WCP499

[1]

[in ARW’s hand] Ansd¹

86, Buckingham Road,

Brighton.

Jan 7. 1913.

Dear Sir,

You will doubtless receive many congratulations on your Birthday tomorrow, in which I can join, as I rec recognise your great services on behalf onf Spiritualism, in which I am a believer — But on the subject of Socialism, I deplore your utterances, & though a stranger to you I take the liberty of pointing out certain mistakes in your article which appeared in yesterday’s Daily News –² You say that the present state of things is worse than it is used to be. But only compare the condition of the wage-earning classes now with what it was some fifty or sixty years ago, & then say if you can, that things were better then! were better Why they were much worse before the passing of the Factory Acts (thanks to the late Lord [2] Shaftsbury³) as you must yourself remember. Then you look to Socialism as a panacea for all "the ills that flesh is heir to" — But Socialism is a mere visionary scheme which never ^can be put into practice — mankind is not made up of angels, but of poor fallible creatures, unequal in power & in character. Socialists have an abstract love of humanity — a mere sentiment – but in practice they seem to look with envy & hatred all who do not join their Brotherhood. Of course, there are Socialists who are better than this creed; but that creed is built on false assumptions about human nature. It is absurd to suppose that if you could give everyone plenty of money, it would [illeg.] make people good. What is the use of all this pampering of the people, if it does not promote the building of character? Socialism can have no high ideals, or socialists would not say they will not fight for their country. [3] The aims of the socialists seem wholly material, so it is surprising that a spiritualist can be also a socialist. The past history of socialism shews that it has been nothing better than an amalgam of Atheism & Communism — There are Christian socialists, but they will soon find themselves crushed out by revolutionaries who have no religious creed & who if they think about it at all, would say that "death is an eternal sleep" — as was said by the French Socialists. You write as though the wealth of the rich made the poor, poorer — but experience shews the contrary. In the United States [illeg.] millionaires are ^are so numerous, wages are higher than in any other country in the world. That refutes at once the Socialist theory.

Yours faithfully, | H. A. Bulley.⁴ [signature]