Chapter XI: Christian Socialism as a Substitute for Secular Democracy

The meaning of Christian socialism, as restated to-day by a
typical writer.

His just criticism of the fallacy underlying modern ideas of
democracy. The impossibility of equalising unequal men by
political means.

Christian socialism teaches, he says, that the abler men should
make themselves equal to ordinary men by surrendering to them
the products of their own ability, or else by abstaining from
its exercise.

The author's ignorance of the nature of the modern industrial
process. His idea of steel.

He confuses the production of wealth on a great scale with the
acquisition of wealth when produced.

The only really productive ability which he distinctly
recognises is that of the speculative inventor.

He declares that inventors never wish to profit personally by
their inventions. Let the great capitalists, he says, who merely
monopolise inventions, imitate the self-abnegation of the
inventors, and Christian socialism will become a fact.

The confusion which reigns in the minds of sentimentalists like
the author here quoted. Their inability to see complex facts and
principles, in their connected integrity, as they are. Such
persons herein similar to devisers of perpetual motions and
systems for defeating the laws of chance at a roulette-table.

All logical socialistic conclusions drawn from premises in which
some vital truth or principle is omitted. Omission in the
premises of the earlier socialists. Corresponding omission in
the premises of the socialists of to-day.

Origin of the confusion of thought characteristic of Christian
as of all other socialists. Temperamental inability to
understand the complexities of economic life. This inability
further evidenced by the fact that, with few exceptions,
socialists themselves are absolutely incompetent as producers.
Certain popular contentions with regard to modern economic life,
urged by socialists, but not peculiar to socialism, still remain
to be considered in the following chapters.