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Sunday, June 7, 1931OUR SATURDAY IVITEWe want to talk with the thoughtful this Saturday Night about some of the isms abroad in the political world—titanic forces that are working a revolution in the affairs of the children of men. We will briefly call the roll of Nationalism, Socialism, Facism, Bolshevism, Capitalism, and Materialism. Under one of these heads fall all the great revolutionary forces that are now at work throughout the civilized world. What are they? What are their objects? Where are they dominant and regnant?Nationalism is a new force in the world. There is a distinction between Nationality and Nationalism, Nationality results from racial distinction, language, custom, history, religion, tradition and a patriotic sense of being one people. No one of these things is sufficient to constitute Nationality, but all of them enter into it to a greater or less degree. Common territory helps to create a Nationality of feeling. Nationality is closely allied with patriotism. Nationalism is a passionate, undivided, unquaiifed loyalty to one's own nation. Nationality is subconscious—it is an old, old consciousness of loyalty to the nation and its traditions and rulers; Nationalism is self conscious and aggressive against external foes or rivals. It is a modem ism, something new in the world, a new force to be reckoned with. Nationalism is a potential peril to the world and a sin against God when it denies any higher loyalty, or any superior law than that of the State. It expresses itself in the famous phrase, Our country, right or wrong.” It makes the nation say: “I am Alpha and Omega,” the one supreme power to which every knee must bow. It takes Jesus’ commandment, “Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and unto God the things that are God’s, and simplifies it by making Caesar God You will find the spirit of Nationalism at work to a greater or less degree in Turkey, Russia, Jugoslavia, Italy, Arabia, and in many other countries in which there is great political unrest. Nationalism minimizes the individual, ignores groups, and places the crown upon the State.ffSocialism is the oldest of all the ism listed above. As an ideal, Socialism is a Utopian conception. It seeks to so control government economic policies and activities as to bring about an equitable apportionment of the opportunities of life and rewards of labor. There are many variations of socialism, running from Christian socialism as advocated by Thomas Hughes, Charles Kingsley and others, to the Socialism of Karl Marx, which is confiscation and division of property. As a general proposition, socialism the world over means the annullment of private ownership of capital and land, maintaining that all values are the creation and just due of labor. There is a conservative socialism that we find in the United States, and a Revolutionary or radical socialism found in the old world—an ism closely related to anarchy and the anarchist. Socialism is everywhere opposed to individualism. It seeks to alleviate the hardship of a class and to level the wealth of a country by an equalization of opportunities and distribution of the fruits of labor. Socialism has a definite economic program and a clearly defined theory indicating what will be the result of the economic policy when caried into action. From the fact that there are so many shades of Socialism it is difficult to definitely define it, but as a rule the above statements will give you a general idea of Socialism. Bonar thus defines Socialism: “Socialism may be described asthat policy that aims to a more equal distribution and, in subordination thereto, a better production of wealth by means of the direct action of the central authority.” State aid for the betterment of the common people is also sometimes called Socialism. Conservatism in all governments denominate the liberal element socialistic in tendency.FicLsm literally means a political group, or club. It is a comparatively new ism and is to be found only in Italy in a large, dominant way. The Fascisti was organized in Italy in 1919 for the purpose of opposing, by violent means when necessary, all radical elements in the country, such as Bolshevism, Communism, etc. In the beginning it was composed mostly of young soldiers who fought in the world wrar and were loyal to the government, but with sympathies strongly with the working classes. Because the government of Italy was impotent and things were getting in a desperately bad way throughout the country at the close of the World War, it grew very rapidly and soon became regnant and dominant under the leadership of Mussolini. Each local branch of Fascisti is called a Fascio, and all of the organizations together form the Fasci. The Fascists of Italy control the press and the government. The Facist party is educating the youths in an organization called “Balilla,” composed of boys and girls under fourteen years of age. From this youthful army of a half million the Facist party is now recruited. The Fascism says that the true conception of a nation is a living ideal unity, with monarchy as its symbol, governed by a spiritual leader capable of grasping, pursuing and commanding the good of the whole in a way that election and parties can never achieve. The citizen is at complete disposal of the state—his watchwords are work, duty, discipline. The aim is not happiness, or leisure, or liberty, but labor for the greatness and glory of the nation. The citizen does not want Democratic liberty; he wants peace, work, bread, water, efficient and punctual transport. It will thus be seen that here is a dictatorship as severe as that of Bolshevism, but based on the idea of a nation as above all class conflicts, whereas Bolshevism is based upon class above nations. The Facism of Italy is today clashing with Catholic organizations, seeking to suppress or stifle them.Bolshevism stands for the overthrow of the institution of private property and the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat. It finds its exemplifications in Russia. At the tune Bolshevist took over Russia, some 200,000 Russian nobles owned most of the land and wealth of the nation. The Bolshevist immediately confiscated all of this great wealth, admonishing the proletariat “to take by robbery that of which you have been robbed.” Bolshevism is a form of communism. It governs Russia by soviets. Each group of workers form a soviet and representatives from the soviets form the grand council. Bolshevism is opposed to God, religion and the church. Lenine says in his Book that “Religion is one of the forms of that spiritual yoke which always and everywhere has been laid on the masses of the people crushed by poverty. Religion is an opiate of the people, a sort