed Socialists are divorced
from recognized religion and the church, and that this leads many of
them to extreme radicalism on all questions of ethics, money and the
family.
Frederick Engels, one of the renowned founders of modern Socialism,
taught that "nowadays in our evolutionary conception of the universe,
there is absolutely no room for either a Creator or a ruler."
("Socialism, Utopian and Scientific," by Frederick Engels, page 17 of
the Introduction to the 1901 edition in English--New York Labor News
Co.)
Wilhelm Liebknecht, who until shortly before his death in 1900 was one
of the foremost leaders of the Socialist Party in Germany, addressing
the Halle Convention, said: "As regards my own self, I had done with
religion at an early age.... I am an atheist, I do not believe in
God.... We may peacefully take our stand upon the ground of Socialism,
and thus conquer the stupidity of the masses in so far as stupidity
reveals itself in religious forms and dogmas." The same German Socialist
and atheist taught in his book, "Materialist Basis of History":
"It is our duty as Socialists to root out the faith in God with all
our zeal, nor is anyone worthy the name, who does not consecrate
himself to the spread of atheism."
August Bebel, who before his death in August, 1913, was the leader of
the Socialists of Germany, gave many proofs of the intimate relation
existing between Socialism and atheism. On September 16, 1878, he
declared in the Reichstag:
"Gentlemen, you attack our views on religion because they are
atheistic and materialistic. I acknowledge the correctness of the
impeachment. I am firmly convinced that Socialism finally leads to
atheism."
In the Reichstag, on December 31, 1881, he made the following profession
of faith:
"In politics we profess Republicanism, in economics Socialism, in
religion atheism."
According to the 1903 platform of the German Socialists, adopted at
Dresden, "No religious instructions of any kind shall be given to
children under the age of sixteen; after that they can select their own
religious tenets and teachings, as they please. Superstitious religious
notions that are current among the less educated classes are to be
eradicated through proper instructions."
"The Comrade," September, 1904, confesses that the satirical weekly
"L'Asino," published by the Socialists of Italy, and known throughout
the world for its attacks on religion, carries on a bitter fight against
the Catholic Church. In the early part of 1913, "L'Asino," speaking of
the coming Italian election, boasted that the Socialists would proclaim
their anti-clericalism and atheism in the public meetings.
The Austrian Socialists in convention at Linz, May 30, 1898, passed a
resolution proposed by Pernerstorfer to the effect that "Socialism is
directly contradictory to Roman clericalism, which is enslaved to
unyielding authority, immutable dogmas, and absolute intellectual
thralldom. We doubt all authority, we know of no immutable dogma, we are
the champions of right, liberty and conscience." [Reported in
"Vorwärts," 1898, no. 126, suppl.]
The bitter persecution that has for years been waged against the church
in France is too well known to require much comment. The representatives
of the French Socialist Party at Tours in March, 1903, voted upon a
program from which several clauses will be cited:
"The Socialist Party needs to organize a new world, free minds
emancipated from superstition and prejudices. It asks for and
guarantees every human being, every individual, absolute freedom of
thinking, and writing and affirming their beliefs. Over against all
religious dogmas and churches as well as over against the class
conceptions of the bourgeoisie, it sets the unlimited right of free
thought, the scientific conception of the universe, and a system of
public education based exclusively on science and reason. Thus
accustomed to free thought and reflection, citizens will be
protected against the sophistries of the capitalistic and clerical
reaction." The program also declares for the "abolition of the
congregations, nationalization of property in mortmain of every
kind belonging to them, and appropriation of it for works of social
insurance and solidarity."
In the Tours program, therefore, we have the open confession of the
Socialist Party of France that it is anti-religious and that it favors
the disgraceful robbery of the church that has for many years been going
on in that country.
The Belgian Socialists are quite as violent as the French in their
hatred of the church, for in addition to the large number of vile
anti-religious pamphlets distributed during the campaign that preceded
the elections of 1912, we have the testimony of no less an authority
than the Socialist leader, Emile Vandervelde, in the "Social Democrat,"
England, January, 1903:
"In the end the question to be solved is: what is the essential aim
of Socialism? There is not a Socialist who would hesitate to say
that it is the emancipation of the workers, the freedom of the
proletariat--and by this freedom we mean its complete freedom, the
abolition of all slavery in the spiritual sphere as well as in the
material sphere.... Can a sincere believer follow the church's
teachings and yet be a Socialist? We are bound to admit that both
in philosophy and in politics there must be war between Socialism
and the Church."
