There are three great spirits at work creating the world that is and that is to be: The spirit of scientific investigation, that will know nothbut the truth; the spirit of democratic revolution, which will trust no one but the people; the spirit of social evolution, which will call no man common or unclean. If the churches wish for influence in the world that is and is to be, they must master these spirits and make them their own. The churches must become scientific, democratic, and socialistic. And, if they do so, then the churches will merge into the church and the church will no longer be separate from the state, nor the state from the church, but these two will be one flesh."

Here is the keynote to the really great message of Dr. Crapsey's book. He stands for the "American Church-State." It is here. It is coming. "Politics is religion.”

"Politics is religion because it has to do with major morals, with the relations of men to each other in communities, with honesty in trade, with gentleness in action, with truth in speech. . . . When the people of the United States decreed by constitutional amendment that the government should never by law establish any religion, they did actually establish the only religion that could comprehend in its membership the whole American people. A religion having as its basis the principles of individual liberty and obedience to righteous law is really the religion of the golden rule. Nor has this religion been simply a theory powerless to work righteousness in the world. It has created a great and happy people. We are told that the public schools have no religion. But if religion be love, and joy, and peace in the holy air of God, then the public schools have done more to promote true religion than all the churches in the land. What the churches and denominations are doing their utmost to prevent, the common schools are accomplishing. They are uniting the American people in a great common religion, a religion based upon the scientific method which finds God in the present truth: a religion which is democratic, and finds the highest expression of law in the common judgment of the whole people; a religion which is socialistic in that it is controlled by the social organism, the state, and knows no distinction of rank or class, and looks only to the public welfare. The two ministers of religion who are doing the most for the common salvation to-day are the mayor and the health officer. . . . The new age is upon

...

us; the age of industrial freedom and social equality; the age that is to deliver man at last from bondage to man. . . . The great mass of the people who do the world's work are pressing forward to claim an effective place for themselves in the social and political economy of the nations. . . . They are demanding decent homes to be born and to die in and sufficient leisure for thought and for prayer. The miner in the darkness of the mine is dreaming of light, and the girl in the noise and ugliness of the factory is thinking of beauty and quiet. The people are moving, and the old organizations must move with them or perish. Serve or die is the stern decree of fate. If the churches exist largely for the purpose of supporting the clergy, and the places for the politicians, then both churches political parties for the purpose of providing and parties are doomed. The church-state in America, which includes all parties and all churches, has done great things; but greater remain to be done. It has given political power to the people. But the people must now use that power to secure industrial opportunity and social betterment. We have learned how to produce, but not how to distribute. We have vast fabulous wealth at one end of the social scale, and bare subsistence at the other. . . . To correct these abuses and to call the nation back to its high and holy calling as a church-state whose duty it is to promote the general welfare, to secure domestic tranquility, and above all to establish justice, is the task to which the American people must set itself without delay."

This splendid conception of the one-ness of church and state is a most valuable contribution to the new religious thought. If in the future the church and state are to be one as Dr. Crapsey says they are, there can be no question as to which will be that one. It will be the State. The state has been dominated by the church. The state has been divorced from the church, but the state of the future will absorb the church-by doing the church's work, by better performing all her true functions, and by ministering in the things of a scientific and democratic religion to the whole life of the world. The last two chapters of the book introduce this theme of a truly great state that shall embody and express a civic religion, and it is to be hoped that Dr. Crapsey will have more to say upon this most important subject.

RALPH ALBERTSON.

A

SPECTS OF

CONTEMPORARY

FICTION: We wish to call the special attention of our readers to Aspects of Contemporary Fiction, by Professor ARCHIBALD HENDERSON, Ph.D., in this issue of THE ARENA. It is in our judgment one of the most thoughtful and discriminating recent contributions to literary criticism.

A Republican Leader Who Has Antagonized the Plutocracy: Last month we published an admirable sketch of Senator LA FOLLETTE, who is to-day probably the most conspicuous and able defender of popular interests against the aggressions of a corrupt plutocracy in the Republican party. This month we publish a discriminating and admirable pen-picture of another prominent Republican leader who is loved by the people for the enemies he has made. Governor CUMMINS was one of the first of the Western Republicans to come out fearlessly in the interests of the people against the great monopoly-fed and fattened trusts that through an exorbitant tariff are acquiring untold millions of money that but for this iniquitous tariff would be enjoyed by America's millions. In the same manner he has championed the cause of the people against the great railway interests, and for this reason is being bitterly antagonized by the public carriers and other commercial cormorants that are fattening off of the wealth-producers and consumers of America.

