CHURCH AND SOCIALISM.

King Country Chronicle, Volume III, Issue 199, 14 October 1909, Page 5

CHURCH AND SOCIALISM.

In lite course of the discussion on socialism at the Church Congress Dr Arthur Sbadwelt. author of "Industrial EibVieney" and works on the liquor proldem. held that there was much in tbe jumble of ideas labelled "socialism" which appealed to the Christian. He w«.-< surprised that many clergymen no readily accepted a theory based on money, the "bave-r.ols" wanting other people's No factor had fio little to do with h.ippinness as economic condition.*. Socialism fanned cupidity, envy and hatred. The Rev. Wakeford. of Liverpool, considered that socialism was an ally of Christianity. He favoured the nationalisation >;f land, minerals, and railways. The Bishop of I Hindoo. Dr A. F. Winnington-Ingram. declared that he shared the socialists' discontent in thing* as they were. There was nothing un-Christian in common ownership of land, and the means of production, but more in that direction would make a "jolly mess of it." Socialism set class against class. Drink and gambling were the chief causes of misery. Bishop Welldon said though the first Christians were socialists, it was voluntary socialism. There was nothing inherently wrong in socialism, but it was materialistic- and appealed to the worst elements in human nature.