of spiritual vodka, meant to make the slaves of capitalism tread in the dust, their human forms and their aspirations to a semidecent existence. But the slave who beoomes conscious of his aitvary has already half ceased to be a siave. Themodem worker, who is taught his work in the factory and enlightened by urban life, contemptuously casts off religious prejudices, and leaves heaven to the parsons and devout bouregois, while he tries ’ win a better life here on earth.” Speaking of morality, Lenine said: “We repudiate all morality whichproceeds from super-natural ideas, or ideas which are outside of class conceptions. In our view morality is entirely subordinate to the interest of the class war; everything is moral that is necessary for the annihilation of the old exploiting social order and for the uniting of the proletariat. We do not believe in external principles of morality and we will expose this deception. Communist morality is identical with the fight to strengthening of the dictatorship of the proletariat.” Bolshevism seeks to convert the world to its doctrine. It has its disciples everywhere. Its cardinal principle is the supremacy of the proletariat above God, above religion, above the state—regnant, militant and dominant.Capitolism is as old as civilization It is one of the greatest forces in the world, if not the greatest. It seeks to govern the nations of the earth in the interest of capital. It places the rights of the dollar above the rights of man. It subordinates the claims of humanity to the claims of wealth Regardless of the sources of visible power, and whether or not a king, dictator, or president rules, Mammon is the God on the throne before which the government actually bows down. It controls government by controlling the industrial and business imerests of a nation through an economic policy that pays tribute to capital. We are not subservient to Capitalism in this country, but in Russia. India, China and many other countries of the world Capitalism exploits the land and pauperized the people. Capitalism has no soul. It is heartless and without human sympathy. With i the end always justifies the means. It does not scruple at bribery ana buys its way where it can not go by diplomacy. It has oppressed mere people and caused more suffering than all of the other isms of the world combined. It has great and almost, unlimited power and claims among its votaries all those who can be influenced by gold. It sways public opinion. directs the trend of legislation, corrupts courts, and tells executives and kings and potentates and dictators what to do. Out of the soil of Capitalism spring Bolshevism, Socialism, Communism and many of the other isms that curse the race. Capitalism works in the dark—it bears no party label, flies no flag, has no country', believes in no God, has no religion, boasts of no creed. It is the personification of selfishness—seeking to enrich the few at the expense of the many.Materialism divorces the personal equation from governments. It has only to do with things material It does not regard any values that it can not realize upon materially. The civic, the educational, the altruistic, the religious, the spiritual, the beautiful, the arts and all that ministers to the better and higher nature of mankind, are only tolerated as they serve the material interest of the nation. The bread and butter problem is the only question materialism concerns itself with. Materialism is not the same as Capitalism. Often it is at the other end of the poles. Bolshevism is antagonistical to Capitalism, and yet it is the essence of materialism, because it only cog# cerns itself w'ith what a man shall eat and wear and how he shall be sheltered and transported. Materialism, like Capitalism, recognizes no ethics. Its policy is one of the aggrandizement for the Nation, in contradistinction to Capitalism that seeks to increase the wealth of the individual capitalist, only caring for the nation as it can be used to serve the ends of Capitalism. Materialism glories in territory, dependencies, armies, navies, national wealth and things material. A great nation given to Materialism is a nation without a soul. It is not vitally concerned with the prosperity of its subjects further than they contribute to the material greatness of the country. Every nation under the shining sun is tinctured with Materialism. Probably the Swiss government and the United States have less of gross materialism than other nations of the world.It is a significant fact that none of these ism contribute to the spiritual and ethical and altruistic side of life: none of them are concerned with the individual, but all have to do with Nations, or groups, or classes, or selfish interests, or sordid ends. Nationalism glorifies the state that it may serve the proletariat; Socialism is devoted to a class, the laboring man; Facism has to do with a class, but gives the State supremacy; Bolshevism uses groups to enthrone the proletariat; Capitalism selfishly seeks its own sordid interest; Materialism is gross and fails to take into consideration humanity only as it adds to mater values. The tendency of each of these six isms away from God and religion and spiritual values and ethical teachings and altruistic ideals—away from music and art and literature and beauty and all soul qualities and heart adornments. Not one of them magnifies the individual and places the crown of superiority upon personality. And because of this fact, they will not abide. For a time they may florish because they hold some grain of truth, some element of justice, some seed of freedom, some germ of liberty. But ultimately they are doomed to failure because they are not bottomed upon righteousness and the teachings of the Great Nazarene.Once to every' man and nation comes the moment todecide,In the strife of truth and falsehood, for the good or evil side;Some great cause, Gods new Messiah, offering each the bloom or blight;Parts the goats upon the left hand, and the sheep upon the right,And the choice goes by forever ‘twixt that darknessand that light.Hast thou chosen, O my people, on whose party thoushalt stand,Ere the doom from his worn sandals shakes the dustagainst the land?Though the cause of evil prosper, yet ’tis truth alone is strong,And albeit she wander outcast now, I see around herthrongTroops of beautiful, tall angels, to enshield her fromy all wrong.scartotd, wrong forever on thethrone,—Yet that scaffold sways the future, and. behind the dim unknown,Standeth God within the shadow*, beeping above his a wo.
Newspaper Details
Jefferson City Daily Capital News and Post Tribune
Jefferson City, Missouri, US
Sun, Jun 07, 1931
Page 20
Full Page
Clipped by
Arkansas S.
AR, USA 10 Nov 2018
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