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The prevalent manifestations of goodfeeling, brotherliness, and cooperation between ministers and churches are in large measure unconscious forms under which they compete for the approval of a public opinion which demands tolerance, friendliness, and unity. The minister and the church who hold aloof quickly feel the displeasure of the community and distinctly lose caste.5

XIX

CompetiCompel an to Act Against

tion May

Institution

Its Own

Competition may constrain an institution to adopt a line which lies quite outside its proper sphere. Early in the nineteenth century English Nonconformists founded the British Schools Society. Not to be outdone the Established Church, which hitherto had utterly ignored elementary education, entered upon the work of Nature promoting schools. But it was natural enough for the Nonconformists to make a special effort in the direction of education because their adherents were largely of the English lower orders, which were at that time very illiterate. The Established Church, however, was in no such case and took upon herself altogether too heavy a burden of education. In the end a situation developed which led to the state taking over all the church schools.

tive Institutions Forced to do Some

thing on

Behalf of

the Working Class

The modern socialist movement has forced conservative in- Conservastitutions to concern themselves with the material welfare of the masses. In the 70's of the last century in order to check Lassalle's movement, Bishop Kettler of Mayence organized in Rhenish Prussia Christian trade unions which spread to Germany and Austria. In Belgium the socialists, in accordance with their principles, organized cooperative banks among the poor. In order not to lose influence over them the church started cooperative banks of her own. In the same way cooperative credit associations have been organized in Quebec in connection with the church.

No doubt the advanced social program of the Federal Council of Churches in Christ was adopted by most of the Protestant churches reluctantly and only because it was realized that "something must be done to win back the workingmen."

The whole German system of social insurance was in the first place urged by the Socialist party. Bismarck and his Junkers hated the socialists and cared little for the welfare of the working class, but they took over these alien policies in order to make German wage-earners proof against socialism.

* Methodist Review, January, 1906, p. 75.

CHAP.

XIX

Competi-
tion
Obliges
Bour-

ties to

Cover

Them

When wage-earners are enfranchised or organize themselves, political parties officered and run by the propertied class vie with each other in wooing them. Whether they shall gain anything from this competition depends upon their intelligence. geois Par The politicians run their man as the "log cabin" candidate, court labor with genial handshaking and barbecue, appease labor selves with leaders with political jobs, scatter promises they do not intend to fulfil, give their policies a labor flavor (high tariff urged as the "protection of American workingmen "), pass measures which they know the courts will annul as unconstitutional, throw labor a few sops, or offer substantial benefits while at the same time providing capitalists with new benefits along other lines. Only in case all this does not avail is it necessary for the party to lend itself seriously to realizing a working-class program.

a Thin

Pro-labor

Con

strained

of Rival Cities

The competition of young American commonwealths for imAdaptation migrants contributed to the spread of democracy in the United States by promoting the extension of the suffrage and the early adoption of a system of public education. The competition of ambitious cities for residents or factories obliges them to adopt policies respecting saloons, prostitution, parks, boulevards, schools, police, handling of labor troubles, etc., which may be wormwood to the majority.

Inter-uni

versity
Rivalry

Liberalizes
Univer-

sities

Universities are loath to change, so that their adaptation to new conditions is usually forced by competition. The universities of the seventeenth century, incrusted still in scholasticism, adopted the principle of freedom of inquiry which prevailed in the newly founded scientific academies - only because in no other way could they attract the best scholars of their day. Americans are fortunate in having two types of university-endowed and state. Their competition for professors broadens academic freedom while their competition for students tends to modernize the curriculum by introducing such new subjects as economics, sociology, business administration, and journalism. The catering of corporate universities to the prejudices of possible donors would hamper gravely the teaching of the social sciences, were it not that they have to meet the competition of the liberal state universities.

In public institutions and in private institutions there are elements of strength and elements of weakness, but they are not identical in the two types. Accordingly if the two types are

CHAP.

XIX

Advan

Equitable
Competi-
tion Be-
Public and

tween

Private In

stitutions

brought into honorable competition within the same field each is stimulated to develop the kind of strength the other has, along with its own kind of strength, and to rid itself of the weaknesses tages of peculiar to it. Fortunate therefore is the society which has both public and private high schools, both state and corporate universities, both state and private forestry, both state and commercial insurance service, both parcel post and express companies, both community and private agencies of poor relief, and both state and philanthropic institutions for dependents. In order that there may be true competition there should be no alliance of any sort between private societies or foundations and the government. The government should neither subsidize them nor be subsidized by them, but each should go ahead on its own resources and show the best it can do for the people.

