A BOOK OF THE MOMENT

THE CHRISTIAN ETHIC AND ECONOMICS... , [COPYRIGHT IN THE UNPFED STATES OF AMERICA BY THE 11/47e10 York Times.] SIR JOSIAH STAMP'S book is one of the wisest and most carefully thought-out works on a special section-Of „Political Econbmy- I use the old phrase advisedly7—which has appeared in recent years. It is timely—nay, actual—for the duty of the good citizen and Christian towards the present industrial crisis perturbs us at every hour of the day. It ".lies in our beds, walks up and down with us," and will take no excuse for an answer. It is written by a man -of wide experience, deep thought and feeling, and, above all, by a man who takes up his high theme as a -public duty. He is a true knight of science, one sworn to the service of the Truth, but. yet one who realizes that we live in a world of men and women— not of cast-iron Robots—who have in them something of the Christian hunger and thirst after righteotisness. Often there is only a tiny spark, a mere survival, but still the awakening to vitality is always possible. Sir Josiah has recognized the problem, and he works out the consequences, and -implications of his premises with an impartiality and sincerity which is in the highest sense scientific and religious.

Sir Josiah shows that, since we are human beings and the Science of Econornica postulates human 'beings -leading a social life, the concerns of humanity 'cannot be banished from Economics and the science pursued in vacuo without destroying

it. Yet he is not so foolish as to show that human sentiment can override economic facts any more than Science can override human instincts. That is why he has called his book The Christian Ethic as an Economic Factor. It is not the only factor, and it must function in accordance with the law of its being. There can be no true, useful application of eco- nomic syllogisms, from which it has been left out. A super- vising angel of intellectual endeavour might well insist that in every school for economists the line from Gray's Ode should be written above its portals " Oh ! tell them they are men."

Unless our economic researchers and expositors remember that they are dealing with men, not with abstractions, their studies will be of little avail. . , But because Sir Josiah desires as ardently as any _Socialist to reach the goal of amelioration and of the greatest happiness of the greatest number, heis not going to attempt to reach it through a quagmire in which he and those he guides will be engulfed. He sustains the caveat that two and two make four, as well as the caveat that he is dealing with human beings, and human beings illuminated by the teachings of Jesus Christ—human beings who are qnder bond, like the Happy Warrior, to " make their moral being their prime care," and who know that they can never see God or found His Kingdom on earth unless they are pure in heart, unsmirched by worldli- ness, selfishness, or a denial of the duty of self-sacrifice. .

This little book is of the best intellectual and spiritual enlightenment, and full of help for those who wish to keep in the straight way at such a crisis as the present. It will be equally unwelcome to the full-blown Socialist and to the brutal makers of the claim that economic laws must not be controlled or made useful to man's service, but must be allowed to work their iron will. Neither of these two schools will get any comfort here. Men of great posseasions will go away as sorrowfid from it as did he who in the Gospel challenged our Lord with his self-righteous question. The self-righteous Socialist will be -equally' depressed or angered by being re- minded so to be a philanthroPist as not to forget that he cannot obliterate facts by painting them over with the pale, Pellucid, pigments of sentiment. Sir Josiah drives off the hard-hearted with" a blow from his left; and the soft-headed with one frOM his right, and " then P. Ursnes 'the even tenor of his way.. But, though he is a man of the middle course, the

course analogous to that produced by 'the resolution Of forces, his path is humanized according to Bacon's formula in `The

Regimen of Health." Mankind, says the Philosopher, has got to keep the way of life midway between the ideals of asceticism and plenty, " but," he adds, " leaning towards the benign extreme." With Sir 'Josiah " the benign extreme " regards the infliction of suffering upon others as the supreme evil.. • The 'Christian Ethic as an Economic' actor is by no means

Only 'a book of cicise-knit argument like ' a theorem of Euclid. There is close argument; but it is shot through with felicitous and luciferoiti epigrams and apophthegms. Take the follow- ing example A soul like a walnut and a mind likes. rag-bag are the two enemies of all millennia." Take next :—

" Most people think, when they have found someone to blame' for a situation, they laiVe as good as explained it or solved it, and this passion for ' fixing the blame ' universally takes the place of intelli- gent inquiry. It cloaks the fact that even the best-hearted can conscientiously differ in an industrial and social riddle, and that the issues involved are frequently 'not. moral only, but require a patient unravelling and balancing of facts with cautious experimenl. The force of circumstances and the .play of .natural conditions are not enough reason for them. Them must always be for them a haman . scapegoat." - What a multitude of examples to prove this passage has come to light during the lastthree months ! 'What-droves of htinian scapegoats, have been paraded by both sides—Mr. Cook, Mr. Smith, the owners of royalties (provided theyareDukei) the Prime Minister and his colleagues, and even the Bishops Still closer does Sir Josiah get to the heart of his subject when he

writes a patient and life-long worker in some social and industrial problem hears the oracular statement that belittles all his .work and virtually snubs it by making a facile claim to this moral short cut." Even better is his line generalization in regard to the work of the Christian Churches. It will 'be seen that Sir Josiah on perfectly sound grounds hits both the people who think that there are no limitations to the Church's powers to prevent economic consequences, and, again, those who think that the Churches should confine themselVes to preaching and ritual, and not interfere in other matters. Yet, all, the time, " a higher ethical standard is often an essential factor."

, " This assumption that Christianity could, if it were only more Christian, 'put the world's ills right, is naturally accepted by many Critics of the-Church as .a true statement of its power and aim, and its .failure to reach that aim is judged accordingly. The world accepts the pulpit valuation of the Church wherever it is derogatory. ft brings the Church unnecessarily • into disrepute becauge the preacher himself has made a claim • that, on reflection, is wanton and impossible of -fulfilment without-the aid of .otlier.elemente than the Christian , ethic. There is a considerable field of economic principle in which, for most successful working, a higher ethical standard is an essential factor, but there are other non-ethical factors involved which limit -the extent of change or . betterment. We must-examine the nature of economic principle before we can admit the justice of such a criterion as the Rev. A. E. Balch refers to when he says : There is no test of Christianity more readily applied to'-day than whether it is adequate to the solution 'of the social questions and problems of the times."'

And does not this comment vitally concern us all Y-

" Each person must always remember that a strict line for oneself and a lenient one for others is a golden rule of compulsion."

Let me use this illustrative analogy in regard to the functions Of the Church towards the laws of Science. Science teaches

Us through the Law Of Gravity that if you jump out of a high WiOddir you • will 'motile an 'almighty smash. Though this fait should prevent people from light-heartedly jumping out of high windows, it need not in the least prevent men of science

from trying to limit the effects of the Law of Gravity, and so alterMg its status,. as it were, in human affairs. We did not say to the inventors in the 'field Of aviation that because the Law of Gravity exists they would be &big something impious, something deserving censure, if they tried to fly. Yet people often &ill with the laws Of EconoiniC Science as if it were blasphemous to limit or avoid their consequences. The whole matter is really contained in passage after passage in which Sir Josiah Stamp points out that it -is no good to consider economic laws except in relation to human society. The truth is that we have got to apply that great scientific accelerator, the theory of relativity, quite as much to Econo-