THE U.S.S.R. CONSTITUTION AND CHRISTIANITY
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.]
Snt,—Mr. John Smith says that I fail to explain why it should be an " Atheist State " which first puts the Christian principle —(" he who will not work, neither shall he eat ")—into practice, " it having been steadily ignored by the Christian nations."
I did not call the U.S.S.R. an " Atheist State," and I do not think that one can thus generalise about any State—you cannot indict a whole people. As to what the " Christian "
States have done or not done, I have no such encyclopaedic information as to their doings that I can assume any respon- sibility for them—such knowledg- is too wonderful and excellent for me.
But as to my own country, I do not think that it needs to stand in a white 'sheet. I. cannot quite understand Mr. Smith's point—is he a 'disciple of Colonel Blimp ?—" The country is going to the dogs, Sir, and it's this confounded Dole that is sapping the vitality of our people. Abolish the Dole and these fellows would soon find work." I have had this said to me until I am tired of hearing it. Most men on the so-called " dole " are only 'too ready to work—if work were available.' Admittedly there is a residuum which will not work. Does Mr. Smith reprove England because the corpses of these idlers are not strewing the highways ? The Labour Exchanges do their, best to check idling, and the Workhouses are not usually regarded as havens of rest. What further stringency does Mr. Smith require here ?
Or is Mr. Smith rebuking the—or at any rate this—" Chris- tian State " because it does not force the " idle rich " to work or starve ? This problem is admittedly a serious one ; if he is of this school of thought I entirely agree with him that those weekly illustrated papers which depict more or less beautiful ladies and athletic gentlemen disporting themselves on the Riviera do a good deal of harm when read in our Public Libraries by people who are undernourished and cold. But how would Mr. Smith deal with them ? Already the State takes up to as much as over half the income and over half the estate at death of all the very rich. And would Mr. Smith, if this is his point, affirm that all rich men are idle and should not eat ? Or would he take the bull by the horns and " liquidate " them ?
The usual complaint about the " Christian " States, most of which are capitalistic States, is not, pace Mr. Smith, that they feed those who will not work, but that those who are ready to work cannot find it.—Yours faithfully,
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