Of course under constraint an institution adapts its manners and methods to the situation rather than its principles or policies. Instance the suppleness of the Jesuits who become "all things to all men," winning men of the world with their polish and lovers of truth with their zeal for science. Instance a Tory university reeking with oil-trust money which builds a huge stadium and dazzles young people with the splendor of its athletics. A political party camouflages its aristocratic principles with leaders or candidates who are extra-approachable and democratic in manner. The Russian bureaucracy tried to hold in check the radical labor movement by sending out its own secret agents to organize labor unions.

The MethRival Are but Not

ods of a

Adopted

His
Principles

SPECIALIZATION

Finally an institution eludes competitors by specializing. This is like the ingenious business man who keeps ahead of his imitative competitors by continually differentiating his product so as to meet a special demand. As people get used to it and more. and more demand it, it passes from specialty into staple. But he has a fresh differentiation ready, slight, perhaps, but significant enough to awaken a new demand or a modification of the original demand-another specialty.

tion Eludes

Competi tors by Finding a

Thus a college may snap its fingers at rivals offering courses in commerce and journalism and keep its halls filled by offering the best-framed and best-taught classical course of study. When yellow journalism seems to be carrying all before it, some jour-own

Field of

CHAP.
XIX

A Church Avoids Liberalizing Itself

in for Beauty

nals save themselves by excluding blare and flare and offering the judicious a soundproof retreat amid the howling of Bedlam. Until lately the British navy refused to enter the common arena of competition among the professions. No one could become a cadet without a recommendation from some relation or friend of the family in the navy. This restriction might seem to limit fatally the talent the navy drew upon. But at a time when all such barriers about the professions were coming down, the prestige accruing to the navy from its social exclusiveness may really have operated to supply it with more than its fair share of talent.

A church which in its attitude towards science, morals, and social work is out of harmony with its time is not doomed to by Going languish. It may win by specializing in religious esthetics. With dusky and mysterious interiors, magnificent mosaics, wonderful Gregorian music, forests of lighted candles, and domes blue with incense smoke, it may attract those who are sensuous or mystic in temperament, and make headway while more rational faiths are losing ground.

The New

Can Outbid the Established

TACTICS OF THE NEW

So far we have considered the behavior of the established when threatened by the new. Now the new has its policies, too, but they will be quite other than the four I have described. Because it is young and weak, it will not assault its established competitor with intent to destroy. It cannot withdraw from competition because it has no intrenchments to withdraw to. It is not constrained to adapt itself because it is already adapted to the time that sees its birth. If it specializes there is no competition at all between it and the established.

On the other hand the new follows tactics of its own which are not open to the established. Unlike its competitor it can court support by making extravagant claims and promises. The old church, party, or education is limited in its promises by its past performance; but there is no such check on the claims of the young aspirant and so it gives free rein to its imagination. The new remedy sets up as a cure-all. The untried reform poses as a panacea. When the Fourier phalanx, cooperative production, the single tax on land values, the "natural" system of learning foreign languages, or the monitor system, is first proposed,

it is possible to paint glowing pictures of the blessings it will bring.

It is logical that the new should often strive to arrest public attention by sensationalism. The established has the prestige of antiquity and possession. The new covets prestige but it must gain it by other means. The new-rich in order to break the spell exercised by old families sets a pace in extravagance and ostentation which amazes and which the former social arbiters cannot stand. The leaders of new departures in art or literature excite curiosity and awe by long hair, flowing ties, unfashionable cut of dress, bizarre actions, and studied unintelligibility. Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism, made an immense sensation with his story of the Angel with its inscribed plates of gold. New religious movements are much readier than the old with claims of signs and wonders. Nor is charlatanry confined to the unworthy new. Even champions of the worthy new may stoop to it.

The new appeals to the more easily aroused demands of human The demand for freedom is one of these and hence the new holds out the lure of release from some form of restraint. Jesus proclaimed, "My yoke is easy and my burden is light." Paul preached" Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law." Luther taught that the Gospel brought sweet relief from the onerous requirements of the Law. The Protestants offered Christians freedom from "prelacy." The Anabaptists threw off the gyves of private property and held "prophecy" open to all. Quakers rejected the sacraments and a paid clergy. The Free Methodists offered a free course for the expression of religious feeling. Philosophic individualism makes great headway for a time, and the doctrines of anarchism have a seductiveness of their own. The teaching of the superiority of the artist to all conventions including the Ten Commandments will always meet with response. "Free verse" is a rallying cry, while symbolism is welcomed as loosing the artist from the trammels of the actual. The free election of studies" is a winning cry for an assault on the fixed curriculum.

Freedom is, however, not the only winning appeal of the new. Aside from real merit, ritual, secrecy, and exclusiveness are other means of gaining a following.

Thanks to these tactics, a new thing without merit may tri

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