In England, too, the Socialists are the avowed enemies of religion.
Blatchford, who is well known to his comrades for his extreme work in
propagating Socialism by the pen, wrote in the "Clarion," October 4,
1907:
"Believing that the Christian religion was untrue, and believing
that all supernatural religions were inimical to human progress,
and foreseeing that a conflict between Socialism and religion was
inevitable, I attacked the Christian religion. I am working for
Socialism when I attack religion which is hindering it."
Again in his book, "God and My Neighbor," Blatchford utters the
following blasphemies:
"I am an easiful old pagan, and I am not angry with you at all--you
funny little champion of the Most High....
"This is the God of Heaven? This is the Father of Christ? This is
the Creator of the Milky Way? No! He will not do. He is not big
enough. He is not good enough. He is not clean enough. He is a
spiritual nightmare, a bad dream born in the savage minds of terror
and ignorance and a tigerish lust for blood....
"Is this unspeakable monster the Father of Christ? Is he the God
who inspireth Buddha and Shakespeare and Beethoven and Darwin and
Plato? No, not he. But in warfare and massacre, in rapine and rape,
in black revenge and in deadly malice, in slavery and polygamy, and
the debasement of women, and in the pomps, vanities and greeds of
royalty, of clericalism, and of usury and barter--we may easily
discern the influence of his ferocious and abominable personality."
This book, which teaches atheism from cover to cover, could be bought
for a dollar a copy in 1912 at the National Office of the Socialist
Party in Chicago, Ill. In the May, 1917, issue of the "International
Socialist Review," "God and My Neighbor," by Blatchford, is thus
advertised:
"Is the Bible true? This is the chief subject of debate today
between Christians and Scientists the world over. Robert Blatchford
says: 'Is the Bible a holy and inspired book and the Word of God to
man, or is it an incongruous and contradictory collection of tribal
tradition and ancient fables, written by men of genius and
imaginations? Mr. Blatchford believes religions are not revealed,
they are evolved.
"'We cannot accept as the God of Creation,' he writes, 'this savage
idol, Jehovah, of an obscure tribe, and we have renounced him and
are ashamed of him, not because of any later divine revelation, but
because mankind have become too enlightened to tolerate Jehovah.'"
Ernest Bax, an Englishman, one of the greatest authorities in the world
on Socialism, an author who, even in America, has been styled "the most
accomplished writer on behalf of Socialism in this and perhaps in any
country," in his book, "Religion of Socialism," thus testifies to the
relation existing between Socialism and religion:
"In what sense Socialism is not religious will now be clear. It
utterly despises the other world with all its stage
properties--that is, the present objects of religion." ["Religion
of Socialism," by Ernest Belfort Bax, page 52 of 1891 edition.]
Who could imagine any more convincing testimony of the atheistic and
anti-religious nature of the Socialist movement than the following words
of the English Socialist, James Leathan, in "Socialism and Character":
"At the present moment I cannot remember a single instance of a
person who is at one and the same time a really earnest and
intelligent Socialist and an orthodox Christian. Those who do not
openly attack the church and the fabric of Christianity, show but
scant respect to either the one or the other in private.... And
while all of us are thus indifferent to the church, many of us are
frankly hostile to her. Marx, Lassalle and Engels among earlier
Socialists; Morris, Bax, Hyndman, Guesde and Bebel among
present-day Socialists--are all more or less avowed atheists; and
what is true of the more notable men of the party is almost equally
true of the rank and file the world over."
