Statesmanship and Religion by Henry A. Wallace

Author:Henry A. Wallace
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Burtyrki Books
Published: 2020-03-05T00:00:00+00:00

II

Moreover, in spite of the tremendous increase in material things resulting from the stimulus to the human spirit growing out of the Protestant revolt, no truly fruitful effort had been made to bring the kingdom of heaven to earth in terms of social justice. Into the vacuum created by this failure stepped those who claim that service to a particular nation, class or system is sufficient to command the highest spiritual aspirations of man.

I am inclined to agree with Tawney and Weber that capitalism is a rather natural outgrowth of Protestantism; and I would go farther in saying that socialism, communism and fascism are in turn rather natural developments from capitalism. Spiritually, they are all much alike. Capitalism has commanded, and even today commands, a material type of religious fervor which is as unreasonable, dogmatic and theoretical as any long-established theology.

The faith of business men in rugged individualism, in profits unlimited and in the divine right of big business to call on government for help in case of need, while at the same time government was to stay out of business under all other conditions, represented views so firmly held as to be beyond mere logic and in the realm of the transcendental. At one time, it was a part of the business man’s creed to believe in the ten-hour day. More recently some of them with equal fervor have come to believe in the thirty-hour week. A Pennsylvania Congressman, who has on his factory payroll several hundred men, told me recently almost with an air of religious conviction that the way to stop unemployment was to put such a tax on all forms of improved machinery that we would all be forced to go back to more primitive ways of doing things.

His solution for the farm problem was to put such a tax on tractors and other improved agricultural machinery that farmers would be forced to depend almost exclusively on animal and hand labor. With all the fervor of our Protestant forefathers, he preached the doctrine of the simple life with regular, long, hard hours of work with simple tools. He wanted to turn back the hands of time, to encourage frugality and thrift and to bring about the accumulation of capital without encouraging the investment of that capital in the improved methods which he felt had been our nemesis.

This man’s attitude, which doubtless represents that of millions, has in it some real truth but, of course, it is as theoretical and visionary in many respects as the view of the most unworldly professor or minister of the gospel. Many business men in the depths of their religious fervor have created new devils and new symbols. They hurl the word “chiseler” with terrible jagged force at anyone who disagrees with them. Anyone who points out that unduly high profits serve to unbalance productive power and consumptive power and that, therefore, the government, so far as it influences profits through codes and agreements, of necessity has a real interest in

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