e of Republicanism. But a very large number of the
Socialists, whether Europeans or Americans, in their endeavor to promote
what they consider to be the best interests of their party, have in
their books, magazines, pamphlets and papers been waging a relentless
war against religion. The atheistical works of Robert Ingersoll were not
purchased by the rank and file of the Republican Party for purposes of
party propaganda, but the rank and file of the Revolutionary Party spend
large sums of money on publications in which their avowed leaders teach
atheism as part of the Socialist program. Not content even with this,
the members do their utmost to increase the circulation of
anti-religious Socialist books, magazines, pamphlets and papers.

Before producing the evidence that will convict the Socialist leaders
and the rank and file of the party of openly advocating atheism and
hostility to religion, or at least of tacitly approving of such a
propaganda, a few words must be said relative to the materialistic
conception of history, or of economic determinism, as it is often
called. According to this doctrine, which is one of the fundamental
teachings of the Socialists, the whole history of mankind, including its
political, intellectual and religious development, is nothing more than
a process of evolution, the guiding principle of which is the prevailing
economic conditions and their resultant class struggles. Consequently,
the Socialists who believe this doctrine deny the intervention of God in
the development and spread of the Christian religion; for economic
determinism teaches that the development of the church is not the work
of Divine Providence, but of the economic conditions and class struggles
of society.

W. D. P. Bliss, the Socialist editor of the "New Encyclopedia of Social
Reform," in an article on page 1135 of his work, admits that it is
perfectly true that the large majority of avowed Socialists are divorced
from recognized religion and the church, and that this leads many of
them to extreme radicalism on all questions of ethics, money and the
family.

Frederick Engels, one of the renowned founders of modern Socialism,
taught that "nowadays in our evolutionary conception of the universe,
there is absolutely no room for either a Creator or a ruler."
("Socialism, Utopian and Scientific," by Frederick Engels, page 17 of
the Introduction to the 1901 edition in English--New York Labor News
Co.)

Wilhelm Liebknech