In 1910 a pamphlet entitled "Socialism and Religion" was issued by the
Revolutionists of Great Britain. One quotation from it will amply
suffice to show the utter contempt of the English[15] Socialist for
religion:
"If a man supports the church, or in any respect allows religious
ideas to stand in the way of principles of Socialism, or activity
of the party, he proves thereby that he does not accept Socialism
as fundamentally true and of the first importance, and his place is
outside. No man can be consistently both a Socialist and a
Christian. It must either be the Socialist or the religious
principle that is supreme, for the attempt to couple them equally
together betrays charlatanism or lack of thought. There is,
therefore, no need for a specifically anti-religious test. So
surely does the acceptance of Socialism lead to the exclusion of
the supernatural, that the Socialist has little need for such terms
as atheist, freethinker or even materialist, for the word
Socialist, rightly understood, implies one who (on all such
questions) takes his stand on positive science, explaining all
things by purely natural causation--Socialism being not merely a
politico-economic creed, but an integral part of a consistent world
philosophy."
"The Western Clarion," a publication of the Canadian Socialists,
declared in its issue of May 23, 1914, that the Socialist Party of
Canada would have "no compromise with advocates of Christianity."
Alvarado, the governor of Yucatan, and his criminal sustainers several
years ago drove the clergy from the country, turned the churches into I.
W. W. meeting houses, and turned some, as in the case of the Cathedral
of Merida, even into warehouses. Religion was outlawed and an atheist
tyranny established. Alvarado is an ardent I. W. W. Socialist of the
most violent sort. His advent into Yucatan from the lawless northern
part of Mexico was marked by wholesale confiscation of property, by
robbery and outrage. His vile subordinates, of like origin with himself,
committed loathsome crimes, unspeakable and without number, and no
opportunity was overlooked to persecute the unhappy people whose
accumulations by thrift and industry and whose steadfast adherence to
their religion marked them as certain victims of robbery, murder and
outrage.
"The Call," New York, April 9, 1919, informs us that the workers in
Yucatan have elected a succession of Socialist governors, and in its
issue of April 14, 1919, under the caption, "Up to the Minute Official
Socialist News," we read the following:
"Felipe Carrillo, president of the Socialist Party of Yucatan,
Mexico, spoke on conditions in Yucatan. Among other things he said:
'The Socialist Party of America should do everything possible
against intervention in Mexico.... All the public officials, from
the highest to the lowest, are members of the Socialist party....
There is no middle class in Yucatan.... The Socialist Party of
Yucatan has been in power three years.'
"A rising vote was taken, expressing our fraternal greetings to
Felipe Carrillo and the Comrades of Yucatan."
The April 9, 1919, issue of "The Call" informs us that Alvardo in 1915
organized the Socialist Party of Yucatan, 62,700 members of which belong
to the League of Resistance, an organization which, we are told, is
purely economic in its activities.
What a strange name for an economic league, especially in Mexico, where
economics have for some years been taught by the torch, bomb, dagger!
The March, 1919, edition of "The Eye Opener," the official organ of the
Socialist Party of the United States, throws a little light on this
economic league of "the knights of the red flag." On page 4 of that
issue we are told that among the principles of the League of Resistance
are the following:
"The Land is Mother, and Labor is the Father of Humanity.
Attack no one without motive, but never present the other cheek to
any who has struck one.
Fly from the religions, principally the Catholic religion, as from
the plagues."
The article on the economic League of Resistance ends with the call of
Yucatan to the rest of the continent: "Workers of the world, unite."
Carillo is then quoted as saying:
"Never will labor conquer until it understands solidarity. Political
action, economic action, perhaps military action--todos metodos
necesitamos. En todas las epocas del mundo, rifley dynamita sean
necesarios; pero siempre y sobre todo, solidaridad." The words, "rifley
dynamita" mean nothing and are evidently a misprint for "rifle y
dynamita." There was good reason for letting the words remain in the
Spanish in the official organ of the Socialist Party of the United
States, for if "rifle y dynamita" were the Spanish words meant, their
translation would be:
"We need all means. In all periods of the world's history, the
rifle and dynamite may be necessary, but always and above all
solidarity."
So much for the _economic_ League of Resistance of the Socialists of
Yucatan, which has been destroying both religion and civilization alike!
Carrillo, its president, has been greeted throughout our country by the
Socialists, who have been extending their fraternal greetings also to
the rest of their "Comrades in Yucatan."