of having them owned by rich capitalists favored by city franchises,—would have the nation own and manage railroads, the telegraph, expressage, etc." Finally it would favor the single tax and ultimately the state ownership of land. Now these are not per se the objects of Christian socialism. As is remarked in the same connection: "In every way it would replace competition by fraternal combination, and would press towards reform in all these ways. It is not one reform. It is many reforms on one principle."[1] This is the truer position. The previous enumeration awaits a Q. E. D., to establish each theorem implied in the programme, and only in so far as each specific count becomes a minor premise of the syllogism does it become a component part of the Christian socialist policy.
Some of the more prominent of the American group have become so influenced by the international socialism of Marx that they distinctly repudiate coöperation, in its more specific application, and differ very little in their views from that school of socialism. Of their position we may say in passing that it is consistent and justifiable to repudiate co-operation as an end but not as a method. Coöperation in the specific sense is only a half truth, and fails of solving any save the simplest of those problems which Christian socialism confronts. It is applicable only to certain industries and fails to eradicate the fundamental evils of the present system. But it was as a modus vivendi that it was seized upon by the earlier Christian socialists.
IDEAL AS TO MEANS.
The difference between the ideals of socialism and those of Christian socialism as to method is only of slightly greater importance than the difference as to means. As to method the difference was chiefly between Christian socialism and individualism; as to means the contrast is between Christian socialism and socialism. As to means Christian socialists are largely individualists, and herein are less logical though perhaps more pyschological than the socialists. Again, as to means, Chris-
- ↑ Kaufmann's Christian Socialism, p. xiii.
