such members or teachers have already lost their belief in God. Certain ex-clergymen and certain clergymen have done so frankly: others are deceiving themselves or the public or both. Geo. D. Herron left the ministry and wrote in 1901: "When the gods are dead to rise no more, man will begin to live." Irwin St. John Tucker of Chicago, convicted under the Espionage Act, is equally frank. So is Wm. T. Brown, once pastor of Plymouth Church, Rochester. Such Unitarian ministers as J. M. Evans and A. L. Weatherly can abjure God without leaving their ministry. John Haynes Holmes changed the name of his so-called church from "Church of the Messiah" to "Community Church" as an outward mark of his change of heart from Christianity to Communism. . An insidious anti-religious campaign is being carried on by these men and their colleagues in such reviews as "The World Tomorrow" (New York) and "Unity" (Chicago).

What, now, is the point of view of the church leaders of supposedly liberal views who without leaving their churches are giving support to the revolutionary Socialist movement? Their influence is of tremendous importance as they are, to borrow an economic term, "boring from within." Certain of these leaders, like Percy Stickney Grant, whose forum has been until recently the sporting-ground of parlor Bolsheviki, are, consciously or unconsciously playing into the hands of revolutionary propaganda.

It is interesting to see the situation in the Protestant Episcopal Church, especially as it is viewed by the official exponent of Socialist activities or the Rand School's American Labor Year Book (Vol. II, pp. 358-60). This report is signed by Rev. A. L. Byron-Curtiss, secretary, and is headed, "The Christian Socialists."

"THE CHRISTIAN SOCIALISTS"

"The Christian Socialist movement in the United States in the late seventies and during the eighties was sporadic in character but was led by very sincere and earnest men. Dissatisfied with the existing social order, having a keen discernment of the evolution of society and a penetrating vision of the future, they groped persistently for bearings from which to direct their shafts of denunciation and warning. They were fearsome of the word Socialism but were none the less vehement in their attacks upon the existing order and

demands for a more Christian state of society. The Transcendentalists and others experimented with colonies, all of which had religion as a basis. During the last decade of the nineteenth century the word Socialism began to be used by them and the Socialist program presented as a theory or plan, and considerable cohesion or unanimity appeared among the devotees. Among the leaders may be mentioned Rev. W. D. P. Bliss and Professors George D. Herron and R. T. Ely. Probably the Episcopal Church was the only one within which there arose a society bearing any semblance to a working class movement. This society was made up of a few parsons and pious women, and was called the Church Association for the Advancement of the Interests of Labor, C. A. I. L. for short, and still exists. During its early career, under the inspiration of Rev. Father Huntington, an Anglican monk of the Order of the Holy Cross, and of other single taxers, it was quite radical, but of late years it has been rather colorless in its activities. To a few very radical Episcopalians is also to be credited the importation of a distinctively Socialist organization from the mother Church of England, the Christian Social Union, which sprang from the Christian Socialist movement of Kingsley and Maurice, both priests of the Church of England. A branch of the union was formed in 1893 with Right Rev. F. D. Huntington of the diocese of Central New York as president. The union gave considerable promise and much was hoped of it by Bishop Huntington who was at heart a thorough Socialist; but, aside from issuing a few brochures, nothing came of it. Its ultimate affiliation with the Association for the Advancement of the Interests of Labor marked its quick decline.

"The distinct advance of Socialist sentiment and movement among the church people of America was coincident with the spread of Socialism beyond the groups of the foreign born. At the national convention of the Socialist Party in Chicago in 1902 there were among the regular delegates a number of clergy and lay officials of different churches. Since that date two Christian Socialist organizations have been formed and are now very active, with the avowed purpose of extending the principles of Socialism among church people of America.

"The first and largest of these is the Christian Socialist Fellowship, an interdenominational organization with offices in Chicago. It was organized in Louisville, Kentucky, in June, 1906. From the beginning its general secretary has been Rev. Edward Ellis Car, Ph.D. It publishes a weekly and monthly paper called 'The Christian Socialist,' with offices in Chicago. It has over fifty branches and a large proportion of its members are allied with the Socialist movement and party. It holds annual and frequent district conferences. Through its general offices and local centers, Socialist sermons and lectures have been delivered in thousands of churches. Millions of copies of the official paper of the Fellowship have been circulated to preachers, teachers and social workers. Churches, Y. M. C. A.'s and colleges are opened to the message of Socialism as put forth by the Fellowship.