Governor Garvin on the Solution of the Labor Problem: Last month we published an excellent contribution giving the Socialist programme or an outline of the aims, desires and purposes of the Socialists the world over. This month we publish a paper from the pen of ex-Governor GARVIN of Rhode Island advocating the Single Tax as a solution to the labor problems.

Rambles in Switzerland: Our readers will enjoy the pleasing sketch of travels in Switzerland by Mr. CARL VROOMAN, formerly regent of the Agricultural College of Kansas. Mr. VROOMAN has spent the past year in Italy, Switzerland, Germany, France and Belgium, making extensive social studies. He is one of the rapidly increasing coterie of earnest, conscientious and thoughtful students of social, economic and political progress whose work during the past few years has been making its impress on the nation-an impress which is being made more and more clearly visible with each succeeding municipal and state election.

We shall shortly publish the concluding papers in Mr. FRANK VROOMAN'S series of articles. These deal with Spoils and the Civil Service and the Congressional Library at Washington.

Child-Labor, Compulsory Education and RaceSuicide: A very interesting, original and thoughtstimulating contribution is presented in this issue from the pen of Mr. WILLARD FRENCH, of Washington, D. C. There are few questions before the American people of greater importance than that of properly safeguarding childhood. The children of this Republic must be emancipated from toil; they must be guaranteed a good common-school education; and they must be protected in the enjoyment of that large degree of freedom which is all-important for their physical and mental growth during the early formative period of life. And it is the supreme duty of the State to devise means whereby the blight of childhood, resulting to-day from the compelling of children of tender years to work in factories, mills and mines, shall be rendered impossible.

This month we present two character sketches, one Character Sketches of Twentieth-Century Leaders: of Judge POLLARD, the practical idealist who is doing such admirable work in reforming drunkards; the other of EDWARD W. REDFIELD, the famous artist. This latter paper is the second contribution in our series on Americans who are contributing in a substantial way to the building up of a great art in the New World.

An Important Series of Papers on Social, Industrial, Economic and Political Conditions in Germany: By Our Special Correspondent: We take great pleasure in announcing that in an early issue of THE ARENA we shall begin the publication of a series of brief papers prepared expressly for THE ARENA by the well-known author and journalist, MAYNARD BUTLER of Berlin. The first of these papers will appear in our August or September issue and will be devoted to the condition of the laborers who do piece-work, known as the home workers, throughout the German Empire. Following this will be brief articles apearing monthly dealing with general social, economic and political conditions in Germany and also to some extent in England, prepared by this gifted writer who is one of the contributors to The Contemporary Review, The Fortnightly Review, The St. James Gazette, and who was also The Outlook's special correspondent at the coronation of the present Czar at Moscow. MAYNARD BUTLER is the author of two important works, one of which, The First Year of Responsi bility, carries an introduction, by the Master of Trinity, Cambridge University, England. Through long residence in Berlin and having entrée to various political, social and educational circles, this writer is peculiarly well fitted to present vital facts in which intelligent American readers will be deeply interested.

VOL. 36

THE

HE SAN FRANCISCO we all knew and loved, in visible form, has gone out of existence. Most of the landmarks made by man that we cherished and revered because of hallowed and dear associations have been swept away by what is, perhaps, the most disastrous fire of all history.

As I stood on Nob Hill looking over the vast area, north, south, east and west, swept by the devastating fire, I felt that, though here was desolation and destruction, I was looking over that which stood for three miracles already wrought, and a fourth one, which I prayed might be wrought. The first miracle was the calm, controlled, self-contained patience with which the people of San Francisco saw their beloved city, with all their precious personal belongings, their sacred memorials, their hallowed associations, swallowed up by the all-consuming fire. The second miracle was the immediate and loving response of the whole world to the needs of the stricken citizens. Never before has such an uprising been possible, for never before have means of communication been so complete and extensive. Everybody responded with a heartiness, a sympathy, a brotherliness

that has brought the world nearer together than it ever was before. Carloads, trainloads, shiploads, wagonloads of food, cooked and uncooked, bedding and clothes were whirled towards the Golden Gate with a speed that transcended all ordinary records. Trains for San Francisco laden with food had the right of way over even passenger trains, save those which were bearing physicians, nurses and helpers.

And the third miracle is equal to the other two. When I reached the City of the Sun-Down Sea I found not a whiner, a whimperer among all that remained. With a brave, hopeful courage that knows no disaster, no defeat save cowardice and vain regret, these men and women of San Francisco have started to rebuild their city.

Personally I wish it were possible to move slowly. Haste is waste. It took six fires in the earliest days of San Francisco to teach its people ordinary caution in building. The first fire occurred on the day before Christmas in that year of old, that year of gold, 1849. The houses were built with improvident haste and were as inflammable, says one writer, Bancroft, as the temper of the inhabitants.