f, live for the world in which
you happen to be--if there is another, live for that when you get
there."

_Question_. What do you think of the plan to better the condition
of the workingmen, by committees headed by bishops of the Catholic
Church, in discussing their duties?

_Answer_. If the bishops wish to discuss with anybody about duties
they had better discuss with the employers, instead of the employed.
This discussion had better take place between the clergy and the
capitalist. There is no need of discussing this question with the
poor wretches who cannot earn more than enough to keep their souls
in their bodies. If the Catholic Church has so much power, and if
it represents God on earth, let it turn its attention to softening
the hearts of capitalists, and no longer waste its time in preaching
patience to the poor slaves who are now bearing the burdens of the
world.

_Question_. Do you agree with the Pope that: "Sound rules of life
must be founded on religion"?

_Answer_. I do not. Sound rules of life must be founded on the
experience of mankind. In other words, we must live for this world.
Why should men throw away hundreds and thousands of millions of
dollars in building cathedrals and churches, and paying the salaries
of bishops and priests, and cardinals and popes, and get no possible
return for all this money except a few guesses about another world
--those guesses being stated as facts--when every pope and priest
and bishop knows that no one knows the slightest thing on the
subject. Superstition is the greatest burden borne by the industry
of the world.

The nations of Europe to-day all pretend to be Christian, yet
millions of men are drilled and armed for the purpose of killing
other Christians. Each Christian nation is fortified to prevent
other Christians from devastating their fields. There is already
a debt of about twenty-five thousand millions of dollars which has
been incurred by Christian nations, because each one is afraid of
every other, and yet all say: "It is our duty to love our enemies."

This world, in my judgment, is to be reformed through intelligence
--through development of the mind--not by credulity, but by
investigation; not by faith in the supernatural, but by faith in
the natural. The church has passed the zenith of her power. The
clergy must stand aside. Scientists must take their places.

_Question_. Do you agree with the Pope in attacking the present
go