"In 1911 the Church Socialist League in America was organized by a few clergy and lay people of the Episcopal Church. For some years there had been a strong and very pronounced Socialist league in England. The organization of an American Church Socialist League was fortunate, as the pulpits of the Episcopal Church are not generally open to clergy of different denominations. As the influence of the Episcopal Church is greater throughout the country than in proportion to its members, so is it with the league. Its influence within the Episcopal Church is not at all measured by its numerical strength. In spite of the conservatism of the Episcopal Church and of its members, yet that Church has officially adopted radical and even revolutionary resolutions, and the influence of the Church Socialist League is discernible as giving color to them. A considerable share of the clergy are tinctured with Socialism. With but 6,000 clergy, several hundred are avowed Socialists and nearly one hundred are members of the Socialist Party. The league is able to present the parallel demands of militant Socialism to this communion as no other society can. Rev. A. L. ByronCurtiss is the national secretary, and the official organ is a quarterly, The Social Preparation,' the official address of both being Utica, N. Y. Officers and executive committee embrace the following well known names:

"President: Rt. Rev. Paul Jones, D. D.; Vice Presidents: Rev. William A. Guerry, D. D., Rt. Rev. Benjamin Brewster, D. D.. Rev. Eliot White; Executive Committee: Rev.

G. Israel Browne, Rev. William H. Tomlins, Very Rev. Ber-
nard I. Bell, Rev. A. L. Byron-Curtiss, William F. Cochran,
M. H. Reeves, E. M. Parker, Vida D. Scudder, Charlotte E.
Lee, Ellen Gates Starr.

"A. L. B.-C."

That this report of the Rev. Byron-Curtiss is not an exaggerated statement has been shown by the three triennial reports of the Joint Commission on Social Service of the Protestant Episcopal Church, presented to the general conventions of the Church at the close of 1913, 1916 and 1919. The last of these reports has suggested an inquiry by Mr. Ralph M. Easley in the "National Civic Federation Review," in which attention is called to the revolutionary Socialist utterances of Rev. J. H. Melish, secretary; Rev. F. M. Crouch, field secretary; Rev. B. Iddings-Bell, member of the commission, as well as president of St. Stephens College, who were also leaders in the Church Socialist League. The official organ of the League, the "Social Preparation,"

asserts:

"We are not reformers trying to patch up an outworn garment, but revolutionists."

This is not an isolated statement. The Rev. Mr. Crouch, at a conference in October, 1919, of the Inter-Church movement, advocated the overthrow of our present social system, when he said:

"The system of industrialism which we still largely know, working out the exploitation of fellowmen by fellowmen, cannot endure in the face of justice."

In the first report of the Social Service Commission in 1913, the Rev. Franklin S. Spaulding, in an address on "Christianity and Democracy" (p. 12), declared himself as opposed to privace property and opposed to nationalism. He said:

"I believe that all value is created by the application of labor to land."

He takes as his great authority Prof. Scott Nearing.

He accepts Karl Marx as his prophet.

In an address by the Rev. J. H. Melish (p. 68), "The Church's Relation to Workingmen's Organizations," is an apology for the "wobblies: "

"Syndicalism, as every investigation has shown, finds a field only in our industrial centers where immigrants are herded, etc."

In a third paper, "The Ethics of the Wage System," Helen S. Dudley (p. 74) pleads for the abolishment of the wage system.

These Socialist tendencies are emphasized in more systematic and propagandist form in the second report of 1916 under the headings (p. 8): "The Study of Social and Industrial Conditions," and (p. 16) "The Encouragement of Sympathetic Relations between Capital and Labor."

In discussing the attitude of union labor in the open and closed shop question, the liberty of the open shop is ridiculed and the claim of the unions to the closed shop is supported, denying the right of the employer to employ non-union labor (p. 23).

"The plea of the employer that denial of the right of freedom and contract is un-American, as the new case of the now notorious recent issue in Colorado is either specious or due to an entire misconception of the real situation.”

In its discussion of Socialism and syndicalism the statement is made that syndicalism "would not have developed in this country had organized capital on the one hand and organized labor on the other been disposed to give the 'man farthest down' a fair chance. It is precisely because the lowest grade of labor- the least skilled and least literate voters, recruited as they are now largely from our newer Americans have been exploited by manufacturers and comparatively neglected by trade unions that syndicalism has developed. . . . Now, it is obvious that these three (union labor, Socialism, syndicalism) relate to divers movements, represent legitimate aspirations and hopes of the various groups from which they are respectively recruited. . . . To take advantage of their lack of present co-operation and unity is unworthy either of the self-respecting employer or the Church of which he is a member."

The so-called welfare work initiated by many employers of labor is described as but "a means of giving with one hand while continuing to take with the other."

Other schemes, such as bonuses, profit-sharing, scientific management, are also discredited. It is concluded that: "Despite, therefore, the attempts of capital to meet demands of labor, while still retaining their essential control of industry, labor today is perhaps even more bitter than formerly toward the employing class. This the Church must frankly recognize. Some members of the commission there are, indeed, who feel that the most effective method of discharging this part of the responsibility laid