CHURCH AND LABOUR.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 433, 16 February 1909, Page 5

CHURCH AND LABOUR.

' ; ; r'SOCIALIST';: : i^C^SI3IAEeON:^ ; ;^ (Bt'TELEauirii—i'nEss association— ropyiiionT.) ■;:-::' : -\ v.;. V ■''/;>.: Londcni:FebruMy ; l4;:^ A Church-Socialist League demonstration was held in Trafalgar Square; : The speakers : jincluded, .'besides■ several ( .Anglican;'',clergymen,.the Eev.. : . Dr. Clifford, and .a. number, of , ' Nonconformist : ministers.'= •.' : . : ';: : v \ ',■'.'. ' l ;. Speakers,,urged the' Government;, to take immediate steps; to : compel ,Mr. r John 'Burns' (President' of the. Local Government: Board)/, ■to" distribute money'voted "forthe 'unemployed; ; .and also .demanded that!. Parliament question'of work, or main-: tenance .with) training; ; .the first business >f the /session.:' :;.;:.■;.' [■ " ; :: : ';''.. : ;.---;, : ; ' : :::.- : r--' ■';- :■ -7 SOCIALisT;;LEAGUE; v'■■;' ■' i oJEM^fe™ 11 S? Wa list ■ League: was ; founded •in 1906 _by .the, extreme/Socialist sedtion. xif-the Anglioan',.Churqh, who ; did. Ohnstian Soqial.Umon (whose objeotis 1 to study inooinmon.liow.to apply the moral truths and pnnoiples . Christiamty : J to: the social and economip. difficulties of the/present; tar enough:, in. the of .political Sobial)sm.,: The ■objeot.pfthe , leaguois, declared to be'; ■to convert .the' ohristened people■ of 'England to Sooialism." It: coasists .'of olergy and laity :i lnen and:women.: Its. members- arercommitted to tUe; dennite economip Sooialism of•accredited : booiahst bodies,throughout the world; Amoiig its/members, are such representative Churchmen as. Father Adderley, '['. Suinmerbell,-'M.P.. George Lansbury, Eevs. ! \V.- E. MolT-(of> New-'' oastle), Lewis Donaldson (of Leicester), Arnold' Pinchard (of Birniingham), Father Prere (Superior of.the Community, of: the ;Eesurrectiou), Fathers Paul ;Bull and Healy,,>tlie' Pean of : Jersey, the Eevs.. G. • Algernon West, Harold Hastings, and Conrad Noel,: etc.,-' ; , l; :- '. ■•' ■V-The. following extract from one' of ! its leaflets shows the, extreme character of the '[Socialism' advocated' bv tho league:-"Christ bounded a Ohurch, to be,the,Social.Democratic organ' of the .kingdom, its' econ6mi6laws,inbluding' tnV right to work, no interest (lond," hoping for nothing m return),-common holding of land ('the dearth, hath He given io. the children of meu'), noshirkers. (if any will not work neither shall .. , !'. r ? s saorlim ezits- were -sodial pledges of the kingdom; the creeds.had a sooiaf-demo-oratic.Isigniflcance;1signiflcance; .-.the liturgy; is soaked in, Sooialism. Tne .Church of England, ih taking, her stand at the Keforrnation, on. the Bible as ;interpreted.'by:, the ■ early.'.Church' writers, is committed to principles of communism, which go beyond our modest proposal of Sooialism in tho present day. .Churchmen, , therefore, if they cannot; all. at once, be communists', must'nt : least be Socialists and .work with their fellow' Socmlists for'"the international bf God's '.Kingdom; Hence the Chnroh Socialist Leasiie i must convert those Churphmen who at-' tend. Church, anj those , thousands of 'Churchmen , who'-in -despair have. ceased .to-'nttond-Church (oil. .persons■ properly■ baptissd by priests; or,;_layinen of-any denomination : are : membor3;of the.. Church) >to; ihe principles of econbmio Socialism, for this Sooialis'jii • is'■'• the only possible expression of-.-. the Christian religion in our ripy in the political sphere. Our position, therefore, is'not that, Socialism should be , .recognised as permissible to members of the" Church, of England. b,ut that all Church people ■ Inust.be Socialists." ■~;'',:■■