CHRISTIANITY AND SOCIALISM.
[To THE EDITOR Or THE " SPECTATOR." J SIR,—I think any one who reads my letter in the Spectator of October 5th, and the reply to it of your cormspondent the Rev. N. E. Egerton Swann in the Spectator of October 12th, will see the importance of my plea that in the discussion of this greatest question of modern times it is of the utmost importance that the terms used and the principles quoted in the discussion should be accurately differentiated and defined. We are asked in the name of " Socialism " to make vast and sudden changes in our social and economic systems, and because the apparent objects are somewhat similar, many good Christians strengthen the power of the demand by confound- ing Socialism with Christianity. Hence the importance of marking the distinction. I did not say that Socialism is wrong, or that Christians should not make laws that correspond in some measure with Socialist requirements. I merely endeavoured to point out the difference between the two principles of action, which difference is accentuated by Mr. Swann when he substitutes the stronger word " wrench " for my milder terms " take " and "force." Mr. Swann says we must "wrench out of the hands of private owners" a vast mass of property, the nature of which be does not define. Surely this is Socialism as contrasted with Christianity, because Christianity does not bid us either take, force, or wrench from any one but our own selves. Socialism, as described by its foremost advocates, corresponds with the statement of the primitive desires of men and animals ; those desires are natural and often just, but they also largely consist of that "covetousness" the gratification of which was so sternly forbidden by Moses, and is so contrary to the spirit of Christianity. I leave Socialists more advanced than Mr. Swann to tell him whether pure Socialism would allow one man to earn more than another, or any man's earnings to remain his own. To such practical questions every Socialist
• has a somewhat different answer.—I am, Sir, &c., CLARENCE M. DOBELL.
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